It is Rory's turn to choose.
Amy stands beside him, her hand in his, her head on his shoulder.
"Where to, Rory?" The Doctor is impatient to leave, to find new worlds, to escape the sorry tale that is Kazran and Abigail.
Rory looks down at his Roman armour.
"To find our luggage?" He suggests.
Amy agrees almost immediately. It had been a bad idea, she reflects, to not change before arriving on the deck to save the ship. She had to appear in front of a miserly Kazran as the Ghost of Christmas Present (goddamn the Doctor, she thinks, for making her go along with it) wearing her old kissogram costume. Dignity hadn't really been on her list of priorities at that moment. Good thing too.
"Ah yes," the Doctor looks the couple up and down, taking in their unusual attire. "Yes, maybe you'd like to…" He gestures at Amy's tiny skirt. "Hold on!"
They lurch sideways; the familiar rocking of the TARDIS is a friendly feeling. Welcome home, it seems to say. Merry Christmas.
Amy and Rory share a grin. The Doctor looks on. Happy for them, but feeling alien to their very human relationship. More alien that usual. As the TARDIS makes her shaky landing, the Doctor notices his friends leaning towards each other. Do they have to?
He dives between them at the last minute, so Rory's lips end up on the side of the Doctor's face.
"Rory, god, buy me a drink first."
Amy smiles then moves her gaze to the doors.
"Where are we, back on the ship?"
The Doctor straightens up and says to her, "Not exactly."
Rory frowns, "Then where exactly are we? It'd be nice if we could change out of these clothes, you know."
"Yes, yes, and I thought it would be nice if I brought a touch of my own genius in solving this unsolvable problem…"
"It's not unsolvable, Doctor," Amy amends.
He seems not to hear her and continues. "… and so I brought you to the one place where you are likely to have closets upon closets of clothes!"
"Next?"
"Uh, not quiet."
"Topshop?"
"No…" The Doctor looks uncertain.
Amy shares a troubled glance with Rory.
"Where then?"
At this, the Doctor brightens up and strides across the TARDIS to the door.
"I brought you… home!" He flings open the doors, tweaks his bow-tie and smiles triumphantly. "No need to thank me."
His companions join him, all of them standing in the doorway looking out. Sure enough, they have landed in Amy's back garden. The same house greets them, the sky of Earth – the sky they have not seen since they left with the Doctor on the night of their wedding – is a midnight black, the stars are few but seem to twinkle at them in a wave.
"When are we?" Amy has learnt not to immediately trust the Doctor when he arrives in her back garden.
"Hmm? December 31st, 2010."
"New Year's Eve," Amy breathes.
"We've missed six months. Six months spent on our honeymoon." Rory gives a nervous laugh. "That's crazy."
"I know!" Amy gives his hand a squeeze and dances out into the grass. "Bugger, it's cold."
"Ah yeah, you probably want to go inside and change then. I'll be waiting right here," the Doctor promises.
Careful not to wake Amy's parents, the couple sneak into the house. The Doctor looks on; waving his sonic screwdriver in that way he thinks is oh-so-devious.
When they leave the house ten minutes later – Amy now wearing a skirt no longer than the one she discarded with a large hoodie, and Rory sporting jeans and an old t-shirt of his Amy found in the back of her closet – it is to see the TARDIS doors closed, a steady thrum resounding from it, and the Doctor nowhere to be seen.
"Doctor? Doctor! You're not leaving us here!" Amy has been in way too many situations where the Doctor has run off on her to take this one lightly. "Doctor!"
"I'm over here."
Rory turns to see the Doctor walking out from behind a cover of trees, in his hands the screwdriver emits a green light.
"Doctor, what were you doing there?" Amy is still slightly-angry at him.
"Oh, nothing much. Just making this a great end to the year." He is grinning. Why is he grinning? Nothing good can happen when the Doctor is this happy with himself.
"What've you done?" Her eyes are narrowed.
"Amy, I'm sure it's nothing bad- It's nothing bad, is it?" Rory appeals to the Doctor, who only shakes his head.
"Ah, ah, ah! You'll have to wait and see."
He steps back with that damned grin never leaving his face. Amy turns to Rory for some sort of explanation, not knowing why because if she doesn't know, why would he?
"Just keep your eyes on the time."
"Doctor, what?"
But Rory seems to know exactly what the Doctor means.
"The time, Amy! Look."
Amy looks. According to her iPhone (a gift Rory bought her before they left) it is one minute until midnight. A grin of her own spreads across her face.
"Doctor, what have you done?" This time, she is anticipating something. Something Doctor-worthy.
"Wait and see."
And they do. For a full minute they stand, the three of them, in a quiet vigil, fixing their eyes on the sky. For what, Rory and Amy do not know. Then it comes.
A star directly in their line of sight appears to grow larger and larger, overwhelming the sky. A flash (they cover their eyes for a moment and almost miss it) and the sky explodes in a whirlpool of colour.
It reminds him of the time they went to that planet with the crimson oceans. The same vortex of hues seems to be mirrored in the sky here. Rory sees what the Doctor has created: fireworks. Not the cheap, gimmicky pyrotechnics they had released at the wedding but real fireworks deep in space. A beautiful display of greens and blues and purples and reds and he can't quite remember the name of that colour but it's a deep deep gold lights up the sky. In a tense climax, a fire of green flames burns across the night, wiping out the illumination but just as stunning.
Here, with his wife and their best friend, Rory can't think of anywhere else he'd rather be seeing the new year in with.
He feels Amy slip her hand in his and turns to the feel of her lips on his.
"You two, at it like rabbits again!"
Rory only smiles against Amy's lips.
happy new year.