The Doctor lead River to the most spectacular table she had ever seen, for the she didn't how many times it had been within this one twenty four year long night. They had been enjoying themselves, seeing the sights of Darillium, and having dinner here, in the same spot, at the same table with a view of The Singing Towers, every 'year'. As the night's years grew shorter, so did there conversations. Previous conversations were all good, of course. They wanted to reminisce on all the good times they had shared together, but the night was nearly over, and it was time to find out what the other had been doing since they last saw each other. Which, technically, was in Manhattan. The Doctor twirled his spoon around in his soup, looking down at it, silent for a few minutes, before he looked up at River.
"What have you been doing since Manhattan?" He asked, uneasily, the loss of Amy and Rory still weighing high on his conscience.
River looked at him as she was about to take a bite of her cherry pie, then putting the fork down, she stared at the love of her life.
"My best to cope" she replied.
"Would that be marrying every man you meet?" The Doctor asked, still twirling his spoon.
"I told you, I married Hydroflax for the diamond," River retorted, " Ramone, I got bored one day, and the other twelve, well, let's say, they gave me something I couldn't resist"
"So you stole artefacts off those husbands, too?" The Doctor asked.
"No. Well, yes," River answered, "But I didn't just steal them off my husbands. I stole from everywhere, and sold them on the Intergalactic Black Market"
"Do you think they'd be proud of that?" The Doctor asked his wife.
"They knew who I was," River answered him, "They knew what I was like. Besides, I mainly did it for the money. Had to save up enough funds for the trip"
"Trip?" The Doctor asked, "Trip to where?"
Even though he knew full well where, he still let her tell him.
"The biggest library in the universe!" she exclaimed gleefully, "An archaeologist's dream!"
With that, The Doctor looked back down at his soup. River frowned at this, her husband obviously didn't like libraries. Why on Earth did he have one in the TARDIS then? She decided to change the subject.
"So!" she said, "What about you? I mean, you told me how you managed to get your new face, but what adventures have you had with that face? You seem awfully quiet about those"
"Alot, actually," The Doctor said, looking back up from his soup, "Most, not good. I try not to remember them, but I tried to turn a Dalek good, which didn't work out, now he just wants to kill all the Daleks. I got trapped underwater in some sort spaceship submarine with ghosts, I made another person immortal. Amongst other things"
"Ooh, sounds exciting!" River said, "What about this Clara girl you told me about? What happened to her? Where is she now?"
The Doctor was silent for a moment. Trying to think, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember.
"I don't remember," he said, looking back into his soup, where he saw is reflection, and looked bak up "BUT! The biggest mystery to me was this face!"
He waved his hands around his face. River tilted her head to this.
"I just couldn't figure out why I chose this face!" He continued, "It was bugging me for a long time, I knew there was a reason, I just couldn't pick it! Then that night I made the girl immortal, by accident, it dawned on me when I saw my reflection in a barrel of water, when my hair was rugged"
"Yes?" River said, leaning her elbows on the table, hands at her chin, "What was it?"
"From when I went to Pompeii," The Doctor replied, "When the volcano erupted, I was so set on nothing changing, not interfering with anything. But, I came around. Not by myself, of course"
"You always did need a little shove" River chimed in.
"I guess I do," The Doctor replied, then continuing, "Just about as we were leaving Pompeii to burn, this companion of mine, Donna. Donna Noble.."
He stopped for a second, looking off to the side, the memory of Donna, his very first best friend, weighing on his conscience.
"What did she do?" River asked.
"She begged me to save them. Or at least somebody. One person, even," The Doctor continued, then pointing at his face, "This is the face of the man whose family I saved that night, thanks to Donna. Donna's the one who always reminded that I'm The Doctor, and I save people. She made me see the way through things without affecting much of time or space itself. And I think I was in desperate need of knowing that, which is why I believe I got this face"
"Amazing," River said, "This Donna sounds like quite the woman"
"She is" The Doctor, replied, looking back down at his soup.
"I'd quite like to meet her, you should take me to visit sometime" River stated.
'You can't" The Doctor said, continuing to look at his soup.
"And why not?" River asked.
"Or I can't" The Doctor said, looking back up at River with sorrowful eyes.
"Come again?" River asked, slightly confused.
"Something happened," The Doctor replied, "Something big. And in the end, a metacrisis was the result and she absorbed half my brain, managing to save the world, but as you know, metacrisises can't ever happen, so I had to wipe her memory of her travels with me. If she gets even the slightest hint of me, she'll burn up inside and die, so I can't."
He looked down at his soup once more.
"Well, who needs you, then?" River retorted, "There's nothing to say that I can't see her by myself, is there? She sounds like my type of woman, I'd quite like to meet her"
"You can't" The Doctor said in a harsh tone.
"You told me why you can't, why the hell can't I?" River asked, a tad bit furiously.
"Spoilers" The Doctor answered his wife's question with the word she's so fond of, looking up from his soup one last time.
