Hunting Dreams
Part 05
+++MEANWHILE+WITH+THE+ELEVENTH+DOCTOR+++
The Doctor watched as Clara went off his magnificent ship, frowning in his contemplation. They'd just finished a rather terrifying adventure with his Impossible Girl. Yet the console room was empty except for him…and had been for a while. He didn't remember seeing Nova before the crash. Nor during. Not now that it was done either.
At the time, he'd assumed that Nova was still in Clara's time. Clara had mentioned seeing her with him before they left. She'd said she'd seen the girl wandering around the local child park, speaking with someone. Then the whole thing with the thing had happened, he'd gotten focused on bettering Clara's relationship with his TARDIS, and then there was the crash… He'd actually been rather relieved that his foster hadn't been onboard for that debacle!
But now… They were back. Clara was back in her home, not an hour after they'd left. Nova should be here. Yet…she wasn't anywhere in sight. Had he landed wrong?
He looked at the screen. Went to taste the air. No, he had set the time dial correctly. Another check of the screen. He'd landed in the same place from which he'd left. To Nova, it wouldn't've been all that long ago. She should still be here, waiting for him.
It wasn't as if this hadn't happened before! She was a child, yes, but she got cabin fever like any human. She didn't like spending all her time in the ship traveling. She liked her little 'human adventures' to coffee shops, libraries, and other whatnot.
He should phone her! He grinned at the brilliant idea. Then groaned as he realized that he'd never given the girl a mobile. She'd never needed one. She was always either with him, or with others that already had mobiles. She visited Jack quite often.
Jack! Perhaps she was with Harkness!
The Doctor smiled brightly and bounced over to his phone, dialing a number by heart. "Captain Jack Harkness!"
"Doctor!" Jack sounded happy. "What's up? Nova want to come for a visit?"
The Doctor paused. "She's not with you?" he asked, much more subdued.
"With me? No, Nova's not here." A pause. "Where's Nova, Doctor?"
Eleven shook his head. "I'll find her." Before Jack could protest or say anything else, he hung up.
Perhaps Nova had gone to bed? He was over two thousand and could go as long as a week without sleep! But she was still a child after all. Children needed more sleep than adults.
Not wanting to disturb her rest if that was indeed the case, he flipped the little lever that would let him track crew members. Watched the blinky blip on the screen…or tried to. There was no blinky blip on his screen. Why was there no blinky blip on his screen?!
A deep feeling of foreboding (this time having nothing to do with Clara) began to curl in his hearts.
Maybe she was visiting River? She did that sometimes. She liked River.
Ring. Ring. "Hello?" A male voice. Probably a soldier. He was calling Stormcage, after all. That was where she was most reliably for phoning. Nova thought she was lonely there, so she visited most often when River was in prison. (How she got there was apparently an only-girls secret. The pair would giggle whenever he asked. However, he also knew that River had a vortex manipulator and probably just picked up the girl to go visiting wherever they pleased that time. He was absolutely certain Nova was safe with River, and never bothered to investigate further.)
"I need to speak with River Song. It's the Doctor."
He heard her talking in the background, demanding the phone, saying she had rights. He waited impatiently. "Doctor? What's wrong?"
"Is Nova with you?"
"Nova? No, she's not here." A pause. "Doctor, where is Nova?" Her words were almost clipped, but definitely worried. She didn't even wait for his response. Knowing that the question precluded him not knowing the location of the Last Child of Gallifrey. "Come get me. We'll find her together." Nova had a singular bond with the ship through her Gallifreyan heritage, but River's was even closer. River Song was a child of the TARDIS in a very real way. She could make the TARDIS do things that he didn't or couldn't.
However, a dial tone was the only response she got.
"Damn you, Doctor!" she hissed under her breath.
"What is it?" the soldier asked kindly. "Is something wrong? Was that your family doctor?"
River eyed the man and smiled gently at him. "You're new, aren't you?"
What had he just been saying about being so slow? How could he have not noticed that his ward was missing?! How could he have never given her a phone?! What sort of father was he?!
Whirling around the control room console wasn't helping matters either. "Ah ha!" he got an idea. There had been that little boy who'd sent him a message on his psychic paper. He could do the same! He'd given a psychic wallet ages ago. She barely ever used it due to him always using his, but she should still have it. He just had to get her to answer and he could track her!
WHERE ARE YOU?
No answer.
Nothing.
Long, long minutes.
Silence.
WHERE ARE YOU?
Nope.
Nada.
ANSWER ME!
Where was she? Why wasn't she answering? Could she not feel it? Maybe the power was down? How far away was she?!
WHERE ARE YOU?
He pulled a knob that would increase the power and range of the message.
WHERE ARE YOU?!
Waited.
Nothing.
No answer.
Was she unable to answer? Unconscious? Kidnapped? What could possibly take her without him noticing?! If something happened to her…
A bing blipped and flashed at him.
Incoming message. The Doctor raced forward and grabbed the screen anxiously. The pit of dread unfurled into horrible tension at the words.
DON'T COME – TRAP!
Or a trap for her? A trap for him was more likely… Who would know what she truly was? A trap to catch a Time Lord would have to be elaborate. But kidnapping his ward was incredibly good bait. He'd go right to her. No question. She needed him. She was only 67 years old for stardust's sake!
He flipped a lever and ordered the ship to track the reply.
About as he was going to follow, no matter what Nova told him…
…there was a knock on his door.
"Really not the time!" he shouted as he ran to and opened the door, practically by habit. (If he had stopped to think about it for long, he would have just taken off, damned be the consequences of whoever was knocking.)
River Song was glaring at him, hands on her hips. "Don't you DARE do that to me again!" She charged up the walkway, grabbing one suspender as she went, dragging him with her. "You canNOT just call me, ask where Nova is, then hang up! Do you have any idea how worried I've been that I wouldn't get here in time before you go swanning off?!" They reached the console and she let him go. "Have you tracked her psychic yet?" Didn't wait for his response as she saw the reply on the screen. "I see it." Then her brain caught up with the message still displayed.
Her anger grew more subdued. "If they've kidnapped her for a trap, you know what they really want."
"Me," he growled.
"Where is she?" River asked, her hands already moving to direct the ship to give her exactly that. A couple dings and flash of gold. "Oh."
"What? Where is—" He saw the origin and his face closed down.
River said, "Didn't you make a treaty with them?"
"Several decades ago," he confirmed darkly. "After Demon's Run." With sharp movements, he pulled the screen and sent a new message to his ward.
Are you safe?
The reply came almost immediately.
FOR NOW
When Amy had been taken, he'd called in every favor he held because he wanted to get her back with the least amount of bloodshed. She was his companion and he would rescue her. She was an adult and could handle herself. His Amy was fierce and came at the universe with all strength and relentless intensity, just as she approached anything else. He knew that she wasn't harmed, as they didn't want to hurt her. They had worked diligently to make him not notice her missing. Kept her calm. Kept her healthy. Kept her safe. He had time to get her back.
Nova however…
Even though she'd grown up as a human, with human ethics and mores, her time at the Master's mercy in the Year That Never Was had changed her drastically. He had done his best to ground her, but the stress that the Master had made her endure, the isolation and the torture had finally broken the poor girl. The genetic manipulation had enhanced and encouraged the cognitive dissonance. So that her mind had severely regressed until Nova was mentally much younger. Once again innocent.
He would never forget how he had found her after the Year ended: collapsed at the base of the TARDIS console and sobbing brokenly, as if her entire world had ended, and she had nothing left. He'd felt that before, when Patience and his children died. He had taken out his rage and agony out on the Daleks, but Nova didn't have that option. Instead, she retreated inside herself, and became a shell of a person for months until he'd finally been able to break through. Finally able to extract her from her mental hideaway. She'd hated him for months after that, but he hadn't given up.
He'd been taking care of her ever since.
Nova wasn't Amy.
He had no doubt (even before it had happened) that Amy would be perfectly fine for months, years, even decades, away from the ship. Away from him. Amy was a fighter, facing everything at full charge. Wonderful Amy. Relentless Amy. Strong Amy. Fierce Amy.
Nova wasn't Amy.
"In that case," River's voice interrupted his thoughts, "where to first?"
He had never seen that expression on her before.
He wasn't sure but thought it might be a reflection of his own.