The first time River pops by to visit Rory, she nearly scares the living daylights out of him. "Hello Rory." "Ah!" Rory shrieks, although later he swears it was a very manly cough. "River! Er... Hello." He says, his heart slowing down to a normal pace. He glances down and realizes he's in his pajamas. He gestures to the stairs. "I should go change, you wait here, I can wake Amy-" "No, Rory. I came to see you, like always." Her smile is full of nostalgic sadness and she starts to fiddle with her vortex manipulator. "I see I've come too early, so sorry to bother you. I'll just be going now." "Wait." Rory grabs her wrist, halting her flustered movements. "You don't have to leave." "When are we for you?" River asks cautiously. "The last time I saw you, you were Mels, and then things got confusing and I punched Hitler." River chuckles, sharp relief flooding her features. "What about you, River? You look troubled. When are we for you?" River's eyes flicker to the ground quickly, her shoulders shrugging in dismissive nonchalance. "I'm not troubled, I just haven't seen you in a while." Rory sees through her lie but decides to let it go. River used to be Mels and Rory always knew that when Mels didn't want to talk about something, she wouldn't. But sometimes, very rarely, he'd be able to coax things out of her, and he knows just how. He smiles at her, his baby girl, one of his best friends, and always such a mystery. "Want some hot cocoa and biscuits?"
Rory is eight and so very small for his age. School had been let out a while ago but he had stayed behind for his mathletes club. It's over now and Rory walks to the playground to wait for his dad who is supposed to pick him up. He is surprised to see Mels sitting on his favorite swing, she is frowning dejectedly at the twig she's twirling around in her fingers. "Hey!" He says, his voice squeaky and higher than he'd like it to be. "Hey." He tries again, his voice comically lowered. Mels looks up and scowls at him, rolling her eyes at his ridiculous tone. She ignores him as Rory walks closer. "What's wrong?" He asks, his childish concern and curiosity sincere. "Just go away." Mels growls at him. It's not the first time Rory has been alone with Mels but there's something different about today, her fiery spirit seems duller. Rory doesn't like it. As much as she teases him and pushes him around, Rory counts Mels to be his friend, and it distresses him to see her so upset. "Really, what's the matter?" Rory asks, trying again. Mels glares at him but doesn't say a word. Rory had actually expected her to punch him, but when the hit never came, he knew something was wrong. He sits next to her, but the only swing left is rather tall and Rory has quite the struggle to climb onto it. He jumps and pulls himself up with scrawny arms, it takes him several tries to make it, but when he accomplishes his impressive feat, Mels does not congratulate him on his victory. She doesn't even insult him, not one word escapes her sassy lips. Now he knows something is definitely wrong. Rory decides that if she's playing the quiet game, he's going to win. It shouldn't be too difficult, he's had loads of practice from playing with Amy. He stays silent, never pumping his feet to actually swing, he simply waits. He has to wait for quite a long time, Mels is stubbornly resolute to keep her mouth shut. After what seems like an eternity, she finally heaves a tremendous sigh and addresses Rory. "Leave!" She demands. "Not until you tell me what's wrong." Rory says. Their eyes lock into a staring contest and for once Rory is taller than Mels. He's glad for his tall swing, even if he doesn't know how he's going to get down. Mels stares up at him, she looks too tired for her age. She blinks first and Rory tries not to be too smug about this little victory. "I won." He says, almost in awe. "You did not." Mels scowls but he is too happy to be affected. "I did too, and now you have to answer the question." "We weren't even playing a game." "You're only saying that because you're too chicken to tell me what's wrong." "I am not a chicken!" She says, insulted. "Then tell me what's wrong." She groans in defeat. "There's nothing wrong, people are just stupid." Rory blinks, that wasn't really what he had been expecting. He realizes that she's still not saying what's really on her mind. "Who's stupid?" He asks. "Just people." Mels says, her hands thrown up in the air in frustration. "But who?" Rory persists, determined to find out who had annoyed his friend so much. "Everybody!" Mels shouts, fed up with his questions. "Me and Amy too?" Rory asks, trying his best not to sound hurt. "No, just everybody else." They don't talk for a little while, Rory stews over Mels words. He notices that they are the only kids left at the school playground, everyone else had already been picked up. "Did Jane forget to pick you up again?" He asks gently. If it's possible, Mels scowl deepens further. "I don't care. I don't need her, or Sam." "Of course you do, they're your parents." Rory says in his calm logic. Mels says nothing, Rory wonders if he's made a blunder. "They're not my parents, they're my fosterparents. I know my parents, they just-" Mels stops, looking off into the distance. She looks scared, but when Rory turns his head to see what she's staring at, nothing is there. "What were you looking at?" He asks, his neck craning to see what he's missed. "What? I wasn't looking at anything." "Yeah you were. You were talking about your parents and then you just stopped." Mels looks at him like he's mental. "No I wasn't." "You were just saying how Jane and Sam are stupid!" He says accusingly. "Well, they are. So?" Rory shakes his head, he opens his mouth to argue, but his dad beeps his car horn, signaling that he was there. "Do you want to come home with me? I'm sure Jane wouldn't mind, and you could call her at our house to make sure." Mels looks skeptical. "What would we even do?" "I don't know, whatever you'd like to do. We could watch tv, or read comics, or invite Amy over, whatever you want." "Amy has an appointment with a doctor." "Well then just you and me, it could still be fun." "I don't know.." "There's also hot cocoa and biscuits." "Fine." Rory smiles and jumps down from his swing, it's much too high of a jump and he ends up sprawled across the ground. It makes Mels giggle though, so Rory doesn't mind too much. He stands up and offer Mels a hand up. She stares at the offending appendage in contempt. "Come on." Rory says affably. "It's just a hand." She sighs but grabs his hand, letting him pull her up from her swing. "I'm just doing this for the cocoa and biscuits." She says. Rory just smiles.
Rory's twelve and still rather scrawny. His voice is starting to crack and he's a gangly mess of skinny limbs. His best friends are Mels and Amy and they get into quite a lot of trouble together. Of course, Mels gets into enough trouble on her own, whether with teachers or students alike. Rory is walking down the nearly empty school halls when he hears, "You all are a bunch of Neanderthals." It's Mels voice and Rory is already heaving a sigh at the fight coming in the near future. "What did you call me?" A boy's voice asks. It's John, the reigning bully of the school, who was the proud owner of little to no functioning brain cells and a gang of even more idiotic friends. "Are you deaf as well as dumb?" Mels asks, Rory squeezes his eyes shut in exasperation. John's hands clench and raise. "You little-" "Hey! Hey now, there's no need for fists!" Rory cries out, running to them, his palms out and his fingers splayed in a placating gesture. "We can get along, can't we Mels?" He asks her, his arm going around her shoulders to calm her. Her reply is a glare and a sharp elbow to his ribs. "Not if they refuse to stop being such rude half wits." She says, her voice sharp in its pointed anger. "I don't have to take this from a girl like you. Even with the wimp," John says, motioning to Rory, "you're still outnumbered. You can't beat us." "Can't I?" Mels says in her bold, bored indifference. John swings a fist and Mels easily dodges it, she punches his throat and he chokes for breath, falling to the ground in a second. His lackeys stare at him in horror and then up at Mels in fear. "Anybody else?" She asks, her arms crossed. The boys shake their heads mutely, pick up their still gasping leader, and run away. "You are sogoing to get detention." Rory groans. Mels smiles at him smugly. "I don't think so. Those boys could never admit being defeated by a girl, and the only other person who saw this was you. You aren't going to tell on me, are you?" She asks, her eyelashes fluttering in perfect innocence. Rory rolls his eyes. "Of course not. But Mels, you can't go around beating everybody up." Mels laughs. "Well I wasn't going to beat up everybody, just those who annoy me." Rory sighs, but his smile of amusement gives him away. "You still coming over?" He asks as he starts to walk away. "Are there still biscuits and cocoa?" She catches up to him, punching him lightly in the shoulder. "Ow. When will I stop having to bribe you to come over?" "When your food stops being so delicious." "Was that I compliment I just heard?" "Are there going to be biscuits and cocoa or not?" Yeah, there are." "Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Mels breaks into a sprint, hollering over her shoulder, "Beat you to the car!" "Mels! I'm not racing- wait up!"
"Why'd you do it?" Rory asks. He and Mels are lounging on the couch, reading comics together and munching contentedly on homemade biscuits. "Hmm?" Mels asks, fully engrossed in the glossy pages of the epic adventures and battles of Amazon Man. Rory is studying his friend, more focused on trying to figure her out than the drawn cartoons. "Why'd you pick a fight with John? I mean, yeah, he's a jerk, but you usually don't seem to care about his insults. So why'd you get upset now?" Rory asks quietly, trying to understand his enigma of a friend. He's never quite gotten the hang of her thought pattern, she would say whatever she felt like saying, regardless of the consequences, and yet sometimes she was more empathetic than anyone Rory had ever met. She was a brilliant student, she was one of the smartest people Rory knew, yet she would purposefully answer questions wrong, simply because she felt the textbooks had reigned in tyranny for long enough. It takes a while for Mels to answer Rory's question. She sets down her comic and sips her cocoa, an undefinable expression dancing across her features. "They weren't making fun of me, they were making fun of Angeline." She says, her voice dark with emotion. Rory winces, Angeline had medical issues and was confined to a wheel chair. She had also been given up for adoption when she was very young, her parents hadn't been able to take care of her. She was the sweetest girl in the entire class and smart as well, but nothing could save her from the whispered gossip and ignorant ridicule. "They were making fun of things she had no control over, as if she wanted all that crap to happen to her. As if it was her fault. I couldn't just stand there and listen to the sheer stupidity. Nobody wants bad things to happen to them, it just happens anyways. It's not like we've personally insulted the universe, the universe is indifferent." "They're idiots and totally deserved to be beaten up, but you could have simply told a teacher." Rory says, Mels scowls at the living room ceiling. "Teachers are adults, and adults believe the cruelty of adolescent's is just a 'phase' that we can grow out of. They believe they grew out of their prejudices and mean nature all on their own, they've forgotten someone taught them kindness, so they don't teach it to us either." Rory doesn't quite understand what Mels is trying to say so he says nothing. She jerks her head dismissively and goes back to her comic, pretending to be fascinated by the colored drawings of a chiseled man in a unitard. Her neck is bent and Rory catches a glimpse of purple skin. "Mels, did John actually manage to hit you?" He asks, his voice quivering with rage. "What? No, of course not. He can't even land a punch on a tree, much less me." Mels says with a snort. "Then how did you get that?" He says heatedly, pointing to the side of her neck. She looks down, barely seeing it, and her eyes widen in surprise. "Huh." "Huh?" Rory asks incredulously. "That's all you have to say? Mels, you couldn't have done this to yourself, someone must have done this to you. Who was it?" "No one." Rory's eyes harden. "Was it your foster parents?" "No! Jane and Sam can be forgetful, but they'd never hurt me!" "Well then who did?" "I don't know!" "Mels-" "Rory, I really don't know, I swear. Maybe I got smacked harder than I thought in football." Rory remembers that football game, Mels had gotten hit in the neck with the ball. "Ok." He concedes, still a bit suspicious. "But you'd tell me, right? Because you can, you can tell me anything." "I know, dad." She teases, Rory smiles. "Can I help it? You worry me." They go back to reading and start chatting about lighter topics. "You know, that was one wicked right hook. Who knew you could fight so well? I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Rory says, amused. "Oh Rory." Mels says, a mischievous, unfathomable glint in her eyes. "You have no idea."
Rory is sixteen now and as gangly as ever. People say he'll grow out of this awkward stage but he thinks he's always been awkward, now he's just tall and awkward. He's in love with Amy, but that's not a surprise either. She's feisty and funny and so very Scottish, falling in love with anybody else was never an option. Amy is so beautifully clueless to Rory's deep affection and hopeless devotion. In fact, she's tried to set him up with several girls, including Mels. "Absolutely not!" Rory and Mels say in unison. They're all hanging out in Rory's room and Amy is trying to make them see the reason in her relationship advice. "Come on, you two connect so well." "I steal his food and borrow his books, that doesn't make us a match, Amy." Mels says, horrified. "Yeah, we're friends, that's all it could ever be." Rory agrees hurriedly. "Fine. But you two deserve to be happy." "And we can't be happy single?" Mels asks, her eyebrows raising. Amy laughs and shoves her lightly. "That's not what I meant. Rory's so sweet and caring, he'd be the perfect boyfriend! And you-" "I'm already spoken for." Mels interrupts, Amy giggles. "Oh yeah, how could I forget? You want to marry my Raggedy Doctor." Mels smirks, her shoulders shrugging. "He's a funny, mad man with a blue, disappearing box. Sounds like my kind of guy." "So, not Rory?" Amy asks, her eyes gleaming with an unknown, unrecognized happiness. "Not Rory. Sorry, Rory." Rory smiles in his quiet understanding. "Don't worry, I'm practically your dad anyways." Mels laughs. "That is totallyit. You and Amy are my parents, you've bailed me out of jail enough times to have the qualifications." Rory and Amy laugh. Mels grins smugly, as though she had told a private joke that only she knew.
Amy eventually has to go home but Mels stays behind, idly flipping through the pages of Rory's old comics. "When are you going to tell her?" She asks. "When it's the right time." "And when is that?" "I don't know." She sighs. "You can't wait forever." "I can wait for as long as it takes." Rory expects Mels to get irritated, or fed up with his patience, but instead she smiles happily. "I'm glad to hear it. Rory and Amy, the most patient couple to ever walk the earth." Rory smiles and Mels can't help but smile back. "Don't think I've gone all soft on you." She says, punching him in the shoulder to prove her point. "I'm not a romantic." "You? A romantic?" Rory asks jokingly, rubbing his throbbing arm. "I'd never even dream of it, you'd kill me on the spot." "That's right." Mels nods in approval. She glances at her watch and groans. "I should probably go home. I was supposed to be home an hour ago." "What? Aren't you going to get in trouble?" Mels shakes her head. "If Jane hasn't called by now, she's already forgotten about my curfew. Besides, it's not like I actually follow curfews." "Your parents are awfully forgetful." "Yes, and it's definitelynot because they're old. It's because the house is cursed with silent, forgettable ghosts." "I'm serious, Mels. Doesn't it ever strike you as odd?" She shrugs nonchalantly, stands up, but doesn't head to the door. "Mels? Are you ok?" She blinks, as though he had pulled her from the depths of her own thoughts. "Hmm? Oh, yeah." She ducks her head and mumbles something unintelligible. "Could you say that again?" Rory asks. She huffs, squares her shoulders, and almost reaches his gaze. "I just don't feel like going home." She says quietly, as if confessing a shamed sin. "Oh. Well then don't." "But I should." Rory stares at Mels. She's biting her lip and looking, for once, unsure of herself. She looks ready to burst with a million trapped and repressed words, but she doesn't say a thing. So Rory does. He says the only thing he can, and unknowingly, the only thing she wants to hear. "Would you like some hot cocoa and biscuits?"
Rory and River are in the kitchen, reminiscing over memories long since past, all the while sipping hot cocoa and chewing biscuits noisily. Rory doesn't forget she is his daughter or his old friend, he can't, but the awkwardness that had enveloped their small talk slowly dissipates. She's River and different, but Rory can still see hints of Mels in River's sass. He enjoys talking to River, she's funny and her adventures with and without the Doctor are amusing. There's a lull in the conversation and laughter, Rory sees his chance to ask River the question that has played in the back of his mind since he discovered her identity. "Did you know the Silence were in your house in Leadworth?" River plucks a marshmallow from her mug and pops it into her mouth before answering. "I know it now, I didn't know it then. I had an inkling, a sneaking suspicion, but how can you be sure of something you're constantly forgetting?" "Do you remember what happened in your house?" Her eyes veil slightly, and Rory prays she won't shut him out. "Some things I remember, some things have a lingering sense dread, yet no memory. It's like a nightmare you can't remember, but you know you've dreamt." Rory nods, he sees the topic is starting to upset her. She's stoic and her face is impassive, but Rory can see how uncomfortable she is. "So, this means you've always known Amy and I would wind up together." He says, graciously changing the subject. River smirks, gratitude evident in her sparkling eyes. "Ah, father dear, spoilers."
They talk late into the night, chatting about work, prison, and books. All too soon, Rory yawns and River has to go. "You could always stay here for the night, Amy would love it." River smiles wistfully but shakes her head. "I can't stay, I'm sorry. But it's been lovely to see you." "It's been great to see you too, visit again soon." "I shall." She stands up and Rory stands with her. "This is going to sound weird, but... May I give you a hug?" River smiles, if she's surprised, she doesn't show it. "I would love it." Rory wraps his arms around her, he can feel her smiling over his shoulder. "What's got you so amused?" He asks as she pulls away from him. "You're acting like it's the last time you'll ever see me. I can assure you, it's not." "Isn't that spoilers?" Rory says, a bit miffed that he's getting so emotional. "Not exactly, not if helps you sleep at night." Rory laughs. "How is it you always know just what to say?" "I learned from the best." "The Doctor?" "No. You." "Me?" "Of course. A girl tends to listen to her father." At that, Rory hangs his head. "I haven't been a very good father." River hugs him again tightly. "Don't say that. You were the best father a girl could have ever asked for. Perhaps you just have to remember." She pecks him on the cheek and pushes a couple buttons on her vortex manipulator. "You'll see me again soon, Rory." "Goodbye River." "Not goodbye, just.. Until then."
River disappears in her customary flash and Rory slowly makes his way up the stairs and into bed. Amy is already asleep and immediately melts into Rory's frame, pushing and tugging at him until she's comfortable. Rory smiles down at her fondly, even in her sleep, she's soScottish. He yawns, already falling into the depths of unconsciousness. He closes his eyes and dreams, dreams of a baby, a little girl with fire in her eyes, and a proud, grown up woman. None of the faces look alike, but Rory loves all of them the same. The faces are his daughter, and he dreams of each one. He dreams of his and Amy's small family, and he remembers.