The Doctor didn't say anything, only stared at me with a hard expression, as if he were trying to figure me out.

"Doctor, please." I pleaded.

"You'd be without the locket for as long as it takes the universe to reset, and for me to get back to you. You'll need another source of power to live," The Doctor stated blankly. All I could do was shrug helplessly, not wanting to say the words he already knew—I don't have one.

I looked down, a tear rolling down my face, my brain no longer scrambling for another way out. The Doctor cupped my cheek and moved my face back up, using the pad of his thumb to wipe the tear away. I gulped. "You'll do it? You'll take it with you?"

"On one condition." The Doctor hushed.

It wasn't what I expected to hear. "What is it?"

"You have to let me give you something." He moved his hand away from my face and grabbed both of my hands in his, and I was confused.

"Give me what?"

"You can't ask, you just have to accept it."

"That's technically two conditions," I barely smiled, another tear rolling down my face.

"Fine then, two conditions. Do you accept?" The Doctor asked, noticing my hesitation, before pulling my hands to bring me closer to him again, and speaking in a low voice. "Nova… do you trust me?"

"I do," I whispered, afraid of myself for how quickly I responded.

Then, the last thing I expected happened—The Doctor brought me even closer, moved his hands up to my face, and kissed me.

I was confused at first; this couldn't have been what he meant—and then I felt it. Our lips were warm, almost tingling, like the passion seeped from his mouth and into my bloodstream, consuming me and giving me power. When a tear fell again I couldn't tell whose it belonged to—and my hands were tangled in his hair, pulling at it. His arms were grabbing me around my waist, pulling me closer and down to him as if it were any more possible. It felt like forever and only a few seconds all at once—constantly moving, hungry and desperate, until it slowed to a stop.

With my forehead against his, I took a deep breath—and when I exhaled, a golden mist flowed from my lips. My face was blotchy and my cheeks were wet as I confirmed my suspicion: the Doctor had given me his regeneration energy; years of his life.

"You may still be weak, but it'll keep you alive," The Doctor whispered against my lips.

I didn't know what to say in return—part of me was mad at him for doing it, but part of me also knew I probably couldn't have stopped him anyway. Thank you didn't feel like enough—and I was speechless: both from the intensity of the kiss, and the new surge of energy coursing through my veins. I threw my arms around him and we stayed like that—for as long as we could.

888

He was right. I was weak, but at least I wasn't dead.

"Nova!" Amy shouted, waking me up. I realized that I was in her bed, in her room, and she was already awake—wedding dress hanging in her closet and makeup spread out all over her dresser.

She hoped on the bed and sat me up by grabbing my shoulders. "You're my friend. My American friend! My sick, nerdy, disabled American friend!" She shook me, stating this as if it were a revelation.

"I am…" I said slowly, not sure if it would be a good idea or not to instantly remind her of everything that happened with her old life with the Doctor. She was so preoccupied with her new life that had just been restored, that she forgot the adventures with the Doctor and I.

"Well, let's get you up, then!" Amy exclaimed. Only then when I tried to move did I realize what Amy meant when she said I was sick. I was drained of energy and couldn't move the lower half of my body—and in the corner of the room was a wheelchair that belonged to me.

888

I stared down at my red dress, meant to be flowing around my waist—awkwardly bunched up in my wheelchair instead. I wasn't sat at the table in the front, but off to the side of the dance floor by some other bridesmaids. My weakness was not only physical, but mental also, making it somewhat hard to concentrate on everyone's droning speeches until Amy began to make a scene.

"Shut up, Dad!" Amy stood up suddenly, in her wedding dress and all, everyone in the reception confused.

"Amy?" Rory asked for just a second.

"Amelia?" Her newfound dad wondered also, too taken aback to be angry.

"Sorry, but shut up, please! There's someone missing… someone important. Someone so, so important…" She began, trying to find something within her own words.

"Amy, what's wrong?" Rory tried again.

"Nova?" Amy asked, her eyes searching for me near the side of the room. I didn't know what she wanted, but I smiled at her in reassurance, and she continued. "Sorry, everyone. But when I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend."

Her mother sighed. "Oh no, not this again."

"The raggedy Doctor. My raggedy Doctor. But he wasn't imaginary. He was real." She said with conviction, leaning forward on the table now.

"The psychiatrists we sent her to!" Her mother cried.

"And Nova can walk!" Amy added.

"Well that one's new," her father muttered.

"I remember you! I remember! I brought the others back, I brought Nova back, I can bring you home, too. Raggedy man, I remember you…" She shouted. "And you are late for my wedding!"

There was only a very brief moment of awkward silence before the glasses on the table began shaking and clinking against each other. The ground trembled, the chandelier swayed, and the crowed looked on in wonder as Amy continued.

"I found you. I found you in words, like you knew I would. That's why you told me the story… the brand new, ancient blue box. Oh, clever. Very clever." She almost laughed through the tears flowing down her face.

The wind in the room grew stronger, and my heart stuck in my throat as I heard the familiar whirring of the TARDIS.

"Amy, what is it?" Rory asked again.

Amy stared straight ahead at the spot where the wind was gathering. "Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue."

The TARDIS finally materialized in the room, and Rory stood, remembering too in that moment. "It's the Doctor! How did we forget the Doctor? I was plastic. He was a stripper at my stag… long story."

Amy ignored the sounds of the crowd around her, and hauled her wedding dress up, climbing over the table to stride up to the TARDIS. She knocked on the door. "Okay, Doctor. Did I surprise you this time?"

The TARDIS door opened, revealing the Doctor leaning against the frame inside, wearing a black top hat with a white tie and tails; a white scarf hanging loosely around his neck. "Er, yeah. Completely astonished. Never expected that. How lucky I happened to be wearing this old thing," he stepped out onto the floor. "Hello, everyone. I'm Amy's imaginary friend, but I came anyway," he shook Amy's dad's hand.

The bright smile on his face faltered when our eyes locked. "Right then, everyone. I'll move my box…" He entered the TARDIS again, and I put a hand up to my neck—almost expecting for my locket to be there, which I usually played with out of nervous habit—but he still had it.

888

I stared numbly at the people in front of me. The party quickly went back in full swing by the time the Doctor parked his TARDIS somewhere and got back to me. My eyes were locked on Rory talking to some little girls in the distance even as the Doctor moved to stand in front of me.

It wasn't until he knelt before me that I finally looked at him, nothing changing about my expression. I didn't know what to think about the fact that he seemed so dramatic when he left, and then barely spared me a glance the moment he got back. I didn't know what anything he did was supposed to mean, and I was too weak to try and figure it out. It took an unnecessary amount of strength to gulp. "I'm alive, but I can't really move."

"I know, I almost couldn't believe it," the Doctor slowly reached out to touch my hands resting on my lap, as if he were afraid they would disappear if he touched them. He looked back up at me and smiled, ecstatic that I was, in fact, real. "You're sad." He noticed, smile faltering again.

"I'm confused. I'm weak. I'm tired." I explained.

The Doctor reached into his pocket and took out the locket, draping it over my head as he said, "I think I can fix that."

Just like before, he pressed the locket between my collarbones with his right hand. Immediately, I felt warmth spread from that area throughout me, like my blood was circulating through my veins for the first time. He kept his right hand pressing the locket against me and circled his other arm around my waist, lifting me up slowly to stand.

I felt one last surge of weakness, and stumbled almost in slow motion. My back arched, so to anyone else it may have looked like he was dipping me gracefully. His arm was still around my waist, but the other was now tangled in my hair. It felt like an eternity, and like I was only inches away from the ground. I closed my eyes, feeling like I was being baptized. When he brought me back up slowly, the breath I took then felt rejuvenating, refreshing—like mint water coursing through my body. Like I had been brought back to life.

When I opened my eyes again, his face was closer to mine than I was expecting—and his bright green eyes pierced through me. We were both silent, neither of us daring to move. A tension stretched through the air like thin glass—both of us afraid of moving the wrong way and shattering it.

Once again, seconds felt like an eternity, until someone else broke the tension instead.

"There you both are! Oh Nova, I'm so glad you're okay," The Doctor jolted back from me, like he was doing something he wasn't supposed to, and River replaced him, stepping forward to throw her arms over me.

When I pulled away from her—I was overjoyed at my ability to physically step back.

Everyone began talking again, and I stood still in peace, content just observing the room around me. I couldn't help but smile when I saw Rory and Amy together. I was no longer weak, or tired, or sad.

However, when I looked at River and the Doctor together—I knew I was still no less confused.

888

"I'm sorry about earlier." River snuck up behind me, from where I stood on the dance floor with some of Amy's friends I had just met.

I turned to her, the others not paying much attention to me anyway. "About what earlier?"

"In the TARDIS, when I forced you to leave me. You know, he doesn't need me, he needs you," River laughed at herself, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I was just being dramatic—you know I did it to keep you safe, right? I needed you safe." She insisted. "But I do suppose it was good to know he wouldn't die."

I had almost forgotten she had said that, and now that she was taking it back, theories that I had barely dared to imagine were proven false. "Right."

"Good," River smiled, turning to walk away.

"Wait!" I interrupted, and River turned to me again. "The next time we see each other—the Byzantium, that's the first time we meet. You need to tell me then who you are to me, and that Prisoner Zero is real." I remembered.

River nodded. "That's going to be strange for me… but it sounds good."

River turned to leave again, and I interrupted her, again. "Wait! Who are you to me?"

River smiled, and shook her head. "I told you, I'm your best friend."

"Okay then, not to me, to the Doctor," I pressed, part of me not wanting to hear the answer.

"Spoilers," River smirked, turning away again.

She walked off quickly, but I still caught up to her, grabbing her arm and spinning her back to me again. "No! Please, just tell me."

River didn't look me in the eye, and shook her head. "Do you really want to hear this answer? The truthful, honest answer?"

I paused for a moment, but quickly resolved that I needed this to make this easier, to spare as much heartbreak as I could for everyone involved. My voice was quiet anyway. "Yes."

"I wasn't being dramatic when I said all the little changes will add up to something big. There's something the Doctor hasn't told you—something that will keep bringing him back to you no matter what could happen." She spoke quietly.

She paused for so long that I felt forced to try to figure out what she meant. "Back to me? Like, because of… quantum space—"

"No, no, nothing like that," River almost chuckled. "Because of you. Sure, you're an interesting girl. You're smart. You're a classified alien scientist of the 21st century. You're storm that's just beginning to brew—a firecracker that's just been set. I mean, your hair glows. But none of that is it."

"Then what is it?" I couldn't help but interrupt anymore, desperate.

"You're a disruption in the fabric of space and time. Everything that should have been a fixed point in time in the Doctor's life is no longer—because of you. And the same goes for my life. Nothing is fixed as it should be." She almost sounded bitter as she spoke. "So who am I to the Doctor? I have no idea. But that's not the question you should be asking."

I was jarred by her answer, but continued anyway. "What should I be asking, then?"

"Who are you?"

888

"Okay but, when you say who I am do you mean like, who am I am as in my personal identity and feelings like this is some metaphorical thing and I shouldn't be worrying about the affairs of other people? Or do you mean who I am as in, like, who I am as a Time Lord and who my parents are and how and why I got here?" I rushed, panting as I ran up to River outside, trying to match her fast-walking pace.

"My gods, you really never stop, do you?" River sighed, not slowing her pace but looking at me, and sighing once again once she realized she was going to give an answer to my hopeful expression. "I mean both."

"Oh, that actually doesn't help at all!" I complained, trying to think of a better question.

River hushed me, and grabbed me by my hand, pulling me through a tangle of bushes quietly until I realized what we were approaching.

"Did you dance? Well, you always dance at weddings, don't you?" She asked.

The Doctor, who was putting the key into the lock of the TARDIS, turned to face us. "You tell me."

River gasped almost teasingly, "Spoilers."

We walked up to each other slowly, and I awkwardly untangled my hand from River's, moving to stand between them. I couldn't help but notice that with the way we stood, I was in the position of a priest ordaining their wedding.

The Doctor held out the blue TARDIS journal to her. "The writing's all back, but I didn't peek."

There was a strange pause that I couldn't interpret. River tucked the journal under her arm before saying, "Thank you," and the Doctor also handed her vortex manipulator back to her, gently, playfully—I couldn't tell exactly how—only it wasn't in the normal way people returned things to each other. Or maybe it was, actually, I didn't know anymore. I tried to quickly think of a time the Doctor had returned something to me to draw up a comparison, but the only thing I came up with was returning my locket—and both of those times were far from normal.

The Doctor snuck a glance at me before putting his hands in his pockets and asking, "Are you married, River?"

"Are you asking?" River replied carefully, but gracefully—as if she put this kind of care into everything she said while she fastened the manipulator back on her wrist.

The Doctor looked to me for just a moment again. Perhaps he knew that I wanted this answer, too. From the moment we first met, there were always a million things left unsaid between us—but that didn't mean we didn't hear them anyway. "Yes."

"Yes," River quirked her eyebrows.

"No, hang on. Did you think I was asking you to marry me, o- o-or asking if you were married?" The Doctor stammered quickly.

River looked at me also, as if speaking to both of us. "Why do you ask?"

There was a long silence then. When I thought of the question, the most obvious answer seemed to be: because it would help to know, in the grand scheme of things. But when the Doctor and I locked eyes again, we both knew that there was something more than that. Whether either of us knew exactly what that was didn't matter, because neither of us dared to say it.

"Fine. Yes." River replied.

"Yes?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes to what?" I asked.

River smirked, and shrugged. "Yes."

"River… Who are you?" The Doctor asked this in a low, almost sultry voice that freaked me out for a second.

"That's a very good question…" River began on another vague rant, but the gears clicked in my head in that moment. I realized that when River told me I was asking the wrong question—she may very well have meant that I should do some self-evaluation, but she also may have meant…

"Who are you?" I repeated the Doctor urgently.

"A time is coming where you'll realize you already know. You've always known who I am, all along. And… that's when everything changes." River looked directly at me, so I knew she was saying that I was the one who already knew. She reached out to run a hand down the Doctor's chest one last time, before activating her manipulator and vanishing away.

I was staring directly at the Doctor unashamedly, and faced the facts. He had kissed me earlier, but maybe that was just the easiest way to transfer regeneration energy. Then again, there was the fact that he had given it to me in the first place, and then there was everything else…

But now he gulped hard, blushing, staring at the empty space before him that River had left behind. I began to wonder what any of it meant for the millionth time—but for the first, I began to wonder if any of the confusion in my heart was worth it.

And then, as if my brain had subconsciously given me an answer—I remembered something. "Dylan," I said out loud, in shock.

"What?" The Doctor asked.

"Oh my god, with the universe resetting—how long has it been since I've seen Dylan? How long has it been since he's seen me?" I asked this to no one in particular, but it was obvious that the Doctor could hear me considering he was only standing a few feet away, and I would have preferred an answer.

However, the Doctor stared at the floor and then simply stepped into the TARDIS, seemingly ignoring me.

"Doctor?" I followed him in.

"You should probably check on Meredith. See if this whole thing even worked," He suggested, not looking at me, glaring hard at the TARDIS monitor

I didn't know where this sudden indifference came from—there were a million different possibilities, and it was similar to the moment after I explained my last flashback to him. I walked slowly behind him to see what he was staring at on the monitor.

It was the progress screen for the orb, which still stuck secure in the center console. The progress bar read: 26.3% scanned.

I closed my eyes, and pressed my locket.

a/n: sorry it's taken me approximately a billion years to get this chapter, i re-wrote it a billion times! i know this kiss had been a long time coming, but it's not exactly what you were all expecting (or at least i hope) because it could have meant a million different things and river is still there and the doctor still doesn't know who nova is so why should he trust her in the first place and also dylan exists and might be a better match for her and WHAT DOES IT all MEAN?

you tell me! why do you think the doctor is reacting the way he is? what does the orb power do? what does river mean when she says nova already knows? are people even still reading this story ?

until next time!