Aunt Sharon paused, duster in hand, outside the room she always did her best to avoid, staring uncertainly at the tarnished knob. She'd tried to tell herself that she was silly for keeping away from it—after all it was just an old bedroom; nothing more. The possessions that had occupied it for much longer than the past ten years were just things. What was she afraid of? That the walls would talk, tell her that, if she'd been more kind and loving, her niece wouldn't have run off?
Truth was, deep down, that's exactly what the woman feared. But her sensibility took over as usual, pushing her regret to the farthest reaches of her mind for the time being. She turned the knob and entered the room, finding it exactly how it had been left on the night before her Amy's wedding. Aside from the inch of dust that covered everything, it looked as if a young woman still lived in it, down to the rumpled bedsheets. Aunt Sharon hesitated for only a moment more before taking a deep breath and attacking the dust bunnies.
Her task was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. Mildly relieved she set down the duster and left the room, closing the door firmly behind her. She descended the stairs to the entry, wondering who could be calling. Visitors these days were rare.
Pulling open the door, the woman almost had a heart attack at the sight of her niece, looking no different from the day she had last seen her. At first she thought her mind was playing tricks on her, but she was positive her mind was not quite so imaginative as to conjure up the ginger-haired newborn in her arms, or the bowtie-wearing man and the green-eyed child behind her.
"A-Amelia? Is it really you?" Aunt Sharon questioned, her eyes wide.
Amy smiled anxiously, shifting Jenna's weight. The infant stared up at her great-aunt with curiosity, her two-toned eyes making the woman feel a little uncomfortable. "Hallo, Aunt Sharon. How are ya?"
There was a shocked pause. "Heavens you don't look more than twenty-one. But it's been ten years. How is that possible?"
"Ah, yes, well you see, that's my fault. Took her to see the Fountain of Youth back in 1513 and Ponce de Leon showed up and caused a fat lot of trouble and then she drank the water without realizing what it was and these natives with sharp pointy sticks jumped out of the shrubbery and tried to shish kabob us so we ran away but I couldn't reverse it so here we are."
"Doctor, you reeeally need to learn how to shut up," Amy reprimanded, narrowing her eyes at him.
"What? She asked how it was possible so I told her. In Spark Notes form."
"I mean it; shut up." Amy turned back to Aunt Sharon, who was staring at the pair of them as if they needed to be locked up in the loony bin. "So can we come in now?"
The cottage's sitting room was much too stiff and formal to get properly comfortable in, but the Doctor and Amy made do. Fishing something that appeared as if it could either have been an alien toy or a part to a spaceship engine out of his inside jacket pocket, the Doctor placed Ian on the spotless wood floor with it to occupy him. Then he sat on the velvet loveseat next to Amy, looking perfectly at home.
"You. I've seen you before, haven't I?" Aunt Sharon realized in none to pleasant of a tone, speaking to the Doctor. "At Rory and Lorelei's wedding. And…you look familiar, besides that."
"Aunt Sharon, this is my husband, the Doctor," Amy introduced.
"Pleased to finally meet you, Aunt Sharon," the Doctor said warmly, beaming as he leaned forward to shake her hand.
"The Doctor." Aunt Sharon dropped into the nearest chair, her complexion a little green. She turned her gaze on her niece. "But I thought…I thought he was a childhood game, something you made up. Are you trying to tell me he's real?"
"Well more like showing you, but yeah," Amy replied. Jenna took possession of her knuckle and began to suck on it experimentally, but she didn't notice.
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"Why would I joke about this?" Amy asked.
"Oh, I don't know. How can he be here, looking the same, if you met him when you were seven? How can you not have changed at all in the past ten years? And how can you be a mother?"
The Doctor and Amy looked at each other. Apparently Rory had been very vague about exactly where Amy had disappeared to. Not that he could have explained it; he would have immediately been discounted as not right in the head if he had.
"Aunt Sharon, do remember the stories I used to tell you about the Doctor?" Amy questioned.
Aunt Sharon did remember, and all too well. "So I'm supposed to believe he's some alien who travels through time in a blue box."
"Well that is pretty dead-on," the Doctor commented.
Aunt Sharon studied him, this strange man who was allegedly her nephew-in-law. He could have been insane for all she knew, someone who kidnapped her Amy and made her believe he was her imaginary friend. But that didn't explain why Amy wasn't thirty-one as she should have been, or how that blue box had disappeared into thin air all those years ago, or why Rory had defended him so strongly.
"This doesn't make any sense," Aunt Sharon said with a shake of her head.
"See, Amy? This is the problem with growing up," the Doctor said in exasperation. Quite unexpectedly he got up from the couch and knelt beside the woman. He grabbed her hand and placed it on the left side of his chest first, followed by the right. "Feel that? Not one heart, Aunt Sharon, but two. And the children are the same. You know well enough that I'm not from here."
Aunt Sharon was at a loss for words. She stared at the Doctor, and something changed in her expression. "So it's really you," she said at last.
"Now you're getting it." The Doctor smiled.
"And what makes you think you can run off with my niece, especially the night before her wedding? I had just gotten used to the idea of having Rory for a nephew."
"Oi! I went with him because I wanted to, Aunt Sharon. Rory's a good friend, but things wouldn't have worked out between him and me. You've seen how happy he is with Lorelei." Amy was tempted to inform her that Lorelei was from another planet as well, but stopped herself at the last second. It was probably best if her aunt's life as she knew it stayed the way it was.
Aunt Sharon didn't look entirely convinced, but just then Ian crawled over to her chair, abandoning his toy and demanding to be picked up. Unable to refuse him, she lifted him into her lap, and he snuggled against her. The strictness in her face softened.
"Rory told me you came back to visit him. And that you were expecting your first child. I couldn't believe it; he couldn't have been talking about my little niece." Aunt Sharon blinked back something that could have been tears. "But you're not little anymore, are you? You're the woman I always wanted you to become. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to make you grow up so fast."
Amy stood up, and the Doctor took Jenna from her so she could grasp her aunt's hand. She knelt in his place. "No, you shouldn't have. But all that's in the past now," she replied gently.
"If I had the opportunity to go back and do everything differently, I would," Aunt Sharon told her. She stroked her grand-nephew's smooth skin, having been completely taken in by his charms. He reminded her of the first time she'd ever held Amy, back when the girl's mother was still alive. Of course her hair had been ginger even then, the same shade as Jenna's. Aunt Sharon had been so afraid to hold her, even to touch her, for fear she'd break and it would be all her fault. Little did she know then that there was another way to break a child: emotionally.
Amy didn't have a response for this. Instead she pulled her aunt into a hug, which Ian was rather happy about seeing as he got to be a part of it. When they separated, the little boy had somehow attached himself to his mother and came away with her, his arms wrapped around her neck. Amy laughed and called him a monkey, kissing the top of his head as he nestled under her chin. Aunt Sharon felt a pang in her heart at the sight of a bond she would never have.
"So I suppose you don't plan on lingering in Leadworth much longer, am I right?" Aunt Sharon guessed, trying not to sound too disappointed.
"We were planning on leaving right after stopping by here, as a matter of fact," the Doctor answered. Although he was glad Amy and her aunt were getting along better, the dullness of the little village was starting to wear on him.
Aunt Sharon knew well enough that they didn't intend on returning. It was for that reason that she made the most of the remainder of their day together, exchanging stories and getting better acquainted with her grand-niece and nephew. By the time the Doctor and Amy left, it was dusk, and Amy was surprised to feel a touch of remorse at their parting.
"And you had yourself all worried for nothing. I'd say that went rather well," said the Doctor as they set a course for the TARDIS, both Ian and Jenna fast asleep in their arms.
"Yeah, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting," Amy replied, studying the old locket her aunt had pressed into her hand when they were saying their goodbyes; something to remember her by. Inside was a picture of a much younger Aunt Sharon holding an hours-old Amy in her arms, an unusually warm smile plastered on her face. Amy had never known the photo existed, and doubted that even if she had before that day she wouldn't have given it a second glance, but she cherished it now.
"Are you sure your head's not on fire there?" The Doctor asked as he regarded the picture, shattering the sentimentality of the moment.
"Oh stuff it," Amy responded, rolling her eyes and shoving him away only a bit playfully.
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