I had such a hard time ending this story, so please excuse the crappy reason for finding the TARDIS and it being a Deux Ex Machina and not even being a clear reason as to how to find it.

Thanks to those who reviewed or added this their favorites or followed it. I really appreciate it.


It takes almost a week for the Doctor's fever to break and another week for him to get back to feeling well again and it's with a bit of joy, Rory and Amy tell him the one thing he's been wanting to hear for the longest time:

They know where to find the TARDIS.

Because they, while looking about the bombing of the Altes Museum in Berlin, there in the TARDIS, tucked away in the corner.


Getting to Berlin won't be an easy task. They have no identity cards and there are soldiers at each train station, still searching for escaped prisoners.

In other words, it's nearly impossible.

Biata gets in contact with her brother Jan, who a member of the Polish Resistance and they offer some help. He mutters he think they are all crazy for wanting to go into Germany and the Doctor grins and tell him "Crazy is my middle name."


Maryna is in the tears the day before they go. She follows- mostly the Doctor, as she seems to taken a fancy to him- almost everywhere and is inconsolable the days they leave.

"Promise you'll come back? When the war is over, yeah?" She pleads. "I don't care how long it takes."

The Doctor taps the tip of her nose. "Cross my hearts, I'll come back to see you. Maybe take you on a trip." Even though a part of him wants to never return to this place, he promises.


Being smuggled across the border involves being on the bed of a truck, with hay placed on top of them (thankful, it's clean, though it still itches like hell.) Then, with fake identity cards, it easy to get into Berlin at last. Their contact drops them off on the edge of the city, not willing to go any further. He gives them a parcel of food; hats to cover their shaved head and a somewhat heartfelt 'good luck'. It's nearly nightfall and to avoid the police looking for those out past curfew, the three hide out in a bombed out building. Amy sleeps fitfully, crying out at some points during her sleep; the Doctor and Rory don't sleep at all.

In the morning, they resume their search for the museum, which is easier said then done because They have to travel by foot most of the way and it's a tiresome walk, but when they do find the TARDIS, stored in the way back of the bombed museum, (it's the Doctor who find her and he shouts Yowzah so loud they get are overheard by security, not that it matters much because everyone makes it inside the before they are caught and before Amy knows it she crying because they are safe, and everyone's alive and she's wrapped up in a group hug, clinging to Rory. Part of her is afraid that this is a dream; she'll wake up soon, back in the barracks sleeping on lice and flea-infested hay and the smell of death lingering in the air.

The TARDIS seems to pick on this though because the floor hums gently, almost in a soothing way and Amy can feel herself relax a bit.


It's a bit hard, trying to go back to normalcy after all they have been through. There are nightmares, panic attacks and breakdowns, sometimes triggered by the smallest things.
The Doctor had suggested to simply just drift in the time vortex for a while, least until they can recover (physically anyways)

Sleepless nights become a usual thing.

Amy or Rory can usually be found in the library reading. Sometimes, the Doctor joins them, other times. The Doctor can usually be found tinkering with the TARDIS when the dreams become too bad. Sometimes Rory will join him and help him out. Sometimes it's Amy, bringing mugs of tea or hot cocoa with her. If it's been really bad nightmares, she'll have a tray of fish fingers and custard along with tea.

Sometimes they talk about nothing in particular, the Doctor talking about various planets he been to, Rory about various thing he's dealt with while working as a nurse, and Amy will bring up something she had to bail Mels out of.

Other times, there's no talking. Just them quietly enjoying the other person's presence and that's just as good.


Rory catches the Doctor in the wardrobe room, looking over his shaved head very intensely in a mirror and frowning. Finally he places a fez on his head and turns to see Rory.

"How do I look?" He asks.

"Don't let Amy and River see you with that on," Rory answers, "Or they'll shoot it off your head again."

The Doctor smirks a bit and turns back to the mirror, fixing his bow tie. "Fezzes are cool." There's a small silence between them for a while then the Doctor turns back to him. "Rory, I'm so, so sorry for what happened."

Before he knows it, he's pulled into a tight hug. Nothing else is said, but the Doctor can hear the message: "It's not your fault."


Amy has refused to talk about what happened to her during the period they were separated in different camps. Though, without needing to ask or reading her mind, the Doctor can take a guess as to what happened.

It's in the way Amy suddenly freezes when she's touched unexpectedly, or the way she gets uncomfortable around other men. There the tell-tell signs of her rubbing her skin raw while in the shower.

There are times when he and Rory catch her staring, off in her own thoughts, idly tracing a small scar on her neck, almost as if she's not aware she's doing it.

She also refuses to talk about how she got that scar, but the Doctor, nor Rory will pry.


The first time Rory has a piece of chocolate after almost three years overwhelms him for some reason and he has to sit down and laughs/cries a bit because a chocolate bar has never tasted so good before.

Another time, while looking through a marketplace with Amy on a planet, he suddenly dives into a alley to get violently sick because they smell of cooking meat makes him recall the smell of burning bodies and it's a long time before he can get himself to tolerate that smell again.


The moment when Rory was able to kiss his wife without her flinching away from him feels like the best thing ever.

Sex, however, is a completely different thing.

The first time they tried ended with him having a black eye and Amy pushing herself against the wall as far as possible. It had taken about an hour to calm her down. Amy spends the whole night apologizing and Rory gives her a wry grin and tells her it's his fault and he shouldn't have pushed her into something when she wasn't ready. (Though at the time, she had seemed perfectly okay until the moment he had moved to be on top ad that was when she, quite forcefully, pushed him away.)

The Doctor notices the bruise on his face in morning (or what could be considered morning when they are on the TARDIS anyways) and tries to pretend he doesn't. At some point during the day, an ice pack is placed on a table in the kitchen area. Neither Amy or the Doctor acknowledges that they were the one to place it there, and end the end, Rory thinks it doesn't matter.


The second time was more of the same, just minus the bruising to the face.

Rinse and repeat for the next three times.


Eventually though, they do manage to get pass the seemly impossible hurdle of actual sex (after one long private conversation which leaves Rory upset, Amy in tears, and the Doctor wondering what he missed.) It's a huge relief and Amy can't but think Rory looks a bit to happy about it. Mostly because he spends the whole day grinning to the point where the Doctor asks him what has him so happy.

"Wait, no, don't tell me. I have a feeling I don't want to know." He says because they are making what he calls flirting eyes at each other and quickly retreats from the kitchen.


It's been almost thirty years since they've last been here (really doesn't feel like it however) and per the Ponds request, brings them to the memorial for the victims of Sobibor. Amy places a bouquet of flowers at the memorial and after a while, the three get ready to leave when their names are shouted out.

It takes a moment for the Doctor to realize who he is looking at- but finally it come to him- she's not longer a young girl but well into her forties, long black hair curled and tied up under a scarf. Maryna smiles at them all. "Here I was thinking I'd never see you again."

She hugs them all, giving them all an update about her life: she's married now, with a daughter and son. She works as a school teacher in her tiny little village. She never questions why they look like they never aged a bit and it unnerves the Doctor a bit. But as she's about to leave, she says to the Doctor:

"Found your TARDIS, then?"

He looks startled at that, confusion all over his face, but she explains that she heard him mention it, back when he was sick and delirious.

He wonders what else he might have mentioned while ill, but doesn't ask.

He takes her to the TARDIS, watches the surprise in her eyes and she explores inside ("It's bigger on the inside," he mouths along with her.) and offers her a trip, which she gladly accepts.


The Doctor drops off Maryna at home after a quick trip to see the stars. She gives them all a hug and says she's glad they're going okay.

The Doctor smirks and fixes his bow tie. "I'm the King of Okay," he says. Maryna gives him a look that says she doesn't quite believe him, however she says nothing else on the matter. With one final goodbye and hugs all around, she goes back home.


'Okay' would not be the term Rory would use to describe them right now. If he had to use a word, it would be 'managing'.

They are managing to make it through the still sleepless nights, through the occasional nightmare, through the sudden relapse that happens and puts everything to a crashing halt.

But they make it slowly- one day at a time, Rory reminds them and himself- and right now, it's all they can do.