Work Text:
The doors slammed together with Amy on the far side, and Rory knew that scrabbling at the join wouldn't get him through, but he did it anyway.
He hadn't even realised that there were sliding doors in the TARDIS corridors. All these months living here, all the times he'd walked this way, and never a hint of a barrier. Perhaps they were fire doors, or some sort of anti-intruder device. Yeah, that would be ironic, seeing as it was the intruder using them against the rightful inhabitants. House must have found the doors while he was flexing his muscles in this new sort-of body...
House, who Rory had just encouraged to kill him in a slow but entertaining way. He looked round nervously.
To kill them in an entertaining way. Separating him from Amy was just the first step; more fun to torment them when they couldn't support each other.
So what could Rory do? He had no idea how to regain control of the TARDIS; he had to hope the Doctor was working on that from the outside. He needed to find Amy, but in the meantime the best thing he could think of was to try to distract House from her. Entertain him, somehow, put on a show. He hoped dubiously-embodied alien intelligences weren't good at multitasking.
He flung himself at the door again, pounding the metal with his fists, and screamed "Let me through, you bastard! Let me see my wife!"
House's smug voice thrummed through the walls. "Impatient, aren't you?"
"Impatient? Me? I waited two thousand years for that woman!"
"I've sometimes waited ten times that for something to eat."
"Well, don't blame me because you're no good at being pro-active!" No, no, don't encourage him to be pro-active.
"Who are you shouting at?" Amy, thank God! While Rory had been arguing she'd found a way through the TARDIS corridors. Round one to her, he thought proudly.
"House. I hoped I could... never mind, all that matters is you found me."
"Well, of course, I know the TARDIS much better than you do - I lived here for ages before you came on board."
"So what do we do?"
"Keep running!" She was already off, and he followed, but that moment's delay meant he was slightly behind, and before he could catch up another set of doors slammed shut with Rory on the wrong side.
"No, no, no, no, NO!" he yelled, battering the unyielding metal again.
"You're not a very quick learner, are you? You should have realised by now that that won't get you anywhere." House sounded even smugger.
"And you're not very original - we've already played the doors game, where's the fun in that?"
"I'm giving you a chance to learn." Oh, great, now he'd added patronising to his repertoire. For some reason, Rory kept thinking of Tony Blair, on a day when he wasn't pretending to be your mate.
"What am I supposed to learn? How to open sliding steel doors without a crack in them?"
"Your wife would know."
"Of course she would, she's clever." Rory glanced to both sides of the door in case he was being really stupid and there was an obvious control mechanism. But he didn't see anything, and no doubt House could have over-ridden it anyway. And Amy hadn't opened the doors, had she, she'd found another way through the maze.
He turned, and saw another opening halfway between the two doors that closed him in. Had that been there all along? But he didn't seem to have any other option, so he took it. Almost at once, he came to a junction - he supposed he should go right, as that would take him in roughly the direction Amy had been heading.
"Amy?" He couldn't see any harm in calling her name, as House clearly knew where they were already. He waited a moment, listening. "Amy?"
He heard a muffled scream, not right, but somewhere ahead, and at once he was running. "Amy!"
As he came to the next junction she cannoned into him.
"Doctor!"
"No, no, it's me." He caught her in his arms, but she was still straining to get away, so he let her lead him quickly back down the corridor. "Are you OK? What happened?"
"Someone grabbed me from behind - he had a knife - I managed to kick him and I broke free - "
"Are you hurt? Let me check you..." Her sleeve was slashed, but Rory was relieved to see there was only the slightest cut on her arm. Still, you never knew whether the blade might be infected. "We ought to get you to the medical room, if I can just find the way." Usually he could, but usually the TARDIS was co-operating, as if it knew where he wanted to be.
"Oh, for heaven's sake! They're trying to kill us, and you're worrying about scratches! Let me go!" She rushed away, and he did his best to keep close, but he was hardly surprised when the doors crashed across the corridor in his face.
"Totally unoriginal!" he yelled.
"I wouldn't say that," said House. "The stakes are getting higher. What will happen to your wife if you don't find her again soon?"
Rory slammed his fist into the wall. No, that was getting stupid - it hurt, and he needed to be at his best if he had to fight off an armed attacker. He wished he had his sword. Even in Venice he'd had a broomstick.
No point running until there was something to run to or from. He walked briskly back down the corridor and took a left turn at the next junction, just so that he could feel decisive. That didn't last very long. Try shouting again, that worked before. "Amy!" He waited, but there was no answer. He kept walking. "Amy!"
He heard a faint sound and quickened his pace. A whimpering sound... He turned the corner, and found her huddled on the floor. Her forehead was bleeding, and the awkward angle of her right arm suggested it was broken. She shrank away as he fell to his knees beside her.
"Amy, it's OK, I've got you. Let me see your arm..."
"Get away!" she whispered, warding him off with the left arm. "Fat lot of good you've been - you can't even keep up, never mind defend me when they attack, or think of a way out of here. If only I'd stayed with the Doctor, he'd have looked after me! It was fine when it was just him and me - I don't know why we ever let you come with us. I was sorry for you, or felt I owed you something, but all I really wanted was the Doctor..."
Rory stared at her for several seconds. "Oh, come off it," he muttered. He rose to his feet, and addressed himself to a random part of the ceiling. "You really expect me to believe this? Yes, I have doubted sometimes - doubted myself - her feelings - all that - but every time she's come through and proved me wrong. She's told me again and again it's me, not the Doctor, and I trust her.
"And even if she did prefer him, she wouldn't be like this. Amy's the bravest person I know - she wouldn't be whimpering in a corner blaming someone else, she'd be staggering on until her last breath, trying to fight back. Your version of her is pathetic!"
He looked down, and saw that there was no one huddled on the floor. "Round three to me," he said quietly. "You've nothing but illusions and mind games."
"Not bad," said House. "You can learn, after all. But it was a good game, wasn't it?"
"Now you're sounding like the Dream Lord," said Rory. "But that proves my point, because he pretended I was dead, and she..."
"I've more than dreams at my disposal. You don't think those doors are illusions, do you? The TARDIS is my house now, and you're just vermin creeping around in it."
"House..." murmured Rory. "I was wondering about that. It seemed a funny name for a junkyard of a planet. But now, all this manipulating people for your own amusement... don't tell me there were television signals coming through that Rift, too, and you've been playing Hugh Laurie all this time? I'm only surprised you called those patched up people Uncle and Auntie, instead of Foreman and Cameron, and..."
"CHASE!" hissed House, and Rory saw the tentacled creature they'd met earlier, its eyes glowing red as it glided swiftly towards him.
So he ran.