Rampant
River Song loved books. She mostly loved history books, it didn't matter which planet, so long as the Doctor had been there at some point in time, and that someone had recorded it. Every time she found an account of his antics, it was like he was sending her a little gift, one more bit of himself she could savor. But occasionally, she also read the classics, and on that particular night in Stormcage, she was reading 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'.
oOo
The Doctor was very irritated in that adorable way of his when he arrived in the TARDIS. He huffed and unconsciously straightened his bowtie, but he returned the gentle kiss River pressed on his lips as she breezed past him to the control panel.
"River," the Doctor said, closing the door, "I'm not a taxi service. You can't just summon me up whenever you fancy a trip."
River ran a finger along his right suspender and up to his jaw line. "But you always come, my love. And anyways," she flicked a few switches and the floor began to vibrate gently, "this time it's important."
"Oh really?" The Doctor pulled River around so they were almost nose to nose. River's heart beat faster. He knew her now, trusted her. He was her Doctor. She would have given anything to lock the TARDIS door and stay with him forever. But she feared that if she did not answer the plea, there would be no Doctor with whom to stay.
"And just what might this important thing be?"
River only smiled her mysterious smile. "Time paradoxes, sweetie. Remember the rules." She kissed him on the nose and he scowled and rolled his eyes.
When the TARDIS eased to a stop, minus the grinding wail, the Doctor poked his head curiously out the door. "London! Excellent. I haven't been in this neighborhood since…" he trailed off, looked over his shoulder at River, a much more sober expression on his face. She nodded. "Then thank you, my dear," he said as she joined him at the door. He took both of her hands in his. "And… I forgive you."
"What for?"
Together they stepped outside. The Doctor smiled sadly, with no hint of the usual smugness he had when it was he who got to say, "Spoilers." He shut the TARDIS door behind him, and it vanished.
oOo
The Doctor and the others had not been re-chained to the walls; apparently their despondency had been deemed sufficiently constrictive. They had been sitting in silence for quite some time, none having anything much to say to any of the others. But upon the arrival of this strange new woman, the Doctor had leapt to his feet and drawn himself up to look down at her.
She was pretty, to be sure, and she smiled flirtatiously at him with unnerving familiarity. Falling back on instinct, the Doctor said, "Hello, I'm the Doctor."
"Oh, believe me," said the woman, "I know."
"Yeah, sorry. Um, who are you?"
The Doctor wasn't sure, but he thought he had caught just the slightest flicker of uncertainty before the woman raised her eyebrows as though he was missing something obvious, and addressed the others. "Professor River Song." Eyes back to the Doctor. "I'm the dashing white knight. Now come on, damsel, let's get out of here."
River Song knelt down in front of the door through which she had come and examined the lock. "Hmm." She held out her hand behind her, palm open and facing upwards. "Sweetie, where's the sonic screwdriver?"
The Doctor just stared at her with his brow furrowed in utter perplexity. "What?"
River looked over at him. "The screwdriver, dear," she said patiently. "We're not likely to get through the door without it."
"I don't have it," the Doctor admitted grudgingly, recalling with a sharp sense of humiliation the trouble they'd gone to to get it out of his pocket, only to have it so brutally confiscated.
They saw River suppress a teasing grin. "The Doctor without his screwdriver. Never thought I'd see the day." She shrugged. "I guess it's on to plan B then." She reached inside the front of her blouse and withdrew two small, squat cylinders, which she positioned above and below the lock.
"Nice, love," said Owen sarcastically. "But won't an explosion just bring the guards running?"
River gave him a pitying look that brought a pale pink flush to his cheeks. "They're not explosives." She pressed her thumb on the center of each cylinder, and waited.
A second later there was a soft beeping, the high-pitched hum of a drill, and the hiss of acid. Smoke trickled through the crack between door and wall, and the door swung inward.
"Coming, pretty boy?" River said over her shoulder. Without waiting for an answer, she strode out into the hall outside. The Doctor followed, still eyeing her with extreme suspicion. Gwen hurried after him, and Owen, supporting Toshiko, trailed sluggishly behind.
"Doctor," Gwen whispered, keeping her voice too low for River to hear, "we have to find Jack."
After Ianto had had Jack moved out of their cell to do God only knew what, they'd begun to listen instead of talk talk. Or rather, try to drown out the sounds. Sometimes at night they could hear faint screams filtering down through the ceiling. Owen seemed indifferent, Tosh and Gwen winced and wept, and with every scream the sadness in the Doctor's eyes grew. But the sadness was not for Jack.
The Doctor turned around to face the Torchwood agents. Owen was leading Tosh along a few paces away, gripping her elbow firmly. She was still distant, vacant, but her eyes found the Doctor and focused on him with some small flicker of recognition.
"Right, you lot need to find Jack and get out of here."
"What will you do?" Gwen asked.
The Doctor lowered his voice further. "I'm going to find Ianto, and keep an eye on our new friend."
"Do you know her, Doctor?" asked Gwen.
"Not yet," was all the Doctor would say before returning to River's side, leaving Owen, Gwen and Tosh to negotiate their way upstairs.
River continued to march briskly through the tunnels, with the Doctor perfectly matching her pace. "Well," she said casually, "you're doing a good job pretending you don't know me. Where are we, then?" She cast a sidelong glance at him as they stepped over a pipe running across the corridor at knee height. The Doctor, having been holding her gaze, bumped into it and nearly toppled forward before seizing a pipe parallel with the ceiling and level with his head and clinging to it. River snickered, waited for the Doctor to climb over the pipe, and said, "Early days, judging by the hair. Have we done the crash at the Byzantium yet?"
The Doctor just stared at her.
"Really? No? Lake Silencio? Thames 1814? No? Blimey," River sighed. "Really early days." She shrugged in what was clearly supposed to be a throwaway gesture, but the movement carried more weight, lasted longer. She was clearly upset, although her voice was light as she said, "I suppose we'll just have to make do."
The Doctor stopped, grabbed her shoulder. "Who are you?"
For the first time, River's forehead wrinkled in what might have been the beginnings of sadness. "Doctor, please tell me you know who I am."
The Doctor shook his head.
"Right," said River in a brave attempt at nonchalance. "We'll just have to work on that, then. Come on, plenty to do." She spun on her heel and kept walking.
"Where are you going?"
"The TARDIS of course."
"Of course," the Doctor muttered. He was really quite taken aback by this woman. Obviously she was from his personal future. That much was clear, and not altogether unheard of. He was a time traveler, after all. No, it was her manner with him. She was incredibly comfortable, romantic even. The Doctor could not imagine any scenario in which he would behave like that with someone, not even with…he pushed the thoughts away. Drowned out Bad Wolf Bay with a question: what kind of person was he when he knew her? And how had she even gotten here? For now, he decided, he would follow her and observe.
At long last, they came to a cluster of thick, rusting pipes, and through a gap just below eye level, they could see the bright blue wood of the police box.
"How did you find her?" the Doctor asked in genuine amazement. He himself had tried time and time again over the last months to contact the TARDIS, to establish a signal strong enough to wake her up, but had found himself blocked every time, by what he didn't know. But he could guess.
River grinned slyly. "Psychic connection." At the Doctor's expression, she added, "Spoilers. Can't tell you what's in your future." The Doctor frowned, but accompanied River around the pipes to the TARDIS door.
He dug into his pocket for the key, remembering with a moment of quiet pride how he had concealed it to keep it from being confiscated, however when he looked up, the door was already open and River was inside, caressing the control panel as one might a favorite pet.
"What's happened to you, girl?" she said sadly.
"She's trying to hold a paradox," the Doctor explained. "How did you open the door?"
River ignored him. "She's dying," she murmured. She pulled up a panel of the console, exposing a jumble of sparking, smoking wires and tubes. "I can fix her," she said. "But it'll take some time." She looked up at the Doctor. "You should go help your friends."
The Doctor laughed humorlessly. "Ha, I'm not leaving you alone for a second with her until you've answered some questions. Who are you?"
"Dr. River Song, professor of archaeo-"
"To me," the Doctor interrupted. "Who are you to me? Why did you come?"
"Your friends sent a message," said River without looking up from the wires she was unplugging and rearranging.
"Why did you come?" the Doctor repeated.
"I always come, sweetie," said River. "You'll learn that soon enough." And then, almost unconsciously, she grasped his hand and squeezed it. "Just like you always do."
The Doctor opened his mouth, but the moment vanished as a harsh blaring alarm sounded from above.
"You need to go help your friends! Don't worry about the TARDIS, I'll get her fixed."
"I'm still not leaving you alone with her." The Doctor folded his arms. "I don't know you and I definitely don't trust you."
"You will," insisted River, an air of frustration apparent in her voice. "But I don't have time to wait for you, so I am sorry. I'm very, very sorry." She placed her hands on either of his shoulders and pulled his ear to her mouth.
When she released him, the Doctor stared at her with something close to fear.
"How do you know that?"
River shook her head. "Spoilers. Now go. Just go! Wait!" she held out a small, oddly shaped piece of clear plastic. "Take this and put it in your ear. I hear everything you hear, and you can hear everything I say."
The Doctor nodded, the fear still prevalent on his face.
"Good luck," said River.
The Doctor was too shocked to reply.
oOo
The Doctor was sure that by now he should have become accustomed to Ianto's evil leer, but it still just looked so wrong on his young, round face. He stood in the Prime Minister's office at the head of the long mahogany table. To his left, Gwen, Owen, Tosh, and Jack, the last of whom looked quite the worse for wear, stood against the wall. The Doctor didn't want to imagine what hell Ianto had put him through during the last ten months. Whatever it had been, Jack's eyes were now as vacant at Tosh, and his mouth was permanently turned downward in a pathetic grimace.
Ianto gestured out the wide bay window. "We're living in a paradox, Doctor. But you know that. You've seen the TARDIS. I didn't call you up here to tell you that. I merely wanted to enumerate the many joys of paradoxes. For example," he waved his hand over the Torchwood team, "I am able to go back in time and kill everyone of them, with the exception of dear Jack, of course. Where did you dig him up, anyway? I couldn't find him anywhere. Anyways, in the time outside this paradox, they're all dead. So, as you may now be realizing, Doctor, if your pretty blonde friend does succeed in reversing the paradox, they…" he let the sentence hang, his eyes burning into the Doctor's.
"They'll die," the Doctor croaked. "She shouldn't fix it, then." He laid as much stress as he dared on those last words, praying River was listening. He relaxed a miniscule amount when he heard her breathe, "Loud and clear, sweetie."
"But that's just a bonus!" said Ianto with a manic grin. "The real purpose is just…just poetic. And here I must thank my dear Toclafane."
"What have you done?" said the Doctor.
"You know how humans are always saying 'our children will pay the price for our arrogance'? For the way they wage wars and pollute and wipe out entire species, and all that fun stuff, completely ravaging the planet. Which, in fairness," he added, "isn't much of a planet. I mean, look at it. Six billion people, puh-lease. They're practically a microcosm." Ianto snickered. "But that's not the point. The point is, today, the children get their revenge."
"Doctor, what does he mean?" asked Gwen.
With an expression of pure evil, Ianto said, "Oh yes, Doctor. I took genetically altered humans from the year one-hundred-trillion. The end of the universe, and I brought them back to the generation that started it all. And all that's left," he slid aside a panel of the wooden table, revealing a single red button, "is to send out the order."
There was a click from behind Ianto, and a voice said, "Hands up, tough guy."