As the trio made their way through the alley they heard a voice in the distance...

"Why do you keep doing this? What is the point?" Clara and River exchanged looks while The Doctor himself froze and stopped moving forcing the women to stop as well, neither sure of exactly what was going on.

"We're too early..." The Doctor said hanging his head, his arms dropping a little.

"I've told you, I keep telling you, I don't do this anymore. I've retired." There was a hardness to his voice that River had never heard before and she was having a hard time grasping it, but it was cutting her to the core.

Both Clara and River looked at each other and then at The Doctor, clearly this was not a moment he wished to relive and neither of them rightly knew why, but they listened on in spite of their confusion and concern.

"There's a man on Parade street with an invisible wife," it was Jenny Flint speaking, which must have meant that Vastra and Strax were there as well. "Maybe he just doesn't have a wife..."

River let out a gasp and her free hand flung up to her mouth...she now understood why he was upset about the timing.

"You're wasting your time," the other Doctor went on, then they heard as The Doctor sulked away from the group.

"Merry Christmas!" They heard Jenny call after him. "I think he means it," she was now talking to Vastra and Strax.

"Yes my dear," it was Vastra this time, "I rather think he does."

Then the group heard footsteps, The Doctor yanked them over behind some crates just as Vastra and Jenny passed, they heard Strax say "damn moon," before he too walked past the group. All the while, none of them knowing they were even there. Once the group had left the alleyway River turned to The Doctor.

"Doctor..." she was clearly at a loss for words and there was a layer of concern in the way that she said it. Clara realized that was River was seeing his heartbreak regarding her death in a new light, and it wasn't pleasant to her at all, in fact she looked as if at any moment her beautiful face would shatter into tears.

"River," he let go of Clara's arm and faced her, "we don't need to get into this now." There was a sudden firmness in his voice and a hardness in his face that Clara had never seen before, and she could place no emotion on it at all.

"But Doctor..." River's voice cracked, a single tear slid down her face and The Doctor reached up ever so sweetly to wipe it away. River didn't cry in front of him, that was apparent in the way that she had been several times earlier. The Doctor seemed to be touched ever so slightly by this, Clara assumed from their silent interaction that River didn't simply just not cry in front of him, but that she never cried in front of him. Something unknown to her had just occurred between the two of them, and for once, Clara felt that she certainly needed to give them some space. She turned and walked a few feet away and sat on a crate.

"River..."

"I...just..." River was stammering. "I...can't..."

The Doctor picked up both of River's hands in his own, lifted them to his mouth and kissed them each individually and then finally looked into her face. "It was a long time ago," he wiped another tear from her face, "please don't worry about it."

"'I'm retired,'" she quoted back to him. "Retired..." she gasped and more tears made their way out of her eyes. "I don't even..." she inhaled sharply as she tried to regain her composure. "Oh Doctor..." River no longer knew what to say, but like she had heard the other Clara say, she let herself crumple into his arms and she began to sob uncontrollably.

The Doctor held on to her so tightly he was afraid he might hurt her, but he thought it was necessary. He had hardly remembered, well that was a lie, he remembered with almost perfect clarity how he had felt at the moment he said those words. Vastra, Jenny and Strax were trying to help him, and he scorned them every time, but when it came right down to it, they were always there for him, and they cared for him, even when he didn't deserve it...especially when he didn't deserve it.

He resituated his arms around River and pulled her closer to him, he'd never seen her cry in this regeneration. He'd seen her cry the day she died, but it hadn't really meant much to him at the time, her tears now however, cut him to the heart. He'd not even realized what the knowledge of that time would do to her, and he didn't want to try it, but here he was, too early in the time stream and she was crying...more than crying, she was sobbing. For the first time in their relationship, River was not in control of her emotions, and he wasn't sure exactly how he was feeling about that. He hated to see her ache, especially when he was the cause of that ache and pain.

River was having a hard time regaining her composure. When she had died to save the younger Doctor, she hadn't even given a second thought to what that would do to this Doctor, her Doctor. She hadn't even thought of how it would effect him, and she had to admit she was utterly surprised to see how it had effected him. For the first time in their relationship, he was completely in control of his emotions and part of her liked that and part of her did not. One thing she was certain of, was that she felt safe and protected in his arms. She knew everything was going to be alright now, but the need to outlive him shot through the metaphorical roof. She would have to outlive him. She would never want to put him through this again.

Clara was watching from a distance as River began to cry, she thought it was odd that this, 'stronger than ought to be' woman had completely lost control of her emotions. As Rivers crying turned into sobbing Clara realized that River loved The Doctor more than anyone else ever would. She was no longer worried about the way she had felt, she was no longer jealous. Seeing the way that he held River, how he was stroking her massive head of hair, she'd never seen that kind of love. He parents had loved each other a great deal and she had seen her mother cry before, but there was something about the way that River was crying now that set her mother and River so far apart. Her mother had been a very strong woman, and so was River, but the fact that this was probably the first time River had ever cried in front of him made it that much more precious.

Clara couldn't describe what she was seeing, even if she tried she couldn't. Her heart ached for both The Doctor and River. She assumed that the two had never been closer than they were in this moment of pain. The Doctor had to live through his utter unhappiness again, and River was confronted utterly and completely by just how much he loved her, and just what her death had done to him, and she was having an unbelievably amount of difficulty coming to terms with it.

The Doctor began to think about what the other Clara had said about his and River's love...he realized that there was something that set them apart, and there was something about their relationship that was changing in this moment of weakness. River had let him in completely.

River's thoughts were rushing through her head, just what had happened to him that night, the night she went to the Library? He would have, and did know, that he was sending her to her death, she couldn't even imagine having to do that. His crying at the Towers made perfect sense to her before, but to hear the hardness that had become a part of his heart as a result just crippled her. She was trying to sober up, but every time she tried another thing would come to mind and her tears would begin flowing again. How had she not thought about what it would do to him? She died so that his tenth regeneration would go forward in life and meet her, but she hadn't thought about this Doctor...about the Doctor what did love her. The Doctor who had married her, and who...no, she wasn't going to go there, that was not something she wanted to deal with right now, she was already crying more than she wanted to be.

Clara wasn't sure how much time had passed till when River had reached the point that she was able to slow her sobbing to crying, and then her crying to forcing herself to take deep breaths. She had definitely acquired a certain fondness for River based on this one event, that woman loved The Doctor so much that when she was confronted with how distraught he had been after her death she could not cope.

The Doctor released River who had just barely stopped crying long enough for him to pull his handkerchief out of his pocket, upon handing it to River he smiled at her and said, "this is why I like this suit. In case I need a good cry over my past self, I have it with me." River took it from him. "You know what wife?"

"What?" it came out as a sort of croak. She cleared her throat, "what?"

"I do believe we have reached another plateau in our marriage," he looked proud.

"Oh?" She smiled at him, "and what would that be?" She blew her nose.

"Reversal of emotions."

"That's not a plateau."

"Yes it is," he took the handkerchief back and placed it back inside his jacket, "I just made it one. I am plateau king." He thought about that and then, "ooh, no that's a rubbish title, let's not use that."

River shook her head sarcastically, "never. Never ever." She smiled faintly.

"There, that's what I want to see," he tapped her on the nose with his index finger. He clapped and spun around to Clara, "right, Clara! My Impossible Girl, shall we go?" he pointed his thumbs over his shoulder toward the street.

River straightened up and was now standing beside The Doctor who propped out his elbow for her, she then laced her fingers in his and used her other hand to place on the top part of his arm. They had reached a new plateau in their relationship, but she agreed, 'plateau King' was a rubbish title, and being that she's his wife she definitely didn't want the title of 'plateau Queen,' it wasn't sexy enough for her. Queen of sass, now that was a title. She smiled at Clara. River had a newfound affection for Clara. Clara had done the kindest thing for her and had backed away from her and The Doctor long enough to give them a moment to themselves, and she would make sure to thank Clara for that later.

Clara stood up, and as The Doctor and River walked over to her he stopped in front of Clara and said, "now, you're going to have to really listen to me, so that we don't run into your counterpart, 'cause that would be bad, paradoxes, and just bad. Bad bad. Definitely very not good."

"Oi!"

"Ooh..." he turned his head, "definitely...not good."