Yowzah Oneshot Collection (3)

65(G)

                      How He Fell

             SnubNosedSilhouette

"Hello, Sweetie," he heard from outside the TARDIS.

Damn her.  

****

"You could come with us..." he lets the offer hang in the air, unsure if he wants her to accept.

"I escape often enough, thank you. And I have a promise to live up to," she says with that irritating, knowing smile of hers.  "You'll understand soon enough.  Spoilers."

He will not rise to her bait.  "Suit yourself then," and he turns to walk back to the TARDIS.  "See you next time--call me."  He considers this a rather large step forward in the progress of their working relationship.  How many people in the universe even have his number?  He could count them--maybe not on his hands, but certainly if he took off his socks.

"Is that it?  What's wrong with you?"

"I'm sorry, did I forget something?" He's genuinely curious.

"Oh, shut up," and she gives him that smile and pulls him to her.

And...they're kissing.  Rather, she's kissing him, and he's flailing around like a fish just thrown out of its nice, safe pond and into a frying pan.  And River Song is hungry.  And then, for a moment, he stops struggling and kisses her back.  Really kisses her back.  In that split second, he loses all of the control he's spent centuries perfecting and just gives in to the inevitability of River.  River in his future.  River and him...doing this...enjoying it.  Because he is enjoying it.

And then reality hits, and he panics.  What is he doing?  He doesn't do this.  Not ever.  Not with anyone.  He's the Doctor, she's human, and there are rules.  His rules, of course, rules she has implied over and over again that he has broken or will break with her, but rules nonetheless.

He babbles incoherently as he backs away from her cell.  His mouth is moving, but at least half of his brain has no idea what he’s saying.  From the look on her face, though, he needs to leave immediately.  Five minutes ago immediately.  Last year immediately.  Because the look on River Song’s face might just break his hearts if he stays there any longer.

**** 

From the first moment he'd suspected that something was amiss with Amy, he'd thought of her.  He'd wanted to call, wanted to make some excuse to stop at Stormcage to pick her up.  To talk to her.  To tell her his theory.  Hope that she could--would--dismiss it out of hand.  But no.  River could be an invaluable resource when she was needed, but he wasn't yet ready to admit that he needed help with this.  After all, he could be wrong. But he wasn't.

As he finally aimed his sonic at Amy, swore he would tear apart the fabric of space and time if he had to in order to find her (My Amelia Pond, he thinks, what have I done to your life?), and watched her stand, shaking and afraid in the middle of the control room, the one thing he knew with any degree of certainty was that he needed River's help to bring her back from wherever she really was.

The true revelation of the moment, of course, was that he trusted River more than he'd possibly ever trusted a human before.  Not only did she know things about his future, things she frequently implied in spite of her "spoiler" refrain, but she'd never once led him astray.  Never let him down.  When they were together, he never had to worry that she wouldn't be able to keep up with him.  He'd never had to worry about her the way he worried about Amy and Rory, or the way he'd worried about his other companions in the past.  He trusted his companions implicitly--loved them--but River was different.  She wasn't a companion, she was an ally.  A partner?  Perhaps.  Someday.