Why had he even bothered? A drunkard without a drill, war on the moon….none of it matters.
Jenny valiantly makes one last attempt. "There's a man on Praed Street with an invisible wife."
He stiffens, all annoyance buried by a spade of pain. She doesn't know–can't know– what he sees in the TARDIS corridors. It's not a memory. It's not time spillage. But inside an 11-dimensional being, echoes do funny things. He can here her voice laughing, teasing, just…talking.
Sometimes, he can hear his past self answer.
"Maybe he just…doesn't have a wife."
Till death do us part? Human rubbish! That was no part of his vows. They're both Time Lords. Death is a minor inconvenience, a sprained ankle in the race of life. You limp briefly, heal, and move on.
He does have a wife. She's just …inconvenienced for a time. Incapacitated, that's the word. She'll be up and running any day now.
Any day….that's what the Doctor said.