Differential geometry is going to be the death of me, I swear. Anyway...

The next few chapters – and this story at large – draw very heavily on a certain interpretation of how Amy was written and acted in Series 6. Another way of looking at it is a highly compressed and concentrated version of what the Doctor's gone through in his life. Yeah, it's not a happy time for her. I've been hinting that Amy is going to have an emotional and psychological disintegration for quite a long time now... this is where it begins.

This chapter will go up in several parts (since they were written as one very long chapter). All are extremely Amy-centric. Both end on similar notes (plagal cadences? Ho ho ho). We will get back to the Doctor and then Jack in a big way soon, but this is Amelia Pond's story first and foremost, and this is a critical time in her (re-)development.

CHAPTER 32. A Special Mind: 29 March 2011

The commotion at the hospital soon had flow-on effects, and Michael soon found himself being paged.

"What's that?" The Doctor asked curiously. The Doctor was having a stroll, Michael having unable to shake his fascination with the bow-tie wearing man. Or alien, as it soon transpired.

"Pager. Apparently something happened at some other hospital on the other side of Earthsphere, and life will get a bit busy over the next few weeks." He sighed. Reception work really wasn't his wasn't his idea of helping people...

"You'll get that medical degree, don't worry," the Doctor told him kindly.

"How the devil-"

"Come on, now. Why else would you be working in a hospital yet so annoyed with it? It's because you want to be on the other side, actually treating sick people."

"Is that what you do? Help people? Is that why you're called the Doctor?"

"I suppose it is. Now-"

Doctor?

The Doctor's back straightened so quickly he almost knocked the table over. He could tell Michael was asking something, but he could no longer hear him. He could no longer hear anything except that voice that had just entered his mind.

It's me, Amy, I'm here.

Amy didn't seem to take any notice. Doctor, are you there?

He frowned. Was she pulling his leg? Yes, Amelia, I'm here.

Doctor, answer me! Come on, I can feel you there. There was a frantic, worried tone in her voice that he'd rarely ever heard – she wasn't pulling his leg.

Amy, I'm here. The Doctor. Me.

There was no reply for a long, long time, then a sigh so deep he sighed aloud himself. Fine. You're not answering. But I'm just going to keep talking anyway, because I know you're there.

She couldn't hear him. Why couldn't she hear him?

The answer came straight away. That damned equaliser field. There was just too much disturbance from all the thoughts being used to boil kettles, switch on lights, fly shuttles and any number of other mundane day-to-day activities. He couldn't project his own thoughts strongly enough for her to pick up above the noise.

Maybe you can hear me, and you are talking, but I just can't hear you, he heard Amy muse.

Smart girl.

Whatever. Hopefully I'll survive to yell at you in person.

That made him pause for a second. Survive...?

I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. For being an idiot and not listening. Kate and I are on the run now, because someone just tried to kill us. No idea who, except that he's called the Windcatcher.

The Doctor almost fell out of his chair at that. He knew that name. Knew it very well indeed.

I don't know how long I can keep talking this loudly, though – I think he's tracking me by my thoughts. The TARDIS was protecting me, but it doesn't seem to be working any more. We're on the run. If you can hear us, come find us. Please. That's all I ask, Doctor... don't leave me.

Never. I will never, ever leave you, Amelia Pond.

If you can't hear me... ah, screw that. Just find us, okay? I can't tell you where we'll be, for obvious reasons, but you know how to find me. You better know. Otherwise I'll be mad. And probably dead, she added.

Goodbye, raggedy man. I love you. Now go on. Save me... again.

With that, she was gone, leaving only silence in his mind. He didn't reciprocate her final gesture.

I'll do that in person.

He'd met the Windcatcher before. It had been an experience he'd tried hard to forget, but couldn't. If he was after Amy...

No. He would not let that happen.

"Doctor?" Michael was getting worried now.

The Doctor snapped his attention back to reality, his mind suddenly clear, filled with intent. He fixed his intense gaze onto the man. "Now, Michael, how would you like to go on an adventure?"

"So what the hell happened there? I still don't–ow!"

It took about half an hour, but Amy had finally relented and let Kate have a look at the scrapes all over her body. As the Doctor occasionally (very, very occasionally) reminded his Time Lady counterpart, she wasn't invincible or armoured. As such, throwing herself fifteen feet onto rough asphalt with legs that weren't working properly had to class, in Kate's words, as "an epic dumb move".

"Seriously," Kate told her as she applied some evil-smelling balm to the litany of cuts and bruises on Amy's legs. "This'll hurt more if you don't stop moving."

"You're not the one who has to wear this stuff," Amy replied between gritted teeth. Like the best ointments, the 'stuff' stung like nothing else when first applied to open wounds. But Iverson said it healed most skin wounds in a matter of minutes, which was good enough for Kate and Amy – eventually.

"There." Kate finished applying the balm, screwing on the cap. "All done, 'ickle wee baby Pond."

Amy gave her a glare that would have made almost anyone else scarper as fast as they could. As it was, Kate had to force down a laugh.

"I'm going to remember that one the next time you ask me to get anything off the top shelf." Amy had always been a good deal taller than the blonde, but over the last few months the difference had become even greater as her body adapted to suddenly having so many extra organs. Even without heels or boots she stood well over six foot now. Kate, by comparison, was five foot seven at most.

"Yeah, because I've always needed you to do that," Kate retorted sarcastically. She plopped herself down next to the still-indignant Amy, beside the small plain bed where she'd almost bled out several days before. Of course, she'd been unconscious then, and this was her first proper shuttle ride. It didn't impress her. "Can these things do anything other than go in, y'know, straight lines? Like, manuever?"

"These aren't spacecraft," Iverson replied, a wry smile on his face from watching the two women bicker like schoolgirls. "But yes, they have more tricks than they look like from the outside."

"Remind me to try some out later. So what really happened back there at the hospital? 'Cause I was just waiting outside your office while you two talked and next thing I know, there's an arm around my throat and a gun against my head. I'm getting bored of that, you know," she pointed out.

Amy shot a brief glance at Iverson before deciding to go with the simple version. "No idea. We were just having a chat." That the chat was about the fact that Amy had dragged them all into a potentially fatal trap went in the 'she doesn't need to know that' box for now.

"Right. And so..."

"So some bloke called the Windcatcher is trying to kill us, apparently." She looked over to Iverson to see if he knew more, but the man just shook his head and shrugged.

Kate bit her lip pensively. "So can you find the Doctor now? With your mind powers and all?"

Amy broke her gaze and looked out the window into the clear, pale sky beyond. "Doubt it. Too much noise. Like looking for a needle in a haystack, except the haystack is being tossed around constantly."

Kate frowned. "But you've tried, haven't you?"

"Not yet."

Kate folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at the Time Lady. Liar.

Amy smiled almost imperceptibly, though she continued to stare out the window. So you've figured out how to use this thing, huh?

How the hell does this even work, anyway? Kate thought aloud. As far as I can tell I'm still human.

You are. Amy paused. She had her suspicions, but nothing concrete yet. We'll deal with that later, OK? First I want to make sure that nothing bad comes out of this.

Could it? Kate had absolutely no understanding of the intricacies of telepathy and directed consciousness. As far as she was considered, she was just 'thinking loudly'.

Amy, however, did have an understanding, and a deep one at that. Yes, she replied simply, it could. But now was not the time to go into specifics.

If the news disconcerted Kate, she didn't show it. Fine. So did you find him?

No. I was telling the truth.

No, you weren't. I heard you before. I didn't understand what you were saying, but you were definitely talking to him.

I was talking at him. I don't think he could hear me, or maybe I just couldn't hear him. Too much noise.

So then why did you lie?

Amy continued to gaze out the window for a few more moments, before giving Iverson another glance. It was all Kate needed to know.

You don't trust him?

No answer.

Amelia?

Amy started out at the sky for a few more seconds, before turning around and giving Iverson a warm smile. "So, where are we going?"

If Iverson noticed anything strange during the girls' silent exchange, he didn't show it. "OK, well, since you don't want to go back to the TARDIS until it's fixed, I suppose the plan is to lay low for a while. Whoever this Windcatcher fellow is, he clearly has plenty of men at his beck and call. Beyond that, I'm not sure – neither of you are exactly soldiers, I'm not sure how well you could defend yourself-"

"Then teach us," Amy cut across him. "You might be surprised. You said you were ex-army, yeah? So you could train us up, then we could make a dash for the TARDIS that way. You could do that, right?"

Iverson hadn't considered that. He leaned back in his seat, placing a finger on his lips. "Actually, now that you mention it..."

"Time travel!"

"Time travel?"

"Yes, time travel. It's amazing, let me tell you. Oh, the things you can see, the places you can go to – there's one instance of eleven galaxies all lined up in perfect synchronisation, you can go to a planet which is nothing but coffee shops – you would like that one for sure – and you can do locum work in Brixton!"

Michael frowned at the Doctor. "Why on earth would you want to locum work?"

"Don't take that tone; it's a lovely practice – short-staffed, unfortunately. By my point is-"

"You had a point?" Michael cut across him with a raised eyebrow. The Doctor pretended he hadn't said anything.

"My point is, I'm a time-traveller and unfortunately my time machine has decided to go on holiday for a moment."

He'd heard of time-travellers before, of course, and he'd heard how they'd gotten stuck here. They'd been appearing on the news sporadically for a couple of years now. He'd never thought he'd actually meet one, thought... assuming that this slightly bonkers man in front of him was indeed telling the truth.

"So you are a time-traveller? Got proof?"

The Doctor grinned at him. "Nope. You'll just have to trust me, because I'm the Doctor."

Trust him? That was a bit far. As far as he could tell here was a bloke in decidedly odd clothing who had barged into his workplace, done something strange to the computers than walked off again, rambling about goodness knew what. A madman.

A madman who was possibly a time-traveller.

A madman who had gleaned personal information, deep-seated longings and ever-present stresses on him from mere glances.

A madman was promising something... more.

"OK. Fine. So what is this so-called 'adventure' you have planned? Do I need to call sick?"

"Already taken care of," The Doctor told him with a smile. "It's an adventure, so I suggest you pack your bags. I'll help you if you need it."

It sounded tempting, but... "I do have a job to do."

"They won't miss you. Do this, and I promise you, you'll have gained a lot more than you will by telling people where the pharmacy down the road is."

"I don't want to become deadweight, though, if it's dangerous."

"No such thing," the Doctor rebuked with a smile.

This is stupid. This is dangerous. This is idiotic. Every instinct, every piece of his mind was telling him to run away, go somewhere else, go somewhere safe and free from harm, but his heart wasn't listening.

"OK. Where are we going first?"

"To meet a friend, then... well, the best part of an adventure is not knowing the destination, isn't it?"

Michael shrugged, honestly having no answer to that. He decided to change the topic to the specifics of the 'adventure'. "So... are we going to fix your time machine? Or are we going to find this girl you keep mentioning?"

The Doctor was taken aback. "What? No – I -"

"OK, no, you don't keep mentioning her, but you keep thinking about her," Michael corrected himself with a wry smile. "Like, before, you were looking at the database, but that database only has names, so that means you think she's in a hospital somewhere but you don't know which one. Then when you didn't find her there, you said you were looking for someone special, but didn't want to mention her name. So that means that she's so special that you don't want to tell anyone about her and put her in danger. And she is in danger, otherwise you wouldn't look so edgy. See, Doctor," he concluded, "I can work things out too."

The Doctor stared at him for a second, utterly taken aback, before breaking into a broad grin and letting out a booming laugh. "See? Told you that you wouldn't be deadweight!"

He had to return the smile, feeling a warm, satisfied glow within himself. Not so useless after all. But he still had a question he wanted answered.

"So are we looking for her, then? What is she like?"

The smile on the Doctor's face faded slightly, becoming distant, wistful, as if borne from a thousand unforgettable instances of both unbounded joy and crippling pain.

"She's... she's..." He sighed, struggling to find words to describe Amelia Pond. "She's my wildest dream made flesh, and my worst nightmare come true."

It was night when they arrived at an elegant homestead at the base of a mountain. Rolling, mist-darkened hills filled the landscape before them, merging seamlessly into the twinkling stars above – fake though they were.

"Nice place," Kate commented as she clambered out of the shuttle.

"It is, but that's not why I chose it. It's well out of the way – no one ever comes near here. Off the books too – a family favour." He breathed in the fresh, cold air. "Shame that no one else can come here, but I suppose when your entire world is a paradise, you're bound to miss a little pocket of perfection here and there."

"They won't find us here, will they?" Amy asked, loitering inside, seemingly cautious about something. "What sort of... telepathic stuff have they got out here?"

"Nothing. Even the equaliser field doesn't work out here, it's one of many small enclaves scattered throughout Earthsphere – good thing, too," he added. "Though that means you'll have to make tea the old way, I'm afraid. No more of just thinking and having a machine spit it out."

"So there's no way they could track me by my thoughts?"

"Not that I can think of." He leaned back against the shuttle and frowned at her. "You're the expert, Amy. Do you think it's safe? I can take you back to the TARDIS if you want."

"No," Amy replied firmly, stepping out. "They know I'm around, and the TARDIS is dead at the moment. We'd last about five minutes back there."

"If you say so."

"I do say so. So you said you were gonna train us – how?"

He clicked his fingers and pointed at the house. "Come inside and you'll see."

Inside, they found a neat, well-furnished and impressively large house in a style not too dissimilar to what they'd find back on Earth, in their own time period. Interior design, they supposed, transcended time itself. But it certainly didn't look like a place where they could practice sword- or gun-play.

Iverson came back, wearing a silver half-ring on his head with a small green light on the side. He was holding two similar headsets, one also silver, the other gold. He handed the silver one to Kate and the gold one to Amy.

"What are these?" Amy asked, peering cautiously at the headset – there was nothing obviously unusual there as far as she could see, but she was aware that didn't mean much.

"It'll be easiest to show you. Go on, put them on. Don't worry, it isn't dangerous."

Both girls hesitated for a moment before placing the headsets on their heads, the ring resting on their ears and going around the back of their heads. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the light on Amy's headset blinked on, followed soon afterwards by Kate's and Iverson's.

Then the world dissolved around them.

Amy opened her eyes to see a field of green covering the right side of her vision, soft grass brushing her cheek.

She sat up. Above her was an ivy-covered two story house, the windows closed and uninviting. The grass had grown long around her, and the steel swing on her right had the sad look of having not been touched in years.

My... my old house? In Leadworth?

"Okay," she heard a crisp, Midlands-accented voice behind her. She turned to find Kate standing up, brushing leaves off her front. "Someone explain to me what just happened, because I am so lost right now. I could have sworn I was just in Iverson's house, not back home in Leadworth."

"Sorry," Iverson called out, some distance away. "As I said, easier to show you than explain."

"Well, the showing hasn't worked, so you best get onto the explaining."

"The helmet is an advanced perception filter. This isn't a dream, although it behaves like one – you're still fully conscious, it's just that all your senses have been completely fooled by the filter. For all intents and purposes, you're here in... where are we, Amy?"

"Leadworth, England," Kate declared. "Back on Earth."

"How'd you know that?"

"Amy and I grew up here – we know the place like the back of our hand."

Amy remained silent, contemplating something. Perception filter... "So," she began, "This isn't a dream? You two aren't fooling around inside my head?"

"No, more a shared virtual reality. Why?" Iverson couldn't help but be curious. "Not a fan of people poking around your brain?"

"None of your business," Amy shot back. "OK. So this is a... a shared virtual reality. That's fine, but how is this a training ground?"

"Well, that's the thing – it's virtual. You can simulate anything you like in here, including a battle. But since it's virtual, you can die without, well, actually dying. Rather useful."

"But why Leadworth? Why... my house?"

"It defaults to the place you're most familiar with. You're the controller of this scenario, Amy. You decide where we are, who exists here, what the rules are."

"So if I want us to be in the TARDIS-"

And they were. Right in the middle of the console room, the time rotor whirring merrily as it always did.

"Wow. Now that's cool," Kate declared, impressed by the instant change in their apparent location. Amy, however, was thinking.

"So do I just control the location, or-"

"You control everything," Iverson replied. "If you want a cupcake, think it and it'll appear. If you want to turn off gravity, think it and we'll float into the air – but don't do that now," he added quickly, "In fact, leave the physics normal until we're ready. But that's not all – you control the passage of time, too, in terms of how much time in the real world passes for every second that passes here. No need to play with that, though, since we won't notice it while we're here."

"How fast will it go, then? Is it like an Inception like thing, where a few minutes pass for every hour in the real world?"

He didn't understand the reference, but the question was obvious enough. "No one's mind is that strong, not even yours. But I'd imagine that time would pass at several times faster than normal in here. So a few seconds here is one second back in reality. We can spend a lot of time here and not miss too much."

This was all well and good, but... "Why me? Why not you?"

"Your mind is the special one, Amy. The scenarios you create will be far more detailed than anything I can create – in fact, you'll struggle to tell the difference between this and the real world. That is, until you start playing with the physics," he grumbled, as Amy had decided to start playing with the gravity, causing the three to float up towards the roof. She chuckled, and righted everyone again.

"OK. So how do we leave if we want to?"

"Just say 'I want to leave' in your head and the filter will deactivate. If one of us does it, it'll just be us that leaves, but for you it'll obviously shut down the whole scenario."

"Right. Let's get cracking, then."

Iverson raised his eyebrows. "I'd have thought you'd want to rest, it's getting quite-"

"I don't sleep. Although you can go if you want to, Kate."

The blonde narrowed her eyes. "Hell, no. I want a piece of this party."

Iverson shook his head. "Well, then, I guess we better get started..."

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