"How would you like to travel with me Pond? Me, you and the stars. Oh and my box of course!" He sent an assuring look back at the Tardis. The Raggedy Man smiled a crooked smile, showing his teeth which glittered in the moonlight. Amelia thought it must be some sort of magic. He stretched out his hand so she could take it.
As soon as she reached out, he pulled it away just as fast and glanced back at his box which was omitting a thick smoke. "Actually Amelia, now that I think of it, there seems to be a bit of a problem with my box. It should be fine; I just have to fix it. Why don't you run upstairs and pack a bag? Also maybe so fish custard for the road?"
Amelia's smile dissipated into a frown and she asked uncertainly, "You aren't going to leave again are you?"
As soon as the words were out of her mouth he vanished. The police box was gone, the smoke it had regurgitated was gone, and there wasn't even an indent on the ground to prove it had been there. Nothing but the grass, damp from the rain.
Amelia Pond awoke with a start, her hand still clenched around her Raggedy Man doll. She hadn't meant to fall asleep but she must have gotten tired while waiting for them to cook. She sprung off the couch and ran towards the oven, worried that she had burned them. She opened the oven door, and reached for the tray without thinking. A searing pain flashed through her hand as she realized in her rush had forgotten to put on oven mitts. She cursed loudly and then ran her hand under cold water. She sighed, and stared at the fish fingers dejectedly. It wasn't the same, eating them alone.
A woman walked down the stairs and startled her. Aunt Carol. She said quietly, "I'll clean this up Amy, why don't you go to sleep?"
Amy pouted a minute but then yawned and reluctantly stomped up the stairs to bed.
A voice rang in her head; it was mocking and seemed to come from all around. It was the voices of children she went to school with, "Still believe in fairy tales, you're such a baby!"
The voices were now matched with faces, two kids in her year, a brother and a sister, with similar unimportant blonde hair. They approached her, with identical sneering smiles. Amelia sat with her legs dangling off the side of the bench holding her Raggedy Man doll.
The boy threw his hand forward and tore it out of her hands. He threw it to his sister lightly. They were both laughing.
Amelia stood up, and tried to snatch it from the girl but she was much taller, and the boy shoved her down before she could get close. He smiled, "Hey we're doing you a favor, if people keep seeing you talk to an imaginary friend their going to think you're a nutter. You should really be thanking us!"
The girl whipped her arm back and chucked the doll as far as she could. It landed in the mud.
Amelia brushed past the two and ran to retrieve it. They sniggered to themselves, "No wonder she doesn't have any parents, they probably thought she was a lunatic and ran off!"
Amelia tried her best to not hear the words. The Doctor was coming back. He promised he was. She addressed the doll shakily, "If you want to hurry that'd be nice."
Amelia's legs barely touched the floor as she sat nervously outside the psychiatrist's office. This had been her fifth meeting with this psychiatrist, and she wasn't optimistic. She flitted her eyes around the abandoned reception area and then put her ear against the door to eavesdrop.
"I'm sorry Carol, but she refuses to admit that he's not real. Maybe if you laid down some more boundaries it might happen, but while you keep encouraging her this delusion isn't going to go away."
A worried voice replied, "Can't we just play along; eventually she'll grow out of once she realizes that-
"But she hasn't grown out of it. She's twelve years old, and she's begun to effect other students in your class, isn't that what the school's letter said?"
"Well yes, but that was Melody, that's different."
The psychiatrist paused to make sure Carol was aware of her disbelief, "Be that as it may, the other kids won't stop singling her out unless she starts acting her age. How many times has she come home with muddied clothes this week?"
Aunt Carol didn't respond, instead letting out a breath. Her voice was unsteady, and Amelia thought she could hear her fighting back tears. "I'm sorry, here are some tissues… I forget how hard this must be on you, your own daughter."
Amelia's face twisted in confusion. The doctor must have made a mistake; she must not know that Aunt Carol was her aunt.
"I hoped it was a game you know? But she's not stopping. She still calls me Aunt, and barely looks at me. My Amy."
Amelia had heard enough, this sort of strange talk was unnerving, it made everything feel all wrong.
She wrapped her hand around the door handle and yanked it open, staring at both woman determinedly.
"He's real!" She burst out loudly. "He has a magic blue box that's bigger on the inside, and can travel in space, and it has a swimming pool in the library! And he wouldn't eat apples, and he hates beans! Tell her Aunt Carol!"
Aunt Carol paled and tried to hold back her tears. She tried to smile at Amelia. She started speaking slowly, "Amy, remember when you told me the story about the man who fell from the sky and how you ate fish fingers and custard with him?"
Amelia rolled her eyes and said impatiently, "Yes."
"Well you were banging around in the kitchen that night, and I came down and found you sitting at the table alone. You were just staring blankly at the other chair and talking every once in a while. When I tried to talk to you... you didn't even see me."
"The crack in my wall, he fixed it. The Doctor fixed my wall. The whispers stopped after he fixed my wall."
"No dear, he didn't. You told me about the wall, and I had a construction man come in and fix it. Don't you remember?"
Amelia shook her head. She had seen it with her own eyes. Why would she lie to her? It didn't matter, adults were always lying. This seemed to upset her Aunt even more. The Psychiatrist scribbled something onto a clipboard and Amelia peeked her head over and scanned it.
Delusions and whispers could be the effect of a serious mental disorder.
Amelia frowned, and tried to think clearly. This was ridiculous, even entertaining the notion. The Doctor was very real. She had spoken to him; she had seen a police box fall out of the sky. That wasn't something you simply imagined.
"Why are you lying to me Aunt Carol?"
At this the woman turned away from Amelia and cried into her sleeve. The psychiatrist put an arm on Amy's shoulder and said delicately, "Amy, this woman isn't your Aunt. She never was. She's your mother. After the night she found you downstairs in the kitchen something happened. You snapped, and began to live in a sort of fantasy."
Amy backed away from the woman, and her Aunt who wasn't actually her Aunt. Amelia spoke unsurely, disoriented, "No... That's not right. My mum and dad disappeared when I was little. I never... They disappeared..." Amy frowned and tightened her grip around the door, an immense sense of discomfort washed through her and a stroke of vertigo encompassed her. She leaned against the door, her head throbbing.
She spoke two words, confidently, through gritted teeth. "He's real."
And stormed out of the office.
"Amy, your mum told me that you were going away?" Rory's voice echoed in Amy's ears. Snapping her out of her thoughts.
She was sitting on the doorstep to her front house, staring at the shed where she'd seen the blue box so many years ago. Or at least, where she'd thought she'd seen it.
Amy turned to Rory and avoided the question, "Where's Melody?"
Rory shrugged, and then admitted, "She got in trouble again, I'll have her write."
Amy mumbled, "Maybe she can break me out."
Rory crinkled his eyebrows in confusion, "What do you mean, break you out?"
Amy glanced at her Aunt- Mom sitting in the front of the car, waiting.
She replied bitterly, "Don't you know? I'm certifiably crazy. I'm being sent away to a facility." She said the word facility like she meant hell instead.
"Why would she send you away? You're not crazy. A bit odd maybe, but you don't belong in a nut house."
"Because they don't believe in the Doctor. I've told them again and again, explained it. But they just can't see it." She said, realizing she sounded like a whining child she added, "Maybe they're right."
Rory looked nervous for a second, and then pecked a quick kiss on Amy's lips. "I had to do that before you left."
"Rory Williams, kissing someone with high levels of insanity is never a good idea." She said with a smirking smile and for a brief second the headache was gone and she was happy. Then that moment ended.
The headache returned, and she blinked and saw her Raggedy Man standing in Rory's place. A burst of joy ran through her, which was almost immediately replaced by wariness.
He said happily, "Come along Pond!" Holding his hand out for her.
She took a step back. "You're not real. They keep telling me I made you up."
He looked offended, "Now that's just rude!"
"So are you? Made up then?"
He smiled madly, "Maybe. But what's the fun if I tell you?"
"Amy?" Rory was the one in front of her. He was the one who was there. He was real. He was really concerned. "Amy is you there?"
She shook her head, and gave Rory a hug. Or she gave the Doctor a hug... It kept switching back and forth in her mind, she couldn't differentiate. The pain was unbelievable and her eyes were flashing in every direction at once.
Rory shouted for her mom and they helped her into the car. Amy clenched her fists, and tried to squeeze her temple to make the pain stop. She took one last look at her house. Rory was waving. The Doctor was waving.
She could've sworn she heard him speak. It was so far away, but she could have sworn she heard a threatening voice warn, "I'll be seeing you Pond."