Have this one a lil early. You guys deserve it if you stuck with me this long.
Chapter 27- Overdue Explanations
When the TARDIS landed, I expected to see my apartment outside; but when I flew through the doors, intent on getting Naomi's bed ready, I found myself standing in a large, white, hospital lobby, where creatures from worlds I've not seen yet dotted the chairs in the waiting area and nurses wearing thick white veils crossed the room in pairs. I stopped short—where had the TARDIS brought us?
The Doctor burst out the TARDIS doors, Naomi bouncing in his arms. "Come on, to the registration desk," he ordered without breaking stride. I walked alongside him, keeping an eye on my sister.
"Doctor, where have you brought us?" I asked.
"New Earth Hospital," he said. "Best in the universe."
"Oh, my God, you think the Aligrena did something to Naomi's mind?" I asked, panicking.
"No," he answered shortly, "but better safe than sorry." We finally arrived at the registration desk, where a nurse with a cat's face sat, waiting for us. The Doctor quickly told her what had happened to Naomi, using technical terms I couldn't dream of understanding, and soon she called a quartet of nurses with a stretcher, ready to take care of my sister.
"Erica, why are they cats?" Naomi asked, alarmed as the Doctor lay her down on the stretcher.
"That's just the way they look," I replied. She lifted her hand and I grasped it one last time, uneasy myself about the feline doctors. "They're only here to help, Omie, I promise."
My hand slipped out of hers as they rolled her away, Naomi still staring at me, afraid. I made to go after them, but the Doctor gently held me back, and I didn't have it in me to fight him anymore. I watched as she disappeared into a corridor, her nurses tersely giving each other orders as they jogged away.
I had found Naomi, but had lost her again in a matter of minutes.
"Erica?" the Doctor's voice asked. It sounded like he spoke to me from under water. "Erica, were you paying attention at all?"
I tore my eyes away from the corridor; the Doctor and the feline receptionist watched me expectantly. "What? Sorry," I said, blinking out of my daze.
"I'm going to need the patient's medical history," the receptionist said. "Can you supply that?"
"Oh, yeah, of course," I replied.
"Is her file in our system?"
"I don't think so."
"Ah." She pulled out a pen and a clipboard with a form (it amazed me they hadn't moved on to better technology by now, whenever we were). "I'll need her history by mouth, then."
"Of course." I turned to the Doctor, who leaned on the table with one hand like a protective father. "You go ahead and sit down. I can take care of this."
The Doctor chewed on the inside of his cheek. "All right," he agreed, straightening up. "See you soon."
I nodded meekly. "Get something to eat," I instructed. "You're kinda pale."
"Yes, ma'am." He glanced at the receptionist one last time and then walked away, turning a corner when he reached the far side of the room.
"Your husband doesn't have to worry," the receptionist assured. "Your daughter will be fine."
"Oh, we're not married," I corrected. "Naomi- the patient- is my sister."
"My apologies," she said, afraid to look me in the eye.
"It's fine," I waved off. "Now, you said you needed her medical history."
The receptionist readied the pen and clipboard in her hand. "Yes, we should begin. Full name?"
"Naomi Maureen Stone…"
I gave all of Naomi's details and then waited with the Doctor. First in the ER waiting room, then in a cafeteria where we both tried and failed to eat, and then in her hospital room, closed off from the rest of the facility and leaving us in our own little world of forced patience. Neither of us really said much to each other while we waited for Naomi to wake up; he would occasionally reassure me that Naomi was fine, and I would murmur in agreement that I didn't fully trust. And our hands always stayed entwined, lending each other support in the hospital waiting room, in the corridors, and eventually when they put my sister in her own room. The Doctor helped me keep my vigil, even though he should've been resting on a bed right alongside Naomi.
Oh, yes, the Doctor needed just as much healing as I did. The whole encounter with the Aligrena had shaken him to the core. It wasn't out of affection for Naomi (not to say he didn't feel any: he cared for her like he cared for everyone, but he just hadn't had the time to grow to love her like I do); it was because he'd forced himself to relive every single moment of pain he'd ever experienced, all to save Naomi and I. Furthermore, he absolutely refused to deal with that pain, always shoving it away and covering it up.
Takes one to know one.
"Thank you so much, Doctor," I said, leaning my head on his shoulder. "I couldn't have found Naomi again without you."
"Nonsense," he interrupted matter-of-factly. "You found Naomi all on your own. I just drove you around. But you would've found her anyway, whether or not you'd ever hit the TARDIS. I said it before and I'll say it again: when you set out to get something you want, not even a Time Lord can stop you."
"You're just a big ol' pushover," I said, playfully shoving my shoulder into his. "But really, Doctor—thanks for everything. And…sorry."
He glanced down at me, brow furrowed. "Sorry?" he repeated. "What are you sorry for?"
"For everything you had to relive to save us," I replied. The Doctor had gone still and silent, knowing that he would relive everything again. I continued speaking, since it was obvious he wouldn't. "I saw some really terrible stuff in your memories, stuff I couldn't even dream of bearing. I mean, I thought I had it hard enough, with our mom and dad and everything, but my pain didn't come anywhere near yours." I lifted my head and balanced my chin on his shoulder, watching for a reaction, or any sign that he even heard me. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm so, so sorry. If it helps, I feel your pain. Literally."
The joke didn't work, possibly because it's not so much a joke as it is a fact. I worried that the Doctor wouldn't respond—and I couldn't blame him. He never told me anything about his past if he could help it, and now that I knew how much pain he'd experienced, I understand why: he never talks about it because he wants to forget it. But now that I've seen it, he's forced to accept that it happened, which is something he feared more than any Dalek or alien in the universe. When he finally responded, I hung onto every word.
"Everything has to end," he said. "That's just the way the universe works. And because I've lived so long, endings seem to come rather quickly for me." His hand tightened on mine, and I let him grip it; he needed me. "But sometimes I forget that, in order for an ending to happen, there has to be a beginning and a middle. And I treasure every second of the beginning and the middle, every single line of the story, because…well, I'm a fast reader. And yes, every ending hurts me. Cuts me right open." He dragged the fingers of his free hand across his chest, drawing an X over his hearts. "But I know that if the ending hurts, then the whole thing was worth it."
I smiled up at him, throwing my arms around his neck and suffocating him in a bear hug. His arms wrapped around my waist and he tucked his face into the crook between my neck and shoulder. "I promise our ending won't be tragic," I vowed. "I'll make sure we part on happy terms." I wouldn't waste time saying that we wouldn't have an ending, that we'd go on forever; we both knew well enough that that was a lie. The Doctor would outlive me, but that doesn't mean I'll let him be sad about it.
I pulled away from him, appraising him like a mother. "I'll go get us some tea, okay? We could both use a good dose of something to get our spirits up."
He furrowed his brow. "I thought you didn't like tea."
"I don't," I replied. "But considering they probably don't allow alcohol anywhere in the hospital, tea sounds pretty good right now."
He chuckled. "Okay," he agreed. "Can I have Earl Grey, please?"
"Of course." I got up, ruffled his hair, and left the room, hoping that I had helped lighten his hearts.
I only realized I had no way of knowing where the hospital cafeteria was until I'd turned down three corridors without reading the signs.
Oh, come on, I thought to myself, turning stupidly on the spot in the middle of a six-way intersection. I tried asking for directions, but the feline caregivers were either too busy or too high-and-mighty to help me out. I just rescued my sister because me and a friend relived the most painful moments of our lives. We deserve some freaking tea.
I caught sight of her on my fourth revolution, catching just the last glimpse of her piles of curls. "River!" I exclaimed happily, bounding after my ally. She was striding down the corridor opposite me, occasionally flipping through a blue book in her hands. Hopefully she could help me out. "River, it's me!"
She still refused to turn around, so I tried her full name. "River Song!" I called.
She swiveled around just as I caught up to her, expectant and confused. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" she inquired.
"Yeah," I replied, bewildered. "It's me, Erica Stone. You saved me when the Doctor—"
"The Doctor?" she repeated, cutting me off. A sudden hungry curiosity appeared in her eyes. "Do you know him?"
"Yeah, of course I…" I suddenly noticed her attire: the starched white smock of a patient. And the cover of the book she held looked an awful lot like the TARDIS. "River, are you all right? Why are you here?"
"I'm not River Song," she explained. "At least, not yet."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, growing alarmed. Was she in here for some kind of memory problem?
She held up her TARDIS book. "There's a man called the Doctor who plays great importance to my life," she explained. "But in the future. He gave me this to…keep track of it, I suppose. I saw him last when I was admitted to the hospital. And now that he's back, I'd like some answers."
I gaped at her; I don't know what was going on with River, but someone needed to see her.
Unfortunately, I knew exactly who that someone was.
A few minutes later, I was back in Naomi's hospital room, where the Doctor had pulled the bench closer to the bed and maintained a careful vigil on the machines monitoring my sister's condition. He looked up at me when I opened the door.
"That was awfully quick—" he remarked, cutting himself off when River followed me inside.
The Doctor stared at River in surprise and she glared back challengingly. The silence between them deafened me. I sought wildly for a way to break it. "How's Naomi doing?" I asked, trying the first ice breaker that came to my mind.
"No change," the Doctor replied, his gaze locked on his wife. "River?"
She shook her head. "Melody."
"Ah." The tension in the room remained strong until River (or Melody, whoever she thought she was) smashed it to bits.
"Doctor, I want information," she demanded. "I want to know why you're so important to me."
"Knowledge of the future is dangerous," he replied.
"I changed my future for you," she snapped. "I threw away my destiny on my parents' love for you. I want to know if it was worth it."
The Doctor gazed at River for a few silent moments, warring between telling her what she wanted or telling her it was impossible. In the end, though, he only had one option.
"Erica, watch Naomi," he instructed, standing up slowly and carefully, like an old man. "Me and…Melody have some things to talk about."
He walked past me towards River, looking at me knowingly. I moved aside without breaking my eyes from his.
"I'll be fine," he quietly reassured. His hand spread across the small of River's back as he led her out of the room, both casting occasional over-the-shoulder glances at me. We all worried for each other: River because the Doctor and I seemed to know more about her than she did; me because I actually had no idea what was going on with River, despite what she might think, and I didn't want the Doctor to get hurt; and the Doctor because…well, he's the Doctor. That's just what he does.
The Doctor and River cleared out of the room, leaving me alone with Naomi. As I watched over her, I wondered what had happened to River—or Melody, I guess. The Doctor clearly remembered her, but she couldn't remember him. Again, that could've been why she was in the hospital, but she would've been in a bed if she were a patient. But she was the Doctor's wife, so she was no ordinary patient.
I briefly ran through my only previous encounter with her in my mind's eye, the tragedy at Luna University. When she pulled me out of the meteor shower and into the TARDIS, she already knew my name and that I knew the Doctor. Now the same thing happened to her: I knew her name (or one of them) and that she married the Doctor. So perhaps this was her meeting me, while the Luna U ordeal was my meeting her.
Freaking time travel, man, I thought.
I filed the enigma of River Song away and turned my mind to Naomi: at long last, she had begun to stir. "Hey, girl," I said as she blinked awake. I molded my hands around hers, kissing the knuckles while she took in her surroundings, trying to identify them.
"Erica, where am I?" she asked.
"You're in the hospital," I answered. When panic rose in her eyes, I added, "No, nothing's wrong, you're fine. You just needed some medicine and some rest."
She closed her eyes again, rubbing her free hand across her forehead. "My head is killing me."
No wonder, I thought. "What do you remember?" I asked.
She bit her lip, scrolling through her memory. "Well, I remember this massive robot octopus in my room," she answered. "Can't remember how it got there. And then I…I kept remembering Mom and Dad's funerals over and over again. And suddenly we were in a cavern- you, me, and the weirdo with the bow tie, I mean- and everything's falling apart, and then we're in some kind of bachelor pad from the 70's, and now I'm here. Oh, and I'm pretty sure there were cat nurses somewhere along the way."
Her recollection, fractious as it were, made sense, except for one part. "Bachelor pad?" I repeated, bewildered.
Naomi nodded emphatically. "Yeah. It was all orange and yellow and a little bit of green, and there was a glass floor, and some big, weird lava lamp without the lava—"
That's when it clicked. "The TARDIS!" I exclaimed, laughing. She had described the console room without knowing what it really was. I made a point to remember her exact words, because they make me laugh every time I think of them.
By the look in Naomi's eyes, I must've seemed completely deranged. "You're saying words that don't exist," she warned.
"Sorry, Omie," I said, getting myself under control. "That's actually hilarious. Tell that to the Doctor when he comes in."
"Why?" she asked. "Why would I tell my doctor about that?"
I studied her curiously, but then I remembered that she didn't actually know the Doctor. "You misunderstand me," I said. "Actually, quite a bit. I have a lot of explaining to do."
"Well, start!" Naomi commanded. "Before I have you hospitalized, too!"
I grinned; same old Naomi. "Well," I began, "that robot octopus you mentioned…"
I explained everything to her: the Aligrena, the Doctor, the Aligrena's grand plan, and the reason they needed her to carry it out. I didn't dare hold anything back; I never kept secrets from Naomi, least of all now.
I had just started telling her about the TARDIS's wardrobe room when the Doctor appeared, leaning wearily in the doorway. River was nowhere to be seen.
"You're back," I said, containing my shock.
"I'm back," he sighed tiredly.
Oh, I wanted to badger him relentlessly for details- what he'd told River, why she didn't know who she was, why she had a book with a TARDIS cover on it- but he wouldn't answer. Whatever conversation he'd had with his wife had exhausted him. So I chose the one question that he would answer, the question that would require the least explanation.
"Where's Ri…where's Melody?" I corrected.
"Back in her room," he replied. "In the psych ward."
"What?" I straightened up. "The psych ward?" Forget what I said about "the least explanation. It seemed that whenever the Doctor granted me an answer, new questions arose. "What's she doing in there?"
The Doctor ignored me, his eyes sliding over to Naomi. "I'll explain later," he said, glancing between my sister and I. "I promise." He pushed away from the doorframe and loped toward us, pulling up a chair on Naomi's other side. Despite his tiredness, he smiled warmly at her, but her face stayed blank in suspicion. "Hello, Naomi."
She stayed silent, so I took that as my cue. "Omie, this is the Doctor," I introduced. "He helped me find you."
Naomi looked back the Doctor up and down, assessing him as a threat. "So you're the one that saved me?" she asked. Curious approval sparked in her eyes.
"No," he answered, still smiling. He looked over at me and smiled proudly. "Your sister did. I just…helped out a bit."
I almost rolled my eyes. Would he ever take the credit he deserved?
Naomi looked over at me, a tiny, appreciative smile lifting her lips. I took her hand, promising with the contact that I'd always be there to save her.
"Well then," Naomi asked. She never liked big, gaudy displays of gratitude. "I'm starving. Where can I get some grub around here?"