He had no idea what they had done to her. He'd simply found her this way, unconscious with a large head wound, lying in a pool of her own blood. Her wild, blonde curls where almost as ginger as her mother's due to the vast quantities of scarlet red coating it. The blood pool was getting larger.

Her message had been simple: 'help, X'. He'd been confused, yes. River never used the same way to contact him twice, and if you counted the incident at the library (which the Doctor always tried very hard not too) she'd used the physic paper four times now.

He'd gone anyway.

But this had not been what he'd expected.

He'd expected her to be standing at least; standing and shooting at some distant species of alien she'd picked a fight with. He'd expected her to turn to him when he opened the TARDIS doors, with a smile in place and a strangely sexy, husky tone as she cooed 'Hello Sweetie' at him.

But the room was dark and besides River's broken body, only held two things. One was a chair, black in colour, with four thin metal bands to hold the arms and legs of its occupant still. The other item in the room was small, about the same side as the Doctor's hand spread wide but built to look like a ribcage. The ends of each rib was curled inwards into spikes and looked lethal.

He didn't even need to look at her to see what had happened.

Whatever the thing did to her, it wasn't done willingly- she'd struggled, ripped through the metal bonds and torn her wrists to shreds. They where bleeding too. The thing had been attached to her head and the spikes there to keep it in place. She'd fought with that too; pulling it off of, out of her and doing far more damage, which resulted in her collapse. Not a large head wound then- multiple smaller cuts. But they where deep. Very deep.

He'd left her in StormCage to keep them both safe. He'd never dreamt they'd do this.

He pulled at her arm gently until she was lead out on her back, giving him access to her blood drenched throat. Her pulse was still there- ridiculously weak, but there. She was alive.
For now.

She was cold too. No, cold implied that she still had some warmth left in her when there was none. Freezing was a better adjective, the Doctor agreed with himself, even if it did remind him of death.

But simply cold or frozen to death his reaction would have been the same; he pulled the tweed jacket off again (he'd only just pulled it back out of storage when the physic paper had almost burnt a hole in the pocket) and wrapped it around her small frame the best he could given the circumstances. It was blood soaked in seconds.

As an after thought he tucked the metal ribcage into the pocket.

With one arm under her knees and the other supporting her head, he scooped her up, tucking her into his chest and his complex senses meant that her could hear - and to a lesser degree, feel - her heartbeats as if they where his own. It was a small comfort.

The TARDIS doors both opened, without a touch or even a snap; she knew when her child needed her. It was a struggle to move her but not because of her weight or his own strength, not because of his co-ordination. TimeLords where strong, more than three times stronger then the average human and he really wasn't that gangerly. No.

He was shaking.
Violently.
He was scared. Scared for her.

The TARDIS was in his head, she always had been, ever since he first stole her - or she stole him. Closing his eyes allowed him to see the entire inside of the box, as long as she would let him that was. Five seconds ago there was nothing there, a blank screen in his mind where the inside of the TARDIS should have been; she'd blocked him from her mind to force him to concentrate on her daughter. Now, before he even opened the doors he could see the new double doors in the console room, white with round glass windows. The newly relocated medical bay, just off the console room. Bless his old girl. Helping to save her baby.

For once his girl was on his side; both fighting for their girl.
The scanner flicked to life a he was anywhere near it.

Melody Pond
Human/TimeLord
Female
Head wounds - near fatal
Possible brain damage (scans inconclusive)

"'Inconclusive' Really?!" The Doctor shouted up to the time machine. Nothing had ever been inconclusive to the TARDIS. Nothing except Amy's pregnancy and well... Maybe River herself was just 'inconclusive' to the TARDIS. With a huff he climbed the stairs three at a time, pushing the white doors open with the shoulder River didn't have her head leant on.

The metal bed looked incredibly uncomfortable as he led her down, wishing there was a pillow in the room to tuck under he bleeding head. But then that probably wasn't a very good idea. The TARDIS had created this room to help her child, not hurt her: if there was no pillow it had to be for a reason.
There really was nothing else he could do but clean up the blood and change her cloths. The cuts where already closing up with the TARDIS' help. He hated that. He felt useless, unable to do anything to help the woman he loved more thank anything. Because he did. After almost a hundred years of thinking he'd never feel such a way again, she'd appeared out of no where - only to rip his hearts apart again.
He checked the scanner once more, unhappy with the fact there was no change. He retrieved the metal device from his pocket to run it under the TARDIS sensors. Processing the results seemed to take forever. He pulled up a chair to her bed side. His head was telling him to go, to find the cruel spiteful monsters that had done this and stop them. Stop them from repeating the process with anyone else he told himself. Not out of an act of revenge for his wife.

But he stayed. Catching these men, these monsters could wait.

They could wait. He wasn't going anywhere without his wife by his side.

The Doctor bolted upright with a gasp.

He'd fallen asleep. He'd decided to stay with River until she woke, so he'd fallen asleep. So in his rage at himself, which consisted of several untranslatable curses directed at both himself and the TARDIS, he failed to notice a certain blonde haired, green-eyed beauty sat up in her bed blinking at him. She cocked her head at him.

"Where am I?" Her voice came out cracked and dry and her eyes opened wide in surprise. She tried clearing her throat several times, but when each attempt failed he offered her the glass of water by her bed. She thanked him timidly.

"How do you feel?" He asked, steadying her shaking hand around the glass. She smiled.

"Dizzy." she told him, setting her empty cup down again. "What happened to me?"

"This thing happened." He offered her the metal ribcage from his pocket. He put it back after getting the scanner's results. "Ever seen it before?" She shock head at him "Never?" She shook her head at him again. The Doctor hummed with thought "Well, the TARDIS scanners said, eventually, that it's designed to look into a person's mind, link two minds together and transfer information from one person to another remotely, like an email between brains. It's rather amazing don't you think?" She stared at him, eyes wide and fearful and he chuckled slightly. "Right. I get it: tired and aching from nearly dying and all. Don't worry, "He ran a hand over her hair gently, his voice softening in the way it only ever would for her."I'll let you sleep, My Melody." he lent forward to kissed her forehead and turned towards the doors.

"Um, Can I ask you something before you go?" She was still timid, possibly from the shock of nearly dying (again), but it still didn't sit right in his hearts. River was suppose to be happy and smiling, not scared.

So he turned to her with a grin. "I believe you just, did my Dear. The correct structuring of that sentence would be 'May I ask you something before you go?' See? Better?" She rolled her eyes at him.

"May I ask you a question?"

"Ask away my Dear!" He beamed at her. But her smile faded.

"Who are you?"

(Now edited)
So, I've never done a multi-chapter fic before, so I'm not too sure about this...
I'll get the next part up soon, when I get a half hour alone and I'm not to sure when that will be.
But not too long.

X :)