Note: I don't own anything!
"Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you – the future you, I mean – you turned up on my doorstep with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Durillium, to see the singing towers...ohh, what a night that was. The towers sang, and you cried. You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time. My time. Time to come to the library. You even gave me your screw driver! That should have been a clue..."
-River Song, Forest of the Dead
The life of an archeologist suited River Song in many ways. She reveled in solving age-old, impossible mysteries, and uncovering hidden clues left behind centuries ago. Being a time traveler, she especially enjoyed the satisfaction of finding lost bits of history, and working them into her knowledge of the universe. Most of all she loved being the best; unapologetically clever and undeniably in charge. But there were days when she felt all too prominently the restless itch of dormancy. Today was such a day.
Cold winter rain beat the windows incessantly, and her cozy little fireplace seemed swallowed by the dank, chilly atmosphere of the room. She was curled up on her sofa, wrapped in blanket after blanket, her book laying forgotten beside her. A cup of tea pressed scarce warmth into her palms, and she held her face close to the rim for a moment, inhaling as the steam condensed into small water droplets on her upper lip. She sighed, leaning her head back on the cushions, and allowed her eyelids to droop.
Seven months, four days, and twenty-three hours. The intervals in between their visits seemed to lengthen each time they parted. And with each bittersweet reunion, she could feel him slipping further, and further away. She dreaded the day when he would look upon her face, the face he had held in his hands, kissed and caressed tenderly, and see right through it. This, she knew, would be the true end for her.
River had always been somewhat reckless and brash. A self-described thrill seeker, she'd never had much regard for her own well-being, even before she knew the Doctor. Even before their adventures together. But perhaps this knowledge, that hers was a fate worse than death, had contributed to her lack of respect for her own mortality. He scolded her for this, but always with a smile pulling at his lips, and a twinkle in his eyes. He'd never admit it, but he had a thing for bad girls. And she had a thing for stubborn, intelligent, mischievous, self-important, inquisitive, witty, dashing-
Cutting off her train of thought abruptly, she sprang from the sofa, casually side-stepped the swig of tea sloshing from her cup, and strode to her closet. This would not do. Rain or not, she could not sit still and stew any longer. She threw open the double doors, tore her coat off the hanger, and shoved her feet into a pair of overlarge, rubber rain boots. Brushing an errant curl out of her eyes, she jammed a wide-brimmed at over her unruly hair, and crossed the room to her front door. She grasped the handle, chin lifted, jaw set, and-
"Well you're not going out like that, are you?"
River Song paused for but a moment. Then she smiled. "Hello, Sweetie."
She turned to see The Doctor, arms crossed, leaning smugly against the side of his TARDIS, which he had parked silently atop her coffee table. She quickly scanned him for any indication of what period on his time-line this Doctor was. His handsome face was still youthful and untouched, his skin still perfectly etched out of marble, his lips still formed in that signature smile. His hair was different, freshly cut most likely, and he appeared to be wearing a smashing new suit. But his eyes...she lingered on his eyes. They were still warm and twinkling merrily, but there was something different there. Something she'd never seen before. It unsettled her.
River brushed it off. This was no time to be worrying about anything but his presence in her living room. She was older now, and not so much the impressionable girl she had been when they'd first met. But seeing him standing there, after all that time apart, she couldn't help herself. She kicked off her cumbersome footwear, tore across the room, and leapt into his arms.
He caught her with what would have been grace, had he not lost his footing at the last moment. Down they went, a tangled, laughing mass of limbs, and landed with a thump at the foot of the couch. Breathless from laughter and the force of the fall, they simply stared at each other for a moment, as though trying to drink in the sight of one another and encode the memory forever. "Took you long enough, love." she quipped, before dipping her head towards his, her eyes fluttering shut upon contact.
It was a sweet kiss, of longing and endearment. They'd had far more passionate, in the heat of a great battle, fighting for their lives. They'd had more playful, more fiery, more intimate. But this was a kiss she knew she would remember. It spoke of the time they'd been apart, and the time they'd spent missing each other. It was perfect.
Finally breaking the kiss, the Doctor sprang up from the floor, and grabbed River's hands, catapulting her up after him. "Well then, off we go." he said, snapping his fingers. The door to the TARDIS swung open, and he bounced onto the couch, seeing as the TARDIS was perched on her coffee table.
"Where to, my love?" she inquired as he offered his hand to help her climb up. She ignored it, and in two large steps, had joined him in the TARDIS.
"Ah, but that's for me to know." he grinned.
She rolled her eyes in fake exasperation. "Well how am I supposed to dress for the occasion if I don't know where we're going?"
"Ah. Yes. Dress." He said absentmindedly, "that sounds splendid." The TARDIS began to whirr and spin as he rushed around the center apparatus, turning knobs, and twisting handles. To any other person in the world, it would have looked like utter none-sense. But not River. She took her place next to the Doctor, and amid the chaos of taking off, and his confusing, idiosyncratic stream of nonsensical banter, she felt more at home than any other place in the universe.
"A dress then, darling?" she inquired again, as soon as they had stabilized. "Dress? Dress...AH, yes! Well, no. No no no, I'm afraid a dress won't do." She raised her eyebrows at him. "Not...a dress? What then?"
He paced for a moment, muttering to himself, and then without warning, bounded down one of the many corridors within his ship. "To the closet!" he called back to her, and she simply smiled, shaking her head. He was definitely still her Doctor.
Three quarters of an hour later, River stood before the Doctor, her eyebrows locked together in skepticism on her forehead and aching from the strain of holding this position for almost a full hour. "Ta-da!" he announced, and she slowly turned to the mirror to inspect the damage; he did not disappoint. Starting from the bottom up, she wore army style combat boots, over cream, faux-leather looking pants. Not a bad start, but from there he had forced her into a heavy woolen sweater adorned with red and green snowflakes surrounding what appeared to be the head of a moose. Draped around her neck was a long, striped scarf, covered in browns and reds and tans and the like. He had given her leather gloves, of which she approved slightly, and what appeared to be a pair of old-fashioned pilot goggles, of which she approved much less. She had been allowed to keep her wide-brimmed hat as a compromise. To top it all of, he had searched the closet top to bottom, tearing through boxes and bags, until finally, with a triumphant "Ha!", he had spun around and sauntered towards her with a devilish grin, holding his prize behind his back "And for the final touch..." he said, swiftly fastening an odd broach-like object to the front of her sweater. Upon closer inspection, she found that she had just been decorated with a piece of moderately sized celery.
"Beautiful, my dear, simply beautiful." he smiled wickedly, "you pull it off much better than I ever did."
"Oh stop," she said with a fake swoon, pretending to fan herself, "you're making me blush."
They couldn't hold their mirth in for a moment longer. He was the first to crack, and she gladly followed him into peels of laughter. This was what traveling with the Doctor was supposed to be. It felt so right. But he worried her. He was laughing, but his eyes again held that indiscernible quality that she hadn't seen before. What was it – desperation? Regret? Sorrow? Fear? For the first time in many years, she couldn't read him. And there was definitely something he wasn't telling her.
"-River? Can you hear me?" she snapped back into focus, and realized she had been staring at the Doctor for an unusual amount of time. "Right, sorry, I just...sorry." He looked at her suspiciously for a moment, but the TARDIS began to make a whirring noise, and in a flash he was sprinting for the controls, shouting "we're here!"
River gladly took this opportunity to remove the hideous scarf and sweater, celery included. She had more trouble parting with the gloves, but they probably weren't very practical anyway. This left her in the boots, pants, and the black tank top she had been wearing when she left. Pulling a white jacket out of the closet, River returned to the control room just as the TARDIS landed.
"Well", she said, adjusting her new outfit, which she had already decided she was going to keep, "we're here, but where's here?"
He simply smiled, and jogged to the doors. "Why don't you come see for yourself?" he said, opening the police box doors, and gesturing grandly through them.
River complied, and stepped out of the TARDIS. The amber hue of the planet was blinding, and she had to shield her eyes for a moment. When they adjusted, she was able to see the source of the brilliant light; no less than four suns hung in the sky, each melting into the horizon simultaneously. She next turned her attention downward, she couldn't help but gape. Spread out before her was the most complex and architecturally stunning city River had ever seen. They had landed on one of the few flat topped buildings in the surrounding area, and from their perch, she could see the city sprawled out before her. It seemed to converge around one central building; eight main roads curved from the center, spiraling this way and that. Smaller roads branched off from these main roads, and even smaller still from these, curling off from one another in increasingly delicate tendrils and swirls. It reminded her of a wizened old tree, bent and gnarled from age, but beautiful in its complexity.
She noticed four other towers sticking out over the tops of the buildings. They were similar in structure to the main tower, but slightly smaller in size. At the top of each was a glowing orb that seemed to light each section of the city that it presided over. Light trickled from the orbs down the sides of the towers like glowing veins, pumping golden rays down each street, setting the entire city aglow.
River turned to the Doctor in wonder. "Is this...?"
"Durilliam." he answered with a smile.
"And are those...?" she gestured towards the golden towers behind her, unable to form words.
"The Singing Towers." he confirmed again, his smile growing into a self-satisfied grin. He knew she'd be pleased. "And tonight is a very, very special night. One in...oh, ten thousand."
Her eyes widen slightly. "Not...the night? Once every ten thousand years, the four suns of Durilliam set at the same time, and the towers-"
"Sing? That's the one. Those orbs on the tops of the towers are each focused on one of the suns, absorbing the solar energy they release, rerouting it through the central tower, and using it to power the city. The suns never set at the same time, so the planet never goes dark. Except for one day every ten thousand years-"
"-when they all set at exactly the same time. All of the solar energy is rerouted through the central tower, and the orbs reverberate so much from the energy that the towers sing!" River finished excitedly. She had once told the Doctor how badly she wished to see the singing towers. He had smiled, almost sadly, and said "someday."
River walked to the edge of the building, leaning on the balcony for support.
"Oh Doctor..." she said dreamily, only half kidding. Usually he was the one bounding with energy, unable to keep still. But this time, it was River, bouncing anxiously, unable to control her excitement. He walked up behind her, and gently laid his hand over hers, calming her slightly. They stayed there on the balcony in a comfortable silence, and the suns grew closer and closer to the horizon.
Finally, as the Doctor and River looked on, the four suns lowered until they were level with the orbs atop the golden towers. Again, River was blinded. Not by the suns this time, but by the orbs. They each began to glow brilliantly. Light seared through the golden veins, soaring up the central tower and into the main orb until it glowed brighter than the suns. As more and more energy flowed into it, River began to hear a soft humming floating down from the tower. Gradually, deepened into a rich, clear note, ringing above the city. But the pitched changed as energy flowed through the towers, rising up, up, up until the note hanging in the air, sweet and pure, was like a chorus of a thousand angels.
River, in awe, chanced a look at the Doctor. She was shocked to see several tears trickling down his nose. Never in her life did she think she would see him cry. He looked down at her with a sad smile, and she squeezed his hand affectionately. The towers sang for a few more precious moments, and River's heart soared. She could feel the song in her veins, pumping life into her; she had never felt more alive. But the suns were moving quickly. All too soon, they were creeping below the horizon, and the note began to fade. As the last of the golden rays disappeared below the horizon, the city lapsed in to silence. Bathed in darkness for the first time in ten thousand years.
River and the Doctor stood in the quiet dark for a moment, processing what they had just seen. River closed her eyes, trying to preserve the golden memory, the sound of the towers singing, forever. The Doctor's hand slipped out of hers, and he began slowly walking back to the TARDIS. River stayed for a moment longer, still engulfed in the moment.
Soon she followed her Doctor into the darkness, feeling her way to his outstretched arm. He snapped his fingers, and a beam of light shot out into the night as the door to the blue police box opened. Wrapping their arms around each others' waists, they walked the rest of the way back to the TARDIS, and with one last breath of the cool air, began readying for take-off.
The ride back to River's house was unusually subdued. She felt not only the calming, otherworldly effects of the singing towers, but a change in the Doctor. He had something on his mind other than the towers, she was sure. Perhaps the singing had stirred something in him from his past, something dark and painful. This would explain his reluctance to take her there initially. Perhaps this was just the effect of the towers on some people, but River knew better. The Doctor does not cry without warrant.
He let the TARDIS down quietly, in the absence of his favorite whirring noise. He seemed nervous. Fidgety. "Doctor..." she began, but couldn't quite bring herself to finish the sentence. He looked at her, and she caught a glimpse of what he had been hiding; not regret, nor anger, nor fear – but complete and utter defeat. The Doctor never gave up on anything, he never gave up hope. For a moment, he looked like someone else entirely.
"Doctor! What's-" she began, crossing the room to cup his face in her hands, but he cut her off quietly, "Shhhh, my love. I know." And he took her hands in both of his, and placed them over his hearts, gently leaning his forehead down to touch hers. "I know." They stayed there for a quiet moment. River was bursting with questions, but his eyes were closed, and his jaw was set. "I want you to have this." he said, pulling away and digging in his inner pocket. She stepped back, curious, but could not contain her gasp when he pulled out his beloved sonic screwdriver. "Doctor...I...no..."
"Yes." he said simply, pressing the screwdriver into her hands. She studied his face for a moment. And then silently tucked it into her coat pocket. "Thank you." she said softly.
River knew what she was going to ask him next, she had known since the first second he showed up in her living room that day. But, brave as she was, she still hesitated. "Doctor...would...would you stay with me tonight? Just one night? I don't think I can bare it to be over just yet."
She waited for the refusal. The excuses, the aversions. But none came. Instead he swallowed hard, and licked his lips nervously. "Ok." She nodded and took his hand gently, leading him out of the TARDIS. He followed her dutifully into her bedroom, and waited for her to remove her coat, shoes, and faux-leather pants. She climbed under the covers, and he followed suit.
At another time, she might have giggled and teased him for how awkward he was in her bed. But she sensed now was not an appropriate setting for such light-hearted banter. So she nestled herself into his side, resting her head on his chest, and they simply laid there holding each other. "I love you" she whispered groggily as she drifted to sleep, her worries soothed by the steady, rhythmic beating of his two hearts. "I love you, too" he whispered back, tenderly kissing her forehead. "I will always love you, River Song."
"It's ok...it's ok, it's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me...time and space. You watch us run."