Winter 2011 advent - Day 8
adventchallenge Day: 8
Title: The Hero of River Song
Fandom: Doctor Who, therefore characters remain property of BBC
Pairing/Characters: Melody Pond, River Song, highlight to ruin the surprise *Rory Williams*
Rated: G Words: 999
Warning/s: you’ll probably need to watch Dr 11 S2 to follow this, but hopefully non-Who lovers can still appreciate it
Summary: Throughout her lives Melody Pond has seen a man, watching.
Once there was a baby girl, more beautiful and treasured than any other life-form in the universe. This child was stolen from the people who loved her by the Silence…
Seems like he’s always been there, watching. He hasn’t though, he can’t have been, but there are times when young Melody suddenly turns - and there he is.
Melody can sense his anger, sadness, and fear, but the emotion she recognises most often, is love.
…Her family looked for her and though they did not find her until she was a grown woman, they never stopped loving her…
Melody’s body changes completely whenever she dies. The Watcher isn’t there when it happens, but he always recognises her. She can see it in his eyes.
“What are you waiting for?” Melody yells at him when she has very short, blonde hair, green eyes and a turned-up nose. A tear slides down his face, there’s an oddly familiar, soothing noise - like swimming through time and space while still safe in the womb - and he’s gone.
For the first time in her lives, Melody Pond cries.
…He punctures time and space just to watch her grow up. He misses all the milestones because there are no records kept of those in the archives of the Shadow Proclamation, or the Tessellator. The TARDIS knows of River Song, helped create her and loves her, so the TARDIS breaks the rules…
Mel realises her mistake when she meets a younger version of him. For once, they look like they’re the same age. She doesn’t see the Watcher any more, yet every Christmas and birthday he manages to leave a sentence or paragraph of her story, and somehow Mel always manages to find it.
…Each time I see you I want to scoop you into my arms and bring you home. Don’t think I leave you behind because I want you to suffer…
Mel wants to hate him, but can’t. Going to so much trouble to hide these messages from the Silence, facing so many risks - her anger as much as the destruction of the universe - makes him the only person she trusts and loves.
…I could take you anytime I chose, hide you away, and rob you of the greatest treasure for my own selfish reasons. You are angry, hurt, alone, and confused now, I understand. But you will see…
Growing up alongside her parents is confusing. Adolescent Amy Pond is bossy and rabbits on about nothing but her raggedy-man Doctor twit, all but ignoring the boy who’s been in love with her his whole life. At least Amy admits Rory Williams is cute, although she’s adamant he could never take on the universe like her bloody annoying raggedy man.
Mel wants to lock them in a cupboard until her mother wakes up to herself. Mel’ll never be born at this rate.
…I love you as you are now, don’t ever doubt that, but one day my delightfully spontaneous and melodramatic Melody, you grow up to be the most amazing woman in the universe - in every universe. And I cannot take that away from you, not even for a single hug…
At least one of them will die today. She can feel it, even before the blue box appears in her prison cell. The door opens of its own accord. He isn’t in there. She steps inside with one pocket full of tissues and another full of handwritten notes. Half the tissues are filled with tears before she reaches her destination, and it isn’t a long trip.
…So for every special day I missed, I give you this: the chance to know River Song.
River doesn’t need to walk into the hospital room. Her other mother, the TARDIS, brings her directly to the ancient man’s bedside. He struggles to sit, with that familiar sadness haunting his adoring smile. River helps him. More tears fill her eyes.
“Where are you off to this time?” he asks with proud excitement.
“The greatest library in the universe.” River is excited about this trip. It isn’t often she gets day release without full military escort.
“The one inside your head, or the one that’s the size of a planet?”
“The second one, although the first’s one’s catching up,” she boasts with a smile.
“Keep away from the pornography continent,” he says seriously, “and take plenty of chicken.”
“Whatever you say. Don’t die while I’m away.”
“Whatever you say.” He smiles again. River can still feel his anger, sadness, and fear. As always these emotions are paled by his love for her.
“I brought you something.” River gives him the stack of notes he left for her over her lifetimes. His hands tremble. They both know she has no regenerations left.
“Shouldn’t these be in that blue diary of yours?”
“No, that’s the Doctor’s book. These are between me and the only man the Doctor comes close to…” River wipes tears from one cheek with the tip of her ring-finger. “I want you to know that I saw you watching, and I never blamed you.”
He hugs her with the weight of ten thousand years to make up for those he withheld while she was younger, and firmly kisses her cheek. He does this every time they meet since she ‘killed’ the Doctor. River hugs him back. She doesn’t want to let go lest the tie that binds them is severed and she drifts away without her anchor.
“I was always proud of you. Melody, Mel, River - it didn’t matter. You always astounded me.”
Christmas dawns and the Christian humans of earth wake up to celebrate the birth of their hero as River Song mourns the approaching death of hers-The Last Centurion, the Watcher, Rory Williams-her father. Since she learned who the man was, and that she Melody Pond was River Song, there have been three words she’s been saving because they are the three most important words she will ever say. She says them now.
“Thank you Daddy.”
Title: The Hero of River Song
Fandom: Doctor Who, therefore characters remain property of BBC
Pairing/Characters: Melody Pond, River Song, highlight to ruin the surprise *Rory Williams*
Rated: G Words: 999
Warning/s: you’ll probably need to watch Dr 11 S2 to follow this, but hopefully non-Who lovers can still appreciate it
Summary: Throughout her lives Melody Pond has seen a man, watching.
Once there was a baby girl, more beautiful and treasured than any other life-form in the universe. This child was stolen from the people who loved her by the Silence…
Seems like he’s always been there, watching. He hasn’t though, he can’t have been, but there are times when young Melody suddenly turns - and there he is.
Melody can sense his anger, sadness, and fear, but the emotion she recognises most often, is love.
…Her family looked for her and though they did not find her until she was a grown woman, they never stopped loving her…
Melody’s body changes completely whenever she dies. The Watcher isn’t there when it happens, but he always recognises her. She can see it in his eyes.
“What are you waiting for?” Melody yells at him when she has very short, blonde hair, green eyes and a turned-up nose. A tear slides down his face, there’s an oddly familiar, soothing noise - like swimming through time and space while still safe in the womb - and he’s gone.
For the first time in her lives, Melody Pond cries.
…He punctures time and space just to watch her grow up. He misses all the milestones because there are no records kept of those in the archives of the Shadow Proclamation, or the Tessellator. The TARDIS knows of River Song, helped create her and loves her, so the TARDIS breaks the rules…
Mel realises her mistake when she meets a younger version of him. For once, they look like they’re the same age. She doesn’t see the Watcher any more, yet every Christmas and birthday he manages to leave a sentence or paragraph of her story, and somehow Mel always manages to find it.
…Each time I see you I want to scoop you into my arms and bring you home. Don’t think I leave you behind because I want you to suffer…
Mel wants to hate him, but can’t. Going to so much trouble to hide these messages from the Silence, facing so many risks - her anger as much as the destruction of the universe - makes him the only person she trusts and loves.
…I could take you anytime I chose, hide you away, and rob you of the greatest treasure for my own selfish reasons. You are angry, hurt, alone, and confused now, I understand. But you will see…
Growing up alongside her parents is confusing. Adolescent Amy Pond is bossy and rabbits on about nothing but her raggedy-man Doctor twit, all but ignoring the boy who’s been in love with her his whole life. At least Amy admits Rory Williams is cute, although she’s adamant he could never take on the universe like her bloody annoying raggedy man.
Mel wants to lock them in a cupboard until her mother wakes up to herself. Mel’ll never be born at this rate.
…I love you as you are now, don’t ever doubt that, but one day my delightfully spontaneous and melodramatic Melody, you grow up to be the most amazing woman in the universe - in every universe. And I cannot take that away from you, not even for a single hug…
At least one of them will die today. She can feel it, even before the blue box appears in her prison cell. The door opens of its own accord. He isn’t in there. She steps inside with one pocket full of tissues and another full of handwritten notes. Half the tissues are filled with tears before she reaches her destination, and it isn’t a long trip.
…So for every special day I missed, I give you this: the chance to know River Song.
River doesn’t need to walk into the hospital room. Her other mother, the TARDIS, brings her directly to the ancient man’s bedside. He struggles to sit, with that familiar sadness haunting his adoring smile. River helps him. More tears fill her eyes.
“Where are you off to this time?” he asks with proud excitement.
“The greatest library in the universe.” River is excited about this trip. It isn’t often she gets day release without full military escort.
“The one inside your head, or the one that’s the size of a planet?”
“The second one, although the first’s one’s catching up,” she boasts with a smile.
“Keep away from the pornography continent,” he says seriously, “and take plenty of chicken.”
“Whatever you say. Don’t die while I’m away.”
“Whatever you say.” He smiles again. River can still feel his anger, sadness, and fear. As always these emotions are paled by his love for her.
“I brought you something.” River gives him the stack of notes he left for her over her lifetimes. His hands tremble. They both know she has no regenerations left.
“Shouldn’t these be in that blue diary of yours?”
“No, that’s the Doctor’s book. These are between me and the only man the Doctor comes close to…” River wipes tears from one cheek with the tip of her ring-finger. “I want you to know that I saw you watching, and I never blamed you.”
He hugs her with the weight of ten thousand years to make up for those he withheld while she was younger, and firmly kisses her cheek. He does this every time they meet since she ‘killed’ the Doctor. River hugs him back. She doesn’t want to let go lest the tie that binds them is severed and she drifts away without her anchor.
“I was always proud of you. Melody, Mel, River - it didn’t matter. You always astounded me.”
Christmas dawns and the Christian humans of earth wake up to celebrate the birth of their hero as River Song mourns the approaching death of hers-The Last Centurion, the Watcher, Rory Williams-her father. Since she learned who the man was, and that she Melody Pond was River Song, there have been three words she’s been saving because they are the three most important words she will ever say. She says them now.
“Thank you Daddy.”