Soli Deo gloria

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Doctor Who.

"This is the last time," Rory said firmly the second the car doors closed and he and his wife sat back in their leather car seats. He rubbed his exhausted eyes with half-hearted fingertips and said, "This road trip is even more trying than the ones with him. I don't think we can handle any more when we do find him." He looked at his wife through blurred eyes. Amy's bright copper hair lay frizzily about her shoulders. Her bright eager brown eyes looked tired, almost lifeless, a nerve-wracking alerting thought to Rory, who found her always full of mischief and spice. He was usually the dowdy one, as his behavior showed right now, not her.

They'd both taken ten holiday days and blitzed their way through the entire United Kingdom. Amy'd found a website full of people reporting news of alien sightings; whether or not these were legitimate sightings or the attention seeking of local town nutters, Rory wasn't sure, but he gassed up their tired pathetic car and they roamed the Scottish highlands, Irish potato fields, Walsh mountains, and British shores checking out these sightings. Each time they pulled out a 'Have you seen me?' poster of the Doctor and described him the best they could to the simple-minded locals, who raised their eyebrows and thought these two tourists 'bonkers'.

The past four days they drove on roads so far into the night neither could drive their vehicle to a hotel or inn afore they wanted sleep, so their car stood as their next-best option; their belongings, so diligently packed at the beginning of this trip, were ripped to shreds and tossed in the boot and back. Neither had showered in so long as such normal human things must be put on hold to get to these sightings; both were a terrible rumpled sight. And Rory quite frankly wanted back home in Leadsworth where a hot shower, home-cooked food, and a warm bed were all but guaranteed.

Rory placed a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder. "Let's go home. My dad's busy watering the plants and keeping it up, and will be glad to see us."

"But What If?" Amy said firmly, looking deeply and convincingly into his eyes.

"Pardon?" Rory said, dazed.

"What If?" Amy said, smiling a little. "What if the next one's a real alien thing, and we find the Doctor there, prowling around and making friends and spinning 'bout and using his thing that goes 'Ding!' The next one could be it—"

"Amy, we've been at this for eight days," Rory said reasonably.

"Good; we've got two more," Amy said calmly, like the matter was settled. She went into a protein bar and wiped crumbs of oats from the corner of her mouth as Rory tried to find words.

"Amy, we can't keep doing this," he said. "We've got lives to get back to—"

"This is the Doctor we're talking about, Rory," Amy said severely, turning on him, as if this sealed the matter. She put the protein bar down and said, "And it concerns our daughter. Our daughter, Rory."

"Amy," Rory said pleadingly, "we're on a wild goose chase. The Doctor is one in billions of beings we could encounter on this planet alone. He could be on a strait of Australia right now, or on a star thousands of years into the future at this very minute. There's not much chance we can find him."

Amy said, "Please, Rory."

"Amy," Rory said, and she looked into his eyes and saw the defeat of exhaustion in his eyes, and knew he had a point. She was chasing obsessively after a childish dream and the chances of her finding him were a billion to one.

She sat back in her seat and tears in her eyes, said angrily, "I hate him. I hate the Doctor."

Rory rubbed circles along her shoulder blade and she blinked tears away as she half-sobbed, "I don't hate him." She reached blindly for her husband and Rory wrapped her in his arms; her copper-backed head sobbed into his shoulder and he murmured soft nonsense. He kissed the top of her head and said, "We'll find him. But right now we need to go home."

She nodded and once sufficiently recovered, sat back and stared blankly at Scottish cliffs and frothy summer stormy waves as Rory put the car into DRIVE and started the long road home to Leadsworth, to (im)patiently await the Doctor's next resurgence in their lives.

Thanks for reading!