"I don't know you," the Doctor said, circling River with caution. "Who are you?"
He was so young, much younger than the Doctor she'd known. And yet he was ancient still-he carried his age well. Differently from the bowties-and-fezzes Doctor she was familiar with, but well. He wasn't trying to hide it, but there was still the old familiar shame lurking deep in his eyes, knowledge of terrible things, past and future, which he had already done or would do in the future. It was easier to see on him.
According to her notes, this was the Doctor who had regenerated in San Francisco in 1999-the one who would die with despair on his lips and two broken hearts, already the warrior he despised.
His defensiveness was almost a physical slap. Of course-he didn't know her, he wouldn't. It wasn't the meeting River had feared, though-this Doctor was fighting without hope; brilliant, but breaking; already on a path that led nowhere. The watershed Doctor, the one who would haunt all those to come.
She couldn't help pitying him.
Gently, River brushed his cheek. "I'm sorry, sweetie," she whispered. "I am so sorry."
"Tell me who you are," he said, making an effort to get the words out.
"I'm going to be important to you, in your future. But we keep meeting out of order. I wish there was something I could do to help you, right now, but there isn't. You have to face this fight alone; you're determined to. I can see it in your face. You haven't got any hope left."
"Who are you?" It was a choked whisper.
"Whatever you do, even if you can't see to the end of the road, Doctor… do not give up. Please, please don't give up." She was crying, and furious with herself for crying. "The point is-people like me-like both of us-we will never stop needing you, Doctor. And there will always be someone who will help you, someone-I hope-worth living for. I know there are times when you've got nothing left, or will have, but I don't care. You'll get through them. You have to."
"No one needs me," he said, without inflection. "The universe will have to do without."
"Between you and me, sweetie, I don't think the universe wants to." River took a step closer, then jabbed him with the hypodermic she'd prepared earlier-enough to knock even a Time Lord out cold. He moved reflexively back, but not quite fast enough; he was falling in an uncoordinated heap even as he stepped back, slapping at the sting. River grunted as she moved with him and took his weight. "Sorry, sweetie, but I'm afraid I can't let you die here." Wrapping an arm around the unconscious Doctor's chest, she punched the coordinates that would take them both back to the TARDIS into her vortex manipulator.