This is my second Doctor Who story, which this time takes place just after A Good Man Goes to War.
Always Come for You
"It's me. I'm Melody. I'm your daughter."
Amy stared at the person before her, her mind sinking into a state of disbelief. Her body shook at the prospect of her daughter standing in front of her. It couldn't be possible. River Song couldn't be Melody, her Melody.
Her eyes flickered over to Rory, her husband. He also wore a look of complete and utter shock. She looked back at the woman standing before her who was claiming to be her daughter. She had the proof in her hand, but her mind couldn't comprehend the fact that River Song was her daughter. And the Doctor had gone, off in search of her daughter, but yet she was standing in front of her.
River looked at her parents, waiting for them to say something, anything. She felt a nervous excitement run through her. The Doctor had taken the revelation very well, making her smile as he realised who she really was and now Amy and Rory, her parents, they now also knew the truth and she felt a nervousness run through her as she was so unsure of how they would react. She wanted them to be happy and ecstatic that she was their daughter, but she knew her mother. She knew that she had lied to them about who she was for a very long time and she knew how much her mother hated being lied to. River also understood how hard this was for them. They had just lost her, only to have her standing before them as someone older, someone they had known.
"Mum, Dad," she softly began.
Amy shook her head. "No. No, this isn't real."
"It is. I'm sorry, but it is." River took a step forward, reaching out to grab Amy's hand, but her mother took a step back, holding her hand up.
"Don't." Amy's voice was barely above a whisper.
River froze and lowered her hand. She looked over at Rory. "Rory... Dad, please."
Rory, who had been staring, unfocused, into the distance, brought his gaze to his daughter. "H-how? How is it possible? You're our daughter, but yet..." He turned back to where the TARDIS had stood before looking back at River. "Is this why? Why when I came asking you for help you refused? You knew this would happen, didn't you."
River slowly nodded. "Yes," she said softly. "I know it's a lot for you to take in, but you have to understand –"
"Understand what?" Amy suddenly spat, cutting River off, the delicate, golden object that she held in her hand crumpling slightly as she unconsciously tightened her grip in anger. "You've been lying to us, to him! You've known all along who you are, that you are our daughter, but you never said anything, why?"
"I couldn't tell you," River replied, she had known that Amy would react like this. "I wanted to, but I couldn't. It would have changed time, my time." She sighed. "And I never lied. What was I supposed to do? Go up to you and say, 'Oh by the way, my name's actually Melody and I'm your daughter'? You were a doppelganger, you didn't even know you were pregnant and like I said, it would have changed my time, my life. Things happen for a reason, you have to understand that."
"The Doctor was right, you could have prevented this," Amy said, ignoring what River had just said. She had to make River understand how much she had hurt both her and Rory. "You could have told us everything and then I wouldn't have spent the last, God knows how long, here!" She began shouting and it was all River could do not to take a step back. "If you had told us earlier then you would have been safe, but no, you're gone. My baby is gone!" She threw the delicate, golden gift, the prayer leaf that had been given to her by Lorna Bucket back into the cot. She remembered the Cleric soldier, the only one who had shown her any compassion, the only one who hadn't been there to steal her daughter.
At this point, Rory pulled Amy into his arms in an attempt to consol her, his hand caressing her hair gently as he tried to calm her. While Amy was angry about everything that happened, Rory was confused about recent events and his mind was still trying to comprehend everything. Amy hadn't been Amy. She hadn't been his wife for a very long time. Amy had been pregnant. He had a daughter. His newborn daughter had been taken away to be raised as a weapon. His wife and his daughter had been kidnapped. The Doctor had now gone after his daughter, searching the galaxy for her. But yet his daughter was standing before him as a fully grown woman, someone he had already known for a short time, someone he had conversed with earlier that day. But she was still his daughter.
"W-what do I call you?" he eventually asked and both Amy and River looked at him. "Do I call you Melody or River or what?"
Amy pushed herself away from him slightly. "You can't be serious?" She had a look of disgust on her face.
"She's our daughter," Rory told her.
"No, she's not. Our daughter is somewhere out there, being raised by people who intend to use her as a weapon!" She threw her arms out as she spoke. Her mind was still unclear. She still found it difficult to comprehend that River Song was her daughter. She had had her baby daughter taken away from her, only to be replaced with an adult version.
"Amy, she's our daughter." There was a hint of pleading evident in his voice.
Amy shook her head, tears beginning to overwhelm her. "I don't know how much more of this I can take," she whispered.
River nodded. "I know. It's a lot to take in." She gently placed her hand on her mother's shoulder and Amy let her. "I know, but you'll be alright. We will all be alright. I'm here, no longer a weapon to destroy the Doctor which means it worked. The Doctor found me, you found me."
Amy stared at River, her daughter. "When? When do we find you?"
"Spoilers," River responded softly, lowering her hand. "I can't tell you. All you have to know is that eventually you and the Doctor will find me and I will be fine."
"Eventually?" Rory was shocked to hear her say that. How long would it be until they were truly reunited?
River smiled, though her parents saw the sadness within it. "The Doctor will find me," she repeated.
Both Amy and Rory stared at River. Amy then took a step forward her finger raised, pointing at River. "No, you'll tell me," she said. "You'll tell me where you are right now and then we'll go and rescue you and raise you as our daughter."
River shook her head. "I can't. I can't mess with my own timeline. Why do you think I never told you? Why, despite knowing what would happen, I never came today? I can't change my history."
"But it's to save you!" Rory cried.
"I know. But things have to happen for a reason. Today had to happen."
"No! I won't let you be raised to become a weapon. You're my daughter!" Amy had tears running down her face. She had a chance to save her daughter. She wasn't going to waste it.
Rory pulled his wife into his arms, letting her cry onto his Centurion armour. He agreed with her. He didn't want to be separated from his child. She was barely a day old and those brief moments when he had held her, even though he now knew that it hadn't really been her but a Flesh avatar of her, he would treasure.
"I don't want to lose you again," he said to River. "I want to be able to hold you, the real you as a baby. You are my daughter and it is my duty to protect you, to protect my family."
Amy raised her head to look at her husband as he said those words. She knew that he was telling the truth. He had protected her while she had been in the Pandorica and had come for her, for her and their child. He had waited lifetimes and crossed galaxies just for her and she knew he would do the same for their daughter.
River nodded in acknowledgement. "We will all be together again, in your future and in my past." She smiled more warmly at her parents. "You have to trust me and you have to trust the Doctor. You will find me."
Amy moved herself out of Rory's arms. She picked the golden prayer leaf with River Song still clearly stitched on it and took River's hand, placing the leaf into her hand. Lorna had been right, Amy thought as her fingers ran over the stitching, my daughter did come back to me. "And you have to trust us," she told her daughter. "We will find you and raise you as our daughter. I promise that we will find you."
River felt tears brimming in her eyes. She never cried. Not in all of her lifetimes had she cried. She had been raised as a soldier, a weapon, a being intent on killing the Doctor. She was raised to become a psychopath who wasn't supposed to show any emotion and only focus on the one thing she was created, trained and conditioned to do. But her adventures, old and new, with the Doctor and then alongside her parents had revealed another side of her, but still she never cried, until now. Being reunited with her parents after keeping who she really was from them was too overwhelming, even for her and she felt as though the tears, the tears she had forced deep down inside of her for many lifetimes were going to explode from her. She held the prayer leaf tightly in her hand and nodded. "I trust you," she said.
"You're my daughter," Amy said softly, more to herself, though she was looking at River as she spoke.
"Yes, I am." River couldn't help but smile, knowing that her mother was beginning to see her as her daughter.
Amy let out a laugh. She looked at Rory. "That's our daughter."
"Yeah."
"We made her."
"Yeah, we did."
Amy laughed again, covering her mouth with her hands before wrapping her arms around Rory's neck, pulling him close to her. He responded by wrapping his arms around her waist, both of them laughing.
River smiled as she watched her parents. She had missed them. She watched as her parents kissed and quickly cleared her throat, reminding them of her presence. They both broke apart, both looking slightly embarrassed. Amy smiled as she took Rory's hand and placed both of their hands on top of River's which still held the prayer leaf. River smiled and placed her free hand on top of her parents. The Pond's were finally, truly reunited.
"Now," Amy said, "how about you use you travel thingy to take me and your dad home. We've got some searching to do."
River smiled and nodded her head as she placed the prayer leaf back in her mother's hand, allowing her to tap co-ordinates into her Vortex Manipulator. "Madame Vestra, Jenny, if you will," she called to the Silurian and the human, both of whom had given the Ponds some space, whilst keeping within earshot in case they were needed.
"Doctor Song?" Madame Vestra bowed slightly.
"Aint it Doctor Pond, now?" Jenny asked, earning a frown from her mistress.
"Time to go," River replied, smiling at Jenny's comment as she finished tapping in the necessary co-ordinates.
There was a flash around the five of them as they disappeared, leaving the ancient wooden cot of a Time Lord, which rocked from to to fro gently, at Demon's Run.
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