'Hey, what are you doing?' Amy leaned to the fence in the control room, looking down on the Doctor, who was mooning about the TARDIS downstairs.
'Oi there, sleepy-head!' he shouted up, and Amy lapsed in a smile and loped down on the stairs, sitting down at the end. She rested her chin in her palm, her elbow leaning on her knee.
'So, were are we up to today?'
'Where do you want to go?' he continued working.
'Oh, I don't know.' she leaned back on the stairs 'Let's go in an alien restaurant. I could eat a horse.'
'In the Caucasus horse is the best meal you can ask for.'
She blinked at him judgily.
'It's a figure of speech, old man.'
'Oh...' he made a mouth. 'Then I suggest a small Terraconian restaurant. The owner gives me extra meals all the time, I don't know why. He insists I helped him with some Falcarettans, but I don't remember. I suppose I forgot it – you forget a lot of things if you live for a thousand years.'
'You're not a thousand yet.' she curled her lips.
'I'm ninehundred and seventy-five, it's almost a thousand.'
'It's twenty-five years till that.'
'Twenty-five or a hundred, it doesn't matter after a while. Anyway, people just forget things sometimes...' he said it in a sad, pondering voice, and put his hand in his pocket, to check he still had that little red jewel-case. Amy watched him suspiciously, figuring his mood and moves. She pretended not to notice what he did. She jumped up with pretended cheer.
'Okay, so let's go and eat.' she clunched to the fence, and the Doctor blinked and came back to reality. He wiped his hand with a kerchief.
'Alright, Pond, but after I want to visit a place I haven't been for a long time.' he stood up.
'Ooo, a place where the Doctor wants to go – I'm thrilled. She flung her hair back and hurried up the stairs. The Doctor smiled at her childishness, and followed her up to the consol.
'The Terracon. Do you know why they call it so?' he asked her while he circled the consol, switching everything in the right mode.
'Nope.' she made a serious face, but it came out bizarr with her almost giggling lips.
'Because it is so similar to Earth. A lost spaceship visited it in the thirty-second century, and thought they arrived home. But when they landed, there weren't humans on the planet, just greenish humanoids with long tentacules and ommatophores. However, they were friendly enough and humans decided to stay there, and mix with the inhabitants. That's where the Terraconian species is from.'
'Oo, having sex with a tentacled alien... I had better dreams before.' she shivered and grimaced.
'Wait till you see a Monocan. They have nothing but tentacles.'
'I don't like tentacles...' she mused.
'Good, cause where we are going there wont be any tentacles!' the Doctor said loudly, pulling down the yellow arm, and then pulling it up again. The landing 'gong' was heard, and Amy frowned and crossed her arms.
'You said we're going to a restaurant on the Terracon. Terraconians have tentacles.'
'I'm sorry I've got a better plan. We're in space's Disneyland.' he wided his arm and shouted chirpily.
'There's no such thing.'
'Well, it is not a Disneyland, Disney never invested on alien planets, however I told him it would be a great buisness, but he only laughed at me and payed another whisky. I don't like whisky. It's too smoky.' he added whispering, and Amy smiled and shook her head – more on his unbelievable story than on his taste.
'So where are we?' she asked at last, and the Doctor pulled wided his arm again.
'Whereever we want to.' he said smiling, on his misterious-promicing voice. Amy frowned.
'How do you mean that? I want to be in a restaurant.'
'Did you dream about that restaurant?' he asked with a sly smile.
'What restaurant?' she casted her hair. She began to be annoyed by him.
'Where you want to be right now.' he goaded her.
'I don't know. I suppose I wanted to try a new restaurant.' she shrugged.
'Alright then. Began with me. I don't exactly dream, but my telepathic field is strong enough to set up my memories to the level of dreams. Let's see.' he stepped to the TARDIS door, and closed his eyes, and then opened them and looked at his companion grinning. 'The Terracon is await for us. Now c'mon!' he threw the door open, and sunshine irradiated the control room. Amy's breath skipped for a moment, but then she stepped forward to her old friend, and looked at him with an excited smile. When he nodded, she stepped outside on the light, and laughter and chatting striked her ears. She left the TARDIS back to her, and took other two steps out to the little terrace covered with tables and flowers on a hillside, which led down to the sea. The Doctor followed her and closed the door behind him. She stopped in the middle of the terrace, and spinned to look at him, grinning in disbelief.
'Welcome to the Golden Oleander, Miss. Sir.' a waiter stepped to them, and leant them to a free table. Amy nodded appreciately, and took a seat where the waiter squired them. The Doctor turned to him.
'Mr. Olivers is an old friend of mine – please tell him the Doctor is here.'
'Certainly, sir.' the waiter nodded, and left. Amy looked at the Doctor, and grinned like a child.
'I love it!' she told.
'I know.' he smiled back.
'So is it really the Terracon, or some projection? You told something about dreams and telepathy.' she frowned again.
'No, this is no projection. I was here before with... Urm...' he blushed.
'River?' she giggled. He cleaned his troath.
'Doesn't matter.' he blushed more deeply if it was possible. 'Now we are in my memory, and you play her role.'
'Ooo it means we will kiss and flirt and smooth?' she aked slyly.
'Yes. NO! No, Amelia Pond, you dirty mind!' he corrected himself abashed. 'It doesn't mean you are River Song, it means you are here in her place.'
'So this is a projection.'
'No. The restaurant is real, we are the projections.'
'Ooh.' she grasped it. 'But we are on Terracon, aren't we?' she quized him further.
'At the moment? No. We are on Terracon in the past, when I was here.'
'With River.' she smiled slyly.
'Yes. So what do you want to eat?' he buried himself in the card. But Amy wasn't the kind of giving up so easily.
'But if the restaurant is real, and you projected us back in time, and I'm River Song, then do I have her appearence in the eyes of the people? Not that I would complain...' she chewed over it. The Doctor put down the card annoyed.
'No, don't be silly. I didn't projected us back in time.' Well, that was not exactly what Amy expected, but she got used to his evasive answers.
'Then who did it?' she asked crunching an olive which she found in a bowl on the table.
'Not who, what. I told you: I brought you to the space Disneyland. Empire of dreams.'
'I've never thought as Disneyland was so dreamlike.' she shrugged.
'No? Poor old Walt... He wanted to make every child happy in his parks.'
'I was not a child like that.'
'Oh no, I remember.'
A puffy short mediterranean man neared their table from inside and throw his arms wide when he got a glipms of the time lord.
'Aahhahaa, bless you, Doctor! I thought I will never see you again after that tiny conflict about the bug under your table. How do you do, old friend?'
'Hello, Oscar, how do you do?' the Doctor stood up to greet him, and the puffy man hugged him to his chest.
'And who is this beautiful young lady with you, you womanizer?'
'What's a womanizer?' he blinked at Amy frowning confused. She covered her mouth for hiding her giggle, while the mediterranean stepped to her.
'Oscar Olivers, at your service, ma'am.'
'Amy Pond.' she gave him her hand, and the man gave a gentle kiss an it.
'What a fresh little woman you got yourself, Doctor, I tell you. Bless you both!' he wided his arms.
'She is my companion, Oscar.' the Doctor told him
'Ooh, I understand, fellow. Just a tiny adventure, eh?' the man leaned close to him.
'A bit more than a tiny.' Amy grimaced, and giggled at the man, while the Doctor rolled his eyes.
'Alright then, children, have a nice time. I made today an excellent pig roast. Of course it is no pig, they we all left at home on Earth, but some Terraconian winged rhino tasted much as good. Take your seat, sweethearts, and I'll bring you a mouthful from it.' he slapped the Doctor on the back, and turned to marsh back into the building. Amy giggled without noise.
'Oi, you.' the Doctor gave her a warning look, and she spread her hands.
'Womanizer?' she giggled on.
'I don't know what it means or why he said that...'
'Oh I think you know exactly how he ment.'
'River didn't tell me...'
'And neither will I.'
'Of course you wont.' the Doctor sighed. He regretted a bit he roped her into this memory of his – it was one of the first dates of his with River, and he felt it a bit soiled. Not that anything special have happened on that particular date, they chatted and laughed together, and River drank red wine and he coke, and then they walked down to the sea and watched the sunset over the waves. He didn't really touched her at all, it didn't feel right: she was so young, though she insested that he was young. He supposed she was right – at least, she'd met his older versions, but he hadn't met her younger versions so far. But she was young: compared him she was always young...
When they finished the meal, the Doctor said thank you to Olivers and leaned Amy back to the TARDIS, and stepped in, but didn't went to the consol.
'So, are you satisfied?' he asked Amy. She hummed.
'Yes, this restaurant of that friend of yours is amiable. And, I haven't seen a tentacle which I am very grateful for.'
'Good. But now, where I wanted to go.' he said, a bit more serious than Amy would've liked. Her cheer faded, and she frowned at him.
'Where?' She didn't like the plan as much as first time. The Doctor stepped closer to her, and looked deep into her eyes.
'Do you trust me, Amelia Pond?' he asked, and grabbed her hands.
'Yes.' she nodded, a bit less certain she wanted to.
'That's right, 'cause we are going to a place where I have no power to protect you at all.' he told, and took her face between his hands.
'Where are we going?' asked Amy, now panicking a bit.
'Close your eyes.' he told, and Amy obeyed, but was still more than nervous.
'Where?'
'Just open up your mind and let me in.'
'Why? Where are we going?!' she asked again, but she didn't know why, she did what he asked.
'To your childhood fantasy.' he told, and all at once space and time changed around them, and she felt time running through her veins for a moment, and then felt sunshine on her lids, and felt the Doctor letting her face go.
'Where are we?' she asked, too afraid to open up her eyes. The Doctor grinned and spinned around.
'Hah!'
'What's?!' she asked annoyed.
'Ledworth!'
'What?!' she cried, and opened her eyes. And there they were, in the park, when the sun turned to an Atraxi ship. She looked around, and found the crowd, like the day they were there together, saving the world. The Doctor seemed to be pretty happy.
'Why are we here?' she marshed to him.
'Oh, Ledworth! I could've guessed. Amy Pond, you're amazing!' he shouted, but it seemed the people didn't notice him.
'Yess, Ledworth, what then?' she hissed.
'Look at you!' he turned to her, and she looked down at her, and found herself wearing the policewoman-costume she used to have when working as a kissingrump.
'Are we in my memory now?' she asked more edgily she wanted.
'Well, in a memory which is more like a dream.' he poked her nose.
'I don't understand.' she said confused.
'Of course you don't! Humans remember their dreams less than they should; it's a safekeeping mechanism. It preserves things they saw or felt or noticed but didn't grabbed. But if they open up their minds dreams can be reality, more like memories. The Empire don't feed on your conscious mind, it likes your subconscious. You can't harvest your subcontious energy, because you don't know about it. Memories are played back from time to time, they contain less telepathic energy than dreams. If you have the ability, you can feed him some of your spare telepathic energy, and you can replay your memories. That's why they call the Empire the space Disneyland. Telepaths come here often to relive their memories, and it keeps him alive. Sometimes non-telepathic races came here too, if they want to know their subconscious, but not very often. It's because of the nightmares. The Empire doesn't choose between good and bad dreams – to be precise, it often choose the nightmare over any other dreams, because it is more depressed, it contains more energy than good dreams.'
'I understand why people avoid this place then.' Amy shrugged, and then frowned. 'But I don't understand why you wanted to come here so desperately, if not for the memory of River.' she wanted to provoke the Doctor, but he didn't get it, or just ignored it; but answered very differently as she liked him to.
'It's not me why we are here.' he shook his head. Amy frowned.
'Why did you want me to face my dreams?' she looked at him, now very seriously. There were things she didn't want to face in her subconscious.
The Doctor stepped to her, and then escorted her gaze through the park.
'Don't you see anything familiar?' he asked, searching her face as she watched her environment.
'I know everything here.' she answered annoyed, but felt something disturbing about the image.
'And don't you see anything, which you don't know?' he asked differently, however she felt he asked the complete opposite of his former question. She narrowed her eyes, and looked around the park again. Yes, there was something she could tell, some weird difference with her conscious mind.
'I don't know...' she told unfirm. The Doctor smiled encouraging.
'That's good. It means your mind know something you don't.' he goaded her. She tried to focus, but she couldn't.
'You know that the time is right, you just have to see that little difference.' he pushed her, but it made her annoyed and lost, and she shook her head.
'I don't know what you want me to see, but I don't. Please let's go.' she felt tears in her eyes, as her gaze passed to a man in scrub suit. She felt her cheek getting wet from the rolling drops. 'I don't want to stay here, Doctor.' He grabbed her hands and looked deep into her eyes.
'Amy, I promise you'll find what you are looking for, just believe in me and open up your mind.'
'I can't, Doctor. Please.' she cried silently, and the time lord sighed heavily.
'Alright, Pond.' he hugged her 'I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you.'
'You didn't, it's just...' she sniffled, burying her face in his tweed.
'I know.' he carressed her hair, and sighed. 'Close your eyes, and we will be back in the TARDIS.' She obeyed, and the Doctor gave a last glance to the shape of that nurse. I'm sorry, Rory, I've tried. But she is too hurt and too much in grief to remember to you. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. And he closed his eyes too, and they were back in the TARDIS. He gave a kiss on the ginger locks, and let the scottish go. She wiped her eyes and hugged herself as he climbed the stairs to the consol. He tiped in some coordinates and pulled the yellow arm, and then dropped his head and sighed.
'I'm sorry, Amy.' he said, and looked at the ginger girl still standing in the door. She forced herself smiling.
'You are not guilty, raggedy man.' she nodded, and started to the stairs. 'I'm sorry I got so irritated.'
'No, Amy, forget it.' the Doctor smiled back at her sadly, and straightened. 'Tomorrow I'll show you the oldest planet in the universe. There's a cliff, high and ancient, and something is written on it, what noone ever could read. Sounds good, eh?' he tried to cheer her up.
'Yeah.' she nodded, and got off towards the corridor. 'Good night, Doctor.' she added.
'Good night, Amelia.' he told, and added whispering 'And dream about Rory.'