Title: River Run
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: all audiences
Length: 300 words
Content notes: Contains oblique spoilers for both aired seasons of the Eleventh Doctor.
Author notes: Thanks to kouredios for beta!
Summary: Melody Pond never stands still.

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River Run

1.

"Can't wait to get out of here," Alexa said, tossing her hair out of the way before lighting another cigarette.

"Move on to bigger and better things, yeah?" Corinne agreed.

"Too right. There's nothing for us in Leadworth." This was familiar ground; Alexa had said all of this before, and they all knew she'd say it again.

"I'm going to London." Corinne reached over to get a light from Alexa. "Destined for greatness."

Mels quaffed the end of her pint and didn't respond. She already knew what she was destined to do. As soon as the Doctor showed his face.

2.

The first time she stepped into the TARDIS, something inside her twinged and shifted. Melody told herself it was just the internal effects of whatever kind of travel the box could do.

It was disconcerting, though. Felt as though regeneration were sparkling beneath the surface of her skin.

The TARDIS whispered infinite possibility. Offered her a glimpse.

The kiss of life. Brilliant gold pouring out of you and into him. This is the source of the River.

It didn't make sense. What river? Melody closed her mind and the vision disappeared, but the memory of the kiss lingered.

3.

Stormcage was grim. The other inmates didn't know who she'd killed, only that he was rumored to have been a good man. Kind. Compassionate.

Sometimes she got a thumbs-up from other prisoners as they passed on their way to or from the exercise yard. It was hard to resist kicking them in the shins.

They didn't know the half of it.

Of course, they also didn't know that she wasn't always there. That while they slept, she savored Nicsorian tea, visited Pompeii.

Her entire marriage was honeymoon, measured out in tastes, like a box of chocolates stretched to last.