Amy wandered out onto a balcony somewhere in Walter Manor (she'd long lost track of where she was) and saw the Spine leaning against the railing, watching the stars come out as the sun set.

"Hey-" she began, but he held up a hand to cut her off.

"Look," the Spine said, pointing up at the sky as she joined his side.

A silver pinprick of light shot across the sky before disappearing into the night.

"A shooting star?" Amy asked. The Spine shook his head. "The Mars Five. They're going home."

It had taken the rest of that day and the better part of another to get the Mars Five and enough of its crew well enough to go home. Everyone had worked together, and worked hard.

"I'm glad they get to go home," Amy said finally. "Well, they wanted me to tell you that we're having ice cream now whether you join us or not. So I think you'd better head down there before Michael and the Jon eat it all."

"Oh, he's up? That's good to hear." Relief spread over the Spine's face at the thought that everybody was now, officially, all right.

"Yep! Come on." Amy had begun to walk back inside the Manor until she noticed the Spine wasn't following her. When she turned, she saw he was still staring up at the sky.

The Spine noticed her waiting for him. "Sorry," he gave a little, almost bashful smile. "I've always loved the stars."

Amy eyed him. She had been so scared while the Doctor, Sam, and Steve worked to clean all the green matter out of his system. The Spine didn't know it, but she hadn't left the room until they'd finished. Now she smiled and slipped her arm through his. "You know, I think I can arrange something…"

It had taken another two days for the Doctor to figure out how to get himself, Rory, and Amy back to their own universe. Most of that time had been spent on every flavor of steam-powered adventures from ice cream parades to a wild night at the Zoo. Usually- well, always- the Doctor hated goodbyes and left before he had to participate in them. Even though this time he didn't really have a choice, their farewell from Steam Powered Giraffe had been a mix of joy and sorrow, the way departures from friends always were.

The TARDIS engines were louder than usual when they landed in their own world, emitting several bizarre and worrisome noises. Amy hurried to the door and stuck her head out.

"Um, Doctor?" she called. Amy was pushed out of the TARDIS as Rory and the Doctor joined her. "Are you sure we're back in our own universe?"

Before them was the now familiar scene of early afternoon at the San Diego Zoo. The air was full of happy chatter, people milling around the Front Street Plaza as three humans they knew very well were setting up sound equipment and instruments on the stage.

The TARDIS travelers moved closer to the stage. "We're back at the Zoo," Rory said, only slight disappointment in his voice.

"Oh-" The Doctor was cut off as Steve hurried past, bundles of extension cords piled in his arms.

"Steve!" Amy called. The sound engineer looked up at them, smiled and nodded, but otherwise carried on with his business.

"Wh-what?" the ginger woman was not used to being ignored. "He walked right past, like he didn't even know us!"

"Um, Amy?" Rory pointed to the back of the stage.

A young man with curly brown-blonde hair tripped out onto the stage, laughter lighting up his face as he approached Michael. He was followed by a very tall man who wore a bemused grin and, oddly enough, the Spine's clothes.

"Shouldn't you guys be getting in makeup?" they heard Michael ask.

"Yeah, no- just a second-" the curly-haired guy struggled to get words out in between laughs.

The Doctor looked between the people on stage and the Ponds' confused faces with a chuckle. "I think we're home," he said.

0-0

The end!

I want to thank everyone who read this story, especially with those who stuck with it the whole time. It started out good and then went really horrible and the ending sucked and I'm really sorry so I hope you at least enjoy the epilogue.

Still, I had a lot of fun writing it (in between feeling horrible for it accidentally becoming an angst fic XD). And I have to say, I am incredibly proud of myself because this is the first story I have ever finished. I've never actually ended anything I've begun to write before this story. So thank you to SPG and Doctor Who for inspiring it and the readers for inspiring me to finish.