This story will most likely be updated slowly, every couple days like, because I've got to wrap up some others, but I wanted to test the waters because this one is going to be a bit AU, a bit more than my others because events that happened a certain way happen differently, some very differently, not exactly the way they were remembered. It's also the first story I've added Clara to.

Oh, and River's in this a bit because of where it starts, probably not any River after so if you don't like her, read that bit quickly like pulling off a bandaid. :)

It starts toward the end of The Name Of The Doctor then goes back a bit, so here's where things go a bit...different...

The Doctor's entire body burned as his timeline collapsed and there was Clara. Clever Clara getting ready to sacrifice herself for him…again. To save him…again. His impossible girl, the girl Rose foretold about or had she created Clara? He never did figure that bit out.

Only this was original Clara and she was about to rip herself apart. Destroy herself as so many others had done. As Rose had done.

"No," he cried out, but his voice came out barely above a whisper, filtered through the pain.

She glanced at him then and smiled.

"Run you clever boy…and remember me," she said, repeating those fateful words.

The last words his beloved uttered before she burned like the sun, saving him for a second time. A tear escaped his eye as Clara dove into him, into his time stream. Then she was gone and just like that everything was healed. Jenny was back, Vastra was there, and Strax returned with his memory, well, what memory he had before.

"It was an unprovoked and violent attack, but that's no excuse," Strax insisted as the Doctor listened with his back to them from the other side of what was once the TARDIS control room.

"We're all restored. That's all that matters now," Vastra said.

Hearing Clara say those words, Rose's last words, tore open that wound, the one her death left behind, the wound that would never heal, the one that caused him to regenerate into the man he was. The man who forgot, but this time, this time he wasn't going to forget. This time another voice ran through his mind, the voice of the man he'd once been. Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!

Slowly, he turned around and eyed Vastra.

"We are not all restored," he replied.

"You can't go in there. It's your own time stream, for God's sake," the River hologram that was more than a hologram insisted.

He was the only one who could see the River hologram and like all the other times he pretended she wasn't there. Pretended he couldn't see her.

"I have to get her back," he replied.

"Of course, but not like this."

"But how?" Jenny asked.

"Is she still alive? It killed Doctor Simeon," Vastra inquired in disbelief.

"Clara's got one advantage over the Great Intelligence," he replied.

"Which is?"

"Me."

"Doctor, please listen to me," River insisted. "At least hear me."

He glanced down sadly, trying to ignore River.

"Now, if I don't come back, and I might not-"

"Doctor!" River yelled.

"Go to the TARDIS. The fast return protocols should be on. She'll take you home, then shut herself down."

"There has to be another way." River stepped toward him, but he continued to ignore her. "Use the TARDIS, use something. Save her, yes, but for God's sake be sensible."

River tried to slap him, knowing that it probably wouldn't even work, but she was shocked when he caught her arm. She gazed at him in surprise.

"How are you even doing that? I'm not really here," she gasped.

"You are always here to me…and I always listen, and I can always see you," he replied.

She was his wife. A marriage he'd been forced into and although she never replaced Rose in his hearts, because no one ever could, he allowed her to get a bit closer than the others. He had to in order to make her care enough to do what had to be done, but it made it harder to lose her. River could never be Rose, but she was River, his best friend's daughter, his last tie to little Amelia.

"Then why didn't you speak to me?"

He glanced away sadly.

"Because I thought it would hurt too much."

"I believe I could have coped."

"No, I thought it would hurt me. And I was right."

River could see it then. How alone he was. How lost. Even with Clara he was lost. Guilt welled up in her chest.

"I'm sorry," she said.

He gave her a sad smile.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, River."

"Oh, but I do." He gave her a quizzical look and she sighed. "I'm in the largest library in the universe. I know why you were drawn to Clara. It was the words, the last words she spoke to you. I…I think she's alive."

The Doctor knew who River was referring to. Rose. Rose was alive?

"What?" the word came out in a whisper as a sliver of hope, hope that he hadn't felt in a very long time, pierced his hearts.

"Doctor," River swallowed, knowing that this would be goodbye, but also knowing that he needed her. "There's a creature on an isolated planet in the Dundra system, a creature that can't ever die, a creature that burns like the sun."

His eyes narrowed. She knew? How long had she known? Why didn't she tell him right away?

"River, River why didn't you tell me before?"

She could see the anger in his eyes and she felt the guilt over keeping it from him, but how could she tell him when telling him meant losing him?

"I…I know how you feel about her. That's here too. And I…I wasn't ready to lose you, not yet."

He gazed into her eyes and saw the fear there. Then he sighed.

"Oh, River," he kissed her then, kissed her goodbye, because that's what this was and for the first time in a long time happiness welled within his hearts because Rose, his Rose, was alive. Then he stepped back and glanced at Vastra, Jenny, and Strax who were looking at him strangely. "Since nobody else in this room can see you, God knows how that looked." He gazed into her eyes, cupping her cheeks. "There is a time to live and a time to sleep. You are an echo, River. Like Clara. Like all of us in the end. My fault, I know, but you should've faded by now."

"It's hard to leave when you haven't said goodbye."

She was his last tie to Amy. Knowing that Rose was alive made it easier, but he'd never been good at goodbyes. He sighed.

"Then tell me because I don't know. How do I say it?"

"There's only one way I'd accept. If you ever loved me, say it like you're going to come back."

He gave her a sad smile. She was River and she was Amy and Rory and everyone he ever lost and never said goodbye to. He pulled himself together and stepped back, eyeing her as he'd done so many times when she popped in and out of his life.

"Well, then. See you around, Professor River Song," he said.

"Till the next time, Doctor," she replied, a bit flirty, as she always had.

"Don't wait up."

"Oh, there's one more thing."

He gave her a sad laugh.

"Isn't there always?"

"I was mentally linked with Clara. If she's really dead, then how can I still be here?"

"Okay, how?"

"Spoilers. Goodbye, sweetie," she said and with that she vanished.

The Doctor stood there for a moment. River was gone, but Rose…Rose was alive. A smile crept over his face as he turned around and eyed his time stream. He clapped his hands, readying himself.

"Today is a good day. Do you know why?" he asked, glancing at Vastra.

"No, Doctor, why?" she inquired.

"Because today…just this once, everybody lives," he replied and then stepped into his own time stream.

Standard Disclaimer.

Thank you to all my brilliant readers!

Reviews are always welcome.