Just an AU using one of the most adorable couples out there and the sweetest story line I've seen in some time along with some extra bits here and there I've thrown in.
I do not own Up or Doctor Who, I'm just borrowing.
Up and Away
With his goggles on and a bright blue balloon clutched tight in his hand, Rory Williams was truly invincible. There were no chores to be done or books to be read and with the sun shining for the first time that spring as the cool air whipped around he found it was the perfect opportunity to just get lost in his imagination while he had the chance.
Scurrying down the sidewalk just a few blocks from his small home he hopped and flew over the cracks in the sidewalk, arms held out as he crowed happily in his still shrill voice and squeezed his eyes shut as he approached a particularly large one before bracing himself.
"And Charles Muntz approaches the leap with breathtaking courage, he takes it and…" He jumped as high as he could, landing on two feet before pumping his fists into the air with triumph.
"And he does it folks! Adventure-"
"Is out there!"
Rory froze and looked around. That was definitely not his voice but it sure was his favorite catchphrase and he wouldn't put it past the children who lived on the block to be the culprit. They loved to tease him every chance they got. He was quiet and mostly kept to himself, and besides the older children who never paid any attention to those younger than them, he was the only one who knew who Charles Muntz was and that fact made him the epicenter of taunting and teasing, both at home and at school.
He eyed the empty street for any signs of quivering bushes or taunting smiles and saw nothing, just the abandoned house beside him with the creaking weather vane slowly turning on the roof. He was ready to go on, fly off to another exotic and adventure filled location when he suddenly heard a poor imitation of a dog's bark followed by the same voice and he looked back at the house with growing curiosity.
This time when he looked he noticed the half open door and the sign hanging on it, written in purple crayon and children's scrawl. He tightened his grip on his balloon and suddenly the voice came again.
"Look boy, Mount Everest is dead ahead! Oh this is going to be great!"
There was more barking that followed and excited shrieks that got louder as his feet slowly carried him up the walk towards the house, holding his breath as he crawled beneath the door and kept hold of his balloon. It was dark inside but with the sun shining outside he could see well enough to make out the shadow of someone else dancing across the wall.
He pulled himself up, dusting his knees and tiptoeing across the floor. He peered out from behind the wall and his eyes locked on a girl, probably a few years younger than himself who was manning a homemade steering wheel, a helmet and goggles planted on her head. She had frizzy, chin length red hair and her clothes were dirty, nowhere near as nice as his own but he found himself to be fond of them anyway.
They were adventure clothes.
The girl was waving her hands and pointing out the window in front of her, calling out to her imaginary crew of… dogs, he presumed?
Rory ducked back in hiding and smiled to himself, another person who liked Muntz and adventure as much as he did wasn't really common and he felt excitement bubbling in his stomach at the prospect of a fellow adventurer to play with. He took a deep breath and prepared to introduce himself but when he turned back around the girl was standing right in front of him, frowning with her hands planted on her hips.
"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded with serious eyes.
Stuttering, Rory shrunk back and out of pure surprise he let go of his balloon, watching it float away through the broken roof until he couldn't see it anymore. He watched it disappear and then looked back at the girl who still hadn't moved and whose features was twisted into one of the most threatening scowls he had ever seen. She brought her face closer to Rory's and a sound that almost resembled a growl left her when he failed to answer.
"I asked you a question!" she huffed. "Do you think just because you got a nice helmet and some goggles that you can just come into my hideout without permission?"
Rory stuttered again and felt the blush explode across his pale cheeks just as the girl's expression softened and her eyes grew wide.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I'm not mad at ya." She stuck out a tiny hand and smiled. "I'm Amelia but if you want to be my friend you have to call me Amy. I'm an adventurer." She proudly pointed to her helmet and goggles, older rustier versions of the ones he had.
Finally, after getting over the initial shock of almost being ambushed by a girl half his size, Rory straightened up and took her hand.
"I'm Rory. I heard you outside. Do you really like Charles Muntz?"
Amelia- Amy, he corrected himself- beamed at the name that rolled off his tongue and bounced on her heels in pure joy.
"Of course I do! He's only the best adventurer there is." She got quiet for a second and sheepishly scraped her toe across the ground. "No one I know likes him; I'm the only one so that's why I made this club and only real adventurers are allowed to join."
As quickly as the joy had left her rounded face it returned and she grabbed at Rory's shirt with fists that shook with excitement.
"Do you want to be in my club?"
He stuttered, "I, uh-"
But before either acceptance or refusal could be heard she pulled off one of the homemade buttons, made from an old grape soda bottle cap, and pinned it right on the front of his shirt.
Rory peered down at it in curiosity once Amy's hands left him, feeling a smile creep onto his face as he looked back up at his new friend's eager eyes. She took his enthusiasm as an agreement and pumped her fist in the air with a small yip of happiness. Then, she looked up at the broken and cracked ceiling and grabbed Rory's hand.
"Oh, I know where your balloon went! Let's go get it and then you can help me steer the ship and we can go see Mount Everest together."
They scurried up an old rickety stair case that he deemed highly questionable as it creaked with each step they took and finally when they reached the top she pulled him towards an open space that used to be a bedroom and on the other side was his balloon, floating and waiting patiently for someone to rescue it.
Rory looked down at the floor, or the lack of one that is, and then looked at Amy who gently nudged him forward towards the single wooden plank still intact.
"Go on," she urged. "I'll be waiting here. All ya have to do is get it and come back."
Despite the confidence in her voice, he found himself unsure as he took tentative steps forward and finally began slowly inching across. He found himself halfway across by the time he opened his eyes and just as he lifted one foot to take a final step there was a horrible splintering sound and Rory went plummeting down to the first floor with a yell.
…
Needless to say the fall put an end to the day's adventures and now Rory sat in his bed, right arm heavily casted as he looked at the book propped in his lap. His parents had been unhappy to say the least after Amy had walked him home, knocked on the door and then scurried away before she could be seen and they had found him in tears, clutching his injured arm to his chest as he sputtered an explanation.
He hadn't thought to call after Amy after she ran but now that he was home and his mother had kissed him goodnight, all traces of anger gone from her face, he was disappointed. After his reaction she probably wouldn't want him in her club anymore and Rory didn't really blame her. No real adventurer would cry the way he did today.
With a sigh, he closed his book but he froze as a dull tapping sounded from outside his window and he sat up even straighter. Then, his balloon that he thought lost in the clubhouse, floated through with a something tied to the end.
It drifted inside and landed in front of him and Rory pulled it down into his lap before carefully jumping off the bed and approaching his window. Just as he reached it, a familiar face appeared and he bit back a startled yell.
Amy smiled at him, little hands clutching his window sill as she looked inside.
"What are you doing here?" Rory breathed, checking over his shoulder that his door was closed.
He looked back just in time to see Amy shrug.
"I felt bad for getting you hurt so I brought your balloon back."
There was a pause and she bit her lip as she peered up at him and her voice dropped to a whisper.
"Do you want to see something?"
Rory nodded as his lips spread into a smile and he watched her climb through his window, landing nimbly on her feet before shrugging off the little backpack she had and pulling out a large, brown book and fixing him with a stern glare.
"Ok, this has to stay a secret so we can't open it until we're somewhere totally private."
With that being said Rory helped Amy assemble what he thought was the best fort he had seen in some time. They were under the cover of three blankets, surrounded by a sea of pillows and they each clutched a flashlight in their hand as she settled the book between them and he finally got a look at the cover.
My Adventure Book
"I've never shown this to anyone before," she admitted, "so you gotta promise you won't tell anyone. Ok?"
Rory, with his free hand, crossed his heart and promised not to breathe a word of it to anyone and as soon as he did she began flipping the pages and he was met by a sea of colors and pictures of places he had only seen on telly and in his mother's magazines.
There were mountains and islands, gorges and volcanoes and Rory thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head as he took it all in with hushed noises of joy and amazement. Then, she settled on a page in the very back, crinkled and worn as she had obviously visited it the most.
A picture of Paradise Falls was glued in, slightly lopsided and labeled with black crayon in Amy's child scrawl. She rested her chin in her hands and sighed as she looked at it.
"I'm gonna go here someday," she told him, "and if you want you can come and we'll have the best adventure anyone has ever heard of."
She looked across at him and her green eyes shone in the dim glow of their flashlights.
"How 'bout it?" she asked suddenly with determination, "you and me when we're grown, we'll go there together? Sound like a deal?"
She stuck out her hand and without even taking the time to contemplate Rory took it tightly in his own.
"Deal."
…
From that point on Amy and Rory grew together, it turns out she only lived a few blocks away with her aunt and every day after he got home from school he would run to the clubhouse where she would be waiting with a wide grin and her helmet and goggles already in place.
When they were sixteen he kissed her for the first time and instead of blushing and giggling like he'd seen most girls do Amy had grabbed the front of his shirt the same way she had in the clubhouse on that first day and kissed him back.
Tongue and all.
"A proper snog," she had said.
At twenty two after he managed a job as a nurse at the local hospital, he stuttered his way through a proposal and presented her with a ring he had been saving up for months for. His face was no doubt red as the restaurant watched him and his hands violently shook as he slid it on her finger after she cried a happy 'yes,' and didn't even blink when he nearly dropped in into her food.
When they marry, it's a simple ceremony in a small chapel where his parents and friends show up as well as her aunt. It's quaint and quiet and it's exactly what they want and when they hear the famous 'You may now kiss the bride,' it's Amy who leaps up and crashes her lips against Rory's as the guests roar with laughter.
Instead of a honeymoon, they use the money to fix up the old clubhouse and Rory lets Amy paint it exactly as it was in her adventure book that now sits on the shelf in the living room. It's a mural of blues and pinks and yellows and it brings so much life to the neighborhood that people actually stop to take pictures as they pass by. It's the happiest he's seen her since their wedding day and he wouldn't trade it for anything.
And for a while their plans for Paradise Falls are placed on the backburner as they build their new life.
They find out the hard way over the next few years, after four miscarriages and endless doctor's appointments that they cannot have children of their own and Amy stays in bed for two days and cries as he curls up beside her and tells her it's okay. The last thing he wanted was for her to blame herself and on the third day, when she shows no signs of moving he packs a picnic and drags her out of bed before taking her to the park where the sun is busy warming the air. And it's there that he brings up the idea of adoption and her eyes get as big as saucers before she tackles him in a hug and their food is forgotten about.
They send in their papers and Amy goes crazy buying baby things and painting the spare room the brightest shade of yellow Rory has ever seen. There are tons of tiny clothes and a white wooden crib she sets in the corner of the room with a solar system mobile hanging above it.
Everything seems to be falling into place until one day an envelope they've been waiting for comes in the mail and when she opens it, the word rejected is stamped across the top in large red letters.
She doesn't talk for the rest of the week.
The baby stuff is packed away with a heavy heart, there are more tears and yelling over the next months until one night the fight is so bad that he storms out the front door and can still hear her screaming and crying as he stomps down the sidewalk.
Rory's almost sure it's the end.
But then he comes home and she's wearing one of his shirts, hair mussed by her attempts at sleep and he can see the desperation and exhaustion in her eyes and he knows this is not the time to give up.
They make love the rest of the night and when she's sprawled on top of him and her face is dewy with sweat as she traces patterns on his chest, he brings it up.
"How about we take that trip we promised?"
He feels her freeze, hair tickling his nose as she cranes her neck to look at him.
"Really?"
He nods and kisses her head.
A trip to Paradise Falls is anything but cheap and they start saving money as soon as possible. He picks up extra shifts at the hospital and Amy takes jobs wherever she can, never staying in one place for long.
After nearly a year Rory finds out they have just enough, he had secretly been saving long before he brought it up but it was meant as a surprise and he plans to make it a surprise on her birthday. He even buys the tickets and tucks them into an envelope and everything seems to once again be falling into place.
And then Amy starts to change.
…
It starts off as fatigue and he notices she naps much more often now. She tells him it's from all the job hopping, that she never has a chance to sit down anymore and at first he brushes it off.
Then a few days before he is set to give her the tickets they're standing in the kitchen cooking dinner and while he's busy chopping an onion with his back turned Rory hears a thud and finds Amy on the floor, unconscious.
They get the diagnosis soon after.
…
Amy gets weaker and paler as time wears on but she never stops smiling.
He brings her a blue balloon one day to lighten the mood in the dreary hospital room and her face lights up as she takes it and accepts a soft kiss he plants on her lips.
She was cold and frail and sometimes he was afraid to touch her and it was in these moments that Rory cursed cancer to every hell he knew of. It wasn't fair and the doctor said it could have come from anywhere but all he can think about is his pained and suffering wife.
That night he sleeps in the chair beside her bed and holds her hand the entire time.
The balloon stays with them.
…
It's only a few short months later that Rory finds himself in the church, alone with a single balloon in his hand and tears in his eyes.
He looked up at the balloon and managed a small smile despite.
"Goodbye love, have a wonderful adventure for me."