Ch 58

The next day the Doctor finished another coat of paint in Freya's new room going to see Missy with a pocket full of scones, which happened to be after lunch.

Missy, of course, was still in the vault, sitting in one of the chairs and reading a book that Nardole had brought from the Doctor's office.

The Doctor dropped a scone into her lap upon entering the vault.

"Hello to you too." Missy murmured, taking the scone off her lap.

"I don't suppose Nardole's brought you any food?" He asked, settling into the chair near her.

"He dropped off a pack of crisps." She nodded to the still unopened package on the floor beside her.

"Not fond of 'Prawn Cocktail', then?"

"Not particularly." She took a bite of the scone, "You?"

"I'll trade you some more scones for them." He offered.

"Fine." She picked the bag up and tossed it to him. He tossed her the bag of scones simultaneously.

"How many times over have you read that book?"

"Seven so far. I find the ending gets more and more predictable each time I read it." She put the book down.

"I'll think about some new ones." He muttered.

"You didn't bring the Mrs with you this time?"

"Does it matter?" He watched her carefully.

She shrugged, "No, but I thought you two did everything together."

"That's not how being married works." He sighed.

"I know that."

He was silent for a moment. "You know the reason I haven't put many distractions in here is because I want you to think."

"About what?"

"About yourself. About all you've done; the evil. You've taken lives, even more lives than I have. I want you to think about that." He didn't phrase it like a question, but it wasn't quite an order either.

"Yes, dad." She gave him a small salute.

He huffed, slightly irritated. "Don't call me that."

"Why not?"

"Because you're not a child, let alone my child. That title is reserved for only them to use."

"Alright then, Doctor." She crossed her arms, "Better?"

He nodded, going quiet for another minute. "I have nightmares about it, you know."

"About what? You're going to have to be more specific."

"What you did to my children." He muttered.

"Which ones?"

He tried not to glare, "All of them."

"I'm sorry for what I did." She tried.

"Sorry isn't good enough. I need you to show me you won't go near them, not even a step, without my word."

"Well, I'm still in here, aren't I?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes, I suppose you are... are you going to stay then?"

"That's the plan."

"You understand, that breaking this promise will almost certainly lead to your death by either my hand or River's."

"Yes." She said in mocking tone, "I'm not daft."

He seemed satisfied with her answers, for now, settling to eat his crisps.

"So..." Missy said after about ten minutes of listening to the crunch or crisps, "Anything else?"

He exhaled through his nose. "You haven't started think about your victims yet, have you."

"Not yet." She crossed her arms.

"Well, why don't you go and start with my family, hm?" The suggestion was bitter.

She scowled but did as she was told. He got up, pacing and watching her.

It was a great deal of silence before she finally looked at him again eyes watery. Quietly he approached her again, crouching down in front of her. She looked at him, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, but this is good." He whispered.

She turned her face away from him "Okay."

Rising to his feet, he said, "I'll have Nardole bring you some real food tonight."

"Alright." She nodded.

He wondered if these tears were genuine or just a ploy. It made his stomach tighten to think of the possibility that they were the latter. His own memories of the night William was born were bubbling to the surface, reminding him of the pain and anger that would never truly leave him.

He felt a strong urge to find out if she was really remorseful or not, so he leaned down and brought his fingers to her temple with silent asking for permission. She gave a slight nod, allowing him to enter. Her mind wasn't a stranger to his, he'd been in it before a very, very long time ago. Regardless, he was cautious to make sure this was a one-way visit and he looked for the emotions he hoped she had.

The Doctor was a bit relieved to see that she did feel guilty, but he something in him wanted her to understand exactly the pain she'd caused. He carefully allowed her to see glimpses of his memories of that night.

She tried to jerk away at the first memory, not wanting to see. He held on, needing her to see this. It was one thing to feel bad, but he wanted her to understand exactly what it was to mourn someone irreplaceable. He had no doubt that his family wasn't the only one in the universe who had suffered like this by Missy's hand.

"Stop!" She tried to push him away. He pulled his hand away from her head, staring. She got out of the chair, fleeing to the other side of the vault.

Sighing, he finally moving to leave. He went back home with the TARDIS, trying not to let the memories flood him.

Back at the house, River was pacing, anxious about what was going on with Missy. All the children were occupied at friend's houses, so she didn't have to worry about them seeing her.

He parked the ship in their room, finding River downstairs. He found himself a bit drained from the visit, though tried to lighten himself up a bit by saying: "Honey, I'm home."

"And what sort of time do you call this?" River smiled softly, turning to him.

"Traffic was hell," he murmured, moving to kiss her.

She hummed against his lips, "How was she?"

"Remorseful." He whispered. She scoffed, not believing him. "What?"

"I doubt that."

He sat down on the couch, gesturing for her to sit next to him. "I looked in her mind, it seems her she really is feeling regret."

She crosses her arms, looking away from him.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"You know how much I hate that she's here. She's causing us so much stress."

"Progress isn't easy, but you know I believe it can be made."

"I know you do. That's the only reason I agreed to this."

"I suppose she'd be dead if you didn't." He murmured to himself. "I gave her another warning like I said I would. She understood."

"Thank you." She murmured.

He continued to tell her about the details of his visit in a level tone. River tried not to appear as worried as she felt, though the skin around her nails was already worn and loose.

He watched her carefully as he finished the recount, seeing right through her. "You look worried."

"I'm fine." She tried to assure him.

"I'm not." He murmured. "I rather think I could use a distraction."

"What kind of distraction?"

The corners of his lips raised with the sordid ideas that came to mind. "Well, the kids aren't here... That is a rare occurrence these days."

"Well, Mr Song," She purred, "I think you're going to have to get me in the mood first."

He grinned and pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. She laughed softly, leaning in to kiss him. He hummed against her lips, trying his best to push Missy out of his mind. Their actions grew more passionate with the attempt to clear their minds.

-x-

"Feel better?" River asked. They'd moved upstairs to the bedroom now curled up to each other under the sheets.

"Yes, a bit."

"Good, I'm glad." She nuzzled his chest softly.

"And you?"

She tensed, "I'm fine."

With his arms around her, he could detect the lie easily. "I'll finish putting away the guest furniture today," he murmured, changing the subject.

"I can help." She whispered, "I don't want you to have to do it by yourself."

"I don't want you to do any heavy lifting." He pressed a kiss to her head.

"I'll only take the light things, I promise." She smiled softly.

"Very well, but maybe in a bit." He hummed, not wanting to move. They stayed like that for a while longer, then spent the majority of the afternoon moving the furniture into the basement and the TARDIS.

They picked up Arthur and Terra after dinner since they'd decided not to have sleepovers and spent a while in the backyard playing football with them and Toby. Terra and the Doctor were on a team with Arthur and River on the opposite team. They played for quite a while, the two children doing most of the running. Toby seemed to be on both teams and ran in whichever direction the ball was going.

They played until the sun went down, at which point the Doctor made the kids go wind down and start getting ready for bed. River put the toys in the yard away, then went to go tidy up inside.

When both kids were asleep, the adults quietly took to the kitchen for a little wind down of their own. The Doctor pours drinks, a hard cider for himself and virgin ginger ale for River.

"Are you going to go see Missy again tomorrow?" River asked quietly, taking a sip of her ginger ale.

"Maybe not." He replied in the same tone. He was still shaken from the last visit and Missy certainly seemed apprehensive to him when he'd left. She visibly relaxed at that.

He didn't speak for a moment. "I've been thinking, Riv."

"About?"

"I think it might be a good idea to make time pass more quickly inside the Vault." He said slowly.

"Why?" She asked.

"One thousand years is a very long time, even for someone like me." He murmured. "I don't want our kids to grow up with her indefinitely over their shoulder. I don't want our baby to be born with 999 years of waiting to go. We can't live like this for that long to see if she maybe pops out good."

"I think that's a good idea." She nodded. If they sped up time, then her fear of living out the rest of their lives having to watch over Missy would be solved. "But what about when we go to see her? We'd have to be able to shut it down for those periods of time."

"Yes," he nodded. "Nardole and I can work on that. Even if we couldn't, a visit might only seem like a few seconds in there from out here."

"Okay, good." She touched his arm comfortingly.

He put his hand over hers. "I'll inform Nardole this week. We can get started soon."

"You're brilliant." She murmured, giving him a soft smile.

"You flatter." He offered a smile back and took a sip of his drink.

They chatted for a while, a bit about their plans for the house and bit of non-directional talk. After a while, they headed upstairs to bed.