Yowzah Oneshot Collection (3)

58(G)

                 Sick at Stormcage

   TheSpaceHairAndTheSpaceIdiot

The Doctor twirled around the console, flipping switches and pulling levers. He put more effort than usual into plotting his destination, excitement coursing through his veins as the Tardis shuddered and wheezed around him.

Any adventure, any time or place was cause for celebration, but today was special. He was on his way to Stormcage to pick River up. He wasn't heading to some party with the chance of meeting up with her randomly, neither one of them was calling for the other's help, and today was not one of their pre-planned dates. It was one of the special days (and by special he meant perfectly frequent but no less wonderful) where he was simply popping in on his wife and swooping her up as a surprise.

He only hoped she wasn't already out on some other madcap adventure, leaving him to find only an empty cell and dozens of bothered and bewildered guards. That had happened on more than one occasion and it was never the most pleasant situation to land in.

As soon as the Tardis landed, he rushed over to the monitor, checking to make sure that River was indeed in her cell and saw her huddled under the blanket of her bed. This didn't strike him as strange at all. It was probably the middle of the night and when not in the middle of a war zone or equivalent madness, River did partake in a few hours of sleep most nights (and when they were together, the Doctor would join her but only because he would find himself incredibly bored without her next to him and not because he was in any way tired himself or because he simply liked to lay entangled with his wife and bury his nose in her hair as he fell asleep and wake to her head resting on his chest or any other nonsense like that. Definitely not.)

Itching to simply bound out the door and drag River from her bed, the Doctor nonetheless took a moment to check himself over in the reflective surface of the console. After checking his breath, smoothing his hair into just the right style, and straightening his bow tie, he finally deemed himself ready.

He stepped out of the Tardis, forgoing his usual impressive swagger since River wasn't even awake to see it yet, and crept slowly towards the cell. He pulled his sonic out and quickly unlocked the door, grateful when the sound didn't wake her. He may be only moments from waking her on purpose but he didn't want the harsh sound of the sonic to to be what did it.

He padded slowly closer to where she lay and it wasn't until he perched himself at the edge of her tiny, thin mattress that he noticed the first signs of something wrong. River wasn't just tucked under the thin blanket, she was huddled under it, clutching it around her shoulders even as she slept and now that he was close enough to see, he noticed she was shivering.

That alone would normally indicate just that she was freezing in this drafty cell with only a threadbare blanket to cover her, and while he wouldn't have been happy to find his wife kept under such conditions, it wouldn't have been cause for alarm. It was when he brought his hand up to gently cup her cheek, however, that he felt her skin ablaze under his palm.

Worry flooded both his hearts. It wasn't that, as part Time Lord, River was immune to sickness – even he, to the contrary of what he may admit, got sick every once in a while. But any illness severe enough to reduce River to her current state was cause for concern. River was usually an extremely light sleeper. After years of training and having to constantly be on alert, she usually awoke at the slightest sound or movement and here he was, resting on her bed for the better part of a minute after sonicing her door open and touching her face. She didn't appear any longer to simply be asleep and he thought it more likely whatever it was she was suffering from had knocked her out.

He tried not to let his worry overcome his senses – she would be fine. He just needed to get her to the Tardis and everything would be fine. Whatever this was, was obviously very not good but it hardly seemed life-threatening so long as he got her sorted out immediately.