Living In Time And Space (Book Six of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Promises To Keep

Very important A/N at the end, guys. All of your future reading of this series depends on it. :P

***

"Oh! Blimey. OK . . . you probably leave a message at the tone or something. Sorry, I wasn't really tying to do this, I was looking for the - JEZ, THE BREAKS!"

The machine beeped, and Amy started talking. "Doctor? Bad Wolf, can you hear me? Are you ever gonna hear this? You don't even know you've got an answerphone." She laughed. "Well, the Bad Wolf might. How could the Doctor be so clever and so completely stupid at the same time? Well, if you can hear this . . . please, just pick up the phone. Don't get confused. I'm not invisible or trapped in a space ball or something. I'm just talking on the answerphone. So, just pick up the phone. Bad Wolf, you said you'd find my baby. You said you'd find Melody. Have you found her? Because you promised. I know she's gonna be OK. I know she'll grow up to be River, but that's not the point. It's . . . I don't want to miss all those years, you know? I . . . I can't stand it. I can't. Please, Bad Wolf, please . . . " Amy sighed. "OK. Phone me back when you know something. Please, Bad Wolf, at least do that. As soon as you know, OK? All right. Bye."

The message ended, and the Bad Wolf sighed, looking down and away. She felt the Doctor wrap his arms around her waist and lean his chin on her shoulder. "We do need to call them back eventually," he told her softly, checking the answerphone. "That's how many times?"

"Two hundred sixty one," Jessie answered, sounding tired.

And she was. For nearly six months now, Jessie had barely slept a wink. Sure, Time Lords didn't need much sleep, but she was pushing the limit. She got about a half hour of sleep every four days, and that was the maximum amount she spent sleeping. The rest of her waking hours were spent looking high and low for River . . . and she still had yet to find her.

The Doctor had saved her from the Metacrisis, but he was worried he would lose her to over exhaustion.

The phone rang again, and Jessie sighed. "We let it go one more time, they'll go nuts," the Doctor warned as the recording played.

"I know," Jessie bowed her head. "I just don't want to tell them - "

"I know you two are there, and quite frankly, I could care less," Saleen's voice came sharply over, and they both looked over at the phone. "You made us a promise once, and now we're collecting. So listen up, all right?"

Jessie immediately picked up the phone. "What's happened?" she asked.

"J!" Saleen's voice colored with relief. "Oh, thank God. When Amy and Rory said you wouldn't answer anything they gave you - "

"Two hundred and sixty two messages makes a point," Jessie said, looking at the Doctor. "What is it you need?"

"We've found Loki's scepter."

That got their attention. "You did?" the Doctor asked.

"We're dispatching as a team to head to Sokovia and recover it from HYDRA. Meet at the Avengers Tower, 10 pm, the day after this phone call."

"Gotcha," the Doctor nodded, tracking the call.

"We'll be right there," Jessie promised, hanging up the phone. "Why," she turned to the Doctor, "do I have a very bad feeling about this?"

"It's HYDRA, and the Avengers," the Doctor answered, then asked sarcastically, "What could possibly go wrong?"

Later, after so much bloodshed from what should have been a simple mission, he regretted asking that question very much.

***

And cue the main titles theme. ;) To be continued . . . 

In "Fighting A New War!"

That's right, guys. It's so important, it gets its own book! All of "Age of Ultron" will be packed into the book, so I expect it to be shorter than my other books. Basically, it'll be "Age of Ultron," then right into "Let's Kill Hitler" in this book after the epilogue.

So, please, keep a lookout on my profile and/or my reading lists! As soon as I publish a new story, I add it to its series reading list. I might even post it tomorrow to give people time to find it and add it to their reading lists.

"Fighting A New War" will be coming soon. But next up, the Apocalypse gets a daughter, and you all find out who's in the Metacrisis! "The Apocalypse's Daughter" is in the making!