~Later that night; the kitchen in the Pond house, where Amy gives her daughter a warning. But secrets are about to unravel. ~

Amy almost didn't want to tell her. Then again, there was a guilty yet irrepressible sensation of wanting the secrets between the people she held so dearly to be over. "He knows something's wrong with you."

She watched the colour drain from her daughter's face. "What? What do you mean?" River asked, suddenly panicked.

"Well, you haven't been yourself, and he's sort of making it his life's work to find out why."

River held a hand to her head. "Oh, god… I can't even pretend anymore! I'm supposed to be good at hiding the damage! What am I going to do?"

"Well," Rory piped up in a whisper, "it's going to be pretty hard to hide the, uh, 'damage' in a few months."

"River, he's going to find out at some stage; it's just a question of how long you can hide it. I mean, even if we can convince him to leave now, the next time you see him you'll probably have a bump or maybe even a baby. You can't run away forever."

She had never felt more like their child than she did in this moment. "But what if I can? I'm a time traveller; who says I can't just keep moving and moving, with my baby, and-"

"What- and just avoid him for the rest of your life? River… that's not fair," she said cautiously.

"How isn't it fair?"

"It's his baby, too."

"Oh, do you honestly think he'll want anything to do with it?" she snapped bitterly, tears glistening in the rims of her eyes. "For gods' sake, you're his best friend; you can't stand there and tell me that there's any way he would ever want to raise a child! I have to do this on my own- I've always known that, and it's sad, but nothing you can say is going to change our lives, his life. It would never, ever work, and I'm just telling you exactly what he would tell me, right before he gets into his little blue box and flies away. You know he will."

When they didn't answer, because they couldn't argue with what they knew was the truth, River sighed wearily. "Maybe I should go now."

"No- River, you don't have to do this-"

"Yes, I do. Because he's going to keep coming here, and you're right; I can't hide forever, not here. It'll be better for me, and the baby, if I just move away, somewhere- way across the Universe."

"But he'll come looking for you-"

She shook her head. "He won't. Not for long; he has to give up one day. He probably won't even notice, with us being in the wrong bloody order."

"River," Amy implored quietly, taking hold of her daughter's hand. "Melody; I know you're scared, but running isn't going to fix this. Please, please tell him. You have to."

"Sometimes, running is the only way you can survive. Believe me, I know." She prised her hand away. "I can't tell him. I just can't. Because I know what he'll say, what he'll do; and… I'm not strong enough to watch him leave me."

"So that's it? You'd rather run away yourself than allow the possibility of him running?"

"Either way, I'm going to lose him."

"You might not, if you don't run- you might as well take that risk-"

"And what am I supposed to say, Mum?" she asked, her voice swelling into a shout. "Tell me what I say to him, the man who's travelled the Universe with no ties for centuries! There's no point. We both know exactly what he'd do if he knew that the woman he runs across time and space with is carrying his baby! It would just be a big disappointment! I don't want to run away, but I have to. Please, try to understand that."

Her parents were uncharacteristically silent; she thought she'd finally won, for a precious second, and the closest thing to relief she had felt in weeks came to her. They were two of the three people she loved most in the world, after all; arguing with them was never fun, especially when they were just trying to be helpful. It would be hard beyond description to leave them behind.

That second, of course, didn't last; she soon realised something that made her heart plummet into her stomach. Their eyes were not on her.

More specifically, they were staring rather morbidly at something over her shoulder.

To say she was afraid to turn around would have been an understatement. She felt her blood run cold when an all too familiar voice whispered her name.

Her feet were turning her around before she could stop them, almost in denial; almost not believing that she'd find him there.

Breath drained from her lungs as well as the room when her eyes fell on his face. Even her parents were silent as they regarded each other from across the kitchen, an eternity of hush between them.

It was a battle of who was going to break the stillness first; she won. The Doctor swallowed as if he was drinking glass shards, taking a tiny step closer to her across the abyss.

She held out a hand to stop him instinctively, more out of shock than anything else that he wasn't turned on his heel and on his way out already. Aware of the sharp stab in her heart each time she drew breath, the sensation of drowning in open air- something that had plagued her since early days of a tortured childhood- she had to press her eyes shut to reassure herself that she was not going to die.

He recognised the symptoms, despite everything. "River-"

"No." She held a hand to her forehead before shaking it abruptly, a heavy sob shattering the silence. "I can't…"

She couldn't even do what she always could, and lie her away out of it; therefore, she did the only thing left available to her. Ignoring all the rules he had taught her, she was scared, so she ran.

She pushed past him, getting out of the front door and slamming it shut before he could follow her and disappeared into the bitter night, the sound of her footfalls drowned by the hammering rain.

The Doctor almost fell over when River collided with him on her way out, his head numb and ringing with the words he had just heard her say. Putting most of his energy into remaining upright, his head shook slowly as he gazed at his best friends.

"Doctor," Amy whispered, eyes blazing and voice surprisingly firm. "Go after her."