Travel With Me?
Clutching Amy's afterword, the Doctor made his way back to the Tardis.
He entered the ship. River was there, sat on the staircase, her head in her hands and her body shaking.
"Oh, River..." He made his way towards her and sat down next to her, holding her close. "They were your parents, I didn't even think..."
She didn't say anything, continuing to sob.
The Doctor allowed himself to cry too- he had lost two of his closest friends, and his wife had lost her parents.
River pulled away from him, and this time held her husband close, letting him grieve.
They held each other close for a while as the Tardis hummed mournfully around them- she would miss the redhead and her husband who loved her more than anything.
When River let her husband go, she noticed that he had stopped crying and was staring into space. "Sweetie?"
He met her gaze. "River..." He said softly, cupping her face in his hands. "I can't lose you too."
"I'm not going anywhere, I promise. I'll stay." She replied, smiling at him. Despite the fact that she'd just lost her parents, she knew that she had to be strong for him.
"You mean, you'll travel with me?" The Doctor's face lit up.
"If you'll have me."
"Of course I will, sweetheart." Her husband responded, pulling her into a hug.
She hugged him back. "I love you, husband." She murmured against his shoulder.
"I love you too."
They pulled apart.
River stood up. "I'd better go and start on the book..."
"Okay." The Doctor replied, a flash of pain passed fleetingly across his face.
She leaned down to kiss him. "It's all right, Sweetie. We'll cope, we will get through this." With that, she left the central console room.
Despite all the times that River withheld things from her husband, her spoilers, he knew the ultimate one- that she would die in the library.
"I can't lose River too, I really can't. However many years it is from now, she's my wife!" The Doctor muttered, standing at the console.
The Tardis hummed sharply at him in warning.
"Come on, Sexy! She's your child, she has just lost her parents and me my best friends! There must be something to be done, she does not deserve to die! All I want is a happy life with the woman I love, is that too much to ask?!" He ranted angrily, kicking the console.
This wasn't fair, he would rip the universe apart if it meant that River wouldn't meet her awful fate. She'd told him not to rewrite any of the times together that they had, but what if he rewrote time so that she wouldn't go to the library?
The Doctor voiced these thoughts to his ship.
Suddenly, the Tardis took off somewhere, and turned the stabilisers on and the brakes off. She shut the doors leading down the various corridors.
He frowned. "Where are we?"
She hummed at him.
"Oh, so I'm supposed to go outside and not tell River?"
The Tardis hummed at her thief again-honestly, he could be so daft sometimes!
"Oh, okay." The Doctor replied.
There were sparks at the console, he jumped back in shock. "Okay, okay!" He said, taking this to mean that he didn't have much time.
He made his way out of the Tardis, and she shut the doors behind him.
Meanwhile, River was in her study, sitting at her desk. She was tapping at her typewriter, getting started on the book that she had to write.
She paused for a moment, and put her elbows on the desk, resting her chin in her hands. It had been quite a day.
River couldn't quite believe that her parents had gone, that she'd never see them again. She'd grown up with them as their best friend, but she hadn't spent that much time with them as their daughter.
She knew that the ache of grief would fade, but it was like a fresh wound at that moment. A tear slipped down her cheek and she wiped it away quickly, not wanting to break down again.
A while later...
River was writing her book, completely focused, when there was a knock at the door. She frowned, got up, and opened it.
Her husband was standing there, his arms folded and a big grin on his face.
"Sweetie?" She frowned. "What have you done?"
"I'm not going to lose you, ever." He murmured, and took her hands in his. "We can be happy now, River."
"What about spoilers and all-" River was cut off by his finger on her lips.
"I knew the ultimate spoiler about you, River. But I've just fixed it. It's not going to happen now." The Doctor said, crossing his arms again.
She eyed him warily. "You haven't wrecked anything, have you?"
"Sort of. Ish. I fixed it."
"You'd better have." She replied. "What's the spoiler that's not going to happen now?"
"Well, there was a library, and you were going to die there... That was the first time I met you. I didn't know you at all... I've probably created a couple of paradoxes, but what matters is that you are safe, you're not going to meet a horrible fate." The Doctor explained.
"Okay..." She frowned. "We're in sync now, right?"
"Yep." He answered.
"So..." River gasped. "We can be happy, truly happy."
"There's nothing in our way, holding us back." Said her husband, and pulled her into a hug.
Unlike the embrace that they had had earlier, this one was a happy one. Despite everything that had happened to them that day, River couldn't help but smile against the Doctor.
They kissed- their tragic love story was no longer tragic, no longer a twisted fairy tale. Like all good stories, there had been unhappiness, but now there was happiness- and hope.