1930, New York City
The two year old Amelia Williams jumped up and down and hugged her fathers leg.
"Pick me up, Daddy! Pick me up!" Her father looked down and smiled.
"Of course, my queen." He bent down and hoisted her up into his arms and spun her around. A small book in his pocket dug into his side. It was called The Angel's Kiss. He always kept it by him and he read it every day. After all, time could be rewritten.
The book was written by his real daughter, Melody Pond, or according to the conspicuous cover, Melody Malone. And it was the story of Amy Pond. His Amy Pond, of whom he was torn , through time. When the Angels took Msanhattan, his life ended and began. The Doctor said he'd always come to get her, to save her. But not him. He had lost his Amy Pond, even after the paradox they had created. And even though his heart was missing a piece, the piece he had waited two thousand years to protect, he knew she was safe. The Doctor wouldn't let anything happen to her.
A very sad, very scared woman appeared on the backstage of a theater. Her mascara was smeared on her cheeks from tears of grief. Where was she? The Doctor said she'd go back to Rory. River had promised. Where was he? Where was Rory? Why was she here?
She turned and was immediately swept up into a turmoil of frazzled workers.
"Out of the way!" they cried. The woman sobbed, and used her long legs to push herself from the current of bodies. She spun around and crashed right into a blonde woman in a silver sequenced dress that shimmered in the dim light. She had a metal halo on her head and wings on her back. Angel's wings. She cried again.
"Oh, sweetie, sweetie, whats wrong," the angel said in a very strong new york accent. "Honey, your a mess!" She smiled sympathetically. The sad woman looked at the girl and sucked in a deep breathe.
"When is it?"
"What? What do you mean?"
"Whats the date! What year is it!" Amy's voice rose.
"Honey, honey, calm down! It's 1930."
"Where's Rory," she demanded. The angel looked up at her like she was crazy.
"Who's Rory?"
"Tallulah!" somebody screeched.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming!"Tallulah hollered back. She looked up again. "What's your name?"
"Amy Po-...Amy Williams," Amy told her. Tallulah told her in a rush,
"I've got to go, Amy. Why don't you stay and watch the show? I'll meet you afterword and you can tell me whats wrong, alright?" Amy dumbly nodded. "Alright," Tallulah repeated. "Well, I gotta run!" She pranced off toward the stage, her hips swinging. When she walked out, the crowd roared. Amy thought of the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs on the spaceship. She sank to the ground and curled into a ball and cried. She didn't understand. Where was Rory? River had promised.
She quieted and listened to the music. The angel put the devil in me. The words repeated in her mind. The Angels put the Devil in me. She furiously wiped her tears and purposefully got to her feet. 'The Angels put the Devil in me' she thought angrily as she walked to the edge of the stage. She peered out and slowly became entranced by the red and silver glittering.
"Hey!" a harsh voice shoved her out of her reverie. "Do you see that?" Amy looked over at a black woman in a red leather jacket. Then she looked out across the stage to try and see what she was talking about. The woman suddenly cried out,
"Hey, come back here!" The black woman leaped out onto the stage and tried to make her way across, hiding behind the dancers. She stepped on one of the dancers costume and the dancer fell to the ground.
"Hey, get off the stage! What are you doing here?!" Tallulah exclaimed. Amy wasn't really paying attention. That girlwasn't from new york. Unlike all the people she had heard, she had a British accent. Amy's eyes widened.
In the commotion on the stage, Amy stealthily strode across the stage and pursued the black girl. She quietly followed them into a room where props were stored. The girl hurried after the thing she had seen and Amy followed. The room was dark and musty, and filled with all sorts of odd things. There was a clank. Amy ran towards the sound and found a shuddering pothole. She heaved it open and clambered down the ladder. She felt a sense of happiness. She was running again. Her smile faded. There was no Doctor.
She jumped down from the ladder to find herself in a wet, dank tunnel that forked of in different directions. She bet it ran right under Manhattan. She strained her ears and decided which tunnel she would take. I could get lost in an instant, she thought. It's like the endless halls of the TARDIS. Her eyes stung. She shook her head, gulped angrily and followed the echoing footsteps, blowing right by a man in a strange suite who stood in the corner.
She paused when she heard a strange sound throbbing in the damp tunnels. A loud monotone of a voice. She knew that voice. She knew it. Then, her heart froze. Daleks.
She opened her mouth to scream the Doctors name, but was grabbed from behind by rough hands. They dragged her down the tunnel and she was thrust into a line of other people. And three Daleks were there. So was the black girl. The Daleks stuck their rubber arm into each face, twisting left and right, then droning,
"Intelligent." The Dalek moved to a bulky man with multiple chins. "Unintelligent." The man protested,
"Are you calling me stupid?!" The daleks stopped and turned.
"Correct. Pig Slaves." Three abominable creatures limped forward and grabbed the man by the elbows. Amy gasped. They were pigs, but they were human. Oh well. She had seen stranger. Suddenly, the Dalek turned toward her. Her eyes grew wide and it scanned her.
""Unintelli-" it began but Amy coughed and whispered slyly in a very Scottish accent,
"I know who you are, Daleks." The Dalek froze.
"You know who we are. You know who we are. How. How! Answer. Answer!" Amy didn't speak. "Intelligent" it droned and moved on. A boy with mousy brown hair gave her a strange look. Amy would have winked, but frankly, she wasn't in the mood.
The Dalek scanned the boy with the brown hair, claiming him intelligent. As was the black girl in the red jacket. The Pig Slaves approached and shoved them along.
"Alright, alright!" the British girl cried, her voice breaking. Amy could tell she was frightened and wanted to console her, but did not want to risk it in front of the Doctors worst enemy. Amy narrowed her eyes. A man in a blue, pinstriped suit slipped into the line and leaned forward to whisper into the girls ear. The woman turned and whispered,
"Where have you been?!" The rest was unintelligible to Amy but she continued to study him. He looked familiar, but she couldn't place him. They were led into an elevator and released into a bright white room that smelled terrible. Amy glanced up and tons and tons of white platforms dangling from the ceiling. The black woman stepped out of line, shaking in fear, and asked loudly,
"What are you doing?" The Daleks turned to look at her. She quivered.
"The experiment."
Rory couldn't wait any more. After small Amelia was tucked into bed with a small, stuffed TARDIS, he took the long walk to the Winter Quay. He had been there once since the paradox but he hadn't made it inside. His old sneakers squeaked on the wet cement and he glanced surreptitiously up at the almost built Empire State Building. He stopped. Squinting his eyes, he thought he could see two miniscule figures fastening something onto the very top. Shaking his head and muttering, "idiots", he continued walking, his hands deep in his pockets, one hand grasping The Angels Kiss. His mind wandered to the old man he had failed to save that day. His heart was heavy from guilt, and the only person who might have been able to lift it was gone. The man said he had been caught in a fire, but all Rory could think of was how the doctor looked after he had been blasted by the Dalek before the Big Bang Two. The man died in his arms.
Rory spun around. He had heard a loud, high pitched squeal. Feeling paranoid, he began walking faster. He turned the corner and looked up. The Winter Quay. It's lights flickered frighteningly and there were two statue-less pillars on either side of the stairs. Rory huffed a breathe and watched it swirl before his eyes. He hunched over and hopped up the steps. Placing a hand on the doorknob, he swore. It was ice cold. He turned it slowly, not knowing what to expect. He hadn't expected it to be locked.
"Where's a sonic when you need one," he muttered angrily. Banging his fist on the door, he hollered,
"Angels, if you are in there, you had better let me in! You have ripped my life apart, and the Doctor will make sure you suffer! The Doctor will not show mercy! Angels! ANGELS!" Letting out a quiet sob, Rory let his hand fall to his side and turned around in defeat. He froze. Standing in front of him was a man in shabby clothing and a half a loaf of bread in his hand.
"You quite right?" He asked in the New York accent Rory found extremely annoying. Rory growled quietly.
"No. Do you have anything helpful to say, because if you don't, you might as well clear off." The man, however, didn't move.
"That building's always locked. Don't worry. You not the only thing strange in this beau'ifully pathetic city." The man lifted the loaf of bread, "This here, ya see it? This is all I got. All us down in Hooverville are starving, let alone the people going missing." Rory, feeling bad for snapping at the man who obviously needed someone to talk to, asked,
"Going missing?"
"Aye. Offered a lousy pay job, then never seen again. Just happened to my good buddy Frank along with these two other folks, ah, a Martha and a Doctor. You not from around here, are ya? You talk a different." Rory clenched his hand, replying,
"A Doctor? I'm a doctor. What was this doctors name?" The man shrugged.
"All I heard was a Martha call him a Doctor. I gotta go." He turned, then paused. "Your not alone. We'll all be a funny in the head before these bad times are over." The man slumped away before Rory could deny insanity. Grunting angrily, Rory made his way home in the cold to his daughter.
Amy's fingers jittered as she planned her escape. The Daleks were explaining the process that she really didn't want to hear. She silently fell into a crouch. She crawled around a big, white machine and toward the elevator. A pair of hands grabbed her hair. She squeaked.
"Don't worry. I'm partly human. Come on." Amy looked up slowly into the gaze of a pig slave that hadn't been fully converted. She knew he was human because of the pain that clearly glowed in his eyes. He smiled around his enormous teeth and shoved her toward the elevator. Amy jumped into the small compartment and whispered her thanks to the creature. He reached in a hand and pressed the button.
"Go," he said. "I'll save the others." as the door closed, Amy heard an achingly familiar sound. The sonic screwdriver. Then it was magnified by a thousand and she dropped out of range. Amy shook her head, her ears ringing. The Sonic? How could she have heard the Sonic? Maybe the Daleks had invented a probe. Amy cursed herself. Wishful thinking would not help her survive this without Rory.
The elevator opened to the ground floor of the Empire State Building. Workers milled about along with pig slaves. The bell rang and all of them turned to look at her.
"Bless me heart," someone muttered.
"She's alive. Someone made it out alive!" a blonde man with a news boy cap proclaimed. "and she ain't too hard on the eye, is she now." Amy strode forward and slapped him on the cheek. He sputtered and she whirled around.
"You are being led by Daleks, aliens who will kill every single one of you!" she pointed to each one in the room. "You had better run while you can and hope it isn't you they choose to hunt down and murder." The men exchanged shocked looks.
"You should understand, miss, they is promised to pay us a nice wad of dough." The men in the room all nodded. Amy said exasperatedly,
" They lie! You are all dead! The Daleks don't know mercy, or love, they don't know what humanity is! Run while you can!" Amy ran across the elegant threshold and out the doors. She was immediately drenched in a freezing rain. Not knowing which way to turn, Amy took a left and hoped she might make it back to Tallulah's performance. 'It's what the Doctor would have done.' she thought sadly as she shivered violently.
The rain soon ceased and a soggy Amy sat on a street bench a few blocks away from the Tallest Building in the World. She sat, glaring up at the angry clouds that rumbled above the point of the building.
A while later, she felt, rather than heard a thump of someone siting next to her.
"Do you mind telling me the time?" said a voice, nonchalantly and innocently. Amy looked over and glared at a pale woman, with long brown hair and large, curious eyes. Amy replied incredulously,
"Can you see me wearing a watch? Because I'm not!" Amy impatiently dragged her hair from her eyes and puffed out an annoyed breath that swirled in front of her. The woman laughed.
"Oh, quite clearly. I was just striking conversation!" Amy brought her knees up around her cheeks and hugged her legs.
"Who are you?" Amy asked. The woman said calmly,
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that." Amy scoffed and told her bluntly,
"Well you can go and have your conversation with someone else." The woman stood.
"Don't be afraid of the grave, Amy." And then she was gone. Amy didn't have the energy to think too hard on the fact that this woman also had a strong British accent.
Rory walked into his house to be met with a terrorized scream. Rory started and bounded into the house.
"Amy! Amy where are you!" The screaming stopped and as Rory stepped into the kitchen he saw a shattered glass on the floor and a shaking head peeping out of the pantry door.
"Daddy," Amelia said quietly. "It's you." Rory smiled and looked around,expecting to see any assortment of aliens in the windows. Rory had always been too smart to say there were no monsters under the bed, but he had always assured her that he would always be there to protect her from them.
"What happened," he asked her softly, stepping over the glass to gather her quaking body into his arms. Amelia whispered,
"I woke up and I got thirsty. I called for you, but you didn't answer. I thought you were just asleep. I got out of bed and went to your room. But you weren't there. I got really scared, but I really wanted water. So I went to the kitchen and got a glass. I didn't know where you were. When you came in the door, I thought it was someone here to hurt me, and I knew you wouldn't be there to save me." Amelia started crying, sobbing into his shirt as Rory stroked her hair and murmured into her ear,
"Amelia, you know I will always be there for you." He crunched over the glass and carried her to her room, tucking her into bed and kissing her on the forehead.
"Daddy?" she said.
"Mmmmhh?" he sat on the foot of her bed.
"Why did you call me Amy?" Rory, not expecting the question, said,
"I know you are Amelia." Amelia, who had always been stubborn, persistently asked,
"But why?" Rory sighed and patted her foot.
"There was this woman I used to know. Her name was Amelia, but she changed it to Amy. If you were to have a mother, Amelia, this woman would be her." a silent tear tracked down Rory's cheek.
"Did you love her very much?" Amelia asked.
"Yes. Yes I did."
Amy fell asleep on the bench. In the morning, she could feel gossip thick in the air. Amy thought of the woman. Don't be afraid of the grave. Amy stood and groaned as her back popped. She looked up and searched the skyline for the copper greened torch. First she would go pay a visit to the largest angel on earth.
After a long walk, and quite a few breaks, Amy stood at the base of the Statue of Liberty. She remembered the fall, Rory, and she kicked it, hurting her toe and letting out none of her frustration. She walked around the base, then froze. She heard a painfully familiar sound, like a broken dishwasher trying to breathe. She sprinted as fast as her legs could take her and she saw the blue box disappearing into nothing. She ran forward, screaming the Doctors name. Inside the T.A.R.D.I.S., The Doctor and Martha chatted happily as to where they would go next.
Amy crumpled to the ground and began to sob, wailing and weeping and screaming curses for the Doctor. A while later, after drying her eyes, Amy caught sight of a hand protruding toward her and a voice asking,
"Let me help you up, miss." Amy took the hand and let herself be pulled to her feet. The man asked politely, "Would you like a drink, miss." Amy pulled her hand from his and exclaimed,
"Isn't it a bit early for drinking?" Amy flipped her hair. "Anyways, I'm married." Amy walked away, and and once she was out of eyesight, she began to run, run to the grave yard.
Rory walked hand in hand with Amelia, toward the graveyard. He pushed open the gate and walked straight for the grave.
"Daddy, are we walking on dead bodies?"
"Yes, I suppose we are." The graveyard was significantly smaller than it was when he had seen his own name etched on one of the stones. They reached the spot. There was no grave, nothing. Just a fresh patch of grass. Rory sat and pulled Amelia into his lap, so she could not see his tearing up eyes. He pulled a sandwich from his backpack and handed it to Amelia.
"Lets have a little picnic." he said happily. They ate their sandwiches slowly and they talked. Amelia told him about her dream.
About an hour later, while Amelia was showing Rory all her amazing tricks, rolling around on the ground and cartwheeling into the grass, a sharp voice called from behind them.
"Who are you!" She said accusingly. Rory gathered Amelia and rested her on his hip. He turned to see a woman with red hair striding toward them. Rory froze, and so did the woman. Rory, shaking head to toe asked,
"Amy?"
"Rory?" The woman walked forward, then broke into a run. Rory dropped Amelia, and she scuttled backward. Rory ran toward the woman and they crashed together. "My stupid face?" Amy asked, her voice thick with tears.
"I knew you'd come. I knew you would find me!" Rory cried, his voice breaking. Their lips met and they kissed long and deep, ignoring the embarrassed noises Amelia made from behind them.
"It can't be you, it can't!" Rory exclaimed.
"Oh, shut up!" Amy said as she kissed him again. Finally they ceased, and they clung to each other , afraid that If they let go, they would lose each other again. They turned to Amelia, who sat on the ground, watching with fascination. Amy's eyes grew wide.
"Who is this?" Rory smiled and went to Amelia.
"Amy, this is my daughter, Amelia." Amy looked at her in shock.
"How long have you been here?" Rory told her,
"About two years. I adopted Amelia after a year." Amy suppressed a smile.
"Adopted?" Rory looked at her like she had three heads.
"Amy, it was always you. It could never have been anyone but you." Amy knelt and looked into the small girls eyes. She glanced at Rory, then said to her.
"It is very nice to meet you, Amelia. Really quite extraordinarily nice. I'm your father wife. Tell me, have you ever wanted a mommy?" Amelia nodded her head cautiously. Amy just smiled. She stood and took Rory's hand, and together, the family walked back home through the streets of Manhattan.
1940
There was a knock on the door. A twelve year old Amelia Williams opened the door. Standing there was a woman who was slightly damp from light rain, on a sunny bright day.
"I'm here for Amy Pond." The girl nodded and called for her mom. A disheveled Amy appeared in the door, and when she saw the woman, pushed Amelia back inside.
"Its you!" she exclaimed. Amy scanned her up and down. "You're the same! Exactly the same!" The woman wore the very same dress she had worn the day she had met Amy on the street bench.
"I have something to tell you." Amy ignored her.
"You can time travel can't you! Do you know the Doctor? Who are you?!" The woman smiled patiently.
"My name is Clara Oswin Oswald. I was born to save the Doctor. To do so, you have to write a book titled, Summer Falls." Amy nodded, not giving it a second thought. The woman saluted and turned away.
"Wait! Oswin Oswald! The Dalek genius!" Clara turned.
"You catch on quick." Clara exclaimed. "No wonder the Doctor liked you so much. When you left, he traveled alone for a thousand years. Good morning!" And she was gone. Amy didn't move. A thousand years. She smiled sadly, and turned back to her burning souffle.