Searing, horrible loss engulfed him. Tears ran down his face, his screaming sobs forcing their way from his throat. The pain, the complete and intense pain filled every part of him. From his hair to his toes, most of all his hearts, a single phrase echoed: she's gone. Completely and utterly gone. He couldn't accept it. No, no, no. No! She couldn't be gone. She wouldn't leave him. She couldn't leave him.
She promised! She promised me she'd stay! Until the end!
As his screaming grew louder, never quieting, a single thought reminded him of the true words she had spoken to him: or vice versa.
"This doesn't count!" The cry ripped from his chest, cracking and hoarse. This isn't her end! It doesn't count. It can't.
I'll see her again, he told himself. I have to. There was a way- there always was. This wasn't the last time. It couldn't be. The thought that it was was so horrible, so grotesque, that even he, who had seen the most terrible things the universe had to offer, couldn't accept it.
A comforting hand lay on his shoulder. "Doctor." The voice was soft, grieving, just as he was. "They're gone. You have to let them go, to move on."
"How?" His cries had softened, his voice small and pitiful. One would never have guessed that the broken man was the legendary Oncoming Storm.
"It will take time," the woman responded. "But you will get through this. You always do."
"But I don't!" He cried out, turning from the sullen grave in front of him to finally face the women. "I never do! I bury it down and I never look back."
"Then do that." She murmured. "If it's the only way to make it through this, you have to."
"This is different," he growled. "It's Amy! Amelia Pond! How will I ever forget her? Tell me this, River. How does one forget the first face he ever saw?"
River sighed, her shoulders sagging. "I don't know. I guess... I guess they don't."
The Doctor turned back to the grave. "Time can be rewritten. I can find a way."
She tilted her head sympathetically. "There isn't... There isn't a way. Not this time. Doctor... they're gone. And they can't come back."
"They can't be gone!" The shout tore from his throat. The Doctor fell to his knees, gripping the ground in front of him.
"Amelia Pond, and Rory Williams," he croaked. "I will never forget you."