Receiving Another Chance (Book Ten of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Listen

Ah, what a relief it is to know this is what I got done during every bit of downtime I had during school today. Oh, the joy of basically having two study halls. :)

What aspects of the infamous drink change with a third member of the party? How does Clara take Orson's appearance?

Enjoy "Listen!"

***

The three were debating going to check on the Doctor when the door to the TARDIS opened, and his head poked through - upside down. "Listen!" he whispered.

Jessie's eyebrows flew high. "To what?" she asked.

The Doctor jumped down with ease and closed the door behind him. "Question," he said as he walked over to a lit candle. "Why do we talk out loud when we know we're alone? Conjecture," he held up a finger when Pietro went to answer, and he blew out the candle. "Because we know we're not."

"We do?" Wanda folded her arms as she watched the Doctor write on his blackboard.

"Evolution perfects survival skills," he continued. "There are perfect hunters. There is perfect defense. Question. Why is there no such thing as perfect hiding?"

"Don't try to answer," Jessie whispered to Pietro when he opened his mouth to do just that.

"Answer," the Doctor plowed on. "How would you know? Logically, if evolution were to perfect a creature whose primary skill were to hide from view, how could you know it existed?"

Jessie blinked when he took the bowl of cherries from her. "Hey!"

"It could be with us every second, and we would never know," the Doctor said, eating a cherry as he looked through an open book. "How would you detect it, even sense it, except in those moments when, for no clear reason, you choose to speak aloud? Why would such a creature want? What would it do?" He looked at the three others. "Well? What would you do?"

There was a rolling sound, and Pietro looked down when the piece of chalk stopped at his feet. Frowning, he bent down to pick it up, only to freeze when he saw the chalkboard. "Doctor . . . you did not write that, did you?"

He turned around, and his eyes widened when he saw the word Listen written on it. He turned around slowly to point between the other two telekinetics - Jessie and Wanda. "You didn't write that, did you?"

"No," Wanda shook her head.

"All right," Jessie folded her arms. "That's only slightly creepy."

"Exactly," the Doctor smirked, tossing her a cherry.

She caught it in her mouth with a wink.

***

"Clara!"

Clara looked around when she heard her name be called, and she grinned when she saw Rose wave from where she was sitting with Danny. "Hey!" she walked over.

"Hey," Danny smiled at her.

"So, the famous drink at last," Clara sat down.

"Yeah," Danny nodded. "Took a bit of time. Family stuff, but here we are."

"I thought, why stop at a drink?" Rose smiled as she handed Clara one of the menus. "Might as well put dinner in as well."

"Mmm," Clara nodded. "I might go straight for extras. Afters."

"Desserts?" Rose grinned saucily.

Clara squawked and slapped her arm with the menu. "Rose!"

Rose just laughed hysterically, Danny starting to smile more as he watched them. He had been a bit nervous, accepting Rose's dinner invite, but he wasn't feeling uncomfortable now. They were acting like themselves. "Is there something I should know about this mysterious boyfriend of yours?" he asked Clara with a grin.