Doctor Who Fic: In Our Youth Time: Epilogue: The Library

[jesterladyfic]

Epilogue: The Library



The Doctor was having an argument with himself, a not infrequent occurrence to be sure, but this time the Tardis was getting involved and phantom versions of his other selves and, really, he was just procrastinating. He knew exactly what to do. Melody Pond had just disappeared from his life, winking at him, gone to save his life even though she didn’t know it.

He didn’t really save her at all in the end. He’d saved her from many things, but not that. He’d known it shortly after they’d gone to rescue her the first time and it had hit home to him through all his shifting memories that her death at the Library was now a fixed point in time. All his meddling had done that. It had to happen or all the changes he’d made would create too big of a paradox. In erasing River and saving Melody, he'd damned Melody to River's fate.

So now…now he had to go and face Amy and Rory and tell them what he’d done. They’d known almost everything, but he’d never told them about the first time he’d met River. They could barely remember who River Song was half the time, natural old age mingling with their already human brains to create a murky understanding of the timeline shifts. They knew their daughter had once had a different life, but that was about it anymore. Now he’d have to go and tell them.

He had considered not, but they’d be waiting for her. They’d given him their daughter, counting on his protection, and they would know when she didn’t come back. Melody was too good about being the dutiful daughter, too full of time herself to ever forget a birthday or Christmas. There really was no option and the Doctor couldn’t just let them live out their remaining years thinking the worst of what could have happened.

So he finally won (or lost) the argument with himself and pulled the right levers. There was a twisting feeling in his gut as there never had been when he’d gone to see his best friends. He didn’t as much, not really wanting to see them so old when once they’d been like children to him, literally in Amy’s case. They were healthy, remarkably well-preserved as their friends said, but they no longer looked like the people he loved. He was afraid because one day in his personal timeline they’d die. Melody had tried to cure him of ‘such idiocy’ as she’d put it, but even she couldn’t quite fix a millennia of programming. Child of the Tardis though she may have been, she would never know time like he would.

So the Doctor landed in his friends’ backyard and rapped quite politely on the door.

There was a grumble from the other side and then Amy opened it, not a trace of red in her hair, her wrinkles creating wrinkles.

It hurt to look at her.

“Honestly, Doctor, what’s the matter?”

“He knocked,” Rory said from behind her. “What’s happened?”

“You never knock,” Amy agreed. “Where’s Melody?”

“You know that whole thing where we changed her personal timeline and she became a different person yet still managed to do everything her previous self had done?” They nodded their heads, they were so old, he was fascinated by how large Rory’s nose had gotten. Like a parrot’s beak. He tore his eyes from it. “There may have been one thing she had to do that I neglected to tell you about and it’s rather important and I didn’t think it through, sorry.”

They looked at each other and the Doctor again wondered when they’d developed telepathy and opened the door wider and gestured him through. Amy practically hobbled into the kitchen and put on a cuppa while Rory got out a packet of Jammy Dodgers which the Doctor felt vaguely guilty about accepting.

“It’s going to be bad, so sit down and get it over with,” Amy said.

“I won’t punch you, I don’t think,” Rory assured him.

“I might.”

“Amy might.”

“I’ll just stand over here,” the Doctor said.

“Doctor, tell us, you big numpty,” Amy said.

She hadn’t really turned into one of those sweet, little old ladies the Doctor had read so much about. She was more…Amy-ish.

“Melody’s…gone. Not dead, not really,” he said, holding out his hands in defense. “It was a bit of a file transfer, you might say. See, there was a Library with thousands of people inside her head, Charlotte’s head, not Melody’s, only Melody used her own head to help, I wanted to, believe me, but she knocked me out, and when I woke up your respectable daughter had me handcuffed to a post and was doing her saving the planet bit and it was too much for anybody’s brain and then I took her consciousness which was on her screwdriver and uploaded it into the Library so she’s sort of living there…forever now…in a computer…with some friends…and a Doctor Moon…and, well, it all happened before, beforeImetyouatallandbeforeshewasbornandIknewitwasgoingtohappen.”

“I think I might change my mind about the punching,” Rory said calmly. “Tell me again, what you did to my daughter?”

“Slowly,” Amy punctuated.

“My last self, my Tenth body met River Song in the Library and she saved my life, dying in the process. In that first timeline I’d never met her before, but she’d already known me. My future self had given me what I needed to save her, so I did. Then I kept meeting her, I met you, and we all met, and there was a lot out of order bits and things but then I knew she was your daughter, knew she was Melody, and we went to save her.”

“Yes, we were there,” Amy said.

“But the thing is…we changed time. We changed it a lot. Like ‘I’d be slap banged into another regeneration if the Timelords were still around’ a lot. River Song did too much. Melody could take her place and do it just as well or even better but there was one event…the initial point of contact. It became a fixed point in time. I knew she would still have to die for me at the Library. Or…”

“Or what?” they both asked, looking very stern indeed.

“Or the universe would implode. Maybe not exactly, but I’m serious, it was very big timey-wimey stuff going on with double timelines and multiple memory sets and fixed points and literally the paradox would be too grand for any of us to handle. No resolving itself, nothing. But it’s…no less sad.”

“Did she know what she was doing?” Amy asked steadily, hand clasped tightly in Rory’s.

“At the end she did. That’s why she knocked me out. See, the me she was with wasn’t me now, it was me then, me remembering there was a River, but no idea what would happen. She…she said she knew why, that she was making the choice for herself.”

“And she’s in a computer somewhere?” Rory asked.

“I-I came to take you to her to say goodbye.”

“Then what are we blathering about?” Amy asked and punched the Doctor’s shoulder on her way out to the Tardis.

It wasn’t terribly vicious or strong, especially considering her age, but the Doctor flinched.

Rory simply walked past, looking strong and steady and sad like a statue and the Doctor was reminded of another alternate time where things had gone wrong and this man had been smack dab in the middle.

They made the Tardis trip in silence which was rather apt considering how this had all started.

From what the Doctor could tell the Silence were gone or scattered or convinced they'd won. Humanity had overthrown their unknown invaders in the future and the spearpoints of hatred against the Doctor within the organization, like Madame Kovarian, had gone to their deaths without ever discovering their mistake.

When they got to the Library it was silent and still like it had been when the Doctor had first seen it. He didn’t land. There was a planet wide quarantine, harshly imposed, the Vashta Nerada roaming to their heart’s content, but the Doctor materialized within the security grid (largely designed by him) and opened up a channel to the computer core.

“Hello, hello, Charlotte, it’s the Doctor, hello!”

The figure of a girl appeared on the scanner, an older man standing beside her, looking exactly as he remembered them.

“Hello, Doctor, you don’t look like the Doctor.”

“I’m a bit older,” he said, waving awkwardly. “But I’ve come for a visit. Is my old friend Melody around? I wanted to ask if we could pop in, me and her parents, wouldn’t be an intrusion or anything?”

Charlotte quirked her head to one side.

“I have a lot of room now. Feel free.”

“I’ll activate the ability to teleport into the Tardis and you can save us into your systems. I’ll set up a link so the Tardis can download us when we’re done.”

“Security offline now, Doctor,” Doctor Moon said.

The Doctor pressed a few buttons and he and the Ponds were transported into the world of the Library.

Charlotte and Doctor Moon were waiting for them. The Doctor let Amy and Rory gape awhile, though really they weren’t, and spoke to them.

“Thank you for letting us come,” he said, extending his hands. “Melody around?”

“Melody is with Anita, both Daves, and Miss Evangelista,” Charlotte said. “I shall summon her.”

Another quirk of her head and suddenly Melody was standing beside them, healthy and practically glowing, dressed all in white, hair wild and free and young looking, and the Doctor jumped about a mile in the air.

“Uh, sorry,” he said, almost running to stand behind Rory and Amy. “Don’t want to see me, I’ll just be…over here.”

“Mum, Dad?” Melody asked, grinning.

She ran forward and threw her arms around them, squeezing tightly. The Doctor felt his hearts thump and he wondered if he was going to start leaking or something human-y like that.

“Oh, sweetie, are you okay?” Amy asked, running her hand through Melody’s hair.

“I’m fine. Absolutely fine. Oh, it’s so good to see you.”

“You’re sure you’re okay?” Rory asked.

“Dad, stop it. I’m fine. I’ve got friends, youth, immortality, every book ever written, I’m grand.”

“Mellie, you-you can’t ever come back out again?” he asked.

“No, Dad,” she said gently. “I’ve no body to come back to. But that’s okay. Don’t blame the Doctor, this was my choice.”

“He knew you were coming here,” Amy said, shooting the Doctor a nasty glare.

“He also knew I was going to choose to come here,” Melody said firmly. “I’ve been many people. Here I finally understand who I am. I have no regrets. I’m glad he did what he did even if he couldn’t change the ending. I’d far rather have the end than the original beginning.”

“Fine,” Amy said. “But we’ll miss you. We won’t see you anymore.”

“We were gonna kick it soon anyway,” Rory mumbled.

“Not the point,” Amy said.

“A point,” Rory replied.

“I love you both so much,” Melody broke in. “I’m so glad you came.”

“We had to,” Amy said.

“Thanks for bringing them, by the way,” Melody said, finally looking over at the Doctor. “Now, Uncle Dear, do I get a hug or are you just going to stand there like a condemned man?”

“You are impossible,” he muttered, almost leaping to hug her.

“You made me this way,” she answered, hugging him closely.

“I could never take credit for such a creation,” he said, bopping her on the nose, feeling a million times better than when he came. “You, Pond Jr., are your own creation.”

“You tinkered,” she whispered.

“I do do that,” he answered, grinning. “Now, now, that’s more like it.” He clapped his hands. “I should come here when I die, great big spaces.”

“You’d be bored to a second death,” Melody said. “But do come and visit. I’ll never look old now.”

Amy nudged the Doctor before he could answer.

“You big idiot,” she said, hugging him. “I’m very fit for a woman my age. I’m getting into the world of records probably.”

“And me,” Rory said. “We’ve had some unfair advantages.”

“You’re welcome,” the Doctor said.

“We forgive you on one condition,” Rory said, somehow communicating with Amy again. Really, how did they do that? “You bring us here when we die.”

After a muttered arrangement with Charlotte and some thoughts on how exactly he’d hook them up with the necessary technology and Melody’s delighted smile, he agreed.

“I knew I’d be stuck with you all my life,” Melody said. “How long have we got now?”

“Another five minutes, give or take,” the Doctor said, automatically checking his watch, but he wasn’t wearing one, or, wait, that was the wrong wrist. “Chat fast.”

“Doctor, this can be the only time we do this,” Doctor Moon said, while the Ponds all circulated, fellowshipping or something like that. “Two more is acceptable, but we cannot be the place where you save all your dead friends. Charlotte will not be able to handle more. We don’t want a repeat of last time.”

“No, no, of course not,” the Doctor said. “Scout’s Honor or someone else’s, I won’t do it. I am grateful to you, Charlotte, for all you’ve done.”

“It’s not lonely here,” she said, grasping his hand. “But we like visitors.”

“I’ll come again…sometime…maybe.”

“You will or I’ll haunt your Timelord behind,” Amy said, coming up from behind him and he jumped again.

Pond woman and their sneakiness.

“Right, uh,” he said, clearing his throat. “Time to go. All ashore who’s going ashore, or offshore, yes, offshore.”

Melody hugged her parents one last time.

“Goodbye, Melody Pond, my little rock star,” said Amy.

“I’ll see you soon,” Melody whispered back.

“Goodbye, Melody Pond, my little girl,” said Rory.

“My name is Melody Williams,” Melody said, kissing his cheek.

Rory chuckled, releasing her, and then she hugged the Doctor.

“I am sorry,” he said.

“And I do forgive you,” she answered, looking him full in the eyes. "Always and completely."

“Well, good.”

“Yes, very good. Thank you.”

“For?”

“Changing my life.”

The Doctor smiled and stepped back and he and the Ponds were downloaded back into their bodies on the Tardis.

Amy sat down immediately.

“That takes it out of me,” she said. “Take us home, Doctor, before we do the memorial service right here.”

The Doctor did, and he stayed with them a day or so before he got too bored, but Amy and Rory were branded on his hearts and he always went the extra mile for them and always would.

They were the reason he met Melody Pond, after all.