A/N: Hello all! Welcome to Chapter 4 of Wedding Eve! The warnings for this one are the same as the last chapter; SPOILERS FOR 5x02, THE BEAST BELOW. There is also some continuing spoilers from 5x05, Flesh and Stone I guess, but compared to Chapter 1, we might as well be talking about something completely separate. This chapter is a direct continuation from the last, so make sure you remember how that one went before starting this one. The next chapter will most likely take a little bit to get out, since I'll have to wrap my brain around the repercussions from this chapter - but enough of that! Read, enjoy, and Review!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, Amy, the TARDIS, etc, etc, etc.

When the trio reached the airlock, the Doctor and Liz began putting on their suits. With Amy helping them, the bulky suits were on quickly, and the Doctor began piling the various gadgets he had brought into the pockets and compartments in the suit.

When he finished packing away everything he had brought from the Requisition, the Doctor smiled and sealed his helmet.

"Okay, I'm ready. Liz? Amy?"

"Yes Doctor, we were ready when you started packing your pockets with candy."

"Candy? Candy! Now now, Amy. I've got a hyperspatial temporic field, a-"

Elizabeth cut him off, "Yes Doctor. Candy. Now can we go?"

The Doctor sighed before entering the airlock. Right before following him, Elizabeth turned to Amy and pressed a small circular piece of foil into her hand. "Amy," she whispered, "this is a Com-U. The Doctor and I each have one to talk to each other. Don't talk, or we'll be able to hear you, but I'll see if I can't get the Doctor to talk about... well, you know."

Amy blushed, but nodded and said, "Thank you."

"Just on your earlobe now, press it on and it'll stick," Elizabeth replied as she turned and entered the airlock. The Doctor looked at her quizzically, but she simply said, "Girl stuff."

Even a nine hundred year old time travelling alien who recognizes someone avoiding the truth will not address the topic of 'Girl Stuff'. The Doctor wisely kept silent as Amy waved to the pair and pressed the Open button, causing the inner airlock doors to slam shut and the airlock to begin depressurizing.

The Doctor and Elizabeth drifted out of the airlock once the outer doors opened. The Doctor raised his hand with the sonic screwdriver inside the glove. He began waving his hand around before finally setting on a direction along the side of the ship. "That way Liz, what we're looking for is that way."

The pair set off, using the handholds alongside of the massive spaceship to move towards the crack. As they moved, Elizabeth started up a conversation.

"So, Doctor. How has it been, traveling along with Amy?"

The Doctor kept pulling himself along as he spoke. "It's been good, good, good. Well, strange lately, but good."

"Strange? Do tell, Doctor."

The Doctor spoke as they made their way along, telling Elizabeth the Tenth of his recent adventures. He left out some details, "Can't spoil the timeline, after all," but Elizabeth still got the idea of what the Doctor and Amy had been up to.

After he told her about the destruction of the Weeping Angels, she asked him, "Well, Doctor, that sounds like par for the course for you. All the stories tell of your harrowing adventures. How is it strange?"

The Doctor blushed, even though Elizabeth couldn't see it. "Well... It's Amy."

Elizabeth inwardly cheered, and she knew that Amy was feeling the same satisfaction. If this girl could unsettle the Doctor, she was a keeper.

"Oh, Doctor. What about Amy? She can't be causing you problems, or you would drop her back on Earth, no?"

"No, no, nothing like that. It's just... You know the stories about me, but they're probably written like a Desfludian Epic or something. I'm not some kind of perverted alien mastermind, picking up young Earth girls in my spaceship to bring to strange planets and seduce."

Elizabeth laughed at his description. "That's exactly how the stories go, actually."

"See! Always, always. I get lonely. My choices are usually between old people who treat me like a child even though I'm old enough to be their ancestor, young men who always want to find some attractive alien to seduce, and young women who, usually, just want adventure. I usually take the young women with me, since they're easier than tracking down some perverted youngster or dealing with crotchety grandparents."

"Okay, okay Doctor, I get it. No perversion. Ever."

"Right. Not to say I haven't thought about it... No! Never. I'm nine hundred and seven years old, and it simply doesn't work like that."

Elizabeth smiled, dragging herself along the handholds. "Sounds like a 'but' there, Doctor."

The Doctor sighed, but before he could respond, his sonic screwdriver started making a strange piercing noise that even Elizabeth could hear.

"That's it! See it, Liz? There's the crack."

Elizabeth couldn't see, because the Doctor was in her way. She pushed off her handhold to float past him, grabbing onto another handhold and staring at the crack in space-time not five feet from her.

"It's... it's strange, Doctor. Makes you a little nauseous, doesn't it?"

The Doctor drew himself alongside Elizabeth. "Yes, Liz, it does. Now, I'm going to work on closing it, so just keep talking. If I stop responding, pull me away from it. Okay?"

Elizabeth shook herself out of her daze and replied, "Okay Doctor. And if it's okay with you, I don't think I'm going to look at it."

"Quite alright," the Doctor responded. He set to work, pulling various gadgets out of the pockets of the space suit and letting them float near him. Occasionally one would float too far away, but even without seeing it, the Doctor would reach out and snag the offending item, placing it back within easy reach. "Just keep talking."

"So, Doctor, what were you saying? Something about 'it doesn't work like that but...'"

The Doctor laughed, intent on his work but still speaking conversationally, if a bit wistfully. "I've loved and lost, Liz. I've been married, had children, grandchildren. I thought I was too old for that anymore, to removed. My own species is gone, but..."

"But you're so close to Earth, and the humans. They feel like your own."

The Doctor laughed slightly as he waved the sonic screwdriver over a small blue capsule floating inches from the crack.

"Yeah, I suppose that's it. I mean, they don't act like Time Lords at all, which is a relief. But they look like Time Lords. They're fun and happy and attractive..."

"Doctor, are you talking about humans, or about Amy?"

The Doctor sighed. "Liz, I'm not sure if I'm talking about Amy, or Rose, or Jack. I never thought I'd be able to love again, and I keep coming close and it gets ripped away from me. How do I know it won't happen again? Sepulchasm, I know that it will happen again!"

"Who said it, Doctor? Old Earth poem, how did it go... Better to have loved and lost..."

"Tennyson, In Memoriam. It goes like this;

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Tennyson was a good man, good poet. Met him once, only once. And maybe he was right but... Have you lost, Liz?"

"No, Doctor, I haven't. Not much royalty up here, hard to make the right alliances."

"Too true, Liz, too true. The loss... it hurts. Pain beyond regeneration, beyond a de-mat gun, beyond even the Piranha Cannons of Episfortax Seven. Pain of the heart is pain beyond imagining..."

Elizabeth was crying silently now, hearing the intensity of the Doctor's pain even through the scratchy audio of the Com-U.

"Doctor... I can't say I understand, because I don't. But if that's how bad the pain is, how good is the joy?"

The Doctor didn't respond.

"Doctor?"

Elizabeth turned towards him, seeing him silently floating, not even holding onto the ship. She drew herself towards him, careful to not even look at the crack. She grabbed his shoulder, pulling him away from the crack slightly.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor seemed to wake from a daze, turning his head to look at Elizabeth through their faceshields.

"Oh, sorry Liz. Not the crack, no, just me lost in thought. Must get back to work. Keep talking to me, Liz. Even painful conversation is better than what that crack would do to me."

"Okay Doctor... I asked you-"

"Yes, yes. And believe me, the joys of love... They are amazing. Not just the physical sensations, but the emotional connection, the psychic link. The simple knowledge that you have somebody that will support you at all costs. Even a friend, Liz, will turn on you if the reward is high enough. It takes real love for that kind of security."

"And isn't that just what you need, Doctor? Maybe Amy..."

The Doctor was still working, this time spreading a strange golden goop around the perimeter of the crack, careful not to let it touch the crack itself.

"Amy... Amy is wonderful, Liz, do not misunderstand me. But she is human. Fifty years of wonderful bliss, if it comes to that... Followed by a lifetime of pain. I don't know if it will be worth it, and I'm not sure I want to find out."

Elizabeth shook her head, before placing her hand on the Doctor's suited shoulder again. "Doctor, it seems like you're picking the losing choice because you're afraid to win. You're choosing pain over pain and joy; you're choosing pain for Amy instead of her own joy. Doesn't that seem a little selfish? Not to mention defeatist?"

"You know, Liz, you might just be the smartest monarch I've met. And coming from me, that means you've outranked most of the monarchy in the universe. Maybe you're right... Maybe Amy could be the one to really bring something good into my life."

Elizabeth, standing next to the Doctor, didn't respond. He turned towards her to see her staring into the crack, extending her hand towards the strange light.

"No!" the Doctor screamed, grabbing the young queen's waist and pulling her away from the crack. He drew one hand up to her visor and placed it in front of her eyes. Once the visual connection was broken, Elizabeth seemed to come back to her senses.

"Doctor? What happened?"

The Doctor sighed, grabbing onto a nearby handhold and gesturing for Elizabeth to do the same. "Remember what I said about what to do if I stop talking?"

"Pull you away, yes... Oh. It got me?"

"Yes, Liz, it did. You almost touched it."

"Well... thank you, Doctor. It seems I owe you my life. Although, be careful how you grab me... Don't want you thinking I'm Amy, after all."

The Doctor blushed, looking towards the crack. "Oh, I could never do that, Liz. Anyway, I don't think I'd grab Amy around the waist in that sort of situation."

Now it was Elizabeth's turn to blush, but she knew that Amy must be nova-red at that statement.

"Now, Liz, we're almost done here. Back away a few handholds, that's a good queen. To close the crack, unfortunately, I have to open it. What I've done with my various gadgets-"

Elizabeth interrupted him, saying, "Candy."

The Doctor continued as if he hadn't heard her. "- is to build a sort of a temporal wall around the crack, which should hopefully contain the effects."

"So just stay back, and I should be fine?"

"That's right Liz. Now, here we go!" With that, the Doctor waved his sonic screwdriver at the crack, causing it to stretch wider and glow brighter. Light began seeping through the crack, causing strange, mesmerizing patterns in the space around it. The Doctor was momentarily hypnotized before he shook off the effects, watching to make sure the crack closed properly.

Once the crack opened enough, he could see past the light into a swirling blue expanse. The clouds and twisting shapes inside reminded him of his youth.

"The Untempered Schism... a gap in the fabric of reality, into the Vortex... This is the same, but why? What causes this?"

While he was thinking, he didn't notice Elizabeth, mesmerized by the light emanating from the crack, let go of her handhold. Remembering his time at the Time Academy, the Doctor didn't notice Elizabeth reaching towards the crack until it was too late.

The light emanating from the crack took on a ghastly appearance, all red and angry. Elizabeth was reaching towards it, pushing her hand forward, into the light. The Doctor noticed the change in the light and jumped into action. He pushed off his handhold on the side of the ship and grabbed Liz by the shoulder. He tore her out of the light and threw her backwards, where she hit the side of the ship and got caught between two handholds.

The Doctor then brought out a small green marble. He pointed his sonic screwdriver at it, changing settings several times, and floated it over to the light. The crack immediately grabbed the marble and it was gone. With that last act, the crack slowly closed, the light fading away until all that was left was the hull of the ship and a small ring of golden goop.

The Doctor waved his sonic screwdriver over the goop a few times until he was satisfied that the crack was finally closed. When he was sure, he floated back towards Elizabeth and checked her over. The sonic screwdriver reported that she was fine, just sleeping, but the Doctor couldn't help but notice that her middle finger was missing from the last joint up. The suit was whole, but the end of the finger of the glove was definitely empty. He gently shook her awake.

"Liz... Liz, are you alright?"

Elizabeth slowly woke, looking at the Doctor. "Doctor? What happened? All I remember is light..."

"Liz, listen to me. What happened to your finger? Can you remember?"

Elizabeth looked down at her hand, feeling her middle finger. "What do you mean, Doctor? My hand's been like that since... Oh, for as long as I can remember. Longer, if you consider my... memory problems."

The Doctor sighed, realizing that she would never know what happened to her finger. It had been unwritten, and now it had never existed. "It's nothing, Liz. Let's get back to Amy."

The Doctor let Liz lead the way, watching her for any signs that the crack had affected more than her finger. When they reached the airlock, he turned to her.

"Thank you, Elizabeth, for helping me. I don't know what I would have done without you."

The pair entered the airlock. As they walked inside, they saw Amy gazing out through the viewing window. The outer doors then closed and the slight hiss of intruding air filled the silence.

Once the airlock had fully pressurized, the inner doors opened and Amy jumped to the pair, drawing them both into her embrace. "I'm so glad you're both alright! Is it closed, Doctor?"

"Yes, my dear, yes it is. Let's get back to the TARDIS."

=x=

Having bid goodbye to Queen Elizabeth the Tenth, the pair were safely ensconced in the TARDIS, ready to head off to the next crack. Well, Amy was ready, but the Doctor was nowhere to be found.

Amy wandered through the corridors of the TARDIS, looking and calling for the Doctor. She had heard the whole conversation over the Com-U, and while she wasn't going to tell him that, she still wanted to talk to him. Maybe kiss him again...

She passed too many doors to count, and opened almost as many. The bright orange door simply had a brick wall behind it, while the blindingly white door led into the back of the library. She found more bedrooms, the swimming pool, and even a small, well, shrine, to a rakish brown-haired man in a blue military-looking greatcoat.

"Seriously, the pictures and candles are weird enough, but what was with the hair?!"

Shaking her head, Amy continued onward until she saw the same door from her first trip to the library - the one that said Do Not Open. A little scared, she opened the door slowly, to reveal an ordinary looking bedroom. It was smaller than her own, and decorated in scarlet and orange. On the large bed she finally found the Doctor, curled into a ball and shaking slightly.

Amy quickly made her way to the bed, climbing onto it and pulling the Doctor into her arms. She held him as he quietly sobbed, obviously shaken.

"Doctor? Doctor are you alright? What's wrong?"

The Doctor simply sobbed for a few minutes more, before gradually quieting. Once he finished crying, he began to speak in a raspy voice.

"Amy... Liz almost died. She reached into the crack and it nearly swallowed her."

Amy gasped, realizing what that would have meant. "But... But Doctor, you saved her! She's fine, she's on Starship U.K."

The Doctor began shaking again as he spoke. "Amy... I barely saved her. She lost her finger, she didn't even remember ever having it. What would have happened if the crack unwrote her completely?"

Amy was silent, simply cradling the Doctor against her chest as he spoke.

"Queen Elizabeth the Tenth was the ruler of the United Kingdom from the year 2803 until 3364. She is credited with saving Britain from the solar flares and ensuring their collective peace until they returned to Earth in 3290. What would have happened if she hadn't been there to do that? If she never existed at all? It's not just Britain we're talking about... it's hundreds of years of written history undone. The universe would have imploded, unwritten itself. That could have been the end of time."

Amy finally understood what the Doctor was going through. He was shaken from almost changing time - not just almost losing a friend, but possibly dooming the universe as a whole. She held him in her arms, whispering comforting words in his ear until he drifted off, sleeping fretfully against her chest.

When Amy fell asleep as well, she was still holding the Doctor close to her, one hand reaching around to the back of his neck and the other hand's fingers laced with the his.

A/N: AWWWWWWW. I thought it was cute. If you didn't, you're probably reading the wrong story. Look for something with lasers. Anyway, here's where I definitely DON'T apologize. I know that I'll most likely get some people telling me that 'the Doctor would NEVER break down like that!'. And while that's your opinion, and I accept it, I still stick my tongue out at you. The Doctor may be a little shaken after that event because it isn't as simple as it seems. Think of this - the Doctor always tries to keep the timeline intact. "No, Rose, you can not touch your baby-self." "We have to save Queen Victoria!" "Why?" "Because she lives past today!" etc. Those are paraphrased, btw. And he succeeds. Bigtime. These cracks are worrisome, but he knows what, where and when they are, so he knows that he can save everything yet again. This time, it was even bigger than an intact timeline. Cutting out such a big piece of history could have destroyed everything. Even if it didn't, the Doctor knows that Liz 10 didn't die, that she lived past that day. That's gotta mess him up, seeing that almost happen. Maybe it happened the other times too, we just don't see it. The Doctor is strong, yes, but he's still alive. He still feels. Worry and guilt are part of that. Anyway, if you liked what I did, ignore this A/N, if you didn't, I'm sorry, but it fit so perfectly, and it's how I feel the Doctor would have responded, if only in secret. Either way, please, review! I love reviews, and I do my best to respond to every single one of them!

Which reminds me! I've allowed anonymous reviews because I know that not everyone has a account. But still, please people. I like to respond to reviews, and I've gotten into several awesome conversations with some of my readers from their reviews. It's not that hard to make an account, and the resulting conversation could, would, WILL be awesome. So please, sign your review if at all possible; I promise it'll be fun.