A/N I know this has been a long time coming! Sorry! But here it is! It takes place a few days or weeks after the last one. (in other words, a bit) I hope you like it. The plot is about to get kind of...tricky in the next few chapters. Sorry. Or, i guess, if you like that kind of thing, you're welcome! (yeah, wishful thinking)

"It's 11:59."

Amy yawned loudly.

"For God's sake, River. You haven't slept for two days straight, and I don't care whether you're part anything. He's either coming, or he's not coming. Go to bed."

River knitted her fingers together.

"He's coming. He promised. Four years."

Amy nodded.

"Are you going to tell him?"

"Tell him what?"

"About Tune. You told us that no one could know who he really is. I doubt that the Doctor will see the resemblance himself. So are you going to tell him?"

River looked unhappily at her mother and said, with a sad sigh,

"No."

Amy obviously had not been expecting that response. She blinked a few times, as if trying to see if it was really River.

"No?"

"No."

"Why not?"

To Amy's surprise, River's eyes began to tear up. Amy has only ever seen River cry a few times, and every time she had, it seemed like the Doctor was the cause of them in some way.

"Because," she said, "think about it. Danger follows that man wherever he goes. What if someone forced the information from him, or used him to get a hold of Tune? I won't tell him for the same reason I've lied to everyone else. Tune isn't ready yet, he isn't ready to face the kidnappers and attackers, and there would be people after him. He's only three years old. I have to keep him safe."

"But River," said Amy gently, "doesn't he deserve to know?"

"Of course he deserves to know. But I can't tell him yet."

Amy knew that she wasn't going to be able to change River's mind. Under most circumstances, Amy honestly agreed with her decision to hide her son from the universe. River had told her stories of the childhood Melody Pond barely remembered, and River would do anything to keep Tune from having a life like hers. However, this seemed a bit ridiculous, especially since Amy knew that River trusted the Doctor with her life.

Just apparently not with her son's.

"Fine." said Amy, "Now, it's past midnight. Go to sleep."

"Amy, do you honestly think that I can sleep now?"

"No." she admitted, smiling. "It's your decision, River, and Rory and I will play our part, but remember, he loves you, and he loves Tune whether he knows it or not."

"Of the two, I think loving me is more of an accomplishment. It's rather hard to dislike Tune."

"That it is. Your son is pretty amazing."

"Well of course-"

"MUMMY!" screamed a voice from upstairs.

"Tune!" said both women in unison.

"Your son screams like a girl, River." muttered Amy as she followed River up the stairs.

River and Amy met Rory who was carrying a sleepy Allinora at the top of the stairs.

"What's going on?" he asked, frowning at the pair of them.

"We don't know." said Amy while River wrestled with the doorknob of her son's room.

Finally, River pushed open the door, bursting in with gun in hand to be greeted with a rather peculiar sight.

Tune had crawled up to the headboard of his bed and was curled up there, shying away from the blue police box at the foot of the foresaid bed, from which a man was collapsing out of, face covered in bloody scratches and drenched from head to toe in some kind of liquid.

"Oh my god." said River, walking up to the man. "It's you."

"Who is he m- River?" asked Tune, obviously terrified by everything that was happening around him. Allinora began to cry from Rory's arms.

"It's really you? It's really you!"

"Hello." said the Doctor weakly, spreading his arms out. "Sorry about the mess. Am I late?"

River glanced over at the clock on Tune's bedside table.

"By nearly 12 minutes." she said, running up to him and throwing her arms around his neck.

"Hi." he whispered in her ear.

"Hi." she replied in the same tone, smiling. "Why are you all wet?"

"It's a long story." he said.

"Right then," River said, louder this time. "why don't you just take everyone downstairs Amy, and I'll be there in a moment once we clean up this mess that the Doctor has made, hmmm?"

Amy nodded and gestured for Tune to follow her. The little boy took one last look at his mother and the Doctor before climbing out of his bed and running down the hall after the Ponds.

Satisfied that the rest of her family had left, River turned back to face the Doctor.

"You're really back."

"I never should have left."

"No, you shouldn't have, but it's all right."

"No, River, it's really not. I-"

"Oh, shut up."

"Make me." said the Doctor, grinning at her.

Instead of replying, River leaned in and kissed him, looking directly into his green eyes.

After a moment, the Doctor said,

"I should probably change into something a bit les...wet."

"Probably." she agreed, watching him go. "Please come back."

"I always come back, River. And I will. It won't even be four years this time."

River didn't leave the room until the TARDIS has dematerialized. When she did, however, she felt as light as air.

Because he had come back.

And she hadn't had to lie to him yet.