Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable element of the Doctor Who universe
Author's Note: This is my first try at a Doctor Who fic. I don't usually write like this; it moves kind of slowly but it's a short fic. I hope you guys would give it a shot and tell me what you think.
An Archaeologist
He would never have noticed her if it wasn't for the blue book sticking out of her bag. It wasn't just any blue book. It was a journal, and its cover was designed to resemble a British Police Box from mid-twentieth century Earth.
The Doctor was there by chance. He was taking Amy and Rory to a satellite near by when they heard about the disturbances on the planet below. Of course, they wouldn't pass up a chance for any adventure like that. When they arrived at the area to investigate, they found that a team from the Shadow Proclamation was already there.
The Doctor sent Amy and Rory on a scenic trail while he ventured off to the site of disturbance by himself. He told them to go back to Tardis in an hour, but he doubted they would listen. However, it seemed that other authorities beat the Doctor to the case – soldiers from the Shadow Proclamation rushed to and fro in the area.
Field soldiers from the Shadow Proclamation are always dressed in their black uniforms. She stood out because she was wearing a black dress instead, which singled her out as some sort of technical or professional personnel. She was holding a note-book sized mini-computer. It looked like a portable data base and she was searching for things on the screens and reading some materials. When she finished, she slipped the computer back into a bag she carried one shoulder, and that's when he noticed that journal.
He'd know that journal from any where. It was River's. Or should he say it is River's? Life of a time traveler – it's gets confusing from time to time. But this girl here, she wasn't River. She looked nothing like River. She wasn't blond, and she probably wasn't human. The Shadow Proclamation would not permit anyone with less qualification than a university graduate to work for them, and the girl, though humanoid, looked no more that seventeen by human aging characteristics.
She talked a bit to a Judoon, and then walked away from the group. The Doctor followed her a bit deeper into the woods. After two minutes, she stopped abruptly and turned around. The Doctor tried to jump behind some vegetation for cover, but found that she actually led him into a clearing.
"Who are you?" She asked him. Then she reminded him of River: so fierce and so fearless.
"I'm, uh, nobody. Just someone who is travelling by." The Doctor said.
"You are lying." She told him calmly. "The whole continent is under quarantine. You couldn't have come here without some kind of teleportation device. If you got teleported here by accident, you wouldn't be sticking around and following me."
The Doctor looked her at, and smiled. "Do you know River Song?" He asked directly. He was curious, and he knew that she was too. If she wasn't, she would have simply ordered the Judoons to shoot him.
She hid her curiosity well when she scrutinized him, and replied hesitantly, "Yes. What does that have to do with anything?"
"That's why I followed you." He told her frankly. "I'm an old friend of River's." He said ambiguously – ambiguous, but true.
"Well, you've travelled a long way to offer your condolences." She said coldly.
Then the doctor remembered that this was still in the 51st century and River already died in The Library, saving him. But he also remembered leaving that journal in the biography section of The Library that was left to be forever infested with Vashta Narada. Then this doesn't make any sense.
"Right," The Doctor said, with a quick, artificial smile, "I'm an old friend of River's as well. Brilliant woman. I see you've got her journal." He said, while pointing towards the blue book that captured his attention in the first place.
She instinctively put her hand over her open bag and glared at him. "You are lying again." She stated coldly. "If you think I'm River Song's 'friend,' then you couldn't have known her that well."
Right, he was talking to someone who worked for the biggest Law Enforcement Agency in the universe. Even if she was some sort of professional or technical personnel, she seemed like she would have made a fine interrogator as well. But that's not going to stop the Doctor. He let out an exasperated sigh, and told her just as confidently, "Fine, it complicated. I used to work with her sometimes. She doesn't talk much about her personal life. I've only recognized you because of that journal – not something you get in at any stationary store. Now I've answered your questions, it's your turn. Who are you and how did you get that book out of The Library?"
"I'm her daughter. I went back to The Library to look for my mother's journal after I found about her death. I had a bit of a problem with the infestation, but I lived." She said whiling showing him her wrist, which was still covered in bandages.
The Doctor was surprised –no, he was flabbergasted. River was a mother? River had a daughter? River was an archaeologist, a scholar, an adventurer, a time-traveler, and a murderer who ended up in the Stormcage, but she didn't seem like a mother, her lifestyle didn't seem like it would belong to someone who would have a strong sense of family, or any sense of family, for that matter.
And if this young woman standing in front of him was really River's daughter, then she could also be … no, it's not possible, he wouldn't do anything that… but all the evidence…
She was still scrutinizing him.
"How old are you?" He asked her, finally.
"Twenty-three, by Old Solar Earth standard." She said after a while. "I don't really look it, though." She added as an afterthought.
And he was quiet again. He could see Timelord characteristics in her. She was reading impossibly fast when she was looking at the database. She aged slower than humans. She must have been better than average at something, or else the Shadow Proclamation wouldn't have hired her. He could feel the strength of the psychic shield she put around herself.
He could see himself in her as well. That desire of adventure that led her to work with the Shadow Proclamation was burning in her eyes although she kept her expression calm. She attempted to detach herself emotionally, talking about her late mother in such an unfeeling tone, because she must have realized by now that in the company of humans, she would outlive everyone she cares about. She probably had friends, but deep down she felt lonely, and he could see it in her eyes and sense it in her psychic activities. She tried desperately to hold on to the important people in her life, evident in her suicidal march into The Library infested with deadly creatures to retrieve a token of her mother's existence.
And he was speechless.
"I know who you are." He heard her telling him psychically. "I've read the journal already. She's got pictures of all the Doctors, not in the right order, though."
He chuckled at that, and saw that she did too. She really is River's daughter. And his too.
"What are you doing right now, in the general sense?" The Doctor asked her.
"Intern work. I can't go back to the University right now; I can't go there without think about Mom." She said quietly. She was opening up to him.
"What are you studying, then?"
"Archaeology."
"Like mother, like daughter, huh?" He teased. He remembered what he told River the first time he met her. 'I'm a time traveler. I point and laugh at archeologists.' Well, River was an exception, and now she wouldn't be the only one.
"I suppose. Though mom did write in the journal that you'd hate it if you knew I studied archaeology." She told. She looked a bit uncertain when she told him that. Does she really care about what he thinks?
"Well, too late for me to say anything, I suppose." He admitted. He was never around to tell her not to bother with archaeology. It's normal, though. Timelords were always fascinated with history and the past. Why else would they bother inventing time travelling?
She smiled a bit, her voice softened, and she sounded less like an interrogator. "You used to visit me when I was little. Or should I say you will? It gets a bit confusing with the time travelling, especially you, with the regenerations. Mum lost quite a few years here and there because of the jumps in time. She's not as old as papers here say she is. Sometimes she shows up in the wrong order, but at least I know it's her."
"Did she ever take you with her?"
"You mean, did I ever travel with you and her?"
He nodded.
"No. You only showed up when she wasn't around. She never told you. It said so in her journal. When you knew her well enough for this, I wasn't around yet and she didn't know you that well. When she knew you well enough, you don't know her well enough. So she never told." There was a brief silence, and she added, "It wasn't easy, you know. The more she sees you, the less you seem to know and trust her. She loved pulling a few tricks on you here and there, but she really wished that your relationship would continue to grow instead of just meeting in the middle and then zooming past each other."
The Doctor frowned. "How did she expect me to find you, though?"
"I don't know. I guess she thought we'd find each other eventually. She's a big believer in fate and destiny." She told him. Now that's something he never knew about River.
He smiled at her, and there was a moment when they seemed to have understood each other, and all the missing years were forgotten.
Her communicator crackled, and someone asked, "Miss Song, we need you back on the site. Where are you?"
She smiled apologetically, and said into the communicator, "I'll be there in a moment."
She turned to leave, but the Doctor called after her, "Do you want come with me?"
She turned around and smiled a bit sadly. "No. Not yet. I have mom's journal, remember? Full of spoilers! One day you'll say goodbye to her again, and it'll be the last time for you. You can come and get me then. I don't want to change what's in this book for mom. She loved every second of it, and I want her to have those moments even if she wasn't with me."
The Doctor nodded, and smiled sadly. Sensitive, sweet – that sounds like a cricket-lover with a piece of celery pined to his lapel.
"What's your name?" The Doctor asked her, finally.
"Kara. Kara Song. It's kind of silly. 'River' in Japanese is 'kawa.' Mom thought it was cute." She explained with a grin.
"Kara." The Doctor repeated to himself with a smile, a genuine goofy happy smile. "Kara. It's a nice name. Tell you what, Kara. Keep on studying archaeology. Remember all the planets and sites and events that you like. When I come and get you, I'll take you every single one of them, how's that?"
"Sounds brilliant." She smiled back, and it's the first time that he saw her smile without that melancholy shadow in her eyes. And she added, "You've got a time machine, so don't make me wait too long, okay?"
"Promise." He told her as he walked up to and lightly kissed her forehead. "Take care of yourself until then, Kara Song."
"You too." She told him, and hugged him quickly.
She pulled away and was about to walk back toward the site, when the Doctor called after her, and asked, "Bye the way, Kara, how do you feel about fish sticks with custard?"
She laughed a bit and kept walking. "I feel that it's something I'd never want on my dinner plate."
And they parted as they chuckled to themselves about that.
- FIN-
A/N: Please review!