Adding verse: v;borrowedtime
24 years on Darillium, one ill-fated trip for the Lux Corporation, and countless days spent inside of CAL, that’s what had gotten her here. Here being in the bedroom of a cottage that felt like it should have been locked shut a lifetime ago. She was currently piecing together what she could of her old life and trying to determine what this new one would hold. Her awakening was still fresh in her mind.
It had felt like waking up from a nap when you thought you had been asleep for two hours and it turned out to eight, extremely disorientating. The room that slowly came into clear vision was not one that she recognized but it gave the distinct impression of a mad scientist’s lair. Machinery and wires took up most of one wall while another was dominated by a desk, computer seemingly in sleep mode, meaning that the faint rhythmic double beeping she heard was coming from something else. Finally she looked down at herself, noticing the IV line stuck in her arm. Following it up to check the contents, her focus shifted to the young lady asleep in a chair beside her. Oh heavens, she looked older than the last time she had seen her. Lyra had to be in her late twenties at least. “Darling?” Her voice sounded weak and foreign to her own ears but it had the desired effect; Lyra’s eyes fluttered open and she immediately stood, checking River over.
“Mum, you’re back. How are you feeling?” Her hands moved quickly but gently, checking the IV and electrodes on River’s chest to make sure her vitals were alright.
“Exhausted. Chest aches a fair bit.” The electrodes explained the beeping and peering down at her chest was making River realize very fast that this wasn’t the body she had died in. “Lyra, what have you done?”
“I brought you back. It took a while and a fair bit of engineering. A lot of deals you might actually be proud of me for.” Satisfied with her readings, she removed the catheter and hung up the IV line, taking off the electrodes.
“But how?” River had accepted her fate, resigned herself to her pseudo afterlife even though it meant forever being apart from her love and her daughter. This was a lot to wrap her mind around.
“Gave you one of my regenerations.” She said it so calmly and matter of fact that River was stunned.
“Foolish girl. I’m not worth-”
“You are worth the universe, Mum and I won’t hear anything else.” Lyra helped her mother move into a sitting position, feet planted on the floor. She held her hands as she got her to stand and made sure her legs were stable enough to be on her own. She strapped River’s now updated vortex manipulator to her mother’s wrist from her pocket. “I have it set for the cottage. I’ve been staying there since Dad left Darillium. I’ll be there shortly, have to take care of this first.” She wanted to cover her tracks, make sure it wasn’t obvious that River was no longer inside CAL.
River didn’t have the energy to protest. She took a moment to press a kiss to her daughter’s cheek. As much as she wanted to chastise the girl, she did greatly appreciate another shot at life and more time with her loved ones. A thought that had her worried; did the Doctor know about what their daughter had pulled? A button pressed on the vortex manipulator and she was back in her old room. She caught her reflection in a picture frame. It was going to take a while to adjust to the lack of blonde curls.
River Song, Melody Pond, who was she now?
( big thanks to @strcngwomxn for helping me when my brain didn’t work right and for being Lyra’s other mother )
