Title: Darillium

Pairing: River/Eleven

)O(

For once he knows something about the future that River doesn't, and it's killing him.

No, actually, the worst part is it's not; it's killing her.

He is standing on her doorstep in the rain and he doesn't want to do this.

Tomorrow she will sacrifice her life for the Doctor, even though she'll be a stranger to him by then. He hates this backwards, timey wimey way the universe has crossed their paths. He's already seen the end. Maybe River won't exactly die, but he is still going to lose her all the same, just like the Ponds and everyone else foolish enough to love him.

"You cut your hair," she observes, smiling. "And that's a new suit. What's the occasion?"

I know this is how it happened, he thinks. You told me. Or you will. Because it's happening now. "Can't I take my wife somewhere special for no reason?"

"Hmm. I suppose..."

He sets the coordinates for Darillium, because he knows it has to be here. It has to be tonight. Their last night. River marvels at the planet's beauty, but he's looking at her. He never wants to stop. Why can't they run away from this like everything else? He desperately wishes he could tell her not to go to the Library. He can't, of course. Their timelines are so knotted up and hopelessly entangled that pulling even one thread might very well cause the whole tragic thing to unravel.

"Time can be rewritten!"

"Not those times. Not one line." Her words. "Don't you dare."

So he vows to give River Song the best last night possible. After all, he already knows she'd had a wonderful time watching the Singing Towers. The Towers do sing beautifully, and Darillium's moons shine bright across the purple water. River holds his hand. When she looks over at her husband, she notices a few stray tears begin to roll down his cheeks. She can tell it isn't the music making him cry.

"Oh, sweetie. What's wrong?"

The Doctor turns his gaze towards her, and then makes a noise in his throat somewhere between a laugh and a sob before replying:

"Spoilers."