[Doctor Who Fanction] An Alternate Ending : The Angels take Manhattan.

Tired of beating my head against an Ultima fanfiction that just doesn't want to be a good set of ducks and line up, and too sore to write anything of my own.. so have some Doctor Who fanfiction. (Sorry Mr Mick, no bunnies this time.)

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Alternative Ending : The Angels Take Manhattan

River Song was trying to mother hen the Doctor into taking better care of his TARDIS, Rory and Amelia exchanged proud, if amused, looks over the interaction. Before the two could get into married squabble mode, Rory decided to jump in with a quick subject change. "Next time, came we just go to the pub?"

Before they group could get into the TARDIS, however, Rory's attention was caught by a gravestone that had his name and age on it. Had that been there a moment before? Had the writing on it changed? Was time still in flux?  "Amy, come and see this." he called. As much as he hated to admit it, his wife was better at figuring out this stuff.

"What?" She said, half into the TARDIS and already thinking about dinner. It had been a long time since the aborted picnic, in more ways than one.

"There's a gravestone here for someone with the same name as me." He pointed out; a mix of amused and confused.

"What?" Amy repeated, walking over to Mr Pond.

Opening his mouth to speak, he suddenly disappeared. Amy's eyes switched from the gravestone that she'd been trying to read without glasses and the angel that had appeared behind Rory. "DOCTOR!" She bellowed, panic and confusion. Had she just lost Rory again? How many times could your heart be ripped away from you in one short period?

"Where the hell did that come from?" River growled, absently trying for a weapon she hadn't found a place to store in her dress. Oh, her love may claim the brain was the best weapon, followed by swift talking, but some days a girl just wanted a sonic blaster and some bad guys to use it on. Any being who had just sucked her father away from her mother certainly counted as a bad guy!

"It's a survivor. Very weak, but keep your eyes on it." The Doctor was already grabbing his sonic screw driver from his pocket. Why hadn't he scanned? He should have known how much Angels loved graveyards, the lost time, the death, the misery.

Amy's dispair was rapidly turning into the deep burning anger that had kept the Scots surviving on moors and oatmeal. "Oh, I'll keep my eye on it." She growled, stalking over to it. A glance at the marker now showed an age to Rory's name. Fine, if that's how it wanted to play it. She glared back at the Angel who hadn't moved, only lowered its arm a bit as if the alien was rather unsure. "Must be male," she growled.

"What?" The Doctor asked and started to move forward, but River put her hand on his arm; this wasn't his battle. It wasn't their battle. As much as she wanted to rip the universe apart, it just wasn't their battle.

"This is how we're going to do this." She told the Angel. "You can't bring him back, can you?"

She blinked and its hand was lowered completely now, claws finger nails once more. It almost looked confused. People didn't just accost the statues.

"And the TARDIS, if we bring it to him, we pretty much blow things sky high, yeah?"

Blink. It was looking to the left. She blinked again, it looked to the right. It almost seemed like it was looking for an escape route.

"So, here's what we're doing to do. I am going to touch you and you are going to bring me to him. In exchange for that, he and I are not going to try and escape. We're not going to figure out a time and place that it'd be safe for the Doctor to land. We're not --"

"Amy!" The Doctor protested, trying to shrug off River's hold.

"We're not," she repeated, louder, ignoring her best friend, tears growing in her eyes, "We're not going to do anything but live our lives, grow old, and die and give you whatever it is you want to give. You are going to bring us together." She stepped forward to the Angel, inches from it, "Because if you don't, I will hunt down every single one of you, I will smash you all to ribbons and rubble, I will make you weep blood for the moment you targeted my husband and thought you could keep him from me. Do you understand?"

"AMY!" The Doctor was struggling with River now.

"My best friend, my dearest friend, is that man. That man is the man who makes the Daleks step back, that man is married to my daughter. My daughter who makes Daleks beg for mercy. Who do you thiknk she learnt it from, yeah? Its not all genes and weak whiskey!"

Blink and the Angel had actually stepped back.

"Do we have a deal then? You'll take me to him? We won't fight, you get what you want, I get what I want, and I don't need to found a sledgehammer factory." She wasn't quite sure how one would make a sledgehammer that would connect to an Angel that wouldn't suck you up in their little time games, but there had to be a way to destroy them beyond starvation and she was perfectly willing to spend the rest of her life to find that way if she needed to.

She blinked, the Angel stepped forward and she too was gone.

"NO!" The Doctor cried, rushing to where the Angel stood. "You bring her back!" He demanded.

"It can't." River said, following slowly. The Doctor knew that, but what else could she say?

"I don't care! It shouldn't end this way! Why does it always end? I don't want it to end!" Tears blurred his eyes long enough to find the Angel moving backwards, its job done.

River briefly considered finding a way to blast the statue to rubble, a warring notion of vengeance wanted and curiosity of what they looked like on the inside. "Everything ends, my love." She said softly.

He looked at her, a whole new level of pain in his eyes. They both knew that her time was catching up with her quickly, how many more stolen days would they have?

"Let's go." She said, putting arm around him to guide him into the TARDIS. There was nothing but pain to be found here.

"Your parents." He said as she closed the door behind them.

"Mm." She said. "Yes, I suppose I'm about done raising them, aren't I?" She said, squaring her shoulders and looking at the console. A pub with video games somehow no longer seemed like such a good idea. She wasn't so good at this side of things. She watched the Doctor practically crumple to the floor. "Where are we going?" Her eyes hardened, "And don't you dare say New York!"

There was silence in the magical box.

"I don't know." He finally said.

River bit her lip for a moment before making a decision. She disappeared into the realms of bed chambers and bathrooms to return with a blue covered journal. On the front, in Amy's writing, was the word 'The Spoilers of Mrs. Williams."

"Mrs. Williams? Who's she kidding?" The Doctor muttered, staring at it as River patiently held it out for him to take. Within was the story of Melody Malone, probably the draft that would be taken off to be published. He flipped past the words he'd already seen, the story already told until he got to the end.

"Well Raggedy Man, I am here and you are there. If I know my Doctor, he is sitting on a step plotting on how to change what is without hurting anyone. Rory and I have had a lot of years to think about that, and we both say 'Don't.'. I know its not the ending any of us would have chosen, it's without its goodbyes and hugs and tears, but maybe that's for the best. We all know you don't much like goodbyes.

"The Angels never really showed where they wanted us, whether it was here physically or just here in this time so we stuck it out in New York. A promise is a promise and all that. Don't think we just sat around though, that would be too boring. Rory worked as a nurse, ignoring all stupidity attached to a male nurse in this era, I made fashions like I almost knew what was next, raised kids and tried to stay out of trouble.

"Oh yes, children.. lots of them! It started with Rory, as it always does. He found a boy rummaging around in the trash for food and so, Rory told the boy (Daniel, by the way), that he was coming home to be fed. You'd think this feral child would think it some sort of trap, but he just fell in and we fed him.. and others. After all, not all Melodys can find their parents to raise to stay off the streets.

"I miss you terribly, but we do good here and that's what you taught me, do good wherever we go. Bloody Americans can't make custard worth anything either, and the less said about their idea of tea is probably for the best. You take care of my daughter, she pretends she's tough, but she needs you. You keep her out of what trouble you can and enjoy the trouble you can't.

"Its not the end. Not by half. So don't you go sulking in your box, you hear me?

"And clean the pool, Rory says he forgot to do it before we went on our picnic. Probably starting to stink a bit by now, the TARDIS does like to toss you in it at its worst and everything.

"I love you. Thank you.

"Amy Pond Williams and Rory."

The Doctor rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, River sitting beside him now, resting her head against him.

"I miss his stupid face." The Doctor said before wrapping his arm around his wife. "Still won't try the fish fingers and custard, will you?"

"I'm not her. I can't be her. But I can travel with you .. sometimes. Only so much insanity allowed in the blue for any length of time. And you won't be alone. Because I won't allow it and we Mrs Ponds always get our way."

"Yes, you do tend to do that." The Doctor said, closing his eyes to lean his cheek against the top of her head. No, he'd not be alone, never alone, he always had his memories and regrets to keep him company.