The next River he saw hadn't even gotten to Manhattan yet, although he suspected she wasn't far from it; she had already been pardoned and was Professor Song. A part of him was glad he had met their child before seeing this River; the memory of little Amelia's hand curling around his finger was enough to keep the demons at bay whenever River had asked if her parents were on board the TARDIS.
They went on what started as a lovely, peaceful outing…until River mouthed off to an already-cross pair of Judoon. The Doctor expected no less of her, really. After that, they'd spent nearly two days holed up in the ship together, venturing out once for an ice cream sundae from a particular shop in Leadworth that River insisted was the best in the universe. He would have been content to let those two days turn into two weeks, but she eventually said that if she didn't get back to the university soon, all her lecture notes would fly right out of her head. He'd made a scathing comment about archaeology in reply, but set them back on course nonetheless.
He had intended to land them just outside River's office, but when he poked his head out of the doors, he found they were in the middle of the campus quad.
"Er…may have overshot, a bit," he called over his shoulder into the TARDIS, giving a hesitant wave to a couple of students who had stopped to gape at the magically materialized telephone box. He was just about to step back inside and shut the door when a nearby shout stopped him.
"Oi!" The voice was close by, and the Doctor turned to see a red haired girl with a bookbag slung over one shoulder jogging towards the TARDIS with a big grin on her face. "What're you doing here? Coming to check up on me?"
He stared, dumbfounded; this was her. He knew, somehow, without a shadow of a doubt, that this was his daughter; she was tall and slim, not as curvy as her mother, but with River's nose and Amy's hair and his own eyes and something of Rory's chin about her – how did that even work, her inheriting things from her grandparents when River had been through two regenerations? - and she was grinning at him with his wife's smile, only it was crinkling around the corners of her face the way his own smile did, and oh, she was a beautiful, beautiful creature, his girl.
But River was calling, "Sweetie?" from within the TARDIS, and his daughter heard the voice, and in the blink of an eye the smile vanished, replaced by a look of such intense longing and sadness that both his hearts constricted painfully. The image of River wiring herself into the Library mainframe flashed across his mind unbidden; just as surely as he knew this was his daughter, he knew that, for her, River was already gone. He suddenly wanted to reach out, to hold this child he didn't really know yet, but almost as quickly as it appeared, the pained expression was replaced by a carefully constructed mask of calm that was nearly identical to the one he'd seen River put on for so many years.
He opened his mouth to say something, to explain or reassure or at least introduce, for heaven's sake, but then River was shouldering him out of the TARDIS doorway and rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "Sweetie, you've got to be almost a quarter-century off; that bell tower won't be built until..." River trailed off, noticing that the Doctor's eyes were still locked on the girl standing off to the side of the ship; for her part, the girl was staring at River, a shimmer in her green eyes the only thing giving her away. There was a moment of awkward silence; however, the last Time Lord was exceptionally good at breaking silences.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor," he blurted out suddenly, extending his hand rather abruptly towards his daughter. Breaking silences, yes; averting awkwardness, not so much. Still, the spell was broken, and the girl – Amelia, she had a name, he knew that - laughed softly, shaking her head.
"Yes, you are. And you're also somewhere between twenty-five and thirty years beyond where you'd intended to be, I'd wager," she quipped back cheekily. Ignoring the hand, she reached out and wrapped her arms around him in a brief, firm squeeze before turning to River, who was looking on a bit warily. After a slight hesitation, she carefully hugged River as well; River threw a bewildered glance at the Doctor, but returned the hug gingerly. Amelia kissed her mother's cheek, gave her a fond smile, then turned and walked away.
"What was that about?" River asked; the Doctor was already ushering her back into the TARDIS. He shut the doors behind them, smiling fondly at his wife and forcing himself not to dwell on all the pain that lay in his future; she was alive, here and now, and he would let himself dwell once she was gone.
"Spoilers."