The three of them climbed to the very top of the pyramid, finally emerging at the peak and looking between the Doctor and River anxiously. Amy and Rory were still holding hands with Evie clutching her grandmother's other hand tightly. Rory looked confused, but no one paid much attention.

"We barricaded the door, we've got a few minutes… just tell him. Just tell him, River." Amy demanded as soon as she stepped out into the cool night air.

When River spoke, she sounded upset and Evie moved around to stand beside her, noticing the annoyance on her father's face as he gazed at the woman. "Those reports of the sun spots and the solar flares, they're wrong… there aren't any. It's not the sun, it's you; the sky is full of a million, million voices, saying yes, of course we'll help. You've touched so many lives, saved so many people. Did you think, when your time came, you'd really have to do more than just ask? You've decided that the universe is better off without you, but the universe doesn't agree."

"River, no-one can help me. A fixed point has been altered, time is disintegrating." The Doctor told her agitatedly.

"Stop being so bloody stubborn!" Evie cried passionately. "Dad… people want to help you. Let them."

"I can't let you die."

He looked at River, tears threatening to appear in his eyes. "But I have to die."

"Shut up!" She shouted, her voice shaking with emotion. Evie turned away, unable to look at him. The defeat in his eyes was more painful than anything she'd seen. "I can't let you die without knowing you are loved by so many, and so much. And by no-one more than me."

"River, you and I, we know what this means. We are ground zero of an explosion that will engulf all reality. Billions on billions will suffer and die."

"I'll suffer if I have to kill you." She told him quietly, finally giving into her tears. Evie buried her face in River's neck, letting a sob escape her. "Evie will suffer. Your own daughter… how can you just leave her like this."

"More than every living thing in the universe?"

There was no hesitation before the Doctor got his answer from Evie in the form of a sharp nod of her head. River took longer, whispering the word as though it was painful. "Yes."

"River… River! Why do you have to be this. Melody Pond... your daughter." He turned to look accusingly at Amy and Rory, his hands still secured behind his back. "I hope you're both proud."

Rory looked totally lost. "I'm not sure I completely understand..."

"Umm… we got married and had a kid and that's her." Amy informed him quickly, a little distracted by the fact the Doctor had turned his back on them all. "Then they had a kid and that's Evie."

"OK."

Evie glanced between the back of her father's bowed head and her mother, who's eyes were shinning with tears that seemed to be refusing to fall. Then she glanced towards Amy for reassurance, but the red-head's gaze was fixed on the Doctor as well. Rory caught her eye and chanced a weak smile. Taking this as encouragement, Evie launched herself at him, burrowing herself into his chest and breathing deeply.

"Amy, uncuff me, now." The Doctor demanded. He sounded so seriously that, apart from a quick glance at her daughter, Amy did as he said immediately. "OK. I need a strip of cloth, about a foot long. Anything will do. Never mind." He said, whirling around and beginning to remove his bow tie. Holding it out, he looked seriously at the woman in front of him. "River, take one end of this, wrap it around your hand, and hold it out to me."

"What am I doing?" River asked quietly, doing exactly as he commanded. Their daughter looked up, rubbing her face and wondering what was going on.

"As you're told. Now, we're in the middle of a combat zone, so we'll have to do the quick version. Captain Williams, say 'I consent and gladly give'."

"To what?"

"Just say it." The Doctor snapped. "Please."

Again, Rory looked bewildered, but he said it anyway. "I consent and gladly give."

"Need you to say it too…" The Doctor continued, apparently unable to meet Amy's eye. His gaze dropped to the ground so that he didn't have to look at anyone. "Mother of the bride."

"I consent and gladly give." She said as Evie gripped her hand tightly.

"Now, River, I'm about to whisper something in your ear, and you have to remember it very, very carefully and tell no-one what I said." The Doctor ordered. Then he leant close, whispering something in River's ear that even his daughter, with her exceptional hearing, couldn't make out. Evie was disappointed, but at the same time overjoyed that her parents were getting married. At the top of a pyramid. While a battle raged around them. "I just told you my name. Now there you go, River Song... Melody Pond. You're the woman who married me. And wife, I have a request. This world is dying and it's my fault and I can't bear it another day. Please, help me. There isn't another way."

His words were so laden with meaning and feeling that Evie could feel them wrenching straight through her chest to her heart. She tightened her grip on Amy's hand, knowing what the Doctor was asking of her mother and unable to believe that so soon after they got married everything would be taken away.

"No!" She cried, stepping forward. Amy tightened her grip, holding her by the arm and stopping her approaching any further. "Dad… Mum… please. There has to be another way. There always is."

The Doctor turned to her with a weak smile. "Not this time, Evie. I'm sorry." He turned back to River. "Well, wife?"

"Then you may kiss the bride."

"I'll make it a good one."

"You better." She warned him as their lips met.

It was the first time that Evie hadn't felt the urge to rip her eyes out when her parents kissed. She sobbed, feeling the emotions inside her collide and battle for prominence. Amy wrapped an arm around her tightly, pulling her into her chest and rocking her. She stroked the brunette's loose curls and placed a soft kiss at her temple. Rory put a hesitant arm around the two women as well, his wife melting into him and resting her head in the crook of his neck.

While they watched, a suddenly realisation hit Evie; something that she'd been told but seemed to have completely forgotten, something which hadn't been written in her diary. She didn't understand why it hadn't been written, but it hadn't. She knew the outcome of this adventure. She knew what was going to happen.

Beaming, she dried the tear tracks that were making their way down her cheeks and let out a deep sigh. As the three of them stood together and the Doctor and River kissed, a bright light engulfed them all and Evie felt as though she was floating.

x-x

Evie rubbed her eyes. She had the most terrible headache. Growling softly and sending a rude gesture at her bedroom window, where far too much light was being let in for her liking, the young woman stumbled across her bedroom and down the stairs. She could hear voices coming from the kitchen so that was where she headed.

"So then I told her that it was on backwards!" The Doctor was saying, his voice loud and full of cheerfulness. Everyone else in the room laughed at what must have been the punch line to whatever anecdote he was telling.

"Morning…" The girl muttered grumpily, walking past her parents and grandparents and wrenching open the fridge. She disappeared from their view for a moment, emerging a moment later with a carton of orange juice. "Why's everyone so cheerful at stupid o'clock in the morning?"

River laughed, tugging the carton from her daughter's hands and guiding her into one of the wooden chairs at the kitchen table. "Firstly, it's ten o'clock and secondly, we're all cheerful because the Doctor… your father… isn't dead."

"Well duh!" Evie said, rolling her eyes and accepting the glass of juice her mother was holding out to her. "I can see and HEAR that."

"Can you not remember anything about Kovarian and the Silence and the Astronaut in Utah?" Amy asked, shaking her head in astonishment at her granddaughter. Evie just blinked at her.

"Oh… that." The young woman said with a lazy shrug. "I forgot about that."

River rolled her eyes, almost an exact replica of her daughter's earlier gesture. "I swear she's worse than Donna… at least she had a reason to forget all those things!"

The Doctor grinned and stood up, pushing his chair back with a squeak. "Well, must be off… things to do, planets to save. Until next time… try and stay out of trouble!"

A/N: Hey lovelies! This is the last chapter of Alternatives!

I really hoped you enjoyed it and thank you so, SO much for reading, reviewing, etc. It means so much!

I have one more week until half term - but I've just found out that I have to go back up to Uni for lectures which is a complete pain in the bum! This means that I won't have as much time as I thought to write anything, but I'll give it a go!

Chapter 1 of the last long fic - Faces - will be up soon anyway! :)

Becki x