"Of course!" shouted the Doctor, highly excited. "Sexy, you beautiful, brilliant thing! 'The stream has been stilled', and what's a still stream but a Pond? A duck pond, an Amy Pond, a Rory Pond, a Melody Pond! Bit of a relief, that... I thought River was in trouble of some kind. Blimey! Right then, Old Girl, open your doors and let's go see the Ponds!" He spun about and sauntered to the doors.
The doors did not open.
Damn. He had known it. He had known this was very very not good.
"No. No no no no no no! Sexy, this is not possible! It was perfect, the perfect solution... River leaves a quirky message involving ponds, and we find her at the Ponds'!" He spun around, angrily this time, and strode to the console, shaking the screen nearest the doors in both hands. "Tell me what is going on!" There were indignant bleeps and squawks from the console as the querulous sound of Amy's voice came from outside the doors. "Rory, I don't care that he hasn't opened the doors, if he didn't want to see us the TARDIS wouldn't be here!" The Doctor took a deep breath, steadying himself against the console. "I'm sorry I shouted, Old Girl," he said, in the quietest voice he could manage, "Please, help me find River. Please. If she's hurt, or... or..." he choked on the word and closed his eyes briefly, trying to compose himself. He must think.
The doors opened and Amy fell into the TARDIS, having been leaning on them. Rory sighed, helped her up, and entered more decorously. The Doctor opened his eyes to look at them, and saw that they knew - if they didn't know what was wrong, they at least knew something was. "If it's not you that needs us," said Rory, looking a bit sick, "then it's River. Isn't it?"
The Doctor nodded. "She left a message, a poem - a limerick, really - and it led the Old Girl here to you." He held out the little slip of paper. His hands were shaking slightly.
Rory took it, and he and Amy bent their heads over the little verse. Amy started shaking her head almost immediately. "River didn't write this."
"But..."
"No, Doctor, River did not write this! Look at it; she's not that coy about things that are really dangerous, she might tease and flirt but she wouldn't be all... all cryptic like this! This is from a different kind of person, one who likes scaring people just for fun. Who would do this? I thought we already took care of all the mad people who were using River to get to you! Why this again? It's not fair, we've done everything that was asked of us and they're still trying to take our baby away and hurt her!" Amy was crying now, and the words tumbled over each other as she shouted at the Doctor. "And... and... if River needed help, she might call you or the TARDIS, but do you really think she'd call for me or Rory?" Her voice broke. "We're her parents, but we're also not... not like you and her... she doesn't need us..." The little slip of paper fluttered to the floor as Amy turned to Rory for comfort.
The Doctor stared at them, open-mouthed. "Then why would... yes, I see, she didn't write this, you're quite right, but that doesn't mean she doesn't need you. Quite the contrary, actually." He beamed at them. "She needs you to do parenty things, like oh, you know, be her mum and dad, interpret the humany things I don't catch, those sorts of parenty things. Not things like blowing up planets, that's what I'm here for, although really, I'd rather not... wait, right, back on track... what I'm saying here, Amy, Rory, is that River needs you for the same reason I need you... to keep us from getting... er... too Time-Lordy for our own good." It was their turn to stare with open mouths at this burst of logic, but Rory at least nodded slowly once, as though he was beginning to understand. "Right," the Doctor said, clapping his hands briskly together, "Now that I've - sorry, Sexy: we've - "found help at the sound of the chime", what happens next?"
And another slip of paper slid out of the TARDIS' console.
The girl plays alone
In the dark and the silence
Come find us, Doctor
The three of them simply looked at each other, perplexed. Amy started to speak, but Rory put his hand gently over her mouth. "Look," he said quietly into her ear, "he's got something." And they both watched as an expression of horrified realization slowly dawned on the Doctor's youthful face, making him suddenly appear ancient.
"Oh no," he whispered, "Even more very not good than I thought." He scrubbed at his face with his hands, looking exhausted, and then he looked back up at the Ponds. "How did River get into the hands of the Toymaker?"