River Song sat on the chair in the TARDIS control room with her head in her hands, sobbing quietly. She had just witnessed not one, but both of her parent's deaths and there was nothing she could do to save them. The other thing that she had witnessed, was the heart of the man she loved breaking. River hated to admit it, but that was even worse than seeing her parent's deaths. Amy and Rory had experienced no pain, they were simply zapped into the past to live out the rest of their days… and they were together, as they should be. But the Doctor was another matter. He had lost two of his best friends and he would blame their deaths on himself for the rest of their days. Her beloved husband had experienced a pain that he would never forget, a pain that even she could not heal. Of course, she was heartbroken too but she did not know her parents quite like the Doctor did and what made it worse was that she never would.
The Doctor walked into the TARDIS, almost slamming the door behind him which made River jump out of her seat. She wiped her tears away and leaned against the centre console. "I'll drop you off at your prison cell," the Doctor mumbled, fiddling with buttons and levers.
"I don't think you should be alone. Not now anyway," she replied quietly, knowing it would anger him.
The Doctor slammed his hand down onto the console. "I want to be alone! I can't risk hurting anyone else!"
River put her hand over The Doctor's, her heart breaking a little bit more. "You're going to end up hurting yourself… And I don't want that, Doctor," she whispered softly. "Please let me stay for a while."
The Doctor broke inside at River's words. She had just lost her parents, and she was comforting him? His body shook with a sob and before he knew it, his arms found River's waist and he was pulling her towards him. River buried her head into the Doctors chest, breathing in his calming scent while the Doctor's face was buried in her masses of blonde curls, making them damp with his tears.
"Shh, it's okay. It's going to be okay," she whispered, trying to sound reassuring but failing. She really didn't know if it was all going to turn out okay but the Doctor needed her and she needed him, although neither of them would ever admit it.
They stood there for a long time, just holding each other, as if they were the only things that were keeping each other tethered to the ground. Eventually, the Doctor stopped crying but he didn't move because he found the comfort of having River in his arms soothing. After a long stretch of silence, River finally spoke up, her calm voice cutting into the cool air.
"You're not alone, Doctor. I am here with you. We'll make it through this."
And with that, the Doctor knew that one day, everything will be okay. As long as he had his mystery girl by his side.
