Part Nine

Riley had begged Emily to come with him to a local band's show at a café seven blocks east of their school that afternoon, so that was why Emily was stuck, bored, in this café. She rather disliked the band, but had gone along with it because it was important to Riley, and Riley was important to her.

Just by chance, Emily looked out the window errantly as she chewed on a hangnail and she was shocked to see Donna Temple walking past, looking very determined. "Riley," Emily hissed.

She nudged him a few times before he broke his concentration with the band. "What?" he asked.

"I just saw Donna Temple," she told him.

His expression changed from a relaxed position to one of determination. "Why are you still sitting?" he asked her as he stood, grabbed his coat, and then grabbed Emily's hand.

He left a few bills on the table as a tip and then dragged Emily out of the café. "Which direction?" he asked her.

"Left. She was going towards the school," Emily said.

Riley pulled Emily through the crowd and Emily was surprised when his fingers laced through her own. That was new. "Are you seeing her?" Riley asked.

"No," Emily said. "I'm now wondering if I actually saw her."

"I trust your judgment."

"Well, that might be your first mistake," Emily replied sheepishly.

"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it," Riley assured her as he kept leading her through the throngs of people.

It was strangely busy on a Tuesday afternoon in this part of town. There was nothing substantial going on, no special holiday or community event to note, but it was busy. Both Emily and Riley were scanning the area for someone who might fit Donna's description, but to no avail. "We might as well go back," Emily finally said, sounding defeated.

"Or, we could go talk to her," Riley said, turning to grin at her. "That's her, over there, isn't it?"

He pointed at a woman, who was, in fact, Donna. Emily's brow furrowed and she stared at him intently. "Yes… how?"

"You look exactly like her. Of course that's your mother. No question about it."

"Well…" Emily started before Riley pulled her towards Donna.

"Ms. Temple," Emily said as soon as she was close enough to talk to Donna. "Funny seeing you here."

"Emily!" Donna cried out, shocked that she'd found Emily so quickly.

It had only been two days since Donna set out looking for Emily, and now, here she was. "Um, how… how are you?" Emily replied awkwardly, not knowing what she'd say to Donna if she saw her again.

"I'm wonderful. Oh, and for future reference, it's not Temple anymore. Just Donna Noble. But for you, you can call me Donna. None of that Missus rubbish needed with me."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear about the… surname change. This is my friend Riley, by the way. Riley Bowen. He's… in my level," Emily explained.

Donna nodded politely to him, acknowledging his presence, but returned quickly to Emily, because she wasn't interested in talking to this skinny kid who looked as though this was the first time he'd ever held hands with a girl, because she'd noticed that Emily's knuckles were going white by how tightly he gripped her hand.

The three walked to a local park, where Donna and Emily sat down on a bench while Riley pursued an ice cream van he'd spied while they walked toward the park. Emily was watching Riley; Donna was watching Emily. "So," began Donna awkwardly, "how is the college search coming along?"

Emily snapped out of her trance of gazing at Riley and whipped her head around to look at Donna. "It's coming… I suppose."

"Why do you say that?"

"I got into Yale… but Dad will never let me go."

Donna's eyes widened. "Are you serious?" she whispered in surprise. "Yale?"

Emily nodded sadly. "Don't tell Riley though… he got in too, and if he knows I got in, I'll never hear the end of it."

Donna mimed zipping up her lips, locking the zip, and throwing the key away. "But still, that's remarkable!" Donna exclaimed.

Suddenly, a loud howling noise rang out from across the green. Turns out, they had heard Riley before they saw him. The noise that he had belted out was sort of along the lines of "AAAAHOHHREOHHHAHHH". When Emily and Donna caught sight of Riley, they saw that a dog was chasing after him, trying to get his ice cream.

Riley looked like he was running for his life. He was a tall, skinny kid with legs like a foal, long, disproportionate, and twiggy, so when he was running, he looked like all legs. The bellowing at the top of his lungs and the concerned looks he was throwing behind him every few leaps sent Emily and Donna into a fit of laughter. Though he had a rather distinguished and deep register as it was, he was still a teenager in the sense that his yelling had more cracks than a shattered mirror, making it nearly impossible for Donna and Emily not to laugh until they were crying.

The dog seemed to not want to break its chase, and Emily stood up. "I think he needs help," she told Donna, who was still recovering from the raucous laughing fit.

A few minutes later, Riley and Emily returned to the bench, with the ice cream still intact. "It was a huge dog!" Riley exclaimed. "It was nearly the size of a Rottweiler!"

"It was a Pomeranian. The worst it could have done was nipped at your ankles until you fell and it could take your ice cream," Emily replied in an exasperated tone.

"It was chasing me. Therefore, it was a threat," Riley replied solemnly.

Emily rolled her eyes and sighed as she sat down. "Are you okay?" Donna asked him.

He nodded as he started to eat his ice cream. "It was a big dog," he muttered to Emily.

"No, it wasn't," Emily replied in a sing-songy way.

Donna interjected before the two teenagers began bickering. "Emily…"

"Yeah?"

"I need your help."

Riley looked between Emily and Donna with interest. "Um… okay… with what?" Emily replied hesitantly.

Donna stuck her left palm out flat between the two teens. "I've never seen this before… but it just appeared a few days ago."

Emily looked down at the palm, examining the perfect line etched into Donna's creased palms. Riley looked from his direction, making a noise of interest. Emily glanced up at him. "What?" she asked him.

"That's not an accidental cut."

Donna made a noise of approval. "Exactly. So, if it's not an accidental cut, something I've never seen before, what is it?"

"But this looks healed over," Emily pointed out suddenly. "If it's at this stage, how have you never seen it?"

Donna held up her index finger, indicating that she needed a second. She pulled forth a small velvet box in which her wedding ring was in when Shaun presented it to her. "Watch this. Riley, I'll need your help for this."

She flipped open the top of the box, the little box making the creaking noise signature of boxes of this nature, and then plucked the ring out of the box. Emily was watching Donna, but gasped when the line went away completely. "No…" Emily whispered. "Dad did that with River one time…"

"What?" Donna and Riley asked in unison.

Emily's eyes widened. "Oh… I said that out loud, didn't I?" she asked. "Never mind."

Riley shook his head. "No… you don't get out of having to explain that."

"It's complicated."

"I doubt it."

"No… really, it is complicated."

"I'm sure I could handle it," Riley replied. "Besides… Donna needs your help, and you sound like you know something about this."

Of the very few things Emily could not stand about Riley, his uncanny ability to point out holes in Emily's arguments was one of the things that really got under her skin. He could debate like no one else Emily knew, and usually got his way because of this weird little gift he had. Sometimes, Emily was tempted to show Riley just how simple he could be sometimes by demonstrating exactly how much of the universe she understood, since she mostly pretended not to understand a great deal of what she understood quite well. Playing dumb was almost necessary for Emily to assimilate to human life, but when Riley started poking holes in Emily's arguments, she was very tempted to put him in his place.

"Don't touch the ring. Take it off, put it into the box, and get rid of the ring," Emily instructed Donna. "It's clearly hiding something."

"But what is it hiding?"

"I don't know, but the longer it's hidden, the less and less we know so we can find out more about it."