"Well this has been fun." River said pulling her gun from her side and pointing it at the Doctor, decidedly having had enough. "But you two are insane so I suggest you take me home now."
The Doctor glared at her from the controls and spoke with as much condescension as she'd ever heard from him. "And where would home be, River?"
"I don't..." River faltered as she tried desperately to remember her town and then county...even country. She couldn't even remember the planet name.
"Your memories have been gone a while." The Doctor said, slowly walking towards her. "I'm sorry, I am so sorry but your timeline has been so closely interwoven with mine that if you've forgotten me then...let's just say I'm not sure what remains."
He was a few feet from her now. "But we're here for you River we'll help you remember." He reached his arm out to lower her gun. Instead she panicked and fired. The Doctor smiled and snatched the gun from her as nothing happened before waving another sonic screwdriver in his hand as explanation.
"Oh River," He said, "In actual fact I'm surprised it took you so long to shoot me."
"Where did you get that?" She asked nodding to the screwdriver. "I searched you for weapons."
"The TARDIS gave me one." He said gesturing to the controls. "And please never turn my screwdriver into a weapon again."
"Or what?" River asked, crossing her arms.
"Or nothing." The Doctor said, furrowing his eyebrows. "I was just asking nicely."
River gaped at him slightly. "Are you for real."
"I think so." The Doctor said, pinching his arm curiously and flinching. River shook her head baffled. He turned back to the controls before turning rapidly back to River again. "And how many times, no alcohol near the console!"
River raised an eyebrow at him but was too stunned to say anything by the fact she'd tied him up and shot at him and he was angry about her having wine.
"Ummm Doctor?" Clara asked. "Do you think you could drop me off home before you..er...start catching up with your wife?"
The Doctor nodded and River laughed. "Not happening! Take me home."
"Your home doesn't exist." The Doctor bluntly replied.
"My home exists!" River cried defensively. She had children...but even their names were gone from her mind.
"Describe it then." The Doctor said moodlily.
"I-" River stopped. She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember anything. She racked her brains for something. "Why can I only remember a load of historical facts?" River asked out loud.
The Doctor looked up curiously. "When did the romans first invade Britain? Name the Egyptian goddess of cats and when did Caesar die?"
"55 BC, Bastet and 15th March 44BC." She rolled off quickly. "Why can I remember that but not my own parents?"
"Well..." The Doctor answered slowly in that infuriating way he had, as though the news broken slowly would somehow be better to hear. "You were an archaeologist, one of the few things in your life not greatly affected by me."
Her hands balled into fists at her sides. "Did my whole bloody life revolve around you?"
"Unfortunately yes." The Doctor answered.
"Well listen, Sweetie." River spat. "That's all over now."
"This is my stop!" Clara squealed and ran out of the door. Neither the Doctor nor River looked up. He swallowed hard and turned back to the controls.
"River Song kept a diary." The Doctor said. "I can go get it and it might trigger some memories."
"No." River said, pressing different buttons on the TARDIS to divert it. The Doctor glared at her annoyed and pressed buttons faster.
"Why not?"
"Because," River said, running to the dial and spinning it in the opposite direction to that the Doctor had just turned it in. "I'll read the memories and you'll expect me to be her but I'm not! They'll be stories, I won't have lived them! I'm not...her."
He relented from the controls and looked at her sadly. "No...no I suppose you aren't."
He was crazy. Completely and utterly mad. However she was stuck with him, they were in the middle of the time vortex again, she could think of no other explanation for that but she was far more certain that he'd kidnapped her and done something to her memory.
The way he looked at her though, with a sadness so deep that it made River unable to look at him for longer than a few seconds. The way the corners of his lips twitched ever so slightly when she spoke. The way he self-consciously adjusted his bow tie and hair whenever he thought she was looking. She knew he loved her but she reminded herself that crazed kidnappers could love her just as much as anyone else. Still, she couldn't cope with the permanent kicked puppy look on his face.
"And I'm not going to love you just because I'm supposedly your wife, sweetie so you can stop with that right now." She told him. She had to put him in his place before he got any ideas. "I don't do eyebrowless aliens."
"Right." The Doctor said nodding reluctantly. He looked lost. River's heart gave a slight tug but not enough to comfort him. She was, after all, the one with no memories stuck in the middle of space with a man she definitely did not trust. She didn't exactly not trust him either though, it was complicated. Something about him made her relax so that she had to consciously remind herself of what he was.
"I suppose you're tired." The Doctor told her. She opened her mouth to protest but had to shut it again to smother a yawn. The Doctor grinned slightly. River's hand twitched to slap it off of his face. "Reanimation." He explained. "It drains you, ironically."
He pulled the monitor closer to him and tapped it. "I'll have to design you a new room then." He said sadly. "I assume you won't want the old one."
River realised that if they were married what that room would mean and nodded hurriedly at the suggestion of a new one. Again the Doctor sadly smiled.
"Right well...up those stairs make a right then a left and it's the door straight ahead." He nodded awkwardly at her.
She tersely nodded back. It wasn't like her, she snogged complete strangers if they had nice eyes (and his were beautiful though she didn't want to think of that) but there were so many complicated feelings and history, well on his side at least, that forced her to avert eye contact in a most un-River like fashion. "Good night, Doctor."
He mumbled back a response and looked away sadly as she left. As she left she heard what could only be a drop of water falling onto the metal of the controls.
She slammed the door of her new room shut behind her and leant back against it breathing heavily. She suddenly became aware that her cheeks were damp. She was crying. She sat down in shock, unable to remember the last time she cried. She felt so sad. She'd never felt like this before, sure she'd been unhappy or upset but never sad, sad was deep and painful, it ran through her very bones and made her want to curl up so small she'd disappear.
All for that man.
And she didn't even know who he was.
She stayed on the floor for a few moments before pulling herself up. There was no point, after all, to cry for no reason. She needed to focus on escaping. She didn't trust herself enough to fly the TARDIS and he had her gun so she either needed to get a new one, though she doubted she'd be able to find her way back to her room with the metallic tree, or get her one back.
With new resolve she took in the room. It was quite large though excessively plain. The floor was cold metal as were the walls giving the place a harsh but futuristic quality. The bed was slim and shoved in the corner, the only furniture in the room given that the TARDIS had walk in wardrobes. In the corner was a slim metal door like the one behind her which after inspection she discovered led into a small, equally metallic bathroom.
She prayed the Doctor never got bored of time travel as he made an awful interior decorator. She stripped off her clothes and fell asleep almost instantly, hoping to wake up in her own house, wherever that would be though in reality planning on waking up early, when the Doctor would still be asleep.
