A/N: As always, thanks to Snowy Ashes and beverlymaldoran for beta/edits/suggestions, and bev especially for the Moving Rooms prompt and the use of her Special Room from (remove space) htt .net/s/7851907/1/Sticks_and_Stones.
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"I'm starving," complained River Song in a good-natured sort of way. She and the Doctor were lying on the bed in her room - the room he had made for her himself, with the pale green walls and the (softer and more comfortable) duplicate of her bed in Stormcage. She loved it here, in her very own space in the TARDIS, and sometimes she invited him in just because she could, because it was hers and hers alone. He and Sexy Thing had even rigged it up so he couldn't get in unless invited - and that was wonderful. Come to think of it, she hadn't actually invited him this time, at least not in so many words, or in any words at all really, given that they had been connected at the lips at the time. She supposed that counted as an invitation.
At least they had made it to a bedroom this time, narrow bed or not.
In any case, she was hungry. She thought about making him go get them some food, but who knew what he'd bring back, and she wasn't in the mood for fish fingers with custard or jammy dodgers. So she got up herself while he whinged playfully about how she really should try the fish fingers, they were lovely, and come on, River, just this once? She shook her head, smiling at him as she threw on a dressing gown, and opened the door. She stopped, and stared for a long moment, before clearing her throat. "Doctor?" she said hesitantly, and he looked up at the tone in her voice. Hesitant was not commonly a River Song sort of thing. And she had called him Doctor rather than my love or Sweetie or by his true name, the one he had almost forgotten before he told it to her, which meant that she thought they weren't alone and she was unnerved by whatever it was outside the room. "Doctor, would you come tell me if I've gone mad? Or is this not a TARDIS corridor?"
"Is what not a TARDIS corridor, River? She moves that stuff around all the time," the Doctor said, but he got out of bed willingly enough. He put on a dressing gown and went to River at the door, loping along in his awkward way. He looked over River's head. "Hmm..." he mused, "You're right. That doesn't look like her usual run of corridor at all. Sexy?" he said to the air. There was no response. That was... unusual, and paired with what they had seen outside the room, there was a definite wrongness here. "Old Girl, are you all right?" Still no response. "Voice Interface, come on. Emergency!"
There was no response.
River shut the door. "Sweetie, think. I know you're worried about her, but did it occur to you that you don't have access in here? Let me try. Voice Interface, come on. Emergency!"
"Voice Interface en-en-en-enabled," said the Voice Interface hologram. It looked like a pretty - if somewhat sickly - woman in ragged Victorian dress.
"Voice Interface, please allow access to the Doctor until revoked by me," River said simply.
"Ack-ack-ack-acknowledged," agreed the hologram, flickering slightly as she spoke. She turned to look at the Doctor. "Goodbye, my beautiful id-id-idiot."
"Hello, Idris," he replied, his voice thick. "Can you tell us how to help you?"
"Will you in-in-introduce me to your wife?" asked the hologram.
"You already know each other..." he sounded perplexed, "But... River, this is, well... your other mum. The TARDIS. Idris, Sexy Old Girl, this is my other wife, your daughter River Song, Melody Pond. Why do you all have so many names?" He sounded distressed, and River wished she knew how to help him.
"Names are funny," agreed Idris, "I like, have liked, will like n-n-names. I can help you help me k-keep my names, if I can. My systems have been con-contaminated by a vi-vi-vi-vi-vi-" the hologram hit her forehead with her hand, "virus. An eleventh-dimensional time virus that has dis-dis-dis-dis-dis-dis-dis-" the forehead slap didn't work this time, and the hologram flickered out temporarily, then steadied. "-disconnected my rooms matrix." The voice and the visual both faded as it said, "Help... me," but then the hologram equalized as it - no, she, River decided - she looked at them without talking. River looked at her husband and was a little surprised to see that he had tears in his eyes. She must have been someone very special to him, she thought, I wonder why the TARDIS chose that particular form for the V.I.
"Can you tell us how?" asked River. Somehow she wasn't surprised by the TARDIS showing up to ask for help. Who else would she ask?
"No," replied Idris, "I mean... the other w-w-w-word, the other one, the joyful... ah. Yes." She looked at River directly. "But it will m-m-make him angry. Or s-s-s-s-sad. And h-h-h-happy. There are p-p-pieces of a t-Timedrive scattered in on over time and s-s-sp-space." The stutter was worsening as the hologram talked, and River noticed that the Doctor looked more upset with each word. "F-f-f-f-f-f-f-find them. You w-will know th-them when you s-see them. You w-will know w-w-when you have th-th-th-th-th-them all." She faded entirely for a moment, then strengthened. "P-p-p-p-p-pl-pl-please..."
The holographic image froze but for a flicker and they stared at it for an endless moment. "No..." the Doctor whispered, horrified. "No... Idris, Sexy... please." He turned blindly to River, seeking comfort, and she wrapped her arms around his shaking shoulders. "River, I can't hear her... I can't hear her in the back of my mind... she... she's gone."
"Sweetie, she's not," River said, fiercely, taking his upper arms in her hands and giving him a little shake. "Look at me, my love, look at me." She waited until he did, and his eyes were sad, desperately sad, and she gave him another shake and insisted, "Sweetie, if the TARDIS were dead, d'you think this room - much less that hologram - would still even be here? She is not dead. She's... unconscious, my love, she's ill, and you have to snap out of it so we can find what she needs to make her well! Now come on, let's get ready." She kissed him hard on the lips and let go of him, heading toward the wardrobe.
As she rummaged around, finding jeans and a cargo jacket, she watched from the corner of her eye as the Doctor reached out toward the frozen image of his other wife. And then she sighed in mingled sympathy and relief as he turned away and grabbed for the clothes she had taken off him earlier that day. He would be all right now, as long as they worked toward a solution. She got dressed and filled the cargo jacket's pockets with assorted useful things - her 'kit' he liked to call it - and then strapped on her disintegrator pistol and tossed him his sonic screwdriver. He caught it deftly and smiled at her, holding out her vortex manipulator. "Just in case?" she inquired, tucking it away into one of her myriad pockets. He nodded and took her hand.
They each took a deep breath and she opened the door. Hand in hand, they stepped out onto a street in the city of London, Earth. It was dark and they clung to each other's hands, getting their bearings as their eyes adjusted to the darkness.
And then the world exploded around them.
