fic: Jeff's Mysterious Friend
title: Jeff's Mysterious Friend
pairing: Amy/Rory (& Jeff. Bring him back, Moffat!)
words: 3589
rating: PG
note: written for the "blind date" square at schmoop_bingo~ Also, yay for passing my second year at uni with a 2:1! I celebrate with schmoopy fic! \o/
Jeff's Mysterious Friend
"Let me get this straight."
Amy was wearing a nurse's uniform that no actual qualified nurse had ever worn because it was slightly on the revealing side, as were most of her kissogram costumes. She'd been booked for a birthday party and was putting the final touches to her outfit when Jeff had called round asking for a favour. She'd told him to make it quick, and that's when he'd made her a proposition... to which she'd laughed in his face.
"You want me," Amy continued slowly, "to go on a blind date."
Jeff nodded. Although he didn't see Amy as anything more than a friend (he knew how much Rory liked her), there was a sexy nurse actually in front of him for a change rather than on the internet, and he was a man at the end of the day (who seriously needed to get a girlfriend), so he allowed his eyes to wander for a moment... until Amy caught him staring and raised an eyebrow at him threateningly, prompting him to remember that she could actually physically beat him up if she wanted to, and thus he averted his gaze elsewhere.
"Yeah..." Amy pretended to think about his offer, but she'd already made her decision. "Not a chance."
"What?" Jeff looked genuinely surprised. "I thought you'd be well up for it."
"Why?" Amy demanded. "Because I'm a kissogram?"
"Well..." Jeff shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah."
Amy fixed him with a glare. "What's me being a kissogram got to do with anything?"
Rory wasn't the only one who was scared of Amy, judging by the terrified look on Jeff's face. "Well, I thought... when you do what you do for a living, it means you're... up for stuff."
"Well, I'm not up for this, thank you very much."
"Why?" Jeff asked, looking disappointed.
"Because he could be some ugly creep!"
"He's not," Jeff stated confidently. "He's a mate of mine."
"Which mate?" inquired Amy, because she knew practically everyone in Leadworth (well, it was a small village).
"You don't know him," Jeff replied quickly. "He just moved here."
Amy regarded him suspiciously. "There must be something wrong with him, then, if he can't find a date the normal way." And what did it say about her if she agreed to go?
"No, no! He's just a bit nervous when it comes to women, that's all," Jeff insisted.
It's not like Amy couldn't get a date, there was just no one in the village she was interested in... Actually, that was a lie. There was someone, but they'd been friends for so long... Maybe that was all they were ever meant to be.
"Look," Amy said, tired of the conversation. "I'm sorry, Jeff, but you're going to have to find some other girl."
"But you're the only single girl I know!"
Amy was about ready to throw Jeff out of her house for reminding her that she didn't have a boyfriend (not that she wanted one... much), when Jeff got out his mobile and looked like he was calling someone.
"Who are you calling?" Amy asked in annoyance. Couldn't he do it in the privacy of his own home?
"My friend to tell him the blind date is off," Jeff answered as he waited for his friend to pick up.
"Now?" Amy looked horrified. Why couldn't Jeff have waited until he was out of her house to ring him? She really didn't want to be present to hear the awkward phone call, but before she could order Jeff to hang up and break the news to his friend later, it was too late - said friend had picked up.
"Alright mate, how are you?" Amy thought Jeff sounded far too cheerful for a bringer of bad news. "Excited about your blind date? What are you doing now? Shopping for new clothes for your date, did you say?" He caught Amy's eye and she felt a wave of guilt. "I've got something to tell you--"
"All right!" Amy yelled, making Jeff shrink back in silence. "I'll go," she groaned and gestured to Jeff's mobile. "Now ask your friend where I should meet him."
Jeff's face was filled with relief. "Never mind," he told his mysterious friend. "It's still on." There was a pause where Amy could only assume Jeff was listening to her "blind date" telling him the details of where and when she needed to meet him. "Okay. See you later, mate." He hung up and looked at Amy. "He wants you to meet him at the pub at 8 o'clock on Friday."
"Fine," Amy sighed.
Her attention was grabbed by the beep of a car horn outside, and she looked to the window; Rory was waiting in his old red Mini. He'd kindly offered to give Amy a lift to the party. Rory was always so thoughtful... Amy could think of nothing he wouldn't do for her. It was any wonder why he didn't have a girlfriend.
"I've got to go," Amy told Jeff, grabbing her trenchcoat which she slipped on, hiding her nurse's uniform (it was more of a surprise that way). "Let yourself out, yeah?"
"Thanks, Amy," Jeff said as she opened the front door.
"You're welcome, Jeff," she rolled her eyes at him as she left the house, heading towards Rory's car.
She ran in her heels and pulled open the passenger door.
"Hey," she greeted Rory warmly, climbing into the seat beside him. "Thanks for doing this."
"No problem." Rory smiled at her. "Who are you masquerading as tonight, then?"
She felt a bit shy (which was downright weird; she was never shy...) opening up her coat and showing him the nurse's uniform. Unlike when Jeff had stared at her, Amy didn't mind Rory looking at her the way he did because it was never in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. There was always something loving about the gaze he gave her.
"Very accurate," Rory commented as he pulled up the handbrake and drove the car forwards. "I wear the exact same thing on duty."
Amy laughed and looked at the wing mirror; she could see Jeff leaving her house and she threw a glance at Rory, wondering whether it was a good idea or not to tell him about her blind date. She didn't want him to hear about it from someone else. Mostly she wanted to tell him to see what his reaction would be. A part of her wanted him to be jealous because he'd never plucked up the courage to ask her on a proper date, and maybe hearing she had a date would give him the incentive to finally ask her out. She would gladly cancel the date with the stranger if she knew Rory was interested in her.
"So..." She fiddled with her hands on her lap. "You'll never guess what I've agreed to."
"Another one of Jeff's schemes?"
Amy looked at Rory, surprised. "How'd you know Jeff was involved?" she asked curiously.
"I saw him coming out of your house in the mirror."
"Oh." She feigned an air of casualness. "He asked me to go on a blind date with a friend of his."
She watched Rory closely for his reaction, waiting for his eyes to glaze over in jealous rage...
"Sounds nice," Rory said with an expression of unfathomable happiness.
"What?" Amy frowned in return.
"I said it sounds--"
"I heard what you said." Amy crossed her arms over her chest. "That's the first word that springs to your mind when you hear I have a date. Nice?"
"Yeah!" Rory's enthusiasm was killing her. She didn't think she'd ever seen Rory this cheerful, and the fact that the source of his happiness was her having a date - with someone who should have been him - hurt her a considerable amount. "I'm sure it'll be fun. You might even meet the man of your dreams."
"You mean the Raggedy Doctor?" Amy snorted. He wasn't so much the man of her dreams, more the alien she dreamed about. Still, she had some hope in her that Rory's behaviour was part of some charade, although it was doubtful because he was a terrible liar and he seemed genuinely happy for her, like a friend would be. "You know... I don't have to go if you don't want me to."
Rory kept his eyes on the road. "Why wouldn't I want you to go, Amy?"
"I don't know," she snapped, her temper getting the better of her. "You tell me," she muttered quietly and glared out the passenger window.
There was awkward silence for a small of stretch of time, and then Amy announced suddenly, "You know what? I'm not going."
She let out a shriek as Rory slammed his foot on the breaks, thrown forward by the momentum. Good thing she'd worn her seatbelt. She looked up through the windscreen to see what animal or person must have walked out into the road unexpectedly to make Rory break as hard as he did, but the road was empty.
"Rory." Amy clutched her chest, looking at him with startled eyes. "You gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry," he apologized for the harsh breaking, "but you have to go."
Were they still on about the stupid blind date? "I don't have to do anything I don't want to," she grumbled. If there was one thing Amy was despised, it was being told what to do. More often than not, she retaliated by doing the exact opposite.
"I know, Amy." She watched in confusion as Rory shut his eyes and rested his forehead against the steering wheel, looking crushed. She couldn't understand why he was acting like this.
"Do you know Jeff's friend or something?" she asked. It was the only explanation she could come up with to justify the way Rory was acting.
"I do." Rory lifted his head up and there was a definite hint of desperation in his eyes. "I do know him. And he'd be devastated if you didn't turn up, so you have to go. Please."
So Rory did only see her as a friend - at least, that was the conclusion Amy came to. And obviously he felt sorry for her, which was why he wanted her to turn up to her blind date so much. It made perfect sense... sort of.
"Fine." She tried to hide the hurt that seeped into her voice. "I'll go."
Rory's face lit up with a grin, then it started to rain, reflecting Amy's mood. For the rest of the car journey Rory tried to make conversation with her, but she just gave one word answers until he took the hint that she was no longer chatty.
When they finally arrived at the desired destination, Amy mumbled her thanks but dared not look at him, just in case he was still smiling in that handsome but heartbreaking way.
"See you later," Rory said pleasantly as she got out of the car.
"Actually, don't bother picking me up. I'll walk home."
And with that, she slammed the passenger door behind her.
~
Friday night came quicker than Amy liked. She was really nervous about the date and she couldn't fathom why. After avoiding Rory all week since it had been quite devastating for her to learn he didn't care (well, he did care - he cared about her going on the date, which was really rather strange), she'd gone to great lengths to dress up and impress the stranger she'd be meeting. In fact, she was wearing a dress.
Now, Amy Pond didn't wear dresses. She wore skirts, she wore shorts, and she wore nighties. Dresses were a no-no, except on special occasions, and this was nothing special, just a date.
"I feel stupid," she voiced aloud, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing a simple blue dress that made her look rather... grown up. The fact that she looked grown up was the main reason she disliked it. She looked pretty enough in it, but it just wasn't her. It wasn't Amy Pond.
But tonight she felt liked being someone different. Tonight she didn't want to be Amelia or Amy, she wanted to be... well, whoever this girl was in this dress, because if Rory didn't fancy her the way she was, why would a complete stranger?
Her eyes fell upon a photo of her and Rory on her wall, and she ran her finger down the side of his face. If only he'd told her he wasn't fine with this, then she'd be staying in, watching a film with Rory cuddled up on the sofa instead, rather than meeting up with a man who, if he was told by Jeff what she did for a living, was probably expecting a snog by the end of the night, regardless of whether they were compatible or not. Just great.
She picked up one of the dolls of the Doctor she made back when she was a kid (back when she was Amelia) and sat on the edge of her bed, hugging the doll to her chest.
"Raggedy Doctor," she whispered. "Take me away from here."
She waited five whole minutes, and when he still didn't come, she left for her date.
~
Someone wolf-whistled as she entered the pub (a man who recognized her as the nurse from the birthday party a few days ago) but she took the sleazy male attention in her stride and ignored them, focusing her concentration on finding her blind date. She searched the pub for a bloke who looked like he was waiting for someone, and her gaze landed on a man in the corner sitting by himself with his back to her. Amy figured it had to be him and wandered over.
"So you must be Jeff's mysterious friend," Amy said as she approached him. She planted herself in the seat opposite him and spent a few seconds smoothing the creases out of her dress before she looked at his face. "What's your..."
'Name' was the word that should have followed, but she'd lost the ability to speak. Besides, she already knew his name.
"Hello Amy."
She didn't know whether to hug him or hit him. She settled for grabbing the drink in front of Jeff's not-so-mysterious-friend-after-all and swallowed down a large gulp of beer, before placing the glass back down on the table again.
"This was a stupid idea, wasn't it?"
"Yes," Amy agreed with her blind date. "A very stupid idea."
"Right." He nodded slowly. "You don't have to stay."
"Good." The stool Amy had been sitting on scraped noisily across the floor as she stood up. "Because I'm leaving."
"Oh." He looked miserably into his pint glass. "Bye, then."
Amy strode towards the exit, but by the door she spun around and yelled out the young man's name.
"Rory!"
He stumbled to his feet and turned towards her, slack-jawed. She giggled at the expression on his face and threw him an inviting smile.
"Are you coming or what?"
Rory did nothing but blink for a moment, and then he smiled a brilliant smile, finished the rest of his drink and made his way over to her.
~
"You're a numpty."
"I know."
They were sitting on a park bench. It had been far too stuffy back at the pub for Amy's liking. She looked at Rory out of the corner of her eye; he was wearing a suit. A suit with a tie. She'd never seen him in a tie before.
"Is the Queen coming?" Amy bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Because you're dressed like she is."
Rory did feel slightly overdressed. "I wanted to make an effort."
"I miss the bodywarmer," Amy pouted. As unfashionable as the article of clothing might have been, she'd grown fond of him wearing one all the time.
"So do I," Rory admitted, loosening his tie. "What about you?" He gestured to what she was wearing. "I've never seen you in one of those before."
"I think 'dress' is the word you're looking for," she replied teasingly.
"It's nice. You look nice in it, but..."
"But it's not me," Amy finished his sentence. Rory nodded in agreement. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. She couldn't wait to get the dress off later. "Looks like we both came as people we're not tonight."
"Yeah... let's not do this again," Rory suggested. "Not the date, because I'd love to go on another date with you. I mean the wearing-the-clothes-that-aren't-us thing."
Amy laughed against his shoulder. "You know, if you wanted to go on a date with me, all you had to do was ask."
"Really?"
Amy rolled her eyes. "Really, Rory." Not that she thought the way he'd roped in Jeff to set up the date hadn't been adorable.
"Amy," Rory started gently. "Have I ever told why I became a nurse?"
She thought back and came to the realization that he'd never told her. One day he'd just announced he was going to train to be a nurse, and Amy had been impressed and thought it had been very admirable of him. But she'd never asked the reason behind his choice of career.
"No you haven't, Rory Williams." She lifted her head off his shoulder and pretended to look cross with him.
"Well, you have the right to know, because you're kind of the reason."
"Me?" Amy replied quietly. She took Rory's hand and squeezed it. "Tell me what you mean."
Rory played with her fingers in his hand. "Well, I actually wanted to be a doctor from a young age. Still do." He knew it would take him years of hard work, but he'd get there if he wanted it badly enough, which he absolutely did. "Remember when I'd just moved here, to Leadworth."
Amy remembered his arrival to Leadworth very well. After the Doctor had left and all the children in the village had shunned her, thinking she was a freak and needed psychiatric help (which only made the situation worse rather than better, and one psychiatrist even had both emotional and physical scars from Amy biting her), Rory had shown up like a blessing to her, actually wanting to be her friend.
"It was my first day at school here," Rory went on. "And I saw this little girl with red hair, sitting by herself, colouring in a blue box." The memory of Amy immersed in her colouring, the look of utmost concentration on her little face - it made him smile. "It was like you were in your own little world. I was too shy to talk to you. After lunch though, I found your blue box drawing torn up."
Amy remembered how upset she'd been when she returned to her desk and saw her picture had been ripped up by some bully in their class, making it look like the Raggedy Doctor's blue box had exploded into little pieces.
"I went to find you, to see if you were okay," Rory carried on. "I looked all over the school for you until I heard crying coming from the girls' toilet. I went in, and you were there." Amy recalled how shocked she'd been while wiping her eyes with toilet roll, to see the new boy Rory Williams had entered the girls' bathroom. "You told me to get out because I was a boy." The both of them laughed.
"But I stayed," Rory continued softly. "I said I was sorry for what happened to your drawing, but you said you didn't care about that. And then I asked you why you were crying. And you said--"
"Because I was missing a Doctor," Amy said with a watery smile. Rory stroked the side of her face.
"Of course, I didn't know you were talking about some alien and not a medical doctor until the next day. But I remember how sad I was watching you cry that day," he frowned at the flashback. "Seeing how hurt and broken you were... I just wanted to fix you and make the pain go away, like a doctor would."
Silent tears rolled down Amy's cheeks, but they were happy tears. "Oh Rory." She pulled him into a hug. "What if I'd said I was missing a spaceman. Would you be training to be an astronaut right now?"
"Probably," he laughed in her ear. "I don't think I could stand being away from you for long periods of time, though."
Amy pulled away slightly from the hug, but only so she could grab the collar of his shirt and give him a kiss that was long overdue. It was a kiss that, if Rory had been standing, would have knocked him off his feet. Rory thought if they had grandchildren one day, this was a story they'd tell them from start to finish.
"Come on." Amy stood up and pulled Rory up with her. "I want out of this dress, you want out of that suit... I'm sure we could come to some arrangement."
Rory liked the sound of an arrangement and the flirty smile that came with it. "We'd have to leave out the naughty bits of the story to the grandkids."
Of course, he didn't realize what he'd accidentally said out loud until he noticed Amy staring at him.
"Erm," he started nervously.
"No more talking." She placed her finger over his lips. "You numpty," she said with uttermost affection.
And the only times Rory opened his mouth on the walk home were during the moments he kissed Amy.
pairing: Amy/Rory (& Jeff. Bring him back, Moffat!)
words: 3589
rating: PG
note: written for the "blind date" square at schmoop_bingo~ Also, yay for passing my second year at uni with a 2:1! I celebrate with schmoopy fic! \o/
Jeff's Mysterious Friend
"Let me get this straight."
Amy was wearing a nurse's uniform that no actual qualified nurse had ever worn because it was slightly on the revealing side, as were most of her kissogram costumes. She'd been booked for a birthday party and was putting the final touches to her outfit when Jeff had called round asking for a favour. She'd told him to make it quick, and that's when he'd made her a proposition... to which she'd laughed in his face.
"You want me," Amy continued slowly, "to go on a blind date."
Jeff nodded. Although he didn't see Amy as anything more than a friend (he knew how much Rory liked her), there was a sexy nurse actually in front of him for a change rather than on the internet, and he was a man at the end of the day (who seriously needed to get a girlfriend), so he allowed his eyes to wander for a moment... until Amy caught him staring and raised an eyebrow at him threateningly, prompting him to remember that she could actually physically beat him up if she wanted to, and thus he averted his gaze elsewhere.
"Yeah..." Amy pretended to think about his offer, but she'd already made her decision. "Not a chance."
"What?" Jeff looked genuinely surprised. "I thought you'd be well up for it."
"Why?" Amy demanded. "Because I'm a kissogram?"
"Well..." Jeff shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah."
Amy fixed him with a glare. "What's me being a kissogram got to do with anything?"
Rory wasn't the only one who was scared of Amy, judging by the terrified look on Jeff's face. "Well, I thought... when you do what you do for a living, it means you're... up for stuff."
"Well, I'm not up for this, thank you very much."
"Why?" Jeff asked, looking disappointed.
"Because he could be some ugly creep!"
"He's not," Jeff stated confidently. "He's a mate of mine."
"Which mate?" inquired Amy, because she knew practically everyone in Leadworth (well, it was a small village).
"You don't know him," Jeff replied quickly. "He just moved here."
Amy regarded him suspiciously. "There must be something wrong with him, then, if he can't find a date the normal way." And what did it say about her if she agreed to go?
"No, no! He's just a bit nervous when it comes to women, that's all," Jeff insisted.
It's not like Amy couldn't get a date, there was just no one in the village she was interested in... Actually, that was a lie. There was someone, but they'd been friends for so long... Maybe that was all they were ever meant to be.
"Look," Amy said, tired of the conversation. "I'm sorry, Jeff, but you're going to have to find some other girl."
"But you're the only single girl I know!"
Amy was about ready to throw Jeff out of her house for reminding her that she didn't have a boyfriend (not that she wanted one... much), when Jeff got out his mobile and looked like he was calling someone.
"Who are you calling?" Amy asked in annoyance. Couldn't he do it in the privacy of his own home?
"My friend to tell him the blind date is off," Jeff answered as he waited for his friend to pick up.
"Now?" Amy looked horrified. Why couldn't Jeff have waited until he was out of her house to ring him? She really didn't want to be present to hear the awkward phone call, but before she could order Jeff to hang up and break the news to his friend later, it was too late - said friend had picked up.
"Alright mate, how are you?" Amy thought Jeff sounded far too cheerful for a bringer of bad news. "Excited about your blind date? What are you doing now? Shopping for new clothes for your date, did you say?" He caught Amy's eye and she felt a wave of guilt. "I've got something to tell you--"
"All right!" Amy yelled, making Jeff shrink back in silence. "I'll go," she groaned and gestured to Jeff's mobile. "Now ask your friend where I should meet him."
Jeff's face was filled with relief. "Never mind," he told his mysterious friend. "It's still on." There was a pause where Amy could only assume Jeff was listening to her "blind date" telling him the details of where and when she needed to meet him. "Okay. See you later, mate." He hung up and looked at Amy. "He wants you to meet him at the pub at 8 o'clock on Friday."
"Fine," Amy sighed.
Her attention was grabbed by the beep of a car horn outside, and she looked to the window; Rory was waiting in his old red Mini. He'd kindly offered to give Amy a lift to the party. Rory was always so thoughtful... Amy could think of nothing he wouldn't do for her. It was any wonder why he didn't have a girlfriend.
"I've got to go," Amy told Jeff, grabbing her trenchcoat which she slipped on, hiding her nurse's uniform (it was more of a surprise that way). "Let yourself out, yeah?"
"Thanks, Amy," Jeff said as she opened the front door.
"You're welcome, Jeff," she rolled her eyes at him as she left the house, heading towards Rory's car.
She ran in her heels and pulled open the passenger door.
"Hey," she greeted Rory warmly, climbing into the seat beside him. "Thanks for doing this."
"No problem." Rory smiled at her. "Who are you masquerading as tonight, then?"
She felt a bit shy (which was downright weird; she was never shy...) opening up her coat and showing him the nurse's uniform. Unlike when Jeff had stared at her, Amy didn't mind Rory looking at her the way he did because it was never in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. There was always something loving about the gaze he gave her.
"Very accurate," Rory commented as he pulled up the handbrake and drove the car forwards. "I wear the exact same thing on duty."
Amy laughed and looked at the wing mirror; she could see Jeff leaving her house and she threw a glance at Rory, wondering whether it was a good idea or not to tell him about her blind date. She didn't want him to hear about it from someone else. Mostly she wanted to tell him to see what his reaction would be. A part of her wanted him to be jealous because he'd never plucked up the courage to ask her on a proper date, and maybe hearing she had a date would give him the incentive to finally ask her out. She would gladly cancel the date with the stranger if she knew Rory was interested in her.
"So..." She fiddled with her hands on her lap. "You'll never guess what I've agreed to."
"Another one of Jeff's schemes?"
Amy looked at Rory, surprised. "How'd you know Jeff was involved?" she asked curiously.
"I saw him coming out of your house in the mirror."
"Oh." She feigned an air of casualness. "He asked me to go on a blind date with a friend of his."
She watched Rory closely for his reaction, waiting for his eyes to glaze over in jealous rage...
"Sounds nice," Rory said with an expression of unfathomable happiness.
"What?" Amy frowned in return.
"I said it sounds--"
"I heard what you said." Amy crossed her arms over her chest. "That's the first word that springs to your mind when you hear I have a date. Nice?"
"Yeah!" Rory's enthusiasm was killing her. She didn't think she'd ever seen Rory this cheerful, and the fact that the source of his happiness was her having a date - with someone who should have been him - hurt her a considerable amount. "I'm sure it'll be fun. You might even meet the man of your dreams."
"You mean the Raggedy Doctor?" Amy snorted. He wasn't so much the man of her dreams, more the alien she dreamed about. Still, she had some hope in her that Rory's behaviour was part of some charade, although it was doubtful because he was a terrible liar and he seemed genuinely happy for her, like a friend would be. "You know... I don't have to go if you don't want me to."
Rory kept his eyes on the road. "Why wouldn't I want you to go, Amy?"
"I don't know," she snapped, her temper getting the better of her. "You tell me," she muttered quietly and glared out the passenger window.
There was awkward silence for a small of stretch of time, and then Amy announced suddenly, "You know what? I'm not going."
She let out a shriek as Rory slammed his foot on the breaks, thrown forward by the momentum. Good thing she'd worn her seatbelt. She looked up through the windscreen to see what animal or person must have walked out into the road unexpectedly to make Rory break as hard as he did, but the road was empty.
"Rory." Amy clutched her chest, looking at him with startled eyes. "You gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry," he apologized for the harsh breaking, "but you have to go."
Were they still on about the stupid blind date? "I don't have to do anything I don't want to," she grumbled. If there was one thing Amy was despised, it was being told what to do. More often than not, she retaliated by doing the exact opposite.
"I know, Amy." She watched in confusion as Rory shut his eyes and rested his forehead against the steering wheel, looking crushed. She couldn't understand why he was acting like this.
"Do you know Jeff's friend or something?" she asked. It was the only explanation she could come up with to justify the way Rory was acting.
"I do." Rory lifted his head up and there was a definite hint of desperation in his eyes. "I do know him. And he'd be devastated if you didn't turn up, so you have to go. Please."
So Rory did only see her as a friend - at least, that was the conclusion Amy came to. And obviously he felt sorry for her, which was why he wanted her to turn up to her blind date so much. It made perfect sense... sort of.
"Fine." She tried to hide the hurt that seeped into her voice. "I'll go."
Rory's face lit up with a grin, then it started to rain, reflecting Amy's mood. For the rest of the car journey Rory tried to make conversation with her, but she just gave one word answers until he took the hint that she was no longer chatty.
When they finally arrived at the desired destination, Amy mumbled her thanks but dared not look at him, just in case he was still smiling in that handsome but heartbreaking way.
"See you later," Rory said pleasantly as she got out of the car.
"Actually, don't bother picking me up. I'll walk home."
And with that, she slammed the passenger door behind her.
~
Friday night came quicker than Amy liked. She was really nervous about the date and she couldn't fathom why. After avoiding Rory all week since it had been quite devastating for her to learn he didn't care (well, he did care - he cared about her going on the date, which was really rather strange), she'd gone to great lengths to dress up and impress the stranger she'd be meeting. In fact, she was wearing a dress.
Now, Amy Pond didn't wear dresses. She wore skirts, she wore shorts, and she wore nighties. Dresses were a no-no, except on special occasions, and this was nothing special, just a date.
"I feel stupid," she voiced aloud, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing a simple blue dress that made her look rather... grown up. The fact that she looked grown up was the main reason she disliked it. She looked pretty enough in it, but it just wasn't her. It wasn't Amy Pond.
But tonight she felt liked being someone different. Tonight she didn't want to be Amelia or Amy, she wanted to be... well, whoever this girl was in this dress, because if Rory didn't fancy her the way she was, why would a complete stranger?
Her eyes fell upon a photo of her and Rory on her wall, and she ran her finger down the side of his face. If only he'd told her he wasn't fine with this, then she'd be staying in, watching a film with Rory cuddled up on the sofa instead, rather than meeting up with a man who, if he was told by Jeff what she did for a living, was probably expecting a snog by the end of the night, regardless of whether they were compatible or not. Just great.
She picked up one of the dolls of the Doctor she made back when she was a kid (back when she was Amelia) and sat on the edge of her bed, hugging the doll to her chest.
"Raggedy Doctor," she whispered. "Take me away from here."
She waited five whole minutes, and when he still didn't come, she left for her date.
~
Someone wolf-whistled as she entered the pub (a man who recognized her as the nurse from the birthday party a few days ago) but she took the sleazy male attention in her stride and ignored them, focusing her concentration on finding her blind date. She searched the pub for a bloke who looked like he was waiting for someone, and her gaze landed on a man in the corner sitting by himself with his back to her. Amy figured it had to be him and wandered over.
"So you must be Jeff's mysterious friend," Amy said as she approached him. She planted herself in the seat opposite him and spent a few seconds smoothing the creases out of her dress before she looked at his face. "What's your..."
'Name' was the word that should have followed, but she'd lost the ability to speak. Besides, she already knew his name.
"Hello Amy."
She didn't know whether to hug him or hit him. She settled for grabbing the drink in front of Jeff's not-so-mysterious-friend-after-all and swallowed down a large gulp of beer, before placing the glass back down on the table again.
"This was a stupid idea, wasn't it?"
"Yes," Amy agreed with her blind date. "A very stupid idea."
"Right." He nodded slowly. "You don't have to stay."
"Good." The stool Amy had been sitting on scraped noisily across the floor as she stood up. "Because I'm leaving."
"Oh." He looked miserably into his pint glass. "Bye, then."
Amy strode towards the exit, but by the door she spun around and yelled out the young man's name.
"Rory!"
He stumbled to his feet and turned towards her, slack-jawed. She giggled at the expression on his face and threw him an inviting smile.
"Are you coming or what?"
Rory did nothing but blink for a moment, and then he smiled a brilliant smile, finished the rest of his drink and made his way over to her.
~
"You're a numpty."
"I know."
They were sitting on a park bench. It had been far too stuffy back at the pub for Amy's liking. She looked at Rory out of the corner of her eye; he was wearing a suit. A suit with a tie. She'd never seen him in a tie before.
"Is the Queen coming?" Amy bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Because you're dressed like she is."
Rory did feel slightly overdressed. "I wanted to make an effort."
"I miss the bodywarmer," Amy pouted. As unfashionable as the article of clothing might have been, she'd grown fond of him wearing one all the time.
"So do I," Rory admitted, loosening his tie. "What about you?" He gestured to what she was wearing. "I've never seen you in one of those before."
"I think 'dress' is the word you're looking for," she replied teasingly.
"It's nice. You look nice in it, but..."
"But it's not me," Amy finished his sentence. Rory nodded in agreement. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. She couldn't wait to get the dress off later. "Looks like we both came as people we're not tonight."
"Yeah... let's not do this again," Rory suggested. "Not the date, because I'd love to go on another date with you. I mean the wearing-the-clothes-that-aren't-us thing."
Amy laughed against his shoulder. "You know, if you wanted to go on a date with me, all you had to do was ask."
"Really?"
Amy rolled her eyes. "Really, Rory." Not that she thought the way he'd roped in Jeff to set up the date hadn't been adorable.
"Amy," Rory started gently. "Have I ever told why I became a nurse?"
She thought back and came to the realization that he'd never told her. One day he'd just announced he was going to train to be a nurse, and Amy had been impressed and thought it had been very admirable of him. But she'd never asked the reason behind his choice of career.
"No you haven't, Rory Williams." She lifted her head off his shoulder and pretended to look cross with him.
"Well, you have the right to know, because you're kind of the reason."
"Me?" Amy replied quietly. She took Rory's hand and squeezed it. "Tell me what you mean."
Rory played with her fingers in his hand. "Well, I actually wanted to be a doctor from a young age. Still do." He knew it would take him years of hard work, but he'd get there if he wanted it badly enough, which he absolutely did. "Remember when I'd just moved here, to Leadworth."
Amy remembered his arrival to Leadworth very well. After the Doctor had left and all the children in the village had shunned her, thinking she was a freak and needed psychiatric help (which only made the situation worse rather than better, and one psychiatrist even had both emotional and physical scars from Amy biting her), Rory had shown up like a blessing to her, actually wanting to be her friend.
"It was my first day at school here," Rory went on. "And I saw this little girl with red hair, sitting by herself, colouring in a blue box." The memory of Amy immersed in her colouring, the look of utmost concentration on her little face - it made him smile. "It was like you were in your own little world. I was too shy to talk to you. After lunch though, I found your blue box drawing torn up."
Amy remembered how upset she'd been when she returned to her desk and saw her picture had been ripped up by some bully in their class, making it look like the Raggedy Doctor's blue box had exploded into little pieces.
"I went to find you, to see if you were okay," Rory carried on. "I looked all over the school for you until I heard crying coming from the girls' toilet. I went in, and you were there." Amy recalled how shocked she'd been while wiping her eyes with toilet roll, to see the new boy Rory Williams had entered the girls' bathroom. "You told me to get out because I was a boy." The both of them laughed.
"But I stayed," Rory continued softly. "I said I was sorry for what happened to your drawing, but you said you didn't care about that. And then I asked you why you were crying. And you said--"
"Because I was missing a Doctor," Amy said with a watery smile. Rory stroked the side of her face.
"Of course, I didn't know you were talking about some alien and not a medical doctor until the next day. But I remember how sad I was watching you cry that day," he frowned at the flashback. "Seeing how hurt and broken you were... I just wanted to fix you and make the pain go away, like a doctor would."
Silent tears rolled down Amy's cheeks, but they were happy tears. "Oh Rory." She pulled him into a hug. "What if I'd said I was missing a spaceman. Would you be training to be an astronaut right now?"
"Probably," he laughed in her ear. "I don't think I could stand being away from you for long periods of time, though."
Amy pulled away slightly from the hug, but only so she could grab the collar of his shirt and give him a kiss that was long overdue. It was a kiss that, if Rory had been standing, would have knocked him off his feet. Rory thought if they had grandchildren one day, this was a story they'd tell them from start to finish.
"Come on." Amy stood up and pulled Rory up with her. "I want out of this dress, you want out of that suit... I'm sure we could come to some arrangement."
Rory liked the sound of an arrangement and the flirty smile that came with it. "We'd have to leave out the naughty bits of the story to the grandkids."
Of course, he didn't realize what he'd accidentally said out loud until he noticed Amy staring at him.
"Erm," he started nervously.
"No more talking." She placed her finger over his lips. "You numpty," she said with uttermost affection.
And the only times Rory opened his mouth on the walk home were during the moments he kissed Amy.