A/N - Welcome to the first episode of series 6!

Amy, Rory, and River entered the diner.

"You got 3, I was 2, Mr. Delaware was 4," River said.

"So?" Rory asked.

"So, where's 1? And where was Elise? She should have been there with him. She would have never left his side. He means too much to her."

"What, you think he invited someone else?"

"Well, he must have. He planned all of this, to the last detail."

"Will you two shut up? It doesn't matter," Amy told them.

"He was up to something," River said.

"He's dead."

"Space, 1969. What did he mean?"

"You're still talking, but it doesn't matter."

"Hey, it mattered to him," Rory said.

"So it matters to us," River added.

"He's dead," Amy told them.

"But he still needs us. I know. Amy, I know. But right now we have to focus," River said.

Rory looked around the diner and spotted a blue envelope on a table near the back. "Look." He walked up to the man at the counter. "Excuse me, who was sitting over there?"

"Some guy and a little girl," the man said.

River ran over to the table and picked up the envelope with a number one on it. "The Doctor knew he was going to his death, so he sent out messages. When you know it's the end, who do you call?" River asked.

"Er, your friends. People you trust," Rory said.

"Number 1. Who did The Doctor trust the most?"

The door to the restrooms opened and both Elise and the Doctor sauntered out.

"River!" Elise yelled, running to the bushy haired woman.

"Little star! You've grown!"

Elise now looked to be around 8 years old. The last time they had seen each other, she'd just turned 5.

River looked up at the Doctor. "This is cold. Even by your standards, this is cold," she said.

"Or hello, as people used to say."

"Doctor?" Amy asked.

"I just popped out to get my special straw. It adds more fizz."

Amy walked up to him and circled him. "You're okay. How can you be okay?"

"Hey, of course I'm okay. I'm always okay." He hugged Amy. "I'm the King of Okay. Oh, that's a rubbish title. Forget that title. Rory the Roman!" He hugged Rory next. "That's a good title. Hello, Rory. And Doctor River Song. Oh, you bad, bad girl. What trouble have you got for me this time?"

River slapped the Doctor.

Elise winced at the sound.

"Okay. I'm assuming that's for something I haven't done yet," the Doctor said.

"Yes, it is," River told him.

"Good. Looking forward to it."

"I don't understand. How can you be here?" Rory asked, poking the Doctor in the chest.

"I was invited." The Doctor took the envelope from River. "Date, map reference. Same as you lot, I assume, otherwise it's a hell of a coincidence."

"River, what's going on?" Amy asked.

"Amy, ask him what age he is."

Rory rubbed his face tiredly.

"That's a bit personal," the Doctor said.

"Tell her. Tell her what age you are," River told him.

"Nine hundred and nine."

"Yeah, but you said you were..." Amy said.

"So where does that leave us, huh? Jim the fish? Have we done Jim the fish yet?" River asked.

The Doctor smiled excitedly. "Who's Jim the fish?"

"I don't understand," Amy said.

"Yeah, you do," Rory told her.

"I don't! What are we all doing here?" the Doctor asked.

"We've been recruited. Something to do with space 1969, and a man called Canton Everett Delaware the third," River said.

"Recruited by who?"

"Someone who trusts you more than anybody else in the universe. Besides Elise and myself."

"And who's that?"

"Spoilers."

They all piled into the TARDIS and the Doctor danced around the console as he rambled.

"1969, that's an easy one! Funny, how some years are easy. Now, 1482, full of glitches. Now then, Canton Everett Delaware the third. That was his name, yeah? How many of those can there be? Well, three, I suppose."

Both River and Amy went below the platform.

"Rory, is everybody cross with me for some reason?" the Doctor asked.

"I'll find out." Rory went below the platform and Elise followed him.

"Elise, sweetie. Come here," River told her.

"Woah. How do we know she can be trusted? What if she tells the Doctor?" Rory asked.

"If anyone knows the importance of keeping timelines, it's Elise. Ellie, you cannot tell your father. Do you understand?"

Elise nodded.

"Okay. Explain it again," Amy said.

"The Doctor we saw on the beach is a future version, two hundred years older than the one up there."

"But all that's still going to happen. He's still going to die."

Die? The Doctor was going to die?

"We're all going to do that, Amy."

"We're not all going to arrange our own wake and invite ourselves. So, the Doctor, in the future, knowing he's going to die, recruits his younger self and all of us to, to what, exactly? Avenge him?" Rory asked.

"Uh uh. Avenging's not his style," River told him.

"Save him," Amy said.

"Yeah, that's not really his style either," Rory commented.

"We have to tell him."

"We've told him all we can. We can't even tell him we've seen his future self. He's interacted with his own past. It could rip a hole in the universe," River explained.

"Yes, but he's done it before," Amy said.

"And in fairness, the universe did blow up," Rory said.

"But he'd want to know."

"Would he? Would anyone?" River asked.

The Doctor poked his head over the side of the platform.

"I'm being extremely clever up here, and there's no one to stand around looking impressed! What's the point in having you all?"

River rolled her eyes as Rory ascended the stairs. "Couldn't you just slap him sometimes?"

"River, we can't just let him die. We have to stop it. How can you be okay with this?" Amy asked.

"The Doctor's death doesn't frighten me. Nor does my own. There's a far worse day coming for me."

River ascended the stairs, leaving Amy and Elise.

"What about you, little miss?" she asked.

Elise looked up at her and Amy could tell the young Timelord was fighting back tears. She didn't want the Doctor to die, but if she got 200 more years with him she'd be okay with that.

Amy and Elise joined everyone on the platform.

"Time isn't a straight line. It's all bumpy wumpy. There's loads of boring stuff like Sundays and Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons. But now and then there are Saturdays," the Doctor ranted, "Big temporal tipping points when anything's possible. The TARDIS can't resist them, like a moth to a flame. She loves a party, so I give her 1969 and NASA, because that's space in the sixties, and Canton Everett Delaware the third, and this is where she's pointing."

They all looked at the monitor.

"Washington D.C., April the eighth, 1969," Amy read, "So why haven't we landed?"

"Because that's not where we're going," the Doctor told her.

"Oh. Where are we going?" Rory asked.

"Home. Well, you two are. Off you pop and make babies. And you, Doctor Song, back to prison. And me? I'm late for a biplane lesson in 1911 and Elise has a lesson with Picasso. Or it could be knitting. Knitting or biplanes. One or the other." The Doctor threw himself onto the jump seat as River, Rory, and Amy looked at him. "What? A mysterious summons. You think I'm just going to go? Who sent those messages? I know you know. I can see it in your faces. Don't play games with me. Don't ever, ever think you're capable of that."

"You're going to have to trust us this time."

"Trust you? Sure." He got up and stood nearly nose to nose with River. Him being so close to River made Elise nervous until she reminded herself that the Doctor would never lay a hand on her. "But, first of all, Doctor Song, just one thing. Who are you? You're someone from my future. Getting that. But who? Okay. Why are you in prison? Who did you kill, hmm? Now, I love a bad girl, me, but trust you? Seriously."

"Trust me," Amy told him.

"Okay." He walked up to Amy.

"You have to do this, and you can't ask why."

"Are you being threatened? Is someone making you say that?"

"No."

"You're lying."

"I'm not lying."

"Swear to me. Swear to me on something that matters."

"Fish fingers and custard."

"My life in your hands, Amelia Pond."

"Thank you," River told Amy, who looked like she wanted to puke.

"So! Canton Everett Delaware the third. Who's he?" the Doctor asked. He brought his file up on the monitor.

"Ex FBI. Got kicked out," River said.

"Why?"

"Six weeks after he left the Bureau, the President contacted him for a private meeting."

"Yeah, 1969. Who's President?"

"Nixon," Elise said.

The Doctor and River looked down at her.

"I read a book in the TARDIS library," she said.

Both of them had smiles on their faces, looking every inch proud parents.

"Richard Milhous Nixon. Vietnam, Watergate. There's some good stuff, too," River said.

"Not enough," the Doctor commented.

"Hippie!"

"Archaeologist. Okay, since I don't know what I'm getting into this time, for once I'm being discreet. I'm putting the engines on silent." He pulled a lever and there was a loud wail.

River threw a different switch and it stopped.

"Did you do something?" the Doctor asked her.

"No, just watching."

"Putting the outer shield on invisible. I haven't done this in a while. Big drain on the power."

"You can turn the TARDIS invisible?" Rory asked.

"Ha!" the Doctor said, pressing a button.

A bunch of lights came on.

"Very nearly," River said, pulling another lever that turned them off.

"Er, did you touch something?" the Doctor asked her.

"Just admiring your skills, sweetie."

"Good. You might learn something. Okay. Now I can't check the scanner. It doesn't work when we're cloaked. Just give us a mo." The Doctor ran to the doors and everyone started to follow him. "Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa. You lot, wait a moment. We're in the middle of the most powerful city in the most powerful country on Earth. Let's take it slow." With that, the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS.