Holes and Patches [OPEN FREE FOR ALL]

[leapoffayth.livejournal.com]

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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[makeherblue]

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.

[hullo-sweetie.livejournal.com]

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?"

[makeherblue]

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.

[hullo-sweetie.livejournal.com]

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."

[makeherblue]

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.

[hullo-sweetie.livejournal.com]

Face it, there's no love lost between River Song and the Master. Whatever stories he'd told her about the Master in their future together must have really sunk in. She seems to think that it's her job to protect the Doctor and keep him safe - at any cost. The Master, no doubt, proved to be a threat to that self-appointed job.

"You'll need help. I'll see if I can gather some parts for her." She'd gotten ahold of that gun of hers, after all, there wasn't much that she couldn't find, barter, and trade for. "When I'm discharged, of course." And out of Rory's swiftly-greying-hair.

"Oh, it was all a bit of a blur, to tell the truth. I was very young." Trained to be the weapon that would kill the Doctor, brainwashed by that one-eyed bitch and the Silence. But that was a ways off for this Doctor. "I suppose all that training stuck with me."

She sits up slowly, those unruly curls flowing along her shoulders "And you brought me a book." She's just now noticed the book that he'd originally put down.

"How sweet."

[makeherblue]

Stuck with her? He'd say it did a little more than stuck with her and he has to wonder just how young, exactly, River Song started her training. A war like this, recruiting children? How could he not know abut it? Biting his lip slightly, the Doctor doesn't immediately say anything and instead flicks his gaze down to follow River's movements.

Six hundred Ohm. And that begs the question of what else her training makes her capable of. Or just what she's done in the past. Her past, relative. His future.

Makes one's head spin.

The Doctor nods. "Have you read it yet?"

It's a wonderful little book. He's lost count of the times he's read it. There's just something about human writing that he finds so...so creative and raw, all that hope and passion translated into words and sentences. The Doctor's eyes go up from the book to River's hair (impressive as always) and then back up to her face. He places her at middle-aged for a human, but it's difficult to tell. The thing is humans are amazing...but they shouldn't be able to do what he saw River Song do with his own two eyes. The Doctor's hand is slightly tense against hers.

[hullo-sweetie.livejournal.com]

"Yes, actually. But it's the thought that counts and I don't have a copy of it here." River smiles and pats his hand affectionately, trying to draw his scrutinizing gaze away from her face. She knew he was trying desperately to fit the pieces of the puzzle that was River Song into one coherent picture.

"I'm not quite fully human, if that's what you're thinking of asking. I did come from fully human parents though. I'm just that little extra 10% different." No sense in lying. She just didn't mention she was the human equivalent of a Time Lord.

[makeherblue]

Is it something he said? River's been content to drop hints here and there before, but between learning she grew up with war and now this/i>? Rather big hints there. Felt bigger than a hint.

The only problem is looking at it in every angle, spinning and turning it in his head, the Doctor still can't quite put it together.

"Interesting 10% or boring 10&?" The Doctor asks. He can't help himself. She gives him what Amy Pond would insist are these "signals". He finds himself leaning forward toward River. "Anything I ought to know about? Allergies?"

Allergies can say a lot about a species. Him? Not a fan of aspirin. Or, apparently, Stacy's Engineering slime.

[hullo-sweetie.livejournal.com]

Of course he couldn't figure it all out just yet. Certain events in time and space have to happen first. It's just the natural way of things, unless ofcourse she were to come out and just say it. Which, she couldn't, and simply wouldn't do. It would look even more suspicious if she hid her alien heritage, that's why she'd mentioned not being fully human.

"Oh, very interesting 10%." She chuckles and offers up her usual answer. Leaning forward, she whispers in his ear, "Spoilers, sweetie. Besides, you like the mystery of it all. I assure you, I don't have tentacle bits anywhere on me."

Cool if we wrap up the thread?

[makeherblue]

He leans in close as she does, feeling her lips tickling against his ear. "I should hope not! Not that there's anything wrong with tentacles, known a few perfectly nice people with tentacles."

The Doctor pulls back with a private smile reserved for River Song. Of course it was an interesting 10% with River! What else can it be? Anything less and he might even be disappointed. Now what the specifics are of that 10% is beyond him, but it does narrow things down and the fact she slipped that much tells him she wants him to nose around. It's a hobby for him, a little nosing and sniffing around.

There's no time pieces here, no clocks -- Stacy time is all wibbly and that means it's general guesswork about when is where, even to a Time Lord. The Doctor reaches out to give River one final pat on the hand as he gets to his feet, touching the book he left her and holding it out to River with a smile.