"Hello, Sweetie", she said with a smile. The man leaning to a tree in front of her on the clearing in the forest slowly turned with a confused look on his face. "River?" he asked with a look of disbelief. "Did you miss me?" she teased him further. He stood there with a bewildered look on his face. "River…" he whispered and took a step forward. Her teasing smile faded and changed into a concerned look. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Maybe she should have warned him instead of making a grand entrance.
She walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, straightening his bowtie with her other hand. "Doctor? What is it?" she asked. He just stared at her with a blank look on his face, before embracing her and lifting her up and spinning around. She wrapped her arms around his neck and went along with it. "River! What… How can you be here?" he asked and hugged her tight, burying his face to her wild and curly hair. "You died", he said and held her even tighter. She smiled against his neck. A sudden explosion interrupted their reunion and he jumped back. "What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time?" River asked him. "Oh you know, the usual. Saving the world from the Daleks with a screwdriver", the Doctor smiled his normal cheery smile and took her hand. "Run", he said and tugged her along with him.
They ran through the forest, dodging beams flying past them. "Daleks?" she yelled after hearing the almost too familiar metallic voice shouting the word exterminate behind them. "Yep!" he shouted back. "Do you have a plan?" she asked as he pushed them both behind a rock for cover from a green beam that went flying just passing their heads. "When do I ever have a plan?" he asked. "The Tardis. We need to get to the Tardis", she said. "It exploded. You died! Remember when you died?" he said with frustration. He still couldn't understand how she was there. Or was she, she wasn't a hologram, but she could be a duplicate. "And yet here I am. I saved it, you idiot", she said and slapped him on the arm. "Ow…" he whined. "Oh get over it and come along", she said and darted from behind the rock the Doctor following right behind her. "You have some serious explaining to do", he managed to say while they ran between the trees, River navigating towards the place she had parked his time machine. Explosions followed them, closing in on them. "River!" he shouted as an explosion cut a tree and knocked River out of balance. He grabbed her, narrowly preventing her from falling over and dragged her along. She gasped in agony, but she kept running. He could see the Tardis already and he snapped his fingers making the doors open. It really was his Tardis so River must be real too, his spirit rose higher than it had been for weeks.
They ran toward it hand in hand, the pain in her side increasing with every step. He stopped at the door, practically pushing her in ahead of him and slammed the door. River collapsed on the floor out of breath and in pain. He ran to the console panel, frantically flipping the switches and pushing buttons. For once he decided it was better to escape and lose a battle instead… He didn't want to think of the alternative. The Tardis came alive and took off, carrying them to safety from the Dalek invasion. "River? River!" he exclaimed, running back at the door and kneeling beside her and lifting her on an upright position. "River. Where are you hurting? What broke?" he asked with concern, scanning her with his sonic screwdriver. She made a vague movement to her left side. "Ah, a broken rib", he said. "Help me, I don't want to go. I'm not ready", she said fighting back tears. The Doctor was taken by surprise by her reaction, River was always so hard on herself and being a strong woman she rarely showed any negative emotion she saw as a potential weapon against herself.
"Sorry about this", he said scooping her up and carrying her further into the Tardis console room. She winced in agony. He placed her on a sofa and kissed the top of her head. "Hold still", he said and ran to scramble through the console rooms' cupboard. He fished out a small bottle, its content glowing golden and slightly flickering. He ran back to River and opened the bottle. The golden substance flowed out and surrounded her. She was laying still with her eyes closed, biting her lip to suffocate the gasps of pain. He stroked her hair gently while she slowly relaxed and the look of agony disappeared from her face. She opened her eyes and looked up to him. "Thank you", she said quietly and tried to sit up. "Careful", he said helping her up. "Better?" he asked with a smile and took her hands. She nodded. He couldn't stop looking at her. She shouldn't have been there. "Why don't I make us a cup of tea and after that you tell how you are here and not dead", he suggested and got up, letting go of her.
She sat there, feeling her ribcage while she waited for him to return from the kitchen. Everything seemed to have healed. Just a dull but bearable ache left. Something which she knew to subdue in a few hours. The Doctor skipped back with two mugs in his hands and sat beside Rived handing the mug with a baby giraffe to her. "World's best grandpa?" she read aloud from the side of his mug. "Oh that's just… Don't mind it. Spoilers…" he said and sipped his tea. River looked at her with amusement. The same old Doctor, her Doctor. "So, are you going to tell me how you can be here? Last time I checked, you were in the heart of a massive explosion and The Tardis should not have survived that", he said and sneaked his arm around her shoulder. She took a deep breath and tried to form coherent sentences in her head. "The Tardis created a time loop. I managed to break it, I don't know how I did it, exactly… Anyway it broke and I got her out of it before passing out. The Tardis started to disintegrate but I got her out just in time for the Matrix to still be working, I used some of my own regeneration energy on the core and she repaired itself. I locked her into your timeline and the Tardis found you, because I woke up from the forest", she explained.
They fell to silence and just drank their tea, his arm around her shoulder and gently stroking her upper arm. "I should take you to Amy and Rory. The last time they saw you, you recklessly stole the Tardis and flew it out to explosion. For us it's been a month", he said. "Did you miss me?" River said turning serious. The Doctor looked at her softly. "Thinking you were dead just about crushed me", he said. River stared at his brown eyes that held the wisdom of civilisations and time in the depth of them. She leaned in and pressed her lips on his. She could always at least pretend to be detached, strong and independent, but she couldn't pretend not to love and need him, because she did. The Doctor kissed her back and his fingers entwined with her blonde curls. They broke from the kiss and River rested her head on his shoulder and they fell back into a comfortable silence finishing their teas. River felt exhausted. She placed her mug on the table beside the sofa and fell back to his side listening to the contended hum of the Tardis and enjoyed the Doctor's touch as he caressed her neck and shoulder. She started to drift off and soon had fallen asleep against him. He smiled and picked her up carrying her to his bedroom. "Sleep well, Sweetie", he whispered and kissed her forehead before exiting and heading back to the console room.