It was complicated. It always was with her, isn't it? From what she could tell from the books and the stories, it was supposed to be simple: boy meets girl, girl dies, boy goes back in time and gives her a happily ever after before she dies. A few details here and there with adventures and lots of running, of course.
That was what 'simple' looked like for River on a normal day.
And it was simple. For a while, at least, that was how it went. She'd played her part and died where she was supposed to die. She became a story, just like he had. But the thing about stories is that they lived among other stories, and one way or another, they were all connected.
That's where it got complicated.
She'd thought it was Him. It was an easy mistake, mind you, this body was new and the eyes weren't working right. Nothing was, actually. The lungs failed to take in air, the brain failed to think. The skin didn't even feel like it was there. Every place her body was in contact with anything stung like hell.
And the man above her, well, it looked like a man anyways, said: "Is it alive?"
Another voice answer with a yes, though if she could talk she'd beg to differ.
"Then why is she still burnt? It's disgusting."
"The healing process must reverse the death," another voice explained. At least her ears were working. "If her death was by fire, then she must be reborn by fire."
Well, that would explain why it felt like her skin was being torn off. The only reason she didn't scream was because her vocal cords didn't work yet.
"Hurry it up. This ship can only go so fast."
Ship?
River couldn't turn her head. She couldn't move besides slight eye twitches of her eyes which was mostly involuntary.
"Yes, Lord President. We'll be reaching our destination in two hours."
"Two hours? We are lords of time for heaven's sake!"
"The ship cannot use its temporal motors while the energy is being used to heal the subject, my lord. You did say that you wanted her whole before we arrived…?" The voice sounded hesitant like it might get a slap on the wrist for daring to ask.
There was a sort of harrumphing from the first voice and a general mumbling of 'very well'.
Thing got fuzzy after that. The pain started to ease away and she was hoping that release might finally come until another shadow of a person passed over her. Suddenly something was being shoved down her throat, scraping delicate tissues. She could taste the blood on the back of her tongue and felt oxygen being forced into her lungs, straining her chest to inhale. The pain from the rest of her body came flooding back with her senses.
"Be still," one of the voices said. "Don't struggle, now."
It wasn't something she could help. She couldn't feel what her body was doing, only that it felt like she was burning alive. Something pricked her neck just then and the pain started to fade once more.
-x-
River wakes in a bed. It's a soft one with proper blankets and pillows and no straw poking through the sheets which are already an improvement from that last few days. She tests slowly to see if her body is working yet, flexing her hands and feet experimentally. She's still sore but no sharp pains bother her anymore.
Opening her eyes she finally looks around at the room. Light from a window near the bed allows yellow light to blanket the room. It's a bedroom and a fairly nice one at that. It looks well kept but mostly plain aside from a single flower in a tall glass on the nightstand by the bed.
River sits up and regrets it quickly as nausea rushes over her and she has to lean back against the bed frame to take a moment to breathe.
In her moment of disarray, there comes a soft knock on the door.
River squints in the direction of the door as it opens and a tall woman in a dark, heavy dress invites herself in. In her hands in a tray of breakfast and River can see most notably that the hands that hold it are scaly and green.
The woman doesn't notice River is awake until she places the food on the nightstand. "Oh!" She perks up. "You're up."
River takes a second to see if her voice works. "How… How long...?"
"Four days," the woman says. Her accent is British, River can tell, but that doesn't discount extraterrestrial.
"A woman… sh-shows up at your door near death and you… and you decide to let her stay?" River finds herself struggling, needing to pause for breath every few words.
"Well, would you expect me to leave you out in the cold?"
"Could have… could have called a hospital or something."
"You hate hospitals, River," the woman huffs. "That's a lesson I'll never forget. And a bill you still owe me for the collateral."
River stares. She doesn't recall giving the woman her name or having any sort of ID on her. "Do I know you?"
The woman stops short, caught in surprise at the question. "Should I have reason to worry that you don't?"
River stares harder at the face of her host, willing her eyes to focus on the reptilian skin that covers her whole body. The woman stands on two feet, but the rest of her screams amphibian. She's got no hair, but instead ridged skin that rises out of the back of her head. Her nose and eyes are like slits in her hide, though her mouth has surprisingly human-looking teeth.
"Silurian," River murmurs, exhausted from trying to figure it out.
"Says the Hybrid," the Silurian responds snarkily. "An easy observation if you know your species."
"I… I know you…" It's almost a question and she can feel herself slipping back into sleep.
"Yes, you do," the Silurian says more softly this time. She reached for River's hand. "My name is Vastra. And we go very far back."
"I can't… rem…" River can't finish, her body slacking.
Vastra sighs, "Oh dear, what have they done to you?"