This was their last Christmas together. That thought resonated in the Doctor's head. The idea made him scintillate between fazed and tormented as he tried to wrap his head around it. They'd managed to stretch their married life out much longer than expected, thanks to a loophole which River had pointed out - They had to spend 24 years on the planet, but not necessarily all at once. So they left, and came back once every year- their time- to spend a day of that long, long Christmas. Oh, how he would miss her. The feeling of bewilderment and sorrow coalesced suddenly into a black hole of despair and he felt the full weight of it as it crashed down on him. The next thing he knew, he was on the floor of the TARDIS. He had never stayed that long with anyone before. This wasn't right. He couldn't handle it. He should never have let River talk him into stretching out their time, but then she would have inevitably snuck off in the TARDIS without him. She was never happy knowingly contained. He pulled himself up and saw that he had traveled some distance.

He was back. He'd come back out of sheer habit to the place they'd returned every year, like a pair of Lovebirds - or a retired couple going to Florida. But this time there was no point in going out. He looked about the empty TARDIS- it was dark, it looked like it had been lived in, River's winter coat still lay gently folded on the chair,- And couldn't bring himself to reset the controls. He painfully opened the door and gazed out at the freshly fallen snow. He closed his eyes and felt the sharp air whip at his face like razor blades. For a moment he forgot. He imagined a place void of meaning, empty of pain. This was his paradise. Nothing to irk him, no one to leave him, and nothing to break the silence. Suddenly, he heard a soft noise and gazed down. It was a baby bundled on his doorstep.

She had River's eyes. She had his eyebrows. No, River no! He cried as he fell into the snow. River! You can't do this to me, he implored at the sky. Suddenly, he slowly looked down and found himself next to the Timelord tot. She smiled at him. He smiled back. She began to cry. "No no no no! No Kyra…. Yes, that's it. I'll name you after my mother, Kyratrinopia. Please Kyra, don't cry. I'm ready to cry myself. And if we're both crying, then who will fly the TARDIS?" he said as he cocked his head at her and smiled. "I would sing you a Gallifreyan Lullaby, if I could remember any. But the truth is, Kyra, that when you live for hundreds and thousands of years, lullabies are the last thing on your mind. It's mostly the faces of the people who sing them who you try to remember". She peered up at him. "Where did your mother go, eh?" "Why didn't she mention you before she left". It's not like you're a bag of groceries, that she can just drop off on the doorstep". Something must be wrong, he thought. Suddenly realizing that he was squatting next to a baby in a basket in below zero weather, he gently picked the basket up and carried her into the Tardis.

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