trans_9 | Conversations inside the TARDIS [Closed] -Timeywimey to before shore leave-

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Conversations inside the TARDIS [Closed] -Timeywimey to before shore leave-

The Doctor had been following her.

It was something she had noticed right away, but like many things, had decided to ignore for the past few days. Whenever she was in the console room, she'd always turn and find him there. Trying to make himself seem busy. Whenever she went to the library to read the book he had left her, she'd see him making excuses to venture to and forth from the library. She counted five trips yesterday! The only place she seemed to be safe from him was her bedroom.

She knew exactly why he was hovering. After all, she'd been kidnapped by the Master and she wasn't sure just how much he knew of what went down. The Doctor, in his own way, could be such a worry-wort. River was hardly made of such delicate stuff. But to withstand the mental invasion of a Time Lord, she guessed the Doctor had reason to worry.

River had moved on fairly quickly. She'd gotten to humiliate the Master, after all and it was hardly the first time she'd been kidnapped. She really didn't want to have to have this conversation with him, but he was starting to get on her nerves.

Especially when she rounds the corner from the kitchen and bumps right into him.

"Doctor, is there a particular reason as to why you seem to pop up everywhere I go?"

She arches a brow at him, dropping one hand to her hip.

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Two of the most complicated people in his lives and they had to go and make things even more...messy. And he still doesn't know just where River got those handcuffs!

It also occurs to the Doctor that maybe his sneaking skills or Being Coincidentally Where I Need To Be skills are a bit rusty, now that he thinks about it. That or River has eyes in the back of her head which seems highly unlikely when you think about because look at her: all that hair, big and putting his old hair to shame because it never ever quite got like that. As magnificent as her hair is, it's not exactly conducive for spying. The Doctor fumbles as he bounces off River and catches himself on the counter, like a cat who really, truly, positively meant to fall off the chair, right down to the ruffled look he gives her.

"Coincidence?" The Doctor fibs. "Series of coincidences," he changes his mind. He gathers himself and fusses with his clothing, taking the time to tweak his bowtie and smooth out the tweed jacket.

He pulls out a half-rusted Thingamabob from his pocket. "I was just repairing the sink," he's utterly shameless in the lie. See? He even has an alibi. "Less chance of it giving third degree burns now."

As for the bog in the Wardrobe? He's still working on that, when he isn't checking to see how Doctor Song is.

"Oh please, you know I can see right through you." River rolls her eyes at him and turns to block the doorway to the kitchen, so neither of them can scamper off into solitude. This had to come to an end and it had to come to an end right quick. She couldn't have him snooping around or trailing her. What if she went to talk to Rory and he caught wind of the fact that she was Rory's daughter? He had a brilliant mind, yes, but he tended to just stumble upon things more often then he figured them out.

"Rule number one, the Doctor lies. Remember?" She crosses her arms over her chest and gazes at him with a rather unimpressed look as he fumbles about near the sink. "You've been following me, haven't you? Honestly, I'm fine. You'd have a better chance of the Master having lasting psychological damage."

Maybe he shouldn't have told her that rule. It occurs to the Doctor that obviously Future Him's told her a few rules too many. That or she's doing that thing and being far too clever again, which is so very her that there's really no getting around it.

"You don't know him like I do," the Doctor sets down the Thingamabob on the counter. He leans against it with his hand on his hip, frowning at River. "Are you really fine-fine or have you just not noticed anything odd up here?"

He taps the side of his own head. He hasn't made it a point himself to stay linked to the Master. The last time he did, he'd finally heard those drums, felt that touch of madness and rage creeping in on him. Even a few seconds of contact had been more than he was willing to take. He couldn't imagine a human (or whatever River was -- she wasn't telling him) taking the same thing and not having some odds and ends floating around. River looks fine. She looks...she looks, well, River.

"No, I can't say that I know him like you do, but he's only one in a particularly long list of egotistical men I've had to learn how to deal with on the fly." It hadn't been too hard to figure out how to turn the tables on the Master. After all, River Song practically wrote the book on how to seduce a Time Lord. As if she would ever turn on the Doctor like that.

Time can be rewritten. Don't you dare

Yes, she'd learned that lesson quite well. As much as she hated being labeled as the woman who killed the Doctor, she knew it was for a good cause. So, she let herself be labeled his killer and spent her days in the Storm Cage.

"I'm fine. This isn't the first time my mind's been messed with like that. It's not even the first time I've been kidnapped and held against my will." The Silence, after all, had erased a good portion of her first childhood. It was still blurry to her, even after she had managed to fill in the blanks. "Unfortunately, the Master did get away with a few spoilers."

She frowns at him, clearly a bit mussed that the Master had managed to pry some fairly important bits of the Doctor's future from her.

"He was all rage and cold hard fury. Cracked right through whatever shields I managed to put up." So, she knew how shield herself from such attacks. It was something she'd had to learn in order to prevent these things in the future. To the Doctor, she must seem even more mysterious.

"But regardless, I'm fine. No lasting damage. I gave in so he wouldn't thrash my mind too badly once I knew I couldn't hold out."

Edited 2011-11-04 11:44 (UTC)

"Unfortunately, I don't think a human could hold him back if he put everything into it," the Doctor says with a frown. He studies River. "Then you don't know what he could've left behind. Did you want me to have a look?"

He peers at her with a critical eye. Some of what she tells him now is new - the kidnapping thing, for example. Unfortunately anyone who's anyone that's traveled with him has been kidnapped at least once, so it's not entirely earth-shattering or revealing too much about her. She must've had some psychic shielding to be able to put up a defense at all, although he doesn't know if that's trained or genetic or whatever it is humans are doing these days. Or her days. Bit on shaky ground thanks to time travel. For all he knows, she picked up the ability to protect herself psychically while she was prisoner.

The Doctor laces his fingers together in front of him. She seems to be remarkably recovered, all things considered, and it's proof that she does have more psychic strength then he assumed before all of this. Granted, there's loads of things he's assumed and told himself he wouldn't assume (but doesn't anyway) about Doctor River Song here.

As for the Master, well. Handling him is complicated. It always has been. And now there there's a few more Doctors running around, he could safely say that even he was unsure how to handle this.

"And how do I know you won't take a peek when you're feeling about my mind?" It's a solid question. Could the Doctor resist the temptation offered to him? Free access to any of River's memories, free access to his future. He probably could, but River didn't trust herself not to respond to his invasion of her mind in ways that might tip him off as to just what she is. "I'm afraid just the slightest peek into my mind might reveal some fairly important spoilers. Some things that I don't think you're quite ready for just yet."

"I'm not some fragile companion, Doctor. You can see for yourself that my mind is intact. I'm not crazy, nor am I comatose." She taps her head and nods. "I haven't been acting out of the ordinary."

She smiles at him suddenly, a secret and sly smile "It's sweet that you're so worried. Really it is, but you can stop following me around."

Ah, so she's thought of the same thing he has. It isn't that the temptation to have a tiny, little mouse-small peek isn't there. He'd be telling a rather poor lie to say he wasn't even a little bit tempted, although he likes to think he's old enough to be able to handle a spoiler or two. After all, his definition of "earth shattering" is probably quite different from the average one.

He's not sure how much he believes River's reassurances. The Doctor frowns. "As it happens, I might just have more sinks and other things to fix." In other words, he might be more careful about his sneaking if River's going to use those eyes in her hair for good use. "Why did he kidnap you?"

It's a rather forward question from him. He returns River's smile, his own tight and curious and wondering why the Master would attempt something like this when before he'd been putting on such a show of being on his best behavior. If this was his end goal, the Doctor can't see what he could have gotten out of it, aside from some of River's "spoilers". It's not as bombastic as the Master usually is. Not very showy. Still, thankfully River seems to be holding up surprisingly well.

River does what she seems to do best when the Doctor asks such pertinent questions. She pretends to not know anything at all, "How should I know? We don't get along swimmingly to begin with. Or maybe the Master just doesn't understand that some secrets are best left undiscovered. Either way, I don't think he'll be pulling that again anytime soon." She chuckles, recalling the look on the Master's face when she'd slapped those handcuffs on him. That was for messing with her mind. "By the way, I'll be wanting those handcuffs back, sweetie. I know you uncuffed him."

"Other then the brutal invasion of my mind, the whole experience wasn't all that bad." It must seem baffling, how River Song, someone who seemed mostly human, could brush off something like that. "Doctor, I jump out of spaceships. How can you think one little incident like that would have any lasting effect on me?"

The Doctor isn't sure about that. This is the Master they're talking about. He's anything but thorough. Usually. Obviously not here. By all accounts, River shouldn't be here standing and talking and giving him that look of hers. Come to think of it, he's not even sure where River keeps getting those handcuffs.

Really, he ought to find out some day. Another one of those special skills of hers, he supposes.

"River, there's a difference between jumping out an airlock and having someone forcing their way in here," the Doctor gestures at the side of his head, pretending that her handcuffs most certainly are not in his right pocket. He thinks he's had this conversation before: swap River for his Scot and the Master for...himself, and it's almost the same thing. "You don't know the Master like I do. Despite whatever Future Me told you and however much he trusted you, I really doubt he - I - told you everything. The Master's dangerous."

Understatement of the millennia. Dangerously clever, funny, excellent taste in clothes (usually).

"I know that Doctor." River sucks in a deep breath and turns to fully face him, venturing a few steps closer. "But I told you, I'm not fully human. My mind isn't as fragile and this is nowhere near the first time it's been messed with." Really, the Silence had done a worse job of jumbling up her childhood memories. The Master had just fumbled around through her head, searching for secrets.

"If you really want to check for any hidden bombs in my head, I'll let you." Giving in, just a little, she reaches for his hand and brings it to her forehead. Whether or not he seizes upon that chance is entirely up to him.

"Just be careful where you probe. Because - well spoilers"

Edited 2011-11-08 19:55 (UTC)

His fingers flinch against River's forehead when he first brushes up against her skin. She has no way of knowing what happened with Dark Soul, how he'd forced his way into Jamie's head because he was just a lowly human and that he'd told himself nothing like that would ever happen again. Even if River's basically inviting him in, unlike his Scot, there's still that hesitation in the Doctor's eyes as they flick from River's face to his fingers touching her forehead, spider-long and looking as if they shouldn't be there. It's a surprising amount of trust.

This is the same woman who pulled her diary away from him, knowing even another face ago he would have been tempted to take a tiny, little, inconsequential-but-not-really peek.

He'd ask if she's sure, but she's already shown she is.

The Doctor closes his eyes, his face going still as he concentrates. So many twists and tangles, going right there at the door! He gets impressions of fear; an eyepatch; the lap of water against a great big lake, so still it's like a mirror, before he can shut it down and focus on what he came in here for: not spoilers. Right. Have to remember that. He skirts around the edges of her mind like a cat nervously mincing its toes around a pond, checking for any signs of mental damage from the Master. The man has a certain...flare about his touch that the Doctor should recognize and he doesn't think the other Time Lord had gone into this with one of his usual long term plans - it's possible he didn't try very hard to cover up his presence. What he finds confirms what Rivers says. No lasting damage.

Or at least nothing he can see.

The Doctor pulls out of her head. "You're right," he says, with a sigh of relief. The last thing he'd want was for a woman like River to have been influenced by the Master. Lucky for them he seemed to be more concerned with rooting around in her head than leaving something to remember him by. "Everything looks like it's accounted for."

Without realizing it, his hand drifts from her temple to cup River's cheek.

Strangely enough, River had lowered her defenses somewhat in order to allow the Doctor inside, so if he was finding it hard to maneuver around the labyrinth of her mind, it was because she had to keep her guard up somewhat. It was pure temptation, not to reveal herself to him right then and there. It seemed so intimate and as she'd said, this was hardly the first time her mind had been messed with. There were great gaping wholes in places and padlocked doors in others.

In comparison to the Master, he was so very gentle and discreet. She didn't feel the least bit intimidated....

And then all too soon he left her mind and she felt his hand against her cheek. Her eyes slowly open, but it's pure instinct that has her nuzzling into his hand. She's looking at him with those eyes again. So full of love and emotion - just waiting for him to return that look. Forever waiting on him to figure everything out.

"Told you so."

Unfortunately they're not at the point where he would give her that exact look she's waiting for - given how their timelines have deviated already thanks to the Ohm, it's still up in the air if that will happen the same way on Stacy

"I know you did." The Doctor's eyes are on hers studying her like always, just like the very first day he met the woman. Trying to read her. Knowing that in all likelihood he could get what he wants if he really tried but maybe enjoying taking the difficult path anyway.

After a long moment, the Doctor seems to become aware of his hand on River's cheek. Odd. He's not quite sure what to do with it! At first he thinks he could drop it and go about his business, just as before. Second, he thinks maybe he doesn't want to do that because that's expected and the last thing he wants to do is be dull and expected for the good Doctor Song here. Third, well! The Doctor isn't sure what his third option is, only that he's already committed to doing it and the two of them will just have to get used to the idea, seeing as his other hand is already reaching up to brush one of River's unruly curls away from her face. Seems like her hair explodes every time he sees the woman, he thinks. Gets bigger whenever he turns around!

His expression turns for a moment tender. Faraway, as if he's not quite looking at River but at the swirl of time, at the stars and that funny little cafe he loved in Florida that's unhappened like the Pond's marriage and Earth and his expression turns sad and distant. Old.

It's that rare look that not even Amy gets to see often. For some reason he allows himself to be more open around River.

Maybe it's because he knows he can't allow himself to trust her. The good man's blood on her hands. The fact she willingly returns to the Storm Cage.

The Doctor can't resist. "We ought to talk. Someplace talky. Nice. Not boring."

River knows. Oh, how she knows. He's not there yet. Hasn't realized how important and integral River Song will eventually become to him. He has an inkling though, she's sure of that much. For now all she can do is to just be patient and try to be by his side as often as she can. Even if her entire presence seems to send his brain for a loop.

When his other hand brushes some of those wild curls away from his face, she gives him a dreamy smile. Watch her eyes light up. It's a very tender moment, especially for this version of the Doctor, who probably only knew her as this complete mystery who blew in and out of his life at irregular intervals.

Yet in his eyes, she always saw a sadness. She wasn't sure why, but even she, like him, had an inkling. Perhaps he'd already had his last adventure with her, at least from her future self's point of view. His firsts were always her lasts.

"Mm? That would be nice. Talking." She can't help chuckling, "If I'd known I had to handcuff the Master to get your attention, I'd have done that a long time ago." Speaking of the Master. She reaches into a pocket and produces the Laser screwdriver she'd taken from him. "Here. I think this would be better suited in your hands. It's not like your sonic, I can't get it to work."

He glances down, suddenly all business as he reaches to take the laser screwdriver from River. His fingers brush against hers for a moment -- perhaps three moments -- too long.

"It's isomorphic." The Doctor inspects the laser screwdriver, noting that the Master is sometimes too brilliant for his own good. So much for the unrepairable screwdriver. "It won't respond to you or me or anyone else but the Master."

So in other words, they can't put it to much use except for parts. The Doctor tucks the laser screwdriver into his breast pocket, almost delicately, and knows that while the right thing to do is dismantle it and squirrel the pieces away before the Master can sniff them out, he knows also in the back of his mind that he'll find ways to stall, hem and haw and procrastinate. Still, the important thing is that River is unhurt and once again she's much stronger than he initially gave her credit for. Of course he doesn't think that look she gives him is warranted. He can't quite believe that his future self would be as open as to let her into every deep dark corner of his hearts, real name or not.

He tilts his head. Back to talking. Doing talking things. "Don't worry, I'll sort it. Now! Talking's very nice. Loads better than shooting things. I'd say the TARDIS is as good a place as any to talk, but..."

Well, look at the poor old girl. Fighting off bogs and who knows what roaming about her insides.

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Conversations inside the TARDIS [Closed] -Timeywimey to before shore leave-

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