The aurora fields of Tura are in a pink shift, shading now towards lilac and blue. It isn't, in fact, the fields themselves that swirl lift and change colour, but the fine wet mist that hovers over them. The fields below are barren and dry and have been altered to absorb the minerals that cause the colours. It's one of the most prolific pharmaceuticals factories in the universe and also one of the most beautiful places to visit. That's why this is where I left the Ponds. Medical assistance for poisoned Pond, a living mood light for psychologically distressed Pond. I do really good gifts, alright?
River spots her father, sitting up on a sun lounger across the observation deck. Starts towards him, at almost a run. It still surprises me sometimes. She grew up with them, certainly, but now that they know who she is, it's as though years of orphan loneliness still want to act out of her. She wants her parents.
If you trace it back, if you think about why she was taken from them in the first place, think about who took her and what that particular person's motivation was… You human types might be wonderful at placing the blame, but honestly, you won't need to. I can take it with the best of them.
I hold her back by just a half a step. She gets looks sometimes when she calls him Daddy in public. Don't want her shouting it across half of Tura. I don't have to say anything to remind her of that, just the little wake up call. Also, it keeps her with me, and it puts us on a timer. Which, in turn, finally allows me to work up the scrap to ask what she really meant when she said to me, 'We're here now'.
"I meant, you keep wondering where all of this ends. When you get to hit the reset button, if you get my meaning. Well, sweetie, the end has a start. First beep." This, again, is relief from a weight I didn't know was playing on me. As a result, I can't respond right away. I'm taking a moment to enjoy that. So River continues. "From here on out, it's going to be us. I'm not even going to ask anymore, and neither are you. We're just next to each other, until the end."
Rather than promise out loud and run the risk of lying, I reach instead to take her hand.
A moment after that, we reach Rory. He spies River, flinches first, then relaxes.
"How's the neck?" I ask him.
"It's good," he says, "Full recovery."
"Why?" River balks, suddenly furious. "What happened to your neck? Who got you in the neck? I'll tear his bloody head off."
I tell her I'm not sure she will, somehow… Rory then turns to me, "Did you find what you were looking for?"
"She's sitting here, isn't she?"
"You know what I mean."
"No. But I found the actual facts, which is probably better than just finding what I wanted to find… That made more sense before I said it. Where's Amelia?"
His face falls. Because River's here, he tries, bravely, to say nothing too alarming, but he can't mask that first reaction, nor his own distance and pain when he tells us, "She went inside. She'll be back soon, though. The fields went red for a while and she… She just doesn't like the r-"
"Oh, never mind, never mind!" I cry out, standing, as she comes through the door over his shoulder. She tries to smile, but she's grey, unslept, looking more like the invalid of the pair than Rory ever did. I could tell her I'm worried about her, but she'll only deny it. Instead, I pick River up next to me and present her, "Look what I found!" I shove River her first step forward, taking a moment to hiss in her ear, "Say something comforting."
I leave them to the mother-daughter moment and sit down on the end of Rory's lounger. "Any luck?" He's been my double-agent, you see, placed here not only to recuperate, but to find out just what it is about recent mistakes and failures that has left Pond, usually so resilient, so utterly disconsolate.
"Nothing, Doctor. She won't talk about it. She's insisting she's fine. But she doesn't sleep, and when she does she wakes up in cold sweats. Jumps at shadows. It's like she's waiting for somebody to sneak up on her any minute."
Me being a Doctor and him being a nurse, we both know he's describing the symptoms of a guilty conscience. It's just that neither of us quite wants to say that out loud. We don't believe it, whether all the signs are there or not, so why should we?
"I've tried everything," he says, "a dozen times. She knows there was nothing she could have done once I was attacked, she must do I've told her so often, but she just… I'm worried about her, Doctor."
I nod to him before I stand up. Tap River on the shoulder and pull her back from Pond. Pond stands away, one hand holding the other arm, not making eye contact. "Excuse me, Mrs Professor Doctor River Ali-"
"-Very funny-"
"But I'm invoking best-friend-rights to cut in on this hug. This is not a discussion, this is a fact."
"Alright then, but I'm taking back my father in exchange."
"You drive a hard bargain, Mrs Professor Doctor River-" She shakes her head, rolls her eyes to Pond and steps away.
I move to take ownership of the hug I just bartered my way into. "No, don't," Amelia says. Wrapping her arms tighter around herself, taking another half-step away. I don't care. Whether her arms are free or not, whether she wants me to or now, I grab her and hold onto her very tightly. She shakes, just a little bit. And she's not trying to hide it which means that the shaking is a result of her trying very hard to hide something else.
Gently, quietly, right in her ear, "I have no idea what you think it is that you've done. Whatever it is, though, get over it. I don't say this in cruelty, I say it in forgiveness. Whatever it is, believe me, much, much bigger mistakes have been made. And the fact is that I need you, Amelia Pond. Something massive has been in the pipeline for quite a while, and we're moving into the endgame now. Whatever we've done before, you and I, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters but what we do from here on out. Everything, and I do mean everything, can fixed. But I need you. To be strong and to be brave and to be right by my side through all of it. I can't do it without my people around me."
I try to let go of her. She presses closer and I don't, for just a little while longer. Then I push her away more firmly. Make her stand tall again, all by herself, lift up her chin. She nods. Pond understands it now too.
"That's amazing," River says, and only this interruption breaks the moment.
"What is, Mrs Doctor Professor-?"
"You-"
"Oh, I know. I still wonder at it sometimes myself."
"- have been operating entirely in sixty second bursts since Mun Jones left us."
"I have not!"
"Sixty seconds on the Tardis, sixty seconds from the Tardis over here, sixty seconds with Daddy and you just finished sixty seconds with Mum."
"Who's Mun Jones?" Rory asks. He's given up on disbelief, since we can almost always produce proof, but he's not beyond thinking we've made up a name like Hamunaptra Jones.
Dragging Amy behind me I return to them and sit back down. "Oh, now Rory, there's a story. And I am a poet, a fact of which I was unaware. Allow me to tell you a strange and lonely tale which I have tentatively titled, 'Shaft in Space'."
Amy, in a breathy, noiseless way, laughs at that. Sits down next to Rory, who looks at her as though she hasn't done that in days, and winds his hand through hers.
The aurora fields shift from lilac and blue to blue and blue. A perfect, roiling sea of probably cobalt calcide or something equally useful, but just the right colour. Maybe, hopefully, my first good omen in a good long while.
We could all use a little good luck.
[See you on the other side, folks. – Sal.]