Chapter 55: She Knows All His Faces
River smiles and then it grows a little wider as she flips over the next page of her diary. This one was full of his eleventh face. She looked at the largest photograph in the centre of the page, taken quite some time ago. A colour one, snapped with her own camera. He hadn't even noticed what she was doing until the flash went and he turned around a little startled.
She has to admit, she likes it when she surprises him. River also admitted she loved his face, wide eyed with his mouth just a little open and about to protest. Of course they laughed off the turn of phrase, but as she sits and studies the picture, she realises that her words were quite true.
Green eyes, ridiculous hair and how the photo was ever so slightly blurred as he turned towards her. Like she should expect him to fully turn around and face her before commenting; perhaps on her hair, most probably, on what kind of ridiculous adventure they were about to start. When she considers it, she decides it would be both.
Then there would be times when she stood beside him, on the same side of the line, with her head turned to watch him as he confronted someone, or something. It might have been an army, or a solitary man with a gun. Aliens and monsters which caused nightmares. And he'd stare at them, with eyes that burned with his whole past dancing in the flames. His mouth would be a thin line and wrinkles would crease his forehead as he thought of a plan. But his eyes, they would lock onto you and the person on the other side would stare back and they'd see exactly who he was. What he'd done. Why he wouldn't stop or give up. Some would turn away, others would run, the fools would step forwards.
And then there was fear. River knew that was the reason he had been stolen away from her parents. Because some of them were scared and lashed out. His was the face that she had known all her life. The one that struck fear in billions throughout the galaxy. The face she had been told never to be taken in by. The Oncoming Storm and the Destroyer of Worlds. Of the anger and the wrath of a Time Lord who had slaughtered so many. It was only after that she found he had that particular emotion etched into his face sometimes. The fear of losing someone. Of not being able to save someone. Whether it was her parents. Or herself. Or a complete stranger.
Now she knew better. She began to know him when he didn't know her. She knew him young and she knew him old both when he was just beginning to know her. She knew all his faces.
