Here it is! Chapter 14. Didn't come out how I wanted it too, River and the Doctor are all slightly OOC, it's a bit disjointed...and some things i wanted to happen have been pushed back to the next chapter. On a side note, broke 100 reviews! Whoo! You are all awsome! Life Goal: Accomplished! Thank you everybody for your support! I do not own Doctor Who, if I did the Doctor would be wearing a papoose by now. With a time tot in it. Not just an empty papoose... anyway...enjoy!

Rose blinked at the sunshine streaming into her eyes, there were hard points digging into her back and her arms were hanging loosely into free air. She groaned. What had happened? Her mind was filled with disjointed images, nothing connecting together. There was light...like sunshine, but so much brighter. A splash of vibrant red...blood? No... She attempted to roll upright, freezing at the vertigo that swept through her, her eyes flying open. Leaves brushed against her face. Was she...in a tree?

BREAK

The Doctor didn't look up as he felt River's stare digging into his neck. He could hear the Ponds shifting anxiously. Gwyn started squirming again, little whines of impatience squeaking out of her mouth.

"Right." Rory's voice was too loud in the stretched silence. "Gwyn'll...probably...need a coat." He nodded in certainty. "Amy?" He nudged his wife.

"Right-yeah. We'll just," she took a few small steps forward. "Go get her one." Walking through the Doctor and River's stilled forms like they expected a trap to close around them they collected Gwyn from her seat. "What is she wearing?" Amy demanded suddenly, momentarily forgetting her apprehension. The Doctor roused himself, speaking distractedly.

"It's a jumper. It's...cool." He rubbed a finger along a row of buttons.

"Right...Don't worry Gwyn, auntie Amy will save you from your da's fashion sense."

The Doctor flinched even as he smiled slightly.

Amy muttered a squeaky 'Let's go', and the Ponds disappeared, taking Gwyn with them. The silence stretched after them, until River approached him, her skirt swishing around her knees. She stood behind him, and he didn't dare turn. He stared at the console until his vision swam. Then her hand was on his shoulder and he couldn't fight the pressure. He turned eyes downcast, glistening with shameful tears. What had he done to her? What would she think of him now? His River. Would she love him? Or did he lose her?

"You've got some explaining to do." She told him sternly, but her voice was surprisingly light as her hands moved around his neck. Threading his tie back under his collar and tying it back into his signature bow. When she was done her hands rested on his shoulders, her gaze drawing his eyes up to hers. "Who else?"

He recoiled, turning his face away sharply.

"You may have superior biology sweetie, but there is no way I'm going to believe you had this baby on your own. She's too cute for that." He studied her smile, saw the fractures, saw the hurt she tried to hide behind teasing and curled lips.

"River." He crushed her too him, burying his hand in her hair and his face into the crook of her neck, breathing in her scent, a scent of soap and vanilla and River. She held him back, running her fingers through his hair and whispering soothing sounds into his ear. He drew back first, resting his forehead against hers, eyes still wet, snuffling slightly. "It doesn't matter."

River drew back abruptly, her face suddenly hard.

"Yes it does sweetie. It matters to you and one day, it's going to matter to her." She looked him over frowning. "You may not want to tell me Doctor, but you're going to have to tell her. Maybe not today, but someday. You can't hide it forever."

He scowled back at her, lips pushing out into a pout.

"Yes I can. I'm the Doctor I can do anything I want! I can rewrite the history of the world! Sort of...Provided it's not a fixed point." He gave her a shaky smile, but her face was still hard.

"Oh no you can't. I won't let you. This is important Doctor, trust me. A girl has to have a mother."

"Well, she'll have you..." He froze at River's small gasp of shock. "Won't she?" Slowly River smiled stepping forward to clasp his hands.

"Of course sweetie. Always. But I'm not going to enough." She turned away, falling back into coy teasing.

"Course you will. You'll be her mum." The Doctor tailed her, fidgeting his fingers. She whirled, the frown was back.

"Doctor. I will always be here for your daughter. But I won't lie to her sweetie."

"Since when?"

"Since I suddenly became a parent figure." She crossed her arms. "She's going to want to hear the stories."

"What stories?" He demanded, glaring at her just as crossly.

"Oh Doctor." She chuckled, resting a hand on his cheek. "You really are clueless." She pecked his hard lips, studying him softly. "Every girl wants to hear the fairy tale of her parents happily ever after."

"So I'll tell her ours. There. Problem solved."

"Oh no you don't!" She waved an admonishing finger at him. "I already told you I won't lie Doctor. I know what it's like to want to know your mum. I met mine. I'm guessing she's not going to have that chance?"

BREAK

Rose had finally managed to work her way into a sitting position, staring the fifty or so feet down to the ground. She'd amassed a small gathering since waking up. A cluster of children were dancing around the base of her tree, lime green hair glinting. She could hear their parents muttering, but she didn't hear a word of English. Which was just her luck. What she wouldn't have given for a Tardis right then...

BREAK

The Doctor was staring at his wife. She was right, she usually was, not that he'd admit it. He didn't have to usually, they mostly agreed on things. They were clever like that. But this? This was something he couldn't wrap his Time Lord brain around. He loved River, with both his hearts...but there were somethings he couldn't explain to anyone. Rose was one of them. He understood that Gwyn would need answers, that River NEEDED answers. But he couldn't give them to her... When he'd regenerated he'd locked Rose and the damage she'd done so far back into his mind even he couldn't get to her. Most of the time. There were moments...like at Baker St. or when Gwyn was sleeping in his arms when he could remember, and the pain didn't kill him. Fleeting moments, rare fluttering things that were like the seconds at the edge of a dream. Not now.

"I can't do this River."

"Doctor-"

"NO! I CANNOT DO this!" His hands gripped her shoulders, fingers leaving pink shadows against her arms. "You want answers. Fine! Find them! But don't! DON'T. Ask me." He turned from her, while she could only stare shocked. He disappeared below the console, to a place where he could hide his tears behind thick goggles, and sit in a swing that made him look light and carefree while he carried the weight of a thousand worlds, a thousand lives, on his shoulders, the floor growing dark to hide him.

River watched him go, shaking slightly. The Tardis thrummed her sympathy and River laid a thankful hand against the rotor the Tardis buzzing beneath her palm. She wanted to take it all back, go to the Doctor and take some of the pain away. But River knew what it was like to not have a family, to be forced to wonder about where you came from, if you were wanted. She'd spent the younger part of her life living in a children's home, seeing the shells of other young kids lives lived without answers. She'd been lucky, she'd found the Doctor and the Ponds, her parents, she had most of her answers now. And if she had to find them for this young girl too, so be it.

The Tardis watched her family as they blundered. Her poor thief, so broken inside he couldn't face even the happy parts of the past, not even for his baby. Her River, trying so hard to do what he couldn't, trying to help...her Ponds caught in the crossfires of centuries of history. Doctor history, the hardest kind to understand. And then there was the Bad Wolf's cub at the hub of it all, glowing brightly. How the Tardis loved her. She couldn't explain her. She had a hard enough time with words and tenses even if she could've spoken. With nothing but tests that looked in all the wrong places and sciences that couldn't measure any of the relevant elements... she was still looking for a way to communicate. Now that River was here she may have a chance, she connected with her Child better then anyone (except her Thief, but his head was too full to listen most times). She could only hope. Especially since the Bad Wolf was coming soon to complicate things.