NO TIME AT ALL
April 23rd, 2011
Rory had been right to wonder if he had a room of his own. He rarely slept. It wasn't just his personality. A Time Lord needed less sleep than a human.
But any veteran could tell you the value of rest, mental if not physical. That was why he hadn't gone back for them right away. He needed to sort things out. A Time Lord had a symbiotic love happening with any clock, and for an eternity of two seconds, none of them were ticking. Is brain had been stretched out in every direction, and squished down into a second at the same time.
He didn't sleep well, and he didn't need long. He rarely came to this room. The TARDIS could make it appear and disappear as needed, and he never took much interest in it. Sometimes he had an exact recreation of Reinette's chambers, sometimes a Zero-G mattress that left him snoozing on air; sometimes a bunk bed. He could amuse himself, flipping a coin to see which one he took.
He couldn't sleep. He didn't care. He needed to rest. It was impossible to keep his mind still, so he focused it on one topic.
Naturally, it would be her.
Guilt about Rose had long since faded. She was happy. She was with him. And no matter what his connection to her (Or him) was, she was in love with another man. Even if she was still in this Universe, the Human-Ten would have been another man.
Every now and then the irony of it made him laugh. After all the grief Rose's mother had given him, he went and started running around the galaxy with his In-Laws.
The door to his room opened. "Hi. I brought you a present." She shrugged off her wrap, woven from translucent multicolored fabrics. "You can use it as a wall hanging too. I used it as a disguise once. Yesterday. Be careful who sees you with it."
He didn't even open his eyes. "We're in the Vortex. How did you even get on board?"
"Idris gave me the key to the back door, in a manner of speaking." River drawled.
"Idris?"
"Us girls gotta stick together." River said lightly. "She likes me more than you anyway. You push the doors open." She looked around. "The décor... I don't remember it like this. Well, I remember the hammock..."
"You would." The Doctor put in.
River didn't bother to respond. "...still fairly early days on your end then. Where are you?"
"After Lake Silencio." The Time Lord said.
"Oh good, then I can do this and not make your head explode." River was suddenly more like herself than ever as she calmly stretched out on top of him and put a soft kiss on his nose. He smiled a little and she slid over a little, curling up next to him. The hammock swayed under them. "So. We have our 'official' honeymoon yet?"
That made the Doctor open one eye. "If I said yes..."
"I wouldn't believe you." She teased. "You're just fishing for spoilers."
"Yes I am." The Doctor agreed shamelessly. "I sometimes try to picture you and me stretched out on a beach with nothing to do. The picture always ends with Daleks charging us from up out of the surf."
River grinned. "Our second anniversary." She whispered and planted another kiss, this one on his lips. It was a clear invitation for more, but he didn't respond as she expected, and she drew back a little to study him. "So, if we haven't left Stormcage for our honeymoon, and you just left the Lake, then your brain must be buzzing."
"Yeah." The Doctor didn't bother to seem surprised. She was part Time Lord, she must have responded to broken time the same way he did. "How long did your headache last?"
"Same as yours. Until eternity stopped and the clock moved forward another second." She raised herself up on an elbow. "Are we okay?"
The Doctor was silent a moment. "Yeah. Why wouldn't we be?"
"Well... It was a hell of a shotgun wedding." She admitted.
Silence. River turned her head to look up at him. She leaned in closer, putting her lips to his ear; and she whispered his name. His real name. The long version of it. The complete text. And then she turned over so that she could rest her folded arms on his chest and rest her chin on her arms, looking up at his face. "I love you." She said simply. "I know you love me. I'm just not sure if you're there yet. I never knew if... if that came before or after the wedding. Or the honeymoon. Or the..." She stopped herself. "Sorry. Spoilers."
"You don't want me to ask, quit teasing them." The Doctor told her. "But yeah. We're okay."
She smiled cheekily. "How okay?" She teased. "Because there's something else we haven't done yet too... Husband."
He was expecting her to pounce, but instead, she went running to the Control room.
25th June, 2010
The TARDIS landed, and The Doctor opened the door, amazed to find themselves on Amy Pond's front doorstep. It was dark, the House was empty, and he peeked over the fence as River calmly pulled out a Sonic Screwdriver to let them in. He could still see the imprint on the grass of where he'd landed the first time. "When are we?"
"The day you took my mom for a... 'last hurrah', before the wedding."
The Doctor almost made the joke, but managed to restrain himself. "I cannot believe we're doing this now." He murmured.
River smiled saucily and led them into the kitchen. "You get the fish fingers, I'll get the custard."
An amazing smile bloomed on his face. "How did you know?"
Getting the food ready took several minutes. In that time they chatted about meaningless things. After a while, River went upstairs, and came back down with Amy's Wedding Gown, holding it up over herself. "What do you think?"
The Doctor was studying the oven with disturbing intensity. "I think many things."
"Hey come on! Make a fuss about your bride!"
The Doctor looked. And then turned back to the oven. And then looked at her again, slightly longer. And then looked back at the oven. "You look... nice." He said finally.
River smiled, victorious. "And the penny drops."
"Go put that back. I have a history with that dress. The first thing Amy showed me was that dress when we got back. The conversation was... brief."
River chortled. "Yeah, she told me about that."
"She tells her own daughter that stuff? Jeez, now I know where you get it."
"She didn't know I was her daughter then. She was still making jokes about how you 'soniced me'." River joshed. "I'll go put this back. How long till they're ready?"
"Another two hundred forty seven seconds." The Doctor calculated.
The Doctor was waiting impatiently, and River was leaning against him, head on his shoulder, still telling stories about growing up as Mels. "When I was about sixteen, Amy told me to get a boyfriend. Rory was always following us around like a puppy, and he was the first guy she saw as we had the conversation. I of course, said no, and so did Rory because he was in love. Amy was convinced there was another reason. She thought he was gay till they were both nineteen."
The Doctor laughed. "Now, Fish Fingers are ready, how many do you want?"
"You sure you haven't taken them out too soon? We were talking, you might have been distracted..."
The Doctor spun around and got right in her face. "Are you telling me that I've lost track of Time?"
River chuckled and held up the measuring cup full of custard between them. "Try me."
The Doctor took one fish finger right off the tray, dipped it without breaking eye-contact with River, and took a bite. Their eyes stayed glued to each other for a whole half second before he turned and ran for a sink he could spit it into. "GAWEH! Yucky! Yucky!"
River tossed her frizzy hair back and forth, laughing as he spat several times, thrashing around like a five year old kid.
He straightened. "Ulgh. Never do that again. I was regenerating at the time. My tongue was still cooking. Must have thrown my taste-buds out before they settled again. Why didn't you warn me?" He said it with her, almost before she could. "Spoilers."
"There there." River teased him. "I'll make it up to you. I started a pot of Chul brewing before we landed..."
The Doctor wiped his mouth. "Chul?" He repeated. "You've been to Kinsgard?"
"Once."
"I thought that place-"
"Like I said, once." River beamed. "How long has it been since you've had a cup of hot Chul?"
"Brew it up, and give it to me now, or I'll be forced to hurt you." The Doctor said, most seriously.
"Never scared me before."
"Do you ever think about anything else?"
"Well if you're gonna keep pitching me softballs like that..." River drawled. "Clean this up. I'm going back to the TARDIS to conjure you up something like a real bed."
There are places in the galaxy where a properly prepared cup of Chul was worth half a planet. There were times where a Chul Brewing tournament was like the Olympics, and every contestant was under armed guard at all times, for fear of the book makers trying to kill off a favorite before the odds were called.
And then Kinsguard had been nibbled away to nothingness by the Rabid Kittens of the Tabula Hatchery, and there was no more Chul. Another victim of the War That Never Was. Nobody was quite sure how many people took their own lives in grief over the loss of that wonderful brew, but it must have been in the millions.
The Artisans of The Great Third Western Starscape had woven their sonnets to the drink in nebulae across the stars, and the sonnets sang of the perfectly made brew. It was said to be best enjoyed while lying prone on a bed stuffed with shark feathers, and resting your head on the thighs of your soul-mate, while they poured slow soft sips into your mouth from cup carved from the diamonds formed in the Massive Asteroids of the Galactic Core.
River had apparently read that one too.
By the time he made it back to his room, she was ready for him; sitting against the headboard a a bed big enough for eleven people, with the pot beside her on a small zero-gravity burner, keeping it warm. She had changed into her full Cleopatra outfit, minus the wig and make-up.
He was about to make a cunning remark, when the scent of the Chul hit him like a teasing ghost from an ancient past that should never have ended, and he couldn't help himself. "You and that stuff put together should be illegal." He breathed.
"It is." River smiled cheekily as he lay back on the bed, resting in her lap. "The Shadow Proclamation has a small footnote written in Ancient Tennan, saying that I'm not allowed back in that system till their local star explodes. I've thought about speeding that process up so I can go back for another bagful, but I know how cross you can get." She poured a small cupful, barely an ounce. The cup glittered like a diamond. "Lean back sweetie."
He did so, and she brought the cup to his lips with one hand. A large droplet fell into his mouth from her sure touch. It was not unlike suddenly becoming weightless. Her scent and that of the drink merged till he was feeling nothing but peace.
Another droplet, and The Doctor could feel a millennium of stresses float away as she stroked his hair.
"Kovarian came back to see me you know." River murmured, and the sound of her voice was like a warm shaft of sunlight coming out of a slow lazy darkness, wrapping itself around him till he didn't need his ears to listen. "She remembered the alternate timeline. My first day in Stormcage, she was waiting outside my cell. She was crowing. I went and fell in love with you, and as far as she knows, she still got her way. You even begged for it to happen. I should win an award for the tears I shed for her. That night, the TARDIS appeared in the middle of my cell, and we went swimming in the Venosian Solar Flares. It was the best night of my life." Another droplet. "Well... till the next time."
Another droplet, this one passed from her lips to his. This kiss was not an invitation, it was the deceleration of an approaching fact on the timeline, and he couldn't think of a reason to try and change it.
The Chul had cooled significantly by the time they got back to it. It only had its potency while hot, but still tasted good served chilled. They rested for a while, sipping their drinks; feeling pleasantly smashed.
"I know I've said before, but your room... It's a bit spartan." She said, as he served her a droplet.
"Needs a woman's touch?" The Doctor quipped back. "I never put any effort into it. I don't really sleep."
"Nightmares?" She guessed.
"Yeah."
"Me too. Guess we needed to wear each other out enough to actually sleep."
"Well, before you came along I was doing fine hitting myself over the head with a frypan thank you, and when did you call my room Spartan anyway?"
"Spoilers."
"Believe me River, after the last hour or two, there ain't nothing you can say that'll take me by surprise anymore." He flirted and she laughed.
For a time, they were silent, sipping the invaluable elixir.
"I remember my first time with you." River murmured warmly. "You knew everything I liked. Things I didn't even know. You knew me. After the honeymoon, you were so shy suddenly. Took me a while to figure out why you weren't as sure."
"Disappointed?"
"Never. Either I surprise you, or you surprise me. Either way, it's so... us." River hummed. "You're an impossible act to follow, even for you."
"For either of us." The Doctor countered. "There's nobody for either of us. Not after each other."
She let out another purr and tilted back flexibly to kiss his chin. "That's nice of you to say sweetie, but 'after' is such a very long time. We're time travelers, my love. We of all people know just how long forever can last. I have one life to live. You have as many as you need."
Beat.
"No." The Doctor responded. "Forever isn't nearly long enough."
"What do you mean?"
"There are ways..." The Doctor said, almost to himself. "Nothing lasts forever. Nobody knows that better than an eternal, or a time traveler. But nothing gets destroyed. Only changed. Change... can be changed again. Changed back. There are ways."
She was studying him, almost pouting a little. "You're far away again." She whispered. "You get that way. I don't know if it's me, or someone else, or Rose, or Jenny, or your family back on Gallifrey, or anything, but even after all these years I've never been game to ask."
The Library came back to him then, hit him like a wave. He was silent a moment, remembering how Ten had treated her, reacted to her, while even now he stroked the long curls under his fingers...
...before catching her up in a desperate kiss.
"Well! Hel-lo." She responded as they broke for air. "Where did that come from?"
"River, there's nobody for me after you. How could there be? Our lives don't happen in the right order." He spelled it out to her. "And we can't tell each other what the other pieces to the puzzle there are, how they fit together, or even how many pieces there are. If you... If I lost you tomorrow, you could still show up the next day, or six months later, or a thousand years and two regenerations from now. How could there be anyone after you, if I'll never know when you're gone?"
River was stunned, as though it had never occurred to her. "My god... and neither of us could tell when it was the last time we meet, because neither of us can tell the other. If I died tomorrow, you couldn't tell me."
"Or if I do." The Doctor said quickly. "Regeneration isn't a magic wand. You killed me for keeps once, and you're the only reason I lived through it. You couldn't tell me about Lake Silencio. Who knows, maybe you're really The Last of the Time Lords, and I just don't know it yet. I told you that I'll let them think me dead. And I will. If they see me again, they'll just think it's an earlier version of me. One that came before my 'death'."
Long beat.
"And what you are to the galaxy... I am to you." River whispered.
"Or you are to me." The Doctor lied to her gently, giving her a soft smile. "I can show up another billion times before that trick stops working, and the galaxy will still sleep better, knowing I am only mortal."
River kissed him again, this one passionate, trying to make it worthy of forever. "I didn't do you any favors, did I?"
The Doctor gave her one of those looks. A man who could do the things he could do, who had seen the things he had seen, who could make children giggle with a smile one minute, and make stars go cold with a glare the next, and he reserved this look just for her. One that made him look ancient and sad and lonely and full of love and wonder, and clinging to gratitude above all the emotions spinning through him.
"River..." He said finally. "You have no idea."
She almost looked guilty for a moment. "If I had just... let it happen, time wouldn't have fractured, and you never would have married me... never would have shown me... Like I said, I never knew when you felt the way I did."
"'Never' is even longer than 'after', River Song, you naughty thing you." He taunted warmly. "Time can be rewritten. Most of it anyway. And if in the future, you ever wonder exactly when it happened, it was tonight."
They got up then. As much as they wanted to stay where they were, there were things to do and places to be.
"I have to go." She said finally. "I got offered a job, and if I don't start organizing it soon I'll forget."
The Doctor froze. "You get jobs?"
"I got one for the Byzantium wreck. I got another for... well, you'll see. I got one this week. The Felman Lux Corporation wanted me to put an expedition together. He hasn't told me where yet. He says it's beyond illegal to go wherever it is, and that's why he came to me. He's crazy obsessed about going himself, and keeping it secret, and he's not the type of guy who risks himself; I can't help it, I was intrigued. Who knows, maybe I'll see you there anyway." She pulled her boots on and looked back at him. "You look sad now. Why?"
The Doctor swallowed his first reaction. "Well, you know how I hate to see you leave. But if you were already out of Prison and about to go off on an adventure, why'd you come now?"
"Because I knew we'd have the TARDIS to ourselves for a night." She smiled cheekily. "Wanted to see you before I left. You surprise me often enough, I figured it wouldn't hurt to return the favor once or twice. Plus, I got you a wedding present." She reached over beside the bed. "For you, my love."
It was a weed. About half an inch tall, in a small pot. The Doctor was delighted. "A Chul plant!"
"Last one in this galaxy. Figured you'd be able to take better care of it here than I could in Prison."
"A Chul plant takes over a century to produce enough teeth for a brew." The Doctor took the pot tenderly.
"Well, neither of us are going anywhere." River smiled warmly. "I promise you that, my love."
"Hm. Here. Take this with you." The Doctor reached over the edge of the bed and collected his jacket, giving her a sonic screwdriver.
"What for?"
"Why not?"
She studied it. It was shorter than his, and marbled, with a circular finger trigger/grip on one side. "That's not yours."
"It was. I have a bunch of them, I started playing around with the older versions a while back, added a few settings. Consider it my own wedding present."
"Cheeky." River chuckled. "The Wedding was a long time ago for me."
"A long time ago?" The Doctor waved that off. "That's no time at all."
April 22nd, 2011
The Stormcage Containment Facility was meant to be unbreakable. There was no privacy, no hiding places. It's main security was simplicity. There were no clever blind spots, no air vents, no high-tech equipment to unlock the doors. Just a large open corridor with nowhere to hide, and one wall of your cell was solid bars. Too simple to outsmart.
Taken straight from Lake Silencio by the Teselecta, River was marched, guarded by fourteen guards, to her cell. The Humanoid Machine was not the same one that had fooled them at the lake, but it was the same crew. It was posing as one of the guards, making sure she went into her cell
"Melody Pond AKA Doctor River Song." The 'Guard' said as the other guards confirmed the doors were locked, and made their way down the hall. "You will remain here for the term of your natural life." 'He' peeked over his shoulder to make sure the other guards were now out of earshot. "Doctor, you understand what this means, don't you? For this Deception to work, and the Doctor to remain dead, you will have to do the time."
River nodded, not at all concerned. "Some of it anyway."
"All of it, I'm afraid. Your sentence does not offer the possibility for reprieve or parole."
"That's not what I mean." River chuckled.
"We've done what we can to make it comfortable." The Teselecta said. "You'll be allowed phone calls, visitors, furnishings, mail... We've arranged to have a number of the less neighborly members of the prison to be relocated to cells further away. Is there anything else?"
River grinned naughtily. "Can I choose my own guards? And get a few glamor shots to help me choose?"
"No." The Captain told her firmly, and turned to go.
"Oh Captain, my captain." River called after him. "There's a visible two second power drop on cycle rhythm on the western Airlock, there's a noticeable wear on the fifth and seventh keypad buttons showing which ones have been pressed the most often, there's a blind spot between the gun locker and the Medium Security Wing; and there's at least twelve other ways out of here that I saw on my way in. Plug your leaks, would you? There could be dangerous people in here."
The Teselecta frowned at her darkly. "Thank. You." The Captain said bitingly.
River grinned. She had lied to him. There were only seven ways other ways out. She wondered how nuts they would make themselves trying to find five more ways that didn't exist. She looked around her cell and found four more ways out.
"So, this is where they put you."
River felt a cold hand close around her stomach. Madam Kovarian was standing outside her cell. River went to the bars and flashed a hand out. Kovarian was standing about half an inch beyond her reach.
"Temper temper, Child." Kovarian told her cruelly. "Too much of your mother in you."
River snarled. "Why are you here?" She demanded. "Got another good man for me to kill?"
"No. I just wanted to tell you... how grateful I was. And how lucky you are."
River grit her teeth. He's alive. She told herself. He's alive, and she doesn't know that. He's alive. "Lucky?" She growled.
"How many thousands of billions fell under his wrath? The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontaran, about a thousand others, to say nothing of his own entire race. You not only survived, you won. The Daleks want to throw you a parade."
River lunged again. Kovarian hadn't gotten that magic half inch closer yet. "Bitch!" River snarled.
Kovarian laughed. "I was worried for a while there. You fell in love with him. I never, in a million years would have thought of that. But as it happens, it was the only way. A billion empires couldn't break him, but the love of a woman tore him down. You killed him with that love Melody Pond."
He's alive. River told herself desperately, feeling tears form in her eyes despite herself. He's alive. She doesn't know.
"If we put anyone else in that suit, he would have fought back. But it was you, so he didn't fight back. Because it was you, he delivered himself on a platter, and he begged you to do it."
The tears came then. River sniffed and sank down to the floor. The woman was laughing, almost dancing in place.
Kovarian leaned closer, tauntingly. "It. Was. Too. Good. The Last of the Time Lords, the Destroyer of Worlds, killed with love; and begging for it."
Close enough. River lunged out of her crouch, her hand flashing through the bars to grab Kovarian by the collar, hauling her into the bars for a massive slam to the face. And then another. River released her. "I'll kill you one day. I promise you that! I will send you to hell for making me a killer!"
Kovarian struggled to her feet, gasping for air, one hand over the eye-drive immediately. "Make no mistake Melody. You're a spent shell. A bullet that's already hit the mark. The Doctor is dead. Hate me all you want, but it's over." The relief on her face was obvious. In fact, for a moment, Kovarian almost sobbed with the sheer relief of it. "At long last, it's over. In the final analysis, I won."
Kovarian left her then. The sound of her cackling came down the length of the hallway, echoing off the stone walls.
River wiped her face. "God." She hissed to herself. "Maybe I should try and get myself taken off the 'visitor approved' list."
With that, she turned and took her first good look around the cell. It was three times the length of a regular cell. Long enough to take her own life by charging head-first into the stone walls if she wanted to. This part of the Prison was for those labelled 'End Of The Line'. If the prisoners died in here, nobody would care. in fact, it was a given that they would. Everyone in these cells was here until they died, and nobody much cared how long, or short that would take.
She looked around the cell. Three walls, fairly bare...
She lay back on the bed and sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Ooh, eight ways." She smiled, and closed her eyes. She hadn't really slept since Lake Silencio.
She woke up sharply at the familiar sound. The TARDIS was appearing, with the typical majestic lights and sound.
She sat up, thrilled. There in her cell, facing her, was the TARDIS. The door opened, and he poked his face out. "Oh good! I appeared in three other cells before this one. One of them recognized me and flipped right out of his heads. I think I started a riot downstairs." He looked around. "So, this is your room huh? A little Spartan, isn't it?"
"Well, give me some time." River flirted back. "Good to see you."
"Having any trouble with the other prisoners?"
"There was one guy at admissions. He suggested a few things we could do in solitary, but I already had a canasta partner." She teased. "I told him to try it, and I'd set him on fire."
"Ohh, never be specific in your warnings. It's like telegraphing your punches. It gives them a chance to see what you'll do, and avoid it."
River agreed. "How would I roast the marshmallows then?"
"Wait! I brought you a Cell-Warming present!" The Doctor retreated into the TARDIS, and brought out a wrap, woven from translucent multicolored fabrics. "Use it as a wall hanging. Might be useful as a disguise one day too."
River took it and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Nice. Just my style too." She posed for a moment. "Wedding present?" She teased.
"In a manner of speaking. As it happens, I've got some Chul teeth, just ripe enough for a brew, and you know what they say about the best way to enjoy fresh brewed Chul."
River blinked. "Okay..."
The Doctor suddenly gave her his most intimidating 'The-Time-Lord-Is-Talking' glare. "You mean to imply you've never had hot Chul?"
"Now why would I imply that, when I could just say it outright?" River quipped. "Never heard of the stuff."
"Well then, step right this way." The Doctor invited. "I'll brew you some, and then I know this great place to take a swim. Interested?"
River grinned and nearly went running into the TARDIS, and his waiting arms.
AN: The Doctor has an interesting problem with his love interest. She died the day they met, and then he went and fell in love with her. If she left for the library in the season premiere, she could still star in a thousand episodes, across a dozen regenerations. She'll never out of his life truly, because she might be in the next episode. A tragic, inescapable, wonderful, bittersweet romance that could only happen on Doctor Who.
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