"You know, for a time traveler, you sure are good at getting somewhere just a smidge too late."
Amy was standing in the room that the bartender had pointed out to them with her hands on her hips as she surveyed the scene. Someone had obviously been here before them—housekeeping hadn't cleaned the place up yet—but aside from a few wet towels, they hadn't really left anything behind. This was the second time in as many stops in the TARDIS that they'd found nothing but an empty space, and Amy found herself once again doubting the Doctor's ability to actually be on time.
In fact, all things considered, she was sure she should just assume that the Doctor never knew what he was doing and that he was always late. It had taken him years instead of the five minutes he'd promised her before he came back for her, after all. Why would a pressing time kidnapping question be any different?
He really did drive her crazy sometimes.
The Doctor stepped into the room behind her and frowned when he saw what she did—that it was empty—before he whipped out the thing he'd been using before to scan for energy. "We must have just missed them," he said. "Maybe a minute or two."
Amy rolled her eyes when she heard it. "Oh, and that's supposed to make it better?"
"Oy, don't knock the TARDIS," the Doctor warned, one finger pointed her way. "She's just following the trail these time skippers left behind."
"And trailing behind," Amy pointed out in a huff.
The Doctor pursed his lips and then let out a huff right back at her before he took a look at his readings and once more pocketed his device. "Well, no point in standing around here, then, right?" he said, holding out his hand to her. "Let's get back to the TARDIS."
Amy couldn't help but smile as she took his hand and the two of them headed back through the bar toward where they'd left the TARDIS. Even with as frustrated as she could be with him and his blue box and his constant tardiness, she still loved this. And as long as she kept him on his toes, he'd keep up with her, so it all worked out in the end, didn't it?
"Seriously, Doctor," she said once they were back inside and he was all bundles of energy as he moved around the console room. "We are going to catch a time kidnapper, right?"
Amy could swear she heard the TARDIS make a sound from deep within its confines in response.
The Doctor looked between Amy and the TARDIS and then patted the console affectionately. "Amy, this old girl has seen wars and wonders and—" He paused, frowning down at some readouts, before he started to shake his head. "No, no, no—this is not the kind of thing you play games with!"
Amy leaned forward. "What's wrong?"
"She doesn't want to land," the Doctor said, toggling one of the controls more aggressively—but the TARDIS didn't seem to respond at all.
"Why?"
"If I knew, she wouldn't be doing this to me," the Doctor said, obviously frustrated—though before he could really get worked up, the tone of the noises the TARDIS was making shifted into ones that Amy better recognized, and they landed a moment later.
"See? Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Amy asked, though she wasn't sure if she was asking the Doctor or the TARDIS. She knew that the TARDIS was alive and that it seemed to have a mind of its own, but she also couldn't resist the urge to tease the Doctor. So, she was probably teasing them both at the same time.
She could walk and chew gum at the same time, after all.
The doors opened up, and Amy almost laughed when she saw that they were right back where they started—she could even see the phone booth in the distance. "Seriously? What was so hard about landing here again?" Amy asked—both the Doctor and the TARDIS, again.
"That's the question of the day, isn't it?" the Doctor said, shaking his head at the TARDIS before he stepped out of the door with Amy, squinting at some readouts on his machine before he started to march in a new direction.
"Doctor!" she called out after him.
She hadn't been expecting to hear someone else echo the name: "Doc?"
Amy turned toward the Doctor, who had paused at the voice. "Doctor, do you have another time traveling friend you haven't told me about?"
"Several," the Doctor said, already walking toward the sound. "Though this particular friend doesn't usually time travel on his own."
Intrigued, Amy followed the Doctor until they found a young man around Amy's age, wearing a grin and a plaid shirt as he waved at the two of them. "Hey, Doc. Hey, Amy."
Amy's eyebrows shot up, but the Doctor didn't even seem fazed by the fact that this guy seemed to know who she was. "Hello, Dean. Time traveling without me?"
Dean broke into a crooked grin and shrugged with his hands in his back pockets. "Just a quick jump with a friend. She says hi, by the way." He held out a piece of paper, and Amy couldn't hide her curiosity, looking over his shoulder to see the neatly printed message there:
Took him for a little spin. I'll take you for one next time, Sweetie. -xoxo
There was no name in the signature, and Amy turned with her whole body toward the Doctor. "Oh, I have so many questions right now."
"Not now, Pond," the Doctor said, pocketing the piece of paper.
"So many questions," Amy insisted.
"That's pretty much the usual with him, isn't it?" Dean pointed out with a laugh. "Nice pajamas."
Amy made a face. "And who are you, exactly?"
"Oh, right. I guess we haven't met yet," Dean said, then held out his hand with a winning smile. "Dean Winchester."
"Amy Pond," she replied, sizing him up. He was definitely cute, and he seemed nice enough, but she still wasn't sure what to think of the fact that he already felt a step ahead of her. On the other hand, the Doctor seemed to take the whole thing in his stride. He'd obviously met this guy before, and Amy wanted to know what the history was. "He leave you behind too?" she asked at last, unable to resist the chance to needle the Doctor yet again about his unkept promises.
"Sweetheart, I don't get left behind," Dean said with the kind of easy smile that Amy had seen countless times before on similarly good-looking guys. "I have a job that needs doing, so I stay here while the Doc does his job. They just sometimes happen to overlap."
Amy pursed her lips and then pointed at Dean. "First of all, never call me that again," she said, and Dean held his hands up in a gesture of peace. "But secondly… I'm going to want to hear this story." She pointed at the bench beyond where they were standing. "So, let's hear it, then."