Disclaimer: Own nothing, all rights to the BBC, no profit or infringement intended.

Hello darlings! All of your giddy reactions to the last chapter were so wonderful-I was unsure about posting it but I am so glad you guys seemed to like it.

This song was suggested by 'MissRAB' and as soon as I heard it (also I LOVE Billy Joel) and looked it up I thought it was perfect. So here you go! It is much shorter than a few of the other ones and more reflective, but I think it was the only way to work it out.

Thank you for everything, and please continue to read, review, and enjoy!


She's Always a Woman-Billy Joel

She is frequently kind
And she's suddenly cruel,
She can do as she pleases.
She's nobody's fool
But she can't be convicted;
She's earned her degree
And the most she will do
Is throw shadows at you,

But she's always a woman to me.


River sashays around the room like she owns the place, and he can't help but think it's a bit sexy.

The Doctor is well aware of the physicals of their relationship, but that is not the only attraction that has drawn him to her. She's incredibly clever, supremely witty, and takes charge of a situation in the best way possible. She is nothing more and nothing less than his equal.

It has been a couple of years since he's met with anyone who rivals him the way she does, with either intellect or passion or body. She feels Time flow through her the same as he and she dances across galaxies with stars on her heels, sending him on an increasingly-maddening search to follow her. She dives off of buildings, jumps outs of spaceships, her trust so absolute she believes in her core that he will catch her. And he does, every time.

Adventure and excitement follows her everywhere, her constant companion. Death has not attached itself to her the way it has to him, and that is another quality he can't help but admire. She flies through the universe on purposeful whimsy, bending the laws of physics and chemistry to fit her wants. She doesn't really mind the ensuing paradoxes because they have always been wrapped around her life, so she's developed an immunity to the random knots and ties in timelines. Nothing really bothers her and he loves her for that; except, well, maybe for him.

As he's grown to know her as a lover, he can't help but adore the little things she does, too. There's a certain way she quirks her mouth when he's gone off rambling, and that look is so adorable he tends to try to ramble a lot. The apples of her cheeks appear when she smiles and he falls more in love with her face each time he sees it, and secretly he is glad she cannot regenerate. Obviously he isn't, that would be horrible, but he'd be lying if he said he hadn't grown particularly attached to this face.

He loves the way her body slopes in curves and molds into the perfect fit for his hands, the shape of a woman beneath his fingertips. The peaks and valleys of her figure make it easy for him to claim her, and this is another new thing she brings out in him: possessiveness.

Never before as he felt so strongly (well, not since Gallifrey, at least) about his mark on another, on defining it clear to the universe that she is his and his alone. Possessiveness comes with his protectiveness, he supposes, but that doesn't change anything. She is darting about the universe and constantly interacting with beings who eye her as something to be won, but by god he'd sooner die than let someone else's hands touch her hips.

In times such as now when she speaks, his gaze is drawn to her eyes and not her lips. He cannot always tell whether or not she's lying, but any and every emotion she has is clearly shown in those hazel-green-blue-gray eyes. He often wonders how they hold so many colors though has long ago decided it's just one little miracle of the universe. She is his miracle, sanctified throughout time and space and his love.

There were those before her and there may be those after, but right now she is the stars, the moon, and the sky and everything he has never experienced. She is the sun, and she brings life to him in the darkest of times, illuminating his perspective.

He has never met someone less willing to obey him or give in, and he shouldn't like that but he really, really does. She challenges him on every level and aspires to beat him, and her willingness to be right is such a familiar quality he can't do anything but appreciate it. She acts like him and often will take his responsibilities upon herself, something he should hate but somehow doesn't. He falls in love with her just that little more whenever she says 'no,' her steely determination an overwhelming facet. Among other things, he loves that woman.

Right now, she's flashing make-up lined eyes at the security guard and getting just close enough to press a small kiss on his lips. The Doctor knows that soon enough the man will be glossy-eyed and gravitationally challenged, though pretends to act offended. The man drops as if on cue and River pushes forward, a cautious hand trailing the barrel of her gun.

Then she's pushing past locked doors, sterilizing their surroundings, outsmarting security, and he's falling in love with her every time.