The Doctor stands, poised over the TARDIS console, a massive grin on his face.
"Melody Pond, welcome to the TARDIS," he says, even though she's been in it so many times before, "Next stop: Everywhere."
Melody scowls as she lands in the hold of the ship. Trust the Doctor to get them both captured. She smiles when she sees the swords and and clothes.
She always had wanted to wear a real pirates hat.
"I can't believe I drowned," Melody says as they enter the TARDIS, "I mean, after everything I've survived, I nearly died by being knocked off a ship."
"Yeah, strange that," the Doctor says, "It's normally hard to drown a Time Lord."
"Oh, that'll explain the rubbish CPR, then."
"I'll have you know, that form of CPR is commonly used in the Werlax galaxy."
"On humans?"
At least Melody can always say that she managed to shut the Doctor up.
The Doctor watches as Melody entered the console room the next morning, "Why are you still wearing that pirate coat?" he asks.
"I like it," Melody says, shrugging, "Makes me look more... time-y."
It was, Melody admits, quite nice to be able to actually thank the TARDIS for everything she's done.
Still, she can't help but feel slightly jealous at the bond the Doctor and the TARDIS shared. A bond she'll never be able to truly understand.
"The only water in the forest is the river," the TARDIS whispers, and Melody never gets the chance to ask her what it means.
Melody looks her ganger up and down, "This," she said, "Is so weird."
"Tell me about it," the ganger replies
"We should both get to travel with you," Melody tells the Doctor as the three of them prepare to take off, "We're both as real as the other."
The Doctor grins, "Melody Pond," he said, "You are incredible."
They tell everyone that the two Melody's are twins. Fortunately, the ganger doesn't mind getting rid of the pirate coat.
She wears a stetson instead.
Melody I grabs hold of a young girls hand as they run through the forest.
"Don't worry," Melody II says, "The Doctor will help us. He always helps us."
"Here," says the girl that Melody ran with, she's holding out a scarf, "It's got your name on it, written in the language of the forest."
"It's not quite your name," the Doctor says, looking at the fabric, "Close, but it translates differently. They write surnames first, and they don't have a word for 'pond' because the only water in the forest is the river."
"I'm going to stay on Earth," Melody II says, "You know, help protect it from invasions when you're not around."
"You don't have to," Melody I says.
Melody II shakes her head, "There's nothing for me on the TARDIS. The Doctor loves you, not me."
"Goodbye, Melody."
"Goodbye, Melody," Melody II echoes.
Melody I smiles, "Call me River."
"Right," River says cheerfully, "Now I can add dolls to my growing list of phobia's."
The Doctor just grins, and River knows why.
"Everybody lives," she whispers.
He came back. It took thirty six years but he came back.
"Please," he says, "Let me help you."
"I'm doing it for her," she tells him later, "Tell her that. I'm doing it so she can be happy, with you. The Doctor and River in the TARDIS, next stop: Everywhere."
She doesn't tell him that she still loves him.
River knows she shouldn't, but she still pushes open door number ten, and looks at what's inside the room.
It's the Doctor, she knows this instinctively, but it's not the same one that she knows. A different regeneration.
"Who are you?" he asks, and she shuts the door.
The hotel made a mistake, River realizes, in showing her her room. Because she loves the Doctor, and she trusts him completely, but that's the reason why her room scares her so much.
They're running through corridors, the Doctor turns a corner in front of her, but she's just a second too slow to escape the bullet. She knows what's going to happen even before the familiar golden glow envelops her, and suddenly she can feel her past self slipping away.
"Hello, Benjamin."