Nope. Still don't own anything that you recognize from outside this work of FanFiction. Although if I did have a successful TV show of my own, I would probably write at least one FF just so that in my disclaimer it could say: "I DO own this." Enjoy!
The inside of the TARDIS was better than I could have possibly imagined; it was huge (and I mean HUGE) and beautiful. I must have gasped, because the Doctor smirked and asked:
"Do you like my ship? She's called the TARDIS. Anything you want to say?"
I nodded and suddenly remember Dad going on and on about how his favorite part about showing anyone the TARDIS (back when and the Doctor standing in front of me were one and the same, of course) was that they always made one comment. But I couldn't for the life of me remember what that comment was. After a few painful, silent seconds, I squeaked out what I hoped the Doctor had been waiting to hear: "The inside. Its', er, different from the other part. This part. It's um.. it… has a different volume."
"I think she means 'It's bigger on the inside,'" Amy laughed as she assumed what must have been her usual place next to some big doohickeys on the consol.
As I (dramatically) spun around in circles to take in my surroundings, I was suddenly taken with a selfish urge to find one room in particular. "I have to go to the loo," I lied, "you do have a loo right? Somewhere hidden in this huge blue box?" I felt bad about how easy the lies were coming to me now.
"Oh yes, its…. Um… Amy do you remember where the bathroom is?" the Doctor scratched his head. A part of me worried about the fact that he had lost his own loo.
Amy nodded and pointed down the nearest hallway. "If you get lost, just stroke the wall and whisper, 'Oh dearest TARDIS, where oh where did you put the bathroom?' It works for the Doctor every time," Amy joked.
"I heard that!" the Doctor called and Amy just chuckled in response.
I began down the pathway until I was out of sight. "Oh dearest TARDIS (wow this felt awkward), can you please show me Mum's old room," I whispered. When there was no response I reached out my arm and stroked the wall, part of me wondering if this was some sort of joke Amy was playing on me to make me look stupid.
The wall shuddered at my touch and white lights illuminated a winding pathway. I walked down the sinuous hallway and finally arrived at a door marked with a single red rose. I half expected it to be locked, but the handle gave when I tugged at it. I slipped inside.
The walls were pink and the air was fresh. The bed was neatly made and covered with a soft, flowery print. Taped to the side of the mirror were two pictures. The first was a much younger version of Mum next to an older man wearing leather. The second more closely resembled the two people I had grown up with. The man, my dad, had spiky hair (although in this picture it didn't have a speck of the gray that streaks through his hair now) and a pinstriped suit. He was every bit as lanky as he is now and that stupid smile he always uses was plastered across his face. Mum looked so young (yet still older than me, I bitterly noted) and her bleach blonde hair (much healthier now that she uses this world's hair color shampoo) fell messily around her face. The style in 2006 was disgusting, I laughed to myself. Staring at the two people I knew so well but who, in this picture, knew nothing of my existence, reminded me of my odd little family. I suddenly remembered something else, possibly of more importance than anything else: we had to leave my garden before Mum, Dad and Donna got home.
I'm not proud of what I did next, but I did what I had to do to get what I had wanted for my whole life. I raced back to the consol room and, as Amy began cracking a joke about what was taking me so long to do my business, I shouted, "You guys I just remembered! We have to leave now! The TARDIS is parked right on top of an underground tunnel dug by, uh, squirrels (give me a break, I was improvising) and if we stay on top of it too long it was cause a huge sink hole that will damage the water pipe supplying water to all the houses in the neighborhood.
Amy glanced at Rory, who was staring at me like I was nuts (I probably am). The Doctor, however, seemed to take my word for it, because he made a motion to start the machine. It sputtered and shuddered (hey that rhymed!) but, within moments, the familiar wheezing began and the TARDIS began to move.
When it stopped, the Doctor announced, "I was only able to move it across town, because the TARDIS seems to be acting funny, but hopefully that solves your squirrel problem."
I stupidly grinned and thanked him for being so kind.
"Okay, so what's the real reason you wanted us to move it?" Rory questioned, raising his left eyebrow like my dad does when he gets excited.
The Doctor glanced at Rory and murmured, "I was going to let her get to that in her own time."
"No it's okay," I nervously responded, "I was just worried, you know, that people would see the TARDIS and wonder what it was." People meaning my sister Donna of course, I left unspoken. I couldn't shake the feeling of certainty that I had that if the Doctor ever met my sister, the DoctorDonna would be once more and poor, stupid Reinette would get thrown to the dogs again. (Yes, I have heard the story of Madame De Pompadour- I know the Doctor left her behind to die alone.)
"Well no one should see us here," the Doctor smiled and I could tell he believed this lie. It's not a lie, I kept reminding myself, It's just a severe case of withholding the truth.
"So, River," Amy emphasized the name like she still couldn't believe it belonged to me (probably because it didn't), "will you be staying with us for a little while?"
"Yes, she will," the Doctor answered for me, "If she wants to, that is." All three faces turned to look at me.
My eyes grew wide and I vigorously nodded my head.
"Okay then, it's settled," the Doctor announced, "River Song, it's nice to meet you for the first time. Tell me, if you had all of time and space to choose, where would you like to go first?"
I pondered this for a moment, before smiling and recalling the name of the one place Dad had never actually taken Mum. "Barcelona."
"I could go for Spain. But only if we're going in the summer," Amy warned, as if she was accustomed to the Doctor promising her one thing and giving her a (much colder) other place to go.
"Actually, I, uh," I looked down and shuffled my feet, "I meant the planet. Barcelona the planet."
"How did you know there is a planet called Barcelona?" the Doctor moved his face inches away from mine.
"I was on the way to the loo and I accidentally walked into the library and there was this book and it said 'Barcelona' so I picked it up and um…" I trailed off, subconsciously slapping myself for thinking I could get away with lying so much.
He stared into my eyes for a moment and I held his gaze, remembering the first step of the only Torchwood training I had ever received: if someone refuses to hold eye contact with you, they're probably lying. "Okay then, cool. Barcelona it is. Geronimo!"
DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW
When the TARDIS touched down I was first to the door, ready to spring outside and explore this brand new place. Scratch that. This brand new planet.
"And where do you think you're going?" Amy jumped in front of me before I could tug it open. "How old are you again? Twelve?"
"Fifteen," I mumbled as I took a few steps back toward the center of the consol room.
"Now you're new so of course you don't know, but the Doctor has a nasty habit of landing in the wrong place. At the wrong time. Sometimes he's twelve years later than he planned (at this she shot a nasty look at the Doctor, but I had no idea what she was referring to). So my general rule as of right now is to wait at least thirty seconds for the world to explode before barreling outside."
I glanced at Rory, who was smiling. Something told me he had asked her to say something in regards to this.
"Don't be ridiculous Pond," the Doctor countered as he waltzed over. He flung the door open. "Look, Barcelona. 2250. No explosions. Happy?"
I pushed past Amy and stepped onto the orange grass. Behind me I could hear Amy telling the Doctor to shut up, but I tried to ignore them and looked up at the yellow sky. Other than the inside of the TARDIS, it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I reached down to pick a blade of the grass and ran the orange sliver between my fingers. A soft breeze played with my hair and left it in tangles at the back of my neck. I spun around (again, quite dramatically- I seem to be pretty good at that) with my arms held out on both sides of me and laughed. There was no Mum here to tell me to be careful. No Dad to enforce Mum's rules. And best of all, no Donna to steal my spotlight. Donna was millions- no billions- of miles away. She was YEARS away from where I now stood. My knees buckled under me and I fell to the soft grass. I waved my arms and legs, creating grass angels in the hillside.
"She's taking this quite well, don' you think?" I heard Rory not-so-quietly whisper to Amy.
"She's doing what I would've done on my first trip if I had been her age," Amy replied.
"Seems like something you'd still do now," Rory muttered and I heard a loud smack as Amy elbowed him in the arm.
"Trouble Ponds?" the Doctor called from inside.
"Nope, no trouble!" Amy responded. "Actually, yes. What are you doing still inside?"
"The TARDIS has been acting up ever since we landed at River's house. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with her. I've narrowed it down to…"
As the Doctor sped off in his techno-babble (though not as bad as Dad, I must admit) I pulled myself to my feet and began to meander down the hill. Near the bottom, I heard a loud barking. I ran to the source of the noise, eager to see the much anticipated dog. When I arrived, a young man was rubbing his dog on the ears. The animal's back was to me but I waited patiently for it to turn around. I held my breath as the man tossed a stick in my direction and the dog came bounding toward me. But when I saw it, I couldn't understand what I was seeing. It was just a normal dog. Probably a Golden Retriever. There was absolutely nothing abnormal about it.
I must have stood there in silence for a few minutes because I felt Amy's hand on my shoulder as she leaned down to ask, "What's wrong?"
I just pointed at the dog.
"The dog? I don't…" Rory began but Amy shushed him as I began to speak again.
"It has a nose," I answered.
"Aren't dogs supposed to have noses?" Rory looked at me quizzically.
"Earth dogs, yeah. But not Barcelona dogs," I whispered.
Amy stared at me like I was crazy for a few seconds before clapping her hands together and announcing, "Alright. So let's go back to the TARDIS and inform the Doctor of the dog situation."
Rory and Amy shared a look before heading back up the hill. I followed behind them, stopping every few feet to look back and make sure the dog still had its nose fully intact.
When we arrived at the TARDIS the Doctor looked up from whatever he was doing. "Back so soon?" he asked. "I was hoping you would stop by one of the local shops and pick me up some Moon Chips. Which is a weird name for Chips because Barcelona isn't a moon. Although if you define a moon as a satellite then I guess you could say that-what?" He abruptly stopped in his rambling when he noticed Amy, who had her hands on her hips and her head cocked to one side.
"River is concerned about the dogs of Barcelona," Amy's loud voice and the way she phrased the statement made me feel silly.
"Don't worry River- they're not supposed to have noses," the Doctor absently responded as he returned to whatever he had been doing.
"I know- it, it was in the book," I lied (I really need to stop this whole lying thing), "But that's the thing. The dogs here have noses."
The Doctor ceased what he had been doing and turned to look at me. "Are you sure?" he asked.
"Positive. Amy and Rory saw it to."
He turned to his companions and they nodded in agreement.
"Well this is very, very incredibly not good," the Doctor stated. "Sorry River, but your trip is ending sooner than I expected. I have to check something."
Amy, Rory and I exchanged nervous looks with each other as the Doctor ran back and forth between screens. Suddenly the TARDIS roared to life and we roughly landed within minutes. The Doctor sprung to the door and look outside. He frowned and looked at each of us individually, beginning with Amy, then Rory, and finally letting his eyes rest on me. He addressed all three of us but did not take his eyes off of me. "I think I figured out why the TARDIS is acting all catawampus. We've found ourselves in a parallel world."
Rory gasped and Amy ran to the door as if to look outside. The Doctor slammed the door shut before she could reach the outside. "In my experience, it's best to leave parallel worlds alone." He shifted his gaze back to me. "So tell me River: Where you're from, are there Zeppelins in the skies?"
I knew my answer meant everything. And right then, more than anything in the world, I wanted to stay with the Doctor. He made me feel special and I had only had a taste of the adventure that I knew was to come if I could stay with him. So I did what I've begun to do best; I lied. "What's a Zeppelin?"
The Doctor furrowed his brows as if his eyes could see through my lie. Then he shrugged and turned to face the other two. "We've got to find a way back."
DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW
I was impressed with how quickly the Doctor found a crack in the universe. I was even more impressed with how confidently he calculated exactly what direction and force we would require in order to pass through the void unharmed.
He said it was in Norway. Bad Wolf Bay. The very same place he had dropped off Mum and Dad all those years ago. He landed on the Beach and told all of us to exit the TARDIS. He instructed us that she needed a few hours to charge up and then we could sail safely through the crack (hopefully). The married couple strolled had in hand down the shoreline. The Doctor, on the other hand, stood very close to where he had exited the TARDIS and closed his eyes. I could only assume he was remembering.
This place held the upmost significance to me. But I had no memories to hold dear to my heart. All I knew about the beach I had heard from stories. I wanted nothing more than to ask the Doctor to tell me everything that had occurred from the moment he left the beach. I wanted to know what had happened to his companion, Donna- basically the mother of my Dad. But to ask these questions would be to break my cover. If he discovered the truth, I knew, he would put me right back where I was and leave without a second thought. Because the Doctor can justify leaving anybody if it fits in with his own idea of 'their own good', I remembered my Mum telling me one night after she and Dad had gotten in a fight.
I sat in the sand a little ways from the Doctor as the hours ticked away. Finally, Amy and Rory returned and the Doctor announced that it was time to leave. I turned to take one last look at my world before closing the door of the TARDIS. I was ready to start a new adventure with Amy, Rory, and the Doctor. I was ready for my new life to begin.
Allons-y!
This chapter was almost 1000 words more than the last one. Yay! But the next one probably won't arrive until next weekend. Although it might get here sooner if I have motivation by, oh I don't know, reviews of any kind. (I know- I'm so shameless).
