Notice: do NOT read it if you haven't seen episode 6 of season 6. Only if you want to miss a great surprise. (Hey, is there any DW-watcher in the universe who haven't seen that GORGEOUS episode?! It was so long ago... :/ )
The Doctor stepped out of the bathroom, his clothes washed and ironed, his wife wandering around somewhere in his precious time-machine. He felt fresh and young again, filled with energy and ready for action. She did it to him from time to time: even when he was as old and dead as a Time Lord could be after his own bury. He could go everywhere, see whatever he wanted, not disturbed by anything and anyone. Basically he didn't existed, and it was such a liberating emotion he couldn't grasp. He thought he'd find River and start for a place he'd never been before.
'Hey Sexy, where's my beautiful wife?' he asked in the air, and a screen with a map appeared on the wall, a red dot pulsing in the console room. 'Thank you, sweetheart.' he told, and tossed a kiss to it. It gave a merry hum, but soon the hums got slower and sadder as he neared the console room. It made his hearts sink too – he never realized how strong a connection bounded him to that old machinery. As he stepped into the room, his moves were slow and somehow sad, and it made him feel anxious. It must have had a very good reason to made him feel so cheerless.
For the first blink he didn't notice the shape sitting on the stairs, but it only took a moment to realize it was River in her prison uniform. Her shape made him feel protective about her: she sat there, looking in the distance, not even noticing his arrive. He felt bad to disturb her.
'May I?' he told, stepping to her, pointing at the stair. She stirred, and looked up at him, her golden locks swinging tingling with the move. She smiled at him weakly, and said
'I would be pleased if you would.' she told, and the Doctor sat down next to her, clasping his hands and dropping his head. She looked at him, still smiling, and propped her elbow on her knee.
'May I ask, what you were thinking about?' he asked, bending his brows, and she leaned her head to one side, looking at him smiling shyly.
'My parents. I was thinking what it could be for them to getting know who I was. Who their daughter was. Melody.' she was searching through words, still smiling, but with a certain grogginess in her voice. She knew he'd feel it, as he did truly.
'They love you, River.' he looked at her frowning, searching her face.
'I know. In a certain way.' she nodded, smiling weakly, and dropped her head. The Doctor watched her, frowning, and thought about these difficult human relationships – and how he effected them, and not in a good way.
'They do love you, whatever happened to them and you. People stole you from them, but they know that you are their daughter, and accept what happened. They do not love you less because of it.'
'Oh, of course they do, but it doesn't matter. I was just thinking about the blink they gave me at Demons Run, when I told them. Their face...' she turned to him slyly 'but your face! It worth everything.' she giggled. He frowned at her.
'My face?! What was wrong with it?' he asked indignantly, and she couldn't do but laugh.
'Your face...' she tried to make a serious gaze 'was... well, at least funny.' she found the word what was less disturbing to him – however, it wasn't polite enough to comfort him. His cheeks got red, and between anger and embarrassment he reflected
'I was surprised. It wasn't my first thought to control my face.' he told, and a hearty laugh gurgled out of her throat.
'It was a lovely face. As it is ever.' she told 'I love that face. I loved that face of yours on the Demons, and I love it now too.' she said, and touched his chin to turn that spectacular face on her, and gazed into his eyes. But those eyes weren't sulking as she thought they would be. They were searching and frowning.
'What was their faces?' he asked only, and the smile in River's eyes disappeared. She let his chin go, and looked away.
'They were confused. Desperate. They looked at me like... like I stole their daughter...' she told, and he saw those always-hidden tears behind her cold eyes. 'Of course with time they accepted it. But it was like they'd blame me for something. I almost wish I wouldn't tell them the truth.'
The Doctor wreathed his arm around her shoulder, and caressed her locks, not knowing how he could help his wife. It was so long ago for him, and so fresh for her... Usually it was vice versa, and he was the younger, he had the less experience, but now... She even noticed when he arrived in Stormcage, 'You seem older... You've got a new haircut?', but it wasn't his hair, it was his eyes. Later – well, later for her, he experienced it for a long time – she always searched his eyes for his age. As he did with her lately. He sighed.
'It was Amy, wasn't she?' the Doctor, he knew his old companions, and saw how Rory looked at River. He wanted to protect her, as a real father would, but he saw the pain in his eyes too, that he couldn't fulfil his task properly, like he would've failed something. But Amy... she loved her, he knew, but he saw it in her eyes: the years without her child. It made her to be bitter about the whole thing, and she wanted to blame somebody. And yes, he saw when she and River were together, that flinch in her eyes. The blame against her, which was so very unfair, but he couldn't do anything about it.
River nodded, hardly sensibly, and he kissed in her locks and sighed.
'She loves you, and her anger isn't against you, it's just... you're there. Her baby was taken away from her, and you are there, and she cannot associate you with her. She was just a baby, and you are a woman grown... it is hard for her. Time travelling isn't as natural for them as it is for us.' he added, and River moved out of his arms.
'Us?' she frowned at him, and it made him feel a bit uncomfortable. To tell the truth, River always made him feel a bit uncomfortable. He cleared his throat.
'Time Lords.'
'So you and... who exactly?' she asked back, frowning more deeply, and more menacingly. He swallowed.
'Me and... you.' he told, with a hint of a question in his voice. She looked at him searchingly.
'You hold me to a Time Lord?' she asked, and the question surprised him truly.
'Of course I do. You may have less regeneration power, but much more bravery than any of us did.' he told, between surprise and angst. She leaned her head one side, and looked at him long.
'What did you think about me till Demons Run?' she asked, and the question surprised him more than the former one. It made him think.
'Well, to be honest, I was fascinated by you. I never thought about what you were, only who. You were a very interesting woman. Will be. Are.' he searched for the precise verb-tense, and felt a bit embarrassed for not finding it at first. At his relief it made her laugh.
You are a man, Doctor.' she told, and kissed him affectionately. When she let him go, he rested his brow on hers, and played with her locks.
'First time I met you, you knew everything about me, and I felt you'd be someone very precious to me – however I wouldn't accept it for a long while. But you kept coming, and it was like you'd be the only steady part of my life. And so it is.' he told, and looked into her eyes, and so them smiling again, and felt everything disappearing when she kissed him again. And she rested her head at his shoulder when they parted, and felt Demons Run had a tiny little part what made good to her: him. And she felt nothing was more important in life than that.