23:50 25th June 2010, Several Weeks Later

Amy sat on her bed staring at the Doctor as he looked at the ring she'd just handed him, the comfortable, familiar shape of the TARDIS nestled snugly in the corner of her room like a full size version of her own home-made dolls. While she was doing her best to hide it she was caught in a trap of her own making and trying desperately to think of a way out.

Originally she'd intended to show the Doctor her wedding dress and explain exactly why she'd chosen to run away with him on the night before the big day. Explain everything, explain how she'd been terrified of failing, of not being good enough to match the version of her she'd seen trapped in words, lovingly bound in Rory's handwriting between the pages of a cheap notebook. Ask him for advice, ask for help, ask for... well, anything really. Maybe even forgiveness for putting herself ahead of the man she loved and looking for answers somewhere else rather than just talking or even just trusting him.

The ring had put paid to that idea. From the moment she'd shown it him and he'd wondered why she hadn't been wearing it she knew she couldn't explain. He was wonderful this Doctor, HER Doctor. She'd seen him in his anger and fury, she'd seen him brave the fire and darkness for people that would never know his name, she'd experienced his forgiveness and kindness first hand and yet, at that moment, she knew that while he would try to understand and help this was something that he'd not be able to understand and there was no way for her to explain it.

Annoyed with herself for even thinking this way, for treating the Doctor as an oracle rather than a person and, more importantly, a friend, she took the ring back and retreated into the familiar ground of sarcasm.

"Why did I leave my engagement ring off when I ran away with a strange man on the night before my wedding? Hmm, you really are an alien aren't you?"

And then it hit her. Maybe she didn't need to explain. Maybe there was a way for the Doctor to reassure her, to give her the confidence she needed. At that moment insecurity and fear and the adrenaline still burning through her system after being moments from death combined to push her onwards and dared her to act.

"It made me think about what I want, about who I want... if you know what I mean..." She left the line open ended, staring at the Doctor with hope and longing and desire. But she could see in his eyes he didn't really understand her, not yet anyway. She tried again, placing more emphasis now on the words but still he hovered on the edge of understanding.

"Doctor, in a word, in one very simple word even you can understand" and she moved forward, slowly but with purpose and kissed her Doctor for the first time. It caught him by surprise and without defence and before he could scramble away she caught a glimpse inside his mind.

The sadness that echoed there almost overwhelmed her, loneliness and pain mixed to a point that seemed impossible. Echoes of his own failures, the countless numbers of the dead that he'd been unable to save, that the universe had claimed for its own. The sure and certain knowledge that everything had a time and a place, that everything must die in the end. Even time lords could not avoid that. It rose around her in that second, filling her head until she felt like it would burst. A symphony of voices, coming from every corner of the universe, filling her head, all different and yet... all the same.

"Have you ever thought what it's like, to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles?"

"Our lives are different from anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. Nobody in the universe can do what we're doing!"

"Courage isn't just a matter of not being afraid. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway"

"What do you mean, I have but a little time left?"

"There should have been another way."

"You'll age here in the TARDIS and then die. But me, I shall go on regenerating until all my lives are spent"

"You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies."

"You want dominion over the living, yet all you do is KILL!"

"Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once! Everybody lives!'"

"That's who I am: the Time Lord Victorious!"

"You're not the first to have come here. Oh, there have been so many. And what you have to ask yourself is... what happened to them?"

How could she have been so stupid, to seek comfort and reassurance for her own petty problems from a man like this... she should be taking his burdens, helping him to bear them, not adding more. How could she have been so wrong, how could she not have seen this, how could he stand it? The Earth beneath them spinning in the sky so fast no-one even noticed it but him, a myth woven into the very fabric of reality, that one name echoing through eternity in the lifeblood of every world, every race, sometimes hated, sometimes feared, sometimes celebrated and most often just background noise, a whisper in the dark. A voice she'd never heard before echoed in her mind then another, and another. Men, women, what seemed like a thousand different voices merging together, a line stretching across the universe, the few, oh so few, that had shared that burden over the centuries and it seemed to her, in that moment, that they spoke for untold multitudes:

"He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and can see the turn of the universe. And... he's wonderful"

The Doctor broke away from her and she pursued him, knowing she couldn't simply back down, needing to hide what he'd shown her but feeling at that moment as if a veil had been lifted from her eyes. She knew him now, she knew who and what he was, what he did and why. And she knew, at that moment, that come what may she'd stand by him through fire and death, a part of something bigger. She pursued him but careful now, her movements obvious, his mind locked tight. She moved in and kissed him, backing him up against the TARDIS and once more she felt herself glimpse his mind. Now though she pulled away before she could enter and sprawled herself on the bed. Distracting, teasing... hiding. Give him time, let him work out the next move. If it involved ravishing her then she would hardly complain, it was still something she very much wanted at that moment and she'd be the first to admit she may have backed off but was still very much trying to seduce him. As much as she may like to pretend that was to keep up the pretense a part of her very much wanted to feel him wrapped around her. He reached down and pulled her off the bed, trapped her briefly against the TARDIS, all part of the dance now as they both knew the ending but had to play their parts to get there.

"Oh Doctor!" She purred but refrained from moving forward towards him again. He half spun, half pushed her into the TARDIS and with a worried look back at the clock followed her inside, brushing past her and heading straight for the console with a determined look on his face.