To 'Safe and Sound' from the Hunger Games soundtrack

He never found Melody Pond, but now he sees a second chance. This is River, but River so young she doesn't even know her name. For all her flaunting and flirting, she's scared. Scared of finally completing her task, scared of letting her parents know who she is…scared of him. He promised he'd find their daughter, he found River instead.

There has to be something of Melody left in River, more than just a scrambled name. If he had only found her sooner, things could be different. Amy and Rory wouldn't have to meet her like this; they could have all the time they needed to coax their daughter free. But one of the paradoxes of treating time as a commodity is that he never has enough of it.

She is killing him, but the Judas tree is only a symptom, not the cause. When Rory died the first time—died for real—Amy screamed at him, begging him to tell her it was going to be okay. He would have given anything to answer yes. Just as he would have given anything to answer in the affirmative about finding Melody, but he couldn't make it better. That hysterical grief, that horrible wail—he'd rather face that then this half-victory, this girl who wasn't really their daughter.

I can't die yet. River needs me. Berlin on the eve of war scares him less than letting his friends down. He staggers to the TARDIS console, ignoring the pain. Maybe he can still save River…maybe Melody isn't as lost as he thinks.