He lurked in the shadows, as he had done the majority of her life. The memory of her growing within Amy was fresh in his mind as he stared on. If only he had gone to her when she first found out. If only he had made the braver choice. He had been afraid, all those years ago, to step forward and meet her. He had been to frightened of what would come to his beloved Amy Pond when she birthed his half Time Lord child. Would she survive? And what if she didn't, what would he do then? A child running around the TARDIS was not something he foresaw in his future. But it had been his moment of weakness that caused this, not hers. None of the blame was upon the shoulders of Amy Pond, to him. It all was resting upon his.

She was just as he had always imagined, her beauty sent straight from her mother. All of Amelia's characteristics were present within her, all but those eyes and her hair. Her smile was Amy's, her laugh was Amy's, even her stance was Amy's, just as fiery as he had hoped. But those eyes, they were all him, and that dark hair had to have come from him too. She had part of the monster that he was within her, she had part of the burden and he'd have to help her along someday. She was part Time Lord after all and he knew what that entailed. Two hearts, just as his, but a regeneration would never occur. She would progressively grow as any child should until she reached her prime age, in which case she'd never change.

Then he'd take her with him. He'd have to. Amy would be heart broken and he'd have to find a way to leave her behind because he could not dare have her aboard the TARDIS again. For if he did, he wasn't sure he could ever let himself watch her leave again.

"Eden, come on then," she muttered from across the museum as their child ran from picture to picture, her bouncing curls painting a beautiful picture for him. He only want to run and hold her in his arms, something he had been aching to do since the moment he first laid eyes on her. She was four now, much advanced for her age according to the humans but just as she should be for a half Time Lord child. Amy's hand reached out for hers but the child ran on. It was then that he took notice of to where. Her swift legs were carrying her right to where he was hidden.

He tried to escape tried to turn away, no matter which way he moved Amy would see him. 'Hadn't thought this entirely through,' he thought as he froze, his hands finding his sides and clenching into fists. She wouldn't know who he was, she would think him a strange man. 'But I don't want her to think me a strange man,' it broke his heart to watch her slow, to see a realization in her eyes that he dreaded and all he had to do was wait for the words. "Why are you hiding, Doctor?"

'Doctor? No, she did not just say Doctor...' Amy was running towards Eden, her long legs carrying her uneasily as she tried to stay calm. Four and a half years she waited for him to return, minutes upon hours, hours upon days until she couldn't count any longer. He had left her high and dry and she could not blame him. She knew what she had been getting into, she knew the consequences of traveling with the Doctor and she knew, better than anyone, how much it hurt loving him.

Her eyes first met his hair, still the same jumbled, dark mess it'd always been. At times she was grateful that Eden had inherited her unruly curls rather than his hair. Now, she couldn't exactly see why. It was as beautiful as she had remembered and went perfect with the bowtie he still adorned. She gazed upon the tweed jacket and the hiking boots and adverted her gaze before she found his eyes. Those she couldn't look into. Then she'd know that it was all real. She wondered how long it had been for him, how long he had been without her.

"I'm not hiding, just watching." His voice was just as she could recall, deep with it's British brogue yet so beautiful and enticing. The words would not come to her, her mind only a jumbled mess of reactions. Her first was to embrace him and hold him close, as she had wanted to do since the moment the TARDIS disappeared before her. The second, was to slap him. Hard. She wanted him to feel pain, to understand how devastated she had been all these years. And the last was to remain as she was, motionless. If she didn't move, if she hardly breathed then no harm could come of her. Maybe if was just another of her dreams, just another break in her bravado, her weakness being the Doctor.

Her fiery red hair was just as he remembered, to him she hadn't changed a bit. She hadn't change...that's what frightened him. Four years and a child would have changed even the most resilient of people and yet Amy Pond looked as if she was the same from the moment he left her. "Amy?" He questioned as he stepped forward completely, all traces of shadow gone from his visage. "Amelia Pond." He grabbed her hands, or what he could of them before she took a swing at him. All eyes upon them as hand contacted with face in a brutal battle. "What was that for?"

She had decided to take the second instinct. It expressed her feelings most swimmingly to her. If only she could make it worse. "What was that for? What was that for? Oh, you are glad that is all you received." And she turned, trying her hardest to leave before the Doctor decided to speak again but she wouldn't have that luxury, not with Eden before her.

Yeah or no? I wanted to make it a full length story. I can continue if you like :)

Reviews please.

-Rae.