A/N: (Feel free to skip my useless rambling) Yay! Back with an update! I've missed my readers and this story so much! Anyway, this chapter was supposed to be something else entirely, but everybody else but me had different ideas, so you got this. It's a much darker update than I've written in a while... oh well. I hope you enjoy it! A friendly reminder: This part of the fic takes place in between A Good Man Goes to War and Let's Kill Hitler. Anyway, read, relish, and review and see you all next Friday! :)


28

The Doctor Lies

"Run!"

"Obviously!" Brooke shouted in response to the Doctor's characteristic exclamation. She bolted out the door, Leonardo huffing and puffing by her side, carrying the painting and muttering something about them needing the book. The Doctor stopped. Amy was frozen to the spot, staring at her husband, practically in shock as she watched him advancing toward her.

"Amy, come on! We have to go!" The Doctor yelled, running up to her and tugging on her arm.

Amy wasn't listening, "Rory please – fight it, you have to fight it-"

The Last Centurion's sword swung. Amy yelped. The Doctor dove for her.

He pulled her out of the room just in time. Amy's breaths were coming in short, frantic gasps. "Doctor, what did she do to him?"

He bit his lip and gave her a hard look, "Amy, I- I don't know. Mind control of some sort. Right now, though, we have to run."

"I'm not leaving him. He waited for me for 2000 years, how do you expect me to leave him right now?"

"Amy, please," he was practically pleading with her, "We'll get him back, I promise."

Amy swallowed and looked away from him, wrapping her arms around herself, "Rule one."

The Doctor Lies

He took a deep breath. It was a punch to his gut. Wrenching both of his hearts out. Ever since Demonsrun, she hadn't trusted him like she used to. A few months before, Amy would've followed him to the ends of the Universe without a shadow of a doubt. Now, that trust had been completely shattered with the loss of Melody. He couldn't blame her. He wasn't trustworthy. He never had been. He'd promised her that he'd find Melody. He'd found her only to lose her again. He'd promised he'd find her again. Had he? Was she safe? He knew she'd grow up to be River… but… that still didn't mean that he'd actually kept his promise to find her. How could he expect Amy to trust him when he couldn't trust himself?

"I know," he whispered, "But I still need you to trust me now." He did need her to trust him. Because if his companions couldn't. Nobody could.

The sound of Rory and the rest of the creatures bursting out of the room shook them both from their thoughts.

"Hurry up!" Brooke yelled at them, struggling to load her crossbow. Finally she fired, and the bolt whizzed past the Doctor's ear and thudded into one of the creature's chests. "This is too slow to load, I won't have another chance to fire again! Let's go!"

Amy's gaze still lingered on Rory as the Doctor forcibly dragged her down the hall after Leonardo and Brooke. Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones with a crossbow. One of the creatures was struggling to load and fire at them. Rory snatched it from him and loaded it quickly as the Doctor, Amy, Brooke, and Leonardo retreated. He drew back the bolt and then let it go.

Amy stopped dead in her tracks and the Doctor jerked a bit because he was still pulling her along. He turned around to yell something about them having to run again when he realized. She was looking down in complete shock at a bolt that seemed to grow from her thigh. She looked up at the Doctor, mouth slightly agape, stunned and in pain. He looked past her to see Rory smiling in satisfaction as Amy's blood pooled on the floor. The Doctor felt sick. This had to be somehow his fault.

He rushed forward and caught her as her injured leg gave out. Rory was advancing toward them. "C'mon, Amy, we still gotta run… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Amy- you can do it… please," The Doctor begged her as Brooke rushed past them, knife in hand. The Doctor caught the girl on the arm, "What are you doing?!"

Brooke shook him off, "Go, get Leonardo, go. Down the stairs, turn left, then find the grate. You can crawl through it."

"We're not leaving you behind," the Doctor said firmly. He'd already lost Rory, Amy was shot- he couldn't lose Brooke too.

"Go." Brooke repeated, shoving him in the direction of the stairs. Before he could make a reply, she charged headlong at Rory and the others.

He swallowed and looked away, trying to gather himself. They could use a miracle right about now. How could everything go so wrong, so quickly? He quickly scooped Amy up and started to run.

"C'mon, Da Vinci!" He hollered as he pelted down the hall.

"What about-"

"Let's go!"

Amy was in a haze as the Doctor carried her out. Her vision was blurring at the edges as throbbing, stabbing pain set in. All she could do was close her eyes and lean her head against his chest, feeling the strange but reassuring twin beating of his hearts which was so fast and erratic now. She could feel her own heart thumping in her chest, breathing was painful and ragged. Her brain was trying to register the trauma to her leg. People were shouting. Chasing them. The ring of steel cut into her haze. The Doctor was yelling Brooke's name…

Everything snapped back in a wave of pain as she felt the Doctor duck into a side-room away from the chaos and slam and bolt the door. She was laid down on the floor, cool stone digging into her back.

"We can't stall- they could trap us in he-" Leonardo was saying.

"I know!" The Doctor shouted back fiercely. He knelt beside Amy, taking out his sonic. The comforting whir filled the room as he probed her leg. "The bolt ruptured her femoral artery. I may not be able to stop the bleeding… and I definitely won't if we don't stop to try!"

"-Doctor?" Amy's voice was small, a fraction of her usual boisterous Scottish brogue.

The Doctor smiled sadly at her, shifting up so she could see him, trying not to think of the blood that was darkly staining the floor vermillion. His fingers ran through her fantastic ginger hair and he swallowed. He shrugged off his tweed and began to tear viciously at his shirt-sleeve. "Amy, it's going to be okay. You're going to be fine- I promise…"

"No I'm not-"

"Shh, seriously. You're so Scottish." His voice was thick with withheld tears, "I'm going to have to take out the bolt- it's going to hurt. I need to raise your leg so I can push it through."

"Okay…" she whimpered softly, nodding.

He lifted her leg and she sobbed a bit, fingers clenching around his shirt-sleeve. "Amy Pond." The Doctor said, almost like a prayer. Snap went the back of the bolt. Amy cried, "Girl who waited," tug on the bolt. The splatter of blood on the ground, Amy trying not writhe, "Woman who survived," he grabbed the strip of his shirt and began wrapping it around the wound, "I promise you that you're going to be okay, and I'll get Rory back. I'll find Melody. I'll fix this." He had to.

He gently lowered her head back down to the stone, stroking her hair. "There, worst is over. You're fine." he was slowly realizing several things. One, he had to get her back to the TARDIS. His shirt wasn't going to be enough to stem the blood. Two, there was no way they were crawling out of here with her.

"-we have to go, our way out will be blocked soon-" Leonardo cut in.

"No!" Amy shouted, half delirious with pain, "I'm not leaving Rory."

"Amy, please trust me…" The Doctor begged her again.

Tears were pricking at the corners of her eyes as she stared up at the ceiling, "I-I can't."

He could swear he heard his hearts shatter.

But he had to do what was best for her. That meant getting her back to the TARDIS, with or without her consent, and he couldn't do that with her shouting the whole way.

"Amy, I'm sorry… but I have to do this- I'm sorry-"

Before she could even realize what he was doing, he pressed his fingers to her temples to put her to sleep. She went limp in his arms on the stone floor. The Doctor gathered her up again, trying not to think about the blood that was still dripping on the floor.

Leonardo opened the door a crack and peered out. "It's clear. Ready?"

The Doctor swallowed. "I'm always ready."

He was going to fix this. He had to.