"Can you stop that bell, Doctor?" shouted Jack. He and River had their hands over their ears and the Doctor was stroking the Bell, making what looked like little distressed sounds, trying to calm it in the same way he soothed the main console sometimes. The whole room was shaking in addition to the loud sounds of the Cloister Bell, and River sat down on the floor.
The tolling stopped abruptly, and through the ringing in her ears, River could hear her husband's voice faintly, speaking as though the TARDIS were a child frightened by a nightmare. "-it's all right, Old Girl, it's okay, we're trying to make you well. That's it, good girl, you're alright, there, see? Good... good girl, Sexy, we're here, we'll take care of you..." Then again, reflected River, maybe in a way, she is a frightened child. She stumbled through the quaking room to where the Doctor was still patting at the Bell's console, and put both her hands gently on it, hoping the TARDIS would be soothed by her presence as well.
(ripping loss terror)
The response wasn't in words, precisely, but it was clear to River and the Doctor that the TARDIS was terrified by the disappearance of most of her rooms. River shuddered. It must feel like having a limb removed, without anaesthetic, she thought with revulsion, poor Sexy Thing. She tried to project calm, but she wasn't trained in this, and could only hope that it would help rather than hinder the Doctor's efforts to do the same. But he smiled at her across the console as they worked together to soothe the frightened TARDIS, and she knew it would be all right.
(fear? help? love)
It was working. The tremors of the Cloister Room slowly subsided and the room shuddered into stillness. River and the Doctor both sighed as they broke the connection and Jack looked at them with concern. "You kids alright?" he asked, somewhat caustically in his relief, "Because that was... intense."
"She's afraid," River said softly. "She's never been in pieces before, physically or temporally, and it's terrifying for her." She reached for the Doctor's hand. "Think about it, Jack, she's what? over a thousand years old, even older maybe, and she's... she's alone - she doesn't even have all the pieces of her self - for the first time ever." She held his gaze until he looked away. River sighed again.
"I know how she feels," Jack muttered under his breath, and River smiled at him, relieved that he understood. She'd thought he did, but she hadn't been sure; she didn't know him that well, and she trusted him only to a point. "Anyway," Jack said, trying to break the somber mood, "where to now?" He looked around, which he hadn't really been able to do with the Bell's clamour assaulting his ears, and noticed a door. A wooden door, which wasn't all that common on the TARDIS, if he remembered correctly. He pointed to it. "In there?"
"No," said the Doctor, glancing at River. Her face was set in a neutral expression. "No, that won't do at all. That room is... special." He looked relieved when he caught the flash of a grateful smile from River; she would have let Jack into her room if it had been the only option, but she'd really prefer to keep it as the... the sanctuary it was. "We'll use the vortex manipulator again, once we figure out where to go, unless Sexy can make us another door. Can you, dear?" The Bell shivered with a faint echo of its usual sound, and River and the Doctor felt a wash of agreement, still tinged with fear, but also with hope. A door - a normal TARDIS-style door - appeared in the wall opposite the wooden door. "Lovely door, Old Girl," encouraged the Doctor affectionately, and River felt that wash of positive emotion again as the three of them headed in that direction. The Doctor sonicked the door and it opened... onto a windy beach. The Doctor and his wife shared a look and he took her hand in an almost desperate grip as they stepped through the door together.
It slammed shut behind them, leaving Jack on the other side. The Doctor turned to face River and slid his hands up her arms to her shoulders. He kissed her. "You know where - when - we are." It was not quite a question, but River nodded. "I don't see the TARDIS," he continued, in as conversational a tone as he could manage, "So the other me has probably left already. That means those people," he indicated the small group down the beach, "are probably the human me, and Jackie, and... her. Rose." He sighed and laid his forehead gently on hers and she felt an echo of always and completely, my River as the wind blew their hair about their faces. He kissed her again, fiercely this time, and then his hands slid back down her arms and he took her hand to walk with her down the beach toward the small knot of people.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"No!" shouted Jack as the door slammed shut in front of him and then disappeared. He slumped against the wall where it had been, his face in his hands. "No..." he almost whispered, "Please... don't leave me alone again, please, I know you don't like me, but please... don't do this."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
The Doctor and his wife, hand in hand, approached the people on the beach. River didn't know what he had planned - and his plans often went awry even with the best of intentions - but she decided she'd play along, no matter how outrageous he got. She might regret it later... but she'd do it. This would be hard for him, and she loved him. "Er... Hello," said the Doctor, raising his free hand in greeting. The three people looked up from their quiet and intense conversational huddle, and River saw the Doctor's tenth incarnation in person for the first time. Well, sort of... as she understood it, this was a human clone of the Doctor. But he looked the same as the picture she had of him, and she tried to smile reassuringly at them all. "This is going to be awkward," said her Doctor, sheepishly, clutching her hand even tighter, "but I'm you. I mean, I'm the other you, another of the one who just left, and..." his words started tripping over each other as they did when he was upset, "And the TARDIS - Idris, I call her Idris or Sexy Thing or Old Girl, but you call her Old Girl too, right? - and she's ill and we need your help..." he trailed off, still looking at the human version of his former self, and - it seemed to River - very carefully not looking at Rose.
"What," said the human Doctor, and it wasn't really a question. "What - explain that again."
"Let me," River interrupted, squeezing her Doctor's hand and addressing all of them, though focusing on the two women. "This is the Doctor - I won't tell you which one - and I'm his... current Companion. My name is River Song." She was making eye contact with the women, not noticing the look of shock on the human Doctor's face as he looked at her and heard her name. "The TARDIS is ill and her rooms matrix is disconnected. She needs the parts of a Timedrive to heal herself and she said we'd know the parts when we see them. She sent us here, to you, which means that one of you has a part of the drive or knows how to get it. Can you help us?"
"If we can," said Rose simply. "We love her too." She took her mother's and her human Doctor's hands in her own, standing between them. She watched the newer Doctor and her own human Doctor eyeing each other warily and wondered what it was they were trying to communicate, but the woman with the riotously curly hair didn't seem to notice. "What do you need?"
"We don't know," said the Doctor, his voice rising with frustration and worry, "she only said we'd know it when we saw it." He ran his fingers through his floppy hair and then over his face, and Rose saw that look - the old and tired look she'd seen so often on her Doctors' faces. It was strange seeing it on the youthful face of the man in front of her, and it made her heart ache with sympathy for him. They're so different, she thought, but in some ways they're so alike, the Doctors. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and looked directly at her for the first time since they'd appeared up the beach. "I'm sorry, Rose," he said sadly, "I'm just worried about her. We need something that can help rebuild her rooms matrix. The other item we acquired... it was some nanogenes from the crashed medical transport in the Blitz, you remember, when we met Jack for the first time." He smiled at her and scratched his cheek nervously, and she understood the mix of muted joy and pain he'd experienced when seeing Jack - and her - again. He doesn't seem so lonely now, though, she thought, so that's good. He's dangerous when he's lonely.
"Wait just one minute!" It was Jackie at her shrillest, and she stepped forward and poked the Doctor in the chest with one manicured finger. "You're not taking my Rose anywhere, not again. She's just now settling down with this other you, the human one, the John Smith one, and I won't have you taking her away from us again!" She stood there glaring up at him, hands on her hips now, and the Doctors looked at each other over her head and began to laugh, breaking the tension. "What?"
The human Doctor stepped forward and lifted Jackie by her elbows, turning her to face him. "Even if he wanted to take her, Jackie - which he doesn't - I wouldn't let him." He gave the Doctor a significant look over her head, and became more serious. "I'm sure um... Miss Song here is a perfectly good Companion, and all they need is an item of some sort, an object to help the Old Girl's rooms matrix realign itself. Isn't that right?" The Doctor nodded, and put one arm around River. The gesture was protective and River wondered what had prompted it. The human Doctor - John Smith, River reminded herself - said, "Right, then, let's see what we have that could possibly help a TARDIS rebuild herself..." and he began to pat at his pockets. "Aha!" and he pulled a small something from his inside pocket. "TARDIS Coral," he said triumphantly, "the Doctor gave it to me to grow my own but..." he snapped the coral in half and tossed a piece to the Doctor, who caught it deftly in his free hand, "but Rose and I can wait a little longer. Can't we, Rose?"
Rose didn't answer him in words. She just launched herself at him and kissed him, throwing her arms around his neck. Even her mum - Jackie? - seems happy with this solution, River thought, and if my Doctor is feeling... wistful about Rose, he's hiding it well. She sighed, and drew the Doctor closer to her but resisted the urge to stake a claim by planting a similar kiss on him. He glanced at her and smiled. "Right," he said, "Thanks. We'll er... leave you to it." Rose waved vaguely in their direction without removing her mouth from John Smith's, and the Doctor started to shuffle off, holding River by the hand, just this side of dragging her in his haste to get away. River smothered a giggle as she set the vortex manipulator to the TARDIS' Cloister Room and pressed the button to engage it.
They appeared near the Bell, as they'd hoped, and were confronted by the sight of Captain Jack Harkness slumped dejectedly against a door, his hands over his face. River stopped giggling immediately and they went to Jack's side, kneeling next to him. This is not good, the Doctor thought, very very not good. He hadn't seen Jack this upset since... well, since he'd tracked him down in that spacer bar after the incident with the 456. River had her scanner out, but he put his hand over hers, shaking his head at her slightly. "It's not physical," he murmured, "He doesn't get physically hurt." He gritted his teeth - there were bits of him that still couldn't stand Jack because he was just wrong, a fact, and he knew the TARDIS felt the same - and gently touched the other man's shoulder. "Jack?"
Jack let out a single hoarse sob and then he just shook, his whole body trembling, and River and the Doctor both knelt there and held him like a child until he stopped. In sympathetic silence, the three got to their feet. "So," Jack said, not looking at either of them, "let's go see where the door leads now." His voice was bright and hard, and he opened the door with a slightly vicious wrenching motion, and went through without looking.