Chapter Text
River Song dies in the Library in the 51st century.
She wakes up in London, just after the turn of the millennium.
No means of escape but she does have a new face, still partial Time Lord biology and all her memories are intact. If she didn't know better, she would say that she had regenerated and then been dropped off. It’s totally impossible but somehow, here she is, soft brown hair and blue eyes, looking more like her father than she ever has. Fat lot of good it does her in the year 2000.
She goes by Melody Williams, uses the psychic paper that apparently came with this face to craft an identity for herself, and to get into the Doctor's UNIT bank account so she actually has some damn money.
Early 21st century technology is terrible and nearly impossible to work with. It takes six months for her to finally find everything she needs to cobble together an alien tech detector, which barely works most days.
But she uses her lack of need for sleep and the skills that came with her Archeology degree to grind her way through the Anthropology program at Oxford. Gets a flat with the requisite curtains and carpets that never failed to make the Doctor shudder, and settles down to wait. For what, she's not entirely sure but the universe seems to have a plan for her and she's content to let things play out.
In 2003, she offers her home as a sanctuary to a girl from down the hall. Her boyfriend is a cretin and when she hears the girl crying in the hall after a rather explosive argument the whole floor had to have heard, she pulls the girl inside, settles her on the couch and makes her a cup of tea. It's nearly impossible to get anything out of the poor creature so Melody leaves her with a blanket and a pillow and goes to bed for the first time in over a week.
The girl, who's name Melody never actually got, appears to have slept on the couch but she's gone in the morning, only leaving behind a hastily scribbled thank you signed with a small drawing of a rose on the note pad Melody keeps on her coffee table.
Two months later the girl appears at her door again with a backpack and a black eye. Melody heard her inside, let's her know that she has a spare bedroom, and immediately sets about treating her black eye and the other various injuries that the girl begrudgingly admits to. Her efforts finally earn her the girl's name. “Rose Tyler.” the girl says, her single brown eye (the other one is swollen shut, but slowly making a reappearance) shining with gratitude.
Melody introduces herself and tells Rose Tyler that she is welcome to stay as long as she needs.
There's something very familiar about Rose. Something that Melody feels like she's missing. Some greater piece in the puzzle that she can't find. She shrugs it off. Rose is wonderful and Melody has long since learned the tragedy of not living in the moment.
That night, the scummy boyfriend, Jimmy Stone, empties Rose's apartment and her bank account. Melody tracks him down and gets Rose’s money back. Jimmy Stone is later arrested with a shattered arm and two black eyes.
You can say many things about Melody, but she has not and will never be a pacifist like the Doctor. She also quite likes Rose Tyler and a little karma never hurt anyone.
Melody and Rose are fast friends, Rose fills out the level headedness this regeneration seems to be lacking, but she also reignights Melody's enjoyment of life. She had really spent the last three years in a sorta fog, just letting time pass her by and waiting for something to happen. But maybe, maybe Rose is what was meant to happen.
Rose never actually moves out. She reconciles with her mother after a month or so and visits home often, but she also pays rent to Melody and slowly moves all her stuff over.
At some point, she falls in love and Melody has never been more terrified. She's not good at being in love. The majority of people she's been in love with are either dead or think she's dead. Hell, he last truly romantic encounter had been Darillium, and why that had been and blissful twenty-three years spent with the Doctor, their relationship has always been complicated at best.
Because he knew exactly what he was doing when he left her. Knew he was sending her off to die. And he has smiled at her so gently and kissed her goodbye. Bastard.
But loving Rose is so simple, easier than breathing really. It's like she hadn't been paying attention and suddenly there she was, daydreaming about what Rose would think of this or that like her father had been with Amy when they were teenagers.
Rose, Melody quickly discovers, is an amazing artist and they make up a game where Melody will describe a person or a place to her to see what Rose will create.
"I don't know where you come up with this stuff." Rose laughs one night and she shows Melody a terrifyingly accurate rendition of the crashed Byzantium.
Melody grins to hide the painful memories. "I'm a time traveler from the future, darling. I've seen things you wouldn't believe." She teases.
Rose just laughs like she always does and calls her daft.
Six months in, Rose gets a raise at Henriks and Melody takes her to dinner to celebrate. They flirt their way through dinner and fall into bed together that night. Nothing really happens, much to Melody's simultaneous relief and disappointment.
A year in, Rose accidentally makes telepathic contact with Melody while they're watching some cheesy movie. Melody responds without really thinking, it's been a common enough thing with several of the people she's close to but Rose nearly panics when she realizes that Melody wasn't actually speaking out loud.
It takes two hours and a stethoscope to calm Rose down and help her understand what actually happened. But is seems the double pulse of her hearts helps everything settle in Rose's mind and she's quick to accept it.
"So, you're an alien?" Rose finally asks, trying to get everything straight.
"It's complicated. Both of my parents were human. Think of it more like human plus. I've got a bit of alien in me that helps me live longer."
"Does that mean you've actually been to other planets? That wasn't you just havin' me on?" Rose questions eagerly, eyes bright.
"Yeah, I have. Different times too. Spent most of my life in the 52nd century."
"Will you tell me about it?"
Melody hesitates, "I can't tell you everything. There are things that happen here on Earth that are technically future knowledge for you."
"Whatever you can. I just can't believe that my roommate has been to other planets." Rose says excitedly.
Melody insists that Rose learn to control her telepathic tendencies too. It's better for Rose, because if the impending alien invasions Melody knows are coming and because telepathy is downright fun and she's missed the contact.
She spends hours training Rose until Rose has decent barriers and the ability to consciously share her thoughts and memories, then she spends even more time showing Rose the planets she’s been to. It’s the most connected she’s ever felt with another person, including the Doctor.
She confesses her feeling, late one night after they’re stayed up drinking wine and watching time travel movies while Melody makes snide comments that send Rose into fits of giggles.
It’s a simple ‘I love you’ concealed in a kiss on Rose’s forehead, that Rose hears anyway, that sets their relationship down a much more romantic path. Movie nights become excuses to make-out on the couch, they lay in bed just passing memories and feelings back and forth every night for nearly two months and Melody always goes to bed when Rose does, even if she has no need for sleep. The simple act of watching Rose sleep is more wonderful than she can describe.
They spend hours on the phone when Melody's position at the research lab she works for demands she go to another continent for however long to study long dead people who are even more dead by the time she got her original degree.
Melody quickly finds that loving Rose Tyler is the best thing she’s ever done. Rose is so accepting, so kind, that she willingly puts up with Melody being unable to tell her everything about her past and that Mels will never be comfortable staying in one place for too long. Rose readily puts up with the traveling, as long as Melody comes home to her, and Melody always will.