Ok, this is the last chapter of this fic, although there may be a sequel, as my inspiration, which I thought had left me, has now returned. However, no promises. This chapter carries a slight warning, only because I'm paranoid, about Amy's parents. Consider yourself warned, however pointless the warning is. Please read and review, and thanks to all those who have been reading and reviewing this fic - it's made it worthwhile to write it. Hope you enjoy the last chapter.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the small Wizard of Oz reference.
Amy awoke to a curious silence. Normally, when the TARDIS was just floating through the vortex, the engines were running. Now, however, there was silence, and the floor was still, instead of vibrating gently from the force of the engines.
Amy got up out of bed and walked out of her room. There was a strange chill in the air, and she felt as though she were walking up a slight incline, almost as if the TARDIS was parked on a slope. She wandered through the TARDIS until she reached the console room. The Doctor was by the hub, and when he heard her enter, he spun around slowly to face her, his face streaked with tears. "Amy...oh Amy" he began, but tears and sadness overcame him, and he broke down crying. Amy was shocked, and scared. Something bad must have happened, if the Doctor was crying.
"What's happened, Doctor?" she asked nervously. He tried to answer her, but words failed him and he just looked dejectedly at her. Amy decided to look outside the TARDIS to see where they were, and if that could explain the Doctor's behaviour. As she walked towards the door, the Doctor noticed what she was doing, and ran to catch up with her, trying to stop her. But Amy was too quick for the Doctor, and she tugged the door open before he could reach her. She soon wished she hadn't.
Outside, they were in a city street. Police cars and ambulances were parked across the road, setting up a perimeter, and pointing in the direction of the TARDIS, but at the floor. Amy looked down to see that they were pointing at, and saw her parents, clearly dead, a few inches below her feet, underneath the TARDIS. They'd been crushed, in what looked like a cruel mockery of the Wizard of Oz, when the TARDIS landed. She could overhear an American voice somewhere, saying, "Best mark it down in the records as a robbery gone wrong." The voice belonged to a dark haired man, who Amy recognised from the TARDIS visual records. He was walking toward the police officers.
Not wanting to see anymore, and wanting to shut away the sight of her parents lying dead at her feet, Amy slammed the door and started sobbing hysterically. "Amy...Amy!" The Doctor was shaking her, and his voice seemed to be coming from somewhere far away. Then suddenly she was lying in her bed, and the Doctor was leaning over her, shaking her by the shoulder and calling her name.
"Doctor?" she asked, trying to talk through a throat thick with tears.
"You've had a nightmare, Amy. You were screaming and crying." The Doctor was wearing his usual tweed trousers, with braces attached, but he'd taken his jacket and shirt off, so the braces were just hanging at his waist. His hair was all over the place. He looked as though he had either just gotten out of bed or was about to go to bed, and worry for his companion was etched on his face.
Amy thought back to the dream she'd just had, and started to cry again as the image of her parents, dead under the TARDIS, came flooding back to her. She was sobbing and shaking, so the Doctor picked her up, bridal style, in his arms, and cradled her to his chest. He walked out of her room and carried Amy down the corridor until they reached the kitchen.
He sat down on the sofa which Amy had insisted should go in the kitchen, and just held her while she wept, holding her close to him in an attempt to comfort her. Realising that she was shaking from the cold as well as from crying, the Doctor grabbed an old fur throw that was crumpled up in the sofa, probably left there by Amy after late night hot chocolate. He wrapped the blanket around his companion until she was covered, then continued to speak comfortingly and consolingly to her, stroking her hair and rocking her back and forth, the way a parent soothes a child.
Eventually, Amy stopped sobbing and slumped, exhausted, into the Doctor's protective arms. Though her violent weeping had ceased, the occasional tear still slid down her cheek.
"Ready to talk about it yet?" the Doctor asked, keeping his voice low and soothing. Amy just shook her head. "Ok, that's fine. Do you think you can just sit here on the sofa while I make us hot chocolate?" he asked, in the same low, soothing tones. This was a side of the Doctor that made Amy think of how good a father he'd make, or maybe how good a father he had made, once.
"I think so" Amy said quietly. The Doctor slowly manoeuvred Amy onto the sofa, making sure that she was still covered by the throw. While making the hot chocolate, he kept turning to Amy to check on her, and kept up a running commentary about nothing in particular, hoping to distract his distressed companion from whatever horror had featured in her nightmare.
"Here you go Pond. This will warm you up" he said, passing Amy a steaming mug of hot cocoa. She took it and wrapped her cold hands around it, soaking up the warmth. The Doctor sat down next to her, holding his own mug. He put his arm round Amy and she instinctively shuffled closer to him, leaning her body to fit in with his. A thought occurred to her, and she chuckled to herself.
"What's funny, Pond?" The Doctor asked. He tried not to grin like an idiot at how wonderful it was just to hear her laugh again. Though it had only been a couple of days since the revelation about her parents, it had felt like months to the Doctor, as it had robbed Amy of her smiles and her laughter. He knew she was constantly thinking about her parents, and missing them.
"You're like my big brother, or a sort of uncle now, but I used to fancy you like mad...it just made me smile, to think of the change." Amy blushed as the Doctor raised a solitary eyebrow at her. He knew just how much she 'fancied' him, after she'd virtually attacked him in her bedroom back on earth. It had taken all of the Doctor's many and varied persuasive skills to convince Amy that she didn't really want him, she just missed Rory. Unfortunately, when they'd returned home for Rory, he'd moved on and was dating a nurse at the hospital where he worked.
"Amy, to me you were always first and foremost Amelia Pond who fed me all the food she could think of, then didn't blink when I ate fish custard in front of her. Finding out that your father was Rose's Doctor kind of makes sense. It also explains why I was drawn in to your house that first night. The TARDIS recognised partial Time Lord DNA, and locked on to it. It also explains why you trusted me instantly – subconsciously, I reminded you of your father. You felt safe with me." The Doctor smiled down at Amy, who looked quiet and content.
"I've found some family" she said, and that was all she needed to say. The Doctor knew how important family was to her.
They sat in comfortable silence, each drinking their cocoa and thinking of those that they'd lost.
"We can't...I mean, I'd never thought about it before...but..." Amy didn't finish her sentence, but she didn't need to. The Doctor knew what she wanted to ask. "It would be a bad idea, but I'm not going to say no. We'll go in a few weeks, after you've had some time to get used to the idea. I know that all you want to do right now is go and see them, hug them one last time, tell them that you love them and that everything turns out alright, but trust me, you'll be able to cope with it better if we wait a few weeks. We'll go visit some more planets and civilisations first. If I took you now, you'd want to stay, or try to save them, which is only natural. Are you ok with that?" the Doctor asked gently. He knew that if Amy begged him to take her to see her parents there and then, he'd struggle to refuse.
Amy just smiled and nodded. "I understand Doctor. And just knowing that they're out there, and you'll take me to see them soon, is enough."
The Doctor smiled, and thought about when he'd taken Rose back to see her father. It was strange, in some ways, how much he'd thought about her recently, but it also made sense. Not only had he spent a large portion of the last few days talking about her to Amy, but he'd also visited her that afternoon.
Coming out of his thoughts, he looked down to see that Amy had fallen asleep in his arms. He put his mug down, then gracefully picked her up so she was still covered by the blanket. She hadn't told him what her nightmare was about, but then he hadn't told her that three hours ago, he'd been drinking tea with her parents.
Settling Amy down in her bed, the Doctor thought about taking Amy to see her parents. He couldn't wait to see the look on Rose's face when she met her grown up daughter – it would make an interesting parallel to the time when she'd met her mother at a time in her personal timeline when she'd been a baby.
He also thought about their last day – he'd go and see what had happened. He knew that he'd be tempted to save Rose and her Doctor, but he hoped that this regeneration had more control than some of his others.
Looking down at Amy, he smoothed the hair back from her face, and laid a kiss on her forehead. He caught sight of the photo, now faded, which earlier that day he'd held in his hand, and remembered his promise to Rose's Doctor that he'd take care of his daughter. His latest companion was now even more precious to him than before – she was the child of his soul mate, and because of that, he'd protect her with all he had. He'd make sure she had more cause to smile than cry, and one day, he'd give her away at her wedding to someone who would love her the way she deserved to be love. He would be the father that Rose's Doctor would have been, because she'd had her parents stolen from her.
With these thoughts in his head, the Doctor silently closed Amy's door behind him and slipped down the hall to his room, to plan their next adventure.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed that. Please review :)