AND IT IS WRITTEN! :3 I have gotten this far and I'm not going to give up yet! Mwaha! ^^ Okay... it is pretty obvious now who the kid is, but if you don't know don't ask! I want at least one person to be suprised lol! :) Anywho, I do not own Doctor Who... bwaha. I wish I did.. I REALLY do. :'( Oh well, anywaaayz, see you on the other side!

Chapter 4

The more the two talked, the more comfortable it became. In fact the Doctor was starting to feel a slight tug at his hearts... as if he was sure he knew this girl from somewhere. Of course, there was a reason why she was a ghost of his future, but it felt good... it felt normal.

"You never let yourself sleep; you won't even go to your room even though you have a perfectly good one." The girl muttered, rolling her eyes.

The Doctor folded his arms, "how did you know that? I don't tell anyone that, that's..."

"Personal?" the girl finished with a smirk, "maybe now it is... but you tell people that are the closest to you."

The Doctor looked up at her with wide, questioning eyes. She knew what he was going to ask and grinned at him, "I suppose it's not much of a spoiler, yes you tell River... well I guess she already knows. Whenever she sees you she knows your pain. She just doesn't know the extent of it."

The Doctor crossed one leg over the other, leaning closer to the teen, "that's something I still don't get." He'd started doing that thing she'd grown to love... that inquisitive stare as if he was studying her... wanting to know everything about her just by staring. She beamed. If only.

"Why do you know all of this? How much closer can there be aside from River..." the Doctor raised a brow, for a split second considering perhaps this was River... but even if she was another regeneration of River... he'd know... this couldn't be her. There was just no way.

"I told you." The girl leaned in also, so close that their noses were almost touching each other. She grinned looking deeper into his eyes. They were old eyes, yet young. Younger than she'd ever seen them, perhaps younger than she ever would see them. Although this Doctor was her Doctor in most aspects... the way he studied her... as if she were alien to him. It broke her apart. "Stories." She allowed the word to roll out along her tongue as she blew into the Doctor's face childishly. He immediately pulled back, rubbing his face with his hands. "Oi!" he complained.

"Have a sense of humour would you?" the girl chuckled stretching against the sofa. "It must be pretty late," she said, toying with him, winking at him as she sprawled against the leather, "don't you feel the teeniest bit tired?" she inquired with a small pout.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, "I'm sorry." And he really was. Sleep was not an option, not even if it meant the TARDIS would have to make an emergency landing. He just couldn't be put through that kind of torment... he just couldn't.

"Your days are numbered, doesn't that ever make you feel like you want to give up. To give in, to just rest?" the girl scrambled onto her hands and knees across the sofa, looking at him through her now tangled locks.

The Doctor smiled, looking at her, "it's all about now that matters not what's yet to come, I'm alive now."

The girl grinned and pointed at him, "which is why you wanted River saved... even though she basically killed you, you were persistent in saying you weren't dead."

The Doctor nodded slowly, still unsure how the child knew so much. Who would he entrust with all of these stories... all of these secrets? There had to be a sane reason.

"Besides you knew she'd save you, you love her enough to know that. You wanted to save her after all."

The Doctor glared at her, "why do you keep saying that?"

The teen shrugged, "I want to see you."

The Doctor pointed at himself, straightening his bow tie, "I'm right here."

The girl's eyes shimmered, "you hide behind your smiles and your jokes and goofy grins and your 'bowties are cool' but you're not happy, you can hide the pain and the monster inside but you can't be happy. Especially with the Dream Lord lingering in there with you."

The Doctor growled under his breath, "that's going too far." He insisted.

"Good." The girl almost laughed, "let it be too far, I want to see you for who you are... if you see it, maybe you'll sleep easier, maybe you'll sleep worse."

The Doctor forced his gaze to the floor.

The girl softened her tone, her hands blurring in and out of focus as they stroked the Doctor's fingers. "Maybe you'll just sleep."

There was a small pause before the Doctor looked up at the child again, "tell me something about you."

The girl looked taken aback but pleased all the same, "why?"

"Because," the Doctor shrugged, "I just want to."

The girl put her hand on his knee, stroking it lightly, "I used to be afraid of the dark," she said, her eyes shimmering.

"Understandable," the Doctor echoed, grinning more like himself once more.

"But then my parents told me that I shouldn't." She rolled her eyes, "they said that the dark wasn't something to fear... it was what was in the dark." She blinked a few times as if attempting to keep the tears within her skull, "they said it was a monster that could be reasoned with, and it wasn't really scary at all... not alone." She grinned, "I still have a night light though... just in case I ever saw it."

"Your parents weren't far off." The Doctor congratulated, wiping a tear that was climbing down her cheek only for it to turn to static under his grip and disappear. The Doctor bit his lip. She wasn't really there... he had to remember that.

"Oh believe me I know..." the girl chuckled, "but it kind of reminds me of something."

The Doctor beamed, his chocolate pools blazing; "what's that?"

The teen chuckled, "bedtime stories... it's the making of a good night's rest..." she snapped her fingers delicately, repositioning herself on the sofa. "I'm going to tell you a bedtime story."

BEDTIME STORIES FTW! It's getting cuuute! ... Cute really isn't my style, so uh... to me cuteness is kinda sickening but I think I've accidently written this out of my depth. OH WELL. Let's see how it goes... xD Buh-bai! x