FIC: "Request" Rejected (1/1)
Title: “Request” Rejected
Genre: Doctor Who
Series: The Many Things to Never Say to the Doctor
Rating: T (It involves River Song)
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: What if the Doctor reacted differently to River's expectation that he'd boost her signal in “(5.4)”?
Disclaimer: I wouldn't be writing this if they were mine.
Dedication: tardis_mole, for help with the prompts.
Author's Note: The series is the result of thinking of the kinds of things companions and others should learn to never say to the Doctor, no matter his incarnation. This series is, for now, only with Nine, Ten, and Eleven. If I get more comfortable with the earlier Doctors, I'll add in the rest one by one.
Here? Time for River to learn a valuable lesson about presumption. This is posted as a Christmas present for TM. I know you saw this, but you get the honor of giving me a prompt or two for how and where to continue this in the sequel. :DDDD
“Request” Rejected
Started May 3, 2013
Finished December 25, 2013
Never assume to the Doctor's face that he'll help you. He may try teaching you a lesson instead.
River Song walked away and spoke into her communicator. “You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal.” She turned and aimed her communicator toward the sky. “Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon.” She paused in a pose that was supposed to be attractive on a woman.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes. The memories of the Library suddenly came back with a vengeance, and he wasn't liking the implications they were telling him about this moment. The way their respective time-lines seemed to be working, she had developed this belief that he would always come to her aid, no matter what situation she was in or what it would cost him.
Did she deserve any of it? Did he? Especially after she had told him more spoilers than she ought to have? Trying to minimize the ripples in time, his ass (the one belonging to the current gangly self or to the former skinny self that first met River). It looked more like she was trying to bind them together.
Here was the kicker. He could now look at the time-lines more clearly than he could on that fateful day. He wasn't so convinced that she came to knowing his name the way he'd originally thought. There was something he now realized was missing from her proof.
So what would happen if he didn't oblige her this time? Was it worth the risk of a paradox? Or was their supposed timeline together a paradox that needed to be burst?
“Doctor?” River called out, puzzled but not moving much. He never took this long!
Amy frowned. “Aren't you going to help her? She seems to know you.”
That made up his mind. The slight headache he was starting to feel, be damned. “No. Help yourself, River. I'm not letting you get me into another mess.” With that, he grabbed Amy and dragged her back into the TARDIS.
If he was holding her in such a way that River would have to shoot through her to get him, he wasn't going to admit to it. Besides, there was something in her manner that told him she would never hurt Amy, so he was using that against River.
“Doctor!” River screamed. “Stop! You and I, we're a fixed point!”
But he threw his best Oncoming Storm glare at her, stopping River in her tracks. “Are we? Or are you merely a Neverwere who's manipulating me? Let's see what the time-lines say after this.”
And he slammed the door in her face.
River, and the world around her, began to fade away.
THE END...?