Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.
guys. Guys. GUYS! One more week until the 50th anniversary episode! *squees in fangirl delight*
Okay. Back to our previously scheduled broadcast.
"People like me?" Rory scoffed. "People like me? People who go bumbling about through life trying to get a good job to provide for the girl they love and then go bumbling along through time and space because that's what she likes to do? People who are always in over their head and wonder how on earth they ended up where they are?"
"Especially those people," the Doctor grinned. "I always enjoy seeing the ones who thought they were worthless, who thought they could accomplish nothing, come to realize that they have a purpose in this life and it's so much grander and better than they thought it would be."
Rory didn't say anything. He leaned back against the broken column and stared blankly at the Doctor.
Not a good sign, the Doctor thought. "Listen, Rory, I know you're tired and it's been a rough week, but it's not going to get any better if you sit here and ignore the problem. If I've learned anything from the last couple of hundred years, it's that running away solves nothing. Whatever you run from eventually catches up with you."
The man laughed - a harsh, grating sound that did not suit his gentle features. "I'm not running away, Doctor, and everything's already caught up with me. Look around you. And don't tell me that all I have to do is lock these thoughts up behind a door again, because, quite frankly, I have neither the motivation nor the energy to do that again. All of my memories are shattered and I can feel my mind slipping away with them."
"I can help you, Rory, you don't have to do this on your own. But you have to be willing to at least try."
"Why? So that someone else somewhere down the road decides that it'd be fun to go poke around in my head and tear it all to pieces again?"
The Doctor opened his mouth to respond, but a low rumble stopped him. He took his eyes off of Rory in order to examine his surroundings.
Much to his consternation, he saw that the air had grown darker, thicker. The vast array of shades observing them seemed to grow more solid, gathering closer to them. The ground trembled faintly. "Rory, you have to listen to me. Don't let these people win. You have so much to live for, so much to do and see and explore. Don't give up now."
The man grinned faintly. "Don't you see? I already have."
Martha's face grew grimmer by the second as she watched the monitors. It was obvious to everyone in the room, even those who couldn't understand how to read all of the numbers, that something was wrong.
The Doctor, still crouched over Rory, had lost nearly all of the color in his face. His hands trembled against Rory's temples.
"Isn't there something we can do?" Amy asked.
Martha shrugged hopelessly. "It's all a mental connection. I can't do anything here that would help them. We just have to hope that the Doctor can bring him out of whatever state he's in."
Jack came over to Amy and put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, the Doctor will be able to figure this out. He always does."
Amy let a faint, bitter smile cross her face. "Except when it comes to Rory. I don't think he's ever fully understood Rory...but then again, neither have I."
She drummed her fingers on the mattress as she watched the Doctor hunch over her husband a little more. He started to look like he was shrinking up over him. "Have you ever experienced one of these mental connections, Martha?"
The doctor shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not."
Amy glanced at the others, but they only shook their heads. Except for Mickey, who had a rather thoughtful expression on his face. "I haven't experienced it personally, but I did see him do this once before...when Rose traveled with him."
Judging by the varying expressions on everyone's face, Amy guessed this was another important companion to the Doctor - another one that the Doctor never mentioned. They were going to have a long talk when they got out of here.
Her attention snapped to Mickey, who was still talking, " - happened once before, in France, with a woman named Madame du Pompadour. He was trying to find out why these robots were after her, so he started probing her mind - much like what he's doing to Rory now."
Madame du Pompadour. Why wasn't she surprised? "And what happened?"
"I'm not sure exactly, but he seemed surprised because she was able to look into his mind too and that wasn't supposed to be possible...or something like that." Mickey shrugged. "Sorry. At the time, Rose and I were trying to find our way off of a spaceship running on human body parts."
Amy grimaced. What a weird world they all traveled in. But the story gave her hope. "Do you think someone else could establish a mental connection with people who are already connected?"
Jack's hand, which she just now realized had never left her shoulder, tightened its grip on her. "Look, Amy, if you're thinking of -"
She whirled around to face him, breaking his grip on her. "If I'm thinking of joining them in there, then yes, yes I am."
"But we don't know-" Martha tried to interject.
"We don't know how this works? I agree, but I have to do something. I don't have anything else, anyone else. My daughter's already been taken from me, don't you tell me I have to sit by and watch as I lose my husband too." The words came out of her mouth before she could stop them.
The room fell silent as everyone looked at her. She could feel their eyes boring into her, but the only person she cared to make contact with was Martha. "Please, let me at least try. It doesn't look like Rory will listen to the Doctor, but he may listen to me."
Martha shared a glance with her husband and gave a slow nod. "Of course. We're not going to stop you from trying to save him. Just know that we're not entirely certain how this works and we may not be able to help you if something goes wrong."
"I understand. Thank you." With Jack's help, she climbed onto the narrow bed, finding a small section near Rory's shoulder where she could perch and still be able to touch both of the men. "How do you think I should start?"
"Why don't you try touching them to begin with?" Jack suggested.
Amy nodded and put one hand on the Doctor's arm and the other on Rory's shoulder. Then she closed her eyes and concentrated. She tried to think of things that would connect them - adventures they had gone on, memories they'd made - but all that seemed to accomplish was a tour of her own mind. Not the Doctor's and certainly not Rory's.
She sighed and opened her eyes. "Nothing."
"Maybe you should try putting your hands over the Doctor's?" Mickey said. "Join them at their same connection point."
"Ok." But she wasn't enthusiastic this time. After all, she wasn't a time lord. She couldn't enter other people's minds. As her hands pressed down on top of the Doctor's, she couldn't help but feel a bit discouraged. What if she lost both of her boys to this? What would she do then?
And then she scolded herself because even that thought was a selfish one. Not like Rory. He knew how to put others first. Her faithful Roman...
She stood in a broken city, with scattered columns and crumbling temples all around her. The sky was dark red.
She looked down at her hands. They were no longer touching her boys. Did that mean she was successful? Had she made a connection with them?
"Hello?" She called out. "Rory? Doctor? Are you here?"
There was no response, but strange whispers carried through the air, rushing past her, heading towards a temple not too far off. She gingerly began to pick her way through the debris, heading for the temple since it was the only half-stable structure she could see.
The air grew more clouded the closer she came to the temple and she thought she could make out human forms in the mist. Whenever she reached out a hand to touch them, however, they faded and reappeared further away.
She came up to the entrance of the temple, or, at least, she thought it was the entrance, but it was almost too cloudy to see even a few feet in front of her. She put her hand on one of the pillars and edged forwards, trying not to lose her balance on the rough terrain. "Rory? Doctor?"
Again, no response, but the mist seemed to sense her presence and grow almost angry, swirling around her and obscuring her vision even more. I must be getting close.
She stretched out her hands before her and shuffled forward a step at a time. Her eyes were utterly useless now in the dark air, but as she made her way forward, her boot hit something.
"Ow! Rory! No need to get violent!" The Doctor said.
"What on earth do you mean?" And there, there he was. Her Rory.
"Rory!" She knelt on the ground, patting around her to find what she'd hit. It turned out to be the Doctor's leg.
As if the mist sensed there was no good reason to impede her progress since she'd already reached her destination, it pulled back from them, though still swirled around them violently.
The Doctor stared at her. "Amy? H-How did you -?"
She paid no heed to him, all of her attention focused on the man sitting next to the Doctor. "Rory."
He stared at her, but gave no outward sign of recognition or excitement to see her there. It was as if he were trying to decide if he should acknowledge whether she existed or not.
She sat down and grabbed hold of one of his hands, pulling it to her lips even as he tried to pull away. "Rory, I'm here. I'm not going to let you go now - not after all that we've been through together. So if you're thinking about dying in here, giving up on everything, you're taking me with you."