Chapter 2

The TARDIS rattled and shook as it made its way out of the time vortex and tried to materialize. The Doctor leaped around the console, pulling various knobs and pushing various buttons as he went.

"Bloody hell, Doctor, what is going on?" Amy demanded. "This is by far the roughest landing we've ever had. What have you done now?"

"Amelia Pond, I'll have you know that I have done nothing to cause this," the Doctor said in mock-offense, trying to keep the worry out of his voice. "Sometimes there is just a bit more turbulence in the time vortex and it makes materialization much more difficult."

"Really?" Amy said suspiciously.

The TARDIS made a sudden lurch as it landed. The Doctor, who was prepared for it and was hanging onto the console, barely swayed. Amy, who wasn't, flew backwards, landed on her backside and slid across the floor. Her long red hair landed in her face.

"Ow," she said in protest, brushing her hair out of her eyes and smoothing it back in place.

"It's all your own fault, Pond," the Doctor scolded. "You should have been hanging on."

"It's not my fault," she complained. "It's yours, yours and your bloody ship's."

The lights in the TARDIS dimmed.

"Oh, see, now you've hurt her feelings," said the Doctor. "Apologize, Pond."

"Sorry," Amy said to the ceiling, feeling stupid for apologizing to a ship. "I shouldn't have said it was your fault. Obviously, it was just the Doctor's."

The Doctor scowled at his companion, who was still sitting on the floor.

The TARDIS began to power down as she often did after a rough landing.

"The TARDIS seems to have injured herself," the Doctor said, reading monitors on the console and then scanning it with his sonic screwdriver. "It may take a few hours for her to recover."

"So where are we?" Amy asked as she got up and moved to stand next to him at the console.

"Laxicon 5. A tourist planet filled with museums, theaters, fine restaurants…"

"And shops?" asked Amy eagerly.

"And shops," the Doctor acknowledged with a nod.

"Am I dressed okay in this?" Amy asked. She didn't want to change, but given a choice between changing or getting arrested for violating some weird alien dress code, she'd prefer to change. Been there, done that. Had a whole closet of those t-shirts.

The Doctor looked at Amy, for the first time noticing what she was wearing. Long sleeve, striped dress coming down to barely mid-thigh, and dark brown, knee high boots. Her outfit would be illegal on twenty-seven planets he could think of off the top of his head but would not be a problem here.

"It should be fine," he said.

Amy ran to the door. Flinging it open, she stopped and turned.

"Doctor," she said slowly, "should Laxicon 5 be in the middle of a forest?"

"What?" he said. "No. No forest. Just museums and restaurants and shops and things." He gestured wildly with his hands. "No forests." He ran out the door.

Amy looked out. A tall, very thin, very handsome man in a black tuxedo was running through the trees towards them. A bit farther behind, a beautiful blonde woman in a strapless wedding dress was following, her dress hiked up past her knees and looped over one arm. Amy noticed that, oddly, both of them seemed to be wearing trainers. In the distance, she could hear some sort of music.

"No, no, no, no, no," the Doctor was saying, waving his hands in front of him. "No, this is not good. This is definitely very, very, very not good."

As Amy exited the TARDIS, dodging the Doctor and his waving hands, she saw the other man, the groom probably, stop running directly in front of the Doctor.

"You're here!" the man beamed. His open-mouthed grin seemed to literally spread from ear to ear. Amy noticed he had spiky, dark brown hair, sideburns, and incredibly dark brown eyes. Slightly taller than the Doctor, he fairly tackled him in a hug, lifting him off the ground before setting him back down. "I cannot believe it! And today of all days! This is perfect! Brilliant! Molto bene!"

Amy saw the woman in the wedding dress stop about ten feet away and stare wide-eyed at the scene in front of her.

"Doctor?" she asked tentatively.

Both men turned. "Yes?" they said in unison.

"Oh, oh right," the groom said when he realized his bride wasn't looking at him.

Amy saw the strangest look come over the Doctor's face. It looked to be a combination of happiness, longing, and hurt, all rolled up into one, combined with something else she didn't want to think about.

"Rose," he whispered.

"You've, you've regenerated," Rose said.

The Doctor seemed to pull himself together. "Yes, yes I did, just a little while back. New face," he said, tapping his cheek, "still giving it a bit of a test drive. Jury's still out, I think." He paused, then swallowed, his prominent Adams apple bobbing a bit. "What do you think?" he asked nervously.

"It's… different," she said slowly.

"Good different or bad different?" he asked, a slight smile coming to his face.

"Just … different," she grinned, and rushed toward him, catching him in a hug. "Oh, Doctor, I never thought I'd see you again."

"I never thought I'd see you again, either," he said, gripping her tightly.

Amy glanced over to the groom, who was leaning against the TARDIS, arms and ankles crossed. He had an odd look of both happiness and jealousy on his face. Eventually, when it looked like the Doctor might never let go of Rose, the groom cleared his throat.

"Oh, oh yes," the Doctor said, abruptly letting go of the bride and stepping backwards.

Rose stumbled a bit at being released from the hug so suddenly.

"Doctor," Amy said, "perhaps some introductions are in order?"

"Oh, yes, seemed to have forgotten that," the Doctor said. "Amelia Pond, meet Rose Tyler. And this," he said, gesturing to the groom, "is me. Well, sort of me. I should say, he was me at one time, although I was never him."

"What?" Amy asked. "Wait. How is that even possible? And, besides, you don't look anything alike."

"We used to be identical," the Doctor said.

"Don't even try to make sense of it," Rose said with a laugh, patting the other woman's shoulder. "I was there, and it still took me a while to figure it all out. Amelia, was it?"

"Amy," Amy corrected.

"So what are you going by now?" the Doctor said to the groom.

"Rose still calls me 'Doctor'," the other man responded. "Otherwise it's Doctor John Smith to the world."

"Sometimes I call him John when we're around people we don't know very well," Rose put in. "Or even 'Mum' when he's being a right git." She grinned, and her tongue poked a tiny bit between her teeth.

John gave her an evil, filthy grin. "Or sometimes, I can even get her to call me 'god'."

Rose turned bright pink and covered her face as John laughed at her. She swatted him in the arm.

"Oh, that was so rude," she scolded, laughing.

"Sorry," John said, sounding only partially repentant. He grinned at her, and she grinned back.

Amy turned to the Doctor, who seemed to be embarrassed.

"Are you sure he's you?" she asked. When the Doctor nodded, she said, teasing him, "He's fun. What happened to you?"

The Doctor ignored her.

"Actually, in discussing names, my name's changing to John Tyler-Smith shortly. Very shortly, actually," John said, looking pointedly at Rose.

Rose gasped. "Oh my God. The wedding! We're late!"

"Phone your mum, tell her to delay it," John urged.

"Now where exactly do you think I'd be storing a mobile in this?" She gestured to her wedding gown.

John leered at her, glancing at her cleavage, and she swatted him again.

"Don't you even think of searching for it there," Rose scolded. "Not only isn't it there, but we've got guests. What about yours?"

John patted his pockets, looking for his phone. When he found it, he pulled it out, but before he could make the call the mobile began to play the theme from Jaws.

"Dedicated ringtone," he explained. "It's your mother," he said to Rose before he answered it.

"DOCTOR, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" Jackie's voice could be clearly heard by everyone despite the phone not being on speaker mode. "AND WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY DAUGHTER?"

Both John and the Doctor winced.

Although it wasn't necessary, John switched the mobile to speaker. "Jackie, calm down," he said.

"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN. THE WEDDING WAS SUPPOSED TO START TEN MINUTES AGO AND THERE'S NO BRIDE, NO GROOM! THE BLOODY PRESIDENT'S HERE FOR GOODNESS SAKE. GET YOUR ARSES BACK HERE RIGHT NOW! AND DID I HEAR THE TARDIS?"

"Mum, we need a few minutes," Rose said, leaning towards the phone. "Have the caterers bring out the hors d'oeuvres, open the bar, and tell everyone that we'll be there shortly."

"How long?" Jackie asked, slightly mollified when she heard her daughter's voice.

Rose looked thoughtfully at the people in front of her. "We need at least another hour."

"AN HOUR! WHAT DO YOU MEAN…"

Rose rang off. She turned towards the Doctor and Amy.

"You're getting married?" the Doctor asked Rose, rather stupidly, Amy thought.

"Yes," John said, stepping next to Rose and putting an arm around her possessively.

Rose's mouth twitched. "You didn't think I wore this for my health, now, did you?"

"Who knows what the current fashions are in a parallel universe?" the Doctor answered. "On Laxicon 5, where we were headed, one year everyone wore yellow feathers and chicken hats. Another year, everything was purple and orange stripes. And another year everyone wore mauve. Outworlders kept on calling the Shadow Proclamation thinking there was a planet-wide emergency."

"That's where you were taking me?" Amy demanded. "And I was worried about what I'm wearing."

"So you see," the Doctor continued as if Amy hadn't interrupted, "formalwear might just have been the local style here."

John raised one eyebrow.

Rose crossed her arms in front of her. "Uh huh."

"Right," Amy drawled disbelievingly.

"Maybe I should be glad I'm not regenerating again," John said softly to Rose. "I seem to have become an idiot."

She stifled a giggle.

The Doctor scowled at him.

"Please, both of you," Rose said, "We'd really love it if you could stay for our wedding. I was just telling my mum how much I wished you were here, Doctor. Please stay."

John looked at his fiancée in surprise, and then at the man across from him. His jaw tightened, as well as his grip on her shoulders. He nodded sharply.

"Yes," he said. "Please stay."