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After the disaster with Miranda, River doesn't tell the others about New Lantea. She can't, because she never explained that she didn't really learn about Miranda from some politician's brain when he was touring the facility where they were keeping her; she learned about Miranda from Miranda herself, when Miranda called out to her from beyond the Reavers. Miranda was noisy, too many voices, too much distress. New Lantea is peaceful, quiet. Old. She only has two inhabitants: Atlantis, and John Sheppard. Atlantis is an old lady, sleeps all the time, snuffles and snores and mumbles now and again, is a pleasant murmur in the back of River's mind.
John isn't with her all the time. She has to concentrate, reach out for him, so whenever she's bored (and sometimes when she's alone), she talks to him. And he talks to her.
He's in a stasis pod, waiting to be awakened so he can go back to his own time, back to when Atlantis was awake and alive and a thriving city full of his friends and fellow soldiers. But while he sleeps, he dreams, and he dreams with her.
And she loves him.
If he could see her as she looks, he would shy away from her, because she is probably too young for him, but she has had a hundred lifetimes in her head, and when she stands before him, she is the woman she was always meant to be. He is handsome and charming, but not boorish enough to use either to an unfair advantage; instead he is self-aware, and when he grins at her, he understands when she has to look away for a moment.
If Simon knew, he'd be very upset, because River is supposed to stay away from boys nevermind being anywhere near men who aren't Mal, Wash, or Jayne, and John is most definitely a man. He talks sometimes of the wife he once had who he left behind, of the other women who have tried to love him but who left him (ascended - what a strange euphemism). He holds her in his arms and dances with her. He grew up wealthy, like River and Simon did, and they both had to learn how to dance, and he will conjure music from earth-that-was so they can move together. He is warm and solid, and she feels alive in his arms.
Present.
Real.
She tells him about her crew, about Mal, and he kisses her and tells her about the man who was supposed to lead him, how John had to kill him, and even though he hated the man, taking another person's life should never be easy (and he holds her when she cries and tells him about dead Reavers and her hands dripping blood and gore). He tells her about his friend Teyla, and she tells him about Zoe, and they wonder who would win in a fight (Zoe unarmed, but Teyla with her sticks). She tells him about her brother the doctor, and he tells her about the chief medical officer on the base, Jennifer, and when she sees Jennifer's face it's Kaylee, so she shows him Kaylee the mechanic, and he shows her Rodney the scientist, and they both marvel at two strange, wonderful people who can get so much done with so little in an emergency. She shows him Jayne, and he shows her Ronon, but he knew a guy once, Colonel Dixon, who looked just like Jayne, and she wonders if faces are repeated over and over and over again, through time, and if somewhere in his time on his Earth he knew someone who looked just like her, and she wonders if, drifting through space, there is someone who looks just like him.
So when they're on the run from the Alliance again, Wash is tending to Zoe, and Mal tells River to take the pilot's chair and go, just go.
So she flies.
When they touch down on the sandy planet with the dying sun and only one geographical feature for miles around - tall, spiky, slumbering Atlantis - Wash tries to tell her where to land on the city, but they won't be staying there long, just bunking down till the Alliance passes, so she ignores Wash and finds the tower.
The right tower.
The one with the stasis pods.
While the others are scouting for safe places to sleep, food, supplies, any salvageable technology, River finds the stasis pods, and there, beneath the misty glass, is John.
He is too still in sleep. In the dreams they share he is in constant motion, talking with his hands, his expressions mobile as he expresses amusement, affection.
Love.
She sings to him, one of the songs he sings to her, an old song from Earth-that-was, but when the others call, she goes to them.
They won't stay here long. Atlantis and New Lantea are real, but not as real as John, as sleep, and tonight, when she dreams, she will dream of him, and maybe this time he'll take her surfing on the beach, or riding in a puddlejumper, or maybe even flying in a helicopter or a 302, and tomorrow, when she wakes smiling, Simon will ask why she's so happy, and she will tell him it's because she knows the greatest secret.