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“Blimey! The Halassi Androvar! I haven’t seen this in a long time!” The Doctor turned to grin at her companions, who were hovering next to each other, not sure where to look first.
“It was stolen, you see. Well, not really stolen. The Vault exploded and the diamond got lodged into Hydroflax’s head. My wife got employed to get it back from him so she hired a surgeon to cut his head off, but I — not this face, the old scotsman I was before — turned up instead! I gave the diamond to this man to build a restaurant at the Singing Towers of Darillium. I never thought I’d see it again…” Her voice trailed off, her eyes gaining a far-away look.
River Song. Melody Pond. Her wife.
She hadn’t seen River since the night on Darillium. Their last night together before the Library (or after, depends on how you look at it).
“Wait, did you say wife?” Yaz exclaimed, her voice full of confusion with a hint of wonder.
The Doctor felt her face flush. She wasn’t used to feeling like this at every mention of River — her past regenerations were never the ones to blush easily.
“Did I not tell you?” No, she didn’t. She knows she didn’t tell them, she had avoided that topic on purpose, because this was River and she hurt too much.
“No!” Ryan protested. She glances behind her. Yaz and Ryan were staring at her in shock, their mouths tilted slightly open. Graham’s face was also shocked, but a hint of understanding was hidden beneath the surface.
Ah.
“Why haven’t we met her?” Yaz asked, the brilliant Yaz who always questions everything. She was amazing, and so was her curiosity. It was unstoppable. This was the one time the Doctor wished it wasn’t.
“How ‘bout we leave the Doc alone for a bit? I saw a nice shop over there that you two might like.” The Doctor smiles gratefully at Graham, knowing it was his attempt at distracting the two. (Did she mention how much she loved little shops? Awfully convenient, most of the time.)
“But-” Ryan starts, but Graham puts a hand on his shoulder and steers him towards an archway on the side. Yaz sighs, but reluctantly follows the two to the next exhibition.
The Doctor’s gaze moves back to the diamond. She had wondered where it had gotten to after she had given it away to that kind man. (A chuckle escaped her lips when she thought about what River would say if she ever found out what had happened to the diamond. Did she find out? Did she have time before the Library to go on one last adventure, or had the Doctor used up her final moments for a selfish longing?)
Someone sidled up against the Doctor’s side, knocking her away from her memories of her wife and back into the present.
They stood there for god knows how long, two strangers side-by-side, in complete silence. The Doctor could feel the person’s breaths synchronise with hers. And then-
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” The person spoke.
The Doctor felt their breath catch in her throat.
She knew that voice. They had spent most of their eleventh regeneration listening to it, and those 24 years on Darillium in their twelfth regeneration when they knew it would be their last time hearing it, her laughter, seeing her smile.
Time slowed down around them.
The Doctor’s hearts quickened. No. River Song was long gone, saved in the Library. This was a fluke. She couldn’t hope, not again, she couldn’t have her hearts crushed like that again. It wasn’t worth it.
But that’s a lie; it’s always worth it. She would do it again and again, just to see River smile, laugh, call her sweetie.
She turned to face the impossible stranger that had been standing next to her for the better part of ten minutes.
She was taller than the Doctor now, but that was due to the Doctor shrinking during her regeneration. Apart from that, nothing had changed. The woman’s hair formed into hundreds of ringlets, framing her face like a halo. Her green eyes were the same shade of the forest, her smile making the edges crinkle.
It was all painfully familiar.
It was all painfully River.
“Hello, sweetie.”
“River.” Her voice cracked in the middle of the name, and before she knew it her arms were wrapped around River, and River was pulling her in so their faces were touching and oh, she had missed this so much.
The kiss was like fireworks exploding in an empty sky, painting the portrait with magnificent colours. It was like rays of sunlight after a difficult night. It was everything the Doctor remembered, and more.
River pulled back, laughing softly. “You’re worse at that than your eleventh body.”
The Doctor squawked, her face burning. “I am not!” She protested.
“You so are. You’ve shrunk, too.”
The shorter woman groaned. “I know – blimey, that was a hassle when I regenerated. From an old scotsman to a-”
She froze. River didn’t know that yet. “Spoilers.” She finished lamely.
“No,” River’s smile grew wider, happier. The Doctor’s hearts skipped a beat. “No, sweetie, it isn’t a spoiler.”
“But-” The Doctor’s mind was racing a mile a minute. If River knew about her previous body, then… “You lied! You lied in the Library! You said that the last time you saw me, I was him”
River threw her head back and laughed. “I didn’t lie. But really, you are so much worse at spoilers than your other three.”
Other three. Didn’t lie. No. That was impossible. (Then again, when did River ever listen to little things like possible and impossible? Not when she nearly ended the universe in order to save the Doctor from dying.)
“You’re from after the Library.” The Doctor concluded. Her voice was filled with hope, stupid, undying hope.
“I’m from after the Library.” River confirmed, and they were kissing again, and the Doctor, for the first time in many years, many faces, let herself believe. Believe that maybe, just maybe, she and River Song could stay together.
“But- how!?” The Doctor asked after they had broken apart a few minutes later (hours? Time was hard when she was with River, but no, it had definitely been minutes.)
River grinned her troublemaker grin that got her in trouble so much in school, then later with whatever unlucky intergalactic police had run into her.
“Spoilers.” The word was so familiar that the Doctor didn’t protest not knowing. Not this time, when River had managed to come back.
They were together. In the Doctor’s mind, that was all that mattered.
“She does prefer me driving, you know that.” The two walked out of the TARDIS hand in hand, a ring on River’s finger and the other on a chain round the Doctor’s neck. After River had noticed it was missing she had asked what had happened to it, and the Doctor confessed she had lost it in the regeneration cycle. They had spent the next part of four hours looking for it – the TARDIS helping in every way she can, of course.
It had been River who had found it, hidden underneath one of the Doctor’s un-marked papers from her previous face. The Doctor thought that her smile was going to split her face from how happy she was. It didn’t fit on her finger anymore, but they had managed to find a chain so she could hang it around her neck.
“She does not! She’s meant to make that noise!”
River shot the Doctor a look that said ‘are you serious?’. “She is not. You leave the breaks on.”
She was about to reply when a voice rang over the crowd. “Doctor! There you are! We were looking for yo-”
Yaz stopped short, the end of her sentence trailing off as she caught sight of River.
“Who-?” She made a confused face at the Doctor as Ryan and Graham caught up to the three.
“Five hours!” Ryan complained. “You were gone for five hours!”
“... oops?” She rubbed her hand against the back of her neck, her face sheepish. “It was meant to be five minutes.”
River laughed, “You’re lucky. She once accidentally did one year instead of one day.”
The Doctor’s face burned, her cheeks flushing red. “One time! That was one time!”
She turned back to her Fam with an expectant look, looking for back-up.
Yaz’s face was pure confusion. Ryan’s was much like Yaz’s, but with a mix of exasperation added, and Graham’s was full of understanding and a little bit of- was that loneliness?
(Ah. Yes, he would be remembering Grace, wouldn’t he? The Doctor would be remembering River if the roles were reversed.)
“Who’s she?”
The Doctor grinned, her face one of pure joy. River was here. River, Yaz, Ryan and Graham, all together.
Her Fam.
“Yaz, Ryan, Graham, meet River, my wife! River, meet my Fam!”