First Date

Author's Note: This is my first story. Ever. Not just the first one I've published, but the first one I've written. I would appreciate any and all feedback that you would care to give! If I get enough of a response, I will write some more :)

The Doctor was feeling especially lonely one Sunday afternoon at the edge of the universe. Well, not the actual edge, even he had never been that far. No, this 'edge of the universe' was the local's name for a certain cliff on their planet of Excavatatical; although, to be fair, it was a pretty impressive cliff, a cut deep into the rock that looked as though a giant had gotten to wondering what was to be found a few miles inside the planet. The cliff, which stretched from the planet's tallest mountain down almost to its core, was so deep molten rock could be seen faintly glowing as it flowed like a river at the bottom of a ravine; looking at it, it was understandable why the natives had given this place its name. The doctor sat at the edge of this cliff, his TARDIS parked a few feet behind him, gazing in deep thought down at the magma far below.

He'd dropped the Ponds off at their home yesterday—well, actually, a few thousand years ago—so that they could catch up with their friends and family, and just generally give credence to the premise that they didn't spend most of their time traveling through time and space with a 900-year-old alien. Because, obviously, that would be weird. Except it wasn't all that obvious, not to the Doctor; he didn't understand why they so insisted on keeping up this pretense of normality, and he hated those few scattered days when they weren't in his TARDIS adventuring with him. Well, usually. Usually, he took the short route and went a few days into the future to pick up the Ponds, only seconds since he had last seen them. But this time was…different somehow. The Doctor had almost been a little, well, happy, when he waved goodbye to the Ponds only a day ago. The reason, although he was loathe to admit it even to himself, was a certain woman that he could just not get out of his mind.

As he sat kicking his feet through the air, the Doctor couldn't help thinking of River Song. He had only seen her a few times, and it was always a surprise. Well, a surprise to him at least. She always seemed to know exactly what was going on. Still, even as he thought of how very little he knew about her, he was sure of one thing: River would have hated this place. It was too calm, too peaceful; not her style at all. It wasn't really his style either. The Doctor grinned to himself as he thought about the things they did have in common, a dislike for the mundane, the normal, and, above all, a love for "ADVENTURE!" the Doctor yelled jumping to his feet, a little too quickly. After spending a harrowing few seconds waving his arms in an attempt to prevent himself from falling face first into the chasm, he took off running into his TARDIS; without even consciously realizing it, he had decided that it was time to visit his favorite Professor.

As Professor Song closed the door to her classroom, she heard the familiar "Vworp wheeze, Vworp wheeze, Vworp wheeze…*thud*" of the TARDIS coming in for a landing. "You could have been a little bit more subtle," said River, "Only a minute ago I was giving a lecture on new techniques that allow us to use Uranium-203 to find the age of items from civilizations dating back to the beginning of the universe. A few seconds earlier and one of my students would have seen you."

"Oh you archaeologists, always trying to see the past from the present," chuckled the doctor, completely ignoring her critique of his planning skills as he moved across the room to lean against the door frame next to her, "Obviously, the best way to see the past is from the past."

"Well we can't all have access to time lord technology, now can we?" she replied. "Some of us must learn to be content with living in the age we were born in, you know."

"Oh, but not you, Professor Song, not tonight. I'm taking you on adventure!" said the doctor, with a dramatic flourish of his hands.

"Is that true?" asked River, who, despite herself, had let a little of her excitement creep into her voice. "And where was the great time lord thinking of taking me?" she said, her tone again restored with its customary amount of sass.

The doctor smiled. "That, River, is for you to decide."

END CHAPTER ONE