Disclaimer: I own this as much as I own Harry Potter, which is to say, not.
A/n: This is the tenth chapter. I have almost three hundred visitors and almost 1000 hits. I am liking these numbers.
Possible Spoilers: More Forest of the Dead.
000
She whispers, "Bad Wolf," and stands back to watch his reaction.
What?
How could she—but why—what?
No, he has to get himself together. Never mind that a woman who is apparently from his personal future has his screwdriver and just said those words. Those words have been following him for years, inserting themselves into tiny, insignificant places and changing them into something huge and important that he doesn't understand. He should though, it made sense at one point, something about—
Oh, now that's not fair, his brain is doing that stopping thing again, and he really needs to be able to think right now. Actually, he can think, he is thinking and very quickly too, but he's thinking about so many things right now that he can't focus.
Who's River and how does she know him? How is he going to save everyone left in the library? Why isn't his sonic screwdriver working? What are the Vashta Nerada doing here? What did it mean, "Donna Noble has been saved"? How did she get her face up on that machine-statue-thing if he sent her back to the TARDIS? Speaking of (or thinking of), what is the TARDIS hiding from him and why is she doing it? Why does his brain refuse to think about—whatever it is that it keeps refusing to think about? Who is the woman in the mask? And how did she ever convince him to dance with her that one time, because he doesn't remember either of them saying much. They were just sort of standing next to each other and then somehow they were dancing, which was strange because he was the Doctor and he didn't dance and—
"Doctor?"
Right, first things first. "Where did you hear those words?" Maybe he shouldn't sound so angry when she is clearly already worried, but damn if those words aren't important. He can feel it, they're vital, and if he can only figure out what they mean…
She shakes her head. "I can't—you'll know. I'm sorry, I know how much you hate not knowing, but I can't tell you, I just can't. I'm so sorry."
So he'll figure it out, if she isn't lying. But how can she know that those two words are following him through time and space? It's not something you would tell a stranger, but more like a question you would ask a friend, Hey, there are these words following me and I think they're some kind of message. Do you have any clue what it means?
Which means that he probably can trust her—unless she's the person (or one of them) putting it everywhere. Sometimes his life is way too complicated.
"Are we good?"
He has to choose, now, whether or not he's going to trust her. He can deal with everything else later, but right now, he has to decide if he's going to let those words, those two impossible little words that have followed him against all the odds, be enough to earn his trust.
"Doctor, are we good?"
He can see the emotions running across her face, all pulling and tugging at each other like brawlers in a bar. Hope, fear, confusion, determination, they're all there, and he has to decide which one will win.
"Yeah." Maybe he's lying, maybe he's not, but he never could stand anyone being sad.
000
A/n: This is way less emotional than the scene in the original, as all of you brilliant people might have noticed. I could say that I did that on purpose because what River tells him in this one is less meaningful, which it is. What actually happened is that I wanted to write this as a more emotional scene and the chapter had other ideas. Long story short, we got into a fight and you can guess who won.
Also, be prepared in future chapters for some ridiculous...stuff (I think it's ridiculous, anyway). I only realized how important it is for the plot of the s4 finale that Rose is in the other universe after the s2 finale after I started this fic. You have been warned.