The Doctor is in this chapter. River is too, but it's not a Doctor/River chapter, there won't be one of those. Sorry to any readers who wanted that, but this is a Doctor/Rose story. :)

The TADIS hummed as she felt her child step inside.

"Hello, mother," her child said. "Is the Doctor here?"

Her child crossed the room to the console, but she rumbled to get her child's attention. There were important matters to take care of because now was the time she needed to tell her child. She knew her child would be upset, but it couldn't be avoided.

"What's wrong with you?"

The TARDIS brought up an image on the screen. An image of her thief, but not how he looked now. How he looked before, when he wore a brown pinstriped suit.

"He's a bit of a pretty boy? Who is he?"

Thief. No that wasn't right. What had her child just called him? It was what he called him and the others called him. Doctor. Yes, that was the word. She flashed the word across the image.

"The Doctor? When did he look like that?"

Yes, that was something else she had to do. Quickly she flashed through all the regenerations.

"He's changed a lot. Mind you the eighth one-"

She flashed the lights to get her child's attention once again. Then she brought up a picture of his tenth with the yellow girl, because her child needed to know about the yellow girl. Now was the time.

River didn't understand what the TARDIS was doing. It had been nice to see all of her husband's regenerations. She made a mental note to let him think he told her. She loved to tease him and she almost laughed as she thought how crazy it would make him as he tried to figure out when he showed her and why he'd do that.

A new image appeared on the screen. It was the Doctor in his tenth regeneration and a blonde girl. One of his old companions? They were smiling, but in a way she'd never seen the Doctor smile before. The girl's arm was laced through his and the way they were looking at each other unsettled River.

She wasn't naive enough to believe that she was the first woman the Doctor ever loved. He'd lived for centuries, but still, believing something and then seeing it were two different things. Why would the TARDIS show her this?

The Doctor didn't talk about his past and she didn't push him for details because she knew it was painful for him. He didn't like endings.

"Who was she?"

Their picture was replaced by a small one of just the girl with information underneath.

Name: Rose Marion Tyler

Mother: Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler

Father: Peter Alan Tyler

Rose Tyler? The TARDIS obviously thought she was important or, at least, it was important for River to find out about her and she trusted her mother.

"Okay, mother, tell me about her," River said.

The Doctor crossed the street toward his TARDIS. He was just going to drop Amy and Rory off before doing some investigating on those cracks that started to appear everywhere, but Amy talked him into a cup of tea, which quickly turned into another and then a game of tennis on the Wii, which then turned into a challenge between him and Rory, which he won. Rory accused him of cheating when he caught the Doctor sonicing the Wii remote, but he was only trying to make the battery last longer, well, mostly.

He unlocked the door and stepped into the TARDIS, but froze when he saw River standing next to the console. It was bad enough that she kept popping up in his time stream, now she was mucking about in the TARDIS when he was gone. Well, he wasn't going to have it.

"River, what are you doing in my TARDIS?" he demanded, crossing the room toward her.

She turned around and again he froze. She looked like…no, she couldn't be…but her eyes were red and he could see fresh tears running down her cheeks.

"River?" he asked, not sure what to do.

On one hand he was mad at her for breaking into his TARDIS and doing who knew what while he was out, but she was crying and he was never good around people who were crying. Had no idea what to do around them.

She wiped her eyes and disguised her emotions with a mask, one that was reminiscent of the one he wore. Then she crossed the control room, stood in front of him, and in one fluid motion that was much too quick for him to prepare for, slapped him across the face. His head snapped to the side with the force.

"Oi, what was that for?" he asked, rubbing his sore jaw.

"You…you idiot!" she snapped, glaring at him before turning to walk out the door.

He watched her go, completely stunned. What the hell did I do? The TARDIS began making a strange noise that sounded very much like laughter.

"What?" he asked the room.

The noise continued.

"Oi, that's enough…unless you want me to fix something."

The noise stopped. At least he had some control. He glanced at the door again and then walked over to the console. He wasn't sure what River's problem was, but if he never saw her again it'd be too soon, though he was pretty sure he would see her again. There was only one reason why she would know his name. He ran a hand through his hair. No time to worry about that now. There were cracks that needed investigating. He flipped a lever on the console and put all thoughts of River aside as the time rotor began moving.

River stalked down the sidewalk. She could've used her Vortex Manipulator to teleport, but she needed a good walk after finding out about Rose and what'd happened to her. That man. That idiot man. She loved him, but he could be such fool sometimes.

He left that girl in a parallel universe with a human duplicate of himself because he thought he was doing her a favor. More than that. He thought he was saving her and giving her the life she deserved, but he must not have realized what happened after she took the Time Vortex inside of her. He was notoriously slow, so of course he didn't realize, but River did.

At the same time part of her was glad, not that Rose was stuck living a very long life in a parallel universe, but that she wasn't with the Doctor. Not after River found out how he felt about her. Not after she heard him say those words. Three words she didn't think he was capable of saying. She sighed. She couldn't blame him for who he loved and she knew he loved her to, not the same way, but she would take whatever she could get from him because she loved him.

She finally stopped and leaned in the shadow of a building. It was the baby. That's what did it. What sent her over the edge and made her slap him. She could live without the words, but a child, something they would never have together… She couldn't because she knew her time with the Doctor would be short. Knew it the moment she saved him by giving him all of her remaining regenerations. She couldn't allow herself to grow old and she'd been hiding her age as much as she could. He didn't like endings.

At least she could make sure he wasn't alone. He should never be alone. That's why she agreed to help her mother. It wasn't going to be easy to keep him from finding out, but then again, nothing with the Doctor was ever easy.

Thank you to all my readers! You guys are brilliant! If anyone has time reviews are always welcome! :)