Author's note: Once again thank you so much for all of the reviews! Sending a lot of virtual love to you all. So I may have lied, this chapter is not that much happier it will get there in the end. I've used some quotes from River's voice over in 'The Forest of the Dead' because I think it's beautiful.

Please R+R

You Were in the Darkness Too, So I Stayed in the Darkness with You

Chapter Three

The skin on his fingers grew red raw and blood formed under the nails as the doctor desperately clawed at the wall in front of him. The scanner had picked up River's location, apparently only a few metres away from his own and it was programming the quickest route to her. The first step – through this brick wall.

"I'm the doctor not the bloody incredible Hulk. Jesus!" He slapped his flat palms against the impossible barrier until they were ringing and stinging. "Right, come on. Focus." He berated himself. "There must be a way in."

The doctor took a few steps back so he could look at the wall in its entirety. The light from the screwdriver only illuminated a brick and half at a time so he started from the bottom left hand corner and moved painfully slowly along the bottom layer of bricks. He would study every brick in this entire place if he had too. Each rectangle object looked identical to the previous one, the perfect confinement. With each second he did not find the answer he grabbled with the onslaught of anxiety and guilt. He couldn't help but picture her, lying only a few feet behind this wall, god only knows what state she would be in. That thing, that vermin had hurt in the cruellest way, his River. All of this swirled in his mind as he reached the last brick of the bottom row and moved up now going from right to left, one by one.

He switched back to the last brick again and saw it. He laughed aloud, he couldn't help it. The very last brick of the very last row. Seriously? It was pushed in barely a centimetre, barely indented at all but slightly cushioned into the sides of the slaps surrounding it.

Crouching down he pushed the brick even further in with his bruised fingers, ignoring the sharp pain as it climbed its way up his hand and arm. The block was stubborn but gradually it began to move even further backwards, millimetre at a time and it was protesting every tiny step of the way but by willpower alone the doctor was winning. At last it clicked into place and would move no more.

The sound was deafening as it attacked the silence and continued to grow with every reverberation as it collided with dozens of indiscernible walls. The screeching sounded like the death of a thousand birds or a hundred nails raked across blameless black boards. The doctor fell back and fought the urge to cover his ears. As he lay cowering on the ground he could just make out the solid wall to his right heave itself up into the ceiling to reveal the murky passageway behind.

"A secret doorway." He stated bewildered. "Naturally."

"Doctor?.." River whispered and he ignored the fact that she was sounding so much weaker each time she spoke.

"Yep, sorry, that was definitely me, on my way though, making progress!" He tried to sound cheery and optimistic, even to his own ears it was not convincing.

The scanner produced a red line from the first dot, the doctor, to the second, River. Down the new passageway and left and she was there. Finally he was going to reach her; he sent a silent pray to anybody up there that he had stopped believing in a long time ago. He let real hope set in, she wasn't going to die today – he was going to rescue her and she was going to live the rest of her brilliant life until she had to go that library. He couldn't stop that. Everybody knows that everybody dies. That's what she'd said, and yes he did know that she was going to die, and nobody knows it like the doctor, he did know, he had seen it. He couldn't stop her dying but he was damn sure going to stop her dying today. But all of the skies in all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever accepts it. He would not accept it.

The doctor sprinted the length of the corridor and turned left.

"Hey, no wall this time, brilliant!" He stepped forward and stopped abruptly. "Ah, didn't see that bit."

The open space in front of him became enclosed to a small circle in the middle of the wall, just tall enough to kneel. He'd never been a fan of small spaces, he travelled all of time and space – as suggested the one thing it had was space, almost endless amounts of it, whole planets and worlds to run around in under infinite skies. He looked down at the scanner; she was so close now, their dots practically touching.

"Don't... don't be such a... a baby." River breathed. "It's a... tunnel..."

"How did you..." He stopped, River Song knew everything – when would he learn that? "I wasn't being a... I was... Whatever! Hold on, I'm coming."

He climbed up into the tunnel and began crawling one armed using the other to hold the screwdriver in front of him as a beacon. The already thinning material of his trousers were no protection whatsoever and his knees grated along the gravel with each movement.

He heard her before he saw her, short and quick ragged breaths hummed in the air around him, electric pulses in his ears and he was the magnet being drawn to them. When he did finally see her he froze, he'd never experienced such juxtaposing feelings: overriding ecstasy and unimaginable horror.

She was sitting slightly in the curve of the cylinder tube, there was blood everywhere: pooling around her, on her stomach, chest, hands, face and most distressingly a small trail that originated in between her legs as her knees huddled in to her frantic chest. The sticky substance tainted every inch of perfect skin, blemishing its flawlessness. Her upper body rose and fell so rapidly it resembled a children's cartoon, he could almost see her heart move as it stubbornly battled with the idea that each beat was its last.

River's hair was pulled up off of her face and neck to reveal two bloody hand prints either side of her throat and newly gained bruises already forming. Her tank top was hitched up just below her bust and the side of stomach closest to the doctor was tapped firmly in white bandage although oozing, deep red liquid could still be seen underneath. The communicator was clutched in her left hand with every ounce of her remaining strength. Her combat trousers and underwear were brutally pooled at her ankles. She had no shoes on.

The doctor kneeled there and silently sobbed. He thought he had no more tears left tonight but evidently he was wrong.

The doctor lies. The doctor lets down the ones he loves.

River turned to him suddenly as if she was only just aware of his presence despite the light from the screwdriver that had been shining on her for many moments. She tried to smile but barely had the energy to twitch the corners of her mouth.

"Took... your bloody time."

He closed the space between them and reached for her face cupping it in his shaky hands.

"River," He breathed. She flinched at the contact but her eyes pleaded with him not draw away. He didn't. Instead he leant his forehand against hers gently as she laced her equally trembling fingers into his. "I'm sorry, god I'm sorry. I... I..." He closed his eyes and just enjoyed the feel of her beneath the fleshy pads of his skin. She was almost as cold as the walls. Kissing her forehead in an act of tender remorse he leant away. "You're freezing, need to get you warmed up. And..." His line of vision traced the length of her body. "God, the blood..."

"It's just the stomach... the rest is... subsequent... mess."

"Yeah it's a mess." He agreed quietly.

The doctor checked the sonic screwdriver; it read two life forms. Whatever had done this was long gone. Or the screwdriver agreed with him and that vermin was not worth recognition as a life form.

"Are we... alone?" He asked unsure of what to say. She couldn't meet his eye and instead replied to his bowtie:

"Yes."

"Good." And he meant it. If that thing had have been here he would have killed it with his bare hands. "I'm going to help you get dressed and then we're going to get out of here, back to the TARDIS okay?"

"Okay."

He reached down the lacy kickers and brushed his thumb under the side sweeping her ankle bone, the skin around it erupted into a thousand tiny goose bumps and the sensation made her shiver and whimper in fright. He withdrew his hand immediately and cursed himself for his carelessness. The last thing he wanted to do was to cause her more pain. Of course she didn't want anybody else touching her. After that level of violation every touch must feel inconceivably abusive.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I... do you want to?"

"I can't..." She cried. She could hardly lift her head. "You have too... I need you..."

"It's okay." He repeated the action and she repeated the involuntary response, he gritted his teeth and continued, securing the other side of garment in his hand. "It's okay, it's just me. Your husband, apparently." He tried to joke as he guided the undergarment up her legs. "How many times will I do this in my future, your past. I hope this isn't the only time." He stopped as he reached the top of her thigh.

She looked at him and through all of the levels of pain there was love in her gaze. She loved him. Despite everything that was happening his insides churned with excitement, danced with the thought of it.

"I love you." He voiced what they were both thinking and she nodded her concurrence. "The trousers now." He followed the same pattern and although she still flinched and tensed the entire time the effect got gradually more subtle. He gripped both pieces of clothing together. "I need you to lift your hips." With a loud moan of pain she did as he asked and he slipped them over her womanly figure and secured them loosely just below the bandage. "Good." He shrugged out of his tweed jacket and sucked in breath, whistling as the cold air seeped into his newly vulnerable body. "You need to get warm so I'm going to put you in this." She nodded. Gingerly he slipped one arm in and tried to pull it round her body but the blood and cold sweat fused her skin to the material and he couldn't move it. Without thinking he threw a leg over her and hovered up her, almost straddling her to get a better angle on the jacket. Her eyes grew wide in shock and fear. The fresh memories it brought cascading back was unbearable.

"No!" She screamed and lashed out instinctively kicking and hitting him.

"Jesus! I'm sorry..." He made to get off of her but she grabbed his braces and forced him to stay.

As quickly as the outburst had started it had stopped. Her eyes were still big and round, childlike in terror but they also held a steely determination that the doctor did not understand. River tried to arch her back to get closer to him but collapsed almost instantly, he leant down trying to fulfil her unspoken wishes.

"I'm sorry," She whispered against his lips and his face contorted into confusion.

"Wha?.." She cut him off by placing her lips against his, so softly he could barely tell if they were there or not. "I love you." He repeated.

"You've... said that already... sweetie."

"Well I thought you might like to hear it again. Besides it's new to me and I quite like saying it."

River half laughed, half coughed her response:

"Always about you."

He got off of her and pulled her into the jacket, running his hands up and down her arms in a futile attempt to warm her.

"Right we need to get back to the TARDIS... somehow. When we get close enough the scanner should pick up Amy and Rory and we can follow it there."

"My..." She pointed off into the darkness to right of them. The doctor reached for the screwdriver and shone it into the infinite shadows. The small square piece of Technology River always carried with her was lying a few feet away.

"Still using those modern, tacky devices I see."

"Well... it can... find the TARDIS from here, so... beats... beats your stupid... screwdriver." The recent activities had taken its toll on her energy and now each word was a bitter struggle.

"Do not insult the screwdriver." He said with a mock pout. "I'm just going to get it, I'll be right back."

He crawled away with the screwdriver and left her in darkness once more. The sooner he got back to the TARDIS the better; she fading fast now, the bandage was not stopping nearly enough of the bleeding. They needed the Sister of Infinite Schism, if he got her there everything would okay. He wouldn't leave her sleeping this time, screw their timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly shit, they would be linear. Just for a little while, whilst she got better. He didn't care; he'd tear a dozen holes in the universe for just a week where they could be normal.

River Song the ultimate companion. His true companion. His wife.

Her device locked in on the TARDIS almost instantaneously and he turned to crawl back to her. That's when he heard it. The faint beep of his screwdriver. The scanner flashing red.

'One new life form found.'

'Waiting for information on whereabouts.'

It was him. The monster, the rodent, the vermin, the thing.

The red dot sparked into life and he stared so intently his gaze alone almost smited the dot down. River sought out his face in the obscurity as the flashing light illuminated his features, she looked confused until she saw the blink of the scanner and understood at once.

"Doctor... no..."

The dot hurried away from them, each second it was getting further and further away. He knew he should stay here, get back to the TARDIS now but he was frozen with indecision. It was all he could see; him on top of her, touching her, moaning. He gagged and grabbed the side of the tunnel as faintness washed over him.

He couldn't just let him get away. The doctor lets down the ones he loves. But she wasn't just one of the ones he loved. She was the one and he had hurt her, left her for dead. Unlike the unknown perpetrator the doctor would not be unsuccessful; his prey would not escape with a shred of life left.

"I'm sorry. I have to." He turned and scurried away, lost to gloom.

"Doctor!" River screamed.

Then the rest of her senses joined her vision and sunk into darkness.