The Conclusion

Minutes turned into hours. It began to get dusky. The Doctor and Amy sat on a wall waiting, unspeaking. Finally Amy spoke. "Should we maybe go back? We're not getting anywhere here. And it's freezing."

"Yeah," the Doctor grunted quietly. "River wins." He stood up and looked down the road to the TARDIS. "Well he said I couldn't trust her. The cleric. I suppose he was right." He put his arm round Amy, noticing she was shivering.

"Well, come on then. We'd better go."

"So soon Doctor?" a voice behind him said. He gave a startled yell. River was sitting on the wall where they had been sitting a few seconds earlier. She was dressed in a white fur-trimmed jacket, fur-trimmed knee high boots and a tight black skirt. She was carrying a red leather bag.

"You!" the Doctor strode over to her and stood over her. "What have you done to our baby?"

"I'd forgotten you could be so…fiery." She smiled calmly up at him. He glared back, ready to take her hostage if need be. "I took her here because she would have suffered terribly in the orphanage, but there would have been roughly a fifty percent chance of the universe ripping apart had you been allowed to catch up with her."

"Then where is she? Is she safe?" There was a crack in the Doctor's voice at the last word. River looked down. "You missed her. She moved out a year ago with her legal guardian. Moved to England."

Amy pushed forward. "Are you playing games with us? You can't do this to people River. Seriously. Where is she, or we'll hurt you." She shook the Doctor's calming hand off her shoulder.

"Like I told you, she moved to England. I disrespect people who waste my time by mindlessly repeating. But there's another thing. She came here in 1989. It's 1996 now. She's no baby now."

They both stood there, stunned. Finally Amy spoke quietly, politely. "Could you take us there?"

"Sorry Amy. I'd like to, believe me. But I'm afraid that would be crossing too many personal timelines, and that's not allowed – as I said it could rip apart the universe. But you shouldn't miss her. She's safe. And she's going to do the most amazing things." River was looking at her with such pride and love that Amy became confused.

The Doctor was forwning in puzzlement. And suddenly it was as if everything fitted together like pieces in a jigsaw. The identical DNA. Vincent calling the baby Amy Pond. Amy coming to Dingwall as a newborn and moving to England aged six…the danger of crossing timelines…even the base code of the universe was entangled in this paradox.
"I understand." The Doctor whispered.

River looked at him. "You do…?"

"Yes. And it's impossible."

"Impossible in any fixed point of space and time yes…but hovering between times, in a nowhere place in the way that the TARDIS does it can happen. Amy never touched the baby outside of the TARDIS. If she had the reapers would have been allowed back in. I believe I've seen two other cases – a long long time ago now."

"I still don't know what's going on here" Amy reminded them

"Come on Amy…work it out! It's not hard, just very, very brain twisting!"

For a few moments the world seemed to stand still as she thought through everything that had happened, and they watched her with baited breath.

"Let me help you," River Song said, "That guardian…the one bringing seven year old Amy up in England right now? She calls that guardian her Aunt."

It was this piece of information that triggered the reaslisation that now hit Amy like a slap in the face. "Baby Amy and adult Amy are one and the same," River summarised, quietly.

Amy's mind began to spin.

"So Vincent Van Gogh – he's my dad? I made love to my dad?"

"Well, before you were conceived he wasn't your Dad."

"I was alive before I was conceived though! Ok I never thought I'd hear myself say that." The others grinned. "So I grow up, conceive, carry and give birth to myself and in the future – the past – the 'fast' – whatever – and then that version of myself grows up, carries and gives birth to myself etc. etc…forever?"

"A paradoxical loop, yes. Until the end of time."

Amy felt her legs become shakey, and the Doctor and River helped her back to the TARDIS for a cup of tea.

"The thing I don't understand though," the Doctor mused, after they had filled Amy in on chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this story, "Is that you said 'too many personal timelines would be crossed' if we went back to the house. That implies more than one timeline."

"Oh yes," said River, "You see I stayed at the house for quite some time. After all, she was a very lovely baby." She turned to Amy. "I'm sorry I wasn't around very much as you grew up. Time travel is hard work."

"But I'd never met you before I travelled with the Doctor!"

River motioned to her to wait. "I prefer to travel in-cognito. I don't enjoy companions accompanying me everywhere – the Doctor and I differ on that one." River gave the Doctor a smile and he smiled back. "But I did want to keep checking you were alright. You never know with butterfingers there. So every time we bumped into each other I would have a look at you to check you were alright. Each time I've met you since you've been travelling with the Doctor I've worn an individually targetted perception filter."

She put the tip of her sonic screwdriver into her handbag, it whirred and the perception filter fell away.

There is an optical illusion where you look at a picture of an old woman looking down, and if you stare at it long enough you suddenly perceive it instead to be a young woman looking away. Nothing has changed about the picture itself – it's just your perception of it. In the same way as this, Amy looked at River Song and her perception of her changed: The stranger she had met only twice before suddenly became the Aunt she had been brought up by.

"You can't imagine how relieved I was when you finally stepped into that TARDIS. I was beginning to get worried it would never happen. Then you'd never have been born." River was getting ready to leave.

"River?" Amy came forward. "Thanks for…for taking care of me all those years as I was growing up."

"It was a pleasure and a privilege. And I personally know we have many more happy meetings to come." Amy laughed and they kissed each other on each cheek.

"Well Doctor, here's to my past and your future!" He mimed raising a glass to toast her and laughed.

"Adios!" And with that she teleported away.

The Doctor and Amy were left alone in the TARDIS. There was an awkward silence. "So…" Said the Doctor.

"Yes…" said Amy. She shook herself. "Doctor I…thank you…You've been as caring to me as any father. I can see that now." She grinned. "Sorry I kept you awake with my crying when I was born."

"Worth every minute of it – I'd do it again in a heart beat – or two in my case. And you know something? I was right that it was the most important thing in the universe that I sort you and Rory out. Want to know why?"
"Why?"

"Because if Rory hadn't loved you so much he wouldn't have come with you in the TARDIS. He only came with us to protect you. So really he died for you, even though he took the bullet for me. If he hadn't died I'd never have taken you to all those magnificant places, including the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. And then you would never have met Vincent because we'd never have seen the face in the church window. So you would never have been conceived."

"So the universe would end if I were to be unborn?"

"Like I told you. You saved me more than you know. Together we save the universe."

They embraced.

"So where and when now?" the Doctor stood poised at the controls. "You ought to have the choice – you've taken quite a pummelling."

Amy smiled. "I think I need somewhere quiet. Tranquil. I need to unwind."

"Me too."

"Just before I told you I was pregnant you mentioned a planet made of honeycomb and giant peaceful furry bees."

"I thought you didn't hear any of that."

"I had more important things on my mind at the time but I did hear."

"Do you want to go there?"

"It sounds like a nice place."

"Your wish is my command."

The Doctor tweaked the controls and the TARDIS spun through the time vortex towards its next adventure.

THE END.

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