A/N: (Feel free to skip my useless rambling) Merry belated Christmas and a happy New Year! I hope you guys are enjoying the season as much as I am. I recently got a new laptop that I'm quite pleased with - so I now have the luxury of having a writing/school laptop and a play laptop. Hopefully this'll keep me more on task :P Anyway, yaaay, new update on time again! I'm on a roll. Let's hope I don't break it! This chapter for some reason was extremely difficult to get right. We're on to the final plotline of this fic, so buckle in, ladies and gents! Get your cup of tea/coffee/whatever and grab a cookie (we really need help eating up these bucketloads of Christmas cookies!) and enjoy! Don't forget to leave a review on your way out, of course. :)

37

Revelations

Here he was, in a park, sitting on a bench, alone. The Doctor scuffed his feet in the dry leaves as the wind blew through his hair. The sky was a clear blue, smooth, like an upside-down bowl upon the earth. What year was it, anyway? He didn't even know. It was in the 90s, twentieth century definitely. He sighed and scratched his cheek and walked over to the swings. The park was empty, mostly. There were a few of the odd children around, their parents having coffee. He swung idly for a few moments and then decided that was just boring without anyone else around to talk to. He missed his Ponds.

Then, his eyes caught a wisp of blonde curls – and then a cloud of brown ones.

"Doctor!" Brooke looked confused as she and River walked up to him, "What the hell are you doing here?"

The Doctor frowned, wondering when they were, exactly. "Can't I be at a park?"

River caught his arm, stopping his idle swinging. "You have to go."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. He was tired and just about had had enough of all their shenanigans. He just wanted some downtime from his adventures. Was that too much to ask? "Okay, sorry, Doctor not following, Doctor very confused. What? Why do I have to go? What's wrong with being at a park?" he demanded.

Brooke swallowed. "Look, we're not supposed to be here either. Vortex manipulator slipped. We're all crossing our own time-streams – we have to go, where's the TARDIS?"

He jerked his thumb behind him. "That way."

The autumn wind rustled their hair as they walked. Brooke and River seemed agitated. What was wrong? What was going on? Where had they come from? Both of them seemed out of breath. Something was definitely not right here, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Then, he realized that he'd lost a bit of time. First, they were by the swings, and now suddenly they were by the doggy-bag dispenser. His brow furrowed and he stopped.

"What's wrong?" River asked.

"I'm not quite sure..." he trailed off and looked at her. River's eyes widened. "Doctor..."

"What?"

She swallowed hard. "There's three black tick marks on your face."

His heart began to thud in his chest. "The Silence are here."

Brooke grabbed his arm and began pulling him in the direction of the TARDIS. "Now we really have to go. We're out of time!"

"Out of time for what?!" he asked again, looking between him and River.

River could only shrug. "Spoilers, my love."

He took a step towards River, staring down into those green eyes and that hair full of secrets. She took a step backward, but held his gaze. "Why?" he repeated. "Why are the Silence here, of all places, what do they want?"

"Spoilers." River whispered again.

God, she infuriated him! He clenched his teeth and turned again, stalking toward the TARDIS. He could see it just down the street. "Alright, alright, fine. You and your Spoilers. The TARDIS is this way, let's just all walk back there with a big red target painted on our backs. Hello! I'm the Doctor! I'm not supposed to exist! I'm dead! And you, Doctor Song, are supposed to be in Stormcage, locked away, for murdering me!"

Why was he so angry today? He didn't know. Perhaps it was because he didn't have the Ponds. Perhaps it was because he was fed up with her secrets. However, he knew he'd gone to far when he didn't hear footsteps behind him.

He turned to see that River had stopped in her tracks, looking at him with an unfathomable, wet expression in her eyes. His throat constricted and Brooke glared at him, crossing her arms. He finally asked, "When are you, River?"

"Bout bloody time you asked," Brooke muttered.

"Also Spoilers," River murmured.

He frowned. "What? How- no, we don't have spoilers in this conversation! If you've lived it, I have! When are you?"

"That's just it, Doctor," Brooke said quietly, "She's lived what you haven't yet."

He took another step to them. "That's impossible," he breathed.

"It's not." River gave him a soft smile. "Wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey."

He looked down at her again, noticing for the first time the telltale lines around her eyes, the beautiful lines that told her history. The age in her eyes...that was there. She was old. Much older than he'd ever seen her...except...

Except at the Library.

That same look had been in her eyes when she'd asked him if they were good after she'd told him his name. The same lines had been etched in her face. The same worries and fears and happiness and joy. This was a very, very old River Song. How old, he didn't know. All he knew that she had to be close to the Library. She was close to dying. A new anger rose in him because he knew that he couldn't stop it. He couldn't stop her from going. If he let her go now, if he took her somewhere, it may very well be the last trip she ever took with him, and it wouldn't even be her Doctor.

How long he stood there, staring at her, he didn't know. It probably seemed rude and out-of-character to Brooke and River. He didn't care. But one, terrified, girlish scream brought him out of his thoughts.

"Daddy!"

River flinched.

Brooke's eyes closed. "Too late."

He looked up to see tall, suited forms gathering up a screaming little girl with the reddest hair he'd ever seen. She was looking straight at him, arms flailing, reaching, blue eyes wide with fright, while the bystanders were helpless to act.

Without thinking, he broke into a run toward her. Both River and Brooke grabbed him. "We can't!"

He wrenched out of River's grasp and she fell back. He whirled on both of them, eyes blazing as the child was carried of by the Silents. "What the hell do you mean we can't? They're taking that child! River, you know what they could do to her!"

Electricity burned behind him. He could hear the screams of the park-goers, and above them, the shrieks of the captured as the autumn wind howled in the sky over it all. His form was tense, his jaw set, eyes cold. He had to go, he had to fix, he had to save.

"We have to go!" Brooke repeated desperately, tears pooling in her eyes, her face stricken.

"We can't just let them-"

"Yes!" Brooke screamed, her eyes filling with tears, her voice thick, "You have to!" She let out a strangled sob, "Because time cannot be rewritten, you said so yourself! This is all of our time-lines, Doctor, if you change just one line, somebody is going to cease to be who they are!"

River wasn't looking at anybody. She just stared at the ground, tears welling in her eyes as the Silents made out of the park with the little red-haired girl.

The Doctor shook his head. "Time can be rewritten." He shook her off, not able to think straight as he broke into a run. He whipped his screwdriver from his pocket. He didn't have a plan, no rules, no thoughts. Right now, he didn't even care about bloody time. There was an innocent child at stake who wouldn't be innocent for long if he let them take her.

Brooke pelted after him, loading her gun as she went. "Doctor! Have you gone mad?"

Mad? Wasn't he a madman with a box? He shook his head and continued after the Silents, quickly over-taking them and socking the first in the face. He wasn't prepared for the amount of Silents there actually were, nor for the electricity that coursed through his body seconds later, making his world go dark as he sank to his knees.