River firsts sees Charles Xavier is when they are wheeling the man into the prison.
Looking over the top of her book she watches as the man, surrounded by their guards who are now wearing very weird helmets; she wishes she could take out her gun and shoot it off however that just risks showing where her gun and other unmentionables are and that just won't do, and the usual grim faces.
The man simply turns to look at her through the glass and smiles at her. His too blue eyes were sparkling and he had an almost childish look on his face. Almost as if he didn't realize where he was or he just didn't care.
Either way River smiled back. The breaks in between when she broke out and when the Doctor would come to pick her up were filled with boredom in most cases.
The guards placed him in the cell next to hers, the one that they had been recreating for the past week. They didn't take their helmets off until the man was safely behind the cell door and even then they looked almost frightened to do so.
Humming to herself slightly River waited until the guards were completely gone before getting up from her bed and walking to the wall that connected their cells. She cast one more look outside to ensure no guards were there before pulling out a gadget from her pocket.
It was a small thing, barely covering her thumb, however its purpose was quite clear. It created a small area that it was connected to for the molecules to spread and create a window that allowed people to talk to one another from different rooms as long as they were connected to one wall.
The Sontarians never even realized that it was taken from them.
To her pleasure, but not completely to her surprise, the man was already in front of the wall. He looked as the perfect person of patience with his hands folded on his lap and a small smile on his face. His eyes continued to sparkle.
The chair was also still there she noted as the both of them simply stared at one another to familiarize themselves with the new person. The new inmate in the universes best jail cells.
He was a paraplegic and judging by the way he looked he had to be from earth. Earth was the only planet that still hadn't figured out the cure for spinal injuries and the such and still had people look like the human species.
What did he do, River wondered. What did this man do to be placed here?
The man's eyebrow raised slightly at her. Ask, it seemed his eyes were saying to her.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Charles Xavier." he answered. "Professor Charles Xavier. And yours?"
"Doctor River Song." she replied. For a being of earth to do something that brought him here. It was almost never done before.
How she loved those that went against expectations.
Charles smile only widened.
At most Charles was very secretive. All of his words were carefully calculated with the air of simply speaking the first thing that came to his mind. He said nothing while maintaining the image of speaking nonstop.
If anything he was an interesting entertainment that came from the boredom of being imprisoned. And how she loved the games they played as both of them sought answers however neither of them were willing to give an inch.
He was always smiling, he always projected a person that was on top of the world regardless of the situation he was in.
The one time he showed any hint of even sadness or jealousy was when the Doctor came for her one night.
It had been quick and if she hadn't been looking at him to bid him farewell she wouldn't have seen it.
He hid it well and with the smile back in place he wished her a pleasant trip. That was the first time she got a good look at his cell.
Unlike hers his had a glass door that covered the entire cell and the same to the window. There was a door that lead to a bathroom and there was a bed however that was all. She, at least, had books and a desk and all of her secret things that she kept hidden.
On a whim she brought back a chessboard that fit easily into her pocket, she was always grateful to the inner dimensional pockets that allowed her to carry a variety of belongings with her, and when she presented it to him he had been more than thrilled.
So when they played, the chessboard was only on her side however he called out his moves, they continued to talk. About the gossip of the guards, Charles somehow always managed to be on top of the gossip despite never getting out, to whatever it was they were willing to tell each other.
On a whim he told her that the reason he needed the wheelchair now was because he got shot in the back by a deflected bullet.
"Wrong time and wrong place I suppose." he said in that eternally cheerful voice.
She told him that she was an only child, to the best of her knowledge.
He told her about the sister he adopted as his own and the stepbrother that he couldn't stand.
She told him that she was married to the Doctor, the savior of worlds and the destroyer of beings.
He told her that he had been in love once with a great man named Eric who had the power to change the world however refused to do so in the right way.
Then one night when she returned from a different adventure with the Doctor, the twelve one this time for a change, she brought back a bottle of good alcohol from the 28th century of Earth. She had wanted to share it with Charles however, and her mind hadn't been clear at the moment because of the amount of alcohol they managed to put into the single bottle, she had forgotten about the cells and how not everyone could get out when they wished to.
Charles had been silent for a moment before he smiled. A guard came up a few minutes later with his eyes glazed over and unlocked Charles cell and helped to wheel him into Rivers.
He raised an eyebrow at River who stared, in the thankfully rare few times, in shocked silence.
"I thought you were inviting me for a drink?" he asked nodding towards the bottle that was being held in her hands.
The alcohol was good and it thankfully didn't bubble down her throat as others did. She shuddered at the thought of 27th century alcohol. Too bubbly and too much headaches afterwards.
Charles, for his part, thanked her warmly for the alcohol "It has been a while since I have had anything to drink." he said, and together they continued to play chess. She noticed but never mentioned how he would sometimes allow his hand to linger on his pieces.
"I killed the Doctor." she blurted out because of too much alcohol and the pressure of keeping this secret in for too much longer with no one else knowing.
"I killed Eric." Charles replied.
They didn't continue the conversation for nearly a week. River was ashamed at giving away her second biggest secret, next to knowing the Doctors name and that Amy and Rory are her parents, because of alcohol and at having someone in the prison that didn't seem to be afraid of her and never blamed her for anything. Or maybe because he committed the same crime, killing someone they loved.
Charles for his part didn't push the subject. The few times they did talk during the week he never mentioned a single word.
"What did Eric do?" she finally asked.
Charles glanced up at her and relaxed when she nodded. An answer for an answer.
"He was a victim of the Holocaust of World War II and from there he had a great hatred for a certain group of people." Charles said. The only way she could see that he was carefully choosing his words was after watching him talk for months now. "We met together and started to start a group to stop a man that had followed the Nazis. In the end the man was killed and Eric took his place, both of them hated the same people."
Charles looked thoughtful for a moment. "That was the same day that I got shot. The bullet was being shot at Eric and he managed to deflect it. I was on the ground from trying to stop his aggression in claiming countless lives and then…I was shot."
He tilted his head to the side. "Eric's mind broke for a moment after I had gotten shot. He killed the shooter, a wonderful woman named Moira, and then turned his attention to the men that were ready to kill us. I was on the ground, my sister was holding me and trying to keep me calm."
He smiled slightly. "I was frozen on the ground, no matter what I tried to do I couldn't move, as if there was a force around me ensuring that I didn't move."
A semi-fixed point in time, River thought. Almost similar to a fixed point in time however reality wouldn't break if the fixed point was broken.
However it would definitely get the attention of the same people that run the jail they were currently in.
"I managed to break free of the spell and at that moment all I could think about was all the men on the ship, fathers, brothers, sons, and they were going to die for following orders that they couldn't control." Charles continued. "Without even hesitating, and in truth what does that tell about me, I striked and killed Eric."
"I'm sorry." River said.
Charles waved her apology away. "You said you killed your husband, I'm sure you understand."
The Tardis materialized in the jail and River stepped out looking behind her.
"Just a minute, Sweetie." she promised. "We just need to take someone with us."
She turned to face Charles cell and started when she realized that it was empty. The cell door was open and a lone guard stood there. When she stepped forward, noting once more how his eyes were glazed over, he handed her a note before falling to the ground. Unconscious but still alive.
She turned to the note.
Dearest River,
My most sincere apology for breaking into your cell. I required a pen and paper to write this and having none on hand I was forced to borrow from you.
As you can see I am no longer in my cell and I shall not return. If there has been any reason that I have allowed myself to be captured it is because I wished for the solitary confinement and the punishment for killing Eric as well as a bit of a vacation to allow my own thoughts to come into order as well as come to fully realize my limitations now that I am paralyzed from the waist down.
I'm afraid that I haven't been completely honest with you, dear River. I am a part of the species Homo superior, a mutant class if you will where my kind have jumped across the evolutionary chain and have skipped to the part where our bodies abilities have grown to be beyond Homo sapiens. We are called mutants. I am a mutant. My sister is a mutant. Eric was a mutant as was the man we were attempting to stop.
Eric hated humans because in his mind they are the root of all evils and they are constantly attacking us. I begged him to see a future where both kinds could live together in peace however you know how that turned out.
You have been a delight River and I am more than happy to call you my friend. Should you ever be in America during the 1960s or 1970s around Winchester please stop at my home, I will immediately know when you are in the area and I will contact you, and I will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have and share a cup of tea with.
However, on the chance that we never meet again I wish to express my most sincere thanks in helping me in a very dark time of my life. Your company is what helped me to heal in such a short time span. My children, my students, need me now however and I must go to them.
Take care River and I should hope that we meet again.
With deepest sympathies and regrets,
Professor Charles Xavier
River smiled as she read the note over once more before turning back to the Tardis and calling out "Change of plan. I need to get to Winchester, New York. 1970 if you please."
A flash of light, the engines running, the annoying buzzing of the brakes clear in her ears and River Song stepped out onto Winchester in 1970.
"Hello River." a wonderfully familiar voice said in her mind. "It is wonderful to see you again."
I do not own Doctor Who or X Men.