AN: Just a disclaimer. I know nothing about concussions or medical things in general. I used the internet...
Osgood was in her lab when she felt the explosion shake the building. The alarms started blaring and she could tell her fellow scientists were starting to panic at the sound. She made sure her inhaler was in her pocket and got to her feet. "Out," she raised her voice so the started technicians could hear her over the noise and pointed to the door farthest from where she thought the vibrations had come from. "Go on, out." They started scampering toward the door at her order and she followed shouting out directions, as she knew the building much better than any of them did. Once they hit daylight, her colleges gladly hustled to get behind the line the soldiers had already made. Osgood, however, searched the line of soldiers. She narrowed in on the location with the most activity and headed that way. The soldiers let her through without comment.
"General Hughes, what happened?"
"Not sure," the man turned to her. "There was an explosion in the west wing. The top two floors collapsed into the basement."
A bit of panic rose into her throat as she glanced over at the destruction. "Kate was in the West Wing basement."
The general looked a bit worried at that himself. "We'll send in a crew to search for survivors as soon as I'm sure more of the building won't collapse on top of the rescuers." Osgood wanted to tell him to send someone in to search for Kate now, but bit her tongue. Getting irrational wouldn't help the situation or Kate.
She turned away from him so he could go back to instructing the soldiers. Most of the employees had evacuated the rest of the building. She watched as the last of them exited the North Wing and moved away from the building. She tuned out the sound of the general barking orders in favor of counting her own breaths to keep her panic at bay. She felt for her inhaler; she didn't need it just yet, but it helped just to know it was there.
She snapped out of her trance a few moments later when there was a commotion near the front of the collapsed part of the building. A woman limped out of the building and soldiers were immediately there to help her. Osgood met Hughes' eyes and they both started toward the scene at the same time.
The woman was blubbering and sniffing loudly. Osgood recognized her from when they'd been introduced one of the few times Kate had worked with her, but she'd never spent much time with her herself.
"Missy," she addressed the woman who was leaning rather heavily on the soldier next to her for having no discernible injuries. She looked up at her with slightly wet eyes.
"What happened, miss?" Asked General Hughes.
The woman made a weird whinny sound and Osgood almost bit through her own tongue.
"Can we get a medic over here?" Hughes yelled back at the troops behind them. He and the other soldier helped her away from the building with Osgood following behind them. They sat her on the back of a truck and a man brought a medical bag up to them.
"I'm going to go get the troops looking for survivors," Hughes told Osgood. She nodded back.
Osgood studied Missy as the medic dealt with her. Missy Trapper was supposedly a well-qualified psych evaluator, but according to Kate and some others who had worked with her, she wasn't very helpful overall. She was jumpy to a ridiculous degree and never seemed to be able to get a full sentence out of her mouth. The one, half a conversation they'd had left Osgood convinced that at least some of it had to be an act. No one could be that nervous and not keel over. She was described by most everyone who'd met her as mousy, but Osgood had not been convinced. There was something slightly off with the way she behaved. Osgood knew mice: had been one for most of her life. Missy was something else.
Osgood quelled her emotions and went over to sit next to the other woman on the back of the truck. "Missy," she said as gently as possible. "Can you tell me what happened?"
The woman gave a dramatic little sob. "Oh, it was so horrible!" she said.
"I'm sure it was," Osgood replied trying to not let any of her agitation color her tone. She reached over to rub her back. "But we need to know what happened. Will you tell us?"
She peered at Osgood from under her lashes seeming to analyze her. The look seemed far too calculating for Osgood's liking. She made an effort to make herself look as unthreatening as possible.
"Miss S-Stewart and I, w-we were interrogating that h-horrible woman, R-river Song." Missy actually physically shuddered a bit at the name. "a-and she got loose somehow and, and…" she trailed off, sobbing into her hands. Osgood didn't usually have many violent urges, but she really wanted to shake this woman until her head rattled. She shouldn't be this agitated. The woman had just been through trauma and Osgood would usually be sympathetic, but there was something wrong with the way she was reacting. It was too overdone, too dramatic, fake. That, or Osgood was just too worried about her boss to act like a kind, rational human being at the moment. One of the two.
Osgood gritted her teeth. "It's okay, it's okay," she said patting the woman's back. "What did she do?"
"S-she had a bomb. When I-I saw it I r-ran. I don't know how I got out of it alive." Osgood looked at the collapsed building. She didn't know how the woman got out alive either. She shoved the thought that if it was doubtful this woman lived, it was probably doubtful anyone else did. It wasn't time to wallow, it was time to focus. The medic seemed to finish his examination of Missy and packed up his bag telling her everything seemed fine, but to tell someone if she felt strange later.
"Thank you for your help, Missy," she replied. "I'm going to go tell the general." She stood up and caught up with the medic.
"She doesn't seem to have many injuries for someone who's just been in an explosion, does she?" she commented.
He looked over at her seemingly just as confused by it as her. "Unless I missed something, she's not injured at all. She has a little dirt on her and was limping, but nothing is wrong as far as I could tell."
"Interesting," Osgood commented, letting him walk away and heading toward General Hughes.
"General," she called. He dismissed the soldier he was speaking to and turned toward her. "May I make a suggestion?"
"Of course, ma'am."
"Pick people you trust to search the basement for survivors, discreetly, and if you find anyone alive tell no one but me."
He looked at her slightly surprised. "Is there something I should know about?"
"Just a precaution."
He searched her eyes for a moment and then nodded. "Understood ma'am. I'll keep you informed."
"Thank you." She glanced over to Missy again who was practically draped over one of the soldiers. It was just a precaution.
Kate regained consciousness slowly. What had happened? Her head ached and something was on top of her. She blinked open her eyes and saw a blur of green. Grass? What was so much grass doing in Unit Headquarters? She moved her head to the side and her vision fuzzed a bit. It was extremely bright; she had to close her eyes after a moment as nausea overtook her. After gathering herself, she opened her eyes again. There was a mass of gold obstructing part of her vision, but beyond that, she could see there was a field of grass in front of her. Not Unit HQ. She turned her attention to the gold mass. The sun glinted off the fluffy mass so much that it made Kate's eyes hurt. Suddenly, the mass moved. There was a groan from somewhere above her and the thing on top of her rolled off.
"Shit," a woman's voice commented. Kate rolled and sat up. Her head spun at the movement, but after a few seconds, her vision focused enough for her to make out the person in front of her. River Song. Right. She thought back to before she'd been knocked unconscious. The Master was a woman, who now went by Missy apparently, and, consistent with the files she'd read on the Timelord, she wanted to burn the Earth for no reason other than she could. Song didn't like the idea of a burned down earth and had attempted to stop her. Missy had pushed a button. She thinks there had been an explosion. How did she get here?
"Where are we?" Kate asked.
"No idea. Some field," Song answered unhelpfully.
"How did we get here?"
"My last resort."
"Are you always this unhelpful?" The woman didn't answer, instead getting onto her knees and pushing herself to her feet. She bent down and grabbed something out of her boot.
"How did you hide that gun?" Kate asked, shocked. She knew her soldiers wouldn't be dumb enough to not look in the woman's boots.
"Perception filter," she answered simply, storing the gun at her waist and hiding it with her shirt. She offered her had to Kate who took it grudgingly. She was pulled to her feet with surprising strength.
The entire world tilted and she probably would have toppled over if the other woman hadn't stepped forward to keep her on her feet.
"You seem to have a concussion," Song informed her.
"Yeah, getting that," Kate spat rubbing her forehead. She'd had her fair share of concussions over the years. It was in the job description. She probably needed to take some aspirin, lie down in a dark room, and not move for days, or, better yet, go to the hospital. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to have time for that.
"We need to find out where we are and get help. Can you walk?" Song asked.
Kate gritted her teeth and pushed the woman away a bit. "I'm fine. Let's go." Song watched her face for a few moments and then nodded. The dizziness had subsided a bit, but Kate still felt like she could pass out any moment as they made their way across the field to the dirt road. Her companion eyed her silently as they walked.
"How did we get here?" Kate repeated her question from before, needing both information and something to concentrate on.
"Experimental time-travel technology. I swiped it from a lab in 5236. It's implanted in the back of my neck and keyed to take me to a random space-time coordinate if I'm injured." She answered.
"Interesting." It took a few moments for logic to catch up with her. "By a random space-time coordinate, you do mean a random, viable, space-time coordinate?"
"That's why it was experimental."
Kate stopped in the road. "I'm a bit concussed at the moment so I might not completely understand what your saying. Are you telling me there was over a 99% chance of us ending up in the vacuum of space?"
"I had a theory that my unique heritage would allow me to give the device some direction."
"And you decided to test your theory while taking me along for the ride?" She glared at the woman. She wondered what exactly the unique heritage was. Perhaps the abnormalities in her blood Osgood had been talking about.
"You would have been no worse for wear than if I'd left you in an exploding building," Song responded, unrepentant. If Kate was feeling better she may have decked her, but she wasn't sure how well her balance and aim would be at the moment. "I think," Song said thoughtfully ignoring her ire, "we may actually be on Earth still."
"How do you know?" Kate asked, curious. She had never actually been on an alien planet (alien spaceships, sure, but it was an entirely different thing) and she didn't know how one would go about discerning where they were.
Song gave a little hop. "I'm not as good as some people at telling just from the atmosphere, but the gravity is about right and the air has the right composition. Plus, I'm pretty sure that's a cow."
Kate turned her head and, sure enough, there was a cow watching them walk past. "Good enough for me. So Earth. When?"
"Well, there seems to be a town up there. If they burn us at the stake for wearing trousers, I'll have a rough estimate." Kate gave her an unamused look and she grinned back with a sparkle in her eye.
The first building they came to was an inn on the outskirts of the little town. Kate's companion stopped when she saw the sign.
"Well," she chucked a bit. "It looks like my luck just got better."
"What, why?" There didn't seem to be anything particularly strange about the inn. It was three stories high with a plain wooded door and some flowers in the windows. The sign declared it was Whitman's Inn.
"See that emblem on the sign," Song asked pointing to the carving in the wood. To Kate it just looked like some kind of bird and a few wavy lines. "It's the image of a Koluck bird, a genetic experiment from the 25th century. In 3052, the time agency decided to make it the law that that symbol be displayed at any household owned by civilian time-travelers. Helpful for time agents. Confused archeologists for centuries." Kate stored that information away for future reference. "Hopefully they'll have some form of medicine that doesn't involve leeches."
With that, she led the way to the inn's door leaving Kate with the choice to follow her or to go wandering on her own with a concussion in some unknown time.
There was a woman behind a counter on the far side of the room when Kate entered the inn. She didn't look up when they came in, too engrossed in reading a book.
"Excuse me," Song said once she was at the counter. The woman jumped.
"Oh, sorry," she said hastily closing her book and storing it under the counter. Kate wondered what exactly was in that book. "Can I help you? Do you need a room?"
"Do you take Melanisian credit cards?" Song asked.
The girl blinked. "Oh, I see. Sure, yeah, just give me your…" she stopped, her eyes widening. "Wait a second. You're River Song!"
Song's expression didn't change, but Kate saw her tense and her hand immediately went to the gun at her waist. "Yes. I am," she said pleasantly.
The girl beamed, completely unaware of the dangerous situation she was in. "My grandmother was in The Library when it closed." Kate didn't know what that meant, but she watched as the tension drained from Song's shoulders. Her hand fell away from the gun. "You're the reason I got into archeology!" the girl continued.
"You're an archeologist?" Song asked. Her eyes had softened a bit, her lips curling up into the first genuine smile Kate has seen on her face.
"As soon as I pass my next semester I'll have my graduate degree," she replied proudly.
"What university?"
"Luna, of course," the girl responded. "I'm Professor Arjun Kumar graduate assistant for this field school. He was your student, wasn't he?"
"Actually, when I'm from, he is my student," Song informed her. "He's currently working on his undergraduate degree."
Confusion flashed across her face briefly, but then disappeared. "Oh, right, you're a time traveler. Professor Kumar has told us many stories about your escapades. Speaking of, what exactly are you doing here?"
"We had a bit of an accident actually. You don't happen to have any 51st century medical supplies do you?" River asked.
"Are you injured?" The girl asked, her brows drawing together in concern.
"Just some scrapes," she reassured the girl with a smile. This smile, Kate noted, was a lot less genuine than the one she had been giving the girl earlier. It occurred to Kate, then, that Song had been in the collapsing building as well. She hadn't seemed too worse for wear walking here, but Kate had been admittedly distracted. Song had said the device that had brought them here was keyed to move her when she was injured to a certain degree. Kate eyed her companion closely. There was a bit of tension in the other woman's shoulders and she seemed to be putting more of her weight on one leg than the other, but she didn't seem hurt enough to warrant an escape using untested, easily deadly, time travel. At least, she wasn't showing it. "However, if you have something that'll take care of concussions for my friend and some bandages and disinfectant for us both, we'd be very grateful."
"Of course. I'll get you both set up in some rooms too. Free of charge of course."
"Thank you, very much," Song said the soft, genuine, smile back in place.
"Well it's the least I can do, isn't it?" She grabbed a few keys off a hook behind her and motioned them to follow her up the stairs. "Let me get Ruman, his parents own a doctor's office and he's going into medical school once he gets his anthropology degree. He'll patch you up."
"I'd rather patch myself up actually, if you'll just give me supplies." Song said just a bit tersely. The girl either didn't notice or didn't think it was wise to comment on the woman's slight change of tone, but it gave Kate pause. What exactly was Song hiding?
"Hey, Victoria, have you seen the..." The young man trailed off when he saw Song, his eyes bugging out a bit. "Professor Song!" He exclaimed much as someone would when meeting their favorite celebrity or goddess.
"Uh, hello?"
"Ruman Matis, we met after you gave that speech to the Crazien Intrastar Committee on the effects of the Zion-Sunstar trade treaty on the human industry in the late 22nd century. It was amazing!"
"Hmm, well I haven't actually giving that lecture as of yet. But it's nice to know beforehand that it will be a success," Song replied recovering from his enthusiastic greeting with an amused smirk. He gave her a confused look. "Time travel, dear."
"Oh," he deflated a bit, but perked right back up, "have you wrote your book on the late 20th, early 21st century premier Earth defensive groups? Because, I just finished reading it and I'd love to talk-"
"For goodness sakes, Ruman, lay off her for a moment. She's just got here and she's injured." Victoria scolded him.
"You're injured?" He asked and suddenly the energetic puppy dog expression he'd sported since he'd laid eyes on her transformed into a concerned, but professional one.
Song gave a more grimace than a smile this time. "I'm fine, just need some supplies and I can get myself fixed up."
Ruman looked like he was about to argue.
"Kate, here, on the other hand," she plowed on, "has a concision that you should probably look at. She lost consciousness for a few minutes, so it's probably bad." He turned his attention to Kate at that. Kate inwardly rolled her eyes at how easily he fell for the diversion, but willingly answered all of his questions about how bad her head hurt and how dizzy she'd been. Despite the fact that she knew Song had sicked him on her to distract him from whatever she was hiding from them, Kate knew she needed medical attention.
"You should probably lie down," he suggested after hearing her symptoms. Which was an A plus idea as far as Kate was concerned. "Victoria would you get the medical kit? It's upstairs in Professor Kumar's office."
"Sure," Victoria responded handing him one of the keys in her hand. "That's for room 2." She handed the other to Song. "And room 3 for you. Bathroom's down the hall and there's some extra cloths in that closet if you need any."
"Thank you very much, Victoria," Kate heard Song respond as she was ushered toward room 2.
"Alright, sit down please," Ruman told her closing the door behind him. She didn't like that as she'd rather be able to keep Song in sight, but did as he asked. She wouldn't be any good if she didn't do something to fix her head a bit.
"You have a few cuts on your face and your nose looks like it's going to bruise," he informed her.
"Well, from what I remember, I took a nose dive into a concrete floor. So, I guess that isn't exactly a surprise," she responded dryly.
"Are you injured anywhere else that you know of?" he asked. She hadn't really had the time or presence of mind to assess herself until now. She'd been in an explosion and remembered something falling on top of her, but it was nothing compared to the couple of other times she'd almost gotten blown up. No bones felt broken and nothing seemed to be bleeding.
"I don't think so. I'm a little sore, but nothing major seems wrong."
"Well, that's good. I'll still do a medical scan just to make sure, but you don't look too worse for wear."
He had her lie back then and she closed her eyes briefly. She was extremely tired, but going to sleep probably wasn't a good idea with a fresh concussion so, she propped herself back up on her elbows to look at him.
"So, you know, River Song?" She asked both to keep herself occupied and because of her own curiosity. He perked up considerably at the question.
"I mean, not really. We only met briefly once, but I know all about her," he gushed.
"I've only just met her myself. I don't really know much about her." She informed him, hoping he'd take the bait.
"Well, she's the best archeologist in the universe, but you probably already know that. She used to be a professor at Luna until about 20 years ago, but she still does guest lectures sometimes. Though, I guess the one you've met might still be teaching. The one from my time is working to establish laws on the integration of younger sentient populations into the universal markets and government while preserving their individual culture and helping to lessen cross-cultural conflict." He sounded like he was quoting a news article. "So basically she's trying to stop more powerful planets from taking advantage of ones who are just starting to have contact with the outside universe. And protect them from invasions." That would certainly be a nice thing to have in the 21st century, but, seeing as River Song was apparently trying to pass it in the 51st century, she wasn't going to hold her breath.
"It seems like quite the endeavor." Kate may not know much about the 51st century, but she knew enough about politics when it came to big business and populations not as exposed to capitalism. She imagined the same rules applied.
"Oh, people have been trying to get laws like that in place for centuries, but Professor Song is actually getting somewhere. If anyone can do it, it's her." If Song wasn't a self-confessed murderer Kate would say she must be a saint for getting any headway with that type of deal. "Especially since she has the backing of the entire Lux cooperation after The Library." He said it as though she should know what "The Library" was. Not wanting him to figure out something was wrong and stop talking to her, she chose her next words carefully.
"Victoria mentioned that her grandmother had been in The Library."
"Oh, yeah, that's a story she likes to tell. She wouldn't have ever existed if Professor Song hadn't gone to the library."
"Yeah, amazing wasn't it," she hedged.
"Defiantly amazing. 4,022 people missing for 100 years. Most people would have ran when they figured out they were surrounded by flesh eating shadows, but not River Song. She saved them all, almost died for it, but it all turned out okay,"
"Yeah quite a feat..."
There was a knock at the door. Victoria had returned with a box and offered it to Ruman giving Kate a warm smile.
"Thanks, Victoria," he dig through the box, pulling out a couple packages and a bottle of something. "Give these to Professor Song." He handed them back to her. "Tell her I'm still willing to help if she needs it."
"Sure thing." Victoria left the room again and he dug through the box.
"Ever used Nexicotton strips before?" he asked.
"Can't say I have."
He removed a small square of paper like material from a plastic box and handed it to her. "Just let this dissolve on your tongue and you'll be good in about an hour." 51st century medicine, she reminded herself, accepting the medicine and placing it on her tongue. "It'll make you a bit drowsy, so I suggest you lay down for a bit and take a nap." She almost spit it out at that not wanting to go to sleep in a house with a murderer, but the strip had already dissolved and there was not much she could do for it. He took out a bottle and poured a bit of liquid on a piece of cloth. It made a sizzling sound, which made her a bit leery, but, as he didn't seem concerned, she let him dab the cuts on her face with it. By the time he was finished, she could already feel the effects of the Nexi-something-or-other making her even more tired than she was before.
"Unfortunately, we don't have any bruise cream, but the Nexicotton should help with the pain anyway. Now go ahead and lay back down, I'll come wake you up if your still sleeping in two hours"
"Alright." She leaned back again letting the exhausted from the drug wash over her. She heard him close the door behind him. There was mumbled conversation in the hallway. She couldn't make out the words but, she assumed from the tone and earlier conversation that Song was once again politely refusing medical treatment. She heard what sounded like the door to her left close a few minutes later.
Despite the drowsiness from the drug, she couldn't help but be curious. She battled with herself for a few minutes before her need to know what River Song was hiding won out over her body's pleas to go to sleep. She slipped out of bed as quietly as possible. There were plenty of holes and cracks in the walls of the old inn for her to use to snoop. She knelt to look through one of them and, as she'd anticipated, she had a good view of the room next to hers.
Song was seated on the bed across from Kate, her feet dangling off the foot of the bed. The medical supplies Victoria had given her were still unopened next to her. She was not moving, holding her head with her eyes closed. Kate waited a few moments and then there was a sigh. As though she'd finally won some mental argument with herself, Song's head popped up and she moved off the bed.
She ripped open each of the packs she had and arranged the supplies so they were easy to reach and then popped something in her mouth. She grimaced, holding the side of the bed for a moment and then she reached around herself to slowly remove her shirt. If Kate thought her couple of bruises were bad, it was nothing compared to this. The injuries hadn't had time to set yet, but there was already a sickly yellow and purple tint to most of her back and a bad cut under her neck was slowly oozing blood. There was quite a bit; Kate wondered why she hadn't seen it leaking through her shirt earlier when she'd looked.
With the sort of efficiency that only someone who had done this sort of thing a million times could possess, Song mopped the blood off herself with a piece of cloth, juggling it between her hands repeatedly in order to actually clean the entire awkwardly located wound. She unrolled what looked like a thick piece of scotch tape and cut it with her teeth when she decided she had enough. She smoothed it over the jagged cut wincing when her own fingers pressed down on it.
She grabbed the bedpost with one arm and used the other hand to probe gently at her shoulder blade. She rotated her shoulder a couple of times and then suddenly yanked. There was a crunch and Song let out a string of whispers that Kate couldn't quite make out, but she understood the general idea anyway. She rotated her shoulder a few times and there were a few more cracks. She sat down on the edge of the bed her chest rising and falling rapidly for a few moments before she sat up again.
She unbuttoned her jeans and lifted her hips to slip them down her thighs a bit. Kate admittedly had to remind herself that she was looking at a cold-blooded murderer and one who was partially naked because she was dealing with semi-severe injuries, besides. Song slid her jeans a bit past her knees and was able to remove one leg easily but then had to slow down to roll the fabric down the other. Kate couldn't see much of the cut directly, but the amount of blood on the inside of her jeans indicated that it was more than just a scratch. Her clothing must have some type of future tech because, despite the fact that the inside of her jeans were soaked with blood, the outside seemed no worse for wear.
She seemed to have a bit of trouble, the fabric sticking to her wound. Once she'd gotten her jeans past her ankle, she twisted her leg up a bit so she could look at the injury on the back of her leg. Kate caught just a flash of the deep cut, but it made her wonder how Song had been walking around on it for so long. She poured disinfectant on it and it sizzled angrily. After the liquid had calmed down a bit, she spread a glue like substance over the cut and then covered it with the tape like patch again.
Song scooted back on the bed and grabbed what looked like normal medicine wrap to Kate. She wrapped it around the ankle of the same leg the cut was on a few times before fastening it and then collapsing onto her back.
When it became clear after a few minutes that Song was not going to move anytime soon, Kate got to her feet and made it back to her own bed a quietly as she could.
Her brain was fuzzy. (However, she was glad it was more medicine head now than concussion loopiness.) A lot of things didn't make sense. First of all, the people from the future themselves. The records Osgood told her about had said River Song was a well-known, violent criminal in prison for basically forever in the 51st century, but the people who were actually from there treated her like a pop star. She couldn't mesh the woman who had matter-of-factly said her purpose was murder with the one who had supposedly saved Victoria's grandmother and a bunch of other people. Plus, Song was apparently trying to make sure planets weren't treated by the intergalactic community like Earth was in the 21st century by passing laws. Assumable that meant that whatever governing body could enact such laws were willing to listen to a self-proclaimed psychopath. It didn't make any sense.
Then there was her injuries. Song's were much worse than Kate's; she actually looked like she'd had a building fall on top of her unlike Kate, who looked like she'd tripped on a sidewalk. Kate remembered the woman had been on top of her when they'd landed in this time, but she'd assumed that they'd been jostled around when going through the vortex. She'd certainly heard enough times how much people were thrown around even in the Doctor's TARDIS which was not stolen, experimental time travel (while, some accounts indicate it may have been stolen, but that wasn't the point). However, after seeing how injured the woman had been, it was obvious that Song had fallen on top of her before the building fell. But, "fallen" was the wrong word, because, while Kate's memory was a bit foggy, she was sure that Song had been way too far away to simply fall on her. Perhaps after she'd slept for a while and could think a bit more clearly, she'd be able to come up with another theory, but the only explanation Kate could think of was that River had thrown herself across the room in order to shield her from the results of the explosion. That certainly did not make any sense.
AN: I'm not completely comfortable writing Osgood yet so sorry if it was sort of wrong. The reason that this took so long to update was the term paper I had mentioned I hadn't started yet in the first chapter.
