Doctor Who Fic: In Our Youth Time: Prologue: Demon’s Run
Title: In Our Youth Time
Author: Jesterlady
Characters/Pairings: Rory/Amy, Melody Pond, Eleventh Doctor
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Doctor makes a different choice at Demon's Run and Melody Pond's life is changed forever.
Author's Notes: A few things to note about this story. I wanted a version of River Song where she grew up as Melody on the Tardis with her family. The story is canon up to A Good Man Goes to War, after that it diverges. The major things to note are that 1. Mels never existed, because 2. Melody can't regenerate. In my eyes, she is more like the Tardis than like a Timelord (why she can fly her, etc), but she only has one life and I'm fine with thinking that it's a life that always has Alex Kingston's body. The only other thing I'd say is that because of the changes the Doctor made, he and Melody will only ever have a familial relationship (uncle/niece).
Written for the scifibigbang 2013 challenge. Many thanks to stars-inthe-sky for the beta.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Some dialogue is from the show. The title is by William Blake.
Prologue: Demon’s Run
”Can’t you read?”
The Doctor could read. Oh, could he read. Well, he’d read the pants off whatever it was River was gibbering on about and then he’d force her to sit down and strip her of any gadgets that might let her get out of this situation and then he’d know, he’d finally figure out the mystery of River Song, and- Oh….oh, just…oh, that was it. That was the mystery. Two words stitched on a green cloth by a perfect stranger and they made up two of the most important words of his very long life.
He raised his eyes.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” she replied.
He looked at her and she smiled at him, that knowing Cheshire Cat smile that made him shake his head fondly because he’d never met anyone quite like River Song before.
“But, but that means…”
“Yes, I’m afraid it does.”
“Ooh, so you…”
“Yes.”
Well, that changed everything. His brain lightening quick went down the paths of reason, sorting everything into chronological order. Rory and Amy’s little baby taken here from Demon’s Run, given to the Silence and Madame Kovarian, taken to an orphanage in Florida and put in a space suit, and then vanished, gone to who knows where? But she grew up; she grew up to be this woman standing in front of him.
Oh yes, everything was changed. He was a new man because he knew the mystery of River Song and it was a far better mystery than he had guessed. He was going to tell them the news. Better get spiffed up first.
“How do I look?” he asked, adjusting his bow tie.
“Amazing,” she said, beaming at him.
“I’d better be,” he said.
“Yes, you’d better be,” she agreed.
The Doctor turned, laughter pouring from his throat, a giddy feeling all through him, and then he stopped…stopped short, looking at the Girl and Boy Who Waited, staring at him, bereft and lost. He had an answer for them, but not one they’d like. They were so patient, so loyal, and so hurt. He could see it in their eyes, a rage and loss as deep and ragged as anything he’d ever felt before. Amy’s face was streaked with her tears and the Doctor remembered the horrible hurt he’d felt when she’d flinched away from him. Rory looked numb, pushing back his pain and comforting his wife like he always did. Always giving everything.
He couldn’t do this to them. His brain raced with the possibilities, with his knowledge, with his facts, what could he do, what could he do? Was there anything fixable here? Was there a loophole? Oh, think, Doctor, think and be useful and clever and a Timelord. What use was he unless he could fix their broken hearts?
This was the time to choose. There was no easy choice. Either way he could be manipulating time too much and he would certainly be erasing…the thought wasn’t pretty.
But he'd made a promise long ago and there was nothing but this choice for him.
He looked back at River and he memorized her face. A manic energy began to flow through his veins and he clapped his hands together and strode toward the Tardis.
“Vastra, Jenny, until the next time. River, you’ll get them all home.”
“Doctor, what are you doing?” Amy asked frantically as if sensing he was going to leave her behind.
Yet, why do that? It was their right; their right as much as his and more so.
He disengaged the force field around the Tardis and pushed Amy and Rory ahead of him.
“Rory and Amy, I know exactly where to find your daughter and, on my life, she will be safe.”
“Doctor!” River yelled from behind him, sudden, terrible realization in her voice. “Doctor, don’t you dare!”
They were inside and he turned to face her, to face her beautiful and wild and lovely face.
“I’m sorry, River. Look at them. Look at them and tell me not to do this.”
“What about me?” she asked, pleading. “Every day, everything we did. You don’t know everything.”
“Nor do you,” he told her sadly. “Even you don’t know what I’m risking here. I’m sorry. Goodbye, River.”
“Silencio, Doctor,” she called out behind him, “I need to be there. Please, list-”
But he pointed his screwdriver at her, disrupting her Vortex manipulator hopefully just long enough, ducked into the Tardis and closed the door and locked it double from the inside and then raced to the controls and set the coordinates. He ignored Amy’s questions and Rory’s looks and the beating of fists on the door that could only be the last act of River Song, a woman who had given everything for him.
When they landed and they were safe from River’s interference, at least, he hoped, he sank down and put his head in his hands for one single moment before remembering he wasn’t alone and bounced up again, checking sensors and screens and keeping busy.
“Doctor,” Amy said firmly, marching up to him and pushing him, “tell me what the hell is going on right now.”
“Please,” said Rory.
It was the please more than anything that made the Doctor stop and look at his friends. They were still broken but there was a hope there now in their eyes that gave him the strength to go on with his desperate, terrible plan.
“I know where Melody is,” he said softly. “Let’s go get her.”
“What about River?” Amy said. “She was really upset.”
“She’ll never be upset again,” the Doctor said. “Now I’m going to mess with time, for Melody, are you in or are you out?”
“You know we’ll do anything for her,” Rory said.
“Then Geronimo,” the Doctor said, leaping up and out the door and away.
They followed him into the dark of an orphanage and there was a single light shining in a room down the hall. They walked toward the light silently and the Doctor opened the door. A nightlight hung above a crib.
“Doctor, we’ve been here before,” Amy said, looking at the room.
“Yes, we have,” the Doctor said, “that’s what makes it so dangerous. But we’re a little early.”
The baby lay in the crib and the Doctor scanned her just to be sure there were no more tricks; he refused to be fooled ever again. The Tardis was set up to automatically detect flesh gangers now and so was his screwdriver.
“Is it her?” Amy asked, the wistful sound in her voice almost too much for his hearts to take.
He grinned and scooped the little baby up.
“Yes, yes, yes, it is.”
“Let me hold her, please,” Amy said, her desperation overflowing in her eagerness.
The Doctor put her daughter in Amy’s arms and something clicked in his head at the very moment it happened. He was overwhelmed with a sudden onslaught of memories and timelines and he keeled over.
“Doctor!” Rory said, whispering urgently. “Are you all right?”
“We need to go,” the Doctor gritted out. “Now!”
They needed no more urging. They went back down the hall, there were sounds from all around them and the Doctor saw…and then there wasn’t anything and hadn’t that happened before? Footsteps were creaking up the stairs and his head was going to explode and it wasn’t until they were in the Tardis again that the Doctor felt some relief. He was afraid River was going to show up any second, he was afraid the Silence was there, he was afraid he wasn’t thinking clearly. He put the Tardis in the Vortex and then…then it was done.
“Is it over?” Rory asked in the vast quiet that fell at that moment.
The Doctor examined his memories and felt how very real he was and then looked at Amy, cradling her child.
“It’s begun anyway,” he said happily.
Rory’s hand left the pommel of his sword and his soldier’s stance relaxed and he put his hands toward his daughter.
“Amy…Amy, can I?”
Amy’s fingers tightened perceptibly and then relaxed as she looked up.
“You never really got to hold her, did you?” she said softly.
“No,” Rory said, his voice hoarse.
The Doctor felt his eyes get wet as Rory held his daughter for the first time and he couldn’t regret his decision looking at the three of them. His best friends and their daughter. They were whole again. They would do so much.
“Doctor, my head’s a bit funny,” Amy said. “My memories. This is like the Pandorica all over again. What did you change?”
“I’m remembering different things,” Rory mumbled, obviously only half paying attention, still absorbed with his daughter.
The Doctor winced. Trust these two to remember things when he hoped they wouldn’t. Couldn’t the universe ever just change around them? No, they always had to stand straight in the middle, transparent brains on overdrive, and point out the flaws in his plans.
“What did…R- that woman…what was her name? R-something. Something wet. River, that’s it! What did River tell you?” Amy asked, snapping her fingers as she got the right name.
“There is no more River, Amy,” the Doctor said. “In order to save Melody, River had to go away. At least, the River we knew.”
“I don’t understand,” Rory said, finally looking up from Melody.
“It’s all perfectly simple,” the Doctor explained. “We changed River’s personal timeline. She was Melody. Now, instead of being the River we know, she’ll be a different River, hopefully be Melody.”
“River…Song was our…daughter?” Amy asked, seeming to try and wrap her brain around it.
“Yes, and she still is. She just will have a much better childhood.”
“Doesn’t that mean you erased the existing River?” Rory asked.
“Not erased, altered,” the Doctor said happily.
A little niggling voice in the back of his mind - a voice that sounded suspiciously like River’s - told him he hadn’t known all her secrets and he couldn’t be sure, but if there was ever a time for enacting rule number one, this was it.
“Are you sure it’s okay?” Amy asked, scrutinizing him closely.
He gestured with his hands.
“It’s fine. Trust me. Now, that’s that.”
Amy eyed the Doctor skeptically but then Rory kissed Melody and handed her back to Amy and kept his arm around her shoulders.
“Is she okay?” Amy asked him, seeming to give up the questioning for the moment for Melody’s sake. “Does she need anything?”
“We should run some tests,” Rory said, wiping his eyes and turning to the Doctor. “See how much time has passed for her?”
“You’ll make a time traveler yet,” the Doctor said, whirling into action.
They took Melody into the med bay and the Doctor examined her, explaining everything carefully to Rory while Amy hovered nearby.
“She’s healthy,” Rory said finally, heaving a huge sigh.
“Are we safe now?” Amy asked, holding Melody again. “Is this it? Can we go home now?”
“Not that we don’t want to be here…” Rory interjected, seeming to feel some kind of obligation, “but it’s not really the place for a child, you know, Doctor. We should take her home.”
“I know,” the Doctor said, ignoring the twinges of pain. “But…you can’t.”
“Why not?” Amy asked.
“They won’t stop looking for her,” the Doctor said softly. “You’d be sitting ducks in Leadworth. I know my life isn’t always safe, but it’s safer than there. I can protect you all. I promise.”
“You love to make promises you can’t really keep,” Amy said, closing her eyes.
“Tell me a better way,” the Doctor said.
“There is none,” Rory said, sounding resigned. “But, Doctor, if we do this, then changes have to be made. A regular schedule. A human schedule. A child can’t run, can’t go for hours on no sleep, can’t surf cosmic waves, can’t understand alien customs, can’t survive desert conditions, or survive being separated from the rest of the group. We have to live like normal humans on the Tardis. And one of us always has to stay with Melody on the Tardis while any adventures or world saving is going on and it will not always be me, agreed?”
He looked at both of them and Amy seemed to realize as well as the Doctor did that there would be no arguing with Rory this time. When he put his foot down, he kept it down, and he was usually right when he did. Didn’t mean the Doctor had to like it.
He sulkily nodded and shook Rory’s hand in agreement, but he knew, he knew that this was what had to be. He’d made his decision on Demon’s Run, back when he’d changed the world and his own life forever. The timelines were still in flux, every decision they made now would continue to change them, but the big things, the more fixed events, they were looming inside his head reminding him that changing time required sacrifice and no matter what he changed some things would still happen.
One thing would still happen. He'd saved and doomed at the same time.
“You’re stuck with us now,” Amy said, grinning.
“Nobody’s life is perfect,” the Doctor said, grinning back.
Author: Jesterlady
Characters/Pairings: Rory/Amy, Melody Pond, Eleventh Doctor
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Doctor makes a different choice at Demon's Run and Melody Pond's life is changed forever.
Author's Notes: A few things to note about this story. I wanted a version of River Song where she grew up as Melody on the Tardis with her family. The story is canon up to A Good Man Goes to War, after that it diverges. The major things to note are that 1. Mels never existed, because 2. Melody can't regenerate. In my eyes, she is more like the Tardis than like a Timelord (why she can fly her, etc), but she only has one life and I'm fine with thinking that it's a life that always has Alex Kingston's body. The only other thing I'd say is that because of the changes the Doctor made, he and Melody will only ever have a familial relationship (uncle/niece).
Written for the scifibigbang 2013 challenge. Many thanks to stars-inthe-sky for the beta.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Some dialogue is from the show. The title is by William Blake.
Prologue: Demon’s Run
”Can’t you read?”
The Doctor could read. Oh, could he read. Well, he’d read the pants off whatever it was River was gibbering on about and then he’d force her to sit down and strip her of any gadgets that might let her get out of this situation and then he’d know, he’d finally figure out the mystery of River Song, and- Oh….oh, just…oh, that was it. That was the mystery. Two words stitched on a green cloth by a perfect stranger and they made up two of the most important words of his very long life.
He raised his eyes.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” she replied.
He looked at her and she smiled at him, that knowing Cheshire Cat smile that made him shake his head fondly because he’d never met anyone quite like River Song before.
“But, but that means…”
“Yes, I’m afraid it does.”
“Ooh, so you…”
“Yes.”
Well, that changed everything. His brain lightening quick went down the paths of reason, sorting everything into chronological order. Rory and Amy’s little baby taken here from Demon’s Run, given to the Silence and Madame Kovarian, taken to an orphanage in Florida and put in a space suit, and then vanished, gone to who knows where? But she grew up; she grew up to be this woman standing in front of him.
Oh yes, everything was changed. He was a new man because he knew the mystery of River Song and it was a far better mystery than he had guessed. He was going to tell them the news. Better get spiffed up first.
“How do I look?” he asked, adjusting his bow tie.
“Amazing,” she said, beaming at him.
“I’d better be,” he said.
“Yes, you’d better be,” she agreed.
The Doctor turned, laughter pouring from his throat, a giddy feeling all through him, and then he stopped…stopped short, looking at the Girl and Boy Who Waited, staring at him, bereft and lost. He had an answer for them, but not one they’d like. They were so patient, so loyal, and so hurt. He could see it in their eyes, a rage and loss as deep and ragged as anything he’d ever felt before. Amy’s face was streaked with her tears and the Doctor remembered the horrible hurt he’d felt when she’d flinched away from him. Rory looked numb, pushing back his pain and comforting his wife like he always did. Always giving everything.
He couldn’t do this to them. His brain raced with the possibilities, with his knowledge, with his facts, what could he do, what could he do? Was there anything fixable here? Was there a loophole? Oh, think, Doctor, think and be useful and clever and a Timelord. What use was he unless he could fix their broken hearts?
This was the time to choose. There was no easy choice. Either way he could be manipulating time too much and he would certainly be erasing…the thought wasn’t pretty.
But he'd made a promise long ago and there was nothing but this choice for him.
He looked back at River and he memorized her face. A manic energy began to flow through his veins and he clapped his hands together and strode toward the Tardis.
“Vastra, Jenny, until the next time. River, you’ll get them all home.”
“Doctor, what are you doing?” Amy asked frantically as if sensing he was going to leave her behind.
Yet, why do that? It was their right; their right as much as his and more so.
He disengaged the force field around the Tardis and pushed Amy and Rory ahead of him.
“Rory and Amy, I know exactly where to find your daughter and, on my life, she will be safe.”
“Doctor!” River yelled from behind him, sudden, terrible realization in her voice. “Doctor, don’t you dare!”
They were inside and he turned to face her, to face her beautiful and wild and lovely face.
“I’m sorry, River. Look at them. Look at them and tell me not to do this.”
“What about me?” she asked, pleading. “Every day, everything we did. You don’t know everything.”
“Nor do you,” he told her sadly. “Even you don’t know what I’m risking here. I’m sorry. Goodbye, River.”
“Silencio, Doctor,” she called out behind him, “I need to be there. Please, list-”
But he pointed his screwdriver at her, disrupting her Vortex manipulator hopefully just long enough, ducked into the Tardis and closed the door and locked it double from the inside and then raced to the controls and set the coordinates. He ignored Amy’s questions and Rory’s looks and the beating of fists on the door that could only be the last act of River Song, a woman who had given everything for him.
When they landed and they were safe from River’s interference, at least, he hoped, he sank down and put his head in his hands for one single moment before remembering he wasn’t alone and bounced up again, checking sensors and screens and keeping busy.
“Doctor,” Amy said firmly, marching up to him and pushing him, “tell me what the hell is going on right now.”
“Please,” said Rory.
It was the please more than anything that made the Doctor stop and look at his friends. They were still broken but there was a hope there now in their eyes that gave him the strength to go on with his desperate, terrible plan.
“I know where Melody is,” he said softly. “Let’s go get her.”
“What about River?” Amy said. “She was really upset.”
“She’ll never be upset again,” the Doctor said. “Now I’m going to mess with time, for Melody, are you in or are you out?”
“You know we’ll do anything for her,” Rory said.
“Then Geronimo,” the Doctor said, leaping up and out the door and away.
They followed him into the dark of an orphanage and there was a single light shining in a room down the hall. They walked toward the light silently and the Doctor opened the door. A nightlight hung above a crib.
“Doctor, we’ve been here before,” Amy said, looking at the room.
“Yes, we have,” the Doctor said, “that’s what makes it so dangerous. But we’re a little early.”
The baby lay in the crib and the Doctor scanned her just to be sure there were no more tricks; he refused to be fooled ever again. The Tardis was set up to automatically detect flesh gangers now and so was his screwdriver.
“Is it her?” Amy asked, the wistful sound in her voice almost too much for his hearts to take.
He grinned and scooped the little baby up.
“Yes, yes, yes, it is.”
“Let me hold her, please,” Amy said, her desperation overflowing in her eagerness.
The Doctor put her daughter in Amy’s arms and something clicked in his head at the very moment it happened. He was overwhelmed with a sudden onslaught of memories and timelines and he keeled over.
“Doctor!” Rory said, whispering urgently. “Are you all right?”
“We need to go,” the Doctor gritted out. “Now!”
They needed no more urging. They went back down the hall, there were sounds from all around them and the Doctor saw…and then there wasn’t anything and hadn’t that happened before? Footsteps were creaking up the stairs and his head was going to explode and it wasn’t until they were in the Tardis again that the Doctor felt some relief. He was afraid River was going to show up any second, he was afraid the Silence was there, he was afraid he wasn’t thinking clearly. He put the Tardis in the Vortex and then…then it was done.
“Is it over?” Rory asked in the vast quiet that fell at that moment.
The Doctor examined his memories and felt how very real he was and then looked at Amy, cradling her child.
“It’s begun anyway,” he said happily.
Rory’s hand left the pommel of his sword and his soldier’s stance relaxed and he put his hands toward his daughter.
“Amy…Amy, can I?”
Amy’s fingers tightened perceptibly and then relaxed as she looked up.
“You never really got to hold her, did you?” she said softly.
“No,” Rory said, his voice hoarse.
The Doctor felt his eyes get wet as Rory held his daughter for the first time and he couldn’t regret his decision looking at the three of them. His best friends and their daughter. They were whole again. They would do so much.
“Doctor, my head’s a bit funny,” Amy said. “My memories. This is like the Pandorica all over again. What did you change?”
“I’m remembering different things,” Rory mumbled, obviously only half paying attention, still absorbed with his daughter.
The Doctor winced. Trust these two to remember things when he hoped they wouldn’t. Couldn’t the universe ever just change around them? No, they always had to stand straight in the middle, transparent brains on overdrive, and point out the flaws in his plans.
“What did…R- that woman…what was her name? R-something. Something wet. River, that’s it! What did River tell you?” Amy asked, snapping her fingers as she got the right name.
“There is no more River, Amy,” the Doctor said. “In order to save Melody, River had to go away. At least, the River we knew.”
“I don’t understand,” Rory said, finally looking up from Melody.
“It’s all perfectly simple,” the Doctor explained. “We changed River’s personal timeline. She was Melody. Now, instead of being the River we know, she’ll be a different River, hopefully be Melody.”
“River…Song was our…daughter?” Amy asked, seeming to try and wrap her brain around it.
“Yes, and she still is. She just will have a much better childhood.”
“Doesn’t that mean you erased the existing River?” Rory asked.
“Not erased, altered,” the Doctor said happily.
A little niggling voice in the back of his mind - a voice that sounded suspiciously like River’s - told him he hadn’t known all her secrets and he couldn’t be sure, but if there was ever a time for enacting rule number one, this was it.
“Are you sure it’s okay?” Amy asked, scrutinizing him closely.
He gestured with his hands.
“It’s fine. Trust me. Now, that’s that.”
Amy eyed the Doctor skeptically but then Rory kissed Melody and handed her back to Amy and kept his arm around her shoulders.
“Is she okay?” Amy asked him, seeming to give up the questioning for the moment for Melody’s sake. “Does she need anything?”
“We should run some tests,” Rory said, wiping his eyes and turning to the Doctor. “See how much time has passed for her?”
“You’ll make a time traveler yet,” the Doctor said, whirling into action.
They took Melody into the med bay and the Doctor examined her, explaining everything carefully to Rory while Amy hovered nearby.
“She’s healthy,” Rory said finally, heaving a huge sigh.
“Are we safe now?” Amy asked, holding Melody again. “Is this it? Can we go home now?”
“Not that we don’t want to be here…” Rory interjected, seeming to feel some kind of obligation, “but it’s not really the place for a child, you know, Doctor. We should take her home.”
“I know,” the Doctor said, ignoring the twinges of pain. “But…you can’t.”
“Why not?” Amy asked.
“They won’t stop looking for her,” the Doctor said softly. “You’d be sitting ducks in Leadworth. I know my life isn’t always safe, but it’s safer than there. I can protect you all. I promise.”
“You love to make promises you can’t really keep,” Amy said, closing her eyes.
“Tell me a better way,” the Doctor said.
“There is none,” Rory said, sounding resigned. “But, Doctor, if we do this, then changes have to be made. A regular schedule. A human schedule. A child can’t run, can’t go for hours on no sleep, can’t surf cosmic waves, can’t understand alien customs, can’t survive desert conditions, or survive being separated from the rest of the group. We have to live like normal humans on the Tardis. And one of us always has to stay with Melody on the Tardis while any adventures or world saving is going on and it will not always be me, agreed?”
He looked at both of them and Amy seemed to realize as well as the Doctor did that there would be no arguing with Rory this time. When he put his foot down, he kept it down, and he was usually right when he did. Didn’t mean the Doctor had to like it.
He sulkily nodded and shook Rory’s hand in agreement, but he knew, he knew that this was what had to be. He’d made his decision on Demon’s Run, back when he’d changed the world and his own life forever. The timelines were still in flux, every decision they made now would continue to change them, but the big things, the more fixed events, they were looming inside his head reminding him that changing time required sacrifice and no matter what he changed some things would still happen.
One thing would still happen. He'd saved and doomed at the same time.
“You’re stuck with us now,” Amy said, grinning.
“Nobody’s life is perfect,” the Doctor said, grinning back.