Drabbles With The Doctor

Learning Curves

Learning Curves

He keeps forgetting how young she is. "River, how many times do I have to tell you? No guns in the Tardis! I don't like guns!" River laughs, her eyes bright, she plays with his bow tie. "You also said no kissing, but that didn't stop you from enjoying it." The Doctor blushes. Even when she's young, especially when she's young, she knows just how to make him hot under the collar. "Yes-well-that's different! That's very, very different!" River smirks. "Whatever you say, darling." The Doctor frowns a little, her term of endearment is different and it shows just how young she really is. "When are we for you?" He asks, mentally cursing himself for not asking earlier, but whenever River waltzes into his Tardis, his mind goes haywire. "I'm not her yet." River says. "You're always her." The Doctor says gently. River frowns but shrugs her golden shoulders in amiable disagreement. She doesn't believe him. She heard the way the Doctor had talked about River Song, and though it had been a year since Berlin, River feels that she's a million miles away from the person the Doctor loves. "So." She says, changing the subject. "Where are you taking me? Are we going to save the world?" "Even better." The Doctor says, smiling down at her with glee. "We are going on a picnic." River crinkles her nose. "Really? That seems rather..boring." "Nonsense!" The Doctor cries, throwing down a lever, the Tardis shakes, the brakes left on. "Picnics are cool." She rolls her eyes but can't help her smile when he bops her on the nose. The Tardis lands and the Doctor grabs her hand. "Just you wait, Song, this is going to be the best picnic you've ever had!" "It can't be that great if I don't get to shoot something." River grumbles, but her words are lost as the Doctor whisks her out the door.

As it turns out, River does get to shoot something. "Just once, just once I'd like an adventure where we didn't get shot at!" The Doctor cries, running across the open field, his eyes searching for a hidden escape route and his hand pulling along a trigger-happy River. "Speak for yourself, Sweetie." River says, a hungry look in her eyes, an emptiness as she shoots at the bug-like creatures who are chasing them. "Less shooting, more running!" The Doctor cries, desperate to save the creatures, Sectovas, from River's deadly aim. "I could hit them all." She says as they run together. "I know." The Doctor mumurs under his breath. "That's what I'm afraid of." He runs faster, River in tow, and he hopes they make it to the trees in time.

They have no such luck. The Sectovas close in and surround them. The Doctor curses, all he has to work with is his sonic and lots of wood. River smirks and takes a deep breath. Her face holds nothing, reveals nothing, and that worries the Doctor more than anything. "River-" He doesn't get to say anything else, the Sectovas are upon them and it takes all of the Doctor's concentration to avoid being impaled by the Sectovas' sharp spears. "River!" He shouts over the din of gunshots and punches. "River! Don't shoot-" He suffers a blow to the back of his head and everything fades into black...

When he wakes, he can't see anything. There's a fierce pounding in his head and he realizes that he's sprawled flat on his face. He rolls over, he hits something. He sits up and stares, aghast. Scattered across the ground are corpses of the Sectovas. There is one Sectova alive, clearly the leader, on its knees in front of River. She has a few scrapes and bruises, her lip is cut and her gun is trained on the creature's head. "I know a little bit about your culture." She says, her voice cold and mechanical. "Your planet is peaceful, it invites tourists and visitors, so why did you attack us?" "Because of the box." The creature says, its voice deep, gravelly, and male. "The Tardis?" River asks, a brief look of hesitant curiosity flickers across her features, only to be replaced quickly with an icy scowl. "What about the Tardis?" "Everyone knows the tales of the mighty Doctor and his blue box, even as hatchlings we are told the stories." "What stories?" "Skies have fallen and burned because of him, he has danced on the graves of his enemies and laughed at the pains of the universe." "Shut up." River's voice shakes from some secret emotion. "It is the truth, I can see your eyes, you know this to be true." "You know nothing." River hisses, hers eyes slanted. "I know this. The Doctor has watched as planets die and done nothing, and I will not rest, will not stop until he has been brought down. I will hound him with everything I have and I will curse him till my dying breath." River smiles maliciously, the Doctor's shout chokes his throat. "How fitting." Time slows down to a crawl, the Doctor cries out, three bullets hit their target. The Sectova's body falls with a quiet, pathetic thump. The husk of the once proud creature does not give justice to the passionate, alive enemy that it used to be only seconds before. Time catches up to the rest of the world. "Oh, River." The Doctor says mournfully. "What have you done?"

They are back in the Tardis and River's nonchalance is starting to grate on the Doctor's nerves. "You don't kill people, that's not how we do things!" "It's what I am." The Doctor winces, her voice is flat and emotionless. It's a stinging reminder of just how much he's failed her. "That's not what, who you were supposed to be, you weren't supposed to be this way." "Everything that has gone into making me was for that sole purpose. How else am I supposed to be?" "You can be better than that." He hates himself even as he says the words, but he can't pull them back. River's tone hardens with resolution. "I won't apologize for protecting you, Doctor. I can't say I'm sorry, because I'm not." "But that wasn't just protection, somebody died. A whole lot of people died." "People die everyday, regardless of me or my gun. At least it wasn't you." "Every life is important, every life is equal." "Ah, but Doctor, does anybody really believe that?" He saddens at that and River squirms under his mournful gaze. It's silent for a while. "I've got it!" The Doctor cries, he claps his hands together. "What have you got?" River asks warily. "It." He whirls around the Tardis console, hitting buttons seemingly at random, kissing River on the forehead every time he spins in her direction. "What are you up to?" River asks. "We are going to get you sorted out, Song."

"Where are we?" River breathes as she exits the Tardis. "Aitherios." The Doctor says, River studies the planet and he studies her. "It's beautiful." The Doctor jerks his head to look at the scenery around them. They're in a silvery forest, bathed in the purple light of the moon. "Yeah, it is." Blue wisps of a smoke-like substance float through the air. "Doctor, what are those?" "The inhabitants of the planet, touch one." "What?" "Go ahead, touch it." River looks at him curiously but does as he asks. She gasps in surprise. "It has emotions!" The Doctor smiles at her fondly. She's not his wife, not yet, but he loves every version of her. Her childlike wonder warms his hearts. "What is its purpose?" River asks. "Living." River doesn't say anything, the Doctor can practically see her mind whirring with thoughts she can't comprehend yet. "That's it?" She finally asks. "That's the best purpose." He tells her gently, she frowns. "Life is important, all life. It can be given and it can be taken away, and every life is irreplaceable." Her frown deepens. "I was always taught life has a greater purpose than that, and I've always known my purpose.." The words 'to kill you' aren't spoken, but the Doctor senses them on her tongue. "You can change your purpose, you don't have to choose just one." "I can change it, just like that?" River asks skeptically, her eyebrow raised. "Just like that." The Doctor says, snapping his fingers for effect, River laughs and he smiles at the sound. "It's not that easy to change, Doctor." "No, but it's always an option. Change is eternal. You've already changed. In Berlin, you chose to be River." "But I'm not her yet." She protests. "You are, and you can be." She sighs, squares her shoulders, and looks at the Doctor, her gaze open and willing. "Then teach me. I want to learn." The Doctor smiles and grabs her hands. He kisses her fingers and leads her back to the Tardis. "It would be my pleasure, River Song."