Tribulations

Tick tock, goes the clock, he gave all he could give her,

Tick tock, goes the clock, now prison waits for River.

River looked up from her pacing as the door to the waiting room opened.

"Amy?" she said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Five minutes," said the slightly overweight security guard who had accompanied Amy into the room.

"Well shut the door then," Amy told the guard firmly, ignoring River for the moment. "I was promised a private visit, so out with you."

The two women waited for the door to shut before turning to each other. Amy stepped forward and flung her arms around River's neck. "God, I've been worried sick. It's been months. Are you alright?"

River returned the embrace gladly, revelling in the comfort of being held. "It's been longer than that for me. I tried to disappear after what happened. After Lake Silecnio Madame Kovarian dumped me back in my office on the same day she took me. My graduation night, I'll have to send you photos of the ceremony. Anyway, my supervisor invited me for drinks at the staff club. I went to the rest room, then I heard the Time Agents come in looking for me, so I ran."

Amy pulled River down on a chair, sitting next to her and taking her hand. "How long did you run? How did they catch you?"

"I ran for months," River sighed. "Alright, years. Does it matter? I needed to get away. Wait, where are you? When are you from, and what are you doing here?"

"It's okay. I'm from late 2011, so we've done Area 52, and Hitler. I know who you are, and I know what the Silence made you do." Amy rubbed the back of River's hand. "I know the Doctor forgave you completely for what you had to do."

River looked deeply into her mother's eyes. "Do you hate me for killing him?"

Amy looked around the room cautiously before asking "Is it really private in here?"

"Mostly," River hesitated. "But I wouldn't trust them completely. Some things are too important to risk."

"Yes," Amy said thoughtfully. "There are definitely things that are too important, things that have to be remembered. But if you'll look into my eye," she paused significantly, "then you'll know I could never hate my daughter."

River slumped, the desperate tension that had held her upright releasing suddenly. "I stopped running, you know. Because as long as I'm running I can't be found by anyone, and that was more unbearable than this. So now I assume they've brought you here to testify at my murder trial."

"That's right, which menas we need to talk," Amy said urgently. "It's all up to you now river, what are you going to do."

"Oh Amy, what can I do? I won't plead guilty to murder, but I really can't offer nay defense either."

"They'll send you to jail," Amy protested.

"At least then you'll know where to find me."

Amy looked steadily at her daughter. "It could be years you know," she said warningly. "Are you sure about this? I don't know the law here, but surely kidnapping, brainwashing, and trapping you in a robotic suit are mitigating circumstances. A reduced sentence or something? Don't throw your life away, be sensible."

"Sensible?" River chuckled. "I tried that once, didn't work out so well."

"Okay," Amy sat back in her seat. "If you're sure then. Rory's in a meeting with the prosecutor now. I refused to talk to them until I'd seen you. I'll tell Rory we have to go along with this, and only tell as much of the truth as is safe. Just remember that we both love you, and we'll do anything we can."

"Oh, Amy," this time it was River who initiated the hug. "Mother. What did I do to deserve you and Rory?"

Amy looked at her daughter, and wondered what she could say to explain her love. She thought of the time's future-River would save her life. If she said "you saved my life the first time we met, and we've saved the universe 2 or 3 times since then" it would offer River far too much foreknowledge. Then Amy realised there was only one possible explanation.

"Spoilers!"

"Amelia Pond, what is your relationship to the defendant?"

"River is my daughter, and my friend." Amy stood tall in the witness box looking down upon her bewigged questioner.

"And your relationship to the deceased?"

"I'm the Doctor's friend. His best friend."

"And when was the last time you saw the Doctor?"

"Erm, do you mean relatively, like that I saw him 7,000 years from now? Or the most recent time I saw him, and in a personal linear sense?"

This appeared to stump the prosecutor briefly, before he receovered with "How about you tell me about each of those answers?"

"Okay," Amy paused to get her thoughts in order. "It is kind of confusing though. The latest I ever saw him was in the 110th century when we went there to take River to the hospital, the Sisters of some kind of Schism."

"Why did you take the defendant to this hospital?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "She was sick, obviously."

"Isn't it true, Miss Pond, that she was injured as a result of trying to murder the Doctor?"

"Well, yes, kind of..."

The prosecutor cut her off. "Just answer the question."

Amy looked over at River her shook her head slightly. All through the trial River had maintained a facade of sullen remorse, but the occasional flash in her eyes made Amy think it was just an act.

"Fine," Amy said sullenly. "Yes, she tried to kill him. Her injuries were a consequence of that act."

"And when was your most recent encounter with the Doctor?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Amy hesitated. "I think it was on the starship UK, when Liz 10 was queen. But I'm not sure exactly what year that was.

"What did you do on that occasion?"

"Well, I'm not sure it's exactly an encounter, it was our first trip together in the TARDIS, we saved a star whale from imprisonment and torture..." Amy's voice drifted as she recalled the adventure, and River looked up, intent on this first hand description of an event she'd only read about. "I was still in my nightie," Amy reminisced, "But we still managed to save the starship and the star whale."

"And from your perspective?" the prosecutor asked. "When was the last time you saw the Doctor?"

"Ah, that's confusing," Amy testified, "Because it was only a few months ago that we saw him. He gave us a house and told us we'd be safer without him, then he left."

"And that's the last time you saw hi? You're sure of that?"

"Well, yes, and no," Amy struggled to keep her tone level despite her anger and frustration at the questions; no, anger at the whole situation. "I'm a time traveller, remember? Linear for me doesn't mean linear for him, and then there was Area 52, but that wasn't really real..." River stared at Amy, shaking her head sharply, and Amy stopped talking.

"Let's stick to what's real shall we Miss Pond," the prosecutor suggested. "Tell me, were you present at Lake Silencio, Utah, Earth, on April 22nd in the year 2011?"

"Yes."

"Who else was present?"

"Rory, me, the Doctor and River Song. We had a picnic."

"And did you witness the defendant, Melody Pond aka River Song, shoot the Doctor several times, wait for him to enter a regenerative state, then shoot him once more to ensure his life was terminated?"

"No."

The prosecutor stopped in shock. "No, Miss Pond?"

"That's correct," Amy said firmly.

"Did you not witness the death of the Doctor?"

"I did."

"So you saw the defendant shoot the Doctor," he stated.

"No, I did not."

"May I remind you, Miss Pond, that you are under oath. If you continue to perjure yourself wou will be questioned under truth serum and punished for your perjury."

"Objection!" River stood quickly. "The prosecutor is threatening Amy, but has offered no proof of perjury. He hasn't even asked her what she actually saw."

"Agreed," the chief judge said. "Although you have not appropriately phrased the objection. I would like to repeat my advice that you accept legal counsel Dr Song. Representing yourself is unwise."

"Yes," River drawled. "It is unwise, isn't it." She sat back down and smiled at her mother.

"Miss Pond," the prosecutor rephrased his question. "Could you please tell us what you witnessed at Lake Silencio?"

Amy took in a deep breath before she began. "I was having a picnic with... wiat, I can't answer that question."

"You must answer the question, you are under oath Miss Pond."

"No, I can't answer in front of River," Amy explained. "It's confusing, the timeline, but see the picnic at Lake Silencio hasn't happened for her yet, so I can't tell her what happens."

River sighed, then rose to her feet. "May I explain?" she asked the judge, who nodded. "It's okay Amy, time quirks aren't exactly unheard of, the doctor doesn't have a monopoly on time travel you know. I've agreed to a temporal lock on these proceedings, which means that once the trial is over any testimony about events in my future will be put under a memory lock after the hearing. I won't remember what's been said until after that event has happened. It really is okay."

"Okay," Amy still looked uncertain, but River smiled to let her know she should continue. "We were having a picnic, Rory, River, the Doctor and me, when we heard a ute pull up at the top of the hill. A man got out of the ute, he later introduced himself as Canton Everett Delaware the third. The doctor waved to him, the River said something, and we all looked down at the lake. There was a figure in a space suit walking out of the water."

"What happened next?"

"The Doctor told us we had to stay back, and that under no circumstances were we to interfere, then he walked down to the lakes edge. The spaceman lifted his visor, and appeared to be talking to the Doctor. Then he slowly lifted his hand and blasted the Doctor with some kind of energy weapon." Amy's voiced broke as the remembered the scene. The Doctor, her raggedy Doctor, dying. "I tried to run down to help, but River held me back, saying I mustn't. He started to glow, to regenerate, then the space man blasted him again and he was dead."

"You maintain that River Song was beside you on the beach preventing you form running down to assist your friend?"

"That's correct."

"Is it possible that River Song was on that beach twice?"

"Actually," Amy smiled fondly, "She was there twice."

"Ah," the prosecutor smiled. "Then you admit that River Song was in the space suit."

"Not the spacesuit," Amy looked over at River. "She was there with me. I was pregnant, a couple of months along, so while River was holding me back on that beach she was also present as a foetus. My baby."

River smiled at the doting expression on her mother's face. It was the first time she'd heard Amy speak about her pregnancy, but she looked happy.

"So, you maintain that the defendant was on the beach three times that day," the prosecutor sounded slightly desperate now."

"Stop putting words in my mouth, "Amy said defiantly. "I saw a figure in a space suit shoot the Doctor. I never saw the figures face, or hair, or any other distinguishing feature. I never saw River in such a suit. I have no certain knowledge about who shot the Doctor."

The questioning continued, and then Rory was called to the stand. Neither of River's parents would say that they had seen her in the spacesuit. Somehow, while telling the absolute truth, they amanged to make the prosecutors case sound like it was based on hearsay and rumours.

For a while River almost let herself believe that it would be okay, that she wouldn't go to jail for a murder that hadn't been committed. It was possible she could return to her life at the university while still protecting the man she loved.

Until a video clip was sent to the prosecutor by a representative of the order of the Headless Monks, showing her face in the spacesuit, showing clearly that it was River Song who shot the Doctor. The Silence had never taken the chance that River might escape justice. River Song being incarcerated in Stormcage Containment Facility was all a part of their plan.

Amy and Rory wept when they saw her after sentencing, but River smiled.

"At least now he'll always know where he can find me," River said with a smile. "Maybe, now that I'm in prison, my life can finally begin."

As the guards clapped River in handcuffs and led her away she looked back over her shoulder. "Until next time..."

"It's not right," the young Time Agent argued, idly running his finger over the muscular shoulder.

"What's not right?" his supervisor queried, lying back and enjoy the caress.

"Pond, or Song, or whoever she really is," the Agent explained. Look, I've spent the last year tracking that woman down. All of space and time to hide in, and I find her on an archaeology dig on Raxocoricofallopotorious. Far as I can tell the only thing she did wrong while on the run was to use some kind of hallucinogen on the dig leader to insinuate herself into the team. That hardly sounds like the actions of a psychopathic killer. And when I cornered her she came along peacefully enough." Suddenly the agent blushed, and bloom of colour on his cheeks which didn't go unnoticed by his supervisor.

"Jack, what's up? Did she try to use her feminine wiles on you?"

"No," the Agent assured his bedmate. "Although if she had I suspect I'd have had to give in gracefully. That woman has significant wiles."

"So why the blush then?"

"Oh, I was just remembering a little suggestion she made about handcuffs," the agent said slyly, "and admiring these very substantial bed posts."

"Yes, well it's a shame we don't have any handcuffs here."

"Actually," Jack reached for his jacket, "I just happen to have a pair handy. Do you trust me?"

"It's you who should be worried about trust," the older man said as Jacks eyes began to blur. "One year memory wipe, it was in your drink."

"Why?" Jack slurred the question as his eyes closed.

The older man gathered his clothing and walked away from the bed, then paused and looked back at his young ocmpanion. "You don't even know what you did boy. Why we had to take your memories. Now you'll have no memory of River Song, or the Doctor, or me."

He left the room without another backward glance, leaving the memory wiped young Time Agent to his sleep.