The End of the Road
Chapter 1 - Don't mess with Pond
Disclaimer: I am not the BBC and don't own Doctor Who or any of these fantastic characters
*thump*
The TARDIS came to rest with a juddering but firm thump. Inside the control room, the forehead of Rory Williams made an uncomfortable acquaintance with the glass floor; the impact had knocked him off of his feet. Even after travelling in the TARDIS for so long, Rory could not seem to perfect the talent of remaining standing when the time-space machine landed – something the Doctor seemed to have an impossible knack for.
Rory picked himself up, rubbing his bruised temple tenderly. "Was it just me, or was that landing a little rougher than usual?" he queried, glancing up at the part of the TARDIS where he thought his wife had been standing.
Amy's mane of red hair appeared from behind the console, followed by the rest of the Scottish girl. She was scowling in typical Amy-like fashion, examining her fingers with a pained expression.
"Oi! Doctor! Where are you, you raggedy muppet!" she called in a tone Rory knew all too well to mean "DANGER! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!" She was still squinting at her immaculately-manicured, glossy red nails.
Rory took a step back, not wanting to be on the end of his wife's brief (but rather scary) annoyance; he'd rather face one thousand monsters rather than confront Amy when she was in a mood.
The Doctor's appallingly-floppy hair poked itself around the central column of the TARDIS console. The Time Lord was grinning like he had just got off the best rollercoaster in the galaxy.
"What's up, Pond?" he replied cheerfully, oblivious to the danger signs.
Amy stormed over to the Doctor in what could easily be mistaken for mock-anger and shoved her left hand in front of the Doctor's face.
"I broke a nail."
The Doctor squinted, then swung his head backwards, forwards, to each side, then got out his sonic screwdriver and gave Amy's finger a quick buzz. He examined the readings, while Amy's expression remained murderous.
"No worry. It'll grow back." The Doctor assured her, and turned back to the console, twiddling several dials as his hands danced across the controls in seemingly random fashion, leaving Amy's arm still hanging in mid-air.
Rory winced. Wrong thing to say...
"No worry! I've only just got them done! On Phinelius 4, remember!"
The Doctor's brow furrowed slightly in thought, before his usual bright expression returned.
"Oh, yes. Best planet for beauty in the universe. Well, I say best; there's Slip Von Keltz, in the Collectrotun cluster, but that's a rather messy affair for species who can't remove their limbs at will..." he trailed off, and went once again to bound around the console. Rory sighed; he wasn't getting it.
"How am I supposed to go about with a chipped nail!" Amy persisted. "If you could land this stupid pile of junk properly, we wouldn't have this problem!"
The Doctor looked more offended at Amy's trash-talking of the TARDIS than at anything else. He recovered quickly, though, and gave her another bright smile.
"Well, we can't have that. We'd best check where we are; the sooner we fix that, the better!" He swung the scanner screen around and gave it a few taps to try and clear the static that the screen was showing. "There we go; we're on Earth, anyway. I'm sure there's a nice beautician about where you can get that patched up." He gave her another shining grin.
Amy's expression softened slightly, switching to sulky and she rubbed her nail. "It still hurts."
Rory sighed to himself. Typical; the Doctor got away with it, while Rory would have got an earful and a half if it had been him.
Rory knew full-well that his wife was not some snotty beauty-obsessed glamour girl, but she had been rather tetchy recently, and taking her to get her nails done at the best salon in the galaxy had been the Doctor's way of cheering her up. The incident had come at just the wrong time, but Rory still wondered to himself why Amy was being so hormonal... with a gulp, he suddenly had a thought; women got hormonal when they were pregnant, didn't they? He dismissed the thought quickly; as much as he wanted a family, the idea of a baby on the TARDIS did definitely not appeal to him.
"Why do we always seem to get brought back to Earth?" Rory asked, disguising the fact that he was actually secretly pleased to be back on his home planet once again.
The Doctor shrugged. "I really don't know, actually. She seems to have developed as much as an attachment to it as I have." He frowned slightly; "Maybe I should check that out..."
Amy let out a sarcastic sigh through her teeth. "Do you even know how to control where she lands?" she challenged him, prompting an indignant defence from the Doctor.
Rolling his eyes, Rory grabbed his jacket, which was hanging precariously off of the out-of-place coat stand, and made towards the doors.
"Well, I'm not sure about you two, but I could murder a cuppa right now, so I'm going out. Coming?"
The Doctor and Amy stopped their almost comical squabble, with matching expressions of slight surprise at Rory's eagerness to get going. In honesty, Rory had surprised himself, but he had grown weary of the Doctor and Amy's endless banter.
The doors opened as Rory approached them, operated by the Doctor from back at the console. A burst of bright sunlight sliced through Rory's vision, blinding him for a second. The contrasting, slightly milder light of the TARDIS interior sometimes was not the best preparation for planets where light was wider spread (although, in Rory's experience, Earth was more often than not not one of those planets).
Rory felt the Doctor push past him and bound out into the bright sunshine, spreading his arms and taking in a deep breath of the air.
"Mmmm, just smell that countryside air," he sighed, but he was suddenly cut off by the splutter of an engine. Peering around the jutting side of the TARDIS, he saw an old-fashioned motor car come flying out from behind a hedge. Barely sticking to the road, it swerved to avoid the TARDIS (which was over 3 metres away from the road) and, bumping up and down on the uneven, grassy ground, coughed its way back onto the road and around another corner, leaving a trail of foul exhaust smoke in its wake.
The Doctor, who had been forced to jump out of the erratically-driven automobile's wild path, was bent over double, coughing furiously. It seemed he had accidentally breathed in the fumes from the spluttering vehicle.
"Yeah, really nice fresh air, Doctor," Amy slurred sarcastically, giggling despite herself. "So, judging by the looks of that car, I'm guessing I'm not going to be getting my nail fixed for another 50 years, then?"
The Doctor straightened himself up, adjusted his bowtie, gave one more cough and turned to watch the havoc-wreaking car, which was now a dot in the distance, weaving its way precariously through the countryside.
"No, Amy. I don't think you are."
A/N: Hey all! I've been meaning to write a Doctor Who story for ages (I'm a hardcore Whovian), so I'm glad I've finally got round to it. I'm kind of taking this as it comes, so I'm not really sure yet how it's going to turn out. Anyway, I hope you've liked it so far, and I'll try and update as soon as I can. I think a lot of it's gonna be written partially from Rory's POV, but I'm not sure yet. I know it's a cliché, but I couldn't resist :-)
Anyway, yeah, thanks for reading, and I hope that you liked what I've got so far! Feel free to make any suggestions if there's anything you think I could improve on or should do; I'll take it on board! Just one more thing – I put a Lost in Space reference in there, so sorry to anyone who wondered what all that was about, and to those who spotted it, I hope you liked it! :-D
Thanks for reading, and I hope that you'll keep reading. I'll try and update soon. Please review! :)