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"Doctor."

The ghost spoke softly from the spacesuit's communicator as the timelord looked on. He stared at the empty shell now slumped in the silver chair, what had once been that brilliant, mysterious woman. She had known his name and she had saved his life. She had known his name and it was whispering now out of the data trapped in the suit's neural relay. All he could do was watch, handcuffed to one of the computer's metal supports, neither able to reach his sonic screwdriver nor the modified one that had belonged to Professor River Song.

Her voice continued to trickle into the room, though her lips did not move; eyelids closed in endless peace. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm sorry, Doctor." She had reverted to his custom title now, the circuit nearing its end as she began to loop.

"I love you."

The Doctor's hearts clenched. He stared helplessly, guilt and despair so overwhelming that he could only feel numb. The green lights had flickered out on the collar of River's spacesuit, her thoughts vanished. In the distance there came the accumulated din of shuffling feet and indistinct voices, thousands of them. She had done it. Four thousand and twenty two people had been saved and downloaded back into physical bodies through the teleport system. His best friend would be among them. It should have been so wonderful, but what were those thousands of unknown faces measured with one person so very important, so important that they knew his name in the language of his people? He really didn't know.

A figure entered the room. They wore a spacesuit like River's, helmet on and visor tinted. The Doctor tensed, fearing that the Vashta Nerada had returned to at least have one more meal before they agreed to their bargain. If they wanted to devour him, there would have been no stopping them. He observed the arrival with a frown, realising that they did not lope along like a trapped swarm.

"Lux, is that you?" he wondered.

The figure made no reply and walked on, making no move to help The Doctor out of his predicament. It walked straight toward River Song.

"No," The Doctor snarled. "No, you leave her alone. If you're Vashta Nerada, you listen to me now. She might be dead but that does not mean she is fair game. Do you understand me? I will not let you touch that woman. Get back, I'm warning you!" He strained against the cuffs, scrabbling to get free though he knew it to be futile.

Paying no heed to his cries, the being in the spacesuit reached the body in the silver chair. It extended a gloved hand and stroked her cheek. The Doctor, teeth still bared in fury, calmed, brown eyes wide with bewilderment. He watched the figure stoop at the knee and gather River into its arms, staggering for a fraction of a second with the unwieldy bulk of her suit, but then it regained poise.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked, his voice weary. "Where are you taking her?"

The spacesuit's occupant seemed to stare at him for a moment, the blackness of the visor having as much presence as a piercing gaze. Then it simply turned and walked away, bearing the Professor's body out of the room.

After a few moments, and much to The Doctor's surprise, the figure returned. It stood at the farthest edge of the room where he could see it, stared again with its infuriatingly unreadable helmet, and then brought its arm forward. A green light shone from a device in the astronaut's glove. The device chirruped the call of a sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor's handcuffs unlocked. No sooner had they clicked, he was up on his feet and chasing after the astronaut. The figure in the spacesuit had anticipated this and taken flight down the corridor. The Doctor ran and ran, calling out for them to stop, but all too soon had everything gone quiet. Panting with frustration, he spun around, clutching at his hair. They couldn't just disappear.

And then he heard the sound of a TARDIS dematerialising behind him. Stupefied, he whirled to see what had once pretended to be empty air, the shimmering outline of a blue box fading against the backdrop of bookshelves. He was left alone once more.

Miserably, The Doctor went to retrieve the two sonic devices he had abandoned, along with the diary of the late Professor River Song.


****************************************************************************

Centuries had passed since The Doctor had met River at The Library, a planet of cursed literature, empty but for billions and billions of deadly microorganisms, contained data ghosts within a supercomputer and something else. Now the TARDIS drifted in orbit around the very same planet, systems still happily operational between the world and its artificial 'doctor moon'.

Switches were flicked and dials turned. Sparks fizzled at the base of the control room, but the pilot was not concerned. He looked up at the monitor situated on the communications panel and tuned in to the signal of CAL's virtual reality. Green grass stretched out across a village park. Pleasant laughter sounded off-screen, not too far away. Nimble fingers danced across the typewriter, making short work of sending a sub-routine past the doctor moon's radar. Daffodils blossomed across the park, all arranged perfectly to leave a message.

Time could work instantaneously within the virtual world and it was only seconds before a woman in white stepped into view, regarding the flowers with wonderment. Her hand clasped over her lips and, as she turned, he could see the tears shining in her eyes. Turning away from the bright yellow 'Hello Sweetie' etched in the grass, she looked up, unable to meet his gaze but trying all the same.

"I knew you'd come back, you sentimental fool," she said, smiling.

"Hello, River," he answered, and his voice echoed through into the unreal world.

She gasped, choking on tears. "Oh, god, you're really there, aren't you? Has something happened? Are you all right?"

The Doctor clasped a hand over his own face, physically preventing himself from letting his emotions take hold. "I'm fine. Everything's fine. Good, in fact."

"Are you lying?" River's tone came out in a growl. "It's been a long time, Doctor, and I can't see your face, but please don't lie to me. Not me. You've come to visit me, and I know you can't save me beyond what you've already done. I'm only thoughts and memories now, an echo of what I was. We both know that. It's not fair on either of us to see me this way, so please, tell me what is wrong."

He took a moment before his reply, his slow breath rippling like wind through her reality. "Are you happy, River?"

She searched the sky, warily. "Why?"

"Are you happy there? Do you wish to stay? In your dreamworld with your friends and a life of peace?"

River gave a laugh, but it had a tinge of bitterness. "Is that what this is about? Ethics? Have you really saved me or condemned me? Let me guess, if I ask for it, you'll delete me, put me to rest?" Defiance built with every second. "We've both gone through quite enough. I am happy, Doctor, and it will do. I'm grateful for what I've got, so I'd thank you to say your goodbyes and leave us to it in the knowledge that your conscience can be clear. I won't put you through losing me again."

"Do they need you?"

"You're not switching them off as well!" River snapped. "They might not be real, but they help CAL. You don't have the right."

"Oh, River," The Doctor's voice purred across the landscape, and yet alone in the TARDIS control room. "If you wanted to stop existing, the computer could simply delete you from her matrix at your request. I'm not here to put an end to your life. I'm here to save it."

"What?" She looked stunned. "But… how? I died, I literally, physically died."

"Did you now?"

"Yes," she snapped. "You know that."

"And how did you get inside the computer?"

"CAL saved a copy of my data ghost impression."

"No. You must have asked CAL to tell you how it happened. Think about it."

"My – your screwdriver. The impression was saved onto the screwdriver instead. It took longer to fade, so you, the younger you got me to the mainframe and uploaded me."

"Almost right, except you're missing the crucial point. Why would I bother creating a separate device to contain your data ghost when your suit could already perform the same function? Why would I need to upload your information into the computer when CAL has already proven she could extract it herself, albeit with a small boost from my repairs? I didn't put your friends into the computer. That was all CAL. So, Professor River Song of Archaeology, why would I go to the trouble of storing you elsewhere?"

"I - ."

"Mmhm?"

"I don't -."

"Yeah you do."

A smirk crossed her lips. "Oh, I hate you."

"Do you really? Do tell me why."

"Because you didn't save my data ghost at all. You've found a way to replicate CAL's technology within your sonic screwdriver. This isn't an echo of River Song, this is her true living consciousness. I'm…alive?"

"Bingo."

"But… Darillium. You acted like that was the last time you would ever see me. You were so upset…"

"I was then, yes. I didn't know if I could ever find the technology to be able to extract you from The Library system. I could save what may as well be your soul, but I couldn't teleport your body. It needed to be there for the connection to take place, for you to save those people trapped in the computer's memory. Your body couldn't be converted and stored, leaving you no way back. You might as well have been a data ghost. I'm even older now than I was when I took you to the Singing Towers, and I have travelled further than I have ever, ever been, but I have found what I need, even helped design it. It's not an easy thing to filter data back into near-matter, back into instructions for living material."

"I hope you're not installing me into a robot…"

The Doctor waved a hand dismissively, even though she could not see. "No, no, no, no. It's much better than that. I can put you back in your original body, exactly as it was. Well, not exactly as it was. I did have to preserve it in the Zero Room and let my old girl work her magic to repair the damaged cells. You're a child of the TARDIS. She can't bring you back from the dead, but she can help fix up a part-timelord body no fear. So, Mrs Song, what do you think?"

River laughed. "I think your wife's standing out on the porch without a key and you'd better let her in." Within seconds, her friends and associates within CAL's matrix appeared upon the lawn: Evangelista, Proper Dave, Other Dave, Anita, Doctor Moon, her imaginary children and CAL herself. They grinned and waved at her. River returned the gesture.

The Doctor beamed and scurried down to the base of the control room where he had set up an extraordinary laboratory, wires and bubbling tubes coiling out of the core toward a casket set upon a pedestal. New controls were spread out across the floor like broken Scalextric left out by a careless child, and in the midst of them all was one great lever. Having entered the necessary calculations for extraction on the main deck, the timelord bounded over to the lever. Seizing it with both hands, he whooped excitedly.

"Geronimo!" he yelled and yanked it back.

Energy surged from the console, down into the TARDIS's wiring, across every random spiral of gadgety clutter, all culminating in the casket. The residual electricity blasted The Doctor back into the wall. It took a few moments for him to regain his senses and do a quick inventory check on all his limbs, and then he wobbled to his feet and approached the pedestal with all due caution. He nibbled his lip nervously. Perhaps it had all been too much to dream. She wasn't meant to be saved. How could she be?

The Doctor peered into the casket at the woman he loved, her eyes still closed, body as still as it had been when he had lifted her from that abominable silver chair. He stroked her face with the back of his hand and sniffed. She was cold, but there could have been a chance. She wouldn't warm up right away. He wouldn't keep his hopes up, however. His fingers traced to her neck... and at once he barked out a laugh. He leaned over to whisper to her still form.

"River, what have I told you about doing that?"

River opened her eyes and stopped holding her breath. She smiled and sat upright, gingerly, woozy from the transfer. She looked at him with all the adoration she had saved over the years of living without him.

"Doctor, I have only one thing to say." She beckoned him close again. He arched an eyebrow, his expression radiant with joy, eyes reddening with tears. The Doctor stepped up to her, readying for the long-awaited kiss.

With the most loving expression she could ever show, River brought her hand up quicker than he could register and slapped him across the face. The sweetness remained in her voice as she followed up on her remark:

"What sort of time do you call that?"
Everything's possible. I don't know whether it should be, but one can dream.

So... what did happen to the body of River Song after she died?

Who exactly let the Tenth Doctor out of those handcuffs?

What really was the point of saving River's data in another receptacle, when CAL was capable of doing it all by herself? Or would CAL not have been able to do so what with the nearly self-destructing at the time?

Well... I've decided to make up some answers and throw our poor Doctor a frickin' break.

Drabbled out while I'm off work ill >.< Borrowed time huzzah!

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