It is written in the stars
Chapter 1
Earth Year 5152, University of _
"…and this holovid shows a typical early 21st century British adolescent group at a party. Note the then illegal consumption of various stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and the still changing sexual codes…"
Oh, mum and dad would so kill me if they knew I had used that cell cam video from that party… Professor River Song mused.
She remembered that party quite well, Amy, Rory and herself- then known as Mels, had just passed their 16 plus exams. Amy's results were an acceptable average, Rory had very high scores on some tests, just average on others, while she was top level across the board. The nicer instructors tried to reach her: said what brilliant mind she had, that she must go on to university after her A levels, which she did… but still, she was Mels then, hellbent on a course of destruction…swinging madly between the brainwashed programmed assassin and an innocent young girl full of romantic fantasies about the "raggedy doctor" of Amy's stories.
At 11 Mels was already declaring to Amy and Rory the man in the blue box would rescue her and marry her. At 16 she knew to keep her fantasies to herself, but they were still there, in her good dreams. But by that point they were shifting into a still innocent virginal girl's romantic sexual dreams…
"Professor Song, that one girl, she's just staring around like she's shocked. Were there still adolescents then that acted more like those mid twentieth century ones you showed us last class?"
Ah, the moment when Amy had taken the phone and turned it toward me, teasing me about the look on my face… "Yes, a minority by then, but a few. Some came from religious backgrounds where this kind of behavior was forbidden, while others just directed their sexual urges toward emotionally vivid, but naïve and vague inward fantasies. The later would have reacted like this girl is, with an innocent stunned expression. Note the lack of revulsion on her face, which would have pointed toward a repressive religious background. She's probably just shocked to see this happening in real life, with kids her own age. In her mind these are things she's heard grownups do, things she had only seen on video. It's rather probable she hadn't yet seen much of what was then called pornography. She dresses like she's 'streetwise' but it's a façade as far as sexuality and drug use goes." River laughed inwardly - I was so naïve!
This class, and the book she had just published- "Adolescent sexuality in Earth's 20th and early 21st century United Kingdom" was a secret tribute to her parents. She usually taught archeology, but after successfully selling the class topic to the anthropology department, she had been allowed to step into their department's domain. The university had to turn students away from the class after it closed as full almost immediately after it was posted.
River turned her back to the class to shut off the holovid when she heard from a distance that oh so familiar and welcome noise. He's finally coming to see me again! I was hurt and wondered why he hadn't after I became a professor. Then I was hired by Lux corporation to go along on their trip to The Library, and found out why. He knows now I survived, so it's safe to visit.
I wish I could have told him about the dream I had after our date to the Singing Towers, the dream that saved my life, but the Doctor who came to the Library wasn't him, and there was no time… and I was in no shape to go anywhere but back and forth from my classes for weeks afterward. Then when he never showed up after that I was afraid I'd lost him for good.
The next time I saw him was Manhattan. I had to let him know, but not my mother. It was enough, he figured it out. Things just went bad so fast after that though and we were both too much in shock to say anything more later. We just quietly stayed in the Tardis, then he dropped me off and left right away. Both of us still filled with pain and grief, neither quite able to cope with it yet, but at the point where we pretended we could. I, better than him. I hope he found a companion to travel with, someone who will keep his mind busy and draw him away from the darkness. I'm not as dark as him, but there's wild madness in me that is easy to fall into when I'm in the Tardis with him. He tempts to indulge my wild and mad side a bit too much.
But maybe I should have just left my words at "anywhere and anytime"… and stayed with him anyway. No, someone in this marriage needs to be the stable one, and who would have believed it back in Berlin, but it's me. Rory, I know I get that from you. I wish you and mum could see me now… I'll never leave him like the companions do, but I want to be the calm center for us, and I've discovered I can be. He needs it, and so do I, a real home, and all that comes with that.
I hope the Doctor parks the Tardis at my house, and remembers to make it invisible, since he's so determined to hide himself now. I wish he would have visited a week after he dropped me off from the awful Manhattan experience. I would have been able to tell him something that would have brought some joy back into his life, like it did mine.
Well, River chuckled softy, he'll see it now. Her hand caressed the large rounded belly of a very obvious late stage pregnancy. She'd believed she had been pregnant almost two and a half Earth years now. A nearly full time lord baby clearly took time to be born. She had only been part time lord and that pregnancy had taken a full Earth year for her poor mother.
River looked at her chronometer, approximately five Earth minutes left for this class. If the Doctor parks the Tardis in her yard, he'd be here in approximately two of those minutes. Best speed up things, so everything gets done before my husband becomes the center of attention.
Keeping her back to the door, she glances at her students, "Does anyone have questions? If not look at your screens and answer the quiz that should have uploaded."
River smirked at the groans. Yes, she gave "pop quizzes" frequently. She wanted to make sure her students were paying attention and learning. They always complained, but she also had the university record for most repeat students.
While the students quietly worked on the quiz, she shut down the classroom equipment. Her class was the last of the evening. She liked teaching night classes. She liked the pleasure and hint of atavistic fear that coursed through her on the walk home. How her younger self would sneer at that. Or maybe not. Mels remembered the horror of Greystark Hall far more sharply than she did now. Mels would have pretended that stream of fear wasn't there though. Professor River Song, mother to be, did not. It was a safe outlet for that mad thrill seeker she still was deep down.
"River!" came a happy cry behind her as the old fashioned door crashed open, banging against the wall.
Now there's a different type of thrill, she murmured, her back still turned to the door, and him.
"It's Professor Song at work, honey." She deadpanned. Glancing toward her students she motioned her head back toward the man literally bouncing on his feet in the doorway. "This is my husband, Mr. Song." She almost laughed aloud on the name. "We haven't seen each other in quite a while due to his frequent traveling. Now, finish the quiz before the class ends."
She knew he had playfully non-verbally mimicked her last sentence by the badly stifled laughter of her students. She just rolled her eyes and kept her back turned to her husband impatiently waiting in the doorway- slowing down the gathering of her class materials to a crawl. Just you wait, honey. As soon as the class ends I'm going to turn around. I can't wait to see your reaction. You haven't noticed yet, I can tell.
The bell on her chronometer sounded and all the students' quizzes, finished or not, instantly downloaded. A few frustrated students softly cursed in various planetary languages, quizzes unfinished. She'd be lenient this time, due to the distraction. But they'd find that out next class. After most of the students had left, a couple begged for merciful grading on the quiz as they headed for the door.
The Doctor drawled "Mercy? She's Professor River Song."
"Oh honey, those were new students, that was mean." River mock scolded, as she finally turned to face him.
The expressions that rapidly flew across his face were priceless, there was even arm flailing. Oh, she'd got him good this time. The few remaining students tittered as they walked past the happily stunned man in the doorway.