July Secret Santa for Matilda3948 (Doctor Who, 12/River)

[PropertyofCora]

Surprise, it's me!  @matilda3948 I have had so much fun working on this for you, and re-watching to get myself even more invested in it, that I couldn't bring myself to let it go.  Oh boy, this story has gone through a lot of different versions.  Some so sad I was crying, and then I had to stop myself and realize that's not much of a gift haha.  But here we are, so I'm forcing myself to let it go and hope that you enjoy it.  I got very excited to write some Doctor Who again, and remembered you loving 12/River, so here's something of them.  Hopefully it's what you wanted and you enjoy it.  I had so much fun, I think I'll be working some of those other ideas into other stories or drabbles on here soon.

Without further ado...

 

Never Let Him See the Damage

It was a mantra River Song frequently repeated in her mind, an echoing instruction on a permanent loop.  The Doctor didn’t like to see any weakness, it made him sad, and even worse, made him look at her like he could only see the human half, and she hated him when he looked at her that way.

It was because of this need to hide the damage that River was currently hiding in the TARDIS library.  Hopefully, should the Doctor come looking, she’d reroute him for a few hours to give River a bit of time to pull herself together.  Because if he did indeed find her, he’d most certainly look at her that way, for she was currently struggling through one of the most very human damages of all—the common cold.

Her throat had felt it first, from a tickle to an aching scratch that clawed its way through her chest and beat at her muscles until they creaked against one another, reaching into her temples and making them throb in a dull beat.  The symptoms had been miserable, but she could hide them from him.  He wouldn’t see what he didn’t want to. 

Now, however, it was becoming increasingly apparent to River that she would not be able to hide the damage so easily, for the cold had moved into her nose, turning it into a red, twitching, dripping mess, constantly threatening to burst forth with colossal sneezes at the slightest hint of a breeze.

NnggxxSHH! NgghhuhESHOO! River sneezed into her soggy handkerchief, giving up on attempting to stifle halfway through the last.  Holding them in only made it worse.

Huh… hhhnnnnnnngguSHHHHh! She sneezed again, unexpectedly spraying the air from the force of it. 

The tickle wouldn’t leave her poor nose alone, and while blowing may have provided some well-desired reprieve, she’d only brought one handkerchief to the library with her, and the thought of touching the overused wet cloth to her sore nostrils only made her cringe.  River closed her eyes and rubbed tiredly at the bridge of her nose, willing the dreadful cold and its insistent tickle to leave her.  She was River bloody Song, capable of doing anything and escaping anywhere… surely she could escape this cold.

HuhhSHHHHHeehhh!  Or not.

River blinked her eyes open and paused.  A new, fresh and crisply folded handkerchief was sitting on the table in front of her where it definitely had not been before.  Her confusion quickly gave way to a smile and she patted the table in thanks to the TARDIS.  “You always seem to know just what I need,” she said while grabbing up the cloth and blowing her nose greedily into the soft fabric.

“Not always, but close,” the Doctor agreed, startling River in her seat.  She turned too fast, making her head spin in protest, but ignored it.  The Doctor was behind her, had been for who knows how long, and she dreaded the things he might have heard. 

River crumpled the handkerchief in her lap and straightened herself up, trying to look as together as she could, though she felt like doing nothing more than collapsing into a bed. 

“Doctor,” she croaked, then cleared her throat as heat rushed to her cheeks. 

None of this was going according to plan, which was very out of the ordinary for her, and she didn’t quite like it at all.

She had tried her best to avoid him, yet there he was, somehow standing behind her with his grey hair and pristine suit, arms crossed across his chest while he stared down; River couldn’t bear to look up and see that look that would surely be spread across his face.  She felt awful enough already.

Her cold must have been interfering with her usual luck, because just when River was feeling it couldn’t possibly get any worse, the tickle returned with a vengeance to her nose.  It was all she could do to cram the rumpled handkerchief against her nose before she burst forth with another series of sneezes.

Hehh… hehhhh..nnngxxSHHH, guhhSHHEhh, huh… h-nnnggSHHH!

She breathed in a shaky breath, testing to see if she was done for the moment and sighing.

“You sound terrible,” the Doctor pointed out, entirely unnecessarily.

River sniffled and winced at the sound.  “You shouldn’t sneak up on a girl like that,” she pointed out, ignoring his statement.

“I was afraid to interrupt you mid-sneeze.”  His accent was thick, something she still had to get used to.

“Your face may be older but you’re still such a child.”

“You should be in bed, not hiding in the library.”

River raised a carefully structured eyebrow.  “Well if it’s bed you want, you should just ask, Sweetie.”

“River,” he growled with a frown. 

Nevertheless, she stood, stalking toward him with just a little less zing than usual.  She pressed herself against him, smirking as he froze, knowing she had him in her grasp just enough to distract him from…

The Doctor whipped out his sonic and held it up to her, looking far too satisfied for her liking.

“Don’t you dare!” River gasped, grabbing the sonic screwdriver from his hand and quickly stuffing it down her dress.  She took a step back and eyed him challengingly.

The Doctor, seemingly undeterred, rolled his eyes and stepped closer.  River covered her chest with her arms, determined to make it more difficult—because honestly did he really think she’d just let him sonic her without asking?—but in a surprise move the Doctor’s hand reached high and landed on her forehead.

“If you insist on me using the pudding brains’ methods, I will.”

River clenched her fist, pulling her strength together to gear up for a battle.  She was halted, however, by a loud

Huh… huhhRUSHHHoo!

And it was not her own.

“You just sneezed.”  River blinked at the Doctor in surprise.

“No, never, I…”

“Oh, but you did.”  She’d felt it, just barely, in a light mist that coated her shoulder when he failed to turn away quickly enough.  “The Doctor sneezed,” she teased, eyes lighting up with renewed energy.

He snuffled pathetically, and for the first time in days she truly risked a look at his face, shocked to see deep circles beneath his eyes and an unmistakable red tinge around his nostrils to rival her own.

“My my, if I didn’t know better I’d say you had a cold, dear.”

He reached up a hand and rubbed his knuckles furiously against his nose.  “Ahh, a cold.  Yes, that makes sense.  Must be it,” he muttered, seemingly more to himself than to her.

He snuffled again, making River wince with sympathy.

“But surely that isn’t possible,” River said with a reluctant laugh.  Her own itch was threatening to resurface, twitching just below the edge.  She scrunched her nose slightly, just enough to keep it under control.

“What’s not?” The Doctor blinked at her through his grumpy eyes, brought back from whatever train of thought had distracted him.

“You getting a cold as well.”  He could be such a difficult man.

He jumped suddenly, startling River and making her lose the focus that was keeping her nose carefully in check.  The tickle burned through her nasal passages, increasing with a full frenzy of motion.  Don’t you dare, she silently threatened it.  With barely enough time to lift the crumpled cloth to her nose, River shot forward into yet another series of sneezes, this time less contained.

Guhhhh… huhSHHHHHeeh!  GuhSHhhhEHH!  Heh…. Huuggghhh…SHHHeh!

“Ha, so you admit it!  You’re sick, that means bed.”

River blew her nose and rolled her eyes, still glaring at him over the handkerchief.  “I think we both know I’m not so easily distracted,” she countered.

“Aren’t you always distracted by the idea of hopping into bed?”

“Doctor.”

He snuffled again and seemed to be looking for something in his pockets.  He, on the other hand, was definitely easily distracted.

“Fide,” he sighed, sounding congested.  Another snuffle.  “Theoretically, the common cold has been evolving throughout time, differently on different planets.  I suppose I could have caught the same thing as you.”

“Then why haven’t I noticed it before now?” she asked skeptically.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he began sarcastically, “Maybe because you’ve been too busy hiding off in the library all week?”

River watched, almost awestruck, as just then his nose seemed to twitch and scrunch before her eyes.  The Doctor parted his lips and narrowed his eyes, like he was fighting against it, but it kept coming.  He blinked rapidly, and she guessed she might even be able to feel both heartbeats quicken if she reached out her hands a few inches further.   Slowly, the Doctor raised a hand to his mouth, and let loose with another sneeze.

HuhhhrUSHHHHooo!  He paused, but didn’t lower his hand.  Huh…hehhh… Rivehhhh…

She looked at him, trying to guess what he wanted but unable to come up with anything as the doctor lost himself to another booming sneeze.

HuhhREESHHoo!

Still his hand remained at his face, but the desperate look in his eyes waned.

“Hadky,” he croaked.

So that explained what he’d been searching for.  “I’m afraid I don’t have anything.  If you needed your handkerchief, why’d you give it to me?” River looked at the cloth now crumpled in her fist.

With a heavy sigh, the Doctor snuffled thickly once more, then slowly lowered his hand and held it out awkwardly at his side, like he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to touch and contaminate anything.

“You really shouldn’t do that,” River pointed out.

“Well I haven’t got many options, seeing as I gave mine away to you,” he countered.

She rolled her eyes.  “You should have kept it if you knew you’d need it, you ridiculous man.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I wanted you to have it.”  He waved her off.

River sighed, but smiled secretly to herself, touched by the thought.  Sometimes, she thought, it wasn’t so bad to have a man that saw the damage so keenly.  Even if he did sneak up on her in the library.

Sometimes, it was nice to have someone who saw the damage and still wanted to stick around.

With a smirk, River cupped his face in one palm and traced one of the wrinkles she was still getting to know, ending at his nose where she bopped his reddened appendage with a her finger pointedly.  As if pressing a button had activated it, the Doctor turned to the side and sneezed twice more into his elbow.

Huh… HurSHHHOo! HuRUSHooo!

“Come on, Sweetie.  You may not like how slow humans are at some things, but I happen to know a few cold remedies from Earth that will make us both a lot less miserable.”

 

The end...?

[matilda3948]

58 minutes ago, PropertyofCora said:

“You sound terrible,” the Doctor pointed out, entirely unnecessarily.

River sniffled and winced at the sound.  “You shouldn’t sneak up on a girl like that,” she pointed out, ignoring his statement.

“I was afraid to interrupt you mid-sneeze.”  His accent was thick, something she still had to get used to.

“Your face may be older but you’re still such a child.”

“You should be in bed, not hiding in the library.”

River raised a carefully structured eyebrow.  “Well if it’s bed you want, you should just ask, Sweetie.”

“River,” he growled with a frown. 

I could quote the whole thing but this bit!

Omg!! I love this story sooooo much!  12 and River are my favorite! It's so sassy and fluffy and teasing

Thank you so much!!  Now I'm off to read it ten more times

[Subtly Clashing Wishes]

Very cute. I'm just getting to know 12 myself and from what I already have learned he and River are a great match. I enjoyed this story with each being sassily considerate to the other. Loved the twist at the end with he being sick as well. 

[AngelEyes]

I Adore this!!! The sass! They are so perfect together! Great job!

[Kaze Wo Hiku]

I love 12 and River together and this is just perfect! The sass, the looks, the energy between them, the caring. Mmmm. Great job

[TheCakeIsAlive]

This River and 12 fluff was exactly what the Doctor ordered. ^^

Greatly enjoyed, thank you very much!

[PropertyofCora]

On 7/30/2017 at 10:57 PM, matilda3948 said:

I could quote the whole thing but this bit!

Omg!! I love this story sooooo much!  12 and River are my favorite! It's so sassy and fluffy and teasing

Thank you so much!!  Now I'm off to read it ten more times

YAY!!!!  I'm so SO pleased that you liked it.  I had so much fun writing it for you, I already loved them, but I think you've made me love them even more.  Hopefully I'll have time to write some more of them soon.

On 7/31/2017 at 0:02 AM, Sanguine Cheerful Worrier said:

Very cute. I'm just getting to know 12 myself and from what I already have learned he and River are a great match. I enjoyed this story with each being sassily considerate to the other. Loved the twist at the end with he being sick as well. 

Yes, he grew on me so quickly, and then when The Husbands of River Song happened... how could I not love that?  So glad you enjoyed, thanks!

23 hours ago, AngelEyes said:

I Adore this!!! The sass! They are so perfect together! Great job!

Awe, thank you!  Haha I love that everyone is picking up on the sass.  I didn't even realize at the time that I was writing it that way until it was finished.  Earlier drafts were so depressing, I probably was trying to keep myself in a lighter mood XD

17 hours ago, Kaze wo Hiku said:

I love 12 and River together and this is just perfect! The sass, the looks, the energy between them, the caring. Mmmm. Great job

Thank you so much, that's very kind of you!  I'm glad you liked how I wrote them.

9 hours ago, TheCakeIsAlive said:

This River and 12 fluff was exactly what the Doctor ordered. ^^

Greatly enjoyed, thank you very much!

A+ for this pun.  And thanks so much!

[silentdreamer789]

This is amazing!