Amy and Ginny's Choices - Part Two
I woke up back on the Tardis to the melodic sound of the Doctor shouting in agony. He must've just kicked the console and gotten his comeuppance.
"Never use force! You just embarrass yourself," he said pacing across the glass floor, "Unless you're cross in which case… always use force!"
"Quote of the day right there," I mumbled as I got to my feet again, "Should I even bother asking if you still have the manual, Doc?"
"Nope! I threw it in a supernova," he said trotting down the stairs.
"You threw the manual in a supernova? Why?" Amy asked.
"Because I disagreed with it. Stop talking to me when I'm cross!"
"Okay!" Rory exclaimed sounding one hundred and ten percent done with everything, "But whatever's wrong with the Tardis, is that what caused us to dream about the future?"
"Sure, if it was the future that all of us were dreaming of," I said, "I'm kinda doubtful that it was the future though."
"Of course it was. We were in Leadworth," Amy said.
"Upper Leadworth," Rory corrected, which earned him an annoyed look from Amy.
"Well whatever Leadworth it was, for some reason me and Amy were related in the dream and we aren't in real life. So how could it be the future?"
Amy thought for a second, "Adoption?"
To be fair I hadn't thought of that route, but it did make sense. I couldn't give it much more though before a wrench of sorts was thrust into my hand by a rather flustered Time Lord.
"Whatever the case, we could still be in Upper Leadworth dreaming of this. Don't you get it?" the Doctor asked no one in particular.
Amy looked at her wrench then back up at the Doctor, "No, okay? No, this is real. I'm definitely awake now."
"And you thought you were awake when you were all…" he brought up his arms to depict being larger, "elephanty."
"Hey!" Amy held the wrench like a knife aimed toward the Doctor, "Pregnant."
It was at this point that Thomas decided to speak up, making me jump because I had almost forgotten he was right behind me.
"Okay, everyone seems a bit tense from everything that's been happening. And for good reason! Maybe we should just…" he slowly tilted Amy's wrench away from the Doctor, "calm down a bit and act like rational adults?"
"You're absolutely right Thomas, but Amy could be giving birth right now. This could be the dream," the Doctor said, "I told you. Trust nothing we see, or hear, or feel. Look around you. Examine everything. Look for all the details that don't ring true." It was at that moment that he snatched Thomas's set of pliars from him and got back to pacing around the control panel.
"Okay, we're in a spaceship that's bigger on the outside than it is on the inside," Rory said.
"With a bow-tie wearing alien," Amy added.
"And a girl from a parallel universe," Thomas also added, which made me smirk and playfully push him aside.
"So maybe 'what rings true,' isn't so simple," Rory finished.
The Doctor ate his words and by the look on his face they didn't seem to taste very good.
"Valid point," he mumbled, going to flip a switch on the console when suddenly the Tardis whirred rather unenthusiastically. All of the lights flickered slightly before shutting off entirely, leaving us in near-total darkness. A feeling of dread sank deep into the pit of my stomach, and unconsciously I reached out for a hand to hold. To my surprise, Thomas didn't even hesitate to take it in his.
"She's dead," I croaked.
"We're in a dead time machine," the Doctor said.
The birdsong started up again, and instinctively I squeezed Thomas's hand and went to sit on the floor.
"Remember this is real. When we wake up in the other place remember how real this feels."
"It's real. I know it's real," was the last thing I heard Amy say before I drifted off.
Something cold had just made its home on my nose when I woke up in Leadworth again. Upon looking up at the clouds I realized that the cold thing was a snowflake, and that a slight flurry was happening. Instinctively and despite the circumstances I smiled wide and stood from the bench.
"Thomas it's snowing!" I said, sticking my tongue out in an attempt to catch a snowflake. I kept my eyes on the sky and moved from one place to another before I accidentally bumped into someone rather tall, and rather handsome the more I thought about it.
No wonder I was marrying him in this reality, Part of me thought.
He's! Just! A! Friend! The louder part of my head chanted relentlessly.
"S-sorry about that," I managed to say, "It's just… I hardly ever saw snow back home so any chance I get to see it, I get a bit excited."
Thomas smiled warmly and giggled, "You're such a dork, Ginny. A cool dork, but a dork nonetheless."
I laughed awkwardly at first but it grew more genuine after a bit. Then we just stood there for a bit, rather close together but neither of us seemed to mind or even care for that matter. That is of course, until a whistle in our direction caught our attention.
"Oi, lovebirds! Care to join us?" Amy called over. I suddenly became very aware of how close I was standing next to Thomas and quickly backed up.
"We should probably head inside," I said, starting to catch up with Amy and then I remembered, "Oh shoot!"
"What is it?" Thomas asked.
"I missed one of my favorite lines from the show! Dangit!"
"You really are a dork, dude." Thomas chuckled as he held the door to the senior center open for me.
"You don't seem to mind too much though," I said, winking as I went inside.
The warmth of the senior center hit me like a truck as I began hurriedly taking off my coat. It had to be as hot as a summer day inside, and while a nice change from the damp cold Upper Leadworth had to offer, it was enough to make me break a sweat after only a few seconds.
That's not to say the seniors weren't lovely people though. They had taught be how to crochet and even helped me make a nice blanket for the newest Pond family member; whenever they decide to pop out that is.
"Ginny dear! We weren't expecting you until Thursday. And where's all of your yarn?" Mrs. Wallis asked.
"I wasn't exactly planning this visit Mrs. Wallis. We had a friend drop by last minute so we're showing him around," I said, taking a seat next to her on the plastic-covered sofa, "What're you working on today?"
"A new pair of socks for my granddaughter. She's already outgrown the last pair!"
"Well, children do tend to do that quite a bit while they're young."
"Say, what's your friend doing with Geraldine?"
Sure enough when I turned to face the Doctor, he was inches away from Mrs. Poggit's face.
"You're incredibly old, aren't you?" he asked her.
"Wow, Doc. That's a bit," a yawn broke my sentence, "rich coming from you, yeah?"
I rested my head on the arm of the couch as I began hearing the birds again.
Back in the Tardis it was a whole lot colder than Upper Leadworth ever got. Regret for wearing a tank top and shorts was pretty much instant as I hugged myself in an effort to retain some heat. To my surprise though, everyone except me and Thomas were on their feet. The way they were anxiously walking around the main console was not surprising though.
"Okay, I hate this, Doctor. Stop it, because this is definitely real. It's definitely this one," Amy said, then realized what she was saying, "I keep saying that, don't I?"
"Like a ginger broken record, Amy," I said, getting to my feet and shivering the whole way, "Doc, where are the blankets? I'm freezing!"
"Yeah, it's bloody cold!" Rory chimed in.
"The heating's off," The Doctor said from the balcony above the console.
"Oh really?" I said sarcastically.
"Yeah. Put on a jumper. That's what I always do."
"Well, I would if I had one!"
I walked down the steps looking for the crate which had all the blankets in it. I'd seen this episode so many times one would think I'd know the exact location, but alas. For the life of me I couldn't find any sort of crate like the one I was looking for.
"Sorry about Mrs. Poggit. She's so lovely though," Rory said. The Doctor peered down at the four of us through a small porthole in the wall.
"I wouldn't believe her 'nice old lady' act if I were you," he said in a very serious tone.
"What do you mean 'act'?" Amy asked. She never got an answer though as the Doctor placed his attention back on the Tardis. And my attention had just been taken by a sudden, "Think fast!" on Thomas's part followed by a mountain of fleece hitting me in the face.
"What the hell?" I managed from underneath the blanket. Thomas unveiled me and wrapped the blanket around my shoulders.
"You said you wanted a blanket," he said in between laughs, "There's a whole chest of them over there."
He pointed behind him where lo and behold and open crate bursting with fabric rested.
"You'd think that with how many times I've seen this control room I'd know where that was, but nope," I said, feigning embarrassment, "I must've left my brain in the library."
"Everything's off," the Doctor announced coming down the stairs, "Sensors, core power. We're drifting. The scanner's down so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere. Someone, something, is overriding my controls!"
Speak of the devil, I thought, knowing full well who was about to make his entrance.
"Well, that took awhile," a new voice said. We all turned to face whoever just spoke, only to be met by a short, balding man in what looked like a bootleg version of the Doctor's outfit.
"Honestly, I'd heard such good things," he continued, "'Last of the Time Lords', 'the Oncoming Storm', 'Him in the bowtie'."
"How did you get into my Tardis? What are you?" the Doctor asked.
"Blimey, I'm surprised she didn't tell you I'd be arriving," the shorter man said looking over at me and waving, "What do you think, Ginny? If he's the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord."
"Nice cosplay," I said, looking at the Dream Lord's outfit.
"Thanks, but I'm not really convinced on the look as a whole," he said, then looked to the Doctor, "Bow ties?"
It almost seemed like the Doctor took personal offense to the remark as he retrieved a squash ball from his jacket pocket and threw it at the Dream Lord, but the ball just phased right through him like he was a hologram.
"Interesting," the Dream Lord remarked, "I'd love to be impressed, but 'Dream Lord'. It's in the name, isn't it? Spooky. Not quite there."
He suddenly disappeared only to reappear right next to me, which made me jump back and crash into Thomas, only to quickly find a place between him and Rory.
"And yet very much here," the Dream Lord finished.
"I'll do the talking, thank you," the Doctor said, stepping in front of the Dream Lord, "Girls, want to take a guess at what that is?"
"Bold of you to assume one of them even needs to guess," the Dream Lord said.
"Aren't you supposed to be shutting up now?" I asked him, "Amy, wanna take this one?"
"Sure. Er, Dream Lord. He creates dreams," she said.
"Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks," the Doctor elaborated.
"And what about the gooseberry or the extras here. Do they get a guess?" the Dream Lord said.
"Er, listen mate, if anyone's the gooseberry round here, it's the Doctor," Rory said.
"Yeah, and we play as much of a role on this ship as anyone, right Ginny?" Thomas asked.
"Absolutely!" I said, giving him a quick and rather out-of-context fist bump.
"Well, there's one delusion I'm not responsible for," the Dream Lord said.
"No, he is. Isn't he Amy?" Rory asked.
"Oh, Amy. You have to sort your men out. Choose, even."
"I have chosen. Of course I have chosen," Amy said confidently, before hitting Rory to prove any of his doubts wrong, "It's you, stupid!"
"Oh good. Thanks," he said.
The Dream Lord teleported to the other side of our group.
"You can't fool me," he said, "I've seen your dreams. Some of them twice, Amy. Blimey, I'd blush…if I had a blood supply… or an actual face."
The Doctor took a few steps forward until he was nearly face-to-face with the Dream Lord.
"Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?" the Doctor asked.
"Me?" the Dream Lord asked, "Oh, you're on shaky ground."
"Am I?"
"If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a Tawdry Quirk Shop," the Dream Lord said, "The madcap vehicle, the cockamamie hair, the clothes designed by a first-year fashion student. I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space dog just to ram home what an intergalactic wag you are."
At this point I raised an eyebrow. "And you think you're any better?" I asked.
"And here I thought being all-knowing meant you didn't have to ask questions," the Dream Lord shot back, "Where was I?"
"You were—" Rory started before the Dream Lord teleported to the balcony.
"I know where I was!" the Dream Lord said, "So, here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot. One is real, the other's fake. And to make it more interesting, you're going to face in both worlds a deadly danger, but only one of the dangers is real. Ooo, and to make it even more interesting, I'll be placing your Dungeon Master of sorts and her boyfriend on the other side of the ship so that you can't get any help from her."
"Wait what?!" I exclaimed just before I found myself being transported into a different part of the Tardis. I couldn't even get my bearings before I found myself toppling to the ground as the birdsong played out and I drifted off.