Although he wasn't aware of it at the time, they were heading towards splitting-up, but to the Doctor,
all he could think was how to make them stop shouting at each other.
"What can I do for you?" he asked, leaning on their dining table, his chin resting on his hand.
"What do you mean?" asked Amy, slamming down two, heavy mugs on the kitchen side.
"None for me then?" asked Rory as he strolled through the kitchen in his dressing gown.
"I'm not talking to you," said Amy.
The Doctor frowned, twiddled his fingers, and then slid over to Amy. "I can make Rory one."
"He's not having one," snapped Amy.
"It's not my fault!" said Rory, crossing back through the kitchen again with a glass of water.
"It never is your fault," she said, pouring the boiling hot water into the two mugs, submerging the
teabags.
The Doctor clapped his hands together once, twirled around to look at Rory, mouthed to him that he'd
sort it out and the twirled back to Amy.
"Are you just gonna stand there all day?" said Amy bluntly.
"Perhaps it would help if I knew what he had done," said the Doctor, dodging out of the way of Amy as she went to the fridge to get milk.
"He didn't do the shopping. Again."
"Is that all?" the Doctor smiled, and immediately regretted it.
Amy glared at him. "He knew I was going to be at that modelling job this morning."
"Some of us didn't get in till gone 2am!" came Rory's voice from the living room.
"2am?" said the Doctor. "Rory Pond!"
"Late shift at work!" he called back.
"Ah." Again the Doctor dodged Amy as she whipped the teabag out of the mug and poured in the milk.
"Actually," said the Doctor, "I'd prefer my teabag to have had more of a meaningful relationship with
the water rather than a quick fling."
Amy shot the Doctor a look which made him automatically sit down at the kitchen table and not make
another sound.
She slammed the mug down, grabbed a magazine and then sat down opposite him.
There was a long, long, long silence. The Doctor cracked his knuckles, drained his weak tea, rapped his
fingers on the table, whistled absent-mindedly to himself, re-adjusted his bow-tie, ran his hand through
his hair and then stared into the inside of his empty mug.
Amy looked up from her magazine. "What?"
"I didn't say anything," he said nervously. And then he had a thought. "I could do the shopping for you."
A little while later the Doctor was at the local supermarket. He had ignored Amy's protests and passed
on the need for a shopping list and made his way on foot down the street to the shop. He attempted to
get a trolley, but found it curiously chained to another. The Doctor frowned, looked both ways and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He made sure nobody was looking and then activated the device. The chain between the two trolleys came away, freeing up one for him to use.
He smiled, popped the screwdriver back into his jacket pocket and made his way inside.
About twenty minutes later he emerged from the supermarket, with very few items at all…
"What the hell are you doing?" asked Amy as the Doctor dragged the shopping trolley up the steps and
through the Pond's front door.
"Bringing you shopping."
"I didn't want the shopping trolley as well!"
"I'll return it in the morning," he said.
Amy grabbed the shopping bags and took them through to the kitchen. She looked through each of the bags and then turned to him, her hands on her hips.
"Something wrong?" he asked, trying to smile, although feeling slightly worried.
"There's nothing I actually need with this lot."
"Of course there is," said the Doctor.
Rory joined them in the kitchen. "What's he done this time?"
"Keep out of this Rory," snapped Amy again.
The Doctor hurriedly skipped over to the shopping bags and starting emptying them.
"There's no food!" said Rory. "Did you give him the list?"
"He said he didn't need one," said Amy, hands still on her hips. "And anyway, you had the original
list."
"Oh, don't start," groaned Rory.
The Doctor pulled out a bag of popcorn. "You'll be needing this."
"Great! We can have popcorn for dinner," said Amy, throwing her hands in the air. “Let me just put the over on.”
"And you'll be needing this," he said, throwing them some romantic period drama DVD.
"I wanted to see this at the cinema," said Amy, holding it up. “I never got round to it.”
"Oooh, drinks," said the Doctor, hefting up two bottles of wine. "And here's that series DVD box set you needed, Rory. Please be aware that the Christmas special isn't on it. But I got you that as well seperately."
"Thanks, Doc," said Rory, taking the DVD's from him.
"And you'll be needing these as well," said the Doctor, popping his hand into his pocket and pulling out two plane tickets.
"What's this?" said Amy, taking them off the Doctor.
"Two tickets to Hawaii. Go and soak up some sun for a bit. You both need it."
"But I have work!" said Rory, gazing longingly at the tickets.
"Don't worry, I'll be covering your shifts. I am a Doctor after all," he smiled.
"And I'm modelling tomorrow," said Amy.
"And your photographer will join you in Hawaii for a couple of days after you've settled in. I must
remember to take her some tickets as well."
"Why?" asked Amy. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because you need it. And you’re my friends. You need some normality in your lives. Just for a little bit. So spend a night watching your television programmes, do lots of hugging, eating popcorn and making up. Then go on a normal holiday and come back here. Then, if you still need to fight over silly little things like shopping, well, then fair enough. But take this time to enjoy yourselves. Call it a birthday present from me."
"But it's neither of our birthdays," said Rory.
"No. But it is my birthday. It's my birthday present to see you two happy."
Amy looked at the Doctor and then went in for a hug.
The Doctor backed up. "Ah-ah-ah," he said, holding up a finger, "save that for Mr. Pond."
Rory looked at Amy and shrugged.
"I suppose I can forgive him," she said playfully. "At least just this once."
"Excellent," said the Doctor, clapping and rubbing his hands together. "Anyway, I must be off. I've got
a date with a much stronger cup of tea waiting in the TARDIS. I shall see you two later!"
He let himself out, but turned back to see both of the Ponds walk into the living room, and sit down in
front of the TV. He waited for a moment, just long enough to see Amy put her hand on Rory's, and then
turned to go.
He reached the TARDIS, turned to look back, crossed his fingers and unlocked the door.
"Please work. Come on, Ponds. Do it for me."
He was about to step inside the TARDIS when he felt a cold, metallic hand around the back of his neck. He felt the world around him blurring out of focus. Just before he blacked out he saw a familiar face. A face he hadn’t seen since his Tenth incarnation.
The face of Paragrim.
Next: Paragrim discovers the truth when he goes in search of "his" Doctor. Coming Weds September 25th.
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