Disclaimer: Doctor Who © BBC
Author's Notes: I'm sorry for such a long wait! Lots of homework for college! I had to do 2 animations, and a shit ton of essays this past week, so not a lot of time for writing. I've been looking forward to this chapter for the past couple of weeks now, and couldn't put it off any longer! More of a fluffy Doctor/River moment for ya! ;-)
"What do you think they're talking about?" A Scottish accent cut into the silence growing around everyone. Amy had herself propped up against one of the door frames and was looking down the hall, imagining where the Doctor might have run off to. The room they'd gone back to was John's study, where he kept all of his "alien tech," as Rose sometimes would call it. Though he was human, because he did come from the Doctor, he still tinkered with everyday household items and turned them into cheaper replicas of past tools he once used on the TARDIS.
"Not now Amy." River murmured as she hunched over the desk John was working at. Papers were piled up, and books were askew as they dug through each pile trying desperately to figure out what had caused the rifts.
"Oi, that's mum to you." The red head eyed her and crossed her arms. She shuffled over to where Rory was seated and slumped down on his lap.
River ignored her, "So this has been going on for awhile now, has it?" She asked John who was speed reading through one of his many books he had filled with personal notes.
"Yeah, for the past few weeks, possibly even months now. Been quite awhile, hard to keep up—and hold up, did you say mum?" He furrowed his brow and looked over at Amy.
"Oh, right this was before you met me, so you don't know anything about us." Amy motioned between River, Rory, and herself. One of her eyebrows shot up and she smirked devilishly. "River's our daughter." She nodded a head down to Rory who sheepishly waved. He was still getting used to it all.
John took the glasses he had on and rubbed his forehead. "Ok...and how exactly does that work? Aren't you...you know." He was talking to River.
"What?" The blonde smirked. She definitely liked this version of the Doctor.
"Well, you know." He motioned with his hand to her body, looking her up and down.
"No, I don't know." River put a hand on her hip and blew a few curls out of her face.
"Aren't you a bit...too old?" He winced when he finished his sentence. Poor choice of wording.
"Are you saying I'm old?" She raised her eyebrows and stared him down. Amy was trying not to laugh while Rory kept nudging her to keep quiet.
"Uh...no. I was just...shouldn't we get back to work?" He put his glasses back on and picked up a random document, trying to pretend he was in the middle of reading something important.
River laughed and patted him on the shoulder as she went to leave the room. "I'll make us up some more tea. Amy, Rory, I'm sure you won't mind if I asked you let us work in peace?"
"Yeah no problem. It's starting to get late anyway. Come on, Amy." Rory answered for them. The sooner they could get the rift situation figured out, the better.
"Oh, ok. Um.." Rose fidgeted with her jacket. She wasn't sure whether to look up at the Doctor, or not. She definitely did not want to continue the conversation, so figured it best to change the subject. "We should probably get back, don't you think?" She pointed back in the direction to where her house was.
"Oh, right! Definitely! Would be bad to make them do all the work for us. Though I'm not much in a hurry to see your mother again. Maybe I'll go in the back door. Do you have a back door?" The Doctor jumped off of the bench and helped Rose to her feet.
She couldn't help but laugh, this version of the Doctor was very much like a little kid. More so than when John had his epiphanies and started to shout them to the world.
They scurried back to the house as fast as they could. A car passed and flashed its brights at them. Rose waved and kept walking.
"Do you know them? They nearly blinded me!" The Doctor rubbed his eyes in an attempt to get his vision back to normal. Multicoloured spots clouded his sight as he blinked furiously.
"That was my mum. Looks like you won't have to use the back door after all." Rose laughed some more and then yanked on his arm to hurry him up. They ran the rest of the way to the house. When they got back the lights in the house were off except for a faint glow that looked like it was coming from one of the back rooms.
"How long were we gone? Couldn't have been that long." The Doctor looked at his watch and tapped the face of it a couple of times.
The front door creaked open and the two tip toed their way inside, making sure not to potentially wake anyone that could possibly be asleep. Mainly Amy. She was not one to anger, especially in the middle of sleeping.
"Hello? Rose is that you?" John popped his head around the corner upon hearing the door open. "Take it you worked everything out then?" He looked between the two, before eyeing the Doctor carefully.
"Yeah, I guess you could call it that.." The Time Lord shuffled his feet nervously and closed the door behind him.
"Is everyone else asleep?" Rose asked as she took her shoes off, bracing herself against the wall so to not fall over. The bottoms had gathered quite a bit of mud after all of the running in the park she'd done. "You mind taking your shoes off, Doctor? Don't want mud tracks all over the place." She whispered.
"What's that?" He looked down at his feet and noticed the marks his shoes had left behind him, luckily they were still at the front entrance, so he hadn't tracked too much in. "Ah, yes. No problem. So, John, any word yet on what's caused all of this? You know the longer we're here, the more the universe gets torn apart."
"Yeah, actually. River's been helping me sort through everything and we think we know what's been the cause."John balanced himself on the heels of his feet as he waited for the two.
"Excellent! So we'll be off on our way by tomorrow then?" The Doctor asked enthusiastically as he kicked his last shoe off.
"Well...that's the problem..." John rubbed the back of his neck and sighed.
"Oh great, what else is there?" Rose asked.
"Of course, there's always a catch. Why can't things ever go smoothly?" The Doctor cringed as he waited for the worst.
"From all the readings, it shows that these weren't just random sporadic rifts that were occurring. They were all uniform and evenly apart from one another. Which means that someone had to have been making them on their own." John continued to explain.
"So...what does that mean?" Rose asked, puzzled.
"It means someone's in a lot of trouble." The Doctor answered as he ran a hand through his hair.
The house had not been built to hold many people. Amy and Rory had long since gone to bed and claimed the guest bedroom. John and Rose obviously had their own and had decided to call it a night 20 minutes after they'd returned. Which meant that the Doctor had 2 options: stay up all night in John's study to go over everything again, or stay with River in the front room while she slept. Being a Time Lord he didn't sleep like humans did, so either way he'd have to do something to keep himself busy the remainder of the night.
He was at a loss of what to do. He'd already been brought up to speed on all of the rift information from both John and River, so he really didn't need to read over everything once more. They'd been able to trace where the first sightings had occurred and had a plan to check it out the following day. He could read one of the many books John had in his study, but he'd most likely already read them all at some point in his life. He'd make tea, but River would have been out in the front room and he didn't want to potentially wake her if she was asleep.
He was too caught up in his thoughts to notice a figure standing in the doorway, "Doctor?"
He shot his head up, not realizing he'd been staring at the ground, and found River leaning up against the nearest wall.
"Hmm?" He rubbed his eyes. Though he didn't sleep much, he still felt exhausted.
"Something wrong? You look deep in thought." She folded her arms.
"Deep in thought doesn't necessarily mean that something is wrong." He corrected her.
"It does when it's you." She yawned.
"You're tired. You should get to bed."
"Same goes for you." She smiled and twirled one of her locks of hair around her finger.
"I don't sleep much. I'm sure you know that." The Doctor crossed one of his legs and leaned back in the seat he was sitting on.
"Right. Well then, have a good night Doctor. I'll see you in the morning." River paused for a moment as she turned to leave, for a second the Doctor thought she would say something else, but then she kept walking. Leaving the Doctor alone in his thoughts once more.
His mind was racing a million miles a second as he tried to decide what to do. There wasn't anywhere left to sleep other than the front room. A couple uncomfortable chairs and a couch for one. "It's not like you'd be doing anything with her." He mumbled to himself.
His hearts started to pound in his chest the more he thought of staying the night even in the same vicinity as River. He weighed his options and watched as the clock slowly ticked by.
He sat there feeling his stomach do flip flops and listening to his heartbeats echo in his ears. The Doctor imagined what it would be like to just sleep next to her. Wondering what it would be like to feel her body next to his, together keeping each other warm.
He swallowed a lump in his throat.
He started to wonder what it would be like to hold her, to be able to breathe in the scent of her hair, and run his hands through the mess of it all. He wanted so badly to be able to kiss her goodnight, and cuddle. He'd never done anything like that in a very long while, and from the moment of accepting his feelings for her, he'd wanted to just hold her for as long as possible.
When he looked at the time he wondered if she'd still be awake. It had been only 10 minutes since she'd gone to bed, and he hoped that maybe she'd still be awake.
Making up his mind, he quickly but quietly made his way to where she'd be. His hearts picked up pace as he got closer, and he could feel his body temperature rising. His breathing started to pick up as well, and as he rounded the corner he thought he might chicken out and turn around.
The sight that awaited him was breath taking, for him at least.
River had claimed the couch as her own and was stretched out as much as possible. Her hair surrounded her in one giant mess, and a few curls covered the right side of her face. She looked so peaceful, and the Doctor had to remind himself that it was in fact River.
He was so used to seeing the cheeky, flirtatious side of her, that he was slightly taken aback by the innocent side to her. He smiled and slowly tip toed over to her. He was afraid the sound of his breathing and heartbeats would wake her up, but he wanted to be as close as possible.
He kneeled down next to her and took in the view even more.
One arm was dangling off the side of the couch, while the other was draped across her stomach. Her lips were parted slightly and the Doctor listened to her breathing. The look and sound of her was soothing.
Lightly he moved the arm hanging off the couch back onto her stomach and he held her hand. He stroked his thumb over her knuckles and drew swirls on the top of her hand. He used his free hand to push her hair out of her eyes. It didn't really matter since she was sleeping, but he wanted to look at the rest of her face. She was so angelic looking, and he couldn't help but smile when he looked at her.
"You're the most beautiful sight I've seen." He whispered as he adjusted to a more comfortable position to sit in. "And I've seen quite a few sights, so that's definitely saying something."
He paused for a moment a looked down at his hand holding hers. "I'm sure if you heard me right now you'd just call me an old romantic." He smirked, "But it's true when I say it, River you're the most amazing woman I've met. There's so much I still don't know, but I've never felt this way before. I don't know what to call it, I'm sure Amy would call it some crush that kids get...but it's so much more than that, River. You're so much more than that. I've always had my companions become infatuated with me in one way or another, but that's not what it's like with you." He smiled again.
The Doctor leaned forward and placed a small kiss on her forehead, nose, and lips. When he opened his eyes, he was met with hers looking back up at him lovingly. He jumped and felt his cheeks flare up and his hearts felt as though they'd stopped momentarily. His voice cracked as he spoke, "River! You're awake! I, uh, I was just, were you awake the whole time? You were weren't you?" He quickly let go of her hand, running his hand through his mop of hair.
River laughed, "It's kind of hard to stay asleep when someone keeps talking." She sat up and leaned forward, extending an arm out and gently running her finger down his cheek soothingly. He leaned in to the contact and closed his eyes. Too embarrassed to look at her.
The Doctor sighed, knowing there was no way to talk himself out of the situation. He opened his eyes and looked back at her. "Is it alright..." He trailed off and bit his lip, not sure how to ask the question.
"Is what alright, Sweetie?" She smiled.
"If I stay here...with you?" His hearts were beating so fast he wasn't sure if they could last any longer.
"Always." River nodded and scooted over on the couch. She lifted the blanket she was using, motioning for the Doctor to join her.
He took his jacket and braces off before sliding on to the couch next to her. She wrapped the blanket around him and put her back against the back cushions of the couch so she was facing the Doctor. He wasn't sure what to do with his hands, but found it as his opportunity to run his fingers through her hair.
River chuckled at his childlike curiosity. He was always so fascinated by her hair. The Doctor leant forward and buried his nose in the glorious mess of curls. He breathed in the scent of her hair, and she could feel him smile against her head. She let her heavy eyelids shut and scooted her head so it was against his chest. She fell asleep to the sound of his hearts.
The Doctor, though not usually one for sleeping frequently, found himself able to drift into a peaceful slumber fairly easily. He wasn't sure if it was because of River, or due to the amount of stress from dealing with the rift. Either way, he pulled River's body as close to his as he could and held her protectively against him, afraid that if he let her go it would all just be a dream.