River Song "All the Days of his Lives"

"Home"

The day I encountered all of the Doctor's lives was like any other. I was returning from one of my adventures but I never go back to my prison straight away, like some kind of deranged homing pigeon and with the help of my dodgy vortex manipulator I always find my way to the TARDIS and the Doctor, wherever he might happen to be parked, anywhere in time and space. Of course I have a key but I've always been polite enough to knock first and then when no one answers I just let myself in. On the odd occasion, when my vortex manipulator has conked out on me I have been known to borrow the old man's motor when he's been busy on an adventure but up until now he hasn't noticed... Bless. The key gave a satisfying click in the lock and I walked inside the blue box.

That day more than others I was sad that I had missed Mum and Dad as my mind slotted into its "timey wimey" mode, syncing my inner diary while I worked out where the Doctor, the Ponds and myself were in our time streams and it's always with a heart wrenching lurch that I remember that my parent's now know that I'm their daughter but it seems just lately that I'm reliving that devastating day at Demon's Run and I can see it in Amy and Rory's eyes as well. I will never lose the anger that I was robbed of living a normal life, that my parents were denied the chance to raise me and love me as their own but there is nothing I can say or do that will bring their baby daughter back, maybe I'm too much like the Doctor than I would care to admit but for the sake of everyone's sanity we must pick up the pieces, hide the damage and move on now.

So it was just me and the TARDIS as I glanced around the shimmering control room and an irresistible smile pulled at the corners of my lips, so I shrugged off my sadness and leapt up the steps onto the slippery glass surface of the central dais where at the centre stood the console with its brightly coloured bric-a-brac controls and the frozen glass blown time rotor right at the heart of this incredible time machine.

The TARDIS was waiting for the Doctor but as I felt a warm gust of air and a gentle hum which reverberated through my body I knew she had also been waiting for me, but looking back on that day somehow I could pick up on her anticipation almost as if she had something planned, you might think this sounds insane but the TARDIS is more alive than even the Doctor can comprehend. A time machine with a living consciousness has freaked out many others but I've always revelled in being alone with the TARDIS and every time I'm here I've never doubted that this was my home.

I snapped out of my reverie, the Doctor and the Ponds were somewhere outside the TARDIS on an adventure, for a long indecisive moment I fought back a wave of longing, a terrible pull to be alongside them and though I'm only ever a heartbeat away from joining them I always know when my family will be fine without me. My fingers hovered over the controls until my hand finally rested upon the handbrake but it wasn't long before I found myself stifling a yawn, my eyelids heavy with the exhaustion that had suddenly caught up with me, then I realised it had been at least forty eight hours since I had last slept, so I made my way down the ever changing corridors but the TARDIS was being kind to her child that day and I did not have to wander too far before I came across my room.

Inside the pale cornflour blue walls and soft lighting was just what my tired eyes needed, the Art Deco furnishings and Pre-Raphaelite prints upon every available wall space in my bedroom was such a luxurious contrast to my cell but to my shame it was even more chaotic and untidy than usual with an eclectic mix of clothes, books and artefacts scattered across the floor, all left over from my last brief visit as I carefully tiptoed through my belongings and found a path over to the four poster bed. My gaze as always rested on the bedside table which contained a selfie picture of me and the Doctor on our first date at Calderon Beta, thousands of stars blaze in the background, the sky looks like it is on fire and the Doctor is grinning like a big kid and I'm wearing an awful vest but I love that picture so much.

My beauty regime has never amounted to much as I released my curls from their tight fastenings, my tatty brush massaging my aching head while my other hand fumbled drowsily until I found the catch of my long beaded dress and with a great big sigh I let it slide to the floor, then all that remained was to send my killer heels flying across the room and whatever undergarments I was still wearing were soon covered up by an over sized Disney Tinkerbell T-shirt because the TARDIS can struggle with the heating sometimes. Then all that was left for me was to collapse onto the soft, feathery bed of the bedroom I have occasionally been known to share with the Doctor and then completely at ease, I drifted off into a dreamless sleep. And do what I've always done, waited for the Doctor.

And it seemed I had barely closed my eyes and then he was there.