John was staring down the shaft when he saw two miniscule shadows move down at the very, very bottom.
"Kimberly!" he shouted down. "Kimberly, is that you?"
Amy and Rory rushed to his side. "Do you see something?" Amy asked, looking down. She could only see darkness.
"I saw two shadows move at the very bottom," John said. "Kimberly!"
"Do-Don't worry!" Kimberly's voice came back up, barely audible. "We're fine. Dirty, sweaty, and scammed, but fine!"
"We're gonna get you up!" John yelled back. He pulled away and looked between Rory and Amy. "Any ideas on how to get them up?"
"Your friend has good eyesight," the Doctor said distractedly as he paced back and forth. He was trying to think of how to get back up. It was a very long way up; there was no way Kimberly would be able to climb in her dress.
"Hey!" the Doctor bellowed up, causing Kimberly to cover her ears. The echo down there could deafen even the Doctor. "Is there any rope up there?"
There was a moment of silence before Rory yelled back, "No!"
"Kimberly, check the pockets of my jacket," the Doctor said, turning to the girl. She riffled through the right inside pocket, and then the left. Her eyebrows furrowed together and she reached in to her elbow. A heartsbeat later, she pulled out a length of rope with a triumphant expression.
"Excellent!" the Doctor exclaimed as he grabbed it from her. "Now search for an anchor of some sort."
She set back to work, searching both inside pockets before going to the outside.
"How much stuff could you possibly need to carry in your pockets?" she asked, almost up to her shoulder in the left pocket.
"Nine hundred years of junk builds up," the Doctor said dismissively.
She snorted and moved on to the right. "I feel something that could be an anchor, but it's heavy."
Kimberly slipped off his jacket and handed it back. The Doctor put it back on and reached into the right pocket. Ah, there it was. He pulled out the metal contraption with ease and grinned. It was the edge of the grappling hook; perfect. He quickly tied the rope to the loop in the center.
"Stand back," he commanded, swinging the hook around a few times.
"Do you honestly think you're going to reach the top from here?" Kimberly asked, doing as told regardless. "It's got to be at least twenty feet up, if not more."
"I've got a strong arm," he assured her. "Superior biology and all."
"Superior modesty as well," she said, rolling her eyes. The Doctor grinned at her before turning his head back up at the sunlight.
"Stand back up there!" he yelled. "I'm about to do something stupid!"
He swung the hook a few more times before throwing it up. It almost reached the top before falling back to the ground. The Doctor jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit; being forced to regenerate in a mine due to a head injury wouldn't help anybody.
He tried a few more tries. On the sixth try, it finally caught.
"Ah ha!" he cried, throwing his hands in the air in triumph. He turned to Kimberly, who was looking at him with a mix of amusement and astonishment. "Ladies first. Unless you want to stay in the mine for a longer time. Completely up to-"
"Move, Time Lord," she laughed, making her way to the rope. "Hold it tight. If I fall, I'll never forgive you."
"Duly noted," the Doctor said with a nod. He held the rope as Kimberly started her slow ascent. He could hear her taking slow, deep breaths. It really was a long way up. He prayed - to whom, he couldn't really say. The universe in general, he supposed - that she didn't fall. Thirteen minutes later, however, she was being lifting through the top of the shaft. The Doctor quickly began his own ascent; it was harder without someone holding the rope firmly in place, and he swung around wildly and hit the side of the shaft numerous times.
Eleven minutes, twenty one seconds, and nine bruises later, he clambered out of the shaft as well. He looked around to see Kimberly with her arms wrapped around John's neck and John swinging her around.
Amy rushed forward and wrapped the Doctor in a hug of his own.
"Don't ever get trapped in a mine with a space squid again," she said against his shoulder.
"Wasn't planning on it," the Doctor laughed. He pulled away and examined his filthy clothes. "I really ought to teach you two how to fly the TARDIS. It would have made this rescue a million times easier."
Rory was about to respond when the sound of skin slapping fabric was heard and an indignant "Ouch!" from John echoed. The three of them turned to see Kimberly and John glaring at each other. There was such a fire in Kimberly's green eyes that Rory immediately felt bad for the boy, for whatever it was that he did.
They stayed like that for another moment until Kimberly turned back to the others, smiling warmly.
"Thank you for saving me, Doctor," she said, curtsying. "I owe you one."
"Come along, Addams," John said, offering her his right elbow. Kimberly slipped her left hand into the crook of his arm. "We should leave a note in the office saying it's safe to start rebuilding the mines."
With a final wave, the two of them started off towards the office. Amy smiled and grabbed Rory's arm, and the three of them started back towards the TARDIS. Halfway there, Rory stopped and bent over to pick up a hat.
"Amy, is this your hat?" he asked, holding it out to her.
"No, that's Kimberly's," Amy said, taking it from him. "She's going to want this back. Let's go."
Amy picked up her skirts and started hurrying to the office. She was about to enter when she heard a female laugh come from behind the building.
"If I had known that was a recycled joke," Kimberly was saying. "I would've have laughed the first time."
"That is a beautiful joke and you would've laughed anyway," John said, his cheeky grin evident in his voice.
Amy peeked around the building and felt her heart fall into her stomach. The Doctor and Rory appeared beside her just in time to watch John open the door to a familiar blue box.
"Jack!" he shouted, running in. "What are you doing to my control room?"
"And where's your shirt?" Kimberly asked, running in after him.
The door shut on its own and slowly started to fade away with the familiar vwhoosh sound that seemed to hang in the air, practically tangible.
"Did they just…?" Rory asked, dumbfounded.
"Yup," the Doctor responded, eyes wide as saucers.
"So does that mean we just met…?"
"Looks like."
"How does tea sound?" Amy asked, turning around slowly and walking back to the TARDIS - her TARDIS.
"Normal," Rory said. "Extremely normal."
149 years - well, relatively speaking - and two regenerations later, the Doctor was pressed against the brick wall of a Boston alleyway, peeking around the corner to make sure there was no sign of the Sontaran.
He turned to the girl cowering next to him, green eyes wide.
"I'm the Doctor, by the way," he said with a grin.
"K-Kimberly," she stammered, still trying to catch her breath.
"Nice you meet you, K-Kimberly," he told her, remembering the 1860s mine.
"No, it's just Kimberly," she told him, a smile worming its way onto her face anyway. Then her eyes shifted over his shoulder. The Doctor turned and saw the Sontaran turning the corner. He turned back to Kimberly and grabbed her hand.
"Time to run, Just Kimberly!"
And that's all, folks! Hope you enjoyed the ride! Did any of you guys guess the ending? I'm still not entirely in love with the last few paragraphs with Kimberly and her Doctor, so it might get edited in the future.
Anyway, I'm still working on the rewrite of Amy Who. The WIP title is currently Geronimo, and it will most likely be submitted under that title, so look out for it in the near future!