Authors Note: Hey y'all! First chapter of my first River/Doctor fic! I'll keep it short and simple. This is a rough draft so please forgive typos/grammar stuff. I don't own Doctor Who (wish I did) review if you feel so inclined. I love feedback! More coming soon hopefully :) (I'll try to shorten the chapters up ;) PEACE, LOVE, ALLONS-Y!

Chapter One: Just for the Dancing

"Sleep is my lover now, my forgetting, my opiate, my oblivion." –The Time Traveller's Wife

The pain was so great. So vast. Like a never ending chasm, slowly sucking her in, and with every breath she forgot a little more what it felt like before this. What it felt like to laugh. To smile. To breath. Now there was nothing but agony.

Melody Pond stumbled out in to the plain sight of the alley. There was a man there. He was saying something.

"Are you okay?" Melody just coughed in response. She knew it was time. She could feel it. This body was dying. With a final reassurance to the man, she could feel her body changing. Looking down at her hands in awe, she smiled. They were golden. So pretty.

Melody let the force of the regeneration consume her. Throwing her head back and her arms open to the world, she felt the full power of her Timelord DNA. Just a couple of more seconds. That was all she needed. Then, she would be new again.

River opened her eyes to the darkness of her cell. How she hated that nightmare. The pain of regeneration. She used to never dream of that fateful night. She had even forgotten how it had felt for a while. But more and more frequently it came back to haunt her in her sleep.

She sat up and turned her head to make a startling discovery. The TARDIS was parked outside of her cell. She smiled to herself as she got up from her cot and walked over to the end of her cell, bare feet padding softly on the cold floor. Her fingers curled around the cool bars that imprisoned her.

"Hello, Sweetie."

The Doctor frantically wheeled around the TARDIS, flipping seemingly random switches and levers. He was on an all-time high. Just married, thought to be dead, no one looking for him. He hated to leave Amy and Rory out of the loop, but he had a feeling River wouldn't keep the secret for long. The joy on her face when she realized he was going to be okay made the bounce in his step come back. Now he had all of time and space to enjoy and no one to through him in to an impenetrable box or try to kill him. He could disappear.

The TARDIS suddenly jerked away from his intended path, a long-needed visit to the Face of Boe.

"Sexy! What are you doing?" he yelled, grabbing on to the nearest piece of sturdy equipment. In reply, the TARDIS just made its usual parking noise and landed.

Curiosity got the best of him, and he peeked out of the police box doors. Ah. He understood now. He was in Stormcage.

"Good girl," he whispered, rubbing the doorway of the newly polished TARDIS. River was lying on her cot, a look of pain on her usually confident face. How he hated to sit there and not be able to comfort her, but he knew it was best not to wake her. So instead, he closed the door to the TARDIS and ran to his room to grab his matching diary. He knew they would have to compare notes first. Make sure timelines didn't get messed up and secrets revealed. By the time he got back to the door he had already heard her call out with her usual greeting. Straightening his bow tie and taking one last check of his breath, he opened the door.

"Well hello there, River," he smiled, trying not to act as nervous as he felt whenever he was around her. "Care to join me?"

"Where are you?" he asked, thumbing through his diary. They were both lying on their stomachs on the floor of the TARDIS, propped up on their elbows.

"I just got back from Demon's Run. We've done Demon's Run, right?" River asked, looking hopefully in to the Doctor's eyes. He knew that she hated it when he didn't know who she was. He couldn't blame her.

"Yes, my dear River. I know who you are," he whispered, caressing the side of her cheek as he spoke. She smiled weakly at him, and he could see the vulnerability in her eyes she tried to hide so much. It was a rare moment when it happened. Usually she was so headstrong, so sure of herself. But he reminded himself of everything she had gone through. There were times when she had to let the walls down.

"So where are you then?" she asked, flipping through her own diary. The moment was gone, her confidence restored.

"April 22nd, 2011 at 5:02 in the evening," he replied, smiling at her. This was his first time seeing her since they were married. Well first time actually being him and seeing her. At the wedding he had technically been inside a Tesselecta.

River almost looked shocked. Concern flashed across the Doctor's face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, pushing himself up so that he sat on the floor, legs criss-crossed. River slowly brought herself to a mirroring position, shaking her head and making those glorious curls bounce.

"It's just- I thought-" her walls were down again. Tears brimmed at the edge of her eyelids, and she looked down, avoiding eye contact. She was acting so unlike her normal self that the Doctor found himself worried about her more than he ever had been.

Shushing her, he gently pulled her towards him, turning her around so his arms were wrapped around her shoulders, her back resting against his chest. He gently kissed the top of her golden curls and held her tighter to him. She nestled into the crook under his neck.

"I thought we were destined to always travel in different directions. Ever since our wedding- you haven't known we're husband and wife. And I was afraid-" her voice broke again, and he squeezed her again, gently rocking her back and forth. He laid his head on her own, truly happy to be with her. No one to put an act up for, no Amy or Rory to be overprotective parents, just the Doctor and River.

"I was afraid," she continued, clearing her throat, "that you weren't going to know who I was from now on. That I would just be River Song. That Melody Pond wouldn't exist to you. She's a part of me just as much as these great curls." He heard a hint of a smile in her voice at her last comment, and felt her arm come up to flounce her hair. He smiled as he twirled some of the lovely locks on his finger.

"Wait, so you haven't seen me since our wedding date?" The Doctor asked, suddenly springing to life. He sprung off the floor, pulling River up with him and setting her down lightly in front of him so that they were facing each other. This time, it was River's turn to wear the expression of confusion on her face. He started racing around the TARDIS in his usual manner, scratching his hair in between lever pulling and knob turning.

"No, that's what I just said…" River trailed off, following after her husband, flipping the occasional switch to correct his mistakes. "You know, you really ought to learn how to fly this thing," she stated, returning once again to her usual spunky mood.

"There's my River again!" he exclaimed, poking her nose as he so liked to do. "And her name is Sexy. Or TARDIS…Depending on your….mood," the Doctor slowed his speech as he turned around to see River standing right behind him, a smirk on her face. It reminded him of being in a certain Fuhrer's office while the man was locked in a cabinet, a feisty River-or Mels he guessed at that point- already flirting with him. While trying to kill him. He thought the woman in front of him might be considering the same.

"So she's the sexy one, eh?" River asked, bringing her face closer to the Doctor's so only a few inches separated their mouths. Her mouth. He found himself focusing on those lips. Trying to muster the courage he should have with the woman he was wed to. He started to lean in to give his wife a passionate kiss when she wheeled on her heel and walked over to the police box doors, leaving him with empty air. He fumbled his hands, trying not to look disappointed. My did she like playing games.

"So where are we?" she asked, opening both of the doors in a grand gesture. The sight in front of her left her momentarily speechless.

"The Medusa Cascade," the Doctor whispered in to her ear, seemingly appearing from nowhere. "Great view, quite stunning, not the best place to go into. Once upon a time it was in the center of a plot for the Daleks to rule the universe. But absolutely beautiful," he smiled, letting the view dazzle his own eyes.

"And why are we here, exactly?" River asked, turning to face her Doctor. Mischief gleamed in those dark brown eyes. She found it exciting and disconcerting at the same time. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Because," he explained, never letting his beaming smile leave, "we haven't had our wedding reception. Or honeymoon." River furrowed her eyebrows. Was her Doctor attempting to imply a certain bedroom desire? The thought made her laugh. He must have realized his comment made it sound like he just wanted to get her into bed, because his eyes widened.

"Mainly worried about not having a wedding reception though," he quickly corrected himself, backing up the stairs as River looked at him with a new gleam in her eye. He looked around frantically as he backed up against the TARDIS console. River had him cornered, full of the fire that had been missing just moments ago.

"Because, as you know, I only go to weddings for the dancing," the Doctor smirked, flipping a switch on the console. 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' blasted throughout the whole of the TARDIS.

"Oh, I hate you," River whispered, narrowing her eyes.

"No you don't," he replied, gently tugging on her wrists and pulling her away from the console. He began to dance sporadically, leading her in a dance that she could only guess the millennia it was from, let alone the galaxy. Her steely reserve didn't last for long however, and she soon found herself laughing as he twirled her around and made strange giraffe-like movements.

An unknown length of time passed with the couple dancing; as soon as River seemed to master a type of dance, the Doctor would change to a new style completely. Never did they tire, their two hearts giving them great stamina. After some time, the TARDIS changed the mood, the music slowing. River found herself slowly swaying in the Doctor's arms, an Earth song from the 21st century echoing throughout the spaceship.

"What is this song called?" River asked, looking up from the Doctor's shoulder and into his eyes. Those eyes. So full of happiness yet so sad and lonely.

''A Thousand Years' I do believe," the Doctor replied, giving her a half smile. "How fitting?" His eyes shined with the irony. He gave a small laugh, glancing away for a second before returning her gaze. They became suddenly silent, just gazing into each other's eyes. The Child of the TARDIS and the Timelord.

Before either knew it, their lips were touching. At first it started out just as a reassurance that the other was there, but soon their lips became hungry, needing more and more of each other. His hand creeped to the small of her back, while her hands ran through his hair. Her hands slowly made their way to his chest, and then started to fiddle with his bowtie.

"River…" the Doctor gasped as he came up for breath.

"Yes, sweetie?" she asked before kissing the Doctor again. He pulled back for a second and was about to say something, but he was interrupted by a thud on the top of the TARDIS. They both looked up, wondering what the noise from.

"I thought I put the shields up though…" the Doctor trailed off as they raced to the still open TARDIS doors. River grasped the Doctor's hand.

"Hello," a cheery voice came from the top of the TARDIS. A head peered down at the two and smiled at them. "Ah look, the happy couple! Now, where shall we begin?"

The Doctor and River stared agape as the raggedy man smiled at them, complete with bowtie and all. Suspenders held unseen pants up. A sonic screwdriver whizzed.

"Doctor?"