Fifty three days. It had been fifty three days since River Song had last seen her husband. Fifty three days of the same repetitive cycle. Wake up, teach, mark, sleep. Wake up, teach, mark sleep.
Not that she didn't love her job. River was teaching young, keen minds all about the histories and legends of worlds long forgotten, and the tales of people long dead. Teaching was something that River enjoyed above most things. The only thing she enjoyed more was her husband.
The way his green eyes sparkled when he saw something beautiful. The way he pouted when she teased him. The way he smiled when he saw something new. The way his lips felt against her skin.
On the fifty third night, River found herself reading through one of her students major papers, entitled 'A brief history of planet Earth'. River had laughed to his face when he had told her about his paper. But, the boy had proven to be quite the scholar, and by the end of her reading, River found herself awarding him with very excellent marks, surprised at how accurately he had managed to summarise five billion years worth of history down into 67 pages.
River was just getting up to make herself a cup of tea when she noticed a large blue box parked on her living room rug.
'Oh!' She exclaimed, genuinely startled. Oh well, at least he had thought to turn the brakes off.
She waited for several moments, waiting for her ridiculous husband to stumble out of the TARDIS and apologise for not visiting for fifty three days. After a few moments to many, River decided that enough was enough. She walked over to the TARDIS doors, pulling her key out from the chain around her neck in quite a huff. It was really quite rude to show up in her house, unannounced. But to not even come out and greet her? Where are his manners?
What she saw when she opened that TARDIS doors was something she did not expect at all.
There he was, sitting on the steps of the TARDIS with his head hanging low in his hands. His purple jacket was thrown aside, his sleeves were rolled up, and his hair was ruffled out of its usual slick style. When he heard the TARDIS doors click closed, he looked up, startled, and River could see the tears running down his cheeks.
'River?' He said, his usually confidant voice sounding weak and small. 'What are you...I didn't-'
'I think she knew that you needed somebody.' River said, nodding her head in the direction of the console, silently thanking the ship that she had brought the Doctor to her, realising why the brakes had been turned off.
As she made her way over to him, she noticed that he was hurriedly trying to wipe the tears from his face. She sat down next to him, taking his hands in hers, looking him directly in the eye.
'Is it a Wednesday afternoon?' She asked him gently.
He gave a soft whimper, and buried his head in her shoulder amongst her wild hair.
River knew that the Doctor had found himself a new friend to share the wonders of the universe with. When he had told her, she had been filled with nothing but relief, because now he wasn't going to be alone. The Doctor could be a dangerous man at the best of times, and without having someone to protect and look out for, there was no telling what he could be capable of. When he had someone, he wasn't as much of a threat, to himself or others.
'Her name's Clara, and River I don't know how, but I've met her three different times, and the first two times she died! A now there she is, working as a nanny in 21st century London! Her existence is completely impossible River, and yet one day she just rings me up, asking for help with her laptop, saying some woman in the shop gave her my number...'
River had smiled and listened to him as he babbled on about the adventures he had already had with Clara. She was glad he had someone new to accompany him on his adventures because, much as she wished she could, River couldn't always be there when he needed it.
But there were times that the Doctor needed someone who could understand his pain, and there was no one in the universe who understood the Doctor better than River Song.
Right now, River understood that the Doctor had just finished of an adventure with Clara. He had dropped her home in the afternoon, promising to pick her up again next Wednesday. He had then walked back into the TARDIS, only to find it's emptiness unbearable. The loneliness of his life had threatened to overtaken him and he had submitted, because sometimes that's all he could do. He would feel better eventually, but now he needed a time to grief the past.
And no one understood that better than River, whose life had been lived back to front, loving a man who loved her less every time she met him, having parents who she never got a love as a child should. River Song understood exactly how the pain of the past could hurt.
And so she spent the next few hours comforting the man she loved. She told stories about her and her parents when they were growing up, and he shared with her stories of his past. She helped him put a seal on his pain, for now at least.
And neither of them acknowledged the pain that they knew the future would bring them.