In Moments Like This
Disclaimer: This doesn't LOOK like Cardiff…
Chapter 10:
"Why is the library in the pool?" Charlotte asks as she wanders the edge, staring up at the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that line the walls.
"It—well—it's complicated," the Doctor mumbles as he leans against the doorjamb. River laughs. "It is!"
"The TARDIS sometimes reconfigures herself when the console changes," River explains. "And when the Doctor regenerated from ten to eleven, it was rather explosive."
"Because of the radiation," Charlotte says, nodding along.
"You told her?" the Doctor asks.
"Yes," River says dismissively. "So, anyway, while the TARDIS was crashing, eventually ending up at Amy's house, the library kind of…migrated."
"But didn't you have to get rid of the swimming pool to go outside of the Universe?" Charlotte asks, looking back at them.
"River," the Doctor groans.
"What? It helped explain the whole sentient ship thing."
He sighs and then looks back at her daughter. "I did, but it came back."
"With the library in it," Charlotte concludes.
The Doctor squirms a little beside her and River gives him a look. "Ah—yes," he says.
"And you never put it back?" Charlotte wonders, returning to stand in front of them.
"It's cool like this," he argues, gesturing around them. "And I couldn't move the library without moving the pool, and I needed the double doors at the other end because someone," he glances significantly in River's direction, "had a penchant for diving off buildings and landing in my pool."
"You loved it," she says, grinning as Charlotte laughs.
"And you kept it even after mummy was gone?" Charlotte asks.
The Doctor stiffens for a moment then relaxes, nodding at the girl. "I like it like this."
River squeezes his hand and pushes off from the wall, bringing him with her. "What shall we see next?"
Charlotte bounces on her toes, grinning up at them. "What's best?"
"Ooh, we could play squash," the Doctor says, leading them out of the room. "Haven't done that in a while."
"What's squash?" Charlotte asks as she and River trail after the Doctor as he leads them down a series of twisting hallways.
"What's squash?" he repeats, indignant. "River, what have you been teaching your daughter?"
"Darling, you can barely play," River says with a laugh. "It's a sport rather like tennis," she tells Charlotte. "But played against a wall."
"I don't like tennis," Charlotte says, wrinkling her nose.
"It's like tennis," the Doctor grumbles. "But fine. We'll go see something else."
"We can see the squash courts," Charlotte says instantly.
River shakes her head at her over-eager-to-please daughter, but the Doctor merely smiles and beckons them onward. He stops and opens a random door and bursts into laughter.
"Well, this used to be a squash court," he says, turning to grin at them. "I think she heard you, Charlie."
River nudges Charlotte forward and crowds behind her to see into the room, which has become an enormous bouncy castle.
"Oh dear," River mutters as Charlotte lets out a squeal and bolts forward, disappearing into the multi-roomed, multi-floored inflatable, bouncing structure inside the court.
It shakes and shifts with her daughter's movements, bright blues and greens and purple panels nearly vibrating as Charlotte shrieks and laughs inside.
"Should we join her?" the Doctor asks as he slides a hand along her waist.
"It's just the one court, right?" River asks, reaching out to touch the wall. The TARDIS hums beneath her hand and River sighs. "Just the one. Personally, darling, I'd rather not spend the next day getting static out of my hair."
The Doctor laughs and uses the hand on her waist to spin her into his chest, leaning down to claim her lips before she can even squeak. She sighs into him and laces her arms up around his neck, smiling lightly as he backs them into the wall beside the door.
The wall behind her cools as his hands begins to traverse her curves and she can't help but laugh, startled.
"What?" he mumbles against her mouth.
"Sexy's helping," River gets out as she works her fingers beneath his jacket.
"Helping?" His lips break from hers to move to her neck.
"Wall's cold. You're hot," she pants.
He pauses, his lips pressed to her pulse before his back starts to shake. He laughs into her neck and stumbles into her, pinning her against the wall as they giggle together.
"Does she—did she do this often?" he wonders a minute later, when they've collected themselves, further from hot and heavy and leaning more toward content and cuddling.
"Sometimes," River admits as they shift around until she's leaning into his chest, his arms wrapped around her. "Certainly moved some of those control levers when we were, well, occupied on the console."
"She—Oh." He dips his head and hides his face in her curls, as if the TARDIS might be standing nearby, watching. She does seem to hum beneath their feet and against their backs, so perhaps he's not so silly.
"She was always happy," River tells him. "Happy that you were happy."
"Missed you so much," he mumbles, and she's not sure if he's referring to himself or his ship. Hardly matters, she thinks, as he squeezes her closer.
She arches up on her toes and kisses him.
"Oh, ew."
They break apart in surprise as Charlotte comes out of the court. She stares at them in mild disgust and the Doctor quickly takes his hands off of River's bottom while River straightens her dress.
"Are you done playing, dear?" River asks, going for an unruffled expression.
"Only if you're done kissing."
The Doctor opens his mouth but River covers it with her hand before he can say anything, or lean in to kiss her just to see Charlotte wrinkle her nose. It's adorable, but they've tortured the poor girl enough.
"We'll behave. Now, what to see next?" Charlotte shrugs, reaching up to cover her mouth as she yawns. "Or perhaps it's bedtime."
"No," Charlotte says instantly, shaking her head.
"Oh, I think so," River decides, pulling away from the Doctor to take her daughter's hand. "It'll be much more fun tomorrow when you're more awake."
"But—but—"
"But nothing," River says sternly. Charlotte huffs but closes her mouth, walking forlornly beside her as River leads them back the way they came.
The Doctor appears at her side, leaning close. She nearly stumbles at the feeling of his breath at her ear, but manages to keep her footing.
"What if we slept here tonight? I'm sure there's already a room for Charlie," he whispers.
She suppresses her shiver and glances at him. "Yeah?"
"I'm sure of it."
"Charlie," River says, pulling her body away from his to look down at her daughter. "Would you like to sleep on the TARDIS tonight?"
Charlotte's eyes light up and she surges forward to wrap her arms around River's waist, babbling incoherently into her stomach.
"I'll take that as a yes," the Doctor says, chuckling as Charlie breaks away from her to wrap her arms around the Doctor as well. "Glad you're excited, poppet," he murmurs.
Charlie pulls back and looks up at him, wonder on her face, and River's heart melts. Like this. It would have felt like this, to wander the TARDIS at night with a little girl or little boy, to argue over bedtimes and take the baby out on flights. She's never retroactively wanted anything so much, and been so glad to have it now.
She follows her husband and daughter as they wind their way back toward the console, stopping a few doors down from their room for the Doctor to push open a worn, deep green door. River smiles and walks up behind the pair, peering over their shoulders at the near replica of Charlotte's room in the mainframe.
"Mummy look!" Charlotte exclaims, running into her room to point out the window.
"She's generating it for us, I suppose," the Doctor murmurs as he and River approach Charlotte, staring out the window into what appears to be deep space. "Though, I wonder if we got high enough up, if we could take a lift, virtually, and look out a—well, make a big screen somewhere and tube in the view," he mumbles.
"After she gets a good night's sleep," River says, squeezing his hand as she reaches out to trail her other through Charlotte's hair, smoothing down the stray strands mussed by static. "Bedtime, little miss."
"But mum!"
"You can watch space from your bed, can't you?" River prompts, giving Charlotte an indulgent smile as she turns to look up at her.
"Fine," she lets out on a sigh. "Is," she pauses and looks at the Doctor. "Is everything the same?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"Because—oh," Charlotte says, stalling to close her eyes. "It is! My bathroom is just through this door, not in the hall," she adds, pointing to a door by her armoire.
"Then hop to it," River instructs, nudging her gently toward the bathroom door.
Charlotte goes, dragging her feet as she does. River withholds a laugh, keeping her face impassive lest her daughter turn around. When the door closes, River leans into the Doctor, pressing her face into his shoulder and giggling softly.
"She can talk to the TARDIS," he says.
"You knew that."
"But—the way you can talk to the TARDIS. I know we can no longer talk to each other, but why don't I get this kind of preferential treatment? All I get are shakes and shivers and the occasional hum."
The TARDIS laughs inside River's head and she presses her lips together. "You're not a Pond, dear," she offers, chancing a glance at him, only to find him scowling back at her.
"Oi! Am so too. Mr. Pond."
"That's father," she counters.
"Mr. Song then," he says, straightening his bowtie. "Thought we'd been married enough for you both to know my name."
"But that's not quite how it works," River argues, unable to stop smiling, because he does actually think it—
"Of course it is! What would you be then? River Doctor? Doctor River Doctor? That's ridiculous."
River laughs, unable to come up with a good response. Her lovely, righteous husband. "Of course, dear," she manages after a minute in which he frowns as she tries to reclaim her composure. "Doctor River Song and Doctor Song."
"Better be. I have our marriage license framed in the den."
"Which one?" she wonders, trying to remember if she caught a glimpse of it at one time or another.
"All of them," he says off-handedly as Charlotte comes back into the room. "That is a marvelous nightdress," he exclaims.
Charlotte blushes, fiddling with the waist of the TARDIS blue dress that falls to her toes, complete with white windows and the Police Box heading around the collar. She walks around them and hesitantly climbs into her bed, looking up at both of them with wide eyes. River watches her, rather concerned at the shy, nearly overwhelmed look on her daughter's face, until it clicks. She's never had two people tuck her into bed, at least, not as long as she's been here.
The thought cracks her already bursting heart and River instinctively sits at Charlotte's hip as she lays down. She reaches out and smoothes her hand along her cheek, smiling encouragingly at her daughter before she looks up at her husband.
"Have a good story in mind, dear?"
He beams at her and flops down onto the floor, knocking into the bedside stand and rattling the collection of gismos sitting on the top. He smiles guiltily up at them through his fringe and meets Charlotte's eyes across the bedspread, their heads at the same level.
"Did you know that I once fought with pirates? Well, once is a loose term. Your grandmother and I, and your granddad, Mr. Pond," he pauses and gives River a significant look. "Fought with pirates against a siren."
"Siren's aren't real," Charlotte pipes up.
"Alright, well, she wasn't really a siren, but for the intents and purposes of a bedtime story, can she be a siren?"
"I guess," Charlotte says on a sigh.
"Cheeky," the Doctor mutters, tossing her a wink.
Charlotte flushes at that and looks up at River, as if looking for a approval. Oh, dear, will the next weeks be full of attempts to impress and anxiety over every little word? She'll have to find a way to fix that, and fast. In the moment, she adjusts Charlotte's blankets and gives her a wink of her own.
"The siren?" River prompts, meeting her husband's eyes as he watches them with a fond smile.
He goes on to regale them with the story she knows well, having heard it from him, and Amy, and even Rory a time or two. And so instead of his words, she listens to the cadence of his voice, and watches as her daughter fights to the very end so she can get the full story before dropping exhaustedly into sleep.
They sit there for a few minutes when he finishes, the room bathed in the soft light from the stars on the ceiling, and the ambient purpling glow of the 'space' outside the window. River feels the Doctor's fingers brush over her ankle and looks down at him to find him watching her with a fond smile and lost eyes.
She smoothes out Charlotte's blankets one last time and stands, offering her hands to her husband. Together, they haul him off the floor and River guides him out of the room, closing the door with a small click and a hum from the TARDIS. He doesn't move, his eyes staring into hers, then tracking her face, her hair, her neck.
River leans up and presses her lips to his for a brief moment before pulling away, smiling as he leans after her, his eyes slowly blinking open. She tugs on his hand and leads them down the hall to their door. He reaches out and snags the handle before she can, and she watches as he turns the knob and pushes the door open to a room she never thought she'd see again.
And like everything else, it is the same—the deep red comforter on the bed, her over-large armoire in the corner with the standing mirror, one of his spare jackets thrown over the loveseat by the wall. Her things are still scattered on the dressing table along with bits of string and paper from his pockets. It's as though she's never left, like she stepped out for a quick trip to teach, or a pop back to Stormcage.
She steps into the room, feeling the haze of it settle over her like a warm blanket as she peers around. It's then that she notices the dust and the pristine state of the bed, the age of the jacket, the color of the bits of paper. He hasn't slept here in years.
"I had her keep it after our last…visit," he says, walking up to stand behind her, his chest warm against her back. "But after I just couldn't—it smelled like you, and you left notes everywhere, little pieces of you staring at me all the time and I couldn't—"
She leans into him, reaching back to yank his arm around her stomach so she can lace their hands together. She toes off her flats and lets her feet sink into the plush brown carpet. She wiggles her toes and feels the answering rush of energy beneath her feet. A light wind picks up around the room and the dust clears, leaving everything clean and bright.
"You play such favorites," he grumbles up at the ceiling.
River chuckles and squeezes his hands beneath hers. "The rest of us need some perks, sweetie."
"And flying her isn't perks enough?"
"Oh, you can hold a grudge, can't you?" she says, turning in the circle of his arms to look up at him. She reaches up and undoes his bowtie, drawing her fingers down his braces to rest her palms against his hearts when she finishes.
"I suppose it might be time to let it go," he offers as his fingers skim up and down her back.
"Might be?" She cocks her head as she begins slipping open the buttons on his shirt.
"Possibly," he says, fingers moving against her back to undo the zip on her dress.
"Perhaps?" she wonders, slipping the braces from his shoulders before finishing off his buttons.
He laughs as he pulls her in, his hands busy roaming beneath her dress, across her back and up and down. She presses her lips to his sternum, smiling at the hitch in his breath.
"I've missed your tub," she mutters into his skin.
He laughs and tugs her away to slip her dress from her shoulders. "Yours is enormous," he argues as she does the same to his shirt.
"But you have that bubble bath from Metraxis Seven," she says, giving him her largest eyes and pushing out her lower lip. "And they're blue."
"That's what you miss most of all? My blue bubble bath?" he asks, looking affronted. But his eyes twinkle and she smirks up at him.
"Well, company in the bath is nice as well," she says with a light shrug, skirting out of his arms to walk toward the ensuite.
She lets her dress pool at her feet and steps out of it just as she clears the doorway into the bathroom. She smiles as she hears him stumbling after her, his shoes hitting the floor with abandon as he goes.
She flicks on the light and grins into the room. The green and blue tiles sparkle back at her as she sweeps the room with her gaze, looking fondly at the abused towel rack and cluttered counter. The tub in the corner calls to her and she pads over, reaching behind her back to unclasp her brassiere, only to find his hands already there, his breath at her neck a moment later.
"Eager, are we?" she murmurs as she flicks on the taps and grabs the round, white bottle of bubble bath.
His only response is the press of his lips to the curve of her throat. She pours the soap in, watching with somewhat childish delight as the water turns blue and the bubbles begin to rise across the tub. He nips at her shoulder and her childish delight turns into another sensation all together.
By the time they're through with each other, the bathwater is luke warm and the bubbles have all but popped. His hands stroke aimlessly over her arms as she reclines against his chest, eyes unfocused.
"You know, 21st century Earth used to have a toilet plug that made the water this color," he offers.
She snorts and whacks at his leg as he giggles. "Charming."
"Well they did," he asserts, nuzzling his face into her hair.
"I know, dear. Amy and Rory had one for a while."
"Not while I was there," he grumbles. "Blue toilet water, River. That's cool."
"All of time and space, and you're fascinated by toilet water."
His hand slides down her arm and his fingers twine with hers so he can pull her hand up to his lips. She giggles as he nibbles on her fingers, pressing sloppy kisses to her palm in between. She shivers, half chilly in the water, half tickled by his antics.
"We need to get you warmed up," he whispers into her ear.
"Shower first," she groans as she sits forward.
His hands glide over her hips and down her thighs as she stands and climbs out of the tub. She turns and watches as he follows, blue water sluicing down his lean body as he goes. He follows her across the room to the cavernous shower, crowding her as she steps inside, his hands already busy across her body even before she gets the water on.
"How many hands do you have?" she mumbles as she drags both of them under the spray, water sliding down their bodies to swirl blue around the drain.
His fingers tangle in her curls and she rolls her eyes, washing down with him clinging to her like a koala. She'd be irritated, but it's been so long since he's done this—invaded her space and not let up until she gives in and continues to cuddle him.
"Never enough," he says as he spins them around so the water hits his back and hair, removing all traces of their bath.
"I've dated a few multi-limbs, nothing special," she says offhandedly as she scrubs at his hair.
"When—I—River," he scolds while she laughs.
"Nothing serious, darling," she assures him, patting his cheek.
"Dated a nesting duplicate, dated an android, dated a multi-limb. Is there anyone you haven't dated?" he grumbles as she pushes him from the shower and reaches for a towel.
"Never did get to know Jack well enough," she muses as she tosses a towel at him.
"There is a God then," he says as they dry off.
"We would have shared." He gives her a look. "Oh, like you weren't interested."
"S'not a matter of interest," he mumbles as he follows her out into the bedroom. "He became a giant head in a jar. There are things you just can't unsee, River."
River meets his eyes and bursts into laughter, falling onto the bed as he grins at her. She shuffles backward, tossing her towel to the floor as he looks her over. She smiles as he climbs up after her, her eyes moist from laughter. He places a few sloppy kisses to her cheek as they wrestle the bedspread out from under them and pull up the covers.
"No sharing," he says into her hair as they settle themselves down.
"That's not what you said that one ti—"
"No sharing," he repeats, his fingers on her mouth.
She licks his hand just to see him grimace. "Who would we share with, darling?"
His frown turns into a smirk and he leans down to kiss her for a long moment, his tongue hot and heavy against hers. "Glad that's settled," he decides as he pulls back a minute later.
"Not so much settled as—"
"Just give me this," he says, pouting at her. "I just got my wife back. I'm in no mood to contemplate sharing her."
River blows out a sigh and nods up at him, horrified to find that somehow, that little sentence has melted her heart. She's been away from him far too long if he can romance her so easily.
"Thank you," he says primly, before collapsing on top of her with a laugh.
She giggles and shoves at him until he's cuddled into her side, his head on her shoulder and arm across her stomach. She stares up at the canopy above them as she cards her fingers through his thick, damp hair. His fingers dance along her side, swirling patterns and Gallifreyan symbols across her skin. Around them, the TARDIS hums, light melodies flowing out of the walls and into her head. Her lullaby.
"River?" the Doctor whispers, his head tilting to look up at her.
"Nothing," she says quietly, reaching up with her free hand to wipe at her face. She's crying. Lovely. "Nothing I'm—I'm happy. Going soft. Don't mind me."
He chuckles and leans up to kiss her cheek, shifting them until she's cradled against his body, his hand in her hair and lips against her temple.
"I like you soft," he murmurs.
She giggles, the TARDIS laughing around them. She presses her lips to his chest and snuggles into him, letting his hand in her hair and the sound of his heartbeats lull her into sleep.
The last thing she hears as she drifts off is his soft voice murmuring through a Gallifreyan, "It's empty without you here."