Amy felt as though there were some invisible force pushing at the walls her mind had created to keep herself safe from the taunts of schoolyard bullies who had ridiculed her for believing in an imaginary friend. As she fell to the ground, the last thing she saw before everything went black was the Doctor.
Everything's always been about him, hasn't it? she thought.
Eyes shut, Amy found herself transported to seemingly another time, and maybe even another dimension:
She was back at her house and the Doctor was there. Could it really have been less than half an hour before? She had heard a strange noise, one she hadn't heard for nearly twelve years. Going to investigate, she found the intruder to be her Raggedy Man, the Doctor. Acting partly on instinct and partly for revenge, she grabbed a cricket bat that had been leaning against the wall. Swinging out, she made contact with the back of his head and watched as he crumpled in a heap at her feet. She secured him to the radiator with a pair of handcuffs that had come with her outfit. After all, she'd waited twelve years for him, and been made fun of in the meantime. She wasn't about to let him slip through her fingers again.
Ah, he was coming to. Well, better put on a show.
She spoke into a walkie-talkie – again, another prop that had come with the outfit – as she pretended to call for backup. She wanted to have him good and worried before she dropped the bomb that she was Amelia Pond, the little girl who he'd promised five minutes to but who he'd subsequently abandoned. Maybe he'd meant to, and maybe he hadn't. But the fact remained that he had, and she was the one who'd been hurt, forced to bear the censure of everyone she knew for supposedly telling lies.
No one had believed her when she'd said that a magic man with a blue box had fallen from the sky and crashed in her backyard. No one had believed her when she'd said that he'd eaten fish fingers and custard at her kitchen table. And no one had believed her when she told them about Prisoner Zero and how the Doctor had saved her. No one believed her, but this had served to teach Amelia Pond a valuable lesson: everyone let you down in the end - everyone was a disappointment. And the Doctor was no different.
He was talking, telling her to count the rooms of her house – her house, not his. Of course she would know how many rooms there were. Maybe she had been daft to believe in him for all these years. Then again, he was the Doctor. Maybe she should listen to him. Of course, when had she ever listened to anyone? Disregarding the Doctor, who was pleading with her to release him so he could get them both out of there, she made her way down the hall to a room she had never seen before, a room she had never even known existed. She opened the door slowly, carefully, at least a part of her heeding the Doctor's warning. But nothing could have prepared her for what she found: Prisoner Zero!
Through the haze of memories, Amy became aware of hands tenderly cupping her face. They were rough but gentle, massaging her temple. And there was a voice, encouraging her:
"Amy, hold on. Come back to me."
It was the Doctor!
And, just like that, the link to her mind was broken. She opened her eyes, blinking against the harsh lighting of the hospital, to find Rory leaning worriedly over her – and the Doctor not far away. She smiled happily at this, convinced, at last, that he wasn't a dream and that he was there to stay.
But even if their reunion were to be short-lived, at least her faith in him had been justified. He'd come back, he was real, and no one would ever be able to convince her otherwise.
The Doctor and Amy Pond, the girl who would always wait for him, no matter how long it took for him to return to her side.