Estuary (Afternoon)

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Title: Estuary
Author: sarah531
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Mentions of domestic abuse
Characters: Melody, Amy, Rory, Tabitha, Augustus, Jack, a couple of OCs
A/N: Last minute title change- the original was The Family Gathering. I can’t decide which one I like the best. Also Livejournal wouldn’t let me post the whole thing, which is what I wanted, so here it is in parts.
Summary: Melody Pond grows up alongside her parents.

Afternoon

Leadworth, winter, 1998

After school one day in winter, Rory Cecil Williams made his way down the road leading to the old farm. After his father had moved in with Anna and his mother had gone to Italy the place had fallen into disrepair. The new owners had done their best, but the years had taken their toll, and now it was just a abandoned building, nothing like a home at all.

“Amelia,” Rory called.

“In here,” called an angry voice from inside the barn.

Rory went in. The place smelled like dust, and it was starting to rain. Amelia was sitting in the corner, on an old table, crying.

“Amelia-”

“Amy,” said Amy. “I’ve had enough of Amelia. He said it was a name from a fairytale.”

“It is,” said Rory nervously. “I mean…I like your name.”

“I want to be Amy.”

“Okay,” Rory said. “Amy.” He went to sit next to her on the table. She didn’t move away.

“I hate that you’ve gone to the big school,” she said, still angry.

“But you’re ten now, you’ll be there too next year.”

“And I hate that he’s gone,” she said, not listening to him. “Everyone leaves me. They say they’ll stay and they leave.”

“Amelia…I mean, Amy…”

“It’s not fair,” she said. “Everyone leaves! The Doctor left and he promised, and friends leave, and parents leave…”

“But your parents are here!”

For a very brief second, a flicker of confusion entered Amy’s eyes and then was gone. “I know! I mean like Mel’s parents! Where are they?”

“I don’t know.”

Silence fell.

“I just hate it,” Amy finally said. “Everyone thinks I made the Doctor up, but he happened. And no-one believes me, they think I’m crazy! Except you and Mels.”

Rory nodded worriedly.

“But if he was real, why would he do this?” Amy said, talking more than to herself than to him. “Just leave me like this. It’s like when your parents were going to go on holiday to Rome but they got a divorce instead. Sorry.”

“S’alright.”

“It’s like he promised me the universe and didn’t give it to me. Like he promised to be my friend and then he wasn’t.”

“I…I bet he’s still your friend.”

“He’s not coming back.” Amy suddenly said, with absolute certainty. She jumped off the table and faced Rory. “He could do anything. He could’ve done anything. He could’ve got Mel’s parents back, he could’ve stopped little kids being murdered, he could’ve stopped your parents divorcing…”

“He couldn’t,” Rory said, but Amy ploughed on regardless. “He could’ve gotten food to the people in Africa, and he could’ve stopped my Aunt Sharon having a mis…a miswhatever, and he could’ve stopped…everything! He could have stopped anything bad ever happening again. He could’ve given Mels her parents.”

Rory thought about it all, thought about it very hard.

“He couldn’t have stopped everything,” he said gently. “I mean…bad things will always happen, Amy, no-one can stop it. If Mel’s parents died a long time ago, he couldn’t bring them back.”

Amy just shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” she said. But it did.

*

Leadworth, summer, 1999

“Me and Rory are going to see the new Star Wars movie,” said Amy to Mels, as they did their hair in the toilets of Leadworth High. “Wanna come?”

“No,” Mels said. “You two oughta go alone.”

“It’s not a date.”

“Course not.”

“Rory’s like my…” She wanted to say the word brother, but somehow it wouldn’t come out. “My best friend.”

Mels just grinned.

“Wanna go outside and play Doctor?” Amy asked, but just as she spoke, Kate Hayler walked in. Her nails were blue this time, and so were those of her hangers-on, who trailed behind her like an encourtage. Amy stopped talking and folded her arms. Kate looked her up and down with a smirk.

“Did I hear the word Doctor, again? What Doctor is it, the imaginary one or the real one you gotta go to cos you’re mental?”

“Shut your ugly face,” Amy snapped.

“You’re like, eleven, and you still have an imaginary friend.”

“He’s not imaginary,” Mels said, and then, as Kate’s gaze turned to her, she added, “you bitch.”

Kate’s friends gave mock-gasps, and Kate just laughed.

“Yeah,” she said, “you’re not even worth it, Melody Zucker.”

“Get out of here,” Amy said. “You and your stupid friends.”

“Or what?” Kate asked. “You’ll call the Doctor?”

The door opened and Rory burst in. One of Kate’s friends let out a scream.

“Amy! Mels!” Rory said. “What’s going on?”

“Get out!” Kate yelled. “This is the girls.”

“You should get out’ve here then,” Amy said to Kate’s back, as Mels snickered. Kate approached Rory, and poked him hard with her nails. Rory flinched.

“You’re a bully,” he said nervously.

“Really,” said Kate.

“You’re always picking on Am-” Rory began, but was cut off as Amy hurled her handbag at the back of Kate’s head. Kate howled in rage and spun around, and Rory attempted to place himself between the girls-

“This is pathetic,” Kate spat, as Amy crossly elbowed Rory out of the way. “At least my parents didn’t leave me for better people, Rory, or ditch me in the street, Mels…”

Mels leapt at her. One of Kate’s friends tried to stop her mid jump, and they all sort of crashed into a pile on the floor. Kate screamed. Amy looked at them for a second, then joined the fray, grabbed Kate’s arm and bit it. Kate screamed once more, this time something obscene-

“What is going on?”

Miss Hadely, the PE teacher, stood in the door. She picked Amy up and set her down in the corner, untangled the other two-

“Fighting is unacceptable! And at your age! And Rory, what in the world are you doing here?”

“I came to help Amy,” Rory said, blushing bright red.

“Out! All of you!”

They trapised out.

“Kate, Mels, Amy, headmaster’s office, now. Rory…just go.”

Rory went.

*

Tabitha picked both the girls up from school when the day ended. She sighed as Amy opened the car door.

“Your headmaster called. Fighting, again, Amelia?”

“Amy!”

“Amelia. This is getting stupid. Was it that Kate again?”

“She was a bitch. She said Rory’s parents abandoned him and Mels’s ditched her.”

Tabitha seemed torn. “You’ve just got to ignore her.”

“But she’s such a horrible cow,” Mels cut in.

“Mels, you weren’t fighting too, were you?”

Mels looked down and muttered, “No.”

“You can’t go round saying things like that to people and not expect them to hit you,” Amy said. “Kate totally deserved it.”

The car pulled out of the school car park and joined the main road. Tabitha sighed.

“There are much easier ways of dealing with people.”

“The Doctor would have done it,” Mels said. “The Doctor would have fought.”

Amy looked at her. Wheels seemed to be turning in her mind. “Well…I dunno. He wouldn’t have hit her. But he’d have done something.”

“He should hit her.”

“Enough about the Doctor,” Tabitha said. “I don’t want any more of this, you hear me, Amy? And Mels, Mrs Angelo and the others aren’t going to be pleased.”

Mels and Amy separately sulked. The car passed Kate, walking down the road- Kate, her sister, and her parents.

“Why does she have parents and I don’t?” Mels said, pressing up against the window. “I wish it was the other way around.”

“Mels,” Tabitha said, “that’s not a very nice thing to say.”

Melody turned away from the window. The car drove on.