Chapter Fourteen:

Once the TARDIS had materialized, they exited in single form; Amy, then Scarlett, and then the Doctor. They had landed in Amy's room at her request and Scarlett instantly felt at home. She had spent a lot of time there, after all.

Scarlett was proud of Amy for what she was about to do. Granted, she did kind of talk her into it but if she didn't tell him now, she never would. And that wasn't fair. Not to her, and certainly not to Rory.

It was the same night they had left to go off gallivanting with the Doctor and everything was still the same. Scarlett's hairdryer lay on the ground near the bed along with the shoes she was wearing that same day. Amy's white wedding dress hung on the closet next to Scarlett's red maid of honour dress. They complimented each other well. Sort of like she and Amy.

"Well!" said the Doctor as he and Amy took a seat on the bed.

"Yeah!" Amy nodded, clearly amused at the Doctor's reaction. The poor thing looked baffled.

"Blimey!"

"I know. This is the same night we left, yeah?"

The Doctor glanced at his watch. "We've been gone five minutes."

Amy leaned over to grab a box from her beside cabinet and opened it to show the Doctor the ring perched inside. "I'm getting married in the morning."

Scarlett leaned against the outside of the TARDIS with her arms folded as the Doctor took the box from Amy's hands. "Why did you leave it here?"

"Why did I leave my engagement ring when I ran away with a strange man the night before my wedding?"

"Yeah," he answered simply.

"You really are an alien, aren't you?"

"Who's the lucky fella?" the Doctor asked.

"You met him," Scarlett spoke up.

"Ah, the good looking one? Or the other one?" he paused to mimic having a large nose and Scarlett snorted. She loved Rory but he was practically her older brother so she was allowed to tease him every now and then.

"The other one," Amy said, half offended and half amused as she hit the Doctor's arm playfully.

"Well, he was good, too."

"Thanks," Amy paused. "So, do you comfort a lot of people on the night before their wedding?"

Scarlett frowned. Why would she need comforting?

"Why would you need comforting?" the Doctor asked.

Okay, that was weird.

"Scarlett nearly died. She was alone in the dark and she nearly died. And the way you helped her, comforted her… it made me think."

Scarlett's frown deepened. Oh, Amy, don't do this.

"Well, yes, natural. I think sometimes. Well, lots of times…" the Doctor rambled.

"About what I want. About… who I want. You know what I mean?" Amy pressed on.

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded. "No."

Scarlett smiled slightly at him. He was sweet when he was confused.

"About who…" Amy nodded her head slightly towards him. "I want."

"Oh, right, yeah… No, still not getting it."

"Doctor, in a word, in one very simple word even you can understand…" Amy dragged off as she practically climbed on top of him.

Scarlett's eyes widened and the Doctor pushed her away, climbing over to the brunette. "You're getting married in the morning!" he yelled.

Amy rolled her eyes, following him and pushing him back against the TARDIS. Scarlett stepped to the side, watching them closely. She was filled with anger, confusion and… what was that? It felt like jealousy but it couldn't be. It wasn't like she was in love with Amy or anything… so why was she feeling like this? Maybe she was just feeling this jealousy for Rory… Rory! How could Amy do this to him?

"The morning's a long time away. What are going to do about that?" She pulled down his braces and he immediately tugged them back up.

"Listen to me. I'm 907 years old. Do you understand what that means?"

"It's been a while?"

If this were any other situation, Scarlett probably would've laughed. But at that moment, she couldn't.

"No, no, no. I'm 907 and look at me. I don't get older, I just change. You get older. I don't, and this can't ever work," the Doctor tried again, pushing her further away.

"Oh, you are sweet, Doctor. But I really wasn't suggesting anything quite so… long term," she leaned in to kiss him and Scarlett involuntarily stepped between them, pushing her away herself.

"Amy!" Scarlett snapped. Her blood was practically boiling and it took everything in her to hold back.

"What?" she asked, her face the picture of innocence.

"Rory?" Scarlett questioned simply, and Amy's expression changed immediately.

"Oh, come on, Scar," she mumbled weakly. "Don't use that against me. It's the night before my wedding; I'm allowed to have a little fun!"

Scarlett frowned, shaking her head in disbelief at how utterly dense her friend could be sometimes. "Yeah, you're allowed to get drunk, eat a lot, and maybe hire a stripper, but you're not allowed to have sex with someone else!"

"But –"

"No buts!" Scarlett cut her off. "Rory is your fiancé and he's practically my brother. I won't let you do this to him, or to yourself. You know you'll regret this."

Amy opened her mouth to retort before closing it again, making her look like a goldfish. "No, you're right…" She looked down at the floor, ashamed, as if she were a child that had just got a telling off. Scarlett took a deep breath, feeling herself calm down a little. Taking a step closer to her, Scarlett reached out to take her hand.

Lowering her voice so that the Doctor – who had been watching everything with wide eyes – couldn't hear, she spoke again. "Look, I'm sorry for yelling at you," Scarlett was younger than Amy (only by a few months but still) and she had never yelled at her before; at least not to that extent. "I just didn't want you to do anything you'll regret, or to lose Rory. You two are perfect for each other."

A smile crept onto Amy's lips and she nodded slightly. "Yeah, I know. Thank you, Scarlett," She glanced up at the Doctor who immediately dropped his gaze, pretending he hadn't been listening to everything. "Can you meet me in my room? I want to talk to you about something." Scarlett nodded and, after giving her hand a gentle squeeze, Amy wandered back into the TARDIS.

Sheepishly, Scarlett made her way to the doors where the Doctor was standing, and they both walked into the console room together. Amy was already gone, presumably to her room like she had said.

"I'm sorry you had to hear me yell," Scarlett said to the Doctor.

The Doctor chuckled and shook his head. "I think the whole thing was more embarrassing for me than it was for you."

Scarlett considered this for a moment before laughing. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Do you think we should maybe go pick him up?" the Doctor asked as he ran around the console, flicking switches and turning levers.

"Who? Rory?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Maybe it would do Amy some good… and the rest of us, now that I think about it."

"Yeah, I don't see why not. I do miss him and I'm sure Amy does, too."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at that.

"She just doesn't show it very well," Scarlett added, causing him to smile.

"Well, go on. She wants to speak to you, doesn't she?"

Now it was her eyebrows that were raised. "Oh, eavesdropping, were we?"

"No!" he answered indignantly and she folded her arms, just waiting until he broke, "Alright, maybe. I wanted to know if you were talking about me or not."

"Not everything is about you, Doctor dear," Scarlett grinned.

"Oh, you know that's not true," he replied with a grin of his own.

Scarlett rolled her eyes, and turned to leave when the Doctor spoke again. "By the way, I think you're going to look beautiful in that dress."

Scarlett paused. She hadn't realised he had even noticed her dress. He was so baffled by Amy's that she thought he was focusing solely on that. Clearly, she was wrong. Scarlett felt her cheeks heat up as a blush crept onto her face.

Turning round slightly to look at him, Scarlett smiled again, the gratitude evident in her eyes. "Goodnight, Doctor."

"Goodnight," he replied with his eyes sparkling.

After leaving the Doctor, Scarlett made her way to Amy's room. The TARDIS helped guide her there and she was extremely grateful. There was one time when she and Amy had tried to find the kitchen, and they ended up at the pool… Since then, the sentient time machine had been helping them through.

Raising her hand, Scarlett knocked on the door five times in a little pattern she and Amy had decided on when they were younger. It was how Scarlett knew Amy was outside her door, or how Amy knew Scarlett was outside hers. The door opened immediately and Amy grabbed her arm, pulling her in with a smile, "Finally! What took you so long?"

"I was just saying goodnight to the Doctor," Scarlett explained. "You're not angry with me, are you?"

"What? No. You were right, anyway. I was being a complete idiot and I'm glad you stopped me. But c'mon, that's not what I wanted to talk about," she grinned, pulling Scarlett down onto the bed next to her.

"Alright, alright," Scarlett laughed. "What is it, then?"

Amy looked at her for a moment before saying, "Are you in love with the Doctor?"

"What?"

"Are you in love with the Doctor?" she repeated.

Scarlett stared at her, thinking that at any moment she would start laughing and say it was a joke, or that Ashton Kutcher would burst out of her closet telling her she'd just been PUNK'd.

"How can I be in love with him?" Scarlett asked. "I barely know him."

"Alright, fine. Not love then. But you like him, yeah?"

"Amy, what are you talking about?"

"It's just… when you were telling me off earlier. You were angry, I could see that, but there was something else. It's like you were jealous. And you're definitely not jealous of the Doctor so it was directed at me, right? You were jealous because I was trying to snog him?"

"I was jealous for Rory," she reasoned, but even she knew how stupid that sounded. "I felt bad for him."

Amy raised her eyebrows. "Oh, come on. Do you at least find him attractive?"

"Rory? Ew, no," Scarlett said before realising who she was talking to. "I mean, not 'ew'. He's lovely and very good-looking and all that, but he's one of my best friends. That's disgusting."

"Not Rory, you idiot," Amy laughed. "The Doctor; do you think he's attractive?"

Scarlett bit down on her lower lip as she thought. Did she think the Doctor was attractive? She wasn't sure. She supposed his hair was quite cute. She liked guys with hair long enough for her to run her fingers through. Not that she would do that to the Doctor or anything… And then there were his eyes. Scarlett hadn't noticed it until a few moments before, but when he was happy, they practically sparkled. Alright, 10 points for both hair and eyes. Now, his dress sense… It wasn't exactly what you'd expect a guy to wear but it sort of worked. If anybody else wore a tweed jacket with braces, Scarlett would've laughed and walked in the other direction but they actually kind of suited him. He may not be the conventional idea of good-looking but to Scarlett… yeah, he was.

"No," she lied.

"What do you think of his bowtie?" Amy asked.

Scarlett raised an eyebrow at the question but answered it nonetheless. "I don't know. I think it's cool."

"Aha!" she said, jabbing a finger in her direction. "So you do find him attractive!"

"What?"

"Nobody in their right mind would like that bowtie, but you do. I don't even like it and you saw what I tried to do out there."

"Alright, so I find him attractive. So what?" Scarlett asked.

Amy rolled her eyes at her friend's incompetence. "The first step is attraction. The second step is affection."

Scarlett grinned widely as Amy quoted… her. She had said those exact words to the ginger a few years ago when Amy came to her, freaking out over the fact that she had woken up and suddenly had the urge to snog Rory's face off.

"And where did you hear that?" Scarlett asked.

"From a very wise woman," Amy grinned, giving Scarlett's shoulder a small nudge before flopping back onto her bed. Scarlett shrugged and followed suit so that they were both lying on their backs, gazing up at the ceiling.

"You'll fall in love with him eventually and I'll be right there to say I told you so," Amy said, continuing our conversation.

"You think you know everything," Scarlett laughed.

"Well, I know that you don't usually trust people so easily, but you knew that the Doctor would fix everything. Back when we saw that Angel on tape, you said the Doctor would save us. And you were right. I know that you believed in him before you had even met him and I saw how happy you were when he came back for us," Amy said and Scarlett nodded slowly in realisation. She was right. She did do all of those things. "And I know that you get all hot and bothered when he goes all 'Trust me, I'm the Doctor'." She lowered her voice then in an attempt to mimic the Time Lord.

Scarlett burst out laughing at her miserable attempt and before long, Amy was laughing along with her. Scarlett clutched her stomach as Amy wiped away the tears in her eyes.

"We need to be quiet; he's going to hear us!" Scarlett said through laughter.

"This place is huge. He won't be able to," Amy replied with a grin.

"Are you joking? That man's got ears like a bat."

As if by magic, the TARDIS swung the bedroom door open, showing them the Doctor who was crouched slightly with his ear pressed to the wood, clearly listening in.

"Doctor!" Amy frowned, chucking a pillow in his direction as he wandered over to the pair.

"Sorry, sorry! I heard laughter and thought I was missing out," he replied sheepishly.

"That's no excuse," Scarlett answered, lifting an extra pillow and hitting him over the head.

"Oi!" he retorted, but his pout soon turned into a smile as Amy and Scarlett tugged him down onto the bed with them, pelting him with pillows until it dissolved into one big, messy pillow fight.

Half an hour later and Amy's room was covered in feathers that had fallen out of the now busted pillows. Amy and Scarlett lay next to each other, their chests rising and falling as they regained control of their breath. The Doctor lay at the bottom of the bed, his legs dangling off the edge.

"I think it's safe to say we dominated just then," Scarlett said to Amy who nodded in agreement.

"Oh, please. Don't get cocky!" the Doctor said. "I once won a pillow fight against James Dean, y'know."

"Oh, yeah, right!" said Amy sceptically.

"It's true!" pouted the Doctor.

"Nope, I don't believe you," Scarlett said.

"You should trust me you know," the Doctor said and Amy and Scarlett looked at each other with wide eyes, willing him to finish the sentence. "I'm the Doctor."

At his words, Amy and Scarlett dissolved into laughter once more, leaving the Doctor to look on in bewilderment.

A/N: Wow, two updates within the same day. I just felt like this adventure has went on for long enough and now we get to bring in lovely Rory! I hope you're as excited as I am. Xx