The Doctor and Amy wake up in a familiar place, to both of them. They're outside Amy's house. They almost believe they were dreaming all along before they realise that the TARDIS is not with them. "Where is she?" The Doctor says in horror.
"Oh I think you'll find that she is just fine." A voice says, they look around but find no source, it's the voice of Sheogorath though. "Go, into the house, she is right in there." He says vaguely.
The Doctor starts running towards the house and Amy follows suit. He runs frantically up the stairs but Amy stops for a moment. "Hey, don't you think this feels familiar?" She asks him.
"It doesn't matter!" The Doctor responds, still running towards Amy's room. "The TARDIS is in here and I can't leave her alone!" He asserts, opening the door to the room. "Oh." He says, taken aback by what he's seen in the room, Amy slowly follows his steps up the stairs.
"What is it?" She asks.
"Well… Lets just say it's familiar." He says hazily.
Amy walks up a few more steps and joins him by the door, he opens it again and she puts a hand over her mouth, it's her trying to kiss The Doctor, frozen in time. This has happened though.
"Oh Rory…" The Doctor mutters solemnly.
"What's happening?" Amy asks
"Well… I think we're somewhere inside Rory's mind. That's what I can gather from being here" The Doctor replies.
"You see, he hasn't forgotten." The voice starts. "It's quite obvious that when a man of extreme power and wonder enters a girl's life she's likely to be at least intrigued by him, well at least with mortals anyway. And a man like you Doctor? He has every right to have suspicions. I emphasized this memory with a memory from Amy, so hopefully he can see more clearly what happened." The voice says with callous glee.
"Alright, what are you doing, what are your intentions? Are you trying to drive us apart so you can get to us better? Well that isn't going to work!" The Doctor shouts lividly.
"Well, ta be honest with ya. I really ain't sure what my intentions are!" The voice chuckles, "But anyway, I have to be off. I have more important things to do, or less important things to do! Ta-ta!" It says before going silent completely.
Rory then appears in the room where the memory stands and Amy quickly looks away, ashamed. He stares on for a moment with an irritated expression. "This isn't how I imagined it would be." He says gruffly.
"Rory it's not like that anymore…" She says.
"It was the night before our wedding! You're trying to kiss him!" He shouts, pointing to the frozen memory of Amy kissing The Doctor. "Why didn't you just tell me that you don't love me? I could have… I don't know, cancelled the wedding or something…" He says, visibly getting more distressed. He disappears in a flash before Amy can say anything. As with Rory's mood the weather gets bleaker, the rain pattering on the window.
Amy sighs, "I didn't have the time to tell him I've passed all that now." She says regretfully.
"It's not your fault, anyway I think that Sheogorath is influencing him, we need to help him before it's too late!" The Doctor says, scanning the area around him with his screwdriver, trying to pick something or other up. Amy walks towards The Doctor and goes to hug him but he extends an arm to stop her. "I don't think this is the best time for that." He says, gesturing around.
Amy understands that Rory might be watching them and that he's in a fragile state at the moment, she nods to The Doctor.
Suddenly a booming voice interrupts them, "The poor, fierce, little nurse is trapped in his own thoughts. He wants confirmation that the woman he loves thinks the same of him, and although the evidence is everywhere it is nowhere to be seen! You mortals would call this madness, and that's what it is!" Sheogorath shouts, chuckling at the end of it like it's an elaborate joke. "Well then, better start finding ways to show him, eh Mrs. Pond? I'll let you figure this one out yourselves since I've already given you so much help. You should be so grateful! But I don't care really." He says before His voice vanishes again.
Amy and The Doctor look around for a moment and take in what he said. "What do you suppose he meant?" Amy asks.
"Well, either you have to find a very obvious way to show that you love Rory or you could… Er, well find a way to hate me I suppose." The Doctor says, sounding disappointed at this revelation.
"I don't really know if I can do that…" Amy says, looking at the ground.
The Doctor tilts her head up to look at him, "Here let me help you!" He says, leaning in and whispering something in her ear. He then stands up straight and stares at her, grinning. She takes a moment to gather herself, thinking about what The Doctor just said to her and then delivers a sturdy punch directly to his face.
He falls to the ground, getting up a second later "Oh, think I needed that! I think that's all the Ponds now, being punched by an entire family. Brilliant." He wipes some blood from his face while Amy looks at him, still furious until she realises what he said was a lie to get her to punch him, she calms down a bit. "You've all got quite the arm too; you know River once knocked me out that way! Oops spoilers, ah never mind that. You won't even be there to see it." Amy watches him patiently, tapping a foot and grabbing his attention, "I'm rambling again aren't I?" He asks.
"Yes, now let's get a move on! Don't want Rory to think I hate him." Amy says a little sarcastically, the sky outside brightening up and the rain going away but the clouds still remaining. "Use your sonic!" Amy shouts, rolling her eyes.
"What about the TARDIS?" The Doctor asks, staring at the blue box.
"Yes! That's a fantastic idea! Let's time travel when we're in Rory's head! That will surely work!" Amy shouts, fully sarcastic.
"Oh? Is that what the blue box is?" The voice says, then Sheogorath materialises in front of them, the room with the memory now empty apart from the TARDIS. Sheogorath walks towards it.
"No, no! Nothing interesting in there! I assure you!" The Doctor shouts, running towards the doors and denying entry.
"You're a terrible liar, and a master of getting people interested I can tell! After we're all finished with this you can teach me a few things. Heh-heh!" Sheogorath says before pushing The Doctor aside. "I've been wondering what's in here." He says, pulling the doors open.
"No!" The Doctor yells, still trying to regain his balance from being pushed.
Sheogorath walks straight in. "Well it's certainly smaller than I thought it would be, seeing that the three of you can fit in here…" He says, sounding very disappointed.
The Doctor looks in to see that it's just a police box, a prop of what the TARDIS is, he sighs in relief. "That would be the perception filters working." He mutters to himself.
"That look, I know that look, it means I'm being stupid! Or that you're being stupid. No, no definitely me this time. So what's usually in this box?" Sheogorath asks, pulling a phone out of the TARDIS and inspecting it closer. "And what's this thing?" He asks, dialling some numbers in expectedly.
"Well, there's usually a lot more in this box and that's a long range basic electronic communicator, also known as a telephone." The Doctor says shrewdly. "And I can show you what's really inside if you let Rory go and drop us off there." He negotiates.
"Long range basic electronic communicator… And when ya think you've heard it all." He says, still fiddling with the phone, twirling the wires around and pressing more numbers. "Well more to the point. Sounds like you're trying to strike a bargain, or as I like to say, cheat! There's nothing I hate more than a cheat, well apart from order, and maybe a few daedra but cheats are pretty high on the list I tell you. And where would the fun be if you left now? I haven't had many adventurers around for a while and you three are actually rather clever. So you have to fix Rory by yourselves, you did do the damage after all! Your little wand might be able to tell you the way, Doctor." He directs before disappearing once more, leaving the phone to dangle by the cord.
Amy and The Doctor take a while to process what he said before The Doctor speaks out "Can you imagine how stressful having a proper conversation with him would be?" He scolds.
"I was right, use the screwdriver already you nut!" Amy shouts.
"Alright, alright!" He responds snappily, turning the screwdriver on and hoping he gets a signal "It might be difficult since we're in a brain and things don't work like that." He says, imitating Amy's earlier words, mocking her.
She responds simply by rolling her eyes and waiting for The Doctor to finish, he scans in a particular direction and the screwdriver glows brighter "Aha!" he shouts triumphantly, running down the staircase and out the front door with hardly enough time for Amy to follow him, he starts scanning around again, refinding the source and once again running in that direction.
The rain is still falling but very lightly now and the two run towards a seemingly aimless place, jumping through gardens and streets until they get to a square of grass, surrounded by terraced houses. "We've been here before." Amy says with certainty, The Doctor stares at her, expecting an explanation. "This is one of the places we came, two years ago, when you saw me for the second time." She elaborates.
"I think I know, yeah." The Doctor says, still remembering, his thinking interrupted by a small laugh, he and Amy look to their side to see Rory sitting alone on a patch of grass a few metres away, wearing his nurses outfit.
"This is where I thought it was all over, between me and you, Amy. The perfect, raggedy Doctor has just fallen from the sky and landed in your life, 'he's no longer a fantasy you've created and is the ideal man for you; I don't even stand a chance anymore'. That's what I thought. And I'm starting to think the same now. Do you really love me, or are you just lonely?" Rory asks rhetorically.
Amy sits down next to him but not too closely in case his emotions are still volatile. "Come on Rory, fantastic Rory. The Doctor is a lot of things and I thought I loved him. But there's a lot of things that you are he could never be! With my time in the TARDIS he's shown me wonderful things, alien planets, the future, the past; I think I've seen everything! But along with those things he's shown me who he really is, and that isn't a man worth loving. He's still a great friend though, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't love me, and there's no point in chasing a man you can't have. Besides, you're so much more compassionate and patient and… And brilliant than he is, and I think your time for waiting is finally over." Amy says, smiling hopefully at Rory.
Rory turns his head to look her in the eyes and she beams some more. He starts crying a little and quickly moves to embrace her. "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry." He whispers to her, clinging to her as if his life depended on it. "I really shouldn't have doubted you and I don't know what came over me I- I-" He stutters, bursting out in tears completely. Amy returns the hug after she finally processes what he said, shushing him like a child.
The Doctor stares at the two and fakes an immature sickly face to Amy, she glares at him dauntingly and he stops. The sky then clears up and the sun gradually shows through the clouds, Rory finally stops crying and continues to embrace Amy tightly while kissing her. "You can let me go now nurse boy, I promise I won't run away." Amy says jokingly.
Rory responds by letting go and getting up quickly "Sorry." He apologises again.
"I can let it slide this time." Amy replies, still kidding.
Rory laughs and gets up, he looks towards The Doctor and gives him a thumbs up, The Doctor smiles in return and walks over to the two but is stopped by Sheogorath suddenly appearing between them. "Sorry ta interrupt your heartwarming reunion but I need to remind you that this technically isn't even a reunion at all! You three are still apart in the real world of course. So I'm going ta have ta wake ya all up before we move on. Any objections? Well I suppose there are, but I don't care!" He says before forcing them all return to the physical plane.
