A/N: Set between Big Bang and A Christmas Carol. The song lyrics are Snow Patrols, "What if This Storm Ends".
What if the storm ends?
And I don't see you
As you are now
Ever again
Amy Pond the girl who waited. And I'm the man who waited just a year too long. If for once in my long and lonely life I could control time, things would be so much different. Twelve years was one thing. It gave her time to form into the stunning woman she is now. But that one year. That one year that changed so much.
Sure, Amy'd left willingly that night. Trading her fiancée for me, but that didn't last long.
I never stop. I never stop thinking and computing everything that could, will, did, can, won't happen. And Amy Pond and the Doctor won't ever happen now. Now Amy Pond and her husband are living in the TARDIS. That's why I've been sending them to every honeymoon oriented planet imaginable. Because I'm not going to come straight out and say I don't like them living in the TARDIS married. Because, honestly, Amy can stay. Amy Pond could stay with me forever.
She's not Rose Tyler. She's not the woman I will always love and know I can never have. Somewhere in a very different world she's with my former self, a half human former me, and they're happy. I knew that when I would never say those three words.
Amy Pond's so very different. She's everything that could make me forget everything when I'm with her. But because I am a foolish genius, I gave up any chance of letting her consume me.
"Listen to me! I am 907 years old. Do you know what that means?"
"It's been awhile?" Yes. It has been a very, very long time, Pond.
"No, no no. I'm 907 and look at me. I don't get older .I just change. You get older. I don't. This can't work."
"Oh, Doctor I wasn't suggesting anything quite so long term."
That's why Amy Pond and the Doctor could work. She doesn't care about commitment. She doesn't even thing about it. She wouldn't be like Rose, desperately in love with a man who loved her more than he'd let on to; or like Martha re-bound, delusional and awestruck by a man who was growing darker and careless, and so many others. Lost in a vortex of an untouchable man.
But Amy was mad and crazy; her life had been rearranged by a Crack in her bedroom wall. Despite fixing it, she was still a woman touched by time.
The Doctor glanced up towards the doorway that lead to the hallways of the TARDIS, Amy and Rory had gone to bed an hour ago. He'd waited long enough to finally know what it would be like.
As much as the Doctor hated admitting it, he could rewrite time so easily that it was always nagging his brain with sweet temptation. It would be so easy for him to just pop off to Leadworth and rewrite another branch of Amy's life. Keep her from accepting Rory's proposal.
Pulling the levers and pushing the buttons of the control panel, the Doctor smiled as he felt the TARDIS begin to travel through the Vortex.
What he was doing was so wrong. So very, very wrong. And yet, it felt perfect.
The TARDIS materialized in early morning Leadworth, in the Pond's garden to be more exact. This time, the Doctor was not late.
"Doctor?" Amy questioned, popping her head out of her backdoor.
"Amy Pond." The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, shutting the door and leaning against it proudly. "Miss me?"
The planets last dance
Just for a minute
The silver-forked sky
Lifts you up like a star
"What did you think?" The Doctor questioned, excitedly, pulling the TARDIS door shut. Amy Pond was huffing and puffing, throwing the back pack off of her shoulders and collapsing on the gridding.
"I think, you're insane." She laughed, "Who thinks hot and humid space jungle, and then 'cool'?"
The Doctor bit his lip, laughing, "Well you dressed for it at least! Not like that Rio mix-up!"
"What?" Amy cocked her head to the side, pulling off her boots that were sweltering on her sore feet.
His eyes darted to the controls and started doing anything he could with his hands. Always a good thing to do when he was suddenly caught in a pickle. "Ah, I meant that this one time I went to Rio. Well intended to go to Rio and I wound up.. in.. I think was Alaska?"
Amy burst out laughing, dragging herself up to her feet. "Glad to know you aren't just in accurate about time with me."
He'd been with this Amy for a few months now. The other Amy and her husband were vanished when he'd returned. Time can be rewritten after all.
"Yes, well. Accuracy is not my strongest skill." He gave her a cheeky grin, giving her a playful wink.
"Where to next?" Amy came up alongside of him at the controls. "This time, no extremes. Please." She let her bottom lip pucker out in a mock display of begging.
"Ask and you shall receive." He teased, tugging at his bowtie. It seemed to have become incredibly tight around his neck.
"Anywhere?"
"Yep!"
Amy bit her lip; did she dare tempt her fate? "Any time?" She chickened out of the real question.
"Sure thing!"
She gulped a little, edging closer to him and letting her hand slip out to rest on his. "Any...thing?"
He felt his two hearts skip a beat.
Amy stared at him wide-eyed, she'd overstepped a line she was sure of it. She looked down at where her hand was on his, starting to slide it away like it had never happened.
"Yes." His voice was thick with passion. When she looked back at him she saw the fire burning in his eyes. Leaning up on her bare toes, pressing herself against the length of his body.
He'd finally let Amy Pond consume him with the passion and madness that was her.
At least that's nothing
Except the memory
A distant echo
That Doctor gasped as he awoke with a start. He'd fallen asleep at the control panel. He never fell asleep at the control panel. He hardly ever fell asleep.
"Doctor?" He turned round to see Amy standing in the doorway up the flight of stairs. She wore nothing but her nightgown and a pair of slippers.
"Amy." He shook his head; it still felt fuzzy and clouded. The dream swirled in his mind. "What's wrong?"
"Did you.." She broke off, walking down the stairs.. "It's crazy really. Did you..?"
"Did I what?" He questioned, his eyes flickering up and down her thinly dressed body.
"Dream?"
He gulped, "Depends."
"On what?"
"Oh, the colour of the sky, what bird's are flying around today, what star burned out last week."
"Don't make jokes Doctor." She shook her head, "Was it you or me that wanted there to have never been a Rory?"
The Doctor shrugged, "I think the bigger issue is that the Dream Lord's back, Pond."
Amy hesitated when she strode to his side. "Because I imagine what it would be like sometimes... If he'd never existed as more than my friend. ."
The Doctor gulped, reaching out and hugging her. "It was just a dream Amy."
"Was that the dream? Or is this the dream?" She pulled back from the hug, looking up at him with worried eyes.
"Oh, Amy Pond. My Pond."
"I love Rory, Doctor. I do. But, you're different. You're what my childhood was built on. What I've been waiting for, for thirteen years. He only happened because you were late."
"But, we can't know what would have happened. It would change too much. It was just a dream."
"Rory's asleep. He took his sleep medication, he's not used to the TARDIS noises yet."
The Doctor looked at her puzzled, "Okay?"
"Remember what I said, not something long termed. I just want to know."
"To know what?"
"Don't play naive Doctor. I was just in your dream and you are not the innocent Doctor you act like."
He laughed, feeling flushed. "You can't blame me, not when you run around in the shortest skirts that can be called a skirt and not a flap of fabric."
"You are observant."
"When I want to be. When it pertains to me. When the world depends on-"
"Shut up." Amy hissed leaning up to kiss him.
Either way, dream or dream the Doctor found out what it felt like to be overwhelmed by Amy Pond.
That I will follow
But now it's found us
Like I have found you
I don't wanna run
Just overwhelm me