A/N: Sorry to post this here, but I know some readers don't read the A/N at the bottom, I wanted to let you know there will be a very IMPORTANT A/N (in bold) at the bottom, please read that at least :) I think you'll enjoy it.
~8~
Three of a Kind
River huffed as she followed LJ across the expanse of Luna University, following him to the indoor garden that had been created for the botany students. It was lush, with all sorts of flowers and trees and other vegetation. She had no idea why they were there.
"Going to tell me yet?" she asked her friend, quite probably her best friend.
She'd met him two years ago when he'd been tasked with showing her the school. He'd had this insane notion that they would be best friends…surprisingly, truly much to her shock, he'd been right. He hadn't left her alone, meeting up with her after classes, hanging out with her on the weekends, helping her with her History homework. He was surprisingly well versed on many different eras and had really interesting opinions on a number of events that took place in them, the way he spoke, she'd almost believe he'd been there.
He laughed, "Oh come on Riv, it's a surprise!"
She rolled her eyes, "Are you ever going to explain why you insist on calling me Riv?" she asked. She'd gotten used to it over the years, admittedly, but she always asked and he never said. There was a lot he never said, now that she thought about it. She'd ask questions about his childhood, his parents, his home, but he'd always find some way to change the topic.
"You'll find out one day," he shrugged before his eyes widened, "They should be here any minute, come on," he grabbed her hand and pulled her into a run.
"Who?" she frowned, jogging with him over to a small meadow-like area.
He grinned, "My parents," before nudging her, "You're always asking about them, now you'll get to meet them."
She blinked, "So why aren't we in the main hall? It's where the parents are supposed to meet."
It was a tradition at Luna University, that the parents of the students, should they wish, could come and see the school and their children mid-term, an opportunity that only lasted one week, this week. Today was the last day. All the other parents had gathered in the main hall, where they were supposed to check in.
He laughed, "Mum and dad following the rules?" he laughed harder, "That'll be the day."
She shook her head, so that's where he got it from.
"But how are they going to get here?" she asked, it wasn't like they could just drop down out of the sky…they were on the moon! In space!
"Wait for it," he grinned.
And so she did.
A moment later…she heard it…the familiar sound of the Universe.
Her eyes widened as the wheezing noise filled the gardens, a blue police telephone box slowly materializing before them.
"Oh my God," she breathed as the box became solid.
LJ laughed at her shocked expression and walked over, knocking on the door, "You're late!" he called.
The door was thrown open and he was half-tackled in a hug the size of Mount Olympus. He just laughed and put his arms around the blonde woman, hugging her tightly, "Hello mum!" he gave her a kiss on the cheek as she pulled away. He looked over at the man leaning on the corner of the TARDIS, straightening his bow-tie, "Dad."
The Doctor just walked over, taking his son's hand to shake before pulling the boy into a hug as well, "Hello boyo! What have you been up to?"
LJ stepped back and put his arm around a still shocked River, "You guys have met Riv before yeah?"
"Hello River," Evy greeted, the Doctor winding an arm around her waist, pulling her to him. He had gotten over what happened in Berlin, but he always had a lingering anxiety in the first few minutes of meeting any version of River Song, never knowing what point in her timeline they'd meet.
Though, given the fact they were in Luna University, this was a VERY early version.
"Yes, hello River," the Doctor nodded, "How are things?"
River blinked. Shook her head. And blinked again.
Before turning and starting to smack LJ on the arm repeatedly, "How! Could! You! Do! That! To! Me! You! Stupid! B…"
"Whoa!" LJ stepped back and held up his hands in surrender before rubbing his arm, "Ow. What was THAT for?"
"You!" she pointed a finger at him, angry, "You're their son! You NEVER said anything!"
He laughed, "What was I supposed to do Riv? Walk up to you and say 'Hi Mels, I'm LJ, you tried to kill my parents?' Yeah, that would have made a wonderful first impression."
She glared at him, though her cheeks flushed at the fact that the Doctor and Evy were standing right there, and that she HAD tried to kill them. Just recently…though…now that she looked at Evy, she saw the woman was clearly not pregnant and that the baby, judging by LJ, was clearly very grown up. It must have been ages for them between Berlin and now, while it had only been two years for her. How strange…was this what life with time travelers would be like? Meeting so out of sequence?
"Sorry about that," she murmured, glancing at the Time Lords. She still felt awful about that…had nightmares of what she'd done to Evy, of the pain the Time Lady had been in.
"Everything worked out in the end," the Doctor waved her off, seeing how guilty the woman felt about it. He eased his grip on Evy, this was not a River who would try to hurt them, though he doubted they'd ever encounter that version of her again.
~8~
The small group of four sat in the canteen of the university, LJ and River having given the Doctor and Evy a brief tour on the way. River grimaced as she watched the Doctor eating fish fingers with custard, Evy just munching on an apple as they sat across from her and LJ. They'd had a surprisingly calm lunch, talking about LJ's progress in school, about her own program, though she could tell the Doctor wasn't very keen to talk about archaeology, but Evy had just whacked him on the back of the head when he'd started grumbling about it.
Evy was very animated in talking about school, especially literature when River brought up that she was in a poetry class at the moment, part of her general class requirements that the school imposed.
"Oh I love poetry," Evy smiled, "What era are you concentrating on?"
"We've just started the 19th century, Earth poetry," River answered, "We're supposed to write a reaction to some Witty Waldo poem about the first Civil War of America."
Evy frowned, not familiar with that poet, till she realized, "Oh, Walt Whitman," River nodded, "'O Captain! My Captain,' is that the poem?"
River looked at her a moment, "You've read it?"
"It's her favorite poem," the Doctor explained.
"And that's only because the man it's about hit on her," LJ smirked, laughing as his father's expression soured.
"Abe was a nice man," Evy defended, "He was being honest. And besides it was just a compliment!"
The Doctor huffed. The president of the United States had outright flirted with her, in his mind. He'd gone up to Evy, kissed the back of her hand in greeting and said she looked lovely at his inaugural ball. Well...she did look very lovely, she always did, but the man didn't have to say it! That was HIS job as her Link.
Evy laughed, seeing his thoughts and leaned over to kiss his cheek, making him beam at getting a kiss out of her.
"I used to read poetry to LJ as bedtime stories," Evy explained to River, it was something she still did as LJ, HER LJ was still a baby, "In fact..." she reached into the Doctor's pocket and seached a moment before pulling out an old copy of a book of Whitman's poetry, "Even got Walt to autograph a copy for me," she handed it over to River, "Take it for now, read some of his poems, he's actually quite good."
River nodded, gently opening the old tome and flipping through some pages, when something struck her and she looked at LJ, "Is that why you picked your title?"
The Doctor and Evy exchanged a look, they had guessed at what LJ's title might have been, given how River had greeted the man in the pyramid, but now it was confirmed. They weren't sure how they felt, having the foreknowledge of what their son would pick as a title for himself before the boy even knew, but they silently agreed to keep quiet about it. They'd let him pick his own name in his own time, they wouldn't influence him. If his title changed, it would change, time was being rewritten all the time after all.
LJ, on the other hand, just laughed and shook his head, "Nah, I picked it for Uncle Jack."
"Jack Harkness?" River asked, recalling a few stories that LJ actually told, "The Time Agent?"
He nodded, but needed to correct her, "That's CAPTAIN Jack Harkness."
River shook her head at that, "You said you didn't want to be a Time Agent."
"I don't, but mum told me so many stories about Uncle Jack and Uncle Ianto, well, he's my favorite uncle. I'm with him right now actually."
River eyed him, "No...you're here."
He shook his head, "I mean mini-me."
"Who?" River asked.
He nodded back at the two Time Lords before him, "They're my mum and dad, but not MY mum and dad."
"No, completely lost," River shook her head.
"They're my mum and dad but from a different point in my timeline," he explained, nudging her, "See, THIS is why you should take that minor in physics."
She rolled her eyes, "So, they're..."
"In our timeline, he's still a baby," Evy helped explain, "We're here to visit because he called us and asked us to come."
"So they're your parents," River said slowly, "But not the most recent versions."
"Exactly," the Doctor nodded, "It's complicated, a right old mess really. You see, when you think about it, time is just a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stu..."
He was cut off suddenly by Evy putting a hand to his lips, "Take a physics class," she told River, "I guarantee it'll make more sense than any explanation he can come up wit...Doctor!" she shouted, pulling her hand away from him, glaring as she wiped her hand on her pants, "Again?" he just stuck out his tongue at her, leaving little to the imagination of what he'd done to get her to pull her hand away, "Such a child!"
River couldn't help it, she burst out laughing.
~8~
"Well, we'd best be off," the Doctor began, hours later, after they'd been shooed out of the canteen for sitting there and talking, not eating anymore, wasting table space, "I dread to think what Jack's done to mini-you," he smirked at LJ.
LJ laughed, already knowing, "Let's just say...it gives a whole new meaning to 'Mini-Me' yeah."
Evy groaned and shook her head, rubbing her face, she could just imagine that. LJ dressed up like a mini-Jack, complete with his own little WWII jacket. They needed to find a babysitter.
They moved over to LJ, both of them giving him a tight hug, before Evy kissed his cheek and the Doctor dropped one onto the boy's head, LJ smiling as they stepped back, not at all embarassed by the fact his parents, any version of them, loved him. He knew exactly what they'd gone through in the process of having him, he'd accept any and all displays of affection, because he loved them just as much.
"It was great to meet you properly," River smiled, she'd had a rather good time, actually getting to sit down with the Time Lords instead of running about with a deadly situation looming, "And...I really am so sorry about Berlin. I..."
Evy just stepped over, seeing the woman starting to tear up, and hugged her tightly, "We forgive you River," Evy whispered before pulling away to look at the woman with a smile, tucking a strand of River's curly hair behind her ear, "And we don't blame you. We forgave you a long time ago."
River smiled gratefully at her, so relieved that the two aliens hadn't hated her for what she'd done in Berlin, what she'd put them through.
"Goodbye River," the Doctor whispered, stepping over, both he and Evy kissing a cheek, much like they had done to LJ.
She smiled at them, tears in her eyes as they backed into the TARDIS, the box disappearing moments later.
"So…when can I meet your parents?" LJ asked with a grin, even though he'd already met them, as a baby, but River didn't know that...or wouldn't know that...for a while at least. It was such a strange notion, he would come to know things from two points of view, as a baby and an adult. He knew what happened...what would happen...to River's parents, his parents' beloved Ponds, but he couldn't say, because it technically hadn't happened yet, not in River's future. His past, yes, but not her future.
But her past...it had been the reason for sending out the call to the TARDIS of his 'past' parents. He knew River needed this little visit. He'd been there when she'd had a few nightmares about Berlin, and he hated to see her so sad and scared, he knew she needed the reassurances of his parents that everything was alright, as though he weren't proof enough that they'd survived that experience, "I promise I won't try to kill them," he promised, nudging her jokingly.
She started laughing...when a pit dropped into her stomach. LJ, the child of the Doctor and Evy, the baby that had been in Evy's stomach when they'd gone to Berlin. She felt sick…she knew they'd nearly lost the baby, lost LJ.
Oh God.
She'd nearly killed her best friend.
"Riv?" he asked, frowning, seeing her get so pale so suddenly, "You alright?"
She looked over, taking a breath, reminding herself he was still there, he hadn't died, she hadn't succeeded.
Never before had she been so grateful that she'd failed.
"Fine," she shook her head, "But you do realize, now that I know who you really are, I'm going to use you for my dissertation yeah?"
He laughed, she was planning to write her dissertation to earn her doctorate on the Doctor and Evy, using archaeological evidence of them through time and space, "Happy to help," he grinned, taking her hand and leading her back to the university.
A/N: Can you imagine the cuteness of a baby dressed up like Captain Jack? Lol, you guys were right, and now we officially know why LJ calls himself the Captain eh? It's sweet, he's been raised on tales of Ianto and Jack, who else would he name himself after? As they said, Doctor Jr. is a rubbish name :) I hope you like it. Trust me, I had like three titles picked out for boys and girls when the polls were open, this one just FIT with Sigma's personality :) Eh, what do you think, Captain Jonathan Ianto Smith, time traveler extraordinaire :) There'll actually be a tie-in of this chapter in my DOAS chapters for the Lunar Cycle :)
This is also a 'River-visit' chapter, as River's told the 11s that they do/did visit her at the university. So this is them visiting her. They see older LJ, but his younger self is on Earth with Jack. I'm not entirely sure which versions of the Doctor or Evy would be older LJ's parents, if they regenerate before he's an adult or not, so I'm leaving it vague, this is a messed up timeline event. And...this is the version of Evy that River needs to apologize to. If she regenerated, it wouldn't be the same Evy that she'd hurt in Berlin, if that makes sense. LJ knows THIS version is the one River needs to meet first. But...who knows what other versions of his parents will be popping up from time to time...hmm...
IMPORTANT NOTE! I swear to god, the shower is THE place to get inspired. I have no idea why but I was thinking about December, about how I really have tortured you all in waiting till 2013 for the DW stories to pick up and I'm not usually that mean so...I decided to give you a gift. At first I was thinking of doing a '12 Days of Christmas' thing where I post 12 chapters of something, but...there would be too many things I'd like to post to do that. When I finally tallied it up, it was just about 24, so...I'm going to give you a December/Holiday gift...
Every day, starting on the 1st of December, I'm going to give you 100 word drabbles of each episode for Series 7 directly from the chapters that will eventually be posted for both the Academic Series and the Lunar Cycle...AND! a key moment/drabble from my new series starting from Series 1 (haven't written far enough ahead into the more recent series but I should be able to write up some scenes based on my outlines). These drabbles will be in a small series called 'Sneak Peeks' that will actually have the first chapter (an introduction) posted tomorrow for the following reason...
ON TOP OF THOSE DRABBLES! There will be a vote up on my profile starting Sunday, I am posting Sneak Peeks on Saturday just so people know about the vote. This chapter will only be up for a day or so, because FF has a rule against stories/chapters that are just A/Ns and I don't want to get in too much trouble. Just so you know, every three days (the 18th, 21st, 24th, 27th, 30th, and 3rd) you'll be able to vote on your favorite episode of each Series of DW (excluding the 10-specials and Series 7 as they are very short) and I will give you a sneak peek drabble for the winning episode from my new OC series too! So check on Sunday, the 18th on my profile to start the voting.
And I'll do you one better, there will be a Christmas chapter for both Recollections and TAOSAT posted on Christmas, AND a New Years chapter posted on New Years for them as well. AND! I will post drabbles for the DW Christmas specials (nothing too spoilery I promise) for my three series too! Plus two possible other chapters of Recollections and TAOSAT just to fill in the remaining 2 day gap, unless I figure something else out to put there.
Unfortunately, this means that, in order to get to the chapter I have planned for TAOSAT for Christmas, I will be posting TAOSAT more often than Recollections, just about every five days or so, with Recollections being updated near the end of this month and the beginning of December.
But still...a month of DW drabbles before a YEAR of DW stories...how awesome is that?
And...don't forget to watch Children in Need (UK viewers) or check the DW BBC site (for us Americans) later on today because we get a sneak peek at the DW Christmas special (ironic right?)! Yay!