A/N: I will be updating my other stories very soon! Thanks for continued love and support!
Title: The Angels in Amherst
Summary: River goes in search of the Doctor, but instead finds a rip in time and space that even he can't fix.
Rating: M for later scenes
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the overarching plot. Characters, ect. are the property of BBC, ect.
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There are certain points in time that are fixed.
This is a law of the universe, and it is not to be broken- even by those who have the power to alter such events.
Those, of course, being the Timelords.
River Song was no exception to this rule.
She more than most, perhaps, understood the value of history—of things that are written in stone, unchanged, forever.
Her life, being backwards and forwards and incredibly tangled, had no such linear distinctions as that of the archives and papers she now found herself pouring over.
A new point in time was approaching.
November 21st, 2014. Amherst, Massachusetts.
She had signed on to be a guest lecturer at the university there, her topic being Roman Archaeology, and she could use her spare time to investigate the circumstances surrounding this obviously important point in time.
How did she know it was important?
Since she could remember, River always had inclination to look around things she shouldn't. Such tendencies, always in the forefront when she was working, had been in full force when she'd stumbled upon the Doctor's library.
A large room tucked away in the southern (or was it northern?) corridors of the TARDIS, River had found a curious book full of seemingly random dates. Not knowing what they meant, she had grabbed her phone and snapped pictures of the first few pages.
"Rivah!" The Doctor called. "Come back to—" She spun around, closing the book ever so quietly behind her back.
"What are you doing snooping around my things? These are very important, very necessary, very- thingy things!"
River laughed at her Doctor's disheveled state. He was wearing a black robe that tied loosely around his narrow frame and his hair was unkempt from the night before.
"Thingy things? Is that a technical term?"
He shook his head and moved forward, finger extended to bop his wife gently on the nose.
Making his way to the desk, his eyes caught the book she'd spotted earlier.
"Oh, hello there! I haven't seen you in a long time!" The Doctor cooed.
"Is it a journal?" River asked, feigning innocence.
"Ohhh, not just any journal River! These are fixed points in time! Well, at least the ones I could find. These are the one's I've found regarding… holes… in time in space."
"Holes?"
"Remember the crack in your mother's wall?"
"I do."
He flourished his fingers and flipped through the book. Finding the date, he showed the page to River. "See? There's the date for that."
Without his glasses, the dates were harder to see, and he moved away underneath a nearby lamp. "And here's the date we met in Manhatt-"
He stopped.
"River, River I'm sorry, is it still fresh?"
She shook her head and moved to hold his hand. "No, my love. It's been seven years for me."
The Doctor nodded, understanding. "I was wearing a new bowtie that day."
"I know."
She sighed, missing him. That goofy face. Those bowties. That one god-awful fez.
A face she feared she'd never see again.
That was the trouble with a non-linear life. She kept meeting younger and younger versions of him and each time he knew her less and less—and the knowing glances between them were gradually becoming non-existent.
Selfishly, she hoped that if she kept investigating these fixed points in time, eventually she'd run into him agai.
And not just any version of him—her Doctor.
So far her investigations hadn't revealed a lot. Most points were the deaths of prominent individuals, turning points in legislation or some other legal decision, but nothing that would have warranted the visit of a certain Doctor.
This date, however, was proving to be one for her books.
All around Amherst there were disturbances in the time vortex, little pockets of distorted energy that were wreaking havoc on her vortex manipulator and her curls.
She remembered his words, that the dates weren't just fixed points in time, but holes discovered in time.
There was something in the air, something so familiar she could almost taste it, but she couldn't figure out what it was just yet.
Grabbing her bag, she threw in her papers, journals, wallet, identification card, and a small laser gun. You know, just in case.
With one last glance around her tiny flat, she lifted her thermos off the table, switched off the lights, and headed out the door.
As she made her way to the stairs, an elderly woman caught her attention. The woman was sitting on the bench outside the elevator, reading the newspaper for the day. The headline on the front read:
UNIVERSITY STUDENT MISSING, NO LEADS.
She wondered if there was a chance that the student had been signed up for her lecture next week. She started to open the door to the stairway when the woman's voice stopped her.
"You're a teacher, aren't you? At the university?" She motioned toward her thermos. "I recognize the lettering."
River paused and nodded, "I am."
"You know this girl? This Laura Adams?"
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't. I'm not actually from here, I'm just visiting."
"Oh," the older woman said. "I see. Such a promising life. I do hope they find her-"
Alive, she insinuated, but did not say. River nodded. "I will see if I can find anything out, and I promise to let you know," she tried to sound reassuring.
"Sure, sure," the older woman said, and made her way back to her door.
River watched her retreat and then headed downstairs. As her feet hit the concrete steps, she wondered if Laura's disappearance had anything to do with the date in the journal.
If it did, Laura would have to have been involved in something far beyond Amherst, Massachusetts. Something large enough to make it to the Doctor's radar.
Once outside, she found a newspaper stand and paid the eight quarters for a copy. Scanning the article, she tried to pick out the pertinent information. Laura Adams. Senior at Amherst College. Physics major.
Physics.
If anything would prompt a response from a Timelord, it would be a human messing with the laws of physics.
But thousands of students do this research every year! Her rational side argued. No reason why this case is special.
Shrugging off her concerns, she made her way to the bus stop and waiting for the B-Line to arrive. A man shuffled in beside her, smelling of old coffee and cigarettes.
"Done with your paper?" He asked River.
She nodded and handed him the stack. He withdrew the classified section and returned the rest.
"Thank you ma'am."
She nodded, his words cut off by the approaching bus.
Tucking away the paper, she made her way to the line and stepped up into the over-sized vehicle.
River began making her way to the back when suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of blue- that blue she would know anywhere.
And before she knew it, she found herself throwing people out of the way, pushing, forcing her way back out of the bus and into the street.
"DOCTOR!" She cried, ignoring the protests of the people around her.
Whatareyoudoingwatchwhereyou'resteppingexcuseyou!
"DOCTOR!"
She heard the unmistakable grinding sound of the TARDIS, her engines revving up to propel its driver where he needed to go.
River dropped her coffee and ran forward, as if she could stop the time-traveling vessel by willpower alone.
But as she approached, the TARDIS faded away and she was left standing there, wondering if she'd actually seen the flash of blue or if her aching heart had wished it there.