CHAPTER 9

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

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Did you ever have one of those days when you wished that you had just decided to stay in the bed and have a good long nap? I never had in my life until today, and I've had plenty of reasons to want to stay in a nice comfortable bed and never come back out.

Of course if I did that, I'd miss out on so much. There are so many amazing places to go, interesting people to meet, and exciting adventures to be had.

The most important reason that I wouldn't want to ever quit traveling through time and space though would have to be that thick skulled man that I'm currently traveling with who still seems to have no clue just how much I care about him. He is definitely a clone of the Doctor in every way because he is totally oblivious when it comes to knowing what's going on right in front of him just like the original. In fact, I think that he might actually be thicker.

That should tip all of you off as to who your guest narrator is this time around. That's right! Contrary to what you may have thought in the last chapter, I'm very much alive and well.

River, I can hear you asking, how on Gallifrey did you escape becoming a piece of charcoal? Well, hold on and I'll tell you.

When last our dear narrator, Time Lord Prime, left off, I was in the middle of taking poor Astrid to Gallifrey with my Vortex Manipulator in order to get K'anpo to help her. Then Old Prime leaves off with a horrible ending where Donald has just been told that I've been blown up, and he's sobbing in Tyler's arms. Talk about melodramatic!

He always did go overboard on the emotional scenes though. I'm just glad that he hasn't tried to give me some weepy and maudlin scene where I just fall apart and have myself a good old cry yet, or I'd have to shoot him . . . again.

Now that I have Prime shaking in his boots, I'll tell you what happened when Astrid and I arrived on Gallifrey. I could tell by the look on her face that she was about to explode at any second so I started to punch in some random coordinates on my Manipulator and get myself out of there when I suddenly realized that someone else had beaten me to it.

I found myself suddenly back on Ravalox as if I'd never left. You can imagine my surprise since I hadn't even had time to push a button yet.

"Well, this is new. I wonder who my anonymous benefactor is," I said to myself.

That's still a question that I haven't answered yet. I don't know for sure who rescued me, but I do have my suspicions. It's someone who thinks that I've forgotten about what they can do if I'm right. They're wrong though. I've had to find ways to remember things that I shouldn't so it makes it very hard to erase my memory permanently. I've had to adapt in that way in order to survive with the Silence around.

At least I know for sure now that my possible benefactor is not malevolent, but then again I never really thought that she was. She always just seemed like a very naïve kid to me. I just hope that naivety doesn't get her or any of us killed someday.

It turned out that I had been brought back just a few yards away from Donald and the others who had left the Silence base and were now heading back to the TARDIS. It seemed that Donald actually thought that I was dead. I could tell because he wasn't talking. Usually you couldn't shut him up if you hit him in the head with a sledgehammer. Trust me on that.

Don't look at me like that. Time Lords are incredibly resilient to pain. I found that out through personal experience. Kovarian didn't take failure lightly even from a child.

I decided to avoid one of those long, drawn-out reunion scenes and just get to the point as quickly as possible as I called out to Donald, "What are you so long in the face for?"

The look on Donald's face was priceless as it switched from utter surprise to disbelief and finally to complete joy in just a matter of seconds. I always wondered if the Doctor ever took acting lessons because he always had a talent for overacting and everyone knows what an enormous ham that he can be. That goes double for Donald.

I know that I sound cruel, but it's just the way that I am. I was trained to show no emotions and so I don't. It doesn't mean that I don't care though. I'm not a complete psychopath despite what you may have heard. I'm only partly one.

"River!" Donald said with complete happiness as he started running towards me.

I had to overcome an urge to say something snarky to him because I knew that he was genuinely happy to see me. It seems that he does care a little something about me after all. I'd say that I was sorry, Joan, but I'm not.

Donald wrapped his arms around me and embraced me tightly. It was a little too tightly because I started to have trouble breathing, but I decided not to say anything. I was used to holding my breath for long periods of time after all. That was another little gift that Kovarian gave me.

"Donald, let go! She's starting to turn blue," Rose said.

"Thanks, Tyler. I thought that I was going to have to go into a meditative trance for a minute there to keep from being asphyxiated," I joked.

"Time Lords can't be strangled," Rose pointed out.

"It's called a sense of humor, Tyler. You might look into getting one," I said cattily.

"I have a perfect sense of humor. I just don't think that joke was funny," Rose said with a grin.

I knew that she was just playing around with me and not trying to start a fight. I wasn't trying to start one either. I was just trying to make what was a tense situation a little lighter. I couldn't help but like her despite myself. She made the Doctor happy, and that was all that mattered to me.

Maybe if I keep telling myself that enough, I'll actually start to believe it.

Donald kept looking at me with such a grateful expression that even my cold hearts melted, and I gave him a little hug back. See, I'm really not a total psycho after all. Don't tell anybody though.

"I thought that you had died. They told me that there was a huge explosion in the wild lands," Donald said as he just kept smiling at me.

"You should know me better than that. I'm too tough to die from a little explosion. Besides that, who would keep you in line without me around? Someone's got to keep you from killing yourself," I said with a big grin on my face. I enjoyed teasing him like that.

"River, I . . . ," Donald started to say and then he broke off.

He totally surprised me then but in a very good way as he gave me a deep passionate kiss. Naturally, I started to kiss him back. I didn't stop even when I heard a startled gasp from behind me that I knew had to be Joan. Too bad, Joanie! I've got nothing against you personally. I've already lost one Doctor though, and I'm not going to lose another one.

"Donald," Joan said in a broken voice that made even me feel a little bad for her.

I didn't feel one bit guilty though. As long as Donald truly wanted me then I didn't feel guilty at all. It wasn't like I was taking him from her. He was a big boy and able to make decisions for himself after all.

Donald realized that Joan had seen him and stopped kissing me unfortunately. He looked very guilty as he said, "I'm sorry, Joan. It's just that I realized when I thought that she was dead just how I really felt about her. I'm so sorry."

Joan started to break down in front of us, and I had to admit that I started feeling like a heel in that moment. I knew that I hadn't done anything wrong, but I still felt bad for her. She wasn't really a bad person after all, and I certainly knew what it was like to be in her shoes having gone through it myself before.

Here came Tyler to the rescue though as she did that famous empathy thing that she was always so good at. She took Joan off to the side and comforted her as Donald looked like he wanted to hide under a rock.

"I'm sorry, Donald. Do you want me to talk to her?" I offered.

"No, Rose can help her. She's good at healing people and making them feel better," Donald said.

I can't tell you how I really didn't want to hear about Saint Rose right now. It wasn't as if I didn't feel bad enough about things. This had to happen sooner or later though to one of us. Part of me felt terrible for her while another bigger part of me was so relieved that it wasn't me. I don't think that I could have survived losing him twice.

At that moment, we received a welcome distraction from Gallifrey as we were close enough to the TARDIS by now that we could hear the telephone in it start ringing. Donald seemed to welcome the chance to talk to someone as he ran inside and answered it. It was K'anpo on the other end of course.

"Astrid seems to be okay now even after a big explosion like that. She's been totally unaffected by it. I'm going to try to teach her how to control her powers where she won't be a danger to everyone around her from now on. I'm so sorry about River and so is Astrid. She's devastated by what happened," K'anpo said.

"Tell her that River's fine. She managed to get away somehow," Donald said as he gave me a questioning look that I responded to by shrugging my shoulders.

"Really? I'd heard that she was hard to kill, but this makes my respect for her go up about a couple of hundred notches. Astrid took out fifty acres of the wild lands when she released her power. Luckily, no one was nearby when it happened. Professor Song chose the area to bring her to well. She must be quite the genius," K'anpo said.

I liked the old man already.

I could hear Astrid laughing with joy and relief on the other end of the line after K'anpo told her that I had survived. I could only imagine what she must have been going through after she thought that she had killed me.

As everyone got into the TARDIS and we prepared to leave Ravalox behind before the Silence could come after us, Reinette was already making a move on Donald. Reinette had continued to act like she was just here to tie up all of the loose ends between her and the Doctor, but I wasn't buying it. Joan hadn't even finished crying yet, and she was already moving in on him. She was very smooth I'll give her that. She waited until she thought that I was too far away to hear her, and then she came up to Donald with that phony smile of hers.

Writer's Note: The opinions of River Song are not necessarily the opinions of this writer.

Zip it, Prime. I'm right and you know it.

"I'm sorry about what happened between you and Joan back there. I know why you hesitated to tell her that the two of you were through though. I did the same thing with Nicolas. I found out that it would have been best if I had told him how I really felt and let him down right away instead of dragging things out as long as I did. I'm sorry that you had to learn that lesson too just now. Congratulations on your new relationship with Professor Song, however," Reinette said.

"Thank you but I'm not sure if I'd call it a relationship really," Donald said.

I started to become very angry now. What was he going on about?

"What about that kiss though? Surely that was the kiss of a lover," Reinette asked as for once she and I were in agreement about something.

I could see her looking at me with worry as I walked closer to them to hear what he had to say next. She now knew that I was listening to them. She probably thought that I was going to raise a fuss if I didn't like what he had to say.

"I don't know. I was just so glad to see her alive again that I lost control of myself. I shouldn't have done that though. I'm not sure if River feels the same way about me or not," Donald said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked as I now entered into things.

"I'm sorry for kissing you like that before I knew how you felt. I just got lost in the emotion of the moment," Donald said.

I do feel the same way about you, Donald. Are you blind? Can't you see the truth just by looking at my face whenever I look at you? Oh, and by the way, I kissed you back," I said in anger.

"I thought that you had finally decided to come out into the open with your relationship and that the two of you had been together all along," Reinette said to Donald.

"What? You thought that we were already together?" Donald asked in surprise.

"Yes, it's obvious to me how the two of you feel about each other. The others all seem to know it as well. Why don't you?" Reinette said in confusion.

I wondered at that moment if Reinette was just saying that because I was there, or if she was really trying to help open his eyes. I'm still not completely sure just how much of that innocent act of hers that I believe.

"Is that true?" Donald asked me.

"Yes, you thick brained idiot! I love you!" I finally admitted to him.

Then I leaned forward and kissed him, and he finally got it. I could see the lights come on at last in his eyes as he began to kiss back. I could actually see Reinette smiling at us as she walked away, and I briefly wondered if I had misjudged her.

I doubt it.

I saw Lydia looking at me and Donald with a brief look of anger on her face, but I soon put it to the back of my mind as I was swept up in the moment. Whatever Lydia's problem was could wait. I had finally done the impossible it seemed and made Donald see what everyone else had a long time ago. I had been waiting for this for a long time, and I was going to enjoy every moment of it.

Next: Astrid returns with better control of her powers just in time to find out about the happy news. She can't wait to congratulate Donald and his new girlfriend, Lydia. Wait, what? You heard me right. Next time, River tries to figure out just what's going on as she has a faint idea that something is very, very wrong, but she just can't quite put her finger on it.