December 1937/January 1938
On December 31, 1937, it was decided to let Rory and the other better-behaved humans up onto the roof so they could watch the New Year's fireworks in the distance over Times Square. _Don't worry about the cold,_ Gabrielle had typed when she explained it. _I can spare some temporal energy. Just stand close to me and I'll keep you warm._
"Gabrielle! That almost sounds like a proposition. What would Amy say?"
_Probably, "Watch your hands, you stone-faced hussy, or I'll come at you with a hammer and chisel."_
Rory chuckled. "She would. I can hear her saying that. That was very good."
_You've done a wonderful job of describing her, Rory; I feel like I know her._
And so they stood side-by-side on the roof, Rory in a bathrobe and pajamas, and Gabrielle extending one wing around him, allowing the warmth from her body to take the bite off the chill night air.
Fireworks silently leapt into the sky, then the noise reached them.
Rory grinned. "Happy New Y-"
Blue lightening crackled overhead, and a scraping roaring sound echoed over the roof as the ground shook. Then all was quiet except for the noise of the fireworks.
"Hello, Doctor." He turned to Gabrielle. "We have to talk. Your office."
8
8
In Gabrielle's small office, they sat on opposite sides of her typing desk, the typewriter between them.
"I have to tell you what happened when I came back," Rory said. "It's important that you know, Gabrielle. It matters so much. You have no idea…"
He trailed off; his breathing had grown labored the last few weeks. Then he looked up at her and said, "We got to the room. The Doctor told us not to look, but it was too late. I saw the old me die. The Doctor told me what would happen. But they hadn't got me yet. So I said, 'What if I run? And that never happens?' The Doctor said I had just witnessed my own future. But River said if I got out it would create a paradox and kill all the angels. Then Amy and I ran for it.
"We were chased up to the roof, and that's where I saw the Statue of Liberty. I'd always wanted to visit her, but she couldn't wait. Typical woman. Anyway, I got the idea that if I jumped off the roof and died before I could be sent back, that would also create a paradox. And I'd come back to life because River said this place would never happen, so what did I jump off of? But I was too scared. I couldn't do it. I asked Amy to push me. She wouldn't and asked me if I could do it if it was her. I told her that to save her I could do anything. She climbed on the edge next to me and said, 'Prove it.'
"I said, 'I can't take you.'
"She said, 'You said we'd come back to life. Together or not at all.'
"The Doctor and River came up the fire escape. The Doctor shouted, 'What the hell are you doing?' Then the sign blinked. I heard footsteps and felt hands grab me. I…lost my grip on Amy. The light came on just long enough for me to see her fall off the roof. I was screaming. I saw other angels had pounced on River and the Doctor. The lights went out and they were gone…"
He trailed off, crying. Then he looked up at Gabrielle. "Just like yesterday. Or is it tomorrow? Anyway, I told them to get it over with. But they left. The Statue of Liberty, most of the angels on the roof, left. There was just one left. One little angel, looking heartbroken, standing there with her manual typewriter."
He reached across the table and grabbed her hand and said, "You, Gabrielle. It was you. You sent me back. And you were the first one I met when I got here. That tells me you're important. That's the way this works, you see. You have the power to change it. We just needed a few more seconds. If someone had been there at the stop of the stairs, slowing the angels down, Amy and I would have had time to jump. That's all it takes, one person at the right place at the right time doing the right thing…"
The lights blinked—Gabrielle's signal she wanted to say something. Rory spun his chair around. "Sorry I acted like I didn't know you when we met," he said. "Guess that comes with the territory."
When she stopped typing and coughed, Rory turned his chair around. The first line had been x'ed out as she'd started typing and changed her mind. Then he read, _It's all right, Rory, I don't mind how you acted when we met. Time paradoxes are dangerous, and New York seems to be riddled with them. As to you and Amy, I am so terribly, terribly sorry, but there's nothing to be done. You lived it, so it will happen as you remembered. The Doctor was right. A thousand Tardises couldn't generate enough power to create a paradox like that.
_Rory, I hope you realize you are my friend. I care about you a great deal. It hurts me to see you torture yourself like this. I am so very sorry, and I am sorry that I have to be cruel. But what you say is impossible._
Rory rose out of his chair in anger. "Don't you tell me what's impossible!" he sputtered. "I've traveled the universe in a London Police box that's bigger on the inside. I watched the universe blow up and get rebooted. I spent 2000 years guarding a huge box with my wife in it. Hell, I'm talking to someone made of stone! So don't tell me what's impossible. For all we know this is an alternate timeline and-"
The lights went out. When they came back up, two stern-faced angels were standing in the door.
"I know, I know, lights out," Rory said. He turned back to Gabrielle. "Think about what I said."
After Rory and the other angels had gone, Gabrielle puttered around her office, angry and upset. Then she left, willing the lights to blink when she passed another angel in the hall, and went to the icon room. She knelt before it, touched it. ((Your Divinity, I humbly request an audience so I can present a petition.))
She waited, and then heard the answer, ((Approach.))
Her inward vision brought her to the mindspace, this time in a throne room with classical Greek architecture. Gabrielle found herself at the door, Michelle on a throne on a dais at the other end.
Gabrielle rushed to the dais and knelt at the base of its steps. "Your Divinity. Thank you for seeing me."
Michelle was smiling, but it was a cold, forced smile. "Gabrielle, this is most unusual."
"The circumstances are most unusual. I would not be here if it was not important."
"Indeed. Very well. Present your petition."
"Rory Williams, one of my charges. Perhaps you have heard him."
Michelle rolled her eyes. "Every choir in the Host has heard of him! Gabrielle and her pet human, Rory. It's part of the reason Winter Quay has been a hard sell. Anyway, continue."
"Rory told me the circumstances of his being sent back. It's going to happen later this year, April I think. During the melee, Rory's wife will fall off the roof and die on the street. It sounds like an accident, but it is still our responsibility. So I…request that when the time comes, Rory's present self and his wife be given a proper burial in accordance with human traditions."
Michelle rose to her feet and went down the steps to loom over the other angel. "Are you mad!? We've already disposed of dozens of humans in the basement crematorium. Why should Mr. Williams be any different? Apart from the obvious."
"With all due respect, we usually cremate the bodies because they have friends and family still outside Winter Quay; we have to dispose of the evidence so no one can find them. Rory's situation is different because his family will be here and we will decimate them while he watches. We will be responsible and we must make amends, even if there is no one alive to see it. That is a matter of honor for the Host."
"I see. And why must you be his advocate?"
"Someone has to."
"Even if you are a laughingstock in the Host?"
"I don't care about such things, Your Divinity."
"I can see that." Michelle pondered. "Well, on the one hand, this is clearly a matter of favoritism on your part," she said as she returned to her throne. "Don't insult my intelligence by denying it. This project has enough of a credibility problem as it is, and this will only make it worse. On the other hand, you raised an important issue about human families that I had not considered. And there is something to be gained by demonstrating our beneficence." She paused. "We will consider your petition. You may go."
8
8
Rory wasn't in a talkative mood for a few days. So she let the situation lie while she waited for word on the petition and asked some of the angels who hadn't given her too hard a time if they knew anything about the Doctor and River. ((They are time travelers,)) she pointed out, ((so he could still be in the past even though it's his personal future.)) Then Gabrielle received word that Michelle had accepted her petition and that after Rory died, arrangements would be made to bury him and Amy together. Information about the Doctor appeared at almost the same time.
Gabrielle waited two more days to tell Rory. After he finished dinner one night, she blinked the lights. He nodded. She went to her typewriter and wrote, _Rory, I have some good news. When you die, arrangements will be made to bury you and Amy together. I know it's not what you want but it is the best I can do._
He read it, looked at her, and finally nodded. "All right."
_I also made some inquiries about the Doctor. It's hard to make sense of, because of time paradoxes and all, but it looks like he'll retroactively arrange to facilitate his escape from wherever we send him to. It's hard to pick up the trail, but some of the girls think he was spotted in Victorian London. So that is some good news at least._
Rory looked at the angel who was smiling hesitantly. "Well…if that's your best…" He grinned, but his eyes held disappointment. "Thanks. Now if you don't mind, I'm tired. I'd like to go to bed."
_All right, Rory. I'll clean up. Good night._
8
8
As the humans went to sleep, Gabrielle went to the laundry room to stock up on clean linens and bedsheets. She usually worked there alone, so the lights were on all the time and she didn't expect to be frozen.
So she was surprised when the lights went down and Lucielle appeared in front of her.
((Gabrielle, we have to talk.))
The lights went down, a hand touched hers, and Gabrielle found herself in their quantum mindspace, facing an angry Lucielle.
Lucille pushed Gabrielle back against a crystal spire. "Gabrielle, have you gone mad?"
"What are you talking about?"
"What do you mean, what am I talking about? Making a big deal about burying your favorite ape, that's what! Are you trying to ruin this place for us?"
"I'm trying to do the decent thing!"
"You've become too involved with them."
"How can you not become involved at all?"
"I don't recall you getting all weepy when we were hunting, Gabrielle."
"That was different, Lucielle. That was an exchange. We take their tomorrows from them, and repay them with a life in the past as good as the one they have or better. In exchange for their time energy, we give them a gift. At least that's the way it should be. Remember that kid from the west end?"
"The one who started praying to us when he stumbled on us? That was so easy I almost wanted to throw him back."
"He was saying, 'If you get me out of this, I'll go on the straight and narrow.' He was glad to see us because he thought we'd answered his prayers. I sent him back. And then his grandson-"
"—showed up at the alley to thank us for the life he'd been given. I remember!"
"That was one thing, Lucielle. But this…" Gabrielle trailed off.
"You were the one who was big on coming here, Gabrielle. You said instead of hoping they could get a good life, we could actually provide it."
"That was then, Lucielle. Now, I'm not so sure. And look at Rory. He's had to spend 40 years living among the very beings who for all intents and purposes slaughtered his family while he watched. There's no way he could properly go through the grief. And now that poor man has deluded himself into thinking something impossible will happen. Maybe you can be unaffected by it. I can't. You want to mock me or condemn me for it, fine."
"Look, this place could really turn into something good for us. Rumor has it that one or two of the other archangels are giving this place a second look. They're open to the idea that Winter Quay may not be such a daft idea after all; they're willing to give Michelle a chance to persuade them. And the way I hear it, Michelle has big plans for this place. Really big. This could be the place to be, and we've been here practically since day one! But if things go her way, there's no limit to the opportunities open to us. If we play our cards right, we could even get promoted to Archangel."
"What!? It's been two million years since anyone's been promoted! Just how reliable is your source?"
"Reliable enough for me to think that we may one day hear 'Their Dvinities Gabrielle and Lucielle,' but not if someone make us a laughingstock by going all mother-hen over her apes. Humans breed like crazy and are gone in a hundred years, max. Bunch of walking oil slicks with delusions of grandeur if you ask me. They're ephemeral; apart from the food they give us they don't matter. But we're eternal. The Host is eternal. It matters. And this choir in this place, this could have us set for life as your precious humans say. So the next time you feel like embarrassing yourself over your beloved Rory or whichever one catches your fancy, just remember that he'll be gone soon, but I won't. And I don't want you to ruin this for us. You hear me?"
Gabrielle was taken aback, but wouldn't let herself be intimidated. "Yes, Lucielle. I hear you."