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Part 1: Borrowed Vortex ManipulatorThe Doctor was walking around control room, thinking where he should go, when he noticed River's Vortex Manipulator lying on console.
It reminded him of the last time, when he met her. He took it, observing, thinking about her.
River. River Song. Melody Zucker. Melody Pond. From little baby to girl, from girl to baby. A baby who grew up with her parents, who don't even know. She has grown up to be a young lady. Then she went to Berlin with him and became the/a woman with these amazing blond curly locks. He loved them, her hair was so soft, warm, he wanted to bury his face in it.
He had last met her on Christmas, she had lent him her Vortex manipulator and he had forgotten to give it back to her. He was thinking about it, how they were running from that king and his red robot buddy. Yea, that was fun.
The Doctor piloted the TARDIS with a smile on his face to River's apartment. Time machine landed with a hum. He walked out, looked around. He was in his wife's bedroom. It was nice, TARDIS blue carpet, king-sized bed with silk blanket, a wardrobe in the corner and bedside tables on each side of bed. He knew this place, he loved this place.
The Doctor walked through the door to the living room. It was beautiful, River had a good sense for decorations, however she wasn't there. She should have been home by now... For a moment the Doctor was afraid, that something might has happened to her...
After walking around the empty apartment, he finally found a yellow stick-note from River.
Come and meet me in Pompeii.
Coordinates are saved in mine Vortex manipulator.
x
"Oh River..." he chuckled and found the coordinates in her Vortex manipulator. He pressed buttons and travelled the cheap way to Pompeii, 79 A. D.
He appeared on a crowded market place. The Doctor walked to some seller and asked him:
"Hello, excuse me, what date is it today?"
"24th of July."
"Year?"
"79? Are you mad?" The seller said to the Doctor, who frowned and then turned around. He stopped. River...He saw those golden curls around her beautiful face. She was chuckling, walking through the crowd of people. He smiled, staring at her. She was like a dream, he couldn't see anything else than her. When suddenly some familiar man stopped in his view. He had brown hair, typical antic clothes, just as River had. She was walking hand-in-hand with this man. When they came close, he noticed, that the man is his old friend...Harkness.
Eyes on him(?), she came and looked at some goods, which were in the stall next to him. She almost bumped into him.
"Oh sorry, mister" she said with a glance at the Doctor. He was smiling wide.
"It's alright, River" he said.
"How do you know my name? Who are you?" His smile suddenly faded away. This River didn't know him yet, but how? She had left him a note in her apartment, where she lived after he had borrowed her Vortex manipulator. She was teaching at the university, knew him, knew this incarnation, met this incarnation, gave him coordinates to it.
Hold on- She gave him coordinates to a place where she hasn't been yet, where she didn't know, she will go, or did she? Nah...
This had to be a younger River, even before she lent him this Vortex manipulator, so the older River knew, where he was going, that he will need her Vortex manipulator with coordinates and a sticky note... So where was the older River? Didn't matter now, he would find out when he gets back. She didn't call him here for no reason...
"Just a lucky guess, doesn't matter. And I think that you are..." he watched Jack, trying to look like he was reading minds. "...John- wait no, Jack. Yes, you are Jack"
"What?! How did you do that? Are you one of those..." whispers: "creepy and crazy…" than talking loud again: "seers?"
"No, no, I'm not. Have you got some house or place around here?" he asked.
"What?! We have but why would we take some strange old man there?" River asked. It hurt the Doctor but he didn't let it show, he needed some good place for it, so he just unsuspiciously showed them the Vortex manipulator. They smiled at each other, nodded at the Doctor and led the way. He followed behind.
They walked down the street and finally arrived by a huge house. The Doctor looked around the main room. There was a pond with water in the middle, few statues, many plants and some doors and a fireplace. He knew these fireplaces.
He gets a flashback to what happened to him before many thousand years, for Pompeii after one month. These fireplaces where everywhere and seers could see the future because of inhaling gas from it, however they were becoming stones every time they did that.
"What happened here?" asked the Doctor.
"We live here... there isn't anything wrong." said River.
"Who are you? Where did you get that? Are you a time agent?" asked Jack and wrapped his arm around River's waist.
"Um..." the Doctor was thinking for a moment how should he answer, then said: "Yes, I am. You too? You seem to know what this thing is, so you can't be from this time and place. But you look like it. You have clothes from here, you live in normal house here. Who are you?"
"Doctor River Song" she said and held a hand out for the Doctor. He shook it with a smile on his face.
"Captain Jack Harkness." The Doctor shook his hand.
"Well, I am... I am Doctor... doctor John Sss.. I'm doctor John Simm. What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Well, there is a great full-equipped Torian ship. There isn't much time till it will get destroyed by explosion in three hours."
"I'm sorry... But you got the wrong date. The explosion is after one month."
"What?! Oh... River... I'm sorry, I wanted to show you how to get money and... I kinda missed the date..." he said to River, than to the Doctor: "Sorry... I have no ship. It's just a prank."
"Oh Jack... Show me that ship, I would never have bought it anyway..."
"What?! Why?!" said Jack.
"Can I see it?" asked the Doctor.
"Are you a time agent?" asked Jack.
"No, I'm not. I have this thing from- from- from my wife." said Doctor, glancing at River.
"Oh... Fine... Just don't say this to anyone." said Jack and led them out of the house and towards the ship.
It was a metal sphere-looking ship. It had dirty glass window through which nothing much could be seen. The Doctor walked around and started sonicing it. Then he opened the door with his screwdriver. He poked inside. There was absolutely nothing, just an empty shell, but he smelled something weird. He walked inside, looked around, nothing. It was just his feeling. He came back outside.
"Jack! You should never sell things like this. Last time when you did-" the Doctor didn't finish the sentence because suddenly, he passed out.