The Doctor laid a hand on the time rotor, stroking it gently. «What would I do without you two to support me?» he murmured. Then he put his hands on the controls. Because when an all-powerful goddess of space and time gave you a mission, you damn well did it.
As he had a lifetime ago, he set coordinates for farther down the time vortex, refraining from selecting a specific point along its wall to land on. It was a matter of heartbeats to arrive, and he input a complex series of commands that resulted in the TARDIS taking up a tempo-spatially stationary orbit over the section of the vortex associated with River's time in The Library. Once locked in place, he danced around the console to the scanner. «All right, Sexy. What can you see?»
The TARDIS' scanner swept over the area in question, guided by his mind. The first pass revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Just a fixed point marking the end of River Song's life. Undeterred, he changed the parameters and looked again. Bad Wolf was counting on him to solve this puzzle. He would not let her down.
ooOO00OOoo
Patience had never been one of the Doctor's virtues. And the ability to jump past the boring bits of life had done nothing to encourage in him the skill. So when at the end of two weeks, (thirty-two Gallifreyan days, times 78.4392 hours in a day equaled roughly 2,510 hours of searching, or 104.5 human days his mind gibbered) he'd yet to find anything helpful, he decided to take a break from it all and go visit his family.
ooOO00OOoo
A blue police box winked in and out of existence on the front lawn of the Tyler mansion.
"Mu-um!" a young, male teenage voice called over the din. "Doctor's here!"
"Aye, aye, quit your yell'n. I heard 'im too."
The Doctor smiled as he approached the front door. Once upon a time, he had feared Jackie Tyler above anything else. Now he found the chaos of her family soothing. He raised a fist to knock on the door.
"Don't you dare! So help me Doctor, if you knock on that door…"
The Doctor froze. Well. Maybe he still feared her a little. He opened the door and stuck his head through the crack. "Yes. Well, um. Hello!" He waved at the camera guarding the entryway.
"What are you doing standing there, ya daft alien? Get in here!" Jackie yelled from somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen.
The Doctor came in and, as he was closing the door, heard pounding footsteps on the second floor race down the hallway towards the stairs. Good old Tony Tyler. Never walked anywhere when he could run. A gangly youth threw himself down the last few steps and sped towards the Doctor at an alarming speed. The Doctor just laughed, catching the youth's outstretched hands in his own. The two of them bound in place, each of them repeating a chorus of the other's name.
"Tony!"
"Doctor!"
"Tony!"
"Doctor!"
"To-" the Doctor abruptly cut off, dropped Tony's hands, and stepped away, straightening his cuffs in a nervous gesture. "Yes. Uhm. Very nice to see you, Tony." He turned to face the person who had just come through the doorway to the left. "Jackie."
"Oh, posh," Jackie said, flipping her hands as if to shoo away his suddenly formal demeanor. "C'mere you."
The Doctor broke out into a huge grin and swept Jackie up into a hug, twirling her around before returning her to her feet.
"Leave off, leave off," she said, giggling like a schoolgirl. "I'm too old for all this."
"Nonsense, Jacks," a male voice said from behind them, and they all turned to see Pete Tyler shedding his coat. "Never too old to have a little fun. Specially with an old friend."
"Pete!" the Doctor cried, flitting over and air kissing both of the man's cheeks while Jackie and Tony laughed. Even after all these years, he still wasn't used to that particular habit of the Doctor's.
"Come on in, everyone. Tea's on." Jackie said, leading the way into the kitchen. Once there, she received a proper kiss from her husband before pouring the tea.
"Now then, Doctor. What's all this about?" Pete asked after they had all taken a seat around the kitchen table.
"I need some advice," the Doctor admitted, sipping from his TARDIS blue mug printed with the words 'trust me, I'm the Doctor' printed on it.
"About what?" Tony asked.
"I've been given a mission. A goal. Quest, if you will. If I can succeed, I will win the one thing I want in all of time and space."
"And if you don't?" Jackie asked, more familiar than anyone else with how often things didn't turn out quite the way the Doctor wanted.
The Doctor winced. "I die, permanently and without regeneration."
"Blimey," Tony said, leaning back in his chair.
They all took a moment to absorb the Doctor's words.
"This thing," Tony asked. "Is it worth it?"
"Without a doubt, it is."
"So what's the problem, then? What do you have to do?" Jackie asked.
The Doctor took a long drink from his mug. "Alter two different fixed points in time. One of which I've already lived through."
Pete and Jackie shared a speaking glance before Pete spoke, obviously having been designated as the Devil's Advocate. "Are you sure that's a good idea? You've told us about Reapers and the like. Isn't that what causes them to appear?"
The Doctor wiggled his head back and forth as he thought. "Hmm. Yes and no. You cannot alter the facts of a fixed point, but there is still some room to maneuver. For example: Pompeii exploding may be a fixed point, but I can save a small family from the blast."
"What are the facts?" Pete asked, pulling out a pen and paper so he could write them down.
"The Library is infested with Vashta Nerada. People are stored on CAL. River Song electrocutes herself."
"And what are you trying to change?"
The Doctor dropped his eyes, staring into his tea. "River Song's death."
"Hmm. Tricky." Pete slid the paper over to the center of the table so his wife and son could look at it.
All three studied it while the Doctor made a bet with himself as to how many jammy dodgers he could shove in his mouth at one time.
"Well, what about – Doctor!" Jackie looked up to see him shoving the fourth jammy dodger into his mouth, cheeks puffed up like a chipmunk. "What are you doing? Stop that!" She smacked his hand away when he reached for a fifth.
The Doctor pulled his hand out of slapping range, cradling it to his chest. His wounded expression lost some of its force, paired as it was with his overstuffed cheeks.
"Honestly. What are you, four?" She swept the plate up from the table and dropped it on the counter safely beyond his reach. But not before he managed to liberate two more, forcefully cramming them into his mouth, eyes glittering with triumph.
"Time Lord, indeed," Jackie huffed, reclaiming her seat while Pete laughed behind his hand.
Tony didn't even bother doing that.
Once they all settled down, Jackie tried again. "If she has to be electrocuted, can you change the voltage?"
The Doctor shook his head regretfully. "No. Has to be a certain amount. Otherwise CAL…won't…" he trailed off, face going blank as his mind raced. "Jackie Tyler, you are brilliant!" the Doctor cried, leaping to his feet. He picked her up, chair and all, swinging her around as he danced across the kitchen. "Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I say." He set her down and gave her a smacking kiss on the lips. "I'm going to name a nebula after you!" Then he tore from the house, laughing madly all the way. They heard the front door slam, then a few seconds later, the TARDIS ground to life.
The Tyler family stared at each other in shock. When the sound of the TARDIS finally faded away completely, Jackie grunted, swept the back of her hand across her lips and said, "that's Himself for you."
ooOO00OOoo
River Song cried. She screamed. She threatened and begged. But nothing could stop the Slendermen from hauling her away from the Doctor. She knew what was going to happen. Knew her escape from Madam all those years ago had been too easy. They were going to put her back inside that spacesuit. And then she was going to kill the Doctor.
She raged, reached inside for the Wolf that gave her strength. The Slendermen pounced. Sliding through her mental barriers in that peculiar way they had that left no trace of them in her mind. And now she saw how they did it. It was no skill of theirs that hid their existence. No technique she could fight against. It was her. Her own mind. Their very existence was so horrifying to her in such an elemental way that she couldn't even feel it, understand it. Her mind was in full retreat, refusing any and all contact, going so far as to deny the formation of memories associated with them. Her mind would not touch them.
But they could touch her. Could, and had. It was they who had implanted the training. They who had hidden the conditioning. Which was why neither she, nor her therapists, could find it. It was hidden in that place within her where she could not look.
She saw now. She understood. But with the understanding came a faint sense of déjà vu. How many times had she discovered this? How many times had she forgotten? She wept as they reached into her soul, grabbed one specific thread, and pulled. All over her mental landscape, massive cobwebs she'd never been able to see before lit up. A macabre interwoven strand of Christmas lights, dripping with hatred for the Doctor and a lust for death.
In the physical world, River Song opened her eyes. And smiled.