When Rory woke up the next morning and went downstairs into the kitchen he saw the Doctor fast asleep, head on folded arms and his bangs dripping into a cold cup of tea. His anger was stifled in the sight of his friend looking so vulnerable.

Putting the tea on, Rory tried to sit down quietly but ended up jolting the Time Lord to life. The Doctor's hair dripped down into his eyes and he tried to blink it away, to the only effect of getting the sticky tea caught in his eyelashes. "Was I sleeping?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Rory.

"I didn't think I would be able to sleep last night. Guess the tea helped," the Doctor wrung out his hair in the mug and went to drain it down the sink.

"You slept well it seemed."

"I didn't think I'd be able to last night. I was exhausted."

Rory nodded solemnly.

"Rory, you're angry still angry at me about last night, aren't you?" The Doctor massaged his temple.

"Yes, quite," sighed the Doctor's companion. "I was absolutely furious yesterday. I'm calmer now, but still... Doctor, how could you? Even if you don't believe that girl is your daughter, how can you leave her alone to suffer for your own vanity? If one would be so selfish, I wouldn't even dream of you, Doctor. When you go to save the universe on a day-to-day basis so selflessly... I don't know ... yeah I'm mad."

"I talked to River," the Doctor defended himself.

"And what did she say?"

"She didn't... I had just finished my story when ... she called. Interrupted us, I was not happy about that."

"My point, Doctor, is how River reacted?"

The Doctor got out of his seat and spun around. "Do you know, Rory if the girl actually was my daughter, you and Amy would be grandparents of a Time Lord? If you really think about it that makes you two old. Older than I, even though I've lived well over ten centuries. But, if you consider the Pandorica, Rory you have 2000 plus years of memory. What wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. "

"Stay on topic, Doctor! How did River react?"

"Well..."

Rory flung his hand on the table. "Answer the bloody question!"

The Doctor reacted with as much enthusiasm as Rory and equally as much irritation. "Fine! She was angry! River said she wanted me to help her. She practically shoved me away. We almost kissed." He grumbled in agitation.

"Explain, then your nose."

"River got angry. She picked my tablet up and threw it at me. Told me she hoped she broke my nose. You think she get's it from Amy?"

Rory sighed and placed his head in his hands. "You ... Really ... Are ... Impossible!"

"You just talk to the Daleks." Rory looked up in disbelief.

"Toast?" asked the Doctor. He opened up the Williams' refrigerator and pulled out a bag of bread. He popped two pieces into the slots and went looking for butter. "Actually, I could do with a bigger breakfast, where are your frying pans again, Rory? Ah never mind, I found them." He set himself to work cooking and Rory pulled out his book and began to read.

"'Morning Rory, Doctor." Amy entered the kitchen with her flaming red hair draped over a white nightgown. "Good morning, beautiful," acknowledged Rory, traipsing over to embrace his wife.

"No good morning for me, Doctor?" Amy teased, "Smells good in here, are you making breakfast?"

"Yes I am; and; good morning Pond!"

"What, you're in a good mood now. Now Amy's here, naturally. Never give a care to the bloke who's saved her life as much as you have, eh? Nah, I'm just Pond's husband, right Doctor?"

"Of course not, I love you, eh Rory? As a friend, obviously –but I love you nonetheless."

Rory took his hands of Amy's waist and crossed them on his chest, "Wait –so –let me get this straight. You willingly admit to loving me, but you'll only harass your own flesh and blood, leaving them to suffer? How does that make sense, tell me now.

"Come off it."

"No! You asked me if I were angry at you. You brought it up. I answered your question, don't tell me to 'come off it'. Sure, if this was some trivial argument, I'd give it no mind. But this is different. You deny your own child and leave her to suffer whatever hell she was going through. I can't just put that aside."

"Amy, would you help me out here?" the Doctor asked her.

"I lost my child due to you. You're on your own. I'm not helping you break another heart. I'm sorry, I'm with Rory." She placed her hands on her hip. "She slept in the guest room. The room you sleep in. She's sleeping in there."

The Doctor snapped. "She's sleeping in my bed!"

"Yeah."

He swore under his breath. The toast popped and the fire alarm went off to the burning eggs. "Well! Bet she's not sleeping now!"

Upstairs, the little girl awoke suddenly straight to the sound of the fire alarm. She sat up straight immediately and gripped the blanket tightly for reassurance. The sound was blaring and frightening to the ears of she who was unfamiliar.

"Oh, shut up!" she heard the man who called himself Rory say. After a few seconds the sound abruptly stopped and she heard stout and quick thudding up the stairs.

The door burst open and the child saw the woman of red hair standing in the doorway, looking somewhat disheveled. The child immediately resorted to her monotonous facade. The woman named Amy walked in and asked her, "Are you okay? Did the fire-alarm wake you?". Fire alarm, the child's mind wandered back to her previous housing, are they afraid of fire? "Well, it would do a bit better if you were to answer me... Sorry about that; the Doctor was making breakfast. I guess we distracted him. The eggs started burning."

Seconds later the foreign man burst in behind the redhead.

"Is she alright, Amy?"

She shrugged, "won't talk; same as yesterday."

"Let me try. Hey sweetie, did the fire-alarm wake you up?" The child stared. Then she lifted her head to look at the Doctor who was lazily sidling in the door after Amy and Rory. "What did I miss?" he asked.

The girl flinched, hating that she loved the sound of his voice. It was familiar to her in an odd, eerie, nostalgic way. She tried to keep her appearance of indifference, silently praying that they didn't notice her flinch.

As the adults began to argue as they had the night previously, the girl began to scold herself inwardly. He hates you. You should have known. Who could love you, when you're cursed as you are.

But ... he was supposed to help me.
He won't help you, he doesn't love you.
I don't need to be loved. I just want the curse gone.
Don't be selfish and care only for yourself.
Aren't fathers supposed to care for their children?
That's just a story told to calm the young. No body wants a whiner.
What about the redhead and her husband?
They're human, that's a different story.

"Well," clapped the Doctor, "I'm going to the Tardis. Have to do a bit of exploring and such. The universe might need a bit of saving. Amy, Rory –I'm not leaving you alone with her. You two are to come with me."

"What, and leave this child by herself?" asked Amy. "I'm not leaving her alone. She comes, Doctor." Thank you.

"Invite the alien into the means to corrupt the very threads of time and space. Brilliant idea, Pond. Oh, you're serious... Must she? "

The redhead's husband nodded. "She. comes."

The Doctor stared at the child in his Tardis, unsure what to think. He hated her, but he felt terrible for her. If she didn't exist, it would be better for the both of us. She wouldn't suffer and nor would I. Evil thoughts flooded the Doctor's mind about how he could give her the slip wherever they were going. He saw himself in the child. He hated that. Even if those eyes were almost always monotonous, they were wise eyes, blue like the ocean's tide. His eyes. Eleven's eyes. When, oh, when would twelve take over?

"Where and when are we going, Doctor?" asked Amy.

"Well, there was this really nice world I heard about. It was all forests, but extremely tall trees. Up to fifty meters, some of them. And I heard they were silver too." The child blinked.

"Sounds really lovely Doctor. It actually exists, right? It's not just some place you fabricated to lure us into... just to ditch the girl, right?" Rory stepped up behind her defensively.

"No, of course not. I may be selfish, Pond, but I wont do that." they idea played in his mind, and he entertained it with a guilty pleasure. "Could hold some merit, though" he mumbled so that Amy and Rory couldn't hear him.

"So, what about it, you two? Place is called Feanor. In the language of the race that lived there it translates to 'Abundant Lands'. Really beautiful I heard."

"Wait," Rory interrupted. "lived there? What's with the past tense? What happened to them?" skepticism played on his face.

"I believe they evacuated. Something about a war bringing poisonous gases into the atmosphere. Lost about ninety-five percent of their people to an alien race. Brought most of the survivors into a maniac state, suicidal thoughts, homicidal actions. You wouldn't think that would be able to happen to them. They were such an advanced race too. Had almost a million years to advance their technology (Which was brilliant, by the way. They had to be at least a thousand years ahead of you humans, I think). Must of been a really powerful enemy to almost bring them to extinction. I've heard rumour that they're still around, too."

Amy and Rory stared, wide eyed with fear. "You're bringing us there? To the planet where this race almost became extinct to an unknown enemy."

"Of course they're known. We've just lost them. No records of them, either."

"So, like the Silence, essentially?"

"No, you remember them. You just can't find them... ever." the Doctor began to walk up the stairs to start the Tardis' journey. He spun around to face his shocked friends. "But it's completely safe. I promise." He finished his ascent and set the Tardis in motion.

Amy walked after him. "What about rule one: the Doctor lies."

"Doctor doesn't lie. Not this time. We're completely safe, Pond. Rory. I assure you."

The Tardis landed under a leafy silver canopy and the Doctor stepped out, allowing Amy and Rory out after him and neglecting the child. Rory, agitatedly held the door open for her and gave the Doctor the finger over her head. Amy rolled her eyes at the Doctor in disgust.

"Well, you wont let me leave her to die. Can't I at least have a little fun?"

Feanor was every bit as beautiful as the Doctor described it as being and the two humans stopped to marvel. A yellow sun shone brightly through trees like sky-scrapers, casting blue shadows through the silver leaves. The trees were nothing like that of Earth's. The trees of Earth looked like a young child's crayon drawing compared to the trees on Feanor and height-wise a flash-light to the Olympic torches in the Olympic buildings. It even sounded more beautiful. Instead of the shrill chirp of birds it was as if someone had managed to combine the flute and the harp into the voice of a bird. When they breathed in, the air was fresher, purer, clearer and sweeter. Earth to Feanor was Dr. Seuss to William Shakespeare or Edgar Allan Poe.

"Quite impressive!" remarked the Doctor. "I don't know why they'd want to leave. I could live here!"

Amy, Rory, the child and the Doctor walked in simultaneous silence and marvel until they came to a clearing. The sun shone brightly down on the white sanded ground. Amy bent down to touch it, and finding that it had no affect on her she took of her shoes and sighed. "Rory, try this!" He shook his head. "Will you?" Amy asked the child. She stared. Amy shrugged.

"It is safe, right Doctor? There aren't any weird chemicals in this sand, is there?" he bent down and scanned the sand with his Sonic-Screwdriver. "Nope, no weird chemicals.

"It's so beautiful here," said Rory. "You're right; I could live here too."

The Doctor reached up to one of the really small bushes and pulled off a white pear-shaped looking thing. He bit into it and gasped. "Oh, that's good. Wow," he grabbed two more and handed them to Amy and Rory. Amy glared at him and handed hers to the child. The Doctor glared back at Amy and unwillingly grabbed another pear for her.

The child stared up at the Doctor with a faint shadow of hurt on her face, but took a small nibble of the pear anyways. The hurt immediately wiped off her face and was replaced by an almost unnoticeable forgiveness, then disappeared to monotony once more.

The Doctor spun away so not to see her. "Well, come along!". The trio of Amy, Rory and the child trailed behind him, Amy and Rory munching their fruit. The little girl had dropped hers in the clearing as they left and very articulately hid in a couple of bushes.

The fresh air was exhilarating. They walked for hours on end and never tired even remotely. "This is amazing," Rory commented. "I feel completely ... tranquil and yet I've walked forever. " Amy nodded. "Are you not enjoying this?" she asked the child. She stared.

"It's almost like the sun has more energy too, it's stayed pretty much the same the whole time. It's still bright out."

"Did you not realize, this planet is immense. It's day cycle, therefore, takes longer. There are approximately 36 of Earth's hours in one day on this planet. Much sunnier, much longer." The Doctor explained. "Isn't it just fantastic? That's fifty percent more sunlight in one day! If only you could find a beach, you could stay out all day and go from pasty like now (sorry, no offense) to the colour of chocolate in one day. Mmmm ... I like chocolate. Chocolate is tasty!"

The girl made a small sound and pointed up into the canopy above. "Those are what you call trees," mocked the Doctor sarcastically. "What is it, honey?" asked Amy. Don't talk to her! Just stop it, leave her alone. The Doctor thought, bitterly. Are you trying to guilt me? Because I'm already guilty enough as it is. And I'm supposed to help her too.

She pointed and stared; Amy, Rory and the Doctor all looked up and saw only the wind moving through the leaves. She suddenly averted her attention to the left of them and dropped her hands to her side. She stepped backwards and when the bushes began to move she stepped behind the Doctor.

Out of the bushes came two alien creatures of a very tall and thin stature. Both of them were around 6'7". They were about the thickness of the child's waist and you could see the skin stretched over protruding bones. This skin was a semi-transparent silver that matched the environment around them. Each limb seemed exaggeratedly thin and long, so much so that it almost appeared disproportionate.

As they had been bent over in an ape-like state, the first one stood up in perfect posture and looked down at their company. "Salutations," his voice was that of a scientist, as if he were acknowledging a semi-intelligent specimen. "I am Niam of the Fe'aol. My companion is called Nyan."

"Hello, there!" piped the Doctor. "I'm the Doctor, these are my friends, Amy and Rory Williams." He felt the small hands on his back and coughed, to tell the child not to touch him.

"We should not be here," commented the second alien, Nyan. "Let us go somewhere less exposed." He looked up, "Now. The trees are not safe."

"Will you follow us?" asked Niam.

Taking a step closer to the Fe'aol, the Doctor beckoned to the trio and they followed him while he followed Niam and Nyan. The child in close range behind him.

"You're stepping on my heels!" the Doctor snapped and halted abruptly. Curious over his sudden outburst, Niam and Nyan looked over their shoulders. "I do not see a fourth with you, Doctor."

"She's right here! Trailing behind me!" he stepped out of the way to reveal the scared child. Her curls swished back as she jolted her head down.

"Why did you not introduce her?" Niam asked with a hint of dull animosity in his voice.

"He's decided to be a prick to her," Rory said.

"She is a child. You should not have brought a child here."

Amy turned to glare at the Doctor, "You said it was safe."

"And I believed it was safe. I honestly had no intentions of hurting her." That much.

"Right."

"This way," said Nyan, veering to the left.