Unrepentant | DOCTOR WHO [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

twenty three | forest of the dead

With a mere turn of her head, River told her, "Listen, all you need to know is this, I trust that man to the end of the universe. And actually, we've been."

While the Doctor made his way over towards another part of the room, Anita said to her, "He doesn't act like he trusts you."

With a nod of her head, River replied, "Yeah. There's a tiny problem. He hasn't met me yet." Then– after walking past Annabelle and watching how her veins continued to be on display as her shaking only continued to worsen with each passing second that Donna was gone– River came to a halt just beside the Doctor and asked him, "What's wrong with it?"

The Doctor told her, "There's a signal coming from somewhere. Interfering with it."

In turn, River said to him, "Well, use the red settings."

With a mere turn of his head, the Doctor said to her, "It doesn't have a red setting."

With a nod of her head, River said to him, "Well, use the dampers."

The Doctor replied, "It doesn't have dampers."

As she pulled out her screwdriver, River told him, "It will do one day."

After taking the screwdriver from her, the Doctor stood back up and asked River, "So, sometime in the future, I just give you my screwdriver?"

With a nod of her head, River said to him, "Yeah."

Then the Doctor asked her, "Why would I do that?"

With a shake of her head, River said to him, "I didn't pluck it from your cold, dead hands if that's what you're worried about."

With a mere raise of his eyebrows, the Doctor asked her, "And I know that because...?"

With a sigh, River said to him, "Listen to me, you've lost your friend, you're angry, I understand. But you need to be less emotional, Doctor, right now..."

In turn, the Doctor said to her, "Less... I'm not emotional."

River told him, "There are six people in this room still alive. Focus on that. And while you focus on that, perhaps focus on the fact that Annabelle is barely holding on to whatever small bit of control that she has left in an attempt to keep herself from killing every single person in this room, solely because of the fact that Donna Noble is lost, and she doesn't know where it is that she went off to."

With his eyebrows furrowed, the Doctor asked her, "Well, why would Annabelle care about that when she's never even cared about a human before?"

In response to his words, River repeatedly blinked to herself before she said, "Dear God, you're hard work young."

Then the Doctor asked her, "Young? Who are you?"

It was then that Mr. Lux yelled, "Oh, for heaven's sake! Look at the pair of you! We're all going to die right here, and you're just squabbling like an old married couple."

After the Doctor and River had quickly looked back at one another, River said to him, "Doctor, one day, I'm going to be someone that you trust. Completely. But I can't wait for you to find that out. So I'm going to prove it to you. And I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry."

Then she took a step towards the Doctor and whispered something into his ear– something that Annabelle would have caught, if it weren't for just how out of it she was at that exact moment– before she took a step back from the Doctor.

After the Doctor simply stared at her with furrowed eyebrows for at least a couple of seconds, River asked him, "Are we good?" When he only continued to stare at her, River asked him, "Doctor, are we good?"