Time Travel. Whatever you do, don't interfere in the course of history. And for God's sake don't create a paradox!
Disclaimer – Sadly not mine. I can dream though.
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River Song glanced quickly at the date on her vortex manipulator as she stepped out of the shadows.
"It's time. Take my hand. And I'm sorry."
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DWDWDWDW
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"Well that was fun." The Doctor enthused as he began pushing levers and flicking switches as the TARDIS moved on from the now estranged planet.
"Actually Doctor," Rory interceded, "I'd call it more a lucky escape."
"No such thing as luck, Roranicus. You have to make your own." The doctor slapped him hard on the back. "Well you do now. There used to be gods and the like for that sort of thing but they're long since gone. Shame really, cos there have been a few occasions where having access to that kind of luck would have come in handy. Also, the god of bananas was always handy to have around if you fancied a banana. And by that, Amelia, I mean a banana to eat."
Amy giggled. "As opposed to what? Date?"
The Doctor looked aghast. "The peoples native the planet of Banananan-ana-nnn-a are a very genteel and hospitable race Amy. And you'd do well to remember that. You never know when you might need their unique abilities."
Rory scratched his head. "There is a race of banana people?"
"Of course. Where do you think bananas come from?"
"Ummm... Brazil?"
You didn't honestly think bananas were native to Earth did you?" the Doctor replied, astounded. "Honestly. They're quite unlike any other crop on the planet and yet you categorise them as a fruit. Insanity!"
"So where are we going now doctor?"Amy asked, subtlety changing the subject.
The Doctor glanced at the monitor and frowned. "I don't know."
Both Amy and Rory moved around the console to stand behind the Doctor.
"What do you mean Doctor?" she challenged. "How can you not know?"
The Doctor tapped the monitor before breaking out into a smile as he spun round on his heels to face the couple. "Nothing to worry about, Ponds. I just need to tweak a few wires. Why don't you both pop off to bed and get some rest before in the meantime."
Amy and Rory glanced back at the Doctor suspiciously as he shooed them to their room.
Alone at the console, the Doctors expression faltered and he ran his hand over the living machine. "Where are you taking us?" he whispered, uncertain.
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DWDWDWDW
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"This place looks familiar." Amy stepped out of the TARDIS into an empty corridor, just ahead of the Doctor and Rory. "Have we been here before?"
The bleached white walls could have been anywhere. However the gentle vibrations underfoot told them that this wasn't solid ground. An asteroid. The Doctor stood solemnly as he took their surroundings in, as Rory brought his fist to his mouth to fight back the bile rising in his throat.
"We should go." Rory turned to step back inside the TARDIS. "This... this is Demons Run, Amy. We're back on Demons Run."
Amy looked around her. Of course. The pattern on the floor was the same is in her holding cell. She stood firm. "I'm not going anywhere. If the TARDIS has brought us here now then it's for a reason. What if Melody is here? What if our baby is just behind that wall and we walked away? I would never be able to forgive myself Rory."
He turned to his wife. Her expression said everything he needed to know and in that moment Rory wished he didn't know what was coming. He nodded slowly. "Okay."
"Okay!" The Doctor clapped his hands together and aimed his sonic screwdriver at the closest door access panel.
The door whooshed open.
Every door whooshed open.
They were surrounded.
"Well that was unexpected" the Doctor offered casually. "I thought we'd get a little further than the first door. This is like an ambush. As if they knew we were coming," he questioned out loud.
"Shut up." Amy's voice cut like a knife.
In the silence the soft whimper of a baby could be heard. The guards surrounding them parted, allowing their captor to step forward, cosseting the infant in her arms.
"Give me my baby!"
"It wouldn't make a difference you know. If I did." Madame Kovarian smirked. "The prophecy stands regardless."
"What prophecy?" The Doctor demanded. "And why does nobody think to tell me stuff. I always seem to be the last to know. Not that it affects my ability to save the universe but a heads up sometimes wouldn't go amiss."
"Demons run when a good man goes to war
Night will fall and drown in sun
When a good man goes to war
Friendship dies and true love lies
Night will fall and the dark will rise
When a good man goes to war
Demons run but count the cost
The battles won but the child is lost"
"I've heard that before," Amy exclaimed. "But I don't understand how it can be a prophecy? That doesn't make any sense."
"There's a second verse." The Doctor confirmed. "But what I don't understand is why you would know the poem Amy."
Madam Kovarian continued. "Demons run..."
"Wait!" Amy gaped at the Doctor. "I know where I read it." She turned to face Rory and pointed at him. "It's one of Rory's!"
"One of Rory's what?"
"Poems. It's one he wrote. Rory always used to write me poems when we first started going out" she added. "He wrote this one a couple of weeks ago. But there is no second verse."
"Bit mediocre, mate. Probably shouldn't have bothered," the Doctor offered helpfully.
"Thanks" Rory mumbled sarcastically, scowling.
"Shall I continue," Madame Kovarian snarled. She handed the infant to a guard and stepped closer to the doctor.
"Demons run where the ages collide
When metal falls and turns the tide
When a good man goes to war
Broken cries while true love dies
Night will fall as new life will rise
When a good man goes to war
Demons run but mores the cost
The battles won but the fathers lost" She smirked. "My dear Doctor. Your time is up."
Rory snorted.
Amy turned toward the sound incredulously. "What the hell is so funny?" she demanded.
"This." He waved his arms wide. "Everything. I just... I don't get how they could make such a huge mistake. And by huge..." Rory paused, taking a deep breath before yelling as loud as his lungs could carry; "I MEAN MASSIVE!"
Madam Kovarian looked on bemused as Rory scratched his head, figuring the situation out. "Can somebody get this joker out of here?" she demanded. "He's hardly relevant to the prophecy. This is just wasting time."
"Hardly relevant?" the Doctor exclaimed disbelievingly. "Haven't you been listening at all?"
"Enlighten me then."
Rory moved closer to her. "There is a well know saying in medical circles on Earth. And it has never been more relevant than right now. Do you want to speak to the Doctor in charge? Or the Nurse who knows what's going on?"
"I see what's happening... You are trying to buy yourselves some time. Well it won't do you any good. The countdown has already begun."
"Madame Kovarian, let me tell you something very important. I have seen the future and many will die here tonight but the Doctor won't be one of them."
Amy moved closer to the Doctor. "Rory, you're scaring me."
"Really Amy? You've had me pretending to be the Doctor since I was eight. Guess what? I've had a lot of practice. And now I've almost got it down to a tee it scares you?"
"C'mon, mate. Enough is enough." The Doctor beckoned him back. "It was worth a try."
Rory ignored him. "All your prophecies work off one very major fact. That the child in your arms has Timelord DNA and therefore must be the Doctors baby. But what if you're wrong? What then?"
"It's a foregone conclusion," Madame Kovarian confirmed, taking baby Melody back into her arms.
"Ah, but I can prove its not. At least I hope I can." Rory winced at the alternative. "It would be pretty messed up if it turned out the Doctor had been having a good old smooch with his own daughter."
Amy turned to face the Doctor. "Wait a minute. You've been snogging my daughter?"
The Doctor looked at her sheepishly. "Maybe. But she kissed me first... Anyway, Pond. More important matters. Where is your husband getting his info?" He frowned. "Oh criky. Did I have another meta-crisis and forget to notice? Rory, what's the binary connection that you'd use to disconnect the sporadic influx field in the TARDIS?"
"You mean how would I turn the breaks off? Easy. Open up the left hand meso circuit, turn the dial one and a quarter to the right and flick the blue switch."
The Doctor looked horrified.
"Ha!" Rory punched his shoulder gently. "Don't worry Doctor. It's in the script. You thought it would be funny. Oh... okay... I thought it would be funny. And I was right coz your face is a picture!"
"There's a script?..."
"Oh yes. And just in case you needed a little more proof... Three... two... one!"
The ground shook beneath them.
"Nice touch."
"Thank you. Meteor shower I think." Rory refocused his attention to their captor. "But of course you're going to take more convincing, which I why I have this!" He pulled the object from his pocket and held it aloft proudly.
"Yeah..." Amy looked seriously unimpressed. "Rory, that's your phone."
"I know. Rings any time and place in the universe. Who could I possibly call right now?" Quickly, he dialled the number and it began to ring. "That was a rhetorical question by the way," he clarified to the sea of unimpressed faces.
The Doctor whispered overly loudly to Amy. "Considering all the practice he's had I still don't think he's very good at being me."
"Shhh"
Madame Kovarian laughed. "You think making a phone call is going to save the Doctor? Oh, and just in case you couldn't tell, that was rhetorical too."
Rory shook his head. "No. This phone call is to save my family."
"River." The Doctor smiled quietly. "Ouch, that phone bill is going to be through the roof this month."
"£1042.86" Rory grumbled.
"What?"
"Umm... I'm guessing?"
"Stormcage Containment Facility"
"Put me through to River Song." Rory held the phone out on loud-speaker for all to hear.
"Who's calling?"
"Rory"
The voice was faint but unmistakable. "Give me that phone now!... Hello Daddy," she breathed, clearly now. "What have I done to deserve a phone call at this late hour? I hope I've not been a bad girl..."
"River, we are at Demon Run."
"Then you have to know that I'm so very sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Amy interrupted.
"Sorry for what happened. For what is about to happen. And I hope Amy that one day you'll be able to forgive me."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Madame Kovarian snarled. "What exactly is the point of this?"
"Ah, Madame, such a long time since I heard that voice. You should watch your back. I never did forgive you."
"Who is she and why should I care?" Kovarian purred.
"Thank you sweetheart. And goodbye." Rory stepped forwards, snapping the phone shut. "She comes from another time and place far away from here and now. She is the baby you hold in your arms. She Is River Song. And she is my daughter!"
A sword dropped from the heavens and Rory's fist closed around the hilt as it fell. Now armed and smiling, his stance changed to one of attack instantaneously. "My Excalibur," he breathed.
"Wow!" The Doctor clapped his hands together. "That is actually Excalibur. Can't wait to find out how he got hold of that!"
"Never mind that," Amy rationalised, staring upward into the darkness. "How the hell did he know it was going to fall from the sky and more importantly, how did he not drop it. I mean, this is Rory!"
"So what happens next?" the Doctor asked inquisitively.
Rory shrugged. "That's it. That's all I have."
"I know what happens next," Amy declared. "We take our daughter back."
Madame Kovarian sauntered across the room. "One man with a sword? Against my army? I'm trembling," she quipped.
Where would they go from here? It seemed an impossible situation. There were at least twenty guards and a Headless Monk flanking Madame Kovarian. The Doctors eyes fell to the floor. They really were very feminine boots for a Headless Monk...
The cold barrel of the pistol was suddenly visible against Kovarian's temple. "What? Betrayed by one of my own?"
She pulled the hood of the cloak down, revealing her true form. "I'm sure you were just told to watch your back... Can't say you weren't warned..."
Amy's jaw dropped. "Oh. My. God. She..."
"...looks very like you," the Doctor finished. "How come everyone gets to be ginger except me?"
Melody smiled proudly. "Look at me Daddy. I really am an astronaut now." She let the stolen Monks cape fall away to the floor and addressed the guards. "Now listen to me. Madame Kovarian has lied to you. There is no war to be fought here. I ask you all, is there any place in the Universe where it's acceptable to steal a newborn child? They just want to take their baby home..."
Rory took in the sight of his fully grown daughter and grinned. "Now I know I can't be around where you've come from, because letting you go out dressed like that... Over my dead body!"
The gun still firmly pointed at her head, Melody walked Madame Kovarian towards Amy. "Give her the baby," Melody demanded.
Madame Kovarian handed the child over. As soon as Amy hard a firm hold of her baby she slapped Madame Kovarian across the cheek, hard. Amy stared unforgiving at the woman for a moment then retreated to a corner of the room and began checking her child over.
"You stole my trick!" the Doctor sulked.
Melody winked at him. "I stole your TARDIS too. What are you going to do, spank me?" Melody Pond was every inch her mother's daughter. Her smooth auburn hair cascaded over her shoulders in soft waves and her tiny skirt just served to make her legs look even longer. "Now, let's get this finished. Daddy?"
"Yes, sweetheart?" Rory maintained his battle stance.
"There are about another three-hundred soldiers on this rock. And they're all terrified of the Doctor. I'm not sure whether that's to our advantage. There could be a lot of fighting."
"Let's try to avoid the fighting. Otherwise, consider yourself grounded when you get home. Fifteen years or so should do it."
She laughed. "Like that's going to happen."
Beyond her joviality Rory caught the sadness in her eyes. "I'm sorry I wasn't there," he whispered.
She nodded acceptingly. "Doctor?" Melody called out. That panel on the wall there will give you access to the intercom system. Perhaps you could suggest all the soldiers leave?"
"I had already thought of that!" he chastised, messing with the panel. "This is the Doctor speaking," he called out, his voice echoing though the facility. "And I have only one thing to say to you all. So listen carefully... RUN!"
The guards present glanced at each other, considering whether they should take up the Doctors invitation. Slowly, eleven slipped quietly away to be evacuated from the base. Nine remained, biding their time.
"Now Madame..." Melody pushed her down to her knees. "What am I to do with you?"
"I expect you'll kill me." Madame Kovarian smiled. "I assume you are the infamous River Song."
"No." She shook her head. "I'm far worse. I'm Melody Pond. And I'm angry."
The lights flickered as the Doctor continued messing with the electronics on the wall. "She's what, seventeen? Of course she's angry. All those hormones rushing frantically about inside her brain. Very dangerous indeed."
"Perhaps I should rephrase my answer. I expect that you will try to kill me. And you, my dear, will fail."
"Wanna bet!" Melody pulled on the trigger.
Madame Kovarian vanished.
It took less than three seconds for the remaining guards to have their weapons targeted on Melody.
She looked dumbfounded. "What just happened?"
"Vortex manipulator," both Rory and the Doctor chimed in chorus.
"Wow. I want one of those!"
Suddenly a second gunshot rang out. Melody felt a stinging sensation and glanced down to see a pool of red forming on her shirt and staggered back. Rory quickly ran to her and embraced her in his arms. "It's okay, I've got you," he soothed. The next shot was less expected and she jolted as it pierced her back. She held onto her father for dear life. "You're going to be fine." He whispered in her ear. "You're going to live for so many years. Travel to so many places." He kissed her forehead.
For Melody it seemed that time was suddenly standing still. She noticed the golden glow, beginning in her hands, travelling slowly up her arms and ingraining in every one of her living cells. "Oh!" She cried out. "What's happening to me? Somebody help me!"
"Rory, you need to step away from Melody. Now, Rory!"
Rory brushed his daughter's hair fondly. "I really hate when you say things like that Doctor." Yet he did as the Doctor instructed.
Amy meanwhile held the tiny baby in her arms even tighter. "Doctor? What's happening to her? What's happening to my daughter?"
"She's regenerating. I never imagined for a minute that being conceived in the Time Vortex could have that effect. Melody, don't be scared. You're going to change. A new beginning. But you'll still have all your thoughts and memories. They'll stay with you forever. But you'll look different. That's all."
"Yeah," Amy reassured her. "And you'll like different food and stuff. That's right isn't it Doctor? All those years ago when you told me you had a new mouth, you'd just regenerated right?"
"Yes."
Melody took a deep breath. And it began. The light overwhelmed the room and those who'd chosen to stay earlier now ran for their lives. Amy buried her head in the Doctors coat, unable to watch.
And then it was over. The woman who stood before them now was a stranger. Melody looked at her hands, paler than before. She could see her hair was now a light ash blonde. Her clothes felt loose and her mouth tasted different. She looked up at her family, unsure of what to say. Or do. Remembering the events of the past few minutes she clamped her palm to her abdomen, searching out the wounds. Nothing. "But how?"
The Doctor took her hands in his own. The bright green eyes were gone and she listened to him intently with a piercing blue stare. "As far as I can assess, you were conceived in the Time Vortex and as a result you developed as few Time Lord qualities. But I can't know if this will happen again, or if there are any other abilities you have."
Amy moved towards her husband, her relieved smile suddenly evaporating. "Rory. You're bleeding."
"Nah, it's just a graze. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Look after Melody."
Amy looked between the baby and her older counterpart. "Which one?"
Rory outstretched his arms "Here, give me Baby Melody and you go sort big Melody." She placed the baby in his arms. "Hello princess. We've missed you so much."
Amy flung her arms around his midriff. "I proper love you, you know that, stupid face?"
"I know." He smiled. Her words were all the anaesthetic he needed.
"Rory, you're all wet. Why are you wet?" She let go of him and stared at her blood-soaked hands. "Rory?"
"Take the baby back," he insisted, thrusting Melody back into her arms.
"Daddy?" Melody and the Doctor rushed over as Rory collapsed onto the floor, the sword clattering loudly as it hit the ground.
"Rory... No!" Amy leant over his body, bleeding and broken. "Doctor, help him, please!"
"I'm sorry, Amy. There's nothing I can do."
"He needs a doctor." She turned to look at him, the bitterness evident. "A real doctor. One with proper qualifications," she choked.
Rory gasped for breath. "You'd have thought I'd be used to dying by now."
"I'll find a way to bring you back, I swear. I've done it before..."
"I know you have. But this is it, Amy. This is the end for me." He reached out weakly to hold her hand. "I don't want you to go..." he pleaded.
She reassured him. "I'm not going to leave you."
"You have to. But don't worry Amy. You'll see me on the other side"
Amy leaned over and kissed him. When she ended the kiss the man she had always depended on to be there wasn't there any longer.
"He was stood right there when I was shot," Melody realised. "The bullet, it went through me and into him."
"He's gone." Amy flustered. "Doctor, he's really gone."
Melody stared down at her father's body. "All my life I thought, 'what if I could have been here?' I could change the past. Save him. But all along it was me. It was my fault. I never thought for a second that it always happened this way." She stared at her hands, still glowing from her regeneration. "I killed him."
The Doctor spun her round to face him. "Melody Pond, you are going to get back in my future TARDIS and take her back to exactly where you were. And I'll be there, waiting. And I promise you I will make it better."
"I don't deserve to be Melody Pond anymore. I'm dangerous. A weapon of destruction. Just like they said..."
"Fiddlesticks." The Doctor frowned. "Do I say fiddlesticks? Although I can play the fiddle you know..."
"The woman on the telephone," Melody interrupted. "That was me wasn't it? That's the person I'm going to be."
"Timelines can be rewritten."
"Not for me." She shook her head decisively. "It seems I have a destiny. So... what is Stormcage Containment Facility? Because it sounds like somewhere you put dangerous people."
Amy looked up at her. "You're not dangerous. You're Melody Pond, you're our daughter and you are a superhero."
Melody knelt down besides Rory's lifeless body next to Amy and ran her hand across his still warm face. Her hand shimmered with the residue of the regeneration Artron energy.
"Don't touch the baby!" The Doctor dived down and scooped baby Melody from Amy's arms. "Bad things will happen if the two versions of the same person get too close. Very bad things. And we don't want that at all."
The Doctors panicked words didn't even appear to register as Melody stared at her father's shell. "I thought... perhaps... If I could regenerate and we share a biological code it might... I mean he's my dad. I thought I could..."
"Bring him back?"
Melody nodded.
"I'm sorry. It doesn't work like that." The Doctor felt her pain. "But it was worth a try!"He added quickly. "It's that quick smart brain of yours that going to make you into who you are."
"And who am I exactly?"
"You're my daughter" Amy wept. "And I need you!"
Melody reached out her fingertips towards the baby and the Doctor retracted away instinctively. "You have me. I'm right there. And you'll have me for the next seventeen years. And I will drive you crazy..."
"Well duh," Amy quipped, through her tears. "I happen to remember very clearly how much trouble I was."
"I don't look like Melody anymore," she continued. "And I don't feel like Melody. She's... she's a memory." Melody leant down and kissed her father's forehead. "I'm going to become River Song one day. Why not today?" She stared at them both expectantly but neither Amy nor the Doctor knew how to answer her question.
"Go home, Melody." The Doctors voice was firm. "Take a while to think about what you're saying. Because, you amazing girl... You have all the time in the world."
She nodded slowly and turned to Amy. "Goodbye." Melody hugged her mother tight. "And don't worry," she whispered in Amy's ear. "We look after you."
Melody clapped four times and the TARDIS materialized, uncloaking barely ten yards away. She ran inside giving them both one final quick wave from the doorway.
Amy laughed as the Doctors jaw dropped. "How can I not know the TARDIS did that! That's new. It has to be new," he rationalised.
"Umm, Doctor."
"Yes Amy."
"Do you know we're not alone?"
He turned and saw the cause of Amy's concern. "Ah, okay. Time to go?"
"We can't leave Rory." Her eyes remained transfixed, not daring to look away.
"Amy, we need to go now. NOW, AMY!"
Three Silents hovered beside Rory's body. One raised their arm and Amy knew full well what they were capable of.
"Amy. Run."
"I can't."
"RUN!"
And they were running. And she remembered. She'd run so many times in her life. So many times with the Doctor. But what she remembered right now was running with Rory. Running together as children, playing their games of Raggedy Doctor, through country fields in the middle of summer. Through school corridors when she'd had enough of the teachers, and running to him when she knew that was the only place in the world she wanted to be.
They slammed the TARDIS doors shut and the Doctor handed baby Melody back to her quickly as he took the controls and got them back of that God forsaken rock. Demons Run. It should have been the Demon's running. Their enemy, not them, the Doctor questioned as they cascaded through the Vortex.
"What just happened?" Amy quizzed. "How did Rory know what to do? He mentioned a script?"
"I don't know. Not yet."
"And what did he mean Doctor about seeing me on the other side? He's died before. Was he referring to heaven?"
"I think Amy, that while it was the end for Rory, we've only just begun the fight. But you have your daughter back. You have Melody. That's good, isn't it?"
Amy didn't answer.
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DWDWDWDW
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"Are you sure you'll be alright?" the Doctor asked from the doorway of the TARDIS. "I could always come in with you. Have a cup of tea. That's appropriate in these situations isn't it? Or, alternatively, you don't even need to open the door. You could carry on travelling with me?... For a while?... Until you're ready?"
His companion shook her head. "It's hardly right for a baby to go gallivanting off around the universe. Not to mention dangerous. And I think there's been enough danger in her life so far." Amy jigged the sleeping infant in her arms. "It's time I came home. For good. But... I'd like if you could stay for tea. I could probably even rustle up fishfingers and custard if you fancied?"
The doctor smiled, nodded and followed Amy to the door of her tiny terraced house, in tiny Leadworth, on that tiny planet, in a tiny corner of the Universe. And he considered that it only took the smallest thing to make the most incredible difference.
Amy slid her key in the lock but didn't turn it.
"Amy?"
She turned her head to face him and he saw the tears streaming down her face. "How am I supposed to go on now?" she cried. "What do I do without Rory?" Her voice was choked as the tears fell heavier and harder. "I don't even have a body to hold a funeral. What if nobody will believe he's dead?" She reached out and held onto the brickwork, her legs like jelly. "What if they blame me? Because they'd be right, Doctor. It's my fault Rory's dead. He came with you to be with me."
"It's not your fault Amy. It's nobody's fault. Sometimes things happen that are out of our control. And yes it hurts. It hurts so bad and its feels like our universe is ending. We never ever forget them. But it gets better. And it gets easier. And we accept and move on." The Doctor placed his hand over hers and turned the key.
The door opened and they stepped inside.
To both their surprise, a familiar figure appeared in the kitchen doorway holding a steaming plate of food in one hand and a fork in the other. "Ah... Amy, Doctor, you're here. Brilliant! Wasn't sure when to expect you, exactly. Have you eaten? There's your Mums Sheppard's pie in the kitchen..." His voice trailed off as he took in the sight before him. "You've got Melody?" A broad smile appeared on his face then suddenly disappeared again. "Your eyes are all bloodshot, Amy. You've been crying. Doctor, why has Amy been crying?"
Amy froze. "Rory?.. How?.. Doctor, explain."
The Doctor frowned and stared before he approached the man with caution and poked Rory square in the chest.
Rory rolled his eyes in exasperation as the Doctor moved around him slowly, prodding and poking as he went. Suddenly a sonic screwdriver was almost touching the end of his nose.
"Stick out your tongue," the Doctor ordered.
"You haven't answered my question," Rory insisted.
"Because she was upset," the Doctor quipped back. "I would have thought that was quite obvious. Now stick out your tongue."
This time Rory did as he was told.
The Doctor waved the device in the air and checked the reading. "It's Rory! Rory the Roman. Except he's not a Roman. Or an Auton. Or any other variation for that matter. It's normal, human, clumsy, Rory."
Amy looked on in shock. "But how?"
"I. Have. No. Idea."
Rory sighed. "You could try asking the one person in the room that might be able to answer that."
Amy and the Doctor looked on in astonishment. "Go on then."
"The last time we ate here together, before the Doctor took us off again. That wasn't me. Well it was me, but a different me."
"You're not making any sense," Amy grilled.
"I was about to leave the hospital after my shift and then we heard that there had been a really bad accident. A lorry had overturned on the bypass and a couple of cars were trapped underneath. I didn't get home until 3am, and by that time you'd already gone."
Amy flashed back to that night. "I commented on your shirt. Asked you when you got it and you said that I'd bought it for you. But I'd never seen it before. I was sure..."
Rory placed his plate on the table and stepped closer to Amy and Melody. "That was eleven days ago."
"Oh my God, Rory!" Amy moved forward, closing the gap between them, her lips quivering with emotion. "You're here. You're really here..." She sank into his arms, kissing him passionately with their baby cradled between them.
"So who was in MY TARDIS?" the Doctor demanded.
His appeal went unheard as the happy couple continued to devour each other's lips.
"Oh," he muttered in realisation. "You're kissing again. I suppose I should have learnt by now that this process takes far longer than average with you two. Perhaps," he speculated, "there's a problem with both your synaptic processes. They aren't firing correctly and your brains fail to get the message that lip contact has been made. Although the odds of you both having that same condition are actually 83,563,028 to 1. So probably some other reason then." The Doctor sighed as the kiss continued.
Eventually the lovebirds pulled apart for breath.
"Oh at last," the Doctor exclaimed: - prematurely, as they began kissing again.
Melody gurgled as she woke from her sleep.
"I quite agree. And no. You're not touching the TARDIS controls until you're at least eighteen. Actually, make that twenty-one."
She gurgled again.
"Oh alright. Just don't tell your parents."
Finally the kissing stopped.
"Hello Baby," Rory offered.
"Hello Stupid-Face," Amy retorted.
"I was actually talking to Melody," he chided gently.
The Doctor put his arms over both their shoulders and leaned between them. "Who was in my TARDIS?"
"Ah..." Rory continued. "Well when I got home Amy wasn't here, but River was. She told me that she knew I was tied up at the hospital, so she borrowed a future version of me to go with you. She said it was important that I was there, otherwise it would mess up time streams and all that." His face sank. "I take it by your reaction tonight that future me didn't make it back."
Amy looked away from his expectant gaze and Rory pulled her back into the warmth of his arms.
"Of course," the Doctor exclaimed in realisation. "You had seen the future! That's how you knew everything that was about to happen in that room."
"What room?"
"The room where you die," the Doctor admitted bluntly.
"Doctor!" Amy protested, pushing him outside, out of Rory's earshot. "What happened to 'spoilers'?"
"You saw what happened tonight, Amy. He knew everything that would happen. Right down to the last detail. An impossible feat. Unless, that is, you have spoilers."
She sighed, understanding completely. "So we need to tell Rory what's going to happen."
"Precisely. Ever single detail."
Amy looked back at her husband, who had picked up his dinner plate and was obliviously devouring each mouthful. "Rory, how long?"
"Umm... about four minutes in the microwave."
Amy scowled. "What? I'm not hungry! I meant how long do we have? Before River comes for you. And how can you possibly eat at a time like this?"
Sheepishly, he put the plate back down. "My stomach was rumbling," he shrugged. "And I don't know. I have no idea when River will show up. Look..." he continued, taking Melody from Amy's arms. "I've been dead before. And then I wasn't. What makes this time any different. And time can be rewritten, so if it's still in my future, I can make sure it doesn't happen, can't I?"
The Doctor shook his head solemnly. "But if you don't then today would have been very different. Maybe better. Maybe worse. But always different."
Rory gazed down at his baby daughter. Tiny, vulnerable and completely innocent. What if Amy hadn't brought her home today? What if she was lost forever? He was living on borrowed time now and Rory knew he should be grateful for every single second. "I don't know how long I'll be able to stay with you both, but I'm going to make every minute count. I love you Amy Pond."
Her eyes welled once more. "Amy Williams," she corrected. "I'm Mrs Amy Williams."
Rory kissed his wife and the doctor slipped away quietly.
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DWDWDWDW
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He'd never noticed just how cold Stormcage was before tonight.
"We need to talk."
River feigned a mock expression of chastisement. "And hello to you too. To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"How did you know?"
"You're going to have to be a little more specific, Sweetie."
"To take Rory when you did. To replace him with a future version that guaranteed Amy would be able to bring baby you home from Demons Run."
"Spoilers!" River looked positively angry at the Doctors questions. "If I've done anything it's to maintain the timelines. Do you think I'd have done that if I had a choice? Where you are right now Doctor, is somewhere where you don't know me very well. I idolised my father."
"I know you well enough to know you could have tried harder."
"Don't you think I did? I have done everything in my power to change to outcome of that day but it can't be done. Not without creating a paradox."
"You could have come to me..."
"I did!"
"Oh..." The Doctor sat down. "So one day he'll just disappear?"
River sat on the bed beside him, twisting her hands together. "Yes. He disappeared when I was seven. It was the day I became an astronaut," she recalled. "He kissed me goodnight before he went to work and never came home again. I know I was still a child, and that it's our job to protect our children, but back then I couldn't understand why my mother coped so well. It was as though she knew it was coming. Of course she cried, but that was nothing unusual. My mother cried all the time and so often we never knew why. She cried so hard after he left to go to the hospital the evening before. As soon as she saw the clothes he was wearing..." River stared at the Doctor. "It was like she knew, she knew that was the last day she would see him."
"Quite." The Doctor sighed. "How do you tell a seven year old that an older version of herself time-travelled back to send her father into a battle that would mean he'd never come home again."
River sucked in a sharp breath as the Doctors words resounded through her. "Do you have any idea Doctor, to know exactly when someone you love will die and be able to do absolutely nothing about it? To have all that time to think of how to save them, just to end up leading them to their death?"
"Yes. I do." Vivid memories of the library flashed before him.
They both sat in silence for a while.
"She was wrong Doctor."
"What?"
"She saw him one more time. And she was so happy."
"Bet she still cried though," the Doctor joked.
"Oh she did!"River remembered. "It was on my wedding day. After all, what's the use of being a time traveller if you can't be selfish once in a while?" The memories came rushing back and she closed her eyes for a few moments.
He brushed her hair away from her face. "Sometimes, I forget how little I know you, River Song... Melody Pond."
"And sometimes I forget I know you too well for my own good," she retorted sharply. "Why are you here Doctor?" She could see the hurt in his eyes.
"I... I just want to understand why you would do that, River. Why go back all those years later and take Rory on that day?"
"Because..." she stared at the cold stone walls of her cell. Her punishment. "Because that's just how it happened."
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DWDWDWDW
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She'd held it together as long as she could. Maintaining that cool exterior, no one would ever know the emotions that battled inside her, but as the TARDIS dematerialised back into the Vortex she'd reached her breaking point.
Frustrated and angry, River banged her palms against the bars of the cell hard. "No," she screamed out at the universe like a petulant child. "I won't do it. I won't and you can't make me!" Her tears fell thick and fast now as her body slumped to the cold hard floor. All her adult life had been plagued by the guilt of her father's death. The greatest man she ever knew and now she found her role was bigger than she ever imagined. Killing someone once was hard enough. But killing them twice...
River remained motionless for a long time. Guards came and went. Food remained untouched. Night fell and sun rose. Finally, she stirred.
"Oh, My Love." River spoke out loud as she retrieved the Vortex Manipulator from its hiding place. "The man who knows too much. How many times must I remind you how dangerous spoilers are? And now you have absolutely no idea what you've just done, do you. My hands are tied, bound by a knot of your making. And I will never tell. And you will never know."
She programmed the date into the Vortex Manipulator, silent tears rolling down her cheek.
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DWDWDWDW
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Rory Williams pulled the nurses scrubs over his head and took his shirt from the locker. It had been a long overnight shift at the hospital, but this afternoon was Melody's school Nativity. He and Amy had spent several hours making this year's costume and were both looking forward to seeing it in action. The Headmistress of Upper Leadworth Primary School was a quirky old soul, who had been fascinated by the increasing tabloid news reports of alien encounters, and so this year Melody had been cast as an astronaut. He laughed quietly to himself remembering what a bloody nightmare making the helmet had been. But it's amazing what can be achieved with papier-mâché and tin foil. Before his shift she'd come to find him, all dressed up. "Look at me Daddy. I'm an Astronaut," she'd said. And she looked adorable.
River Song glanced quickly at the date on her vortex manipulator as she stepped out of the shadows.
"It's time. Take my hand. And I'm sorry."
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