A/N: A word about the chronology of this series, particularly this specific chapter. As delightful as the "Night and the Doctor" mini-episodes are, either Steven Moffat has some very interesting ideas about just when certain events occurred that don't precisely line up with what we see between the Doctor and River in the series, OR he screwed up by name-dropping Amy and Rory in "First Night/Last Night." They simply cannot be on board if this episode takes place for the Doctor in one of the two places where I believe it most logically should have happened (immediately after either AGMGTW or TWORS).

After much back-and-forthing on the subject (including considerations involving Rule One) I've decided to take the Moffat-meant-what-he-wrote approach. All that said, the prologue to this chapter is set the same night as the epilogue to Chapter 2 (right after AGMGTW) and Chapter 3 proper occurs immediately after the events of "Let's Kill Hitler." As such, the Doctor hasn't done Area 52 yet, but this is the first time River has seen him since then.

Also, I have clearly expended far too much mental energy on this subject.

Finally, many thanks to everyone who has commented, favorited, and followed this series. It's been my first semi-ambitious project, and your encouragement has made it incredibly rewarding. Thank you!

Chapter 2.5

"You need to go," she murmured against his lips.

"I completely disagree," he answered, moving his mouth away from hers to trail kisses down her jaw and to the spot on her neck he'd recently discovered made her shiver anytime he touched it. His plans for the evening included spending a considerable amount of time becoming better acquainted with that spot.

Her hand drifted to the nape of his neck and she let out a soft sigh. He immediately decided it was his new favorite sound in the universe.

"No, really, you need to go," she said again, breathless but determined.

"Why," he asked, punctuating each word with a light kiss against her collarbone, "would I possibly want to do that?"

"Because you're supposed to be looking for me right now, Doctor, and if you stay," she removed her hand from his neck and took a step away from him, shaking her head to clear it, "you're not going to be able to keep from asking me questions."

The Doctor took a deep breath and briefly fisted his hands against the seams of his trousers. They were on the verge of staging revolt after being removed from River at an inopportune moment.

"I solemnly swear I will not attempt to cause a paradox or otherwise circumvent your timeline by asking about where the infant version of you is located," he said, holding up his right hand to attest to the truth of his statement.

"Nice try," she said with a smile, "but you forget how well I know you, my love. You have the impulse control of a very small, inquisitive ferret, and as soon as you get frustrated with your search you'll be back here trying to get me to tell you something – anything – about where I was. And so help me, if you keep doing that thing to my neck I might forget myself and tell you."

"Wait, so when you say I have to go –?"

"I mean you have to go and stay away until you've found me, yes."

He felt as if his eyes might truly fall out of his head. She couldn't possibly be serious.

"But River, that could take years! I mean, not that I think it will, obviously, because I don't plan to do anything except look for you between now and whenever it happens, but–"

"Which is exactly why you need to stay away from this me now," her voice was perfectly calm and controlled again, as if they hadn't just been on the verge of doing things to one another that (at least from his perspective) they'd never done before. Not that he was still thinking about those things, of course. "I'm a distraction, Doctor, and we both owe it to Amy and Rory to avoid distractions for the time being."

He opened his mouth to respond, realized her logic was based on friendship and loyalty and Doing the Right Thing, whereas his could be reduced to lust, and shut it again.

"You know I'm right, Doctor," she said gently, patting his arm reassuringly. "And I will tell you this – you won't be looking for me for years. Not even close."

"So I will find you?" he asked, hopefully.

She smiled again. "The answer to that seems pretty obvious all things considered, wouldn't you think?"

"Can I at least give you a proper goodbye, then?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

Oh yes, he was definitely still thinking about…things.

Chapter 3: The Tale of Jim the Fish

If the Doctor was being perfectly honest with himself (and he used Rule One in his own head almost as often as he did with other people) he would have acknowledged that he'd been slightly put out when River declined to wear the dress.

He'd almost forgotten about it, actually, but as he perused the Wardrobe in preparation for that evening, there it had been, tucked in between his tuxedo jackets. He remembered seeing a dripping River wearing it as she emerged from the swimming pool in 1969, and had idly thought at the time that the color was quite flattering on her. He'd never figured out where she had disappeared to in order to change that day (and the TARDIS still wasn't telling) but when he found the dress amongst his own clothing he took the hint.

This was a very young, River, though, and while he had just seen ample evidence suggesting that the essential parts of her wouldn't change over the coming years, apparently her taste in evening wear would.

Either that or she'd worn the dress back then as a joke to amuse them both later.

Regardless, whether she was wearing a ballgown or a prison uniform, she took his breath away. This was the first time he'd come for her since she'd warned him to stay away right after Demon's Run, and he was determined to make this evening their most memorable to date. Of course, from her perspective, he was fairly certain they hadn't had any evenings together at all yet, but from his they'd been dancing around in a grey area of oh-we're-accidentally-on-purpose-running-into-each-other-across-time-and-space-but-these-are-not-dates for the better part of a year. That ended tonight.

"Remind me again why there's a 400 foot tree growing in the middle of the ocean on an industrialized planet?" she asked, peering up at the topmost branches as they waited for the lift to arrive from the sizeable beach at the base of the trunk.

"The people here started out as polytheistic tree worshippers back, oh, a thousand years ago or so, and this was a holy site. That religion was replaced by monotheistic one that cut out the bits on plant life 500 years ago, so now this place is more of a tourist attraction than anything else."

"It's beautiful," she breathed, touching the bark. "Don't tell me when it dies or is struck by lighting or chopped down for fuel during an ice age or anything. I want to imagine that it's always going to be here."

It was a statement of such breathtaking innocence that for a moment he couldn't speak. He'd seen River appreciate beautiful things before, and had heard her wax poetic about a number of different subjects, but there was something about the way she wanted to stay ignorant of the tree's fate simply because it was beautiful and old and sacred that struck him as incredibly…young.

It took his breath away as he realized that this was likely how he'd seemed to her back on the Byzantium. She hadn't even known what the diary was earlier, and it was her first night in Stormcage. He still didn't know why she was incarcerated there, and thankfully she hadn't said anything before he'd reminded her about their timelines, but he knew enough to tell that she was incredibly young. Possibly only a few years older than she'd been back in Berlin, even.

"Coming, Doctor?" she asked, and he realized the lift had arrived a full minute ago.

"Yes, of course, sorry, woolgathering." He took her hand as he stepped into the lift and resolved to stop thinking so much and start enjoying himself.

River apparently had the same idea, as she reached up her other hand to his cheek and turned his face to hers. "Really, Doctor, I can think of a number of more entertaining things you could be gathering at the moment."

Rather than elaborating on this comment, she simply pressed him against the lift doors and raised her mouth to his. The same thrill shot through him as had weeks ago when he'd kissed her much older version for the last time before blazing off in the TARDIS to find baby Melody. Now that he knew he hadn't – and wouldn't – find her, he understood why she had sent him away then. If he'd had an inkling of what she would have been in Berlin, well, they might not be standing here right now enjoying a truly excellent snog on a lift in a tree.

Just as she moved to deepen the kiss and make him forget all about one-time-only astronomical phenomena, the lift bell rang, and they came to a stop.

"Were those Sontarans over there?"

The Doctor pulled River back into the foliage, and hastily pointed up at…anything, really, to distract her. He had a feeling that said Sontarans really wouldn't buy that the River here now wasn't the same one they'd just been chasing for implying that they were on a hen night rather than a top secret raid.

For that matter, this River might not have much of a problem letting them think she was the same her they'd been after.

"What is that?" she asked, following the sightline of his finger up into the upper branches of the tree, beyond the area where tourists were permitted.

Still distracted by the Sontarans (who appeared to be retreating, but you never could tell with them) the Doctor didn't realize initially what she was asking about.

"Hmm?"

"There, where you're pointing. What is that thing?"

His attention sufficiently pulled away from the definitely retreating Sontarans, the Doctor took a good look at exactly where his finger had guided River. It was…a thing.

"I have no idea."

It appeared to be a large sphere, clearly not arboreal in nature, hovering at least half a meter above the nearest branch.

"Come on – let's take a look!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him back towards the lift.

"But we only have three more minutes until-"

"We can always come back later for it, Doctor. Besides, if I could read a book by that light, we'll certainly be able to see exactly what that sphere is when the show starts."

He could hardly argue with her logic. Still, he'd been hoping for just one night where his plans wouldn't be interrupted by some variety of adventure that, while entertaining and potentially history-saving, would distract both of them from a single relaxing evening in the long course of their relationship.

He was ready to call it a relationship. That alone deserved some recognition from the universe. He had a feeling that the universe didn't agree. Again.

He'd forgotten how much he hated heights and narrow walkways until they were halfway across the increasingly slender (and clearly marked "For Maintenance Only") pathway that ran along the branch in question.

"You aren't phobic, are you, Sweetie?" she'd called back after he'd stopped and stared at the ground for the third time in as many minutes.

"I'd like to see you fall to your death once or twice and not develop a small aversion to high places," he responded tartly.

"So don't look down!" she called back merrily. She was clearly enjoying this far more than the prospect of unbelievably bright starlight. Why was he not surprised?

He willed himself not to check the distance between himself and the surface of the water again, and took a few more steps toward the still-mysterious sphere. It hadn't moved since they'd started approaching it, which meant that it was sleeping, incredibly stupid, deaf, or dead. He couldn't decide which he'd prefer.

He glanced at his wristwatch and called to River, "thirty seconds more until it starts!"

"Good, I'm nearly there," she called back, choosing not to slow down or otherwise wait for him.

Muttering under his breath about plans and times and places (but unable to ignore the rush of adrenaline that had begun to hit his bloodstream at the prospect of a new and mysterious alien-life-form-thing) he increased his pace. He'd be damned if he missed the look on River's face when she saw the stars begin to glow.

The ambient light level was already increasing when he got within three yards of River, who had stopped just underneath the sphere. Close up, he could see it was just the slightest bit translucent, and something inside of it was moving.

"I think it's an egg of some kind," she breathed, tilting and twisting her neck to see it better as the stars glowed above.

The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at the sphere for a moment before checking the readings. "You're right, it is an egg. A fish egg. There's an enormous embryonic fish in there." He couldn't help it, he was grinning. The stars were beginning to shimmer with an incandescence unmatched by any sight in any place in any time in the universe, and all he could see was a giant fish egg.

He glanced at River. Her eyes were fixed on the egg too. Words couldn't describe how he felt about her in that moment, but he assured himself that he'd try to find some when he had a spare minute. For now, there was a giant fish egg floating above a tree branch nearly 400 feet in the air.

The stars could wait.

"Who would put a fish egg in a tree?" the Doctor asked (possibly rhetorically) as they each circled underneath it, trying to get a good view. Even in the brilliant starlight, it was hard to believe their eyes.

"Who would put a very large, fish egg in a tree hundreds of feet above a conveniently located body of water might be a more precise question," River pointed out, reaching up to poke the egg with the tip of her index finger. "It's being supported by an anti-grav unit attached to…" she looked around, "that branch up there. Clearly whoever put it here wanted to keep it safe."

"I'm not sure I'd call three hundred feet in the air in a tree safe for a fish, Dear, but if you mean that someone put some thought into its location, then yes, it's safe. What it is not, however, is native to this planet. The protein strands are all wrong."

"Which begs the question, how are we going to get it down from here?"

The Doctor gave River an incredulous look. "Who said anything about getting it down?"

"It's a fish, Sweetie, not native to this planet, several hundred feet in the air, in a tree. The better question is why wouldn't we get it down?"

"It's over a meter in diameter – there's no way you could possibly hold it, walk, and not fall off this limb at the same time." He shook his head. "No, I have a better plan. We're going to need a very large tub and several hundred gallons of water."

Before River could answer, the anti-grav unit that had been supporting the egg exploded in a shower of sparks and hot metal. The Doctor, who had been standing directly under the egg when it happened, just managed to grab hold of it, nearly losing his balance in the process and tumbling over the side of the limb.

"Get down!" River shouted at him, drawing her gun and dropping to one knee as she rapidly turned her head, trying to determine where the shot had come from.

"Where exactly is 'down' other than the obvious?" the Doctor retorted. "In case you hadn't noticed, holding a giant fish egg while standing on a very narrow tree branch over here!" He could hardly see a thing with the egg blocking most of his view, and he didn't dare set it down. As it was, he suspected the pressure of his hands and chest against it was causing damage.

"Just crouch!" River directed, firing several shots at a limb below. A cluster of leaves just above her head exploded, and she fired again. "We're sitting ducks up here – when I say run, RUN."

The Doctor tightened his grip on the egg, praying that it was sturdier than it felt.

"Where exactly are we running to?" he shouted as River exchanged another volley of shots with their unseen attacker. "This egg isn't going to survive a rough ride."

"Back to the TARDIS!" A bolt of energy struck just inches from the Doctor's shoes, and he didn't wait for her cue to start running.

"How is that going to help?" he called over his shoulder.

"Don't you have a swimming pool?"

"Why do we always end up with fish?" he asked crossly as they anxiously waited for the lift to deposit them back at beach level.

"I think that's spoilers, Doctor," River chided. "Or weren't you serious earlier about the diary?"

"Drat. Well, there you go. We always end up with fish. The story of your life: adventures with me and fish."

Before she could respond, the lift doors opened and River drew her gun again, holding her hand out at him as a warning to let her go first. Under the circumstances, he wasn't about to protest. As expected, more shots exploded around her the moment she stuck her head out the door. Also as expected, she was too clever for them by half.

"Close your eyes, Sweetie!" she called, and the tone in her voice was unmistakably delighted. He obliged, and the next thing he knew he was shielding his closed eyes from a brilliant light he assumed she had somehow produced. Given the fact that it was already close to daylight outside, he hoped she had shielded her own eyes as well. Whatever it was would most likely have caused retinal scarring for anyone who hadn't taken precautions.

"Were you expecting something like this?" he asked, deciding it was likely safe to open his eyes again when she began tugging on the crook of his arm. "Because I'm fairly certain whatever that was wasn't standard Stormcage issue."

"I'm always expecting 'something like this' when I see you, Doctor," she replied. "Now come on!"

By the time they reached the TARDIS the starlight had all but faded. The Doctor tried not to feel disappointed that they hadn't had time to appreciate it more. He did, however, take a moment to thank the TARDIS for replacing the swimming pool just in time for its new inhabitant.

For his part, Jim seemed to be enjoying himself. Or, the Doctor supposed he would be, once he finished hatching. The process, as it turned out, took a bit of time.

The lights just under the surface of the water rippling blue and gold reflections over River's face as she sat on the ledge above the deep end, her bare feet dangling in the water. She watched Jim's progress, utterly transfixed. The Doctor didn't think he'd ever seen that particular look on her face before – as if she was blocking out the rest of the universe just to focus on one tiny miracle.

He liked that face.

Fully submerged under the water, Jim's struggle to extricate himself from the egg's carapace was silent, so the only sound in the room was the gentle lapping of water against the tile. Part of him wanted nothing more than to go to River and find out what she was thinking, but an equally strong part couldn't bear to break this beautiful silence.

"Did the TARDIS know where he's from?" she asked quietly, spying him watching her from across the pool.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. He's called a D'Nak. Actually from a little planet a few solar systems away. No idea how he got into a tree on Alderin Beta, though." He walked around the edge of the pool and came to a stop next to her, though he didn't sit down yet. "I imagine that bit may become clearer when we reach his planet."

"Taking the scenic route, are we?" she asked with a smile.

"Well he does have to hatch first," the Doctor pointed out, settling down on his heels to avoid getting wet as they watched the fish together.

"Honestly, you'd think you didn't have a dozen pairs of those same trousers the way you're acting," said River, pulling him down to properly sit next to her.

The Doctor felt dampness seep through the fabric, but didn't protest. Instead, he snaked his arm around her waist and settled his hand on her thigh. She sighed happily and wordlessly relaxed into his embrace. He remembered sitting just like this a few months before as they watched a supernova from the TARDIS doors, and wondered if she'd recalled this moment back then.

They were silent for a moment before River spoke up again. "I think we should name him."

"You think we should what?"

"Name the fish. People do that, don't they?"

He couldn't even think of a response. Since when did River Song go around naming anything, much less a fish? It was absurd. It was completely off-point. Completely not what they should be expending mental energy thinking about when they had much greater concerns at their feet. It was...completely something River Song would do. Of course. He was just about to acquiesce when she continued.

"I think we should call him Jim."

"Jim the Fish?" a bell rang in the back of his brain. He knew this one.

"Yes, Jim the Fish."

An hour later, Jim had finished hatching. He was most certainly a fish, and the Doctor had definitively verified his planet of origin before setting a course.

"So how exactly were you planning to get him out of the swimming pool?" River asked, sidling up next to him as he finished entering the coordinates.

"Simple. We'll just open the doors and let Jim swim home." He flipped the last switch and then turned to face her, running one hand down the length of her arm as he did so.

"And those doors would be located…?"

"Did I forget the part about materializing the TARDIS inside the lake?" He grinned.

"See, what did I tell you? Perfect spot for Jim – above and below!" the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS doors, gesturing emphatically for River's benefit. Really, he was quite impressed with himself. Perfect dropoff underwater (well, except for the part when the doors to the pool jammed and she'd gotten soaked trying to get them to close again), perfect sunny and deserted beach for a perfect…

"That's far enough, offworlder," came a threatening voice from behind the decidedly not-perfect gun that was now only centimeters from the Doctor's nose.

"Ah, well, if I may make a brief suggestion," the Doctor said, taking a step back and hoping that River wasn't taking her time drying her hair, "that may not be the best idea."

"No, it really isn't," came River's voice from behind him. He assumed she was aiming her own gun at his would-be attacker.

Suddenly six more guns were pointed at both of them, one from each of the six men standing behind the one who had initially accosted the Doctor. As much confidence as he had in River's abilities, this didn't seem like a winning proposition.

"All right, all right, we give up. River! We give up!" he called back to her, hoping that for once she would just follow his lead without argument.

Not hearing a response, he decided to press on and hope she wasn't about to do anything rash. "I'm sorry, we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot. I'm the Doctor, this is River, and we were just looking for a nice spot to picnic. I take it this is not that spot?"

The lead gun-pointer narrowed his eyes at the Doctor, clearly assessing the believability of this claim. "No, it is not. This is the ancestral home of the D'Nak, and not a site for offworlders."

"Ah, the D'Nak! Lovely species, very large. Very aquatic," he hoped River got the hint.

"Do not play games with us, offworlder," another of the men spoke up. "We know that…box of yours was on the lake floor only moments ago. Or did you think our simple planet lacked surveillance equipment?"

"Oh no, never," the Doctor assured them. "Isn't that right, River? We'd never assume any such thing."

"Quite," she agreed, stepping forward to join him on the beach. He was relieved to see that her gun was out of sight, though he assumed she had several more stashed in easily reached pockets.

"Actually, funny story, really, you see we were just on Alderin Beta and happened to run across a D'Nak egg suspended in a tree. Really, it was quite bizarre. What you saw – that was us returning the hatchling to its native waters, nothing more."

This seemed to throw the group off-balance for a moment, and the leader took a step back to quietly confer with his compatriots while also keeping an eye (and his weapon) on the Doctor and River.

"I think we've discovered why the egg was hidden in that tree," River murmured, low enough not to be heard by anyone but the Doctor.

"Correction, I think we've discovered that the egg was hidden, but not why. It makes no sense – the D'Nak is a locally protected species, but wouldn't be particularly valuable to anyone on Alderin Beta." He shook his head in frustration.

"Why is it locally protected?"

"Well, according to the TARDIS's records, the D'Nak build enormous dams to house their eggs during mating season. Around here, those dams help to regulate the water supply, and the D'Nak are moved from lake to lake according to the dam-building needs of the area. They're enormously important, but only to a planet like this one with very specific water-regulation needs. Alderin Beta doesn't have any of those."

"Quite peculiar, I agree," River said before the group turned back to face them.

"What you say has the ring of truth," the leader began. "Twelve days ago, a D'Nak egg was stolen from this lake by a group of offworlders. Their vessel did not look like yours, but we suspected they were from the Alderin System." He shook his head. "We sent out a retrieval team to investigate, but they were unable to locate the egg in any of the planet's water sources."

"Ah, yes, well that would likely be why the people who stole it hid it in a tree. Who'd think to look for a fish egg there?" the Doctor smiled. "Well, we're very happy to have repatriated your D'Nak. Now, if you don't mind, we'll just be off-" He took a step back toward the TARDIS, hoping against hope that they'd be allowed to simply leave.

"Wait! What assurance do we have that the ones who stole the D'Nak will not simply return? You must have more information on their identity!" this from one of the men in the back who had a particularly desperate look in his eye.

"You don't," River spoke up, laying her hand on the Doctor's in a silent request to let her handle this part. "What you do have is our promise that we will go back to Alderin Beta once you let us leave and do our best to find the person or persons responsible."

The group considered this for a moment. "Very well," said the leader. "Will you return once you have found them?"

"You have my word," said the Doctor.

"And mine," River echoed.

"I take it that this isn't quite the evening you had planned, Sweetie?" River asked, as they crept back to the base of the tree.

"Oh you know me," he whispered, trying to keep as close to the ground as possible. "Dinner, dancing, repatriating newborn fish, facilitating justice."

"You certainly do know how to spoil a girl," she turned around and winked at him, and in spite of himself the Doctor flushed. Once this was over… "Now, you're sure you landed us just a few seconds after the TARDIS left?"

"Certain. I even checked the environmentals," she gave him an odd look, and he hastily muttered, "Spoilers."

"Then they shouldn't be hard to locate. Look," she pointed up at the sky. "The last of the starlight hasn't faded yet." He resisted the urge to draw his arm around her waist to enjoy the last moments of spectacular beauty together. If she was right about the effects of the light bomb she had activated in order to facilitate their escape earlier then they only had a few more minutes before their attackers would be able to see well enough to escape themselves.

"River, over there," he pointed at a large dark shape moving slowly across the ground just a few meters from the lift doors.

"I see it," she said, and began to run without waiting to see if he was following. He hurried along behind, resisting the urge to ask her to slow down for him. River could more than take care of herself, and to be honest this part of the adventure was typically more her area of expertise than his.

Sure enough, by the time he reached her, she'd hauled the (rather large, rather male) figure to his knees, and had her gun trained to his temple.

"Care to tell me why you were just shooting at us?" she asked in a far less aggressive voice than her actions would have warranted.

"You were stealing my egg!" he shouted, rubbing at his eyes and blinking rapidly in an effort to clear his vision.

"I think you'll find that the original owners of that egg would object to your use of a possessive pronoun," the Doctor noted.

River snickered, and the man attempted to rise to his feet. The muzzle of River's gun dug a bit more forcefully into his temple, and he relaxed again. "And who are you to say that I'm not the original owner?"

"Hmm, let's see: an egg that doesn't belong in this solar system, much less this planet; up in a tree; and you shot at us with little regard for its well-being when we were inspecting it. Did I miss anything, Sweetie?" she turned to him expectantly.

"Don't forget the bit where the original owners asked us to bring the thief back to their planet to stand trial," he piped up.

"Right you are," she said. "Any questions, or shall we just get you into the handcuffs I'm sure my friend has somewhere in his pockets," she looked at him flirtatiously. "Or in mine. You're welcome to check, Doctor."

He grinned, and almost forgot that they were in the middle of a situation that wasn't precisely conducive to extended bouts of flirting. "Aren't you always the one carrying handcuffs, Dr. Song?"

She laughed, "Now I know that's spoilers," and gestured towards her left hip pocket. "Look in there." He did, and felt a rush of anticipation as she shivered when his hand pressed against her thigh through the thin cotton lining of her pocket.

"Right, handcuffs," she said, taking them from him and snapping them around the wrists of the thwarted thief.

"Quickly now, back to the TARDIS for dropoff," the Doctor said, taking one of the man's elbows in his hand and leading them determinedly back to the ship.

"Wait, you haven't asked me what I was doing with the egg!" the man protested.

"You know, for once I find I really don't care," the Doctor responded, catching River's eye and giving her a wink of his own. Yes, they really needed to wrap this up quickly.

"Tell it to the people you stole it from," she agreed, opening the TARDIS door and shoving him inside, taking the opportunity to press her free hand against the small of the Doctor's back, more to caress than to urge him inside.

"I think you'll find we're on too tight a schedule to stick around for the explanations," the Doctor agreed. He didn't even pretend to protest when River not-so-gently sat their former assailant down in the jumpseat and began setting a course.

The dropoff had gone, for once, completely without incident. The TARDIS had materialized on the beach only moments (from the perspective of the group standing there) after it had initially departed, the egg thief had been unceremoniously thrown out the double doors, and with a jaunty wave goodbye the Doctor and River had left again. He supposed he should have felt some sense of obligation to ensure that the man received a fair trial, but according to the TARDIS database they did have a reputable justice system that would treat him fairly. And also, really, under the circumstances he couldn't see any reason why the universe didn't owe him a bit of a favor. After all, it had been a very long year.

"Penny for your thoughts," River murmured, sliding her arms around his waist as he fiddled with the console.

"Just thinking about how nice it is to be done with all the running," he replied. "Where did you disappear to?"

"The Wardrobe," she said, and he turned around to see the results. She was wearing a simple blue dress that felt marvelously swishy against his hand. "Are you ready to go back, or will we be spending the rest of this evening 'in'?"

He smiled, remembering what both versions of her older self had implied about this night only hours earlier. "Oh no, we're heading back. I need to give you some memories to feel nostalgic about in the future."

He could tell River was on the verge of asking him to explain, but decided to let the mystery remain.

Taking her hand in his, he pressed the final controls to take them back to Alderin Beta, and trusted that the TARDIS would oblige him this once by letting him cross his own timeline for the third time that evening so he could properly show River the stars.

This time around, the Doctor and River had waited until the starlight had already begun to brighten before they attempted the lift. They directed it to the highest level – with the aid of the sonic screwdriver, as it wasn't permitted to tourists – to avoid any possible interactions with the versions of themselves currently cavorting around the lower branches. They had watched with some interest as earlier-in-the-evening River had spotted the Sontarans, and earlier-in-the-evening Doctor had inadvertently distracted her with the sight of Jim's egg.

As the starlight began to glow brighter and brighter around them, though, he found he had no interest in continuing to watch their slightly younger selves chase after a mysterious sphere and an equally mysterious stranger. Tonight wasn't about where they had been, but rather where they were going.

Next to him, River breathed in sharply, and he knew she had stopped watching the rerun below as well. The very air around them had begun to hum with light, and shimmers of brighter and brighter stars began to flare in the sky above and around them. In spite of their brilliance, the Doctor only saw the spectacle from the corner of his eye – his attention was utterly fixated on River as she watched the sky above and around them. Her face echoed awe, and wonder, and the feeling of being at the center of something precious and finite that had to be savored before it was gone forever. Her hair caught the starlight, and for a moment it looked like a halo of light was encircling her face.

"River," he whispered, not wanting to break the magical silence, but feeling an irresistible compulsion to tell her something very important.

"Shhh," she urged, not wanting to tear her attention away from the stars.

"No, it can't wait – if it does, I might not be able to say this again."

That caught her attention.

"River, this is very important. Someday – not soon for you, but someday – I won't remember this. I won't have been here, or anywhere we go after this for me. I won't know you, and I won't have made the choice I'm making right now." He pressed his forehead to hers, wanting to be as close to her as possible, but needing to explain himself. "I want you to know, I am choosing this life with you. I know I have a choice, and there will be times I'll be tempted to make a different one, but –"

She cut him off with her mouth. For a moment he was tempted to continue speaking, because there were still so many things left unsaid. Words like love and forever that he knew he'd never told her before and might not have the will to say out loud again for a very long time. Words that would help to cushion her heart in the years to come when he would be so very young and ignorant and unnecessarily cruel.

Then she opened her mouth against his, and he felt the press of her tongue on his own. She moved her hand under his jacket to pull him closer, and he found he couldn't do anything but feel. His hands threaded through her hair, and he sensed rather than saw the stars explode in light around them as all the worries and responsibilities and complications of their relationship faded to nothingness against the brightness of the moment.

EPILOGUE

"Her days will be in Stormcage, but her nights…well, that's between her and me."

The Doctor turned away from Dorium, and smugly shut the TARDIS doors behind him, reveling in the release of a weight he hadn't even realized he'd been carrying. The universe believed that the Doctor was dead – and he was free.

"You know, Sweetie, hearing you just then might make a girl think that you only come to visit me out of a sense of obligation." River, unsurprisingly, had been listening to his conversation from just inside the TARDIS as he'd made his exit from the catacombs.

The Doctor shook his head and wagged his finger at her. "And what have I told you about eavesdropping?"

"Nothing yet, which means you'll probably mention something about it soon enough. So tell me, Doctor, is that why you keep popping up outside my cell on a nightly basis?" She was teasing him, but there was an undercurrent of genuine curiosity in her tone.

"Do you remember what I said to you on Alderin Beta? It was awhile ago for you, I know."

River cocked an eyebrow. "Making insinuations about my age now, are you? My, you're not going to have any fun this evening at the rate you're going." The smile on her face lent a teasing air to her words, but he could tell she was not going to allow him to sidestep the original question.

"Of course not, dear, I just meant that it was awhile back, so you might not remember what I said."

"Time Lord memory, Sweetie. I remember that night as well as you do."

"Ah, yes, forgot about that bit. See, even a Time Lord memory isn't all it's cracked up to be all the time."

"Or you're just getting old."

"Yes, quite. Well, do you remember or not?"

"Let's see, there was a dress I refused to wear, I heard voices coming from the Console Room – wait…was that me? Did I actually show up there twice without realizing it?"

"Now you realize it was the same night!"

"With the way you pick up strays, Doctor, it's hardly surprising I thought you were talking to someone else."

"Twice?"

"Again, no fun for you tonight."

"Right, right. So what else do you remember?"

"The tree, the Sontarans,– it was the same night! – Jim the Fish, starlight, and then you went off on a long digression about how you'd made a choice and that you hoped I'd remember that in the future when you didn't know me as well as you did at that moment."

"Yes, River. A choice. Do you know when that was for me?"

She shook her head. "You hadn't done Area 52 yet, obviously, but – oh."

"I've made that choice again and again, River. I'm making it as I speak. I didn't always want this life with you, and at times I may have led you to believe that I didn't want it, but if I have learned nothing else in my exceptionally long life I have learned that a choice not made is generally a choice regretted. I choose."

"And so do I," she breathed.

Yes, the nights were theirs. Every night. For as long as they had.