dollsome

For the awesome

winninghearts, who wanted Amy and River and holidays!

start something - Doctor Who ; Amy & River ; post-s6 ; 540 words. River pays her parents a holiday visit.

River drops in on Christmas Eve looking slightly singed and very triumphant. Rory’s out doing some last-minute shopping for dinner tomorrow – they’re having all their parents over, playing the proper grownups of the family for the first time – and it’s just Amy and the Christmas classics station on Pandora at home. Until the doorbell rings, that is.

Amy pulls River inside, gets a hug and a face full of insuppressible hair, then pulls back and wipes a bit of soot from her (entirely mad) daughter’s cheek. “The Doctor, then?”

“No, no,” River says. “I can make my own fun.”

“And your own enemies,” Amy gathers. “With flamethrowers.”

“Those too,” River says, eyes sparkling.

“We were hoping you’d have a chance to drop in. Holidays, and all that.”

River smiles. “Me too.”

“In fact,” Amy adds, spinning on her heel and heading for the tree, “I’ve got something for you.”

“Ooh, goody,” River says, bouncing after her. For just a minute – just a second, really – Amy imagines the pitter-patter of smaller feet on the floor behind her. It sends a pang to her heart, but a quick, dulling pang. Nothing worth dwelling on. There are still footsteps right behind her; that’s the important thing.

Amy reaches into the branches and retrieves a few white folded paper angels. She lets one hang from her pointer finger, and holds the other out to River.

“My mum used to make them for me,” Amy explains, feeling absurdly nervous. “Every year. I loved it. When I was little, I thought nothing could be prettier. I mean, I know they’re really simple—”

“They’re beautiful,” River interrupts, firmly and earnestly, and takes the other angel.

“They are,” Amy agrees, smiling. “When she wasn’t there – when the crack took her and Dad – God, I missed her making them. And then there’s that whole other life where I never did have to miss it. I remember it and I don’t. It’s weird.” She shakes the feeling off, and laughs. “That’s life with the Doctor.”

“That’s life,” River says; it’s in that way she has, where she sounds far older and wiser than she should.

“Right,” Amy says after a moment. “Anyway. This morning, I tried my hand at it. I thought maybe we could – start a – I don’t know, a mother-daughter tradition or something. Is that stupid?”

“No,” River says, a bit teary. “No, that’s not stupid.”

“Good,” Amy says, and feels a little suspiciously bright-eyed herself. “Besides. We did meet the first time battling horrifying angel monsters. On my end, that is. So that’s a bit cute, isn’t it?”

“Oh, adorable,” River says, laughing.

“I thought so,” Amy says, and shakes her shoulders lightly along to Jingle Bell Rock.

By the time Rory comes home, Amy and River have each got a glass of eggnog in hand, and they’re dancing around the kitchen to Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.

“Look out,” River says, bopping past just long enough to give Rory a hello kiss on the cheek. “Mum’s got moves.”

Amy obligingly busts one.

“You Pond women,” Rory says, dropping the grocery bags onto the table, “are completely uncontrollable.”

“Smart boy,” Amy replies, and pulls him into their dance party. Rory is wise enough not to resist.