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Thursday Afternoon

The Eighth Year, Second Week - The Old Girl

Isaiah was turning into a shadow of his old self at thirteen years of age he was hardly recognisable as the fun loving five-year-old who swooped and soared in the park one lazy afternoon. It was killing those around him as much as the illness itself was killing him.

His parents argued, Clara worried and Samson grew bigger each day silently aware of his brother's coming fall. The Doctor and River held off for three years before they sat Isaiah down explain the exact intricacies of The Raggedy Man and his blue box. It was there, again, that they explained the devastating effects of Isaiah's illness before they told him of a solution. Then it was left in the boy's hands. Thirteen years old and he had to make the call towards saving his life or not.

The decision remained unknown to the adults, the boy playing his cards close to his chest as the world continued to move around him and each day he grew closer to his death.

The small family was curled up on the small couch in the quaint sitting area at the opposite end of the kitchen. Both boys were worn out and tired, birthday cake frosting smeared across both their faces as they fought sleep against their parent's shoulders. Samson was standing, practically leaning against the couch and River's side, his little eyes drooping as he fidgeted to stay awake. On the other end of the couch sat Isaiah, leaning against his father. "Do you know what would be really good?" He asked quietly into their silent moment. The Doctor shifted, turning to address the child who was asking for the attention. "Mum and the TARDIS and adventure for her birthday." The young boy, the teenager, explained to his father a shimmer of light, of hope flashing in the depths of his green eyes. The Doctor responded in the same manner.

"What are you two whispering about?" River asked as she shifted up and off the couch, Samson held against her hip as his head finally lulled against her shoulder in sleep.

"Nothing." Isaiah shook his head also getting up. The boy followed his mother around the couch before she paused and asked him what was up. Deciding that there was no time better than the present Isaiah tilted his head to the side and asked her to follow him out the back door.

Since they told Isaiah the truth about his father, honestly and detailed the workings of the TARDIS, enough for the thirteen-year-old to understand The Doctor had started leaving the machine in the backyard rather than around the corner. The four of them fell out in the dark of night, the light from inside the house spilling against the grass. It was The Doctor who moved ahead of Isaiah and his mother, approaching the TARDIS before the both of them did.

The woman stopped, eldest child holding onto her fingertips as the youngest continued sleeping in her arms. She knew what the boys were up to, she knew exactly and she didn't want to go along with it. It was late, she was tired, it was her birthday … but she was The Child of the TARDIS. Who was she to turn the machine down. It had been close to nine years since she last stepped inside and the urge to do so was strong.

"C'mon River, it'll just be the stars. Come see our stars. Please?" He was standing in the open doorway to the great machine, impossible smile on his face as The Doctor held his hand out invitingly towards his wife. It was almost as though the energy moved through him, slipping out the door and dancing across the length of his outstretched arm before the time energy leaped from his finger tips and glided into her skin. River shivered as the energy collided inside her an old feeling reawaken in the shortest of moments. Samson shifted in her arms, disturbed in his sleep by the energy reheating her skin, almost making her glow.

Isaiah had moved from standing in front of his mother to hiding behind her as he felt the time energy, saw it and smelt it as it mingled in the cool night air, teasingly tugging at his insides and pulling on his hair. This is what his mother had been hiding him from. Not the machine itself but the energy, the thrill, the awakening he would feel and the urge to be out there, amongst it, dancing across the stars forever encased in the glowing gold energy that warmed his heart and echoed a second beating.

He had heard stories through his father, his mother and on occasion Clara. The child never thought he would actually come face to face with the infamous police box his father publically called 'The TARDIS' or fondly 'The Old Girl'. He had seen the box before, the thing taking up residence in his backyard when his father came to visit but on this night underneath the moonlight and soft yellow hue coming from the warm house, it was the bluest blue Isaiah Song had ever seen and it was drawn to it like something he could never believe. This was a child meeting a faerie tale character come to life, the pull, the excitement, the disbelief. It was all happening to the boy, hiding behind his mother's skirt.

"C'mon." The Doctor called, his eyes on his wife as he begged her with and without the words. He watched as a tremor moved through her both temptation and fear as she stood there in the garden watching as he pulled down the walls she had so carefully built around herself. The sleeping child, smacking his lips in his dream grounded her, kept the woman standing barefoot in the grass as her long skirt flirted with the foliage. She could barely feel Isaiah's hands gripping onto her skirt as she listened to the soft creak of wind flowing past his oxygen tank and the trees talking as though they were witnessing the happening of fate. "

She misses you." He pleaded softly, almost childlike. The Doctor stepped away from his TARDIS and towards his wife, hand still out stretched but now close enough to touch her. He tugged on her hand giddily as it hung limply at her side but the woman stood her ground and simply shook her head in return.

The Doctor watched her, his green eyes melting into hers in the soft dark as he watched the tug undo her constraints and the chain fell away, making the woman powerless to resist. He tugged on her hand once more and this time the woman moved freely allowing him to pull her and their boys towards the awaiting machine.

The doors swung open and as soon as she took a step inside it was almost as though she had forgotten how to breathe. "Hello, Old Girl." River whispered whimsically as the feeling of coming home overwhelmed her.

"Can I?" Isaiah asked, hovering in front of the door. The Doctor turned to his wife, this was her call. This was one thing she had hidden him from.

River turned her eyes away from the glistening sliver and humming machine and laid them on her husband. "I want him to see it all, don't get me wrong but I'm scared he'll get caught up in it. That he won't want to leave and after all this time everything I've done will feel like a waste of effort."

Turning back to his son The Doctor nodded. The effort she put in to raising their son, into protecting him from this world. It would never go to waste and deep down they had both known it. They watched with happy smiles as Isaiah stepped into the TARDIS for the first time, his oxygen tank trailing behind him as he held his breath and spun around.

"It's bigger on the inside." He whispered, astounded. The Doctor grinned. It felt as though time had stopped while River and The Doctor watched their son explore the machine that instantly recognized his blood. Minutes passed, hours maybe as Isaiah moved, his hands skirting across the console like he was trying to memorise every square inch of it and figure out what it could all do. "You said the stars." Isaiah spoke, breaking the silence and hurtling them through time to catch up from their dazed admiration.

The Doctor nodded, jumping towards the console as he pressed buttons and pulled levers. Isaiah watched closely as his father moved, bright smile on his face as he followed the pattern he had been performing for longer than most young children could count. He hovered near the console making sure to stay out of his father's way but intrigued enough to step closer every few seconds. The Doctor stopped to watch his son, so in awe he hadn't noticed the excitement of his father's fluid movements stop.

"Isa." He whispered as he moved towards his son. "Isa, go open the door." The boy snapped out of his stupor his eyes watching the movement of his father's eager face. Wonder sparked in his eyes as he turned slowly towards the door. His mother was behind him, Samson now awake in her arms as the teenaged boy pulled open the doors and stepped right into his wildest imagination.

A planet did not lay beyond the doors instead the dark depths of the universe exposed itself to Isaiah Song, the stars shining brighter than ever while planet Earth loomed bellow. He stared at the wonder in front of him, amazed before turning wide eyes to his father in disbelief.

"Dad?" He started.

"Son." Amused he smiled back.

Flabbergasted Isaiah turned back to the literal open space in front of him. He stared bewildered as his mother stood silently by his side.

"Is it as good as you thought?" The Doctor asked, joining his family by the open door.

Isaiah refused to pull his eyes away from the sight before him as he whispered his answer. "Better." He beamed. Nothing could describe the way they stood there, The Time Lord, the man who roamed the galaxies like a lone nomad was experiencing it all again, watching the universe twirl and expand through the eyes of his son. They all stood, aware of the drumming pulse of the universe gliding in through the doors and smashing into their skin. Samson sat on his mother's hip, nonplussed at the happenings, more perturbed that his sleep was disrupted than anything else, The Doctor wasn't surprised at this response, he knew the boy didn't feel it like the rest of them did. Samson didn't have the same make-up in his blood, there was no magnetic pull towards the vast universe that lay before him. Instead boredom and the toddler's incessant need for sleep. The child shifted in his mother's arms, fist in his mouth, drool on her shoulder while his hair stuck to his head, The Doctor couldn't help but laugh at the child's disregard. He understood, he really did, he also knew that one day Samson would admire the stars, that they would send him hurtling into adventures but for now, it was all a terrible, inconvenient bore and his mother wasn't as great as his stable, unmoving bed.

Stepping back from the door, The Doctor silently took the struggling boy from his mother's grip and settled him in his arms. Samson grunted both in annoyance and appreciation for the shift in bodies. Allowing for his wife to reconnect with the stars she had so long ago given up, with the child she had forsaken them for.

He wandered the halls of the TARDIS, the toddler sleeping limp and heavy in his arms. He hummed as the machine did too lulling the boy and leading the man to a small room she'd hidden away. The lights were off as The Doctor entered a small nursery his feet stepping cautiously in the room he had never before seen. Happily he put the boy down on a small bed at his feet an infant's crib. Samson hadn't slept in anything that held protective walls since he'd turned three months beforehand, the boy sighed heavily, his little face thankful in his relaxed sleep when his back collided with the mattress.

River and Isaiah were by the door when he returned to the console room, his son had rid his face of the life sustaining device that made sure enough air was filling his malfunctioning lungs. He was sitting on the floor, his legs drifting out into space, his shoulders relaced with the cool, calm calamity of the day. The Doctor realised, as he watched his sick son take in his wildest, forbidden dream that there was no going back, not to Earth, not to live. Isaiah would not be holed up on that planet anymore, his father could feel the cogs turning in the adolescents mind as he stared out at the stars. River would be devastated, The Doctor imagined, but he also hoped some part of her would be relieved. She was never one to be held back and yet she caged herself on that planet, in that time and just like her son she would not go back so easily.

But he didn't want them in that self-chosen cage, he would not force them back, instead, although his son's decision remained in the mind of the thirteen-year-old himself The Doctor could still suggest one place, that would most definitely help the boy no matter his decision.

Sneaking up behind his wife, The Doctor reached tenderly for her hand. River sighed heavily as she allowed him to pull her away from the view, quietly he whispered a time and place and watched as her face clouded with confusion and then the faintest hint of fury.

"We're not going back to Leadworth, not to live." The Doctor told her as the woman quickly shook her head, disagreeing with the words he had whispered. "He won't River, he won't go back to living there." Tossing a look over her shoulder the woman check on her son, still sitting in the door way, the universe splayed at his feet. She was denying what she saw, denying her son of what he felt but she knew her husband was right and he would have to win this round. "We still don't know what he wants to do, but River, they have the Sisters there whatever his choice, it would be beneficial River."

"Wouldn't home be beneficial, he's not getting any better Sweetie. He need to be comfortable, he needs to be at home."

The Doctor shook his head. "We said this was his choice. We need to let him choose." Admitting defeat River didn't look at her husband as she nodded her head and huffed a small 'fine'.

"Isa," She called out to her son, voice soft as to not startle the boy who was teetering on the edge of reality. The boy turned, his eyes inspecting his mother, surely she wouldn't interrupt him, not when he was so enthralled. "Dad has an idea and we need you to decide."

"Why can't grownups make their own decisions? I'm just a kid." Isaiah muttered the last part so his mother couldn't hear. He watched them, both of his parents silently for a moment, waiting for them to continue. "Yes?" He asked, encouraging them they had wanted to talk after all.

"There's a hospital." The Doctor began, "The best hospital in the whole universe, I think we need to go there." He offered, unsure of what else to say. The Doctor knew his son would understand what he was getting at but he was still at a loss for words.

Isaiah shrugged simply as his eyes tracing over the console room, brow crinkled as he searched for something silently. Turning his attention back to his parents Isaiah shrugged. "I guess." His parents were started at the boy's almost uncertain tone, everyone waited for someone else to make the next move. "Where's Sammy?" Isaiah asked, eyes moving around the room in search for his little brother.

"Sleeping." The Doctor answered simply before he explained the room he had found. "Are you sure about this Isaiah?"

The boy nodded and then shrugged again. "I guess." The same answer had River vibrating with disapproval, The Doctor waited for her to call the whole idea quits but she didn't. "What about my friends and Clara? Will I be able to see them again?"

"You'll see Clara again, your friends will have to wait until after you're better." Isaiah's face fell a little bit, he had struggled, as his father had known, in making friends and once he had some the boy was reluctant to just up and leave them.

"What if I don't want to get better?" Head lowered Isaiah asked quietly. River stiffened in front of him but The Doctor didn't flinch.

"The Sisters of Plenitude can help with everything, Isaiah. You'll be fine." The Doctor ignored River's disgruntled murmur like he had ignored the exact words his son had spoken. The Sisters of Plenitude were not exactly remembered for the best of things. Human cloning for the purpose of medical correction still wasn't highly regarded, even for the 51st century.

Isaiah shook his head. "I know I could get better, but what if I don't want to?" He asked again, a little louder and determined this time for his father to hear him. The Doctor opened his mouth, prepared to argue back but his son had him beat. They put the choice into his hands regardless of what decision the thirteen-year-old made.

"How about we go to New Earth anyway?" River prompted, her own battle playing out in her head. She did not keep her son alive for thirteen-years to let him think he could just simply die. "Just for a little while, Sweetie, it's probably better that we do. It can be an adventure, New Earth is full of it's own nooks and crannies. And well, it is actually a whole new world." The boy smiled brightly at his mother, forcing it for her sake. But the child, the teenager honestly believed that neither adult knew what it was that he had admitted too.

With the same forced smile, Isaiah nodded. He would do anything to make sure his parents felt as though they were in charge, but he didn't want to live through this. We wanted to end with the illness, his failing lungs were his. They did not need to be fixed. And the boy himself was certain of that fact.