Disclaimer: All characters belong to the BBC and the Moff.
Summary: "You spiked the punch." Amy huffed. She really wasn't in the mood for her friend's insouciant joking. Not when her boyfriend had just asked her to marry him and she'd straight up rejected him without properly considering her answer.
Another Nudge in the Right Direction
"Rory's a wreck."
Amy didn't turn her head to look at the woman leaning against her bedroom doorframe. Instead she rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in a pillow.
"Go away Mels." It was muffled but Mels still managed to interpret her words.
"Hey, I came here to comfort you."
"You're doing a crap job."
"You never gave me a chance." Mels strode in and unceremoniously plonked down beside her best friend on the bed. She yanked the pillow out from Amy's face and stuffed it between her back and the headboard, wriggling until she was comfortable.
Amy attempted to glare at her. With her hair covering her face and head still flat on the mattress she looked more pitiful than threatening.
"You know what happened?" she asked softly.
Mels nodded.
"Spoke to Rory. Mind you, took a while to get the whole story. That boy is a blubberer." She saw Amy's body tense and could only imagine she was wincing also. She couldn't really tell beneath all that hair. "Sorry."
Amy sighed loudly, flopped onto her back and stared up at Mels. "Am I making a massive mistake?"
She shrugged. "I'll get back to you on that. Now, why did you say no?"
"I'm twenty."
Mels waited for Amy to elaborate, however after a long pause it became clear that was all she intended on saying.
"Yes, I know," she said, in such a way that Amy was convinced she was questioning her wit, "I do remember your party… well kinda. Thanks to the legend who spiked the punch."
"You spiked the punch." Amy huffed. She really wasn't in the mood for her friend's insouciant joking. Not when her boyfriend had just asked her to marry him and she'd straight up rejected him without properly considering her answer.
Mels grinned wickedly.
"I know. But come on, you can't have punch and expect me not to spike it. But that's not the point. My point was, why is being twenty important?"
"I'm so young. We're so young. I've got my whole life ahead of me."
With an arched brow Mels crossed her arms over her chest, swallowing slowly. "So you think getting married will be the end of your life? If that's the case then fine, don't marry him. I'm sure Rory wouldn't want to marry you either if he knew you thought it was akin to death."
There was an edge to her voice that baffled Amy. She had to pause for a few moments, blinking, to allow that unexpected retort to catch up with her.
"No, that's not it." Amy pushed herself up into a sitting position, her eyes now at the same level as Mels'. She angled her body to face her, picking at loose threads on her bed cover. "It's… marriage is such a big thing! It's massive. And, I want to get it right. It's important to me that I get it right."
She caught Mels' gaze, wide eyes imploring sympathy. Mels' defensive posture remained unchanged. It was an attitude Amy was accustomed to seeing, but never directed at her.
"You could have said you wanted to think about it, rather than outright refusing him. It was a bit harsh."
Amy bit down on her bottom lip, hard. She tried to repress the sudden irrational anger burning inside of her. She knew Rory was also Mels friend, but the fact of the matter was that Mels always sided with Amy. Always. It was just part of who she was. Amy was hurt that at a time when she so desperately needed her best friend's support, it was being denied.
"I panicked," Amy said, louder and more aggressively than was perhaps necessary. "You have no idea how many thoughts are flying through your head when there's a boy kneeling in front of you with a diamond ring."
"Not just a boy. Your boyfriend."
Amy huffed again. "So it was. But it's still not something to take lightly. And he completely caught me off guard."
"Answer me this," Mels said with a sigh, uncrossing her arms and slackening her stiff posture, "do you love Rory?"
Amy peered up at her through the bangs of hair concealing her forlorn face. "Yes."
The spark in Mels' gaze held a piercing gravitas. The presence of such a serious expression on Mels was so unfamiliar to Amy she found herself unable to look away.
"Is Rory your today?"
Amy exhaled, "Yes."
"Is he your tomorrow?"
As Amy nodded the corner of her mouth lifted against her will. She knew exactly what Mels would ask next. Even as young children neither girl believed in the notion of a forever love, it was a physical impossibility to not die and they didn't entertain the fancy an emotion could transcend their own death.
It was the rest of your living days that were important, the only measure that counted.
Being someone's today, tomorrow and every day thereafter was the ultimate declaration of devotion as far as they had always been concerned.
"The next day?" Mels continued.
"Yes!" Amy cried, openly smiling now. "And every day after that."
"Right, so you want to spend your whole life with him. You're already planning on it, correct?"
"I…" Amy trailed off and collapsed back on the bed dramatically, "yeah."
"Then what could be wrong about it?"
Amy kept her gaze on Mels as she slowly moved to sit up once more, brows raised questioningly. She loved Mels, she really did. But there were some things the girl had no right to lecture Amy about, and relationships was one of them.
"Am I really taking relationship advice – better yet, marriage advice – from you? Look at you, you've never even had a boyfriend."
"Don't try making this about me," Mels said tartly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Besides, I've been on dates."
"Dates." Amy scoffed. She wasn't entirely sure they could even be called that, but she'd let it slide. "Never a proper boyfriend."
Mels thought that was perfectly acceptable. Amy wouldn't want to date the guys they went to school with either if she'd been alive longer than most of their parents. Mels didn't think of herself as a cougar, and not once had she ever found any of her classmates to be the slightest bit appealing.
Middle aged men from out of town (she didn't want to face the risk of bumping into them on the street), now that was her type. The fact that it both irritated and disturbed her parents was the icing on the cake.
"That's my choice," Mels responded, nose turned in the air disdainfully. "I could get one if I wanted, easy. But I don't want one. I don't need no man. There's no man on earth that could handle me."
Amy exhaled, knowing all too well how true her words were. "You'd date an alien just for the fun of it."
"Yeah, much better company than humans – males that is. You're great company. You're not stupid like most people."
Mels could tell Amy wasn't listening – she didn't even attempt a smile. Instead she was staring vacantly out the window, a cushion tucked tightly to her chest.
Mels sighed.
"Amy, you want my opinion?" she waited until there was a response and Amy looked at her. "I think you're getting too worked up about this. You're thinking of marriage as some big institution and that's what is scaring you. Not the thought of living with Rory and loving him til the day you die. You already plan on doing that anyway. And that's what being married is, at its core. Loving each other and never letting go. No matter what. Don't let it be so daunting."
"You seem to have thought about this whole marriage deal a bit. Something you're not telling me?" Amy asked, a hint of joking in her tone that was belied by her eyes narrowing sceptically.
"I'm not the marrying kind." Mels positioned herself back against the pillow and headboard, stuffing the pillow into comfortable submission.
"You say that now. In ten years time, you'll change your mind." They stared at one another for a long moment. "Make that twenty… on second thought, no you're right. You'll never get married. You'd be tying yourself to one man. The words 'Mels' and 'settle down' don't really correlate."
"Even if I was the marryin' kind. I wouldn't be able to. I'm s'posed to marry your Raggedy Doctor remember?" Mels asked, tongue in cheek. Amy's expression turned disgusted and she scoffed loudly, eyes rolling.
"You'll have to find him first," she practically growled. She roughly pat the cushion in her lap to smooth the cover out. "He's notoriously bad at keeping time."
"Which, for a Time Lord, is kind of ironic don't ya think?" Mels grinned. She thought her pun was quite good, but judging by Amy's furrowed brow, the redhead didn't. "What?"
"Is that a name you came up with? Because I would not have called him a lord of time, considering his history. Time Flop sounds far more appropriate."
Mels laughed hoarsely, covering up the slightly panicked expression that had graced her features when she realised her blunder. "Yeah, yours is much better than mine. Let's stick with that one. A Time Flop he is."
Amy nodded once before her eyes locked on Mels, narrowing in thought. "If you ever do get married, I'll tell you who it will be to."
"Oh?" Mels settled further into the pillow, folding her arms over her chest and crossing the ankles of her outstretched legs. This was bound to be good. "Who?"
"A rich old geezer who you'll have swindled into believing you're a nice respectable young woman. Then the minute the papers are signed you'll start acting like yourself and he'll drop dead from a heart attack at the realisation."
Mels pursed her lips, considering.
"That's not such a bad plan," she finally conceded. She waved her hand in the air. "Might jazz it up a little bit, but it's certainly got potential."
Amy exhaled loudly, crawling across the bed to collapse back against the headboard beside Mels, mirroring her posture. She angled her head to face the other girl, showing off those big sad eyes that Mels knew Rory always did anything for.
"What am I going to do?"
Mels shuffled on the bed until she was sitting cross-legged facing her mother, holding her gaze with a serious determination.
"You don't need me to tell you that." Mels could tell Amy wasn't impressed with that advice by the way her face fell and her gaze dropped to the bedcover. So she continued, "It's you and him. Amy and Rory," – mum and dad – she thought with a wry smile. "That's the way it's always been. And it's the way it always will be."
"But we're so young."
"Whether you marry now or in five years, you're still gonna do it," Mels reasoned earnestly. Amy nodded a diminutive movement of her head in response. As was expected by both of them, Mels' solemnity could only last for so long. She pursed her lips as she spoke, "May as well do it now. Then, by law, all he owns is yours too. Just think, you'll have access to any penny he's ever earned."
"He doesn't own anything."
"Well, anything he comes to own, will be yours."
"Will you be my maid of honour?"
One of Mels' brows arched in utter disbelief. Inwardly though, she was quite chuffed that it seemed as though she'd managed to get through to her mother — finally.
"You have to actually accept the proposal first," she murmured, deadpan.
Amy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I know. But will you?"
"Will the Doctor be there?"
That one piece of information would be enough to make the decision for Mels. If there was even the slighted chance he might be there, then she knew she couldn't be.
If there was one thing in the universe Mels was absolutely sure of it was that the first time she ever met the Doctor she would kill him. But she couldn't kill him yet. It would mean she would never have been born. The idea of suddenly ceasing to exist sucked. Thus she could only kill him once she knew she was well on the way to existing.
Even aside from that, she knew – but she couldn't explain just how – that it wasn't the right time. Not yet anyway.
As much as she could tell from Amy's bitter laughing that she didn't believe it, Mels didn't doubt for one second that the Doctor would be there. Going to her parents' wedding wasn't even an option for Mels.
"It's only been, what a year since prisoner zero," Amy muttered. "It's another eleven years until he's due to come back again. If he comes at all."
"Still guttered I missed that."
Amy brows arched and Mels pondered briefly that Amy had her motherly 'I told you so, young lady' expression down pat.
"You wouldn't have if you weren't so busy stealing a buggy from a golf course in Gloucester. Who the hell steals golf buggies?"
"I thought it would be fun, and just a tad weird, unexpected." Mels gestured as she spoke, a pleased smile gracing her features. "It made the getaway a bigger rush. You couldn't just put your foot on the accelerator, no, you had to outsmart them. It was a nice change having to outrun them with my wits and not pure speed."
"They caught you," Amy deadpanned. Mels shrugged.
"Meh. They always do. But it was a hell 'a fun while it lasted."
Amy rolled her eyes. "You will turn me grey long before my time. And you didn't answer my question. Will you?"
"I hate weddings," she responded quickly, probably a little too hasty.
"But it's us. We're your best friends."
"I'll think about it," she lied. "In the meantime, I think you better make sure there's actually going to be a wedding." She pushed Amy off the bed, so roughly it was a wonder to them both that Amy managed to land on her feet.
"Go get him. And tell him you love him. Simply replying 'yes' when he asks if you do isn't good enough. I can't imagine how much a guy would have to love someone and trust them, to propose when they had never even heard those words."
"I'll try."
Mels rolled her eyes. She wouldn't. But Rory would still marry her anyway. God her dad was quite hopeless really.
Mels sent Amy an encouraging smile when she stopped in the doorway to glance back at her. She listened while Amy descended the stairs and heard the front door slam shut behind her. Grinning to herself in a manner reminiscent of an evil genius Mels lifted the model TARDIS from its home on Amy's bedside table, spinning it in her hand as she flopped back on the bed.
"Score two for Melody ensuring her own existence. I could make a living out of this."
After a moment she abandoned the TARDIS on the bedcover and leant over to retrieve the Raggedy Doctor doll from Amy's dresser on the other side of the room. Her smile turned sinister as she trailed a finger over the doll's face.
"I'm coming for you Doctor," Mels murmured, her fingers yearning to break the doll's neck, a common impulse of hers when she looked into the imitation of his face. She resisted the urge though, Amy would be too crushed if any harm came to her precious doll.
"Soon now. I do hate to keep you waiting. But a girl's gotta make sure she's born before she fulfils her life's mission. Don't take it personally. It's merely self-preservation. As much as I'm itching to dispose of you, you're kind of essential to my birth."