"Anthony Williams!" His father whispered as he walked in form a long night at work. "It's past midnight. What are you doing up?"
"Mom's in one of her moods." Tony whispered back and turned off the TV. It was then that they could hear the quiet whimpering coming from Amy's study.
Rory ran into the study and shut the door behind him. Tony stood as close as he could by the door and peeked through the tiny crack his father had left open. He knew it was rude to eavesdrop but he just had to know what was going on. He didn't want to be treated like a kid anymore. He was a whole 12 and a half years old and he was tired of his parents shielding him from whatever secrets they were hiding. He just knew there were things they weren't telling him.
Tony's mind raced with ideas about why their past was so mysterious. Perhaps his parents had seen too much during the war. They might be refugees with new identities or maybe secret spies. He loved to imagine they were a covert counterintelligence team for the allied forces during the war and they had so many valuable pieces of information that could take the government down, they just had to go into hiding.
He'd recently caught his mother dancing to The Atomic Mr. Basie record in a surprisingly provocative fashion while she did the dishes. Amy laughed when she noticed her son had been watching. "You know I wasn't always your old boring, dishwashing housewife." She sighed. "I used to be a bit of a performer in my day, a big hit at all the swingingest parties in town."
"A performer? Like Ann Miller?" Anthony asked surprised by the revelation.
Amy chuckled. "I wasn't nearly as talented but I did have some great costumes." She went back to her dishes, looking longingly out the window, as she often did.
Anthony pictured his mother in her younger days in sequin bodysuits and racy pin-up costumes and shivered a little at the thought with embarrassment. But it made him smile a bit to think that everyone was young once. He could tell how much she missed it sometimes, she'd just hit 50. A mid-life crisis loomed over her, a shadow of her former glory coming back to haunt her. That's how she saw herself but Tony always thought she was one of the toughest and strongest women he'd ever met. He was quite proud of his momma.
"Amy, what is it?" Rory whispered as he tried to make sense of his wife's tears.
"It was her. She was here, Rory." Amy stifled the urge to cry again. "River was here and I missed her."
"This is the book." Rory looked over the manuscript. "You're the one who had it published so he could read it."
"She wrote a note." Amy handed the paper to Rory. "It says we should write him a message, an afterwords. Something to show that we're ok."
"That's a good idea." Rory nodded. "I was thinking maybe I ought to do something similar for dad. Just have it sent to him soon after we last saw him so he knows we're safe in the past." Rory sighed in frustration. "Our life is such a damn mess, isn't it?"
"I miss it sometimes but I hope you know that I don't regret following you." Amy put her arms around her husband. "I get so lost in my own head sometimes I forget to tell you that I love you."
"I know" Rory smiled and gave his wife a soft kiss on her forehead. "You said The Doctor told you traveling in the Tardis back to New York would rip a hole in the universe after all the paradoxes we pulled. So River must have used the vortex manipulator."
Tony's head reeled as he tried to make sense of what he was hearing. It was all starting to click, his mother's stories really did have truth in them. Holes in the universe? Votex manipulators? Were his parents really from England? Were they even humans?
Suddenly afraid his parents might have alien supersonic hearing, he ran back to his room and hid under the covers. River seemed to be the name of the woman at the door. Was she also alien? If they were alien, how did they look so human? Were they wearing a disguise? Tony began to scare himself as he thought the worst of what might be happening.
"Anthony?" Rory called out to his son sounding a bit worried. He found Tony in his bedroom wrapped in blankets. "May I come in?" Rory smiled and sat beside him on the bed. "The woman you met today, she didn't say who she was?"
"Only that she was your friend from Leadworth." Tony peeked his head out from the mountain of covers. "Was she telling the truth?"
"Yeah, she was." Rory sighed. "It's all a very long story best left for another time. Just know Amy's going to be alright, you get some sleep."
"Dad, I want to know the truth. You're lying about something because you think I can't take it. But I can." Anthony slowly found the courage to let go of his blankets. "I'm going to be 13 in a few months, you know. I'm not a little kid anymore."
"You're right but this is something even most adults couldn't begin to understand. I hardly understand and I'm living it." Rory rolled his eyes.
"I heard you and mom talking about ripping the universe apart like you're from some other world on the other side of a black hole." Tony stood up from the bed to confront his father. "Just tell me the truth, I already know you're aliens so explain who Melody Malone is and why her manuscript is so important."
"I was worried about the day I'd have to explain all this, I was hoping I'd never have to." Rory bit his lip worried. "You are right, I've travel through outer space but I'm 100 percent human. Same goes for your mom. We're just time travelers, we're from Earth's future but we got stuck in the past." Rory looked at his son's stupefied expression. "I told you this would be hard to explain."