Author's Note: A bit of a shorter chapter. Enjoy!
Rory and Amy were expecting the interior of the Doctor's mysterious blue police call box to be rather too tight to fit three people.
The Doctor expected their surprised reactions when they found it to be much bigger on the inside, complete with a console room and corridors leading off to numerous other places.
Amy was appropriately wide-eyed and full of awe as she walked around, gaping at the sheer hugeness of the TARDIS. Rory took one rather skeptical look around before fixing his gaze on the Doctor. "It's bigger on the inside," he stated.
The Doctor leaned against the center console. "Yep."
"But...that's impossible."
"Rory," the Doctor said, "you'll soon find that there is nothing impossible on this ship. Trust me. Now, let me do some explaining."
"Yes, please," Rory muttered.
"This," the Doctor gestured vaguely around the area, "is my ship. It's called the TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions In Space. It does exactly what it says: travels in time and space. Yes, Rory, that means I'm a time traveler. Don't look so shocked. So, you know what that means, right?"
"You could take us back in time to when we were younger," Amy said, looking rather excited by the idea. "Wouldn't that be amazing?"
"Well," the Doctor replied, "not exactly. I can't take you back in your own time-line for safety reasons. What I meant to say was that this ship can take you anywhere, anywhen in the universe. You name it. World War I, the Medusa Cascade, end of the universe, the big bang, places you've never even heard of!"
"Are you an alien or something?" Amy cut in.
The Doctor grinned. "Yes."
"You're...an alien," Rory echoed.
"Too much for you to handle at once?" the Doctor asked. Rory didn't reply. The Doctor shrugged. "I get that a lot. The whole alien thing and a ship that's bigger on the inside doesn't sit well with a lot of people. Anyway...the real matter at hand is something entirely different. I will take you places, I promise, and we will get back by tomorrow. Hopefully. Past mistakes in time travel aside. The real issue is that time is currently wrong, and it has something to do with the crack in Amy's bedroom."
Amy and Rory glanced rather knowingly at each other.
"You mean," Amy said, "it's still a problem? I thought you fixed it."
"The crack story was real?" Rory added. "All of it? Even the part about it opening up?"
"Rory," the Doctor cried, looking slightly offended, "I thought you were smarter than this! You're telling me that you've met me and seen the TARDIS and you still don't believe that Amy's stories—whatever she told you—are real?"
"I don't know," Rory snapped. "This is a bit much to handle. I mean, this whole thing's ridiculous! And it's the night before the wedding. Amy—we shouldn't even be here."
"Oh, come on," Amy pleaded, touching Rory on the arm. "You know we'll never have another experience like this. Don't you want to have an adventure?"
Rory's expression softened but he still hesitated when replying. "It's just that...we've been waiting so long and...I don't want anything to go wrong."
"It won't," Amy insisted. "Just go along for the ride. You can trust me."
The Doctor watched this all happening with mixed feelings of amusement and apprehension. Of course he could promise an adventure, but given his track record with recent companions—a memory of erasing Donna's memories sprung to mind—he wasn't so sure he could promise a safe return.
Yet Amy and Rory's antics as a couple reminded him of that humanity he missed having on the TARDIS. Here were two humans about to live their lives, get married, something he would never do. There was Amy, wanting to hold it off, and Rory, wanting to get it over with.
And both depending on the Doctor to give them something satisfactory. But what, he couldn't imagine.
All he could do was fix the problem at hand. Which, now that he thought about it, really needed fixing.
"Sorry to interrupt," he broke in, and Amy and Rory turned to him in slight surprise, "but there is that whole issue about time being wrong, and I'd really like to figure out how to fix it. Which may lead us to some very interesting places. But if it doesn't, then I'll let you both choose the next destination and we'll have a nice little trip before your wedding. Like a honeymoon but not really because you're not married yet. Fine?"
Rory shrugged, and Amy replied with all the enthusiasm in the world, "Of course!"
The Doctor turned to the console, ready to start his investigations. "Allons-y!"
Amy seemed to be content just to hear that odd groaning sound the TARDIS made while in motion and was convinced, even though she couldn't see it, that they were traveling through the time (and space) vortex.
Rory wanted visual evidence.
The Doctor decided to sacrifice Rory's happiness in order to make some calculations, a process that wasn't going particularly well. He needed to track down where else this crack appeared in the universe, and he knew it would be elsewhere, because a crack in the universe appeared in multiple places. Not just a little girl's bedroom. He needed to see how the crack disturbed time and go on from there.
Of course, he could have used the crack in Amy's room. The problem with that (other than that Amy would have been extremely disappointed by such a trip) was that he didn't know how time was wrong. Only that it was. Likely it was because the events included him, and despite knowing the history and future of practically every corner of the universe (unless he'd forgotten it or the history itself somehow changed), he couldn't tell his own personal future.
Which made his task somewhat more difficult, but also more exciting. The Doctor planned on finding a crack in time in a well-known part of history in order to determine just how wrong the crack was making time. Then he could gauge the seriousness of everything and possibly determine why his own time felt so wrong. And then, maybe after that, and after the trip Amy Pond was sure to request if their destination turned out boring, he could get a rest.
Being a Time Lord, he healed faster than most other species. But still, despite his injuries not being so injuring anymore he was still tired.
A new bit of writing popped up on the TARDIS view screen.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Oh," he commented.
Amy and Rory, who had been watching his impressive performance operating the TARDIS (it could only be called that, the way the Doctor used two hands and a foot to operate a machine meant to be piloted by six people) came up behind him.
"What's that mean?" Rory asked, being the first to notice that the writing on the screen was not in English, or any language he was aware of, and did not in fact make sense.
"It means I've found your destination. Fortunately for you, it's completely new. Unfortunately for me," the Doctor sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "I've been here before. Still here, actually. So we've got to be careful."
Rory turned to Amy. "Did you actually understand that?"
But Amy was more focused on the journey ahead. "Where are we going?"
The Doctor swept past them and ended up standing in front of the doors.
"How does London on Christmas Eve in 1851 sound?"
