The Girl Who Waited: Two Amys
"Rory!" Angel shouted, alarmed, her and the Doctor staring at the monitor where Rory was on the ground, staring up at a sword!
The warrior's long red hair hung from behind their mask, their green eyes visible through a crack in the visor, "I waited," she said, its voice computerized slightly but still discernible as a woman's.
"Sorry, what?" Rory shook his head.
"I waited for you," she spat, pulling the sword away, "I waited!"
"Oh no..." Angel breathed, realizing who that person was, the only person it could be.
The Doctor swallowed hard, watching through Rory's eyes as the visor lifted...to reveal an older version of Amy.
"Amy," Rory gasped, "Doctor, what's going on? Angel what happened?!"
The Doctor and Angel could only stare at the feed in shock and horror, "Er..." the Doctor said.
"Amy," Rory slowly stood, his movements careful, as though hesitant to make any sudden moves around the woman with the sword.
"I think the time stream lock might be a bit wobbly…" the Doctor tried to explain, reaching out to take Angel's hand, knowing this had to be hard for her to see as well.
Amy pulled her sword back as though to strike and Rory held up his hands, pleading, "No, please. Please!"
"Duck," Amy told him at the same time as Angel shouted it over the comm..
~8~
Rory dropped to the ground once more and they saw Amy hadn't been about to attack him, but the Handbot that had appeared behind him, striking her sword through its head brutally. It fell backwards to the floor, stunning all three of them at her rather violent move, "Handbots carry a black box in case they go offline," Amy told them, her voice deeper, her accent more pronounced from years with just her own voice. She crouched down by the robot and got to work opening its chest piece, flashing some sort of device along it to open it, "I've changed the cause of termination from hostile to accidental. Easy to reprogram using my sonic probe," she pulled out small black box of her own, using it on the robot, replacing the box that came from within it.
"Amy…" Rory breathed.
Amy stiffened and looked over her shoulder at him, "Rory," she stated more than greeted.
"Why?"
"I've survived this long by making the Handbots think I don't exist," she turned back to the robot, peering closely at its hands, "Don't touch the hands. Anesthetic transfer, if they touch you, you go to sleep."
"But you're still here?"
She got up and looked at him, as though the reason for that should be obvious, "You didn't save me," and turned to stride away.
"This is the saving!" he ran after her, "This is the us saving you! The Doctor just got the timing a bit out!"
~8~
The Doctor winced and looked at Angel apologetically, he had been the one in charge of locking the time, she had been preparing the box for the journey, before turning back to the monitor mouthing, 'sorry.'
Amy stopped suddenly, but couldn't seem to look Rory in the eye, which worried them all, the Amy they knew would have pounced on him by now, "I've been on my own here a long, long time. I've had decades to think nice thoughts about him, about Angel. Got a bit harder to stay charitable once I entered decade four."
"40 years?" Rory gaped, "Alone?"
"36 years thanks!" she pushed her hair back, sending him a small glare.
"No. Right," Rory nodded, "I mean..." they watched as the view on the monitor roved over Amy, "You look great. Really. Really."
"Eyes front, soldier."
"Still can't win then?" he tried to joke.
But Amy was having none of that, her glare growing harder, "In fact, I think I can now definitely say I hate him. I hate the Doctor. I hate him more than I've ever hated anyone in my life."
~8~
She looked dead at the glasses, "You can hear every word of this through those ridiculous glasses, can't you, Raggedy Man?"
It was easier this way. It was easier to blame the Doctor…because she could believe that. She had spoken to each and every person that came to help at Demons Run, especially the past companions, she had heard tales how frequently he went through them, how some left, how some died, how...how he left some behind. Especially how he never used to look back on them, ever. She could believe that, it was realistic given the man he was that he could abandon someone, he'd left Jack on a space station in the future! It was so...HIM...to run away and never look back at who he was leaving behind.
It wasn't a far leap to believe he could have abandoned her too.
And really...even if he HAD been trying to get to her all that time, she had expected this in a way. She could also believe it was his fault getting it wrong, in getting the timing off. Even though she knew he was God awful at getting it right, something THIS serious and deadly he ought to have tried harder. Angel and he had joked about his inability to pilot the TARDIS enough times for her to know it would take him longer to get to her than promised. He had once promised 5 minutes and it had taken him 12 years for her to see him again. She hadn't thought it would take him three times as long to rescue her now.
It was so much easier to believe it was all HIS fault, that HE had been the one to insist on whatever ridiculous plan they had created in the TARDIS, to not let Angel pilot the box properly.
~8~
"Ah," the Doctor reached out and pressed the comm., opening it up, "Yes. Putting the speaker phone on."
"You told me to wait," Amy spat, "And I did. A lifetime."
"Amy... " Angel began, tensing as they saw something on the monitor that Rory was missing, something behind Amy!
"Neither of you have got nothing to say to me," she cut in.
"Behind you!" the Doctor shouted.
Amy spun around to see two Handbots closing in on them. She tossed her staff to Rory and ducked, pressing their hands together, the two robots drooping forward, deactivated, "Feedback. Knocks them out. Learned that trick on my first day," and with that, she turned and left the room.
"Rory," Angel called as he stood there, stunned, "Go after her!"
~8~
Rory shook his head, snapped out of his thoughts by Angel's call, and rushed after his wife. Amy was striding along the outer corridor as he tried to fix it, "Ok so we just take the TARDIS back to the right time stream, yeah? We can stop any of this happening."
"I'm so sorry Rory, but we've already set down in a time stream," Angel said softly, he could hear the regret in her voice, "We've become a part of events, we can't go back now."
"This is so wrong."
"I got old, Rory, what did you think was going to happen?" Amy grumbled.
"Hey!" he grabbed her arm, making her turn, "I don't care that you got old! I care that we didn't grow old together. Amy, come on, please."
Amy looked at him a moment before shaking her head and pulling her arm away, "Don't touch me. Don't do that."
It would be too hard to keep hating him too if he did that. She'd been alone for so long, hadn't had any contact or interaction really, and...to have him back, to have him looking at her with that concern she'd often dreamed of in his eyes, with that soft look...it was tempting. It was tempting to forgive him, her Rory, her sweet husband who she knew would never have given up on her but...had started to think he had. Him touching her meant he still wanted her, he had come for her but just been...too late.
And that was NOT the conclusion that her mind had come to all these years. Rory, he always came for her, he was always coming, and she'd waited, SO long...and he hadn't come. She'd given up hope of that, that he'd still come for her. She didn't know why, but her mind had come to varying conclusions and reasons why he'd give up on her. All the things she'd done to him in the past, how she'd forgotten him, how she'd flirted with other men in front of him, how she hadn't been faithful to him...there had been a quote she remembered from her childhood, 'To err was human, to forgive divine.' And she knew Rory was nowhere near as 'divine' as Angel was, she didn't know if he'd forgiven her for what she'd done, all of it being so similar to what the Doctor had done to Angel.
But that was the thing...the Doctor honestly hadn't known what he was doing, because of the Silence. If he had remembered Angel he never ever would have flirted with River or kissed her or anything. Even not remembering Angel he'd still retained a sense that it was wrong for him to do that. SHE hadn't been so lucky. Yes, both of their amnesias were caused by things beyond their control, but...SHE had WANTED the Doctor, she had known what she was doing and how it would affect Rory to find out, and she'd done it anyway. She had been fully aware of what she was doing and the consequences.
She wouldn't have blamed him if, in the time she'd been there, he'd thought about all that and realized she wasn't worth it.
She expected it even, after decade two.
She swallowed hard, he was contradicting all of that by being there now. And she couldn't deal with that, so she turned to walk on.
"It's like you're not even her," she heard Rory say softly.
She winced, but kept going, willing herself NOT to let his words get to her, "36 years, 3 months, 4 days of solitary confinement," she stopped in front of the 'Arrivals Door' and looked back at him, "This facility was built to give people the chance to live. I walked in here and I died. Do you have anything to say?" she glanced at his glasses, "Anything, Doctor?"
"Where did you get a sonic screwdriver?" the Doctor asked, the excitement and pride in his voice was obvious.
"I made it. And it's a sonic probe."
"You made a sonic screwdriver?" Rory looked at her, shocked, this coming from the woman who could barely get the Zig-Zag Plotter to work…
"Probe," she corrected.
"Amy?" Angel called softly, "I...do have something to say."
"What?" Amy nearly snapped, but...tried not to.
"5,972,918,489," she murmured.
"What's that?"
"How many times the TARDIS exploded," Angel explained, all of them falling silent, "Each explosion lasted 10 seconds, so that's about 1,894 years, sound familiar? Amy...I wasn't the only one alone for nearly 2,000 years."
Rory blinked, actually feeling like he'd been punched in the gut to hear that. He'd...he felt terrible now. He knew that Angel had been in the exploding TARDIS, that she knew it was exploding, her counting was testament to that. But...it seemed like none of them had equated that to the fact that she was aware 2,000 years had passed while she'd been in there. And while he'd been able to move, to interact with people in the course of his guarding the Pandorica, Angel had been truly alone, caught in an explosion, a far more lonely existence than his.
He looked at Amy to see her jaw tensing, as though she hadn't realized that either.
"You had a facility, I had a room, and I'm not saying this to make any of you feel guilty, I just...time changes all of us Amy. Rory...he's not the same Rory he was from before the Pandorica and I think you know that. It's not even about the time really, it's about the person and what they choose to do with it, how they choose to let it affect them."
Amy closed her eyes, hearing the wisdom in Angel's words, Rory had grown stronger, fueled by his determination to protect her and his love for her. Angel had remained sane and unbitter because of her knowledge that she was helping to save all of creation by getting the Doctor more time, but here she was...alone for only 36 years where they had been alone nearly 50 times longer...and had lost her faith, had let it warp her and twist her into this...into this cold and distant woman who couldn't even look the man she still loved in the eye and tell him she loved him.
She shook her head, and turned to go through a set of doors, this was too much for her right now.
Rory followed, watching as she entered the Temporal Engine room, striding through it to a curtain made of random bits of cloth. He pushed it aside to follow her past...only to see a Handbot standing in the corner, "Oh!"
The Handbot turned around and...there was a smiley face drawn on it with a drawn tuft of hair to match, "Don't worry about him," Amy called, moving to the back of the room, "Sit down, Rory."
Rory and the Handbot both sat down and Rory realized the Handbot had followed the order as well and why, "You named him after me?"
"Needed a bit of company."
"So, he's like your..."
"Pet," Amy nodded to herself as she pulled out her red lipstick, twisting it open as she looked at it, Rory examining the robot.
"Is it safe?"
"Yep. I disarmed it."
"How?"
"Um, Rory...look at its arms," Angel called softly.
He did so and saw that the hands had been cut off, "Oh, you...disarmed it."
Amy lifted the lipstick to her mouth…she'd planned this when she'd first gotten trapped there. Promised herself as soon as she saw Rory again she was going to kiss him till there was a stupid grin on his stupid face, just to see him blush…
She shook her head, putting it down, no, not anymore, she was angry with him, she had to remember that, "Oh, don't get sentimental," she muttered to herself, before calling to Rory, "It's just a robot. You'd have done the same."
"I don't know that I would have," the Doctor's voice came over the comm..
"And there he is, the voice of God," Amy spat, turning to walk across the room toward Rory, looking at the glasses, "Survive. 'Cos no one's going to come for you. Number one lesson," she looked straight into the glasses, "You taught me that."
"Is that really all I taught you?"
"Don't you lecture me, blue-box man flying through time and space on whimsy. All I've got, all I've had for 36 years, is cold, hard reality. So, no, I don't have a sonic screwdriver because I'm not off on a romp. I call it what it is, a probe. And I call my life what it is...Hell," and with that, she turned away.
"Amy Pond, I am going to put this right," he promised, "You said you learned from an Interface. Can I speak with it?"
"Doesn't work in here," she checked her watch, "2:23, the garden'll be clear now," she looked at Rory, "Stay or go?"
"Sorry, me?" he glanced at the robot and back to her, "No, I'm coming with you!"
"Then try not to get killed. Or do. Whatever," Rory swallowed hard, seeing his wife so bitter but followed her outside. Amy led the way with purpose till they reached the garden terrace, "When I first came here, I had to trick the Interface into giving me the information, but I've reprogrammed it now. It'll tell me anything...except how to escape."
"You hacked it? That's genius!"
"Sorry to interrupt that beautiful moment," the Doctor cut in, "But…temporal engines have a regulator valve, which has to be kept from the main reactor or there's feedback. Interface, where's the regulator?"
A map of the facility, the regulator, appeared in a hologram before Amy and Rory, the Doctor and Angel looking on from the TARDIS monitor, "The regulator valve is held within," Interface replied.
"Ah! Oh, very, very 'ah!' Interface, I need to run through some technical specifications…"
"Rory, could you let Amy use the glasses a moment?" Angel asked.
"Here you go," Rory took off the glasses and moved to put them on Amy but she pulled her head away, flinching back from his touch as he'd noticed Angel doing to the Doctor before they'd dealt with the dollhouse. He nodded to himself and handed them to her instead, taking a leaf out of the Doctor's book and trying to be patient and considerate of that.
She looked at them oddly before putting them on, "They look ridiculous."
"That's what I told him. Still, anything beats a fez, eh?" they chuckled a little but Amy suddenly stopped, "What is it?"
"I think that's the first time I've laughed in 36 years," she admitted softly.
Rory looked at her, just thinking about all the time she had lost because of all of this, all the time they could have had together. It didn't matter to him, it wouldn't have mattered, if he'd been trapped there with Amy, for the rest of his life...if it meant that they were together. Nothing was every so bad if he could be with Amy, "I'll just, um, leave you three geniuses…"
"Two," Angel corrected him.
"Three," both Rory and the Doctor insisted as Rory shook his head, "I'll be back in a minute," Rory added, turning to walk off just a bit, Amy watching him go.
~8~
The Doctor and Angel glanced at each other before Angel spoke up, "Amy...there's still time."
"There's still time to fix everything," the Doctor agreed, moving closer to Angel, slowly moving to put his arms around her from behind, making sure she wasn't startled as he rested his chin on her shoulder.
'Everything,' he whispered in her mind, kissing her temple, there was still time to fix everything with them too.
But then Angel gasped, "But not right now! Amy, Rory!" she warned, and Amy took off running, trusting Angel's sensations even now, if she was worried about Rory, then Rory was in danger.
~8~
Rory wandered through the garden, coming across a doorway on a small patio...JUST a doorway, "How can you have a door without a wall?" he walked towards it, only to run into an invisible barrier, "Oh!" he reached out hesitantly, feeling the wall, "Holographic wallpaper?" he turned around and jumped back when he came face-to-face...well, face-to-hand...with a Handbot right behind him, "Oh, sorry."
The Handbot reached out and touched Rory's face before he could react, making him fall to the ground, "Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness," its head opened and prepared to fire its medicine dart at him...when its head was suddenly cut off.
Amy was standing behind it with a sword.
"Oh…" Rory groaned.
"Rory?" she knelt beside him, checking him.
"Glasses," he pointed at her face, blinking as he came around.
She stood up and turned away, angry, "You stupid..."
"Oh! You saved me."
"Don't get used to it."
He frowned, getting up, worried when he saw something in her face, "Have you been crying? A little bit?"
"Shut up, Rory."
"You have, haven't you?"
"Woman with a sword," she turned and shoved him back, "Don't push it."
Rory raised his hands in surrender as the Doctor laughed just a bit over the comm., Angel asking, "Are you alright Rory?"
He nodded, "Fine."
"Ok, so here's the plan," the Doctor continued, "Time is always a bit wibbly-wobbly, but in Twostreams it's extra wubbly," Amy handed the glasses back to Rory, "I've worked out how to hijack the temporal engines and how to fold two points of Amy's timeline together…we're bringing her out of the then and into the now! Amy, I just need to borrow your brain a minute, it won't hurt, probably...almost probably...and then, Amy Pond, we're going to save you."
Amy looked at the glasses a moment, "No!" she shouted, taking out her probe, "Time's up, Handbots coming," and turned to leave.
"Amy, you've got to help us help you," the Doctor tried to reason as Rory ran after her, "We need you to think back 36 years ago. Amy? Amy!?"
Rory lifted the time glass to the door that Amy had disappeared through, the doors that led back to the temporal engines, only to see the writing Amy had left for them on the door. Through the Time Glass he could see exactly what she'd written as though she'd just written it instead of the smudges that were left there after so many years, "You told her to leave us a sign. And she did. And she waited. Oh, Amy…" he sighed and entered the room, walking after her, "Why won't you help yourself?"
"He wants to rescue Past Me from 36 years back, which means I'll cease to exist," Amy explained, "Everything I've seen and done dissolves, time is rewritten."
He stopped, shocked that she didn't seem to want that to happen, "That's...that's good, isn't it?"
"I will die," she rounded on him, "Another Amy will take my place, an Amy who never got trapped at Twostreams, who grew old with you, and she, in 36 years, won't be me."
"But you'll die in here."
"Not if you take me with you," she looked at the glasses, "You came to rescue me, so rescue me."
"Leave her and take you?"
"It's a possibility Rory, to take this Amy instead," Angel told him, "But, to do that...it means that we can't get Past Amy back, she would have to wait here 36 years to become the woman she is so we can rescue her now."
"So I have to choose which wife do I want?" Rory asked breathless.
"She is me," Amy reminded him, "We're both me."
"You being here is wrong. For a single day, an hour, let alone a lifetime. I swore to protect you...I promised."
~8~
The Doctor closed his eyes at that, oh the empathy he felt with Rory right now was astounding. He had done the same, promised to protect the woman he loved with everything he had. And he broke it. And he just KEPT breaking it. Worse yet he hurt her too. Rory had to deal with a wife who was alone for 36 years? He had to deal with the guilt of knowing he'd let his MATE walk into a TARDIS he knew was going to explode for nearly 2 millennia! On top of her getting shot by a Dalek and all the other injuries she'd sustained because of him.
"Amy...please let us help," he half-begged the ginger girl.
"Why should I?" Amy glared at the glasses.
He felt his jaw tense, unable to help but feel like Amy was acting more like a teenager throwing a tantrum than a nearly 60 year old woman. It had been different at first, but now...seeing her fighting them on this, it was testing his patience, "Because Rory won't leave without the Amy we came for, Angel won't leave without Rory, and I won't force my Mate to abandon her companion. I won't hurt her ever again!" he snapped, "If you hadn't noticed, if it quite escaped your memory, but our daughter is wandering the Universe somewhere, alone and probably very scared, on the run from aliens who want to turn her into a bigger psychopath than your daughter already is, and I'd very much like to find her again! We don't have time for this!"
Yes, they'd come there first to try and just be somewhere that they knew Ayla wasn't, to not feel that crushing disappointment...but finding out about the Chen7...it had only served to make them both terrified. In their minds Ayla had escaped, she was ok, but lost and scared...now they couldn't help but fear, were forced to realize...what if she was ill? What if she had ended up somewhere with Chen7 or another terrible disease? What if she was sick and dying and they weren't there to help her?!
It had been one thing to break the timewall, to let Rory out when they thought it was a simple find Amy and get out thing that wouldn't last long at all, but this was infinitely more complicated and time consuming.
It was time they truly didn't have now that they were thinking of Ayla sick, imagining her dying.
Right now they just wanted to run away from the planet and resume their search.
Amy seemed affected by that for only a moment, "You didn't help me," she countered, though Angel could hear a note in her voice that she was trying desperately to hold onto her anger and keep saying no, "I helped you once already, you've used up your turns," before she spun on her heel and disappeared through the curtain.
"Rory..." the Doctor began.
"This is your fault," Rory cut in.
"Rory…" Angel tried.
"I'm so sorry, but Rory..." the Doctor spoke at the same time.
"No!" Rory snapped, and they could tell he was glaring, "This is your fault! You should look in a history book once in a while, see if there's an outbreak of plague or not."
"That is not how I travel."
"Then I do not want to travel with you!" he ripped the glasses off and threw them onto the ground.
Angel and the Doctor winced at the sound of screeching feedback before another noise drifted over to them...someone was crying.
~8~
"Rory," Angel's voice called soothingly, "The Time Glass is picking up something. I...I think it's Amy. Past Amy."
Rory held up the Time Glass and aimed it through the curtains and into the small room only to see Amy, his Amy, standing there against the back wall, her head bowed, crying, "Oh, Amy…" he breathed. He stepped more into the room and walked over to the Future Amy, kneeling down before her, "Look me in the face and say you won't help her."
Amy looked him dead in the eye, "I will not help her."
"Ok...ok," he stood up and walked a few feet away, thinking, before leaning against a piece of furniture, holding up the Time Glass before him, "Look me in the face and say it now," he turned the glass on and Past Amy appeared, still crying.
"Rory?" she looked up, hearing him speaking, "Rory is that you?"
Rory soniced the Time Glass, boosting the power…
~8~
Past Amy's eyes widened, seeing a small portal appear before her, round, just like the Time Glass was. She slowly approached it, "Rory, where are you?"
"Same place as you," Rory's voice came over the comm. from the glass, "And a bit ahead."
"I remember this…" another voice said as an older, ginger woman approached the glass.
"But who's she?" Amy frowned, "There's no one else here, but...me," her eyes widened, realizing just who the woman was.
~8~
Rory stepped outside, leaving the Amys alone to talk, when Handbot Rory held up the glasses to him. He gave the robot a small smile, taking them.
~8~
"Why are we still here!?" Amy asked her older self.
"Because they leave you," the other her stated, but it was wrong, it sounded wrong, it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself that was what had happened than what actually happened, "Because they get in their TARDIS and they fly away."
She shook her head, "No, Rory wouldn't, not ever, neither would the Doctor, and certainly NOT Angel. Something must have stopped them."
"You did. Or rather, the old version of you. The Me version of you. I refuse to help them. I won't let them save myself."
"Why?" she shook her head, why would anyone do that?!
"If you escape, then I was never trapped here, the last 36 years of my life rewrites, and I cease to exist. That's why Old Me refused to help then...that's why I'm refusing to help now...and that's why you'll refuse to help when it's your turn. Nothing you can say will change that."
Amy nodded to herself, not believing that for a second, because she knew, the only thing that would change that, "Three words. What about Rory?"
"Rory?" her other self blinked, "I...I called my robot Rory."
"You called your robot Rory? You didn't call it the Doctor, or Angel?"
"It's a boy robot."
"Fair enough, but what about Biggles, our favorite cat?"
Her other self started to smile at that, remembering who had given her Biggles, remembering Rory that summer, "Do you, um...remember that summer when he came back to school with that ridiculous haircut?"
"He said he'd been in a rock band."
They both laughed and muttered, "Liar."
"And then he had to learn to play the guitar…" her older self continued.
"So we wouldn't know he couldn't play it. Mhmm."
"All those boys chasing me, but it was only ever Rory," she looked at her younger self, "Why was that?"
Amy smiled sadly at her, realizing that all the time alone...she couldn't remember why she'd picked Rory, why she loved him so much. She could see it in her older self's eyes that she did love Rory, she just...didn't remember why. But SHE did, "You know when, sometimes, you meet someone so...beautiful, and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they're as dull as a brick? Then there's other people, and you meet them and think, 'Not bad, they're ok.' And then you get to know them...and their face just sort of...becomes them. Like their personality's written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful?"
"Rory's the most beautiful man I've ever met," they both said at the same time.
"Please," she begged her other self softly, "Do it for him."
The woman sighed, "You're asking me to defy destiny, causality, the nexus of time itself, for a boy?"
"You're Amy...he's Rory...and oh, yes, I am."
~8~
Rory looked up as Future Amy threw apart the curtain and looked at him, "I'm going to pull time apart for you," she told him, before she walked over to him and kissed him gently as she had been longing to do for 36 years, letting him pull her into a hug, as she, for the first time in decades, allowed herself to cry on his shoulder.
~8~
"We should..." Angel began, turning the monitor off, "Give them a moment alone," she finished.
The Doctor nodded, "I was just about to do that," he agreed.
Angel gave him a soft smile and shook her head, "No you weren't, you wanted to be nosy."
He pouted, "Yes, well...humans are interesting."
"And amazing," Angel had to agree, "Rory is an incredible human being, isn't he?"
It took a special man to not see an older version of his wife, but just...his wife, looking as lovely and as dear to him as she ever had.
"It's not all that incredible at all," he countered, starting to frown, having caught her thoughts, "Not even human really," he continued, "It's just...love."
"Will you love me when I'm all old and saggy like the humans?" she joked, mostly because Time Lords were, for all intents and purposes, immortal in adulthood. They didn't really age. They could practically live forever, looking just as they did, barring any accidents, and then they'd regenerate.
But the Doctor frowned deeper, reaching out to take her hand in both of his, more serious than ever, "I will love you forever Nella," he told her, his hearts hurting just a little to hear that she was joking. No, not about her joking...but the reason behind the joke. She thought it was a joke because they didn't age...HE thought it was a joke because he honestly didn't think he'd ever be able to stop loving her at all. Even when he'd forgotten her, there had always been a protectiveness, a fondness, an affection, and a love that he hadn't realized was love, "To the end of eternity and back and beyond," he reached up a hand, curling his finger to lift her chin with it, "No matter your age, no matter what you look like...beautiful, by the way," he smiled, "Always so gorgeous to me," he could see her starting to blush, "No matter what, I will always love you. And when you live that long, so long that you actually grow that old and that saggy," he joked now too, but was still quite serious, because he'd said 'when' not 'if' and he would see that happen, he would see her have an exceptionally long life, live so long that maybe she might actually grow that old despite being immortal, "I will love you even more then, because...I grow more and more in love with you every day," he whispered, "And by then..." he shook his head, "I can't even imagine how much I'll love you then," he leaned in, "My love for you is unending Nella," and gently pressed his lips to hers.
He knew he had a ways to go, to build up her comfort with him, her belief in how deserving she was of him (FAR more than he deserved HER), but he'd do it. He'd done it once before, when they'd just started Mating, he'd proven to her that she was worth it, that she was perfect for him, and that she was all he would ever want, and he could do it again. It was very much like that, like them being at the start of their relationship again, however they had the Mating under their belts and they had that connection, he could more easily show her how much she meant to him.
And he would.
He would make sure she knew how much he loved her, how sorry he was, and how much he could never be without her.
"I love you," he whispered against her lips as he pulled away, smiling as he felt her smiling against his own.
"I love you too," she breathed.
"Brilliant," he nodded, his forehead resting on hers.
"Yes you are," she laughed, biting her lip a moment as she pulled away, feeling a bit of a...thrill go through her at how his eyes immediately went to her mouth when she did that, "The kiss was rather spectacular too," she murmured, but just a bit...hesitant.
"But no detox this time," he nodded, his thumb stroking over her knuckles, "And it was SO much better because of that."
Angel let out a small breath, smiling at him for that, for his mention of that adventure, before she nodded, "I think they should be about done now too," she told him.
He nodded, "Best make sure they haven't torn time apart without us eh?" he turned to the monitor flicking it on to see that Amy and Rory were still holding each other, but Amy was calmer, "Right, we ok now?"
"Yeah," Amy nodded, pulling away from Rory to speak into the glasses, "Twostreams is back on air. Right, ok," she took a breath, "So this is big news, this is temporal earthquake time. I am now officially changing my own future. Hold on to your spectacles. In my past, I saw my future self refuse to help you. I'm now changing that future and agreeing. Every law of time says that shouldn't be possible."
"Though sometimes knowing the future helps you change it," Angel remarked.
"Psychic," the Doctor smiled.
"Thief," she countered.
"It's especially easy if you're bloody minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable," he added.
Rory laughed, "So, basically, if you're Amy, then?"
"Yes, if anyone could defeat pre-destiny, it's your wife."
"It's not about what I'm doing, but who I'm doing it for," Amy told them.
~8~
Past Amy opened the door to the temporal engine room, cautiously looking out at the observation deck before stepping out on to the deck, checking for Handbots.
~8~
Future Amy stepped out onto the observation deck, Rory following when she stopped and looked back at Rory, "I'm trusting you to watch my back, Rory."
"Always," he nodded, "You and me, always."
"'Cos here's the deal..." she took a breath, "You take me too in the TARDIS. Me too."
Rory frowned, "But that means that there'll be two of you, permanently, forever."
"And that way we both get to live."
"Two Amys together. Can that work?"
"I don't know, it's your marriage," the Doctor replied over the comm..
"I think he meant temporally," Angel told him quietly.
"Oh," the Doctor realized.
"So?" Rory shook his head, waiting for the answer.
"Perhaps, maybe, if we shunted the reality compensators on the TARDIS, re-calibrated the doomsday bumpers, and jettisoned the karaoke bar, yes, maybe, yes…Angel?"
"It could do it," Angel agreed simply for Rory, "The TARDIS should be able to hold the paradox in place. She's a tough old girl, aren't you Sissy?"
~8~
In the TARDIS the Doctor looked at Angel with concern even as the box hummed. She looked back at him, offering him a small smile, though both of them were thinking about the last time the TARDIS maintained a paradox...what had happened to her because of it...
"We can do it," Angel added, and not just for Rory.
~8~
Rory nodded, "Right. Amy..." he held up the Time Glass to see Past Amy standing there before him before glancing at Future Amy, "And Amy. The wife and the wife, right."
"Ok, Amy," the Doctor called over the comm..
"Past Amy," Angel clarified.
"Yes, stand by the door. Future Amy, you too. Future Amy, can I borrow your sonic scr...er...it's a probe..."
Future Amy smiled a bit at the glasses, "It's a screwdriver!" she handed it over to Rory before heading over to the door.
"Rory, sonic it, double our power," the Doctor instructed as Rory flashed the Doctor's sonic on Amy's sonic before tossing it back to her, "Future Amy, you're our link to Past Amy."
"You're going to need a signal," Angel told them.
"That signal will be a thought. Amys, share a thought. Something so powerful that it can rip through time. Rory, sonic the plinth front. Inside you'll find three levers and a jumble of wiring. That's the regulator valve."
Rory nodded and headed over to a box outside the door, taking off the front panel.
"If this works...you need to hurry," Angel warned them, "You'll only have about ten minutes to get to the TARDIS, we won't be able to keep her here long, but we'll try."
"Ok," Rory nodded, ready.
"Pull out the red and green receptors," the Doctor began to explain quickly, "Reroute blue into red and green into blue, leave red loose, and on no account touch anything yellow," Rory frowned, pulling out the green and blue wires and stared at them, "Come on, Rory. It's hardly rocket science. It's just quantum physics."
"Doctor, they didn't even begin to teach us that till we were at least forty," Angel defended Rory's struggle, "Rory's not even thirty!"
"Yes but in Earth terms of mental capacity we were probably what, 9?" the Doctor countered.
"Yes, right," Rory muttered, working on the wires, working it out, as Future Amy glanced around for any approaching Handbots, "Blue into red..."
"Now the lever," the Doctor turned back to his conversation with Rory, "Throw them in order! Amys, start thinking the most important thought you've ever had. Hold it in your head and do not let it go! Lever one."
Rory pulled it as Future Amy muttered, "Macarena."
~8~
"Macarena," Past Amy breathed.
~8~
"Macarena," they both whispered.
"She's doing the Macarena," Rory looked up, surprised.
"Macarena," Future Amy closed her eyes.
~8~
"Macarena," Past Amy closed her eyes and started to sway.
~8~
"Macarena."
"Our first kiss," Rory realized.
"Lever two, Rory," Angel cut in softly.
Rory pulled the next lever, watching as a faint image of Past Amy started to flicker across from Future Amy.
"Lever three!" the Doctor called.
Rory pulled the last lever and the Time Glass shattered.
~8~
Sparks flew up all over the TARDIS as the Doctor and Angel ran around the console, trying to soothe the less-than-pleased box.
"It'll be ok Sissy!" Angel called above the noise of minor explosions, "Just ten minutes!"
~8~
"Oh, Amy," Rory breathed, seeing Past Amy appear, solid, before her Future self.
"Oh, my God," Past Amy's eyes widened, seeing her older self.
"Oh, my God," Future Amy agreed.
Rory ran up to Past Amy and pulled her into a huge hug, holding her tightly as she held him, spinning her around. They broke apart with a little giggle before Rory became a bit guilty in front of Future Amy, "Sorry..." he muttered.
"Hello," Future Amy eyed herself.
"Hello!" Past Amy greeted with a grin.
"I don't know what to..." they both began at the same time.
"Weird," Rory whispered.
"Ok, this is weird," both Amys agreed, "Right, just stop doing that."
"How about...Amy One speaks first?" Rory suggested.
"Which one's Amy One?" they both looked at him.
"Well..."
"I am," they turned to each other, "No, I am!" and back to Rory, "Rory! Rory...just stop doing that!"
The glasses started sparking, "Ah!" he cried out.
"Rory, take them off," Angel called, concerned, "It's temporal feedback."
Rory quickly threw the glasses to the floor.
~8~
The console was starting to smoke as more sparks flew, even a few little fires springing up, "Whoa!" the Doctor called, his voice travelling over the comms. as well, "Calm down, dear!"
The TARDIS hummed and Angel nearly laughed, "I get the feeling she's saying 'call her dear one more time…'" she let the threat fall off, the TARDIS was none too happy with the current situation, and not just for herself, they both knew that the box was aware of what the Paradox Machine had done to Angel last time.
"Rory, Amy, we've created a massive paradox and the TARDIS hates it," the Doctor ran around frantically, trying the controls with Angel.
"She's self-phasing," Angel added.
He nodded, "Trying to get out of here. What's nasty Amy done to you? Just calm down, dear…" a large spark erupted near his hand at his use of 'dear' again, "Right…hang on in there. Rory, you've got eight minutes left. I'm sorry, you're on your own now."
Suddenly the picture on the monitor went to static.
A/N: Little bit more fluff here for you ;) Awww :)
While I felt really bad for Amy in this episode, I always felt a little...annoyed? With how she kept going on about 36 years when Rory, the boy who waited 2,000, was standing right there :( I really wanted someone to comment on that and I thought Angel would be the better option, she could understand how he felt, she was the only one there that had also been alone for 2000 years, something I'm honestly not sure if the small group realized when they'd rescued Angel from the TARDIS :( But oh boy, we only have one chapter left for this episode along with another issue to be resolved that was slightly hinted at in about...2 words...from the first chapter of the episode }:)
We might even make it to the next sneak peek just in time for the end of the episode ;)
Some notes on review...
Since you asked what a Mate is (basically, someone who is the entire world to a Time Lord) I kind of get the feeling you might be a new reader to the Heart of Time Saga and just starting with this story, but please let me know if I'm wrong :) The only reason I think that is because I spent about 3.5 stories talking about what a Mate is and what it's all about :) This is NOT the first story and shouldn't be the first one read, there are 6 other stories that come before it that detail and talk about every point you brought up, like...River being there in Series 8 was explained in Let's Kill Hitler in that Angel will take her along out of guilt and Angel actually has only JUST started to win against River, River's actually won quite a lot in practically all the episodes she's been in besides Series 4 and LKH :) There's a history with River Song already detailed in the last story (and 2 episodes of Series 4 where she DOES realize that the Doctor loves Angel and not her) I really would recommend reading the first 6 stories :) If there are any questions/concerns that weren't answered in the other stories, I'd be more than happy to answer them if you bring them up again :) But I have to say...I actually DON'T hate River lol, quite the opposite, I find her very interesting. This isn't the first OC series I've written either, I've made her into a VERY important character in my other two OC series, one where she is the absolute best friend of the OC/Doctor's son and another where she is the Doctor/OC's goddaughter, and she will likely be the best friend of a future OC/Time Lady when I write that story. So I really do like her quite a bit as can be seen by that, I just wanted to challenge myself and write her differently than I normally do (much like I did with Rose in this series too) :) This story is taking a look at what she'd be like if her psychopathic roots were actually explored instead of forgotten about like in the show, and given that her upbringing by the Silence was harsher than in the show (due to Ayla escaping) she's more psychopathic than she is in the show as well. But yes, she really would want to kill Angel, now that she has the Dampening Bracelet she no longer needs to worry about the Doctor dying too :( And since this is a fanfiction and the events surrounding River are different than the show due to changed events, River will NOT be as important to the Doctor as in the show, his Mate will be (another reason to read the other stories, to see just how important a Mate is to a Time Lord and the effort that goes into becoming one). That's the beauty of fanfiction, it's NOT the show, it's a different interpretation of it :) Given River's upbringing and mental state...and this can really go for anyone who firmly wants to believe something that isn't true...no matter how many times you tell someone something, they don't have to believe you :) The Doctor could say to River's face that he hates her but River might still hope that she can change his mind :(
I'm not sure if the zoo exists anywhere in DW or anything, it was based on a suggestion in a review :) But if it is similar to something else, that's awesome :)
Nope, TWORS hasn't been revealed yet }:) I can't say when the Oncoming Storm moment will be nope, that'll be a surprise :) I can say that the episode might not be as angsty as things I've written in the past, but...there will be some moments that get you in the gut ;) And thank YOU! I'm very glad that the stories are able to brighten up your day ^-^
I can say I did cry a tiny bit writing the next chapter, just as a little warning for when you get back }:)
According to my dictionary (lol, I looked it up to make sure it was the right word too), it means something that is shifty, creepy, dodgy, nasty, disgusting, horrid, which is sort of what the Silence are :) I'm glad you liked that line :)
I'm glad Ayla's alive for the moment too :) Oh the fluffy times are here to stay ;) All I can say about Closing Time is that there'll be a secondary reason for the visits that the Doctor used as 'farewell tour' ;) But I can't say what it is or what might be said to the children. I CAN say that there will still be Craig and Alfie yup, I loved them too much to give them up :)
I can say the Silence won't be involved with Angel's amnesia, nope, her amnesia will be unrelated to the Doctor's and it won't happen the same way :) And nope, that wasn't really any sort of foreshadowing with the 'forgotten' word, it was really just that Angel hasn't seen him being possessive of her for nearly 3 years so it was more a figurative line that, since she hadn't seen it in so long, it was like she'd almost forgotten what he could be like :) But I can say that Angel won't be using any sort of shimmer or anything nope :) I might consider an AU story where the Doctor doesn't ever remember, but I think, since I spent so long on him not remembering that I might just stick with the AU where he does remember. But it'll depend on where the stories goes and what 12 is like to see whether I'd write an AU where he doesn't remember :) I think, knowing that she's his Mate, even if he doesn't remember, that something would click in him and, being aware, he'd be even darker because he doesn't remember and he'd be essentially 'new' to the Mating instinct and things :)
I felt bad for the Amys here too :( We'll definitely find out more on her thoughts in the next chapter too :)
Lol, you're welcome :) I thought it was very fitting with their search for Ayla, a zoo of aliens, a missing alien daughter, it worked out very well ;) Not pushy at all, no worries :)
I don't think it's wrong at all, I think the Doctor would very much agree with all of that :)