A/N: Inspired by a chapter of 'The Doctor Came To Stay' by Dobby's Socks. So, if you like amazing fanfiction, Ponds, and Doctor feels, head over there. This is before Demon's Run and definitely not canon compliant. The three quotes are used from Series 5, Episode 2 'The Beast Below' and Series 7, Episode 4 'The Power of Three.' Please read and review. Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.
Amy was wandering the TARDIS when she found it. The TARDIS had many rooms- the Doctor had said she was nearly infinite. She was also constantly shifting and rearranging them. Amy had been nervous of getting lost until she was told the TARDIS was alive and that she only need ask.
Of course, the Doctor also said that the TARDIS liked her. That was probably another reason. Rory had been nervous for a much longer period of time. When he'd come back as a Roman and then when they'd been married, he'd gotten over his fear of being lost forever in the shifting infinite maze.
When Amy pushed open a dusty, plain, and inconspicuous wooden door, she found herself next to several large stacks of cardboard boxes. Amy was afraid of touching them lest they fall apart, but when she opened one, it was surprisingly sturdy.
"Huh. Schoolbooks." She said into the smothering quiet.
In the boxes were stacks of old, maybe high-school grade, books. Science, physics, biology, mathematics- you name it. Amy blew dust off the cover of one. Coal Hill School. Why did the Doctor have school books?
There was a few boxes off in the corner and Amy examined these too. The books were the same but they'd been written in. Neat writing filled the pages with little circular doodles in the margins. Amelia realized it was Gallifreyian. She knew how to recognize that at least. Were these the Doctor's schoolbooks? No, that didn't make sense. The Doctor was from 'Gallifrey.' Their school books probably weren't in English.
She turned back to the front cover and in neat script were the words,
'Susan Foreman.'
Nope. Amy sighed and put the books of some bygone age back down before she continued to wander the room.
The next thing that caught her attention was a blackboard that sat forlornly in the corner with tally marks covering it and several broken pieces of chalk that littered the ground around it. A final number was circled in red:
247,000,000,000
What on earth had the Doctor counted? 2.47 billion? What would he have gone through such great lengths to count? Probably something ridiculous like the number of fezzes in the world. She stepped over the broken nubs of chalk and continued deeper.
The next thing she stumbled upon was a pot of what appeared to be celery. Well, what used to be celery. The entire thing was brown and wilted. Amy moved past it but her boots crunched something. She bent down and found pieces of glass. A little further on, a broken picture frame lay next to the long dead plant.
It was of a young boy with dark hair. Something about the photo chilled her, like she was looking at someone long gone. She carefully placed the picture down next to the plant.
It wasn't just her, this whole room was chilly and the musty smell of moldy cardboard and chalk wasn't helping either. Amelia continued on.
Next she found a surprising thing. In a corner sat a bright canary yellow vintage car that looked a little worse for wear. Amelia circled it, eyeing the license plate that spelled out 'Who 1' suspiciously.
She eventually shrugged her shoulders and continued on.
Another thing Amelia found was a rather unremarkable wooden table. Random articles decorated its surface though, and Amelia examined them carefully. The first item was lavender scented soap laying on its side... A woman's soap. Next to it was a well worn pink hoodie and a silver TARDIS key on a rope.
Forgotten property of a past companion maybe? She shrugged and scrutinized a gold ring next. It sizzled though and Amy dropped it back on the table as it expelled some sort of energy. The grossest thing on the table was the carcass of a huge black beetle.
Amelia shuddered and left the table behind. Unfortunately, she then tripped over a futuristic astronaut helmet.
She picked it up and examined it carefully. She wondered who's it had been. Eventually she found a label.
'Property of Professor River Song'
So this had belonged to the elusive Dr. Song? Well, Professor. She remembered how the Doctor had said hers and his timeline was all mixed up. That might explain when River met the Doctor she would know everything about him... Maybe this had come from his first meeting with her.
Something about the helmet felt... Sad. Amelia placed it on the table instead of the floor and continued on.
She passed a few strange articles. A gold and jeweled goblet, the burnt out remains of his silver sonic that she'd seen him use against Prisoner Zero... A centurion's sword? Definitely Rory's.
Amelia's eye widened when she saw Van Gogh's painting of the TARDIS exploding. She hadn't even realized the Doctor had kept that. Actually, how had he kept that? Hadn't he had that before the universe rebooted? Wouldn't that mean it had been destroyed?
Amelia decided to ignore that problem. It made her head spin. Next to the painting was a discarded book. Agatha Christie. Huh.
She didn't know why that would go with Van Gogh but she left them in favor of other things. The next thing she found was a sapling of a tree. It was about four feet high and she wondered why the Doctor hadn't replanted it. She examined the pot that read Forest of Cheem and shrugged. Whatever that had been.
The next oddity she found was a cradle. Gallifreyian was etched onto its side and she traced the elegant circles with her fingers before carefully touching the stars hanging over the cot.
The cot was old, probably older than all the other items in this room. A thought occurred to her. Had this been the Doctor's cot? It certainly seemed old enough and it was written in Gallifreyian... So were these the Doctor's first stars? Her lips twisted into a grin. He was more sentimental that she'd thought. This room was proof. Probably his past all shoved into one room.
Another thought occurred to her. She'd been snooping through this, probably without his knowledge. Amy felt a lick of shame and carefully retraced her steps back to the door of the room. Why had the TARDIS led her to this room though?
"Is there something you want to show me?" She asked curiously to the room.
A light flickered on in the back and Amelia walked back over. It couldn't be her fault if the TARDIS wanted her to go in.
A little wooden box discarded in the back and directly under the light drew her attention. She lifted the lid and her brow furrowed. Two circular rings with Gallifreyian etched into their surfaces sat nestled in the box. Wedding bands perhaps? It couldn't have been River's she knew for a fact that the Doctor wasn't married to her yet.
Underneath the rings were what appeared to be baby clothes. Little Gallifreyian names were sewed onto the back. Children's clothes... They had to have been separate children, some names were smaller and others were longer, but all of them different.
Amelia swallowed.
She remembered times when the Doctor would smile at kids and make them laugh, or hold a baby's fingers and make little noises at them when he passed them on the street. It had always baffled her and Rory at how good he was with children.
"You 'never interfere in the affairs of other people's or planets,' unless there's children crying."
"What if you were really old, and really kind and lonely, your whole race dead. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."
The TARDIS hummed softly, as if it knew the conclusion little Amelia Pond had come too. Amy flashed back to when she'd been seven years old and all alone in that big old house praying to Santa, one of the people other than policemen and parents that children regarded as all knowing...
Amy reverently folded the clothes, placed the rings back on the garments, and closed the box carefully. She made her way to the door and closed it softly.
"Thank you." She murmured and the TARDIS flashed in response.
The corridors led her to the console room where Rory looked up, "Oh, Amy. You've been gone quite awhile. Did you find what you were looking for?"
The Doctor poked his head above the second floor before he clambered up the steps and pushed his goggles onto his forehead.
"Hello, Pond! Do you want to go to Space Florida again? I mean I know we've already been but Rory was sort of... Well, dead or misplaced in the past- no, offense, Rory, but-"
Amy only stared in shock at his manic energy, how could he deal with it? She acted impulsively and wordlessly wrapped her arms around his middle.
"Oh, okay- hugging now, I guess?" He patted her back awkwardly, "Does that mean you don't want to go? Because that's alright if you don't, I do know of a lovely planet. It's made of cheese- Pond are you alright?"
"Just shut up Raggedy Man."
"Oh, um... okay."
Rory's brow furrowed. Something was wrong with Amy. "Amy?"
"Come on, Stupid Face."
Rory edged over and she pulled him into a hug.
"Oh, Pond hug!" And the Doctor wrapped both arms around them and kissed their foreheads.
After a few seconds Amelia let go and the Doctor continued babbling about a moon made of cheese and how they'd been making it almost as long as Wisconsin.
Amy clasped Rory's hand in hers and didn't let go, she was immensely grateful she had her boys. She'd always thought of her Raggedy Doctor as young even though in some moments he seemed extremely old. But still, if the TARDIS hadn't told her, Amy never could've guessed that her Raggedy Doctor once had been a father.
Amelia Pond might have once asked the Doctor about it, but Amy Williams knew that there are just some "Things He Didn't Talk About Anymore."
Amy wondered if maybe one day, they would be a 'Thing He Didn't Talk About Anymore.' If they would be just one more item in that dark room. She wondered who would be there to pick up the pieces when they left. She hoped the Doctor would find someone if and when they left.
Amelia shook her head and grinned, but that day wasn't going to come for a long time and she would just enjoy her time with her Raggedy Doctor before it was over.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
A millennium, plus a few hundred years, and a regeneration later, a pair of brown tortoiseshell glasses and a book with a curly haired woman on the front rested innocently on a table next to a discarded key, pink jacket, and bio dampener ring.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"I'm not running away from things. I'm running to them before they flare and fade forever. ('I'm running to you and Rory before you... fade from me.') That's all right. Our lives would never remain the same. They can't. One day, soon maybe, you'll stop. I've known for a while."