The Bauble - for imaginationandheartbreak
The specimen was perfect.
River hung suspended above it in the large circular chamber – ‘above’ being a relative concept in zero-G, of course. She checked again that the motion sensor was disabled before launching herself lightly across the room, her trajectory calculated to bring her right up next to the object of her desire.
She grabbed it from mid-air as she floated past, with a grin of triumph.
Which quickly turned into a frown of surprise when the Doctor poked his head through the door, spotted her, and immediately opened his mouth to admonish, “River!”
River rolled her eyes. “Hello sweetie.” She fetched up at the opposite wall and grabbed quickly at the nearest tether, securing her loot under her free arm.
“What are you doing?” He stuck the upper part of his body farther into the chamber, his floppy hair floating in a halo around his head making a rather more amusing picture than he probably intended.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” she replied calmly, turning and readying herself to push off from the wall again.
“You’re stealing the lost moon of Poosh!” he exclaimed.
River kicked her foot against a sign instructing her to remain tethered to the wall at all times and flew towards him. Slightly too quickly. Slightly intentionally.
The Doctor gulped and sensibly got out of the way as she barrelled through the door and the artificial gravity sucked her to the floor, where she rolled carefully and held the miniaturised moon up in triumph. “Precisely,” she declared, jumping to her feet.
“You can’t do that!” he protested, straightening up himself in a slightly less exuberant manner.
“I think you’ll find that I just have. Now, where did you park?”
“No, no, no,” he wagged a finger, “I am not being your getaway driver.”
“Since when?” She started off down the corridor.
“Since—River!” He followed.
He always followed. He must be pretty young, not to have figured that out yet.
“It shouldn’t be in a museum anyway. It’s a moon, for goodness sake. Just because they didn’t know what to do with it when they got it back doesn’t mean they can just shrink it and put it on a space station.”
“And what are you planning to do with it, then?”
“I’m just borrowing it. Ah, here’s the TARDIS!” She pushed the door open and tugged the moon more firmly under her arm.
“What for?” the Doctor demanded, dogging her steps right up to the console.
River set the coordinates and pulled the lever to put the TARDIS in motion. “I have something very specific in mind.”
“Which is?”
She glanced at him. “You wouldn’t approve.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
River grinned, leaning in to play with his bowtie. “You know me too well.”
He grimaced. “That’s debatable.”
She kissed him – anything to wipe that look off his face. She didn’t want to deal with all of that right now. “Hush. It’s Christmas.”
His expression turned to one of confusion. A minor improvement. “It’s Easter Monday.”
“On Poosh it was.” The TARDIS landed, and River pulled the door back open and stepped through.
Her office was decorated tastefully, if she said so herself, with all her Christmas cards lined up on the mantelpiece above the roaring fire and a large tree by the window decked in baubles and tinsel. A tiny force field generator sat at the top, ready to support the moon in pride of place. River lifted it up and held it firmly as she activated the field, then stepped back to admire it.
The effect was perfect.
The Doctor was still trying to be grumpy, but she could tell that he was thawing. “I don’t see how that’s any better than the museum.”
Time for a distraction. “I got you a present,” River purred, bending down to retrieve it from under the tree. When she stood back up he was blushing.
“It’s nothing naughty,” she promised.
For a moment – just a moment – he looked disappointed. But then he couldn’t help the smile that broke out on his face, the one that always broke out when she gave him a gift, and he grabbed the small, squashy package from her hands. He managed to stick his fingers together with the sticky tape as he pulled at the paper, and there was a minor scare when the distraction caused him to trip and almost fall into the fire, but he liberated his present from its wrappings at last, and the look on his face was priceless.
“You got me a Santa hat!” His delight could have lit up a Christmas tree.
“I did,” River confirmed.
“You got me a hat!” He pulled it over his head and beamed at her. “You can’t shoot it off my head if you’re the one who gave it to me.”
“I think you’ll find that I can shoot whatever I please,” she corrected him, tucking a stray bit of hair away from his forehead.
His look momentarily became one of horror, and he clutched at the thing in panic. “You wouldn’t! Would you?”
“Not just now,” she admitted. Then, baring her soul still further, “it’s kind of cute.” Her hand wandered from his forehead to cup his cheek.
His hand snaked around her waist. “Who are you and what have you done with the real River Song?”
“She’s busy grading papers. I’m much more fun.”
“And, er, what kind of fun were you thinking of having?” he asked hopefully.
The hat really was too cute. “Right now? The kind you’re wearing far too many clothes for.” She reached up to tug at his bowtie.
The Doctor beamed. “That can be remedied.” The hand on her back walked its way under her shirt, and she hummed when his skin touched hers.
Grabbing him by his lapels, River chuckled and pushed him up against the wall, leaning in for another kiss, longer and slower and altogether more satisfying. Then, the Doctor being the Doctor, they stumbled straight into the Christmas tree, knocking it to the floor and landing half on top of it.
“Ouch,” she complained, rolling off the worst of the spiky branches. The fact that that meant rolling on top of him instead was just a bonus.
The Doctor was looking at the top of the tree, now squashed against her antique rug and decidedly lacking in ornamentation. “River,” he whispered, “we’ve lost the lost moon of Poosh!”
River took advantage of her position to bring his attention quickly back where it belonged. “We can find it later,” she told him firmly. “Right now, we’re taking off your clothes. Remember?”
He reached for the Santa hat, and she batted his hand away.
“That,” she said, “you can leave on.”
