A/N: As the title might indicate, I was very upset when Series 7 opened with the divorce of the Ponds. Yes, they did get back together in the end, but given how angry everyone was right before that, it seemed a bit quick. (Not that I'm complaining they got back together-that's where they belong.) And the fact that they even reached the point of divorce without talking about it first...The whole thing seemed really out of character for the both of them. Thus, this little story, wherein things are explained, and the Ponds clear the air and patch things up. It starts and ends with dialogue from the episode, and I filled in the bit in the middle.

Usual disclaimers, nothing belongs to me, etc., etc. I just wanted to borrow them and give them a little love before I gave them back.

"I didn't kick you out," Amy protested, her voice beginning to waver. It was taking every ounce of strength she had to stop from crying. "I gave you up."

Rory stared at her, completely taken aback. Was that why she had…? He wasn't even able to finish the thought. His mouth hung open as he shook his head, seeking the right words and finding none. "Amy…I…I don't…"

"Don't you dare talk to me about waiting outside a box, because that is nothing, Rory—nothing!—compared to giving you up!" she spat. Fire burned in her eyes, but she still wouldn't let the tears come. How dare he even suggest that he loved her more than she loved him?! She clenched her jaw to stop it shaking in anger—anger at him for saying that and even more anger at herself for making him believe it.

"Just give me your arm," Rory said quietly. His own voice was starting to break. His brain was stunned by what she was saying, but he couldn't process it, couldn't think about it right now. He just had to keep her safe. "Let me put this on…"

"No! Get off—" Amy protested, slapping his hand away. She'd gone through hell to give him up—did he honestly think she was going to let him kill himself now?

She pushed him away, but Rory managed to get a firm grip on her arm. His hand closed over her wrist, and they both looked down in surprise. A small blue light was blinking up at them steadily. "It's the Doctor's," Rory realized. He must have put it on her before he left. "When you were sleeping…"

Of course he had, Amy thought. "A Time Lord," she said softly. "He doesn't even need it…"

"Then why didn't he just tell us?" Rory cried out in frustration, spinning on his heel so he didn't have to look at Amy. Amy had been fine this whole time. If he'd known…He couldn't believe he'd actually said that. If he was honest with himself, he'd never really thought that—well, not until recently, anyway—oh, but the pain in her eyes when those words slipped out…And to know that he'd put it there felt like someone had ripped his chest open and punched him in the heart.

A flicker of movement in the viewscreen above Amy caught her eye, and it was like the Doctor was looking right at her as he straightened his bow tie. He really did think he could fix everything, didn't he? She turned to watch Rory as he paced across the room and finally allowed a tear to slide down her cheek. Oh, that stupid, stupid Raggedy Man! She'd thought she was strong enough to do this, but he had just had to go and poke his nose in and try to make it better, and now her walls had broken down and she wasn't strong enough at all, and the Daleks were going to kill them all and Rory would die thinking she hated him…Her chest heaved as a sob escaped her throat, and all the tears she'd been holding in since the day Rory walked out the door came spilling out.

At the sound of her sob Rory turned around, and before he had time to think he had crossed the room and gathered her into his arms. She sobbed against his shoulder and he stroked her hair, kissing the top of her head softly.

With an enormous amount of effort, she pushed him away, taking a step back. Why did he have to be like that? She'd ripped out his heart and stomped it into tiny pieces in front of him, and yet the moment she started crying, he was there, just like he'd always been, to comfort and hold her. Did he have any idea how much harder that made it? Why did he have to be so bloody perfect?

Rory looked up at Amy, watching her hastily wipe the tears from her face. She refused to look at him, but she didn't move any farther away, and after a long moment, he reached out tentatively and took her hand. She didn't pull back. "Amy," he began softly. He cleared his throat. "Why didn't you tell me any of this? I didn't want to leave, Amy, we could have talked—"

"I couldn't tell you," she said, still looking away.

"Why not?"

She took a deep breath and met his eyes. "You would have said no."

Rory blinked in surprise at the simplicity of her answer. "Of course I would have said no!"

"I know!" she snapped, cutting him off before he could get going. "Rory, do you think I wanted to let you go? I can never have children, and one day you're going to start resenting me for that. You would have stayed with me, because after everything that's happened you would feel like you had to, but I could never give you the life you really wanted. I wanted you to have a chance to be happy."

"Amy," he said, feeling a stab of pain at her words. "Do you really think I could ever resent you for anything? I know that you can't have children, and I'm sorry—not because I want kids that much, but because it hurts you so badly. We may never be parents, but I made my peace with that a long time ago. It was okay, because I had you."

"Rory, you can't just say—"

"Yes I can," he interrupted, holding her hand tighter as she made to pull it away again. "I can say it because I mean it. A life with you, or a life with all the kids I could ever want but with someone else? It's not even a question. It's always been you, Amy."

Amy looked up at him, blinking away a tear as she met his eyes. She wanted to believe him, and as she stared into his eyes, she couldn't see a single reason why she shouldn't. Could she have really been that stupid? She'd thought she was doing the right thing—he would have hurt for a while, but eventually he would get over her and move on, and then at least one of them would have been happy. At least, that's what she had thought….

She let out a humourless chuckle and turned away from him. "I really have screwed things up, haven't I?" She paused. "I should have said something before I let it get this far."

"Yeah, you really should," Rory agreed, braving a small smile.

Oh, that beautiful smile of his! With all the shouting and the fighting (and then the Daleks), it felt like forever since he'd smiled at her, and her heart clenched as she realized how much she'd missed it. "I guess it's a bit late now, though, isn't it?" she said, swallowing down a lump in her throat.

"What do you mean?" he asked, the tiny smile disappearing.

"Like I said, to let it get this far…Rory, to get you to leave, I…I was horrible! The things I said and the things I did…" She found herself fighting back tears again as she thought of what she had done to him. Amazing as Rory was, asking him to forgive her would be taking it too far, especially seeing as she couldn't even forgive herself for a fraction of it.

"Well," he said, looking down at his feet. "It's not like you were the only one saying things they regretted."

"Yeah, but you didn't deserve any of it. I did," she argued.

"Amy—" he protested.

"No, I did," she insisted. "I started the whole stupid thing, and I deserved every bit of what you said and more. A lot more, really, because, you know, you were never really that good at being mean." She met his eyes again. "That's one of the things I love about you." She swallowed hard again. "I know I…I know I can't ask you to forgive me, but before this all ends, I want you to know that I still love you. I never stopped. I just…I know it was wrong, but thought I was doing the right thing, and I am so, so sorry for hurting you." Her voice broke, and she quickly wiped away a tear before it turned into many, and when she looked back at him again, he was smiling. A real, full-on, beautiful Rory smile.

"Amy, I love you too," he said. She loved him! She still loved him, and that was all he needed. "Of course, I forgive you."

"Really?" she asked. Of course, he did, he was Rory, but she held on to that little knot of disbelief, afraid of breaking the tiny seed of hope that had just sprung up in her heart.

"Always," he assured her. Were they really getting through this? All that pain—and he knew, even though she denied it, that he had given as good as he'd gotten—all that, and this was really all it took to make it right? Oh, please, please, please!—let this be it.

"You would take me back after everything I did to you?" She'd never been more afraid of an answer to a question in her life, but she couldn't help praying the answer would be the one he'd have to be crazy to give.

His smile widened and he put his hands on her shoulders. "Amy, I can't take you back when I never let you go." Her eyes glistened and her face lit up as she broke into a smile. Oh, that smile! He hadn't seen it since all this started, and oh! how he'd missed it. She flung herself into his arms and he hugged her tightly.

As she pressed herself against his chest, he felt something crinkle inside his jacket. "Hang on," he said quickly, pulling back from her and rummaging in his pocket. His hand came out bearing their divorce papers, and he swallowed hard to think he had been so stupid as to ever even think of signing them.

"You still have those?" Amy asked quietly.

"Well, I did get grabbed right after you signed them. I never had a chance to do anything with them." He glared down at the horrible document. "As we never got around to filing them—"

Before he could finish, Amy snatched them from his hand, ripped them in half and threw them to the ground. "Something like that?" she asked.

"Yeah." He smiled. "Something like that." There were still some things to work out, he supposed, when they got home—if they got home—but he wasn't worried. They'd made it this far, and the rest of the way they'd go together. The floor trembled beneath them, and he bent down to pick up the teleport device the Doctor had rigged up. Best to have it ready. He met her eyes again, and even though they might be about to die, he was happier than he had been in ages. How ever long he may have left, he had Amy again.

They both stumbled as the entire room shook with the force of an explosion overhead. The shield was down. The Daleks were coming. Fires erupted from machines around them, dust and smoke filled the air and still the room shook. Rory looked down at the device in his hands. The Doctor had warned them to get out, but to leave him here…"How long can we wait?"

"Rest of our lives," Amy said softly.

A smile tugged at the corner of Rory's mouth. "Agreed," he said.

Amy reached out and grabbed him, pulling him close and kissing him soundly. His lips were soft and warm as she remembered and she pulled him even closer—how had she ever thought she could have gone the rest of her life without this, without him?

Suddenly the Doctor was there, but she barely noticed. She went on kissing Rory—she didn't know if she could ever make things up to him, but she was certainly going to try as hard as she could.

"Right! Go! Let's go!" the Doctor said. He cast a quick look back at the oncoming destruction. "We're good. Let's go." He growled in frustration as his companions continued to ignore him—yes, he'd been trying to get them back together, but there was a time and a place! He grabbed the device from Rory and teleported them to safety.

On the planet below, fiery destruction consumed the most hateful things in the universe—the Daleks and the divorce papers. In the TARDIS above, Amy continued kissing Rory, and all was right with the world.