N.B. This is my first ever fan fiction so please consider my feelings when leaving reviews and I have tried my best with spelling and grammar, but nobody is perfect... I don't own any of these characters or doctor who but I admire and love the idea and hope it continues for a long while yet. I am sorry to all readers if the 12th Doctor is not actually like his character in this story, I started writing this when I first found out who he was so please forgive any mistakes on that part. Finally I would like to thank my friends who forced me to finish this story when I felt lost as to an end to it! Please review and enjoy!
The third moon rose higher and the towers seemed to sense it, their voices rising in both volume and dynamics. She looked up at him from his lap, his eyes staring straight at her, as if he wasn't really here, somewhere else, and somewhere dark and lonely...
"Sweetie?" he jumped and returned his gaze to the present,
"Yes honey!" He said happily, his face now masking some past pain.
"You've been acting funny all evening. What's going on?" River sat up from the Doctor's lap, she immediately missed the comfort his close presence brought.
"What? Nothing! Nothing's going on!"
He shifted uncomfortably from the picnic blanket and adjusted his bow tie.
"Oh so why are you so fidgety then?" she raised an eyebrow.
He looked back at her and then his face fell.
"My screwdriver isn't working." he pouted, resembling a grumpy toddler. He took out the sonic to demonstrate his point and his face screwed up further.
"Come here, let me take a look." River took the sonic off the one thousand year old child and took off the panel at the back.
"The wire's come out, that's all. What was all the fuss about?" River shook her head, curls bouncing everywhere. She held out the sonic but the doctor just looked at her.
"I want you to have it." He said simply.
River was confused. "But this is yours! Your screwdriver! I can't take it! Sweetie please take it back!" He took it out of her hand, his fingers softly lingering for a moment. The Doctor threw the sonic in the air, the sonic spun and landed back in his hand.
"Hmm..." his brow creased in thought.
"What is it now pretty boy?" River rolled her eyes.
The Doctor suddenly threw himself at River, his arms pulled her close to him and he planted a kiss on her neck before hiding his head in the place he planted the kiss. They stayed like this for a while, content in each other's presence before he, if a little reluctantly, let go of her. River noticed he took his finger off the sonic's button,
"Funny," she thought "It must have gone off by accident..." He looked at her again, deep in thought.
"I still want you to have it." his voice lowered in volume, it was almost a whisper. River took the screwdriver and placed it gently in her bag. She didn't like this, not one bit, he knew something, something about her, something important.
"What are you thinking?" he knew her far too well.
"Only how weird it must look to others who see us together." she lied "You know I look much older than you, they must think it's rather inappropriate of me..." The Doctor pouted again.
"Why? What's wrong with me showing affection toward my wife?" He smiled innocently, though the look behind the young face was sincere.
River laughed "Now Sweetie, how can you be taken as a serious threat when you act like you've just graduated from high school."
The pout returned and he replied, "Do I really look that young?" River tilted her head, curls tumbling like a waterfall as the wind suddenly picked up.
"To most, yes, but to me..." she paused as he pulled her close to him again as the wind started to cool River's bare arms and he looked straight into her eyes.
"To you?" he prompted, his real age suddenly etching into his young facial features.
"To me I see an ageless god, I see the man beneath the childish face. That man is far older and wiser than anyone I will ever know. That man is my friend, my protector and my husband, and I love him more than anyone!"
The Doctor stared blankly for a moment and then tears started to well in his eyes. River was worried, he never cried unless...
The Doctor saw the look on River's eyes, "Did she know?" he feared this day, more than most in his life, even his death didn't scare him as much as the towers of Darrillium.
River was about to ask him what he could not tell her, he knew, and before he could stop himself, he kissed her, trying to forget that this was the last time he would see her, feel her near him, his River, and he would cry a river, for that is the problem with time travel, there are fixed points, like her death...
He stopped kissing River and whispered into her ear, "I'll try to look older next time I regenerate then." He joked darkly.
River looked at him shocked. "Please don't joke about that, don't go changing too soon Sweetie, you could be a woman and somehow that just isn't you." The Doctor laughed heartily, it almost made him forget about what was going to happen to her, almost. He couldn't show her his pain, this was his cross to bare, not hers.
"I can't become a woman because i do actually have some control over what my regeneration's form is." he said warmly.
"Really!" River smiled. He still couldn't believe how honest he could be with her.
"My name is meant for a boy..." he lowered his voice to a whisper.
"Oh of course," she placed her hands on his shoulders and brushed her lips across his ear, "It is such a handsome name." The Doctor swallowed, hard. River's hands moved gracefully to his cheeks and she placed her forehead against his, and sighed, her body relaxing against his hips.
The Doctor had never really felt this level of such intimacy, such trust, "Time can be rewritten." he thought. He looked at her content features, her eyelids closed and her breathing soft.
"I'm glad I can trust you River," he spoke softly, afraid she'd move away from his touch. Instead she simply sighed in agreement, "God she knows me well." he thought sadly. "Remember," he waited till her eyes meet his "I will always listen to you if I trust you." He was about to kiss her again when she put a finger to his lips.
"What's going to happen to me Doctor?" She said a hint of fear in the back of her voice.
He smiled, sadly, before kissing her finger on his lips. "Spoilers."