ten_fwd | A very violent reentry - OTA - Spoilers for the 10th doctor's era

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A very violent reentry - OTA - Spoilers for the 10th doctor's era

"All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here," she had said. She was right - about the library. But she was wrong, so wrong, about the Enterprise. Call it a joke of Q's. She wasn't in a laughing mood.

Professor River Song had done what she had to do. Perhaps somewhere in her mind she had always wondered if she would really do what needed to be done when it came down to it. throw herself in the way of a projectile to save him, yes. But when there was thought? When there was time for thought? She offered to give herself to save him, but hadn't she known, hadn't she always known that he wouldn't let her? That he would use the danger to her to do what he wouldn't when he had been the one at risk? She knew the Doctor. She loved the Doctor. Every form she had ever met, and the ones she only knew of as stories. She knew that to save everyone, he would give his life. Some days she didn't half wonder if he wanted to die. She didn't think she could ever love him enough to let him.

But when it was someone else taking the risk, then... ah then he would see another way clear. Another way out. Then he would come up with an impossible plan and pull it off. He did so hate to lose. So, somewhere back in the depths of her mind she wondered if she would ever have the courage not to say she was going to step between him and danger, and not to do it on instinct and emotion, but to stare death in the face and give herself to it to save him.

And now she knew. This time there was no hope for a crazy last minute plan. She knew that. And she knew he knew it. Because her journal was full. Because there was no time for another plan. For the two of them who treated space and time like a giant play yard... No. For her. For her there was no time left. So she did what she had to. She didn't say she was going to take his place, she didn't give him the chance to argue. She knocked him out, handcuffed him, and took his place. River Song worked at the controls.

But he came to too soon. He started to speak, and that... That was what he was best at. Speaking. And it was when he was speaking that he could do anything, save anyone. But not this time. She wouldn't let him, because the alternative was that he would die. And she would not let him. So she spoke. She took his death from him, and she took his trick. In the end, she learned from the Doctor in the most important ways.

The words were still on her lips. Her last words. They were meant to be her last words. "Hush now, spoilers," she had said, she still tasted the words. She closed the connection as the timer ticked down. There would be no more running. And no chance for him to stop her, to take her place. Tears fell from her eyes as the world went white.

Energy filled her, used her, passed through her. She wouldn't scream. She refused. She wouldn't do that to him. Spoilers. Her last word, the last he would hear. He carried too much pain, he hated goodbyes. But she could give him this.

But when the white faded, she wasn't dead. She felt like she should be. She wasn't in the library. She was in a hallway in a space ship she didn't know. And she was alone. No Doctor. She hadn't done it. Or rather... he had. He had saved her somehow. And he could be dead himself for it. But the pain. Oh... the pain.

She was no longer wired into the chair. She was in her space suit, hands wrapped around her journal and her sonic. She had other things with her as well, but with the pain this was all she could feel. A worn leather journal. A Sonic screwdriver. And pain.

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"Not entirely, no," she teased lightly, accepting his help. "But I do think we'd all prefer I shower and change into something clean after having worn it for so long. A pity, you never did like me in a space suit," she said with a small smirk, trying to ease the mood slightly. The way things stood, they could go one of two ways if they didn't stand down now. He would find this to public for one of the ways, and the other... well... she would like to have a proper blaster when they save the worlds.

He offers a small smirk of his own. "The minute something good comes from you being in a spacesuit, I'll happily change my mind about that."

Until then - the spacesuit has to go. He offers her his arm, but given her arrival condition, he'll take hers if she doesn't take his, because, he doesn't rightly know how 'all right' she is. She always was better at hiding that than he liked.

She took the arm, it was an offer she never could resist, not from him. She moved carefully to get off the bed, securing everything she came with away.

The journal was still full. She didn't know if she'd need another, here. As it was, it would stand as a reminder, that she has had her time, and that when this is done, that time will be over. For the sake of his future, it had to be.

Well, she would get her PADD and keep a diary that way. She would only risk running out of data storage, not pages...

He made sure she was secure on her feet before lifting his free hand to gently caress her cheek with the back of one of his fingers. He leans in, but obviously decides not to kiss her now. It's far too public here.

"Let's see about that shower and a change of clothes."

She nodded. "I would rather like that, my love." she looked around, perhaps for the first time. "How long have you been here? You... and the other yous?"

He has to think about it. That time away has really confused his internal clock.

"About six months. And I don't know how long the other mes have been here, you'll have to ask them."

Of course, she may not be given that chance, because this body was the one to promise those twenty-four years, not the other ones. Jealous of himself about having to share his wife with himself. He was wrong, having River here now was going to be torture.

Six months. Six months and he hadn't escaped this yet. Something was not right about this, very not right. Six months, three of him, and they were still trapped here. Fine, she wasn't here, but where the **** were his companions. Wasn't that what they were for, to kick his sorry tail when it needed it? Well fine, she was here now, and she would make sure he saw the back of this Q. Even knowing it meant her death.

"Then, we have a lot to do," she said simply, leaving it to his imagination what she meant.

He offers a playful smile. "You have no idea."

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his PADD to look up her room number.

"Ah. 712."

He scowls as he puts the PADD away.

"Too far away."

Still he knows the hall and starts to lead them out of the medbay and to the lift.

"712?" she asked, wondering what that was a code for. Was she meant to know already? Well, she didn't, so she'd ask. "Too far from what?"

"Your quarters. And. Of course. They're too far away from mine."

But he reaches across and pats her arm. He had missed this. He hadn't known he had missed it, but he had.

"My...." She shook her head. Well. She wouldn't be here six months. If things started moving, she didn't give this Q six days. Still, she would take a shower. "And there will be clothing in there? They somehow just happen to know my size?" She wasn't exactly thrilled to have learned her name was on some list before she arrived either. This Q had a lot to answer for.

"Just go with it. It's easier. Take a shower, get dressed, get to know your roommate..."

He shrugged.

"I'll be around when you're ready for more details. Or maybe you can get more details from others and share them with me. Either way."

"Both ways, my love. I'll learn what I can. Where should I come to find you?" Let's see how much he changed, how much he was the same. Would there be a single place he could be found? And would he wait there for her? Before their date, she would have said no. Now... she was less sure.

"Oh, you can always find me."

He offers a little smirk. He had learned how to play this game with her during their time on Darillium.

"Once you get your Data PADD, you'll be able to work it out all too easily."

Because, really there would be only three places: his room, Cridhe's room, or the Cargo Bay where the TARDISes are held.

"Oh, I always could," she said. "I just wanted to see how you would answer, my love," she said with a small warm smile. She gave him a quick light kiss on the lips. "And where do I get that padd?"

He pecks her lips in return, since they were in the relative seclusion of the lift. He gestures when the doors open.

"Should have hone in your room. That's where I found mine."

He looks up and down the hall, before escorting her down the way to her room.

"They're mostly good people here, River. For the most part, they're drawn in and stuck here, just like us. And the ones who aren't good, well. Easy enough to avoid."

"You mean, we aren't the only ones he's tried to get out of the way?" she asked. Taking out the Doctor made sense. Taking out her to keep the Doctor pinned down sounded like something someone watching them from the outside might do. But she wasn't clear where anyone else would fit in. If they were former companions, he'd have said sooner, wouldn't he? If it was her parents... No. He would have said.

He sighs, no he wouldn't say it, because he was too worried about saving her life first. He pauses in their walking.

"River, this Q has pulled people from across the multi-verse. Some places like the Enterprise, which is fiction to us, is clearly real. And our universe is considered fiction to others. But we're all pulled together. And stuck here, on this ship. He's bored and we're his entertainment."

He almost made a comparison to Zoo animals.

"On the data PADD, you'll be able to find a listing of everyone who is here. Some names you might recognise as fiction, or even as people from our universe and others you might not."

"It cannot be just entertainment," she said, shaking her head. "If there is a large enough grouping of any race, the invariably form some sort of caste or strata system. Unless this one is some how the top of the heap, it is unlikely any of his kind would allow something of this scale just for entertainment. Besides, nothing is ever that simple when you are involved."

Again, River proves herself.

"You're probably right, but can you just let me believe it's entertainment?"

Because if he thinks of it as more, he might go after the entire Q Continuum and after being stuck for four point five billion years, he's got the ambition to possibly take such entities down entirely.

"Do you really want to believe that lie, my love?" she asked softly, knowing him, knowing he wouldn't. They cold help people, save everyone. She slid her arm through his, which was had in the bulky space suit, but she looked at him with that look, the one she had when she knew he was about to save them all, and that it was going to be great fun.

He can't look at her this once. Because, his options are limited.

"I have to." His words are barely even whisper-loud. He sighs. "River, if I don't... If I become too emotional... I make tidal waves... A lot of people might die..."

He had killed the Time Lord General. No matter what he had said about regeneration, it terrifies him that he has that potential within him.

"And if you don't become too emotional my love, when you don't take a stand, more people certainly will die. You took the name Doctor, you save lives. You always do, you always have, you always will." she touched is face, turned it so she could look into his eyes. "And you aren't here alone. I'm here my love. And there is no one, and no thing, that can stand against us. We'll save them all. You watch us."

He reaches up and takes her hand in his. Then he brings it to his lips and kisses her knuckles.

"We will talk more about it after you've had time..."

There are reasons why he hasn't done anything yet. Mostly because he's afraid of the ways he might fail. The risk is currently too great.

"Time," she repeated, her lips itching up at the corners slightly. "That is what it always comes down to, isn't it?" she asked, closing her fingers around his.

A very violent reentry - OTA - Spoilers for the 10th doctor's era

Dang it, internet blip ate my post

Lazarus plug-in has saved my life so many times!

Last I heard, it wasn't available for Chrome. And FF crashes my computer.

Ah, I know nothing of chrome.

Still need to make more icons, lol. Mayhaps tomorrow.

:)

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