A/N: So this came to me on...Tuesday night, after I saw The Hobbit in theatres. Sort of a Doctor Who/LOTR crossover thingy majig? Anyway. Please review!
"Read to me, Raggedy Man."
Amy leaned back, head angled towards the cloudless sky. Her bright ginger hair fell back in a sheet, covering the tweed jacket that brushed against her own.
"I though you didn't like my reading aloud," the Doctor said, twisting his head around. She shrugged.
"Yeah, and now I do. Just read."
He smiled, pushed the round glasses further up his nose, and flipped back to the front page. "'The Fellowship of the Ring', by J.R.R. Tolkien," he began. Amy's mouth crooked at the corners and her eyes fluttered closed, letting the words wash over her and the sun warm her pale skin.
He continued talking even after she had dozed off. He liked Tolkien's books. In fact, Middle Earth existed on one of the many alternate universes. Before the cracks had closed, before Rose, before the Time War, he had visited.
The Doctor smiled at the memory. The shock on the elves' faces had been incentive enough. He had ventured from Rivendell to the Shire and to all of the places in between. Those had been the peaceful years.
The smile that had graced his features melted away, only to reappear almost instantaneously. "Amy!" he said, jumping up. Amy shrieked and fell over at the sudden movement, flinging out her hands to brace herself.
"What!?"
"I'm taking you to meet someone!"
She scrambled up, grabbing their things, and hurried to catch up with the Doctor. He was running towards the TARDIS, which had been moored at the edge of the nearby river. "Who!? DOCTOR! Who are you taking me to meet?"
He swung open the doors and danced inside the TARDIS, waiting for Amy to enter before speaking. "John! Ronald! Reuel! Tolkien!"
"What, the Hobbit guy? What are you taking me to see him for?"
The Doctor peered at her around the large console, grinning like a maniac. "Because," he began, speaking slowly as if to a child, "if I can just tweak it a bit, meeting him will open up the crack, a bit like removing a bit of tape off a parcel. With that open, it should just be enough for us to get through with the TARDIS and we'll be able to visit for a few days."
Amy grabbed onto the side of the huge thing, swaying as the TARDIS took off. "Visit where?" she asked, looking supremely bewildered.
"Middle Earth!"
She let out a wild laugh; it was a sound of disbelief. "You do realise that's a fictional place, right?"
"Ha! It is when you're not me!" he cried, grabbing onto a lever and tugging it violently.
This time Amy's laugh was genuine. "You're ridiculous. I hope you know that."
"Well, let's hope that I am because if I wasn't, this'd never work."
She shrieked when the TARDIS bucked, throwing her backwards, down the few stairs, and into the doors of the TARDIS. "Oof!"
And then it was still. The Doctor ran to Amy, tripping over his feet like a bumbling child. "Are you all right?"
She groaned, rubbing her wrist where she had fallen. "Yeah, just bruised. So where are we?"
"Oh, Yorkshire, I think. 1940s. During the writing of The Lord of the Rings! Course, he's not going to finish it for a while yet, but…"
Amy grinned and stood up, brushing herself off. "So, shall we go then?"
The Doctor grinned and swung open the blue doors. "After you."