He was at a hotel in London when she happened. There was a large zap! as she appeared, smoothing down the ridiculous amount of frizz the teleportation left her with. "Hello, John," she said softly, taking a seat next to him on the tiny couch, resting a gentle hand on his forearm.

He didn't move. Instead, he simply said, "Hello, River."

"How are you doing?"

"I called Dean about a week ago. He, uh... Well, I asked him how to get ahold of Crowley." No point in lying to her, she'd find out by herself eventually.

River inhaled sharply. She knew he was dealing with Sherlock's "death" poorly, but this... This was absolute madness. "John-"

"River, don't. You can't understand how-"

Her grip tightened on his arm. "Of course I don't. It's not as if I've had to deal with my husband's death." He slowly looked up at her, the pain showing through his eyes mirroring in her own. "Losing someone you love isn't easy, but striking a deal with the King of Hell is not the way to cope with it."

"I want him back," John whispered, suddenly feeling tiny under River's gaze.

River sighed, wishing that she could just tell him that Sherlock wasn't dead. It was much easier when it was her own family, when the consequences wouldn't lead to the unravelling of Sherlock's entire plan. It was one thing to tell your husband's secret after the entire escapade had been completed. It was another to ruin a friend's work in progress. "I know you do. And I wish you could have him back. But you know that's not how it works."

"Talk to the Doctor," he suddenly pleaded. "God, River, I'm begging you, talk to your husband and let me fix this."

She shook her head firmly. "Moriarty was too big a part in your lives, rewriting it would change too much of your future. The moment Molly Hooper brought him into the lab is a fixed point. You must always meet Jim Moriarty. There's no way to rewrite all of that time."

"I want to do it anyway."

"John," River sighed, taking his hand between hers, "do you remember what I told you happened when I tried to rewrite a fixed point?"

"Time broke."

"Exactly. The moment you touch everything would right itself again. Could you imagine not being able to touch him at all?"

He paused for a moment. "I suppose you're right."

River smiled as she stood. "Come on then. The Doctor said you get one free space trip for this. No time, just space. And Amy made some chocolate cake. We've got to have someone around who doesn't remember the fiasco with the brownies to objectively tell her if it's good. Care to join us right now?"

"Yeah. And... I owe Dean an apology. Do you think we could get them as well?"

"Of course." She offered him her arm, and with a zap! they were off to find Team Free Will and then head back to the TARDIS.

A/N: This is obviously some time after Reichenbach for Jawn, post Demon's Run Trip #2 for River, and honestly, you could just pick nearly any time for the Winchesters. I'm not comfortable with the SuperWho crossovers that involve Canton actually being Crowley, so I'm just going to leave that one alone, because then you could get into just about any other role Mark Sheppard's ever been in. (Although, I will say, the AUs where Crowley is playing at being Badger from Firefly are kinda coolish. His job description evolved a bit when the Alliance took over and whatnot.)