The Doctor strode for the Tardis passed the different diplomatic groups, nodding and smiling, as he crossed the diplomatic chambers that reminded him so much of his old white control rooms, minus the roundels. Tweed, bowtie, braces all in perfect order with only dashed fingers through his dark floppy bangs giving a sign of anything else. His bandy legs fought to go faster, but he refused and somehow, for a change, stayed in control of them. But when the Tardis doors closed, he slumped, eyes squeezing shut.
"Doctor?" Rory asked.
His soft voice still sounded over the Old Girl's hums and sounds in the control room. He stood across from the doctor with Amy leaning over the railing.
She straightened up. "Something's wrong."
"Yes, Amy. Something is wrong."
She ignored his snapping at her. "What happened at the negotiations?"
"Nothing! Nothing happened at them, Pond."
"And that's what's wrong," Rory said.
Rory Williams. Good solid Rory Williams who would have been happy living a life around the duckless pond back home instead of living... well, this.
The Doctor finally let out a deep breath. "Yes, that's the problem."
He dropped into the one seat by the console. "Everything came to an immediate bang up stop at the introductions."
"Because?" Amy prompted in a moment.
The Doctor didn't want to say it. Not one word of it. Because it would lead to other words, words he really didn't want to say. "Because some idiot failed to let me know when they invited me to this thing that's supposed to save billions of people that you have to bring your heir. Blood heir. Or be the bloody heir yourself."
There he said it. But not the words that described the faces in his mind. What would be the point besides pain.
Rory's, "I'm sorry," soothed this.
The Doctor dropped his hand from his face.
"We lost Melody," Rory said, "but we did get her back. Our Melody. I mean, that's what really matters."
He came up and dropped a hand on the Time Lord's shoulder. Rory the nurse. Rory the father. Stronger than any of them because he left the duckless pond to never fail Amy.
"What can we do?" Amy asked.
"Well, Pond," the Doctor's ache made his voice rise again. "I suppose I go out into the universe, make a bunch of babies, and come back after they're trained."
"Ok," she said and pulled him up by his lapels. "You're useless," she somehow said in a gentle way. "Go take a walk around the Tardis. Get something to eat, prowl in your workshop, whatever. We'll talk while you're gone."
She pushed him off and he left only because he did need a minute, because what could he really do? Not even Jenny...
He closed that off too. He used his long legs to go mindlessly down one corridor to another, went in and out of rooms, paced in a spot here and there, until he passed by the console room again.
"No!" Rory shouted.
The Doctor wasn't sure if that was aimed at him so he almost went in.
"I said, No, Amy!" Rory yelled.
The Time Lord took off for deeper into the Tardis and away from the yelling, but his curiosity and the absolute need of those billions of people to live made him go back. Only Amy stood there, quickly changed to a dark suit, looking down the walkway that led to different rooms.
He didn't even get to ask. She pounced on him in a very Pond way – Pouncing Ponds? Pond Pounce? Pondce? - and spun him towards the doors.
"Go on out there and let them know that the speakers for your delegation are coming. Oh, and put this in your ear." She shoved the tiny communicator in herself.
"Ow! What is going on?"
"Go!"
He'd refuse but he saw the absolute sureness in the way she looked at him. The Tardis herself hummed on a warm note. He still shot them both a look before he left with a sharp turn of his foot. His head came up as he walked out and grabbed the eyes and other visual appendages in the room, especially those at the white round table.
"I have negotiators coming who meet your criteria," he repeated, even though Amy hadn't said exactly that.
Both Tardis doors swung open and out as if horns heralded the arrival of royalty. Two people strode out to the edge of the congregation and stopped. The Doctor's jaw dropped while the confusion and grumblings around him turned to wide eyes and gasps. Everyone either hurriedly stood or did whatever they needed to for the same effect and saluted.
The man at the front of the pair nodded in a return salute hail. His armor of leather and cloth marked him as separate from the ancient Rome's Legions with their classic metal uniform, and his head was bare. His cape swung over his left shoulder revealing his sword. The woman next to him copied what he wore except she had no leggings under her skirt but leather armor on her lower legs.
The head of the delegation spoke first, looking almost human except for the red tint to his skin and the much smaller ears. "The Lone Centurion!"
The legend who had cut through his enemies to reach his wife held hostage as well as, everyone was finding out, someone else he'd do anything to protect.
He got another nod. Everyone sat except for the head.
Amy had slipped in, putting another communicator in her ear while she and the Doctor slipped to the advisors' spots. Her grin lit her face as the Doctor smiled.
No wonder Rory had refused. He swore he'd never do this again. But billions of lives... they needed thousands of years' experience to stand for them. They needed their Centurion.
The Roman was let out from behind his door.
He had something else.
The same man spoke again. "We hadn't heard you had an heir."
"My daughter," Rory said, firm. "And my firstborn."
River echoed her father's earlier nod.
"Of course," the man said.
Suddenly, eyes turned back to the Doctor before going back to the pair. The convenient pair and their sudden arrival.
The heir to the Aencuils delegation rose again, looking like a humanoid armadillo. "We must test your statement that she is yours."
River's eyes narrowed at the challenge, but her mouth smirked at one corner. Rory, on the other hand, simply agreed and two nurses scurried forward. River took their scanner and examined it before nodding in approval. Some around the table growled at this while others approved of the move to not accept everything without question in such a setting.
The genetic scan was simple and quick, although the med techs frowned at something they saw in River's. But they confidently announced, "He is her father."
Amy and River smiled the same smile. Rory turned to his daughter then and something Rory showed through. The Doctor could tell. And River's look softened.
Her mother whispered, "She's such a daddy's girl, yeah?"
The Doctor held back a giggle. He ran his fingers through his hair again, this time for River if she looked again at him, then he swept his jacket back and put his hands on his hips, showing off his braces. He saw a gleam in her eyes showing he noticed.
"Oh sure," Amy whispered. "Now's the time to flirt." But her own eyes glinted as she watched her husband while a softer look came over her at her daughter.
Rory went to his chair and reported, "We stand for humanity at these discussions. For peace and the protection of the innocent."
He sat at last and River took her place at his right shoulder, sweeping the other firstborns with a wicked glance that warned them off from her father.
A secretary for the delegations asked, "How shall we record your daughter's name?"
"Melodia," she replied, giving them the ancient Rome's version of her name, head high and eyes sparkling.
All so very... Pond, the Doctor thought.
The head sat down as well and called them to order. "Let us begin."