AN: I'm so, so sorry I am not abandoning this story, just life and things, craziness, the usual. So yeah. I have the next chapter written I think so it shouldn't be a wait. Okay... Here we go. If this is horrible, I'm sorry. I own nothing.
The first thing the Doctor registered as he awoke was that there was an insistent pain in his head and the familiar feel of cool iron around his wrists.
He rolled his eyes.
"Can't you all think of anything more ingenious than manacles? Come on."
He immediately regretted the words as he went into a seizure from the poison.
He raised his head back up, panting, a mixture of blood and spittle left on his lips.
There was a cool laugh and a woman's voice cut through the Doctor's blackness- opening his eyes hurt too much.
"Here you are, the mighty Doctor, weakened by a mere cut," the obviously female voice sighed, sounding a little disappointed. "I expected better of you, from the Monk's report. Oh well. I shall still have quite a lot of fun with you before you die," she laughed wickedly. "For example, I know exactly where to press on your manacles to make you have another seizure- which, even if you survive this, repeated seizures might have a debilitating effect on that wonderful brain of yours," she sighed gleefully. "What a SHAME that would be. But," and here the voice became mock-serious, "I forget my manners. I am Madam Kovarian. The lovely man you had the pleasure of meeting is one of the Headless Monks. His name is of no importance to you."
"What," the Doctor winced, his voice sore from disuse, feeling the pain tingling at the base of his spine. "Have you done with Amy and Rory?" he almost went into another seizure, but he forced the urge back. He WOULD conquer his pain.
Kovarian laughed bitterly.
"That is no concern of yours. Much longer, nothing will be any concern of yours," she leaned in closer to the Doctor's face, so he could almost feel her breath. "Because you're going to be dead."
The Doctor would have flinched, but he was too weak and numb with pain to do anything that would not trigger another seizure.
The door slammed.
Kovarian turned around suddenly.
A more welcome female voice rang out.
"Not if I have anything to do about it," a Scottish voice rang out.
"Or me," Rory's welcome voice followed.
"Okay, okay, enough with introductions, let's get this party started," River said.
A shot rang out and the Doctor winced from the sound of the impact. A body crumpled with it.
Rory stepped gingerly around the body. "Is she-"
"No," River cut in, "Just unconscious," she turned to the Doctor, gently stroking his fevered forehead, "Oh sweetie," she murmured, "What have they done to you?"
"M'fine," the Doctor slurred, trying to reassure her.
"Oh yeah," River answered sarcastically. "Just poisoned and about to die and all you can say is you're fine."
"That's about the Doctor for you," Amy called over her shoulder from her position at the door. "We need to go soon. I already can hear soldiers moving," she added.
"Sweetie, I need your sonic. Can you tell me where it is?" River cooed, in a voice softer than she normally would use.
"In- my left pocket," the Doctor said weakly.
As River lightly brushed against his chest to get to his left pocket, the Doctor barely suppressed a groan and resisted the urge to vomit again.
"Shh," River soothed, "You're going to make it."
She grabbed the sonic and quickly undid the manacles.
The Doctor collapsed weakly into her arms.
"Amy! Rory! Little help here!" River called.
The Ponds quickly came over to support the Doctor between themselves.
"Sweetie, look at me," River requested softly.
The Doctor weakly raised his head and opened his eyes.
The sight of them tore through River's heart.
They were glazed, unfocused, unseeing, devoid of all the life and vivacity that normally filled them.
Gulping down her unshed tears, River asked him, "Can you make it if I use the Vortex Manipulator to get back to the TARDIS?"
The Doctor nodded slowly then let his head fall back down.
He went limp.
"Okay," River said, "We have to do this quickly. Everyone link arms."
Amy rolled her eyes. "Like we have a choice on that."
River ignored her, and typing the coordinates into the vortex manipulator, caused them all to disappear as soon as soldiers came rushing into the room.
The TARDIS hummed in anger and concern as they reappeared in the console room.
"Oh, gosh, he's stopped breathing," River said nervously, tugging at her hair, "What do I do, Rory?"
Rory grabbed her wrist and looked her in the eye. "Let me do this, River."
He quickly kneeled by the Doctor, doing CPR quickly and silently, interspersed with periods of mouth to mouth respiration.
After what seemed like ages, even though it was a matter of moments, Rory breathed a sigh of relief.
"He's breathing again, though shallowly. What he really needs is an antidote." He turned to River, "Can you help me carry him to the med bay?" She nodded nervously. He nodded briskly back and turned to Amy, "And you, just look beautiful." He smiled softly at her. Amy smiled slightly back.
Between him and River, the Doctor, who was surprisingly a dead weight in their arms, was brought to the med bay.
Once in there, River seemed more calm and comfortable.
While Rory stared bewildered at the foreign medicines, River picked out the antidote easily.
She quickly filled a syringe and handed it to Rory.
"Here," she grinned slightly, "Use this."
"Thanks," Rory said, taking it bewilderedly and inserting it into the Doctor's vein.
He was relieved to hear the Doctor's breaths get deeper and his pulse get stronger as the syringe was slowly released.
"The Doctor's just asleep now," Rory announced.
Amy sighed in relief.
"Mind if I'm the only one there when he wakes up?" River asked.
"Not at all," said Amy, winking, and shooing a confused Rory out.
When they were alone, River slowly caressed the Doctor's floppy hair.
She thought about the amount of pain he had been in- and was still in undoubtedly- and winced a little.
This man deserved so much.
And yet he got so little of what he should.
River sighed, shaking her head.
Suddenly she remembered how much pain her light touch against the Doctor's chest had caused him, and gasped a little at the realization.
"Oh, they wouldn't dare," she said.
She gently cut open his shirt.
The inside was caked with blood and pus.
But then she saw the symbol.
Tears gathered in her eyes.
The cut was deep and infected and she remembered Kovarian's words to the Doctor that she had overheard.
I expected better of you, from the monk's report.
"How could he not show pain while they were doing THIS to him?" she whispered.
She could feel the TARDIS' anger pulsing in the back of her mind at what they had done to her thief.
Sighing, River got some ointment and gauze from among the TARDIS medical supplies.
First, she cleaned the wound gently with alcohol, gently wiping the caked blood away.
The Doctor whimpered a little in his sleep, tossing and turning with fever.
River wet a cloth and put it on his forehead, hoping to assuaged the aftereffects of the poison.
She went back to the cut, spreading ointment in soothing waves across the cut, and finished by laying soft gauze down. She could bandage it when he could sit up for her to wrap it around him.
Then she sat down to wait.
If River is a little OOC, I'm sorry, I've never written for her before. I was kind of going for a softer side of her- I mean, she obviously loves the Doctor and I'm pretty sure the effect him being hurt or in pain would have on her would be fairly great- she is his wife after all- so I tried to make it still River without being weird. So yeah. Thanks for reading!