belle, doctor who

thirty-one

"Where are you going?" Donna asks Ave as she follows Belle and the Doctor.

"To get my diary... or hers, actually," Ave says.

"Hers? She has a diary?" Donna asks. "She never told me about it."

"I don't think she has one yet," Ave says. "Like you said. They're young right now."

•••

The Doctor clears his throat as he has Belle under his arm. River looks up to him from flipping pages in her diary. Ave flips pages in hers, but returns to the front of the book. Belle tries to peak but the Doctor notices and covers her eyes. She tries to bite his hand off.

"Thanks," River tells him.

"For what?"

"The usual. For coming when I call."

"Oh, that was you?"

"You're doing a very good job, acting like you don't know me. I'm assuming there's a reason. Though I know Belle knows me."

"A fairly good one, actually."

"Okay, shall we do diaries, then? Where are we this time? Er, going by your face, I'd say it's early days for you, yeah? So, er, crash of the Byzantium—"

"She did that," Ave tells River. "Though she actually didn't because we took her out."

"Right. So she's not his wife yet? Very early days. But obviously ringing no bells for the Doctor. Right. Oh, picnic at Asgard. Have we done Asgard yet? Obviously not. Blimey, very early days, then. Whoo, life with a time traveler. Never knew it could be such hard work. Look at you. Oh, you're young."

"Wife? So you mean to tell us we're married in the future," Belle says. Ave turns pale.

"Sorry. I wish she didn't spoil anything with that. I know how young you two are..."

"Yeah. We really haven't had a first date yet, and I don't think he's asked me to be his girlfriend. Right, Doctor?" Belle nudges him. He nods.

"Though we do fancy each other," he kisses her forehead. "We've confirmed that, at least."

Belle nods, blushing bright red.

"And I'm really not, you know. Young," the Doctor tells River.

"No, but you are. Your eyes. You're younger than I've ever seen you. You too, Belle. Except for that one time..."

"You've seen me before, then?" The Doctor asks.

"Doctor, please tell me you know who I am," River says. "Who Ave is."

"Who are you?" He asks, looking at the two. Ave frowns as she reads Belle's diary. Suddenly there's a ring heard throughout the place. It sounds like a phone.

"Sorry, that was me. Trying to get through into the security protocols. I seem to have set something off. What is that? Is that an alarm?"

"Doctor? Doctor, Ave, that sounds like—"

"It is. It's a phone," the Doctor says.

"Definitely," says Ave.

"Let me try something," the Doctor tells Other Dave as he runs towards him.

There's a screen that says "Access Denied."

"Okay, doesn't like that. Let's try something else."

He then gets a connection as he tries something else. Belle watches the little girl on the screen, thinking how cute she is while the Doctor's trying to interact with her. She calls the space her library.