Title: Awkward Phone Call
Author: kathleenrose747
Pairing: 12/River
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I have not, nor will I ever own anything relating to the idea, copyright, persons/characters and creation of Doctor Who. All of my information on Regenerations comes from Tardis Wikia. Contains Spoilers for 2015 Christmas Special.
Awkward Phone Call (One Shot)
He only had a few moments. Mere moments before Clara would find him. Moments before he lost this face to his newest regeneration.
He had to know. He had seen something. In that flash, that moment, he had seen his wife. And he needed answers.
"Pick up, River!" The Doctor leaned against the wall, resisting the urge to bang his head against the wall. He had another call to make after this one.
"Hello! Doctor River Song!" a singsong voice answered.
"I only have a few minutes, River. I need answers only you can give me. I'm on my last minutes. Please…" The Doctor took in a breath, trying to suppress the rumbling in his kidneys.
"Yes, sweetie?" River whispered.
"I was stuck here for three hundred years. You never once came to look for me. Which is fine! I didn't expect it!" The Doctor fumbled. "But I need to know: how can you give up on me for three hundred years, but jump at the chance to spend a twenty four year night with him?!"
River paused, looking back at her sleeping Doctor. The wind whistled lightly through the Singing Towers, releasing a soft lullaby from the rocks. That same breeze passed through the curtains, ruffling the grey curls on top of her husband's head.
'My husband.' River sighed and focused back on the phone call. "Sweetie… I don't want to…"
"Be honest with me, River. Hurt me, if you must. But… just be my wife. Be honest with me." she heard him sigh, imagining him shutting his eyes tight against the words that would assault his ears.
"Well… um…" River played with her sash on her robe. "When I met him, I didn't know it was you. With a new face. He even asked me what I thought of the new body. All I could think to say was 'I don't know. I've only seen the face.'"
"Did I do good this next time around?" The Doctor chuckled, trying to keep the pain of his oncoming regeneration out of his voice.
"Well… when he told me how long the night was here on Darillium, some things… came up." River tried to keep her smile down. "Needless to say, I was convinced to stay around."
"Was he convinced, though? That is my only concern for you."
River looked back at the bed. She had to end the call soon before her Doctor awoke. "I would say he was sufficiently convinced. We've been here eighteen years already."
"Good." River heard the relief in her husband's voice. "I'm glad to hear I finally became a man that you deserved from the beginning. Take care of yourself, River."
"See you again soon, sweetie." River choked back a sob as the line went dead. She closed the phone and held it against her heart. Her last connection to the man who had taken the risk to marry her. In front of her parents, no less. Brave or stupid, he was the man she had wed.
"Something come up, my dear?" She felt two strong arms wrap around her, a nose nuzzling its way into her hair.
"Just… someone who loves me." River smiled.
"Another husband?" The Doctor knew full well who had called. He had been to one to place that call, after all.
"The only one I've ever been proud to call 'mine'." River turned in the Doctor's arms to look up at his sparkling blue eyes. In there, she saw every version of the man… the only man… she had ever dared to love.
The only man desperate enough to love her back.
End