fic: Throughline
Title: Throughline
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Amy/Rory, mentions of the Doctor
Word count: ~1,000
Spoilers?: Takes you through s5 and the Christmas special; none for s6
Summary: Five facts about the lives of Mr and Mrs Pond.
Excerpt: Rory notices right away; he does that awkward blush-stammer-compliment he does so often in their teenage years, and so Amy decides to keep wearing it for a little while. Just to fluster him, of course.
Author's notes: This started off as a response to that 'five pieces of personal canon' meme ages ago. I've been meaning to polish it up, flesh it out a bit and post it for ages and I've finally gotten around to it. Hurrah!
I
Rory gives Amy a little golden 'A' necklace for her thirteenth birthday, at his step-mum's suggestion. It's totally awkward, getting a necklace from her guy friend when she's thirteen, and when she opens it Rory blushes and mumbles quietly about how it was a stupid idea. Amy, whose emotional awkwardness reaches its peak around age thirteen, has no idea what to do, and manages a mechanical "thanks" before she sets it aside with the other gifts.
But when a year and a half later she finds it in her jewelry box, she decides on a whim to wear it. Rory notices right away; he does that awkward blush-stammer-compliment he does so often in their teenage years, and so Amy decides to keep wearing it for a little while. Just to fluster him, of course.
It never leaves her neck after that -- not when she's working, not when she's sleeping, not when she showers, not when she runs away on the night before her wedding.
Not even when Rory himself ceases to exist.
Suntanning on a beach in Space Florida, she twirls the pendant at her neck and wonders where it came from.
II
The Doctor, it turns out, is "people". Amy decides that when she's sixteen and has finally accepted that the Doctor isn't coming back (and that maybe, just maybe, he was never there in the first place) and she decides it again when she's eighteen and he runs off without even saying goodbye. When he comes back, she tells him that. People disappoint you, people leave you, and the Doctor is definitely people, whether he's an alien or a mad man with a box or both.
But Rory... well, Rory isn't. Rory never leaves her, even when sometimes she thinks maybe he should. He disappoints her, sometimes, but never on purpose, never for long, and he always does his best to make it up to her. Amy spends her life waiting for people to leave, but not Rory. Rory's her throughline, the one recurring theme in her mad life that makes sense.
That's how she knows Upper Leadworth is a dream. Rory wouldn't leave.
III
He only stays on the TARDIS for Amy. At least, that's how it starts; the alternative is to go home and tell all his friends and family that his fiancee ran off with her imaginary friend and anyway the thing is, well, he still hopes she might still want to get married. Maybe. One day.
But sometime after fish vampires, between freezing in a TARDIS and meeting dinosaurs, Rory starts wondering if maybe he doesn't like the travel itself, too. Just a bit.
Besides, someone needs to be the voice of reason for the Doctor and Amy Pond.
IV
Amy gets in trouble for fighting at school exactly once.
Truthfully, most of her school years are rough. Word travels fast in tiny Leadworth. She doesn't get along with the girls, who all say she's mad and whisper mean things and spread rumours like Amy can't hear them. Most of the schoolyard battles Amy engages in are verbal, a constant alternation between the rapid exchange of nasty words and the (empty) insistence that she couldn't give a fuck what any of them think.
The boys think she's mad, too, but they also think she's hot, and so they focus their attention on Rory, the sad, weedy bloke trailing after the mad girl who's out of his league. They joke about him being second-fiddle to a bloke who doesn't exist. They ask if he still cuts up his father's suits to play her Raggedy Doctor.
Rory never tells Amy about it, not really. She has enough going on. But she overhears them one day, teasing Rory about being a bloke who's going to be a nurse and still not good enough to be a doctor, eh, Williams?, and she storms over like a hurricane and punches the ringleader smack on the nose, hard enough that he bleeds.
She refuses to apologize. "I'm not sorry," she tells Aunt Sharon and the teacher who caught them and even the headmaster. "He deserved it. He was making fun of Rory."
The headmaster recommends psychiatrist number 4.
V
Art is Amy's best and favourite subject in school. Aunt Sharon encourages it, because it's one of the things Amelia did "before". For Christmas she gets coloured pencils and paints, how-to-draw guides and books on famous artists. As a child, Amelia sticks to certain subject matter -- a big blue box, a man in tattered clothes. When she's older and she wants to draw something real, Amy flips open anatomy guides. Rory is the perfect model, patiently posing for hours while she sketches him. When he's busy or he's gone home she pulls out old picture books for reference and spends days perfecting the curve of a Roman soldier's sword. Some of her work she hangs on her wall, next to the photos she puts up to prove to Aunt Sharon -- and remind herself -- that she lives in the real world.
For her fifteenth birthday, Aunt Sharon gives Amy a book on Post-Impressionism and Amy falls in love with Vincent Van Gogh. It's Rory finds out about the exhibition at the Musee d'Orsay, and it's Rory who suggests Paris as their honeymoon destination. When she asks the Doctor to take her, she can't remember where she heard of the exhibit.
Later, well after several botched honeymoons on cruise ships and asteroids, she tells Rory all about it -- about Vincent and sunflowers and "for Amy", about how she went with another man where their honeymoon was meant to be. When Rory just says, "Well, I'm glad you still got to go," Amy gives him a little shove before she changes the topic so he doesn't notice her eyes are misty.
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Amy/Rory, mentions of the Doctor
Word count: ~1,000
Spoilers?: Takes you through s5 and the Christmas special; none for s6
Summary: Five facts about the lives of Mr and Mrs Pond.
Excerpt: Rory notices right away; he does that awkward blush-stammer-compliment he does so often in their teenage years, and so Amy decides to keep wearing it for a little while. Just to fluster him, of course.
Author's notes: This started off as a response to that 'five pieces of personal canon' meme ages ago. I've been meaning to polish it up, flesh it out a bit and post it for ages and I've finally gotten around to it. Hurrah!
I
Rory gives Amy a little golden 'A' necklace for her thirteenth birthday, at his step-mum's suggestion. It's totally awkward, getting a necklace from her guy friend when she's thirteen, and when she opens it Rory blushes and mumbles quietly about how it was a stupid idea. Amy, whose emotional awkwardness reaches its peak around age thirteen, has no idea what to do, and manages a mechanical "thanks" before she sets it aside with the other gifts.
But when a year and a half later she finds it in her jewelry box, she decides on a whim to wear it. Rory notices right away; he does that awkward blush-stammer-compliment he does so often in their teenage years, and so Amy decides to keep wearing it for a little while. Just to fluster him, of course.
It never leaves her neck after that -- not when she's working, not when she's sleeping, not when she showers, not when she runs away on the night before her wedding.
Not even when Rory himself ceases to exist.
Suntanning on a beach in Space Florida, she twirls the pendant at her neck and wonders where it came from.
II
The Doctor, it turns out, is "people". Amy decides that when she's sixteen and has finally accepted that the Doctor isn't coming back (and that maybe, just maybe, he was never there in the first place) and she decides it again when she's eighteen and he runs off without even saying goodbye. When he comes back, she tells him that. People disappoint you, people leave you, and the Doctor is definitely people, whether he's an alien or a mad man with a box or both.
But Rory... well, Rory isn't. Rory never leaves her, even when sometimes she thinks maybe he should. He disappoints her, sometimes, but never on purpose, never for long, and he always does his best to make it up to her. Amy spends her life waiting for people to leave, but not Rory. Rory's her throughline, the one recurring theme in her mad life that makes sense.
That's how she knows Upper Leadworth is a dream. Rory wouldn't leave.
III
He only stays on the TARDIS for Amy. At least, that's how it starts; the alternative is to go home and tell all his friends and family that his fiancee ran off with her imaginary friend and anyway the thing is, well, he still hopes she might still want to get married. Maybe. One day.
But sometime after fish vampires, between freezing in a TARDIS and meeting dinosaurs, Rory starts wondering if maybe he doesn't like the travel itself, too. Just a bit.
Besides, someone needs to be the voice of reason for the Doctor and Amy Pond.
IV
Amy gets in trouble for fighting at school exactly once.
Truthfully, most of her school years are rough. Word travels fast in tiny Leadworth. She doesn't get along with the girls, who all say she's mad and whisper mean things and spread rumours like Amy can't hear them. Most of the schoolyard battles Amy engages in are verbal, a constant alternation between the rapid exchange of nasty words and the (empty) insistence that she couldn't give a fuck what any of them think.
The boys think she's mad, too, but they also think she's hot, and so they focus their attention on Rory, the sad, weedy bloke trailing after the mad girl who's out of his league. They joke about him being second-fiddle to a bloke who doesn't exist. They ask if he still cuts up his father's suits to play her Raggedy Doctor.
Rory never tells Amy about it, not really. She has enough going on. But she overhears them one day, teasing Rory about being a bloke who's going to be a nurse and still not good enough to be a doctor, eh, Williams?, and she storms over like a hurricane and punches the ringleader smack on the nose, hard enough that he bleeds.
She refuses to apologize. "I'm not sorry," she tells Aunt Sharon and the teacher who caught them and even the headmaster. "He deserved it. He was making fun of Rory."
The headmaster recommends psychiatrist number 4.
V
Art is Amy's best and favourite subject in school. Aunt Sharon encourages it, because it's one of the things Amelia did "before". For Christmas she gets coloured pencils and paints, how-to-draw guides and books on famous artists. As a child, Amelia sticks to certain subject matter -- a big blue box, a man in tattered clothes. When she's older and she wants to draw something real, Amy flips open anatomy guides. Rory is the perfect model, patiently posing for hours while she sketches him. When he's busy or he's gone home she pulls out old picture books for reference and spends days perfecting the curve of a Roman soldier's sword. Some of her work she hangs on her wall, next to the photos she puts up to prove to Aunt Sharon -- and remind herself -- that she lives in the real world.
For her fifteenth birthday, Aunt Sharon gives Amy a book on Post-Impressionism and Amy falls in love with Vincent Van Gogh. It's Rory finds out about the exhibition at the Musee d'Orsay, and it's Rory who suggests Paris as their honeymoon destination. When she asks the Doctor to take her, she can't remember where she heard of the exhibit.
Later, well after several botched honeymoons on cruise ships and asteroids, she tells Rory all about it -- about Vincent and sunflowers and "for Amy", about how she went with another man where their honeymoon was meant to be. When Rory just says, "Well, I'm glad you still got to go," Amy gives him a little shove before she changes the topic so he doesn't notice her eyes are misty.