The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 55
A/N: Final chapter of Forest of the Dead. I wonder what will happen at the end. Will River die or will Rhea and the Doctor save her somehow?
And today marks the first anniversary of The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday - In this story I have managed to post 56 chapters and over 400K words and I have receive 424 reviews. I have never been more proud of myself or my lovely readers. I love you all.
Hope you guys have a great New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and hope you all enjoy your special chapter, chock full of emotional Rhea.
Replies to Reviews:
grapejuice101: Well, I hope you like this quick update!
Ain'tEasyBeingBreezy: Well, I'm not going to reveal what she said to Rhea just yet, but you will find out soon.
beulah2013: Thank you so much! I like writing badass Rhea and I hope you like the display of her fighting skills and even more badassery in this chapter!
ToyWolf: I can understand that. Not everyone can like everyone. But Rhea is violent, maybe once you learn about her backstory, it'll better explain why she acts the way she does. I don't think, even once Rhea becomes a bit softer and kinder, she will ever let go of that violent part of her, because it's such an inherent personality trait.
TimeladyAlly: Thank you so much! Rhea will get a chance to shoot someone or kill someone and the Doctor won't like it. Actually, that'll probably be the most constant part of their relationship.
NicoleR85: Thank you so much!
DRWfangirl: It's fine, honey. Rhea acted like that because whatever River told her is something that would set her off. It's the same thing the Doctor told her in Chapter 1 and she'll talk about it a bit in this chapter.
Audrie-13: It's fine, review when you can! I enjoy all of them, no matter when they come. I hope you like this chapter though, I finished Forest of the Dead.
Warnings: Innuendo, flirting, swearing.
Forest of the Dead: Troubleshooting
The Doctor's eyes met Rhea's, a spark of electricity passing between the two. "Nobody says 'saved', nutters say 'saved', you say 'safe'. It didn't mean 'safe'. It literally meant... 'saved'!"
Donna and Miss Evangelista were walking in the park.
"What happened to your face?" Donna whispered, slowly.
"Transcription errors. Destroyed my face, did wonders for my intellect. I'm a very poor copy of myself."
Donna looked around. "Where are we? Why are the children all the same?" She asked, horrified.
"The same pattern over and over saves an awful lot of space." Miss Evangelista explained.
"Space?" Donna raised an eyebrow.
"Cyberspace." Miss Evangelista clarified.
The Doctor was at a terminal.
"See? There it is! Right there! A hundred years ago, massive power surge, all the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm, the computer tries to teleport everyone out." The Doctor explained, his eyes not moving from the screen, scanning fervently.
Rhea stepped into his side. "It tried to teleport 4022 people?"
"Succeeded." The Doctor corrected. "Pulled 'em all out. But then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library with Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. 4022 people, all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent… like emails. So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?"
River's eyes dawned with realisation. "It saved them."
The Doctor ran to a nearby table and pushed the books out of the way, leaving it clear. He started to draw on the surface with a white marker.
"The Library. Whole world of books. And right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything ever written. Backup copies of every single book. The computer saved 4022 people the only way a computer can. It saved them... to the hard drive."
Donna and Miss Evangelista were convened in a gazebo near the playground.
"Your physical self is stored in The Library as an energy signature. It can be actualised again whenever you or The Library requires."
Donna shifted in her seat, in discomfort. "The Library?" She asked, confused. "If my face ends up on one of those statues…"
Miss Evangelista looked at her, strangely. "You remember the statues?"
"Wait, no…" Donna's face screwed up. "Just… Hang on." She pressed her fingers against her temples, rubbing against the spot that seemed to throb. "So...this isn't the real me? This isn't my real body? But I've been dieting!" She huffed.
"What you see around you, this entire world… is nothing more than a virtual reality."
"So, why do you look like that?" Donna asked, curiously.
"I had no choice." Miss Evangelista said, stiffly. "You teleported, you're a perfect reproduction. I was just a data ghost caught in the Wi-Fi and automatically uploaded."
Donna raised an eyebrow. "And it made you clever?" She asked, incredulously, hoping that she didn't come off too insulting.
"We're only strings of numbers in here. I think a decimal point may have shifted in my IQ but my face has been the bigger advantage. I have the two qualities you require to see absolute truth. I am brilliant...and unloved." She finished, her voice heavy.
Donna chewed on her lower lip. "If this is all a dream… whose dream is it?" She asked, nervously.
"It's hard to see everything in the data core, even for me, but...there is a word... just one word… CAL."
"Mummy, my knee!" Ella shouted, suddenly.
Donna rushed over to her daughter, who had fallen, and knelt beside the little girl. "Oh, look at that knee! Oh, look at that silly old knee." She said, soothingly, hugging Ella.
"She's not real." Miss Evangelista said, mournfully. "They're fictions. I'm sorry, but now that you understand that, you won't be able to keep a hold. They are sustained only by your belief."
"You don't know!" Donna exclaimed, furiously. "You don't have children!"
"Neither do you!" Miss Evangelista called out from behind them as Donna left with her children on either side of her. "Donna, for your sake, let them go!"
An alarm blared throughout the entire reading room.
"What is it?" Mr Lux looked around, frantically. "What's wrong?"
"Auto-destruct enabled in twenty minutes." The computer sounded.
"Mummy, what did the lady mean? Are we not real?" Ella asked, innocently, her eyes wide.
"Where are we going?" Joshua asked.
"Home." Donna said through gritted teeth.
Donna and the children arrived at home and everything was bathed in an eerie, red light, an alarm blaring.
"That was quick, wasn't it, Mummy?" Joshua grinned.
"Mummy, what's wrong with the sky?" Ella asked, looking up at the sky.
Donna looked out the window, horrified.
The Doctor, Rhea and River were at one of the terminals.
"What's maximum erasure?" Rhea asked the Doctor.
"Twenty minutes, this planet's gonna crack like an egg."
"No." Mr Lux said and everyone turned to look at him. "No, it's all right. The doctor moon'll stop it. It's designed to protect CAL."
The terminal shut down.
"No, no. No, no, no, no!" The Doctor shouted, furiously. He climbed up and used the sonic screwdriver to open the top of the terminal.
"All Library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for any inconvenience." The computer intoned.
"We need to stop this." Mr Lux said, urgently. "We've gotta save CAL." His eyes were wild.
"What is it?" Rhea took a step closer to him. "What is CAL?"
"We need to get to the main computer. I'll show you."
"It's at the core of the planet." The Doctor said, pointedly.
"Well, then…" River straightened. "Let's go!"
River aimed her sonic screwdriver at the seal in the middle of the floor and it opened out, revealing a blue beam of light.
"Gravity platform." She explained to Rhea's confused eyes.
The Doctor smirked. "I bet we like you." He said, knowingly.
To anyone else but River, the Doctor's use of the word 'we' instead of 'I' would not have been something to second-guess. It would have been romantic and sweet and lovey-dovey that he thought in plurals rather than singulars. But to River, it had a different meaning. It was a sure-fire way of getting his point across that he didn't trust her. He trusted her as far as getting out of the Library went, but beyond that… there was nothing he could do.
And it was a way of telling her of his possessiveness. Rhea was his. Hands off, the brunette's mine. He could have just said that. It had always been a mix of love and war between River and the Doctor. It would take him years before he got over his hang-ups with Rhea's relationship with River. And even then, the suspicion never really drained away. It was his inability to share things. Having had the beautiful brunette at his side for himself for centuries upon end, he couldn't even conceive the idea of sharing her with someone else. She was his. That was the beginning, the middle and the end of the story.
"Oh, you do." River murmured, looking the Doctor in the eye.
The five of them stepped onto the platform and it took them right down to the core of the Library.
Donna was sitting on the couch in the living room, her arms wrapped around Ella and Joshua.
"Mummy, you're hurting my hand." Joshua said, pointedly.
"You just-you just stay where I can see you. You don't get out of my sight." Donna warned, her hands trembling.
"Is it bedtime?" Ella asked her, curiously.
Donna paused, tucking the children into their beds. She sat on the edge of Ella's bed, gazing at her two children.
"Okay... That was lovely, wasn't it? That was a lovely bedtime. We had warm milk, and we watched cartoons, and then Mummy read you a lovely bedtime story." Donna said with as much cheer as she could muster.
"Mummy, Joshua and me, we're not real, are we?" Ella murmured, her eyes wide.
Donna tensed. "Of course you're real." She said, sternly. "You're as real as anything! Why'd you say that?"
"But, Mummy, sometimes, when you're not here, it's like we're not here." Joshua said, innocently.
"Even when you close your eyes, we just stop." Ella murmured, her head cocking to the side.
Donna trembled, feeling completely lost. "Well, Mummy promises to never close her eyes again!" She said, hoarsely. When she looked back at the beds, the children had disappeared, leaving the beds empty. "Oh, my God. No, please!" She screamed, falling to her knees beside the beds, her hands grasping at the cold sheets in dismay and horror. "No, please! No! No, no! No, no!"
She sobbed, uncontrollably.
"Auto-destruct in fifteen minutes." The computer sounded again.
The Doctor looked up. "The data core. Over 4000 living minds trapped inside it."
Rhea snorted. "They won't be living much longer. We're running out of time." She said, harshly.
The Doctor rushed over to another terminal.
"Help me. Please, help me." The little girl's voice from earlier came through the terminal.
"What's that?" Anita asked.
"Was that a little girl?" Rhea asked, nervously.
"The computer's in sleep mode." The Doctor, furiously, tapped on the keyboard. "I can't wake it up. I'm trying."
"Doctor, these readings." River murmured, shaking her head.
"I know." The Doctor nodded. "You'd think it was... dreaming."
"It is dreaming…" Mr Lux said, softly. "Of a normal life, and a lovely dad, and of every book ever written."
"Computers don't dream." Anita said, pointedly.
"Help me. Please, help me." The little girl's voice sobbed from the terminal.
"No," Mr Lux's mouth was set in a firm line. "But little girls do." He pulled on a lever inside of a cabinet.
Mr Lux ran into the next room and others followed him. A node in the corner turned around and displayed the little girl's face in the groove.
"Help me. Please, help me. Help me. Please, help me." The node cried out in the little girl's voice.
River's eyes widened. "Oh, my God."
"It's the little girl." Rhea breathed. "The girl we saw on the computer."
"She's not in the computer." Mr Lux corrected. "In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is CAL." He explained, his eyes mournful.
"CAL is a child!" The Doctor exclaimed, furiously, his eyes flashing in anger. He rounded on Mr Lux, his tall form towering over Mr Lux's short and portly one. "A child hooked up to a mainframe! Why didn't you tell me this? I needed to know this!" He spat.
"Because she's family!" Mr Lux retorted back, spit flying from his mouth. He softened after a moment, his face smoothening out. "'CAL'… Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time, any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything. And he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show."
The Doctor's shoulders slumped and his eyes met Rhea's, both sets saying the same thing. "So you weren't protecting a patent, you were protecting her."
"This is only half a life, of course..." Mr Lux reached up and stroked her face. "… But it's forever."
"And then the shadows came." The Doctor finished.
"The shadows. I have to...I have to save. Have to save." The face on the node stammered.
Rhea swallowed hard, staring up at the little girl. She's so young… and she was probably just trying to save them from the Vashta Nerada. A pang hit Rhea in the stomach, making her flinch, minutely, as she remembered other children that she had tried her hardest to right by, a long time ago. She reached for the Doctor's hand, out of reflex and habit, and twisted her fingers throughout his. The Doctor glanced at her, noticing how her hand seemed to tremble in his. He tightened his grip around hers, knowing her well enough to know where her mind had went to the moment she had the little girl's voice. My poor Rhea. He decided that the hand contact wasn't enough and allowed her to press herself against his side, fitting against him like a puzzle piece, his arm coming around her waist like it was the most natural thing to do. And it was.
River watched them with equal amounts of fondness and melancholy. This was Rhea and the Doctor. The way they looked at each other, the way they stood together, the way the talked, the way the acted, it was all synchronised. Like it had been practiced a thousand times. But if the Doctor and Rhea were as young as they were to be believed, there was no way that they could have practised this kind of harmony beforehand.
"And she saved them. She saved everyone in The Library." Rhea whispered, pursing her lips.
The Doctor nodded. "Folded them into her dreams and kept them safe." His arm tightened around Rhea's waist.
"Then why didn't she tell us?" Anita asked.
The Doctor shoulder's slumped. "Because she's forgotten. She's got over 4000 living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like... being, well, me." He swallowed hard.
Rhea looked up at him, registering the pain displayed on his face. She licked her lips and touched his arm, lightly, meaning more than just a simple touch through that one gesture. The Doctor's eyes closed, briefly, taking solace in that tiny slice of intimacy from a woman who was careful to keep intimacy out of every single relationship she had.
"So what do we do?" River asked, urgently, looking between the Doctor and Rhea.
"Auto-destruct in ten-"
"Easy!" The Doctor shouted, suddenly, his face clearing into a blank mask as he ran towards a terminal. "We beam all the people out of the data core, the computer will reset and stop the countdown. Difficult. Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer." He went over to a bank of wires. "Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer, and she can borrow my memory space!"
"Won't that kill you, though?" Rhea said, harshly, her eyes darkening and her fists clenching at her side.
The Doctor was busy working on the wires. "Yeah, it's easy to criticise."
River stepped up next to Rhea, her face etched with anger. "It'll burn up both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate!" She said, sharply.
"I'll try my hardest not to die. Honestly, it's my main thing." The Doctor said, half-heartedly.
"Doctor!" Rhea snapped.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "If I'm right, this'll work. Shut up! Now, listen, Professor, you and Luxy Boy, back up to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download. And before you say anything else, Rhea," The Doctor covered her mouth with his hand just as she opened her mouth to speak. "Can I just mention, while you're quiet, shut up." He said, sweetly.
Rhea gritted her teeth, cursing him under her breath. "I really hate you sometimes!" She growled.
"I know." The Doctor smirked.
River started to leave before gracing the Doctor with a brutal glare, her eyes softening as they fell onto Rhea. "Mr Lux, with me." She said, flatly, her voice brooking no argument. She turned to Rhea. "I know I don't need to tell you twice, if he dies… you'll kill him, right?"
"Oh, definitely." Rhea bared her teeth at the Doctor in a vicious smile that would have chilled the blood of anyone who didn't know Rhea as long as the Doctor had. All he did was lean down and slant his mouth over hers, silencing her, effectively.
Of course, that was before Rhea slammed her hand into his stomach, effectively pushing him off her.
"What can I do?" She snapped, her nails digging into her palm. "You know, if you absolutely have to commit suicide right now."
The Doctor shook his head, a lit winded by the hit to his stomach. "Connect those wires over there." He ordered, gently.
"What about the Vashta Nerada?" Anita asked the Doctor.
"These are their forests! I'm gonna seal Charlotte inside her little world, and take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content."
Rhea snorted, her back turned to the Doctor. "You think they're just gonna let us go?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Best offer they're gonna get."
"You're gonna make them a offer?" Anita asked, curiously.
"And they'd better take it, 'cause right now I'm finding it very hard to make any kind of offer at all." The Doctor's voice was low and cold and dangerous as he stopped and looked at Anita. Rhea frowned and stared at the Doctor, noticing the way his eyes seemed to be darker and the firm line his mouth was set in. "Because you know what? I really liked Anita. She was brave even when she was crying, and she never gave in. And you ate her." He flashed his sonic screwdriver at Anita's spacesuit and the visor cleared up to reveal a skull, making Rhea's eyes widen and swear, loudly. "But I'm gonna let that pass as long as you let them pass." He said, darkly.
Rhea moved over to the Doctor's side, her eyes wary as they gazed at what was left of Anita.
"How long have you known?" The Vashta Nerada asked the Doctor.
"I counted the shadows. You only have one now." The Doctor explained. He looked at the furiously blinking neural relay. "She's nearly gone now. Be kind." He said, warningly.
"These are our forests. We are not kind."
The Doctor growled low under his breath. "I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them. You are letting them go."
"These are our forests. They are our meat." The Vashta Nerada hissed, their shadows extending towards the Doctor and Rhea, making them take a step back.
"Don't play games with me." The Doctor snapped. "You just killed someone I liked… that is not a safe place to stand. I'm the Doctor and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up."
The shadows halted while the Doctor stared down the skeleton. The shadows retreated after a moment, much to Rhea's surprise.
"You have one day."
The suit collapsed.
The Doctor turned back to the terminal, while Rhea simply stared at the empty suit. River rushed back in and knelt beside the spacesuit, her face warm with grief.
"Anita!" She sobbed, softly, and covered Rhea's hand, which the woman had placed on her shoulder as a show of comfort, with her own.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor said, murmuring. "She's been dead a while now. I told you to go!" He told River, sharply.
River chewed on her lower lip, glancing at Rhea, briefly, before getting to her feet and walking towards the Doctor. "Lux can manage without me...but you both can't." The Doctor turned around and her fist flew, hitting him in the face and sending him into the metal pillar behind him, knocking him unconscious.
Rhea's fist clenched in preparation and she took a step closer to River, her eyes flying to the Doctor's fallen form. "What the hell was that?" She growled, squaring her shoulders, worried that her initial suspicions about River were coming through.
River spun around on her feet, looking Rhea, squarely, in the eye. She swung her fist a second time, but Rhea had better reflexes and a great deal more experience. She blocked the punch, diverting the fist away from her as her forearm hit River's forearm.
"Are you crazy?!" Rhea shouted and ducked the spin-kick that River was about to deliver.
"I'm sorry, Rhea, but I have to do this. You'll thank me later. You really will." River said, the tears forming in her eyes.
River swung her fist again, which Rhea caught in one hand, pinning it in the air, and Rhea raised her knee, slamming it into River's side, making her gasp in pain, and swiped her elbow upwards, striking her in the jaw. She pinned River's arms across each other and shoved her away from her, rocking back on her heels, her face set in a hard line. But River was nonplussed, having learnt from the best.
"You're not actually half bad." Rhea muttered, smirking. "You need more refinement in your technique, though. But with a little more training you could do plenty of damage." She said, approvingly.
River smiled, slowly, despite the sweat slicking her face. "I learned from the best." She panted, her eyes bright.
She spun on her feet, backhanding Rhea across the face. Blood pooled in Rhea's mouth and later on, she would chalk it up to a lack of practice that River was able to get her hand inches away from Rhea's face for the second time. Rhea was able to catch her wrist and twisted her arm behind her back. She wasn't prepared for the elbow that struck her in the face. River raised her leg and attempted to kick her in the stomach and Rhea caught her foot in her hands, twisting the limb, viciously, almost breaking the ankle and sending River to the floor. With her free and uninjured leg, River swept Rhea's legs out from under her, surprising her and sending her to the floor, Rhea's head cracking on the cement as she went down, sending her into oblivion.
River was sitting in a large, throne-like chair, connecting a bunch of wires.
"Auto-destruct in two minutes."
The Doctor began to wake up, his eyes weary and heavy, his head and jaw aching, madly. He tugged on his wrist, realising that he was handcuffed to the pillar behind him. He turned to the side to see Rhea, leaning against the same pillar he was in front of, handcuffed as well, her eyes fluttering open, her lip split and a bloodstain near the corner of her head.
"Rhea." He patted her on the cheek, softly.
Rhea's eyes snapped open the minute his hand touched her cheek and her eyes flew around, madly, settling on River in the large chair. She swore, loudly, her eyes wide, and the Doctor looked in the direction that she was looking, his face paling.
"Oh, no, no, no! What are you doing? That's my job." The Doctor growled, his eyes wild.
River snorted. "What, I'm not allowed to have a career, I suppose?" She said, playfully.
"Why are we in handcu-Why do you even have handcuffs?" The Doctor asked, incredulously.
River smirked, winking at Rhea. "I think you know why."
Both Rhea and the Doctor had the decency to feel embarrassed. Of course, they didn't know it was for the same reason.
"Spoilers." River swallowed hard.
"This is not a joke. Stop this now. This is gonna kill you! I'll have a chance, you don't have any!" The Doctor shouted, desperately.
River glared at him, furiously. "You wouldn't have a chance and neither do I!" She retorted, her eyes stinging with tears that she, stubbornly, refused to let fall. "I'm timing it for the end of the countdown. There'll be a blip in the command flow. That way it should improve our chances of a clean download." She choked out, absentmindedly.
"River, please, don't do this." Rhea begged, tugging on the handcuffs with every bit of strength she had. She knew, if they had been ordinary handcuffs, all she would have to do is dislocate her thumb and pull her fingers through the manacle. But these were tighter, they gripped her wrist entirely too closely for her to be able to do anything.
River dropped the wires, her fingers trembling, and she looked Rhea in the eye, her eyes wet and warm. "Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, wearing this beautiful dress, and you," She turned to look at the Doctor with a beaming smile, filled with love, any trace of previous anger, resentment, envy, sadness, completely disappeared. "You, with a new haircut and a suit. You both took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. Oh, what a night that was. The towers sang... and you cried. You both did." Her voice choked up, her throat becoming hoarse.
"Auto-destruct in one minute."
"You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time, my time, time to come to The Library. You even gave me your sonic screwdriver… that should have been a clue." River laughed to herself.
Both sonic screwdrivers were lying on top of River's diary, just a little out of the Doctor's and Rhea's reaches, although it wasn't as if they didn't try.
"There's nothing you can do." River said, reassuringly, sniffling. Even now… they'd try and save me.
"Let me do this!" The Doctor protested, his face slick and his eyes pained.
"If you die here, it'll mean I never met you." River protested, furiously.
"Time can be rewritten!" Rhea exclaimed, tugging on the handcuffs as hard as possible. Fuck time, time isn't as important as someone's life.
"Not those times." River snapped, her face draining of blood as she stared at them with mad, furious eyes. "Not one line. Don't you dare." She bit her lip, seeing that the Doctor and Rhea weren't about to give up just yet. "It's okay. It's okay, it's not over for you both. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come." She smiled, beatifically. "You, me, and Rhea, time and space. You watch us run." She swore, her eyes promising something deep and meaningful.
"River, you know their names." Rhea whispered, her hands trembling.
"River, you know my name." The Doctor murmured. He looked over at Rhea, his eyes softening as he stared at her white, weary face.
"Auto-destruct in 10…"
"You whispered my name in my ear and their names in hers." The Doctor swallowed hard.
"…9, 8, 7, 6…"
River placed a mechanical circuit on top of her head to connect herself to the mainframe.
"There's only one person we have ever told those names to." He looked at Rhea, itching to hold her hand at least once, to feel her skin on his just for a moment, just to get through this.
"…5…"
"There's only one time I would…" Rhea stared back at the Doctor, her eyes suspiciously wet and longing.
"And I've already done so." The Doctor murmured.
He's told me his name… no, he hasn't. I think I'd remember something like that. Maybe he will… maybe, just like how he knows those names. We'll tell each other in my future. Not his. But how does River know? Why would I tell River that? Why would the Doctor tell River his name? But it's his name. He said 'one person'. He meant me. He means that I'm the only person who will only know his name.
God, I am so screwed.
And I am beginning to not care.
"…4…"
They turned, as if in one action, to look River in the eye, so many different questions on their face.
River smiled at both of them, fondly, every inch of emotion she had ever felt towards either of them epitomized in that one look. "Hush, now." She crooned.
"…3, 2…"
"Spoilers." River breathed.
"…1."
River slammed the two cables together and a bright light encompassed her, the Doctor and Rhea shying away from the light.
Donna was sitting on the stairs, her face almost buried in her knees. That was how Lee found her when he arrived home.
"Donna! What's happening?" Lee asked, worriedly.
"I don't know, but it's not real. Nothing here is real. The whole world, everything, none of it's real!" Donna wailed.
A while light started to surround them, glowing from the walls.
"Am I real?" Lee asked, nervously.
Donna's eyes widened, having not even considered the thought. "Of course, you're real. I know you're real!" The light started to become stronger and they were pulled apart by some unseen force. "Oh, God-Oh, God, I hope you're real." She sobbed.
Lee stuttered her name as he was pulled further away.
"I'll find you! I promise you, I'll find you!" Donna shouted.
The Doctor and Rhea, still handcuffed to the pillar, stared heartbrokenly at River's burnt corpse, Rhea's head falling onto the Doctor's shoulder, burying herself into his neck.
The newly-saved people lined up to use the teleport.
"Please be patient. Only three can teleport at a time. Do not state your intended destination until you arrive in your designated starliner." The PA intoned.
Donna joined the Doctor and Rhea, who were leaning against the wall by the door of the little shop.
"Any luck?" Rhea asked, softly, her hand grasping Donna's shoulder.
Donna rested her head on Rhea's shoulder, waiting until Rhea's hand moved to Donna's hair, stroking, softly and affectionately.
"Wasn't even anyone called Lee in The Library that day." Donna curled into Rhea. "Suppose he could have had a different name out here, but let's be honest, he wasn't real, was he?"
"Maybe not." The Doctor murmured, mournfully.
"I made up the perfect man, gorgeous, adores me, and hardly ever speaks a word. What's that say about me?" Donna asked, not expecting an answer back.
"Everything." The Doctor said, absentmindedly, not really paying any attention to what he was saying. Rhea rounded on him, gifting him with a warning glare, while Donna looked at him offended. "Sorry, did I say "everything"? I meant to say "nothing"." The Doctor said, quickly, backtracking when he saw the scary glare Rhea was currently giving him. "I was aiming for "nothing". I accidentally said "everything"."
"It says you're human, Red. Nothing wrong with that." Rhea murmured, patting her hair.
"Stand right in the middle of the teleport, please." The PA sounded.
"What about you both?" Donna looked at the Doctor and Rhea, carefully. "You all right?"
The Doctor chuckled, dryly. "We're always all right."
Donna licked her lips. "Is "all right" special Time Lord code for..."really not all right at all"?"
"I'm not a Time Lord, Red." Rhea pointed out. "But why?"
Donna smiled, sarcastically. "'Cause I'm all right too." Donna muttered.
All three friends looked at each other, understanding each other perfectly without words. Rhea leaned into the Doctor's side, feeling him wrap his arm around her waist as a comforting thought, smiling, softly, when he kissed her on the forehead, warmly.
"Come on." The Doctor took Rhea's hand and Rhea, in turn, took Donna's hand and they headed out of the Library.
The Doctor placed River's diary on the balustrade and rested his hand on it.
"Your friend... Professor Song. She knew you two in the future but she didn't know me. What happens to me? Because, when she heard my name, the way she looked at me-" Donna muttered, wildly.
Rhea wrapped an arm around Donna's shoulders. "Who cares?" Donna looked at her, offended. "I didn't mean it like that I didn't care about you. Of course, I do, Red. But who wants to know where they end up? It's so much more fun getting there. Let's not spoil the ending, yeah?"
"Donna… this is River Song's diary. Our future." He looked at Rhea, meaningfully, making her roll her eyes. "I could look you up. What do you think? Shall we peek at the end?" He patted the diary.
"Spoilers." Rhea murmured. "Right?"
"Right." The Doctor nodded. He placed River's sonic screwdriver on top. "Come on." They started to walk away. "The next chapter's that way."
"I still don't get it. Why did you give her the screwdriver? It didn't help her in the slightest." Rhea muttered to herself.
"When you run with the Doctor and Rhea, it feels like it will never end. But however hard you try, you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies, and nobody knows it like the Doctor and Rhea do. But I do think that all the skies of the all the worlds might just turn dark if they ever, for one moment, accept it."
Rhea stopped in her tracks and she looked at the Doctor, their eyes widening simultaneously. They ran back and the Doctor picked up River's sonic screwdriver.
"Oh, you are absolutely brilliant." The Doctor grinned at Donna, lifting Rhea into his arms. "Have you noticed, Donna, she's really, really good. Like the best there is." He smiled, proudly. "It's such a good question. Why would I give her my screwdriver? Why would I do that? Thing is, Future Us had years to think about it, all those years to think of a way to save her. But what Future Me did was give her a sonic screwdriver, why would we do something like that?" He slipped open a panel to reveal a neural relay. The Doctor's eyes widened. "Oh, oh, oh... Look at that! I'm just as good as you are!"
"What have you done?" Donna asked, frowning.
The Doctor smirked, showing her the relay. "Saved her."
And they ran off.
They ran back through the many rooms and aisles in the Library to get to the core.
"Stay with us! You can do it! Stay with us, come on!" The Doctor shouted and the two leapt over a cart in the way. "The three of us, one last run!"
They finally reached the yellow domed reading room.
"Sorry, River. Shortcut." The Doctor said, apologetically.
The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at the floor and disabled the gravity platform.
"Platform disabled."
The Doctor jumped into the hole, leaving Rhea in the reading room.
"Everybody knows that everybody dies..."
The Doctor arrived at the terminal.
"But not every day."
The Doctor inserted the screwdriver and uploaded River into the data core.
"Not today."
The node of Charlotte smiled at him and the Doctor smiled, gratefully, back.
River was wearing a loose white gown and her hair was pinned back, leaving a lot of her curls unbound. She looked down at herself, confused, wondering how she got onto the hospital grounds. Charlotte and Dr Moon walked up to her.
"It's okay. You're safe. You'll always be safe here. The Doctor fixed the data core. This is a good place now. But I was worried you might be lonely so I brought you some friends. Aren't I a clever girl?"
"Aren't we all?" A woman called out.
River turned to see Miss Evangelista, Proper Dave, Other Dave and Anita walking towards her.
"Oh, for Heaven's sake, they just can't do it, can they? That man, that woman, that impossible man, that amazing girl. They just can't give in!" River exclaimed, joyfully, throwing her arms around all of them.
"Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed."
The Doctor and Rhea strode back into the reception and they stopped in front of the TARDIS.
"Some days, nobody dies at all."
The Doctor held his arm out and snapped his fingers. The TARDIS' doors opened. The Doctor looked down at Rhea and they smiled at each other, joining Donna inside.
"Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor and Rhea come to call..."
Rhea snapped her fingers and the TARDIS doors shut behind them.
River closed her diary with a smack.
"… Everybody lives." She leaned over and kissed Charlotte goodnight before looking over at the other two children, Ella and Joshua. She walked to the doorway and took a last look at the sleeping children. "Sweet dreams, everyone." She said, softly, turning off the lights.
Rhea was sitting at the table in the kitchen, a glass of vodka nursed between her fingers. The Doctor walked in and stopped at the table. She lifted the glass to her lips and drained the glass with one long gulp, shaking her head at the burn that went down her throat.
"She cared about us." Rhea said, softly. "No, she more than cared about us. She loved us and we treated her like shit the last time she would see us."
The Doctor took a seat opposite her. "We didn't know what to make of her. She… knew a lot and it scared us."
"I threatened her." Rhea said, flatly. The Doctor looked at her, strangely. "I found out something about her the first time I met her and I didn't think much of it then. But it worried me now and I think I took it too far. She loved us and I threatened her on the last day she would ever see us." She whispered, bitterly.
The Doctor slid his chair closer to hers and wrapped his arms around Rhea, pulling her into his lap, despite her lackadaisical protests. "We were quite rude to her, weren't we?" He said, mournfully. "I'd like to think it was because we didn't know who she was and she went around thinking that she knew us better than anyone. I think she might have known us better than anyone, actually." He mused.
"What did she whisper in your ear?" Rhea asked, interestedly.
"My name." The Doctor said, flatly.
"You said there was only one time you could tell your name to someone. You said that you had already done so." Rhea hesitated. "Was it to me?"
The Doctor cracked a smile. "I can't hide anything from you for every long, can I?" He grinned. "Spoilers, beautiful."
"Fuck you." Rhea growled, half-heartedly, and stood up.
"And you, what did she say to you?" The Doctor asked, curiously, although he already knew the answer.
Rhea smiled, grimly. "Honey, I think you already know the answer. You're just screwing with me." She bit her lip. "Have you noticed that our way of dealing with first meetings are kind of stupid? I mean, we have passwords that are just as likely to set us off as to get us to trust someone." She chuckled to herself.
"You've done a first meeting?" The Doctor looked confused.
"Well, I met River for the first time a little while ago. And I met you, didn't I?"
"How was it?" The Doctor looked as uncertain and shy as a teenage boy asking out his first girlfriend.
"Everything went to hell after that initial meeting." Rhea deadpanned and cracked a smile. "It was the most interesting thing I have ever experienced. An insanely hot man at three in the morning, showing up at my apartment, claiming to be an alien and have two hearts. Definitely interesting."
The Doctor's eyes widened, having not heard this story before. "That sounds… interesting." He swallowed.
She sat back down at the table and gifted the Doctor with a sultry smile. "Although, I gotta know what our first meeting was like." Her eyes were bright and seductive and in a harsh contrast to her previous melancholy.
The Doctor laughed, leaning back in his chair, and fixed Rhea in his gaze. "No way, spoilers." Rhea grimaced. "Trust me, I don't want to ruin the fun. And it was a lot of fun, beautiful."
"Was it painful? Awkward?" Rhea asked, carefully. "Like it was for River and myself. Did you trust me?" She smiled to herself. "Or did you think I was going to screw you over?"
Anyone other than the Doctor wouldn't have realized that Rhea had a double meaning in her question. But it was the Doctor in front of her. And he knew exactly what to say.
The Doctor looked at her, all soft and warm and searing and those dark eyes of his sent warm and light flutters straight to her stomach. "Oh, my beautiful girl, how could I not trust you?"
Rhea straightened and her hands twitched on the table, aching to reach out and take his hands in hers. "What did I say to you?"
"Hello." The Doctor said after a moment. "You said 'hello'. It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me." His voice turned gravelly, his eyes turning molten. "And I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen." He stared at her and acted upon the longing that Rhea was trying her hardest to bury, entwining their fingers together. "You still are." He said, his voice gruff with emotion.
A strangled sound left her throat. She smiled at him, lifting her hand to touch his cheek, her fingertips stroking against the soft, slightly unshaven skin. "Even with the scars?" Rhea's smile turned bitter.
"What I know of beauty, I only know from you." The Doctor said, sincerely, his eyes flashing. "The scars you have do not detract from what I see in you, Sunehri. They make you all the more beautiful. They tell me that you are strong and intelligent, that you have been hurt and that I will spend whatever time you need me to spend, showing you that you are beautiful and decent and loving and brave."
Rhea swallowed hard and the tears dripped down her cheeks, unbeknownst to her. When she finally felt them and the Doctor reached over to wipe the tears with his thumb ghosting over her skin, she realized that this was the first time she had allowed herself to cry in over six years.
She leaned over and wrapped her arms around the Doctor, crawling into his lap, the tears soaking into the material of his suit. The Doctor's arms were like a vice around her, comforting and terrifying. His hands stroked up and down her back, reverently, moving every now and then to her side. His lips trailed down from the top of her hair, down her curls, against her forehead, caressing her eyes and cheeks and jaw and finally slanting over her mouth in the sweetest kiss anyone had ever given her.
They broke away and Rhea curled into him once more, burying her face against his shoulder. At this point, she didn't know for whom she was crying. For River, for the Doctor or for herself.
A/N: Unfortunately, I decided against saving River in this episode. Again, there are reasons why that happened and they will be explained in future River episodes. River and the Doctor and River and Rhea have interesting relationships, don't you think? As for whether those relationships are platonic or romantic, you'll have to wait a little while. And I hope you all liked the ending. It was sweet and kinda romantic. And Rhea hasn't cried in six years and she finally cried here. For everyone, actually.
And the names… now, I'm not gonna say a lot about that. The Doctor's name, we all know about, but I wonder what River told Rhea. It set her off in the previous chapter and it really means a lot to her. And I wonder what children Rhea was talking about. Oh, and the whole, time isn't as important as someone's life, remember that because it'll come back in the future.
And first meetings, the Doctor's first meeting with Rhea is an interesting one, huh? I might write a oneshot about that soon.
Anyway, hope you like it and don't forget to leave a review!