Chapter 4

"Why didn't we move back to Leadworth?" Amy quickly continued the conversation.

"Uh, turn right here, please," Aunt Sharon told the cab driver. "It was expensive travelling from here to Leadworth, and so I got a job here, and we found a nice home. We never moved back to Leadworth."

"Didn't I miss my friends? Rory? Mels?"

"Who's Mels?"

Amy looked at her confused for a moment. Thinking about it she realized River Song doesn't exist in the universe she was in due to the fact that she wasn't married to Rory. It gave her quite the shock, but she did her best to remain composed.

"So Rory?"

"I think you missed him for a while. But then you met John!" Aunt Sharon lit up.

Amy wondered how he got on without her, and assuming that only things changed when "she" moved to London, he must have been her closest friend. She wondered who Rory's plus one was. She wondered how much the other Amy stayed in contact with him.

"What happened to Rory, then?" Amy persisted.

"Amy," her aunt's eyes showed worried. "Why are you asking this? That's such a long time ago."

"I dunno," Amy nervously laughed. "Wedding jitters? Mid-life crisis?"

Aunt Sharon laughed and the cab came to a stop, "mid-life crisis. Oh, Amelia."

They both got out and Amy followed her aunt to the hotel room where her bridesmaids and the dress were waiting for her. Amy walked into a room filled with strangers. She tried her best to smile and look friendly, but also inconspicuously learning their names.

"Amy, dear, stop talking, please," one of her bridesmaids, Joanna, was apparently her makeup artist and was attempting to put lipstick on.

"Yeah, can I get my phone, just really quick?" Amy looked at her.

"Phone? Amy's phone?" Joanna looked around the room at the bridesmaids.

Tara, Amy's maid of honour, got her phone for her. Amy looked through the pictures and realized that she had a personal picture with each of them. Going through her contacts list, she found Sherlock's number and began to text him.

Any news? – AP

None – SH

Where are you? – AP

With John. Same hotel. Questioning him. Subtly. – SH

Anything? – AP

Doesn't see anything wrong. – SH

Sherlock, what am I going to do? I'm going to be married to a man I've never met in less than an hour. – AP

I know. – SH

Amy sighed and put her phone on her lap. Minutes later, another text from Sherlock came in.

I have a plan. – SH

What? – AP

Have your makeup done? – SH

Just about – AP

Go to the door – SH

"And, done," Joanna stepped back and let Amy look at herself in the mirror.

Amy thought she looked beautiful with her makeup, dress, and jewels on, but she didn't let this distract her. Sherlock had a plan and she intended to go with it. A knock on the door caught Amy's attention and she walked to the door. Opening it, she found Sherlock standing in front of her. His eyes lit up and he smiled widely at her. Amy didn't know Sherlock well, but she could say he was definitely awestruck.

"Hello ladies, need to borrow Amy for a moment," Sherlock tried his best to sound friendly, but he knew that not many of her bridesmaids actually liked him – he apparently insulted all of them with his deductions.

"What for?" Tara immediately got defensive.

"Don't worry, I need to talk to him," Amy warmly looked at Tara.

"Alright, but be back soon for pictures," Tara nodded.

Amy smiled and walked out the door with Sherlock.

"Where are we going?" Amy dropped the smile and asked Sherlock as they walked down the hall towards the main lobby of the hotel.

"We're leaving here. We need to buy you some time," Sherlock looked to his right and left.

"What do you mean? Am I abandoning the wedding?" Amy asked.

"Essentially, yes, for a few hours, maybe less maybe more. I hope you're alright with that," a confused Sherlock looked at Amy.

"Yeah! No, I'm fine with that, I just don't know how everyone else will feel about that," Amy stopped walking. "What's John going to say? My Aunt?"

"It won't matter. When we get you back to your own time, you won't have to deal with it."

"Yes, but the other Amy will," Amy looked concerned. "I don't want to leave a mess for her to clean up. I don't want to end her engagement with John."

"True, but have you a better idea?"

Standing in the lobby, Sherlock saw Mrs. Hudson come through the doors.

"Hello Sherlock, Amy. What are you doing out here?" Mrs. Hudson turned towards Amy.

"Um, er, I'm ..."

"Getting some air," Sherlock covered for Amy.

"Well you better get back inside, the wedding's starting soon," Mrs. Hudson said cheerily said as she walked away.

Down the hall, Aunt Sharon caught sight of Amy and Sherlock in the lobby and began walking down the hallway, "Amy? What are you doing out there?"

"Sharon?" Sherlock heard John's voice.

"Oh, hello, John," she turned around – John was walking behind her towards the lobby as well.

"Amy?" John saw Amy in the lobby with Sherlock and began to smile. "You look beautiful."

Amy felt her heart wrench when she saw how much love was just emanating from John's eyes. How could she do this to her other self and him? How could John possibly understand what was about to happen? But Amy needed to be selfish, and she needed to return to her centurion.

"Amy, if we're doing this, we have to do this now," Sherlock took hold of Amy's shoulders and looked her in the eyes, almost studying them.

Amy found that her heart was racing and that her palms were becoming clammy. Adrenaline was pumping through her system and her mind was in fight or flight mode. Amy looked behind at John and her mother, who were beginning to advance towards them, and she frowned with eyes full of apologies. John's smile began to disappear slowly when he realized something was wrong.

"Okay, what do we do?" Amy took in a deep breath and looked at Sherlock.

Sherlock grabbed Amy's hand, "run."

With one hand holding her dress and the other in Sherlock's, they ran out of the hotel and out into the street.

"Sherlock! AMY!" John yelled as he began to chase after them. "Stop!"

Sherlock had a cab ready and they stopped for only a few seconds to get in. Trying to get Amy and her dress in was a bit of a challenge considering the amount of fabric used to make the dress itself. As they began to ride away, Amy looked back and saw a defeated John standing in the middle of the road looking at her and back at the hotel where Aunt Sharon stood in the entrance.

"Where are we going?" Amy tried to recover her breath as she turned her head away from the rear of the car.

"We missed something," Sherlock paid attention to the front of the road.

"What do you mean?"

"Where'd you wanna go?" the cab driver asked.

"221b Baker Street, and fast," Sherlock told him and then looked at Amy.

"Well this is it. 221b Baker Street," the Doctor was standing in the middle of the living room leaning against the TARDIS.

The other Amy went straight to the room she shared with John but found none of her belongings there. The bit of hope she had that waking up in a time machine beside the man she wasn't marrying was just a joke and that John or Sherlock was actually just planning some elaborate prank disappeared. Now she was definitely certain that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

"John? Sherly?" Amy looked around the flat for either them, but none of them were there. "Where's my stuff?"

The Doctor stood erect and grabbed onto Amy's arm, and she tried to shake off his grip, "what did you say?"

"Where's my stuff? It's all missing. There aren't any pictures of John and me anywhere in his room, all the decorations are gone."

"A-HA!" the Doctor yelled. "Knew it!"

"Knew what, Doctor?" Rory tried to calm the jumping Doctor.

"She's," the Doctor began poking Amy in random spots on her face. "From another dimension! A parallel universe!"

"Another dimension? Doctor? I thought you said that it's not possible," Rory pulled him aside. "You said universes could collapse if you travelled in between them."

"Ah, so I did, Rory. But, the thing is, we haven't travelled in between them. Somehow, Amy has," the Doctor looked at her briefly, then at Rory, then opened the TARDIS door and went inside – the sound of the Doctor looking through his devices made a crashing sound that could be heard from within 221b.

"Yes, Harry, I know. Alright, goodbye," a man coming up the stairs spoke into his phone.

"John?" Amy's eyes lit up. "John!"

John Watson walked through the door of the flat and found that a woman with red hair was hugging him tightly. When she let go, he was able to speak, "sorry, um, hi."

"Hi," Amy gave him a kiss, Rory flinched.

John staggered back a bit and blinked a few times, "right. Sorry, who are you?"

Amy's grin turned into a frown, "you don't know who I am?"

"Erm, no," John shook his head.

The doors to the TARDIS opened and the Doctor stepped out, back towards everyone, with an odd device in his hand, "there are so many time distortions here, I cannot believe we even managed to land."

The Doctor began to scan everyone. Every time he did so, the device in his hand would either beep slowly or rapidly indicating the time fluctuations. Rory had no fluctuations, Amy with tons, and then John with none.

"Sorry, who are you and why are you in my flat?" John asked.

"Oh, hello, didn't see you come in ...," the Doctor put the device down and shook his hand.

"John. John Watson."

"John John Watson, hello. I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor what?"

"If you like," the Doctor smiled, but the device scanning for fluctuations began to beep louder and louder, forcibly pulling him to the door. "Whoa, whoa there."

"What is it?" Rory asked.

"Something's coming in," the Doctor looked around. He placed the device in Rory's hand before running into the TARDIS, "Hold this for a minute."

"He ran in there, how can he do that?" John asked Amy.

"Time machine, apparently. Bigger on the inside," Amy whispered.

"Sorry, so. No one answered my question, why are you all here?" John looked at Amy and Rory.

"Long story short. She's marrying you in a different dimension but got stuck here," Rory said frankly.

"Ah," John tilted his head and seeing no particular intrusion that involved his life on the line, he let the guests stay – there was no harm done. "Okay ... Right, then. I'm just going to go and sit down over there. Don't mind me."

"Got it!" the Doctor came out with the huge lens that he took when they visited Apalapucia and began to sonic it.

"Doctor. Please don't tell me I have to choose between my wives again. Please," Rory spoke quietly and closely to the Doctor once he laid eyes on the lens.

"I promise you, Rory. This time's different," the Doctor held the lens up at the doorway and sonic-ed it to the right frequency. "Here we go, hopefully the rewiring worked!"

With everyone except for John looking through the lens, the image of a woman in white and a man in a tux walking up the stairs became visible.