Every person thanked him profusely for saving their lives and hugged him before leaving the TARDIS. He watched them go with a heavy heart. Staying in Germany almost guaranteed that they would be captured again and he wouldn't be there to save them that time. The children wrapped themselves around his legs and he grinned, ruffling their hair. They thanked him for letting them help and promised that they would help their parents as much as they could. He waved goodbye at the group as they walked over the damp dirt and grass of Germany.
As the last person left, the TARDIS shut her doors, eager to get moving again. The Doctor had a ginger to return home.
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"But what if she doesn't come back?" Shawn moaned, throwing his arms up in the air. Sylvia and Wilfred were sitting on the couch watching Donna's husband pace around the living room.
"She'll be fine, the Doctor said he'd bring her back safe and sound!" Wilfred said confidently. Sylvia gave him a sideways glance that said he had too much faith in the alien. Wilfred ignored it.
"Who is this Doctor bloke anyway?" Shawn asked irritably. "She's my wife, I should be out there looking for her!"
"Calm down," Sylvia said, a bit too loudly. She frowned and grabbed the remote, turning the telly down to complete silence. "We told you about the Doctor before you and Donna got married. You knew this could happen."
"That's true, we did!" Wilfred said, sipping at his tea. If Shawn was to be her husband, he had to know how to protect her. They knew that if Shawn caused her death, he'd blame himself for the rest of his life whether he knew about her condition beforehand or not. At least he could prevent that if he knew.
"But if she doesn't come back, then-"
Sylvia jumped as a sudden rush of air buffeted the three of them. A sound much like a wheeze filled the air, accompanied by a materialising blue box in their kitchen. "Ha!" Wilfred jumped up as fast as his aging body would let him and he led the rush into the kitchen, where the TARDIS sat perfectly still, completely blocking their entire kitchen from all angles. Wilfred knocked on the blue door awkwardly. "Doctor?"
The door flew open and there stood the Doctor, all silly grins and floppy hair. "I've got her! She's still asleep, but that's probably for the best. Come on, help me carry her." Wilfred needed no more than that to send him marching happily into the time machine. Sylvia and Shawn stood outside, staring at it dubiously before peaking in. They quickly retreated to the safety and comfort of the living room, perfectly content to stay away from time machines and spaceships.
The Doctor led Wilfred, who took several moments to comment on the Doctor's new decor, to Donna's room. They carefully put an arm over each shoulder and carried her out. The Doctor was surprised at how strong Wilfred was; carrying his telescope up and down the hill every day gave the elderly man strength that most would never suspect. Together, they carried Donna out of the TARDIS and to the couch. Shawn never stepped foot inside the blue box, but he began fawning over his wife before they took two steps out of it.
They let her down gently and the Doctor smiled in satisfaction. "She gave them hell the entire time, you know. Well, I think she did, anyway. She had a gag when I got there," he added by way of explanation.
Wilfred smiled and brushed his granddaughter's hair from her face. "That's my girl." The ginger woman didn't stir, but continued to sleep peacefully, blissfully unaware.
"Now," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "It's very important that she doesn't remember me. Pretend she had the flu or... something."
Sylvia rolled her eyes. "Or something." The blond woman abruptly lashed out and hit the Doctor on the arm.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder, remembering that he had a bullet in that spot not too long ago. "What was that for?"
"For putting my daughter in danger!" she snipped, then grabbed her cup from the table next to the couch and bustled off to make more tea, grumbling the entire way.
Wilfred glowered after her, then turned to the Doctor. "Thank you, for saving her." The man opened his arms to the Doctor and they hugged goodbye. Shawn also expressed his thanks in the form of a rather painful handshake.
"Oh!" The Doctor reached into his pocket and fished out a rather worn piece of paper. "Here." He handed it to Wilfred. "You keep that safe. If something else happens to Donna or if you ever need me, call that number and the TARDIS will pick it up."
Wilfred blinked in surprise. "It can do that?" he asked, amazed.
"She can do that," the Doctor corrected with a mischievous look toward his beloved box. Wilfred's expression became one of confusion and the Doctor hurriedly had to explain the TARDIS's gender.
After exchanging other farewell pleasantries, the Doctor stepped back into his time machine. "It was good to see you again, Wilfred. Dad," he corrected with a smile.
"You too, son," Wilfred replied, clapping the Doctor on the shoulder. "You too. Be safe!"
"Always," he replied with a grin. "You be safe too, don't let Donna near any museums for a while!"
Wilfred laughed. "Will do, Doctor. Goodbye!" He waved as the Doctor gave him one last smile, then darted back into the maze that was the TARDIS.
He ran up the steps rather energetically, pleased that he had been able to rescue both Donna and the group of Jewish prisoners. He began to hum to himself as he set the randomiser on the TARDIS. A fun trip didn't sound remiss, especially after all the rescuing he had been doing lately. Unfortunately for him, the TARDIS suddenly set the time rotor moving before he could get everything done properly. "Oi! What's wrong now? Where are we going?" The TARDIS, as usual, did not reply, only set them both flying through time to the place that he needed to be.
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Upon landing and peeling himself off of the floor, the Doctor checked the screen. "Leadworth? Why are we-" He felt his stomach drop as he suddenly realised why the TARDIS had brought him here; Amy and Rory's house was outside. Melody must have been...
He cautiously walked to the double doors, but the married couple reached them first. Amy was knocking on the wood as hard as she possibly could. The Doctor rushed to the door and pulled it open before she split her knuckles.
Amy quite literally fell into his arms, completely hysterical, gasping and sobbing. "Doctor, she's gone, Melody's gone! They took her, they took her toys, her pictures, everything..."
Rory stood next to his wife, furious and crying. He couldn't stand still for the life of him, obviously angry at himself for letting this happen. The Doctor wanted to tell him that none of this was his fault, but Amy abruptly let go of him and pulled up the sleeve of her sweater. "Doctor, look."
The Doctor examined her arm closely and found the precise thing he had feared the most. On Amy's skin, in black marker, sat five tally marks.
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The three retreated into the Williams' residence. The husband and wife pair were not very talkative, but the Doctor managed to learn that it was 2013, almost exactly two years since he had returned baby Melody to them. He also learned that Amy was pregnant, though she was barely showing at just over two months. They had a blood test done to determine the baby's sex and Rory won the bet that it was a boy. They had been planning a way to change Melody's bedroom into a room for both of their children when she was taken.
Amy and Rory sat on the couch, with the latter rubbing his wife's back in a comforting gesture. She held a tissue in one hand and the other was lying limply in her lap. "Please get her back, Doctor."
The Doctor closed his eyes briefly, standing in front of their multitude of family photos. They would not like what he was about to tell them. "I can't," he said softly.
"What?" Rory's voice immediately rose with anger. "What do you mean you can't?"
"I mean I can't, Rory. I can't save her. I'm sorry." He barely turned to gaze at them, but their eyes burned him to the core.
Rory seemed to dig deep within himself, pulling out a rage that the Time Lord had only seen twice before. "You are going to get my daughter back right now-"
"I can't!" he bellowed, because being angry was easier than being sad. "Don't you get it? She's the little girl! The girl in the spacesuit, the girl that shoots me!"
They both froze, suddenly terrified. River said they were never allowed to tell him what had happened during the picnic on the lake. "How do you know about that?" Rory demanded.
"I know," he said mockingly. "Because Amy told me."
Amy swallowed. "I thought you were the ganger. I didn't know it was the real you. And I never said anything about who killed you, only that you died and you invited us to your death."
"When you shot at the little girl," he said quietly. "You said you were saving my life. Two plus two is four."
Amy shook her head. She knew now that she had almost killed her own daughter. Melody or the Doctor. How could she possibly choose? "Melody is two years old, she can't kill anyone."
"You saw her!" the Doctor said. "She was at least six or seven. They must have kept her for a long time. They can manipulate the mind of anyone who looks at them, you know that. She is a weapon, just like Kovarian wanted..."
"How could she be a weapon?" Rory said softly. "She's just a little girl. A peaceful little girl."
Amy dabbed at her eyes, smudging her mascara. "Doctor, Melody has been to the hospital seven times since you brought her back. They did something to her. She has almost died so many times and no one can figure out why. And now she's gone." The ginger woman began to cry again.
At once, everything clicked into place for the Time Lord. The pieces fell in their correct places and he could see much of the big, terrible picture. "I am so stupid. She's sick," he said quickly, gears in his head turning as fast as they could.
"What do you mean she's sick?" Rory demanded, seeing something in the Doctor's face that said he knew what was wrong with his daughter.
"She's not-" The Doctor ran a hand down his face. He never told them about Melody being half Time Lord. He didn't know if she had two hearts, but since her parents never noticed, he could likely peg that answer as a 'no'. "She doesn't have a disease. I mean she's unstable."
"What does that mean?" Amy pleaded, letting tears fall from her eyes. An answer to this problem was all that they wanted. A healthy, little girl who could be just that: a healthy, little girl.
"Melody is... Melody is half Time Lord. That's why they want her." He watched their expressions change, but he focused on Rory's rather than Amy's. Both faces were shocked, but Rory recovered faster and his expression turned into anger.
"How can she be-"
"Please listen to me, Rory," the Doctor asked quickly. "I promise that I have done nothing... human-ish with your wife. Melody was conceived on the TARDIS, on your wedding night according to the maths, while we were all flying through the time vortex. The exposure to raw time energy is what made my people in the first place. But you can't just make a Time Lord like that, it would be unstable and most likely die. She survived through Amy, as far as I can tell, because Amy had background radiation from travelling in the TARDIS. Background radiation in itself is completely harmless, but in this, particular case-"
"It probably saved our baby," Amy finished slowly, looking to Rory. "She would have been exposed to it from being around you, too."
The Doctor nodded. "That doesn't mean she's any less your baby, either of you. She couldn't have grown in the first place if you hadn't... uh, made her," he finished awkwardly. "But she's unstable now, she doesn't have that energy to... well, feed off of."
"So... does that mean she needs to constantly travel in the TARDIS to stay alive?" Rory asked.
"I don't know," the Doctor admitted, running a hand through his hair. "I don't even know if she can regenerate. That alone could save her, if she could do it, but I don't know."
"Then find out," Amy said, glaring up at him from her chair. "Go ask River, she would know."
"You know I can't do that, Amy. She would never tell me anyway. I-" He paused in realisation, then smacked himself in the head. "I should have seen that! That's why they had that machine, down in the basement, where River... shot all of them, where they took you, Amy. It looks exactly like the TARDIS that we found in Craig's flat. They use that to stabilise her. The spacesuit creates an environment where she won't get sick, she won't get tired, and she won't get free. They need her for something, but I don't know what."
"Well figure it out then!" Amy yelled, burying her head in her hands.
The Doctor looked to Rory helplessly, but the human was paying more attention to his wife than anything else. He did feel truly helpless. Even if he could find Melody, she would not be the child that Amy and Rory knew. She would be older and there was a possibility that she did not remember them. He didn't know the full extent of the Silence's abilities and that troubled him. He didn't know what else he could say to the Ponds. They exuded an aura of impatience, anger and sadness. He knew that they wanted him to leave.
As he turned to go, the Doctor caught something out of the corner of his eye. An old picture at the very end of the shelf, yellowed and folded in the upper right corner. He crossed to it and plucked the frame from it's perch, staring at it in wonder. "Rory! Rory, who is this?" He waved the picture in the human's face and Rory glared up at him in anger. "That's my grandmother."
"Grandmother..." The Doctor stared in wonder at the picture. It was old, yes, but taken in 1946, according to the writing in the bent corner. Standing there, hand in hand with a dark haired man, was none other than Adele herself. She looked considerably happier than the Doctor had seen her before. "I saved her," he said softly, half to himself.
"You did what?" Rory frowned. "She was German, she escaped the Nazis during World War II."
"I know, I saved her!" The Doctor felt a slow smile creep over his face. "Rory, she took care of Melody."
Amy looked up from her silent sobs, sniffling between words. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that she took care of Melody!" The Doctor brought the picture to the couple and sat on the couch next to them. "When Madame Kovarian took Melody, she took her to 1942. With Nazis and... Adele was Melody's wet nurse. She took care of her."
Rory took the picture, awe washing over him at this revelation. "Wait... Does that mean you are the only reason I exist?"
The Doctor scratched behind his ear. "Ah, well... Maybe?"
Rory frowned and put the picture on the table in front of him. "If you aren't going to save our daughter, then get out of my house."
The Doctor took one final look at the picture. Adele was strong enough to move on and create another family, despite heavy losses. Now, Amy and Rory were going to have to do the same.
"If..." the Doctor began, standing from the couch. "If I can find her... Melody. If I can find Melody, it will have to be after our trip to America. She's the little girl in the spacesuit. All of that has to happen."
"But why?" Amy demanded. "I just want my daughter back!"
"I know Amy, and I'm sorry, but she'll have to come back as a seven year old. That's the only option." He looked nervously from one Pond to the other.
Amy stayed silent, but Rory nodded his consent. "Please bring her home."
In Torchwood, *SPOILERS* Martha's body develops an advanced immune system from the background radiation she acquired by travelling in the TARDIS. I decided that a similar explanation would work for Melody, in case you thought I was just pulling that out of my hat. ;) Which, by the way, is totally a red fez. (Not really, I wish.)
Please review and let me know what you thought! :)
