Ya'll could you imagine if river and the doctor lived linearly with each other. They'd see each other not only for the big important things like Manhattan but also the small little things like River's first day as a professor. And the doctor would still hear rumours, whispers

About a planet called Darillium, where he and river would spend their last night together, but he'd brush it off. He and river will never spend their last night at a planet that doesn't see the sun for decades, that's too dark and boring. So he takes her, after Manhattan.

And they have a beautiful time there. He ends up staying for the entire 24 years, only because River grew to love the community there (totally not because he's developed a soft spot for their neighbours too) and when they part, it's with a promise for an amazing adventure,

Something so unlike the domesticity they've been living in. And he receives a call a few weeks later on his psychic paper. It has kisses at the end and he knows exactly who it's from, and he has a huge grin on his face as he punches in the coordinates given at the bottom

He shows up and is so thrilled at the danger, so pumped with adrenaline while flirting with his wife. But when people start dying one by one, his hearts start to sink. He does everything he can to keep River safe, but she's clever (sometimes even cleverer than him)

And he knows the moment they find the computer what she insists she needs to do. But before he can even try to protest she knocks him out, and when he comes to he knows his worst nightmare has come true: he'll lose river before she loses him.

And he begs and he pleads with her, telling her that he's on his last life anyway and she's telling him that the universe doesn't need her as much as it needs him, and he cuts her off with a desperate plea, his eyes watery and his wrists aching

From pulling at the handcuffs. And he tells her that he's of no good to the universe if he doesn't have her. And she tells him she can't live in a universe without him, so she has to do this. Then he knows that everyone of those rumours about Darillium were false.

He'll never spend a last night with River. There will never be an ending to their story. He takes her hand and his Sonic and he saves both their consciousness, and they hold hands as the last numbers of the countdown flash on the screen.