He had made her a promise. He had promised he wouldn't change anything, not one thing, "don't you dare". He had promised. But it was a promise he couldn't keep. Not now. Not this time.
She couldn't get mad not this time, she must need him as much as he needed her.
Before he could even touch the console she began humming, then the familiar vworp vworp followed, the TARDIS knew him, she left the breaks on for him. the sound always comforted him.
The trip felt far to long, but as soon as it landed he knew it was in fact to short. He had to stop for a minute and take a deep breath before he could force himself to open the door. When he did what he saw took his one heart and sent it careening into the other. she sat there her hair singed and smoking slightly, and somehow even messier then usual.
She smiled at him in a very tired way and said with little of her usual flirtatious gusto "and what sort of time do you call this?"
"Sorry I'm late." he said as a glistening tear rolled onto his cheek.
She grinned. "I knew you'd come." She whispered hoarsely. Her eyes shone bright with tears.
He tried to say something so utterly witty and romantic that it would be told for the rest of time as the most romantic and tragic story ever told. They would be more tragic then Romeo and Juliet, or Tristan and Isolde, or even Cleopatra and Marc Antony.
But his voice caught on the ocean of tears in his throat.
She tried to smile but this time it just turned into a grimace, "I know my love. I know."
And in her eyes he could see everything he couldn't say.
at some point in recent minutes he had walked over and was now holding her in his arms.
The light in her eyes was dimming. The light that never once gone out since he first met her. That spark that made her River, his River.
She looked up at him "I didn't think I'd see you again." she said her voice infused with pain, and not just from the electricity that still coursed through her body making her shake.
"But I'm right there" he said with a small bit of humor in his voice pointing at the man handcuffed to the wall who refused to look, to intrude in this private moment however much it was also his. The Doctor was playing a dangerous game crossing his time line, but it was worth every second.
She shook her head and said with a small and very pained laugh, "No I mean you."
He looked down into her eyes, her beautiful hazel eyes. But instead of saying all the things that went through his head he leaned down and kissed her. the kiss was sweet and passionate, it was love in one of it's purest forms. of any of the things he could have said to make them a story to tell this was by far the best option. But that wasn't what he thought as he kissed her. He thought about all the days they'd shared, and all the days he'd missed and those days ripped holes in his chest. Then at last all he thought about was her. And as her life force slipped away he used the kiss to remind her that not only was she forgiven, but that she was loved.
always and completely.