"Quick, get us out of here!"

With these words River Song stumbled against the console of the Doctor's TARDIS and immediately began pulling levers and changing the direction they were moving in. He hadn't seen her for several weeks, in fact, from his point of view, they had only met once since their wedding.

The Doctor had been travelling alone for quite a few months now that Amy and Rory had decided to live their boring domestic lives for a few years. He was just preparing to follow a distress signal from a spaceship in the 40th century, when all of a sudden, his wife had materialised in the TARDIS. The first thing crossing his mind was that she was even more beautiful when she was in a hurry, but before his thoughts drifted off too far, the Doctor slapped himself and stormed up to River.

"What is going on, what are you doing?"

He shouted over the deafening noises the blue box made as it was forced to abruptly change its destination. Before River could answer, the two were thrown against the railing by an unevenness in the Vortex. While his wife held on tight to the bar, the Doctor pulled the blue lever, stabilised and landed them as carefully as he could (which wasn't very careful, both of them were thrown off balance once again) and held out his hand to River to help her up.

"Hello, Sweetie"

She smiled, allowing him to pull her to her feet. As she got pulled into his open arms, and he held her tight, relishing in the feeling of a long overdue hug, he murmured into her soft curls:

"Now, what a refreshing surprise… but would you care to tell me what this was all about?"

A soft laugh.

"Oh, I don't know, really, it's all a bit of a blur. But I might have accidentally upset a genetically engineered super-dragon mom from Zethion, and she might also be quite able to follow my travelling to you through the Vortex, but I think we should be… safe here."

"Always in trouble, that's my girl"

He grinned, pleasantly surprised that she didn't immediately pull back, but remained leaning against him. He was still trying to form a coherent sentence in his head, wanting to ask her to stay with him for a while, when he noticed something else:

"River, you're trembling!"

No answer.

The Doctor grabbed his wife's shoulders and held her at arm's length, inspecting her carefully but not being able to make out any injury.

"Am I? Love, you're being absurd."

Her laugh sounded high and unnatural and her nervous eyes fluttered. It was only when she collapsed, and the Doctor had to fall to his knees to catch her unconscious body that he noticed there was something wet on his hand.

"Blood? Are you bleeding? River! River, answer me, damn it! River!"

The unmistakable tone of panic mixed into his voice as he frantically removed her jacket, uncovering the fine and very nearly unnoticeable puncture in her shoulder. The dragon must have hit her with a thorn of sorts whose venom was only now beginning to show its effects. Without hesitating for another moment, the Doctor reached up, pulling pincers from a drawer in the console without taking his eyes from his unconscious wife for even a second and very gingerly, trying his best to get his hands to stop shaking, pulled the thin, long thorn from River's wound.

He must have hurt her in some way, for in that very moment, she awoke with a pained gasp.

"Doctor, what- "

Her voice was still trembling, but her face had regained some of its natural rose colour.

"Hush, dear"

He said, pecking her lips quickly before helping her sit up and gently pushing a stray curl out of her face.

"You should rest now. Do you think you can walk? Come, I'll help you."

"I'm good, I don't need help, thank you"

She replied coldly but a bit too quickly. With a sigh, the Doctor lay his arm around River's waist and, supporting her while she slowly and somewhat uncoordinatedly stood up, led the way to his own bedroom.

"Honey, you will have to remain in bed for a while. I removed the thorn, but the venom is still in your system. If you want me to, I can bring us to Amy and Rory to ask your father for help, he is some sort of doctor after all."

Having tugged River in, the Doctor stood, but was prevented by strong fingers sneaking around his wrist.

"Doctor, what is wrong?"

River asked, voice determined and maybe even a bit concerned.

"What? No, nothing, where do you get the idea…?"

"You're avoiding eye contact, don't lie to me!"

She interrupted him, a bit more harshly than intended.

"Would you believe me if I said there wasn't anything wrong?"

"No."

"River…"

"Doctor, I know you better than anyone, sometimes even better than yourself – No, don't you shake your head! You can't deceive me, so you'd better tell me the truth now"

The Doctor knelt down beside the bed, covering his eyes with his hands for a second. Why did she always have to be like this? So… resolute? He couldn't deny that he liked her determination, yes, he even thought that she was incredibly hot when she was angry with him, but he also definitely didn't want her to worry about him, which she would undoubtedly do if she knew.

"River, it's just… well- "

He took a breath, then fixated her eyes with his.

"I'm sorry. I did exactly what you always said I should never do. I'm travelling alone."

With an exasperated sigh, River let her head fall back into the cushions, but the Doctor could see the worry behind the façade of annoyance in her face.

"You should have told me. How many times do I have to tell you, you can't go wandering about all alone, the guilt of eleven lifetimes on your shoulders and nobody there to redeem you in your own eyes? Doctor, I worry about you, I know you don't like it, but I want to help, and I can't if I don't know you need help"

"I just didn't want you to fuss… It's only temporary anyway, the Ponds decided to spend some normal time – terribly dull, if you ask me – but… River…"

The Doctor leant over her, taking her hand in both of his and kissing it affectionately.

"Melody Pond, you are the woman who married me. If you don't mind, there's nobody in the whole universe I would rather have by my side. Please, River – travel with me, just for a while!"

"Alright."

She whispered back, squeezing his hand and smiling up at him fondly.

"Anything for you, sweetie."

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