My take on what happens next with River and Twelve after the "And They Lived Happily Ever After" message.

The Greatest Night Ever

Chapter 1

The First Three Years

So one night only you get to spend on Darillium - consists of 24 years; 8760 days to ensure the best moment, for someone who can reconnect with a loved one. River Song remains hopeful of this beautiful and uplifting night; not ending quite yet. She desperately wants to kiss him properly this time; stun him completely with long awaited kiss. She expects he's weighing up the exact same options as her; given how quiet and relaxed he now looked.

The restaurant's style and room to room, en-suite features captures a fabulous and classic quality about itself. Framed pictures of movie stars and celebrities occupy each and every wall. It was as if The Professor and the Time Lord had stepped back in time instead of stepping forward in time for their valuable date.

"So shall we?" She breaks the silence, simply by asking him an important enough question.

"Shall we what?" He's rarely taking his eyes off her since the very moment they'd taken their seats at their reserved table. The Singing Towers were certainly living up to their legendary name once more; as the wind blew through the caves of the two standing monoliths, it harmonizes another breathtaking song. The view of them felt seemly and appropriate; even The Doctor himself soon became practically charmed by the Towers. When he felt her hand brush across his, he honestly began to wish he could become a better listener more often.

He recalls the conversation River shared with Flemmy - what sort of nickname was that? he raises the question of this with himself momentarily. Next he remembers another part of the conversation, of what he heard. "When you love The Doctor. It's like loving the stars themselves. You don't expect a sunset to admire you back." He literally didn't have a clue before now, as to how deeply her romantic feelings for him ran and therefore this left him to question, just how greatly his own feelings for her were.

He snaps out of his thoughts, when he feels the touch of her fingertips circling around the palm of his hand.

He can't avoid staring down and marveling the telling scenario at that particular moment; four of her fingertips were now resting firmly across his left hand, with her thumb tucked beneath. Oh that woman, she really hadn't the slightest of clues, as to what beautiful effect she was currently leaving upon him.

"Darling, I think you know the answer already." She took the opportunity to admire him from her side of their reserved table. She had warmed to her husband's new face quicker than she could ever have expected.

"No, I'm sorry, you see my face is still a tiny bit of ill-equipped with understanding the world around me "

"Oh you're such a terrible liar. Maybe I should write it on your head using my Hallucinogenic lipstick." She's behaving all playfully again with him and this flirty comment actually doesn't bother or make him uncomfortable in the slightest.

"Oh, I'm the liar now? Well, that's certainly a new one for me. You do know I saved this land after we crashed on it. You know, I even gave a rescuer worker, the Halassi Androvar and suggested to him, the reward for it would be substantial and that he should see to this place being rebuilt as a restaurant with a view of the towers. My advice paid off and here we are now; sitting here, making the most of our 24 years night together." She noted his accent; why on earth had it taken her some time to recognize it? She genuinely loved his Scottish accent upon listening to every word he had uttered to her in this delightful accent and of the many times she had met his previous incarnations; she began to wonder why he had only ever had just the two different Scottish accents.

"You did? You did all this for me? Even going as far as salvaging everything from the wreckage including Hydroflax's body, Ramone and Nardole. For the first time of myself knowing this new you, Darling; you've absolutely accomplished your quest in making me love you more ." She wipes a trickling tear away from her left cheek; while her other eye shed another tear, which her husband helps to wipe with his thumb for her.

His steady gaze drifted down towards her lips and then his head lifted up; his eyes gazing up into hers. 'Of course. As much as I wasn't a fan of of you snogging Ramone in front of me; I felt he deserved the chance to be helped with hanging onto his life; in some shape of form...and for him to be able to share a metal body with Nardole. I'm afraid, I couldn't find any loopholes or any other way around; restoring Nardole and Ramone to their natural bodies. So the surgeons on this planet were the people who decided to do; what was best for the two of them."

She matches the intensity of his gaze with great fondness and adoration. If tonight was to be their last together, she wants to feels like the luckiest woman on Darillium"Cleverness is your name, clearly in more ways than one. My dear, you've no idea how much I want to kiss you right now."

"Then what are you waiting for, River? Please don't play the waiting game with me because believe me, I'm not a great player. " Well surely it wasn't considered a crime; as all he could ever think about; all he really longed to do was to treat his to an unforgettable night, well he had 24 years of making the effort of achieving this simplest of tasks.

"But I fancy a dance with you first." She gestures for him, to lead her toward the center of the room. The setting for their first dance felt quite romantic and fairytale-esque for the couple.

"Oh, there's gotta be a request hasn't there? You really haven't changed since the last time I saw you - Dance first, kiss later." He picks himself up from his chair and walks round to her side of their decoratively festive table. No he hadn't forgotten they were spending Christmas Day night on Darillium in each other's company.

"Why is that a problem with you, my love?" She asks.

"If that's what you want, then I'm not going to deny you a dance. You deserve one of many dances with me." He flashes a goofy smile at her, an alluring look which she grows immediately fond of.

"I'm looking forward to sharing every one of them with you." She delightedly informs him, much to his obviously pleased reaction. She happily accepts his offered hand and for once he's the one who is taking over the duties of playing the romantic lead.

"I should probably warn you - I haven't considered dancing in such a long time. I did dance once in Vikings time, I helped to fight the Mire..." He can't explain everything to her about why he hadn't bothered to learn dancing again; nothing usually never makes much sense for him, whenever he tries to answer one of his own questions - like say about, if he was able or not to memorize most of the lyrics to one of Queen's hit songs or he could remember the last time he ate fish and chips.

He and River both scoot pass two fellow loved up diners; they were Tivolians, different, clever and elegant looking as matter of fact;the couple snarl because the intimacy of their dance had lost it's rhythm.

"Upsetting Tivolians. I wouldn't go there, if I was you. There's rumours that Tivolians aren't all cowardly as you may believe." She tries to alert him to not even attempt to get himself on the wrong side of this certain alien race.

"Look who's talking! I've encountered two Tivolians and I'm guessing you know more about them than me?" He flaps his left arm and calmly dismisses her advice. Enough. He's done with the standing round and chatting and soon he laces his fingers with hers and takes the lead; completely catching her off guard, by twirling her around on the spot where she stands.

"That I do but other than that...Spoilers." In actual fact he hardly thought of his previous encounters with Gibbis and Prentis as spoilers, no these never felt important to go into great detail about.

The shared laughter, outrageous flirting between them and their noisy conversation over, exactly where River should likely rest her hand on his upper body, was quickly picked upon by their fellow diners. "'Place your hand on the back of my shoulders. Like this. River! Stop closing your eyes and picturing me in your specially chosen swimwear!"

A few of the guests return to their tables; clearly most of them were dissatisfied and frustrated by the entertaining commotion caused by River and The Doctor. "Tell me Darling; is it worth putting a price on how long it will take for, you to go and get us kicked out of the restaurant, the longer you keep upsetting the guests."

"Oh, I suppose 45 seconds at least." He's not completely sure but still he estimates a preferable timing for this.

"45 seconds I shall think not. I'd say 5 seconds. Your face is capable enough of infuriating a group of Daleks in record timing. That's a well known fact, you should have recorded in your diary." Well he ought to know, she had detailed in her diary about the love of her life; my husband is truly the expert of knowing most of the Daleks' weaknesses and their greater strengths.

"Believe me River, my face is certainly more capable of going beyond testing one's patience." He confirms his claim by pointing both fingers around his rather obvious thrilled face.

"Is that so? More for me to look forward to, than I was expecting." For River; all of this felt like a million Christmasses all rolled into one.

"In a lifetime two people who love each other very much, they can live out the 'happy ever after' they're meant for. What I said on the balcony before; I don't think it was the right answer you were hoping to hear me tell you, was it?" Amazingly he has a sudden rethink with regards to what he told River. She didn't deserve to be led to further believe, his love for her wasn't genuine.

"Oh...so is this your way of telling me, you actually do love me?" She gasps, warm tears flow down her face. She assumes he's waiting for the perfect moment to lay his hearts on the line. Well he is gazing at her now, the precisely same way he did; the moment he used her "Hello Sweetie" greeting to make her realize her beloved was really there standing side by side with her. She wonders how many centuries this one special moment had taken for him to orchestrate in his mind.

Both of her hearts give off two wonderful beating sounds; her knees tremble a little and her breathing rapidly increases as well - No surprises there. Same man, different face; her husband's irresistible effect upon him remained the same as ever.

They dance a little more and glide across the dance floor together impeccably. She can tell he's danced before because he's simply too good with his footwork and he seems to position his shoulders remarkably well.

"So you have danced before?"

"What can I say? I'm a natural at this..."

He senses he's started to talk himself into her bad books, perhaps this wasn't such a good impression to make with her, in the midst of a tender moment between the two of them. Well how could he forget? After all he did have a history of putting his foot in it with her and every time he had found himself being rewarded with a slap to the face.

"And a fine one you are." Fortunately isn't too annoyed with him on this occasion.

He uses one hand to tilt her chin up and before long the couple are finally addressing . She notes his eyes and almighty eyebrows were his dominant features

"River...I...thought I'd just...you know...this isn't working the way I hoped it might. " He's taking a hell of a lot of unnecessary pauses. Then eventually at long last, he got to the "You do realize The sunset is undoubtedly admiring you back, at this very moment and it..." A tap on the back of his shoulder, cuts short whatever else he intended to tell River.

"Sir, Madam I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you to leave, as I've received complaints regarding your behaviour." The glamorous receptionist who had greeted them individually on the same night, greets them for a second time however she wasn't as cheerful upon her second dealings with them.

River entwines her fingers his again, as she knows she's likely to exact revenge against one of the fellow alien guests. Well, she already had an easy target in mind - two Malmooth creatures, who weren't keen on putting up with River and The Doctor's noisy and very flirty behaviour

The rescuer worker who The Doctor had originally given the Halassi Androvar diamond to; he was now in fact, a wealthy millionaire and one of the richest people in the galaxy. He wore a tailored fit Blue striped suit and a Black and White striped tie.

"That's not gonna happen Flora. The Doctor is a friend of mine and he has every right to stay here in my restaurant, for the night." The Time Lord remembers, how meeting this kindhearted and incredibly brave young man before he oversaw the lengthy process of the rebuilding this restaurant and officially introduced himself as the manager.

"But Mr Chung, The Doctor and his wife have broken restaurant rules." The receptionist can't understand why he has chosen to overlook rules, which he had originally written down about customer behaviour in this restaurant, before it first opened.

"I'm sorry Flora but my decision stands." He makes it clear he isn't going to change his mind. As she didn't wish to lose her job, she left matters as they were and returned to the reception podium.

"Alphonse it's good to see you again." Both men shake hands and express their content at getting to meet each other again.

"You too Doctor. You're welcome to spend time here anytime you want. There's an available guest room at the top of this restaurant, it's yours if you would like to own it." He makes a generous enough offer to his friend. Although he was left surprised by this offer, The Doctor felt understandably reluctant to accept it. Trusting someone he know, who he considers to have a good mind; in all probability the toughest choice ever.

"Alphonse this is River...she's my wife..." He introduces them to each other.

River considers placing a kiss on this nice looking man's cheek, yet she feels she probably shouldn't, knowing the jealously this might cause her beloved. Alphonse surprises them both by shaking her hand.

She turns to The Doctor. "Darling, we can't spend 24 years in the restaurant together because we know what will happen. You will do what you always do; sneak off for an adventure on your own without me and then I'll find out; locate your destination with my sonic screwdriver and bring it back."

"I'll leave you both to discuss the guest room offer." Alphonse believes they deserve to more time alone, to make one or two crucial decisions concerning their last night together.

xxxx

"I don't believe you. You've met Handel and Ludwig Van Beethoven? Don't tell me you kidnapped the two of them and tried to form your own three piece band?" She gasped before laughing aloud. She knows that catching up with The Doctor and getting the opportunity to learn about the many stories of his time travels; in which he had found himself tangled up in; over the past 1,000 years; would never bore her, even if she claims these stories do.

"Yes and No. I chanced upon Handel during a rainstorm. He accidentally stumbled into the TARDIS because he hadn't known anyplace in London at that point in his career. Told me afterwards he only chose my TARDIS as his shelter because it's color had fundamentally lit up the depths of his soul. Beethoven was a nice chap too. Me and him had an arm wrestle, I won of course." The Doctor goes into further detail on how these unexpected meetings had taken place, by quirk of fate.

"Tell me, who else have you met? King Arthur? King George VI? Sir Issac Newton?..." She takes a deep pause for a few minutes and soon wonders what clever questions she needs just to make him twitchy about. She swore if he had gone and married another female historical person, she would handcuff him to the bed and not free him for 10 years worth of this night.

"And?...anything else you'd like to quiz me about? Be my guest." Oh, he was all to aware of knowing what she's up to and to tell the truth, he doesn't fully approve of her cunning attempts, of getting him to own up to any secrets he's keeping from her. He pretty much works out that she wants to know the full details of which historical figures he had shared unexpected adventures with or which ones he had tried to outsmart. It doesn't take a rocket scientist and The Doctor to also solve the fact; she isn't doing much of a fine job, in concealing parts of her jealously after she first asks him about his meetings with famous historical people.

"Hush! don't go spoiling the moment dear." Now she really is beginning to savor the fun she's getting to have in his presence and this was proving to be a delightful sight to behold for The Doctor. It's while he proudly admires her from afar as she sashays away from him and approaches a waiter who still has a glass of wine on his bronzed tray; he comes to realize that their love for each other knows no bounds; he's nothing without her and she's clearly nothing without him. He's consumed with great sadness; knowing how this will make saying goodbye to her at that the end of the night, the most toughest goodbye he will ever likely be faced with, in all of his 2,000 years of his life.

Recently arrived guests were appearing one minute and the next minute they were nowhere to be seen. Other guests were ushering past them, every so often seeing as they retreated back to their tables. The Doctor wasn't use to a large crowd of individuals and so he suddenly to reconsider Alphonse's offer of the guest room - he regrets acting too slow on the uptake and leaving the young man baffled, as to why he hadn't said yes to acquiring the rights to this free guest room.

Her hands grip the collars of his suit and she pulls him towards her. River can't get the left eyebrow looks he gives her, out of her mind. She's seen his face, now she's eager to see his body, like she promised him after they'd partly escaped danger from Hydroflax's robot.

"Down girl." He quickly conceals his fears and proceeds to put on a brave enough face. He leads her out of the restaurant and down one of the flowery and fairy-lit corridors.

"Relax my love, I don't intend to play the part of the Naughty Professor just yet. We've got plenty of time." She's being as playful as ever with him and somehow she succeeds in her mission of not throwing herself at him too soon. She forgets that her right hand is still clinging onto one of his collar flaps and how his pointy nose is only a fraction away from hers.

"Ahem River." He smiles wryly. He's not usually fond of some of the attention he gets; as every now and then he prefers to hide his sadness away simply by burying your face, within a hug with someone you care about. The only time he will ever smile or laugh was when, any particular situation turned less serious and quite daft. Therefore resulting in tickling his fancy and enabling him to unwind better around people, who he might end up respecting after one adventure throughout time.

"Yes?"

"River, People are watching us." Four people; One Ood, Two Drahvins and One Silurian, you could never trust either of these aliens, with the duty of minding one of your favourite books in the world. His eyes meticulously follow where each of the alien individuals' movements.

"So." River was a born natural at dealing with a mixture of dangerous enemies of hers and her husband. So this was no problem for her.

He tilts his head sideways to his left hand side, away from her. "Well, they must think the two of us are this evening's restaurant entertainment."

"Let them think, whatever they want to think. We're here to enjoy ourselves, enjoy our 24 year date. Just so you know, no adventures for the next 5 years worth of our date, unless either one of us becomes a rule breaker and by that I don't mean myself."

"Nice of you to remind me. Why don't we take up Alphonse's offer afterall. I hate all eyes being on me, doesn't tend to bode well for me in bad situations."

"Oh really. What a surprise. You're practically an enemy of almost every alien race in the universe. According to the Receptionist, this restaurant is a place for retired aliens and half-humans. Some of them have stayed here for 72 years." River was a smart woman with a trick or two up her sleeve and she possessed enough lethal skills to bring down a group of isolated Daleks.

"And how come I'm the last to know of this?" He dislikes information being withheld from him, even if it was to protect his best interests and him from facing more heartbreak.

"Spoilers." She sticks to the standard rules of not disclosing any secrets from her spoilers rulebook.

"Fine. Mark my words, I assure you I'll find them out, one year while we're here." He feels she should know he's unwilling to ignore her choice to keep a few matters secret from him, even if they marginally unimportant.

"Don't you dare even try or I will re-modify your Sonic Screwdriver, when you least expect it." She doesn't class her pledge as a potential spoiler and so she makes it quite clear, she has a certain enjoyment of performing a bit of revenge on people.

The Doctor tries to laugh off her vow, thinking she's playing him to her advantage. She doesn't laugh along with him and his laughter soon becomes short-lived, when he acknowledges her "Let's get one thing straight, I'm not a woman to be messed with" look. His mind abruptly clicks back into focus; as he glances over his right shoulder, curious to know if any of the four individuals had narrowed the gap of where they were loitering about within the open-spaced hallway; to where he and River were presently stood. Yet he soon discovers; they've been left all alone, nobody else was there occupying the long hallway.

"I reckon your eyebrows need another important mission to deal with."

"Like what exactly?"

"A 200 year old female professor, you moron."

"I'm no moron, Sweetie." He mildly smirks after taking her comment to heart before amusement eventually gets the better of him and he chuckles appreciatively. It's dawning on him, he's never laughed so much in his life like this before and it was all thanks to his beautiful and wonderful wife, who is the mastermind of this, without knowing she's doing it.

She's obviously trying her best to earn his unanimous attention and he doesn't blame her for trying. He knows he only ever has eyes for her and nothing else mattered more than this. He takes her hand and leads her towards the balcony again.

"You really can't get enough of those Towers, can you? They're singing to you, the same way they sung to me." She can't keep up with the changes in his body language, one moment he's closed off, full of sadness and shying away and the next moment he looks fond of her and giving the expression he's longing to kiss her.

"What if a monolith can admire it's one and only fan back, with a grand gesture of words and the fan would need to look closely to see the truth of this for themselves. Tell me River, is there an archaeologist explanation for this or is it written in the stars? " He outlines a question, he knows she will have the key to answering.

"I don't need to know or look for myself because the truth is already staring me in the face." She knows where he's going with his cryptic way of telling he loves her and she relishes the chance of playing along with him.

"A song can say a lot because it doesn't always necessarily mean it's a sad song. All songs have different meanings to them, perhaps ones that speak of love..." He's baring his soul to River and maturing right in front of her, something she believed she would never see him do.

"So, what would you say the name of that song is, by the way? Hopefully not a One Direction ballad."

"Oh... now that would be telling."

"Oh, don't leave me to wonder. I hate wondering. Jim the Fish was never one to keep you wondering for too long."

"Yes that's because he's less of a genius than me but smart enough to not keep you questioning his real intentions or the truth behind most of his stories."

"Well I for one, like his stories and find them fascinating to hear."

Once the conversation of their past adventures with Jim the Fish had gratefully ended. Their eyes were now locked with each other's in a wordless communication, more meaningfully and sentimentally than ever. She notes the fact; his eyes are like magnets; whenever she gazes at them, she's constantly finding herself drawn to him in record time - like she was, when he sprung the surprise of revealing his true identity to her, just to stop her from nearly landing them in further trouble against Hydroflax, Scratch and Flemming.

She places her hand gently across his cheek and straight away she moves in to kiss him. This new face of his, isn't quite accustomed to kissing however his blossoming love for her; strongly encourages him to welcome the contact of her lips upon his and when the inevitable does happen, he begins to enjoy how well her lips were reassuringly caressing his.

He positions one of his hands across her upper back and places his other hand on her left hip.

She moves her hand to the back of his head before resting there and then keenly pulls him towards her. She does what she does best and what's more surprising it's even without the use of her lipstick, by setting the pulse of two his hearts racing. He's kissing her passionately and allowing her enough moments to respond to his countless kisses. She guides him back to one of the walls and responds just as enthusiastically as he had just done with her, she leaves lipstick smudges across his lips and cheeks.

The couple pull away but maintain their postures and the not letting go of each other just yet.

"River, please tell me you haven't used your lipstick on me?" The Doctor's out of breath when he asks her this. His voice does sound very smooth and soothingly as when he happens to be breathless. One thing she desires to add to her diary, whenever she gets the opportunity to write down the details of their recent adventure together.

"Darling, what gives you that idea?" She's not daring to say a word because she wants to convince she has used her hallucinogenic lipstick on him.

"My face maybe new but I still have memories of the times, of when you tried to outsmart me with your lipstick." His eyebrows rise and fall in the space of a few seconds, as he speaks.

"Of course I haven't." She assures him, she's innocent this time. He seems pretty persuaded enough by her assurance. With all being said and done, River becomes desperate to see more than just his face; she quickly leads him towards a spiral stairwell.

"What are you thinking?" The Doctor acts as if he's ten seconds or so behind her, when it came to planning one of your next moves, perhaps their loving kiss was his part-time undoing.

"We need to make that guest room ours before someone else gets it before us." She's on her guard; her eyes stalk each level of the restaurant; she's hoping the coast is clear for the two of them, to make a break for finding the offered room.

"That's my girl." He proudly tells himself after 10 seconds of pause, while she's still got her back turned to him.

"I've even got the key." She produces it, from behind the corner of her left ear and then hands it over to him.

The Doctor's speechless. All this time, she had this small golden key on her and had even allowed him to think they needed to go and claim it from Alphonse.

He wasn't given a chance to wonder what sort of tricks she had applied on a poor, oblivious Alphonse, in a bid to gain this key from him. She starts to dash up the stairs, forcing The Doctor to keep up with her, which was a tough enough job already for him.

Her gut instincts help her to locate the room, which was on Floor 10 of the restaurant. Together they slowly approach, holding hands. River couldn't wait to uncover more stuff about her husband. The Doctor was nervous at first but soon he was able to accept he wanted to make up for the time he had lost out on with his wife and he also needed comfort from her too.

End of Chapter

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