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What if the Doctor had lost River in The Angels Take Manhattan, instead?

The Doctor blinked, the whiteness clearing. He quickly analyzed the situation and remembered what had all just happened.
He noticed River rubbing the TARDIS with a cloth as he strode back towards it from where he'd, well, he supposed, "landed," though really he'd just been redirected from a branch timeline into this one; the one they were meant to be in - no flying or landing actually involved.
The poor old girl was decorated with scathe-marks, scrapes, and burns. The Doctor grabbed a cloth and joined River, attempting to wipe away the worst of the marks.
"It could do with a re-paint," River pointed out.
"I know, I know," the Doctor replied, a hint of annoyance in his voice. It wasn't like it wasn't obvious that the TARDIS wasn't exactly in her best state. He had just ripped through a paradox or two with her.
"I'm just saying," River said with an equal amount of annoyance, but also a hint of teasing. The Doctor rolled his eyes.
His hearts threw in a couple of extra beats as he realized that the last thing he remembered of Amy and Rory was screaming at them as they threw themselves off a building. Really - did his companions always have to be so dramatic?
The Doctor spun around and saw the couple recovering, a few meters away from him. He ran to them, embraced them, and told them never to do something like that again, though he realized he meant that more for himself than for them.
"Alright, Ponds - I don't want to spend another minute in this dreary old graveyard, so where to?"
The Doctor ran off to the TARDIS before they could respond.
"I'd like to go to the pub," Rory mentioned to Amy, as they too slowly made their way back to the time machine.
"Off to the pub it is!" the Doctor replied, having heard despite already being inside the TARDIS. "River, are you coming, then?"
"Just a minute, Doctor," River yelled from outside the TARDIS. The Doctor followed his curiosity back outside to see what River was doing.
"River? What is it?"
"Well, just look."
"At what?"
"Where do you think, honey?"
The Doctor followed River's gaze to pinpoint what she was looking at.
"Yes, and? It's just a gravestone, isn't it?"
"No, but Doctor..." River paused, looking up from the death marker to her husband. "It's got my name on it. My real name."
The Doctor felt surges of fear and confusion. That couldn't be right. River died in the Library, billions of years in the future, and not even on Earth.
"Melody Pond," the Doctor breathed. His eyes met with River's, and he could tell that she could tell his were giving something away about River's future; that he knew she couldn't possibly die here.
And then she vanished.
At first, he thought she'd just picked this moment to disappear with her vortex manipulator, but the lack of vortex smoke and the silhouette standing behind where River had been made him realize what had really just happened.
"River!" he cried, though pointless as it was. He kept his eyes on the angel.
Amy and Rory came running out, having heard the Doctor's sudden exclamation.
"Doctor? Where's River?" Rory asked worriedly. The Doctor didn't respond, he just stared idly at the weeping angel.
"Doctor? Where is she? Where did that angel come from?" Amy asked, suddenly thinking she understood the situation.
"But she can't - she doesn't! I know she doesn't die here!" The Doctor rambled, ignoring their questions.
Then, he remembered.
"Time can be rewritten." He straightened.
"But you said another paradox, even just one, would rip New York apart," Rory pointed out. The Doctor analyzed the angel. "But I know this isn't it for her. She doesn't die here," the Doctor insisted.
"Don't you dare!" Amy yelled, predicting his next move. "If you so much as take another step towards that angel, so help me, I'll-"
"Shut up," the Doctor said flatly. Amy backed away a little, taken aback by his sharp response.
"My entire history with River makes absolutely no sense unless I save her here; in fact, it couldn't even happen unless she stays alive here!" the Doctor's eyes were wet now. River couldn't be dead. Amy continued to argue. "Doctor, she can take care of herself! You know that! She's fine, wherever she is-"
The Doctor turned around, his face tangled in fury and despair. Rory fixed his eyes to the angel, not even daring to look away for a second. "Doctor, you're being ridiculous! You know River better than we do! She's fine, she has to be!"
"Then why is her gravestone here?"
"It could be a decoy, or a trick, or something. Maybe, wherever she ended up, she needed to play dead, and that included this-"
"I can't let her go based on theories, Rory! She saved me so many times! She even saved you once, Amy, when you were surrounded by angels!" The Doctor raged, tears now streaming freely from his eyes. Amy hesitated. Even she couldn't find a response for that.
The Doctor suddenly felt a little jolt over his chest. Breathing heavily and sniffling like a child, he took out the psychic paper and flipped it open. Amy and Rory continued to watch the angel.
Coordinates, signed with a little 'x'. It could only be one person, and one place.
"Doctor?"
The Doctor's face hardened for a moment. Then, his sharp features softened, his entire mood changing in a matter of moments.
"I think I might just love that woman," he said, smiling. "Come along, Ponds!" He ran back to the TARDIS.
"Doctor! What are you doing? What about the angel?"
The Doctor stood in the TARDIS' doorway. "I'm watching it."
Amy and Rory slowly turned around, one by one, not quite trusting the Doctor. When they could see he was telling the truth, they came into the TARDIS, and the Doctor put in the coordinates.
"Where are we going?" Rory asked.
"And what does your psychic paper say?" Amy demanded, reaching for it where the Doctor had left it on the console. She read it, but was still confused.
"I don't understand. Who sent this?"
"Who do you think?" the Doctor responded with a hopeful smile.
He set the TARDIS in flight. Amy and Rory exchanged a confused glance.

The TARDIS landed with its usual bustle. The Doctor opened the doors and immediately recognized the location, though he'd already known where it would be just from seeing the coordinates. He could never forget those coordinates.
He wanted to be calm and cool, like he always was with River, but this was a special occasion. He ran out of the TARDIS and hugged her, nearly knocking her over.
Amy and Rory soon followed.
"Uhh, isn't this where...all that stuff with the Silence...?" Rory trailed off.
"The beach...in America...with the astronaut..." Amy continued. Rory turned, seeing the vast expanse of water. "...in a lake."
The Doctor ignored his companions (for the umpteenth time today) and suddenly felt very cross.
"River, you scared the living daylights out of me!"
River laughed softly. "Just keeping you on your toes, sweetie."
"But - the gravestone, the angel - what happened? From your point of view?" The Doctor demanded.
"Well, I wasn't going to tell it from anyone else's point of view."
"For goodness' sake, River, just tell me."
"Alright...well, the angel got me. That wasn't expected."
"Yes, River, I know that. I nearly went after you."
River raised an eyebrow. "That's because you're a sentimental idiot, remember?"
The Doctor cringed. River continued her story.
"I had my vortex manipulator with me. I always have it. But I couldn't use it, even space travel would've been risky. So, I took a cab out of New York, and then zapped myself here and sent you the message." She gestured to the psychic paper Amy was still holding.
"But...what about the gravestone?" the Doctor asked.
River smiled mischievously.
"River?"
"Well, I was sure I wasn't going to die there, and the gravestone had to get there somehow. Basically, I just took a rock and used my laser gun to carve it into a tombstone," she explained.
The Doctor breathed a sigh of frustrated relief.
Amy and Rory had walked over to the shoreline, leaving the Doctor and River to have their conversation. The Doctor appreciated it, and used the opportunity to get a good snog in without the in-laws watching.
"And just why, Professor Song," he began after they broke apart, "did you decide to bring me back here?"
River touched his bow tie with a catlike gleam in her eye.
"Well, I remembered a long time ago when a certain someone else had a rather...dramatic fake death."
The Doctor burned under her glare.
"Okay."
She stared harder. He gulped.
"Point taken."