Part Seven

His name was Riley. He was a rather scrawny kid with messy brown hair, brown eyes, and a slight case of scoliosis, but he was cute nevertheless. Emily had met him in her Chemistry class at the international school she attended in London, and was instantly smitten. Granted, he'd never caught on, and had befriended her even though Emily was somewhat of the laughing stock of her level. Her peers all believed that she was someone to ignore, which is exactly what they did.

One afternoon, Riley and Emily were walking to his house to work on a project. Emily had managed to escape the Doctor for an afternoon, and was pleased to have done so. "Have you talked him into letting you come to America for university?" Riley asked her as they walked along the path.

"Of course not," Emily quipped. "Sometimes I honestly have no idea what's wrong with him."

"He's an adult," Riley replied with a laugh. "Either they're mental or have some idea of what they're talking about. But you can never tell which they are."

"I don't know… Dad's not usually this irrational. You know what he told me?"

"What's that?"

"He told me that my mum is in America."

"Even more the reason!"

"But I don't believe that."

Riley looked at Emily with a look of interest. "Why's that?"

"I think I've met my mum."

"Well, that's good."

"But... oh, I don't know. I don't think it's bad... but I'm not sure if it's overwhelmingly fantastic either. I mean, I think I know her, but I don't think she knows me. Dad was talking about how she wouldn't know me because she had to leave three days after I was born…" her voice faded away when she realized that she couldn't just tell Riley this story.

"She had to leave three days after you were born?"

"Well… sort of."

"How?"

"I'm not sure of the particulars."

"Did you ask?"

"Of course I asked. But you know Dad… he's just a bumble of babble."

Riley laughed again. "A bumble of babble? I don't think I've ever heard you personify your father without something ridiculous like that."

"Well, is he not?"

"He's certainly a bumble of babble… but still. That's weird. You think you've met her?"

"Yeah. I think her name is Donna."

"Donna… the woman you met in the café?"

"That's the one."

"Did you tell your father that?"

"Oh, goodness no… I get the impression that she's a sore subject with him."

"Can I meet her?"

"Why would you want to meet her?"

"Because I've got to meet the woman insane enough to procreate with your father."

"That's awkward."

"Not really."

"How do you figure?" Emily asked, stopping short to look at him.

Riley took a few more steps before realizing that she had stopped. "Oh, Emmy… you don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?"

"You've never known your mum… never knew what happened, never gotten a chance to have your mum wake you up on your birthday with bacon and eggs."

"I've had that though… River, remember?"

"But you said she was like your stepmother and she was kind of a rubbish mum."

"I've never said that!" Emily cried out in dismay. "I said she was rubbish when it came to making stroganoff."

"And French braiding, and painting nails, and making chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies."

"Well, yeah… she wasn't exactly the most feminine of women… she had her feminine wiles of course, but she was rather rough and tumble, a real go-getter."

"But the truth is, she wasn't your real mum."

"She was my mother for all intents and purposes, but I didn't look like her or come from her."

"Right. So, if Donna is your real mum, wouldn't you want to take advantage of that and get to know her?"

"Of course, but I'm concerned about Dad. The fact that he's hesitated bringing up Donna's name explicitly, from what I can recall, tells me something. That he's not ready to talk about her, if this is the first time she's come up in a while."

"Emmy, I hope she's your mum. Because it'd be nice to see that there's someone out there that you belong to."

"I already belong to a few people," Emily insisted.

"Not quite like that."

Emily almost slugged him in the face for that one. It just brought up that he didn't consider her his. All that, even though she was basically the only girl whom he had a close relationship with, and basically the only person who interacted with him because he interacted with her. But no matter… it wasn't worth the fight she knew it would take before he'd finally get that she adored him.

And maybe he could help her figure out exactly what was up with Donna Temple and how she played a role in Emily's life. He certainly was smart enough to figure out the secrets of the universe… maybe.