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

Mummy on the Orient Express

"Sorry?" Jessie frowned. "Another what?"

"Well, we've got doctors and professors coming out of our ears on this trip. So, what are you a doctor of?"

"Now, there's a question that's never asked often enough," the Doctor snorted. "Let's say intestinal parasites."

"Ew," Jessie deadpanned.

"Or maybe not."

"Yeah, choose something else."

"I'm beginning to think Miss Pitt was right about you," Quell raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with her?" Wanda asked, looking the way she had gone. "Did something happen?"

Quell blinked at them. "You mean you really don't know?"

***

The five later stood outside their sleeping compartments, champagne in hand, mulling over what they had just heard. "There's a body and there's a mummy," Clara shook her head. "I mean, can you not just get on a train? Did a wizard put a curse on you about mini-breaks?"

"It might be nothing," the Doctor shook his head. "Old ladies die all the time. It's practically their job description."

"There is the monster, though," Pietro pointed out.

"Well, seen by no one except her, which suggests that it wasn't there," the Doctor countered. "A dying brain, lack of oxygen, hallucinations. Anyway, people do just die sometimes. She was over a hundred years old."

"Says the two thousand year old man," Jessie snorted.

He sighed, unlocking their compartment. "Does everyone here actually want this to be a thing?"

"You know, if you think that there is nothing to worry about, then that is fine by me," Clara shook her head.

"Are you sure?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, yes. I'm sure."

"Well, then," the Doctor raised his champagne glass. "Good night."

"Good night," the others chorused, all of them clinking their glasses before heading to their compartments.

***

"It's nothing," the Doctor told himself as he paced the compartment, Jessie reclining against the pillows, watching him. "Nothing. Definitely."

"You're sure?" Jessie raised an eyebrow.

"Ninety-nine percent sure," he nodded.

"Really? Ninety-nine percent?" she echoed. "That's quite high. That's the figure you're sticking with?"

"OK, OK, seventy-five," he shook his head.

"Well, that's jumped quite a bit. You've just lost twenty-four percent."

"You're not helping!" he groaned.

"I know," she grinned smugly. "Carry on!"

***

"A train in space?" Rose asked over Clara's speakerphone, she leaning against Pietro as she spoke with her friend. "Sounds pretty cool."

"It's very cool," Clara agreed with a grin.

"Well, you enjoy your space train. Is it dangerous yet?"

"No, it's not," Clara giggled. "It's pretty boring, really."

"Oh, you must hate that."

***

"Because you know what this sounds like, don't you?" the Doctor turned to Jessie.