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CHARACTERS: River and Rory
LOCATION: Med bay
WARNINGS: none
SUMMARY: River goes to keep Rory company and have a nice chat

River's been keeping tabs on Rory one way or another ever since he showed up on the ship, although she's also been doing her best to make sure he's not aware of it. It's not like when Amy was around... Amy had liked River from the moment she'd met her and had been happy to catch up with her almost every day on the ship. At the point Rory is from, he barely knows her at all. He certainly has no reason to trust her beyond the fact that she knows the Doctor. The last thing River wants to do is scare him away by openly stalking him.

So she's delighted to receive a text from him inviting her to come and have dinner with him. She only takes food for one, knowing that Rory in his nestene duplicate form can't eat. If he minded her eating in front of him then he shouldn't have mentioned dinner. When she reaches the doorway to the medical bay she calls out to him.

"Rory? Where's a good place for me to sit?"

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Hearing River's voice makes Rory grin; anything to take a break from inventory. He pushes a few things out of the way at the nurses station and pulls over an extra chair for himself.

"Come on over." He sees her food and stands back up. "I can get you tea. It's not that great from what I can tell, but it's something normal." In their life normal can never be taken for granted.

He's already making a cup before she can answer. Setting down the steaming up he finally sits. "I met a friend of the Doctor's, but still no Doctor. Did he vanish?"

River watches him fondly as he makes her tea, even letting it show while he's not looking at her. Here is a man who can live for 2000 years and hardly change. It's comforting, really. She thanks him for the tea, and laughs at his question.

"No, he's still about. On a ship this size there's any number of distractions for him, I'm afraid. He'll surface at some point. Which friend did you meet?"

She hopes it wasn't Jack. She'd rather wanted to see that particular first meeting for herself.

"The Master." His eyes tell her what he thinks of Time Lords and their silly names. "He said you two were planning some sort of party and invited me to come whenever you decide to have it."

"It's a surprise for the Doctor." River's not terribly surprised that the Master's managed to meet Rory but she can't help but be a bit worried about them talking. It's not that Rory can't defend himself, what with the fact that his hand is also a gun right now, but it's better if he has some idea that he should be on guard.

"I'm not sure I'd describe the Master as his friend, though. It's a little bit more complicated than that."

"That's what he said." Everything was complicated when it came to the Doctor. Still, the Master seemed nice enough if a little... "He's a bit odd, but I guess all Time Lords are like that. Also, I think my ears are getting worse because I kept hearing a whirring sound mixed in with the usual fuzziness this place gives me."

That earns him an amused smile. "Your ears are fine. You're not the only one whose body is a little bit more artificial than usual. Speaking of which, that gun in your hand... have you tested it since you arrived here?"

That is more than surprising. "He can't be an Auton with that much noise. What is he?" It's possibly a rude question, but then Rory hasn't met too many androids or whatever they considered him on this ship.

A click and his right hand exposes the hidden gun for a moment before he closes it again. "I'm not really sure where it would be safe to fire it. My aim is pretty good, but I don't want to take a change I accidently put a hole in the side of our only vessel."

River watches Rory's hand closely, checking that everything at least looks to be in working order. "If you're going to be spending time with the Master, it's best if you're certain that it works. His robot body might be a bit more durable than the average Time Lord, but if it came down to it this sort of gun should still have more than enough power to take him out," she says, her tone businesslike. "I'd advise asking someone on Security where a safe place to test it might be."

She knows how and when Rory dies for good, and it's certainly not here or soon. But there are any number of unfortunate possibilities for what the Master could do to him barring death, and it might be her advice that saved him from an untimely death in the first place. In any case, her foreknowledge is no reason to be complacent. As much as she enjoys the Master's company, she's aware that it's best enjoyed with a weapon safely up one's sleeve.

"Wait," Rory leaned back with a frown. "Are you saying this Master is dangerous? Of course, that is exactly the sort of friend the Doctor would have." He was definitely going to find a place to practice shooting. There was also going to be a bit of hunting down the absentee Time Lord and ask what was going on with this so-called friend.

"I don't believe this Master is nearly so dangerous as some of his previous and future incarnations, but it pays to be cautious." Something suddenly occurs to her - this version of Rory is so young after all.

"You know about Time Lords and regeneration, yes?"

Before Rory and Amy had taken off with the Doctor there had been two years of researching the strange man and everything that had taken place with Prisoner Zero, so Rory had come across the stories of his regeneration, so Rory nodded his head at River's question.

"Vaguely. Amy said he had mentioned something about it when they first met, but I've never asked him."

"It's something of a defence mechanism. Where another species would die, a Time Lord regenerates into a new body. Some things change: accents, small personality quirks, that sort of thing, but the person beneath remains more or less the same." She smiles to herself as she speaks, as if remembering an old, private joke. That single moment of comprehension on the part of her family shortly before her final regeneration ranks amongst one of her favourite memories. She had earned that moment, waited for the perfect time for years, and it had been so incredibly worth it.

"I'm not sure how many bodies the Master has had, but I believe some have been more dangerous than others. In any case, the one constant is that he's convinced that one day he'll finally manage to kill the Doctor." Her tone clearly says that this is never going to happen.

Rory pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Right that makes much more sense." He had a feeling there was so much he wasn't being told, but since the Doctor had so far managed to avoid him and River was, well, River, Rory decided not to try and think too hard on things.

"Okay, so be careful around the Master and, um, that's it?"

"That sounds about right," she says, nodding in agreement.

Then it occurs to her that while she's warning Rory about people that she knows and he doesn't, there's someone else she should tell him about. "Oh, and there's a man here by the name of Captain Jack Harkness. If you're ever in trouble and can't get hold of the Doctor or myself, you can trust him."

Rory gave her a slightly forced smile. There was a lot of trust going around but he supposed it was necessary.

"Does this Captain Jack know about me? I mean," he suddenly felt foolish bringing it up, but it was something that had crossed his mind more than once in all his years waiting for Amy. "Some how I'm still around even if the Nestene aren't, but there's still programming inside. I don't know what that means. So far nothing, but this place isn't home and things seem to happen here that shouldn't..."