He hadn't actually meant to end up here.
He'd been looking for Anna. An hour had turned into a month had turned into ten years, and there was still no sign of her. He wasn't looking as hard as he had been when the angels had taken her. He was sure she wasn't in danger, because he was sure she was avoiding him. So, he would jaunt off on adventures, though keeping an eye out for the wife who had virtually abandoned him. Again.
So, no. He hadn't meant to end up in Amy and Rory's garden, five years after he'd dropped them off.
Yet, that's exactly where he was... and it was much too late to try to avoid them, especially because Rory was already running out to greet him.
Might as well take the time to do a bit of domestics, right?
No, dream, that had been a dream! That had been a nightmare! Oh, thank god-
"Thank god you two are okay," he said. "I had a terrible nightmare about you two. That was scary," he said.
It hadn't been ten years. It had been a few weeks, but it hadn't been ten years since he'd last seen his wife. Maybe he should start trying to find her. His mistake with the angels was in thinking that she was okay, what had his dream self been thinking?
"Red flashing lights. I bet they mean something," he said, absentmindedly.
"Er, Doctor," Rory started, as the Doctor walked to the console. "I also had a kind of dream thing."
"Yeah, so did I."
"Not a nightmare, though. Just, er, we were married," he said.
"Yeah, in a little village."
"A sweet little village, and you were pregnant."
"Yes, I was huge. I was a boat."
The Doctor wasn't sure that he liked this. The Doctor wasn't sure that he liked this at all.
Well, he wasn't wrong. He just didn't realize how much he wouldn't like this. Not until they'd been bounced from reality to reality, his Tardis dying underneath his hands, meeting the Dream Lord, and then being bounced back to Leadworth.
He didn't realize how much he wouldn't like this until they saw Anna, prone, in the middle of the street, covered in bruises and blood, whimpering.
"Anna- no!"
He stopped, throwing his arms out.
"No, stay back, don't blink, don't even blink!" he shouted. He was breathing raggedly, staring at the creature in front of him. "The angels," he whispered.
Apparently, they hadn't been trapped in another dimension, as Anna had thought. Apparently, they'd come back.
"What are they?" Rory asked.
"Weeping Angels," he told them, and he gave them a quick explanation of the quantum locked, eaters of the abstract as best he could. "These ones Anna sent to an alternate dimension, so I'm not sure how they're here... or why."
"Vengeance," Amy answered automatically, quicker than he'd like. "If somebody had stranded me in an alternate dimension, I would probably be cross enough to get vengeance."
"No, you wouldn't," he corrected her.
"Okay, well somebody would," she snapped, impatient because she was Amy. He couldn't imagine what the hormones had done to her, though he wasn't sure he wanted to find out. He was about 98 percent certain he was about to.
"Okay, right, right, good point, Anna?" he called. "Anna, can you-"
"She can't hear you, Doctor." He grit his teeth.
"Angel Bob," he said. "Good to see you again. Had a nice little vacation?"
Angel Bob ignored him. "We've injured her too gravely for her to be aware of much of anything."
Rage flared through him so fiercely that he wanted to be sick (or destroy something with his bare hands). "And I promise you, that is your third mistake. Or, rather, fourth. You underestimated her once, you'll do it again."
"No, we won't," he corrected him.
Anna's body arched up before she started screaming. He only lasted five seconds before he was shouting as well. "Stop it, stop it, just stop!"
It lasted for five more seconds that was an eternity before it stopped. He wanted nothing more than to run to Anna, to pick her up, to hold her, to tell her he was so sorry, he would fix this, he would make it better.
"What do you want?" he asked. "You've tortured her, fine, but there must be something you want. Why else would you be standing in front of us, eh?"
"Because she has been refusing to give us her power," he told him. "We thought ten years would do the trick, but you were right. We did underestimate her."
His hearts clenched. "Ten..." he tried, but the word years wouldn't leave his mouth. Ten years. They'd had her for ten years, tortured her relentlessly... and he hadn't even batted an eyelash.
"So, we've come to take you and your friends, to motivate her a bit better."
"Doctor," she whimpered. "Doctor, run, please, just run."
"Doctor, we've to go," Amy said, and he shook his head, crouching down, taking his eyes off of the angels.
"I'm not leaving you, I swear to you, I won't- take me," he agreed, standing. "Take me, but you let Amy and Rory go. She'll give you what you want if you have me, she barely knows them. She barely even traveled with them, but I'm her husband. If you use me, she'll give you what you want. But you have to let Amy and Rory go, and you have to stop hurting her," he said, through gritted teeth.
"Doctor, no, you can't!" Amy said, through gritted teeth.
"She's right, we've to-"
"Your terms are acceptable," Angel Bob said a moment later. "The Ponds are allowed to go free."
"Amy, Rory, go," he said. "Run." Before they change their minds.
"No, we're not-"
"Think of your child," he got out through gritted teeth once more, his jaw hurting with how much he was clenching it. In the next moment, he glanced back at them, intentionally taking his eyes off of the angels. "Please," he begged them.
Angels had surrounded them, but he could see the hole that the angels had made to allow them to escape. Rory grabbed Amy, pulling her... Just as the birdsong started.
"Oh, no, no, no," the Doctor said, in a low voice, watching the humans drop where they were standing. He looked back at Anna, fighting it as hard as he could.
"It's okay," Anna managed to get out, looking at him. "I'll save you."
She did, but at a cost to herself. He watched her skin start to slide off of her bones before she disappeared in a puff of light... taking the angels with her.
He blacked out.
"Okay, no, that's the dream," he said, nodding, crossing his arms. He nodded. "That's the dream, the one where I left my wife for ten years to rot, who in the ever loving hell-"
"Doctor, look, I know that this is hard-"
"You don't know anything," he hissed at Amy. "That was the dream," he said, nodding.
"Doctor, Amy is pregnant."
He frowned, whipping around to look at Rory. "Wha-sorry?"
Rory's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. "No, I mean in that-in that version of reality, that one, she's-she's pregnant. We can't-we can't risk our child unless you're absolutely certain that that's the one, and not just because-" he cleared his throat. "Because of Anna."
He knew that they were right. He knew it, in his bones, that they were right. He couldn't risk the life of a possibly unborn child until he was absolutely sure that that was the dream.
He pulled his coat closer to himself, rubbing at his jaw. "There should-there should be some blankets in the lower level," he told them.
He stalked off, looking for a way to power the Tardis.
#####
They'd been asleep for nearly five hours, and Anna was starting to get concerned.
She'd started to wake them up when she'd found them just lying on the floor, but she'd stopped herself when time nudged her. Episodes hadn't been a thing in nearly seven hundred years and five versions, so she had forgotten most of them, but she quickly checked to see if this had been one.
It had. She watched it and had pondered the situation. Technically, this wasn't necessary. Amy hadn't kissed the Doctor, and, more importantly, Amy had been the one to go back for Rory. If that didn't show him that she chose him, she didn't know what would.
Well, yes, except time had nudged her that she couldn't simply wake them up.
So, she'd sat back for nearly five hours, waiting impatiently for them to wake up.
She'd just resolved to wake them up in a few hours if they didn't wake up when the Doctor shot up, breathing in a deep breath. He was breathing hard, looking around, though Amy and Rory were coming to much more slowly, just barely stirring.
"Hey, there," she said.
His eyes landed on her but all of his movement stopped a moment later, staring at her. "Anna?"
She held her arms out. "In the flesh. Assume a bit of time has passed, sorry about that," she said, and she frowned as she watched him get up. "Had a bit of business to- what-what're you-"
He leaned down, kissing her long and hard. He ended the kiss much too soon, pulling her up in the same motion, but she frowned as she realized they were going to the console room.
"What're you-"
"Have to get the pollen, if I'm right," he said, before he grabbed it from the console. "Looks like I am." He walked over to the door, never letting go of her hand.
"What was that?" Amy asked, and she heard Rory enter behind her.
"Psychic pollen made us all have dreams," he told them. "Nightmares, really."
It was in that moment she realized his hands were shaking.
"What-" she started.
"So... the pollen was... the dream lord?"
"No, no, I was the Dream Lord. Doesn't matter, it's over, if you'll excuse me."
"Oh, hey, Anna's back!" Amy said, sounded inappropriately overjoyed. "Hello!"
"But I thought-" Rory started, before he frowned shaking his head. "No, that was the dream," he said.
"Okay, no, wait, what h-" Anna was interrupted.
"Doesn't matter. Rory, Amy, keep yourselves busy for a couple of hours. We'll head out to somewhere spectacular."
"But what are they-"
"They're married Rory, do you really need to ask?"
"... They do that?"
She laughed before they turned the corner and they were once again occupied.
#####
"Where were you?" he asked.
"Tripped over a paradox," she told him. "Quite literally. Ended up with your past self. Turns out..." She shrugged, drawing circles on his bare chest, before she started to stand, to detangle them. He held onto her, making it so that she couldn't get up, and she looked back at him.
"Please don't." He shook his head. "Not yet. Please."
She frowned. "What happened in the dream?"
"Nightmare," he corrected her, before he put on a smile she saw right through. He ran a hand down her cheek. "Doesn't matter, now. It's over." He smiled even more widely. "Go on, turns out what?"
"That I would have to travel back to your third self and travel through your timeline linerally, occasionally popping away to do 'being of power' business," she told him. He stopped, thrown for a loop, searching her.
It was strange, now. She didn't just see this version of him, anymore. She saw every version of him that she'd been with, all over his face, in his eyes, in his brows, in his confusion. It was weird, but it was wonderful. He was the Doctor, and he always would be.
"Come again?"
She gave an abridged version of events as they unfolded, even explaining that she'd told him she was 3000 years old because of what Pinstripes had said. "It's probably safe to remember, now, considering the danger of a paradox-"
He raised his eyebrows and his face went blank.
"-has passed."
A few moments later, his eyes cleared up and he searched her in a whole new light, gently caressing her face like she was someone else.
"Anna," he said. "Anna Monroe."
"Doctor. My Doctor," she said. She finally had a chance to say what she'd wanted to, ever since she'd understood it, and she didn't waste it. "I get it, now. Why you can't put the universe before your faith in me. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, that I didn't, before." She offered him the crystal she'd come up with, though he looked down at it but didn't take it, sadness marring the absolute wonderment in his eyes. It was so nice, though. Before, his love for her felt... young. Now, it felt as deep and as wide as she'd grown used to. They'd never gotten the connection back (part of that had been because she'd been concerned that, if they formed the connection then, it wouldn't form as it was meant to when the time came). But, they didn't need the connection. They were the Doctor and Anna, and that was everything.
She explained.
"It'll turn off my powers. Permanently."
Everything in him slumped a little at that, and he raised his eyebrows. "Right," he said, quietly. He shook his head. "I can't take that."
"What- why-"
He looked away from her. "Because it can't be something that you understand, it has to be something that you can't eventually undo."
She held out the crystal to him again. "Then take it and study it, see how it works. You can figure out the mechanics of it-"
It was out of her hand, on the dresser next to him so quickly she almost didn't catch it. A moment later, he was straddling her, kissing her more fiercely than he'd ever done. He pulled back too quickly, her hands clasped in his above her head. "I love you, Anna Monroe," he told her. "If I could marry you all over again, I would, in a heartsbeat." He searched her eyes. "I love you," he whispered to her.
They were occupied once more.
#####
He explained the dream to her, in exquisite detail. It hadn't deterred from the show until the angels had shown up, but apparently, she'd ended up dying saving them.
"But of course, the angels are safely locked away in another dimension, so it's all a moot point anyway." He smiled as he got dressed. "Now, what are we feeling today? Earth? Space? Ooh, what about Rio? We haven't been to Rio in ages- is there something wrong?"
She gave him an abridged version of what had happened. For some reason, this wasn't something he wasn't supposed to know, and she didn't want there to be secrets between them. She explained, that the angels had come back and they'd done something to save a person that he loved more than her, though she still didn't know what that solution was.
He stopped, staring at her, looking at her as if she'd given him the key to some great puzzle. "Oh," he said, quietly, before his face fell. "Oh. Oh… oh."
He nodded.
"You… okay?"
"Yes, yes, fine, just… the universe has a funny sense of humor, that's all. Now, what do you say, Rio?"
She smiled. "Rio it is."
Least to say, they did not end up in Rio. Some excitement had happened, the ground was eating people. She'd saved Amy, but that didn't stop the thing what was coming up to greet them.
They were in the church, setting things up for the 'invasion', when he spoke.
"Do you ever think about it? Us, having kids."
She raised her eyebrows, glancing over at Elliot and wondering if that had inspired his sudden want for more progeny.
"I mean, you're nearing, what, eight hundred now?" He asked, and she shrugged.
"Thereabouts, probably. Don't really keep track. Though, I'll tell you what, five hundred was cracking. 10/10 to Marie Antoinette, I mean," she kissed her fingers, in a true chef's kiss formation.
"Haha, that was a good day," he said, before he looked up at her. "Children, though? Did you ever think about it? I mean, is that something you want?"
She hesitated, glancing around at their company. "Can we talk about this later?" She asked.
"What? Oh, yeah, sure," he agreed, seemingly surprised by the fact that she didn't want to talk now. She wondered why this was suddenly a thing for him, but she got distracted.
"Can I go grab my headphones?" Elliot asked.
"Sure," the Doctor said.
She looked over at him, surprise filling her. "Scuse you-" she started, speaking to the Doctor, though Elliot tried to run off. "Elliot, no," she said, and she looked back at her oblivious husband. "We're in the middle of what's basically an invasion and you want to send him off to, what, get his headphones?"
He looked at her, still seemingly unsure of what the problem was. She rolled her eyes, quickly handing Elliot his headphones. "Here," she said, and his eyes widened.
"But where-"
"Doesn't matter, go find your mum, stick with her, yeah?"
"Yeah. Thanks, miss," he said, before he ran off.
"Miss. Haha," she said, looking back at the Doctor. "Don't remember the last time I was called miss."
"800 years, looking good on it."
"You're not looking too bad yourself."
"Flirting later, yeah?" Amy asked as she passed by. "I swear it's like chaperoning school children sometimes."
She rolled her eyes, but they got to work.
#####
She couldn't save everyone like she wanted to, time stepping in to say that this was the way things were meant to be. Back at the Tardis, Amy and Rory went off to make dinner while she and the Doctor walked back to the library.
She got a fire going, letting the silence linger.
"Is this serious?" he asked, without any fear. "It's starting to feel serious."
She let out a breath before she shook her head. "It's entirely possible that any kid that I have will have the same… uniqueness that I do," she told him.
"What, like… your powers are genetic?"
She shrugged. "It's possible," she told him. "Or it's any other number of reasons. The point is, if we do this, if we have children, we have to be prepared for them to be like me."
He stood up, gently nudging her face to his before he cupped her face in his hands. "If any of our children are at all like you, I'd count myself pretty lucky," he told her.
She smiled before she swatted at his shoulder before she leaned over and kissed him.
After a moment, he pulled back.
"So, is that a yes?"
She opened and closed her mouth, glancing over at the library doors. "Yeah," she said. "But there's some stuff I think what needs to happen before we can do that."
"What?" He asked.
She looked over at him, a grim look on her face.
"Spoilers."
