Holding Out for a Hero

Amy

She gasped, choked, coughed up a hefty mouthful of disgusting water from the plant's fetid lagoon, dragged herself over to the nearest tree or vine or anything so that she could grab hold of it to avoid sinking beneath the waves that had been made in the water by the explosion. Still coughing through dirt and mucus, she took gasping, desperate breaths, then rubbed some silt out of her eye (which stung) and tried to find Donna. The swamp was ravaged, smoke pouring out of what had once been the mouth of the great, monstrous weed, which was now quite clearly dead.

"Donna!?" she called, "Don-" She interrupted herself by coughing more, having accidentally swallowed some of the unclean liquid. Desperately she resumed, "Donna!" A sloshing sound, and Donna emerged, wheezing and coughing just like Amy, rising out of the bog with bubbles all around her. "Shit!" The water wasn't so deep, but the waves and the flotsam of human bones was very disorientating, and Amy knew that people could drown in a body of water as small as a puddle. She let go of whatever she'd been clinging to and waded over to help Donna up, dragging her back to to the large, dying vine which had already begun to wither. Donna still choking, Amy slapped her on the back and forced her to hack up a wad of muck, but at least it cleared her airwaves.

"Did it work?" she asked.

"I think so," Amy panted.

"Where's Earhart?"

"Haven't seen her. Amelia?" she shouted, "Amelia!?" Donna joined in the shouting when she got her breath back, but initially got no response. That wasn't good. She could easily drown if she had sunk beneath the water level, or worse, if the plant had actually managed to get her. She had been hanging right above its mouth when the keg exploded…

It was only when they both went quiet that they managed to hear anything, in the form of a faint but very human noise of pain, just audible when the jungle went silent around them. It didn't sound good, and they both headed off in the general direction of the sounds.

"Look, about today," Amy began, "It was a bad idea."

"I don't know," said Donna, "Can't have been a good thing for the human race if nobody ever killed that plant."

"I swear, I'll do everything to help you with your speech to make up for this. If you still want my help. Proper help. Not just cocktails."

"We haven't even had any cocktails. You haven't kept a single promise."

"I have! I said there would be pirates," Amy argued, "And there were pirates." Donna didn't say anything else because neither of them were really in the mood for some pointless back-and-forth, not when they were both water-logged, aching, and in pursuit of the most elusive pilot in the planet's history. They began calling Earhart's name again as they forced their way through the marsh.

"Over here," they heard, weakly. It certainly did not sound good, but they approached nonetheless, and finally found Earhart slumped against one of the vines with only her neck above the water. Incredibly, the flapping, dirty bandage covering the sinus drain at the side of her face was still there, but she also looked burned and grazed. She was obviously injured.

"Oh, Christ," said Donna.

"Crap, let's get you out of the water," Amy said, trying to help Earhart to her feet, but she made a noise of extreme pain and Amy let her go. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid it got me – bastard."

"Got you? What do you mean?" Donna implored, both of them on either side of her. She was certainly shockingly pale, a miracle considering she'd been out in the baking hot tropical sun for the last three weeks since her plane crashed.

"The explosion, one of its teeth, I think. Wedged right in my gut." That wasn't good. It was anything but. Those teeth were six inches long each, at least, she may as well have been stabbed with a dagger or impaled.

"You'll be fine," said Amy, "People survive injuries to their guts all the time."

"Maybe in the future," said Earhart.

"You can come to the future," said Amy, "You will come to the future, come with us, see how people still remember you. Make sure people remember Fred Noonan, too. Of course you will." Earhart said nothing. "We've got loads of medicine – Clara's been impaled before, she survived."

"With nanogenes," said Donna quietly.

"Then we can get nanogenes," Amy told her, firm, not taking no for an answer when it came to Amelia Earhart's survival, "Or Jack's blood, do something with that. Or Rose can heal people, she controls the universe. Martha's a brilliant Doctor, or we could turn you into a vampire. There's holograms, computers, all kinds of things, she doesn't have to… she'll be okay."

"I don't think I have long at all," Earhart said.

"Don't talk like that," Amy ordered her, "We'll call the TARDIS down. Even if – even – we can bring people back to life. Esther was brought back to life, Ianto was brought back to life. All we have to do is find the spaceship that affected them, and then-"

"That's not how history is supposed to happen," Earhart mumbled, "You said so yourself. I'm lost forever."

"You can go to the future, travel the stars, see all kinds of things."

"If that was how it was supposed to be, your Doctor would have taken me with him when he had the chance."

"But you're Amelia Earhart. You're the most famous aviator in history, you changed the world for women – you can't just stop. You'll never finish your solo flight around the world," Amy pleaded with her.

"I've seen things the rest of humanity can only dream of, I'm not sure I want to see anymore monsters like that plant."

"But the adventure-"

"I stopped the plant, didn't I?"

"Yeah… you stopped the plant."

"You're a hero," Donna, who wasn't saying much at all, added. The Doctor-y parts of her were showing again, he always sat around quietly while people died, too. Like he knew something he wasn't telling anybody else. And Donna Noble had never been quiet in her life.

"I wouldn't know that I'd want to be brought back from the dead."

"But… you can't give up. You can't just give up. You could do so much more."

"More than save the world?" And it was true, Amy realised, she had saved the world. She had risked her own life to light that fuse and blow up the plant and was about to become another legendary martyr. Only, a martyr nobody would ever hear about. "I've avenged Fred. And in perspective… I'm just grateful that… nobody else will be eaten by that monster." She winced visibly. "But my family, my mother and my sister," she grew urgent again, "They need to know. They can't think I left them. I couldn't bear it."

"We won't leave you here," Donna told her, "We'll get you home. You won't have to stay on this island." Amy couldn't believe Donna was promising that.

The water around them was steadily darkening, darkening with an incredible outpour of blood; when Amy lifted her hands above the surface they came back wet and stained dark pink. How much blood did you have to lose before you lost consciousness? Before you died?

"Where did you take off from?" Donna implored quite suddenly, as though she had just had an idea. "When you first started. Where were you meant to finish?"

"Oakland," Earhart answered hoarsely, "Oakland International Airport." Donna nodded, thought, and then reached into the air as though she was going to throw open some curtains or tear something apart. And really, she did tear something apart, she teared apart their reality, ripping open a new, black-and-white, fuzzy image – like an old television set that had poor reception – a vivid blue glow cresting its shimmering edges. The portal grew larger and larger until they were enveloped in it. Donna forced it open completely and then they were surrounded, and the hazy qualities all vanished, and Amy was wet and cold and water they had brought with them sloshed down around them and trickled away, leaving a dirty puddle. With the vine behind Earhart gone she almost fell straight backwards, but Amy held her shoulders to keep her upright, only now – free of the lagoon – seeing the enormous tooth sticking right out of her side. She was drenched in blood.

They were on a rooftop, overlooking a city, filled with lights and cars and noise and people. She didn't recognise it herself, only the era – they were still in the 1930s, perched on top of an enormous building, runways snaking around below them with glowing landing strips and aeroplanes. Oakland International Airport, in the middle of the night, she was sure. Earhart actually laughed.

"You did it," Donna told her, "You went around the whole world. Made it back to California."

"Makes me want one of those cocktails you keep talking about. A martini. To celebrate."

"Can't pull one of those out of thin air here, I'm afraid," Donna told her. She continued to bleed heavily, getting paler and paler. "We'll have one later. For you. You and Fred."

"I could just call our ship down-" Amy persisted.

"You can't cheat death," said Earhart. Amy disagreed, she knew many people who seemed able to cheat death. A wholly unrealistic number of people, in fact. "That's the flight everyone embarks on solo. Hardest journey of all. Just sad I won't be the first to do it." Neither of them knew what to say; it was almost remarkable how quickly some people could adjust to the idea of death. Then again, stranded alone on a desert island with no food and no rescuers for weeks would put anyone in a dangerous headspace. "I was almost excited about seeing the universe with you... Maybe now, I can join the stars…"

"Yeah," agreed Donna.

And then there was nothing else. There was no swelling music, there was no death rattle, there was just a silence and Amelia Earhart's eyes became glassy and stared into nothing. Plane engines roared around them, and a cold wind blew in from the bay. Amy let go of her shoulders and moved to the side, tears in her eyes. Dying was never the same in real life as it was on TV or in films. One moment there was life, and the next it was gone, like blowing out a candle and just as quiet.

"You always forget about this side of it," Amy said eventually, after a long, long while of thinking and watching tiny boats glide around in the distant harbour and inky-black sea later, "About the people dying around you. Me and Rory almost tried to choose once, a normal life or a life with the Doctor. It's so wonderful sometimes it's easy for the sacrifices to fade into the background."

"I almost left," Donna said after a moment, "We saw all these Ood being manipulated and used as slaves by humans, it was horrible. But she saved the world. Avenged those pirates, avenged her navigator. It's a more honourable death than lots of people get."

"You sound like him," said Amy.

"I've got half his DNA. There's a lot of him in his DNA, Jenny's proof enough of that. Can hardly tell them apart sometimes."

"Did you mean it? About her body? Taking it back to her family?"

Donna didn't say anything, not for a long time. Amy just watched her. Finally: "No."

"You lied?"

"I'm not going to upset a dying woman."

"But you'll go back on a promise to her?"

"It's a white lie," said Donna, "She won't know the difference. It's a fixed point in time. She has to vanish, no one can find out, not even her family."

"How can you know that?"

"Because I can see it. We were in Pompeii, and the Doctor tried to explain to me how he sees the fixed points in time and the fluctuating points in time, and how sometimes… you just have to follow history. You can't change it, no matter how much it hurts. If her family find out, it's going to change history, her body will be found. I have all these connections and I can tell you that for a fact."

"Great. That's great. Reminds me of something River always says – the Doctor lies. Now Donna lies, too."

"It was for the best."

"So, what's your plan?" Amy questioned, "What's your plan for her? Take her back to the island? Leave her in the swamp to rot?"

"You know, Jenny told me these stories about what happened to her after we left Messaline, when we thought she was dead – more than she's ever told her father. Well, more than she's ever told Ten. Your Doctor seems like he's actually making an effort. She met a Time Agent who died a hero, called… I don't know, Edmund? Edward? The spike gun she has is named after him. She keeps his ashes. She's kept them for two-hundred years."

"That's… a little bit creepy."

"She can be a bit weird sometimes. Named the gun after him, after all."

"She still has the ashes?"

"As far as I know."

"God. And that's what you want to do? With Amelia Earhart?"

"…I don't see what else there is to do. No-one will find her. They can't find her, that's how it has to be. It's this or she gets buried in some anonymous bit of land somewhere – how is that better? At least this way she still gets to travel." Again, they sat in silence for a while, not knowing what the next step was supposed to be. Amy had no desire to return to that island, even to claim the rest of the pirate gold. "Puts writing a speech into perspective."

"Maybe."

"I could say, 'The Doctor makes heroes of us all.'"

"And then what? Marries them?"

"They both make the stars above us shine even brighter."

"I suppose there's some potential. I'll help, I promise. Don't you think it's a bit messed up, though?"

"What is?"

"That we're just supposed to ignore the fact Rose was already married to a clone of him who she just threw out into space and never went after? We're just meant to forget that she did that? Is she even legally divorced? And where's he gone? He's vanished just like Amelia?" Amy questioned. Nobody ever seemed to remember about Tentoo, including her. But Donna didn't speak. In fact, she began to look rather shifty. "…What?"

"I…"

"What's going on?"

"…You can't tell Rose."

"Tell Rose what?"

"Do you promise?"

"Sure, whatever, I promise. I don't talk to Rose that often anyway. What is it?"

"…The thing is, I've got half his DNA. And he's got half of mine. He's like my brother."

"So…?"

"So, when I realised I had this new power, these portals… I just had to check on him, alright? I had to find him. It wasn't that hard."

"Oh my god – when was this?" Amy stared at her, "You went and found Tentoo?"

"I can't abandon him!" Donna argued.

"I'm not saying you should have. Where was he? Where is he?"

"Well, he's sort of… me and Shaun, most of the time, live in this big penthouse flat in London. Very big. As in, has-two-guest-bedrooms-big." Certainly a lot of bedrooms for a flat in London. "He's been there for about a month."

"A month? You're been harbouring him!?"

"He's not a bloody fugitive!" Donna argued, "He hasn't gone anything wrong other than becoming an inconvenience for Rose."

"And you agreed to be their best man. That's ridiculous."

"I'm the Doctor's best man. Not hers. She's got Jack. He was heartbroken, do you know where she sent him? She dumped him in the middle of the jungle! I found him working as a fisherman in Saigon after he finally found his way there. No legal papers, documents, passport, driving license, absolutely nothing – he basically doesn't exist."

"And now he lives in your flat?"

"Yes. And I worry about him – he's a bit funny. You know like Thirteen could be a bit funny sometimes? With her memory?"

"He's forgetting things?"

"No, he's just… I don't know. Just a bit off sometimes."

"I suppose that's to be expected – I'd be a bit off if Rory dumped me in Saigon for no reason and never talked to me again because he wanted to marry an identical copy of me," Amy said. And then, as if he were psychic, her mobile began to ring. That in itself was a surprise because it had gotten so waterlogged, and it turned out the screen had somehow gotten cracked. She could still see his contact picture though, a picture of them, together, happy. "It's Rory," she told Donna, answering it. "Hi."

"Hi – where are you? I just got back, I thought we were having dinner?"

"Is it time for dinner?"

"It's nearly six."

"Is it? Shit… listen, will you answer a question for me?"

"Always."

"You'd never throw me out of the TARDIS into a Vietnamese jungle and force me to become a fisherman, would you?"

"Would it be a fisherman? Or a fisherwoman? Or fisherperson?"

"But would you?"

"Why Vietnam?"

"Rory, just answer the question."

"Well, no, of course I wouldn't – what's going on?"

"Have you started cooking yet?"

"No, I don't know what you want, I was going to ask."

"…Change of plans," she decided, "We're going to have a grown-up dinner. With Donna and Shaun." Donna was alarmed at hearing this. "In their flat. In London." Now Donna glared at her.

"Erm, okay?" Amy didn't know if Rory had ever met Shaun. "Is Donna alright with that?"

"Donna's fine with it."

"She is not," Donna hissed at her.

"What was that?" Rory asked.

"Nothing, she said she's fine."

"Is something going on?"

"No. Yes. Sort of. We just… need to cremate a body, and then I'll see you in a bit."

"You're cremating a body? Whose body?"

"Amelia Earhart."

"Have you killed Amelia Earhart?" Amy didn't even know how to answer that – she sort of thought they had killed Amelia Earhart, in a way. She still lay, bloody and ghostly, on the roof of the airport in 1930s Oakland.

"…It's complicated. It's been a bad day. I'll explain everything later, promise."

"Okay…"

"I have to go. I'll see you in a bit. I love you."

"Love you, too…"

"Bye."

"What was all that about!?" Donna demanded once the phone was hung up.

"It'll be nice, after today," Amy said, "We can just get pizza, or something. I sort of… want to see Tentoo. A Doctor who doesn't spend all his time following some girl around like a lost dog."

"No, he just spends his time crying over one, instead," said Donna.

"Please, Donna. I want to meet Shaun! See what he's like, properly. And get back to civilisation, real civilisation, in the present, not a desert island, not the 1930s, and not on board the TARDIS. Now… let's put the mystery of Amelia Earhart to rest. It's been long enough."

AN: Originally, I really didn't want Earhart die, but while I was planning it just seemed like that was what the narrative needed – especially considering nobody ever dies in this fic. Them rescuing her brought up a ton of problems and I couldn't really work out where I'd want her to go if she didn't stay on the TARDIS and the whole thing would have gotten quite complicated. Plus, people do die in the show all the time.