Yowzah Oneshot Collection (3)

95(G)

   You Only Just Discovered the Sun

                      Mia_Zeklos

On the last day, you walked out in the sun
You only just discovered the sun on the last day
And on the last day, when this work is done
You only just discovered the sun on the last day

He’d been putting it off for ages in the childish hope that this way it wouldn’t have to end, but this time, when River asked him about the towers of Darillium, he said yes. Not because he wanted to, but because the excitement burning in her eyes was so captivating that he couldn’t even imagine saying ‘no’ to anything she wanted.

The Doctor sighed as he looked at himself in the mirror, winning time which was supposedly spent on choosing clothes.

The singing towers of Darillium. Such an amazing place, and he’d started hating it so much by now. River could have gone there alone, he guessed, if she’d actually wanted it, but that wasn’t the point. He’d been trying to distract her every time because after Darillium, there came the Library and then she’d be lost forever and so would he.

Because if they never actually got to Darillium, maybe he’d be able to cheat and keep her next to himself where no one would be able to hurt her and she wouldn’t be able to hurt herself, as it had happened at the end. Not that this was such a big surprise and not that it would ever work. River had saved his life on more occasions that he would be able to count and she wasn’t the type to stay safe, no matter where she was or who was the one accompanying her. She would get there anyway and the only thing that would change would be her last memory of him; Darillium wouldn’t be there and the only thing that would happen was that even more would be gone and he wouldn’t even realise it, because that was how it all happened with River – she was here one moment, gone the other and before he could figure out where she’d ended up this time and could find her, she had already left the trace he’d been following.

The Doctor closed his eyes, unable to face his reflection. He’d got all dressed up for the occasion and even the meeting they’d just had with their past selves hadn’t managed to do anything to his concentration. All he could think of were River’s words in the Library, over and over again and time can be rewritten and not those times not one line don’t you dare, again and again as his own mind mocked him for the hopelessness of this situation. What was the use of being a Time Lord if you couldn’t save those who mattered? What was the point if the only thing you could do was observe everything as it fades away?

Not that River would ever fade away; not really. She had came into his life with a bang and not a sign of a whimper and that was how she had went through it; like a shot in the darkness that left a burning, painful trail that one could never really cure even as time passed.

As they came out of the TARDIS, River started talking about a discovery she’d made about this place recently and, as he took in every word as if it were the last he’d ever hear, the Doctor found himself unable to utter a word while wishing he had enough time to say everything he had to her.

He didn’t actually expect to get that, of course. Time had never been his friend.

And where sun gives way to moon
And silver starlight fills the sky
In the arms of these last hills
Is where I’m bound to lie 

“I’m going on an expedition in two months,” River said to him as they waited for the towers to start their song. It was a rather simple principle; at a certain moment the whole planet went quiet and the only thing that could be heard was the wind that went through the finely made walls of the towers.