A slow hum, a hush of quiet travel resonates in the empty console room.
Somewhere deep in the TARDIS a man sleeps or rests; at least, that is the state she knew him to be in when she left him there in their bedroom.
The TARDIS recognizes her daughter as she approaches and begins to touch the console, trailing her fingers along its edges like a gentle hand on a shoulder. It begins to hum louder.
River is restless and hopes that sometime in the console room will help her attempt to sleep.
"Well, you know I am awake…what am I to do with my thoughts?" says River under her breath.
She folds her arms, tightening her silk robe in one movement.
The TARDIS keeps a steady hum.
"Oh please. Something? I don't know what to do with these thoughts, secrets, memories," she breathlessly spills out. Her hands work their way into the golden curls cascading on her head before she lowers her elbows onto a flat part of the console, head dropping with the weight of both conscious and unconscious thought.
A moment of quiet rolls over both River and the TARDIS like a pause between breaths.
"I know…I know, " she exhales. "I can talk to you always." Her green eyes sparkle again as she looks lovingly up at the console. She begins smiling to herself suddenly as the TARDIS says words of encouragement and-"What was that?" she thinks out loud. "Dancing?" She arches an eyebrow and places a hand on her hip."At this hour?"
But the TARDIS knows no time or hour and answers with music, a soft tune immediately familiar to River. An incredulous look falls across her face. "Are you serious?"
The TARDIS just plays the music louder.
It's Diana Ross and the Supremes, reminding her of jukeboxes she came across when she escaped the Silence for awhile in America. "No, wait!" she cries out unexpectedly. The one in the cafe that she Amy and Rory would to get ice-cream in wasn't it?" she recollects.
The music gets even louder, changing to 'I Hear a Symphony'. Maybe it's the wine from earlier, or the afterglow of making love to her husband, or just the warm echos in those lyrics from when she was a child again growing up with her parents-before the complications of now-but she smiles a deep, unfettered smile.
And she begins to sing, while hitting a control here, a lever here, dancing with her second mother and paying no mind to sad thoughts or if the Doctor might find her Wherever the Doctor is, she does not care. She sways and swirls around the console, singing out in a pure voice. And the TARDIS dances with her ever so gently.
A tender melody
Pulling me closer
Closer to your arms
Then suddenly, I hear a symphony
As the lyrics leave her lips, she unawares feels a warm hand on her waist turning her around. And there is the Doctor, all shirt and no bowtie and hanging braces, in all his awkward glory she has grown to love. She stops singing, struck by his immediate nearness.
His eyes met hers as he begins to sway. She can do nothing but follow.
She looks incredulous at him for a moment, easing the dancing movement fever ever so slightly.
"You must have gotten jealous, your TARDIS and your wife dancing without you." She smirks and watches his brow furrow and then release into a pure smile. She mirrors his movement, searching his face for any hesitation, waiting for a word.
But he doesn't say a word for once; instead he begins to move her effortlessly around the console.
"How long can he not be clumsy," she thinks to herself. But they glide as if it were practiced. She feels the TARDIS sway with them, helping along with the movements. "She is making sure her Doctor seems graceful," she thinks. The joy in her heart rises with the music, and she sings to her Doctor. She means the words as if they were her own. And miracle upon miracles, she finally hears him sing along.
You bring much joy within
Don't let this feeling end
Let it go on and on and on
A touch of silliness hangs in their voices, those young old eyes looking deep in hers, and he kisses her lips without any provocation from her. This is a whole new feeling, to have the kiss initiated fully by him, and she is without thought for a moment. Its a gentle kiss, ever so tender and achingly long.
"Doctor…" she sighs into his lips when she can breathe again.
"Yes, River?" he says before pulling back, tenderly studying her face, one hand on her chin rubbing across her jaw line.
"This won't last forever, will it?" she asks. The words aren't right, she thinks, they aren't a question but a plea against time. Her words hang with bitterness in her throat as they travel in his ears and escape with a look in his eyes that she can read like a book. It's pain that even she can't fully reach through. Her eyes fall to his chest, a single finger stroking along his exposed collarbone. She feels so alive in this moment, in his arms, but the chill of those former thoughts make her crawl in her own skin.
He pulls her in closer in a deep embrace, and she feels him bury his face into her curls, breathing her in.
"Spoilers, my love. Spoilers. Let us just dance while we can," he speaks, holding her ever so close as he buries his face in her neck.
If time had a scent, it would hang heavy on them. She breathes in its weight and indistinct fragrance as she buries her face in his chest. And the song plays again, the dance now much more muted, more intimate. She wraps her arms around his waist.
And the TARDIS knows she has done her best to bring happiness to those she loves.