Unrepentant | DOCTOR WHO [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

thirty seven | amy's choice

With a mere tilt of her head, Annabelle asked him, "Is it really hair, though? It looks more like a colossal mistake to me."

In response to her words, Rory only let out a sigh, while Annabelle simply smirked to herself before she walked after Amy and the Doctor with her head held high and her hands folded behind her back.

* * *

While Annabelle silently eyed her surroundings with narrowed eyes, the Doctor said, "Ah, Leadworth. Vibrant as ever."

In turn, Rory said to him, "It's Upper Leadworth, actually. We've gone slightly upmarket."

The Doctor asked them, "Where is everyone?"

Amy told him, "This is busy." After the Doctor had taken a quick glance back behind him, Amy said to him, "Okay, it's quiet. But it's really restful and-and healthy. Loads of people here live well into their nineties."

The Doctor replied, "Well, don't let that get you down."

Amy said to him, "It's not getting me down."

After the three of them had sat down onto a bench and Annabelle sat on a separate bench all on her own, the Doctor said, "Well, I wanted to see how you were and Annabelle said that she was growing tired of hearing me talk about how often I wanted to come back and visit you, so here we are. And you know me, I don't just abandon people when they leave the TARDIS." While Annabelle only quickly turned her head to look over at the Doctor with her veins on display and a bit of a scowl on her face, the Doctor said, "This Time Lord's for life. You don't get rid of your old pal, the Doctor, so easily."

Then the Doctor looked over at Annabelle and said to her, "And for the last time, Annabelle, I didn't abandon you. I always planned on coming back for you– just like I said the last thousand times that we've talked about this. Granted, it shouldn't have been six months after the fact, but at least I came back."

Annabelle replied, "I would've rather you didn't leave me on my own at all."

Shortly after the Doctor had only let out a sigh in response to her words, Amy glanced over at Annabelle and saw the fact that her veins were on display.

From what she could remember the Doctor telling her the day that she met Annabelle, one of the few reasons that Annabelle would have for her veins coming onto display was if she was angry about something.

And so– in an attempt to keep Annabelle from losing control of her anger and killing any of the people that lived in Upper Leadworth– she turned to the Doctor and asked him, "The two of you came here by mistake, didn't you?"

The Doctor replied, "Yeah, bit of a mistake. But look, what a result. Look at this bench. What a nice bench. What will they think of next?" After repeatedly looking between Amy and Rory, he said to Amy, "So. What do you do around here to stave off the... you know..."

At the same time that Amy said 'boredom', the Doctor said, "...self-harm?"

With a nod of his head, Rory told him, "We relax." After the Doctor had mouthed something to himself, Rory said, "We live. We listen to the birds."

In turn, Amy said, "Yeah, see? Birds, those are nice."

Then Rory said, "We didn't get a lot of time to listen to birdsong back in the TARDIS days, did we?"

Then the Doctor said, "Oh, blimey! My head's a bit, ooh... Uh, no, you're right, there wasn't a lot of time for birdsong back in the good old..."

It wasn't long after each of their heads had started to lower or drift to the side that Annabelle's own head had fallen back against the back of the bench with her eyes closed and her arms limply lying on either side of her body.