The guards in front of the duo seemed unnecessarily heavily armed to the Doctor, with at least five or six guns each. All eight of them. He was fairly certain that even River had never carried so many at once, but then it wasn't impossible either; River had a way of slipping the guns she owned right under his nose, the clever Minx.
"Who are they?" She asked timidly and he looked back at her. Her hands where up beside her head, fingers bent towards her palms and she looked scared again. Perhaps not having her full memory made thing scarier, the Doctor theorised; River would never have been this scared if she was herself. But Melody and River seemed to be two different people.
"Guards." He told her truthfully. "Didn't I tell you we where in a prison?"
"What?" It came out of her like a squeak. She managed to look mouse-like too, like it was planned. But her wide eyes told a new story. "No! No you most defiantly did not tell me we where in a prison!"
"Shut it." One of the faceless (not literally) men who had crept around behind them snapped. They had formed a ring around the pair, tightly closing them in all sides. One of the guards, and the Doctor could never be sure if it was the one who spoke or not, jabbed the barrel of the gun he held into River's waist, hard. She squeaked in surprise and swung around, bringing her foot into contact with his knee and her knee into his chest and he bent in shock. He ended up in a pile on the floor.
It was not good idea.
The guards moved quicker after that. Resenting hands where forced into cuffs violently and the two TimeLords where forced out the door. No-one paid attention to the TARDIS.
"Oops." River muttered to him as they where pushed down the dark, damp hall the Doctor was almost accustom to. He found himself laughing at the ridiculous face she pulled. She resized another poke from the gun at her back.
"Leave her." The Doctor told the guard at the end of the gun. Walking forward while looking back had always prove a challenge to the Doctor in this regeneration, not that it was something he did often, and he ended up walking into two of the guards. Irritated at their antics and his co-ordination problem, The Doctor stopped and turned to face said guard personally.
"She hasn't done anything. Well she knocked one of your mates to the floor but she didn't touch you, did she? Actually, it could have been you, to be honest; you lot all look the same, I've never been able to tell you apart. But then even if it was you she kicked, you're still not allowed to hurt her, believe me I checked all the rules of this place aeons ago, So please keep your pointy, pointless, gun to yourself, before I get the lovely lady to knock you out."
The Doctor flicked his head to the left, to move his hair from his eyes in substitute of his handcuffed hands. It fell back in his face again. "That goes for all of you." He growled at the listening men at his sides. "Come along, Melody." He called her to his side as he span and started walking.
"So" He whispered to her with a grin. "How'd I do? Sound threatening?"
"Has anyone ever told you that you ramble?" She asked as she walked beside him, a cocky look about her. He couldn't tell if it was in her eyes, her mouth or just her whole being but the familiar whatever it was forced him to smile at her.
"Quite a few people actually." He told her with a wink "They never stop."
"You can't make me do anything you know." She told him conversationally as they turned another corner on the way to who knows where.
"Pardon?" He looked down at her again quickly, his neck almost clicking at the speed. She'd lost him again.
"'So please keep your pointy gun to yourself, before I get the lovely lady to knock you out'" She mimicked "Implies that you have some control over me to make me knock them out. You have none." She was looking straight ahead, away from him, but he could have sworn she was smiling.
"I said pointless, actually." He huffed and she smiled wider.
"You said 'pointy, pointless', actually. And I'm not all that lovely, but thank you for the compliment, regardless." He scoffed at her, eyes widening as his feet slowed. He ended up with the gun in his back again.
"Not lovely?" He huffed to the guard on his left "I swear she's insane." He got no reply.
Three more corridors of no conversation was starting to get boring. Huff worthy boring. Which annoyed both River and the guards - Immensely.
"Stop it." River snapped at him as she kicked a foot out at him. The Doctor nearly tripped over said foot while River stumbled. If she hadn't been so irritated with him, the Doctor believed the sequence of events would have had River in stitches.
"You made that ridiculous noise five times in the last two minuets. Shut up." She told him forcefully. He huffed again.
"I swear, if you do that again I will find someway to hit you." She told him coolly, and he had to marvel at her excellent hearing. He'd barely heard that last sigh.
"I didn't do anything!" He lied easily, years of practice forcing him to keep a straight face as she stopped to stare at him. The guards stopped for her, of course.
"You sighed, huffed, exhaled, what ever you want to call it, exactly five minuets and fifty-one seconds after I told you to stop." She growled at him. She was correct of course, perfectly correct down to the seconds in a way humans had yet to perfect; it was a TimeLord trait. He watched her face closely, waiting for her to realise what she had done.
It took a while longer than he would have guessed. But at last her face contorted. "How did-" It was the guard closest to her that interrupted her with a hand on her shoulder and a soft reminder of the fact that they had to keep moving. The Doctor rounded on him with a glare and the hand disappeared.
"Melody." He asked quietly, mindful of the guards loitering around them. "Talk to me. What's wrong?" Like you don't know, his mind told him, Like you don't know what you've done to her.
"I wasn't counting." She told him just as softly. "I don't know how but I know the times exactly, without looking at clocks or timing or anything. I just know." She looked over at the guards quickly "Nine minuets and four seconds since they found us. Eight minutes and forty-four seconds since they 'cuffed us. Eleven minuets and thirty-eight seconds since we left your ship. Sixteen minuets and twenty-two seconds since I woke up." She blinked quickly, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. "I don't even know if it's normal or not."
It was instinct that told him to wrap her up safe and warm in his arms, to tell her the truth. It was only and strong mind and an even stronger pair of handcuff that stopped him from doing either. So he twisted his back, legs and arms uncomfortably so the she would look at him. "Melody. If it comes naturally and you don't have to think about it, it's probably natural. And as for normal," He grinned at her and got a timid smile in return. "Why wants to be normal?" He spat the word with enough hatred that she started to giggle, only faintly, but it was there and he felt better instantly, the weight lifted from his chest.
"Enough." A guard snapped, approaching from around the last corner they had turned and the Doctor recognised him as the guard who had given River the scar on her back. He shoved hard at River's back sharply, ignoring any and all arguments and ordered for the same to be done to the Doctor. The inpatient guards shoved the pair around another corner, and the Doctor's hearts faltered as he stopped in place, recognising the open cell in front of the group. Cell 106.
The original guard who marched River at the front of the group shoved her again, almost twice as hard as the fist time and she slipped, falling against the leg of the bed inside the cell. The blue book on top fell beside her.
The TimeLord's strength was enough to match the one man, but not enough for the three men who forced him to turn around and walk back the way they'd come. It didn't stop him trying to fight.
But as the metal door slammed shut, The Doctor stopped fighting. But he fought hard when he heard the guard's voice. Defeat was a horrible think, the Doctor realise, but he knew he'd been defeated. Knew everything he'd worked for in the last Sixteen minuets and twenty-two seconds since – well, Seventeen minuets and eleven seconds now – had been destroyed:
"River Song. You are under arrest for murder and three attempts to escape from StormCage Containment Facility. You will remain here until someone comes to collect you."
The charge for the third attempt to escape was execution.
This took ages and I'm sorry for that and that it's so short and Cliffhangers! Argh I hate them so I'm very sorry, and it was never in the original plan but Ah!
Can I just say a big thank you to Cristiane Silva, who gave me the confidence to write quicker and gave me the hope that there are people reading this when I thought you'd all given up on me!
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