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[Darillium]
The Doctor’s wife was missing.
Well, maybe it wasn’t as dramatic as that, but he hadn’t seen her about the house for a good three hours, and that was unusual enough to be cause for some concern.
He'd gotten distracted tinkering with the macaroon dispenser, and then he thought that really, he ought to make a macaron dispenser to go with it, but that turned out to be quite a bit more complicated, and before he knew it he was mixing batters and cooking jams and building an auto-piping mechanism. He was about to repurpose a 51st century Easy Bake Oven for his device when he realised he had definitely not put that in the kitchen.
“Ah, Old Girl, you’ve gone all sentimental on me, haven’t you?” he asked, looking around fondly. He had spent years thinking of all the things he’d do with little Amelia. She was a great cook, so clearly he’d taught her. And now he’d be teaching Athena first. It was funny how quickly and unexpectedly and wonderfully their dream had expanded.
“It’ll be a few years before she can use this,” he said. “But I know, tenses are difficult. Wish I could see the whole picture too.”
That’s when the Doctor realised he hadn’t seen River in a while, and set off exploring the house in search of her. Not in their bedroom or the study or the lounge, not in the domed greenhouse he’d installed in the back garden before the end of the midnight thaw. She must be deeper in the TARDIS.
He checked the sunny gardens, the pool, the library. He was about to head back to the console and run a search for her, when he heard the faint echo of blaster fire. River. His hearts seized with dread and he took off at a run down the corridor, following the sound round a series of twists and turns, his mind racing with possibilities, each more horrible than the last.
He finally burst through a set of double doors, sonic brandished ahead of him... and slid awkwardly to a stop.
“River?” He blinked dumbly at her, mouth gaping and brows furrowed in a puzzled scowl.
“Shit,” she sighed under her breath, lowering her gun arm as she turned to face him. “Hi, sweetie.”
“You— you put in a shooting range?”
“Well, yes,” she said, her tone somewhere between defiant and guilty.
“Why?”
“What d’you mean, why?” she frowned. “It’s wonderful being domestic with you, darling, but I have got other interests.”
“Right…” the Doctor said cautiously, stepping closer to her. “And you just thought you’d take this one back up now you’re six months pregnant?”
She glared at him. “It is not a hormone thing.”
He held his hands up. “Did I say it was?”
“You were thinking it.”
“I wasn’t!”
She gave him a sidelong glance, scowling as he approached. “Go on, get the scolding over with,” she grumbled.
“And why would I do that?” he asked, a little mischievous smile creeping across his face. “Have you been bad, Dr. Song?”
She rolled her eyes at him, for once not returning the innuendo. “I’ve put a shooting range in your TARDIS.”
“Well, so you have.”
“And you’re not cross?”
“Your TARDIS too. Or we’re both hers. However you’d like to look at it.”
“You don’t like guns,” River said, her hand coming to rest on his chest as he closed the distance between them.
He raised an eyebrow. “As you’re doubtless already aware, there is one notable exception to that rule.”
She smiled reluctantly even as she tried to glare at him. “Why are you being so calm about this?”
“Well, you are holding a gun,” the Doctor noted.
Then she managed the glare quite well.
“Honestly, I don’t hear any complaints from the,” he glanced over her shoulder at the targets, “Sontarans. You can do whatever you like, honey. You didn’t have to hide it.”
She sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ve just been feeling…” she waved the hand not on his chest in the air vaguely.
“Mayyybe put down the blaster before we continue this conversation?”
“Oh. Right.” She flushed as she slid it back into her holster.
“Come on,” the Doctor said, wrapping an arm around her, “I’ll make us some tea.”
_
They relocated to the sofa to talk. River cradled her teacup in both hands and rested her head on the Doctor’s shoulder.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I just started thinking… I’ve been living all this time like it was the end. And if it was the end, I didn’t want anything but you. I didn’t care what else was going to happen after. I didn’t care if I went all soft and domestic, I just wanted us to be together and be happy. But if there’s more after this, if we have children to protect, if we have to survive the universe again... I can’t keep being that person. The universe is too dangerous for that.”
“The universe is dangerous,” the Doctor replied carefully. He couldn’t tell her about the Hybrid. Now the Council would have two targets. But that had to be a worry for another time. “But I don’t understand, honey,” he went on. “You’ve always been this person.”
She looked up at him questioningly, brows furrowed.
“You’ve always been caring and kind and patient and loving and brave, and ready to steal a car for a joy ride or a king’s head for a diamond, or destroy anything that threatened someone you love.”
River twisted her lips to the side and the Doctor smiled fondly down at her.
“That’s not two different people, River, that’s just you.”
“And you like that person, do you?” she asked, her voice almost a whisper.
“Hmm,” the Doctor said thoughtfully, wiggling his fingers so his wedding ring caught the lamplight as he placed his hand on her round belly. “Just a bit.” She narrowed her eyes at him and he laughed. “Honestly, River, you didn’t trick me into falling in love with you. I know you. I couldn’t help myself.”
“But you’ve really only seen half of that person for the past twenty years,” she said, laying her hand over his and rubbing her thumb across his knuckles. “You’ve gotten used to me all— ‘humany’ all the time, not shooty.”
“Could say the same about me. You’re not worried about who I’ll become when we leave here, and it really could be someone entirely different.”
“Not entirely,” River said, with a begrudging smile. “You’re never as different as you think. You’re always you.”
“And you’re always you, dear,” the Doctor replied.
After a moment, she made a little “hmf,” sound, and tilted her head up to kiss him.
“The girls will be very lucky,” he said when they parted, leaning his cheek against her hair. “They’ll need to be tough and brave and kind. I wouldn’t want them to learn from anyone but their mum.”
“Still sounds mad when you say that,” River said with a breathless little laugh.
The Doctor smiled. “Sounds perfect to me.”