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When the Doctor had first told her he was adopted, Ruby had considered asking him what his family was like.
Aside from Carla’s foster kids, she had never met many others who could associate with her experience. She wasn’t a part of any social clubs or groups of foster kids, and it wasn’t like there was some secret society of foundlings out there Percy Jackson style. So the Doctor had been a unique kindred spirit within Ruby's life.
When Ruby had learned the fate of Gallifrey, had seen the Doctor’s grief when he was described as the Last of the Time Lords, she had been grateful for her previous silence. Adoption, she could relate to, but to be the sole survivor of a genocide? Ruby could never even try and relate to that.
The Doctor couldn’t have even been older than forty, thirty maybe. To have so much grief, so much pain, in such a relatively short lifetime - it was almost impossible. Still, she tried to understand and sympathise, searching for the sadness behind the Doctor’s chippy exterior.
He hid it well, and Ruby could almost forget about it entirely as they travelled, only to be harshly brought back to Earth when she saw the shadows in his eyes.
Such a circumstance did Ruby find herself in when the Doctor took her to Malefix IV, a thirty-first century Earth colony spanning an entire solar system. The Doctor had been really excited to show her what the future of humanity had in store, right up until they had been arrested.
Fortunately it seemed whatever judicial system existed on Malefix was quick, and soon both Ruby and the Doctor were dragged by rifle-toting guards to what vaguely assembled a courtroom. Inside there was only a single judge, and she peered at the two of them over a set of cybernetic glasses.
“How do you plead?” She said sharply.
“I’m sorry?” The Doctor asked.
“I said, how do you plead?”
“To what crime?”
The judge sighed, mumbling something under her breath.
“You are an accessory to galactic criminal River Song,” she said, “you are charged with aiding and abetting a wanted fugitive across time and space. You are charged with organising and orchestrating numerous prison breaks. How do you plead?”
“Who’s River Song?” Ruby asked, “I’ve never met them!”
Ruby had noticed that whenever the Doctor was particularly amused by something, his mouth would tend to do a little quirk, like a little half-laugh to himself before moving on with the day. This time however he couldn’t quite prevent a full smirk from settling on his face.”
“I plead,” he said to the judge, before pausing, “spousal privilege.”
“What?” the judge said. Ruby agreed.
“You heard me,” the Doctor was fiddling with his pockets now, desperately going through each one looking for something in particular. Ruby realised what it was just as the Doctor’s grin got wider.
“There we go!” He said, and immediately the sound of the TARDIS filled the space around the pair, “might take a minute, she doesn’t like short hops.”
“You are the consort of River Song?” the Judge questioned, looking unsuccessfully for the origin of the noise.”
“Better, I’m her ‘sweetie’.”
“Tha-that’s not how spousal privilege works,” the judge spluttered. Voice distant over the wheeze of the TARDIS engines.
“I know,” the Doctor grinned, “catch me if you can!”
The TARDIS control room came into existence around them, and immediately the Doctor ran to the console.
“Lock the doors!” he yelled, and Ruby ran to comply.
There was a banging sound from outside, the yells of several men and women a signal that the judge had called security in. It would be no use, the TARDIS doors would hold.
“We’ll jump into the vortex,” the Doctor said, moreso to the TARDIS than to Ruby, “ride the edges for a bit and then decide where to go next.”
The TARDIS shuddered, outside the sound of gunshots against its door became apparent.
“Barbaric,” the Doctor muttered. He pulled the lever, allowing the TARDIS to escape the pointless barrage.
Ruby collapsed against the door. The Doctor looked at her.
“You alright?”
“Yeah,” Ruby said, “just tired.”
“I can take you home, if you like?”
Ruby could read the message in the Doctor’s expression, it was the same expression he had held in the hours after Ruby had learned about Gallifrey. Something about his past, or at least sharing it, scared him. Ruby would not let him run away because of it though.”
“No,” she mustered up a grin, “I want to hear about your wife.”
The Doctor nodded, smiling to himself, “I figured you would say that.” He pressed a button on the console, causing a hologram to appear.
The woman in the hologram was slightly taller than Ruby, with a large head of hair and a sharp, if pleasant expression. She wore a grey sleeveless dress, and there was a gun cocked at her hip. Millie would never admit it, least of all to the Doctor, but damn had he hit the jackpot with his partner.
“Where is she now?”
The Doctor’s smile dropped.
“The Time War,” Ruby muttered, “I’m sorry.”
“No,” the Doctor said, he smiled ruefully, “it couldn’t have killed her if it tried.”
The Doctor looked at the TARDIS door, the spiralling colours of the vortex reflecting ethereally in the window.
“No, she died doing the thing she did best.” His eyes were watering, he let out a breath and looked at the ceiling. “She died saving me.”
Ruby was silent, letting him explain it in his own time.
“Me and River, we’re time travellers. We never quite met in the right order. The first time I met her, she sacrificed herself to free thousands of people trapped inside a library computer. I didn’t even know who she was to me at the time.”
“Oh Doctor,” Ruby said sadly, “that's… that's horrible.”
“I know. Still,” the Doctor grinned, wet eyes shining but some light at least having returned, “we had a good run of it though. So much running.”
“What was she in trouble for?” Ruby could see that the Doctor wanted to talk about River, and not for the first time she thought that it must be awfully lonely to be the last of your species. As far as she knew he had noone, or at least very few, friends that he talked to often, and so Ruby would be one of those as much as she could.
“Who knows,” the Doctor laughed, “she was an archaeologist, though she typically visited sights she had been involved in the destruction of centuries before.”
“So a bit like you then?”
The Doctor pulled a face: “I’m not an archaeologist.”
“But the seeking danger bit?”
“Oh yeah, bit of a chip off the old block she was on that too, I travelled with her parents before she was born, after to.”
“So she wasn’t a Time Lord then?”
“Oh goodness no, I guess she was more Time Lord than anyone else though. She was actually conceived in the TARDIS, which made her special.”
“It’s less weird than it sounds,” the Doctor said, looking at Ruby’s expression, “she was kidnapped as a baby, grew up in all sorts of places. She was actually her parents’ best friend.”
“That's a lot,” Ruby said, “so you travelled with the in-laws then?”
“Indeed,” the Doctor said, “they were, in all the ways that mattered, my family.”
“And you still did what you do now?”
“Yes, going around, saving universes. We actually fought in a war once, wouldn't do that again. She spent a couple decades in prison actually, picked her up from there quite a few times.”
“What was she in prison for?”
“She killed me,” the Doctor grinned.
Somehow Ruby could not muster up enough surprise to meet that statement.
“And yet you married her?”
“Everyone needs a better half.”
Outside the spirals of the Time Vortex were suddenly cut off, as the Tardis began its re entry sequence into regular time and space.”
“What are you doing?” the Doctor asked, “I didn’t tell you to take us anywhere.”
The TARDIS didn’t respond, not even to give a snarky whistle at its owner’s expense.
“Wait,” Ruby said, “the sound, it’s gone.”
“The brakes have been turned off,” the Doctor said, “I never turn the brakes off.”
He looked at the screen.
“Oh,” he said, “of course.”
“What is it?”
“There was only one person in the universe who flew this thing with the brakes off,” he said, “and the TARDIS has just taken us to her.”
“Who?”
“We were just talking about her.”
“River? But she’s dead isn’t she?”
“A:” The Doctor turned to her, “time travel. B: She is dead, but I saved consciousness inside the library’s database. I don’t quite know the details, I haven’t been here since she died.”
“So you can talk to her?”
“I suppose I can,” the Doctor looked clueless for a second, even as the ship settled into place. He pulled at his jacket, straightening himself up.
“How do I look?”
“Like a man about to see his wife,” Ruby smiled at him, overjoyed at the turn the TARDIS had taken them on. “I’ll hang around near the TARDIS, you go and say hello.”
The Library, and that was the only name Ruby could find for it, was a remarkable place, if a bit eerie, but the Doctor seemed to know exactly where he was going. Ruby couldn’t make out much, but she could at least hear the beginning.
“Hello River,” the Doctor said, his voice light and awe-filled.
“Hello Sweetie,” a voice said, and Ruby knew that the Doctor was going to be okay.