Still Alive / / River

[tenthdoctor]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #000000; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #72645d solid; border-bottom: 10px #72645d solid;] When you call for me You know that I'm only one step behind It was always a rather bad sign when dead things decided to disappear. The Doctor had seen a lot of things in his time, and while zombies were admittedly not on the list, that didn't mean he couldn't figure out that twenty missing corpses was a bit odd. Furthermore, it didn't take a genius to realize that the various bits of equipment left at the scene of the crime were very obviously Cybertech. Alright, so maybe that part did take a genius. Or at least someone familiar with Cybermen. Either way, the Doctor had found himself dealing with Cyberbits not long after taking a look at the first of the recently emptied graves. Now, what the Cybermen wanted with dead people he couldn't begin to imagine. Assimilation required living human flesh - unless they'd upgraded again, in which case he had a whole new problem on his hands that was going to be all sorts of not fun times. Brushing some loamy soil off his pant leg, the Doctor frowned in annoyance. It wasn't really the Cybermat he'd just dealt with that bothered him, so much as the fact he rather liked this suit and chasing that blasted silver rat through the cemetery had gotten the cuffs into a rather hopeless state of being. Nothing a good wash wouldn't fix, but that was beside the point. Not to mention the whole fact that there was a Cybermat in a cemetery to chase - what was it doing here, of all places? And that Cyberarm in the first of the emptied graves - speaking of irritations. With only a slight sound to alert him of a fired laser, the Doctor dove behind a monument to avoid being struck by another Cyberarm. He was near the fifteenth or so grave, and as he peered around to look for the errant arm, he took notice of the monument he was currently hidden behind. Guardian angel. Now why was that completely and utterly not reassuring? Ignoring the realization he was alone in a mysteriously Cyber-infested graveyard with more than one angel monument involved, the Doctor dashed around his particular stone and grabbed up the Cyberarm, deactivating it with his sonic screwdriver as something made a considerable amount of noise in the copse of trees closest to the last of the open graves, as though someone had fallen over suddenly. Unthinkingly dropping the Cyberarm into one of the cemetery pits, the Doctor ran toward the trees, leaping easily over the few headstones that got into his way rather than dodging about them like a normal person. It didn't take long to reach the trees, but by the time he got there, he couldn't see anyone. Moving closer to the open area in the center of them, the Doctor looked around in confusion, certain he would have seen someone leave them - unless they went out straight ahead. he was just heading in that direction when something rustled right behind him. Tag: River Song Words: 738 Lyrics: Stairway to Heaven Within Temptation Notes: Let me know if you need anything changed ^.^

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0

[river]

Well, this wasn't exactly how she'd planned on spending her evening. Then again, she'd always had a bit of fun with cliches. And a graveyard? That was just a bit too much fun to actually pass up.

She'd been tracking this one for awhile now, wasn't just like she'd decided to go on a stroll. It was hard to give up, going on missions - when one did one single thing for so long, it was difficult to suddenly do something else. She remembered the day they'd released her, after she'd earned her pardon. The world had felt too big.

'Missions' helped to keep her sane.

"Oh, you are dead. You are so very dead. Granted, you're already dead." Never really living in the first place, was it? Well, it might have already been dead. Possible zombie cybermen, and that was going to be a problem. She'd sent her note, of course. Psychic paper, but that never tended to go to the correct time period. For all she knew, it had gone to a version of him who'd discarded the note all together.

Probably wasn't the first time it had happened.

And so she was on her own. Also not the first time it had happened. Always got a bit interesting, and she tended to talk to whatever she was killing.

"Say goodnight, Gracie. Oh, do hope that wasn't your name. Now that would just be terrible. I'm not rude." Once again, she was talking to something that was already dead. The cyberman - dead, zombie cyberman - hit the ground.

River grinned.

"Is that the last of you? I'm getting rather bored."

A sound from behind her forced her to turn. If she'd been a different type of woman, she might have startled - graveyard, surrounded by living dead machines - but she wasn't a different kind of woman. In fact, she was the very kind of woman who went towards that noise, gun drawn.

What she found wasn't a cyberman.

Just a man. A man with his back towards her.

Yes, most definitely him. One hundred percent and totally him. A very early version of him. That fact settled like a dead weight in the pit of her stomach. If she thought about it, if she let herself think about it, she'd want to run from this.

But he'd told her not to run when she was scared. Well, not him, but a version of him. A much later version of him - her him.

She found herself praying she'd see recognition in his eyes. Oh, God, she couldn't handle that today. Not ever. She didn't know how she'd react to that.

But her voice was strong. It always had to be. There wasn't a day when it couldn't be, because if it did - she turned into that girl in the spacesuit, crying out and asking for help. She turned back into the girl who was running away instead of running with the most amazing man she'd ever known.

"Hello, sweetie."

[tenthdoctor]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #000000; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #72645d solid; border-bottom: 10px #72645d solid;] When you call for me You know that I'm only one step behind When running about in a potentially zombie-cybermen infested graveyard, the last thing one wanted to hear was something right behind them. That said, the Doctor had already half turned when River spoke, ready to face whatever was behind him - or so he had thought, at least. Hello, sweetie. That was all it took to freeze the Doctor mid-turn. He knew that voice - the familiarity was dim, but not enough so for him to have forgotten it. It was the same greeting as the last time, the same intonation in a voice he knew was absolutely impossible. She had been data saved in the library - there was no way she could be here unless - Ah. Time. That was it, wasn't it? She'd said something about it, though at the moment the Doctor couldn't recall precisely what it was she had said. He did know though, that this woman was important to him - dangerously important - and he didn't even know her yet. Not really. He would, one day, but today she was still a mystery. A great, big, time distorted mystery absolutely drenched in guilt. Because this woman, who would one day be so important to him, would one day be in that Vashta Nerada infested library, and the only way he'd be able to save her would be by putting her inside a computer for the rest of her life. Slowly unlocking his limbs, the Doctor completed the turn and faced the impossible archaeologist squarely. For a moment, he was surprised by her appearance - somehow identical to before and somehow completely different, though he couldn't quite place how. Something in her eyes, the tilt of her hips, the way she looked at him confidently and yet her body looked ready to run. She knew him, he could tell, but there was something else - something he was missing. So much he was missing - like how she came to be so important, and why he kept meeting her in the past - be it her past or his past, it didn't really matter. No matter which way it was, it was still the wrong order. Time was wonderful that way. "Hello River." It was simple, really, to acknowledge that he knew her. The harder part was knowing about the library - knowing that it had not happened yet, not for her - and knowing he couldn't say a word about it. What had she called it - ah yes. Spoilers. Pulling himself away from the memories of the library in order to concentrate on the here and now, the Doctor glanced around in order to make sure there were no immediate threats before returning his attention to River Song, as one piece of this ever increasing puzzle tumbled into place. "You!" He exclaimed suddenly, as it occured to him just how he had stumbled upon this mess in the first place. If River truly was everything he suspected - actually, if she was ever so much more than he suspected, which in fact she was - then it stood to perfect reason that she was the reason for the message on his psychic paper. "You're the one who called me, aren't you?" The Doctor asked, his tone impressed enough to indicate he didn't really need it confirmed. He had already accepted it as the truth of things. "How did you even find this place?" he added, looking around them. A more isolated and forsaken little planet he could not remember visiting, and a small indistinguishable graveyard that just so happened to have a Cyber problem. How was it he and those associated to him had such a knack for finding these impossible things? Tag: River Song Words: 868 Lyrics: Stairway to Heaven Within Temptation Notes: Written during break at work; I'll give her a spellcheck as soon as I'm home love.

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0

[river]

The beating of her hearts settled. She hadn't hit the end quite yet, and that was a relief. He knew who she was: however simply, however crudely, he at least knew one of her names. It was more of a relief than she'd be able to admit to him, to her Doctor. The smugness on his face would be absolutely unbearable.

Still, this was the man who didn't know who she was. Not that she was a time lord, not that she had killed him, had saved him, was the daughter of his best friends and his TARDIS. No, he knew known of that. She was back to spoilers and lies. Well. She'd learned from the best, hadn't she?

Her eyes flickered to the body of the cyberman, double checking that it wasn't moving. Bending next to it, ready to jump back, she gave it a gentle shove - no movement. She startled, however, when he called out what sounded to her like an accusation.

"Me?" She mimicked, raising a brow. "Very descriptive, sweetie. Try again."

"Well, yes." She admitted with a flirtatious grin. Really, it was too easy to flirt with him when he was so young. "Who else would drag you out to a graveyard for a little game of hide and seek? Not counting Captain Jack. Psychic messages, though. Tend to go awry. You're not quite the man I was expecting." She winked. "But you'll do." Taking her chances, River Song tapped the end of his nose.

"Quite easy to find if you know what you're looking for. Not that I'm going around looking for mutant anomalies." The corners of her mouth turned up. "Alright, so I am. Sue me. Can't blame a girl for getting bored, Doctor." The look of wonder he was wearing was brilliant. She'd always had a particular fondness for this version of him. So very young, and so excited about everything. Not quite the childish man she knew. More fascinated. A bit darker. And she had the urge to take it from him, every time she saw him, even though those times were few and far between. Nobody deserved the pain she managed to catch in this man's eyes.

"We'll have to do diaries. Do tell me you have one." She'd seen him a few other times, this version of the man she loved. She'd done some great convincing in getting him a diary. She'd even brought him one, because heaven forbid the man stop off at a dollar store. But if this was the man from before those days - well, it was going to be a bit more interesting trying to get caught up with him.

"I suppose we'll have to wait for diaries, though. Seeing as we're in the middle of a grave yard. Alright then, pretty boy." She teased. "By the state of your trousers, you've been out here for as nearly as long as I have. We really are playing a game of hide and seek, aren't we? Well. How many out there?"

[tenthdoctor]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #000000; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #72645d solid; border-bottom: 10px #72645d solid;] When you call for me You know that I'm only one step behind As River bent to examine the Cyberman she'd apparently taken out before he'd arrived in the clearing, the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver automatically, holding it in a ready position in the off chance there was still activity going on inside the suit. He didn't know who River was yet, but he did know two very important things. The first was that one day, River Song would be someone he trusted more than anything - and anyone - else. The second was that he had already watched her die once, in a way, and he had absolutely no desire to witness such a sight again whether he got the chance to know her or not. Still, he was a bit relieved that he didn't have to do anything - it seemed the Cyberman was effectively managed. Frowning a bit at her response before clicking in to the fact she was teasing him agan - she did that, why she did that when he didn't know her yet, he had no idea, but she did it in the library too - but that was certainly what she was doing. He supposed she had a point - there weren't a lot of people who would go about summoning him like this, and from her attitude on the matter it didn't take much for him to figure out she did it on a rather regular basis - far more regularly than Captain Jack, he was sure. Nor did it take much to realize that as brightly as she said it, River meant it when she said he wasn't the man she expected. Psychic paper was a finicky method of communication, and he didn't doubt for a moment that the man she wanted was the Doctor he would one day become, but had no intentions of being any time soon. Before that thought could bring up any guilt or additional frustration, the Doctor was distracted by a poke that made his nose wrinkle automatically. Despite himself, he couldn't help but grin at her. Oh, she was something else this woman, and he was more than certain he was going to enjoy finding out as much as he could about her in the time he had left to do so. "You were looking for them?" He asked instantly, wondering if she perhaps had a better idea of what precisely was going on here, as the thought of the Cybermen using dead humans to power themselves was not only wrong, but downright alarming. As such, that tiny little part of him that was crazy enough to believe in things like happy endings was hoping very much that River had a less horrible explanation for what was happening here. "Not that there's anything wrong with searching out mutant anomalies of course," he added in an off-had sort of way, seeing that particular hunt as a rather day-to-day type thing that just happened whether one was looking for it or not. "But why here?" He would have added more, but she derailed him - unintentionally, he was sure, but derailed all the same. "Do diaries?" The Doctor repeated, his voice shifting a bit in his confusion. "I thought you said there were spoilers - oh, blimey." For all he knew, that was a spoiler. Oh, he wasn't used to time playing games on him - he was the one who - did she just call him pretty boy? Distracted -again -the Doctor looked down at his trousers and grimaced. partly because he was reminded of their state, and partly because it appeared River might not know quite as much as he had wanted to hope. "Not sure," he admitted, running a hand behind his head and scratching at the back of it. "I found two active Cybermats, but this is the first Cyberman I've seen here so far. Unless you count the pieces. There are a lot of pieces lying about. Including some arms." Ah, yes, the Cyberarms also known as the secondary source of his trouser troubles. "And empty graves," he added darkly, looking back at her in case she knew what he was talking about. "Quite a few of them, actually." Tag: River Song Words: 954 Lyrics: Stairway to Heaven Within Temptation Notes: Sorry its so late! o.o

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0