Chapter Eight: Good and Bad News
Amy's laughter filled the room. "You're funny!" she told the man sitting next to her at the bar. She twirled her finger through her ginger hair and smiled at him. It seemed like they had been talking for hours, yet if anyone had asked how she had gotten there, she wouldn't have been able to say.
He smiled back. "So, Miss Pond," he said popping the "p" in a way that Amy found absolutely adorable, "you're from Leadworth, is that right?" She nodded. "Lovely place Leadworth."
"What? You've been there?" asked Amy.
"Oh, yes! I've been all over the place."
"So, you're a traveler?" He nodded. "How exciting! I used to do a bit of traveling myself."
"Really?" he sounded interest. "Alone?"
She shook her head. "No, I was with a couple of friends. What about you?"
"Same." He smiled again and Amy couldn't help thinking how cute he was.
"So, this isn't usual?" asked the Doctor, pretending to study the menu. "You've never heard of this sort of thing happening before?"
"Never." confirmed Cobb. "The only way that this could even be remotely possible is with dreams within dreams."
"How do you know that that isn't the case?" asked Rory.
"Because someone would have had to put us under again." said Eames. "Which, obviously nobody did."
The Doctor put down the menu, closed his eyes and sat back, trying to think. After a few seconds they opened again. "You said that the dreams were designed. What if the person who designed the dream, designed it to shift at some point in time?"
Cobb thought about this. "Could be. Just don't know of anyone who's ever done it before. Why would they? It would just make things more complicated."
"Everything about this is complicated." said the Doctor.
"Not everything," said Ariadne suddenly. "I think it just got a lot simpler." All eyes turned to her. She pointed over to the bar. "Isn't that Amy right there? In the black dress?"
Rory took a deep breath, then slowly followed the line of her finger. "It is! Amy!" He jumped up from his seat. "We found her!"
Rory's attention was entirely rapt on Amy so he didn't notice the Doctor's eyes widen in utter disbelief. Although he was glad to see Amy, his attention was focused solely on the man sitting next to her. "It can't be." he whispered under his breath and the others didn't hear. What on earth was he doing here?
Cobb had said the projections were coming from Amy's subconscious, but Amy had never met the man before! She couldn't possibly be dreaming him up. He pulled on Cobb's sleeve getting his attention.
"Is it possible," he whispered, "for one of us to bring a projection into this dream and not just Amy?"
Cobb nodded. "Yes." He thought of the times he had brought Mal into a dream and then quickly looked around to make sure that he hadn't accidentally brought her back. "Why do you ask?"
"Amy!"
Amy looked up to see Rory and she smiled. "Rory, what are you doing here?" Rory was taken aback by her tone. It was that of someone who is seeing a friend they haven't seen in a while, instead of a wife who was taken from her husband.
"Who's your friend?" asked the man before Rory could answer.
"Oh, this is Rory Williams. A childhood friend." Rory felt as if the world had suddenly stopped spinning. A childhood friend? She didn't remember. He was her husband, she was his wife and she didn't remember. "Rory, this is John Smith."
The Doctor studied him carefully. Could he have brought a projection of one of his past selves into the dream? No, the Doctor decided, he didn't think it was possible to do that, besides he wasn't a Time Lord, the Doctor could tell that. No, the Doctor corrected himself, he was only part Time Lord, the rest of him was human, so that meant only one thing: the Doctor was staring at a projection of the Human/Metacrisis Doctor.
"Rory?" asked Amy, her voice filled with concern. "Are you okay?" Rory couldn't speak, he felt numb and he suddenly collapsed to the floor. "Rory!" She jumped to her feet at the same time that John Smith got to his, but before either one could get to him, the Doctor was kneeling over the unconscious form of Rory.
"Doctor?" asked Amy.
"Hello, Amy." he answered without even bothering to look up at her. He checked Rory's pulse and heart beat. "He's alright. He'll come around soon."
John Smith was staring at the Doctor. "Doctor?" he said repeating Amy's words. "Did you just call him the Doctor?" The Doctor sighed and stood up and faced him.
"Yes, she did."
"Wait." said Amy catching on. "You too know each other?"
"Oh, yes. In fact," said John, "I am him."
"Huh?" said Amy, totally confused.
"Long story." said the Doctor. "I'll explain later I promise, but first we have to get out of here."
"Go? Go where?"
"She doesn't remember." said a soft voice. The Doctor looked down at Rory to see that he was now awake and staring at them. "She told him I was just a childhood friend. She doesn't remember."
The Doctor looked sharply back at Amy. "Oh, that's not good. Oh, bugger!"
"Remember what?" asked Amy.
"Amy," the Doctor put his hands on her shoulder, "Rory is your husband."
Amy laughed. "Nice one, Doctor."
"I'm not joking." he said, his voice deadly serious.
"Why would I ever marry him?"
"Thanks." said Rory, this voice filled with infinite hurt.
"Oh, Rory, I didn't mean it like that." said Amy.
The Doctor was only half listening. He was however looking around the restaurant as if he were expecting to see someone. He had, he realized, been doing that every since that he had brought a projection of the Human/Metacrisis Doctor into the dream. John noticed.
"She's not here." he said, his voice suddenly very sad.
"Who?" asked the Doctor, but just as he said the word he realized who it was he had been looking for. "No, of course not." he said quickly turning back to Rory and helping him to his feet. "You alright?"
"Doctor." there was some thing in John Smith's tone that made the Doctor turn back and look at him. His eyes held sorrow...and was that pity? "Doctor, Rose is dead."
Author's Note: I know, I know, I'm evil ending the chapter like that, but it is gonna get better I promise. Oh, by the way, be honest, now, you thought it was Captain Jack at first, didn't you?
