3. Building a Canon.

Rory and Amy watched in confusion as River rummaged underneath the console, throwing things over her shoulder and making a general mess.

"What are you looking for?" Amy asked, raising her voice above the noise.

"A Corporeal Matter Transportation Device." River threw something else over her shoulder. "Stupid man. Who needs an automatic pancake flipper?"

Rory and Amy exchanged a look. "Sounds like him," Rory muttered.

"Pity he doesn't use it," Amy added. "I don't remember what the kitchen ceiling used to look like."

"Ok," River suddenly announced, standing up and brushing off her hands, "I think that's everything useful he has here." She put the contents into a box Rory had fetched from the house and joined them on the main level.

"So you can definitely get him back?"

"Nothing's ever definite when it comes to jumping across universes when technically they're closed off," River pointed out.

"You've done this before?" Rory asked, surprised.

"No. I just know that it wouldn't be easy. Now, Mother, Father, can I use your kitchen?"

"Of course," Amy agreed readily, though River was already out the door and in the garden, Rory and Amy scrabbling to keep up. "How long does it take to build, roughly?"

"I don't know, never built one before."

"At a guess?" Amy ventured.

"At least a fortnight." At their surprised looks, she said, "It's very complicated, even before the walls shut. Fortunately, I know someone who knew someone who did this before, so I have a head start. Of sorts."

She plonked the box down on their kitchen counter and began rifling through their cutlery draw, muttering under her breath. Finally she pulled out a fork, grabbed a device from the box, and began poking it with the fork. Rory stared at her, then at Amy, and then back again. They were so similar. He wondered if she'd inherited anything from him.

"You don't have to watch," River said, "this will take a while."

"Is there anything we can do?" Amy asked. "I don't know much about this stuff, but I can hand you things."

"Yeah, and I can… help you if your burn yourself?" Rory added, watching in disbelief as River ran over to grab the iron.

"Hmmm." River inspected the iron for a few moments. "Not hot enough."

Rory threw up his hands. "I think she's gone. We won't get anything out of her for days."

"Maybe you're right," Amy said, reluctantly, allowing Rory to lead her into the living room.

oOo

Three days later…

Rory groaned and flipped over drowsily, pressing his face into the pillow in an effort to block out the world around him. He had had a long shift – one of the most difficult ones he'd had in recent memory, with drunks, druggies and emergencies galore – and had only gone to bed three hours earlier. He hadn't even bothered to brush his teeth.

But something had woken him – a distant sort of crash, as though it had come from downstairs.

"Rory?"

And Amy was awake too. He definitely wasn't getting back to sleep now, not until they found out what that noise was.

"Rory?"

"Mrrrrrhhhm," he murmured unintelligibly. "Wassup?"

"There was a crash. I think someone's broken in."

"Ugh." He dragged himself upright and rubbed at his eyes. "It's at times like these I wish I still had a real sword."

Amy turned the light on, momentarily blinding Rory. "Don't worry, you've got me."

"I feel very reassured," he replied, getting to his feet, feeling much more awake now. "Ok, I'll go first."

He pushed open the bedroom door and walked carefully down the stairs, avoiding all the creaky floorboards, and felt his way into the kitchen. Finding the kitchen door, he pushed it the rest of the way open to find the light already on and the kitchen in complete disarray. Pans littered the floor and there was flour all over the table, not to mention the usual strange gadgets littering the counters. And in the middle of it all was River, her hair even bushier than usual. She was currently using a magnifying glass to screw bolts into the strange contraption that she was building.

"River?"

River whirled around wildly. "I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"What happened?" Rory asked, beckoning Amy into the room behind him. "We heard crashing."

"Oh, that," River said, going back to her work. "I had to make a quick jump to the future to get some parts, and when I came back I got the coordinates a bit wrong. Knocked over a stack of pans."

"Why was there a stack of pans?" Amy asked, staring in disbelief at the room. "And is that flour?"

"It was in one of the pans," River said by way of explanation.

Amy knelt down and picked up a pan. "It's melted."

"An experiment. I was trying to build a Doctor Radar. I thought I could melt the pan into a satellite dish shape." Her contraption let loose sparks. "I'll buy you another."

Amy put the pan down, looking very confused but seemingly deciding to just go with whatever River suggested. Rory looked over River's shoulder, squinting at what seemed to be a miniature space ship with a button on the top.

"I know it doesn't look quite right," River defended, immediately sensing his thoughts, "but I've not had as much time to perfect it as I would have liked."

"I thought you said it would take two weeks?"

"I did," River said. "I've also been working on it during my jumps to the future."

"When have you been jumping to the future?" Amy asked, forgetting the pans. "You've been here the whole time."

"I snuck off when you were sleeping. You both sleep a lot. And heavily. Except for tonight it would seem."

"So how long has it been for you?" Amy persisted.

"About two weeks," River answered.

"And have you slept?" Rory asked, peering at her face, noticing the dark smudges under her eyes.

"I haven't had time! I don't know where or when the Doctor is, and every moment I waste here building this canon means he could be in bigger danger!"

"Is that why you've been jumping into the future?" Amy asked, even as Rory visually scanned their daughter for any signs of illness.

River nodded, still prodding at the spaceship-thing. "I thought minimising my time here would help. Since I'm trying the jump from here, the less time I spend here the better for when I go into parallel time streams. We never know if we'll find him in one that runs at a faster pace."

"I think you should get some sleep," Rory suggested, hearing a hysterical note beginning to creep into her voice. "You'll make yourself ill."

"I've got to finish this!"

"But you won't if you're too tired to think straight," Rory reasoned. "And the last thing we want is you splicing yourself into atoms trying to get him back."

River sighed, putting her tools down. "You're right, of course. I keep forgetting that I'm part human too."

"Ok," Rory agreed, "we have a spare room upstairs."

River shook her head. "It's alright, I'll go into the future, then I'll waste less time here and get more rest at the same time."

"Where?" Amy asked. "Here?"

River shook her head. "Too much chance of ruining the timelines. No, I'll go to Stormcage for the night. At least I know it's completely quiet there," she said, sounding more like her old self. "Not too many midnight parties there, unfortunately."

"Just make sure you do sleep," Amy admonished. "No chasing aliens for you, young lady."

River smiled, already looking slightly less tense, if tired. "I'll be back before you know it."

And she disappeared.

There was a beat of silence, before Rory said, "We will find him."

Amy nodded. "I know." She sighed, picking up the pans again. "This was a wedding present from my Aunt."

Rory snorted. "She didn't like you very much, did she? What kind of pan melts that easily?"

Amy laughed and put it in the bin. "It's not like I ever used it."

Rory moved over to the Dimension Canon and stared at it. "I wish I knew if it was supposed to look like this. It looks like one of those UFOs you see in those hoax pictures."

"The more spacey, the more likely it is to work," Amy reasoned. "At least it doesn't look like… I don't know, an egg timer."

Rory nodded. "That's a good poi – ARGH!" River had appeared right in front of him, almost making him fall over backwards in shock. "River!"

"Oops."

"What happens if you set the coordinates for where someone else is standing?" Amy asked, suddenly.

River shrugged. "Something terrible I expect. I haven't had the chance to find out yet."

"And please don't," Rory interjected, forcing air back into his lungs. "I've not existed enough times in my life already."

Amy looked at River. "You look better."

River nodded. "I slept for two days. That would tend to fix the problem."

Rory gaped. "Is that a Time Lord thing? Is that how the Doctor never gets tired?"

River smirked. "No, Dad, it's very much an exhausted human thing. But while I was sleeping I had a chance to think – that is a Time Lord thing, by the way - and I've managed to solve a problem I've been having. I should be able to test the Dimension Canon later today."

"What, just like that?" Amy asked.

"Well, two weeks in my timeline, three days in yours," River reminded her. "But yes, it is faster than I'd hoped. Now," she added, "go back to bed. Honestly, it's 3 in the morning! You two are such a bad example."

And with that she unceremoniously pushed them both from the room and shut the door behind them with a resolute slam.

Rory sighed. "I don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep after all that. What if a future version of River lands in our room? Remember when the Doctor-"

"Yes," Amy said, "and I don't think he meant to land the TARDIS in our bed at quite that moment. Maybe we should just forget about that one."

"Yeah," Rory agreed, "bit embarrassing. Maybe we could get a lock?"

Amy gave him an 'are you stupid' look. "How would that help?"

Rory thought about it for a moment. "Oh. Right."