This story is for Hythros and RiverSong26, because they are the reason I wrote it, and they got me to join this community in the first place.
Also River already wrote a story where the twelfth doctor meets River, so that kind of inspired me.
The Magicians Wife
A grey bird was flying over the dusty ruins, with another one closely following him.
The TARDIS materialized inside the grey collapsed leftovers of a skyscraper.
The Doctor watched, as the following bird lost track of his object of desire.
The doctor wandered around the wastelands of earth's Dubai, once a shining metropolis, home of the highest building of the world.
Now in the year 4127, after the caliphatic war, it was just a pile of metal and cement.
As he passed an old train station, he heard a voice coming from inside the building.
"That is odd..." The Doctor thought to himself. "Normally people shouldn't arrive here for the next twenty years. The radiation is still strong enough to kill someone in ten minutes."
His gallifreyan body was able to withstand the dangerous energy with ease, although it sometimes made him dizzy. He was getting old, he thought.
When he approached them, he was able to identify two of the voices as male, one middle aged, and the other one quite an old man, at least for human conditions.
The other one was a woman. Also middle aged. But something seemed odd about the way she talked. It was like hearing Julius Caesar and Prime minister Rachel Grand, the prime minister of the year 2302 in one voice. It seemed ancient to him, and yet very familiar.
The voices where hard to hear, probably because they were wearing protection, that was clearly out of this world, or at least not from this time.
As he thought about all this, he almost didn't notice the gun, that was being pushed into his backside.
"Hands up where I can see them!" A muffled voice, apparently the woman commanded him.
"Do you know that I really dislike being pointed at with guns?" The Doctor asked. "It poses an unnecessary risk."
"What would that be?" Asked the woman?
"You could accidentally pull the trigger, and then where would we be?" The Doctor replied.
The Doctor expected her to reply with a dreading comment, or a warning shot, so he was even more surprised, when the gun slid back into it's owners pocket.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"Thank you." The doctor said, turning around to look at the face of this muffled female voice.
"Stop!" She shouted, suddenly holding the gun at him again.
The doctor heard a distant shout from ancient past, but quickly decided to stuff it back into a distant corner of his brain together with all the other ones.
"Don't. Turn. Around." The voice said. "Let's head for my crew." she added, pointing over his shoulder, towards the two men, who were standing about ten metres away, looking at them with interest.
"Who is this?" The younger of the two asked.
"I'm not sure." The woman said. "Who are you old man?"
"Old man?!" The younger man interrupted. "What if he's a Zygon or something like that? How does he even survive out here without any kind of protection?"
"Calm down Harry." She said. "Why doesn't he tell us himself?"
"Thank you!" The Doctor answered, almost relieved to be able to talk again. "I'm the Doctor." He continued, as if that was everything they needed to know.
"The what?!" Harry asked. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Let me show you." The doctor said, reaching into the pocket of his coat.
"Hey!" Harry shouted, being yet another person pointing a gun at the doctor.
"That's really getting old you know." The doctor said getting a small rectangular black thing out of his coat.
He showed them his class X identification id of UNIT, before putting the blank piece of paper back into his pocket.
"Oh, I'm sorry sir. I didn't know you meant that doctor." Harry tried to explain.
"Oh, no problem. Who are you lot then?" The Doctor wanted to know, turning around suddenly stopping in front of... her.
She was shocked, staring at him blankly, with disbelief, and anger.
"Why would you say that?" She asked. "Why would you lie like that?"
"No, River. It's really me, it is." The doctor tried to tell her, still looking at her like at the most important person in the world that she was to him.
"You can't be, I met him just a few days ago. He looked completely different. Not this... old." She looked at him, still with disbelief, but the anger was slowly fading into curiosity.
The Doctor started to look at her with a sad semi-smile, then looking at himself in a shattered window. "True... I was younger. But times change. Faces... change."
He buried his face into his hands, letting out a deep sigh.
"Look, I can prove that its me." He said, looking back at her with determination.
"You have a book, with a nice pattern on it, blue. Show me." He asked.
"It... it can't..." She tried to say, but the words had crashed on the way to her vocal chords.
The only thing she was able to do, as her eyes filled with salty water, was to turn away, handing him the book from her pocket.
"You woke up in the bed of your university's dormitory, had strange memories from the last night, and went on an expedition with these two people..." He looked through the first few pages.
"Uhm, yes. If I might add, these two people are Harry, and Will Watson. Father and son helping Miss Song on this expedition." The older of the two men added.
"Mrs. Song that is, and what are you searching for anyway?" The Doctor asked.
"Mrs.? To who?" River replied,trying to wipe the tears from her face through her suit.
"Forget the Mrs., just tell me. What are you looking for?"
"Well," The younger one called back in. "We're looking for life, that might be left in this place. Recent studies have shown that this area might not be as inhabitable as the people of this era thought."
"Interesting. Care if I join you?" The Doctor requested.
"Why should I let you?" River asked. "I don't know who you are, and it might be dangerous."
"You know-" The doctor wanted to respond, but was cut of by Harry.
"I think he can come with us. If he is who it says on the paper, he can only be of help."
"Yes, he has a very good reputation." Will added.
River sighed, looking into the distance with a mix of sadness and anger in her eyes. "Fine. He can come. But I don't take any responsibility."
"Thank you." The Doctor said, as they were getting ready to go ahead. "Ill try not to mess up."
They went along the train tracks for a while, passing several collapsed buildings. Sometimes the Doctor had the feeling of something lurking behind the collapsed walls, but he thought that might just be the radiation playing tricks with his mind. Still he watched carefully.
When they arrived at the entrance to a tunnel, River called for a pause to discuss how to proceed.
"The question is, do we go in there?" Explained River. "Or will we stay outside, in case there is something deadly down there."
"To be frank with you, I'd quite like to go down there." The Doctor said.
"If I'm honest, I'd want to explore it too." Harry said. "I think if anything survived this," He looked around, and then back into the tunnel. "it has to be in there."
"I'm sorry you guys, but as much I want to see what's down there, I'm not willing to risk my son's life for it." Will interrupted.
"Thank you." River said. "I don't think we should go down there... who knows what's there."
As they were arguing, they didn't notice the big black creature crawl up the hill behind them.
"Wait!" The Doctor said. "We're being watched."
"What?" Harry asked.
"Over there..." The Doctor looked up the hill.
Everyone's eyes widened, and the Doctor immediately had to react.
"Hide! Get behind something!" He shouted, as the thing was slowly making its way down the hill.
The thing had six legs, had a cat like build, and was about three metres tall. It had black fur, with some grey dirty looking spots and a long naked tail.
They each leapt behind a grey pillar, Will and Harry to the left, and River on the right with the Doctor.
"Be quiet." The Doctor whispered to the others. "And don't move."
Almost as he said this, the creature jumped forward, broke the pillar where Will and Harry were, and took them with two of it's legs, and leapt on into the tunnel with the screaming father and son in it's paws, as River and the Doctor had to watch with horror.
"No, no, no, no!" The doctor shouted.
"No!" River agreed with a scream. "What are we going to do?!"
"We can't save them now." The Doctor replied. "That thing was to fast."
"But we have to do something!" River responded
"Do we? You and who?" The Doctor asked.
"What do you mean? Who? You and me!" River was at the same time angry and confused.
"Well, you don't know me do you?" The Doctor exclaimed.
"Can we just, not do this please Doctor?" River heard herself say, as she realized what she actually just said.
"Aha! Now we're talking, dear. You do believe its me." The Doctor said, coming forth to hug her.
"Hey, step away please. I still don't know you as much as you might think I do." She retreated a little.
"Oh... of course. Sorry." The Doctor pulled himself back a little, looking to the ground. He thought of all the times they ran together...
"Sorry..." River said, although she didn't know what to say.
Suddenly the Doctors face lit up again, and it seemed as if nothing happened. "Oh, it's fine. You know. That's just how time is." He said. "Let's try and find your friends. We have to hurry though."
The Doctor jumped up, and walked down the first stair into the tunnel. He turned back to River. "Are you coming?"
"Yes. Of course. It's just... I still can't believe it's really you." She shook her head, and got up. "Anyway, let's go."
They walked into the tunnel, and followed the tracks for about twenty minutes. Sometimes River would break the silence by asking him a question, but he would always just answer her with "Spoilers.". Although that didn't seem to satisfy her, she didn't ask him again.
After a while they came to a crossing, and River didn't know where to go.
"Great, so where do we go now?" River asked.
"Well..." The Doctor said, as he put on his sunglasses, and pushed a small button on it's side.
"This way!" He said, pointing into the left tunnel, just before running forth.
"Do you always have to run?" River asked.
"You really don't know me for a very long time, do you?"
They came into a big room, that looked like there had been trains parking here. In one of the small parking tunnels was the giant six legged cat thing, sleeping. It seemed so much more calm, than earlier. The Doctor and River slowly approached the Being.
River spotted them lying unconscious in between the things paws, and gave the doctor a sign.
He came over to her, looking at them.
"We have to wake them up." He whispered.
River nodded, and started to push Will around a little.
Will started to slowly open his eyes, and as he realized where he was, he started to become a little nervous.
"Stay calm." The Doctor advised. "You'll wake it up."
Will nodded, and slowly stood up, when his eyes fell onto his son.
"What do we do with him? He'll panic immediately." Will asked.
"Can you lift him? Are you hurt?" River asked. Eyeing him carefully.
"I think I can. It's all right." He grabs his arm, to pull him up, and then takes his legs as well.
They walk towards the exit of the room, and drop Harry to wake him up.
"Where am I?" He asked. "Where did that giant Thing go?"
"It's over there having a nap." The Doctor said.
"When you say that it sounds too cute." River complained, walking further into the tunnel.
"Wait up." Harry said.
"Come on." River answered. "It's gonna wake up sometime, and I don't want to be around when that happens."
They walked into a tunnel, until they heard a strange noise coming from the direction they were heading towards.
"Wait, I hear something..." Will said. They were near the crossing. "I think it's coming from over there." He pointed towards the right corner.
"But that's where we came from." River said, starting to get a little nervous.
"It must be another one. Maybe one keeps their home safe, while the other one is of, searching for food." The Doctor guessed.
"What are we gonna do Doctor?" Harry asked.
"Hide."
"Oh yes." Will replied. "Because that worked great last time."
"We'll just have to hide better this time." The Doctor said, climbing into a low ventilation shaft in the wall. "Come on!"
Will looked at him in disbelief, but followed him after River and Harry.
The heavy body of the monster pushed itself through the tunnel, passing the hidden group seemingly without noticing them. Everybody was holding their breath, up to the point where they almost passed out, until the creature finally turned around the corner, and walked towards it's friend.
They all let out a deep breath, as they crawled back out of the shaft, and got towards the exit of the tunnel.
"Phew, that was close, wasn't it?" Harry said.
"Yeah, that damn beast tried to kill us." Will added.
The Doctor looked at them one after another. "And in retrospect, it was our own fault."
"What do you mean, our own fault?!" River asked angrily. "It just jumped at them!"
Harry and Will followed River's angry look at the Doctor.
"Come on guys. We entered it's territory." The Doctor explained, raising his hands in defence. "It was just protecting it's home."
"And almost killing us in the process..." Will added.
"Alright, it was maybe trying to eat you, but that's in it's nature." The Doctor replied.
"I think you should leave us Doctor." Harry sighed. "As much as I admire what you've done for us, and this planet, You are a little bad with... you know."
"What?" The Doctor raised his giant eyebrows, and looked at Harry. "What am I bad with?"
"People." River said. "You're bad with people."
"I... well," The Doctor stuttered.
"You should go." Will said.
"Yes. I should. Goodbye." The Doctor said, as he made his way back to the TARDIS, and River looked after him.
The Doctor entered the TARDIS, and was greeted by the slow humming noise she made to comfort him.
"Show me the visual records of River Song." He commanded the ship.
He looked at the flashing images of River in all sorts of situations, and it didn't have the effect on his emotions he wanted it to.
"Stop!" He shouted. "Turn it off." He ran his hands over his face and through his hair, as he turned around in place.
"Wait!" He exclaimed, as he turned back to the monitor. "Show me the last image you had there!"
He smiled as the TARDIS showed him an image of River Song. This one wasn't like the others. It made him happy.
It made him happy, because he didn't remember it.