"What did you mean, what you said to Amy? 'There's a worse day coming for you'.
"When I first met the Doctor, a long long time ago, he knew all about me. Think about that. Impressionable young girl and suddenly this man just drops out of the sky and he's clever and mad and wonderful and knows every last thing about her. Imagine what that does to a girl."
"I don't really have to."
"Trouble is, it's all back to front. My past is his future. We're traveling in opposite directions. Every time we meet, I know him more, he knows me less. I live for the days when I see him. But I know that every time I do, he'll be one step further away. The day's coming when I'll look into that man's eyes, my Doctor, and he won't have the faintest idea who I am. And I think it's going to kill me."
Rory stared her, completely dumbfounded. He had only thought that was just a mere flirting between his two confident sort-of friends. He had no idea just how deep it went for River, and how deep it might've been for the Doctor. He tried to picture him just as madly in love with River as she was but he… he couldn't.
He thought of how he waited for Amy outside the Pandorica, keeping her safe all those 2,000 years. He thought of the barely there memories of himself as a centurion, sitting with his back against that cold box which held his beloved redhead trapped inside. How one day he remembered, and the next he couldn't, like someone had tried to scrape the stains off his mind, and left just a few tiny marks.
He wondered if that was exactly how River felt, knowing more bits and pieces of the one she loved every day, and not knowing how to exactly cope well with all that new knowledge.
He saw the same kind of sadness deep in River's eyes, and strangely, saw a small part of himself there. He felt more connected to her than Amy ever could hope to connect to him in that moment. Don't get him wrong, he's madly in love with Amy. But Amy would never leave the Doctor willingly, and he could never be strong enough to tear the two apart, and just have a normal, but happy, life with her. She would always stare longingly out the windows, and dream of that blue TARDIS. He wondered if that was what River did every minute of every day in her lonely prison cell, thinking of her Doctor.
He choked back a long and hard gulp of his Adam's apple and followed her through the hatch.
