Rory sat on a rock, looking in the setting sun, wondering, when Amy stepped out of the house. She walked to him, and set on her heels behind him, resting her chin on his shoulder.
'What are you thinking about?' she asked her husband. He shrugged, and sighed.
'Nothing. Just...' he gazed in the sun. 'Do you feel like a parent? I mean... River is our daughter, and I should feel like a dad, but...'
'Oi, old man.' the girl took his chin in her palm and turned his head to her. 'You're not guilty in anything.' she said firm. She knew what he felt; like he'd lost something, just not knowing what. She looked deep into his eyes. 'Melody is our daughter. It's just...' she let him go, and he turned back to the sun 'We will not ever be the parents of her. She's... independent.' She told it stoutly, but Rory knew her better than to believe her cold stateness.
'You love her better than I do.'
'I know her better than you do. It doesn't mean I love her better.' she clunched to his arm, and stared into the sun. He didn't answer. He just sat there, gazing in the sun, and Amy did not know what to say to him. Now he wasn't the boy she married – now he was the last centurion, who waited so long in silence... And she didn't know what to say to this old, sad man she knew so little. She knew she should comfort him, to let him know it wasn't his fault, to let him know he was a good man and a good husband, and a better father. She knew he would be. If they could've kept that little girl... She felt a tear running down on her cheek, and suddenly she realized how much she missed her daughter. She couldn't stay saying.
'I miss her.' she told, still staring in the red-orange sun.
'I know.' Rory told, and reached for her hand and kissed it gently. He knew he was the only one left for her, and he must give her everything for her happiness.
* * *
The Doctor and River walked in a circle of Gargoyles, hand on their heads.
'I told you.' she declared. The only answer she got was a grunt and a grimace. She rolled her eyes. 'The Gargoyles will not be satisfied with a grunt if they'll query you.'
'Query us.' he corrected her.
'Why us? I didn't do anything. I told you to surrender.'
'You told them to accept surrender.'
'We did surrender.'
'No, you did surrender!' he argued back, and she rolled her eyes again.
'Yes, after they trained guns on us.'
'Anyway, why is it my faut?!'
'Because you broke a child.'
'It was a gargoyle!'
'On the gargoyle planet, what did you expect?'
He murmurred something, but she didn't take attention. They were nearing a big wooden building.
'Okay, it's too late to wonder who did what or why. Their law is old-fashioned: they'll break us like we broke their child.'
'What?!'
'No democracy, no speaking, just cold justice.'
'What did I expect from stones... Doesn't it matter I healed it?'
'Well, the'll heal us, if we're pretty enough.'
'Oh great. I feel much better.'
'Shut up, you'll heal whatever happens.' River told half angrily, half painful. He looked at her face, and saw her burden.
'Probably I will, but you won't.' he told silently, gently.
'That's my problem.' she nodded, and walked on. The Doctor stopped, and the gargoyles stopped around him.
'Your problem?! That's not a game, River.' She stopped, and slowly turned to face him. The gargoyles stood still.
'Yes, you're right. Yes, you'll heal and I won't, but you've never cared if I smile or if I cry, so what then? I just wonder why I'm so stupid to fall in love again and again with you.' she told angrily, and turned away from him. He stood stunned.
'River...'
'Let's go, sweethearts, I have no time to waste my time. Be over it.' she said, and the gargoyles got off around her. She climbed the stairs and stepped inside the building, whlie the Doctor still stood stunned at the feet of the staircase. His gargoyles stood still, waiting for his move, and he just stood there, not thinking about anything, only that sad anger in her eyes. Why was she so accepting, so empathic, so calm – so sad? He remembered the day when she died. She was not afraid, she was not angry, she was only sad. Why so sad?...
The gargoyles got moving around him.
'Right, right, I'm going.' he murmurred to them, and began to climb the stairs. He found the room dim-lighted, and found River standing in the middle of the hall, her head lifted high, without fear or shame: the River who made him amaze all the time. He looked at her fair face, looking for anger, but he didn't find it: only that calm sadness that lingered in her eyes all the time. He wondered how she became the woman she was next to him, and why she became that woman. And then he noticed something moving in the dark, in the opposite side of the hall.
'Justice is justice.' he heard, and heard all the gargoyles echoing 'And all its judgement is good.' And a cracked, dark gargoyle appeared opposite them.
'I suppose you know your crime?' he neared them, and turned its head to one to the other of them. River answered first.
'Yes, we do.' she told, without fear.
'Than I suppose you know your penalty?' he asked again.
'Yes, we do.' she told again.
'Then be prepared.' he told, and turned around. River swallowed hard, and closed her eyes, for loosing the sight of the nearing guards. But suddenly she heard the Doctor crying out.
'Stop it! It's not her fault! It's only me to be blamed, I broke your child.' he shouted, and the judge stopped, and turned around, and came back to him. He swallowed, and spoke on. 'I found the child, and thought it was simply stone. I didn't care analyzing it, I just touched its horn, and it simply broke. When I heard it cry out, I repaired it, and asked for pardon.'
The judge stepped nearer to him.
'Then we will break you, and repair you afterwards.' he nodded. It came the hard part.
'No.' he swallowed again, when the guards began to near him dangerously. 'Break me, but not her. She has no part in my crime.' he stated, but River hissed at him.
'Thank you, but I disclaim. We were together, we made it together.' she told angrily.
'No, she had no part in it.' the Doctor insisted, and the judge stopped the guards with a wave of his tail.
'You want to be punished alone?' he asked suspiciously.
'Yes.' He saw the sparkles of anger in his wife's eyes, but decided not to notice them. He knew it was her only chance.
The judge took a step back from him, searching his face, and then River's. There was silence in the hall, so deep and doomed it was hard to bear. He heard River's single hart beating fast, and remembered how vulnerable she was, and prayed to whatever god to protect her, and made the judge give in. And he gave thanks when the voice of the judge rised high 'Be it. Break him, as I find no lie in him.'
'No!' he heard River's voice, and heard her trying to break through her guards, but stone stood firm. And he heard his own gurads nearing him slowly, and wished he could close his eyes better than he could, and not feeling anything – but he felt the strong, cold fingers catching his arm, and felt them squeeze it, and then felt the pain growing as they started to bend his bone – and then a sudden rush of torment dashing from his arm; and then nothing.
He woke in the TARDIS, pain in his arm, the machine humming and murmuring gently around him. He saw a shadow walking around the consol, pulling the scanner in front of itself, and then typing something on the keyboard.
'River...' he wanted to say, but only a grunt came out of his troath. He saw the figure turning towards him, and then going on what it was doing before. He felt her anger towards him. He blinked a few, and then tried to sit up.
'You shouldn't.' her voice told, but he didn't care and forced himself sitting up.
'River...' he tried again, but she cut him off.
'I don't care what you're up to say. You are a bigger idiot than I've ever thought, and I won't listen to you.'
'River...'
'No!' she cried out, and he heard that sadness in her voice again. 'You let them break you, and you didn't even use your regeneration energy to heal yourself, and I had to bring you back in the TARDIS and look after your fraction, and I'm sick of your self-destruction. So be quiet and rest. I'm flying the TARDIS on a calm place where you will rest till you come to sense.' she facted, and he decided it was no time for arguing. He laid back and forced himself sleeping, and healing. It was a time till he came to mind next, and saw the TARDIS' doors open, and fresh air licked his cheeks. He knew he'll find her out somewhere, so he stood up and ignoring the pain walked out of the blue box, looking for her blond curls and weary heart. He didn't have to wander a lot: she was standing there, on a cliff, wind blowing her hair from the sea, looking into the setting sun. He leaned to the door, and lowered his head.
'When we first met... Love was not my first answer to you.' He knew he was telling a forbidden story, but he felt he had to tell it – well, some of it, at least. 'But you didn't give up, you didn't let me give up, and as we kept meeting... I learned you ment more than I thought. I thought before that never falling in love was not a crime. Every time I began to love someone, they left me, or died – and soon I learned not to love so much. So why did I fall in love again?' he stepped closer to her, waiting for her reaction, but he felt her pain groving in the air.
'Did you?' she asked at last, and he sighed. Of course I did, he thought, but he knew he should tell more.
'Do you love me, River Song?' he asked, very seriously. The question made her turn, and search his face.
'If I won't, would I care of a stupid old man?' she asked back, smiling painfully. He smiled back at her, and sighed.
'River Song... Why don't you regret loving me?' he shook his head. She laughed up a bit, and now she was herself again.
'You are the only one who deserves loving, Doctor.'
'No. But you are.' he declaimed. She smiled at him.
'You'd better say it.'
'No. I mean it.' he closed the space between them, and took her hand in his. 'River Song, you are the one I married, and you are the one I love. Please don't forget whatever I do.' He was desperate to let her know what he felt. He knew there were days when he passed prooving her it, and he knew there would be days when they'll meet, and he wouldn't love her. When he was young, and there was so much pain he caused her. She needed to know... He kissed her gently, and then hugged her with his good arm.
'I love you, River.' he whispered in her ears.
'I love you, moron.' she whispered back, and felt the pain gone for a time.
When they parted, she looked at him and sighed.
'Would you heal your arm for me?' she pulled up her eyebrows. The Doctor made a mouth.
'No.'
'Why?!' she sighed edgily.
'I want me to remember I love you so much I let my arm broken for you.'
'What does it matter?! I will heal in time whatever, and you will forget it!' She didn't mean it, it was just a fact she knew. It made him frown.
'No I won't. Never ever.' he told, and kissed her hand gently. 'They say fractions hurt when there's bad weather.' he put his arm around her, and pushed her towards the TARDIS.
'They're humans.' she rolled her eyes.
'Oi, I'm almost a human, as much time I spend in your company.'
'Shut up, you're a time lord, and I'm no human.'
'Alright, then I'll put a sensor in it, which detects bad weather and make my arm hurt.'
'Don't be more stupid you are already.' she told, and closed the door behind them.
'Oh you're rude I say!' the Doctor shouted, and River laughed up. And the TARDIS dematerialized from the cliff, and nothing remained from sorrow and pain, only the salty breeze on the rocks.
Note: I don't know why I began with Amy and Rory, it was just a feeling I had to include them. There's always the question about them why they love each other (especially from Rory's side), and I felt I have to tell how much they really love each other, and through a conflict which cannot be solved. I thought about leaving it out from the posted version, but I decided not to. It does not linger to the story tight, but makes it more colorful. So I hope you enjoyed it. :)