Confessions

Rory knocked on the door of the nursery Amy was being kept in, the Doctor and Adelaide standing behind him.

"Who's that?" they heard Amy call through the door. "Who's there? You watch it, because I'm armed and really dangerous, and cross!"

"Yeah," Rory scoffed, "like I don't know that."

"Rory? Rory, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. Look, hang on a minute." He took Adelaide's sonic when she passed it to him, using it on the door.

"They took her. Rory, they took our baby away."

The door finally slid open and Rory, holding their baby daughter in his arms, stepped into the room. "Now, Mrs. Williams, that is never, ever going to happen."

"Oh my God," Amy gasped. "Oh my God. Where's she been? What have they done to her?"

"She's fine. Amy, she's fine, I checked. She's beautiful." Rory started to cry, swallowing hard. "Oh God, I was going to be cool. I wanted to be cool. Look at me."

Amy laughed. "You're okay. Crying Roman with a baby. Definitely cool. Come here, you." She pulled him into a deep kiss as the Time Lords entered the room.

The Doctor grimaced. "Urgh. Kissing and crying. We'll…we'll be back in a bit."

Rory laughed at him. "Get in here, now." The Doctor jogged over, though Adelaide didn't rush. "My daughter. What do you think?"

The Doctor gave the baby a little wave. "Hello. Hello, baby."

"Melody."

"Melody?" the Doctor grinned. "Hello, Melody Pond."

"Melody Williams," Rory corrected.

"…is a geography teacher. Melody Pond is a superhero."

The Doctor nodded. "Well yes, I suppose she does smell nice. Never really sniffed her, maybe I should give it a go. Amelia Pond, come here." He turned and gave Amy quite a big hug.

"Doctor!"

"I'm sorry we were so long."

"It's okay. I knew you were coming." Amy turned to Adelaide, hugging her too. "All of you. My boys and my girl."

Adelaide looked towards Melody as she stepped away. "Don't worry, dear, she's still yours. Though I would recommend calling her 'Mummy' instead of 'Big Milk Thing'."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Okay, what are you doing?"

"We speak Baby."

"No, you don't."

He shrugged. "We speak everything, don't we, Melody Pond?" Melody gurgled, and he straightened his bowtie. "No, it's not. It's cool."

Vastra entered the room. "Doctor? Adelaide? Take a look. They're leaving!" the Time Lords moved towards the window, watching the soldiers march away. "Demons Run is ours without a drop of blood spilled. My friends, you have never risen higher!"

Adelaide glanced at the Doctor, studying his pleased expression. It seemed like it had worked, and perhaps she was just too determined to not agree that his plan had worked, but she didn't think it was over, not yet.

|C-S|

Amy hurried out of the TARDIS, comforting her daughter as she went. Rory rushed over to her. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"She doesn't like the TARDIS noise. I asked him to turn something off, but it was all 'but I don't want to punch a hole in the space-time continuum'."

"Rory!" Jenny said, walking over with Strax. "The Judoon have escorted the Clerics out of the quadrant. Spitfires have returned to their own time. Captain Avery and his men are going." She looked to the baby. "Is she all right?"

"Yeah, she's just crying."

Strax sighed. "Give her to me, human fool. She needs changing."

"I just changed her. I think she might need a feed."

"A feed, of course. I'll take care of everything."

Rory stuck out an arm to keep Strax away. "Er, I really don't think you will, actually."

"I have gene-spliced myself for all nursing duties. I can produce magnificent quantities of lactic fluid."

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS holding a very old wooden cot. "She's not hungry, she's tired. Sorry, Melody, they're just not listening."

Adelaide came out of the TARDIS after him. "They don't speak Baby, Doctor, there's no way they could have known."

"What's this?" Amy asked the Doctor as he set down the cot.

"Very pretty, according to your daughter."

"It's a…it's a cot."

"No flies on the Roman. Give her here."

"Doctor!"

The Doctor winced. "Please?"

Amy chuckled, gently handing the baby over. "Hey, there we go."

"But where would you get a cot?"

Amy touched the side of the cot. "It's old. Really old." She looked up at the Time Lords. "Doctor, Adelaide…do you have children?"

"No."

"Have you ever had children?"

The Doctor looked down at Melody. "No, it's real. It's my hair."

"Who slept in here?"

"Doctor, Adelaide, we need you in the main control room," Vastra called over the comm.

"Be right there!" he spun to the humans. "Things to do. We've still got to work out what this base is for. We can't leave till we know."

"But this is where I was?" Amy asked, stopping them before they could start leaving. "The whole time I thought I was on the TARDIS, I was really here?"

The Doctor glanced at Rory. "Centurian, permission to hug?"

"Be aware, I do have a sword."

He grinned and hugged Amy tightly, speaking too quietly for Adelaide and Rory to hear. After a few moments, when Rory and Adelaide had exchanged an expression, Rory spoke again. "That's probably enough hugging now." The two stepped apart. "So her Flesh avatar was with us all that time. But that means they were projecting a control signal right into the TARDIS wherever we were in time and space."

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, they're very clever."

"Who are?"

"Whoever wants our baby."

"But why do they want her?"

"Exactly."

Rory eyed the pair of them. "Is there anything you're not telling us? You both knew Amy wasn't real. You never said."

Adelaide nodded. "There was no way to know if they were listening."

"But you always hold out on us." Amy frowned. "Please, not this time. It's our baby. Tell us something. One little thing."

"It's mine."

"What is?"

"The cot." The Doctor pointed at it. "It's my cot. I slept in there."

Amy looked at the cot with a smile, spotting the little stars now spinning over Melody. "Oh my God. It's the Doctor's first stars."

|C-S|

The Time Lords arrived in the communication room, Dorium sitting at the controls and Vastra standing in the back of the room. "You've hacked into their software, then?" the Doctor asked.

Dorium scoffed. "I believe I sold it to them."

"So what have we learned?"

"That anger is always the shortest distance to a mistake." Adelaide smiled at what Vastra said.

The Doctor turned to her with a frown. "I'm sorry?"

Vastra nodded towards Adelaide. "The words of an old friend who once found me in the London Underground, attempting to avenge my sisters on perfectly innocent tunnel diggers."

"You were very cross," Adelaide commented.

"As you both were today, old friends." But she looked more at the Doctor than Adelaide since even she couldn't really read the Time Lady properly. There was barely anyone left in the universe who could, if anyone had ever existed at all. "Point taken, I hope. Now, I have a question. A simple one. Is Melody human?"

The Doctor frowned, but Adelaide's eyes widened. "Sorry, what? Of course she is," he scoffed. "Completely human."

But Adelaide stepped closer to Dorium. "What do you mean?"

"They've been scanning her since she was born," Dorium pulled up a screen for Adelaide to see, "and I think they found what they were looking for."

The Doctor nodded. "Human DNA."

"Look closer. Human plus…"

Adelaide stepped closer, leaning against the controls as she studied the screen. "Human plus Time Lord."

The Doctor shook his head again. "But she's human. She's Amy and Rory's daughter."

"You've told me about your people. They became what they did through prolonged exposure to the time vortex. The Untempered Schism."

"Over billions of years," he reminded Vastra. "It didn't just happen."

Vastra looked to Adelaide. "So how close is she? Could she even regenerate?"

Adelaide frowned. "No, I don't believe so."

"You don't sound so sure."

"Because even I don't understand how this happened. I mean, it's possible, but the Doctor's right…it doesn't just happen."

Vastra stepped forward. "Which leads me to ask…when did it happen?"

"When?"

"I am trying to be delicate…I know how you can blush. When did this baby…begin?"

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Oh, you mean…"

Vastra nodded. "Quite."

He shrugged. "Well, how would I know? That's all human-y, private stuff. It just sort of…goes on. They don't put up a balloon or anything."

"But if the child began while the TARDIS was in flight…"

"No, no, impossible!" he shook his head. "It's all running about, sexy fish vampires and blowing up stuff. And Rory wasn't even there at the beginning. Then he was dead, then he didn't exist, then he was plastic. Then we had to reboot the whole universe…long story. So, technically, the first time they were on the TARDIS together in this version of reality, was on their w-" his eyes widened.

"On their what?"

"On their wedding night." The Doctor frowned. "It doesn't make sense. You can't just cook yourself a Time Lord."

"Of course not. But you gave them one hell of a start, and they've been working very hard ever since."

Dorium frowned. "And yet they gave in so easily. Does this not bother anyone else?"

Adelaide was almost certain that she'd never been less happy about being right.

"Amy…she worried the baby would have a time head. She said that."

Vastra sighed. "Only you would ignore the instincts of a mother."

"Or the instincts of a coward. This is too easy. There's something wrong."

"Why even do it? Even if you could get your hands on a brand new Time Lord, what for?"

"A weapon?"

The Doctor frowned. "Why would a Time Lord be a weapon?" Adelaide raised her eyebrows at him.

Vastra shrugged. "Well, they've seen you two."

"Us?"

"Mr. Maldovar, you're right. This was too easy. We should get back to the others." Vastra and Dorium left the room, leaving the Time Lords.

The Doctor looked to Adelaide. "Us?" She could only nod.

The screen behind them flickered on. "I see you accessed our files. Do you understand yet? Oh, don't worry, I'm a long way away. But I like to keep tabs on you two. The child, then. What do you think?"

"What is she?" Adelaide asked her.

"Hope. Hope in this endless, bitter war."

"What war?" the Doctor asked. "Against who?"

"Against you, Time Lords."

The Doctor shook his head, slamming his hand down. "A child is not a weapon!"

Kovarian smirked. "Oh, give us time. She can be. She will be."

"Except you've already lost her, and I swear we will never let you anywhere near her again."

She laughed, looking to Adelaide. "Oh, Adelaide. Fooling you once was a joy, but fooling you twice the same way?" Adelaide's eyes widened. "It's a privilege."

Adelaide didn't say anything. She just turned and ran.

The Doctor sprinted after her.

|C-S|

"Amy!" the Doctor shouted as they reached the locked door, fumbling for his sonic. "Amy, she's not real! Melody, she's a Flesh avatar. Amy!"

By the time they got through the door, the fight that had been going on was already done. "Amy…"

Rory nodded. "Yeah, we know." He walked over to a dying Strax. Amy was crying into Jenny's arms on a crate to the side.

It was to her that the Time Lords went, kneeling before her. "They took her anyway," Amy sobbed. "All this was for nothing."

"I am…so sorry."

"Amy," Jenny said quietly, "it's not their fault."

Amy, shaking, nodded. "I know. I know." Rory came over, drawing his wife into his arms, and the Time Lords stood.

"Doctor, Adelaide," Vastra called. "There's someone who wants to speak to you." They walked over to where she was standing with a young woman who was leaning against a wall, clutching a wound in her stomach. "Her name is Lorna. She came to warn us."

The Time Lords knelt before Lorna. "Hello," Adelaide said quietly.

Lorna's eyes opened very slowly. "Adelaide. Doctor."

"You helped our friends," the Doctor said, smiling. "Thank you."

"I met you once, in the Gamma Forests. You don't remember me…"

Adelaide took her hand. "Of course we remember, Larna. I make certain he remembers everyone." They hadn't met her yet, and Adelaide knew that. But even she could lie.

"We ran, you, me, and her. Didn't we run, Lorna?" Lorna nodded, her head falling to the side as she died. "Who was she?"

Vastra shook her head. "I don't know, but she was very brave."

He sighed, standing. "They're always brave."

Adelaide didn't stand yet, looking at Lorna, knowing this was the reason she'd refused to do what the Time Lords had asked. This was exactly why. This was what made her blood run cold, had made turning human and hiding worth it.

She stood and didn't look at the Doctor.

"So, what now? They'd almost certainly have taken her to Earth. Raise her in the correct environment."

He nodded. "Yes, they did. And it's already too late."

Vastra's eyes widened. "You're giving up? You never do that."

"Yeah, and don't you sometimes wish I did?"

There was a flash of light and River appeared, looking as she always did. "Well then, soldier. How goes the day?"

The Doctor strode towards her, glaring. "Where the hell have you been? Every time you've asked, we have been there. Where the hell were you today?"

"I couldn't have prevented this."

"You could have tried!" Adelaide walked up, touching the Doctor's shoulder as he shouted.

River just shook her head at them. "And so, my loves, could you." She looked towards Amy and Rory. "I know you're not all right. But hold tight, Amy, because you're going to be."

"You think we wanted this? We didn't do this. This…this wasn't us!"

"This was exactly you. All this. All of it. You both make them so afraid." She looked at Adelaide too and the Time Lady could say nothing against her. "When you both began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did either of you ever think you'd become this? Named after the woman who brought an entire species into the skies, whose legacy reigned with destruction across the universe. Who rules without a heart.

"And the man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. Doctor. The word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word Doctor means mighty warrior. How far you've come. And now they've taken a child, the child of your best friends, and they're going to turn her into a weapon just to bring one of you down, because with one comes the other. And all this, my loves, in fear of you."

The Doctor shook his head. "Who are you?"

River smiled, backing towards the cot. "Oh look, your cot. Haven't seen that in a very long while."

"No, no, you tell me. Tell me who you are."

Adelaide came to the Doctor's side, tracing her hand along the cot. River nodded at her. "Can't you read?" she asked the Doctor.

His eyes widened, and when he looked at Adelaide for confirmation, she let herself smile, just for a moment. He looked towards River. "Hello."

River laughed. "Hello."

"But…but…that means…"

"I'm afraid it does."

"You're…"

River nodded. "Yes."

He straightened his tie. "How do we look?"

"Amazing."

He chuckled. "We'd better be."

"Yes, you'd better be."

The Doctor spun to the rest of them, rubbing his hands together. "Vastra and Jenny, till the next time." He ran over and plucked Adelaide's sonic from Rory's hand, tossing it back to her. "Rory and Amy, I know where to find your daughter, and on my life, she will be safe."

"River," Adelaide moved towards the TARDIS, "get them all home safe."

"Doctor?" Rory frowned at them as the Time Lords moved.

"No! Where are you going?"

The Time Lords raised their sonics and lowered the forcefield that protected the TARDIS, letting them step inside. The Doctor stopped to smile at the companions before they shut the door.

Once they were alone, their smiles fell.

No need to pretend anymore.

"Don't you dare ask me to do that again," Adelaide said, speaking carefully as she walked towards the console, leaning against it.

"I'm sorry." He came up beside her, but nowhere near close enough to touch her. "But…I needed to rescue her."

Adelaide didn't look at him. "She was one human, Doctor. A single, insignificant human." She closed her eyes. "I didn't bother doing that for our people, yet for Amelia Pond…I don't understand why."

"I know I shouldn't have asked you to do that."

"Correct, Doctor." She pushed herself from the console. "You shouldn't have. I never wanted to be a weapon. I never wanted to make someone a weapon." Adelaide finally looked at him. "Never ask me to do that again, Doctor."

He nodded. "I promise." Because he regretted it. Because he had, honestly, forgotten that this was exactly what the Time Lords had asked Adelaide to do.

He knew he was lucky that she hadn't flat out refused. There was no need for her to turn herself human again, but she could have refused. He was lucky she hadn't left him when he'd asked her to do this to save Amy.

"I don't think I will ever be able to forgive you for this, Doctor."

The Doctor gripped the console. If it had been a normal day, a normal argument, he would have stopped and agreed with Adelaide right there because she did tend to be right. But he'd just learned that his companions' child had been taken to be turned into a weapon against the Time Lords. His temper wasn't in the best place, she knew that, she expected that, because neither was her's. "You did agree to it," he said. "You were angry but you agreed to it."

"Yes, I know that."

"It's not only my fault."

"Yes."

"You can't just blame me."

"I don't." Adelaide stepped away from the console. "I blame myself far more than I blame you, Doctor."

He lowered his head, looking down at the console. "They think of us as warriors."

"You are a warrior, but you can use it, you can turn that good."

He scoffed. "Being a warrior that people are scared of is never good."

"Depends on who's scared of you. Personally, I wouldn't mind a woman who's willing to kidnap a child being a bit scared." She leaned back against the console, studying the Doctor. "You're going to stop her, Doctor."

"We're," he corrected. "We're going to stop her." Adelaide didn't say anything. "Did you really pick your name because of Adelaide Brooke?"

She smiled. "I read about her on Gallifrey. Perhaps should have gone for her granddaughter, but Susie was far more adventurer than scientist." She shook her head. "Still pains me that, when I finally met her, it was as a human."

"Your legacy hasn't brought destruction."

Adelaide said nothing again, only looked away from the Doctor and closed her eyes, breathing hard.

A/N: A tense conversation between the Time Lords here. Both are extremely conflicted at the moment and still trying to work through some things, so neither really got to say what they wanted. But they're getting there :)

Hey, look at me, posting on Wednesday while in college like I'd planned. Almost seems like I'm on top of my life for once (very not true :) )