Okay, so I really, really hated writing this chapter. I suppose that's what happens when you write for a deadline, rather than for fun. Still, it's the promised chapter that I wanted to get out before tonight's show, which might ruin every single plan I ever had for these characters :)
I don't usually do chapters from two different viewpoints, but I was running out of time so I've had to split it. Just be warned, it's definitely not as good as some of the other chapters...I'll get back to writing better stuff when I've actually got good ideas.
Thanks for the support guys, it really means a lot x
CHAPTER 36
"You're being an idiot," Ella sighed at her mother, for what seemed like the twentieth time. "It's you who called him – he's expecting you to show up."
"I know, I know," Amy groaned in reply. They had been at it for about an hour, and Ella was getting to the point where she was about to haul Amy out of the café herself.
There were three cafés in Leadworth, and Amy had chosen the smallest, dingiest one, with the hope of not running into anyone from her past.
"I still don't get why we're here," Dorian muttered, his nose crinkling in disgust at the greasy table-top.
"You can just shut up," Ella scowled. She turned back to Amy. "Come on, just do it. The Doctor will find out you've stolen his ship soon enough and he'll come and find it. He'll –"
"Hide me!"
Amy had ducked down beneath the table, so that the only part of her that could be seen was the top of her fiery red hair. Dorian, who was evidently not used to such behaviour, stared at the spot where she had just been. Ella, however, glanced around the café, trying to spot what had made Amy so anxious.
"What is it?" she hissed in Amy's direction.
"Mrs Dingle," she whispered back. "Stop looking at me!"
Ella, shaking her head in exasperation, swept the room with her eyes. The café was fairly empty, apart from a rather large man eating a sausage roll, and a skinny old lady at the counter.
"What's wrong with Mrs Dingle?" Ella asked quietly, keeping herself nonchalantly turned away from Amy.
"She's only the nosiest person ever in existence," Amy sighed. "What's she doing?"
"I think she's leaving."
Amy popped her head out from under the table, warily eyeing Mrs Dingle as she hobbled slowly out of the café.
"Phew, that was close." Amy sighed in relief, resuming her former position. "She hasn't changed a bit."
Ella rolled her eyes. "I'm sure she'd say the same thing about you. Come on, let's go see Rory." As idiotic as she thought her mother's decision to see her old fiancé was, Ella was so bored of hanging around in the café that she just wanted to get it over with. She glanced at Dorian. "Help me drag her out."
Dorian stood up at once. He and Ella both grabbed one of Amy's arms and hauled her out of her seat.
"No, no!" Amy cried, trying to wrench her arms free of Dorian's vice-like grip. "I can't do this!"
"Yes, you can. And you will." Ella noticed how she sounded much more like Amy's parent than her child. It was often like this – Amy was more like her crazy best friend than her responsible mother.
The café owner stared, bewildered, as Ella and Dorian continued to tow a struggling Amy across the room. Ella thrust a handful of notes and coins onto the counter as they past, smiled at him grimly, and they managed to get her out of the door.
"Alright, alright!" Amy snapped, releasing herself from Ella and Dorian. "Get off me, I'll go…hello Mrs Dingle!"
In turning away from Ella, she had found herself face-to-face with the old lady from the café. She was gazing at Amy curiously.
"Er…" Amy faltered. "It's me, Mrs Dingle…Amelia Pond."
"Pond?" Mrs Dingle barked. "Pond?"
"Yes."
Mrs Dingle surveyed Amy through her round spectacles, her beady black eyes taking in Amy's – rather short – denim skirt and scuffed shoes. "You look exactly the same," she remarked.
"I could say the same about you," Amy smiled, although the way in which her hand was balled into a tight fist showed her discomfort. "Mrs Dingle, this is my daughter, Ella."
Amy stepped aside so that Ella was in full view of Mrs Dingle's beetle-black eyes. Mrs Dingle eyed Ella a little disdainfully, but she said nothing.
"Mrs Dingle," Amy said quickly. "Do you know where Rory is living nowadays? Rory Williams?"
"What?" she barked loudly.
"Mum," Ella hissed. "Over there. Look." She nodded in the direction behind Mrs Dingle.
Amy looked up…and Rory was looking back.
"See you later, Mrs Dingle," Amy said vaguely, turning to walk past the old lady. Mrs Dingle muttered something about the 'youth of today', and 'respect for their elders', but her words were lost to Amy.
Ella wasn't sure whether to follow. She had met Rory only once, briefly, and he was not aware that she had witnessed his last confrontation with Amy and the Doctor.
Dorian, on the other hand, had no reservations about meeting Rory. He sauntered over to where Amy and Rory stood, silently facing each other.
"You must be Rory," he said loudly, clasping Rory's hand in his own and shaking it enthusiastically.
"Uh…" Rory stepped back once Dorian had released his hand. He looked rather alarmed.
"Rory, meet Dorian," Amy shrugged, after a moment's pause. "Ella?" she glanced around for her daughter. "Ella, could you and Dorian go…go somewhere. I'd quite like to talk to Rory alone for a bit."
Ella noticed a look of apprehension pass across Rory's face, and she felt a little sorry for him. He had been living his nice, peaceful life in Leadworth, undisturbed by anyone except his neighbours, and Amy had to go and intrude with a phone call from outer space.
She nodded, although she didn't really want to spend anymore alone time with Dorian.
When Ella and Dorian were out of sight – Ella trying to keep as far away from Dorian as possible – Amy turned back to Rory. He seemed to have recovered from Dorian's exuberant greeting.
"So, that was…"
"Dorian," Amy nodded. "A friend of the Doctor's."
"Right."
There was another awkward pause.
"Do you want to come in?" Rory suggested, gesturing at a building behind him. It was a small, detached house with two floors and a pretty gabled roof. A small front garden was surrounded by a white picket fence.
Amy gazed at the house, open-mouthed. "This is your place?" she gasped.
Rory nodded, a little embarrassed. "It's not that big. But it's enough."
"I think it's wonderful," Amy gushed, stepping past him to go through the white wooden gate at the entrance to the garden. She strolled up the yellow-stoned path, which was lined by unkempt grass with sprinkles of daisies and other wild flowers.
"Mrs Dingle didn't mention that you lived here," she frowned.
"Mrs Dingle?"
Amy nodded. "We…we bumped into her outside the café. She hasn't changed at all."
Rory smiled, remembering a time so long ago, when he and Amy would sit and talk for hours about the residents of Leadworth. Mrs Dingle was always a favourite – particularly of Amy's, who used to insist that Rory dress up as her so that she could chase him around the house.
"She once said to me," Amy continued. "That I would never be anything. That I would never get a proper job, that I would never be successful." Amy shrugged. "Then again, I was dressed up as a kissogram nurse at the time. I probably shouldn't blame her."
Rory chuckled. "She was an old bat. I wouldn't listen to anything she says."
"Don't worry, I didn't."
Rory pushed his key into the lock of the blue front door – a shade of blue rather like the TARDIS's police-box exterior, Amy couldn't help but to notice – and held it open for Amy. She stepped inside, giving into the magnetic pull she'd been resisting for so long. A desire – whether it was for answers, or closure, or for the man himself – had been nagging away at her ever since Rory had turned and walked away that time many weeks ago. Perhaps it had been there ever since they had parted over sixteen years ago. Still, her decision to call Rory was not a simple wish to irritate the Doctor – although she knew that he would be extremely annoyed when he discovered that Amy had stolen his ship and had taken it to her former fiancé's home. No…some part of her, and she didn't yet know how dominant that part of her was, wanted Rory back in her life. And if stealing a Time Lord's TARDIS was the only means of achieving that, then she'd really had no choice.
Well, that was what she would tell herself whenever the doubt kicked in.
The Doctor wheeled around to face Regina with an expression of open-mouthed horror. The door still open behind him, facing out into the expanse of black Universe, he sprinted over to the TARDIS's console.
"What are you doing?" Regina stared at him.
"We have to find her." A screen on the console sprang to life as he began plugging in a series of coordinates.
"Amy?"
"No, not Amy. My TARDIS. Knowing Ms Pond, the poor girl could be anywhere."
As the TARDIS began to whir, Regina hurried to close the front door. "Does she know how to fly it?"
"I've tried my best to teach her – maybe that was a bad idea. I should have known better than to leave her with the ship."
"It'll be fine," Regina said soothingly, alarmed at how frazzled the Doctor seemed to be. "Dorian's with her. He knows how to fly a TARDIS."
The Doctor had apparently not been listening. "Earth?" he muttered, as he pinpointed his ship's location on the screen. "What the devil is she doing on…oh no."
"Doctor?"
"Leadworth?" he cried, as Regina's TARDIS barrelled through the time vortex towards Earth. "But that's where…oh, she's going to be in such trouble when I find her. I told her to stay away from Rory. It will only make things worse for the poor chap."
"Who's Rory?" Regina asked, perplexed, but once again her question was ignored.
"My ship!" the Doctor cried. "My poor, sexy little ship, in the hands of the most irrational woman I've ever met. My bowties!"
Regina thought it best not to comment on the Doctor's priorities, instead settling into one of the plush leather chairs that surrounded the console. Although she was a bit apprehensive of allowing the Doctor, who was clearly in a bit of a state, to take control of her ship, she could see there was no way to reason with him. She would just have to wait until it all blew over.
"I'm terribly sorry," the Doctor shouted from the other side of the console. "But it looks like our little trip to Earth will be a bit earlier than you had expected. Still…better late than never."
Regina contemplated this, mulling over the effect their 'little trip' would have. She had been trying so hard for so many years to stay away from anything that would connect her life with Dorian to her previous, and rather more dangerous, existence beforehand. Travelling to Earth was definitely not part of her immediate plan, but given her earlier conversation with the Doctor, it now seemed necessary.
"It's fine, Doctor," she sighed, resigned to whatever plan the Doctor had. "Just don't forget to release the brake. I know what you're like."
Two minutes later, Regina's TARDIS had landed in a quiet, cobbled street in the outskirts of Leadworth. As the Doctor stepped out, he marvelled at Regina's fully-functioning chameleon circuit, which had successfully caused the TARDIS's exterior to take on the appearance of a streetlamp. Somehow, he and Regina had managed to squeeze themselves out of what was now a tiny door in the side of a long, metal pole. He would figure that part out later.
"This is Leadworth?" Regina enquired, scanning the empty street with apprehension.
"Yup," the Doctor replied. "An excellent place, although there are rather a lot of old people. That caused a spot of bother once upon a time, but it's all sorted now. There is the occasional oddball, but who am I to talk? Oh look…"
He hurried over to the pavement, where a frail old woman was shuffling along, dragging a wheeled basket behind her. She eyed the Doctor suspiciously through her glasses as he approached.
"Hello!" the Doctor said cheerfully. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you knew the whereabouts of one Amy Pond?"
"Pond?" she barked ferociously, and the Doctor leapt back, a little terrified of the old lady. "Don't you talk to me about that Pond girl."
"Well, we don't have to talk about her," the Doctor reasoned. "But you see, she stole my ship, and I'd rather like to get it back."
The woman frowned at him, clearly suspicious.
"Oh, don't worry," the Doctor huffed. He turned back to Regina. "I think we're just going to have to look for them ourselves."
"Mother?"
The Doctor and Regina both turned in the direction of the voice, to see Dorian and Ella heading their way.
"Where's my ship?" the Doctor asked Ella quickly.
"Relax, Doctor. It's fine. Not too much harm done, at least."
The Doctor frowned. "But I'd turned off the dematerialisation circuit to give the old girl a rest. How in the name of all that is Gallifreyan did you –"
"Dorian worked it out," Ella said, a little resentfully.
The Doctor turned to Dorian, who looked a little sheepish. "I suppose I should say well done," the Doctor grimaced. "It could have been disastrous if Amy had tried to fly the ship with a malfunctioning circuit."
"How did you know it was mum who flew it?" Ella cut in, defensively.
"This has Pond written all over it," the Doctor said grimly. "And you're no better. You should have stopped her before she did some real damage."
"For heavens' sake," Ella sighed. "You know what she's like. Once she gets an idea into her head there's no stopping her."
This was something the Doctor had to agree with. He had travelled with Amy Pond for too long not to realise that leaving her behind with his ship was a guaranteed disaster.
"Where is she?" the Doctor asked.
Ella shrugged. "She went off with that Rory. I think she wanted a bit of a catch up, or something."
"For crying out loud!" he exclaimed. "That girl does not know when to leave things well alone. Still, we'd better find her before something goes horribly wrong."
He was about to set off down the road, without even knowing where to begin searching for Rory or Amy, when he felt a tug at his sleeve.
"Doctor," Regina implored. She looked very uneasy. "Remember our conversation? I really can't be wandering around random planets, especially with you. I'm in enough trouble as it is."
Ella and Dorian looked at their parents in confusion, both having no clue as to what 'trouble' Regina was referring to.
"Mother?" Dorian asked anxiously. "Is everything all right?"
"I'll explain later, sweetie," Regina said quickly.
"Okay, okay," the Doctor held up his hands. "Not that I think anything can possibly go wrong in this place" – he gestured about him – "despite the incident with the old folks…for the time being, you" – he pointed at Regina – "can use a fake name."
"A fake name?" she replied sceptically. "Honestly, Doctor, I don't think a fake name is enough to get me out of –"
"It'll have to do for now," he interrupted. "You –" he turned to Ella. "Think of a name, quickly!"
Ella stared at him, a little lost for words. Both the Doctor and Regina were acting very strangely; no wonder Amy was so pissed off at being out of the loop.
"River!" the Doctor said suddenly, evidently remembering the conversation he'd had a while ago with Ella. "Sorry, El," he continued, turning to her. "It was the first thing I could think of."
"No problem," Ella replied, still very confused.
"River…" Regina mused. "I like it."
"How about 'River Song'?" suggested Dorian, winking at Ella. Ella blushed furiously, recalling the time she had first met Dorian, after her singing in the shower.
"Wonderful," the Doctor said. "Now can we please go and find Amy, and, more importantly, my ship?"