Dream a Little Dream of Me
Stars fading but I linger on…
It had occurred to Amy on several occasions before that, despite him being a qualified nurse, Rory was rather uncomfortable with general nudity.
It also occurred to Amy that not noticing the woman being virtually starkers until Rory had started with his embarrassed prude-someone's-naked-and-I-don't-know-them-very-well dance, must say volumes about the sort of things she had seen since she'd met the Doctor.
The Doctor and the woman seemed to be rather oblivious to the state of her undress, but did look at Rory with concern. His fidgeting was hard to ignore.
"Are you alright?" the woman asked, taking a step towards him.
He quickly stepped back and held his coat out in front of him, a modesty shield.
Amy almost laughed at his panicked face, his actions more comical than effective.
Unfortunately, the woman and the Doctor weren't taking the hint and looked more concerned than before.
Amy supposed that the easiest thing to do was just to state the obvious. However, Amy didn't have the heart to embarrass the woman like that.
So she relied on the age old communication device called 'pointing with your eyes and hoping something got through'.
She must have looked like she was having a seizure because the woman was now looking at her with concern. And then perhaps because the woman was a little psychic or Amy's eye gesturing was just too bizarre to ignore, something seemed to click in the woman's eyes.
She looked at Rory and his coat, at Amy and then down at herself.
"I'm not wearing any clothes," she announced, as if it was the most normal thing in the universe.
The Doctor looked at her, his eyes roving over her form then declared, "Oh."
"You're not very fond of nudity," the woman said to Rory, making him look even more uncomfortable. Amy hadn't thought it was possible.
"As a species, they sort of evolved away from nudity," the Doctor stated.
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Well, so did we."
"Only because we went travelling," the Doctor replied.
The Doctor took his coat off, offered it to his wife. She put it on, held the front together and smiled at Rory teasingly, "Better?"
Amy couldn't help herself from giggling at Rory's sigh of relief. He did have the good grace to blush.
"There's a wardrobe full of clothes," Amy offered.
The woman beamed, "How delightful."
Then something occurred to her, "We haven't been introduced properly."
The Doctor stepped forward. "Allow me. These are the Ponds," he said, smiling proudly.
"I'm Amy. That's Rory," Amy pointed at him, then stepped towards the woman, extending her hand.
The woman looked at it thoughtfully, then seemed to remember something.
She took the offered hand, shook it.
"20th century?" she asked, turning towards the Doctor.
He nodded, "Thereabouts."
She beamed, "Lovely."
"I'm…" she frowned, "I'm not sure what you should call me."
"Our names don't translate that well," she offered as an explanation to the Ponds.
She turned towards the Doctor, "Is that why they call you the Doctor?"
"Yes. And no," he answered. There was a moment of silence as they looked at each other, their eyes speaking volumes.
But Amy decided the volumes were in an alien language, because she couldn't decipher anything. All she was sure of was that the Doctor felt uncomfortable when it came to his real name.
"Sophia," the Doctor suddenly said.
"What?" the woman reacted with surprise.
The Doctor smiled, shrugged his shoulder, "Sophia is a good approximation."
She thought it over, then nodded, "It is. That's quite clever."
He smiled proudly, "Thank you."
She waved her hand, "Hello, I'm Sophia. Now, take me to your wardrobe."
To spare her husband any further discomfort, Amy took Sophia to get some clothes.
"So, I take you and Rory haven't been married long?" Sophia asked when they were far enough for the men not to hear them.
"No," Amy answered, realizing that she'd completely forgotten that their wedding hadn't been that long ago. Travelling in the TARDIS made one lose track of time.
"It's strange and exciting, isn't it?"
Amy smiled, feeling exactly that way, "Is that how it was with the Doctor and you?"
"Yes. Also, maddening and frustrating."
Amy chuckled, it was impossible for her to dislike the woman, "I know what you mean."
"I bet you do," Sophia said, an affectionate smile on her face.
She sighed, "You're going to be great together."
Amy raised a surprised eyebrow, "We are? How would you know?"
Sophia smiled mysteriously, "Oh, I have my ways."
She frowned, "I'm not supposed to say anything…"
Amy chuckled, remembering something, "Spoilers?"
Sophia considered the it, then nodded with delight, "That's a good word."
A stranger telling her that she and Rory would have a good life together was a comforting thought and she wanted to know more.
But Sophia seemed determined to let it go and changed the subject, "How long have you known…the Doctor?"
Amy tried to think in exact terms but failed, "Most of my life, I guess."
The look that Sophia gave her unnerved her a little. It wasn't threatening or anything, but she felt like Sophia was seeing much more than Amy wanted to share.
"You like him," Sophia finally said, a rather delighted note in her voice.
"I do, yes," Amy answered, rather relieved by the approving tone.
Sophia chuckled, "Well, he isn't hard to like."
That made Amy laugh, "True."
"How long have you been travelling with him?"
Amy thought that she should be more alarmed about how she kept losing track of time, but somehow, she couldn't muster up the effort to care that much. She did try though, "Uh…well…I'm not sure actually. It's hard keeping time straight…"
"Time isn't straight. Actually, it is but at the same time isn't. It gets confusing if you're used to a rather linear progression of time," Sophia said and to Amy she sounded exactly like the Doctor when trying to explain the phenomenon of time travel.
"How do you cope?" Amy asked, curious and having never been able to ask the Doctor this because he just kept on and on about the science and the magic of it until he got distracted by something entirely different.
Sophia shrugged her shoulder, "Oh, we Gallifreyans have a very bad sense of time."
Amy laughed.
"Is that why he always turns up late?" she wanted to know.
"Still having trouble with that?" Sophia asked, looking like she knew exactly what Amy was on about.
"You'd think a man with a time machine wouldn't have that problem," Amy replied, rolling her eyes.
"You'd think," Sophia said, a sudden wistful tone in her voice.
It made Amy even more curious about her and the Doctor.
"So, you and the Doctor, married…" she lead only, forsaking subtlety.
Sophia nodded, amused, "Yes."
"How?"
"Oh, the usual way, I suppose."
"I mean…" Amy tried to explain but Sophia interrupted her.
"I know what you mean. It's just, ah…it's a long and complicated story, I guess."
There was this same closed off look on Sophia's face that the Doctor had when anything about his past was mentioned.
"I think there a lot of long and complicated stories that involve him," Amy said, a conclusion she thought most people would come to if they spent enough time with the Doctor.
"I'm sure there are," Sophia softly said.
Sophia's expression and the fact that they've arrived at the room that served as the wardrobe, kept Amy from prying any further.
The amused surprised look on Sophia's face was probably not dissimilar from her own expression the first time Amy had seen the place.
It was a rather fantastical bazaar of colors, fabrics and shapes. The girl in her could spend hours here, just sorting through the costumes, trying things on or just trying to figure out what things were.
"He's been everywhere," Amy said, echoing something the Doctor had told her.
Sophia picked up what looked like a Buddhist robe, "It looks like it."
She turned to Amy, smiled conspiratorially, "He'll deny it but he's secretly a hoarder."
Amy eyed the garment Sophia was holding, "You think? And what is that thing?"
There seemed to be something rather not right about it.
Sophia held it up, "Oh, that's a leisure frock from Agrathia. They have seven arms, which is a bit strange since they have a rather fanatical obsession with symmetry."
"Okay," Amy replied. Now that she knew what it was, the garment made more sense to her. Then again, there were designer fashion pieces she could think of that made less sense than that leisure frock.
"Excuse me," Sophia said and then proceeded to go through the assortment like the most experienced bargain hunter during sales week. In a seemingly short time, she'd put together an outfit.
A sunshine yellow lacy blouse paired with a vibrantly purple cardigan, a more muted purple colored skirt, lime and baby pink striped tights and dark brown half boots that Amy liked and wondered how she'd never seen them before. They probably wouldn't fit her anyway. Sophia was a good foot and a half shorter than her.
"Will this do?" Sophia asked, turning around slowly, showing herself to Amy. She seemed to have noticed the big full length mirror in the corner and walked over. She checked herself in it.
Amy decided that it must be a particularly Gallifreyan thing, this eccentricity when it came to clothing, "Yeah…"
Sophia looked at Amy's reflection in the mirror, "Judging by your face, this is rather horribly mismatched by human standards…"
Maybe Sophia wasn't that hopeless, Amy decided. She had to admit, though she'd never really pick that ensemble for herself, it did actually look quite nice on her.
"No, it's…you look really lovely," Amy said, and meaning it.
Sophia did look lovely, the colors, while rather loud, did complement Sophia's brunette features.
"I know the colors are a bit loud…but…" Sophia frowned, as if trying to remember something.
"Purple suits you," Amy said.
Sophia smiled, "Thank you. Shall we go back and rescue the men from themselves?"
Amy nodded. She definitely liked this woman.
"So, what do you do…does he go around, showing you all the highlights of the universe?" Sophia asked. They were walking back to the operating room.
"Kind of," Amy said, thinking of all the adventures she'd been on.
"That is so him."
Amy looked at Sophia, something in her tone perplexed her.
"Is it?" Amy asked, wondering about the kind of man the Doctor used to be.
As if she'd been able to read her mind, Sophia replied, "Oh yes. He was and probably always will be this larger than life, infuriating and brilliant mad man."
Amy laughed, "Yes, that's him."
"I hope he hasn't put you in any danger," Sophia said.
Amy didn't want to answer that.
Sophia sighed, "What am I saying, of course he has."
She looked at Amy, "I know he can be reckless and idiotically stupid sometimes, but he always does it with the best of intentions."
Amy sighed, "I know. That's why it's so hard to stay angry at him."
"Amen," Sophia replied and the two women laughed.
"Sometimes it feels like he's doing it on purpose…" Amy said.
"He's always hated quiet…" Sophia answered, but stopped. She frowned, looking confused. She stopped walking.
"Are you alright?" Amy asked, noticing Sophia's expression.
Sophia shook her head, as if trying to shake something off, "Yeah, sorry, just a flash of something…"
"Okay…" Amy said, looking concerned.
Sophia's face had turned pale. She looked at Amy, her eyes full of questions.
"Silence will fall."
tbc