It was the Doctor's turn to stare at her, his eyes wide and fearful. She didn't know him?

"Don't you recognise me?" He asked softly. Surly she was just kidding. Maybe this was River's definition of a joke. He'd done something, he decided, he'd done something that had hurt her so she was getting revenge.

She shook her head.

Possible brain damage (scans inconclusive)

Possible brain damage
Brain damage
Oh.
Oh God.

"You called me Melody." She looked up at him, blinking at him. She still looked scared. He didn't like that, Melody Pond was never scared. "Is that my name?" His eyes opened to an almost comical level.

"You don't know your own name?" His voice rose with his eyebrows, the squeak very unmanly. Not really what he'd been going for.

She shook her head. Oh God.

"Do you remember anything?" She shook her head again.

But then... She didn't know him. Hadn't he always, in the darkest part of his mind only the TARDIS knew even existed, sort of wished for this to happen? Of course, not like this, he'd never wish any harm on her. But for a chance to give her a better life. He knew that she'd never let him, she'd rather kill him again than lose him - not to say that made any sense - but for the chance to give her /her own life/, to not interfere... but she'd never...

But she didn't know him. She couldn't stop him.

Yes. This was his chance.

"What? 'Yes' what?" She repeated, cocking her head at him. Had he said that out loud?

"Yes. Why? Didn't you mean to?" She looked up at him, looking almost innocent. It really didn't suit her.

"Sorry." He told her. "I seem to be thinking aloud; I should stop that. I didn't mean to confuse you." Go on then" He grinned, perching on the side of her bed. "Ask away. Ask your questions and the answers shall be yours!" And when she laughed at him, she reminded him of his River.

"How can you guarantee you can answer them all?" She asked, leaning back against the head-rest of her little cot with a smug look on her face. She thought she'd caught him out with that, and to some degree she had: he hadn't thought of that. He wasn't supposed to know her - not that she knew that.

"I found your file." He stuttered, looking at her through his eye-lashes. He watched her inhale through her nose, something he'd seen her do many times before as her green eyes becoming darker. He glanced away. She didn't know him - he couldn't go around doing that to her.

"Any information on you was in there." It really was the lamest excuse in the history of the universe but it was the he could think of. He'd blame it on being distracted by having to change everything he did around her, making tiny modifications to change the way she saw him, but that really only took half his concentration. It had more to do with the ache in his chest. It was persistent and more painful than the pounding head-aches he got from eating eggs.

"My file?" She asked, raising a single eyebrow in a way that was just so totally River. There was that ache again. He nodded dumbly at her.

"Okay, Sooo..." She paused for a minuet, thinking deeply. "Melody: Is that my name? You never answered me."

He thought for a second, before he nodded his head "Yes. Melody Williams." It was, after all, the name she was supposed to have.

She nodded back at him, understanding.

"How old am I?"

A pause "43"

"Do I have a family?"

He grimaced. " No."

"Who are you?"

"Me?" He asked "I'm no-one."

"Okay Mr. Nobody, how did I get here?"

"Ah." He raised a finger at her, wagging it at her, his face falling. "That, I have to admit, I have no clue. Actually, that's a lie. I know how you got here in my medical room. I carried you. But only because of how hurt you where. There was so much blood Ri-Melody. But why you where here - here being where I found you - I have no idea."

He'd almost slipped up, nearly called her River and how would her explain that? That would be a mess. And that was an understatement.

"Your medical room?" She echoed and he had to smile slightly at that. She did pick up on then strangest of things.

"Well, my space-ship's medical room technically but it's my shop, so logically it's my medical room." There was an irritated voice in the back of his mind; the TARDIS didn't fully agree with him. River nodded her understanding and picked up the metal devise he'd forgotten he'd left by her bed side not five minutes ago. It felt like a life time ago. "What's-

"Ahhh! No!" He yelled. He jumped towards her to take it from away her but she scrambled back, afraid of him. His hearts tightened in his chest. He didn't like that thought: her afraid of him?

"Sorry." Her voice was small, so small, and it was unsettling. "I only wanted to know what this has to do with," She waved her arm towards her stomach and then to her head "my current condition - And my splitting headache." Her voice lifted towards the end of her sentence and he could almost see her mind at work, deciding that he offered her no threat. He, however, couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Does it hurt?" He asked, brushing two fingers against her fore head as gently as he could, pulling his mind away from the familiarity of her own as he did. She drew him in, in every way possible, the desire to touch her almost annoyingly potent. She nodded up at him, and he felt the movement of her head thought the two fingers on her skin rather than saw her. There wasn't much he could see around her.

As he turned his back to search the cabinets behind him, he let himself ponder; if she didn't know him now, she would never have called him to the library all those years ago. She wouldn't have … that day would never have ended the way it did, no. But would he have still crashed landed in Amelia's garden, he wondered. Would he have still taken Amy with him? Would she have still married Rory? Would Melody still have been born? He was sure the answers of all these questions would still be 'yes'. She would still exist, but as Melody, not River. A self correcting paradox.

The bottle of painkillers was tucked into the corner of the cupboard, next to a bottle of Aspirin. He paused, one eighteenth of his brain wondering why he had it, while the rest was in the state of epiphany. She was part TimeLord. He couldn't just let her go, there where many things that could cause her ignorance to injure her - or worse. Even if he chose to ignore all the possible ruptures him time his plan could cause, this was going to be a lot harder than he had originally planned.

He handed her the bottle and refilled her glass of water, instructing her to take only one, putting two of the three she had poured onto her hand backing to the bottle himself. He grinned to himself when she rolled her eyes at him. He kissed her cheek when she thanked him.

"So what do we do?" She was looking up at him with a single eyebrow raised and he could almost kid himself that his River was back with him, that she remembered being his, despite his objections to being hers.

"Pardon?" He pulled a face – he couldn't remember talking to he about any of the plans he'd come up with.

"Sorry you said 'But why you where here I have no idea'" She imitated his lower voice quite well actually despite how terrible he was at imitating her… but the, River had always been better than him at most things. Not that he'd ever have admitted that to her.

When he'd had the chance.

"I just assumed that you wouldn't sit around doing nothing." She continued sweetly and he jerked his eyes from when they'd fallen on the floor. "You just didn't seem the type."

"You're absolutely right." He grinned at her "I was going to find out what happened here. Don't panic though, Miss Williams, I can take you home first." Were ever she wanted home to be.

But she looked thoughtful, staring at his bowtie. "Actually, can I come with you?" She hedged, looking up and her too-green eyes met his. "You said that these people tried to hack into my brain, right? Well, I'd like to meet them."

He scratched at his cheek. He knew better than to try to persuade River to do something that she didn't want to or not to do something she wanted to. But if being in that place, if she remembered… "Please?" She whispered and it was so much more than begging.

"Come on then." He grinned, pointing his head to the door. She jumped down off the bed and ran to his side.

And as she walked out the door beside him, her small little hand grasped his.

I'm soo sorry this took so long but people seemed abdiment about not leaving me at home alone... Not to mention how long this chapter took to write, the amount of mental blocks I had!
I hope the next chapter wont take so long!
X