Amy followed the sounds of muttering, tinkering, and clanking down below the main console floor. She sat down on the bottom step, leaning her head against the railing and watching the Doctor putter about for a few minutes.
"Something on your mind, Amelia?" he asked gently, without looking up from his work.
Amy looked down, fidgeting with her hands a bit. "I was just wondering…have you seen my daughter lately?"
"Would that be Melody? Or River? Or…?"
"Whichever," Amy replied with a sad little smile. "It's just…" her voice broke and a few tears began to trickle down her face. "I never got to see her grow up…I missed so much, and I just want…need…to know that she's all right."
"She will be. You do know that."
"I know, but she's my daughter, Doctor, and I worry. And…you married her…"
The Doctor wriggled out from under the underside of the console and stepped over to sit beside Amy. "So I should look after her?"
"Well…"
"You do realize that River Song is one of the most capable-of-looking-after-herself people in the known universe, right?"
"I know, but…"
Smiling indulgently, he wrapped his arm around Amy's shoulders and pressed a light kiss to her temple. "The mother in law gene, again. Can't escape it. Just seems to be my lot in life."
Amy straightened up, her eyes sparkling inquisitively. "Mother in law? I'm not your first mother in law?"
"One thousand years, Pond."
"Tell me about her!" Amy pounced. "Who was she? When?"
"Well, technically, she wasn't actually my mother in law…Rose and I never…at least not in this universe…" The Doctor chuckled softly, remembering. "Jackie Tyler. A voice that could shatter glass, a fashion nightmare, and a wicked slap. And she raised an incredibly smart, brave, loving, daughter, all by herself. She gave me Rose. I could forgive anyone anything for that."
"Rose?" Amy asked softly.
The Doctor smiled sadly, his eyes filled with an immense pain that time had dulled until only the memory of pure love shone through. "After the Time War, I was alone. Bitter, enraged, and so very broken inside. They called me The Oncoming Storm, and meant it, in all the very worst ways. And then I met Rose. A golden wisp of a girl, who took my hand, and smiled at me, and wasn't afraid. Not of me, not of anything. I shudder to think what I'd be today if I'd never met her."
"You loved her," Amy whispered, clasping his hand tightly.
"More than you can possibly imagine."
"Don't be too sure about that," said the girl who'd chosen to end her own life and destroy a dream world to be with the man she loved.
"Point taken."
Amy looked very thoughtful, struggling to find her way through an idea. "So…the raggedy man who turned up in my backyard when I was seven…if you'd never met Rose…"
"Yes."
"Doctor? Where is she now?"
"Happy, I hope. I pray."
Squeezing his hand once more, Amy rose to her feet and wandered up the steps, leaving the Time Lord to his thoughts.
"Thank you, Jackie…and thank you, Amy."