Hi everyone! I'm so sorry that its been so long since I updated - I kind of forgot about this story a bit… oops. Anyway, here's the next chapter!
The Gallifreyan ceremony in this chapter is something that I completely made up - I have no idea if there is one at all like it.
Tes's P.O.V.
"I'm his sister." I said, pulling the woman into a hug. "It's very nice to meet you."
I pulled back to look at her again. She was a couple of inches shorter than I was, with beautiful blue-green eyes and a wild mane of blonde curls. She also had a lovely curvy figure, which was nearly the exact opposite of my brother's lean and lanky frame.
"You have a sister?" she asked, turning to look at Theta. "But I thought…" she didn't say the last few words, but since they were married, she might not have to. The Time Lords could communicate telepathically, but the link between bonded Time Lords was even stronger. Of course, she would have to be a Time Lady for that link to be possible, or at least from a species with strong telepathic capabilities…
"Yes, well, I believe that there are some things that I ought to explain…" Theta said, smiling shyly at his wife.
"Yeah, I'd say so pal." Booth said, and I jumped slightly. I had completely forgotten that he was there, which just went to show how much this news had thrown me. Speaking of…
I turned to my younger brother and punched him in the shoulder. "Ow!" he whined, rubbing the spot as he pouted at me.
"How could you not tell me about this?" I demanded. "You didn't even invite me!"
"It was rather complicated…" she said, and that was when I realized something.
"Theta, you haven't even introduced us yet." I said, trying not to laugh. My brother flailed and blushed, as he knew exactly what I meant. Unfortunately, his wife didn't know.
"Sorry." she said. "I'm -"
"NO!" He yelled, clapping a hand over her mouth. "That's not what she meant, dear." She looked confused, but nodded anyway. He looked at me. "Is there someplace we can go to talk…?" he asked, and the hidden meaning was clear - without being overheard.
"Of course." I said. "We can go to my office… actually, I'll meet you two there." I decided.
"Bones, have you forgotten? We have a case to work on!" Booth said, exasperated.
"It can wait, Booth!" I told him, starting to get irritated. "This, on the other hand, cannot. Please respect that."
I walked away before he had a chance to answer, with Theta and his wife following behind me.
8888
Booth's P.O.V.
Bones was acting weird, weirder than usual. She was brushing me off, and keeping secrets from me, and then when I brought up the case that we were working on, she brushed me off. Then she left me behind and when off to do something with her brother - which was still surprising me, since I didn't even know that Bones had another brother other than Russ - and as they were walking away, I heard her brother ask her, "He doesn't know, does he?"
Bones shushed him and shook her head, leaving me wondering what exactly they were talking about.
What was she hiding?
8888
Tes's P.O.V.
"I'm impressed that you managed to keep the timelines in the correct order, Theta." I said as we made our way to the lab. "You usually get them completely mixed up. Also, you were only a little over a month late this time. Your skills at navigating through the Time Vortex have improved significantly." His wife laughed at that, while he just pouted.
"Oi!" he complained. "I drive the Old Girl perfectly!"
I rolled my eyes at him. "Of course you do, little brother. You just failed your test on purpose."
"Exactly!" he said triumphantly, before realizing what I had said. "Hey!"
I started laughing at that, right before we walked into the main lab area. Theta's wife looked around in awe, and I knew that once we were properly introduced, we would be good friends.
"You two can head over to my office - Theta, you remember where it is." I instructed. "I'll be there in a minute - I just have to grab Angela, she'll want to be there for this."
8888
River's P.O.V.
As soon as we got into Dr. Brennan's office - and I was still having a hard time believing that my husband had actually brought me to the Jeffersonian Institute, of all places - I turned to look at him. "Explain." I said, crossing my arms as I looked at him. "You said you were the last, sweetie."
"Well, yes, I suppose I did." the Doctor said, scratching at his cheek. "But you should know by now, dear - Rule One."
"The Doctor lies." I sighed, rolling my eyes. "Well then tell me." He sat down on the couch, and patted the spot next to him. I walked over and sat down, curling up next to him.
"In my fourth regeneration, I got a call from my sister - from Tes." He began, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "A Time Lord distress call. She had gotten into trouble while she traveled the universe. Only instead of traveling for the adventure of it, like we do, she traveled so that she could study the cultures of other species. and now she was on her last regeneration. So she asked for my help. So I brought her to Earth, around the same time period as that of one of my old companions -"
"Dr. Brennan, I have the results -" the Doctor stopped talking as a dark-haired woman entered the office. She stopped when she saw us sitting there, though. "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that Dr. Brennan had visitors."
"That's quite alright." my husband said, jumping up from where he sat and walking over to her. I was still sitting there, completely in shock. "I'm the Doctor, by the way, that's what everyone calls me, I'm not sure why. That's what I call me, as well…" He looked confused. "I'm actually not sure why."
She smiled at him, although I could tell that she was wondering what he was going on about. "Nice to meet you." she said. "I'm -"
That's when I interrupted, jumping up off of the couch to stand next to my husband. "Dr. Camille Saroyan." I said. "It's an honour to meet you, I've heard so much about you!"
Now she looked surprised, and a little embarrassed. "You have?" she asked, and I nodded.
"Your work is amazing." I gushed. "I mean, truly -"
"Doctor Saroyan!" the Doctor's sister - Tes - called out as she came into her office, followed by another woman who immediately went over to him and pulled him into a hug. "What are you doing in here?" she asked. This was the first time that I actually had a chance to get a good look at her. She was slightly taller than I was, with dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes. She was definitely gorgeous - much like her brother.
"Um, I was looking for you." she said. "I finished sifting through the stomach contents, and the toxicology report came back clean."
"That is excellent news, Dr. Saroyan." Dr. Brennan said. "But it is not needed right now, so please leave."
"Tes!" the Doctor scolded.
"What?" she asked. "It's the truth - now is not a good time to be discussing this case."
Dr. Saroyan gave a slight smile. "Alright then." she said. "I'll just… be in my office."
She turned and walked out, and the Doctor kept scowling at his sister. "That was rude, Tes."
"But it was the truth." she protested.
"Sweetie, that can wait." the other woman said, crossing over to look at me. She crossed her arms, as she looked me up and down, and I did the same to her. She was beautiful, but not in the way that my husband, his sister, or even I was. While there was something clearly different about the Time Lords - and the human plus Time Lord - Angela's beauty was completely human. She had that spark in her eyes, the one that I had grown to associate with people who had traveled with the Doctor, but the light in her eyes wasn't weighed down by the ancient knowledge and pain that my husband and his sister had.
"And who are you?" I asked her.
"I'm Angela." she said. "Angela Montenegro."
"Lovely to meet you." I told her, smiling at her. "I'm -"
This time, both my sweetie and his sister shouted, "no!" Angela and I turned to look at them both in shock.
"What is the problem, sweetie?" I asked, and Dr. Brennan smirked, while Angela started laughing outright.
"Sweetie?" Angela asked, once she was able to stop laughing. "Seriously?"
"Oh, shut up." my husband said, but there was no bite in his tone, before spinning on his heels to look at me. "And you can't introduce yourself yet, because -"
"Because of the Introduction Ceremony." I said, remembering what I had learned while working on my doctorate at Luna University. "I'm sorry, I should have remembered that."
"It's alright, dear." My husband said, walking over to me and bopping me on the nose. "Anyways, shall we?"
"We shall." I said, and I smiled at him even though I was secretly nervous.
My husband looped my arm through his, and led me towards his sister, who had arranged herself and Angela so that the human woman was standing on her right side.
"Doctor." She said solemnly, and for the first time I truly saw her age in her eyes. "You come before us today to introduce your chosen mate to us, and for us to decide if we shall accept her."
My husband stepped forward, pulling me along with him. "Family," he said, and I was surprised at how stiff he was - both in his tone of voice and his posture. "I present to you my chosen mate, who has taken the name of River Song. We have bonded, and our timelines continue as one throughout all of space and time. She has frozen time for me, and I have rewritten it for her."
Dr. Brennan looked surprised at that information, but kept on going nonetheless. "Do you swear to stay together and navigate through the endless bounds of time and space at each others sides?" she asked.
"We do." We replied in unison. The other women looked at each other, as if they were having some sort of silent conversation before nodding.
They both then turned to look at us once more, and Dr. Brennan smiled. "River Song," she intoned, and it felt like my hearts were caught in my throat. "We consent and gladly give you our brother, and welcome you into our house." Once that was said, both Angela and Dr. Brennan smiled happily at us. "Welcome to the family, River." Dr. Brennan said, and then pulled me into a hug. "And I suppose," she added. "Now that you are family, you may refer to me as Tes, like my brother does."
"Hey, what's going on?" A new voice said, and we all turned around to see who it was. The voice came from a smaller man, with curly brown hair and big blue eyes.
"Brennan was just introducing me to her brother's wife." Angela said, quickly coming up with a cover story of sorts.
I stepped out from behind my husband and smiled at the man. "Hello." I greeted him. "I'm Dr. River Song."
"You're a doctor as well?" Dr. Brennan - Tes - asked, and I nodded. "Of what?"
"Archeology." I said, and then I turned and glared at my husband, who was standing behind me and looking entirely too innocent. "And don't you even start." I warned him.
"I didn't do anything!" he protested, looking hurt. I might have believed him, too, if Tes hadn't spoken up.
"That's not entirely true - you did make a face when she mentioned her chosen profession." she pointed out. He started grumbling about how 'the girls were ganging up on him now', making us all laugh.
"Well, it's nice to meet you." The man said, shaking both of our hands. "I'm Dr. Hodgins, Angie's husband."
The Doctor looked surprised at that. "Really?" he asked, bounding forward to get a better look at the newcomer. "Angela, you never mentioned you had a husband."
Dr. Hodgins looked slightly offended, and turned to look at his wife for an explanation.
"The Doctor is an old friend - a very old friend." she said, and Tes and I laughed softly as he started pouting again. "This is the first time that I've seen him in years, except for that one day last month."
"And you didn't mention that you were married because…?"
Before she could answer, though, my husband stepped forward so that his face was only a few inches away from Dr. Hodgins's. "If you ever hurt her," he began, his voice cold and quiet. "There is no place in the universe that you will be able to hide. You can run, as fast and as far as you wish, but I will find you. Am I clear?"
Hodgins looked shocked for a minute before he replied. "Yeah… yeah, man, you're clear." he said.
Angela just looked resigned. "And that would be why I didn't tell him." she said.
"I'm just going to… go…" Hodgins said awkwardly, before practically running out of the room.
"I'm going to go after him. Hopefully the 'Oncoming Storm' didn't scar him for life, like it did to the last guy you met." Angela said, glaring at the Doctor for a moment before following after her husband.
"That wasn't my fault!" he protested, yelling after her. "How was I supposed to know that he wasn't a fan of the big lizards?"
"The big lizards?" I asked, confused.
Tes nodded. "The last time that Theta was introduced to one of Angela's boyfriends, he told us that he liked lizards. So someone thought it would be nice to take him back to see the dinosaurs."
I couldn't help the snort of laughter that escaped at that, and I turned to see that my husband was looking rather smug. "Just because I'm laughing doesn't mean I'm happy about it, sweetie."
"Speaking of old times," the Doctor began. "How did you know I was alive?"
"What makes you think that I knew?" Tes countered.
"Because if you hadn't known, there would have been punching instead of hugging." he said bluntly.
"That is true." she admitted. "An old friend of yours - two of them, actually - would come around and visit every so often. Although, as they are both based in the United Kingdom, we mainly communicate via email and phone."
"Who…?" my husband trailed off, as if he were afraid to know the answer to his question.
Tes smirked at him as she went to sit down on the couch with us. "Miss Sarah Jane Smith, of course." she said, and the Doctor's relief was nearly tangible.
"My Sarah Jane." he said fondly. "How is she doing? I ran into her a little while ago,
"She is doing quite well." she answered.
"And the other?" I asked, and judging by how Tes's smirk had grown, I knew that that had been the right question to ask.
"Captain Jack Harkness, of the Torchwood Institute." she said, and laughed as my husband started flailing. "I'm rather surprised, Theta. That a stick-in-the-mud like yourself would know Captain Jack Harkness…" she let out a string of Gallifreyan words, and while I still didn't know that much Gallifreyan, I knew enough to understand her meaning. I started laughing while the Doctor looked scandalized.
"Do you know Gallifreyan?" Tes asked me, and I replied without even thinking about it.
"Yes, I do." That was what made Tes look surprised, and it took me a minute to realize that it was because I had answered her in Gallifreyan.
"That's amazing!" she said, clasping her hands together before throwing her arms around me in a hug.
We talked for a little while longer, before Dr. Hodgins came back in. "Hey, Dr. B" he called, leaning in the doorway. "Do you know where Wendell is? I need his help to finish this experiment…" he trailed off when the Doctor jumped up from where he had been sitting on the couch.
"Experiment?" he asked, moving over to where the curly-haired man stood. "What kind of experiment?"
He looked over at Tes for a second, as if he was asking for her permission, and she nodded.
"Its, uh, to determine what type of weapon could have left pitting in the victim's bones." he said, sounding confused.
"That sounds excellent!" my husband said, clapping his hands together. "D'you mind if I help out?"
Hodgins laughed. "Sure man, why not?" he responded, and they were about to leave the room together when I called out after them.
"Sweetie?"
The Doctor popped his head back around the door frame. "Yes dear?" he asked.
"Try not to blow up everything." I told him, and he smirked.
"Yes dear."
8888
Tes's P.O.V.
"So, I'm assuming that you wanted to ask me something that you didn't want my brother to hear." I said, as soon as Theta was across the lab and out of hearing range. It was strange, having to wait that long for someone to be out of range, but it was nice all the same.
"What?" River asked me, sounding shocked.
"Usually someone who knows my brother as well as we do wouldn't send him off to do an experiment unsupervised." I explained. "Warning or no warning, he will still find a way to make things explode."
River laughed for a moment before falling silent. She looked… nervous, which was something that I already knew wasn't normal for her. We just sat there for a minute or two, before she spoke.
"When we first got here…" she began slowly. "You seemed surprised… shocked that the Doctor had gotten married. But we both know that he's been married before. So why…?"
"Why was I surprised?" I asked, and she nodded, looking slightly sheepish. I settled down into the couch a bit more, getting comfortable. "First, you have to understand the… complexities… of Time Lord marriages. They weren't made for love - they were made to provide an increase in the socio-economic, as well as the political status of the families involved."
River snorted. "That sounds lovely."
"Not exactly." I said, not sure where she had gotten that idea from. She gave me a look then, one that took me a few moments to figure out. "Oh - you were being sarcastic, weren't you?" I asked, and she nodded. "That's one of the quirks of humanity that I still have to completely figure out." I admitted.
"Just how long have you been here, anyway? In this time period, I mean." she asked. I thought about it for a minute before answering.
"Around nine years now, I believe. I've been working here for the last seven, though." I told her, before returning to the original topic. "But back to the whole… 'marriage' thing." I said. "Yes, Theta was married before, but he was one of the unfortunate souls who did not actually love their chosen mate. They didn't even have a proper bonding." I admitted. "She never learned his name - he told her it was too dangerous for her to know it. After he was exiled from Gallifrey, back in his third regeneration, his marriage contract was declared null and void, as he was no longer welcome on our planet. After that, he swore that he wouldn't marry again…" she paused for a moment, as if thinking about whether or not she should say the next part. "Unless he fell in love."
She looked like she was about to start crying, and I panicked slightly. "Did I say something wrong?" I asked.
She smiled even as she wiped her tears away. "No, you didn't." she finally said. "In fact, you said exactly the right thing."
It was right then that alarms started blaring, and we heard a small explosion from out in the main area of the lab.
There was chaos happening out there, but River and I just took a moment to laugh - we had seen this coming a mile away.
"Some things never change." I mused.
A/N~ Thank you to everyone for being so patient with me! I am so sorry about how long its taken me to update this story - it really isn't cool, I know. I'm going to attempt to finish this story, but I just don't know how long it will take. Thank you to dw7thdoctor and SailorNeoQueen for their reviews!