Good Night
"Be careful with that Doctor," Mac whispered as she followed him down the stairs of the TARDIS, the man tossing a euphonium in his hands. She had a small tambourine, something simple that didn't really require much finger work. She might be used to computers but trying to get her fingers to make music didn't seem to work out for her.
The Doctor just spun around and tossed her the euphonium instead, winking at her before he dashed to the doors, leaving her to head to the console to put the instruments down, "River!" he called, ignoring Mac's hissing 'shh!' behind him, "We'll see you later! Tell Marilyn she's too late, she'll have to use the biplane. Take care!" he closed the doors and headed up to the console, completely missing Amy sitting on the steps, watching him in her nightie and dressing gown.
"Do you do this every night?" she asked him, making him jump.
"Oh!" he gasped, turning to see her sitting there, "Hello."
"Not every night Amy," Mac remarked, "We just got a few calls from River and thought we'd check it out."
She wouldn't add that they were always going to check on River when they got a call for help on the psychic paper. Given what happened the first time they got one, they didn't want to leave River in that sort of danger, not ever. They'd flubbed being able to help her then, they could make up for it now…even if they didn't know what she was to them or what she would forgive them for. The Rivers that they'd met at the party and just now at a small orchestra event, were future Rivers, Rivers that the one they'd taken to America wouldn't know about. They understood that whatever it was that they'd meet River again for, that she'd not blame them for something happening, was a past version of her, not a future one.
Ooh time travel, it was enough to give anyone a migraine.
"You're trying to conceal euphonium guiltily," Amy looked at the Doctor as he tried to step in front of the instruments resting on the jump seat, "Has that ever been attempted before?"
"It has now," Mac laughed.
"What?" the Doctor blinked, before realizing that he was blocking the instruments, "Oh this, oh yeah, it's just one of those um…euphoniums."
"Ok," Amy sighed, "So is THIS what you do at night when we're sleeping? Have extra adventures?" she eyed them in their outfits, both of them very much in the same formal attire as the last time.
"We don't sleep as much as you. I keep busy."
"And I keep him out of trouble," Mac added, moving over to his side, smiling at him.
"What kind of trouble?" Amy eyed them, "What are you doing? Actually tell me for once. You're my friends, my best friends, so tell me what it is you do."
The Doctor looked at Mac for a moment before nodding at Amy, "Ok, we just helped out a possessed orchestra on a moon base, I got to lead a lovely little number that I wrote for Kenzie," he grinned at her lovingly, making her blush, it really had been the most wonderful song she'd heard…and that was on top of the Doctor making it, he hadn't exactly been the most musically inclined Time Lord out there, "Before that we prevented two supernovas, which I then named the stars 'Mac' and 'Kenzie,' wrote a history of the Universe all in jokes, tested them out on Kenzie first, if you can get HER to laugh it's GOT to be funny," Mac laughed at him for that, shaking her head, making him beam, he liked that HE was funny and could make her laugh, "Did a bit of local work in Brixton. Lovely practice, very short staffed, though Kenzie didn't really like that last one," he leaned in to whisper, "I was the only bloke there," he told he as though it were a secret, "I think she was rather jealous, which was quite amusing to see and…"
"Amy?" Mac cut in gently, seeing Amy look down, sad, "Are you alright?" she moved over to the girl to sit by her, "What's wrong sweetie?" she touched her back.
Amy sighed, "We're such tiny parts of your lives aren't we?" she looked at them as the Doctor came to sit on the steps before her as well, "All the friends you make just flicker in and out. You must hardly notice us."
"Amy you are enormous parts of my life," he told her, patting her knee.
"Of BOTH our lives," Mac agreed.
"And you are all we ever remember."
"Speaking of which," Amy hesitated, looking between them, "My life doesn't make any sense."
Mac gave the Doctor a look for that one and he nodded, "I know."
"That's what I've been trying to talk to you about."
"We know," Mac patted her back.
"Like…when I first met you two I didn't have parents. I never had parents. And then you did…whatever it was you did, Doctor…and rebooted the Universe and, suddenly, I have parents. And I've always had parents. And I remember both lives in my head, both of them, in my head, at the same time."
"That's fine isn't it?" the Doctor frowned.
"But it shouldn't be. Why is it fine?"
"Because you're a special girl, Amelia," Mac told her, brushing her ginger hair out of her face and behind her ear, "That crack in your wall broadened the way you saw the universe. All the information it hollowed out of you just made your mind wider. It could fit more."
"Everyone's memory is a mess," the Doctor added, "Life is a mess. Everyone's got memories of a holiday they've couldn't have been on, a party they never went to, or met someone for the first time and felt like they've known them all their lives," he took Mac's hand at that, "Time is being rewritten all around us every day. People think their memories are bad, but their memories are fine. The past is really like that."
Amy gave him an incredulous look for that, "That's ridiculous."
"Yes," Mac nodded, laughing, "It is."
"Ah but now you're starting to get it!" he cheered, taking Amy's hand and pulling her up, leading her over to the console, "Put your hand here," he put it on a lever.
"What is it?" Amy eyed the stick.
"That's the TARDIS telepathic circuits," Mac called, spotting it as she made her way over to the other side of the console.
"And what do I do?"
"Nothing," the Doctor smiled, "Just relax," he moved over to where Mac was at the monitor, gently winding an arm around her waist as he looked at the program she was running, "Your saddest ever memory was…"
"1994," Mac stated, "At a fairground," she smiled fondly at the information, "You dropped your poor old ice cream."
Amy blinked at her, "That can't be my saddest memory."
"Remembering ice cream is always sad," the Doctor pouted, pulling another lever and landing the TARDIS with a thump.
"Did we just land? Where are we?"
"What happened after you dropped the ice cream?"
"Nothing, I cried," she said, before starting to blink, thinking on it, "No, no…hang on there was a lady…and she bought me another one."
"Do you remember what she looked like?" Mac smiled.
"She looked like she…" Amy started to look down, remembering that moment, "She had a funny dress, a night dress, she had red hair," but then she shook her head, "I don't understand," she looked up to see neither Mac nor the Doctor were ahead of her any longer and turned to see them at the doors, "Why are you doing this? What is the point?"
"The nice lady, what did she say to you?" the Doctor asked instead.
"Cheer up, have an ice cream," she deadpanned.
"Amy," Mac laughed, "Time and space are infinitely complicated, not even WE understand all of it," she gestured between her and the Doctor, "It took us centuries of learning about it to be where we are and there's always new things to discover every day. No offense, but a human won't be able to make sense of it like we do."
The Doctor nodded and pointed at her before looking at Amy, "A long time ago you got the best possible advice on how to deal with that. So! I suggest you go and give it!" he turned and pulled the doors open, the sounds of the fairground drifting up to Amy as she made her way over to them to see they really WERE at the fairground.
"Ok, ok, so I ask you a big important question about life and you're basically telling me to go and buy myself an ice cream?" she stared at the Doctor, not sure what she'd been expecting from him anyway.
"No Amy," he nudged her on, "I'm telling you to go and buy us all ice creams. I love fairgrounds."
"I hate you," Amy muttered as she headed off to do that.
"No, you don't!" he called after her, "Ooh look a Ghost Train!" he pointed to the side as he and Mac stepped out, "Do you get scared on ghost trains? I get a bit scared so is it ok if I hold your hand?"
Mac laughed, "You're holding it right now, aren't you?"
He looked down to see that, indeed he was, and just squeezed her hand again.
"Doctor…" Mac began, "There's something I'VE been meaning to ask you about as well."
"What?" he looked at her.
"Do you remember when you mentioned that you imagined the two of us getting married?" she eyed him, "That you imagined marrying me on your actual wedding day?"
"Yes…" he said slowly.
"Was that true or…"
"Um," he swallowed hard, "Yeah, it was."
"You were really thinking of ME when you were marrying her?" she stared at him.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair, "It was the only way I could bring myself to do it," he nodded, "It was um…the only way I could bring myself to do a lot of things with my wife, um, other things…family things…"
She blinked at that before she felt a little warmth start in her stomach at that, he'd not just imagined her on his wedding day it seemed, but the night as well, likely a few other nights given he had children, "It was the same for me," she admitted, "At first, I was angry at you yeah, but…I did still love you," she sighed, "I think…I think it wasn't till I lost the baby that I stopped, I didn't have a need to do it, there was no point to pretend I was happy or try for another child. And, when I stopped doing that, I suppose I just stopped feeling love for you then."
"Right," he nodded, looking down at that.
She smiled and reached out to touch his face, turning him to look at her, "I said THEN, Doctor," she emphasized, making him blink this time and start to smile. She leaned in to kiss his cheek, but he turned his face to steal a peck from her lips, "I'm starting to like that," she admitted, how he stole kisses from her.
"Good," he whispered back to her.
She looked at him and smiled softly, "You can hold my hand any time you want," she added.
"I plan to never let go of it," he winked at her, the two of them continuing on towards the Ghost Train, maybe he could get a little bit of a hug out of her or at least a cling if she got spooked on it.
Having her in his arms, what better reason did he need to go on a ride that would likely scare HIM as well?
A/N: Awww :) I'm very excited for the next few chapters ^-^
Some notes on reviews...
We'll have to see where Mac ends up in the Rebel Flesh ;)
Lol, no worries about the length, I love every length review :) And thanks! I'm really glad you're enjoying the stories so far ^-^
If you mean posting a Doctor/Romana story, I probably won't post one like that, I like OCs too much :) If you meant posting a Doctor/OC story that takes place when Romana's there, I do plan to do some AUs of the OC series that would start on Gallifrey so we might get some Classic episodes in them. I do want to try and write an OC series (like a magnum opus) of the entire Classic series one day, but I have yet to watch the Classic Series and it would take me about 2 years watching 1 episode a day to be able to get through it. I barely manage time to watch 1 episode of OUAT a week at the moment lol, so there's hope, but I can't say when/if it'll happen :)
I probably won't do the books of DW, I don't count them as canon for the most part. I might use one or two small things from them that come from a PROSE source in the stories, but nothing that would severely impact the canon of the show. I really just don't find the books to be entirely canon or agree with the show, from what I've seen of them, so I probably won't do book adventures :)
