seventeen

Nina woke up on the ground, her head throbbing as she opened her eyes. She looked around for a minute, disoriented, but then she realized what was going on. The Doctor was laying on the stairs, and she was on top of them, a few feet away, next to the TARDIS. Exactly like in her vision. Nina's heart started to race when she remembered that in her vision, the Doctor was dying.

She looked around to see Amy and Rory holding each other, and Melody a few feet away, looking at the Doctor, who was now unconscious on the ground. It took all of her strength to sit up. Only then Nina noticed another Amy standin a few meters away. This Amy looked mostly like a robot, to be honest.

"Who's River Song?" Melody asked, her face and voice filled with sadness. Amy and Rory shared a look, before Amy walked Robot Amy.

"Are you still working because I'm still a relative? Access files on River Song," Amy told herself.

"Records available," Robot Amy told her. Nina frowned. Had she hit her head too hard?

"Show me her," Amy told her. "Show me River Song."

And just like magic, Robot Any turned into Robot River Song, and both Nina and Melody realized that they were exactly the same person. Melody Pond was River Song. I mean, it was pretty obvious. The name gives it up immediately. Melody turned back to the Doctor, her eyes getting teary. Only then she noticed Nina on the ground, her gaze fixed on the Doctor. She thought about what the Doctor had said.

"Melody, what did he say? The Doctor gave you a message for River Song. What was it?" Amy asked her daughter. River took a few steps towards the Doctor, her hands starting to glow.

"Melody," Nina called out, making her headache rip through her skull. She managed to speak loud enough so she could catch the woman's attention. "Think about this. Think about what you're doing."

"Just tell me, is he worth it?" Melody asked her. "The Doctor?" What could Nina possibly say to that. She barely knew the man. He was very important to her, yes. Extremely important, but she didn't know him. Not the same way he knew her.

"I've only just met him," Nina revealed to her.

"If he dies, you're the only one left," River said, not as a question, but more as a reminder to herself. Nina hadn't thought about that. She was going to be the only surviving TimeLord. Again. She nodded her head.

"Yes," Nina told her sadly.

"Then he's worth it," she said, crouching down next to his head. She slowly placed her hands on the sides of his face, making him inhale sharply as his eyes shot open.

"River, no," the Doctor whispered as soon as he understood what River was doing. Nina hated her self for not stopping her, for letting her do this for the Doctor, but she simply couldn't. She couldn't watch the Doctor die and do nothing about it, and she sure wouldn't survive it if she did it herself, so River was the only option left. "What are you doing?" The Doctor whispered. River smiled.

"Hello, sweetie," she whispered back to him, placing a soft but tender kiss on his forehead. Apart form the Doctor and River, Nina was the only one who knew what happening. She watched as River transferred her regeneration energy into the Doctor. She watched the colour soon return to his pale face, as his hands started glowing alongside hers.

♧♧♧

As soon as the Doctor recovered from his almost regeneration, they brought an unconscious River to the hospital. The Doctor explained what happened to her, and thanked her for all she did, also telling her that she shouldn't have done that and that it was enormously stupid.

"So that's it? We leave her there?" The Amy asked the Doctor as soon as they got back inside the TARDIS. Nina was sitting on a seat next to the console, her legs crossed. She didn't even know what had happened. How wasn't she dead? Hadn't she been poisoned like the Doctor? She had so many questions and not enough answers.

"Sisters of the Infinite Schism, greatest hospital in the universe," the Doctor told her, trying to reassure her.

"Yeah, but she's our daughter. Doctor, she's River and she's our daughter," amy pointed out.

"Amy, I know. But we have to let her make her own way now. We have too much foreknowledge," he said, looking across the console at Nina. He then looked back at the monitor in front of him. "Dangerous thing, foreknowledge," he added. Nina frowned. Would he do that with her too, if she wasn't connected to the TARDIS in such way? Would he just leave her behind, because he knew too much about her own future?

"What's that?" Amy said, also noticing the date on the monitor. The Doctor smiled and turned it off.

"Nothing. Just some data from the Teselecta. Very boring," he said. Except Nina could see straight through his lie.

"Doctor," Rory said, finally speaking. "River was brainwashed to kill you?" Nina tensed up, looking at the ground. She'd had her own fair share of brainwashing and mind controlling.

"Well, she did, and then used her remaining lives to bring me back," the Doctor reasoned.

"But that stuff that they put in her head, is that gone now?" Rory asked. "The River that we know in the future, she is in prison for murder."

"That's a spoiler, right there," Nina commented. The Doctor looked at her with an apologetic look upon his face.

"Wait, whose murder?" Amy asked them. The Doctor stood there, quiet, for a moment, before he smiled at her. Nina caught Rory's eye roll for not receiving an answer to his question.

"Will we see her again?" Amy asked him.

"Oh, she'll come looking for us," he said, walking up to Nina's seat and grabbing her hand. "Come with me, love." Nina blushed at the way he called her, but stood up and followed him out of the console room.

"What are you doing?" Nina asked as the Doctor pulled her through the corridor. Just as she had guessed, they arrived at the infirmary. She sighed. Was this going to become a habit?

"Sit down," he told her, pointing to a bed. Nina sighed and slowly made her way to the bed, climbing on it.

"How am I alive?" She suddenly asked, making him fully stop his movements. She then realized how straight forward that was. "Okay, that was slightly blunt, but I mean... River poisoned me. And then all I can remember is collapsing in the TARDIS.

"I see," he nodded, putting down the scanners he was holding. He then sat down by her side on the bed. "You know how the TARDIS is somehow keeping you alive by making you jump all the time?" Nina nodded. "You see, when she makes you jump, she is absorbing all of the time-energy in your body, helping you stabilize with this world. She was doing so when we entered the TARDIS after River poisoned us, but your body was too concentrated in trying to keep you alive, and you already didn't have much energy left, so the TARDIS was just draining you. I managed to drag you outside before she--" he cut himself off, almost scared of continuing. But Nina didn't end him to say it, she already knew what could have happened. The TARDIS would have drained her up completely, and then she would have killed her. Nina nodded, before she noticed the Doctor's watery eyes staring at her.

"Hey, it's alright," she comforted him with a soft smile upon her face. For some reason, she hadn't ever imagined that she would one day see him cry. The Doctor was always so happy and bubbly and bright, even if Nina knew it was an act to keep people away. Still, she never thought she would witness this. Maybe he really did trust her. Maybe she was the only one with whom he was really vulnerable. Thinking about it, she would be honored to be that person. Nina placed her hand on his cheek. "I'm right here," she reminded him with a smile.

And there they were again, just staring into eachother's lips. Nina saw how much the Doctor just wanted to kiss her right there and then. She had seen the same thing when they were in Hitler's office. He was just staring right at her lips, his breathing slightly faster than normal.

Before she could even stop herself, Nina pulled his face in and kissed his lips. It just felt... right. She had kissed the Doctor once before, and it was a feeling she could never compare to anything else. The way his hands grabbed her face, immediately kissing back, no hesitation. The way their lips fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. The smell of him flooding her senses. Needless to say, she was quite shocked when he pulled back abruptly.

He grabbed her hands, looking at them. More specifically at the golden bracelet on her wrist. He then stared back at her eyes. "I'm sorry," he said. Nina frowned. She had kissed him first. Was he apologizing for kissing her back? She couldn't help but smile at his cuteness. "I'm sorry, are you sure--"

Nina cut him off by capturing his lips in hers once again. This kiss was way more heated than the last one, Nina made sure of it. And of course, the Doctor was quick to match her movements. As soon as her hands traveled to the back of his neck, he let out a cute little sound from the back of his throat, and it made Nina smile, breaking the kiss. They kept their foreheads together, breathing heavily. He smirked once he noticed her staring at him with a goofy smile upon her face.

"What?" He asked her, smiling too. She shook her head.

"You're so adorable," she commented. He frowned, an amused grin on his face.

"I am definetly not adorable," he told her, his tone mocking autoritary. Nina chuckled at him again.

"Yes, you are," she argued. He laughed, throwing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. Nina looked down at their hands, their fingers interlocked. She then took a look at the bracelet once more, curiosity arising from her. "Why does everyone keep mentioning this?" She asked, raising her hand to put it in their eye line. "You keep looking at it, as if something were missing. And River mentioned it like she knew about it somehow." The Doctor sighed.

"That's how I know what we are, what we've done," he explained. Nina frowned. He saw her confusion, realizing how badly he had explained it to her. "You and I. Us," he tried again. "That's for me to know how far along we are in this relationship of ours," he finally made it clear. "We don't ever meet in the good order, so that's how I keep up."

"So that's why you hesitated," Nina guessed.

"You told me I gave you this the first time we kissed," he said, pulling out a small golden charm from his pocket. It was a little Eiffel Tower, not bigger than her index nail, and by one of it's sides, there was a pink heart-shaped gemstone. She loved it. She smiled up at him.

"Why is it the Eiffel Tower?" She asked. The Doctor chuckled softly, looking over af the door.

"I have a small idea," he told her. A few seconds later, Amy came into the room.

"Hey, guys," she greeted. "Me and Rory, we -- well, mostly me, but Rory agreed -- we had something to ask you." Nina shook her head in amusement at the young woman.

"Let me guess," Nina told her. "Paris?" Amy's bright smile immediately fell as a frown took place on her face.

"How did you know?"