- c h a p t e r   s i x t e e n -

The Doctor and his two companions were in a corner, illuminated by the flashing red lights that had taken over the area. Melody had taken her tearstained face out of her knees, attempting to see what was going on. She still kept her arms around her, trying to provide comfort to himself.

"Oh, looks like we found the Dumarians!" the Doctor called out, making sure to raise his voice in order to be heard over the sirens. "Or rather, they found us." 

"I knew they'd be somewhere around here," Clara said. "I don't want to end up back in that room or anything. What are we going to do, Doctor?" She shot a glance towards Melody, feeling a deep instinct that she should comfort the girl. But she hardly even knew her, and she wasn't sure she wanted to be comforted.

"Um...er..." the Doctor stuttered, beginning to wring his hands. His mind was attempting to chug out a plan, but was not succeeding. Finally something came to his head, and he immediately burst out to say it.

"Clara, this Melody Birch. Her birth name was Jane Birch, but she changed it. Don't worry too much about that. Melody, this is Clara Oswald. She's my companion. I've already told you a bit about her, but I thought you might as well get to know her in person."

"Doctor, I don't really think right now is the best time for introductions," Clara sighed, interrupting him before he could go any further. "We're kind of in the middle of something here!"

"Oh, well, there has to be a time for everything and we could very well just get this over with now."

"Or we could get to the TARDIS first!" Clara protested. But she realized at that point that she was helping waste the time just the same as the Doctor was. 

"Wait, sh!" the Doctor suddenly burst out, quickly reducing the volume of his voice as he brought a finger to perch up to his lips. "I think I hear them coming."

"Them? The Dumarians, you mean?" Melody uttered her first cracked words, Clara hearing her voice for the first time.

"Yes, the Dumarians," the Doctor whispered in response. "I think we need to go."

"You think?" Clara hissed. "Those aliens stuck me in a prison for months on end! We have to go, right now."

"No, no, just give me one more minute," the Doctor said, glancing around. "I want to try to find how they found us first, just to know...hm."

Clara began to tug on the Doctor's wrist, trying to get him to move. But like he was a tree rooted in place, he didn't budge an inch. She then moved her attention to help get Melody off the floor. The blonde girl was rather wobbly to begin with, but she soon stabilized herself. 

"Doctor, I don't know what you're doing, but Melody and I are going back to the TARDIS. Now."

"Just give me one more second," he said, his eyes scanning the ceiling to find something, anything. 

"We don't have one more second!" Clara protested. Right at that moment, the sound of heavy footsteps boomed in their ears. It could be clearly heard, even over the droning sirens that had made their ears ring with the noise.

"Okay, I'm coming!" the Doctor yelled out. He grabbed Clara's hand, starting to yank her along. She had already taken Melody's hand when she had been helping the girl up, so the three were now chained together as they ran along.

Despite feeling like she had been drained of most of her energy, Melody couldn't help but put everything she had into dashing away along with the Doctor and Clara. She wasn't going to let herself just give up on life and all that came with it, not yet. The Dumarians had already done enough damage to her and her friends, and she wasn't going to let that go any further.

Their collective four hearts were beating rapidly by the time they rushed into the TARDIS doors. While the Doctor and Clara rushed to find something to help support them, Melody just collapsed onto the floor again. She had distracted herself for a few moments, but now that was over.

Melody wasn't sure if you could get dehydrated by crying, but she was fairly sure that if the tears continued to come out of her eyes in a torrential downpour that she would soon find out. She could feel the presence of Clara and the Doctor around her, which made her feel a bit awkward. This was the weakest she had felt in her entire life, and she felt like she was being judged.

Melody decided that she would be best sitting in the corner and staying out of the Doctor and Clara's happiness. She had already held them back enough, she thought. But apparently, they didn't agree that she should be left alone. While her Time Lord friend began flicking switches on the console, Clara started making her way towards Melody. 

"Get away from me!" Melody whimpered, flailing her arm out to attempt to push her away. But with her face buried in her knees, she wasn't able to see what she was trying to push away and ended up batting the air around her instead. 

"Woah, woah there," Clara said. "I'm not going to bite you or anything."

"I know..." Melody squeezed out. "I'm sorry." Although it appeared to be physically difficult for her to do, she raised her gaze up to Clara and tried to keep it there. She wasn't usually one to have problems with maintaining eye contact, but now it was a major issue.

"We're going to talk about this, whatever has happened to you, one way or another," Clara stated. "I know whate it is must be a touchy subject, but those are usually the ones that you need to get out of your system. If you don't, you end up having it just burst within you. No one wants that."

"How...how do you all know all that?" Melody sniffled. 

"I'm only a few years older than you. At least, I think," Clara said, pursing her lips slightly. "I know this sort of thing. I went through it too. Just not the same way that you did. Every situation is different, but it doesn't matter right now."

"Listen to Clara," the Doctor decided to add in. He leaned over from around the TARDIS console in order to allow the girls to see him, sending both of them one of his goofy smiles. They both smiled back towards him, but their's were far weaker. He wasn't exactly involved in the matter at hand.

"The Doctor's right," Clara said, "you should listen to me."

"I'm listening," Melody responded, gradually raising up her gaze in order to meet Clara's again. 

"Good. Now, what you need to do is make me listen. Tell me what happened so that I can help. That's the only way we can do this."

"Oh, okay."

The control room faded back into a period of anticipating silence aside from the whirs of the TARDIS in motion. 

"Melody, I think you're supposed to be talking to Clara right now," the Doctor called out, breaking through the quiet spell. 

"Oh, yes, sorry," Melody mumbled, wiping another set of tears away from her eyes before they could increase in volume. "I guess I should just start from the beginning of everything, everything that pertains to this scenario, anyways..."

"Yes, do that," Clara urged, nodding to push her onwards.

"Connor was my tour guide when I was in London. I know, I'm a stereotypical American tourist, but...all of a sudden the Doctor came and took the two of us away. No explanation. We were just whisked away in the TARDIS and my life suddenly seemed to be amazing. Extraordinary, even."

Melody pushed herself to keep explaining what had happened between her and Connor, but she found herself breaking down. It only took a mention of the first time they had held hands, watching over the expanse of the universe, to make her heart feel as if it were seizing up. Clara was listening intently, but it didn't matter. She had to go.

"I'm going to go to my room," Melody announced. Her voice was surprisingly stable, even though it did sound a bit strained. 

"Hm?" the Doctor said, creating a whirlwind as he spun around to face her. Clara had to back out of the way of the trench coat as it flew out, but let out a small chortle regardless. 

"I'm heading to my room," Melody repeated. "I think I just need some time to myself at the moment."

"Oh, yes, well then," the Doctor replied, "go ahead and do whatever is necessary for you. We'll just keep flying, Clara and I. Might go out. Feel free to join us of you're up to it."

"You're always welcome, Melody," Clara chimed in, nodding her head slightly to confirm what the Doctor had just said. 

"Thank you, both of you. But I think I'll be fine in my room for a while. I'm under the weather, anyway. It's like I've been drained, you know?" Before Melody could permit herself to babble on any longer, she forced her gaze to the ground and began to walk off. They didn't need to hear her angsting over her woes any more than they already had.

Melody had always found the TARDIS hallways eerily beautiful. The dim lighting gave it an enigmatic aura, like there could be anything around the corner. Since the time machine was rather tricky, there very well could be just about anything around the corner.

Melody turned her lips up softly as she carried along, folding her arms across her chest. She couldn't help but remember how her and Connor had gotten sort of lost in these very hallways and had ended up stumbling upon a gigantic swimming pool. Both of them had decided that one day they would have to come back there to enjoy it-but of course, such a thing was now impossible.

Melody fought to free herself from these thoughts that were only bringing her down. That was the true reason she had begun a stroll throughout the TARDIS halls-she wanted a place to think, she wanted to stumble upon someplace perfect. It was all about temporary distractions and then a hideaway for when the terrible thoughts came back to her.

She wasn't looking for anything in particular, but she still felt like she was looking for something. One thing she had learned about the TARDIS in the time she had spent so far was that you would always find something even if it were just a new network of hallways. 

Luckily enough for Melody, she soon found a room that piqued her interest. All that she could see was shelves and shelves of books. 

"Now, what is this?" Melody murmured to herself. Like the room was some sort of optical illusion, it seemed to get larger as she continued to step into it. She was immediately reminded of the scene from Beauty and the Beast where Belle was presented with a library-except for Melody was alone, and there was no guarantee that this was for her.

She didn't waste a moment in finding a book to grab her attention. The first book that gleamed in her eyes ended up inside of her hands.

"An Angel's Kiss," Melody read out loud, "A Melody Malone Mystery. Well. I can't argue with any book which has my name involved in the title."

A somewhat triumphant smile on her face from finding a fitting book so quickly, Melody flipped the book open to the first page and started scanning through it. It only took her a few moments to realize just how special this Melody Malone was-she could understand why this was found in the Doctor's library.

The detective woman was found in the twenties, but she spoke as if she were from somewhere (and some time) very different. It reminded Melody of when she had gone back in time for that first time and knowing what the future would end up being. She just felt like she stuck out by some amount no matter what she did.

It only took a few pages for her to be enveloped into the story. It became obvious very quickly that this was something that had actually taken place. This Melody was the River Song that the Doctor had told her about. The Doctor himself was featured within it as well, along with some his former companions. Towards the end, she found tears dripping from her eyes uncontrollably.

A shock rushed over Melody as she closed the book. She had read the whole thing, cover to cover. It seemed almost like it had never happened. It was like she had fallen away from the normal stream of time to read the book. Now she had fallen back into reality, and now she remembered her woes from before.

Connor's face immediately materialized in her head as if it had been waiting for her to stop thinking about the story she had just experienced so that he could move in. Not long after, echoes of his voice resonated throughout her head. She hardly had time to register her thoughts before she found herself falling to the ground, eyes filling to the brim with salty water.

No. She wasn't going to let herself fall apart again. She couldn't. Her salvation was everywhere, surrounding her. There were books that could take her away from this universe entirely, even it were only for a brief matter of time.

Melody felt that she could potentially live out the rest of her life in this library. Food and water didn't even enter her mind. She just wanted to surround herself with heaps of books and then read until her eyes ran dry and she fell asleep.

But then she reminded herself that she was inside of a TARDIS. Melody was traveling with a Time Lord and a girl named Clara, and this blue box could take her anywhere in time and space she might want to go. This was the ultimate escape from reality, and she could never let herself forget that. 

Then again, just about every single memory she had of Connor was linked to the TARDIS. As long as she remained traveling within the bigger on the inside box, there would be the high risk of her getting triggered over him.

It was just a balance she was going to have to attempt to hold in place. Melody had done a fair amount of that in previous years, it was just going to have to be done on a much larger scale. She could imagine it clearly, almost too clearly. 

She could see herself disintegrating under the pressure she would place on herself. One thing was sure, there was no possible way for her to do this alone. The Doctor and Clara were going to be the fulcrums keeping everything balanced. Without them, she would be lost within her own mind, the greatest maze she had ever known.

A/N And thus I finally updated this! The title for this one is pertaining how all sorts of things in this chapter were put off for some other time. Now you know, heh! Well, I hope this was worth the wait. I had run into a bit of a roadblock with this story, but luckily that is all over with. Hooray!