A/N: This chapter covers the episode "The Impossible Astronaut." (This two-parter happens to be one of my all-time favorites, so I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and the next one!)

See first chapter for additional notes and disclaimers.

Chapter Seven

River stared at the blue envelope. A summons. To what she didn't know.

But she did know from whom, so she set about breaking out of her cell and getting to America.

She shot a Stetson off the Doctor's head. That boosted her spirits considerably. "Hello, sweetie."

And apparently she had another anomaly on her hands, because this Doctor knew about Easter Island and Jim the Fish.

Comforting, since her parents had no clue who she was.

But they at least had met her before and seemed to like her, so she relaxed and enjoyed the day. A picnic. Wine and laughter. Watching the Doctor spit out said wine and laughing all the more.

And then...an astronaut rose from the lake.

He wouldn't...he couldn't.

But he had, she remembered, feeling sick. He'd already told her that he had. He'd wanted her to know that "this must always happen."

And that she was forgiven. Always and completely.

Well, maybe that had been his intent, but that wasn't how it felt from this end.

It felt just as unforgivably cruel as she'd thought at the time.

River drew a deep breath. Okay. No time to wallow. She had to take care of her mother.

So she and Rory held back an increasingly hysterical Amy. "Amy! Stay back! The Doctor said stay back!"

And even though she knew, even though she'd already lived it and knew it was the Tessalecta, River couldn't hold back her own reaction as she watched him fall with the second shot, his regeneration cut off too soon. "No! Doctor!"

She ran with her parents to the Doctor's body. Okay, time to play her part. She started scanning, knowing full well what she'd find.

But Amy needed to be convinced. Amy, who sobbed next to her in despair, her voice pleading with River to fix this. So River rose and aimed and shot at the astronaut heading back into the lake.

It accomplished nothing. "Of course not."

But Amy needed her to try.

And the redhead still wasn't accepting it. "River, he can't be dead. This is impossible."

River sighed. "Whatever that was, it killed him in the middle of his regeneration cycle. His body was already dead. He didn't make it to the next one."

"Maybe he's a clone or a duplicate or something."

And River was tempted, so tempted, to say yes, you're right. You're exactly right, Mum. He knew this was coming, and he planned ahead, and he's absolutely fine.

The Doctor must have known how badly River would want to blurt out the truth. He'd planned for this too. Because the man from the truck walked over to them. "I believe I can save you some time. That most certainly is the Doctor, and he is most certainly dead. He said you'd need this."

Bless him. He wasn't going to force her to lie to her mother. Not about this.

"Gasoline?" Rory asked.

This River could handle. This didn't really involve any lies-half-truths, maybe, but no lies. "A Timelord's body is a miracle. Even a dead one. There are whole empires out there who'd rip this world apart for just one cell. We can't leave him here. Or anywhere."

Amy begged the Doctor to wake up and asked Rory what they should do.

River knew the answer to that one. "We're his friends. We do what the Doctor's friends always do. As we're told." She picked up the gas can.

And Rory, being Rory, insisted that if they were going to do it they do it properly.

So they did, keeping a silent vigil as the Doctor's body (the Tessalecta) burned in the dark. Finally River turned to the man. "Who are you? Why did you come?"

"Same reason as you." He pulled a blue envelope from his pocket. River pulled hers out as well. "Dr. Song...Amy...Rory. I'm Canton Everett Delaware III. I won't be seeing you again. But...you'll be seeing me." He picked up the can and headed back to his truck.

"Four," River murmured thoughtfully.

"Sorry, what?" Rory asked.

"The Doctor numbered the envelopes," she explained.

###

They returned to the diner. Amy, in her grief, was still lost. River tried again. "You got three, I was two, Mr Delaware was four."

"So?" Rory asked.

"So where's one?"

"You think he invited someone else?"

"Well, he must have. He planned all of this to the last detail," River insisted.

But Amy was done. "Will you shut up? It doesn't matter."

It did matter. "He was up to something."

Back and forth they went, with Amy insisting that it was all pointless and River trying to convince her that there was more to it. Even Rory sided with River, saying, "Hey. It mattered to him."

Amy still wasn't sold; she simply hurt too much. River could certainly understand that. "But he still needs us. I know. Amy...I know. But right now we have to focus."

They found the envelope marked with a one and were trying to figure out to whom it belonged when the Doctor himself sauntered in without a care in the world.

Bloody hell. "This is cold. Even by your standards, this is cold."

"Or hello, as people used to say." Why'd he have to sound so cheerful, anyway?

Amy floundered. "How can you be okay?"

"Of course I'm okay, I'm always okay." He hugged her. "I'm the king of okay. Oh, that's a rubbish title, forget that title." He released her. "Rory the Roman, that's a good title. Hello, Rory!" He hugged him as well before turning to River. "And Dr. River Song...oh, you bad, bad girl, what trouble have you got for me this time?"

He really was a bastard sometimes. River slapped him-hard.

"Okay...I'm assuming that's for something I haven't done yet."

"Yes, it is," River said quietly.

"Good, looking forward to it."

"I don't understand. How can you be here?" Rory asked and poked the Doctor.

"I was invited. Date, map reference. Same as you lot, I assume, otherwise it's a hell of a coincidence."

Amy still hadn't put it all together. "River, what's going on?"

So River pushed the Doctor to admit his age...and to admit that he hadn't gone on those adventures they were reminiscing about earlier. So much for her anomaly. Instead she was going to deal with a Doctor who was pre-Demon's Run, who had no clue who she was.

Just like her parents didn't.

But her parents needed her, so River huddled with them and tried again to explain it all.

And oh, they were young. Rory actually asked if the Doctor wanted them to avenge him.

Amy was convinced they could save him. River wished she could tell her that they didn't need to.

Instead she stuck to the role she'd been given-well, been thrust into. "We've told him all we can. We can't even tell him we've seen his future self. He's interacted with his own past. It could rip a hole in the universe."

"Except he's done it before," Amy insisted.

"And in fairness, the universe did blow up," Rory retorted. River wondered if she was there for that one. She rather hoped so.

The Doctor poked his head down then, complaining that they weren't around to admire his cleverness. River rolled her eyes. "Couldn't you just slap him sometimes?"

The Doctor threw a wrench into things by refusing to follow the summons to 1969. River tried to convince him. "You're going to have to trust us this time."

He actually snorted at her. "Trust you? Sure." He sauntered over. "But first of all, Dr. Song, just one thing... Who are you? You're someone from my future, getting that, but who? Okay... Why are you in prison? Who did you kill? Hmm? Now, I love a bad girl, me, but trust you? Seriously?"

He was that early? She knew he didn't know she was Melody Pond, but he didn't even trust her yet? River swallowed. This was going to be harder than she thought.

"I want you to remember something. I fall in love with you far earlier than I actually act like I love you. And...I'm sorry for that."

Maybe this was what he'd been talking about.

Amy pulled herself together and salvaged the situation. The Doctor trusted her.

But River squashed it all down and set about correcting the Doctor's TARDIS flying. Not that she'd admit that was what she was doing. "Just admiring your skills, sweetie."

They landed, and the Doctor bounded into the Oval Office.

And managed to get a whole lot of guns pointed at him.

And then he introduced her and Amy and Rory as "the Legs, the Nose, and Mrs. Robinson."

"I really hate you sometimes," she told him.

"No, you don't!"

He sounded flirtatious. River brightened. He still flirted with her!

This would be all right after all.

###

Listening to the recording of a little girl pleading for help was harder than she'd expected.

She barely remembered making that call, but hearing her own voice brought back all the terror she'd felt at the time. "Please help! Please help me!"

No time to dwell though. She examined the space suit, told the Doctor it was alien tech.

Had there been aliens at the orphanage? Was Madame Kovarian alien? Surely not Dr. Renfrew…

The Doctor popped over to find the girl, and suddenly Amy was beside her. River glanced at her. "I know what you're thinking."

"No, you don't," Amy protested.

Oh, Mum, of course I do. "You're thinking if we can find the Space Man in 1969, and neutralise it, then it won't be around in 2011 to kill the Doctor."

Amy grumbled that it was a lucky guess.

River sighed. "That's only because I was thinking it too." It was tempting. She could be saved as a child. All of the horror of the orphanage undone. No dying lost and alone in the back streets of New York. No having to leave her beloved "grandparents" only to discover that the timing was off and her parents weren't grown up yet. She could be just a normal girl living a normal life with her mum and dad.

But the ramifications of undoing all that…

"It doesn't work like that. We came here because of what we saw in the future. If we try and prevent the future from happening, we create a paradox."

But Amy had always been stubborn. "Time can be rewritten."

River smiled wistfully. "Not all of it."

She climbed down into the tunnels. There was a moment where she felt a flash of terror, but by the time she climbed back up the ladder it was gone. "All clear. Just tunnels, nothing down there I can see. Er, give me five minutes, I want to take another look round."

Why did she want to take another look?

Honestly, this was her childhood all over again.

But the Doctor agreed and even sent Rory with her. She could tell he didn't want to come, but he was Rory, so he did it anyway.

And because he was Rory, he also tried to talk her out of breaking into the locked hatch. "Is this sensible?"

It felt so good to have him be a father again, even if he didn't know that was what he was doing. She laughed in delight. "I hope not!"

"You and the Doctor...I can kind of picture it," he murmured. She bit back another laugh, knowing he'd have quite an accurate picture one day.

He asked her about her earlier words. She really ought to answer, "Spoilers," but it was Rory and she really didn't lie to him. So she told him, all of it. It felt good just to get it all out.

And Rory empathized far more than she'd expected. Was this Rory still insecure about the Doctor? Still believing he'd been Amy's second choice?

They were married. How could he still be thinking that?

How could she fix it?

She'd have to figure it out later, because right now she had bigger problems. "These tunnels, they're not just here, they're everywhere. They're running under the surface of the entire planet! They've been here for centuries!"

There was a crackle of energy from the tunnel behind them. Rory turned, and there was a bright flash. River screamed. "Rory!"