River's attention now averted to the computer screen as an image of her friends came up, like a webcam. She beamed a wide smile and her deep pink lips parted as she tried to find words, any words to say to them.
"It's really you..." she breathed as tears were forming. Her hand stroked the screen, trying to feel their presence one last time.
All five of them were wearing white clothes and they were standing in a group in a living room of some sort- presumably their new home.
"River! Long time no see." Anita smiled. Her smile was the warmest and most welcoming and River had missed it so much.
"...Too long..." River smiled in return. A tear streamed down her cheek.
"It's great to see you looking well." Proper Dave added. His pearly white teeth shining as he grinned.
"I wish I could say the same to you but..." River trailed off.
"...We're dead so, yeah. That could be an issue." Proper Dave finished for her. He nodded in acceptance and slightly chuckled.
"How did you survive?" Mr Lux questioned, he was pleased that she did survive but confused as well. "I thought the energy from the core would've killed you."
"Someone else came and wired himself up to the core instead of me..." River felt a pain in her chest. She glanced over her shoulder at the machine that lay in the darkness behind her. She pictured him sitting there, and then wiring himself up and ending his own life.
"Who?" Proper Dave asked.
"The last of the Time-Lords... he came and... gave his life to save me." She replied and then paused for a moment. "He knew me... but I didn't know him..."
"This doesn't make any sense..." Miss Evangelista pondered.
"...I'm part Time-Lady and he knew me but my timeline has been changed so I never met him..." River tried to make sense of the matter; it was complicated for her too. "Or something like that." River chuckled, she didn't fully understand.
"Time-lady, no way!" Other Dave smiled in disbelief and shock.
River was speechless for a moment; she just lightly smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
"Are you okay, River?" Anita was concerned about River's silence. "How are things on Earth?" she casually wondered.
"Things are... normal but, to be honest... I'm not really that okay." She replied with a forced smile.
"Why, what's wrong?" Anita was now concerned.
"...It was all of your funerals today, just an hour ago. On Earth, you are all classed as dead and I mourned for you today, thinking that I would never see you again." River explained. "...But, here we are."
"They still had funerals for us?" Mr Lux was shocked to hear and saddened at the thought of his funeral, his friends and family all mourning the loss.
"You are technically dead." River pointed out.
"We're here now though, aren't we?" Other Dave was trying to make River see things positively.
"And I feel pretty alive." Miss Evangelista added on.
"Only because of the data stamp the Time-Lord gave me." River added. "...You're only bits of data stored in a computer, you aren't real." She started to feel upset again.
"But, I feel real..." Miss Evangelista said.
"That's because I downloaded you to the core. The core is safe now, and you have an infinite life inside although it's not really living..." River sighed. "I... I wish you were here with me."
"But you have to move on, River. Everybody dies someday and people just move on. No matter how painful it is..." Proper Dave spoke up with a comforting smile. The others all agreed with his words and smiled as well.
"We'll always be here for you, whether we're real or not." Anita added.
"I know..." River whispered. "That's why I've imputed data of myself onto the data stamp as well, so when I die I'll be downloaded here so I can be with you..." her smile faded. "...Like I'm supposed to be now." She added remembering that she was meant to die. "That's what I was doing before I spoke to you."
"Why?" Anita mumbled in a quiet voice, just below a whisper.
"Oh River, you don't have to-"Other Dave began.
"-But, I wanted to." River interrupted. "...I want to be with you, I don't want to move on." More tears flowed from her eyes and down her cheeks.
"Don't think like that, you have to move on or it'll just hurt and keep on hurting forever; just be thankful that he managed to save you. Obviously you meant so much to him once." Anita comforted.
"Yeah, it's a shame I'll never know how much..." River agreed. She broke eye contact to the others as her eyes wondered to floor in depression.
"Maybe there's a data stamp of him somewhere..." Other Dave wondered.
There was a moment of grim silence and a long pause. It gave everyone time to think, to mourn the death of the mystery man who none of them had ever met properly.
"...So, what now? I mean, what are you going to do about work, have other people been called in to replace us yet?" Miss Evangelista questioned out of the blue and to break the silence.
Anita elbowed her in the ribs to silence her. "...I don't think River wants to talk about that now." She whispered in an agitated voice to her.
"No, no it's fine Anita." River replied. She heard Anita's whisper.
"Well, what has happened to the agency?" Mr Lux restored the question.
"I quit..." River replied sternly and confidently.
Mr Lux's face was in shock. "What, why?"
"...River..." Anita sighed.
"...Because if I have no team, then I have no job there."
Other Dave smiled. "We were the best team there, weren't we?"
The nostalgia was mellow and pure as memories of their time together as a successful team were replaying in each of their minds. Success after success, they had made the newspapers, the news, received numerous rewards and have each earned a high reputation at the agency at which they worked.
"Yes we were but we aren't anymore- the team is broken, incomplete... So, I left the agency and now I have my own methods of exploring the stars..." She smiled meaningfully at them."I have a time-machine for crying-out-loud! I can go anywhere and anywhen I choose." River's mood brightened.
"Go... go and explore the stars. Don't let us hold you back." Anita sensed River's excitement and happiness and she knew that them being here was just stopping her from going.
"Yeah, although a visit every now and again wouldn't do anyone any harm." Other Dave grinned.
River laughed for the first time in so long. "...I will." She promised. "Don't worry." She smiled.
"Good-bye and good luck." Anita smiled.
"Thank you." River breathed.
"Now get going! Visit the places we had only dreamed of, go and see the universe!" Other Dave grinned.
The archaeologists waved and said their good-byes, then the hour was up and the webcam to the core switched off and returned to the main screen.
"Good-bye..." River whispered.
River smiled one last time as she turned away and began to walk down the corridor back to the TARDIS, her TARDIS.