002: [location: Beach at Osten] Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
The crisis subverted with the other Doctor, there wasn’t much else River could do. She’d waited for the longest time for him to wake up, attempting to busy herself by explaining things to Luduan. She didn’t touch on the real issues, she stuck to the TARDIS and Time Lords and limited her conversation to trivial facts that made no difference to anything. But the atmosphere in the TARDIS was too much to bear, a thickness to the plethora of unanswered questions and concern. So she’d slipped out quietly when there was nothing else to be done except wait.
The Doctor was so guarded when he was this young, so unwilling to open up, and on top of that she was still angry with him. Furious even, a burning livid that simmered under the surface that he just couldn’t accept that people die. Through his own failings he’d sentenced her to a life that wasn’t even a life. It was a mockery of everything that makes life what it is. It was all left unsaid though, now wasn’t the time. He had his self to occupy his thoughts. She’d wandered aimlessly through the city, trying to sort through the myriad of emotions and concern that she wasn’t sure were misplaced.
Until she’d turned that corner...
River had been paying the tablet no mind, so there was no flashing dot that she’d followed. Unwittingly she’d walked to the very edge of Taxon, the southern boundary of Osten, to a beach. In front of her was a sight she’d never thought to set eyes upon again. Her emotions welled up to the surface instantaneously, the welcome vision releasing everything she’d suppressed as the tears rolled down her cheeks freely. She was glad there was no-one to witness it.
Home. Her real home. The one she’d lost a year ago, the one that he’d never understood. But that beach house meant as much to her as his TARDIS ever had to him. She slipped off her shoes and ran across the sand, the warm volcanic grains felt liberating between her toes. Inside, everything was as she’d left it. Nothing moved, nothing taken, just as. Every artefact, all her work, all her books, every trinket and souvenir of their travels together... and her diary. She took her time, a lifetime of memories and her work were in that house, everything that meant anything to her. She wanted to savour it all.
Sitting on the edge of the rotting jetty (that should never ever be repaired until it falls to pieces, she considered), River dangled her feet in the cool water and opened up her diary, fond fingers relishing even the feel of the paper beneath.
A year had been too long.
She smiled to herself and started to write, but not until she'd folded down the corner of the page titled ‘The Singing Towers of Darillium’. She didn’t feel like ever reading that page again.
Whatever Taxon was, she was grateful for its gift.
The Doctor was so guarded when he was this young, so unwilling to open up, and on top of that she was still angry with him. Furious even, a burning livid that simmered under the surface that he just couldn’t accept that people die. Through his own failings he’d sentenced her to a life that wasn’t even a life. It was a mockery of everything that makes life what it is. It was all left unsaid though, now wasn’t the time. He had his self to occupy his thoughts. She’d wandered aimlessly through the city, trying to sort through the myriad of emotions and concern that she wasn’t sure were misplaced.
Until she’d turned that corner...
River had been paying the tablet no mind, so there was no flashing dot that she’d followed. Unwittingly she’d walked to the very edge of Taxon, the southern boundary of Osten, to a beach. In front of her was a sight she’d never thought to set eyes upon again. Her emotions welled up to the surface instantaneously, the welcome vision releasing everything she’d suppressed as the tears rolled down her cheeks freely. She was glad there was no-one to witness it.
Home. Her real home. The one she’d lost a year ago, the one that he’d never understood. But that beach house meant as much to her as his TARDIS ever had to him. She slipped off her shoes and ran across the sand, the warm volcanic grains felt liberating between her toes. Inside, everything was as she’d left it. Nothing moved, nothing taken, just as. Every artefact, all her work, all her books, every trinket and souvenir of their travels together... and her diary. She took her time, a lifetime of memories and her work were in that house, everything that meant anything to her. She wanted to savour it all.
Sitting on the edge of the rotting jetty (that should never ever be repaired until it falls to pieces, she considered), River dangled her feet in the cool water and opened up her diary, fond fingers relishing even the feel of the paper beneath.
A year had been too long.
She smiled to herself and started to write, but not until she'd folded down the corner of the page titled ‘The Singing Towers of Darillium’. She didn’t feel like ever reading that page again.
Whatever Taxon was, she was grateful for its gift.