The Damage: Part One

[mewiet.livejournal.com]

Title: The Damage
Author: mewiet
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Tabetha Pond, Brian Williams, and River Song/Melody Pond III
Pairings: Tabetha/Augustus (mentioned), The Doctor/River (mentioned), and Amy/Rory (mentioned)
Summary: Brian Williams is not the only one left grieving for his lost child: what about Tabetha and Augustus Pond? Several years after Amy's and Rory's disappearances, Tabetha is still waiting for an answer about what became of her little Amelia Pond. Will she ever find out the truth?
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for "The Angels Take Manhattan."
Author's Notes: So after "The Angels Take Manhattan," there was a giant influx of Brian Williams fics. It literally jumped from two to thirty-one in a manner of days. Most of them involve either The Doctor and/or River telling Brian what happened and Brian finally getting to meet his granddaughter. So if you're anything like me, you now have a pretty good idea of how River and Brian meet. But, what about Tabetha and Augustus? They knew about The Doctor too, but they never got to travel with him. Yet nobody's writing fics about how they are dealing with the Ponds' disappearance. Well, now someone is (it started out as a one-shot and turned into a two-shot, imagine that!), and that's your spoiler warning for 7x05 if for some crazy reason you haven't seen it yet.

Miniature white and purple roses, that's all she could smell. The perfumey odor was almost more than she could bear. They reminded her of better days and that alone made her want to tear them all down and burn them in effigy. She'd only chosen them because they were his favorite. That, after all, was why their daughter had worn them in place of a tiara on her wedding day.

Tabetha Pond curled her head in, tucking her right cheek to her right shoulder, effectively smothering her tears with the chiffon sleeve of her onyx colored dress. She hurriedly worked her fingers through her clutch, finding a natty, mascara and concealer blotched tissue at top, and yanked it out in order to blot her eyes and dab her nose.

Just as she was tucking the holey piece of paper back into her clutch for safe keeping her eyes stole upon the person she'd been looking for since the service: from her seat in the front pew she'd caught a glimpse of him in the back, having arrived just minutes before it had started. It had been her intent to track him down afterwards, but she'd been bombarded with mourners offering comfortless condolences instead, and somehow he'd disappeared into the fray.

"You came!" she called, cornering him near the hallway. "I didn't think you'd come. I'm so glad you came, Brian."

Brian Williams smiled softly. "Of course I came," he said quietly. "We're still family, right?"

"I – I didn't mean it like that," Tabetha backpedaled. "I'm sorry! I just meant –"

Brian pressed his hands to her forearms and squeezed them reassuringly. "I know what you meant," he said smiled sadly. "No harm done." Then he drew her into an embrace.

Tabetha was rigid at first, before slowly easing her arms around his back. She noted the rough feel of the coal colored suit jacket beneath her fingertips. Brian Williams in anything other than a bulky vest with too many pockets just wasn't right. He had been such a recluse the past several years that he was one of the last people she'd expected to show up, least of all in a suit. "Thank you."

"If there's anything I can do…"

Tabetha shook her head against the well between his shoulder and his neck. "I can't think of anything."

"Well if you do," he said, gently pulling back, "just let me know."

Tabetha nodded. "Thank you," she mumbled again.

Brian glanced uneasily down the hallway and flashed a meek smile. "Restrooms still down this way?"

Tabetha felt her cheeks grow a little warm. "Oh! Is there where you were off to?" she asked rhetorically. "Off with you, then! I didn't realize."

Brian nodded. "I'll be right back," he smiled before excusing himself.

Tabetha watched Brian's slightly stocky stature recede down the hallway a little more quickly than she would have thought he could and then dejectedly turned to stare at the sea of black and navy blue that was swarming through her living room. She was trying to decide how rude it would be to sneak upstairs to their – her – bedroom when she noticed something at the refreshments table.

A bouquet of blonde ringlets connected to a long, slender figure in a primly put together black pencil skirt and matching jacket, completed with dark stockings – the seams perfectly aligned – and shiny black pumps that Tabetha was positive she couldn't afford with a year's worth of gross wages.

Tabetha approached the figure cautiously and the nearer she got, the stranger things she noticed. For one, the woman was standing in front of the apple tray – each with ironically happy faces carved into them – clutching one of the apples in her palm, her nails nearly as red as the apple skins themselves. She had her eyes closed and seemed to be completely oblivious to the goings on around her. "Excuse me," Tabetha breathed, her fingers brushing the woman's wrist ever so smoothly, "but may I ask who you are?"

The woman's eyes snapped open and the apple fell from her fingers. It hit the floor with a thud and fell on its proverbial head, making the happy face appear as a sad one. "I'm sorry!" she blurted out, instantly bending down to retrieve the fallen apple. "I wasn't paying attention."

"It's my fault," Tabetha disagreed. "I snuck up on you, I apologize." She waited until the blonde had stood up again, with the apple in hand. "I just…I saw you come in with Brian at the service and…" She smiled awkwardly. "Are you...together?"

To Tabetha's surprise, the woman's face began to turn the color of her nails and the apple she held so tightly. Maybe even more so. "No. No! I'm married! Brian and I…we're…related."

The words sent a shock through her system and Tabetha attempted to place how that could be: from what Amy had always said, Brian was an only child. He and Rory's mother had divorced when Rory was young, as she recalled, and he'd remarried shortly after Rory's eighteen birthday to a woman that Amy often complained hated them both. In fact, the tension had become so extreme that it had caused a rift between Brian and Rory mere months before Rory's own wedding, resulting in Brian's absence. After his second wife's passing, they'd slowly begun to repair their relationship, but according to Amy, it hadn't been until 2020 – for reasons she didn't specify – that they'dreally become close; closer than they'd ever been, in fact. That had only made their subsequent disappearance so much worse.

"I d-didn't realize," Tabetha sputtered. She seemed to be saying that a lot today. Although she didn't want to be rude, the woman was nagging at her: why had Brian brought someone she didn't even know to the service? How was she related to him in the first place? Not that it mattered, though, and maybe that was the point: her mind just needed something else to focus on. "How rude of me," she said suddenly, offering a shaky hand. "I'm Tabetha. And you are?"

After a beat, the woman accepted her hand. "R – Melody."

"Melody?" A cold shiver rippled under the surface of her skin. The universe couldn't seem to reel in its cruelty. "My – my daughter used to have a friend named Melody…growing up. Mels, we called her." She felt her eyes water up. "She disappeared quite a few years back, though. No one ever did find out why."

"I'm sorry," Melody whispered.

Tabetha retrieved her tissue from her clutch again and swiped her eyes. "Leadworth certainly is getting smaller and smaller these days."

Melody brushed the fallen apple against her skirt and raised it. "Were these your idea?"

She laughed bittersweetly. "I used to make them for my d-d-aughter…she hated apples so I drew faces into them so she would eat them." Tabetha watched Melody reach for one of the Dixie cups of caramel sauce as if in a trance. "Amy took after her father, ever the sweet tooth." Another laugh came, though this time a bit less on the bitter side. "I used to tease him by saying he was my very own Augustus Gloop."

Melody nodded. She tilted the Dixie cup and peered into the sludgy ambery goo.

"River?"

Tabetha lifted her head at the sound of Brian's voice. "Brian! I – I noticed you came in with Melo – wait, River?"

Brian looked questioningly towards Melody. "Melody?"

"Wh–" Tabetha shifted her head between the two. She'd been around long enough to know when a conversation with eyes when she saw one. "Brian, what aren't you telling me? Who's River? Are you River? You said you were Melody!"

Brian grabbed Melody by one arm and Tabetha by the other. "Why don't we go that way?" he asked, nodding towards the hallway. He shifted his eyes, silently pointing out the curious and puzzled stares they were beginning to attract.

Tabetha smiled politely. "If you'll excuse us," she said before wriggling her arm from Brian's grasp and motioning her hand in a fashion an angry mother might use on her child. "After you." She watched the two reluctantly move ahead of her and followed close behind, gauging their interpersonal movements though they didn't yield any clues as to what on Earth might be going on.

Brian shut the door as soon as everyone was inside.

They had picked the laundry room, of all places, and the last thing Tabetha thought she needed was the sight of Augustus's shirts. Still, she held firm, glaring at Brian and Melody – or River – as she waited for an answer.

"Tell her."

"You know how –"

"Tell. Her. She deserves to know!"

Tabetha shot Melody a pointed look. "Tell me what?"

"It's complicated –"

"It's not that complicated," Brian interjected.

For some reason the fifty-something woman was suddenly wearing the look of a child who just got caught in a fib. "Don't you think she's been through enough today?"

"I'll be the judge of how much I can take, thank you very much, young lady!"

Brian raised his eyebrows amusedly.

Melody sighed and stared down into the Dixie cup of caramel sauce. "I'm not just related to Brian," she finally announced. "I'm his – his granddaughter."

Tabetha felt her lips fall apart but no words came out.

"Do you remember Amy's wedding?" she continued.

"How could I forget?" Tabetha practically bit back. "A big blue box materializes on the dance floor and my daughter's imaginary friend walks out and proceeds to dance with everyone!"

Melody grinned. "Yeah, he does love to dance at weddings."

"You know him? You know Amy's imaginary friend?"

Once again, Melody looked to Brian. She glared. "I'm married to him."

"What?"

"Mrs. Pond," Melody said, dipping her finger into the caramel sauce. "Did you know that when Amy and Mels were little girls, your husband used to fill bowls of melted caramel up for them and they'd take those happy apples you used to carve and…" She ran her caramel coated finger along the curved line of the apple that made its mouth "…draw lipstick grins on their faces with it?"

Momentarily stunned by the information, Tabetha could only nod. She had once walked in on such an intimate scene and watched, but had never let on that she knew what Augustus condoned doing to what she had thought were her healthy snacks. When she finally found her voice she asked: "How did you know that?"

"I think you're going to need to sit down for this."

"I'm fine just where I am," Tabetha insisted, leaning against the dryer.

"All right, if that's how you feel…I know that it's no use arguing with a Pond woman." Melody set the grinning caramel lipped apple onto the hood of the dryer and folded her arms to mirror Tabetha's stance. "Then allow me to reintroduce myelf: I go by River Song, but that's not my birth name. I was born Melody…Melody Pond. But you know me best as Mels Zucker." River offered her hand. "And I'm very sorry that it's under these circumstances, but I am grateful to see you again, Grandmother."

"Grandmother?"

"Now do you want to sit down?" Brian asked.

Tabetha nodded and staggered back, easing herself into a pile of dirty clothes and not even caring. "Grandmother?" she asked again. "That's – that's –"

"As impossible as your daughter's imaginary friend showing up at her wedding?" River nodded slyly. "That's where you know me from, by the way. I was the one who handed you the blue diary to give to Amy."

"But –"

"No, just listen, there's more!" Brian urged.

And listen she did, to the entirety of River's – or was it Melody? or Mels? – story. None of it made much sense. She couldn't seem to wrap her head around the idea that anyone could change into a completely different person, least of all the daughter of her own daughter. But she kept coming back to the simple fact that The Doctor had appeared in the middle of the dance floor with his magic box. It wasn't magic, Amy had insisted, but Tabetha couldn't think of it any other way. Several times, especially near the end, Brian interjected too, but Tabetha held a poker face, and when they were done, they each waited anxiously for her answer, wearing faces that reminded her of Rory; a Williams face, Amy would probably say. Then there was a deep and resounding pang in her chest: Amy. Augustus.

"Tabetha?" Brian asked tentatively.

But her only reply was the harsh cry of skin against skin: she had slapped them, Brian and River. She wasn't sure whether she believed them yet, but the thing that scared her the most was that she just might, and that was why she stormed out of the laundry room with the door slamming shut behind her. If what River said was true, it was more than she could take on this black day, but they certainly had no right to be the ones to comfort her.