Thanks for all of the favs/reviews!
Sadly, Moffat still hasn't given me the rights to Doctor Who, though it is worth mentioning I've lifted a good amount of his dialogue for this story.
Chapter 2: Hide the Damage
Life is like the River, sometimes it sweeps you gently along and sometimes the rapids come out of nowhere. - Emma Smith
She can hear the phone's steady pulse echoing in the Library but her mind is lightyears away. Years ago when she and the Doctor and Amy and Rory had been in an abandoned warehouse on an all-too-familiar street corner in Florida she'd shared her fear with the one man every little girl turns to when she's scared of the unknown. Not that Rory had known he was her dad just then any more than he knew she was Mels Zucker, but it had been good to get it off her chest all the same.
Amidst all the lies she'd been forced to tell during that trip she'd allowed herself that small concession of truth just as she now allowed herself a few seconds to regain her composure while the Doctor contemplated where the ringing was coming from. Not much had changed since 1969. She still lived for the days when she saw him; lived in fear of the day he wouldn't have the faintest idea who she was. And now that day had come.
The blank look in his eyes and the hollow pit in her stomach were worse than she'd imagined, in one way, yet there was hardly any time for her to properly process if this was as bad as she'd feared because of whatever was going on in the Library in the present. Indeed she found her legs moving of their own volition as they all gathered around the screen the Doctor was fiddling with.
A ripple of surprise ran through the group when a little girl appeared on the other end. River schooled her features, but couldn't help a quick peek around the Doctor's head to get a good look. The girl looked slightly frightened and almost as confused as the Doctor sounded, but she was polite enough, asking if they wanted to speak to her dad. Then in a flash of recognition the girl identified the Doctor as being the one she'd seen in "her" Library.
This piqued River's interest, driving her own issues back. For as much as he'd given them, River knew Lux was keeping something important back, though she hadn't worked out what it was or why it was such a huge secret. Lux Corp had been the ones to contact her nearly a year ago with the news that their techs were close to breaking the seals that had closed the planet a century ago, along with an invitation to put together a team to explore it. Lux himself had decided archaeologists were the ones best suited to unearth the mystery surrounding what had happened here and while it was no dig in Cairo, River had jumped at the opportunity.
"What happened? Who was that?" she asked when the little girl vanished as quickly as she disappeared.
The Doctor was pounding at the keyboard to no avail, however, and soon took off to try the terminal at the back of the room.
That was enough to spur her to action too, "You heard him people, let there be light!"
She might have begun coordinating the effort but it occurred to her that would mean leaving the Doctor alone in the corner with her diary enticing him. Sure enough his eyes were darting back and forth between it and the screen. Her warning glare as she gained the corner wasn't enough to tame his curiosity and while she could understand what drew him to take hold of it, she couldn't allow him to continue either.
"Sorry," and she really was, though her voice came out waspish through her own garbled emotions. "You're not allowed to see inside the book, it's against the rules."
His gaze was quizzical, "Rules? What rules?"
"Your rules," was her reply, leaving it at that because one day he'd have to write the rules himself and she didn't want to change history.
His eyes followed her as she left but his rules were what occupied her thoughts as she stowed her diary and went to help with the lighting situation. "Don't wander off" might have been at the top of the list for his companions but he'd rewritten Rule One for her – for his wife. He hadn't told her that she would have to lie to him one day as well but she'd picked that up quick once the balance of knowledge began shifting in her direction. She'd even taken to using his word.
Spoilers.
Her diary was one big spoiler and she made a mental note not to leave it laying about again during this trip. For now she'd stick to Rule 7: "Never run when you're scared." She wasn't scared, like the Doctor, about what was going on in the Library, but she was frightened that she was now on the very first page of their adventures. One false move on her part could change the trajectory of their relationship. One wrong step and their stolen moments of time would be rewritten. He'd been very clear about the rules of the diary on her first night out of Stormcage and she would guard its secrets to the end.
She and Other Dave were hunched over the mess of cables connecting the growing circle of lights when books began flying off the shelves, pelting them from several directions. Poorly aimed, it felt as if whoever and wherever the little girl was, she was having a tantrum.
The Doctor and Proper Dave were yelling back and forth, Miss Evangelista was whimpering and the rest were dodging books while they went about their tasks. Out of the corner of her eye, River saw the Doctor's companion approach the nervous girl and attempt to calm her. Of anyone on the expedition she was the least-equipped to handle any type of emergency and had been the butt of more than a few jokes at the team's expense during the four-day flight out.
River herself hadn't joined in and she'd made sure to corral her students when Lux or Miss Evangelista had been around, but she hadn't stopped them, either. On her way from fetching her helmet and bag, River caught snatches of the conversation and was thankful toward the other woman for trying to lighten the mood.
"What's causing that?" River asked the Doctor when the books flew at them a second time. "Is it the little girl?"
"But who is the little girl?" came the response, more to himself than to her. "What's she got to do with this place?"
A minute later he abandoned the terminal and perched on countertop, addressing her directly for the first time since the diary talk, "How does the data core work? What's the principle? What's CAL?"
She redirected him, "Ask Mr. Lux." Because if there was ever anyone who could get answers from that man it would be the Doctor.
When Lux chose to mount his high horse instead of giving a straight answer River allowed herself a private smile. No matter what face he wore, her husband never liked getting the run around and the look on his face told her he held about as much respect for Lux as she did. Good thing the two men hadn't spent four linear days in space together.
"Then why don't you sign his contract?" she threw in her two cents when the tension grew thick enough to cut with a knife. She paused to let the thought soak in, enjoying his saucer-shaped eyes goggling at her like she'd grown a third nostril, then threw him a saucy grin, "I didn't either. I'm getting worse than you."
Neither Lux nor the Doctor knew what to do with that and there was the sort of perverse pleasure she got when pulling one over on a younger him, before he shook it off and began pacing.
Have all of his regenerations paced? she wondered silently, her eyes following him as he thought aloud, though she made sure to shoot Lux a look that said he'd best stop lying.
"There was a message from the Library," hands resting confidently on her hips River fielded his questions, filling him in on what little she knew. "Just one. 'The lights are going out.' Then the computer sealed the planet, and there was nothing for a hundred years."
"It's taken three generations of my family just to decode the seals and get back in," Lux added.
For a moment no one spoke but when Miss Evangelista broke the silence, no one turned to look and Lux shut her down with an irritated snap.
"There was one last thing in the last message," River volunteered, meeting nobody's eyes and digging for her PDA in the knapsack.
Lux wasn't pleased but she knew he wouldn't be and wasn't shocked when he blurted out, "That's confidential!"
"I trust this man," River insisted, wondering how many times she'd repeated that sentiment. "With my life," that bit was for Lux but the next was for the man standing beside her, "With everything."
"But you've only just met him," if Lux had been a toddler he'd be stamping his feet by now, but River could have cared less.
"No," she corrected, barely sparing him a glance as she concentrated on not losing control of her emotions as she admitted, "he's only just met me."
However unnerved that might have made him, she felt more than saw the Doctor enter her personal space as she finished pulling up the file and the familiarity of his nearness was comforting.
"This is a data extract that came with the message," she held the screen between them.
He read it aloud, "4022 saved. No survivors."
When he did didn't reward her intel with a smile her heart fractured ever so slightly, but she kept her voice measured as she spelled out the meaning for him, "4022, that's the exact number of people who were in the Library when the planet was sealed."
"But how can 4022 people be saved if there are no survivors?" puzzled the Doctor's companion from the other side of him.
River gave Lux her best passive aggressive stare, letting only a hint of it out in her reply, "That's what we're here to find out."
"And so far what we haven't found are any bodies," came Lux's reply.
He sounded disappointed by that fact.
The piercing scream severed whatever might have been asked next and River's hearts sank as she realized it could only belong to one person. Scooping up his torch, the Doctor shot out of the room and the others ran to keep up with him, exiting through a door River didn't remember seeing before.
This must have been what Miss Evangelista was trying to tell them all about and they'd shoved her aside as they'd done the entire trip. True, the girl wasn't anything close to clever, but she had been a part of the team and River was not looking forward to whatever awaited them in the next room.
None of them – except perhaps the Doctor – expected to find a skeleton in an empty room where the young personal assistant should have been. River had gotten her first clue as to the skeleton's identity when her voice echoed over the com throughout the room. The sinking feeling had only grown worse when she reached out to turn the com-collar forward.
"It's her," she breathed, not wanting to believe what her eyes were telling her. "It's Miss Evangelista."
"We heard her scream a few seconds ago," Anita sounded puzzled. "What could do that to a person in a few seconds?"
From her right River heard the Doctor mutter, "It took a lot less than a few seconds."
"What did?" Anita was still lost.
"Hello?"
As the high, nasal voice floated up, River noticed the three green bars still glowing on the collar.
"Um, I'm sorry everyone, um, this isn't going to be pleasant," her voice held a grim note. "She's ghosting."
"She's what?" the Doctor's companion inquired while the rest braced themselves.
Miss Evangelista spoke again, calling out to be heard and River felt sorry as the truth dawned on the Doctor's companion. She had no such compassion for Proper Dave, a man from the 51st century who should be well-versed enough in the technology to handle the truth and afford the dying woman her dignity. She reproved him accordingly.
"But that's Miss Evangelista," the ginger woman repeated in a wavering voice.
"It's a Data Ghost," River explained before another member of her team could say something ignorant, "she'll be gone in a moment." She spoke into the com, attempting to find the right words. The right lies. "Miss Evangelista, you're fine, just relax. We'll be with you presently."
She kept her eyes trained on what remained of Miss Evangelista, though she was listening to the Doctor as he further explained Data Ghosts to his companion. Anita offered up her own story, trying to further soften the blow but it didn't do much.
"She's in there!" the now-horrified woman gasped even as the younger woman asked where she was and a green bar faded.
"She's just brain waves now," Proper Dave tried to explain. "The pattern won't hold for long."
But she did hold for a bit longer. Long enough to call for the only friendly person she'd met in her journey. River could do no more than stand and keep the com-line open for the Doctor's companion to walk with the younger woman as the tide rolled in. It wasn't easy for any of them to listen to, especially when Miss Evangelista's last full thought was a worry that the others would find one final laugh at her expense.
"She's looping now, the pattern's degrading." And so it was. And it only got worse as the seconds dragged on. "Does anyone mind if I...?" she let the question dangle as the ghosting process continued to deteriorate and when no one objected she stepped forward and quietly clicked the neural relay off.
"That was..." the Doctor's companion struggled for words, "that was horrible. That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen."
"No," River spoke softly with a wisdom culled from hundreds of years' travel through time and space. "It's just a freak of technology." She pocketed the relay, looking about the room once more, "But whatever did this to her. Whatever killed her -" she shone her torch through the darkness, resolve strengthening. "I'd like a word with that."
The Doctor's voice sounded behind her, as grimly determined as hers, "I'll introduce you."