Well the first chapter didn't do as well as I had hoped, but thanks anyway to the people who have reviewed/alerted/favourited, it means a lot to me. I hope this next chapter will be better received than the previous one.

A Free Woman

"Why Doctor Song, you don't look half bad for someone who's just been released from prison."

River turned around and showed him her trademark smirk. "Hello sweetie, fancy seeing you here."

The Doctor shrugged his shoulders as he started walking towards her. "Well I was in the neighbourhood, so I thought I'd stop by."

He snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her firmly against him and kissed her passionately.

After they pulled apart she gazed up at him, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. "It's you," she whispered. "But that's impossible."

"Now now River, you well know that nothing's impossible as long as I'm around," he replied.

She shook her head. "But you're crossing your own timestream by being here. What if you run into your younger self?"

The Doctor smiled his fiercely attractive but just slightly too cocky smile before answering her. "This is my past, so if I had been here I would have remembered. And the younger me in this time hardly knows who you are, so it's highly unlikely that he would show up."

River couldn't tell for sure, but he appeared to look guilt ridden and embarrassed as he was telling her that. Every time they met from her perspective he knew her less, and it hurt her more than she could ever put into words. But now she realised that for him, in retrospect, the realisation of how he had treated her at first, albeit unintentionally, had to be extremely painful as well.

"So how does it feel to finally be a free woman again?" he asked her.

"It feels fantastic," she sighed happily. "Our occasional adventures made prison more bearable, but it feels so good to know that I'm able to make my own decisions again and do as I please."

"Have you made any plans yet?" he asked.

"Well, you were right when you introduced me as Professor River Song at the crash of the Byzantium," she said. "Because in two weeks from now, that's what I will be."

"That's brilliant," the Doctor exclaimed as he pulled her into a hug. "I'm so proud of you."

She buried her face in his neck and inhaled his scent, the one that was so typically him. No matter which regeneration of him she encountered, he always had that distinct smell that comforted her and made her feel right at home. "Thank you," she half-whispered.

"How did you manage to get all of that done so quickly though?" he asked.

She pulled away slightly so she could look at him. "I wrote my dissertation in prison. You know, on the more boring days when you weren't stopping by for a visit. And apparently the university completely disregards the fact that I've been in prison, so they arranged for me to be promoted as soon as I got released."

"So soon you won't be able to come on adventures with me any more, because you'll be locked up in an office, being all clever and professor-y," he joked.

"Oh, I always make time for adventures, you know that." she said. "And for you of course, sweetie," she quickly added when she noticed him looking very disappointed.

His face immediately lit up again. "Great! So when do you have time off, or do you need to check your diary for that?"

She shook her head. "After I get promoted I'll be very busy planning my first big expedition. I'll need about a week for that, and then we'll be gone for about 5 days. So any time after that is fine."

"And expedition, that sounds...boring," he teased her. She knew exactly what his views on archaeologists were. "Where are you off to?"

"The Library," she answered excitedly.

His face fell the moment the words left her mouth, and though he tried to cover it up, he was sure she must've seen it. She was extremely perceptive and never missed a thing.

"What's wrong?" she asked him. "Have you ever been there?"

He nodded. "Yes, I've been there, but it was a long time ago."

"Doctor," she said sternly. "Is there anything you're not telling me."

He tapped her nose with his index finger. "Spoilers River, as you well know," he said.

She sighed. "I should've guessed, and you're right. I shouldn't have asked, I'm sorry."

"That's alright," he said, planting a soft kiss on her forehead. It was something he used to do to comfort her when she was a little girl, but at the moment it seemed that he was the one in need of comforting.

"You will come when I get promoted, won't you?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Of course I will," he replied. "Wouldn't want to miss it for the world."

She smiled at him. "Good answer sweetie."

"And perhaps I could take you somewhere afterwards. You know, to celebrate," he said.

River nodded. "I'd like that very much."

"Right, that's settled then." he said. "Now, is there anywhere I can drop you off?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Home would be fine I guess," she answered. "Will you be coming with me?"

"For a while, yes," he said, "but I can't stay too long."

River sighed. Nothing was ever simple where the two of them and their wonky timelines were concerned. "I know you can't stay, and I'm not asking you to stay long. But it's my first time returning home in a very long time, and I'd rather not be alone."

"Well come along then, soon to be Professor River Song. The TARDIS is just around the corner," he said, forcing a smile.

"Lead the way," she replied, smiling back up at him.

They walked to the TARDIS arm in arm, and the Doctor couldn't help but feel that every step brought them just that much closer to the end. He knew that next time would be the last time he would ever see her. He already knew that he would take her to Dorillium. It had always been her dream to see the Singing Towers, and he couldn't let her die without fulfilling that dream. Plus she already told him in the Library that that's where they went, so he really had no choice in the matter. He would take her to Dorillium, and then he would let her leave, allowing her to go to the Library and inevitably to her death.

For a while now he had feared that the end was coming closer, but he hadn't expected it to be this soon. He wished he could do something, that he could stop it from happening. But he knew he couldn't. Surely time could be rewritten sometimes, but not these fixed moments. Plus, he had made a promise to her all those years ago, when she had him handcuffed to that railing and he hadn't had a clue who she was. The pain he saw in her eyes that day was the kind he only recently had begun to understand. The River in his timestream was very young, and every time he saw her she knew and trusted him less. And he knew that there would come a day when she didn't know him at all. And that feeling, that pain was what he had seen reflected in River's eyes on the day he first met her.

He had promised her then that he wouldn't change a thing. She had enjoyed their time spent together, even if their timelines had been going in opposite directions, and she wouldn't want to change it for the world. And nor did he, if he were completely honest with himself. They'd had some great moments together, amazing even, and he didn't want to erase or alter a single one of them.

So, as impossible and heart wrenching as it may be, he would let her go. He'd never see her again, at least not the one who knew him as well as he knew her. And it would break his heart, but he had no choice. On that day her first met her, he made her a promise. And the Doctor always kept his promises, no matter what.

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