Pairings: River/Eleven, River/Twelve

Spoilers: The Time of the Doctor

Rated: PG-13 for kissing

Summary: He turns from Amy - his Amelia Pond - his first face for this face, and searches blindly for the one face that never leaves him. The one face he's yet to see running across his ship and memory.

Notes: Thanks to Becs for glancing over this, though all mistakes are very much my own. This is completely inspired by spoilersweetie and her gorgeous post Xmas special fix-it, Time.

His lives are flashing through the TARDIS - glimpses and glimmers and ghosts. Faces and memories that he's kept hidden running freely amongst those he can never quite manage to forget.

He turns from Amy - his Amelia Pond - his first face for this face, and searches blindly for the one face that never leaves him. The one face he's yet to see running across his ship and memory.

River appears as if he's conjured her, as she always does. He thinks he hears Clara gasp, and some part of him realizes that he's not the only one aboard the TARDIS who can always see the ghost of his wife. It's cheating - River's data ghost should be long disbanded at a future Trenzalore, her ethereal molecules scattered across his ship and grave - but he's never been more thankful to cheat anything.

"River," his lips form the words but they come out a whisper of gold, and there's no holding back his regeneration this time.

He's frightened. He's used up all his lives and he doesn't know what to make of this unexpected gift - this influx of new regenerations. Will it even still be him? Of course it will - he will not forget himself. Not with his wife breathing life into him once again.

River's mouth smiles but her eyes are sad as she steps into the light with him. Her hand traces his face as she breathes out, "Hello, my love."

He drags her to him, his lips opening over hers and his hands clutching at her. His molecules are reorganizing - exploding and reforming and everything is burning - everything but River, her mind cool and calming against his own.

His vision fades to gold and everything melts away in one bright, shining moment, and then he is blinking out of new eyes and the only constant in his reformation is River. The first face this face sees. Brand new. "Hello. How do I look?"

River is blinking back at him, eyes wide. She licks her lips and then grins at him, one of her hands still tracing an entirely new face that tingles everywhere she touches. "Amazing."

Of course he looks amazing. Even if he's got new teeth, again, and their traditional exchanges roll around differently on this tongue. He wants to see how River tastes on this tongue, so he leans in to kiss her again but for the first time - swirls of gold still settling between them. River opens her mouth under his, solid and real and seeming far more comfortable with his new mouth than he is. New body and new mouth and... "Kidneys - I've got new kidneys!" He starts, breaking away from River and looking around wildly, trying to take in everything that is new. "I don't like the color."

River laughs at him, still not pulling back, and Clara is watching them with wide, unsure eyes.

Clearly confused, Clara demands, "Of your kidneys?!"

He hardly has time to respond that no - of course not his kidneys - though now that he thinks on it, he may not approve of their color either. Of the TARDIS mostly - these eyes don't appreciate the color and he'll need to redecorate... which is perhaps being taken out of his hands as the ship heaves and lurches and they are all thrown.

River loses her balance and stumbles back into Clara, sending them both colliding with the railing, as the Doctor races to the console. Clara's staring between him and River and the TARDIS, panicked. "What's happening?"

The ship is still lurching at an alarming rate and even River looks concerned. The Doctor hazards a very educated guess. "We're possibly crashing." Everything is still a jumble in his mind and all the levers and buttons and keypads all look the same and he can't quite - he glances at River for reassurance.

River looks shaken as she heaves herself off Clara, helps right the girl, and makes her way to the console. "Into what, Doctor?" Her voice is brisk and urgent and that's good - River will know. River always knows.

Clara shakes her head, approaching them slowly, where the Doctor and River are racing across the console. He needs River, here, now - he needs her more than he thinks he's ever needed anything because his head is still burning and blurring and he doesn't - he can't...

Clara's eyes are still wide as she watches them. "No. I mean - not to distract from the crashing - let's please not crash - but I meant River. What's happening to River?"

"What do you mean?" The Doctor shoves his hands through different hair and momentarily gets distracted - wondering if he's ginger at last and is his hair curly, again?

His eyes search out River, who is looking a little panicked herself - oh dear, they really are crashing, aren't they? River reaches out and slides her hand over his, her smile twitching weakly at her lips, before she slips her hand under his to twist the lever that had been baffling him. "I think she means this, sweetie. You're not the only thing I can touch anymore."

"I - but -" and his mind is racing in so many different directions - new mind, new directions - but he remembers River. Always. And River shouldn't be here - not really. Just another ghost in his too full mind. Only...

Only... she is, here. She crashed into Clara and she's adjusting buttons on the console and her hand feels solid under his in a way that she didn't before... She is solid in a way she wasn't before.

River meets his new eyes, biting her lip nervously, and the golden energy of his regeneration is still sparking off her skin, and suddenly he feels this ridiculous burst of happiness overtaking him. She's real and solid and here and it feels like dying and being reborn with her at his side for the second time - two Time Lords bathed in regeneration energy and he has a fleeting thought that she's going to be quite cross with him when they're not crashing and...

The TARDIS groans and lurches again and they're still crashing. Right. Crashing. He can fix this. It's just... "Stay calm." His eyes dart to Clara and then back to River as he squeezes her hand under his. "Just one question." River always knows. "Do you happen to know how to fly this thing?"