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Rory stared up at the warrior, sword in one hand and a wooden staff in the other, hands up in surrender and terrified. They pressed the sword against his throat, almost hard enough to cut the skin and all he could do was think about how he'd failed to find Amy before he'd even really started.
"I waited." The warrior spoke with a computerized voice and he frowned in confusion.
"Sorry, what?" He asked, not wanting to anger the person with the sword but also not really understanding what was happening.
"I waited for you." They pulled the sword away, holding it behind them, "I waited!" They slowly lifted their mask and Rory's mouth dropped as he sat up slightly. Amy, a much older Amy stared down at him, her face hardened and she stared coolly at him.
"Amy." He breathed, "Doctor, what's going on?"
"Er..." The voice in his ear trailed off, telling him exactly what he had feared. That this was his Amy, but that she had been there a long time. That she had been waiting for them, and they'd never come.
"Amy." He pushed the tip of the sword away from him before standing up slowly to stare at her, devastated.
"I think the time stream lock might be a bit wobbly." The Doctor told him and Amy drew her sword, holding it up to her eye level as she pointed it at him.
"No, please. Please!" He begged, holding his hands up again, although he wasn't sure if he was begging because she was pointing a sword at him or because she was still there.
"Duck." She bit out and he did instantly as she thrust the blade forward into the head of a Handbot that had appeared behind him without knowing. Rory turned to watch it fall backwards as it powered down, his mouth still open. Since when could Amy use a sword?
"Handbots carry a black box in case they go offline." Amy told him as she stepped past him to the Handbot, kneeling behind it, taking something out of her pocket as she removed the black box,"I've changed the cause of termination from hostile to accidental. Easy to re-programme. Using my sonic probe." She replaced the box back into the robot.
"Amy." Rory said again, not really knowing what to say as he stared at her. She was talking like she knew what she was doing, and the Amy he had seen only 10 minutes ago had problems with the DVD player.
"Rory." She stated in reply, looking up at him with no emotion.
"Why?" He asked, at a loss.
"We've survived this long by making the Handbots think we don't exist." She explained, "Don't touch the hands. Anaesthetic transfer - if they touch you, you go to sleep."
"But you're still here?" He asked sadly, watching her as she stood up.
"You didn't save me." She told him bluntly, striding past him towards the doorway. Rory let out a sob, his heart breaking at the thought of her thinking he hadn't come for her. After everything, she should have known that he would always find her.
"This is the saving!" He exclaimed, catching up to her, "This is the us saving you! The Doctor just got the timing a bit out!" He shouted down the communicator, hoping the Doctor could hear how angry he was.
"We've been on our own here a long, long time." Amy told him quietly, refusing to look him in the eye, "I've had decades to think nice thoughts about him. Got a bit harder to stay charitable once I entered decade four."
"40 years? Alone?" He asked her, still not quite comprehending it.
"36 years, thanks." She fluffed her hair self-consciously and he nodded, "And I had Danni."
"No. Right, I mean... you look great. Really. Really." He promised, still meaning it. She did, she may have gotten older but she looked just as amazing as she always did. And now he could understand why she liked the Roman amour.
"Eyes front, soldier." She told him, slightly flattered.
"Still can't win then." He said with a fake laugh, trying to cheer up the situation. She shot him a look then pushed past him.
"In fact," She continued, "I think I can now definitely say I hate him." She stopped and turned back to face him, still not looking him in the eyes, "I hate The Doctor. I hate him more than I've ever hated anyone in my life." She walked over, speaking with a conviction he had never thought he would ever hear in her voice, "You can hear every word of this through those ridiculous glasses, can't you, Raggedy Man?" She bit out.
"Ah. Yes. Putting the speaker phone on." The Doctor said over the communicator.
"You told us to wait. And we did. A lifetime." Amy told him.
"Amy..." He started, his voice coming across clearly and loudly, causing Rory to wince slightly.
"You've got nothing to say to me." Amy interrupted.
"Behind you!" The Doctor exclaimed and she spun around, chucking her staff at Rory in a single motion before grabbing the wrists of the robots and ducking out of the way as she pressed them together. They sparked and slumped forward, powering down.
"Feedback." She explained after a pause, "Knocks them out. Learned that trick on my first day." she stood up and left the room, leaving Rory to stare at her before snapping out of his daze and rushing to follow her. She strode down the corridor, trying to get away from him, torn between being happy that he had finally turned up and so, so angry that they had been so long.
"OK, so we just take the TARDIS back to the right time stream, yeah? We can stop any of this happening." He asked the Doctor as he followed her.
"We locked on to a time stream, Rory. This is it." The Doctor told him sullenly. The way she kept saying 'we' and 'us' meant that Danni was still there, that not only had he missed Amy and left her there for 36 years, that he'd left Danni behind too. 36 years she'd lived and he hadn't been there for any of it.
"This is so wrong." Rory exclaimed, frustrated.
"I got old, Rory, what did you think was going to happen?"
"Hey!" Rory shouted, annoyed at that. He grabbed her arm, not letting her walk further away, "I don't care that you got old! I care that we didn't grow old together. Amy, come on, please." She looked down at his hand grasping her arm tightly before yanking it away.
"Don't touch me. Don't do that." She told him quietly before continuing on.
"It's like you're not even her." He told her.
"36 years, three months, four days of practically solitary confinement." She stopped in front of a set of doors and turned back to look into the glasses, "This facility was built to give people the chance to live. We walked in here and we both died. Do you have anything to say? Anything, Doctor?" Amy pressed. She had waited 36 years for an answer. No matter how much Danni had reassured her they were coming, she had given up hope long ago and now she just wanted to know why. Why she hadn't been worth saving. Danni hadn't been able to jump away, the timestreams causing her to run too fast compared to actual time from what they could work out, but she guessed the Doctor had assumed she'd just jump away. If he had known, he would have saved her.
"Where did you get a sonic screwdriver?" The Doctor asked in reply, not really having an answer and not wanting to think about them both there, alone.
"I made it. And it's a sonic probe." She corrected.
"You made a sonic screwdriver?" Rory asked, amazed yet again that she had been able to do anything technical.
"Probe." She corrected again before entering the room, where the temporal engines sat. There was a section cornered off by a makeshift curtain and he followed her into a little room, with two beds, a couple of tables and what appeared to be a dresser. A Handbot was waiting with a smilie face painted on it and he jumped in surprise.
"Oh!" He held his hands up, backing away slightly.
"Don't worry about him." Amy snapped, taking off her helmet as she walked to the dresser, "Sit down, Rory." Rory sat on a box while the Handbot did the same, albeit slower than he had.
"You named him after me?" Rory asked, a bit touched.
"Needed a bit of company." Amy dismissed.
"So, he's like your..." Rory asked, standing up slowly with the robot.
"Pet." She told him firmly, so he didn't get any ideas. The last thing she wanted was him to think she had missed him. She reached over and grabbed her lipstick, she had always kept it with her. She rolled it out and stared at the deep red, not sure what she wanted to do with it
"Is it safe?"
"Yep. I disarmed it." She replied, not looking over as he nodded.
"How?" He caught sight of the stumps that used to be it's hands, "Oh, you... disarmed it."
"I drew the smilie face." He jumped as Danni sat up on one of the beds. Like Amy she had aged, her hair streaked with white and lines on her face showing the years she had been waiting. She was wincing, which made him frown in concern as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed.
"You should be sleeping." Amy scolded lightly, twisting the lipstick back down and placing it back where it was. It was stupid, she was so old now and he... wasn't.
"You shouldn't wander off on your own." She replied with a smile, "You're always leaving me on my own, you know?" Rory frowned as she squeezed her eyes shut, rubbing them.
"Are you okay?" He asked before gasping lightly, "You're bleeding." She rolled her eyes with a sigh before reaching up, feeling the trickle coming out of her nose.
"Oh, well that's attractive." She muttered, reaching over and grabbing a bit of cloth, wiping it away, "I just wanted credit for the face. She wanted to name it Rory, though." She continued the other conversation, wanting to draw the attention away from her bleeding nose.
"Really?" He asked, turning back to his wife.
"Oh, don't get sentimental," Amy snapped, "it's just a robot. You'd have done the same."
"I don't know that I would have." The Doctor said, interrupting as he wanted to get to Danni and they all kept talking. He looked over at her, sat on the edge of her bed watching the two with a fond smile, she obviously wasn't angry like Amy was. It would have been better if she was, really, because there wasn't any way she could have forgiven him, which meant that she didn't care anymore and he refused to consider that.
"And there he is - the voice of God." Amy cried sarcastically, "Survive. Cos no-one's going to come for you. Number one lesson." She strode over to stare straight into the glasses, trying to ignore her husbands eyes, "You taught me that."
"Is that really all I taught you?" The Doctor asked in reply.
"Don't you lecture me, blue-box man flying through time and space on whimsy. All I've got - all I've had for 36 years - is cold, hard reality. So, no, I don't have a sonic screwdriver because I'm not off on a romp. I call it what it is - a probe. And I call my life what it is... Hell."
"Amy, don't do that." Danni said gently, standing up and walking over to the pair, "They came to save us, just like I said." She reached up and took the glasses gently off Rory's head, "We're going to have a chat." She told them with no room for argument, "Try not to eat each other 'til we get back." She walked over to the side of their little room they had built during their first year, adding to it over the years. She sat on a box and held the glasses up, moving them back slightly as she tried to position it properly before smiling, "I'm not too close, am I?" She asked him.
"No, you're fine." The Doctor's voice came through, for the first time in 36 years he spoke directly at her and she revealed in the feeling. She had missed him more than she could ever tell him, her whole time there had just been counting down the days until she could see him again. She had tried to make it more bearable for Amy, she hadn't been on her own this time which was a plus but Amy didn't know the outcome like she did. There was only so many times you could tell someone they were going to be rescued before they gave up.
"Good." Danni said, not mentioning how much she just wanted a hug off him because he would come hug her, and the last thing he needed was Chen7, "Let's get this over with. Firstly, if I remember you correctly you're going to try and apologise and I knew what was going to happen when I followed Amy to get her phone, so don't even bother." She held up a finger as he started to reply, "Secondly, I know you're going to try and save all four of us, and I knew from the start that you couldn't so you listen to me Spaceman," She leant in slightly closer to the glasses, "Don't you dare try and save me. This is a redundant timeline, and I've been holding on to the fact that you would save her before me, so don't let me down." There was a pause and she reached self-consciously, running her fingers through her red and white hair. She was sure her bed hair wasn't as attractive as it once was.
"You went in there willingly?" He finally asked her and she nodded.
"Amy had to come in here, she didn't have to come alone." She replied instantly.
"You suffered for 36 years so Amy wouldn't be alone?" He pressed and she nodded again.
"No one should ever be alone." The Doctor let out a laugh and she frowned, "What?"
"Sometimes you say something that reminds me of just why I love you so much." He replied and she blushed deeply, running her hand through her hair again.
"Not like this though. I look like your grandma." She replied, embarrassed.
"Exactly like that." She smiled widely, the truth in what he had said coming through even just over the communicator.
"Right, come on Spaceman. Time to save the day. Just, one more thing." Her smile dropped as she took a deep breath, "There is something in my head. And it hurts, so much. All day, every day I can feel it but we looked and we can't work it out." She explained quietly.
"Is that why your nose was bleeding?" He asked, worried but also slightly relieved. She was still getting the headaches, but it hadn't progressed over all that time. That must mean that he could stop it.
"It's not like a normal headache, and I do get them so I know." She continued, "It feels like there's something in my head, something deep in my brain trying to push it's way out. The nosebleeds happen when the pressure gets almost unbearable, almost like my body is trying to relieve the pressure inside. When you save us, find out what it is. Please." She begged.
"I swear." He promised and she nodded once, standing up and walking back over to the couple. She rolled her eyes, they were sat looking in different directions like teenagers, Amy refusing to look at Rory in case she did something to show she still cared and Rory not being able to handle the fact she wouldn't look at him because it meant she didn't care.
"Right, stop sulking." Danni barked, "The Doctor has an amazing and completely plausible plan and we're going to get out of here today." She placed the glasses back on Rory's head as Amy turned to face her, a look of disbelief on her face.
"Amy Pond," The Doctor stated, taking the cue from Danni, "I am going to put this right. You said you learned from an Interface. Can I speak with it?"
"Doesn't work in here." She explained, looking at the her watch, "2:23, the garden'll be clear now." She walked over to Rory, looking everywhere but at him, "Stay or go?" She asked. He stared, waiting for the Doctor to answer before jumping in realisation.
"Sorry, me? No, I'm coming with you!" He replied insistingly.
"Then try not to get killed. Or do. Whatever." She flushed slightly, annoyed that she let that slip out as she stormed off, "Danni, you stay here."
"Hold on, she should come too." The Doctor interrupted from the TARDIS, not wanting to leave her on her own. If he could observe her, he might still be able to fix her. Danni shook her head, shooting the glasses an apologetic smile as she moved over to the bed.
"Wasn't planning on coming," Danni replied, "I need to lie down. It's getting worse again."
"Try and get some sleep." He told her gently, "I'll fix it, I promise." She didn't reply, turning over in the bed and squeezing her eyes shut as the couple left her alone. She hoped more than anything he could save her when she was younger, back when she was 23. Because, she thought as her nose began bleeding once again, because it scared her. She hadn't told Amy, but every time in built up it felt like her brain was being ripped apart from the inside and nobody wanted to die like that. It wasn't the pain that worried her, it was the mood swings. They were far, far worse. She had once found herself over Amy, a pillow in hand about to press it over her face as she slept and she had no idea how she had gotten there, all she knew was that she just wanted Amy to pay for having her trapped there; in Twostreams without the Doctor.
She was terrified that once out she would do something terrible, and he was the only one who could stop it.
~0~0~0~
Rory followed Amy down the stairs into what he guessed was the gardens, unable to stop glancing back the way they came. It was incredible, really, the way the people in Twostreams had all these places at their fingertips so they would never get bored. That was something he was grateful for; his wife may have been trapped in this place for 36 years, but at least she wasn't trapped in one room, she'd be able to move and explore and even learn thing if the sonic screw...probe was anything to go by.
"What's wrong with Danni?" He asked her as they stepped through an archway. She obviously wasn't well, anyone with eyes could see that and he hadn't been comfortable leaving her on her own, but Amy had left and he couldn't let her leave, not even for Danni.
"We don't know." Amy admitted, "She gets headaches, they dull when she sleeps, if she can get any sleep. They never go though."
"Have they gotten any worse?" The Doctor asked, "Or has anything else developed from them?"
"It never progressed into anything." She replied, sounding worried for her friend before clearing her throat, clearing thinking that she had been too concerned in front of them, "When we first came here, we had to trick the Interface into giving us the information, but I've reprogrammed it now. It'll tell me anything except how to escape." She explained.
"You hacked it? That's genius!" Rory exclaimed, impressed.
"Sorry to interrupt that beautiful moment," The Doctor snapped, wanting to move on. The quicker he could figure out how to get back to the earlier versions of Amy and Danni the quicker he could save them both, "but temporal engines have a regulator valve, which has to be kept from the main reactor or there's feedback. Interface, where's the regulator?"
"The regulator valve is held within." The Interface replied, bringing up a hologram of the valve. It spun slowly in mid-air.
"Ah! Oh, very, very 'ah!'" The Doctor said as he looked them over, "Interface, I need to run through some technical specifications. Rory, give me to Amy a minute."
"Here you go." Rory took off the glasses and went to place them on her head, but thought better of it when he remembered her reaction to him touching her before. He held them out to her and she took them, almost smiling gratefully that he had been so considerate. She placed them on and they stood in silence for a moment.
"They look ridiculous." She told him and he nodded.
"That's what I told him." He agreed before smiling, "Still, anything beats a fez, eh?" They both laughed until Amy stopped abruptly. Rory frowned at the action, it looked like she was surprised at it.
"What is it?" He asked her gently.
"I think that's the first time I've laughed in 36 years." She replied. They stared at each other, Rory's heart aching at the time they had lost, she had grown up and old without him to witness it and it hurt to think that they'd never get that time back.
"I'll just," He broke the moment, unable to look back at the face of the woman he'd let down, "um, leave you two geniuses alone. I'll be back in a minute." He turned and walked out into the garden, down a path as he marvelled at the scenery around him. It truly was beautiful, the greenery almost shining in what he guessed was artificial sunlight. He frowned to himself, he wondered if it ever rained here. Had Amy seen rain in 36 years, or was it constant fake sunlight? He shook his head, walking up some steps onto a platform with a doorway stood proudly on it. He walked up to it.
"How can you have a door without a wall?" He asked out loud as he tried to walk around it, slamming into an invisible barrier, "Oh!" He reached out, feeling the smooth surface of something underneath even though he could say past it to more garden, "Holographic wallpaper?" He turned and saw a Handbot stood just behind him, taking him by surprise, "Oh!" It placed a hand on his neck. He went rigid and fell to the ground as the Handbot leaned over him.
"Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness." He heard it say as he drifted in and out of consciousness before there was an small sparking noise.
"Oh." He groaned, his head smarting from the fall.
"Rory?" A voice called to him and he forced his eyes open to see Amy looking over him, looking concerned. He smiled up at her when he noticed the pair of glasses perched on her nose.
"Glasses." He told her and she stood quickly, turning away from him.
"You stupid..." She muttered under her breath, although he wasn't sure if he was telling him or herself off. He looked forward and saw the torso of the Handbot that had appeared behind him, without the head and still sparking.
"Oh! You saved me." He exclaimed, surprised. Amy spun angrily on the spot to face him.
"Don't get used to it." She warned him and he frowned.
"Have you been crying? A little bit?" He asked her.
"Shut up, Rory." She bit out.
"You have, haven't you?" She raised her sword by her side, gripping the handle tightly.
"Woman with a sword. Don't push it." She warned him again. He raised his hands in the air and he nodded in surrender as the Doctor's laugh came over the communicator.
"OK, so here's the plan. Time is always a bit wibbly-wobbly, but in Twostreams it's extra wubbly." Amy ripped the glasses off of her face and jammed them on Rory's, making sure to get him in the ear with the arm as she did, "I've worked out how to hijack the temporal engines and then fold two points of both Amy's and Danni's timelines together. We're bringing them out of the then and into the now! Amy, once we go fetch Danni I'll just need to borrow your brain a minute, it won't hurt, probably - almost probably. And then, Amy Pond, I'm going to save you. I'm going to save you both." Amy stared at the glasses before stepping closer so she was eye-to-eye with Rory.
"No!" She declared firmly, surprising both men with her refusal as she took out her sonic probe, "Time's up, Handbots coming." She turned and left through the doorway with no wall without a word. Rory jumped into action, following the furious woman back into the facility.
"Amy, you've got to help us help you." The Doctor pleaded as Rory caught up to her, "I need you to think back 36 years ago." She didn't stop, didn't even look around at the pair as she slammed the door to the engines open and walked through it, letting it swing closed behind her, "Amy? Amy!?" He cried after her. It would only work if they were both willing to go through with it, and if Amy wasn't then he couldn't save Danni either. They'd be stuck 36 years older than the last time they'd seen them and he'd lose all that time with her. Human lives were so short compared to Time Lord ones; like he'd told Rose they withered and they died while he continued on and he'd wanted to spend ever single moment he could in Danni's life by her side. 36 years was a large chunk of it that without Amy's help he'd never get back.
Rory watched the door swing close at a lose over what to do. He wanted to follow her, beg her, plead with her to help herself come back but he wasn't sure if it would just anger her further. He lifted up the magnifying glass hanging at his hip as he spotted red smudges on the door, looking through it to see the writing 'Doctor We're Waiting' on the door with an arrow pointing inwards. The writing in the now had obviously been rubbed off, probably by Amy as she became angrier and more resentful about being forgotten.
"You told her to leave us a sign. And she did. And they both waited. Oh, Amy." He breathed sadly before throwing the doors open and following her in.
"Why won't you help yourself?" He called as he jogged to catch up to her.
"He wants to rescue Past Me from 36 years back, which means I'll cease to exist." She replied as she stormed towards her home, "Everything I've seen and done dissolves, time is rewritten."
"That's... That's good, isn't it?" Rory asked in reply, stopping. Amy paused and turned to face him.
"I will die. Another Amy will take my place, an Amy who never got trapped at Twostreams, who grew old with you, and she, in 36 years, won't be me." She turned to storm off.
"But you'll die in here." He protested.
"Not if you take me with you." She turned to face him, "You came to rescue me, so rescue me."
"Leave her and take you?" Rory asked incredulously.
"We could take this Amy with us, easy," The Doctor told them, "but if we do, our Amy has to wait 36 years to be rescued." And his Danni. He couldn't force Amy to help, but he could try and get Rory to convince her it's a bad idea. He wouldn't let his Danni suffer through this, even if it meant trading Amy for her.
"So I have to choose - which wife do I want?" Rory muttered angrily.
"She is me. We're both me." Amy told him gently before turning and entering into her and Danni's room.
"You being here is wrong. For a single day, an hour, let alone a lifetime. I swore to protect you...I promised." Rory shouted after her. Amy stormed over, pausing and staring at her bed as she thought about it. She didn't want to live here, she didn't want to condemn the younger Amy to have to stay in this place but she wasn't prepared to die.
"When I followed you in 36 years ago." Danni told her, sitting up and startling her, "I knew I'd be stuck here with you. And it worried me, but I knew that when it came to 36 years later I'd be saved by the Doctor and Rory. My younger self would take my place and I'd cease to exist and that was fine, because I wouldn't subject anyone to this."
"I refuse to die." Amy replied firmly.
"Well I don't." Danni snapped back, "You think you've got it hard, poor Amelia Williams." She taunted, "Well, let me just put this to you. If you knew you had 36 years of misery ahead of you, 36 years of looking after me while I refuse to die, would you do it again? Because I wouldn't. Given the choice, I wouldn't choose to follow you in again and I'd leave you here to rot." Amy's eyes widened as Danni snarled at her, "And if this is the me you choose to live with, on your head be it."
Rory came into the room holding the magnifying glass up. The sound of sobbing came through and Amy recognised it as herself crying. She remembered this. Danni had passed out after a particularly bad headache and it was the first time she had felt alone since they'd been stranded. She sat on her bed as Danni walked over to Rory, seeing Young Amy crying through the glass.
"You need to convince her." She whispered to the man, "Please, I want to go back." Rory nodded and walked over to Amy, kneeling in front of her.
"Look me in the face and say you won't help her." He demanded. Amy turned to face him slowly, looking him directly in the eye.
"I will not help her." She told him.
"OK... OK." He stood up and walked over to a table, perching himself on top of it. There was no way he would ever be able to change her mind, once she had decided something no one could make her do anything else. He looked down at the magnifying glass, the only person who could change Amy's mind was Amy. He held up the glass to his face, turning it on.
"Look me in the face and say it now." He told her. The glass flickered, bringing up the image of Younger Amy crying. The girl sniffed, looking around the room.
"Rory? Rory is that you?" She asked. He soniced the glass, bringing up the connection on the other side and Younger Amy approached the glass warily, "Rory, where are you?"
"Same place as you - and a bit ahead." He explained apologetically.
"I remember this." Amy remarked, taking a hold of the glass and peering at her younger self. She had been pretty, she had always known that but to see her face to face she could appreciate just how lovely she actually looked, especially since she'd lost her looks.
"But who's she? There's no-one else here, just me and Danni." Younger Amy asked, confused as she glanced over at the prone body of Danni on the floor, breathing steadily after finally finding some sleep. She hoped it would cheer her up a bit, she hadn't expected her to be so angry.
Rory let go of the glass and walked away, leaving his younger wife to convince the other one to save herself. He opened the curtain and walked over to Danni, who had exited a while ago and was leaning against one of the engines, her eyes closed. He sat next to her.
"I... is there anything I can do to help?" He asked her and she opened her eyes to look at him, smiling softly.
"I'm sorry." She replied sadly, "I need a Doctor, not a murse." They both chuckled hollowly at the joke, "Please try not to be angry at her. She's spent too much time on her own."
"You've been here. Didn't you tell her we were coming?" He had to ask, he had to know that Amy had been given some form of hope.
"I did." She replied defensively before sighing, "It's just been hard for her to believe. I couldn't leave here much," She motioned around the room, "The Handbots can sense something's wrong and they swarm whenever I go out. She wouldn't leave me at first, but I made her." She smiled fondly, "She used to bring me things. She found a karaoke machine once, you know? Boy, that was a good six months.
"The Doctor told me about your karaoke attempt." Rory admitted and she laughed.
"We were terrible, but we were happy." Her smile dropped, "Then she started going out more and more, spending her time thinking to herself. It's not been easy in here, she's had a lot of time to convince herself that everything she thinks badly of is true. She thought you'd given up on her. She just needs to convince herself that she hasn't given up on you." Rory turned to watch her as she closed her eyes again with a sigh.
"Didn't you give up?" He asked her and she shook her head.
"Not on the Doctor, no." She replied, "I gave up on everything else. I was going to spend the rest of my life with him, now I'm not. I had a life ahead of me, now I don't." She rubbed her eyes, "I wanted to die for the longest of times, I even gave up on that. I don't care anymore, that's the price I paid for choosing Amy. She cares so much still, but I don't... And you're still wearing them ridiculous glasses aren't you?" she opened her eyes to look directly into the thick lenses.
"I'm going to save you." The Doctor promised over the communicator, "I'm not going to let you feel like that ever again, I swear." Rory stood up, handing her the glasses before walking away to give them a moment alone.
"I know you're going to save me." She told him, "I know you're going to save the younger me and that this one won't exist anymore. I won't grow old here and so I won't feel like this, but you can't expect me to live this long away from everyone without something giving."
"I don't, believe me I know what it's like to be alone." She nodded to herself, "I just never wanted that for you." She smiled softly.
"It took a while, but we managed to hie me somewhat from the Handbots." She started slowly, "I used to go to the gardens because they're a perfect replica of a Shill Governor's Mansion on Shallanna and you were going to take me, remember?"
"You jumped away before I could. I'd forgotten about that." he replied. She could hear the smile in his voice at the memory, the thought of Donna was always bittersweet.
"I used to go on my own and talk to the Interface. I used to ask to see you. I had it on repeat, images of your first eleven incarnations. I refused to look further, because I wasn't sure if I'd see him, but I used to just sit and watch you for hours." She trailed off, a lump in her throat. 36 years and she'd only had a hologram to hold onto. The only time she could see him.
"Why did you stop?" He'd noticed her use of 'used to', as in she doesn't now.
"Because I've been too ill to." She replied bluntly, "And we should look over there now." She turned to glasses despite his protest to see Amy stride out from behind the curtains, a woman with a purpose. Rory turned to face her, surprised by her sudden appearance.
"I'm going to pull time apart for you." She declared before pulling him for a gentle kiss, her first with her husband in 36 years. She placed his hands on her hips before grasping his shoulders, never wanting to let go even as they broke away. Rory stared, mouth open and so happy before pulling into her hug, vowing never to let ago as Amy cried.