Time. Sometimes all it takes is time for wounds to heal, stories to end, and life to go on. Souls could be broken, a world could be destroyed, and even the entire universe could be threatened, but time can, if available, fix even those things. And, in order to harness the massive power that is time, there is a Time Lord.
Amy looked at him, her Time Lord. Well, she knew that she shouldn't call the Doctor hers, that he belonged to the whole of reality by now, but that didn't stop her. Nothing, she was sure, could stop her from keeping the last Time Lord to herself, at least in some ways.
"So what do you say? Did you have a fun day?" the Doctor asked, staring at his redhead. The Doctor was beginning to feel just as possessive as Amy. "Oh, that rhymed!" he exclaimed in delight. Amy smiled at him, loving the childish remarks he would sometimes make, knowing it was a part of him.
"Of course I did," Amy answered. "But you know, I don't mind some adventures too," she added on. The two had just spent the day at the relocated resort that had once occupied the planet Midnight. It was very relaxing, but Amy was starting to miss some of the exciting and often life-threatening adventures that they normally had together. The Doctor looked at her as if he didn't quite know what she meant. Amy sighed, but she decided to let the topic go.
"Actually, Doctor, I was thinking… now that everything has been mostly, you know, figured out, I was wondering if… well, now that we could…" Amy knew that she was talking without really saying anything at all, so she took a deep breath and just got to the point. "Well, I was wondering if we could take a visit to Earth," she said. The Docter cocked his head to one side.
"Yes, yes, of course, but why?" the Doctor asked. He hoped that everything was okay. Generally, he didn't like to take his companions back home too often. It reminded them that they still had lives they could return to besides staying with him.
"Well… I really think it's about time that you met someone. Someone who I've known my whole life, alternate timeline or not," Amy said. The Doctor knew she was referring to what had happened before they had rebooted the universe and the history of the world had changed.
"Who is it?" the Doctor asked, his curiosity piqued.
"My Aunt Sharon," Amy answered. The Doctor froze for a moment. That was one person he really did not fancy spending tea time with. She had never believed Amy's story about the Raggedy Doctor and had insisted that little Amelia go to see four different psychiatrists instead.
"That doesn't sound like the best of ideas. I would like to meet your parents back on Earth, however. Wouldn't you like to? I mean, you haven't even met them yet yourself!" the Doctor said. Amy grinned at him, truly happy to be reminded that when she went back home, her parents would be there waiting for her. It was all thanks to the Doctor. He had noticed that Amy's life was wrong, that there were too many empty rooms in her house. And he had brought them back when exploding the Pandorica had fixed the universe in Big Bang Two.
"Yeah! Well, I guess you've got three very important people to meet, yeah?" Amy said excitedly. The Doctor silently cursed to himself. Amy had not let go of the idea of him meeting her aunt. So now, he had to meet and impress three different people who cared about Amy a lot and thought he was a figment of her wild imagination. This was not looking like the best of all trips for the Doctor.
Nevertheless, he piloted his beloved TARDIS to Leadworth, Amy's time. In fact, he landed a few weeks after Amy had run away with him. That way, Rory would still have already broken off the marriage and her family will have had time to notice she was missing. And, they wouldn't have any chance of messing up any timelines that way. The two landed in Amy's backyard, as always, and entered the house.
"Hello?" Amy called through the house tentatively. She was rewarded with the sound of footsteps bounding down the stairs. A short and rather rotund man followed a woman white lighter hair stumble down the stairs.
"Amelia?" the man says in amazement. Amy's eyes widen as she realizes what's going on- these two people are her parents! And then, suddenly, her brain is filled with a certain familiarity, confirming in her mind that she somehow knows these people without question. She runs to greet them, grabbing both of them in a squeezing hug. Amy was overcome by emotion, so happy, and slightly confused, that she found herself crying onto her dad's shoulder.
"Oh, Amelia, we were so worried about you!" Amy's mother said, her voice cracking. After another moment or two of hugs and tears shed, Amy's parents finally released her and noticed the man standing quietly next to the door.
"Who is this?" Amy's mom asked. The Doctor smiled and walked forward, reaching out his hand to shake the other man's hand. He took it.
"I'm the Doctor," he introduced himself. Amy's mom gave a little gasp that she tried to stifle.
"Augustus Pond. And this is my wife, Tabetha Pond," Augustus greeted the Doctor. He too looked a little uneasy. After letting go of the Doctor's handshake, he stared at the Time Lord as if he was not quite sure what to make of him.
"Is… is he…?" Tabetha whispered. Amy bit her lip and took both of her parents by the hand.
"We should go sit down in the kitchen. This is going to be a long story," Amy said. She was nervous, extremely nervous. Not only was this her first time meeting her own parents (even though she had vague sorts of memories coming back now) but she also had to explain that she was now a time traveler all throughout space in a police box. As if that wasn't complicated enough, she also had to explain the Doctor. Oh, that man, sometimes she caused Amy more problems than she knew what to do with. But she loved him for it, and that's what she would have to explain to her parents.
So Amy, the Doctor, Augustus, and Tabetha all entered the kitchen and sat down. Amy's parents went back and forth from looking at their daughter that they hadn't seen in almost a month to the man they'd never thought could have existed. For a minute, they all sat in an awkward silence.
"So…" Amy tried to break the silence. She knew it was up to her and that the Doctor could only help a little in explaining all of this. But then, another thought came to her mind. "Where's Aunt Sharon?"" Amy asked, noticing her aunt was missing.
Just then, the front door opened and none other than Sharon herself entered the kitchen. She froze in shock upon seeing the man sitting in her kitchen. Amy read her expression- she knew. She knew that this was the man Amy had obsessed over as a little girl.
"Why don't you sit down? I think Amelia's got some explaining to do," Tabetha said quietly. Sharon obeyed without a word and the party became five. The Doctor stared right back at her, also not saying anything. Something was automatically wrong between the two, but Amy couldn't stop now.
"So…" Amy said, finding herself right back where she'd started. She cleared her throat, trying to think of where she should start. "Well… first of all, this is the Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor." Silence. So, Amy knew that one statement was a lot to digest, but that didn't bode well for the rest of the explanation. "Right, well, he's not imaginary as you can see. All I'd said when I was a little girl about him is true," Amy said.
"Well, he certainly is attractive, just like you said," Tabetha said, trying to break the ice. Amy blushed at this and the Doctor gave a grin. Oh, he would probably never let her forget this.
"Yes, anyway. He came back the night… well, June 25th, and he invited me to-" Amy stopped herself before saying 'take a spin in his time machine.' That would not go over well. "-travel with him. He has a blue police box that's bigger on the inside, and it can go anywhere in all of space and time that he wants it to. For the last year or so, it's hard to keep track of, I've been traveling around with him," Amy explained. For a moment, no one said anything.
"So you mean to tell us you've been living in a box?" Sharon said with a hint of disdain. This made everyone else in the room chuckle, but the laughter was mostly out of nerves.
"And wait, how had it been a year? You've only been gone for a month!" Tabetha questioned.
"Yes, and how is a blue box a space ship and a time machine?" Augustus added. Amy took a deep breath, not knowing how to conquer all of these questions. She was feeling a little overwhelmed, and the Doctor took notice. Thankfully, he chose that moment to step in.
"To your question, Sharon, yes, we've been living in a box. A wonderfully brilliant box that has more rooms than you can imagine on the inside. To yours, Tabetha, it's been a year for us because it's a time machine. We can return to Earth during any point in time. And finally you, Augustus. It's called a TARDIS- Time And Relative Dimension In Space," the Doctor succinctly answered all of their questions. Amy sighed in relief.
"Just look out your window, there's the old girl," the Doctor added with a grin. The three looked out the window to see that, sure enough, there was a police box parked on their lawn.
"Amazing! So you're actually real, and you have a real space ship!" Augustus mused. He looked thrilled by the concept. Amy silently thanked him for so quickly adapting to the idea. Her mom and aunt weren't as easily swayed.
"Yes, and that's all nice, but what have you been doing in that little box all this time?" Sharon asked, shooting what she must have thought was a sneaky glare at the Doctor. She obviously thought that the Doctor had bad intentions by taking a girl away in his time machine.
"Oh, Aunt Sharon, stop it. We've been traveling the universe of course!" Amy said with a laugh.
"And Amy, dear, what ever happened to Rory?" Tabetha asked softly. She looked truly concerned about her daughter. Amy's smile vanished. This was approaching the dangerous territory- explaining the reason why she'd broken off her engagement to Rory. Explaining that she was now with the Doctor.
"Well, you see, Rory and I both agreed that even though we loved each other, it just wasn't quite going to work out," Amy said softly, looking down at her hands which were folding and unfolding themselves on the kitchen table. She glanced up at the Doctor quickly and saw that there was a small crease between his brows. Amy knew that he was restraining himself from getting too involved. They both knew that this was something Amy had to do herself.
"And that means what? That he walked in on you cheating on him or something?" Sharon asked. Amy lowered her hand under the table to place it on the Doctor's knee as a reminder that he shouldn't get involved. She felt his muscles twitch like he really, really wanted to. Amy swallowed her anxiety and turned to face her aunt.
"No. It means that I realized that my heart was split between two men and that Rory deserved to have a girl who could give him all her heart. I couldn't do that because I was in love with the Doctor. I always have been, ever since I was seven years old," Amy said confidently, ignoring any shaking that tried to creep into her voice. For a moment, it seemed no one even took a breath.
"You love him?" Amy's mom breathed. Amy nodded, taking hold of the Doctor's hand under the table. Tabetha turned her gaze on the Doctor. "And what about you?" she asked. Without missing a single beat, the Doctor responded.
"I love her too. Your daughter, niece, is that most wonderful girl I have ever met, and that's saying something coming from a man that's seen just about all planets in the universe at many points in time. She's brilliant, and impossible, and amazing, and I couldn't help falling for her. It wasn't my plan when we started exploring the universe together, but it was what happened anyway," the Doctor answered. Amy felt her heart soar when she heard those words coming out of her Doctor's mouth. At this answer, Tabetha's face finally broke into a smile.
"Then I couldn't ask for any more from you," she said. "Oh, except, could she still come home sometimes?" she added on. The Doctor returned her smile.
"Definitely," he answered.
Augustus was also smiling. Neither of Amy's parents knew exactly everything that was going on, nor did they pretend to. They also knew that more talks like this one would become necessary. They hadn't fully digested that their daughter was now a time traveler and was dating her former imaginary friend, but they realized that she was happy, and that was enough for now. Sharon, on the other hand, did not believe everything Amy and the Doctor had said. She found it to be impossible. She really did want Amy to be happy, but this man did not seem to be the way to do so.
Time. It would take time for Amy's three guardians to adjust to the idea of the Doctor and all that came with him, but it would work out eventually, Amy was sure of it. She threw the Doctor a grin and he gave her a quick wink, letting her know she was doing a great job.
The Doctor, on the other hand, had other things on his mind. He would soon have to confront these three people sometime when Amy was not around to talk to them about something a little bit different. And the thought of that conversation made him want to run more than a starship full of Daleks.