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The doctor didn’t sleep all that often. She didn’t need nearly as much sleep as humans did. So most nights she spent her time tinkering on her ship while her companions were sleeping. She usually still spent more time sleeping than she strictly needed to because, well, she didn’t have all that much better to do, and she did quite like sleeping most of the time. It was nice to just take some time to relax, to take a break from all the running and saving the world.
She’d been sleeping even less than usual recently, though. She doesn’t think her companions have noticed, they’d never seen her go to bed, so they wouldn’t notice she’s stopped.
She’s just- She’s been busy, lately. That’s all. She doesn’t have the time to be sleeping. She’s got stuff to do. Y’know? Stuff. That she’s got to do. That’s really important. That she needs to get done as quickly as possible. Yeah. Just busy. Absolutely nothing to worry about.
Ok- well, she might have been lying, just a little bit. She hadn’t slept properly in months, and she wasn’t really busy for all of that. Well- actually, she hadn’t been busy for any of it. She’d been keeping herself busy, if that counts. She’d been trying very hard to come up with reasons not to sleep, stuff to do instead of sleeping. But, well. It could have waited. She could definitely have slept.
She just didn’t really want to.
She doesn’t even have a good reason why. She’s just- well. She’s lonely. Which seems ridiculous, really. She’s got her fam- and even if she didn’t, she’s spent centuries alone. She should be able to handle sleeping on her own. She’s a several thousand year old timelord, for someone’s sake, she should be able to sleep on her own.
She just- can’t quite bring herself to. She’s gone into her bedroom a few times. Hell, she’d gotten into bed, and then she still just couldn’t quite get herself to actually sleep.
So she stayed awake. She spent her nights tinkering on the tardis, or planning their next adventures, or sometimes just reading in the library. And it’s been fine. She’s been- she’s been fine. Really, she could go a few months without sleep. She’d get over whatever it is that she’s been dealing with soon enough, and then it’ll be back to normal. She didn’t even really notice. She didn’t even really feel that tired, most of the time. And yeah, maybe her reaction times had gone down a little and she almost got shot a few times because of it, but she was fine. She was handling everything perfectly well. Even if she kept dropping her sonic and she kept zoning out of conversations. She was perfectly fine. Really, barely affected at all.
The fam was asleep, and the Doctor had promised they’d go somewhere. She didn’t really remember where she’d promised they’d go. Yaz had asked her to take her somewhere, and she’d said yes. Because of course she did. She’d just- guess where she’d wanted to go. And if it was wrong, she could probably blame the tardis for it.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by the feeling of landing. She didn’t remember deciding to land anywhere- she hasn’t really touched the tardis controls in a bit, as far as she’s aware, but, well. Things had been slipping her mind quite a lot lately. She probably had a good reason to land here. She’ll probably remember once she steps out the door.
She walked over to the door, stumbling slightly more than she’d admit. She pulled the doors open, leaning on the doorframe slightly, and looking out to see- “River” she whispered, almost reverently, at seeing the instantly recognisable curly hair on the back of her wife’s head. River turned around to face her, abandoning the book she’d been reading on a nearby table. River’s face lit up as she saw what she instantly knew as the doctor leaning against the doorframe or her tardis. “Hello sweetie. Got a new face, I see? I have to say, I quite like what I’m seeing so far.” The Doctor rewarded her with a small smile, before blinking a few times and looking around the room in confusion. “Wha- where are we? How’d I get h’re?” Her eyes shifted back to River, a small frown appearing on her face, before she added, “‘re you- are you real?” River’s smile dropped, her expression quickly turning into a frown. “What’s wrong, sweetie? Of course I’m real.” The Doctor just blinked at her a bit more, frowning slightly in disbelief.
River quickly got up from the couch she’d been sitting on, realising that the Doctor had not come to visit her just as a social call. She walked over to the Doctor, whose leaning on the doorframe was starting to seem a lot less casual, and a lot more like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
River carefully placed her hand on the Doctor’s cheek, smiling a little when she leaned into it instinctively. “What’s wrong, love?” The Doctor just grumbled slightly in response, causing River to sigh lightly. “You’re going to have to tell me what’s wrong if you want me to help you with it, darling. Otherwise you shouldn’t have landed here.” The Doctor frowned and grumbled out “I didn’t” before pointing vaguely into the tardis, “she did.” River nodded slightly in understanding. “Ah, so you’re refusing to take care of yourself, huh? Well, let’s get you inside then.” The Doctor grumbled something unintelligible in response, but let herself be pulled inside, and leaned heavily into River’s side as she was pulled along further into the tardis. The door closed behind them on its own.
It didn’t take River very long to figure out what was wrong after that. The Doctor occasionally forgot to take care of themselves for a while. And, well, the tardis cared rather a lot about her thief, so she enlisted the help of River whenever something like this happened. And from how the Doctor was practically falling asleep on her shoulder, it really wasn’t that difficult to come to a conclusion.
So, River pulled the Doctor along to her bedroom. When the Doctor figured out where they were going, she grumbled something into River’s shoulder that sounded rather a lot like “You know me too well.” But she didn’t complain any further, and just let herself be pulled along as River’s hand started carefully running through her hair.
Once they got to the bedroom, the Doctor practically collapsed on the bed, and River resigned herself to pulling off the Doctor’s boots and coat, hoping that her usual outfit would be comfortable enough to sleep in. River stripped herself down to just a comfortable t-shirt and underwear, before climbing into bed next to the Doctor, and pulling the blanket over the both of them, opening her arms as the Doctor moved over to her, pressing her face into River’s neck.
River smiled slightly at how clingy her wife was being, as she wrapped one arm around her, and moved the other to lightly play with the Doctor’s hair. She could almost feel the Doctor smiling into her neck, followed by a small whisper of “Thanks for looking after me.” River just shushed her lightly, “Of course, sweetie. Go to sleep, darling. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
As it turns out, when you sleep for the first time in several months, you can end up sleeping for quite a while. At the very least, long enough for your friends to notice when they wake up, and you haven’t.
The Fam had woken up before the Doctor did. They’d been in the console room for a while, with no sign of her, before they decided to go looking for her. They were a little worried- They’d never woken up before her before, and the Doctor hadn’t told them she’d be going anywhere.
They felt a little weird going into her bedroom but, well, they were worried about her. Yaz opened the door as quietly as she could, carefully poking her head in, stopping in stunned silence as she looked in to see the Doctor asleep on the chest of a woman she’d never seen before.
The woman hadn’t noticed her come in yet, she was looking down at the Doctor’s sleeping face with such an open look of deep fondness and love it almost seemed inappropriate to watch. Yaz carefully closed the door, not wanting to break the soft silence of the moment, and gestured to Ryan and Graham to follow her as she walked back to the console room as quietly as possible.
Once there, she turned to a confused Ryan and Graham. “She’s fine. She’s just sleeping. She looked like she needed the rest, really. We should probably just leave her be for the day.” Ryan and Graham nodded, and Yaz let out a breath at how easily they believed her- she wasn’t really lying, she just didn’t want to risk outing the Doctor, or the mysterious woman, whoever she was. Besides, if she told them the truth, they might want to ask the Doctor more questions, and she’d never seen the Doctor so peaceful, she didn’t want to be the one to break that.
River had noticed the door opening, of course. She hadn’t been awake for all that long, but she was still aware of her surroundings. But she figured that if it had been anyone dangerous, the tardis would have warned her. Besides, the Doctor tended to travel with a whole gaggle of humans, and she assumed it was one of them. Her wife was so gorgeous while she slept, she couldn’t get herself to pull her eyes away. She heard the door click shut a little later, and she quickly flicked up her eyes to see the room was still empty. River figured whoever had come in saw the Doctor asleep, and clearly well cared for, and decided it was better to leave her alone.
River entertained herself for the next few hours until the Doctor woke up by admiring her while she slept, and softly playing with her hair. The Doctor never looked as at peace as she did while she slept. Hell, sometimes she managed to look stressed even while she slept. So, really, she looked especially at peace now. Probably more at peace than River’s ever seen her. Her brow furrows slightly at that thought. What had she been dealing with that she’d let go this completely at the smallest promise of safety. Well, that was a conversation they’d save for later. For now, though, she’d watch her wife while she slept, and enjoy the peaceful silence in the room.
The Doctor woke up slowly. She was comfortable and warm. All three of those were rare for her. Most of the time she woke up quickly, nearly instantly jumping out of bed to run off on her next adventure. She tended to wake up cold, too. She usually forgot to turn on the heating before going to sleep, and she had a tendency to kick off the blankets in her sleep.
Maybe she should be a bit more concerned about her current circumstances, but there was a soft hand in her hair and a warm body next to her, so instead she just pushed slightly more into the warmth, humming slightly. The hand moving in her hair faltered slightly, before a warm and familiar, oh so familiar voice speaks up above her. “Are you awake, sweetie?”
The Doctor responded by grumbling and pushing her face further into her shoulder, before slowly blinking her eyes open and looking up at River. River. She was really there. She hadn’t just dreamt her up in a sleep deprived haze. She’d come back. Well- realistically, she was just at a different point in her timeline. Still, though, the Doctor couldn’t quite stop the tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, deciding to close them instead and drop her face back down into the crook of River’s neck.
River giggled slightly, she could feel the rumble of her voice through her body. “Good morning, darling.” The Doctor decided she’d much rather look at her wife, and she opened her eyes back up, sitting up slightly so she could look at River properly. She couldn’t stop a soppy, way too open smile from breaking out on her face. “Good morning.” River smiled back at her, pulling her in slightly to press a soft kiss to her forehead. “Did you sleep well? You looked like you needed it.”
The Doctor dropped her eyes slightly, a little embarrassed. “Yeah. I’m sorry- I just- I hadn’t really slept properly in a while.” River carefully pushed some of the Doctor’s hair out of her face, before replying “Don’t be sorry, sweetie. I’ll always be here to take care of you when you need it.” The Doctor smiles at her again, pressing a soft kiss to her lips, before dropping her head back down on River’s chest, letting her eyes slip closed.
River lightly petted the Doctor’s hair, smiling down at her sleepy wife. “You can sleep for a bit longer if you want, love. I’ll still be here when you wake up.” The Doctor fell back asleep a few minutes later, content to spend the day in bed with River. Well, content to spend the rest of her life there, if given the opportunity.
She’d wake up again a little later, and she’d have a proper talk with River, and introduce her to the Fam. But for now, she’s asleep in her wife’s arms, and she’s more comfortable and happy than she’s been in months.