Disclaimer: I don't own any of these lovely characters. I'm just borrowing them for my own, and your, entertainment.
Chapter 2: Father and son in law bonding
The Doctor strode into the TARDIS kitchen the next morning, with a wide smile and a renewed spring in his step.
"Well you're decidedly happier today, aren't you?" Rory remarked, looking up from his cereal.
"River's doing, I imagine," Amy chirped, smiling fondly at her daughter.
"I have my methods," River winked.
SMASH.
Suddenly, the sound of breaking china filled the room. "River!" Both men shouted in unison, their faces reddening quickly as they averted their eyes from one another; Rory's back to his cereal, and the Doctor's to the pieces of the cereal bowl he'd just dropped in surprise.
River laughed, grinning, as she stepped over the broken ceramic, and took her seat. "Oh, calm down, both of you. We're all adults, here." She muttered, with an eye roll in her mother's direction.
"Right!" he clapped his hands, all business-like. "Amy, River, what are you two doing today?"
"Just me and River?" Amy asked suspiciously.
"Yes, Pond, keep up! Rory and I are going on a little trip today, just the two of us. Sort of like," he waved his hands around, trying to think of the words. "Father and son in law bonding!" he finished, proudly, clapping Rory on the back. "Aren't we, Rory?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," Rory shrugged. "Your ride, your choice, I guess."
"Can't we just stay on the TARDIS?" Amy asked.
"Afraid not, Pond. We'll have to drop you somewhere."
"Well, I'd offer my place," River laughed, "But I'm not sure how the Stormcage guards would feel about there being an extra cell occupant."
Amy laughed. "I guess we're going back to Leadworth, then."
"So where are we going?" Rory asked curiously, closing the TARDIS door behind him.
"We're on a mission, Mr Pond!" the Doctor exclaimed excitedly.
"Oh, fun," Rory muttered sarcastically, throwing himself into a seat as the Doctor swirled his way manically around the TARDIS console; flipping switches, pulling levers, pressing buttons.
"A mission," the Doctor continued, throwing a pointed look at his companion, as though daring him to interrupt again, "To find River the perfect wedding ring!"
"I suppose there are worse missions," Rory muttered to himself, as the brakes screeched and they landed. "And why are we going to," he squinted at the scanner, "The planet Sapphirisis, in the 51st century, to find the perfect wedding ring?"
"Come along, Pond! I'll explain on the way!" the Doctor called, already by the door.
"Rory! I've found it! I've found the perfect one!" the Doctor called excitedly across the large room.
"Good, I was beginning to fear we'd be here for five more hours," Rory said happily, as he strode up the aisle towards his friend, "And then we would miss dinner and Amy would – WOAH!" Rory stared at the large, sparking stone in the Doctor's hand. "Is that –"
"TARDIS blue!" The Doctor smiled proudly, tugging on his bowtie with his free hand.
"Wow," Rory tore his eyes away from the rare jewel after a few moments, and clapped his friend on the shoulder. "She'll love it!" he smiled.
"So where does the ring come into this?" Rory asked, as he followed the Doctor into the TARDIS. "All we have is a stone."
"A perfect stone," the Doctor corrected.
"Right," Rory nodded, "But how does that stone become a ring?"
"We take it to a jeweller, of course," the Doctor responded indignantly over his shoulder, as he wrapped the jewel with care in a handkerchief, and stowed it in the breast pocket of his tweed.
"And when exactly are we going to do that?"
"I don't know; tomorrow or something, Rory," he waved his hands dismissively, "Why does it matter?"
"It takes a month to get a stone cut and set in a ring, you know. It won't just happen overnight!"
"Yes it will!"
"How?"
"I don't know; I can make it happen?"
"Oh yeah, how?"
"I have a plan. I do. I always have a plan. I always think of everything."
"Yet you didn't think of the time it would take to set the ring?"
"Well… no."
"And what about the design?"
"Umm…"
"Ha! See, I may be just a nurse, but the Doctor isn't always right!" Rory grinned proudly, as the Doctor threw himself into the nearest chair, in the manner of a three year old throwing a tantrum.
"But I have a plan!" Rory announced.
"Oh, do you, Rory Williams? You have a plan, do you? Pray, tell me, Rory Williams, of your master plan!" The Doctor spoke bitingly, as he glared up at Rory.
"Time machine," Rory said simply. "We're in a time machine. We travel to a jeweller's, give them the instructions for the ring, and then the next day, travel to a month later, when the ring is ready."
The Doctor huffed, crossing his arms tighter across his chest. "Firstly, it's much more than just a time machine, Rory, it is a TARDIS; Time And Relative Dimension In Space; T-A-R-D-I-S. She travels in time AND space, and she's one of the oldest things in the universe, and one of the most powerful!" He drew breath. "Secondly, I did know that it takes a month to cut and set a ring, of course I did; nearly a thousand years in time and space, seeing everything, hearing and experiencing everything and you really think I've never needed to know how long it takes to set a stone in a ring?" He huffed indignantly. "And thirdly, that plan is really, really, unexplainably—" He frowned. "Well, actually, it's quite good. But I wish it wasn't."
"Would you just shut up and land us back in Leadworth? I don't know about you, but I don't fancy witnessing Amy's wrath if she's made dinner and we're late!"
"It's a time machine," the Doctor imitated childishly, pulling a lever, "We can't be late, we can just go back and make ourselves not-late!"
"Yeah, with your driving, we could be a whole bloody decade late, and we wouldn't know it until we got back and Amy slapped us both across the face," Rory muttered, thankfully unheard by the Doctor as the brakes screeched around them.
Spot the 'Chameleon Circuit' song lyrics!
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