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[mmkaternater]

There are several things one does not want to hear come out of the Doctor's mouth. Oh, hello, we seem to be falling into the surface of the sun is one of them. You must be the fellow who's been stealing my paper every morning is another. But the one phrase you do not want to hear the Doctor say, no matter what, the one statement that could portend the doom of the known universe (and several neighboring universes) -- Uh oh.

"Uh oh."

The Doctor, standing at the TARDIS console, blinking at a button that is most definitely blinking back. Well, this certainly doesn't bode well. "Amy," he says, with the kind of tension that usually gets reserved for baby mix-ups at hospitals, "I wonder if you wouldn't mind stepping over here and pressing this big green button for a while. It seems we're about to fall into a wormhole and I really, really don't do well with wormholes. Or carnival rides, for that matter. I went on a tilt-a-whirl at the World's Fair once. Almost upped my lunch on Nikola Tesla. Strange man. 'Bit grim. Wonderful singing voice."

The flashing green light starts to pulse in a more erratic fashion. The Doctor turns his head halfway round on his shoulders, "Amy, I don't mean to alarm you, but if you could come push this button right now, it would be extremely helpful to keeping all of our atoms in their proper places."

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[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

The funny part about having an imaginary friend is that no matter how old you get, they never leave you. They're always with you, either behind your shoulder with a whisper of a breeze or in the back of your mind as a thought, a hum of intuition. Growing up, little Amelia Pond had waited for a long time for an answer, with those things as her temporary comforts. She had often reached her small, growing fingers upwards as if there were an adult hand - a male hand attached to a wiry build - she could grasp, and then together they could go somewhere far, far away.

Those ideas belonged in fairy tales, and somehow Amelia - nee Amy - Pond had never stopped believing.

"Push a button and keep our atoms in place," she said, reciting as if a child at lessons, "right, sounds important. And important - " here she ran 'round the console's perimeter, canvas and rubber slapping against metal in a muted cadence, " - important is something I can do!" Amy proffered him a lopsided sort of smile and brought her hand down on the dancing green light.

"There! Atoms still in their places, so what now?"

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor points to the button beneath her hand. "Good, very good. Do not stop pushing that button, do you hear me?" He throws a couple of levers and ratchets a ratchety thing. "It is absolutely essential that you do not stop pushing that button, otherwise your head will end up in Timbuktu and your toes --" he pauses to look up the long shaft of the TARDIS's main drive "-- well, I honestly don't know where your toes will end up, but rest assured that it will not be a pleasant holiday for them."

He reels backward just as the TARDIS gives a tremendous lurch, upsetting a complete tea service from one of the shelves just offstage. "There go the Jammy Dodgers!" the Doctor cries, watching as the little cookie wheels go bouncing off in all directions. "Amy, really now, button?" He takes up a rubber mallet and starts bashing the console. "Come on, come on! Ah ha! Oh no, I'm not going down that easy! Come on and get me, you big bully wormhole! Do your worst! I'll fly out of here so quickly that I'll leave tiremarks on the stars!"

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

"Well, then I won't be doing anything other than pushing this - " And then he was hitting things and she found a lack of speech the most prominent feeling in her mouth, along with a little bit of copper-y tang where she had, on accident and in haste of moving about, managed to bite her tongue. It probably came about when she collided with the console in a haste to reach the button, but no point in worrying after that now.

"Is hitting it really going to help?" The question comes from her as a saucer from the tea service whirls across the air with a speed that would make a Frisbee envious and forces her to duck her head in avoidance of a collision. Amy managed to duck but not dislodge her finger from the button, crouching for a few seconds' time behind the console before standing up again, affording herself a better look at him.

"Doctor? Isn't all that hitting just going to make it mad?"

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

"Does kicking the vending machine ever really give you a stuck Mars bar?" the Doctor counters, giving the console another liberal thump with the mallet. "She's not used to all of these newfangled calibrations. I knew I should have replaced the axiochronolomoton before I left Betelgeuse II but you know how you always think you can make it another ten billion miles before your next tune-up."

thump. Thump. CLUNK.

"Ah ha! There we go!" the Doctor crows, leaning with the TARDIS as it throws itself at a right angle. "Oh, you're a nasty thing, aren't you? But you won't catch me today!" He gives a pair of levers a solid shove and the TARDIS rocks back into a comfortable orbit. He slaps his palm down on a bicycle bell and grins. "There we are. All atoms accounted for. I --" throwing a glance at Amy "-- what are you doing? Stop pushing that button. Do you want to get us both killed?"

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

"You're the one who told me to push it!"

Oh, and didn't he just have the most horrible time making up his mind? One thing, the other, the exact opposite of everything he had just said - and Miss Pond was supposed to follow right on along without so much as a misstep. Never mind it was illogical, the truth was she loved every second of it. Better, though, to not quite let on to him how pleased she was with the irregularity of their days, their time.

Amy released the button and gave him a look that crossed between petulant and enthusiastic, resulting in an unabashed glimmer in her eyes. "Fine then, not pushing it any more. Now what?"

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

"Now --" the Doctor jumps down from the platform and crosses the catwalk to the doors of the TARDIS "-- we have a look." He gives the doors a solid push and they swing open, revealing an ocean of stars. Below them, the spiral arm of a galaxy stretches out for an eternity. The Doctor leans out the doorway and sucks in a deep breath of air.

"Ah, don't you love the smell of the universe in the morning?" He glances over his shoulder. "Come on and have a look, Amy. We're just in time to see the galaxy waking up."

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

Having a look could mean anything, and she knew that. It was part of what made her run instead of walk to his side, what made her forget absolutely anything other than the fact of infinite possibilities outside the double doors of the TARDIS. She could guess at what was there and it would be a waste of time - or she could look and see for herself and never, ever be able to replicate that same experience again.

Amy chose the second.

There was starlight everywhere, and for a moment she let herself dare to believe it might wind itself into her hair if she were to float in space again, the way she had the first night he'd brought her with him. Amy's eyes were bright with wonder as she came to his side, her fingers grasping at the edge of one of the two doors.

"But it's beautiful," she said, and for another brief second she might have been a child of seven - just for a second - what for all the wonder in her voice.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor posts a fist on his hip and leans against the door jamb. Now, this bit never gets old: the part where they see the universe. Doesn't matter if it's the first, second, or fifty-sixth time. Humans never get tired of seeing the whole cosmos spread out in front of them. Oh, it's old stuff to the Doctor. He's seen so much of the universe that it's all a bit like highway driving now. His thrill is to see it through the eyes of someone who has never experienced it before. And little Amelia Pond is just bonkers for stars.

"The constellation Hydra," he explains, "the place where stars are born. You, Amy Pond, are fifteen million miles away from your little bed in the Scottish Highlands." He leans in with a grin. "Bet you didn't think you'd be doing that when you woke up this morning."

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

Her eyes are still every bit as alive and filled with light as they were before, and for a silver-winged strand of time Amy feels as if she is a child again, with her imaginary friend's hand (imaginary hand, sure, but still) in hers and all the possibilities her imagination can bring stretching out before them. Except this is all the better, all the more beautiful - because it's real. If she were to ask it again she knows he would keep hold of her ankle while she drifted into the universe, into the beautiful, starlit sky for as long as she liked.

"Oh, might have dared imagine for it," she gives back with a glitter in her eye and a little crinkle around her nose, "but never thought actually.." She lets herself lean towards him a bit more, then draws her and upwards and out, fingers splayed to move through the air. The stars seem to be so close, so very much within reach of her very much human hands.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor folds his arms across his chest, looking down at the bottomless canyon of the universe. "Dare to dream and see and do," he says, affecting all the poeticism he can muster (which is quite a lot) and nodding to a tight cluster of pulsing stars. "That's going to be a binary system someday. Giving light to countless planets, waking life from beneath the surface. Being present for the birth of a universe --" he smiles "-- well, that's really quite fantastic, isn't it?"

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

"Do you see this a lot?" Ever the curious human girl, maybe more of one word than the other two, Amy wanted to know things that he didn't disclose right away. There was so much she didn't know about this man who had walked across the stars, and who had come to see her when she was a young girl. So many things he had seen that she could only start to dream of.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you know: the universe is a big, open space. I never see the same stars twice. But the travel bit, well, yes, I do jot about quite a lot." A beat, then he turns a billion-watt smile toward her. "Usually I'm being chased by something." His eyes light up. "All right! On to the next adventure!"

He swings round the doorframe and leaps up onto the platform, stamping a couple of buttons with his hands. "Mind the door, Amy. I'm not paying to air condition the universe!"

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

That breaks her into laughter again and for a wild, impulsive second Amy lets herself lean a fraction of an inch forward, into the great abyss of the universe around them, for the sake of looking over her shoulder at him again. It's the sort of motion she would have made back home, if she were catching a bus or making a falsified pirouette in the park, something equally as human.

Amy closes the door and says good-bye - for now - to the last bit of starlight she had been able to see. "Next adventure, where's that?" Never mind she was already wanting for the answer, and yet hoping to be surprised. It was a crossroads she didn't mind being at.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

"Don't know. Never can tell. Where do you want to go? You haven't had your fill of new planets, have you? Starships haven't gotten tedious? I think --" he licks the tip of one finger and holds it aloft, as if testing the air "-- yes, I think if we hurry, we can catch the changing of the diamond leaves on Raxacoricofallapatorius --" a wince "-- ooh, on second thought, better not. I'm in a bit of hot water with some of the locals there."

He swings round the instrument panel and into a captain's chair, putting one foot up against the console while he heaves all of his weight into pulling a very stubborn lever.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

Now that wasn't something she could greatly imagine - the Doctor, in hot water? But even her train of thought was sarcastic in that regard, and Amy lets herself lean against the other side of the console so she can watch him struggle with the time machine he so loves.

"What'd you do to make that happen?"

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor eyes her with rebuke. "That's a fairly rude question, don't you think? What makes you think it was me and not them?" And then he's all smiles, as if even he doesn't believe that he was completely blameless in the whole Slitheen affair. He spins a spinny thing and hops out of the chair, coming to her side at the console.

"It was just your standard bit of trouble," he says casually. "Alien crime families, invasion of the body snatchers --" he lowers his voice and covers the next part with a cough "-- blowing up Downing Street --" before rising again, ebullient, reaching over her to flip on a monitor. "Nevertheless, I think it would be a good idea for me to steer well clear that particular postal code. Now --" he claps his hands together "-- where to, Amy Pond?"

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

She didn't even bother pretending to gratify it with a response which would seem to spare his feelings, only regarded him with a lift of one eyebrow and a quizzical expression along the lines of oh, are you kidding me? It didn't mean he had to be wholly at fault, but there had to be a degree of blame pinpointed someplace on her previously imaginary friend. Time spent with him had been short, but not so much that she wouldn't believe that.

But now he was asking her where, and she let that go on by the wayside in favor of running back to meet him again. Her eyes were shining with delight and possibilities.

"Someplace beautiful," she said, "something absolutely..indescribably beautiful, so much that it's just going to...shock the breath out of me when I see it! Know any of those?" But her eyes were sparkling because she knew he did.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor feeds her a look that says, I've been all over the universe, baby, you think I don't know where to see a pretty sunset? and punches a set of coordinates into the TARDIS's onboard computer. "I think there's a cosmological event in the Horsehead Nebula right about now," he says, screwing his gaze on the screen, "think Guy Fawkes Day fireworks on a really, really, really, reallyreallyreallyREALLY big scale."

He gives the wheel of the TARDIS a dramatic spin and the whole vessel shifts dramatically to the right -- and feels like it suddenly crashes into something. The onboard alarms start to sound. "Uh oh." Right before a tremendous earthquake -- or, what feels like an earthquake out in the middle of space -- shakes the TARDIS and nearly throws the both of them to the ground. The Doctor swings up, batting the side of the monitor. "The wormhole!" he shouts, "it's pulling us back in! Are you sure you pushed the button?"

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

Her elation, her indescribable sort of buoyancy that was coming from just being able to consider traveling to these places - with a man from her childhood imagination no less - only faded at the panic in his voice. Amy lets her grasp on the console slacken enough so she can whirl around, running back towards the green button so she's in nearer proximity.

"Of course I'm sure I pushed it!" she cried, "what, do you want me to push it again?" Never mind she didn't have the slightest idea what would happen if she did and she wasn't supposed to, Amy was too busy being preoccupied with the idea of a wormhole.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

"No, no! Don't push it now! Whatever you do --" he aims a finger at her nose "-- don't push that button. Let me see, oh dear, well, this is very much extraordinarily not good. Definitely not on my list of 'good' things for the day." The TARDIS trembles with another bump from the universe and the Doctor only manages to grip the side of the console before he risks tumbling out into space.

"The lever, the lever --" he snaps his fingers in the direction of a rather large handle sticking out of the middle of the console "-- pull the lever, leave the button. We might not be able to avoid the wormhole, but at least we can get through it with all of our limbs intact." He nods toward the magic, limb-preserving lever. The TARDIS bucks wildly to one side. "Oh yes!" he cries, mouth splitting into a grin. "Now it's getting good! Hang on, Amy! We're about to go for a ride!"

And, just like that, the TARDIS tips over the edge of the wormhole and goes cartwheeling toward the unknown -- and it appears that the Doctor could not be happier.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

She screams then.

It seems as if that would be the most impossibly human thing for her to do, and likely it was. Never mind that Amy had seen a great deal more in the few days they'd gone traveling than most people could so much as dare to imagine, falling into a wormhole wasn't anything she had dared to expect.

Amy had managed to take hold of the side of the console to support herself but that didn't stop her side from colliding with the edge, prompting the aforementioned scream. Her hair fell across her eyes and she turned her head so she could look at him. He was too pleased for his own good, but that wasn't anything new.

"Doctor, what's happening? Doctor!"

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

"Hang on!" he shouts. "Just hang on!" The TARDIS bumps the wall of the wormhole and shakes violently. The Doctor claps one hand over Amy's, intwining their fingers, and reaches both hands up toward the life-saving lever. He watches the screen through the intense vibrations.

"Wait for it..."

The TARDIS shakes and sounds very much like it is trying to work itself apart. The vibrations make the Doctor's eyeballs buzz, and his two hearts to beat doubletime. Then, just when it seems the time machine and its passengers cannot possibly take anymore -- a pair of toast slices pop up from the onboard toaster. "NOW!" The Doctor shouts, and shoves the lever, his hand over hers. The TARDIS gives a tremendous shudder and then a wheeze --

-- and then stops.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

There's a bruise blossoming its purplish blue presence somewhere on her side, and Amy knows it will hurt worse in the morning than it does now. Still, she feels no worse injuries than that and is able - more than - to thank her own good fortune that no worse came to be. It's really something to be grateful for.

"What," she whispered, "was that?"

It takes her a few seconds to realize he is holding her hand - something that will never cease to give her a warm jolt of delight, a thrill which she doubts will ever go away - not that she wants it to. Amy tightens her fingers on his and stays close by his side because this is the best place to be - not only for safety, but because of all the things in the universe, this is the one she would want the most.

[goodwithtime.livejournal.com]

The Doctor peers over the edge of the console. A couple of buttons flicker pathetically and there is a sour yellow smoke in the air, but, for the most part, the time machine looks to have weathered the trip. "That," he says, drawing himself upright with a wondering look, "was a very rough stop."

He taps the side of the monitor to clear the static. A nexus of planetary systems readouts fills the screen. The Doctor's brow creases in that very particular way.

"Dogon galaxy," he says, half under his breath, "we are far out. We are very, very far out. Where did that wormhole drop us?" He shimmies up to the set of eyepieces built in to the console and sticks his face against them. "Oh!" he exclaims, "Youdiou! We're on Youdiou!" He offers her the use of the binoculars and then goes bounding toward the other side of the console, flicking stabilizing switches as he goes.

[timeforamy.livejournal.com]

Youdiou? At any other time, Amy would have been sure that wasn't so much as a name, let alone a word. But then again she was now far from calling anything impossible or pretending she so much as knew remotely what to expect.

She takes the binoculars from him and puts them to her eyes to adjust their focus, then draws them back down to her chest so she can look at him with an unrestricted view for the moment.

"Youdiou? What sort of place is that?" Never mind how scared she should be at the realization of being so very, very far away from home. Right now to Amy Pond, the universe felt as if it was some kind of great playground, filled with possibilities.