A/N: Tada! The end of my second attempt at an actual episode! :D Hope I did an okay job.

So, now's the time to explain how I plan on uploading the chapters. There were a few original at the beginning, then the two-part episodes, then I'm going to do a few more original. Soon I'll be doing a few episodes in order, but with plenty of little original things in between. I don't want to just go through each season and be limited by the episodes that aired on TV. There's so much that could happen in between time. :D

As always, let me know what you think! Thanks!

World War Three

Part 3

Hours passed and the Doctor still hadn't said anything. That bothered me more than our lack of escape. With his mind, I'd have thought he would've come up with some brilliant plan within the first hour. He hadn't. The brooding storm that hung about his head set me on edge while bringing out a new wave of pity.

How often did he have to make hard decisions on his own?

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid," came Harriet's most recent offer. Even she didn't look like she believed that it would work.

Rose sagged into a chair. "Mickey, any luck?"

"There's loads of emergency numbers. They're all on voicemail."

Harriet snorted as I rolled my eyes. "Voicemail dooms us all."

"If we could just get out of here ..."

"There's a way out." After so long being silent, the Doctor's muted voice still made me jump. He wasn't looking at us, though. The floor held all his attention. I glanced at his hands, the whiteness of the knuckles as they gripped each other, raising my worry.

My smile intended to be reassuring, but it felt so strained that I was sure it failed spectacularly. I perched on the table near him. "I knew you'd think of something."

His eyes flicked in my direction, looking so old, my heart twisted. At my slight nod, his face tightened and a muscle in his jaw twitched. "There's always been a way out," he added, looking away from me after only a few seconds. He didn't want me to see whatever was going on inside his head.

"Then why don't we use it?" Rose demanded, quite oblivious to the Doctor's feelings again.

The Doctor's lifted his head with strong reluctance, first pinning me in place before focusing on Rose. "Because I can't guarantee your safety. Either of you. This is why you should've stayed at home, Jessica. It's bad enough I've put Rose in danger."

"Don't you dare. Whatever it is, don't you dare."

"That's the thing. If I don't dare, everyone dies." Even with his ability to seal off his emotions, the Doctor couldn't disguise how his voice cracked on the last word. I felt myself grow pale from the strength of the Doctor's regret and guilt before he once again closed himself to my senses.

Having gone so quiet, I'd almost forgotten that Rose was a part of the conversation as well. "Do it," she murmured, for once, earning big kudo points from me.

The Doctor looked up at her in surprise before turning to me.

I nodded, the confidence and trust I held for him so strong it almost scared me.

If anything, that confounded the Doctor even more. "You two don't even know what it is. You'd just let me? You could both die."

Pity rose up in me a thousand times stronger than before. Or some other feeling I couldn't name, but it overwhelmed any nervousness or misgivings that I had. I gently nudged the Doctor's hand with my own; they'd only been a few inches apart. "I'd rather die trying one of your ideas than doing nothing at all."

I didn't want to die at all, but that was beside the point.

Rose nodded, the look in her eyes one of complete trust and a feeling a lot stronger than infatuation. "Yeah. We trust you."

The Doctor just gaped at us like he couldn't believe what we'd said. My heart twisted even more to think of what he had to have gone through to be stunned by someone's complete trust. The cleverest man in the universe flabergastered by two simple humans.

"Please, Doctor. Please. She's my daughter. She's just a kid." Jackie pleaded. I instantly wanted to smash that speaker into oblivion. Sure Rose was her daughter, but hadn't the Doctor proven himself already? He had enough self-confidence issues at the moment.

"Do you think I don't know that?" The Doctor snapped, his distress beginning to leak out of whatever impenetrable walls he'd brought up around himself. "Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

"So what's stopping you?" Rose challenged before I could say anything. She hadn't moved from the other side of the table, but the longing to reach out to him bleeding through her eyes made up for that.

The Doctor looked between me and Rose several times, growing slower with each pass, as if he didn't want to stare too hard. Those eyes settled on me and stayed there. "I could save the world but loose the both of you," he finally managed, hand nudging mine away.

I wouldn't have it. Not this time. I moved that hand to cover his as gently as I could. To have to be the one to make a decision like that ... I knew I wouldn't be able to live with myself and yet the Doctor's agony made me think that he'd done this several times. He might be nine-hundred years old and an alien who didn't like to be touched, but I was willing to bet that he needed reassurance just like any other living being. My mouth managed to curl upwards in a small smile. One that I didn't feel, but it might help him.

We'd all forgotten about Harriet. "Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine." She proclaimed, drawing herself up with as much dignity as could be salvaged at this point.

"And who the hell are you?"

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it."

Harriet's sharp, commanding tone came like a fresh breeze, stirring up all the despair and blowing it out the window.

I'd never seen the Doctor look so relieved when he squeezed my hand.

"I thought I knew the name. Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age." The Doctor shook his head with a wierd sort of grin as said woman became surrounded by cameras.

Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I just watched him. Not only did my head hurt from being tossed around, it ached just by the impossible task of wrapping itself around the Doctor.

True, he'd been as surprised and overjoyed that we'd survived, acting like a big kid at Christmas. That wasn't what bothered me.

He'd even spun me around in a bear hug for a brief moment before remembering who I was. I didn't mind that at all.

Just before the missile had hit, when we'd hid in that closet, the Doctor had taken my hand and Rose's, squeezing so tight, I couldn't feel anything. As we started getting flung around, though, he'd shoved me into a corner, covering me from the debris.

Technically, I could argue that he'd been protecting Rose as well as me. The seemed to be more the case, since Rose had traveled with him a lot longer than I had. Even so, my immagination had begun running away with me since then.

Halfway back to the apartment, the Doctor glanced back at me. When our eyes met, his neck obviously flushed and his head snapped around again. Those long legs of his moved even faster. He said something that soon had Rose laughing as they began drawing away from me.

I scowled. Something about that closet had the Doctor avoiding me like I had the plague. I didn't need more of a hint. He'd leave me behind if I didn't corner him soon.

The warning, the plea, I'd gotten back in Downing Street echoed through my mind. He'd seemed so desperate that, for a second, I considered giving in and just going home.

Only for a second. If my guess was right, he'd be changing history. The thought of it tingled in my mouth like sour metal. That was wrong. I didn't have to know a thing about time travel to know that. No, I was going with the Doctor no matter what some time-traveler said.

"Don't you dare."

I gasped and stumbled over my own feet as a thought not my own broke its way past my barriers.

A pair of arms caught me before I could hit the sidewalk. They vanished as soon as I had my feet.

"Thanks," I muttered, but that was all I managed to get out. Turning around, I came face to face with the man from before. My scowl reached a new level. I acted without considering the consequences and my hand flew, connecting with the man's face, not the back of his head.

He didn't even try to protest, taking a step back. A dark look had entered those eyes. "I told you not to go with him," he murmured.

Somehow, that quiet anger unnerved me more than if he'd yelled.

Rubbing my now aching hand, I barely lessened the intensity of my glare. "You mean you don't want me to go with you. I don't know how this works, but I'm not going to help you change your own personal history, Doctor." I spun on my heel and began marching towards the receeding backs of my Doctor and Rose.

"Stop it, Jessica!" Future Doctor darted until he was blocking my path, forcing me to stop. "You can't go with him! Please."

"Isn't changing someone's personal timeline against some sort of rule?"

The faintest twitch of a smile eased some of the intensity of his face. "It goes against everything I believe in ... and you thought of that on your own, didn't you?"

I shuffled, the abrupt change in his tone bringing my planned tirade to an explosive end. "Um ... yeah. So why are you so bent on doing something you don't want to do? If I've read the right things about time travel, wouldn't you stop existing?"

Future Doctor sighed, running his hand through shaggy hair. "I should've known youd be clever in any timestream," he muttered, but there was enough fondness in his words to lessen any of the anger that was left. "You trusted me back in that room, Jessica, when you didn't have a reason to. I'm begging you to go home. I don't want to ..." He trailed off, a grim smile making him appear so many centuries older.

Dread filled me as the TARDIS' wheeze reached my ears. They were leaving! With a yell, I flung my bag at the man before sprinting the rest of the way down the street. "Doctor! Stop! Wait!"

I skidded around the corner, but I was too late. The TARDIS melted into nothingness.

My one chance to find out who I was, to travel in time and space. Gone.

The Future Doctor. He'd know how to catch up with my Doctor. I sprinted back to where I'd left him.

He too was gone and so was my bag.

Which was resting on my dining room table when I went home along with two new items:

A Vortex Manipulator and a pocket watch.