Chapter 4: Home

The lone guard of the prison had been too shocked to react when his three prisoners - including the one who was supposed to be dead by now - came charging around the corner. River quickly incapacitated him. Anita stuffed him into their recently-vacated cell while River collected her vortex manipulator and gun. The Doctor just shook his head at the sight of the weapon.

"Here, screwdriver boy," River said, chucking the sonic at his head. He easily caught it with his good hand and shoved it into a pocket.

The trio crept down the stone hallway, moving toward the slave quarters. The prison gave way to dingy tents and curtained-off alcoves where the V'Lak were forced to live. The tents gave them better cover, but their pace slowed significantly because they kept getting stopped by big-eyed children who tugged on the Doctor's trousers and coat. "Lord Doctor," they whispered, "Master Doctor." He passed out small toys and books to them as he went, sometimes even sitting down with a nest of fuzzy children to whisper stories to them.

"Where are their parents?" Anita asked, helping the Doctor to his feet as he murmured goodbyes to another group. River caught his elbow as he staggered slightly, clearly wearied. She shot him a worried look.

"Working in the mine," the Doctor answered Anita. "There isn't even a school here. The parents have no choice; the children get left behind in the tents, cared for by older siblings or cousins until they are twelve, and old enough to work in the mine themselves ... Wait!" the Doctor grabbed his companions' shoulders, freezing them in place behind a curtain.

A sudden shout of angry words echoed down the hallway, and they carefully peered out. Several of the Governor's ruffians had chased down three V'Lak children to a dead-end. River couldn't hear what they were saying, but the humans' voices were cruel, and the children's were afraid.

The Doctor's face was thunderous. "Anita, do you know the lifts to the third level?" he whispered.

"I do," the archeologist answered.

"The Tardis is on the third floor, in the oldest section of the mine, where the V'Lak run a quiet black market," the Doctor said. Anita beamed at the news about a black market, and made a mental note to start a new excavation there when she got back to her dig. "Go get the Tardis," the Doctor said, turning his gaze onto River.

"And what are you going to do?" River hissed.

"Do you see the tall child, standing between the guards and the other children? That is Om'l Matayal, future leader of the resistance, and my friend," the Doctor said. "And I'm going to stop this." He checked his coat to ensure that his bloodied shoulder and side weren't visible, tucked his hands into his pockets, and stepped nonchalantly into the hall.

"I think you're looking for me," the Doctor called to the ruffians. "Unless of course you only bully people smaller than you." The ruffians whirled around, and the children took advantage of the distraction to scatter into hidden paths and corners.

"You!" the leader of the ruffians cried. "I thought I already killed you." He gestured to his henchmen, who grabbed the Doctor's arms. The Doctor winced, and the head ruffian jerked him forward by his coat, smirking when he saw the blood-soaked shirt beneath. "I knew I shot you. You must have body mods to be walking around so soon, but it still looks like it hurts," he said, before driving his fist into the Doctor's side. The blow took the injured Time Lord off his feet, and he slumped wordlessly in the arms of his captors. "Abolitionist," the ruffian hissed, hitting him again. "You're going to the Governor for interrogation, and then I'll kill you properly, if the Governor doesn't finish you off first."

Om'l Matayal, who had paused near where River and Anita were hiding, snarled quietly and moved as though to rush in to the Doctor's defense. River grabbed him and pulled him behind the curtain, holding his snout shut. He struggled against her for a moment until she let him go and put a finger to her lips. Anita stared at the boy, who would be become the hero of his people and the subject of much of her own research.

"Are you friends of Master Doctor?" Matayal whispered, his eyes darting between the two women.

"We are," River murmured. "Although I'm quite sure he's told you leave out the 'Master' part." The boy bowed his head, then looked up fiercely.

"We must help him," Matayal said urgently.

"We will," River soothed, "but in our own way. Tell me, do you know where he keeps his big blue box?"

"The Tardis? Follow me, and stay low," he said, darting away. He scouted ahead, whiskers twitching as he checked around corners and up ladders before gesturing them to follow.

River had an excellent sense of direction, but was thoroughly lost in the twisting tunnels until suddenly, there, tucked into an alcove, was the Tardis. River swallowed heavily and blinked the tears from her eyes. River had mourned the last of the Time Ships almost as much as the last of the Time Lords, for they were so intertwined in each other's minds that the death of the Doctor would have meant the death of the Tardis. Yet here she stood, warm under River's hands, her eleven-dimensional mind reaching out to her child in ecstasy. "Mother," River said quietly, her palm flat on the smooth blue wood of the door, "please let me in." River gasped with joy as the door sprung open, and she stepped into the Tardis for the first time since the Singing Towers, Anita and Matayal close behind her.

"Wow," Anita murmured, turning a circle in the middle of the room. Matayal, who had apparently been there before, galloped up the stairs to the bookcases like a parched man to water.

"I love this place," the boy said, three books already in his hands.

River agreed with the sentiment, although the console room was much changed from the steampunk theme she remembered. River ran her hands appreciatively over the knobs and levers of the console. "You look very sleek," she murmured to the Tardis. "Although he's apparently left whimsy behind entirely." The Tardis gave a long-suffering wheeze. River patted the Tardis. "We need to get to him, dear, right now," she murmured to the ancient time machine. River flipped the dematerialization circuit, and looked up as the time rotors moaned above her head. "Oh, my," she whispered in awe as she read the turning Gallifreyan script. "Did you come up with that, or did he?" The Tardis sighed proudly, and boomed to a halt.

"Stay here," River commanded Anita and Matayal, then threw the door open and stepped into the Governor's office, her gun drawn and pointed directly at the Governor's head.

"What kind of time do you call this?" the Doctor called out, grimacing and arching backward in agony as the guards holding him twisted his arms behind him, torquing the Doctor's injured shoulder.

"I call this 'just in time,' sweetie," River said. "Let him go, now," River said to the guards, "or the Governor dies."

"You're bluffing," the Governor snarled.

"Anita," River called over his shoulder into the Tardis, whose doors were still open, exposing her bigger-in-the-inside interior to the slavers. The Tardis was vibrating threateningly. "You have the the vaporization guns aimed at these puny humans, don't you?"

"Right, of course," Anita called from within. "Locked on and charged."

River sashayed into the office. "Do you know who he is?" River said, glaring at the Governor. Her gun didn't waiver. "He is the Doctor. He's been Earth's champion, and the universe's, for years uncounted."

"I know who he is," the Governor growled. "Torchwood has warned us that he might try to interfere here." The Doctor snorted at that.

"You have no idea who you are dealing with" River said flatly. "I've seen whole armies run away at the sound of his name. He needs no weapons - his words shake the universe, and are these: Hope, Freedom, and Justice. He lifts the fallen, frees the slave, and succors the weak. He walks in eternity, and if he is your enemy, you can rest assured: you are on the wrong side of history. And I'm his wife, and I do carry a gun. So please go on," she said, cocking her weapon, "and tell me how I'm bluffing.

"Let him go," the Governor said urgently to his henchman. They paused, then shoved the Doctor away.

The Doctor caught his balance, then rolled his shoulders and dusted off his jacket. He turned his back on the Governor and the guards, unbothered by their bristling hostility, and walked to the Tardis. River gave a jaunty salute to the room at large and covered their retreat. "Why are you here?" the Governor growled at him, just before the Doctor stepped into the Tardis. "Go ahead, run away in your ship. Whatever you hoped to accomplish, you've failed."

"Ah, Governor," the Doctor said over his shoulder. "I'm not here for you. I can't do anything for you; history has already judged your failure here. And I've accomplished everything I came to do. Coming, dear?" he asked River, standing aside as she brushed by him, then closing the door behind them. River caught him as he slumped against the inside of the door.

"'Vaporization guns,' really, River?" he quoted incredulously.

"A fine bit of improv there Anita," River called to her friend. "Thanks for following along."

"Hmm, I was wondering if any of these switches were actually vaporization guns," Anita said with a laugh.

The Doctor something grumbled about "girls with guns," then grimaced and struggled upright, shaking off River's hands and heading toward the console. He flipped a switch, putting them in the time vortex.

"Nice speech, by the way," he told River.

"I meant every word," River said softly.

"Lord Doctor!" Matayal cried from the second level.

"It's just 'Doctor,' Matayal," the Doctor said, with amused exasperation. "Tagged along did you? Good. Come down here." The young V'Lak hopped over the railing of the library, bouncing lightly when he hit the floor of the main level. "You make me tired just looking at you," the Doctor sighed. "Come here, the Ood asked me to give something to you." The Doctor placed his hand on Matayal's head, and the V'Lak lit up with wonder. "It's called 'The Song of Freedom,'" the Doctor said.

"Telepathic recording," River murmured at Anita's confused look.

A moment later the Doctor lifted his hand. "Go pick out some books, and there is a sack of jelly babies up there somewhere, then off you go,"

The boy bounced around the room, collecting his books and candies, then paused at the door and bowed. "Thank you for the song," he whispered.

"Take care of everyone," the Doctor told him, turning off the parking brake and slipping the Tardis soundlessly into the alcove.

"I will," Matayal said fiercely before bounding away.

"Om'l Matayal," Anita murmured in wonder as the door shut behind him. "The legend himself, at ten years old. I still think time travel is cheating, but my God, that is a thrill."

"He's even more impressive in ten years, but he's quite a fireball even now," the Doctor said, leaning heavily on the console. He scrubbed his face and hair with his good hand, then groaned as he levered himself upright. "You drive," the Doctor told River, turning away to walk deeper into the ship. "I don't care where. I need a wash and some tea." He vanished around the corner.

"How about Theron IV, about 2000 years from now?" Anita suggested.

"Home it is," River confirmed. When they arrived a moment later, Anita opened the door, and the sounds of her archeological dig drifted in. Outside, slaves no more, the V'Lak scientists were busy peeling back the layers of their history.

"You know," Anita said, pausing on the threshold. "I'm fairly certain that we've found some of the Doctor's toys and books during the dig. Do you think he'll want them back?"

River laughed. "Probably not."

Anita kissed River's cheek, and grabbed her shoulders. "Call me," she whispered.

"I will," River promised. "Thank you for everything, my friend." The door swung shut behind Anita, leaving River alone. River thought for a minute, then put the ship into flight again. She trailed her finger across the console as they came to a halt and went to find the Doctor, trusting the Tardis to show her where he was.

The Tardis led her first to the infirmary and a vial of conspicuously placed Gallifreyan painkillers, then to the kitchen, where there was tea steaming in a time-looped mug to keep it warm. Finally, the Tardis brought her to a very familiar door. River took a deep breath and walked into the bedroom she hadn't seen in 900 years. Unsurprisingly, he'd redecorated here too. It was dark and spartan, all black and silver and mahogany. It was clear that he spent far more time in the console room than in here. Nothing here was hers - and yet, as she turned a circle in the room, she felt it shifting behind her, and when she turned back, it had subtly changed: the bed remade, with a white duvet and an extra pillow; a reading chair and lamp added in a corner; his worn blue diary fetched from somewhere and centered on his bedside table; and a matching table added to her side of the bed, with a single red rosebud balanced in a delicate silver vase. River patted the wall affectionately. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, dear," she murmured to the ship.

A trail of clothing was strewn across the room: one boot, and then then other, both socks, his crimson-lined jacket, trousers, and the ruined white shirt. She collected them all and stuffed them into the Tardis laundry chute. She paused outside the bathroom door. There was a time when she simply would have walked in on him. She probably still could, and he'd just smile at her ... but no, it was too much, today. She left the medicine and tea on his table, with a note: The Tardis wants you to drink this. Find me when you're ready. I'll be outside. R.

River padded back down the hall, through the console room, out the door, and into the front room of her own cosy house on Luna. Her heart swelled with sudden emotion at the sight of Tardis - the Tardis! - parked here. River threw her arms around the old police box and gave it a kiss. From within the open doors, the Tardis burbled happily.

After the grime of the mine and the dungeon, River needed a shower too. She unstrapped her vortex manipulator from her wrist and her gun from her side, then peeled off her filthy clothes and turned up the temperature in the shower as hot as she could stand. She stood in the stream for a few moments, then slid to floor and let the hot water pour over her head and shoulders. She was unsurprised to feel herself shaking, and gave into her tumbling emotions - elation mixed with grief, fear standing beside hope. He was alive, and she had no idea what that meant, so she permitted the tears.

When she emerged an hour later, much cleaner and far more composed, the Doctor was sprawled across her couch, napping. He was still slightly damp himself, and wearing both a jumper and a hoodie under his freshly-laundered coat. River shook her head. His fashion sense was more subdued with this body, but still odd. He stirred as she walked into the room.

"Back to Luna University, I see," he said.

She smiled. "As it happens, I am an excellent professor," she said.

"I know you are. Oh, did you know that the Moon is actually an egg?"

"Of course," River answered. "That was one of the reasons Luna University was built, to monitor the fetus. It is still very early days, only about 4000 years old, but we've already learned a lot from her. She's dimensionally transcendental, which is how her mother was able to increase her mass just before she hatched out of the old Moon."

The Doctor sat up, still moving a bit stiffly. "I was there when the first one hatched, you know. Sublime."

"I've always wanted to see that," River admitted, "but the timeline was strange. Gray and fluctuating, like the moment was still undecided. I was worried about interfering."

"It's decided now, nice and fixed," the Doctor answered ruefully.

"There's a story there, isn't there ...?" River probed.

"Yes, there is," the Doctor answered, but did not volunteer more.

River shrugged, letting it go, and walked over to her liquor cabinet. "More 'grown up tastes,' this time around, I think you said?" River asked, holding up a bottle of scotch. He nodded and held up two fingers; she obliged, and wordlessly handed him the tumbler. She poured a glass of wine for herself, and settled into the settee across from him. He took a sip of his drink, then tilted his head at her and gave a significant glance at the empty space beside him on the couch.

"I didn't want to presume," she said softly.

"I suppose I shouldn't either," he said with a sigh, rolling his head to rest it on the back of the couch. "I certainly wouldn't hold it against you if you've found someone to share your life with."

"I won't tell you that my bed has been empty every night," she admitted. "But 'someone to share my life with?' No. As it happens, I'm still not over my husband." She got up and settled next to him, laying her head on his shoulder. He twitched. "Sorry," she apologized, scooting away. "I forgot, no touching."

He sighed in exasperation, and set his drink down on the coffee table before scrubbing his hands through his hair in frustration. He sighed again, then twisted his body and put his head in her lap. She hesitantly threaded her fingers through his hair, and he forced himself to be still. "It's this new regeneration cycle," he confessed. "It's not quite natural. I think there is a chance I might just keep on regenerating forever, so I don't accidentally die for good before I can do what needs to get done. But it burns, and I think that it might be intentional."

"I think you'd better tell me whatever it is that you have been avoiding telling me," River said softly.

He paused, collecting his thoughts, then began to speak. "The first thing you need to understand is that during the Time War I really, actually, fully destroyed Gallifrey."

River looked down at him, completely nonplussed. "Yes, I know."

"And then ... I changed my mind, and de-destroyed it. Un-destroyed it." He swallowed. "Saved it," he said quietly.

River gaped at him. "You ... what ... how?" she sputtered. She could see the truth of it in his face; he would always be the man who had destroyed his people, but now he had saved them too. Her heart leapt in joy for him, before plummeting as she thought through the implications. "You destroyed Gallifrey to stop the Time War and save the universe. And you changed your mind?"

"There was another way," he soothed. "I went back and hid it in a pocket universe. Ended the Time War, just the same, without me committing fratricidal genocide. It looked like death, but it wasn't, like what we did at Lake Silencio."

River pressed a palm to her forehead. "That's a completely different example, and you know it," she gasped. "The destruction of Gallifrey is a fixed anchor of the universe. The Big Bang, the End of Time, the Destruction of Gallifrey. Setting aside that you broke through the biggest time lock ever created, you also undid a fixed anchor of the universe!? Without destroying said universe? How?"

"I had thirteen versions of the Tardis, two millennia of calculations, one conscious superweapon, and 26 hands," he shrugged, his head still in her lap. "I wrapped them all around the universe and asked it to be still."

"You asked it to be still?" she asked incredulously. "And the universe listened? Does that happen a lot now?"

"Hardly ever," he said, gesturing ruefully to his still-healing body.

"That's ... possibly the most terrifying thing I've ever heard. What do the Time Lords think of you commanding the laws of time to your will?"

He frowned. "I didn't command them to my will. I asked them, nicely, with mathematics, if they wouldn't mind redefining themselves. Slightly. Why are you looking at me like that?" he said defensively. She arched a brow at him, and he sighed. "Fine. Yes, I concede the terrifying bit. I am every cautionary fairy tale ever told to frighten time-tots. I've been that for a long time. But to be honest, I don't know what the Time Lords think of it. I don't know where I put them."

River smirked as she toyed absently with his hair. "Okay, that sounds more like you." She frowned. "But if Gallifrey is still missing, where did the new regenerations come from?"

He sat up and collected his drink, taking a sip before slumping forward, elbows on knees as he turned the tumbler in his hands. "Right," he said softly, his gaze on the floor. "This is the part where I apologize to you for every horrible thing that happened in your childhood. Remember the cracks in the universe? There was one on Trenzalore. And the Time Lords reached through it with one question: 'Doctor Who?" My name would have brought them home. Unfortunately, the message also drew in every race that ever hated the Time Lords, and answering the question would have reignited the Time War in that very instant."

"Oh, God," River murmured, with horrified understanding. "Silence must fall."

"That's what the church thought, anyway," the Doctor said, standing up to pace. "I stayed on Trenzalore, and spent the next 900 years fighting another war. And remaining silent, incidentally."

"You were never going to answer that question," River said with a groan, recalling her lost and wasted childhood in the cruel hands of the Silence. "Those idiots. They didn't have to stop you."

"No. And I think it became apparent to the Time Lords that Trenzalore was neither the time nor place for their release. I don't know exactly what they knew, but they certainly knew I was dying." He sighed and sat beside her again. He took her hand and turned it palm up in his own. He gently traced the lines of her palm and the pads of her fingers. "I was dying, and my last friends were with me for the final defeat," he continued. "But the Time Lords were with me too, and defeat was not in their enlightened self-interest. They sent through my new regenerations, then closed the crack. And now they are lost again, trapped in another dimension." He slumped back into the cushions of the couch with a frown.

"Okay, just to recap," River said, holding up a finger. "First, the Time Lords are not dead."

"Nope."

"But you don't know where they are."

"Right."

"Or how to get them back."

"No."

"Or how to prevent the Time War from restarting when you do."

"No," he said, scowling.

"Or whether they will name you Lord President the next time they see you, or just execute you on the spot."

"They might do both," the Doctor said with a sigh. "That pretty well sums up my life right now."

"How long since you ... un-destroyed Gallifrey?" River probed.

The Doctor squinted at her. "That's actually an interesting question. I've already saved it twelve times, once in each of my lives. But since the one I can remember? A thousand years, give or take." River tilted her head at him and lifted an eyebrow. "I know, I know," he said defensively. "I thought I would have figured it out by now too."

"Now I understand the need for the possibly-unlimited regeneration cycle," River said with a laugh.

"It actually goes deeper than the Time Lords thinking I'm dense," the Doctor said softly. "I say that I've saved Gallifrey ... but I'm not finished. I had to have another regeneration cycle to save Gallifrey. The Tardis has been doing the calculations since the day I stole her, but she's not quite done yet. And there were thirteen of me there that day. Numbers one through twelve were all very chatty, because I always get that way when I'm showing off to myself. But old number thirteen here," he said, gesturing to himself, "didn't say a word. I'm hoping that means he'll be paying attention to where he is stuffing the planet next time."

River could feel his great well of frustration and guilt. She caught his hand and gently tugged him back into her lap. He didn't fight her this time, and sighed when she ghosted her fingers over his face. "When will the Tardis be finished with the final calculations for Gallifrey?" she asked.

"Soon," he answered, his eyes closed.

"When she does, be sure to come get me," River said quietly. "You can finish saving Gallifrey. I'll watch to see where you put it."

He smiled at her, then lifted his hand and tucked her hair behind her ear before cupping her cheek, his eyes melancholy. Then, a shift in his gaze, his hand behind her neck, and he pulled her down until her forehead rested on his own. She waited for him while he breathed through the hitch of hesitation that was apparently instinctual in his new self.

"Sorry, sorry," he murmured against her lips.

"Let me," she whispered. She slowly moved her hands and lips over him, gentling him as his hearts fought with his body, guiding him past his own lingering pain and spiky defenses until he finally surrendered to her. New lips and hips and hands - for both of them - but the same old lovers, and they found their way.

Later, with her head on his good shoulder, she traced words of love onto his chest, careful of the still-fading bruises and scarred-over wounds. His clever hands, which had recently been everywhere, were slowly smoothing the dip of her spine and the curve of her breast. The moment wouldn't linger, she knew. As it still and ever was with him, she could feel his mind starting to move again, time and space coursing through his manic brain.

"What next, Professor Song?" he murmured.

She laughed, low and throaty, and snuggled her face into the crook of his neck. "You can take me to dinner, for starters."

She felt him smile. "I can do that," he said. "There is this new restaurant I found that is doing Thai-Pyroville fusion. The curry actually catches the plate on fire. The chef owes me a favor for helping him out with an octopus gang; I'm sure I could get us a table."

River sat up, straddling his hips. "You never change," she said, looking down at him in wonder. He was about to protest otherwise, so she leaned down and kissed him before he could speak. "Not in any of the ways that matter," she continued when they came back up for air. She hooked a leg over his and cuddled back into his shoulder, waiting for his derailed brain to catch up again.

"And after dinner, Professor? What do we do then?" he murmured. She gave him a lustful look, and he sighed. "River."

"I know what you meant," she said softly. "You could stay with me here on Luna."

"That's funny," he answered sadly. "I was about to say you could run away with me in the Tardis."

River pushed up on her elbows and looked down at him with a crooked smile. His gaze flitted away, so she took his face in her hands until he looked at her. "Doctor," she said, insistently. "You and I both have empty tombs behind us. I think, of everyone in the universe, you and I should be able to figure out how to live."

He looked up at her, his eyes warm with amusement and adoration. He pulled her back down beside him and wrapped an arm around her. "We're linear now, you know," he said, holding her tighter. "No more foreknowledge or spoilers. We'll have to work it out together."

"I have one more spoiler for you," River answered, tilting her head to press a kiss to his neck. "We'll be fabulous."

Notes: Thanks for reading, that's the end of this one. That said, there are some places I'd like to take them, so it may not be the end after all.