Chapter 6
"What are you doing?" Rory asked him, a different fear than he had just felt twisting his inside apart.
"I lied to her, Rory." The Doctor stated as he turned to him and Rory stood up slowly.
"Doctor!" Amy yelled, trying to break down that impenetrable door.
"There can never be two Amys in the TARDIS. The paradox would be too massive." The Doctor explained over her.
"You can't leave her, she'll die!" Rory implored the man desperately, horrified that he hadn't predicted this betrayal, terrified for his wife's sake.
"Doctor, let me in." She whispered outside.
"No. She'll never have existed." The alien countered as if that made it all okay. "When we save our Amy, this future won't have happened."
"But she happened! She's there!" Rory yelled walking up to him as if distance could change the Time Lord's mind when the banging against the door couldn't.
"Doctor, please! I trusted you!"
The Doctor closed his eyes for a slight moment and Rory thought for a second that maybe they had made a difference but he was wrong. "No, no she's not real."
"She is real. Let her in." Rory commanded his voice cold with desperation.
"Look, we take this Amy, we leave ours. There can only be one Amy in the TARDIS. Which one do you want?" He paused then took Rory's hand in his own and set it on the lock. "It's your choice."
Rory stared at him in horror. "This isn't fair." He whispered. "You're turning me in to you." He didn't know what he was saying, didn't know what could be worse than this, didn't know what to do. He only knew that he loved his wife and she was begging them to save her.
"Your choice, Rory." The Doctor said softly, not even blinking at Rory's harsh words.
"Doctor!"
"I—I—can't. I—" Rory began but he couldn't finish. He stared at the Doctor as he went to check on Amy before moving to the console where he waited. Waited for Rory to make an impossible choice. He looked at his beautiful wife lying on the floor and wondered how he could find the strength to make this decision that he so fervently wished he didn't have to make. His choice.
"Doctor!" The banging stopped and Rory looked back at the door. Amelia softly set her hand on the glass and he rubbed his hands over his face, at a complete loss. They had one Amy, she was young and vibrant, and happy. He could have a life with her. But Amy was out there as well, begging him to let her in. She was old and bitter and angry but she was still Amelia Pond and he still loved her with all his being. And all he had to do was let her in. Let her in and kill the one that was already safe.
"Rory, please." She asked. And Rory couldn't help but put his hand on hers, wishing that there was no distance between their skin, wishing that they had never come to this planet. But sometimes, wishes don't come true.
"The look on your face when you carried her…me…her," She began, her voice was muffled through the wood between them but there was no mistaking the tears in her voice. "when you carried her away. You used to look at me like that. I'd forgotten how much you loved me." He leaned his head against the door as tears ran down his face. "I'd forgotten how much I love being her. Amy Pond in the TARDIS with Rory Williams."
And in the end the choice was less of a decision and more of an instinct to open the door, take her in his arms, and hold her till the pain of this all went away. A sob tore through him as he shook his head. "I'm sorry," He said over his shoulder but not even he could say if he was apologizing to his wife or to the Time Lord. "I can't do this." He set his hand on the lock and began to slide it.
"If you love me, don't let me in." Amelia's voice stopped him from opening the door completely. "Open that door, I will. I will come in. I don't want to die. I won't bow out bravely. I'll be kicking, screaming, fighting…to the end."
"Amy…"He whispered helplessly against the door, his hand still poised on the lock. "Amy, I love you."
"I love you, too." She wept. "Don't let me in. Tell Amy, your Amy, I'm giving her the days. The days with you. Days to come."
"I'm so, so sorry." He begged her to forgive him.
"The days I can't have. Take them, please. I'm giving you my days."
"I'm so, so sorry." He said again, unable to say anything else, unable to move from the door, unable to think of anything beyond Amelia Pond and all the days he had had with her. He let his hand fall from the lock and turned away from the door but he couldn't bring himself to leave her completely alone. Not that she would ever know.
"Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness." Rory wasn't sure how much of the faint words he heard or how much he imagined them but he did know that they were there and that his wife's time was almost up. "Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness."
"Interface?" Amy called, her voice further away now that she was no longer waiting by the door.
"I am here, Amy Pond." The Interface's voice was once again calm and comforting but it could offer him no consolation.
"Show me Earth. Show me home…" There a slight lull but he couldn't bring himself to look at the scanner nor out the window, for fear he would open the door despite her plea. "Did I ever tell you about this boy I met there…who pretended to be in a band?" Her voice faded off then and Rory knew that the HandBots after thirty-six years of chasing her had finally succeeded in killing her. The Girl Who Waited could finally be at peace now.
The TARDIS left Appalapachia and Rory hoped that all he ever saw of the planet was locked away in his memories.
Rory stared at the door but he didn't see it. He stayed where he was because he couldn't move. Surely if he moved then he would break into a million pieces but then it would only be a delayed reaction because he had already shattered and he didn't know why he wasn't scattered across the ground of the ship.
"Rory. It's okay, she's fine, she's alive, Amy's here." The voice, the words, none of it meant anything to him and he didn't understand why it persisted in repeating it again and again. "Rory! It's okay, you're alright. Rory, please, just come over here. Sit down before you fall. Come on, please, Rory. Let me help you."
A hand on his shoulder gently but forcefully led him to sit on the stairs but still he couldn't respond to anything. He couldn't even think of the name of the man who sat by him, who whispered words of comfort but offered no excuses. The man who stayed with him and held him as the tears fell down his face and the sobs tore through his body. The man whose voice never fell silent as if he knew that Rory needed the noise to prove that there was more than the broken Human in the ship.
He didn't know how long he sat there before he was finally able to begin to pick up the shattered pieces of his soul and put them back together. Didn't know how long it took for him to remember the name of the man who sat next to him. Couldn't tell how long it took for the tears on his face to dry. But finally, with the planet long behind them, he was able to breathe again. Able to straighten his back and rub his hands over his face. Able to move again. Able to talk.
"Did you always know it wasn't going to work, saving both Amys?" He asked his voice hoarse and blank with lack of emotion. He didn't know why he asked that particular question, only that he needed to break the silence that had fallen around them. The silence reminded him of a grave and he couldn't deal with that, not with everything that had just taken place.
"I promised you I'd save her, and there she is." The Doctor answered, easily evading actually answering the question. "Safe."
Rory nodded, unsurprised by the elusion and actually thankful for the round-about answer. This was normal, this he could deal with. "Yeah, there she is." He said quietly, trying desperately to only see the Amy who lay on the chair where presumably the Doctor had moved her, but a flash of the older woman smiling at him despite herself, her voice begging him to save her, her last words made certain that he failed in his attempt.
He shook his head to dispel the memories and tried to focus on the here and now. Amelia woke up slowly, her eyes struggling to stay open in the bright light. Rory ran to her side, subtly trying to check her vital signs, looking into her eyes and trying to see if there was damage.
"You all right?" He asked, gently running his hand down her face, assuring himself that she was really here and not just a dream born out of his crazed grief.
She nodded in response, her eyes searching the room for someone that wasn't there.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, still afraid that the sedative had done something more drastic then put her to sleep.
"Where is she?" Amelia asked instead of answering and Rory froze unsure of what to say in answer.
Rory looked up at the Doctor to find the Time Lord staring at him for direction. Still his decision to decide the next course of action. Still his choice. Rory held his friend's eyes for a moment and wondered what to do. It would be so easy to nod and let the Doctor handle it all. And he would. He would be sensitive, gentle, and kind as he explained what had happened, no doubt taking all responsibility and making Rory out to be a hero. It would be so easy.
But the Doctor had been helping their relationship along for so long now. The day he had shown up at Rory's bachelor party with a plan to give them a romantic holiday to fix their suddenly strained relationship. All the times in Venice when he had pushed them together and did everything it took to make the couple stay engaged. And things had been good. They were happy, enjoying life with the Doctor. And then came the Silurains. Then came the crack.
And then Rome where it seemed everything bad that could possibly happen had come to pass and he had been hopeless and afraid that he had already lost the love of his life and she would never remember him. But the Doctor had been there with the engagement ring and a speech about ridiculous miracles that had, against all odds, come to pass and they had gotten married that day.
But even then, the Doctor hadn't stopped helping them along. From the little things like disappearing on their anniversary giving them time alone to the big things like the perfect, danger-free cruise on the StarWay of Orion he had set up for them. And the times when they had an argument and refused to talk, barely even looked at each, the Doctor had always made sure to stay out of the fights—refusing to take sides because he didn't like domestics—but somehow they had always seemed to end up in a situation that had trapped Amy and Rory together with the Doctor off somewhere else, but he had always conveniently showed up with a solution soon after they had made up.
Yes, it would be very easy to let him handle this. But it seemed to Rory that the Doctor had been smoothing out the glass for too long. It was time for Rory to step up and take responsibility. And so, hoping against hope that he didn't regret this, he slightly shook his head. The Doctor nodded once and walked away, disappearing quickly.
"Amy, it happened like this…"
