Fic: Beginning/Middle/End
At this, the agent goes a funny shade of yellow, drops the paper, and is just about to unlock the Doctor’s handcuffs when a voice makes him stop.
“Oh, leave those on, would you?”
River steps out from behind a completely inaccurate model of a Bilgerian pressure scooter, with that smile of hers that says ‘aren’t you glad I’m here to save you?’ It’s one of her more common expressions. Sometimes, the Doctor likes to get into trouble just to prompt it. The Time Agents salute River all at once, before rather hurriedly marching from the room. She doesn’t even look at them. This River is more than just the weapon she’d been crafted into, but she makes no effort to hide the fact that, were she to choose to, she could still be very dangerous indeed.
“Hello sweetie.”
“Mrhgf-yffr-frgr.”
“I see they had the good sense to gag you this time.” She stalks towards him, running one hand up the seam of his shirt, fingers toying with his bowtie. “I knew there was a reason I liked Time Agents - so efficient. Well, that and the uniforms.”
The scrap of cloth drops to the floor, the Doctor making a face.
“You know, I’d really appreciate it if, next time, they could use something that doesn't taste horrid. And I was just about to escape, by the way.”
River’s smile widens.
“I’m sure you were.”
She leans closer, her corkscrew curls bouncing slightly, and he curses the handcuffs, wanting so badly to run his hands through her hair. He’s glad that, despite her part-Timelord genetics, she still sleeps more than him. It’s become a hobby of his to try and count all the curls in her hair when she’s not awake. He’s never managed it though. In fact he’s beginning to suspect that River’s hair may well have magical properties of some sort.
“I was. I was just making a plan. A very extremely good one.”
“Mmhm”
She’s undoing the knot of his bowtie. He starts to wonder why it is that the museum store room the Time Agents had brought him into has a four poster bed right in the middle of the room. Perhaps he’s hit his head and this is all a dream. His last dream had featured dancing, life-sized jammy dodgers. He thinks this one might be even better.
River pinches him.
“Ow!”
“You’re not dreaming. And you’re not the only one who had a plan.”
He pauses, looking her up and down. “You mean…you set this all up? The museum, the agents...the handcuffs?”
“You approve?”
He grins. He really, really shouldn’t.
“Oh, absolutely.”
“Good.” River’s fingers slowly make a pathway down his shirt, undoing buttons as they go. “Because I was getting tired of waiting.”
The Doctor inches backwards, until he can feel the edge of the bed right behind him. His hands still trapped behind him by the cuffs, he settles for kissing River. As compromises go, it’s not bad at all. In fact, he’s getting more than a little carried away with the taste, and the little sighing noises she’s making, and the glorious push-pull of it all. He almost doesn’t register dropping down onto the bed, not until River breaks off the kiss to quickly rid herself of her dress. And he never gets tired of seeing her like this, never will. She’s beautiful, and she’s his River, how could he?
“River, now would be a very good time to remove these handcuffs.”
She places kisses up his throat, her tongue caressing his adam’s apple for a glorious moment before she decides to reply.
“Now why on earth would I want to do that?”
He leans in and whispers in her ear. Her eyes close and her tongue slips out to wet her lips, one hand tracing letters and symbols across his chest he doesn’t think she’s even aware of. When he’s finished speaking, she takes a long, slightly halting breath.
“You…really?”
He grins, pleased with himself. “I had a very good teacher.”
“I bet you did.” River slides back, purposely maddening him with glorious friction as she moves to the foot of the bed, unlacing his boots. “Sonic?”
“Jacket pocket.”
She eases one boot off, then the other, sliding his socks down after them. Her hands move across his feet now, caressing and massaging and causing him to let out a strange high pitched sighing sound he’s not at all proud of but really can’t be blamed for making. His hands tug against the twin confines of handcuffs and tangled shirt uselessly.
“River…”
She laughs, before leaning off the edge of the bed to locate his jacket. As she does so, The Doctor makes several attempts to lever himself up into a sitting position before finally managing it just as River turns back, sonic screwdriver in hand. She’s quite the sight.
“I love you.”
She smiles, sitting on his lap. “I know.” Reaching around behind him, she uses the sonic and he feels the cuffs unlock. They’re still all tangled up in his shirt though, and he spends several moments flailing in an ungainly manner before River stops laughing at him and decides to help. He repays her as soon as he’s free by flipping them over, using his hands to pinion hers down on the bed.
“You’re a bad, bad girl, River Song.”
“Yes.” She rolls her hips up to meet him, distracting him enough to flip them back over once again. She smiles down at him, and he doesn’t care because his hands are free and now he can run them through her hair and trace messages of his own across her skin and generally try and touch every part of her, all at once, because anything else is not nearly enough.
Her clever, clever hands are unbuckling his belt, pulling down the zip on his trousers, easing them down and then -
“Well, so the rumours are true.”
Between the caress of her hands and the fact that he’s currently very focused on finding that tender spot by her jawline that makes her do that funny little sigh he likes so much, it’s a while before her words sink in. When they do, he frowns.
“What?”
River grins, looking ever so pleased with herself. “I did read once that male Timelords were…” She runs her hand down his normal, human looking cock, then across to the other one, elegant and alien “…better equipped.”
The Doctor murmurs into her shoulder. “You read…” There’s something…something he should be realising, but she really does make it almost impossible to think. Then…his thoughts click back into place.
“Wait…we’ve not done this before?!” He hurriedly scoots away from River, getting tangled in his trousers and falling off the side of the bed. As escapes go, it’s not his most dignified.
River sits back on her heels, unrepentant. “Of course we have. You know that.”
The Doctor gets to his feet, pulling his trousers back up, much to River's disappointment. From a safe distance, he studies her features, looking for clues.
“No, but from your perspective, River, have we slept together yet?”
She looks him straight in the eye, unflinching.
“Yes.”
“River…”
She caves, turning her gaze to the floor. “I really hate you sometimes.”
“Of course you do.” Slightly cautiously, he perches on the edge of the bed, and she swings her legs round to sit beside him.
“We’ve not had sex.” She pokes him in the shoulder with one finger. “But that’s your fault. Going on about taking things slowly. We’re time travellers, we should get to skip to the best bits.”
He leans in towards her, like he’s about to tell her a secret. “Ah, River Song. Didn’t you ever think that, just maybe, I might not want to skip anything with you.”
She’s not impressed. “Yes. That’s what you always say.”
“Well…I am extremely clever.”
She’s still not looking too convinced, so he kisses her. Because he can, and he wants to, and he’s pretty sure he can get away with that much. Like always, it doesn’t last long enough, and he rests his forehead against hers with a sigh.
“So…you should really listen to me, and not track down earlier versions to hoodwink, okay?”
River’s hand comes up, fingers caressing the side of his face.
“But it’s always you.”
He smiles. “Yes. Yes it is. But River, there’s a reason I will, do, want to stop you from skipping ahead. You know, ends are sad, so very, very sad. The middle, well that’s where the most interesting stuff happens, it’s all bang and whizz and adventures and love. But beginnings….they’re the bits you get to look back on, when everything came together and something wonderful took hold. Those bits you get to keep.”
River shakes her head, curls bouncing slightly.
“And that’s exactly why I’m here. My firsts, your lasts…I don’t want that.”
The Doctor opens his mouth to disagree, but she holds a finger to his lips, shushing him.
“Even if it’s not, technically. Even if there’s some loophole somewhere. When we get to that point…you’ll know that this bit, the bit where I’m in love with you, its ending.”
The Doctor swallows, then nods once, slowly.
River continues, determined and headstrong and brave. “Well it’s not going to work like that. I’m changing the rules. This is going to be the first, for me. For you it’ll be somewhere in the middle, and there won’t be an end…not today. Today isn’t going to be sad.”
The Doctor takes her hands. He kisses away the tears that they’ll both pretend were never there, and then he grins, because she's right, today isn’t the end. “So…how do you want to start?”
River smirks, and pulls him back down onto the bed. “Oh, with a bang.”