Greater than the Universe

River hadn’t been wrong, and for that I was grateful. Rory and I were pushed back in time, back to 1938. I remember feeling my feet suddenly hit ground. I just stared in one spot, tears still blurring my vision and the Doctor’s watery, pleading eyes burning my heart. My goodbye was echoing in my head though. I remember how I looked up, and saw a man standing a good six feet in front of me, patting himself down, running a hand through his hair, and then looking around. I remember how I ran at him, a smile on my face and tears falling again as I crashed into him, knowing oh too well who it was. He was caught off guard, but when he realized who I was, he let out a breath and whispered my name before he wrapped his arms around me. I remember it all like it was yesterday. I remember how he cried, so hard into my shoulder, his arms around me like he never wanted to let go.

“Wh-why are you crying? You’re supposed to be happy, we’re okay.” I told Rory with a smile as I pulled away, wiping my eyes quickly and he just smiled, shaking his head.

“Because you had all of that; you had the Doctor and you had River, and the angels got to you too.” He whispered and I shook my head with a slight laugh.

“No, I came willingly.” I told him, and he looked at me oddly.

“Why would you do such a thing? You’ll never be able to see the Doctor a-”

“Because that doesn’t matter, he’ll be fine, he’s made it without me before, he can make it without me again.” I told him quickly, his hands on my shoulders as tears ran down his cheeks, all following the same path. “I did it because I never want to be away from you.” I told him, resting a hand on his cheek, and he just smiled. “I couldn’t take the thought of losing you right now, after everything.” I swallowed hard, looking him in the eyes. “I love you, just as much as you love me, and don’t you ever doubt that.” He didn’t say another word, that smile on his face spoke for him as he brought me back close to his chest, his face in my hair.

“Nothing can compare to how much I love you.”

Nothing could compare to how much we loved each other. Nothing in the whole universe. Not too long after we found ourselves together to live a real life, we decided to settle in Queens. We got a nice house, with a small yard, and Rory quickly cultivated as a garden. We couldn’t have been happier. We started taking each other more seriously, and spent more time together than ever. Because this was our life. Our last life. We had these years to live and I guess we were lucky we got them. We were lucky the angels didn’t take away what we had left. We adopted a baby boy in 1946, and named him Anthony Brian Williams, and I adopted the surname Williams. Anthony was the light of our lives. We shared with him the tales of our adventures with the Doctor. We told him about the TARDIS, the Cybermen, about the Daleks…about everything, and he listened eagerly, amazed and fascinated. He grew up too fast, if you ask us. But he was perfect in every way. He moved out when he was nineteen, went to law school. We didn’t see him too much after that. He moved to Maine. Rory and I got letters. We got so many letters…and he always visited and stayed for at least a week during holidays. And he’d ask us to tell this story or that. He turned out to be an amazing young man. We were so proud.

Rory and I lived happily, and we tried to keep that happiness together even when Rory’s health began deteriorating. I used to sit, every single night, next to the bed in a rocking chair, holding his hand and we’d talk about the Doctor, and Anthony. That’s all we’d talk about. We’d talk about the little things the Doctor used to do, his pet peeves…our journeys with him… We just sat, and reminisced, every night. I took the best care of him I could. I never left his side. I felt like I wanted to spend the rest of eternity in his eyes, with him by my side, forever and ever.

“You know…sometimes I swear I can hear him.” I whispered softly, Rory’s thumb grazing over my hand, the room lit by a few candles, the rocking chair making the floorboards squeak slightly as it rocked against them. The noise had a comforting ring to it.

“Like a whisper in your ear.” Rory stated and I just nodded, remembering back.

“You know, if it weren’t for him we wouldn’t be the people we are today.”

“That’s not a bad thing, either.” Rory whispered quietly, and I nodded, my head rested back against the back of the chair. “Don’t you wish you would’ve stayed though? Just…gone back into the TARDIS with him? Went on to god knows where with him…”

“No.” I told him truthfully, because it hadn’t crossed my mind in years about what would have happened if I had of stayed. I loved the Doctor. I did, but it wasn’t right for me to go with him anymore. “It wasn’t my place anymore, Rory. It wasn’t my time to just let you go, and I don’t think I could even if I wanted to. But if anything, I do hope he’s still out there. With someone by his side, keeping him from getting into too much trouble.” I laughed slightly, bring a hand up to wipe a tear from my cheek.

“He is.” Rory’s voice got even more quiet. “He’ll always be out there, and we’ll always be here, where we belong.” I looked at Rory and he smiled slightly, a glint in his eyes. “With all the love in the universe between us.” Rory brought my hand to his lips, taking it with both hands as he kissed the top softly, twining our fingers together.

“Forever and always.”

I fell asleep in that rocking chair that night, and woke up with Rory’s hand still in mine. But he was gone. He was eighty two.

Anthony came by, and he lived with me for years after Rory’s death. I wasn’t quite sure to take it, him being gone for real, but I coped. I made it through with Anthony. Then one day, five years later, I got a letter from a special someone: River. It was time. I must’ve sat at that typewriter for hours and hours, just for a short piece. But during those hours, up in the attic, the smile never left my face as I typed out an afterword. Not just an afterword, but a goodbye. A closure to a friendship that felt like more. Final closure to a friendship that seemed like it ended too early. But this closure, I knew it’d be read by him. I knew he’d smile. I knew he’d think of Rory and I when he read it and I just hoped it’d bring him the closure it brought me.

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 is how it ends.