As they part from their final kiss of the night she smiles up at him. He tries to return even a fraction of her beaming smile but his face refuses to comply this time. He smiles but it is so noticeably forced.
"Good night my love" River whispers soothingly into his ear, still a little worried as to why the Doctor has been acting so strangely this evening.
He places a hand on her cheek, caressing the soft skin that he knows in a matter of weeks will be gone, burnt and dead.
"Goodnight dear" he says in reply, putting as much love and emotion into those few words as he could to express what she meant to him. (But there would never be enough words to fully express that.) She brings her hand up to hold his closer to her face but then all too soon brings it back down leaving his hand feeling cold and alone. She slowly turns to leave him as she heads for the door. This is all happening too fast, the Doctor thinks. And so, without knowing what else to do he yells, "River!"
She stops just as she reaches the door and turns to look at him.
"Yes Sweetie" she replies, looking him straight in the eyes.
"River," he starts timidly. "You do know that I love you, don't you? I mean that I truly, truly love you for all you are."
"Yes, my love. I know. I've always known. And I love you, always and completely" she reassures him.
And with that, the door shuts, separating these two lovers for what would be the last time.
The Doctor steps into the TARDIS, each step seeming heavier than the one before. He looks around him. Everything seems so empty now, knowing that she is gone. He starts walking toward the console, the silence of the room banging against his ears. Each breath becomes more and more labored until he finally breaks.
"NO!" he shouts, clasping onto the console, sounding more like a mad dog than a man.
"No, she can't be gone! She's never just gone! She always finds a way back into my life!"
But he knew that this time, that was not the case. He had been there when it happened. She was gone. Saved on a computer, yes, but forever separated from his life. For the first time in centuries, there was nothing he could do to save his beloved wife. As the thought of this finally sunk in, a feeling started rising within the Doctor; one that had consumed so much of his life thus far. He felt the undying need to run.
And so that's just what he did. The Doctor ran far and wide, looking for a way to escape the pain that was seeping into his heart a little more every day. But it didn't matter where he ran. Everywhere in time and space he could travel would in some way remind him of his lost love. After weeks of travel and running, the heartbroken Time Lord returned to his TARDIS one last time, this time planning on staying for a while. That night, as he lay in bed, his mind started racing. He needed to talk to someone, that much was obvious. But who could he go to about such a topic? Who would not only listen but would be able to understand enough to offer words of comfort in his incredible hour of need? And then it hit him. Rory
