I'll try to update every Sunday, but no promises, hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think.

Prologue
Inside the vault

A woman with frizzy hair sighed as she flicked through a page in her diary. Life was so boring now. Ever since the Doctor decided he couldn't have dead person wandering around the universe. If there was any consolation, it meant he was bored too. He had sworn an oath to her, to keep her there. He'd get bored though, she knew the Doctor. He'd find some human to keep him company and wouldn't be able to resist flying off somewhere in the TARDIS. He wouldn't be able to help showing off. Arrogance. Always his downfall.

She looked down at the yellowing page. The title of it was 'Jim the Fish'. She smiled to herself. Those were the days. When he was young again. With his stupid bowtie and fez. And he could never stop waving his arms. He was so different now. Old. And he wasn't her Doctor. The last time she had met her Doctor was in Manhattan. Well that was the last time she had seen her Doctor when she was alive, she had briefly met up with him later in his timeline. He seemed to have almost forgotten Amy and Rory then. He had a new friend, Clara, she had jumped into his own timeline to save him. At least they had said goodbye then, properly.

He never did like endings though, he travelled back to the library a while later. Clara hadn't been with him that time. And he had changed. Regenerated. She had only ever met him once in that regeneration, that had been their last night together. At the singing towers of Darillium. He had known it would be their last night together then. It had been perfect.

"Come with me." He had said, when he had downloaded her in the TARDIS.

"I can't." River had shaken her head. "You know the rules." He had glared at her then.

"I don't care."

"Where are you anyway?" River had asked, taking her diary off him and flicking through it. "13th regeneration," She muttered to herself flicking through her diary "He might have done Darillium."

"I really wish you wouldn't mutter under your breath." The Doctor looked at her.

"You're so grumpy now." She teased.

"Darillium." The Doctor looked at her.

"I've come from Darillium, well, not really I stayed in the TARDIS for a while, then went on adventure with Nardole, but I couldn't forget you."

"It was supposed to be the last goodbye, when Clara jumped into your timeline."

"I got bored." He turned away. "Now, I've already thought it through, we can't go traveling, but I can give that up for a while."

"But." River Song tried to protest, but the TARDIS was already whirring away and they were traveling back to Earth. "Still keep the handbrakes on?" She smiled. Oh it was good to be back with the Doctor, even if it meant breaking every law of time.

She couldn't stay forever though. That's why he put her in the vault. Kept her in there. That way she was safe. He knew she wanted to go back, he knew she knew she had to. So he swore an oath, to keep her locked away. He was only acting out of love, River knew that, she just couldn't accept it. He was keeping her prisoner.

Here she was 70 years later still in the vault. That's what she had heard them call it anyway. Nardole and the Doctor. She knew sooner or later, he would get bored though. It was the Doctor, he always did. She had heard about the time he lived on Earth with Amy and Rory when the cubes had come, he had got bored in half an hour. He certainly must have grown a lot more patient since then.

"Sir, you can't." She heard Nardole's voice from outside.

"It's only one small trip." He replied "And it's for Bill not me." So he had found a friend on Earth.

"Then, sir, I must insist on coming with you." Nardole said.

"Fine, come if you really want, but you're the one who's so bothered about guarding the vault. She's not got to escape if we go on one small trip."

"It's not just been one though, has it sir?" Nardole nagged.

"And she's not noticed yet." The Doctor says "And I doubt she ever will." A few minutes later River heard the whirring of the TARDIS. Then silence. Then the whirring again. She wasn't fooled though. He could have been gone for years.

"Sir come on, you have to check." She heard Nardole say.

"Worry guts." He said and there was a small knock on the door of the vault.

"Who's even in there?" She heard a girl's voice. Must be Bill she thought.

"No one you need to worry about. Now, go upstairs and serve chips or whatever it is you do." She heard footsteps.

"Sir, this has to stop, if you want to keep her, this has to stop." Nardole whispered anxiously.

"Oh go away Nardole, it's nothing to do with you."

"But sir, your oath. You swore."

"What I swore is between me and her." The Doctor snapped. "Now go, I want to talk to her alone." She heard footsteps going away once more. "River, can I come in?" She remained silent. Maybe he'd go away. "I'm only doing this because I love you." He sighed, but then walked off.

She turned back to her diary, but looked up when she heard footsteps a while later.

"Er, hello?" She heard the girl's voice from earlier, obviously she had snuck back. "Who are you? Why does the Doctor keep you locked up?"

"Unlock the door and I'll tell you." She replied, maybe she could finally make her escape, after all these years of waiting.

"But the Doctor says you're dangerous."

"How many times has your life been in danger when you've been with him?" River sighed.

"But there must be a reason he keeps you locked up. Why?"

"The Doctor is a very complicated man." She begins "And he doesn't like endings. I knew when my time was, but he doesn't. He wants me to stay with him."

"Why don't you want to stay with him though?"

"Open the door. Please." River walked over to it. She heard one of the bolts locking it slide away. "I'm dead." Outside the vault Bill looked horrified and took a step back.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"It happened a long time ago." River whispered "But the Doctor doesn't accept it so he sort of downloaded me, onto a screwdriver."

"You mean he has more than one of those things?"

"No. They're just different versions. Same hard drive, they just look different. Anyway, he used it to bring me back."

"But, why don't you want to be with him, if you were happy."

"He's breaking every law of time that his people made. This isn't allowed to happen. It's just not meant to be." She heard the 2nd lock slide back.

"Do all of us die?" She heard Bill ask. "I mean, when he talks about his past, which hardly ever happens, he always looks sad."

"No. He's a time lord. That means he can never spend his life with someone, he's practically immortal. They always leave him. Or yes, sometimes, very occasionally, they do die." River remembered the last time she saw her parents. They had just escaped. Everything was fine. Then there was the angel. She knew Amy would always pick Rory. It had always been Rory.

"I-I have to go." Bill said, backing away.

"No, I didn't mean to scare you. It's, it's just complicated. Danger follows you everywhere. You must have realised that by now. But being with the Doctor, it's the best thing ever and I wouldn't change it for the world." She heard a fumble on the final lock. "Bill, he's worth it." The final lock slid out of the bolt.

"What happened to them?" Bill asked. "The people who travelled with him?"

"I don't know. Not all of them anyway. He doesn't like to talk about them. There was Rose, they were in love, but she ended up trapped in a parallel universe. She kept trying to come back, and she did. Not for long though. It was complicated. There ended up being two versions of the Doctor, but one was part human. He could never regenerate, so they went back to the parallel world and lived together. Then there was Martha, she just decided to leave him. She loved him, but he didn't love her. Donna was next."

"How many were there?"

"I don't know. He's had many lives though, the Doctor."

"What happened to her?"

"He had to wipe her memory, every memory of him, or space or aliens. It all had to go. Her mind would have burned up otherwise." A tear fell down Bill's cheek.

"But I-." She wiped the tear away. "When the Doctor and I, when we first met and had our first adventure, he tried to wipe my memory. And I said. Imagine, imagine if it was him. He changed his mind, he said I could go, but not to tell anyone. Was that why?"

"Maybe, he's so complicated no one will probably ever know."

"Was she the last one, before me?" Bill asked. River shook her head.

"No. Then I come in. Well, not until later. He met my mum, Amy, and they travelled for a while and then she introduced him to my dad. Then my mum became pregnant, with me. I was conceived in the time vortex though."

"The time what?"

"It's complicated. It's the thing time lords look into to become, well time lords." River took a breath "Only it meant when I was conceived I was a time lady. I was kidnapped and then stuff happened. I regenerated a couple of times. Tried to kill the Doctor, that was complicated though, I didn't know what I was doing. Then I gave all my regenerations to save him. We never really travelled together as such. We just met up. He came whenever I called. Then my parents were zapped back into the past and the Doctor could never see them again."

"What about you?"

"We're both time lords remember, our timelines are more complicated. Stuff that had happened for him, hadn't happened for me yet. So yes I did see them again, but younger versions of them. They didn't even know who I was for most of it. Then I called for him one day, but the message was messed up in his timeline, he came too early. He had never met me. I died saving him in the end."