"Dear, I know what I'm doing," Eleven said, attempting to hush River.

"No. Let me drive. We don't want to get there at the wrong time," she told him.

"Exactly! Which is why I should do the flying!"

Ten and Rose had only disappeared moments ago. Eleven had ushered River back into the young TARDIS after scanning the area with his sonic. Currently, he was attempting to find the right time zone to head back to, but it was tricky at best.

"Roughly, I'd say they were sent back fifty years," River said, reading the Gallifreyan writing on the TARDIS console view screen.

"Yes, but when exactly? If I time this incorrectly, we may never see them again. They could already have moved on with life..."

Or, they could be already dead. She could hear his mind racing over the possibility that he didn't want to admit to. Both Rose and Ten faced a mortality that River didn't expect she or her Doctor would have to face any time soon.

The Doctor, she knew, would rather face never seeing them again than their already being gone. Everyone knows that everyone dies. And, the Doctor, who is far older than anyone would probably want to be, has to know that the most.

With the death of his people, and the passing of so many friends and even family, it's no wonder that the one thing that he cannot face is change. Moving on, growing up, her Doctor who looked so young but was truly so old, hurt to see either of these. How must it be to see Rose and Ten again and face those changes?

She longed to ask him, but River had known the Time Lord a long time now and it simply wasn't how he worked. The best way to take care of the Doctor was to keep running with him, to distract him through the worst of it and love him every minute of the way.

Dammit. She loved him enough to ask. "Doctor… tell me. How are you?"

Eleven didn't look up from the controls. "River, not now. We need to get their TARDIS back to them."

River came over and put her hand over his where it rested on the console. "If we leave now, or in five minutes, it won't make a bit of difference. It's a time machine, my love, or have you forgotten? So, how are you?"

"I'm okay," he said, but still wasn't looking at her. "I'm always okay, remember?"

With her other hand, River gently tilted Eleven's face so she could see his eyes. "What is it?"

"This expedition… Don't go."

"What?" she asked. This was not what she was expecting.

"I'm old. I'm selfish. Look at me. Look at all this!" He suddenly exclaimed, gesturing around the TARDIS as if this was proof enough of some wrongdoing. "Look at you. How many days did you rot in that prison?"

"And, how many nights did you save me?" She would not let him hurt himself.

His eyes were tortured. "Not enough."

"Every day with you is more than enough. I live for every moment that I am with you." She meant it, every word. "All of these lives around you, they are made better because of you."

He took the hand that she still had against his cheek and pulled it to his mouth for a kiss. He was still hurting, she knew, but his gaze courted no more argument. River had done what she could.

He turned back to the console. "Roughly fifty years… I'm calculating about forty-eight," he said. Eleven looked into her eyes, like he was seeking something. Approval? River didn't know.

"Let's do it," she told him.

He smiled that child-like grin she loved so much. "Geronimo."

Ten trailed his fingers along Rose's bare shoulder as she slept on her side. He did not need near as many hours of sleep as she did. There was a book on the nightstand, but he was content to simply listen to her breathe for now. Even after almost four years, he still couldn't believe he was getting to spend his time here with her. Contentment washed through him.

He had closed his eyes and laid his head once again on the pillow when he heard it.

"No…" It was that sound. Oh, it had been far too long since he had heard it. Rose stirred beside him, moved by that noise no matter how long it had been since she'd heard it. Groggily, she looked over at him and they both looked to the bedroom door. They would recognize the sound of the TARDIS anywhere, anywhen.

Ten slipped into his pajama bottoms just in time for Eleven and River to burst through the door. "Hello!" Eleven said proudly.

Rose snatched up the sheets around her while River grabbed Eleven by the collar and Ten shoved him out the door and slammed the door.

Wordlessly, Rose started to dress. She paused as he looked at her. "Well," Ten said with a smile. "It looks like the TARDIS is finally back!"

It was after two in the morning but these days they saw all hours, so after a few minutes they were fully dressed and heading into the main room where River and Eleven were arguing on the couch. Spotting them, they quickly stood.

"Where the hell have you been?" Ten said. He attempted calm; it wasn't quite working.

"Getting here! Look, calculating time streams is not exactly simple, now is it?" Eleven told him. "How long has it been anyway?"

Rose came out from behind Ten, then. Tucked into her arms was a little bundle all wrapped up. "Ten months," she told them quietly and showed them the little baby.

Eleven paused, frozen. Ten could guess fairly accurately what was racing through the other man's mind. He looked from the baby to Rose to Ten. He gave Eleven the slightest of nods. "Hello," he said gently coming closer to their little one.

"John," Rose said quietly. Eleven's head snapped up. Ten realized his older counterpart was responding to the name as if it were his own. Well, they had gone by it enough through the years. Rose laughed. "That's his name. John Tyler."

John opened his little eyes and blinked a few times. They were still bright, baby blue, but Ten suspected they might fade to brown over the next few months.

"Ten months. Blimey."

"We would've been here sooner, but he insisted on driving," River said, cooing at the baby.

"How did you guys end up in our flat?" Rose asked, looking at the TARDIS standing in their front room.

"Well, you weren't on the beach, so we looked you up," Eleven told them simply. "Now, I assume you would like her back?" He flourished to the TARDIS.

As they headed towards it, River whispered to Rose. "Ten months?"

The younger woman sighed. "Sometimes, I could kill that man."

River smirked. "Me, too."

Ten took John from Rose's arms. He wanted to show their son around. Holding him in the crook of his arm he proudly introduced the TARDIS console. Rose looked over at him. "I don't think he's quite ready to fly her yet, love."

"Oh, don't listen to her!" he told John. "We'll have you flying her in no time."

It was then that he noticed Timeless still standing near the wall of the TARDIS. "Rose," he said, handing John off to her, never taking his eyes off the mumbling girl.

"I believe it is about time we parted ways," Ten told the others.

Eleven piloted the TARDIS into the time vortex. With a whooshing of the engines they landed within feet of the much older TARDIS.

"But, how are we going to get back to our universe?" River asked.

Ten shook his head. "You were never out of your universe. We're all just walking a crack, remember? We can see and hear each other but never touch."

"But those creatures," Rose said. "Those angels. They were definitely here. They sent us back in time!"

Ten was looking at Eleven now. "They have gotten through. And, they aren't the only ones."

"Timeless," Eleven said.

Ten nodded. "You carried her. I helped her up. Like the weeping angels, Timeless appears to be residing in both." He took a deep breath. It had been bothering him for months now, but finally, he really understood. "Do you remember when you told me your age and you got it wrong at first?"

Eleven looked confused. "So?"

"Some of it was leaking through," Ten told him.

"It's Christmas…" Timeless whispered.

Ten watched as Eleven reeled at that. "Christmas," River whispered. "You told me that it was Christmas when you came to see me."

"I did?" Eleven mused.

"The consciousness is clinging to you because you are what is most familiar," Ten told him.

"I don't understand," Rose said.

"Timeless exists in both universes, gives off readings similar to that of the TARDIS, and found us," Eleven whispered.

"Sometimes all we want to do is close the final chapter, see what actually happened. You start to wonder, were they happy?" Ten looked to himself Rose. Turning to glance at River, he said, "What if I had a chance to live one final adventure with someone I cared most about again?"

Timeless began to whisper. "So many lost voices whispering to me for so long. A chorus, a melody, a song! The warm light of a crack in the wall, hope again for it all. What else could get through? If I had the chance, could I come see you, you, and you?" Timeless looked to them each in turn.

"And, then I found it. I am not here, but there. I can see and feel again, my past. Did I do right?" Timeless finished her mumbling. "A crack in the wall… Tick, tock, goes the clock. The Doctor's time to die."

Ten looked at Timeless in sympathy. "You're just the consciousness but you could still have one final adventure, eh? Before the end, before you die."

Eleven looked down. He did seem to understand now and nodded silently to Ten.

River looked between them and whispered the words she had just heard. "The Doctor's time to die." Understanding came over her face, but sadness too. "I think I finally understand," she said and turned her sonic on Timeless.