Everything hurt: every limb, every short breath pained into her chest. She had been running for so long now she had forgotten what she was running from. Flashes of deathly images filtering through her brain. Men walking in silver on every corner, robots with only one eye and killing everything in sight. A box that was meant to imprison a man for 2000 years. She felt like she should recognise him but it was merely a fleeting image. Men with heads that looked like overcooked potatoes. A wave of power sweeping the universe like nothing she had ever seen before. And a woman wearing white dying in a place full of darkness that kills.

She woke, her body in a fine line of sheer sweat, her body shook and her mind a mess from the recurring nightmare. She sat up, her room illuminated by the small slivers of moonlight light filtering through the small slits in the hotel's curtains. She brushed her blonde hair from her head and swept her legs to the side, her feet flat on the carpet below her, feeling the fibre squelch within her toes.

She turned to grab her phone from her bedside table, looking at the time. She groaned when it read 5 am. Sleep was so fleeting since she came here, barely a good 10 hours a week and that was if she was lucky. She grabbed her fresh towels from the little closet next to her ensuite bathroom.

She walked into the room, the light harsh against her sleep-ridden eyes. She turned the water on, turning it to as hot as she could stand. She stepped out of her sticky clothes and stepped into the shower. The water washed away the frightful night sleep, the spray relaxing her aching muscles. She stood there letting its warmth fill her entire body, ready for whatever the day may bring.

/

Several hours later

The Doctor had just finished her first lecture. She had some interested students who looked promising but no one was definitive. She huffed as she made her way towards the dean's office. She was hoping Professor River Song had kept to her word and not told anyone about the little incident in the library. She casually watched the students talk to each other and run to lectures they were late to. It wasn't too long before she got to her destination. She knocked softly and was told to come in and wait by the dean's secretary, so she sat on the chair and waited.

Thoughts raced through her head, would River tell? Had she been caught by the security cameras? Were they going to tell her she was never to return to campus? If she was being honest with herself, she knew she shouldn't have gone to the restricted archive, but what her mind told her and what her heart told her were two very different things. She had had this long pulling sensation to learn about the Time Lords ever since she could remember. She placed her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands, rubbing tirelessly. She certainly knew how to get herself into trouble.

The Doctor was brought out of her thoughts when the secretary told her she could go through, so she stood up and tried to brush off her anxiety and with her head held high she walked into the dean's office.

"Please take a seat please Miss Smith," he said sternly, moving his hand to point at the seat in front of his desk.

The Doctor sat down and watched the dean close the door behind him so as not to be disturbed and then walk around his desk and sit down in front of her.

"So Miss Smith, I would like to discuss something with you if I may?" he asked with a stern and professional expression.

"Yes, that's fine," she tried to say sternly, but she felt like the worst was coming.

"I have been hearing good things about your lectures from our students as well as some of the facility members." The Doctor nodded, no idea where this conversion was going. "Our previous professor of astrophysics is leaving us. You see he is due to retire in a couple of months and I was wondering if you would like a permanent place at Luna University?"

To say the Doctor was shocked was an understatement. She had been expecting the worst, instead, she had a job offer.

"I..umm. Don't know what to say"

"That's fine Miss Smith, you can have some time to think about my offer. I know this is a shock. If you could give me your answer in two weeks time, which is the end of your stay here, that would be preferable."

"Yes sir, thank you." The Doctor stood up and walked out of his office on a cloud of her own when she walked into River. "Oh excuse me, sorry."

"Well hello sweetie," River smirked.

She looked up and down at River's clothing attire, noticing that she was wearing a skin-tight black skirt with devilish black heels to match. Her white blouse set the whole outfit. It hugged all of her curves in all the right places. Her outfit screamed sex appeal and look at me, while at the same time it was professional for work. It's like River knew she would turn heads with her figure so she had an outfit that made everyone do so.

"I.. well… wow," and for the second time today, she was completely lost for words.

"Like what you see?" River teased.

"Yes. I mean. Shoot. Umm." She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. "I'm sorry, let me start again. I didn't mean to walk into you, I was in a world of my own. I just had some unexpected news."

"Want to talk to me about it over dinner? I'll meet you in your lecture hall after you have finished?" River smiled.

"Yes, please," the Doctor eagerly replied.

River didn't miss how quick the Doctor's reply and smiled mischievously. "It's a date then." The Doctor got even more flustered. "You are adorable when flustered."

The Doctor was bright red in the face, even more so than before when she murmured, "I hate you," under her breath.

River turned around and said "No you don't," and laughed quietly while she walked down the hall to her lecture.

/

1 hour and a half later

River, true to her word, walked into the Doctor's lecture hall, standing at the very back for the last 15 minutes. She watched as the Doctor moved across the stage with ease, getting carried away with what she was saying, speaking at what seemed like 100 words a minute. She interacted with the students like she was born to do this role of showing people different worlds and watching the excited faces and immersing herself in the excitement. River smiled inwardly to herself, trying to stay in the dark as not to be seen. But no more than 5 minutes had passed when The Doctor locked eyes with her own and a smile blossomed across her features.

The Doctor, in record time, dismissed her class making River laugh. River walked down to meet the Doctor at the stage.

"Are you ready?" River enquired.

"Yes, just let me grab these papers ready for tomorrow," the Doctor replied happily.

River watched as the Doctor organised her papers and placed them in her bag.

"Is this your last lecture for today?"

"Yes, only two today. I will have them all day tomorrow," the Doctor replied.

They walked together side by side and said "You love lecturing though, and interacting with the students. I can see it when you're on that stage."

"Yes I really do," she admitted. "How's Amaya today?" the Doctor asked, concerned.

"She's doing much better today, thank you. Skye says she's been running around like her normal self for a few hours."

"That's good to hear."

"It is, isn't it?" River smiled softly.

The pair fell into a comfortable silence before reaching the same cafe they were at yesterday. They were sitting at the same table as the day before when a different waitress from yesterday walked over, asking them both for the drinks, to which the Doctor ordered a small sparkling water and a salad sandwich. River ordered a coke, and chips and gammon.

"So what was this news that caught you in such a shock this morning?" River asked.

The Doctor turned sheepish and looked down at the table, then back up to River through her eyelashes, unsure of how to proceed with such a question. Just thinking about walking into River again made her embarrassed, and the flirting didn't help but she did enjoy it all the same. So she started from the beginning.

"Well you see, I got called to the Dean's office and I thought they had caught me sneaking into the restricted zone on the CCTV, but it wasn't that at all. It turned out that he was offering me a job to work at the university full time."

"Really? Wow, I wasn't expecting that," River stated.

"No, neither was I," the Doctor shrugged.

River looked down at the table for a few minutes before asking. "Are you considering taking the job to work here full time?" She sounded just a little bit hopeful.

"I honestly don't know, River. It's not like there is anything keeping me here, but it is where I started you know."

The Doctor looked down at her hands, then back up at River. What she neglected to say was. That's where they found me in the middle of the crash site in clothes torn and ragged. Dirty and bruised with no memory of my friends nor family. The only things that were with me were a few documents with my name on them, where I worked and what my job entailed. And within a few weeks of me waking up in the hospital, they were the only things that I remembered. You can't miss what you can't remember.

River just looked at her, knowing there was more to what was said but it just never came. There was a couple of beats of silence before the Doctor spoke again.

"If I stayed, I could get to know you better," she said, hopeful.

"Yes you could, and it could leave to other things," River shot back with a wink. The Doctor sputtered and hid her face out of embarrassment. "We should go, I have a lecture in ten minutes," she said with disappointment.

"Ah yes," the Doctor replied sadly.

They both finished their meal and headed out of the cafe. River walked towards the university and The Doctor walked towards where her taxi was. There was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind telling her to go back and kiss River and never to let her go.

She took a few steps forward, then a few more. She just couldn't go without a proper goodbye. She pivoted on her heel.

"River!" she shouted over the noise of everyone.

The professor, hearing her name, turned towards it, spotting the Doctor running towards her. "What's the matter?" But River didn't get another word out when the short blonde woman's lips were on hers. Kissing with passion and without prejudice or remorse, she slipped her tongue into the Doctor's mouth and stayed like this for what seemed like hours, but it was mere minutes. The Doctor let her lips go with an audible pop.

"Well goodbye to you too, sweetie," she smirked.

"Not goodbye, till next time Professor River Song." The Doctor let a broad smile form on her face before heading back to the taxi.

/

Many hours later.

The Doctor was pacing back and forth in her hotel room. She couldn't stop the nagging feeling deep within her gut that she liked River Song a lot more than she should, especially for only knowing the woman for a few days. But she had made her way into her heart. She had never had these kinds of feelings for anyone, or at least anyone she could remember. It wasn't just her though, it was her little girl Amaya. She felt like she had to get to know her more and show her the stars themselves.

She stopped pacing when heard her mobile receive a notification. She quickly moved over to her phone, unlocking it before reading the text.

Hi sweetie meet me at my place at 8 pm sharp dress fancy x

The Doctor's fingers hovered over her keyboard before deciding what to text back.

Meet you there x

She debated over whether to send the x but in the end, her heart overtook her head and she sent it anyway.

Thank you for reading, please review good or bad I always appreciate it.

p.s. have a question about anything ask away :)