Rory Williams and his wife, Amelia "Amy" Pond, immediately jolted up to see that they were in a graveyard. "Where are we?" Rory asked.

"Back where we started!" the Doctor announced. "You collapsed the timeline. The paradox worked. We all pinged back to where we belong!"

"In a graveyard?" Rory asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow. "This happened last time," Amy said. "Why always here?"

"Does it matter? We got lucky!" the Doctor exclaimed. "We could've blown New York off the planet. I can't ever take the TARDIS back there. The timelines are too scrambled. I could have lost you both," he added as he hugged the both of them. "Don't ever do that again," he scolded.

"What did we do?" Rory questioned. "We fixed the problem."

"I was talking to myself," the Doctor clarified. He went over to his machine, the TARDIS, which had taken a bit of damage. His "wife" of sorts and Amy and Rory's daughter, River Song (born Melody Pond), appeared from behind it with a bucket and rag. "It could do with a repaint," River commented. "I've been busy," the Doctor told her. "Does the bulb on top need changing?" she asked. "I just changed it," the Doctor answered.

"So..." River began as set the bucket down on the grass and started to clean to the TARDIS. "Rory and Amy, then."

"Yes, I know, I know," the Doctor sighed.

"I'm just saying, they're going to get terribly bored, hanging 'round here all day."

"Doctor?" Rory called. The Doctor turned to him with a laugh. "Look, next time, could we just go to the pub?" he asked. "I want to go to the pub right now," the Doctor said with a bright smile. "Are there video games there? I love video games."

"Right, family outing," River said with a smile as she walked inside the TARDIS. The Doctor and Amy followed closely, but something caught Rory's eye. "Amy!" he called his wife over and she walked back outside. "What?" she asked. "There's a gravestone here for someone with the same name as me," he answered. "What?" Amy was able to gasp out just as her husband vanished before her eyes.

"Doctor!"

The Doctor and River bolted out of the TARDIS at the sound of Amy's voice and saw a Weeping Angel.

"Where the hell did that come from?" River asked breathlessly, staring in horror at the Angel. The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver and began scanning it. "It's a survivor," he stated. "Very weak, but keep your eyes on it," he warned. "Where's Rory?" Amy demanded to know. The Doctor's eyes wondered to the gravestone:

IN LOVING MEMORY

RORY ARTHUR WILLIAMS

AGED 82

"I'm sorry, Amelia," the Doctor whispered, using Amy's full first name. "I'm so, so sorry."

"No. No, we can just go and get him in the TARDIS," Amy said. "One more paradox..."

"Would rip New York apart--" the Doctor began. "That's not true," Amy interrupted, completely in denial. "I don't believe you."

"Mother, it's true," River spoke up. Amy took a deep, yet shaky breath and began to slowly approach the Angel that cruelly snatched her husband away from her. "That gravestone, Rory's, there's room for one more name, isn't there?" she asked. "What are you talking about? Back away from the Angel. Come back to to TARDIS. We'll figure something out," the Doctor ordered, but Amy didn't listen.

"The Angel, would it send me back to the same time... to him?" she continued. "I don't know. Nobody knows," the Doctor answered in a sotto voice. "But it's my best shot, yeah?" Amy kept walking to the Angel. "Doctor, shut up!" River snapped. "Yes, yes, it is!"

"Amy," the Doctor tried to coax his companion away from the Angel. "Well, then," Amy started, "I just have to blink, right?"

"No!" the Doctor cried. "It'll be fine," Amy insisted. "I know it will. I'll be with him, like I should be. Me and Rory, together."

Amy reached for her daughter without looking away, calling her by her birth name, "Melody?"

"Stop it! Just, just stop it!" the Doctor begged as River took her mother's hand. "You look after him," Amy told River. "And you be a good girl and you look after him."

River kissed her mother's hand. "You are creating fixed time," the Doctor warned. "I will never be able to see you again!"

"I'll be fine," Amy told him. "I'll be with him."

"Amy, please," the Doctor tried his best to coax her away. It would be an almost pathetic sight to the unsentimental. "Just.. come back into the TARDIS. Come along, Pond, please..."

"Raggedy man," Amy began before she whipped around, her eyes full of tears. "Goodbye..."

And she vanished.

IN LOVING MEMORY

RORY ARTHUR WILLIAMS

AGED 82

AND HIS LOVING WIFE

AMELIA WILLIAMS

AGED 87

"No!" the Doctor sobbed, almost collapsing to the ground in grief.

~o0o~

"River," the Doctor said barely above a whisper to the woman now flying the TARDIS as he sat on the floor. "They were your parents. I'm sorry. I didn't think."

"It doesn't matter," River shook her head. "Of course it matters," the Doctor said. "What matters is this. Doctor, don't travel alone," River said.

"Travel with me, then," the Doctor requested. "Wherever and whenever you want," River began, giving the Doctor a small sliver of hope. "But not all the time. One psychopath per TARDIS, don't you think?"

A beat.

"Okay. This book I've got to write... Melody Malone. I presume I send it to Amy to get it published?" River asked.

"Yes. Yes," the Doctor answered. "I'll tell her to write an afterword. For you. Maybe you'll listen to her," River suggested. When River left, The Doctor then realized something. "The last page!"

***

The Doctor ran faster than he can ever recall across the Bow Bridge to the spot where he had lunch with Amy and Rory. He grabbed the last page out of the basket and put on Amy's reading glasses, beginning to read it.

Afterword, by Amelia Williams. Hello, old friend. And here we are, you and me, on the last page. By the time you read these words, Rory and I will be long gone. So know that we lived well, and were very happy. And above all else, know that we will love you always. Sometimes I do worry about you, though. I think once we're gone, you won't be coming back here for a while, and you might be alone, which you should never be. Don't be alone, Doctor.And do one more thing for me. There's a little girl waiting in a garden. She's going to wait a long while, so she's going to need a lot of hope. Go to her. Tell her a story. Tell her that if she's patient, the days are coming that she'll never forget. Tell her she'll go to sea and fight pirates. She'll fall in love with a man who'll wait two thousand years to keep her safe. Tell her she'll give hope to the greatest painter who ever lived and save a whale in outer space. Tell her this is the story of Amelia Pond. And this how it ends.

***

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor wandered around the console room. He couldn't remember such a loud silence since he lost two companions he held very dear to his hearts.

Rose Tyler, the shop girl that helped him heal after the Time War, shaped him into who he was today, and risked her life for him many times. For all he knew, she probably was traveling with the Meta-Crisis Doctor, with whom they had two kids and one on the way. Just a thought he kept to himself.

And Donna Noble, the brash temp who tumbled into the TARDIS on her wedding day and turned out to be the most important woman in the universe. They were like brother and sister, hoping to travel forever in the TARDIS. But if she remembered even one instant of her time with him, she would die.

And the way he behaved after losing them...

He couldn't go through that grief again. He rummaged through the pockets of his trousers and found a small, silver watch engraved with Gallifreyan circles. He hadn't used it since an encounter with the Family of Blood.

It was either live as a human or live through that grief again. Guess which one he choose.

As he transformed, he could've sworn he saw faces. One was a blonde woman with freckles and stormy blue eyes, the next woman had wildly curly hair that reminded him of River despite it's darker color and dark brown eyes, and the last had vibrant red hair and blue eyes. Then came a little girl no more than nine years old with dark blonde, curly hair and his green eyes. Next was a teenage girl with curly ginger hair and grey eyes, then a a slightly younger girl with blonde hair and slightly darker green eyes. Then his whole world went to black.

And cue the Doctor Who theme song and welcome to Book One of the Healer Chronicles! Starring Matt Smith, Freya Mavor, Jenna Coleman, and Sean Biggerstaff!