A/N: Alrighty, so here it is, the last story in the series. Again, I want to thank all of you for your reviews and favorites and follows. I've only been a Whovian for about a year now (can't believe it's been that long!), and I cannot say enough good things about this fandom. I absolutely love being a part of it and I love being able to contribute in the form of fan fiction. So thank you all for your feedback, I really appreciate it!
THE GOD COMPLEX/THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG
"Of course. Who else?"
The Doctor sat up in bed, staring at some gadget or other. His fingers tapped the side of the square shape and his eyes went in and out of focus. The name of this particular piece of equipment was quickly escaping him, and his eyes moved down towards the true subject of his thoughts.
He and Rose had done this ritual ever since she had come back to the TARDIS nearly three years ago. Every night cycle, she would go to bed, and he would join her. He made a point of laying beside her as she fell asleep, and he would hold his place in some form or other in order to be next to her whenever she woke. There were those rare occasions when he would actually fall asleep, and he absolutely loved the feel of her body pressed to his as his eyelids fluttered open.
Most nights, however, were like this. The Doctor would lay next to Rose as she fell asleep, and, once that happened, he would retrieve something with which to amuse himself until the proper 8 or so hours had passed and Rose awakened. They would kiss good morning, one of them would retrieve Ellie, the other Sammy, and the day would begin.
This night, however, was different. This would be the last night they spent together on the TARDIS. It might be the last night they spent together at all. His eyes bore into her, memorizing every detail. He couldn't believe that they had finally reached this point. She was leaving, and she was taking their children with her.
His eyes had been red for the entire night, never being dry for longer than a moment. He had known, somewhere in the back of his mind, he had known that this would be a possibility. It wasn't necessarily safe for children to be on the TARDIS, not with their luck, and Rose...well she had been missing out on a few adventures, he supposed, wanting to stay behind and take care of Ellie and Sammy.
She groaned and slowly readjusted herself. The Doctor looked over and noticed her eyelids attempting to open themselves.
"Sh," he soothed. "Go back to sleep."
She sat up straight. "I can't." Her hands moved to her face and attempted to rub the sleep from her eyes. She then brought her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly. "I don't wanna go, Doctor."
"Then stay," he pled, nearing his face to hers.
"I don't want to go," she repeated, "but I can't stay." He remained silent, his eyes displaying his confusion. "Doctor, the kids are still so young. They can't be left alone, and I know you. You could never just stop until they were old enough, and that's okay. That's who you are and I love that, but...Doctor, I have to stay with them. I can't go off with you anymore. I haven't left the TARDIS for a while now, and...I can't..." Her words seemed to escape her at this point and tears began to fall. "I can't just...wait around, hoping that you'll come back alive."
He looked down at the sheets, more of his own tears threatening to fall.
"I deserve better," she finished.
Suddenly another voice, a familiar voice flowed through his mind. "Praise him." His eyes darted to the doorway just in time to see it slam shut.
On the other side of the door, the Doctor walked away from the room marked number 11, desperate to solve the mystery and get back to the TARDIS, back to his family.
The Doctor smiled as Rory practically danced away to have a look at the house that had just been gifted. Moments later, the Time Lord was next to Amy, leaning against the car that had come as part of the package.
"So you're leaving, aren't you?" she asked. At first, the Doctor didn't respond. Of course Amy knew what he was doing. She was clever, she was so clever.
"You haven't seen the last of me," he admitted, unable to actually speak the words. "Bad Penny is my middle name. Seriously, the looks I get when I fill in a form, it's..." he trailed off as she gave a pathetic laugh.
"Why now?"
"Because..." he stalled on his words, a thousand answers ready to be fired, each one more painful and more false than the last. He wanted to lie. More than anything he wanted to tell them that it was for their own benefit and how could he keep them safe? But he was doing this to make things better all around. He would come back for the Ponds, but he had responsibilities first and foremost: Rose and Sammy and Ellie, and they took precedence over everything. She had to know that.
"Because I'm afraid," was his answer. Amy's brows furrowed ever so slightly, and his crushed together with worry. "Amy...I love you and Rory, but my family is everything to me. I need to be there for them, and I can't be if I'm...if I'm off getting into this or that with the two of you. They deserve better than that. I'm scared that one day I won't come back looking like me, and my children won't even recognize me. I'm scared that they'll grow old never even knowing their father."
He reached up to brush away a tear that had unknowingly escaped.
"Doctor," Amy began, her voice hushed, knowing that she was asking the Doctor to reveal a great secret, something she didn't even expect him to answer. "Doctor, did you find your room? What was in it?"
His eye-line fell to the pavement. The earlier resolve to be honest was being sorely tested. He cleared his throat. "They were leaving me, Amy. They weren't dying. They were just going. Because they could, because they should." He took a breath and lowered his voice even further.
"And it absolutely broke my hearts."
With her arms crossed, Amy leaned over and gave the Doctor a comforting nudge with her shoulder.
"Even so, it can't happen like this." Her voice was beginning to thicken with unpronounced emotion. "After what we've been through, Doctor...everything. You can't just drop me off at my house and say goodbye like we shared a cab."
"And what's the alternative?" he countered. "Me standing over their graves, knowing I never even gave them a chance? I could lose you too, Amy, you and Rory. It's dangerous out there. What if it was your grave I stood over?"
Her only reply was to sweep him into a hug. When they parted, the Doctor glanced back at the house saying, "Look after him."
"Look after them," she replied, nodding toward the TARDIS where Rose was now peeking through the doors, Ellie on her hip, Sammy at her feet. "And look after you."
She placed a kiss on his forehead before turning and walking back to the house, not looking back as the familiar vwoorp of the little blue box rang through the air.
Later, during the night cycle, Rose moved to the bed and sat cross legged, mirroring her Time Lord's position.
"You didn't have to do that," she said quietly. "It's okay for you to have an adventure every now and again."
"Maybe," he admitted quietly, changing his position in order to be nearer to her. "But it wasn't always like that. I first started traveling just to get away from everything. I had Susan with me. We lived on Earth for a while. She went to school, I wandered around. We parked the TARDIS and just...lived. We would stay in a place for years at a time, just fitting in with the culture. I think it's time I gave that another shot."
She reached up and placed a soft kiss on his lips before turning and leaning against his chest. "As long as your happy," she breathed.
"I am," he needlessly replied. "I am so happy."
He had woken up in a strange train carriage after having seen Amy again for the first time in...well...a very, very long time. He had no idea how long it had been for her, especially now that time had gone wonky, it could have been...months, weeks, decades; he wasn't sure.
But she was still the same. Amelia Pond, she was still so amazing.
"Why are you older?" she asked. "If time isn't really passing, then how can you be aging?"
The Doctor started at this. Was it really that obvious? Amy never ceased to amaze him. Not only could she remember him, him and everything that they had ever done together, not only could she see that time had gone wrong, she could also see when the Doctor was trying too hard to hide something. He supposed he should have known that she would notice. Amy always noticed.
"Amy," he began, his despair etched into his voice, "the last time you saw me, I had just left you and Rory at your new house. My children were still so young, and...and-" He couldn't finish his sentence. It had been so long since...He didn't think it would still effect him so much.
Amy seemed to understand what he was trying to say. "Doctor, where's Rose? And where're Ellie and Sammy?"
Coward as he was, the Doctor focused on the easy answer. "Ellie and Sam are out there somewhere, trying to figure out why Time's gone wrong. They don't need to know that there's only one way to fix it." He had known for a while now that he was problem, the eye of the storm. His death was the only fix. His children didn't need to know that he had to die to save the Universe. They would just try and stop it, but look at what that had done already. No, it was better for Ellie and Sam to be off on a wild goose chase.
Before the Doctor could go on and begin a new tangent, Amy cut him off.
"And Rose? Doctor, where's Rose?"
At first the Time Lord merely avoided her gaze. When he turned again to meet her eye, she was taken aback by the absolute wretchedness of his expression.
"I haven't seen you in a long time, Amy, a very long time." His tone was despondent, and he desperately wanted to talk about anything else. He knew, however, that Amy wouldn't let it go, and the sooner this conversation was over and done with, the better. "Longer than you think, and...Rose was only human."
"Is she-"
"Please don't make me say it," he begged quietly.
She neared him and pulled him close to her. For a moment, they were both silent, but try as she might, Amy couldn't help the next word that fell from her lips.
"How?"
Slowly, the Doctor removed himself from her side. "She was 96," he spoke quietly. "I was...I was lucky to have her for so long."
"So," Amy started in a tone similar to his, "she got to see her children grow up, and she got to spend the rest of her life with you. She had a good life, Doctor. Don't forget that, for her sake." He gripped her hand, but she could tell from his eyes that it wasn't as simple as she was making it out to be. "I know it's hard. I know you two were-"
"It was more than that, Amy," he whispered. "Rose and I were...we never put a title to it because language, any language simply doesn't do it justice. I told her I loved her because I knew she wanted to hear it, but it was so, so much more than that." He seemed to lose his words for a moment, but continued anyway. "When Rose was...when she was alive...she was..."
Amy waited a few seconds before pressing him gently. "She was what, Doctor?"
He looked her straight in the eye. "Mine," he spoke strongly, not unkind, but firm and resolute.
"She was mine."