A/N: So this started as a simple story with "What if the engagement ring had been the Doctor's and not Rory's" and it started off very simple but as I kept writing and got into the Doctor trying to explain things, things got deeper and I just don't even know what this is anymore.
Anyways so I figure 9 and 10 loved Rose in a love type way but 11 would probably love Rose in a more brother sister way so when I say 11 loved her I mean he loved her like a brother would love a sister.
Blue Box
By: animeroxsmyworld
Amy couldn't help the growing curiosity eating away inside of her as she slid the lid open again, a flash of diamond winking up at her and making her quickly close the box making it disappear from sight. She hadn't gotten a chance to take a proper look at the ring since first finding it but the urge to look was like a terrible monster as she dipped the velvet box back inside her coat pocket.
But as she turned around to face the lanky man pressed flush against the stone cube inside the underground cavern, she felt the question grow too large to be contained and subconsciously her fingers were again, in her coat pocket, brushing against the velvet of the box.
Who?
Or was it another one of his weird crazy quirks? Like always be prepared?
What you need to get married? Here you go I have a ring right in my pocket for just the occasion! No? Ok I'll keep it for later!
The thought was amusing in the sense that it wouldn't be much of a stretch if that was actually the case. God knows what else he keeps around just in case of emergencies. But she seriously doubted that a ring was something to be lugged around day to day.
But who was it for?
River? They obviously had some sort of…something going on between them.
Oh god, was it her?!
What would she do if the Doctor was lugging this ring around because he was planning on proposing to her?
Suddenly the urge to know just seemed too great and before she could actually realize that she was cutting him off mid ramble she had thrust the box out of her pocket, flipping the lid open as she went.
"So!" She started out a bit too loudly, making the Time Lord flinch and reel out of his ramble. "Are you proposing to someone?!"
"I'm sorry?" He asked bewildered as he snapped his gaze away from the Pandorica and fixed it towards the redhead. Confusion showed on his face until his eyes settled on the diamond ring thrust up almost accusingly at him and his mind immediately turned towards the lost Centurian off wandering the field overhead.
"I found this in your pocket." Amy clarified and accused at the same time as she pointed a finger at him. He made a move to grab the box from her as he waved his other hand in dismissal.
"No no that's—" He started before he blinked and his words cut off sharply.
The box wasn't red.
Rory's box was red.
The box was blue.
TARDIS blue.
The Doctor looked as if he had gone into muted shock before one of his hands fell and slowly dipped into his pocket, Amy watching as his hand retrieved its own engagement box, this own a tad smaller and bright red.
"Two?" Amy asked in disbelief, her voice loud and startling the Doctor into action. She barely caught the Doctor snatching the blue ring box from her hand, his long fingers encasing it almost possessively but she caught his hand before he could shove it away back into his pocket.
"Hey! Wait! Why do you have two? Doctor!" She trilled. "What are you? Some kind of alien polygamist?"
"Amy!" He said sounding both frustrated and exasperated at the same time.
"What? Just tell me!"
"This really isn't the time." He urged instead, yanking his hand out of her grip and making his way back towards the Pandorica where his sonic screwdriver lay forgotten on the floor.
"But Doctor—" Amy urged but she could already see him tuning her out, shutting out everything that wouldn't help him with solving the mystery of the Pandorica before him, and she set her jaw. "This isn't over."
She had almost forgotten about it completely, what with all the adventures one can have in the TARDIS. Not to mention being reunited with Rory again. Seeing the red engagement ring box had simply been enough to trigger a reaction to lead to the Centurian's return. Everything had been so overwhelming that she had almost forgotten about the second ring until the day the Doctor had unknowingly reminded her himself.
"Do you see it?" Rory asked from where he was bent on the floor on his hands and knees, hands grazing along the top of the grates carefully. Below the small stairway that led below the central column of the TARDIS, Amy was assuming a much similar position.
"No." Amy called back up sorrowfully.
"What's going on then?" The Doctor asked in both amusement and curiosity as he strolled into the counsel room from the corridor leading to the kitchen, bread crumbs still clinging to his face.
"I've lost my wedding ring." Amy answered from below before she stood up, dusting her knees and casting the Doctor a dark look from under the glass floor. "This is all your fault! Why do you have to drive the TARDIS like it's a bloody rollercoaster every single time?! Don't they teach you to drive one of these things back on your damn planet?"
"Oi!" The Doctor cried indignantly, frowning as he returned Amy's cross look. "I fly the TARDIS like a right beauty."
"It was during one of your…flights that Amy lost the ring." Rory spoke up as he sat down with a look of defeat on his face. "Don't you have some sort of, I dunno, metal detector on your screwdriver?" Rory asked.
The Doctor looked between the two before running a hand over his face and dislodging the crumbs that still clung there, his brow furrowing as if he was trying to decipher something.
"It's just a ring, nothing important. Not having it doesn't mean you're not still married."
Amy raised a brow as she ascended the short flight of stairs and joined the other two on the main level. "Oh yeah? If it's not important Doctor then why do you have an engagement ring?" She asked smugly.
He instantly tensed and Rory blinked in surprise.
"What? He does?" He asked looking between his wife and the alien Time Lord.
"Oh yeah, I remember." Amy smirks.
"Who-Who is he proposing to? River. Oh my god it's River isn't it!" Rory begins, excitement creeping into his voice as he stands to match Amy, a smile working its way onto his cheek.
"They do seem perfect together don't they?" Amy smiles back and the two share a laugh that dies when they notice the Doctor's sombre face. He notices and his lip twitches up into a smile that doesn't meet his eyes by half.
And then he snorts, a sad laugh, and shakes his head.
"It's nothing." He admits and as Amy remembers from before, he reaches into his pocket and pulls the blue box out of his pocket and places it on the counsel. "Something from my past self. I just…can't seem to let go of it." He admits and again he lets out a snort of a laugh.
There's silence then and after a moment that is soon followed by many awkward excuses as Amy and Rory excuse themselves, seeing that perhaps they should leave the Doctor alone. He barely acknowledges them, instead staring at the blue box in front of him.
It had been an idea in his 10th regeneration. A sporadic spur of the moment idea that had seized him while he had taken Rose to one of the many major shopping planets, the blond busy trying to make sense of the fashion trend the person before her was trying to persuade her to buy.
The Doctor knew the basic customs of most planets, enough to usually not cause trouble. That didn't mean he didn't maintain all or any of them.
Like marriage and all the domestic nonsense that came with it.
And yet when the diamond ring had caught his eye he knew he needed it. Not for all the domestic and the mortgages and the white picket fences that he heard people talk about before.
But for the forever.
Hadn't Rose already promised him forever before?
And yet he had purchased the ring before he could give it another thought. But then he was faced with a challenge he hadn't expected.
Actually giving her the ring.
He knew neither of them had ever voiced their feeling but then again, did they have to? And yet he hesitated, instead flashing cheeky remarks or flirtatious looks as he bid his time, carrying the ring with him constantly in his pocket as they fought aliens and jumped through time in hope that he might find the perfect moment. Yet each moment just never seemed quite right and at the end of it all, when Rose would go to bed he would reach his hand into his pocket and feel the velvet of the box under his fingertips.
When did giving a girl a ring become the bane of his existence?
…And then she was gone.
Trapped in a parallel world. The universe would have to be ripped apart for them to see each other again. He had cried, curled in on himself by the TARDIS controls when the ring had pocked at him. In his anger and sadness he had thrown it across the room where it had laid for several days until he had come back later, picked it up and clutched it to his chest with a dry sob.
He's had it tucked in his pocket ever since.
Even for that brief day when he saw her again, after two years of being without her, he had had it in his pocket. But he couldn't do anything. They're time together was too brief. The ring was a constant in his pocket, he hadn't even thought about handing it off to the Metacrisis him, nor did he even think about taking it.
He hadn't actually taken it out and considered it again until his 11th regeneration, when he had to completely change.
His personality, his clothes…his everything.
Back in the hospital, as he's swapping his clothes for those on the rack, he lets his raggedy pants fall to the floor and the ring box stumbles out like a drunk friend. The recognition is instant, as it always is, but this him, the new him, doesn't feel the heart shattering blow that it usually deals.
He instead feels a very real, very hollow ache for a woman he loved as he picks up the ring and manages a weak smile at the image of Rose that instantly pops to his mind. He misses her dearly and yet he knows that he must continue to move on like he always does.
And yet when he finishes changing his right hand slips the ring into his pocket.
He wonders sometimes if the TARDIS is taunting him, blessing him, or giving him hope by leaving her room on the ship. Although the only person who can ever find it is him as the corridors constantly twist anyone else away. He can hear Amy and Rory fine from where they're talking in the kitchen and yet he knows the corridors leading them to him will never meet because the TARDIS has hidden this room away like precious few others.
He dares to take a step into the room, the completely lived in, untouched feel sending his memories reeling as he takes in the thrown back covers and tossed clothes. It seems like forever and yet no time at all since he's been here and yet he know he can't linger for if he stays he may be there for days.
He reaches the bed and before he can talk himself out of it, double think or do any other action, he places the engagement ring on her pillow and turns swiftly out of the room.
It's in the doorway that he pauses to take one last look.
"Be fantastic Rose Tyler."