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Amy and Rory rushed into the A&E as fast as they could without knocking over any of the sick people over, Amy's high heels not slowing her down. Rory headed straight for his friend and fellow nurse who was at the counter, sorting the files of the cases that had come into the department in the last hour.
"Francine!" He called, skidding to a stop next to her and the young woman beamed at him, looking incredibly relieved to see one of the best nurses they had one the staff.
"Rory, oh thank God! Didn't know you were on call tonight. We could use your help." He shook his head.
"No, my friend's been brought in. Danielle Fielding. Ginger, short." He explained breathlessly, motioning with his hand to show her height.
"Oh, the mugging?" She asked and his eyes almost popped out of his skull.
"Mugging?" Amy exclaimed, looking at Rory in alarm. They'd arrived home from the party, finding a message on their answering machine rather than Danni waiting for them. It was the hospital that Rory worked at, telling them that Danni had been brought in and she'd listed them as her emergency contacts. They'd grabbed the first taxi they could, because they were worried but still drunk, and flew over to the hospital as quickly as possible.
"Yeah, bout a hour ago." She replied.
"Where is she?" Rory asked and she motioned over her shoulder.
"Ward 3." Rory thanked her quickly and they dashed down the hallway, into the shared ward and spotted Danni sat on a bed with a young man next to her, chatting happily with her arm up in a sling. She spotted them and waved them over with her free arm and they dashed over.
"Are you okay?" Amy asked her worriedly, "The nurse said you'd been mugged." Quite frankly she looked awful. Her eye was swollen, her lip was cut and the top of her dress was ripped. Her knee was poking out of her tights and had a dressing on it from where she'd obviously fallen down.
"Yeah, just down the road from your house." She explained lightly, "If Sean and his mates hadn't come past it would have been a lot worse." She nodded to the you man and he shrugged.
"She was being attacked." Was his explanation as he stood up, "Glad you're all right, Danni. I'm going to head off now." She nodded.
"Thanks for your help." She pulled out a piece of paper, "I'll add you on Facebook tomorrow." He winked at her and she giggled.
"Be safe." He told her before heading out, hands in his pockets.
"He was cute." Amy declared and Rory shot her a look.
"I'm right here, Amy." He scolded and she shrugged, turning back to him.
"What? He was!" She defended before they both rounded on Danni, "Okay, what happened?"
"A guy pushed me against the wall and told me to give him all my money. They think he might have fractured my arm." Danni explained calmly.
"Why did you resist?" Rory asked, fuming at her reckless behavious, "You have an unlimited credit card! You should have just given him the money!"
"I did!" She snapped back, "And my phone! I'm not an idiot, Rory."
"Then why are you so beat up?" He retorted.
"Because he tried to take my key!" She told him, reaching up and grabbing the key dangling around her neck, the golden wedding band hanging next to it, "He may have dumped me, but I wasn't ready to let him go!" Amy held her hands up, slightly unsettled by the fact that she was breaking up an argument between Danni and Rory when he was normally the mediator.
"All right, you two." She scolded, "We're all tired and slightly drunk, let's calm down a minute." She nodded towards the door, "Where did the cute guy come into it?"
"Amy!" They both exclaimed, both sounding offended and she rolled her eyes.
"He and his mates were walking past and heard me screaming for help." Danni explained, "They scared the arsehole away, and Sean offered to come to the hospital with me." Amy sat down on the bed next to her, pulling her gently into a sideways hug so not to hurt her arm.
"It doesn't matter, you're safe now." Rory reassured her, sitting in the chair Sean had vacated, "We'll give the Doctor a ring in a few minutes when we find out if your arm's okay." Danni shook her head.
"No, don't call him." She told him.
"He hasn't dumped you." Amy tried to reiterate yet again, "His time keeping is awful, and he never checks his messages." Danni shook her head.
"No, he's not coming back for me." She told the pair firmly, "I need to stop relying on him. He hasn't come back, and he didn't save me. I have to learn how to live on my own again, and ringing him isn't going to help." Amy opened her mouth to protest but Rory shook his head pointedly, both of them wanting to convince the disillusioned woman in front of them but Rory knew that wasn't going to happen in a hospital ward.
"I'll go see if I can get your results a bit quicker." He told her and she smiled up at him.
"Thank you, murse." He groaned.
"Please stop calling me that." He begged and she giggled, shaking her head.
"Never." She promised and he left the two ginger women there. Amy nudged her gently.
"He really likes that you call him that." She explained, "But he'll never admit it."
"Oh, I know." Danni replied, "I wouldn't call him it otherwise." They sat in silence for a few more minutes, Danni swinging her legs in the air absentmindedly.
"Do you really think the Doctor's not coming back for you?" Amy asked, because she was starting to worry as well. What if he wasn't coming back, period? She was liking living a normal life, but she wasn't ready to give up her Raggedy Man just yet.
"I know he comes back." Danni told her, "I watched this one, he's really late but he comes back. I just don't think I'm included in the picture." She looked on the verge of tears and Amy stood up, wanting to distract her from the dark thoughts in her head.
"I'll go get us some coffee. Some of us need to sober up." She explained with a motion down herself. Danni nodded in agreement and Amy headed out of the ward, then out of the building. She pulled her own phone out and held it to her ear as it dialled, hitting answer machine once again.
"Doctor, I don't know if you're purposefully ignoring us or just not checking you message, but please listen to this one." She begged, "It's New Year's Day and Danni's been hurt. She's in hospital, but I think they're going to let her go soon. She doesn't think you're coming back for her, but she really needs you right now. Don't let her down again. Please." She waited a beat then hung up, heading back in to find a coffee machine.
~0~0~0~
"Four days. Nothing!" Amy cried angrily, sitting down next to Rory on one of the rare evenings they had together, Rory having picked up more late shifts at the hospital, "Why am I the only one bothered by this?"
"What are we supposed to do?" Rory countered, "It's not like we can just go out and bring him back. We don't have a time machine."
"I know, but we know someone who might have a clue." Amy reminded him and he groaned, shaking his head.
"Amy," He whined, "She said don't call him."
"She doesn't know what's best for her." Amy dismissed, "She hasn't come out of her room since we got back to the hospital. He might be able to help!"
"She doesn't want him to know." Amy shrugged, not caring as she pulled her phone out, flicking through her contacts.
"Someone here has to be the adult." She declared, flicking her hair out of the way as she held the phone to her ear, "And it's not going to be either of them."
"Amy..." Rory whined again but she held her finger up to shush him.
"Captain Jack Harkness." The voice on the other end answered and she smiled slightly; bingo.
"Hey, Jack. This is Amy, I don't know if you remember me..."
"Oh, hello Red." He called, the flirting tone already in his voice, "To what do I owe this pleasure?" She couldn't help the silly grin, he just had that effect on everyone except Danni. Rory rolled his eyes at his wife, shooting her a pointed look and she nodded, clearing her throat.
"Well, I'm not supposed to be ringing you, Danni asked me not to." She explained quickly, "But she was mugged a few days ago and I don't..."
"Wait, what?" Jack called, alarmed and angry, "A few days ago! And you're only just ringing me?!"
"She didn't want you to know." Amy argued back quickly, "But the Doctor's been missing for the past, like five months and I'm out of options here."
"I'm on my way." He declared and she frowned, confused.
"Don't you want, you know, our address?"He chuckled.
"Oh, Red." He sighed, "I know where each of you lives." And he hung up. She pulled her phone away from her head to look at the screen, annoyed.
"Has everyone forgotten how to say goodbye?" She grumbled, settling back into the sofa, crossing her arms. Rory chucked his arm around her shoulder, placing a kiss on the side of her head.
"Only to you." He replied and she picked up a cushion, hitting him in the side as he laughed.
~0~0~0~
Danni opened her bedroom door, looking out at the hallway as she listened for sounds of the Ponds downstairs. They were under the impression that she was terrified of being mugged again, that the ordeal had somehow scarred her, not just with the black eye and fractured wrist, but mentally. They all seemed to think she was hiding from the outside world, curled up in on herself as she hid from the bed men outside.
Every single person she had in her life now seemed to have forgotten that she travelled for the last five years with the Doctor, and quite frankly she was more inconvenienced by the guy in black than scared. He took her money, so what? She had more. Her mobile had been replaced more times than she could remember. It had been dark but then again she'd been captured by the Daleks. He'd punched and kicked her, but she'd been dissected by a Silurian. It had been incredibly mundane as far as her life had gone and if she didn't have to physically heal she'd be over it by now.
However, she was hiding from something. Something that terrified her down in the depths of her soul. Her life without the Doctor. Because she hadn't jumped away, she hadn't landed with Nine or Ten. She was still here and he hadn't saved her. He hadn't stopped the man attacking her, he hadn't even turned up while she was in hospital. She was hiding from the fact that he really wasn't coming back for her. She was hiding from the fact that she now had to build a life without him, and that was truly terrifying.
With no sound of the Ponds, she quietly headed down the stairs towards the kitchen. With her plastered arm she had a choice, food or drink, because she couldn't carry both. In the end, as they always did, Lucky Charms prevailed so she was going to pour herself a bowl and head back upstairs before anyone saw her and confronted her over her behaviour. That was not a conversation she was looking forward to.
A quick glance into the doorway of the living room showed no signs of the two, so she headed into the kitchen. She stopped, surprised by the black haired man sat at the table, back to her while he typed away on a laptop.
"Jack?" She asked, completely taken aback by the sight of the immortal man. He turned around on he seat, his eyes widening at her appearance. He shot out of his chair and stalked over, his eyes skimming across all her injuries. She could tell he was taking stock, working out exactly what could have happened to cause each cut and bruise, "What are you doing here? Since when did you visit companions?"
"Red called me." He dismissed, his rough fingers tracing over her eye delicately to feel the bruising there, causing her to wince slightly anyway. The movement caused him to glower furiously, "I'm going to kill him."
"Oh, calm down." She told him, "I couldn't even pick him out of a line up if I tried."
"Not him." Jack replied, "Where is the Doctor?" Her hand shot up to her neck, grasping at the key and ring still hanging there before shrugging, pushing past him and heading to the cupboard.
"No idea." She replied, trying to sound like it didn't bother her, "Gallivanting around the universe somewhere, I suspect." She reached up and pulled out her box of Lucky Charms.
"You have no idea where he is?" Jack pressed, "Because I have a few choice words for him." She pulled a bowl out before heading to the fridge.
"Well, a couple weeks ago I remembered he comes back for Rory and Amy's wedding anniversary, which is apparently in June so you've got a bit of a wait." She glanced over her shoulders, "Do you want a bowl?"
"Why aren't you more bothered?" He demanded, "After everything you've given him, why are you acting like it's okay?" She growled slightly, slamming the milk on the counter next to the bright red box.
"It does bother me." She snapped back, "Quite frankly, I fucking pissed off, Jack!" She turned around, "What can I do, though? He's gone! He's left me and when he comes back, it ain't for me! I just... have to get on with it." She turned back around, shaking as she picked up the box of cereal, "I'll get a job, or something. I don't have any skills, or even a National Insurance number. Or a home of my own, but I'll work something out. Maybe in a shop. I'm quite friendly, I could do that." Worried, Jack stepped forward slightly.
"Danni..." She turned back around again, wide eyed and trembling.
"What? Am I just supposed to get upset?" She exclaimed, throwing her good arm out to point at the patio doors, "Because the only man I have ever loved, so completely in my entire life has left me!" The tears started falling, her hand hovering just in front of her face, "Because he's abandoned me and left me with literally nothing but the clothes I'm wearing. In a universe where I have no family, where all I had was him." Jack pulled her into a hug, letting her sob against him, rocking her gently.
"You are not on your own." He promised her, placing a kiss on top of his head, "I will always be here for you."
"What do I do, Jack?" She whimpered helplessly, "I can't remember living without him." He cupped her face, the less bruised side, smiling despite the shine to his own eyes.
"Well, Dad will just have to show you how better off you are without him." She giggled slightly, a heartbroken sound that made his chest ache.
"I never made it to the wedding." She pointed out in a whisper and he shrugged.
"So?" He replied, "You're not taking 'Father of the Bride' off me, Danielle. Respect your elders." She giggled again and nodded.
"Yes, sir." He nodded, letting her go and stepping back, giving her some space.
"Go eat your cereal." He commanded gently, "Then we'll work from there." She nodded, feeling marginally better than when she'd woken up, saluted him and did as she was told.
~0~0~0~
"She broke my heart, I wanna be sedated!" Danni sang, pressing her back against Amy's, hairbrush in place of a microphone.
"All I wanted was to see her naked!" Amy sang back, her own hairbrush in hand before they both started giggling, Danni dropping her brush and taking Amy's hand in her healthy one and swinging it as they dancing badly and noisily to a song that had been in the soundtrack to both their teenage lives. Even though Danni had turned 27 in the November of the last year, and Amy was heading towards her 32nd year, Danni had been born only a year later in her original universe. Many of the cultural happenings in Danni's universe had also seemed to have transpired in Amy's and so they seemed to have a lot of memories in common.
"As I fail miserably, Tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want." They both sang together, repeating the phrase as the song trailed off and 'Teenage Dirtbag' by Wheatus began playing on their chosen play list. Danni danced her way to the drawer, pulling a t-shirt out and showing Amy, who pulled a face and it was thrown into the trash pile.
"Do you have to go?" Amy whined again and Danni sighed, chucking aside another t-shirt before grabbing one she wanted to keep, heading to the suitcase she was packing.
"I can't be here when he comes back, Amy." She repeated. This was a conversation they'd had a lot over the last few days as Danni healed enough to feel half-way presentable when out in public. The swelling around her eye had gone, leaving just an angry bruise in it's wake. Her knee barely looked like it had been cut at all, and all she was left with was the plastered arm, "Jack says he'll find me somewhere to live, help me get a job and start again."
"But it's Cardiff!" Amy protested and Danni chuckled slightly with a nod.
"I know where I'm going, Amy. I like Wales." Amy sat on the bed, pouting with her arms crossed and Danni smiled warmly, sitting next to her and nudging her gently, "It's not like we'll never see each other."
"I don't want you to go." Amy told her, "You're my friend. Who's going to prance around the house singing early noughties music with me?"
"Rory?" Danni suggested and they both laughed at the thought, "You have your own life with Mr Rory, Amy. I need one of my own."
"He could still come back." Amy argued, "You know how bad at this he is. I waited fourteen years for him."
"Yes, but this time he doesn't have a malfunctioning TARDIS, and he hasn't just regenerated." Danni pointed out, "This time he had just left me behind." She motioned to the Manipulator, still sat proudly on her healthy arm, "This is never going to come off, but I think this is it. I think I've finished jumping, and now I need to start living for myself again." Amy nodded slowly, she could understand that. It was a decision she was going to have to make eventually; her 'real' life or the Doctor, and up until this last five months it was always the Doctor. Now she wasn't sure anymore.
She looked up at her other imaginary friend, who had pulled herself out of the sideways TARDIS, drenched to the bone and talking of the future whilst this strange man lavished attention on her, and realised that this was a decision she had to make at that very moment. And that this was the end of her travels with Amy, Rory and the Doctor. Tears sprung to her eyes, because it suddenly dawned on her how very final this was.
"I'm really going to miss you." She told the younger woman sincerely and Danni smiled through her own tears at her.
"I'm going to miss you too." She whispered and the pair hugged tightly, both of them refusing to cry until Amy pulled away, sniffing and trying her best to look fine.
"We've still got our night out." She pointed out and Danni nodded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Did you manage to contact River?" Danni asked and Amy nodded. It had taken a few attempts to get through to her daughter, but mainly because she had also been trying to secretly contact the Doctor in between tries. She was still convinced, even now, that Danni would stay if the Doctor returned.
"She said if she'll meet us at the karaoke bar if she can get out." Amy explained, "And she says you have to save 'Carry on my Wayward Son' for her." Danni chuckled. When she and Mels had gone karaoke-ing together they would always make time for the classic song.
"Hello!" A voice called from downstairs and Danni punched the air dramatically.
"Ah, the Mighty Roman Murse has returned from his noble quest!" She shouted, "His proud and devoted wife must go observe his spoils of war!"
"Piss off!" Rory shouted back up, causing Danni and Amy to fall into fits of giggles.
"Don't annoy the murse, Danni-Girl!" Jack's voice floated from somewhere downstairs, where he was working on something top secret. He actually hadn't been back in the UK for very long, and he hadn't been planning on staying, but now he was helping Danni he was making more permenant arrangements for them both.
"Is everyone against me?" Rory groaned and Amy laughed again, standing up and placing a kiss on top of Danni's head before ruffling her red hair.
"I better go cheer him up." Danni nodded in agreement.
"Good idea." Amy walked out, leaving Danni to smile after her. The door shut, the smile dropped and Danni held her head in her hands.
~0~0~0~
Danni chucked her dirty clothes into a separate bag to the rest of her luggage, ready for her trip up to Wales the following day. Jack had already commented on the amount of it, joking about how much money she'd already spent in the last five months. She'd promised to pay her way when she got a job, but he'd told her he was just joking and he was more than happy to help her. She still felt a bit bad relying on him, but he was all she had so she didn't have much choice. She pulled the fluffy dressing gown around herself, grabbing her newest Body Shop shower gel when there was a gentle knock on the door. She smiled knowingly. Ah, Rory. The only polite one in the house.
"Come in, Rory." She called and the door opened, Rory looking as awkward as he always did as he stood in the hallway.
"River's here." He told her and she grinned.
"I'm just getting in the shower." She replied, "Think you can entertain your daughter for a bit?" He nodded but hovered until she cocked an eyebrow at him, "You okay there, Rory?"
"I..." He ruffled his hair nervously, "I don't think you should go to Wales." Slightly stunned, she just stared at him for a moment. Rory was the one she thought would be behind her plan, knowing how hard he fought against Amy's obsession with the Time Lord.
"Wow." She breathed, pondering on his declaration for a moment, "I need to start fresh, and Wales is a great place to do that."
"It is." He agreed, "But we both know you're not starting afresh, you're running away from the Doctor."
"No I'm not." She protested, "He ran away from me!"
"You don't know that." He pointed out, "In fact, we don't know anything. He could have run away, but he could just be very late. You're running away from finding out the answer because you don't want to find out he just didn't want to come back." She opened her mouth to argue again, "And you know I'm right, because you've still got that ring around your neck." He good hand shot up, grasping at the necklace as if she'd forgotten it was there. Her TARDIS key and the wedding band, "If you really want to go, then I'll miss you but you should go. But not if you're just running away from a confrontation you're scared to have." He turned and left her stood there, mind reeling.
Was she really just hiding from the Doctor?
She slowly walked to the bathroom, deciding the ponder this whilst in the shower. Nothing like a fall of warm water to clear your head.
~0~0~0~
River and Amy hit the booze the moment River appeared in the living room. Jack quickly joined them, arm around the back of the sofa as he sat next to River. Rory tutted, trying to sound disapproving when really he was overjoyed to see his wife spending any time at all with their unconventional daughter. Danni stopped upstairs, staring into nothingness as she carefully considered the rest of her life.
Outside a strong breeze blew the bushes in the back yard, a sight that hadn't been seen for five months appearing from no where. A bright blue box materialized at the Doctor shot out, all grins and bow ties. He chucked the patio doors open.
"Danni-Girl!" He cried happily, so glad he was about to have her back in his life even though only moments had passed for him, "It's been 28 days, I hope you're ready!" He spun on the spot like a giddy child before diving into the doorway of the living room, spotting the little gathering. He was surprised to see Jack and River there, but with his beautiful Danni-Girl being in residence he wasn't surprised. He clapped his hands together, "Oh, a party. You shouldn't have." Jack stood up, heading towards him in what the Doctor thought was a hug.
A fist connected with his face, sending the Doctor to the floor with a crunch, unconscious.