- 𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 !

066

—Chapter Sixty-six| The Impossible Astronaut

—"1969, THAT'S AN EASY ONE." The Doctor told them as he ran around the console of the Tardis. Eve watched from the seat while the others stood. "Funny how some years are easy." He looked at Eve. "Now, 1482, full of glitches. Now then, Canton Everet Delaware III, that was his name, yeah? How many of those can there be? Well, three, I suppose."

River walked toward Eve, carefully taking her hand as she followed Amy to a space where the Doctor couldn't hear them. "Evie, are you all right?" The blonde asked her.

"I'm fine." She muttered. Lies. 

"Explain it again." Amy told River.

"The Doctor we saw on the beach was a future version, 200 years older than the one up there." River told them both as Rory came walking down the stairs.

"But all that'll still happen? He'll still die?" 

"We're all going to do that, Amy." River told her before Rory spoke up.

"We're not all going to arrange our own wake and invite ourselves. 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?"

"Mm-mm," River shook her head. "avenging's not his style."

"Save him." Amy guessed.

"That's not his style either." Rory spoke.

"We have to tell him." Amy went to stand up.

"We've told him all that we can, Amy." Eve spoke up. "We can't tell anymore."

"He's interacted with his own past. It could rip a hole in the universe." River finished.

"Except he's done it before." Amy reminded them.

"In fairness, the universe did blow up." Rory then reminded her. Eve shook her head.

"But he'd want to know."

"Would he? Would anyone?" River questioned when suddenly the Doctor's head appeared hanging upside down.

"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?" He then disappeared, standing back up again making the four all look back at each other.

"Couldn't you just slap him sometimes?" 

"River, we can't just let him die." Amy stopped Rory and River from walking up. "We have to stop it. How can you be okay with this?"

"the Doctor's death doesn't frighten me, nor does my own. There's a far worse day coming for me."

"Right, now, Amy..." Eve spoke up. "We have to act like we know nothing about him dying. We have to act normal... or as normal as we can." 

"Time isn't a straight line, it's all bumpy-wumpy." The Doctor told them.  "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." Eve watched as he came right up to her. "The Tardis can't resist them, like a moth to a flame, she loves a party, so I give her 1969 and NASA," He tapped her nose with a smile. "cause that's space in the '60s, and Canton Everett Delaware III, and this is where she's pointing." He started typing away and looked at the screen as everyone walked around too.

"Washington DC, April 8th, 1969. So why haven't we landed?" Amy asked.

"Because that's not where we're going."

"Where are we going?" Rory asked.

"Home! Well, you two are. Off you pop and make babies. Dr. Song, back to prison. Me, I'm late for a biplane lesson in 1911, or it could be knitting. Knitting or biplanes, one or the other."

"Wait, what about me?" Eve asked as he sat on the chair.

"Oh, well, you, Evangeline Parker, are stuck with me." He smiled at her. The group looked at each other for a moment in confusion. "What? A mysterious summons? You think I'm just going to go? Who sent those messages?" He looked at them all with no reply coming from them. "I know you know, I can see it in your faces. Don't play games with me. Don't ever think you're capable of that."

"You're going to have to trust us this time." River told him.

"Trust you? Sure." He stood. "But first of all, Dr. Song, just one thing... Who are you? You're someone from my future, getting that, but who?" There was silence. "Okay... why are you in prison? Who did you kill? Hmm? Now, I love a bad girl, me, but trust you? Seriously?"

"Then trust me." Eve spoke up. The Doctor looked at her.

"Okay." He walked over to her.

"Doctor, you have to do this but you can't ask why, okay?" She told him.

"Are you being threatened? Is someone making you say that?" She shook her head no. "You're lying."

"I'm not." He just stared at her for a moment.

"Swear to me. Swear to me on something that matters." Eve hesitated for a moment.

"Peter." She told him. It made him smile slightly and her smile back.

"My life in your hands, Eve Parker." The Doctor walked away and Eve looked down, no smile on her face. Amy placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you." River told her.

"So! Canton Everett Delaware III! Who's he?"

"Ex-FBI, got kicked out." River informed him as they looked at the screen. The Doctor looked at her.

"Why?"

"Six weeks after he left the Bureau, the President contacted him for a private meeting." River informed him as the other three stood behind them and watched.

"Yeah, 1969, who's president?" He asked her.

"Richard Milhous Nixon." She said. "Vietnam, Watergate, there's some good stuff too."

"Not enough."

"Hippy!" River looked at him.

"Archaeologist." Eve shook her head at the two. "Okay, since I don't know what I'm getting into, I'm being discreet, putting the engines on silent." There was a metallic screeching that made Eve put her hands to her ears. River flipped a switch making it stop. "Did you do something?"

"No, just... watching." River denied.

"Putting the outer shell on invisible. Haven't done this in a while, big drain on the power." The Doctor told them all as they watched.

"You can turn the Tardis invisible?" Rory asked in disbelief.

Bright lights shone in their faces before River turned them off again. "Very nearly." The Doctor rushed round again.

"Er, did you touch something?" The Doctor questioned River. The woman shook her head.

"Just admiring your skills." River told him.

"Good! You might learn something." He looked back around again. "Okay." River looked toward the three. "Now, I can't check the scanner, it doesn't work when we're cloaked. Just give us a mo. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," He stopped the four from rushing after him. "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 walked out the door leaving the group in the Tardis.

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