"Who are you? Why did you come?" Asked River to the old man, her voice quiet.
"The same reason as you." He produced an opened blue envelope that held the number 5 on the back. "Doctor Song. Ruby. Amy. Rory. I'm Canton Everett Delaware the third. I won't be seeing you again. But, you'll be seeing me."
With that, Canton Everett Delaware the third tracked back up the hill to his truck.
"Five," River said suddenly.
"Sorry, what?" Asked Rory.
"The Doctor numbered the envelopes."
***
We entered to e cafe we'd visited with The Doctor earlier today. It felt haunted. "You got 4, Ruby received 3, I was 2, Mister Delaware was 5."
"So?" I snapped, not exactly in a great mood.
"So, where's 1?" She asked.
"What, you think he invited someone else?" Rory asked.
"Well, he must have. He planned all of this, to the last detail."
"Will you two shut up? It doesn't matter," Amy said.
"He was up to something."
"He's dead."
"Space, 1969. What did he mean?"
"You're still talking, but it doesn't matter," Amy snapped.
"It mattered to him," I told her sharply. Yeah, this was hard on her, but no, she wasn't about to waste away for him like I had when I was little.
"So it matters to us," River announced.
"But he's dead."
"But he still needs us. I know. Amy, I know. But right now we have to focus."
"Look," Rory said. Another blue envelope lay on a table near the back, with the number one on it. "Excuse me, who was sitting over there?" He asked the busboy.
"Some guy," the guy answered vaguely.
Fat lot of use that is, Logic complained.
"The Doctor knew he was going to his death, so he sent out messages," River worked out.
"When you know it's the end, who would you call?" I said.
"Uh, your friends. People you trust," Rory replied.
"Number 1. Who did The Doctor trust the most?" Continued River, holding up the envelope. Well it isn't any of us. Who else did he even know? Did he actually have friends besides us? That was a scary thought. So, who did he trust the most?
The person who just emerged out of the back room, that's who. I stood up straighter.
"This is cold. Even by your standards, this is cold," River snapped.
"Or hello, as people used to say," The Doctor said cautiously.
"Doctor?" Amy said meekly.
"Just popped out to get my special straw. It adds more fizz." He held up his straw for us to see.
"You're okay. How can you be okay?" She asked softly, circling him and adjusting he is bowtie.
"Hey, of course I'm okay. I'm always okay. I'm the King of Okay." He hugged her gently. "Oh, that's a rubbish title. Forget that title. Rory the Roman! That's a good title. Hello, Rory!" He hugged Rory, and then turned to River. "And Doctor River Song. Oh, you bad, bad girl. What trouble have you got for me this time?"
River slapped the Doctor, hard.
"Okay. I'm assuming that's for something I haven't done yet," he guessed, rubbing his cheek.
"Yes, it is," she said quietly, practically spitting venom.
"Good. Looking forward to it. Miss Psycho, I'm guessing you're going to push me off, so I'm going to just say hello and move o-!"
I had him locked in an embrace as soon as he was close enough to reach. I pressed my eyes into his shoulder, breathing shakily.
"I really hate you," I whispered.
"Okay, well, this is new," he said, accepting me into his arms and rubbing my back lightly. "Hey, Sweetheart. You're acting like you've seen a ghost."
This only made me hold him tighter. Why did he have to call me that? Eventually, I pulled away. After holding his gaze for a moment, I then dug my elbow into his ribs, stomped on his foot, and lodged my foot in his stomach, launching him away from me.
"Woah, woah, woah, easy panther, easy!" Rory held me back.
"Ah..." The Doctor groaned from where he lay flat on his back on the tile. "You know, I forget how strong you are. I think you genuinely broke something, Ruby."
"Good!" I snapped. How dare he? How dare he? He hurt me, and for what purpose? Sucked the life out of me in one square moment for what? This- him apparently still being alive- was not fulfilling the tiny amount of trust I'd had in him this morning. This was deception.
"Ruby, calm down," River told me calmly, but didn't scold me. I looked down at The Doctor, plainly furious.
"I don't understand. How can you be here?" Rory asked as The Doctor climbed to his feet, and picked up the blue envelope.
"I was invited. Date, map reference. Same as you lot, I assume, otherwise it's a hell of a coincidence."
True. I growled deep in my throat, completely furious. The Doctor stepped back, confused and a tiny bit terrified of me.
"River," I whispered, fighting back insanity. "River, tell me what the hell is going on."
"Ruby, ask him what age he is," she said, setting a hand on my shoulder carefully.
"That's a bit personal," he said lightheartedly.
"So are your vital organs. You have a choice to keep in one or the other," I hissed.
"Tell her. Tell her what age you are," River ordered.
"Nine hundred and nine," he told me, sounding slightly arrogant. I relented. Oh.
"Yeah, but you said you were-" Amy began.
"So where does that leave us, huh? Jim the fish? Have we done Jim the fish yet?" River interrupted, sounding like she was going to cry. I clenched my fists again in her defence, holding back the urge to pummel him senseless.
What have you done, Raggedy Man?
"Who's Jim the fish?" He asked. I relaxed my hands. He didn't understand. He didn't understand any of this.
"I don't understand," Amy said quietly.
"Yeah, you do," Rory insisted.
I don't, What are we all doing here?" The Doctor said loudly.
"We've been... recruited," River said cautiously. He turned and walked away from us slowly, twirling the straw in his mouth. "Something to do with space 1969, and a man called... Canton Everett Delaware the third."
"Recruited by who?" He demanded, turning around to look at us.
"Someone who trusts you more than anybody else in the universe," she answered vaguely.
"And who's that?" He continued.
River sighed and shook her head. "Spoilers."
***
"1969, that's an easy one! Funny, how some years are easy. Now, 1482, full of glitches. Now then, Canton Everett Delaware the third!" The Doctor said. Amy walked away down the stairs. I glanced at him and then followed her down. "That was his name, yeah? How many of those can there be? Well, three, I suppose." I heard him say behind us.
I sat down next to Amy, who was sitting across legged on the floor, and rubbed her back lightly with my hand.
River soon stood in front of us, leaning on where the glass panel that served as the floor for the upper control room.
"Explain it again?" Amy asked River. Rory joined us.
"The Doctor we saw on the beach is a future version, two hundred years older than the one up there," River said patiently.
"But all that's still going to happen. He's still going to die," Amy asked, sounding like the idea horrified. I let my hand stop on her upper back.
"Well, we're all going to do that," I said in a voice that held a vague "duh" tone to it.
"We're not all going to arrange our own wake and invite ourselves," Rory pointed out, leaning his arm above him on a floor support beam above him. "So. The Doctor, in the future, knowing he's going to die, recruits his younger self and all of us to, to what, exactly?"
"Avenge him?" I offered on instinct of violence.
"Uh uh. Avenging's not his style," River answered automatically.
"Save him," Amy said quickly. Too much hope. I didn't expect anything less of her, but I knew she was trying to dream when it wasn't possible.
"Yeah, that's not really his style either," I said, shaking my head.
"We have to tell him," said Amy, standing up. River caught her by stepping into her path.
"We've told him all we can. We can't even tell him we've seen his future self. He's interacted with his own past. It could rip a hole in the universe," River warned.
"Yes, but he's done it before."
"And in fairness, the universe did blow up," Rory stepped in.
"But he'd want to know," Amy assumed.
"No he wouldn't," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "No one would. Who would want to know something like that?"
Then, interrupting the sound of us debating how to save his sorry life, The Doctor appeared, hanging over the edge of the ground to look down at us. "I'm being extremely clever up here, and there's no one to stand around looking impressed! What's the point in having you all?"
"Because if you didn't you'd have to find a way to gain a conscience of your own," I answered without skipping a beat. He glared at me and disappeared back up to go be clever.
"Oh, couldn't you just slap him sometimes?" River asked. I nodded in exaggerated agreement. We headed towards the staircase, but Amy caught us.
"River, we can't just let him die. We have to stop it. How can you be okay with this?" She demanded. River turned to look at her.
"The Doctor's death doesn't frighten me. Nor does my own. There's a far worse day coming for me."
***
"Time isn't a straight line. It's all bumpy wumpy. There's loads of boring stuff like Sundays and Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons. But now and then there are Saturdays. Big, temporal tipping points when anything's possible. The Tardis can't resist them, like a moth to a flame. She loves a party, so I give her 1969 and NASA, because that's space in the sixties, and Canton Everett Delaware the third, and this is where she's poin-"
"Oh my god, stop talking!" I snapped. "You're giving me a headache."
He shut up, and Amy stepped in, changing the topic as she inspected the scanner. "Washington D.C., April the eighth, 1969. So, why haven't we landed?"
"Because that's not where we're going," The Doctor answered simply.
"Oh. Where are we going?" Rory questioned.
"Home! Well, you three are. Off you pop and make babies and perform murders. And you, Doctor Song, back to prison. And me? I'm late for a biplane lesson in 1911. Or it could be knitting. Knitting or biplanes, one or the other..." he sat down on a bend with his hand on his forehead. I folded my arms. He looked up at us. "What? A mysterious summons, you think I'm just going to go? Who sent those messages? I know you know. I can see it in your faces. Don't play games with me, don't ever, ever think you're capable of that."
Oh sweetheart. You should've phrased that differently. He should know by now I challenged him with every single game there was.
"You're going to have to trust us this time," River told him decidedly.
He looked at her. "Trust you? Sure. But, first of all, Doctor Song, just one thing." He stalked up to her. "Who are you? You're someone from my future. Getting that. But who?" She was silent, her expression firm. "Okay. Why are you in prison? Who did you kill, hmm? Now, I love a bad girl, me, but trust you? Seriously?"
Him harping on River made me angry, considering that I felt her nervousness welling up from here, despite her calm face. Don't ask how I felt what she did, because I don't know. I spoke up. "Trust me," I said. I didn't order him to. I was gentle with my words, knowing he melted to conform to whatever I asked of him when I said it softly.
He looked up, and then came closer to me. "Okay," he said, waiting for me to elaborate.
"You have to do this. And you can't ask why."
He looked down at me, dark anger shooting through his eyes. "You do nothing but play games with me," he said with cold conviction.
"You do nothing but lose them," I retaliated. "But I shut people out because I'm terrified that they'll deceive me. Don't do that too." He started to turn around and walk away, but I grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back to look at me. I fought to keep my voice gentle when I wanted to body slam him into a pit of lava for trying to turn his back on me. "Show me that there's another way."
The way of speech worked. The anger drained, and was replaced by a look of confusion and worry. "Are you being threatened? Is someone making you say that?"
Woah, what was that in his voice? I was almost certain he sounded protective of me; maybe even a little possessive. Like he couldn't stand the thought of someone using me. He wasn't sounding like himself at all, but was honestly searching my eyes for pain or reluctance. Anything that a threat could trigger. I tried to keep my expression calm.
"No, I'm not being threatened," I answered smoothly, trying to tell him to calm down with my eyes.
"Just say the word, and I'll go to the ends of the universe to keep them from hurting you," he told me, only about five inches between our faces.
"I'm not being threatened. I'm okay."
"You're lying," he decided.
"I am not lying. I'm not an easy person to threaten."
"Swear to me. Swear to me on something that matters," he ordered.
I searched his eyes for the right answer, and then got it. "Fish fingers and custard."
His eyes finally softened. After a long moment of studying my expression, he spoke again. "My life in your hands, Miss Psycho."
An image of the astronaut shooting The Doctor on the beach flashed through my brain, and I felt a pang. He turned away and walked away across the control room.
River looked me in the eye, and said, "Thank you."
Amy looked like I just stabbed her in the back. I looked away from her. I'd had no choice.
"So! Canton Everett Delaware the third. Who's he?" Asked The Doctor, starting his typing on the scanner.
"Ex FBI. Got kicked out," River said, taking over the scanner and reading off the key points.
"Why?" I asked, leaning on the console next to her. She didn't specify.
"Six weeks after he left the Bureau, the President contacted him for a private meeting."
"Yeah, 1969. Who's President?" The Doctor asked. I can't believe he doesn't remember that.
"Richard Milhous Nixon. Vietnam, Watergate. There's some good stuff, too," River answered.
"Not enough," he decided.
"Hippie!" She exclaimed.
"Archaeologist," he murmured.
I smirked.
"Okay, since I don't know what I'm getting into this time, for once I'm being discreet. I'm putting the engines on silent."
He pulled a switch and there was a screeching, ear piercing wail. River threw a different lever and it went quiet.
"Did you do something?" The Doctor asked, appearing beside her.
"No, just... watching."
"Putting the outer shield on invisible. Haven't done this in a while. Big drain on the power," he said, tapping on a few different buttons.
I raised an eyebrow. "You can turn the Tardis invisible?"
"Ha!" He hit the final button, and everything glowed with bright white light, so bright that Amy and Rory were squinting.
River appeared. "Very nearly," she said, as she moved down another lever.
"Er, did you touch something?" The Doctor demanded.
"Just admiring your skills, sweetie," she assured him with a tone so false I had to conceal laughter as when didn't think anything of it.
"Good. You might learn something. Okay. Now I can't check the scanner. It doesn't work when we're cloaked. Just give us a mo." He hurried down the stairs, but stopped us when we tried to follow. "Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa. You lot, wait a moment. We're in the middle of the most powerful city in the most powerful country on Earth. Let's take it slow."
He disappeared out of the doors.
"Wow," I said sarcastically. River nodded. Rory was rubbing Amy's back, who was slipping back into shock. "I'm sorry, by the way," I said, leaning against the console with River. "He's your husband. It must be hard, knowing he's going to, you know."
She sighed heavily, staring at the door. "Well, Ruby, it's not a surprise to me. We all have to die."
I took the moment to ask her about what I'd been wondering about. "I've been watching you two," I admitted slowly. "I don't mean to sound rude. But it seems like there's something more about your relationship than you let on."
"Oh, Ruby, there's always more. I'm from his future. The day there'll be nothing to hide was the first day I met him." Right. But still, it felt like it was more than even that. "You're right, of course," she continued with a sigh. "There's a lot to explain, but nothing to say. I'm afraid you'll have to find out on your own."
"I expect so," I agreed. She looked at me calmly.
"He loves you, you know."
My head snapped up to look at her. From Amy? Okay, this comment was dismissable. But River Song? I thought that she was his wife. What place was she in to tell me this? I looked at the ground, kind of ashamed.
"I'm sorry?" I asked, completely lost. She opened her mouth, but was cut off by a loud Tardis-earthquake.
Amy and Rory now were looking to see what was the matter. River nodded sarcastically.
"Every time."
"He said the scanner wouldn't work," said Rory as River connected something to said piece of equipment and messed with the settings.
"I know! Bless," she smiled.
When a picture came on screen, The Doctor was being crushed on the ground by security guards. "Stop that!" He talked through a mouthful of carpet. "River, have you got my scanner working yet?" He yelled.
"Oh, I hate him," she told me truthfully.
"Join the club," I snickered.
"No you don't!" He yelled.
"Get the President out of here. Sir, you have to go with them, now!" A security guard was sitting along with a lockdown team of FBI agents.
"River, make her blue again!" The Doctor yelled in pain.
I'd make him say please, but that wasn't a present option, so I just let River pull some controls.
Shortly after, The Doctor was released because everyone was staring at the Tardis in shock.
When I next checked, The Doctor was sitting on Nixon's chair with his feet kicked up on the desk. About a dozen cocked guns were aimed at him. I smiled.
"Mister President, that child just told you everything you need to know, but you weren't listening. Never mind, though, because the answer's yes. I'll take the case. Fellows, the guns, really? I just walked into the highest security office in the United States and parked a big blue box on the rug. Do you think you can just shoot me?"
Idiot. I stormed towards the door, tired of being in the safe box. I picked up my gray fedora from where I'd set it on a bench in my way out.
"They're Americans!" I yelled as I emerged. A dozen cocked guns were now aimed at me, but I refused to raise my hands to surrender.
"Don't shoot!" The Doctor jumped up, holding his hands up in the air. "Definitely don't shoot."
I shrugged at him to show I really didn't see them as threats.
"Nobody shoot us either. Very much not in need of getting shot. Look, we've got our hands up," Rory said, emerging with Amy and River behind me.
"Who the hell are you?" Demanded the president, who was circled by security guards.
"Sir, you need to stay back," said Canton.
"But who are they, and what is that box?" Mr. Nixon demanded.
"It's a police box, Can't you read?" The Doctor demanded. "I'm your new undercover agent on loan from Scotland Yard. Code name the Doctor. These are my top operatives. Over there 'round back's the Fedora, the Legs, the Nose, and Mrs. Robinson."
"I hate you," River snapped. I folded my arms, drawing a couple extra gun barrels.
"No, you don't."
"Who are you? " Nixon demanded. I wandered over towards the desk The Doctor was at. A couple guards tried to stop me, but I just shooed then aside with a careless hand to match my expression.
"Nah, boring question. Who's phoning you? That's interesting. Because Canton Three is right. That was definitely a girl's voice, which means there's only one place in America she can be phoning from."
Canton Three. I smirked, and perched on the corner of the desk.
"Where?" Asked Canton Three.
"Do not engage with the intruder, Mister Delaware."
"You heard everything I heard. It's simple enough. Give me five minutes, I'll explain. On the other hand, lay a finger on me or my friends, and you'll never, ever know," The Doctor said kicking his feet up on the president's desk again.
"How did you get it in here? I mean, you didn't carry it in," said Canton Three, looking between The Doctor and me.
"Good, huh?" I said, quirking an eyebrow.
"Love it," he answered.
"Do not compliment the intruders!" Snapped a guard through gritted teeth.
"Five minutes?"
"Five," The Doctor answered.
"Mister President, that man is a clear and present danger to-" the FBI agent began. I was fed up with him. Maybe with an innocent air about me, it would be worth a word or two.
"Mister President, that man walked in here with a big blue box and four of his friends, and that's the man he walked past. One of them's worth listening to," says Canton. "I say we give him five minutes. See if he delivers."
"Thanks, Canton," said The Doctor.
"If he doesn't, I'll shoot him myself."
"Only if you let me pull the trigger," I told him. He nodded at me.
"Not so thanks," The Doctor revised.
"Sir, I cannot recommend-" began the security guard.
"Shut up, Peterson! All right. Five minutes," said Nixon.
The Doctor sat up straighter. "I'm going to need a SWAT team, ready to mobilise. Street level maps covering all of Florida. A pot of coffee, twelve Jammie Dodgers and a fez." He smiled excitedly.
I looked at the confused bunch of individuals before me, and nodded at Canton. "Get him his maps," I ordered.
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~TheLivingParadox