Hello Sweetie

Chapter 9

Doctor's POV

I hold her tight in my arms. I don't ever want to let go. I stroke her hair gently and watch the tears flow down her face. I don't want her sad because of my past. She wasn't there. She had nothing to do with any of it, and yet she is crying. For me. With me.

Why does this always happen? I think that every single one of the people I've travelled with have cried with me. Maybe not for me, but with me. "We need to go inside. I'll tell them to go on without us." I say, and then scoop her up in my arms.

And so I carry her into the TARDIS. Amy and Rory give me a look when thy see me carrying her, but don't say anything. "You two go on without us. We'll come find you in a little while, ok?"

They nod and walk out. I bring her into our room. "Are you staying with me?". She asks. "Of course."

I sit down on the bed with her in my arms. And we cry. We cry until we are completely drained.

River's POV

I lean closer against him. I think we're done crying by now. "River, I have a request." "What is it, dear?"

"Kiss me." And I do. We kiss. A long time, at that. I pull away I get a breath of air and put my forehead against his. "We should probably go find them now. They probably thought we were being a bit weird back there." I tell him.

He nods and pulls me to my feet. I hold his hand and we go find my parents.

Amy's POV

I walk to one of the French shops. "Rory, why do you think they were crying?" "I don't know. Probably one of those weird alien time lord reasons."

I think about their faces. "I don't think aliens just randomly cry. She's our daughter. Shouldn't we find out why they're upset?"

"Sure, I guess. I'm not very good at being a father." "Don't say that. Of course you are! We've done everything we could to be good parents."

After going through several shops and buying random things, we see River and the Doctor walking toward us hand in hand. "Bought anything?" the doctor asks.

"Yep." I hold up the bags. "Several, actually." "Ok. Well, River and I are going to go get her a dress for tonight. We're going to Sheloskan." "Is that a shop or a planet?"

River rolls her eyes. "A planet, mum." "Don't get an attitude with me!"

River laughs. "That's funny, dear." There's an awkward pause. "Well, bye." The Doctor says, and they walk away.

"Well, back to shopping." "Yeah." Rory replies.

After we've shopped a while, we head back to the TARDIS. "Want to go to the cinema?" Rory asks. "Sure, why not?" We've barely stood up when River and the Doctor burst in. They're panting, and River's holding a gun and a shopping bag. The Doctor is holding his sonic screwdriver.

There's a thumping sound coming from the doors. "Uh-oh."

River's POV

"Uh-oh." I say when I hear the tesaponidians beating on the doors.

"River? Doctor? Explain!" Mum yells. "Well, I noticed a few people who were walking around acting strange. So I soniced them. Their perception filters failed, and they turned to their natural form-tesaponidians. They didn't like that, I guess, so they sort of started attacking us, River shot back, and here we are."

"Ugh! Do you two have a trouble magnet inside of you or something? Do time lords have that?" Amy asks. "Well, technically, River is a time lady." The Doctor notes.

"You can stay in here if you like. I'm sure River and I can save the world." He adds. "And leave you two alone out there together? Aliens could be chasing you, and you would stop just to have a mini make out session." Amy grabs a gun. "Oh, I'm coming."

"That's what I thought." He grins. "But hide the gun. We don't want them to see it." Mum nods, and hides it under her shirt. "So what's the plan?" "At the moment, we go out and ask to be taken to the leader. See what they want with the planet. Then, I'll do a Thing." The Doctor states.

"What thing?" Mum asks. "Oh, don't ask. The Thing where he thinks up a clever plan." "Oooh, I'm clever now?" "Yes, especially when you-" I start, but he cuts me off, putting his hand on my mouth. "Don't tell them that kind of stuff! Now,-" he is then cut off by Amy. "Shouldn't we have a plan before we go-" He puts his other hand on her mouth.

"Now, we're going to go out there and-" Rory cuts him off this time. "Amy has a point. I mean, shouldn't we-" I place my hand on his mouth as the Doctor instructed with his eyebrows (we know a language completely made up by eyebrow movement).

"Good Ood! Can't you people ever shut up? Now, we are going to go out the door, out our hands up, and I'll ask to be taken to the leader. Ready? Good."

He takes his hand off my mouth and opens the door. "I'm going to go first this time."

He walks out and I follow. "So, how's the day been for you, then?" The Doctor asks cheerfully. They point their guns at him. "Well, that's not a very nice greeting! How about you just take us to your leader for tea instead?"

The aliens exchange looks, and then we're walking towards a restaurant. "Oh, it's in there, is it? Ok, let's see how you've pulled this off." I say.

We walk in, and the tesiponidians walk to the cashier. Their perception filters are on, and the cashier lets them walk into the kitchen without a sound.

Once in, they push us towards a supply closet. "You will enter." One of them says. "Alright, alright, we will. No need for the weapons." The Doctor says, and slowly opens the door.

I look around. Looks like a regular supply closet to me. I reach into the Doctor's pocket and pull out his sonic screwdriver. "River! Give that back!" He says. I ignore him and do a scan of the room.

"There's a basic teleport in the ceiling. They haven't beamed us up yet." I tell them. A light suddenly surrounds us.

"Well, I guess they are now." The Doctor says, and then we see a wall. I turn around. "Oh, Dalek." The Doctor says.

"Language, sweetie!" I scold him. Because, sitting in front of us is the teseponidian emperor. He, the Doctor and I aren't exactly on good terms.

"Doctor? Who's that? Do you know him?" Mum asks. "Long story, Amy. Your daughter and I work at night, too, and sometimes....... things happen while you and Rory sleep."

He tells her. "Oh, so at night when we're on the TARDIS you sneak away with River to have extra adventures? Nice to know!" She snaps. "Look, can we not do this now? I've got an angry emperor to talk to!" He responds.

"Enough!" The emperor says. He then circles the Doctor. "How've you been?" I ask him. "Not so well after you shot me!" He says with venom.

"River! You SHOOT people at night when we're sleeping?!" Rory asks. "Shut up dad." I tell him.

"And, Mr. Emperor, you were trying to kidnap my husband. I don't do well with that sort of thing."

He studies me a moment. "He's the last of a great race. Who wouldn't want to study him?" He says. "Anyone who wants to live another day." I reply coyly.

"Maybe I should take a look at you as well. From what I've heard, you have a dangerous past. And-" he pauses. "You're part time lord." "Cut to the point, please. What is it that you want with this planet?" My husband asks him.

"It has much labor forces here. It's inhabitants are weak and aren't the smartest." "Well, you may be right about the smart thing, but-" Mum cuts him off. "Oi! Humans are smart! It's not our fault you've got a giant weird time head!"

"As I was saying, Pond, humans are not weak. Especially-" he pauses and steps forward. "If I'm defending them."

"Put them in a cell." The emperor tells the guards. We do as the guard says, mainly because we all know the Doctor has his screwdriver. He leads us to a cell that has a force field around it and opens a door like spot in it. He motions for us to go in. We do.

"So sweetie, what's the clever plan? Because usually now would be when you have one of those." I tell him. "Hush River, I'm thinking." He puts his hand over my mouth. I'm tired of this.

"Ow! River! Why'd you bite me?" He squeals at me, yanking his hand away quickly. "If you're going to put something on my mouth, I'd prefer it be your lips." I tell him, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Oh, so you won't bite me if I stick my tongue in your mouth, but you will if I stick my hand OVER your mouth? Really? Be sensible!" He yells at me. "I like your tongue better in my mouth." I say, shrugging. "Bad River! Bad Doctor! Stop putting bad images in my head!" Mum yells.

"Oh, like this one?" I grab the Doctors neck and pull his face towards mine. He pulls away after a moment. "Maybe we should put more bad images in their heads." He says smugly. "Oh, shut up." He grins at me. "Not a chance."

"Could we focus on something other than flirting?" Rory asks. "Fine, fine." The Doctor pulls out his screwdriver and opens the small opening in the force field. "Come along, Ponds." He says, and we walk out after him. A few of the aliens start shooting at us.

I pull out my gun. "Sweetie, you won't like what I'm going to do, so shut your eyes!" I yell at him. "Is this necessary?" He yells back. I open fire on the approaching aliens. They drop on the spot. "Yes." I shout.

"Go on, then!" I tell him. He's just standing there, watching. "I'm going, I'm going!" He yells, finally turning around. I spin around, making the last few aliens coming in fall. I sprint back after the Doctor.

I round the corner, and see him sonicing a door. "Oh..." he says after a moment. "What is it?" He turns to her and smiles sheepishly. "Doctor! What is it?"

I realize and look at him. "You SERIOUSLY still haven't fixed that?" I ask. "Fixed what?" Mum asks. "His screwdriver doesn't work on wood." I say smugly.

Amy gives the Doctor a look. "Seriously? You have a magic screwdriver that can blow things up and open up things no one else can, but it doesn't work on wood?" She asks. "Well, I've been busy!And it's not magic! It emmitts sonic waves that can-" He's cut off my my hand over his mouth.

"Hush. We've got unhappy aliens with bad tempers trying to find and kill us." I tell him. I then walk to the door, squareness gun in hand. I aim and pull the trigger.

"Come along, Ponds." He tells us, taking the lead and easily pushing open the door. "Typical bloke." I hear Mum mumble. I grin and roll my eyes. "And yet we still follow him." I say. "You're his wife. You have to. I just can't stand living a normal life anymore." She replies. "Oh, no. You are getting it wrong there. I choose to stay with him. Right now, I should be somewhere else, probably. Teaching." I tell her.

"You could bring the Doctor in for your class!" Amy says excitedly. "His ego would blow all over the place. Best not." I say, smirking. She shrugs. "Come on, though! It'd be great! All those little aliens you teach could meet him!" I roll my eyes at that term.

"Technically, mummy dear, you're the little alien in their eyes. In my eyes as well. Sort of."  I say, smiling. Humans. "In your  eyes? But you're my daughter!" She sasses back. "Oh, look, the Doctor needs me. We can talk later." I say, rushing off to avoid the conversation.
Maybe I am getting as bad as him about that.

"Where are we going, love?" I ask my husband as I walk up behind him. "Well, I'm not exactly sure, but  I'm working on it!"

I hear a shrieking noise go off. "What now?" I ask him. "The usual. Run!"