Then

Adelaide leaned forward and when the Doctor looked between her and Amy, he found the same expression. "You said you learned from an interface. Can I assume it doesn't work wherever you are?"

Amy checked her watch. "2:23. The garden'll be clear now." She turned to Rory. "Stay or go?"

"Sorry, me?" he pointed at himself. "No, I'm coming with you."

"Then try not to get killed. Or do. Whatever." She brought him out into a garden, the light changing suddenly as they stepped outside. "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," the Doctor said, earning a shove from Adelaide, "but temporal engines like that have a regulator valve. Has to be kept at a distance from the main reactor or there'd be feedback. Interface, where's the regulator?"

A map, in the form of a hologram, appeared before them. "The regulator valve is held within."

"Oh! Very…very…ah!" the Doctor grinned. "Interface, I need to run through some technical specifications. Rory, give us to Amy a minute."

Rory passed the glasses to Amy. "Here you go."

"They look ridiculous."

"That's what I told them." Rory shrugged. "Still, anything beats a fez, eh?" they laughed, but then Amy stopped abruptly. "What is it?"

"I think that's the first time I've laughed in thirty-six years."

Rory cleared his throat. "I'll just, er…leave you three geniuses alone. I'll be back in a minute." Amy watched as he walked off.

"There's still time, Amy," the Doctor said. "There's still time to fix everything."

Amy looked down, keeping the glasses focused on the Interface as she didn't say anything, only for her watch to beep and her to go off running. They found a robot standing over a fallen Rory, looking prepared to fire medicine at him, only for Amy to pull out her sword and slice its head off.

Rory groaned. "Oh…"

Amy fell to the ground beside him. "Rory?"

"Glasses."

Amy stood. "You stupid…"

"Oh…you saved me."

"Don't get used to it."

Rory frowned at Amy. "Have you been crying? A little bit?"

"Shut up, Rory."

"You have, haven't you?"

"Woman with a sword. Don't push it."

Rory raised his hands, making the Doctor laugh. "Okay, so, here's the plan. Time is always a bit wibbly-wobbly, but in Two Streams it's extra wobbly." Amy gave the glasses back to Rory. "I've worked out how to hijack the Temporal Engines and use them 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, I'm going to save you."

Amy pulled out her sonic probe. "No, time's up. Handbots coming." She stormed off, but Rory hurried after her as they returned to the engine room.

"Amy, you've got to help us help you. We need you to think back thirty-six years ago. Amy? Amy!"

Amy shut the doors in Rory's face, but he raised the Time Glass to look at the markings that Amy had, undoubtedly, left decades before: 'Doctor, Adelaide, I'm here'. "You told her to leave us a sign. And she did. And she waited. Oh, Amy," he entered the room after her, "why won't you help yourself?"

"They want to rescue past me from thirty-six years back, which means I'll cease to exist. Everything I've seen and done dissolves. Time is rewritten."

"That's…that's good, isn't it?"

Amy turned. "I will die. Another Amy will take my place. An Amy who never got trapped at Two Streams, an Amy who grew old with you, and she, in thirty-six years, won't be me."

"But you'll die in here!"

"Not if you take me with you. You came to rescue me, so rescue me."

"Leave her and take you?"

"It is possible to take this Amy," Adelaide said quietly, "but if we do, our Amy will have to wait thirty-six years to be rescued."

"So I have to choose; which wife do I want?"

"She is me," Amy said. "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." Amy just walked through the curtain.

"Rory," the Doctor said.

"This is your fault," Rory said.

Adelaide shook her head. "Our fault." She wasn't going to let the Doctor take the fall for this, not when it had been her to sonic the glass and tell Amy to go into the facility. She should have thought more, she should have considered it more. She should have known not to trust the Doctor with something like this. "I'm sorry…"

"No, this is your fault!" Rory snapped, interrupting her. "You two should look in a history book one in a while, see if there's an outbreak of plague or not."

The Doctor looked down. "That is not how I travel."

"Then I do not want to travel with you!" he ripped off the glasses, throwing them to the ground but, thankfully, not breaking them.

Adelaide looked down too. "Normally I check history before I step out onto a strange planet," she mumbled. "But while traveling with you…I stopped."

"This isn't your fault."

"It is our fault, Doctor." She looked to him. "Whatever you may want to do, I will not let you blame yourself for what has happened to Amy." She looked back to the monitor, listening to the sound that had to be the past Amy crying. "Rory, I believe the Time Glass is still on," she called, "and the link is active. We can hear the other Amy."

There was a pause before Rory sighed. "Oh, Amy." And another, longer one. "Look me in the face and say you won't help her."

They heard Amy move. "I will not help her."

"Okay…okay, look me in the face and say it now."

"Rory?" the past Amy called, her accent distinctly different from the present Amy. "Rory, is that you? Rory, where are you?"

"Same place as you, and a bit ahead."

Amy stepped a bit closer. "I remember this," she mumbled.

"But who's she?" the other Amy asked. "There's no one else here, but…me?"

The image shifted as Rory picked up the glasses and left the room, leaving the two Amy's to speak. Adelaide, just in case they'd be able to hear the conversation, stepped forward and flicked it off. "We're not going to intrude," she told the Doctor, speaking sharper than she'd intended, though she didn't apologize.

"Amy's become you."

She looked over at him. "I haven't lost all of my faith in you saving me."

"But she's more like you now."

She knew what he meant.

She smiled. "A sign she likes me more than you." He pouted. "Oh, don't be a child."

"I'm very good at being a child."

She turned as she saw something in the corner of her eye, looking to see the older Amy standing in front of Rory, looking determined. They didn't hear what she said, but it was clear that she kissed him before hugging and Adelaide put a hand over the Doctor's eyes to keep him from spying.

|C-S|

"Okay, Doctor, Adelaide, Two Streams is back on air," the older Amy said as she brought them through the facility. "Right, okay, 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."

The Doctor shrugged. "Yes, except sometimes knowing your own future's what enables you to change it." He chuckled. "Especially if you're bloody minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable."

"So, basically if you're Amy, then?"

"Yes, if anyone could defeat pre-destiny, it's your wife."

Amy glanced back at them. "It's not about what I'm doing, but who I'm doing it for. I'm trusting you to watch my back, Rory."

He nodded. "Always. You and me, always."

"Because here's the deal; you take me too. In the TARDIS. Me too."

"But that means that there'll be two of you. Permanently. Forever."

Amy nodded. "And that way we both get to live."

"Two Amys together…can that work?"

The Doctor shrugged, though his jaw was tight. "I don't know. It's your marriage."

"Doctor."

"Perhaps…maybe…if I shunted the reality compensators on the TARDIS, re-calibrated the Doomsday bumpers and jettisoned the karaoke bar, yes." He looked at Adelaide, nodding at her so that she knew for certain that he was lying, that it wasn't possible. "Maybe. Yes. I could do it. The TARDIS could sustain the paradox."

"Right…Amy and Amy." Rory held up the glass to see the past Amy. "The wife and the wife. Right…right."

"Okay." The Doctor swallowed and was very thankful that Adelaide wasn't interrupting him, trying to stop him from tricking the humans into helping them save Amy. "Amy, Past Amy, stand by the door. Future Amy, you too. Future Amy, can we borrow your sonic scr- probe."

Amy smiled. "It's a screwdriver; not a pen, sorry."

"Rory, sonic it, double our power." Rory did that before tossing it back to Amy. "Amy Now, you're our link to Amy Then. We need to get a signal through, and that signal will be a thought. Amy Now and Amy Then, 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. After we re-route it, you have ten minutes to get back to the TARDIS."

Rory nodded. "Okay."

"Pull the red and green receptors. Re-route the blue into the red, and the green into blue. Leave the red loose and, on no account, touch anything yellow." Rory did what the Doctor said, but stared at them. "Come on, Rory. It's hardly rocket science. IT's just quantum physics."

"Manners, Doctor."

"Yes, right. Blue into red and then green."

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Now, the levers. Throw them in order."

"And Amys," Adelaide added, having determined the Doctor's plan without actually speaking about it, and was thus making a bit of a gamble, "you need to start thinking of the most important thought you've ever had. Just hold it in your head and not let it go."

"Lever one."

"Macarena. Macarena," both Amys spoke in unison, swaying a bit.

"She's doing the Macarena."

"Macarena. Macarena."

"Our first kiss."

The Time Lords didn't look at each other at that thought. "Lever two, Rory." A faint image of the past Amy began to appear in front of the older Amy. "Lever three."

The Time Glass shattered and made several sparks fly in the TARDIS, though the Doctor pulled Adelaide back to keep her from getting harmed. "Oh, Amy!" Rory called, and both Amys looked over at him.

"Oh, my God," Amy Then said at the same time as Amy Now."

Rory hurried forward and hugged Amy Then tightly, leaving Amy Now watching, before he stepped back. "Sorry."

"Hello," Amy Now said, smiling.

"Hello!"

"I don't know what to…" they spoke at once, stopping when they realized.

Rory shook his head. "Weird."

"Okay, this is weird…" the two kept speaking in unison. "Right, just stop doing that."

"How about Amy One speaks first?"

"Which one's Amy One?"

"Well…"

"I am! No, I am. Rory? Rory…just stop doing that."

The monitor sparked again, the image the Time Lords had going blurry. "Rory, take the glasses off. You're getting temporal feedback." Rory pulled off the glasses as the console sparked, throwing them to the ground. "Whoa! Calm down, dear."

"We've created a massive paradox and the TARDIS doesn't like it," Adelaide explained for the three humans. "I believe she's self-phasing in an attempt to get out of here."

The Doctor rubbed a bit of the console. "What's the nasty Amy done to you? Just calm down, dear. Hang on in there."

"Rory, you have eight minutes left, but you're on your own now."

Just then, there was one final spark, a static sound, and the image vanished.

|C-S|

The Time Lords looked up when they actually heard a scream outside of the TARDIS. Adelaide hurried to the door, leaving the Doctor to work on keeping the TARDIS from trying to run away from the paradox, just as it was opened and Rory entered, carrying an unconscious Amy Then. She helped him set her on the ground, scanning with the Doctor's sonic. "It's just anesthetic; she's going to be fine." She stood and went to the doors, seeing Amy Now at the end of the gallery, running for the TARDIS. "We're sorry," she said, and closed the door, locking it.

Rory leapt to his feet. "What are you doing?"

"We had to lie to her, Rory," Adelaide said, using all of the emotionlessness that the Doctor hated she had. "It's impossible for there to be two Amys in the TARDIS; it's too big of a paradox."

"You can't leave her. She'll die."

Amy Now banged on the door. "Adelaide, Doctor, let me in."

Rory moved towards the door, but Adelaide grabbed his arm. "Once we save Amy," she pointed at the one unconscious on the floor, "this future won't have happened. There'll be no other Amy to save."

"But she happened. She's there."

"I trusted you!"

Adelaide shook her head. "She's not real."

"She is real. Let her in."

She stepped closer. "If we take that Amy, Rory, we will have to leave this one behind. You can't have both, so you're going to have to choose; which do you want?" she let go of his arm, letting it fall onto the latch.

Rory looked between Adelaide and the Doctor. "This isn't fair. You're turning me into you two."

The Doctor shrugged. "Your choice, Rory."

"I…er…"

"Doctor?" Amy Now shouted. "Adelaide?" Adelaide stepped away from Rory, walking back up to the Doctor. "Doctor! Adelaide! Rory, please." Amy Now had pressed her hand against the glass now. "The look on your face when you carried her…me…her. When you carried her away. You used to look at me like that. I'd forgotten how much you loved me. I'd forgotten how much I loved being her. Amy Pond, in the TARDIS, with Rory Williams."

Rory began to turn to lock, pressing his forehead against the door. "I'm sorry, I can't do this.'

"If you love me, don't let me in." He stopped. "Open that door, I will…I'll come in. I don't want to die. I won't bow out bravely. I'll be kicking and screaming, fighting, to the end."

Rory closed his eyes. "Amy…Amy, I love you." The Time Lords stood on opposite sides of the console, not looking at each other, just watching Rory.

"I love you, too. Don't let me in. Tell Amy, your Amy, I'm giving her the days…the days with you. The days to come."

"I'm so, so sorry."

"The days I can't have. Take them, please. I'm giving you my days."

Rory stepped back from the door. "I'm so, so sorry."

"Do not be alarmed," they could hear the robot through the door. "This is a kindness. Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness."

The Time Lords didn't look as they pressed the final buttons on the TARDIS to take them away, not knowing if they managed to leave before the robots reached Amy, or if they were just a few seconds too late.

Rory walked over to the Amy they'd saved, who had yet to wake. "Did you always know it would never work? Saving both Amys?"

"We promised you we'd save her, and there she is. Safe."

He nodded. "Yeah, there she is."

Slowly, Amy woke, and the Doctor stuck his tongue out at her. Adelaide pulled the Doctor back. "We'll leave you alone." She brought him to a different room of the TARDIS, somewhere that would give the husband and wife the privacy they required. "Would we really have failed her so much?"

And even if the Doctor, partially, wanted to lie to Adelaide, to tell her that no, they wouldn't have really, he knew she would see through it. He knew that she would get angry if he lied. "We've abandoned her before when we promised to return. I wouldn't be surprised if she developed an expectation."

She shook her head. "This is why I never had a companion before."

"You never had a companion?"

She looked at him, frowning. "I was a scientist; why would I need one?"

"A lab partner?"

"I preferred to work on my own." She wrapped her arms around herself. "I always have. I always will."

A/N: Uh oh, Adelaide's really starting to close off. That cannot be good for their future...