Work Text:
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Amelia Pond, and she lived in a tiny town outside Glasgow. Her parents had a house with a garden in the summer, and she had a dog, a big, fluffy dog, bigger than she was. But then her parents died, and people she didn’t know came and took her away. The neighbors took the dog and said they’d look after him, because Amelia’s aunt didn’t want a dog, and she was taking Amelia to live with her in England, in a town called Leadworth.
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Amelia Pond, and she lived in a horrid little English town called Leadworth, and dreamt of a town in Scotland, and her parents, and the garden, and her big, fluffy dog. She woke up crying in the night, the feeling of the dog’s fur in her hands and the memory of what it was like to have two parents who loved her in her heart. She heard the word homesick for the first time and knew exactly what it meant: that awful, heavy feeling she got in her stomach when she thought about the house in Scotland and knew she was never, ever going back.
Once upon a time, a mad, magic man in a blue box fell out of the sky and into Amelia’s garden, and he took her away with him, away from horrible Leadworth, and showed her the stars. The TARDIS was home, then, and even if she woke up sometimes missing her dog and her house and her parents, it wasn’t ever quite as horrible as it had been in Leadworth, because even if that was home, and she missed it, this was home, too, and it was good.
And then there was Jack.
Jack was sad, too. Amelia knew that without anyone telling her, because she wasn’t an idiot. Jack was sad like Amelia had been right after her parents died, but he didn’t cry about it. He just looked sad in a way that made Amelia want to hug him, especially since the Doctor didn’t always notice. Jack always looked surprised when Amelia hugged him, like it’d been a while since anyone had done that. She wasn’t sure that it helped much with his sadness. Not much had helped with hers. Still, she thought trying was usually better than not.
One night, not long after Jack had joined them on the TARDIS, Amelia woke from a dream. It wasn’t a nightmare about the crack in her wall and being left behind by the Doctor. It was one of the ones about her parents. She couldn’t remember what they looked like that well anymore, but sometimes, in dreams, she could smell her mum’s perfume or remember what it was like to rub her cheek against her dad’s coat.
She didn’t think she could get to sleep again right away, so she climbed out of bed and went to make a cup of tea in the kitchen. The Doctor said she could always come find him if she needed to, but right now she just wanted to be alone. She just wanted to remember her parents for a little while longer.
The kitchen wasn’t empty. Jack was there, sitting at the table in his pyjamas with a cup of tea in front of him. He wasn’t doing anything, just sitting and looking so sad that it made Amelia even sadder than she was. He didn’t look like he wanted company, and she didn’t either, really, so she backed up, thinking she could just get a glass of water from her bathroom. But she must’ve made a noise, because he looked up. “Hey there,” he said, his voice rough.
“Hi,” she said. There wasn’t much to do now except step inside the kitchen. The tile was cold against her bare feet, but as soon as she thought that it was suddenly warmer. “I was going to make some tea.”
“You’re in luck,” Jack said. “I made some already. Here.” He poured some into a mug, and she climbed up to sit in one of the other chairs. “What are you doing up?” he asked, rummaging around in a cupboard until he came up with a box of biscuits. He put some on a plate and set it on the table. Amelia didn’t really want biscuits, but she took one anyway. “Another nightmare?”
She shook her head. “Just a dream.”
“A good dream?” Jack asked.
She shrugged. “Just a dream,” she repeated. She didn’t really think the dreams about her parents were good, but they weren’t bad either. But Jack was still looking at her, like he expected her to say more. “It was about my parents,” she said at last.
“Ah,” Jack said. “I’m sorry.”
She shrugged again. “It was a long time ago. Four years.”
Jack’s lips twitched. “Four years isn’t so long. I lost people a lot longer ago than that, and I still dream about them.”
“Is that why you’re awake?” Amelia asked, curious. “Did you dream about them?”
Jack shook his head. “No, I had a nightmare. I like dreaming about them, though. It’s the only way I ever get to see them now.”
“I guess that’s true,” Amelia said. “It’s just . . . I don’t like the feeling I get when I remember what it was like back then. With the house and my dog and -” Her throat hurt. She sipped some tea to try and get rid of the pain, but that only seemed to make it worse. She blinked hard, but that didn’t seem to get rid of the tears in her eyes, either. “Sorry,” she mumbled, because it was stupid to feel homesick when she was already home. “I just, sometimes I want to go back there, but I can’t, because even if I did, my mum and dad wouldn’t be there, and the house isn’t home without them, and -”
“Shh, Amelia, shh.” Jack was suddenly there, gathering her up in his arms. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart. Her dad had called her that. The Doctor never did, he called her “Amelia Pond” or just “Amelia” or sometimes “the amazing Amelia.” But he never called her “sweetheart.” Amelia pressed her face against Jack’s chest.
“I know what it’s like,” Jack said, holding her tight. “To know you can’t go home again, or that going home again isn’t worth it. Home isn’t really a place, it’s people, and if those people are gone . . .”
“Yeah,” Amelia said. Her breath hitched, but she pushed away from Jack. “But this is home, too, so it’s silly for me to be so sad about a house in Scotland.”
Jack shook his head. “It’s not silly at all. You know I traveled with the Doctor before, right?” Amelia nodded. “That was a long time ago now, and I’ve lived a lot of other places since then. Some of them were home. But I always missed the TARDIS. And now I’m here again, but part of me misses those other places and the people I knew there. It’s just how life is, unless you stay in one place for all of it.”
“Hmm,” Amelia said. She leaned against Jack again, because he was warm and solid and she was suddenly really tired. “I guess I should just stay here, then. And you, too,” she added, because sometimes she got the feeling that Jack was thinking about leaving.
“If you say so,” Jack said, with a smile in his voice. “Ready to go back to bed?”
“Yup,” Amelia said, stifling a yawn. Though she was so comfortable here, leaning against Jack, that she thought she might just go to sleep. He insisted, though, prodding her off the chair and leading her out of the kitchen and back to her bedroom. She crawled into bed and he pulled the covers over her, tucking her in like her mum used to. It’d been a long time since anyone had done that. Aunt Sharon never had, she’d always told Amelia she was too old to be tucked in, and the Doctor didn’t, either, because he didn’t think of things like that. But Jack did. Amelia wondered if he’d ever been a dad. She almost asked him, but she was so sleepy. Maybe she’d ask him tomorrow . . .
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Amelia Pond, and she flew away with a mad, magic man in a blue box, leaving behind horrid little Leadworth and everything else. She and the mad, magic man met a man named Jack, who carried all the sadness of the world with him. He called Amelia “sweetheart” like her dad and tucked her in like her mum, and he knew what it was like to be homesick even though you were at home.
Once upon a time, the blue box landed in the garden of a house outside Glasgow. Amelia Pond leaned out of the door and called, “Marco!” A big, fluffy dog – though not bigger than her, not anymore - came bounding around the corner of the house and into the TARDIS. Amelia knelt down, buried her hands and face in the dog’s fur, and smiled, because it felt exactly like it always had in her dreams.
Fin.