Italics is Amy remembering. This episode was inspired by the two Doctor Who eps I watched today, Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways - you'll see why in a minute. R&R, and give me some oneshot ideas!
It was the 25th of May 2014.
A day before her wedding anniversary, but Amy remembered the date for a different reason.
It was the day he'd taken her away, whirled through the skies in a big blue box.
It was the day she'd been waiting for her whole life.
He swore he'd come back.
And he did.
So what if he was always late?
She never doubted him for a second.
So it was no surprise that on that day, as she walked down the street to meet Rory at the hospital for his lunch break, she was thinking of him.
"Doctor, thank you. So much." she beamed as she held her baby in her arms with Rory by her side.
"How did you find her?" Rory asked without taking his eyes off his daughter.
"Well, once I knew Melody was River I just traced her DNA."
"How did you have her DNA?" Rory asked.
"I...erm... I take a DNA sample of everyone who enters the TARDIS. It's protocol!" he said guiltily.
"What protocol?" Amy asked grinning.
"My protocol! Anyway, so I traced that, did some very clever things with the Sonic, which now, by the way, works on wood! Watch!" he said excitedely, and aimed the Sonic at a front door (they were standing in the middle of Leadworth).
The door promptly exploded.
"Ah, yes, well, a slight... technical hitch... but, if you want a door opening, I'm your man!" he smiled at them.
"What about locking them?" Amy chuckled.
"Honestly Pond, you can't expect me to know EVERYTHING!" the Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Of course. How stupid of me." Amy said, nodding.
They laughed and then the Doctor pulled Amy into a hug.
"I'll miss you Pond." he said, his voice muffled both from his head buried on her shoulder and the sadness in his voice.
"You too." she said, her voice the same muted tone as his.
He pulled back, wiping the tears from his eyes and smiling.
"Will you come back?" Amy asked sadly.
"I always come back!" he answered.
Amy, Rory and the Doctor smiled at each other.
"Amy, keep waiting, Rory, take care of her and Melody..." he stopped to kiss the baby's head. "Look after both of them. Don't let them do something stupid like grab onto the TARDIS when I'm taking off. Seriously. That usually ends with me being taken to the end of the universe, and that could be bad since I'm already there."
"You're at the end of the universe?" Amy said incredulously.
"Another time Pond!" the Doctor ruffled her hair.
"So... there will BE another time, right?" Amy said uncertainly.
"Pond." the Doctor sighed, pulling her into a hug again. "Course there will. Loads more. I wouldn't miss Melody growing up! I'll be back for... her first birthday, how's that?" he smiled at Amy as she nodded, then stepped into the TARDIS.
"Pond. Centurion. Mel- for the last time they're cool!" the Doctor said, tweaking his bowtie.
He pointed at them, grinned, then shut the door.
Amy took a step forward and reached a hand out as the TARDIS disappeared.
Melody was three now, and the Doctor hadn't turned up to any of her birthdays.
But Amy didn't doubt him.
He'd been late before, but he'd always come back.
He would, one day, grinning and holding up a gift, saying "Where's Melody? Where's the birthday girl?", turning up wearing a party hat when it was Christmas, wondering why instead of a babbling baby there was a child stood in the room.
Amy grinned at the thought.
She was so caught up in her thoughts that she walked right by it, almost missed it.
The blue box, parked on the corner near the Post Office.
Which, by the way, was shut.
Grinning, Amy fumbled in the pocket for the key she kept with her at all times, the one the Doctor had slipped in her pocket without her knowing when he hugged her the last time she saw him.
Hands shaking, she almost dropped it three times before shoving it into the lock and twisting it so hard it nearly broke.
Running in, she breathed in that familiar TARDIS smell as the door creaked shut behind her.
It was just as she'd left it.
When she looked through the glass floor, she could even see the Doctor's goggles lying among the wires.
She walked over to the console, stroked it.
She didn't really know how much she had missed it until now.
She withdrew her hand sharply as she accidentally clicked a button.
Luckily, it was just his answering machine.
"Oh blimey, oooookay, probably leave a message at the tone or something, sorry I wasn't really trying to do this I was looking for the braaakes!" the Doctor's voice echoed around the TARDIS, cutting off with a beep.
Amy smiled at the Doctors message, which suited him to a T.
"You have four thousand, nine hundred and twenty seven new messages." a tinny voice came from the machine.
Amys brow furrowed.
How could he have THAT many messages?
Mind you, if he couldn't even find the brakes, how would he know how to listen to answering machine messages?
Oh well, she could ask him herself.
Just as she was about to yell the Doctors name, a hologram appeared.
"Hello? Who's there?" the hologram peered around; it was a hologram of the Doctor.
"Doctor it's me, I-" Amy began but he cut her off.
"Look, whoever it is, this is Protocol One. That means that I'm dieing or just about to. I'm guessing if you have a key to my TARDIS then you're Amy so, hello!" the hologram waved as Amy looked at it in horror. How could he be grinning when he was on the brink of death?
"So, I'm guessing this is Amy. The Girl Who Waited. You don't have to wait anymore. I suppose I should be off now but, Amy, I need you to leave the TARDIS alone now. You can't save me and without me she's lonely so... let her die. Let her gather dust and become that weird blue box in Leadworth that no one ever opened. Let it be the one that no one could ever move, the one that stayed there forever. But don't think I'm leaving the earth without a protector. Your daughter, Amy. Don't tell anyone this, but one day she's going to wake up and say that she had a dream. A dream about a big blue box, just like the one in Leadworth, and when that day comes, she'll become River Song and then she'll be ready. Ready to look after the world. And since we're back to front, the day she dies is the day the past me will take over from her job. It's all confusing and timey wimey, but it'll work out. So I guess this is goodbye. Goodbye Amelia Pond. Thanks for waiting. Oh, and, please," he seemed to be looking straight at Amy, though she knew it was impossible, there was no way he could see her.
"Tell Melody I'm sorry I missed her birthday." His hand swept up to rest a stetson on his head and the hologram disappeared.
With tears streaking down her face, in a daze, Amy walked out of the TARDIS, locked the door and sat on the pavement.
And just like that her whole life with the Doctor flashed before her eyes, age seven, sat on a suitcase, age nineteen, knocking him out with a cricket bat, age twenty one, walking into the TARDIS with him, hugging him on Starship UK, him kissing her forehead as they tried to stop the bomb that was Bracewell in WWII, him biting her hand in the angels, her kissing him in her bedroom, watching him climb the tower in the pouring rain in Venice, him putting his life in her hands in the Dreamworld, him holding onto her, begging her not to let go as she slipped into the ground and then telling her he was glad she was OK when they were on the point of execution, him holding her as she cried with him trying to help her remember Rory, him trying to keep her safe from the monster when all she did was follow him, laughing at his antics as Craig's lodger, riding on horseback with him to Stonehenge, standing up at her wedding and demanding he came, watching him die before her at the hands of the spaceman, then seeing him alive again and being so relieved, telling him he had to save her, please, and then he did, him watching her with pained eyes as she tried to bring Rory back to life, watching his face when he thought there was another Timelord out there, that he was not alone, watching him try to make peace between humans and gangers, feeling terrified as he pushed her up against a wall and yelled at her, seeing his despaired face as he destroyed her flesh body, feeling the joy rise in her chest as he pulled the hood from his head and grinned in front of all the soldiers at Demons Run.
Thinking of all the promises he'd kept, she couldn't help but remember the one he'd failed to keep.
He'd said they'd see each other again.
And now, the Doctor was dead, really dead, he seemed to have recorded the message just before heading off to meet them in America, judging by the stetson.
And he knew he was off to die, she could see it in his eyes, but he'd still grinned at her and spoken as if they were just chatting.
They say when someone dies the best you can do is be happy, that they wouldn't want you crying over them.
But getting over the Doctor was the last thing on Amys mind.
She was going to tell her daughter all about the Doctor, how she'd meet him when she grew up and what a good man he was.
Because that's all he was now, a story.
'We're all stories in the end.
Just make it a good one.'
R&R, give me some oneshot ideas and tell me what you think etc.