Running Through the Stars (Book One of the Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Interlude: The Time for the Truth

Trigger warning: crude language, mentions of sexual assault.

***

"So," the Doctor began awkwardly, walking over to the console. "Where to next? Currently in the Rift, but once we're ready, we can - " He faltered when he realized he was the only one in the room. "Jessie?" he asked, doing as full three-sixty.

"Her room," the TARDIS replied, worry lacing her tone. "She can't handle this anymore."

"She will crack eventually. You must be there for her before she falls entirely." The Face of Boe's warning rang in his head.

"She's moving," the TARDIS told him.

"Where's she going?" the Doctor asked, already heading off through the hallways.

"She asked about a pool. She's hurting badly."

"How can I help?"

"Do what the agent asked. Be there for her."

***

Worthless.

Useless.

Bitch.

Slut.

Jessie, thankfully, had found a swimsuit - one piece, thank God - in one of the drawers. When she made it to the pool, sighing happily when she smelled the chlorine, dying to get in. The words were literally burning her, and she had to cool off somehow.

Whore.

Liar.

Mutant.

Thing.

She whimpered a little when she kept hearing them, shakily walking over to where a mirror had popped up. She found a hairbrush and ran it through her hair, hitting knot after knot. Pain came with each stroke, and she closed her eyes against it.

Dirty.

Unloved.

Unliked.

Abandoned.

"Stop it," she whispered, feeling tears fill her eyes.

You know it. Ward knew it. Saleen knows it.

"Stop."

They all know it. Why do they keep you around?

"Stop it!" she finally screamed out, bringing her hands down on the ledge by the mirror. The hairbrush fell abandoned to the floor, and she held a hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her sobs. "I don't know!"

She shook her head, hearing more of the words fly past her, taunting her. She squeezed her eyes shut, almost seeing them. She kept whimpering, her past catching up to her.

That was when she realized someone had come up by her.

She froze where she stood as the Doctor reached down to pick up the hairbrush. "Don't know what?" he asked.

Jessie shook her head. "I can't - "

"You know as well as I know that won't let it go," he interrupted, running the brush through her hair gently, helping to get the tangles out. "And don't bother going to ask for a towel." As one hand guided the hairbrush, the other one drifted from her locks down one of her arms, tracing the lines of scars and bruises. "Saleen told me, back after Downing Street."

"She told? Everything?"

"Not everything," he replied. "But she told me enough. I was worried. You kept changing as we went along. After Platform One, what Jabe said. The way you reacted to Gwyneth asking you those questions. And then the way Pretty Boy threw those words in your face."

Jessie couldn't help but smile a little. "'Pretty Boy?'"

"What, didn't cross your mind?"

"Never really thought about it." She shrugged slightly as he stopped brushing her hair out, surprised that he had gotten all the tangles out. "Haven't for years."

"Since you were thirteen?"

Jessie closed her eyes against the memories. "Yes," she whispered.

He put the brush down, gently took her shoulders, and turned her to face him. "Jess," he told her lowly. "You can tell me, you know."

"I'm scared to," Jessie admitted, folding her arms.

"You don't have to be," the Doctor told her. He looked around, then handed her the towel she'd laid across one of the chairs and handed it to her.

Feeling a little better, she wrapped it around her shoulders and sank down into the chair, the Doctor sitting across from her. "You won't think of me differently, will you?" she asked. "You won't ask me to leave?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Unless you wanted to go."

She took a deep breath. "OK. What do you know about me?"

He blinked, then thought. "You're half human, half Asgardian," he began. "You're an agent of SHIELD, and an Avenger. You hate dresses. And I'm guessing you're a fairly good swimmer, judging by what the TARDIS has done."

She nodded. "Broke quite a few records in my time as a swimmer." She sighed. "But that wasn't all. Do you know much about my school years?"

"Ericksburg, right?"

"Yeah," she confirmed, bracing herself for the story. "There was a guy there, Rick Johnson. And after seventh grade, he made my life a living hell."

***

He was a good listener, Jessie noticed as she recounted everything in her past, including the parts that were the hardest to tell . . . including when someone slipped booze into her punch after a seventh grade football game. He kept his face expressionless, but she could feel the tension rising underneath. The Oncoming Storm, he'd been called, she remembered.

If Rick was still alive - he wasn't, Saleen and Bruce had taken care of that - she might've seriously considered warning the police about the Doctor.

Once she was done, he folded his arms. "And you thought I wouldn't keep you with me?"

She blinked in surprise. "You still want me here?"

"What happened wasn't your fault," he replied. "I wouldn't force you off unless I knew something was wrong, and you could be killed because of it. Now . . . " He nodded to the pool. "Out of curiosity, what's your best record?"

Jessie grinned, standing and putting her towel down. "You've got a time machine," she teased. "How do I know you won't mess the time up?"

"Oi!"

She laughed and did a backflip into the water, feeling just a little glad she had finally broken open.

What she was extremely glad for, she thought as she swam the entire length of the pool, was that someone was there when she did.

Especially, laughing when she saw the impressed look on his face as she resurfaced at the other end, that it was the Doctor.

***

The entire story about Jessie is the same as under Cold Enemies, Warm Romances my friend ThaliaNoyes and I have on our shared account, XmenAvengers. Just click on the dedication page and go through the first couple of chapters to get the whole story. Her punch was spiked, and she was raped that evening after the football game. It goes from there, and leads into Cold Enemies, Warm Romances. Everything else I'm pretty sure is going to be AU from there because I'm definitely taking this a different way.

Next up we've got "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances!"