trans_9 | Holes and Patches [OPEN FREE FOR ALL]

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Holes and Patches [OPEN FREE FOR ALL]

After the battle, the warriors' task was over. Their job, for now, was to rest and recover for the time being.

The healers' job, on the other hand, was far from over. Some exhausted from the battle, others rotating in, they took to their bay and continued the process of treating the wounded. Some patients were free to leave in a few minutes, while others would have some time (or quite some time) on the cots. Their mission: relax. Stay as still as possible.

Unfortunately, the temptation of so many familiar faces alive and about would ultimately prove to be too great. Keeping track of this group was going to be a third task all its own.

[this is a free for all for all your injured! Have them socialize, be thorns in the medics' side, try to escape, or bring the medics together for some action. Just note in your post if you'd like a medic to visit your character---if not, it's time for a chat!]

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Since River wouldn't allow the Doctor to take a quick sonic scan of her injuries, she'd been dropped off at the Medbay with mildly serious wounds. Internal bleeding from a wound on her side had been the most dangerous one. Other then that, all she had were a few cuts and bruises. A small price to pay for the hundreds of Ohms she had taken down.

It's not that River was a difficult patient, it's just that her medical records were sealed and she'd only really accept once person to tend to her. Rory.

It was boring, you know? Laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, replaying that battle in her head over and over again. How close she'd come to death. Why that surge of TARDIS energy hadn't killed her? Then again, the Doctor had said she was the child of the TARDIS. Perhaps that meant something.

Zouichi had been looking for Howard, but he stopped when he noticed the woman staring up at the ceiling. He glanced upward, but there was nothing particularly novel about the view there. The brightly-colored parrot perched on Zouichi's shoulder made a similar motion, regarding the ceiling with one beady black eye before deciding that preening feathers was far more important.

"Are you all right?"

River noticed him only moments after he noticed her. She'd been told to get some rest - confined to this bed with white sheets pulled up to her shoulders. "As I've been telling everyone, I'm fine." She sounded exasperated, like she'd been saying this a lot lately.

"You don't look injured. Are you visiting someone?"

Well, he was mostly asking because of the staring, and not the resting, but. "I did sustain some minor injuries, but you're right -- I'm primarily here to check in on some of the patients. And the medics. They seem to appreciate talking about subjects other than work... once things die down a little, anyway."

River couldn't rest, not after such a huge battle. It was hard to switch off after all that adrenaline and adventure. Ah, just like the old days. "I'm afraid I wasn't too cooperative when I got here. They might be avoiding me." She'd protested just about ever scan they had wanted to run on her. Eventually they'd had to limit their scans to just the wound on her side. She might have threatened them too. It was kind of a blur.

"Ah, well. If it's any consolation, I don't think they take it too personally. It seems like a majority of the patients here would rather be somewhere else. I don't really blame them, either. Last time I checked, Ronnae looked like an extra from a mummy movie."

Zouichi was learning all about the movies.

"They've probably just got their hands full with the others. Is there anything I can get for you?"

"I'm glad I got off with mild injuries. I don't think I could stand being here for more then a day or two." She liked to be on the move, River Song. Sitting still, laying in a hospital bed, just didn't sit right with her.

"No, I'm just supposed to stay here for now....and rest."

"Rest?" If he sounded mildly appalled, it was only because he was. "Sounds awful. Guess I'll have to avoid getting injured, then."

He paused. "So what happened, if you don't mind me asking? Were you on the ground?"

He'd barely managed to peel himself away from Conner and Kara, but one of the nurses had informed him that River was refusing care and he had to come. Had to come or she'd out stubborn everyone just to keep her secrets. She was his child, but it was times like these that he was reminded that she was Amy's daughter as well. Their stubborn, obstinate daughter who wouldn't do as she was told, but still their daughter.

He let his hand rest briefly on her forehead, smoothing the tangled curls from her face and started the scanner, making sure not to miss anything. "Really, between you and Tim, I think the paranoia-" The in my family went unsaid, but hung between them in silence for a moment before he continued "-is reaching record heights." His voice was gentle, even as he scolded, worry and exhaustion coloring his tone. "What happened?" He frowned at the results, worried that she might have ruptured something, and more worried that she would likely need a transfusion. "They won't tell, River, medical records are confidential. Don't refuse care, dead your secrets won't matter anyway."

Rory, is that a grey hair sprouting already? To be honest, River looked a bit, well, out of it. Refusing medical aid might seem ridiculous, but she was obviously dead set on keeping her identity a secret. "Doctors talk, I know that much. But you...." She trails off. Rory already knew and he was a nurse - last she checked - he could help. "You're the only one I'll allow to treat me. It's just a cut, really." She had some internal bleeding - and despite her human heritage, Rory might find the results of that scan to be a bit wonky.

"Things used to be so much simpler." She sighs, glancing up at the ceiling, seemingly wistful for the old days. "Back when I had so many regenerations to spare, but I've got to take good care of this one." It would be her last.

"Doctors talk, and the dead have no secrets worth mentioning. If I'm not here, you can trust Sakura to keep your secrets. I trust her." And that wasn't as simple as it sounded, trusting someone with his daughter, with his family? Not an easy thing to do.

He was lucky that his hair was resistant to graying, or between them all he'd be as white as his grandfather. "You're going to be fine, River. I promise. I'll make sure of it." She wasn't human.

DNA matched, his and Amy's within the 90 percent range, but she wasn't...she wasn't human, somehow, impossibly.

"Regenerations, River?" He frowned, remembering the Doctor's ginger self exploding into glitter on top of him. What was she talking about? She was his daughter, Amy's daughter. How could she....

"Alright, if you trust her." It would be good to have someone else to go to, just encase Rory happened to be away for some reason. She didn't even seem to question his judgement, which was a good thing. It meant that she trusted him and anyone he trusted, she would trust as well.

"Oh, I know I'll be fine. I'm just trying to estimate how many Ohm I took out. Possibly in the five hundred to six hundred range? Six hundred shots versus just that one solid hit and another that grazed me - I must be getting slow. Normally I could have cleared at least eight hundred." Figures that River would be more interested in tallying up her kills rather then seeking medical treatment. "Then there was that weird power surge from the TARDIS that killed the Ohms and knocked me flat on my face. I suspect it should have killed me on impact."

Evolution at it's finest, Rory.

"Do keep up Rory. Part Time Lord. The human equivalent."

"I do." He was glad she did, there was something there, even if he didn't know all of the details. .

"Right, I'll adjust the dosage then." That was the only reaction, otherwise he kept everything contained. He'd deal with it later, for the moment he needed to deal with her injuries. Freaking out and questions could wait until later. She needed to be treated. "He must not have been happy, he doesn't like killing. Even things that aren't human." He reached out, touching her shoulder gently while he adjusted the dosage for the pain."You'll sleep now, alright, River? I'll take care of you. You can notch the kills later, baby Pond. For now just rest and let me look after you. You'll feel better when you wake up."

"They don't know about the power surge. As far as I can tell, it only swept through the outside of the TARDIS. So, they probably think I did all of that extra damage." Her perfect blonde curls did seem a bit more frizzy then usual. Like an electric current had gone through her body.

When the dosage goes up, she feels her eyes growing heavier. It became harder to concentrate, but she still gave him a sleepy smile when he touched her shoulder. "Baby Pond? Never been called that."

Edited 2011-08-30 01:28 (UTC)

"You can tell them about all that later, River. Don't worry." He'd need to check for any damage caused by that power surge.

"Then we'll need to fix that. Sleep, Melody. Rest. You'll be fine." His voice was soft, little more than a whisper. The same tone he would use to sooth Molly when she was fussy.

"No, too many questions about how I survived." Even she was fuzzy on the details of that.

Yawning, her eyes begin to close. She's drifting, warm and fuzzy, with her father's voice telling her everything would be alright.

Yup. She's off to dream land.

The Doctor pops in sometime after Rory. He'll insist he wasn't waiting to catch River Song alone and that if he really was snooping, you'd certainly be able to tell! He was quite good at snoops. Excellent, actually, because why bother being humble about something you were amazing at?

So in other words, he snoops outside medbay until he's sure he can get River all to himself.

He thinks all things considered, River looks fairly good. Tired, but alive, and that's what counts. He knows she's been through all sorts of life and death situations, but this is the closest he's seen to her dying aside from...well, River Song really, actually, truly dying back at the Library. It's just another reminder of her human mortality. The Doctor comes right up to her bed, some sort of book in one hand, a handkerchief in the other -- horridly pink and blue, of course -- and trying to fight of the last of his sniffles. He peers down at her, as if seeing River for the first time.

The Doctor starts to put Journey to the Center of the Earth down next to River.

Edited 2011-09-01 19:09 (UTC)

Everything is still a little blurry when River next opens her eyes. Damn, Rory had upped the dosage of pain medicine quite a bit. She couldn't feel a thing except blissful numbness. It takes her a few moments to blink away the blurriness enough to notice the Doctor standing over her. Deja vu, at it's finest. He'd stood over her in a hospital bed before, way back at the beginning, when Melody Pond had been reborn into River Song.

"Hello, sweetie." He could probably tell from her voice alone that she was still a bit out of it from the pain medicine. Still, the smile that blossoms on her face is unlike any other she's ever given him. Radiant, bright, and full of unspoken emotions. She thought he was her Doctor. Her long lost love come back at last. The man who knew her as much as she knew him.

Her hand reaches for his and it's like all those high walls that she kept in place around him normally were tumbling down. "You came back for me."

It takes the Doctor a moment to realize she's still out of it. The Doctor peers at her, head canted to the side, and he's never quite seen her talk to him like that. Not even when she told him his real name.

"Naturally, River," the Doctor says kindly. He reaches out to pat her hand after fussing with the handkerchief, deciding at the last moment to set it delicately on the little ledge nearby. He turns his full attention back to River. "Resting, eh? Could stand for some more, I'd think."

He glances over her, at the way she's very sluggish, how she's not simply pushing and pulling at him like he's used to. This isn't quite the River Song from before. The Doctor suspects, briefly, that right now he could probably ask her anything he wanted and she might, just might, actually tell him the full truth. Big struggle to not give into the temptation. He's never considered himself a good man. But if he can be even a little good right now, he won't give into that temptation to ask the biggest question of them all:

Who are you really, River Song?

Why would I tell you my name?

Instead he swallows, smiles, and squeezes her hand, gentle and careful.

This is a different side of River Song. A side that is made up entirely of smiles, light, and love. Love for him. Whatever he was to her, whatever their future was, he obviously meant the world to her. She was someone who would and already had sacrificed her own life for him, just to ensure their respective future meetings could remain.

"Knew you would. You always do, in the end." Her smile is full of secrets and feelings he can't yet understand or even fully return. "Don't think I'm up for another adventure just yet. Took down nearly six hundred Ohm, you know? Must be getting slow. I should've been able to take down eight hundred easily." Doing math in her head right now left a lot to be desired. It required a whole lot more thinking.

It was entirely possibly that she might let something slip all on her own at the rate she was going. She seemed to think he already knew all about her, so there was no need for secrecy.

The Doctor's smile flickered oh so slightly. 900 odd years and he never could quite believe he deserved looks like...that. All that trust and faith and love.

"Six hundred!" He echoed and he wasn't quite having River on just because that was a ridiculously dangerous number there. Or maybe he meant dangerously ridiculous. He'll have to get back to River on that. "You saved us, so I'd say six hundred is a perfectly good number."

He sounded faintly shell-shocked by that. "Only" six hundred to River. Just what kind of war was she used to fighting? The Doctor didn't let go over her hand, as if sensing she needed the physical contact, and instead made a move to sit down, hitching the knees of his trousers and primly hooking one leg over his knee. Six hundred indeed! Trying not to let that thought disturb him more than it should, the Doctor focused on River's face and even if he told himself he wouldn't pry, River was making it incredibly difficult not to ask a few innocent questions here and there.

"You'll be fine, you know," the Doctor went on, voice gentle. "Better than okay! Few days rest and I know how you humans bounce back."

He shifted his hand without giving it much thought, his fingers twining with hers as he smiled across the bed at River.

Edited 2011-09-03 16:54 (UTC)

River Song is clearly as dangerous as she is intriguing. She's the kind of deadly dangerous that should send the Doctor running in the opposite direction, but instead, here he was. "You saved yourselves. I just provided cover fire." It was amazing, she was amazing. To think that she could kill so many Ohm in such a small period of time. When she'd said she was a weapon, she hadn't been lying. She was ten times more deadly then any normal human had any right to be - and psychic as well, apparently.

It seemed like pieces of the mystery of River Song were slowly being revealed, but it was left up to the Doctor to piece together the puzzle.

Looking down at their hands, she squeezes his affectionately. His touch seemed to calm her, keep her grounded.

Unfortunately, her mind seems to clear when he calls her human. It's like a slap to her face. He can probably tell from the stricken expression on her face that she's realized he's not her Doctor. And it hurts.

Everything closes up. Her walls slam back into place and that guarded expression returns all at once. That tiny glimpse of River Song he'd seen minutes ago disappeared so quickly it might make his head spin.

"How's the Master fairing?"

The Doctor's back stiffens. He can literally see that River Song vanish, harden before his very eyes until the River he knows is lying on that bed, her eyes on his. Was it something he said? The Doctor replays the conversation in his head and can't see why she would take it so badly. Was it the human thing? What's wrong with being human? There's loads of her species who managed just fine and didn't let that stop them!

He's caught off guard when River suddenly asks about the Master.

"Oh, him? He's...good. I think. Mostly good. Still recovering, bit of a nasty shock to his hearts," the Doctor says with a frown. Is he going to have to keep them separate? "He'll live, if that's what you're getting at."

His expression softens as he pats River's hand. It's a bit cold, the Doctor covering her hand with his warmer one.

It's because she wasn't human. Not nearly. And her Doctor knew this. Knew that he wasn't so alone out there in that big, wide universe. Only a younger Doctor would make the mistake of calling her human.

"Too bad. Guess he'll live to plot another day." Yeah, no love lost between River Song and the Master. She was still surprised he hadn't revealed her hybrid status. Clearly, she didn't like the Master. Didn't trust him. Would never trust him.

"I'll be good as new too. Just you wait. I suppose the TARDIS has seen better days."

The Doctor may be happily oblivious on some things -- or just regular oblivious, the less interesting kind of oblivious -- but the odd little tension between River and the Master is so obvious they might as well put up a blinking sign. Considering River's from his future, he has to wonder just how much she knows. Probably more than she ought to. It's a running theme with River.

River Song, the Woman Who Knows. Oddly fitting title.

Unfortunately, he doesn't think he can explain to a human like River, no matter how much time-travel she has under her belt, what sort of relationship he has with the Master. It's simply one of those Things. Live a few centuries and relationships tended to get...complicated. The Doctor was happier to switch topics to River's own recovery and the TARDIS, his face breaking out into one of those sunny smiles of his.

"I'll get her up and running again," the Doctor promises. He gives another one of those grandfatherly pats on her hand, not the sort of intimate one River may have been expecting. "I don't expect I'll have to wait long for you, River. Tough woman like you? Did I mention tough and scary? Where did you learn to shoot like that?"

The question pops out before he can stop himself. Oops! So much for not prying. The Doctor can't help but feel intensely curious at every little bit of information River dangles in front of him.

Holes and Patches [OPEN FREE FOR ALL]

River Song | Open

Re: River Song | Open

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Re: River Song | Open

Time wimey to when she just arrived

Re: Time wimey to when she just arrived

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Sometime after Rory!

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Cool if we wrap up the thread?