Thanks to all for the lovely reviews/favorites/alerts! A few of you have stated that the characters are perfectly in line, which is why I feel the need to give a warning. I'm not sure if how River behaves in this chapter is OOC or not, but it's kind of difficult to judge since she's never really had a need to act like this before. Hopefully I didn't completely botch it.

Anyways, no more pathetic excuses. Bon Appétit!

EDIT: I fixed all the stupid little typos. Sorry about that, but my keyboard loves to forget how to type every now and then, thus causing me to skip a few words without even realizing it.

Seating herself behind the desk in the TARDIS library (the one without a swimming pool, much to the disappointment of the Doctor), River clasped her hands together and said, "Now, then. What have you got for me?"

Her husband wordlessly passed over two manilla folders, identical except for the titles. One read "Clara: 1892", the other "Oswin: 2276".

River took her sweet time leafing through every fact the Doctor had to offer on this woman, glancing at one folder, than comparing it with the notes on the other, only to return to the original to check her data. Then recheck it. Then check it once again.

Somehow the Doctor managed to sit still through all this, his twiddling thumbs the only outlet for his inexhaustible amount of energy. He had promised his wife five minutes of peace to study the material. Just five minutes...

Four minutes and thirty-one seconds later, the Time Lord finally cracked. "Well?"

With a sigh, River set the folder she had been presently perusing aside. "Sweetie, where exactly have you searched for Clara so far?"

The Doctor laughed nervously as he idly scratched behind his ear. "Oh you know, a little bit here, a little bit there... anywhere, really. You know, Anywhere gets lovely weather this time of year, we should visit sometime."

Unfortunately for him, his wife had learned to pick out the significant pieces of information within his useless rambling long before. "Did you really expect that you were just going to bump into her during your galactic travels?"

"Well, that actually did happen. Twice," he argued.

"And don't count on a third," River retorted. "What we have to do now is narrow the playing field. Figure out in what span of time and space she could possibly be, then work from there."

"And I suppose you already have it all figured out?" the Doctor challenged.

River sat back and folded her arms. "Judging on the fact that she contained the same genetic makeup in both instances that you've met her, we can make a few deductions. She's clearly pure human, meaning that she must be from before they all inter-breeded with other species. She is also a fully developed human, so she can't be from longer than a few millenniums ago. Also, in both accounts she was British, and I think it's safe to assume that she will be this time around as well. So this reduces the range to sometime between, say, 5000 BC and 6000 AD, either in England itself or one of her colonies, earthly or extra-terrestrial."

For a moment River's speech was only met by stunned silence from her husband. But it was quick to pass as he regained his composure enough to cross his arms stubbornly and huff "Lucky guess."

"Archeology," she corrected.

He was about to reply, 'same thing', but he instead chose to bite his tongue. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed her, and setting her off certainly wouldn't help his chances of finding Clara.

"I've already searched every corner of the world, in multiple time periods," he explained as he sank forward in the chair and put his face in his hands. "I've never considered Earth to be very impressive, just one little ball floating around among a million others, but it's remarkable how big it seems when you're looking for one person."

River was instantly at his side, a comforting arm encircling his shoulders as if she was physically holding him together. "We'll find her, Doctor. You have my word."

If the words had come from anyone else, he wouldn't have believed them. But this was River Song, renowned archeologist and gun-handling extraordinaire. When she set her mind to accomplish something it would be done, no question about it.

"So what next, professor?" he asked, taking her hand.

"You'll like this bit." River looked up at him with a knowing smile. "Next comes the science part."

You would think that being so old would make one mature, serious even. The Doctor tried to keep this in mind as he repressed the bright smile of a child who was finally told by his mother that yes, he could bring the puppy home. But there was no stopping it from reaching his eyes. "Oh?"

"I trust you know a thing or two on on DNA identification, and now that we have a basic range on where Clara might be we can use it," River explained. "I need you to think, Sweetie. Can you recall of any time when she may have passed on some sort of genetic transfer?"

"Genetic transfer..." the Doctor mused.

It was very brief, so quick that if you blinked you would have missed it. But the fact remains that the Doctor did instinctively put a hand to his lips. The hand soon returned to its original spot, but it hadn't failed to escape River's notice, and felt her heart thud to her feet when she realized why he made such a movement.

Dropping his hand and turning away from him, she said quickly, "Well, I'll just leave you to ponder on that for a while. In the meantime there's still plenty of archeological evidence for me to uncover."

She walked briskly out of the room, leaving her husband in what she prayed was blissful obliviousness. Weaving through the endless labyrinth of corridors of the TARDIS, River walked with no real destination in mind other than to put as much distance between her and the Doctor as possible.

He's kissed her.

River knew that this would happen at some point. Just about all his companions- human or alien, male or female, straight or not- would find their way to her husband's lips at one time or another. She had promised herself that she wouldn't let it affect her, but it had happened so soon, not giving her enough time to prepare herself for the blow, that it cut through her like a vengeful knife all the same.

She wasn't sure who had made the first move, and she hoped to Gallifrey that it hadn't been her impossible man. If she can even call him hers now.

She allowed her figurative mother to guide her way, and as always the Old Girl took her exactly where she needed to be. Soon enough River found herself in the newly-renovated Console Room, running a hand along the controls that were both familiar and new to her. But for once it wasn't enough. It had taken several years and countless heartbreaks to do it, but she was finally at the point of falling apart.

Before, she had at least had her parents to help her through all her troubles. But now that they were gone, her husband was all she had left, and he had enough worries to deal with without having to take hers on as well.

"Never let him see the damage," she whispered. Then carefully positioning herself away from the hall she had come from, lest the Doctor come looking for her, she pulled up a chair and let herself cry.

She would not stoop over, would not make even a hint of a sound. She sat perfectly straight, hands clasped firmly together on her lap and eyes closed as the tears flowed in two lone tracks, running down her cheeks as gracefully yet forcefully as her namesake. There are many times when River Song enjoys making a scene, but crying is not one of them. She is one to keep her emotions under lock and key, but now and again the pressure builds up just too much behind the dam and they manage to break free.

A familiar pair of arms suddenly wrapped themselves around her. Her initial reaction was to lean into the embrace, but she gave a start when she realized who the hands must belong to and automatically turned her tear-stained face away. But the offender followed close behind, and she somehow couldn't bring herself to break away as her husband's cheek pressed against hers, sharing in her tears and pain.

"Told you I'd manage to sneak up on you," he murmured.

He kissed her cheek softly. "I'm sorry, River. I am so, so sorry."

Suddenly she was yanked back to reality, and all the problems packaged with it. He's always apologizing. He's made so many mistakes, has so many regrets, and the last thing River wanted was to add to that even more.

She stood and began moving away from him. "No, I'm sorry, Sweetie." She tried to sound casual and not let it come out as a sob. "Don't worry about me. It's nothing, really."

"No it's not," he said simply.

She made sure to wipe any escaping tears before facing him with crossed arms and a cruel glare, but her eyes were still moist. "I'm a woman, darling. We get emotional, and we overreact. It's not as bad as it seems."

"Tell me anyway," he said, daring to approach her.

River stared at him long and hard. She knew that face all too well: the impossibly stubborn look told he wasn't going to back down, no matter how unreasonable he was being. She could play that game just as well, of course, but her defenses had been weakened, and at the moment she just wasn't as strong as she always made herself out to be.

Even so, she couldn't let him completely in yet, so she leaned against the console and began with the smallest of her many troubles. "How is it that, after all you've been through together, you've managed to forget my parents so quickly?"

The Doctor's brows furrowed in confusion, so River chose to continue.

"Just look at this place," she said, giving a long, sweeping glance all around her. "It's like a whole different room. I don't know, it just feels as though you're trying to wipe away all the memories that they put in here."

With a sigh, she finally chose to face her husband. "I want you to move on Doctor, but Amy and Rory were good for you. You can't forget what we- they have taught you."

The Doctor stayed unusually quiet for a time, rubbing his hand on the console's slick exterior. "Even after they left us, I could feel their presence everywhere I turned. The grief was consuming me, I couldn't think of anything else. But the Old Girl knew that what I needed was some change."

Moving from the console, the Doctor looked around the ship with the same amount of wonder as when he first laid eyes on her. "It's happened before; every few years the TARDIS completely reinvents herself, but underneath it all she's still the same sexy, brilliant thing as always. A thousand years of running, yet sometimes it feels like I'm just doing the same things over and over: visit a planet, wreck havoc, save a few lives, take a few lives, and leave. Sometimes it's nice to have a little change. Not too much, just a bit. New face, new clothes, new habits..."

"New companions," River added quietly.

The Doctor's eyes met his wife's, understanding finally beginning to settle in them. She knew that he had at last figured out what her true fear was: that once he was through with her, he would just dump her back on her doorstep and run off, never to return. Though his eyes were sad, he managed a smile as he made his way back to River.

"Yes," he affirmed as he pulled her mother's reading glasses from at pocket. "But I always carry a part of them with me."

He placed them in her hand, and River fingered them lovingly as she said, "I shouldn't feel this way. I told you to find someone else, and I can't be with you all the time. Someone needs to look after you, but I can't help but feel hurt..."

"It's in your nature, River," the Doctor interrupted. "You may be part Time Lord, but you've also got those humany bits in you that make you so special. And in case you couldn't tell, I've got a bit of a soft spot for humans."

River chuckled softly, and her husband wrapped his arms around her. "No one can ever replace you, River Song. And I know you hate it when I'm a cheesy romantic, which is exactly why I'm going to say this anyway: you're the one who holds the key to my hearts."

The tender moment was shattered when the Doctor's head snapped up, processing the words he had just spoken. And if his wife still appeared uncertain despite his comforting words, he failed to notice as the familiar feeling that a brilliant idea was on the rise welled up inside of him.

"Key... that's it!"

Grabbing River by the wrist, he dragged her towards the scanner on the console.

"What is it, Doctor?" she asked.

Fumbling through his multiple pockets, he answered, "What you said before about a genetic transfer. I've got just what we need."

At last finding the desired object, the Doctor pulled out a silver key as gingerly as possible, so as not to taint it with his own fingerprints. "And now... the science part!"

He placed the key on a small platform on the console, hitting a number of buttons and levers that was mostly just for show, to appear like he actually knew what he was doing. As the scanner ran a series of calculations on the key, the childish man began rocking on the balls of his feet in anticipation.

"I just can't wait to see where she's turned up! Who knows what exciting, exotic place Clara could be at this very moment!"

But when the computer at last made it's conclusion, the Doctor's face was reminiscent to that of a kid opening his Christmas present to see that he had once again received a pair of socks from his grandmother.

"Twenty-first century London," he read aloud slowly, as though making sure that he was reading it right.

From beside him, River turned and raised an amused eyebrow at her husband. "Lover of change, eh?"

"Oh, hush."