Last chapter, guys! Hope you like it! I'd really like reviews, especially this being the last chapter, so I can get a feel for my own abilities as a writer.

Chapter 3: A New Beginning

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS not long after it had finished materializing in 20th century Leadworth. Glancing around, he noted that he had overshot the landing by a bit and ended up in an alleyway just down the road from the Pond's school. He glanced back at the TARDIS's console to ensure he was at the correct date when he noticed the Master begin to stir.

"Probably best NOT to wake an amnesiac inside an impossible box…" The Doctor muttered as he dashed towards the Master. Picking up his small body, the Doctor carried him quickly out of the TARDIS before closing the door behind them.

"mmm… Where am I?" the Master mumbled.

"Ok, good, retained the ability to talk…that could have been disastrous…," The Doctor noted.

"What?"

"Are you feeling ok?" The Doctor asked.

"Wh-what happened?" the Master asked. "Why can't I remember anything?!"

The Doctor, hearing the panic in the young boy's voice, was quick to respond. "I…err…"

Come on, Doctor, think fast! Improvise! he thought to himself.

"Uh…There's been a terrible accident," said the Doctor, his voice distinctly lacking the emotion to make his story believable. However, the Master, in his addled state, took no heed of this fact.

"Wha- what?" the Master said, almost visibly shrinking in the Doctor's arms with confusion, sadness, and fear. "What kind of accident? Why can't I remember anything!?"

"You…uhhh…Hit your head," the Doctor said weakly. Well, it's not a lie, he told himself. "You seem to have complete memory loss."

The Doctor put the Master back on the ground. It took a few seconds for the Master to regain his balance.

"Where are my parents?" the Master inquired, looking up. "Are…are you my dad?"

"What? Oh, no! No, no, of course not!"

"Then where are my parents?"

Parents! the Doctor thought in dismay. I KNEW I was forgetting something! Children need PARENTS!

"Uhh…" Think, Doctor, think! "You never had any parents. You're from an orphanage. Yes, that's it! You are from an orphanage, and you grew up there, and that's why you don't have any parents!"

"Oh…" the Master replied plainly. "But…But what happened to my parents?"

Do the questions ever stop? "They…Uh…" don't traumatize the boy now; I need something that won't depress him… "Uh… I don't know, actually. You were found as a baby and brought to us. Yes! That's what happened!"

"oh…So…What are we doing here?"

Again with the questions! "You, uhh…You were…found with a note! It said that we were to place you in the care of some people who live here – Leadworth, England!" I am rubbish at lying…

"Oh…ok."

I have never before been so glad for the wondrous mind of a child, the Doctor thought, glad to be through with all the questions.

"But first, we're going to go to school! I have a few people I think you would want to meet, and the recess bell is about to ring!"

"AMELIA POND!" the Doctor bellowed over the noise of the playing schoolchildren. He had long since grown tired of attempting to find the red haired girl in the crowd, and therefore opted for a more stationary approach.

The children all went silent at once, and looked towards the strange man with the bow tie.

"Now, that's better," the Doctor said, a little taken aback at the children's immediate attention. "I'm looking for Amelia Pond, has anyone seen her?"

"She's probably waiting outside the principal's office for Melody," said one of the boys with a snicker.

"That is, if she's not in there with her," said one of the girls. A few kids laughed.

"Right then," the Doctor said, heading through the doors of the school, Master in tow. Five seconds later, he stuck his head back out.

"And if one were to ask for directions to this principal's office?"

"It's right in through the doors and to the left," said one of the students, rolling their eyes.

"Oh, yes, of course. Continue with…Recess, I suppose." And with that, the children saw no more of the strange man.

Little did they know, they were soon to gain a new classmate in the timid boy that followed.

"Ah, Amelia!" exclaimed the Doctor, spotting her on a chair in the hallway. "It's been ages!"

"Doctor!" Amelia exclaimed, jumping up. "They said you were never coming back! They told me you weren't real! They said-"

"It seems we have met, then!" the Doctor exclaimed, happy to have gotten his timelines correct. "Now, I'm assuming young riv- Melody has found her way to the principal's office once again?"

"You know Melody too?!" Amelia exclaimed in delight. "How many other people do you know?"

"Oh, just the three of you," The Doctor said with a smile. "Hang on, that reminds me…Where is Rory?"

"Rory? Who's-"

At that moment, the door behind Amelia opened. A dark skinned girl walked out, rolling her eyes. A voice from within the office called after her.

"I mean it, Melody! One more toe over the line, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, I won't be seeing that toe again, I got it," Melody finished with a slight mocking tone.

"Melody! Look who showed up!" Amelia exclaimed to her friend.

"Is that…Is that the raggedy Doctor?" Melody exclaimed in disbelief.

"In the flesh," the Doctor said with a smile. "Now, Amelia, this is…" the Doctor started, giving the Master a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Hang on, we should probably wait until everyone's here to do introductions. Do either of you know where Rory-"

"Did you come back to take us in your time machine?" Melody asked.

"Mels! You can't expect him to just take us with him with us!"

"Well, why the ruddy hell not?" Melody asked.

"MELODY! What did I say about using that language?" a voice shouted from inside the office.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Melody said in a bored tone. "You said he said he'd be back in five minutes; well, it's been five days, you should get something out of that!"

"Oooh…Yes, actually, sorry about that…long story, starts with time travel, ends with….time travel…maybe not such a long story, but still. Now! Where on Earth is Rory?"

"Doctor, who's Rory?!" Amelia half shouted.

"Why do you keep saying that?!" the Doctor half shouted back. "Rory, Rory Williams! Your hus- Your childhood friend! One of your best friends! Surely you two have met by now?"

"Williams? Rory Williams?" Melody asked.

"Ah, yes! Now we're getting somewhere!" the Doctor exclaimed. "All right, so you haven't met him yet. But you will now! And while that may have an effect on the future…Oh, what am I saying, I'm about to introduce a new child to the time stream! I've already messed it up enough by just being here… But I'm sure I can relatively smooth it out in the future…at least I hope…"

"Uh…Excuse me? Mr. Doctor?" Amelia inquired, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention. The Master backed behind the Doctor as she approached, which was his first sign of life since entering the school. No one noticed, but his cheeks grew a deep shade of red when Amelia stepped foreward. "I'm not sure what you're talking about, but…The only Williams' around here are Mr. and Mrs. Williams down the street, and they don't have any children."

There was a pause.

"What? What did you say?" The Doctor asked seriously.

"There is no Rory Williams around here, sir," Amelia told him.

"But…but that's impossible!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Unless…Unless he moved here after this date…No, no, I'm positive he mentioned growing up here as long as he could remember… Well, what if the crack in reality had a more serious effect?"

The Doctor looked around, as if expecting one of the children to give him the answer he was missing. They just stared back up at him inquiringly.

"No, no, no, that can't be it, reality was mended, all back to normal…Well, as normal as it ever was…which isn't that normal at all, but that's not the point! So you're absolutely sure there's no Rory Williams around here?"

"Absolutely," Amelia said.

"And we would know. I know every boy in our class!" Melody bragged.

"Only because you've snogged them all behind the gym," Amelia replied

"Melody, you're seven!" said the Doctor, a little shocked.

"I've been around here for seven years, that's for sure," Melody said, as if she was letting on to something she thought the Doctor wasn't aware of. Which, of course, he was fully aware of.

"Ok, ok…there's something definitely not right going on here… something very wrong has happened, and I just need to figure out what… So, I came here looking for the Ponds. I found two. Missing one. Where is that one? Where…is…Rory…"

The Doctor started pacing at this. "Came looking…two out of three…what am I missing…Rory, I'm missing Rory…Two out of three ain't bad…No, no, not the time for songs… Rory's missing again, where…when…why?"

The Doctor thought and thought, but no matter the solution, from Daleks to the Silence, there was no way he could explain Rory's disappearance this early in a newly repaired time stream.

"Ok…Maybe I need to think a bit more…general. Came here looking for three Ponds…No, I've done that, MORE general. I came here looking for three children, and what do I have here?"

The Doctor surveyed the room.

Amelia, one child.

Melody, two children.

But where was-

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

"Oh…oh, that's not…there's no way…I…I am so STUPID!" the Doctor exclaimed.

He looked back at the three children before him. "Amelia, Melody? Meet Rory."

(Those who don't want the add-on of how the Doctor aligns the timestream to make everything match up [pointless backstory] can stop here. Here ends the main point in the story)

***Epilogue***

"So, what are you saying, again?"

"Mr. Williams, Rory here was found on the streets with no recollection of who he was or how he got there," the Doctor explained, standing in the doorway of the Williams household. "In his pocket was this note." The Doctor extracted the psychic paper from his pocket, and showed the couple a blank sheet of paper. On it, they saw a hastily scribbled letter to the adoption agency that they, Rachel and Benjamin Williams, were to be named the guardians of Rory. There was no more explanation to it.

"Now, I know this is all happening a little fast for you," the Doctor started.

"Well, if it wasn't for your phone call yesterday, we really wouldn't believe any of this," Benjamin told the man he believed was the adoption agent.

"Right, the phone call," the Doctor said, making a mental note to make that phone call the moment he got back to the TARDIS. "Now, don't worry; taking care of a child is no more difficult than disarming a fusion detonator," he told them with a smile.

"Um…What?" Rachel asked.

"Uh…Never mind that, I have business to get back to – lots of kids up for adoption these days, you know," the Doctor told them.

"Oh…Of course," the Williams' told him. "But first…What's the boy's surname?"

"We don't know," the Doctor told them. "He wasn't found with one. I suppose he can just go by Williams."

"And, is there any hope of him ever getting his memory back? We want to be ready if it ever happens."

"Nope, no chance," the Doctor stated. Not while he's living with you, anyway, he added to himself. He'd need an imprint circuit from Gallifrey to put those memories back. And all of those were lost in the Time War.

"Well, that's just terrible! We are going to have to fill your head with a lot of good memories to make up for it!" they told the Master – now Rory.

The Doctor smiled, happy with the choice in parents he had made. Well, there was no one else I could stick him with anyway, the Doctor said, not without messing with the fabric of space and time again.

"Well, I'm sure you would like to get to know the boy, but we have some important business to attend to first," the Doctor said, taking Rory's hand. "Registration for school, and the like. We won't be long."

"Oh, you people do all of that for the children now? So thoughtful! Have a nice day! Mister…"

"Doctor," the Doctor said over his shoulder as he walked away. "Just call me the Doctor."

"So, wait, what are we doing here?" Amelia asked again, standing outside the door of the TARDIS.

"Relax, Amy, the Doctor got us off school half an hour early!" Melody reminded her. "I don't care what this is for, that's worth it!"

"Exactly," the Doctor told them. "Now, you two watch Rory while I go inside my time machine to get something, ok?"

"You're…You're not going to leave again, are you?" Amelia asked, frowning. The Doctor crouched down and looked her in the eye.

"Amelia Pond, I promise to never leave you like that again." He took her hand, and placed it on the outside of the TARDIS. "Now, you hold on tight. That way you'll know I can't go anywhere, even I wanted to. Back in a flash!"

The Doctor leapt inside the TARDIS, leaving the three children feeling a bit silly.

"He's probably gone into the library," Amelia told her friend.

"That thing has a library?" Melody asked, looking at the box in awe.

"And a swimming pool!" Amelia continued.

"I love swimming pools!" Rory told them excitedly, forgetting his own shyness. His face grew red with embarrassment.

"You know, kid, I like you," Amelia told the new boy. Rory's blush grew to an even deeper red. If his past life as the Master could only see him now… "I think we're going to be friends. I'm Amelia Pond," she finished, extending a hand. After a second of confusion, Rory shook it.

"And I'm Melody," the second girl told him, giving him a light punch on the shoulder. Rory let out a soft 'ow'.

At that moment, the doors to the TARDIS swung open again, and the Doctor jumped out. He held in his hands a strange contraption, about the size of a head, that was fixed to the TARDIS by a very long, very thick cord.

"What's that?" Amelia asked.

"This is the raw console of a chameleon circuit. Well, a broken one, at any rate. Used to disguise anything associated with time lords – from our technology to even ourselves! This one has a big hole in it right here," the Doctor said, tapping the circuit on an area masked with a metal strip on a locked hinge. "A convenient effect of looking into a raw Chameleon Circuit core is the mass erase of all memories related to Time Lords over the past two days or so." Can't have River reporting to the Silence on my activities, the Doctor thought However much it pains me to have to do this… "Your little humany wumany brains will patch the memory with whatever makes the most sense up there. Everyone understand?"

The blank looks on the children's faces gave the Doctor his answer.

"No? Perfect! Now, everyone look toward the light, say cheese!"

On instinct, the three children did as they were told. The Doctor opened the hatch on the Chameleon Circuit, and a golden light poured out. After a split second, the Doctor closed the circuit once more, and carried it back into the TARDIS, closing the door.

"Phew," he said to himself. "Glad that's all sorted."

He dashed to the console, and whisked the TARDIS to another location as quickly as he could. Don't want Amelia spotting the TARDIS and recognising it, he thought.

The Doctor sighed, stood up, and looked onto the main display screen of the TARDIS. He saw planets, stars, and nebulas whiz by, but the view had long since bored him.

Suddenly, the old Time Lord laughed.

"Rory's the Master!" He said to himself. "The Master is Rory! Who would have thought, after all these years, we'd be back again for a few final adventures…"

Smiling, he hummed La Vie en Rose to himself as he worked the TARDIS controls.

I don't think I would have it any other way.

Well, that's that. Now that this is the final chapter, if you feel strongly about this fic in either direction, please let me know. I want to know if I should continue to submit stories, or just give up on the endeavour. Also, if enough comments request it, I'll include the SUPER SECRET BONUS CHAPTER 4! It's only one chapter, but it's layed out in such a way that you will understand the entire story behind what happens from just a page or two of words. Worth a shot, or not?