"Okay, so are you going to tell me who your cute friend is, or am I supposed to just assume you two are dating?"
The Doctor looked up from what he had been doing—checking the date to see what it was that had drawn the mysterious River Song to this day in particular—and then made a face at Amy. "Really, now, Pond, I'm still too new to know if I even have a type."
"Is it like apples? You have to try all sorts of different dating opportunities to figure out what you like best now that you're all 'new'?" Amy grinned and leaned forward, both eyebrows raised as she caught the Doctor's attention. "Are you experimenting?"
The Doctor shook his head in disbelief, still mostly distracted by what he was seeing on the TARDIS readouts. There was something familiar about the date, but with Amy teasing him and carrying on, he couldn't quite place what it was. "Is that really the first thing on your mind?" he asked.
"He's very cute," Amy said, once more leaning over the console with trouble dancing in her eyes.
"Then you can experiment with him," the Doctor said, absently waving one hand. He'd dealt with this before—companions who got caught up in their own little dramas. Donna and her quest to find someone to settle down with. Even Rose had flirted with plenty of little humans and others. It seemed like such a distraction sometimes—and at other times, he still remembered wondering if he wanted that. If he would ever want that.
"That's absolutely not the point," Amy said, though she was laughing as this time, she shifted so that she could look at the readouts over his shoulder. "What is it you're doing, exactly?"
"Checking the date," the Doctor said, frowning as he tapped his fingers against the console before he spun away from it and started to shake his head as he moved around the console room. Maybe moving helped him think better in this new body; he'd been in previous ones that thought kinesthetically, after all. "There's something familiar about it, but I just can't place it."
"Seemed like a perfectly normal day to me," Amy said with a shrug. "You know, other than the trees all being knocked down and the time traveling kidnapping…" She grinned. "Why don't you ask your boyfriend? He's the one who asked us to take him to his brother. Sounded like this Sam person did something stupid we need to fix, anyway."
The Doctor had stopped listening to Amy halfway through what she was saying, though, and he spun around before she'd finished her sentence, pointing at her with a manic grin. "Right!" he said, tapping her on the end of the nose as she looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Right, that's absolutely not what's going on, but I've just remembered what it is!"
"Well, that's good," Amy said. "So, what now, Doctor?"
"Absolutely nothing," he said, still grinning and flush with success. He was still getting used to being him, and this new him loved to be right, even if he was still getting back up to speed.
Amy narrowed both eyes and pursed her lips. "Want to run that one by me again?"
"We don't need to do anything," the Doctor said. "I just remembered what this day is, and it's the day Dean comes back from the dead. The beginning of the rest of their lives."
Amy held up both hands, framing him with them. "You're still not making any sense, Doctor."
"Yes, well, the Winchesters have never been normal. To be fair, I've had another friend who came back from the dead, but there were extenuating circumstances—mind you, these boys also have extenuating circumstances. Not quite the same as the heart of the TARDIS rewriting reality—"
"Doctor, focus," Amy said, one hand on her hip.
"Right." He spun in place and then pointed at her. "The short version is this: those men are monster hunters—and have been since they were kids. All those things people talk about as monsters in the closet or under the bed? Their job is to keep those things from hurting the rest of humanity. So you can imagine that means they deal with the kind of impossible things—"
"—that you promised to show me." Amy smiled. "So, when are we going to fight ghosts or whatever it is that they're working on today?"
"Maybe not today," the Doctor admitted. "How would you like to have to go right back down to work right after coming back from the dead?" He paused, tapping his fingers against the console. "That's why our friend the kidnapper whisked him off to a bar."
"Better reintroduction to the world," Amy finished for him.
The Doctor smiled a little wider. This was one of the many reasons he'd wanted Amy to travel with him. She could finish his thoughts and sentences; she was clever, and he loved traveling with clever humans. He loved people like Amy, who looked at the world in new ways. That was why he kept traveling; he wanted to see the universe through their eyes. It was more beautiful that way.
Amy was nodding to herself as she thought over everything the Doctor had to say. "So, we're just being a taxi service to a couple battered monster hunters?"
The Doctor smiled her way, though it wasn't the usual manic grin. Instead, it was a smile full of warmth. "Not every adventure is as big as our last one," he said. "But I think it's the smaller ones that are more important, don't you, Pond? You grew up in that big, empty house—don't you know how much better it is when you have people around, someone to be there when you need them? That's just as important as saving a spaceship full of people. Not every act of heroism is so obvious."
Amy's expression softened as well, and then she laughed and shook her head. "Okay, you're right, but I'd still like to fight a vampire or something."
The Doctor grinned and patted the TARDIS console. "Oh, I'm sure it'll happen," he said. "Dean recognized you, so we'll be meeting him earlier in his timeline."
"Which is still so weird. You know that, don't you?" Amy teased.
"It's only weird to humans," the Doctor defended.
Amy smiled and reached over to knock the Doctor in the shoulder. "Hey, did I say it was a bad thing?"
At that, the Doctor broke into a teasing grin. "I'd certainly hope not, Pond. Otherwise, what's the point of coming out to see the world if all you're going to do is impose your own standards of reality on it? That's no fun!"
Amy laughed. "That's the Raggedy Man I know!" With that, she settled back against the railing of the TARDIS, watching the Doctor work.
She was glad for moments like this. She had meant what she'd said before, in the Starship UK. She loved that the Doctor was kind and old and wonderful. And seeing him take the time out of his hectic adventures, seeing him slow down for long enough to make sure that an old friend was going to be alright…
Well, everything felt right.