Chapter 11

April 2009
Three years, seven months after River Song's recruitment

They stood there for a long time after the blue police box—the TARDIS—vanished into thin air, trying to come to terms with what they had just experienced.

Well, Clint and Coulson were.

River, Clint was sure, was way ahead of them in that respect.

She was standing between them, but far enough back, he noted with a worried frown, that she was out of reach. Her arms were tensely folded, her face was set and expressionless, and she wouldn't look at either him or Coulson.

"River?" Clint asked.

It seemed that he didn't need to ask anything beyond that. River took a deep breath.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me," she said, still looking at the place where the TARDIS, and those aboard, had disappeared.

"Will you tell us?" Coulson asked.

They were both surprised at how quickly she nodded.

"Yes," she said. "It's time you knew."