Danni started to leave little messages around the TARDIS. At first the Doctor had thought that they were little notes to remind him of things. A cup of tea with 'Danni's drink' written next to it to stop him drinking it, or a post-it on the bedroom door that proclaimed that she was in the shower. He guessed it was to keep him from going in while she was in there, but knowing that she was stretched out underneath the water, back arched and completely naked wasn't something he could even pretend to ignore.

He realised, though, when he found the one on the console that read 'I've just nipped to the kitchen 11:13am' that it was more than that though. The bright pink paper should have been enough, obviously chosen to not be missed, but the implication of the words ached in his chest. She had been shaken up when she'd disappeared from time when it was just him, however Clara had really scared her. These weren't notes for him to remember things, these were notes to remind him of her.

He startled her when he walked into the kitchen, but she still shot him the biggest grin that she could. The one she would always wear when she saw him. "Sorry, I realised that I'd not had a cup of tea this morning," she explained. "Let me just have it, then we can go out."

He held up the little note. "I'm not going to forget you," he promised.

Her head hung, the sign of a guilty party. "I don't want to be forgotten," she whispered. "Clara forgot me so easily. One minute I was there, and the next I never existed and I don't want to…"

He stepped forward, wrapping her up in a tight embrace. "I know," he said. "But I didn't, did I? I knew, and I waited, and I will always wait." He pressed a kiss on her hair. "Besides, it's not happened in a little while. In at least a couple of months. I'm sure it's over now."

"But it did," she admitted. "And I think you knew, as well, even if you weren't sure of it." At his bewildered look, she looked away guiltily. "I knew you didn't remember, but I didn't want to point it out," she apologised. "You know when I went to Clara and Danny's for that lunch with his dad? One minute I was picking up my coat, the next they were both looking at me like they'd never seen me before in their lives and Danny… Well, Danny was about to knock me to the ground because he'd thought I'd broken in. Luckily they remembered before he did."

The Doctor's eyes darkened at the thought of anyone hurting his wife. "Bloody soldiers," he grumbled. "Always attack first and ask questions later. You're not going there again on your own."

Danni rolled her eyes slightly. While touched that he wanted to protect her, she knew that little command wouldn't last long. "Well, as soon as they remembered, the TARDIS appeared. You decided that you needed to see me, remember? You played it off like you'd landed in the wrong time, but you rushed back to see me."

If someone else had been there, he would have denied it. He would have stuck to his story of misaiming his driving and blamed it on that. However, he did remember it. He remembered the tug in his chest that he just had to check on her. He'd given himself the excuse that it was because it had been a while since they'd be apart, but he hadn't totally been sure what had made him need to see her.

"Any other time?" he asked her and she shrugged.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe, I think." She sighed, turning to lean against the side. "There's times when it feels like I've missed something, but I don't know if it's just in my head now. Every time I feel even a little uncomfortable, I automatically decide I've disappeared again."

He watched his wife shuffle nervously. Not at admitting her own concerns, but at the concerns themselves. He hated seeing her so upset, especially considering that he hadn't found out what was causing it yet.

"I haven't felt like that since you went to Clara's," he replied slowly. "But if you're feeling the absence, we're going to have to do some more thorough investigations."

"I was thinking of going to see the Face of Boe," she admitted. "He said, last time, that he remembered me being erased. Maybe he knows something about this time as well?"

The Doctor agreed. A couple of times was unacceptable, but knowing it was happening without him even realising was downright terrifying.

He didn't want her to know that, though. Even now, after all this time, she was looking up at him with those bright eyes, unconsciously looking to him for reassurance. So, he shot her that smile that always seemed to relax her. "After the tea, though," he told her. "No need to rush for Captain Flash."

"You never like spending time with him," she said. His lack of urgency said that he really didn't think that it was too big of a deal. If it was, he would have told her. This Doctor never lied about things like that, he wouldn't have kept it from her. "He makes you so grumpy. I don't know why."

"He flirts with my wife," he said, as if it explained everything.

"He's my dad," she retorted, her nose scrunched up adorably in disgust.

"You flirt back," he pointed out. She shrugged.

"Who wouldn't?" she replied.

"His daughter."

~0~0~0~

Danielle was simply stunning. The Doctor gathered her hands up in his, pressing them above her head as he picked up his pace, taking her harder and with the desperate need she brought onto him. Her eyes were scrunched close, her mouth open in a constant pant that was broken by whimpers and breathless swear words. She hid nothing, her pleasure written plainly on her face, in the pink tint that flushed her skin. She was simply stunning.

He bared his teeth, growling through his own pleasure. He shifted her hands together, taking hold of her thin wrists with one hand. His other quickly grabbed her thigh, pulling her leg up, bringing her closer still to him.

"That's it, my Pet," he encouraged, his voice low and desperate as he was torn between watching her face ripple in unrestrained pleasure, or dipping down to taste the lips that were rapidly begging his name. "You feel so good…"

She nodded in her own desperate agreement, trying to move underneath him. He pressed his weight down heavier and she groaned in frustration. "Theta… Theta… you bastard…"

He chuckled, nodding his head. "So you always say…" he replied before he found himself unable to keep his head aloft anymore. He nuzzled up against her cheek. "You feel so good…" he reiterated brokenly. He couldn't believe how addictive she was, how he wanted to keep her up high forever, just so he could continue to feel it with her.

Danni couldn't take much more. That coil inside her was pulling ever tighter. Over five hundred years of knowing her meaning that he could play her perfectly, tease her up and keep her from falling, despite her constant begging.

"Please, Theta…" she pleaded. "Please, I-I- fuck I…"

He continued his relentless pace, tasting her skin, encouraging her with temptingly dirty words in her ear. She fought helplessly to move against him in an attempt to push herself over that delicious edge. She fought against the surprisingly tight grip he had on her wrists as she grew closer… and closer… and closer…

And then it stopped.

Panting heavily, her eyes shot open in surprise as she bounced against their mattress. She'd felt his weight disappear from on top of her, his grip no longer holding her down. Her hearts were racing out on control, her body cried out for the stimulation that was rather abruptly gone.

She was still on their bed, lying naked on top of their bedding, but now completely alone. She sat up, her bliss turning into panic as she scrambled to grab the edge of one of the blue sheets to wrap around her.

"T-Theta?!" she called out worriedly. She reached out onto the side table for her glasses, but she couldn't find them. Everything was so out of focus, and it terrified her all the more.

She swallowed, trying to squash down the feeling of almost coming explosively. What had happened? Had it… had she disappeared again?

The door flung open and she darted back in panic, eyes wide and blurry at the sudden intrusion into what should have been a safe space.

Luckily, even her terror-filled brain and lack of vision couldn't stop her recognising her husband. "Theta?" she repeated, this time in a whimper.

The Doctor quickly climbed onto the bed next to her, his hands hovering in front of him before cupping her face. She could feel the relief pouring off him as he pulled her close, pressing a kiss on her lips. She was too shocked to respond, but he didn't seem to care as he pulled back.

"How long was I gone?" she asked quietly.

He didn't reply straight away. He just studied her, so relieved that she was back again. One minute she had been crying out underneath him, the next he'd bounced on the bed face first as the absolute agony of her being torn from the universe ripped through him. Her whole existence had been erased, and he'd felt every moment of it disappear.

But she'd obviously reappeared as if no time had passed at all. Her skin was still flush, her lips were still dry from her panting. She shivered as the cool air of the room hit her warm skin, and her unfocused eyes were full of worry…

Oh, unfocused eyes. Right.

He reached into his pocket, pulling out her glasses and flicked out the arms, placing them on her face for her so she didn't have to let go of the sheet that covered her. "You'll be okay," he murmured, more to reassure himself than to reassure her.

"Theta, how long?" she pressed and he shrugged off his jacket, chucking it around her shoulders.

"Don't panic," he told her, although all that served to do was cause the panic in her chest to rise. "Three days, four hours and…"

She shook her head. "I-I don't need to know the minutes," she snapped. "Three days?! I was gone for three days?!"

He rubbed her arms through his jacket, trying to settle her and keep her warm at the same time. He knew the TARDIS kept the bedroom a nice temperature for her, but she had turned up a lot warmer than that. "In the grand scheme of you jumping in and out of my life, this one was pretty short," he said in a hope to make her chuckle. It didn't, though. Both of them knew this was vastly different to the way her vortex manipulator would chuck her around his life. At least then, when he wanted to talk about her, people actually knew who she was. Once he'd settled down from his own interrupted pleasure, he'd been out of the room and he'd started searching.

No one knew her, though. He'd gone back for Clara, who once again didn't remember who she was. His next port of call had been River, who had flirted with him like she actually did care about him, and it had been so unnerving that he'd quickly had to leave.

Unable to bear listening to people who should have known his wife get concerned at him talking about her, he'd settled down in the TARDIS library, looking for references of her. He went through every single book that he knew referenced an adventure that they'd been on. He'd even found that godforsaken book on the Time War that mentioned the Time Child, but there was nothing.

His memories seemed intact, though, which was the most confusing part. He didn't forget that she'd once existed, nor any of the time together. He remembered loving her, and the heartbreak of her disappearing from underneath him. What was he supposed to do when the universe forgot about her, but he didn't?

She looked up at him, a horrible thought striking her. "Did you forget about me?" she whispered and he shook his head.

"Not for a moment," he promised. "We're going to sort this out. I've been trying to sort this out."

"What did Jack say?" she asked and he opened his mouth to reassure her that even though the impossible man had forgotten her, didn't mean that he didn't care. But he froze, a frown appearing on his face.

"I didn't make it to Jack," he eventually admitted. "I for…" he trailed off before he finished his sentence, aware that it was just going to upset her.

Instead she shot him a smile. "I'll put that down to your old age," she teased with a humour that she didn't really feel. "Let me get dressed, then we can go see the big old Boe Face."

He groaned and she frowned at his disappointment. "What? What is it?"

He sighed, standing up. "Just remembering why you were undressed to begin with, my Pet," he replied. "We'll have to finish what we'd started once this is over."

She rolled her eyes, and batted him out of the room. It was nice that he was being so calm about the situation, but she really couldn't find it in herself to stay so relaxed. A couple of seconds was one thing, but three days? What was going on?