Family Outing
River sat at her dressing table, redoing her makeup. Her hearts were still hammering from what happened in Manhattan- they were all safe and she couldn't quite believe it.
The Doctor entered the room and sat on the bed- their bed, watching her in the mirror. "You're beautiful without that, you know."
"You've told me that countless times, my love. I think differently." She said, and turned towards him. Without warning, she leapt forward and pinned him down on the bed.
"River!" He squawked. Any further protests were stopped in their tracks by her lips over his.
He hummed appreciatively, one hand cradling the back of her head and the other on the small of her back.
"I love you." River informed him when they broke apart, nuzzling his chest.
He rolled them so they were on their sides facing each other. "And I love you, my River Song. Melody Pond. As much as I'd like to continue this, your parents are out there. And I want to go to the pub."
"Maybe later... This, I mean?" She bit her lip.
"You mean you're staying?" The Doctor asked, his face lighting up.
"Yeah, I'd like to spend some time with the people who I love the most. My parents and my husband. Spoilers and everything else be damned."
He held her close. "Yes." Was all he said. He'd wanted this- time with his wife without danger for a long time- he was finally getting his wish.
River felt the same- she finally had a chance, and had grabbed it with both hands.
Regretfully, she got up. "Come on, Sweetie." She said, pulling him up.
He kissed her. "I can't believe that you're staying."
"We have a chance to be happy- as a family with Amy and Rory, and as a couple, the two of us. Let's grab that chance.
"Let's." The Doctor agreed, pecking her cheek.
A while later..
"So you're in sync and everything, there's no threat?" Amy questioned her daughter.
The four of them were now at a pub on present day earth. Amy and River were chatting whilst their respective significant others played on the various fruit machines and video games- much to their amusement. The Doctor didn't know how to handle a gun that well and Rory kept losing on every single fruit machine.
"Yep. I'm staying in the Tardis with you lot for a while."
"Really?" Amy grinned.
"Yeah, it's not often I get to spend time with my parents, and my husband, when we're all in sync." River said, taking a sip of her white wine.
Her mother nodded in agreement. "It'll be nice to have you around for a while. Just don't smog the Doctor too much in front of us."
"I won't." River laughed.
The Doctor whooped in excitement as a cascade of money came out of one of the machine's exits. He scooped the money up and sat next to River. "Look!" He said excitedly, dumping the pile of coins on the table.
"Fabulous I'm sure Sweetie." his wife responded, and gathered the money up and put it in her purse.
The Doctor stuck his bottom lip out and frowned at her. "I want to spend my winnings!'
"They won't buy you very much in here. Besides, I want to have a go at that alien shooting game." His wife nodded to the game Rory was playing- and spectacularly failing at.
"You're on!" The ginger said to her daughter.
River raised an eyebrow. "You really think that you can beat me?"
"Excuse me, I'm handy with a gun!"
The Doctor watched in amusement as the two women made their way up to Rory and persuaded him to go and sit back down.
"I think that you have a lucky touch or something, I didn't win once." Rory sighed, flopping down next to the Doctor and taking a drink of his beer.
"I don't know how you can drink that stuff." The Doctor wrinkled his nose in distaste. "I had a go on it earlier and I was quite good."
"Seriously?" Rory scowled.
"Did you know that River's staying on the Tardis for a bit?"
"Really? It'll be nice having her around." To the Doctor's relief, his father in law had brightened up.
"It will," The Doctor took a sip of River's wine and immediately regretted it. "It feels like there's something missing when she's not there." He continued, getting up to order himself a drink, taking a fiver out of River's bag. "I'm sure that she won't mind."
A while later...
A triumphant Amy sat down next to Rory and finished his drink. "I won!"
"Only because I let you, mother." River made herself comfortable on the seat next to the Doctor. She looked at her glass with a frown and looked at her husband's glass of Ribena. "How many times?" She scolded her husband. "You don't like wine, you idiot."
"Sorry." He looked at her like a kicked puppy.
"I suppose that I love you." River couldn't help but kiss him.
"Eww! What did we say?!" Rory protested.
"Sorry." His daughter apologised, and finished her drink. "Shall we be getting off soon? It's been quite a day."
"Yeah, I second that." The Doctor finished his own drink.
Unbeknownst to Amy and Rory, River shot her husband a cheeky wink. It was almost time to finish what he'd started earlier.
"Okay, if the Tardis behaves there's something I've been wanting to watch on the TV." Amy said, getting her coat on and standing up.
River did likewise. "She should do, we've been through the mill today."
The two men got up too, and they all made their way back to the Tardis, talking and laughing. They'd never take what they had for granted, as a family and with their other halves, again.