The idea for this story came from a Tumblr prompt from 'imagineyourotp'. I just had to write this one.
Disclaimer: BBC owns Doctor Who. I just write about it.
The Doctor whistled as he walked arm-in-arm with River down the hall of a fancy hotel. "Remind me again why we can't just stay in the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked as they continued toward the elevators which stood in the center of the line of rooms.
"I told you," River sighed. "We're on vacation. We can stay in the TARDIS any other day, but the best part of vacationing is getting to stay in a different room."
The Doctor just rolled his eyes and mumbled something that sounded like, "Humans…."
She just smirked at this, though, as they neared the elevators, coming to a stop in front of them. The Doctor pressed the button that pointed up, and they waited in silence for the doors to open. The elevator arrived in a matter of seconds, and they stepped inside. "Floor 3," River stated as he reached for the numbered buttons.
"Yes, yes, I know," he said, waving off her comment as he pressed the number three, causing it to light up.
The doors shut in behind them, and the elevator began to ascend. They watched the dial above the doors as it changed from "1" to "2". However, before it reached three, the floor gave a small jolt, and the dial froze. The two of them stood there for a moment, expecting the doors to open. When they didn't, River looked up at the Doctor. "You don't think it's stuck, do you?"
He considered this, reaching up to tap the dial. "Nah, the dial's probably just broken. It looks too old to be in a hotel like this, anyway."
"Too old? Doctor, this is only the early 1900's."
"Oh. Right," he said, shifting his feet. "Well there's one last thing we haven't tried." At this, he pressed the "door open" button several times, which still had no effect. "Okay, so we might be a little stuck."
River just shrugged. "Well then I guess now would be a good time to sonic the doors."
"What?"
She looked at him in confusion. "Sonic. The. Doors. Honestly, you haven't forgotten how to use a screwdriver, have you?"
He gave a tiny cough and stuffed his hands into his pockets, eyes focused on the ground. "Oh… um, about that…"
"Doctor, you do have your screwdriver, don't you?" Her voice was starting to sound angry now.
"Well you said it was just going to be a regular no-aliens trip!" he finally said accusingly.
"You should know by now that nothing you ever do is free of aliens!"
"We haven't been attacked yet!" He sounded like a whiny five year old.
River closed her eyes to compose herself before answering. "That's not the point. The point is we're stuck in an old elevator that doesn't exactly look stable, and you chose today to stop bringing your screwdriver everywhere."
"Okay, fine. It's all my fault, but admitting that isn't going to help anything." By this point, he had begun to pace around the small space, thinking of ways to escape. The first thing he had checked for was an emergency call button, but this elevator was too old to have one of those. Next, he tried to pull open the doors, but they were too tight. It seemed that they were truly stuck. "Well, someone will notice that this elevator isn't working eventually. Or I guess we could just yell until someone hears us."
"Or…" River said, an idea planting itself in her mind.
"Or?"
Until now, River had been a visible mixture of annoyed and slightly angry about this whole situation. Now, though, her eyes lit up. "Or we could just enjoy this until it's fixed."
The Doctor eyed her suspiciously. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, come on. Haven't you always wanted to be in a broken-down elevator with somebody? This happens all the time on movies."
"I can't say that I have," he said. "And what do the people in the movies do when they're stuck in an elevator?"
"Depends on the movie," she said, sinking down to sit on the floor. The Doctor did likewise, so that he was sitting next to her. "Usually people assume they're going to die, so they spill everything they've been keeping a secret."
He thought for a moment before saying, "Well, I guess we can skip that one, because if I die, I can just regenera-" He was silenced by a look from River.
"Not all of us can regenerate, remember?"
His face turned bright red. "Oh. Right. Sorry."
She smiled at his obvious embarrassment. "It's okay, Sweetie. I'll start." It only took her a second to think about what she could possibly say. "For starters, I've always hated the fact that you run around with all those girls. I know you need someone to travel with and that I told you not to travel alone, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."
The Doctor stared at his shoes before meeting her eyes. "Then why didn't you just come with me?" he asked, his voice lower now, even though no one else could possibly hear them. When it looked like she wasn't going to answer, he pressed on. "If we're pretending that we're going to die at any moment, then you might as well just tell me."
Finally, she must have decided that this was a sufficient reason to share with him her reasoning. "I don't want you to feel like you're responsible for me," she said at last. "I'm not stupid, so I know that I'll have to die someday. When I do, I don't want you to feel like it was your fault at all. If I do something stupid and reckless, then that's my fault, not yours."
He bit his lip and looked away, desperately trying to dispel the image that immediately popped into his mind: River in the Library, sitting in the chair before disappearing forever. It was too late to save him from feeling guilty about her death, but there was no way he'd ever tell her that. When he didn't reply River finally said, "Your turn now."
He racked his brain to come up with something that wouldn't involve spoilers, and for some reason his mind just kept coming back to something River had said only a couple minutes before. "It's my fault you can't regenerate, you know."
She turned to face him now, so that he couldn't avoid eye contact as easily. "See, there you go again, saying that everything is your fault. But it's not. I chose to give you my regenerations, and I was the one who killed you. There is no possible way that was your fault."
Instead of arguing this fact, he said, "I could give them back, you know. I could give you your regenerations, and then you could travel with me." He didn't even care to think about the possible paradox.
"Don't you dare," she said in her usual threatening voice, causing him to smile. "You need them much more than I do."
The pain that came with this statement caused him to tense up. "Please don't say that."
"But it's true."
"No. It's not. Just like I told your mother, I'm not a hero. I'm just a madman with a box. I fly around and have adventures, and if I save a planet, there's a good chance that it was mostly luck. There are so many species that would still be alive today if I wasn't. I would give you everything right now if you let me, because you are just as important as I am."
The last thing that River wanted was for the Doctor to see her cry, but already there were tears welling up in her eyes. She hated that he believed that he had caused more harm than good, but nothing she had ever said to him about this could change his mind. The problem with living for a thousand years was that you carried more pain than anyone else. So instead of letting him see her cry, she leaned in to kiss him, cupping her hands around his face.
When they finally broke apart, the Doctor asked, "Is this what people did in the movies?"
"Some of them," she laughed breathlessly.
"Well I'm not complaining," he said, pulling her up to sit on his lap with his arms encircling her waist. She leaned into his chest so that she could rest her head in the crook of his neck. Gently, he placed a kiss on the top of her head. After a few minutes, the Doctor moved his arm slightly to glance at the little watch he always kept around his wrist. It told him that it was nearly midnight. "Are you tired?" he whispered softly in River's ear.
"A little," she answered, even though she was fighting to keep her eyes open.
"It's okay," he chuckled. "You can sleep. I'll still be here."
"Promise?"
"Promise," he assured her. "Besides, I don't think we'll be going anywhere anytime soon."
Eventually, she just couldn't fight back the sleep any longer, especially not in a quiet, dim elevator while the Doctor had his arms around her. Once she was asleep, he just sat there and watched her. As a Time Lord, he didn't feel the need to sleep as often as humans. It was like this for a few hours before the floor gave a tiny jerk, and the elevator was once again ascending towards its destination. "It's moving!" he whispered softly to himself, so as not to wake River.
Once the doors opened on the third floor, the Doctor again glanced down at his wife, who was asleep in his arms. For a moment he wondered if he should wake her up and tell her that they had arrived at their destination. But in the end, he decided that it would be best to just carry her into their room.
He got to his feet as gently as possible, moving one arm under her legs so that he could carry her more easily. Their room was fairly close to the elevator, so he didn't have to walk very far at all. The difficult part was unlocking and opening the door—which involved a lot of shifting and balancing acts—but eventually he entered the room.
It was a small but comfortable room with little furniture other than a bed. He gently set her down on top of it, taking off her shoes before pulling the covers around her. Quietly, he slid in next to her. "Goodnight, River," he said as he kissed her forehead.
"Goodnight, Sweetie," she said with a smirk.
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