There is a question that is continually burning throughout the universe. It surges as long as there is sentient life around it. It is everywhere and nowhere, it was then, it is now and it will be later. The question that has an infinite set of answers. Well, as long as the Doctor is flying with a companion.
"Doctor, where are we going now?" Amy laughingly asked as the TARDIS shifted violently again.
"We are just making a little pit stop just outside of your solar system about ten years before you were born," the Doctor said.
"What are we doing here?" Rory asked holding on for dear life.
"Doing what I do best," the Doctor said and spun another instrument on his console.
The TARDIS began to make its usual noise and the Doctor smiled.
"Here we are," he said.
"Where?" Amy asked.
"The middle of space."
The Doctor pranced to the doors where a Stetson and lasso were positioned, putting one on his head and taking up the other one. He wound up for a long time and then threw the lasso out of the door. He tugged on it easily enough until the nose of another spaceship began to inch into the TARDIS. He struggled as it suddenly found its mass.
"Rory, if you could help," the Doctor said pulling hard on the rope.
Rory came running and tugged on the rope with many strained grunts and groans. The spaceship, white in color and cylindrical and shape with a glass spacescreen. The Ponds marveled at it.
"Doctor, what is that?" Amy asked.
"It's an escape pod," the Doctor said scanning it with his sonic screwdriver. "Now we press here."
A latch opened up and a large puff of white steam came billowing out of it. Amy and Rory watched with interest as the steam cleared. It was then that Amy let out a gasp.
"It's a baby!" Amy said.
"Go ahead, you can pick him up, I'm sure he'd enjoy that," the Doctor said.
Amy reached into the pod and extricated the sleeping child from his red blanket.
"Who would put a baby in an escape pod alone?" Rory asked.
"Someone who ran out of options," the Doctor said gravely.
"What are we going to do with him?" Amy asked patting his back.
"Well, the main thruster of the ship has shut down. He was going to drift for a time before... any way, never mind that. Now, nurse Rory why don't you do what any nurse would do and go give the little cherubin a checkup! I need to get to work!"
"Yes, come on, Rory!" Amy said excitedly.
She walked off, cooing to the baby. Rory sighed but smiled.
"Honestly, we've been married like two weeks and she already has baby fever," Rory said.
"Yes, yes," the Doctor said as he looked through the spaceship.
When Rory was gone, he looked at the pod sadly. He thought about the future. What had to happen. It made him sad, so many things did but he knew that happiness was also in the cards and that cheered him significantly as well.
"I do not have baby fever!" Amy said.
"Well, you're not really building a great case considering you won't even let me examine him," Rory said.
Amy turned away from Rory holding the baby and pouting.
"No, what if you hurt him?" Amy said.
"I'm a nurse, I've done examinations on babies before," Rory said.
"Right, here."
She put the baby down on the examination table that they had found wandering through the TARDIS. Rory looked the baby over, taking his temperature, changing his diaper which was a bit of a disaster and going about a dozen other checks.
"He's perfectly healthy," Rory said.
He looked down at the baby and his giggling face. Rory then reached out a finger to him and the baby gripped it and squeezed. Rory thought it was cute until it began to hurt, he yelled and pulled the baby's hand away from him.
"What's wrong with you?" Amy asked.
"He has a grip like a vice," Rory said rubbing his finger.
"Oh, toughen up, he's just an itsy bitsy little cutie pie."
She began to tickle the baby a bit more who giggled in response. Rory looked at her. She had never been this way before about babies. She caught his look and glared at him.
"Still shut up," she said. "Do you think he's hungry? Who knows how long he was out in space?"
"We should ask the Doctor before we feed him though," Rory said.
"Fine."
They returned to the main console room where the Doctor was actually finishing up his work.
"Ah, how is our littlest passenger doing?" the Doctor said smiling.
"He's just fine," Rory said.
"He's more than fine," Amy said.
"You have become very attached to him in a very short amount of time," the Doctor said.
"He's just so cute. Do you think that we should feed him?"
"Yes, that should be fine. Milk or mashed vegetables should short him out just fine."
"Okay then, Rory, I'll meet you in the kitchen."
She left the two men, cuddling and cooing at the baby in her arms. The Doctor looked after her sadly, Rory turned to face him.
"What's going on with her?" Rory asked.
"You're her husband," the Doctor replied looking at the spaceship.
"Doctor."
"Think about it, Rory. You have all your memories before and after the reset, right? She has parents now that you had to ask for her hand from but she still remembers the other half of that. The loneliness. The ache and longing for something that you can't get back. Then to be confronted by that same loneliness, it makes her want to be there for it too."
The Doctor pressed a few things on the console. Rory stared after him, it was as if a weight had been placed on his shoulders.
"I'm sorry, I know that this is going to be difficult for her but it will be necessary for us to put the baby back into that pod," the Doctor said.
"Why? What's so important about that child?" Rory asked.
"There are things that I can't do but want to, that he can do."
"What?"
"It will make sense in a while, just give it some time and know that we can't take that child with us. It can't leave here unless it's back in that pod."
"If you knew that it was going to be hard for her, why did you come here in the first place?"
"Because that child is special. That child will remember her. This kindness. The child needs it at least in some small part."
Rory let out a long sigh and looked at the Doctor. He leaned against the console and looked up at the ceiling.
"I feel a little out of place here," Rory said. "Having a mom and dad and all. Not like you two."
"Not like her, you mean," the Doctor said. "She didn't have a choice. I did."
Rory knew that the Doctor was referring one of, if not the darkest of chapters and decided to leave him to his thoughts. He walked away into the TARDIS and eventually found Amy. She had moved from the kitchen into a sitting room and was napping with the baby still in her arms. Rory smiled and found a blanket to cover her with. Then he sat down and found something to read.
The Ponds and the Doctor eventually stayed with their little friend for a week. Not leaving the TARDIS but just hanging about it, like a bunch of kids stuck inside on a rainy day. Amy played primarily with the baby and slept with him as well. A protective arm over his chest. Rory ran about a bit panicked when she would play with him. The Doctor would join in though he could feel the old restlessness kicking in. He hadn't been without a bit of travel in so long. Still, something new seemed to happen to the pod every day the child remained. Amy, usually so inquisitive had suddenly seemed to be wearing a pair of blinders to the oddity of this situation.
Finally, it came time and the Doctor told her it was time for their little visitor to go. Amy was reluctant to give up the burbling bundle in her arms.
"Why can't we keep him with us?" she asked.
"I explained this, he has to get going to his own destiny," the Doctor said.
She looked at the baby again.
"Will he be happy?" she asked.
"Would I really be sending him along if he wasn't?" the Doctor said.
"Okay then."
She gave the child a kiss on each cheek then one on the forehead and handed him back to the Doctor. The Doctor looked at the child, though this was not the first time he held him in his arms during his short visit.
"Goodbye, my little friend. Thank you for all you will do. For being as good as you will be. For inspiring those far in the future," the Doctor said.
Gently, he placed the child back in the pod and then Rory and Amy opened the doors. They pushed the ship out into space and the rocket at the back fired. They watched it disappear into the endless night of space.
"So, want to go see how he turns out?" the Doctor said happily.
"Yes!" Amy said.
The Doctor ran back to the console and began his usual dizzying task of pressing and pulling things. The TARDIS chugged to life and soon they had landed. The three of them stepped out into a beautiful blue sky day. They were in a city and it was far cleaner than any they had seen in England or America. They were walking for quite a long time, looking around them at the buildings and streets that were overhead. Rory and Amy tried to ask the Doctor what city they were in exactly but he was as unforthcoming with answers as he usually was.
"Where are we going exactly, Doctor?" Rory asked.
"Well, actually he's a bit difficult to find," the Doctor said.
"Doesn't he have an address or something?"
"The light's changed," Amy said not really paying attention to them and crossing the street.
"Yes, but I doubt that he's going to want us to show up at his house," the Doctor said.
"When has that stopped you before?"
"He's a bit of a special case."
It was then that Rory looked around for his wife. He looked across the street and saw her calling to him and waving. For some reason he glanced upward and let out a loud gasp. He started yelling at her but she couldn't hear him over the sounds of traffic and honking car horns. He pointed up and too late she saw the gargoyle that had fallen off the building's roof. She froze, staring at it until she was suddenly taken off her feet and found herself in the middle of the air.
She was in the arms of someone and looking down at the ground. She looked over at her rescuer, a handsome man with dark hair and a warm smile.
"Don't worry, miss, I've got you," he said.
"Okay," she said a little awestruck.
Superman did a tight circle through the air and then landed her back on the street. He let her down with the gentleness that he had come to be known for. She stared at him, spit curl, muscles bulging under his costume and that million dollar smile. People around them began to take pictures and talk as he stood with her.
"Are you alright?" Superman asked her.
"Yes, fine," Amy said. "Thank you."
Rory and the Doctor ran to her, Rory hugging his wife. But Superman looked more interestingly at the Doctor, a hint of recognition flitting across his face but it was gone in only a moment.
"Thank you very much for saving me," Amy said.
"No trouble at all, miss," Superman said. "Have yourself a nice day. If you'll excuse me, there's something I need to go take care of."
He lifted off into the sky and was soon nothing more than a blue blur. The Doctor turned smiling to Amy and Rory.
"See, I told you that he turned out okay," he said.
"What?" Amy said goggling at him.
"Last son of a dying world, his parents put him in an escape pod then launched him into space hoping that he would land on a world that would take care of him, this one. I followed the ship to make sure that everything turned out okay. And it did, he lands on a farm owned by a couple then they teach him everything he needs to know to be Superman. Putting everyone before yourself, willing to make the tough sacrifices and to generally just be a kind person."
"So, for seven days I changed the world's greatest superhero's diapers?"
"Yes! Now come along, Ponds. Maybe we could buy little Bruce Wayne an ice cream!"
He zipped off and the two Ponds looked at each other. Amy took Rory's hand and the two followed.
"I have to admit that he did grow up to be quite handsome," Amy said. "And hot, definitely hot."
"He was a baby in your arms not twenty minutes ago," Rory pointed out.
Amy took a deep breath.
"Yeah, I think this weird life is finally making me a bit weird as well," she said.
Rory kissed his wife on the cheek.
"Weird as you are and will continue to become, I know you're going to be a great mother," Rory said.
She snuggled her head into his shoulder and they made their way to the TARDIS.