It was only a matter of time before River returned to 76 Totter's Lane. She always said that she'd give it another go with One. And Susan. She couldn't forget Susan. His connection with his companions notwithstanding, Susan was the last bit of family that he had. She was his flesh and blood.

Or rather the fruit of his loom. Ha! Gotta love a looming joke.

River did make a journey back to 1963 and Totter's Lane, but the cantankerous old grandfather wasn't the one she found. No this one was relatively younger though essentially older. Funny how he seemed to age in reverse. Vain much?

She recognised him as being the Doctor's seventh incarnation. That dreadful question mark jumper was a dead giveaway. Oh what she wouldn't give to get her hands on it…so she could throw it into the nearest supernova!

Another thing of note about Seven was that he was surprisingly Scottish. If only Amy knew, she would have been quite pleased. Or perhaps she'd have been properly put off. It was so hard to know what to expect when getting more than one Scot together in a room let alone stuffing them inside a trans-dimensional time machine.

At any rate, Seven did have one thing in particular that was comparable to One. A young girl was accompanying him in the TARDIS. Dorothy Gale McShane, better known as Ace.

Ace was a clever girl, particularly when it came to chemistry and explosives, but she had a violent streak as well. She was the only person that River knew of who had taken a baseball bat to a Dalek and lived to tell the tale. All in all, she was a girl after her own heart.

River checked her journal as she watched the two of them from inside the gate of the Coal Hill School. If he was here at this time that meant one thing, this was the instance when he would face off against warring factions of the Daleks over the Hand of Omega. The Doctor, of course, would come out on the other side of the conflict unscathed as he usually did.

Contrary to what his appearance would indicate, Seven was prone to Machiavellian machinations and, in this case, he succeeded in tricking Davros into destroying Skaro. Or perhaps it was Antalin. There were conflicting accounts of how the Shoreditch Incident impacted the Dalek Civil War. Nevertheless, regardless of which planet was destroyed, the Daleks, being the sneaky little blighters that they were, always managed to survive.

River had overshot her aim by landing on this day in time. One would have only vacated his scrapyard a few days prior. She could have just as easily stuck to her plan and went back for One, but she couldn't resist the urge to go toe to toe with Seven.

Seven sent Ace off to buy snacks. Apparently this version was one of the few to actually carry money. He hung around investigating a black van and a set of burn marks on the pavement in the schoolyard. A young blond girl watched him as he explored. Judith Winters was her name, River later learned. Perhaps it was a result of her experiences with the Silence, but River always took special interest in young children who became unwitting pawns in villainous schemes.

Seven greeted Judith in his typical jovial way, but the girl ran off. "She doesn't talk to strangers," he commented. "Very wise."

"Does that make you unwise?" River asked.

Seven looked in her direction. "Me, unwise?"

"That was the question," River said, moving into full view. "But here you are talking to me, a perfect stranger, so perhaps I have my answer."

"We're all strangers at one time or another," Seven commented.

"Some stranger than others," River added with a smile.

"What's your name?"

"I could ask you the same, but I already know it," River told him. "That young girl you were with called you Professor."

"Not a professor. A doctor."

"Doctor?" River questioned innocently. "Doctor who?"

Seven stood up straight. "I asked for your name."

"Yes." River nodded. "And I didn't give it." She took a step towards him. "It's unwise to tell my name to strange men in schoolyards looking at the burn marks on the pavement."

"A rose by any other name has its thorns," Seven quipped.

"You're mixing idioms," River told him. It was a habit typical of this version, though it lessened over the years. Still, she was never sure if he was genuinely confused when he did that or if it was his way of bamboozling those around him.

"Am I?"

"Yes, sweetie, you are," River reiterated.

"Sweetie?" Seven stared at her curiously. "Have we met before?"

"Could have done," River replied vaguely. "It's a great big world out there."

"There's something very…familiar…about you."

"Is there?" River beamed. "Then perhaps we have met. If not now, at a different time…or…in a different space."

"Space?" Seven latched onto the word.

"Place," River replied quickly. "Sorry, misspoke." Seven seemed even more curious, which was dangerous with most versions of the Doctor, but particularly so with this one. She needed an exit strategy and fast. Luckily, she had just the thing. "Those marks are fascinating, but I found something of interest over there." She gestured behind her as she fished a small canister from her pocket. "This."

"Hmm…and you say you found that over there?" Seven asked as he peered closely at the object.

"Mmhmm." River replied with a curt nod. "Let's have a look, shall we?" She took a deep breath and held it in before twisting the canister open and releasing a fine mist in his face.

Mnemosine recall-wipe vapour quickly became a key component of River's arsenal when dealing with earlier versions of the Doctor. It helped to be able to induce amnesia when she needed to make a hasty escape, as was the case now. With Seven temporarily distracted, she hid herself away and used the vortex manipulator to take herself back to Luna University.

If their brief interlude had taught her anything, it was that she'd need to stop haphazardly hopping through the Doctor's timeline and start to plan ahead. She was studying to be an archaeologist so she needed to behave like one. She wouldn't attend a Venusian funeral without being aware that it was customary to ingest a portion of the deceased brain and gained part of their memories. So why would she be random in her approach to the Doctor?

From that point, she'd treat him exactly as he was, the most interesting archaeological discovery she'd ever encounter.