seriously un-beta'd and stuff
The Doctor was all smiles as he handed the baby off to the Ponds. It was odd to think that this cute and innocent little human thing would one day grow up to be River Song. In fact, it was a thought best left unthought.
"Oh, there we are, Ponds united!"
Rory cuddled the new baby, as Amy smiled and shot an unsure look at the Doctor. Finally she moved over, her voice lower, a confidential conversation between the two of them.
"Thanks, Doctor," she said giving him a hug.
"I told you I would bring her back."
"I know. I -"
He paused, the hesitation in her voice was worrying and he only hugged her tighter.
"Hey, hey, it's okay. Everyone is back in one piece now, right?"
"I don't know if I want this," she whispered. "I don't know if I'm cut out to be a mum."
The Doctor pulled away enough to see her face and smiled at her.
"Hey, what are you talking about? You've got Roranicus over there, it's not just you, right? Some of the best adventures are the ones we never expected to show up on our doorstep."
"Yeah," Amy smiled, still sounding unconvinced.
"And you have me. I'll have you know I'm an expert when it comes to -"
He stopped talking as he noticed the odd way Amy was looking at him.
"What?"
"You don't expect for me to be lugging a baby around all of time and space with you, do you?"
"Well I -"
"Yeah, I don't think so, Doctor."
"Why not?"
"If you have to ask," said and pulled him in for another hug, "then you won't get it. It's all right. For such a genius you were always a bit thick."
"Hey!" the Doctor said, doing his best to sound insulted.
"I don't want this to end. I'm not ready for this," Amy whispered in his ear.
"You think this is all going to end just because of a baby, Pond? Don't be so stupid." The insult was delivered with all the affection in the world. She still punched him in the shoulder playfully, and he still expected it.
"We can still go off for adventures. Don't think I'll forget the Ponds," he stopped, kissing the top of her forehead. "Don't think I'll forget Amelia Pond, just because of a silly baby. Time machine, remember?"
At that moment Rory came over, baby River in his arms. "Hey, hey, what's all this."
Amy pulled away, doing her best to try to hide any tears, forcefully wiping a tear away from her face.
"Roranicus! This is me taking Amy out for her baby shower. I realized we're doing this all a bit out of order, but that's part of my charm I think."
Rory frowned. "A baby shower?"
"Yes, but don't worry, we'll be back in an hour. You can handle a baby all on your own for an hour, can't you soldier?"
Rory faultered for a moment, but once he looked at his wife, his resolve seemed to melt. "Just an hour?"
"Just an hour, I promise."
"Yeah, well...as long as you don't do one of those be back in an hour, really come back three years later things."
The Doctor solemnly raised two fingers. "Scouts honour."
"Do Time Lord things even have Scouts?" Amy asked, making a face at him.
"Enough of that out of you, Pond, or else no super special secret suprise fun times for you."
Rory looked between the two, and then sighed. "All right. Have fun."
Amy looked at Rory, and then rushed over and gave him a hug, and then a kiss. "Thank you."
She looked at the baby uncertainly, unsure of how to treat it, and then settled on kissing the tips of her fingers and placing those fingers on the baby's head.
"One hour, Rory!" Amy called as she rushed to the Doctor and grabbed his hand. "And I don't want to find that you've dropped her on her head or anything while I was gone."
Before they could hear Rory's protest, Amy had dragged the Doctor outside and into the TARDIS.
"Where to, Doctor?"
"Wherever your imagination can take us, Pond," the Doctor smiled, pulling the wibbly lever as the TARDIS shook and for one shining moment it was the Doctor and Amy in the TARDIS together.
***
It had been three weeks for the Doctor and Amy, but true to his word, the Doctor actually managed to get Amy back to Rory in an hour Rory's time.
Actually an hour and eighteen minutes. Rory had been sure to inform them of this. Amy just told Rory to shut up and kissed him. The Doctor thought he heard Amy murmur against Rory's lips a soft I missed you. The Doctor thought the same thing as he looked at Amy, and then shook away the thought. How could he miss someone who was still right there?
"Right, well, I'll be off. I'll see you Ponds."
As the Doctor was about to make his exit, Amy grabbed him.
"Just one minute, don't think you're getting rid of us that easily. Next Saturday, you, me, Rory. We're going somewhere fun. We'll get my mum to babysit. Got it."
The Doctor smiled, the relief he felt overwhelming. He thought he was so close to losing something, and yet, he still had it right here.
He saluted her, "Got it."
***
True to his word, the Doctor came two Saturdays later. Some trips were just him and Amy, others were Amy and Rory. For a while it became a ritual. Every other Saturday, either Amy would leave the baby with Rory or the Ponds would drop off baby Melody with Amy's mum. Actually, it wasn't Melody anymore, as Amy and Rory both felt odd about the name after everything. They changed it to something the Doctor could never remember, and since his life with the Ponds was minus their plus one, he never bothered to remember the name. He knew it was selfish of him, but it was a selfishness he could tuck away and turn into a joke, that would turn into Rory giving him a dirty look or Amy punching him in the arm. Either way, once the baby was dropped off, the Doctor would pick Amy and Rory up. And then they'd have a holiday.
At first the holidays were weeks long. After a while, they only became days. Eventually they were only day trips, because Amy and Rory both found themselves missing their baby.
The Doctor smiled as the trips became shorter and shorter, and though he felt like something was slipping away, he still had his Ponds so it's okay, and he still had every other Saturday. Plus he had all of space and time to keep him company in the meantime.
***
"I can't," Amy said as she was rushing around the house. He stared at the little girl who was about the age Amelia was when he met her. He stared at her like something foreign and alien and not meant to exist in the same universe as him. As she ran by, she stopped and stared up at him. They seemed locked in a moment that was broken when she looked away and rushed past him to the garden.
The Doctor returned his attention to Amy. "What do you mean you can't?"
"I mean I can't. I have to get this thing done for work, and then Rory has this thing with the school he wants me to attend, plus we have birthday parties and -"
"Time machine, remember?"
"Yeah, that's all good except if I don't just get this down now I'll get distracted and never get through it."
Amy stopped what she was doing, coming over to the Doctor and resting her hands on his shoulders. She stood on her tip toes and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
"I have a weeks holiday planned for May. We'll do something, just you and me, all right?"
"Of course," the Doctor smiled.
What did he care? Two months and two weeks were all the same to him.
As he was about to leave, he caught a glimpse of something out in the garden.
"I'll be off then," the Doctor smiled, wanting to get out there and see what was going on. A familiar mess of hair was visible from behind, but even she wouldn't be so reckless as to visit her younger self like this.
"What do you mean you're going? You could at least stay for tea."
"Can't, Amelia, got a busy schedule, all of space and time you know."
"What happened to time machine, remember?" Amy said, mimicking the Doctor's voice.
The Doctor looked at her sternly, tapping her nose. "Don't you go using my own words against me, Pond."
Before she could say anything else, he steered her back to the table full of papers she was working on, and gently pushed her into a chair.
"You have busy work that can't be ignored."
She gave him a sideways look, and then sighed. "Well, all right."
The Doctor gave her a kiss to the top of her head, and then trotted off towards the garden. He missed her saying goodbye to him. She didn't miss the slamming of the garden door.
The Doctor stood to the side, watching River and her younger self interact. When the little girl ran back inside, the Doctor took his chance to confront River.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"What I'm meant to do, Doctor," River said, a knowing smile on her face. The kind of smile that drove him up the wall.
"You're in danger of creating a paradox."
"How do you think I ended back up as River?"
"What?"
"I'm her imaginary friend."
"You're her."
"Yes, sweetie, and while I know you're sure you're completely right here, you're not. If anyone has the right to interfere in my own life, it would be me."
She gave him a kiss on the cheek, startling him and shutting him up. River stepped away and blew him a kiss.
"I'll be seeing you around."
Before the Doctor could respond, River vanished in what seemed to be a cloud of smoke. He still wasn't sure how he could ever trust her. He was even less sure how the innocent looking little girl could grow up to be that person.
The Doctor turned back around to his TARDIS, leaving for the moment.
***
Days turned into weeks turned into months. Amy wasn't that surpised the Doctor had been away so long. She had kept delaying their trips more and more, too. One day, she discovered to her own shock, that she didn't mind. She had stopped waiting. She was living her own adventure, and the Doctor was like a childhood fairytale. She never stopped loving him or the adventures, but she had grown up, too.
She had other adventures. She had achieved accomplishments the Doctor would never understand, no matter how much she tried to explain them to him. That was okay, she didn't mind. If he understood any of it, he wouldn't be the Doctor.
It was why she was startled when she turned around one day in her bedroom, and she was greeted with a familiar face. He hadn't aged at all, but she had. From the way he was looking at her, it was clear he had noticed, too. He looked at her as something unfamiliar, a puzzle to be solved. If he looked long enough, maybe he would even spot the Amy he knew underneath the age and experience.
"You cut your hair," he said simply. He sounded unsure even in that though, like he was trying to remember if she really had long hair or if it was something he imagined.
"I did," Amy said quickly to assure him, and she saw his body relax with relief as he plopped down on her bed and bounced a bit.
She couldn't help giggling, all this time and he was still the same.
"I think you're late," Amy said, sitting down on the bed next to him. It didn't seem as devastating anymore. It felt like commenting on the weather.
"I tend to do that, don't I?" the Doctor asked, giving her a lopsided grin. He leaned over, kissing her on the forehead, making her feel like she was seven and twenty-one all over again. "I missed you, Pond."
She was surprised to find herself crying. She didn't notice it until she saw the tear drop onto her lap. She laughed, a hand furiously swiping the tear away.
"Is there something funny?"
"I was just thinking of Vincent. The first time anyone noticed was Vincent."
She smiled with the memory of sunflowers and paintings and museums and the words for Amy. She inspired Van Gogh. Not many girls - no, not many women - could claim that feat.
"Oh yes, Vincent. That was..." the Doctor seemed to be lost, trying to remember "he was the one we had pancakes in Austria with?"
She stared at him, ready to punch him for making such a terrible joke, and then she realized he wasn't joking. A hand went up to cover her mouth. The tears were no longer happy, but they weren't exactly sad either. How could she expect anything more or less from this boy?
"How long has it been since I've seen you? For you, I mean?"
"Oh...I don't know, not too long. Maybe a few years, a few hundred - " the Doctor stopped, smiling at Amy as if he just solved a terribly difficult riddle. "Van Gogh! And sunflowers. And...you're crying, Amy."
All those years, all of them were just a drop in the bucket for him, all those memories that could never fade no matter how many new memories Amy created. What surprised her though, was that this was okay. This was growing up, because those memories weren't her entire life, and she held onto them as precious, but she didn't live in them. By the same token she couldn't expect the Doctor to either.
"I have so many memories, you know, that some of them get tucked away, but when I really want to think about them I can just -"
Amy cut him off, leaning forward and planting a soft kiss on his lips. "Oh, shut up," she murmured against them as she pulled away.
"I -"
"I told you to shut up. You don't need to say anything," she pulled him in for a hug. She softly whispered in his ear, "but thank you, for everything, Doctor."
He held her tighter, nuzzling into her shoulder. She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that before Amy finally pulled away.
"I'll see you soon, Pond."
"You better," she smiled, pointing a finger at him.
The Doctor put two fingers in the air. "Scout's honour."
"You still never told me if your people even had Scouts."
"Don't push it, Pond," the Doctor said, and then sauntered out of the room.
Amy moved to her window, spotting that familiar blue box sitting in their garden. She also saw her daughter staring at that box. She knew what was going to happen right away. She could feel a heavy weight in her chest. It was always going to be this way. It couldn't be anything else.
"Hey, step away fromt that," the Doctor said, pulling the girl away from the TARDIS.
"I wasn't going to hurt it."
"How would you know what would and wouldn't hurt her?"
"Oh, you call your ship a her, huh?" the girl said coyly.
"Hey, hey, I will have none of that - " the Doctor stopped, forgetting her name again.
"River."
"Ri - no, you're not River. They changed your name."
"She told me about you, you know," the girl now calling herself River said.
"Yes, well, I would expect your mum to do that. I am pretty incredible."
"Not my mum. I guess I should say I told myself about you. Mum confirmed it all, but she - I - used to come. I thought it was an imaginary friend at first, cause everyone's got one. But, usually imaginary friends stop coming when you get older. She told me about how I was born and they called me Melody Pond. She told me about how I got stolen away and was taken to a world where they had no word for Pond, so they called me River Song. She told me about you coming and rescuing me and returning me to my mum and dad - " the girl stopped in her story, smiling at the Doctor. "I should probably thank you for that, so thanks."
The Doctor didn't say anything, quietly listening to the girl talk.
"She told me that eventually you'd come back for me, and that's when I would start to be River again."
"You can't start to be something you never were in the first place," the Doctor said matter-of-factly.
"Doctor," River said plainly. "I'm ready to start being River. I'm ready to find out if I can be that person I remember from when I was little."
River's attitude seemed to change as she poked a finger into his chest. "And I'm not taking no for an answer," she said with a devilish smirk on her face.
The Doctor could see something of Amy in that smile, and he realized he still wasn't ready to say goodbye to his Pond.
"All right, but if you don't behave, I'm telling your mother on you," the Doctor said sternly. "Actually," he said leaning closer, his voice close to a whisper, "behaving is over rated. Just try not to break too much of the universe and we won't tell your mother the rest, because I think she might murder me."
River paused, and then threw her arms around the Doctor's neck before running into the TARDIS. The Doctor could hear her oohs and aahs, but his attention was on a familiar pair of eyes watching him from the window.
They looked at each other and smiled, him giving her a salute before retreating back into the TARDIS.
And as Amy watched the TARDIS take away that boy she loved and that girl that was hers, Amy could feel a bittersweet sadness. She knew though that everyone has to leave home sometimes, and everyone must grow up.
She didn't mind waiting anymore anyway. She didn't mind waiting for boys or daughters. There were adventures whereever she looked, and she realized it thanks to the two figures that disappeared into time and space before her eyes.
"Oh, there we are, Ponds united!"
Rory cuddled the new baby, as Amy smiled and shot an unsure look at the Doctor. Finally she moved over, her voice lower, a confidential conversation between the two of them.
"Thanks, Doctor," she said giving him a hug.
"I told you I would bring her back."
"I know. I -"
He paused, the hesitation in her voice was worrying and he only hugged her tighter.
"Hey, hey, it's okay. Everyone is back in one piece now, right?"
"I don't know if I want this," she whispered. "I don't know if I'm cut out to be a mum."
The Doctor pulled away enough to see her face and smiled at her.
"Hey, what are you talking about? You've got Roranicus over there, it's not just you, right? Some of the best adventures are the ones we never expected to show up on our doorstep."
"Yeah," Amy smiled, still sounding unconvinced.
"And you have me. I'll have you know I'm an expert when it comes to -"
He stopped talking as he noticed the odd way Amy was looking at him.
"What?"
"You don't expect for me to be lugging a baby around all of time and space with you, do you?"
"Well I -"
"Yeah, I don't think so, Doctor."
"Why not?"
"If you have to ask," said and pulled him in for another hug, "then you won't get it. It's all right. For such a genius you were always a bit thick."
"Hey!" the Doctor said, doing his best to sound insulted.
"I don't want this to end. I'm not ready for this," Amy whispered in his ear.
"You think this is all going to end just because of a baby, Pond? Don't be so stupid." The insult was delivered with all the affection in the world. She still punched him in the shoulder playfully, and he still expected it.
"We can still go off for adventures. Don't think I'll forget the Ponds," he stopped, kissing the top of her forehead. "Don't think I'll forget Amelia Pond, just because of a silly baby. Time machine, remember?"
At that moment Rory came over, baby River in his arms. "Hey, hey, what's all this."
Amy pulled away, doing her best to try to hide any tears, forcefully wiping a tear away from her face.
"Roranicus! This is me taking Amy out for her baby shower. I realized we're doing this all a bit out of order, but that's part of my charm I think."
Rory frowned. "A baby shower?"
"Yes, but don't worry, we'll be back in an hour. You can handle a baby all on your own for an hour, can't you soldier?"
Rory faultered for a moment, but once he looked at his wife, his resolve seemed to melt. "Just an hour?"
"Just an hour, I promise."
"Yeah, well...as long as you don't do one of those be back in an hour, really come back three years later things."
The Doctor solemnly raised two fingers. "Scouts honour."
"Do Time Lord things even have Scouts?" Amy asked, making a face at him.
"Enough of that out of you, Pond, or else no super special secret suprise fun times for you."
Rory looked between the two, and then sighed. "All right. Have fun."
Amy looked at Rory, and then rushed over and gave him a hug, and then a kiss. "Thank you."
She looked at the baby uncertainly, unsure of how to treat it, and then settled on kissing the tips of her fingers and placing those fingers on the baby's head.
"One hour, Rory!" Amy called as she rushed to the Doctor and grabbed his hand. "And I don't want to find that you've dropped her on her head or anything while I was gone."
Before they could hear Rory's protest, Amy had dragged the Doctor outside and into the TARDIS.
"Where to, Doctor?"
"Wherever your imagination can take us, Pond," the Doctor smiled, pulling the wibbly lever as the TARDIS shook and for one shining moment it was the Doctor and Amy in the TARDIS together.
***
It had been three weeks for the Doctor and Amy, but true to his word, the Doctor actually managed to get Amy back to Rory in an hour Rory's time.
Actually an hour and eighteen minutes. Rory had been sure to inform them of this. Amy just told Rory to shut up and kissed him. The Doctor thought he heard Amy murmur against Rory's lips a soft I missed you. The Doctor thought the same thing as he looked at Amy, and then shook away the thought. How could he miss someone who was still right there?
"Right, well, I'll be off. I'll see you Ponds."
As the Doctor was about to make his exit, Amy grabbed him.
"Just one minute, don't think you're getting rid of us that easily. Next Saturday, you, me, Rory. We're going somewhere fun. We'll get my mum to babysit. Got it."
The Doctor smiled, the relief he felt overwhelming. He thought he was so close to losing something, and yet, he still had it right here.
He saluted her, "Got it."
***
True to his word, the Doctor came two Saturdays later. Some trips were just him and Amy, others were Amy and Rory. For a while it became a ritual. Every other Saturday, either Amy would leave the baby with Rory or the Ponds would drop off baby Melody with Amy's mum. Actually, it wasn't Melody anymore, as Amy and Rory both felt odd about the name after everything. They changed it to something the Doctor could never remember, and since his life with the Ponds was minus their plus one, he never bothered to remember the name. He knew it was selfish of him, but it was a selfishness he could tuck away and turn into a joke, that would turn into Rory giving him a dirty look or Amy punching him in the arm. Either way, once the baby was dropped off, the Doctor would pick Amy and Rory up. And then they'd have a holiday.
At first the holidays were weeks long. After a while, they only became days. Eventually they were only day trips, because Amy and Rory both found themselves missing their baby.
The Doctor smiled as the trips became shorter and shorter, and though he felt like something was slipping away, he still had his Ponds so it's okay, and he still had every other Saturday. Plus he had all of space and time to keep him company in the meantime.
***
"I can't," Amy said as she was rushing around the house. He stared at the little girl who was about the age Amelia was when he met her. He stared at her like something foreign and alien and not meant to exist in the same universe as him. As she ran by, she stopped and stared up at him. They seemed locked in a moment that was broken when she looked away and rushed past him to the garden.
The Doctor returned his attention to Amy. "What do you mean you can't?"
"I mean I can't. I have to get this thing done for work, and then Rory has this thing with the school he wants me to attend, plus we have birthday parties and -"
"Time machine, remember?"
"Yeah, that's all good except if I don't just get this down now I'll get distracted and never get through it."
Amy stopped what she was doing, coming over to the Doctor and resting her hands on his shoulders. She stood on her tip toes and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
"I have a weeks holiday planned for May. We'll do something, just you and me, all right?"
"Of course," the Doctor smiled.
What did he care? Two months and two weeks were all the same to him.
As he was about to leave, he caught a glimpse of something out in the garden.
"I'll be off then," the Doctor smiled, wanting to get out there and see what was going on. A familiar mess of hair was visible from behind, but even she wouldn't be so reckless as to visit her younger self like this.
"What do you mean you're going? You could at least stay for tea."
"Can't, Amelia, got a busy schedule, all of space and time you know."
"What happened to time machine, remember?" Amy said, mimicking the Doctor's voice.
The Doctor looked at her sternly, tapping her nose. "Don't you go using my own words against me, Pond."
Before she could say anything else, he steered her back to the table full of papers she was working on, and gently pushed her into a chair.
"You have busy work that can't be ignored."
She gave him a sideways look, and then sighed. "Well, all right."
The Doctor gave her a kiss to the top of her head, and then trotted off towards the garden. He missed her saying goodbye to him. She didn't miss the slamming of the garden door.
The Doctor stood to the side, watching River and her younger self interact. When the little girl ran back inside, the Doctor took his chance to confront River.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"What I'm meant to do, Doctor," River said, a knowing smile on her face. The kind of smile that drove him up the wall.
"You're in danger of creating a paradox."
"How do you think I ended back up as River?"
"What?"
"I'm her imaginary friend."
"You're her."
"Yes, sweetie, and while I know you're sure you're completely right here, you're not. If anyone has the right to interfere in my own life, it would be me."
She gave him a kiss on the cheek, startling him and shutting him up. River stepped away and blew him a kiss.
"I'll be seeing you around."
Before the Doctor could respond, River vanished in what seemed to be a cloud of smoke. He still wasn't sure how he could ever trust her. He was even less sure how the innocent looking little girl could grow up to be that person.
The Doctor turned back around to his TARDIS, leaving for the moment.
***
Days turned into weeks turned into months. Amy wasn't that surpised the Doctor had been away so long. She had kept delaying their trips more and more, too. One day, she discovered to her own shock, that she didn't mind. She had stopped waiting. She was living her own adventure, and the Doctor was like a childhood fairytale. She never stopped loving him or the adventures, but she had grown up, too.
She had other adventures. She had achieved accomplishments the Doctor would never understand, no matter how much she tried to explain them to him. That was okay, she didn't mind. If he understood any of it, he wouldn't be the Doctor.
It was why she was startled when she turned around one day in her bedroom, and she was greeted with a familiar face. He hadn't aged at all, but she had. From the way he was looking at her, it was clear he had noticed, too. He looked at her as something unfamiliar, a puzzle to be solved. If he looked long enough, maybe he would even spot the Amy he knew underneath the age and experience.
"You cut your hair," he said simply. He sounded unsure even in that though, like he was trying to remember if she really had long hair or if it was something he imagined.
"I did," Amy said quickly to assure him, and she saw his body relax with relief as he plopped down on her bed and bounced a bit.
She couldn't help giggling, all this time and he was still the same.
"I think you're late," Amy said, sitting down on the bed next to him. It didn't seem as devastating anymore. It felt like commenting on the weather.
"I tend to do that, don't I?" the Doctor asked, giving her a lopsided grin. He leaned over, kissing her on the forehead, making her feel like she was seven and twenty-one all over again. "I missed you, Pond."
She was surprised to find herself crying. She didn't notice it until she saw the tear drop onto her lap. She laughed, a hand furiously swiping the tear away.
"Is there something funny?"
"I was just thinking of Vincent. The first time anyone noticed was Vincent."
She smiled with the memory of sunflowers and paintings and museums and the words for Amy. She inspired Van Gogh. Not many girls - no, not many women - could claim that feat.
"Oh yes, Vincent. That was..." the Doctor seemed to be lost, trying to remember "he was the one we had pancakes in Austria with?"
She stared at him, ready to punch him for making such a terrible joke, and then she realized he wasn't joking. A hand went up to cover her mouth. The tears were no longer happy, but they weren't exactly sad either. How could she expect anything more or less from this boy?
"How long has it been since I've seen you? For you, I mean?"
"Oh...I don't know, not too long. Maybe a few years, a few hundred - " the Doctor stopped, smiling at Amy as if he just solved a terribly difficult riddle. "Van Gogh! And sunflowers. And...you're crying, Amy."
All those years, all of them were just a drop in the bucket for him, all those memories that could never fade no matter how many new memories Amy created. What surprised her though, was that this was okay. This was growing up, because those memories weren't her entire life, and she held onto them as precious, but she didn't live in them. By the same token she couldn't expect the Doctor to either.
"I have so many memories, you know, that some of them get tucked away, but when I really want to think about them I can just -"
Amy cut him off, leaning forward and planting a soft kiss on his lips. "Oh, shut up," she murmured against them as she pulled away.
"I -"
"I told you to shut up. You don't need to say anything," she pulled him in for a hug. She softly whispered in his ear, "but thank you, for everything, Doctor."
He held her tighter, nuzzling into her shoulder. She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that before Amy finally pulled away.
"I'll see you soon, Pond."
"You better," she smiled, pointing a finger at him.
The Doctor put two fingers in the air. "Scout's honour."
"You still never told me if your people even had Scouts."
"Don't push it, Pond," the Doctor said, and then sauntered out of the room.
Amy moved to her window, spotting that familiar blue box sitting in their garden. She also saw her daughter staring at that box. She knew what was going to happen right away. She could feel a heavy weight in her chest. It was always going to be this way. It couldn't be anything else.
"Hey, step away fromt that," the Doctor said, pulling the girl away from the TARDIS.
"I wasn't going to hurt it."
"How would you know what would and wouldn't hurt her?"
"Oh, you call your ship a her, huh?" the girl said coyly.
"Hey, hey, I will have none of that - " the Doctor stopped, forgetting her name again.
"River."
"Ri - no, you're not River. They changed your name."
"She told me about you, you know," the girl now calling herself River said.
"Yes, well, I would expect your mum to do that. I am pretty incredible."
"Not my mum. I guess I should say I told myself about you. Mum confirmed it all, but she - I - used to come. I thought it was an imaginary friend at first, cause everyone's got one. But, usually imaginary friends stop coming when you get older. She told me about how I was born and they called me Melody Pond. She told me about how I got stolen away and was taken to a world where they had no word for Pond, so they called me River Song. She told me about you coming and rescuing me and returning me to my mum and dad - " the girl stopped in her story, smiling at the Doctor. "I should probably thank you for that, so thanks."
The Doctor didn't say anything, quietly listening to the girl talk.
"She told me that eventually you'd come back for me, and that's when I would start to be River again."
"You can't start to be something you never were in the first place," the Doctor said matter-of-factly.
"Doctor," River said plainly. "I'm ready to start being River. I'm ready to find out if I can be that person I remember from when I was little."
River's attitude seemed to change as she poked a finger into his chest. "And I'm not taking no for an answer," she said with a devilish smirk on her face.
The Doctor could see something of Amy in that smile, and he realized he still wasn't ready to say goodbye to his Pond.
"All right, but if you don't behave, I'm telling your mother on you," the Doctor said sternly. "Actually," he said leaning closer, his voice close to a whisper, "behaving is over rated. Just try not to break too much of the universe and we won't tell your mother the rest, because I think she might murder me."
River paused, and then threw her arms around the Doctor's neck before running into the TARDIS. The Doctor could hear her oohs and aahs, but his attention was on a familiar pair of eyes watching him from the window.
They looked at each other and smiled, him giving her a salute before retreating back into the TARDIS.
And as Amy watched the TARDIS take away that boy she loved and that girl that was hers, Amy could feel a bittersweet sadness. She knew though that everyone has to leave home sometimes, and everyone must grow up.
She didn't mind waiting anymore anyway. She didn't mind waiting for boys or daughters. There were adventures whereever she looked, and she realized it thanks to the two figures that disappeared into time and space before her eyes.