It had been a couple of weeks since Amy had learned from her daughter that the Doctor was actually still alive. She had been so relieved and happy to learn the truth. She had also been fairly cross with him for not letting her or Rory know. She hated that she had spent all this time thinking that her best friend was dead. Honestly, the next time she saw him she was tempted to slap him. That, or hug him (after all, she was still so glad that he was alive). Maybe she should do both. She hadn't quite decided yet.
Amy kept waiting for the Doctor to pop in, but he hadn't yet. She supposed he might be busy spending time with River. After all, they were newlyweds. Though, she had to wonder if it was a valid marriage when it had taken place in a different timeline? Honestly, time travel was so confusing. It still baffled her to have a daughter that was older than her (and who had grown up with her as her and Rory's best friend). Her family was weird, and complicated, but she was grateful all the same to have these amazing people in her life.
Little did she know, it was about to get even more weird and complicated.
It had been such a normal day. Amy was looking up jobs (she just got bored so easily), and Rory had just gotten home from a shift at the hospital. He was upstairs in their room changing out of his scrubs, while Amy lounged downstairs on the couch. She was startled when, suddenly, someone else appeared in the room.
At first she thought it was her daughter, since River tended to show up randomly with her vortex manipulator. Amy knew it sometimes was stressful for River to deal with versions of her parents who didn't know she was their daughter, so afterwards she often sought out older versions of them who did know her true identity. However, after looking up at the intruder, Amy quickly saw that it was not her daughter. This was a person she had never seen before in her life.
"Where's Grandpa? I think I might need some stitches," the stranger spoke, gesturing to her left arm, which had a long gash running down it. All Amy could think was "what?"
"Who are you?" Amy demanded while standing up from the couch. She looked at the stranger, who actually seemed a little young. She looked like she was a teenager, maybe around sixteen or seventeen. She was definitely too young to be talking so casually about such a large cut, in Amy's opinion.
"Oh shit. I'm way too early," the girl panicked, looking down at her wrist. Amy saw she was wearing a vortex manipulator, like River's. "Uh, forget I said anything. Forget I was even here."
"Wait!" Amy stepped forward quickly, reaching out for the girl. She grabbed her (non-wounded) right arm, and the girl froze. Up close, Amy could see that she had green eyes, eyes that Amy knew so well. And her hair… it was a dark brown, but the shape of it was one so familiar. It was wild and curly, and framed her face perfectly. Amy's heart started beating faster as her mind began to piece together all the clues. This was absolutely insane, but there was an explanation that made sense, or at least it did for someone who had lived the life that Amy had. "You're my granddaughter, aren't you?"
The girl looked so conflicted and unsure of how to answer. Amy could only imagine all the rules that the Doctor and River had probably told her about time travel. At this point, though, Amy honestly didn't care. She just wanted to learn as much as she could about this girl who most definitely had to be River's child.
"Amy? Who are you talking to?" Rory called out as he walked downstairs and into the room. He stopped and stared in confusion at the scene in front of him. "Uh, Amy? Why is there a strange teenage girl bleeding on our carpet?"
"She's our granddaughter, isn't that right?" Amy looked to the girl for confirmation. "Cat's out of the bag at this point, you know. Besides, we're not letting you go anywhere before we take care of that arm."
The brunette girl sighed, seemingly knowing that it was easier to give into Amy's stubbornness. "Okay, yes, I'm your granddaughter. I really, really shouldn't say anything more than that, though. If I accidentally tore a hole in space and time my parents would kill me."
"Ha! Neither one of them has any room to talk. Honestly, I think the Doctor makes up half the rules he spouts out. And your mother once destroyed time completely," the Scottish woman told her granddaughter.
"Wait. Hold on a minute. We have a granddaughter?" Rory always did take a second longer to get used to all the weird things that happened in their lives, bless his soul.
"Yeah, that's me. Hi, Grandpa," the girl waved at him. "You've already been a nurse for a few years at this point in time, right?"
The reminder that she needed medical attention seemed to snap Rory out of his confusion. "Yeah, I am. Come on, the first aid kit's in the bathroom. We always keep it stocked for when your mother shows up needing help. You're not following in her footsteps, are you? How old are you? How did you even get here? Are my daughter and the Doctor really just letting a teenager run around all of space and time?"
Rory questioned her as they all made their way to the bathroom. Amy had to admit, those were some good questions. However, she realized that neither of them had yet asked the most important question.
"Before you answer all of that, please. I need to know. What's your name?" Amy asked her granddaughter.
"Anything I tell you, you absolutely cannot tell my parents. They can't know that I exist until, well, I start existing," her granddaughter warned them. "But… my name is Raina Amelia Song."
Amy felt so surprised but flattered that her daughter and her best friend chose that middle name for their child. She decided that she wouldn't slap the Doctor after all, the next time she saw him. Instead he would be getting a hug, and so would her daughter.
"That's a beautiful name," Amy said to Raina, who smiled at the praise.
"I'm lucky to be named after someone so amazing," Raina said. Amy had a feeling that she would really like her granddaughter.
"Well, thank you," Amy responded with a pleased expression on her face.
The three of them went into the bathroom, and as Rory got out the supplies he needed, he reminded Raina of his earlier questions.
"I'm sixteen, and, well, my parents don't really know I left? Don't worry, they don't just let me run off doing anything I want. But I got bored, so I kind of stole a vortex manipulator," Raina admitted, looking slightly embarrassed.
"It's like Mels all over again," Rory muttered. "Won't your parents notice you're gone?"
"Weeeell, the plan was that I'll just go back to right after I left, and then they'd never know. Which might be a little harder than I thought, since this stupid thing is so unreliable," Raina complained, scowling at the vortex manipulator.
Rory began cleaning the cut on her arm, and she let out a hiss of pain, but otherwise didn't complain. She obviously got her mother's pain tolerance, since the Doctor probably would have been whining. He was so overdramatic like that.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Raina, your parents make rules for a reason. You're still a teenager, you shouldn't be going off on your own like this," Amy scolded her granddaughter. God, how messed up was her life? She was scolding a teenage granddaughter that she should be way too young to have, and who she had just met.
"Neither of my parents follow rules. Mum was probably worse at my age, and Dad stole a TARDIS and never stopped running after that," Raina pointed out.
"Yeah, but that really doesn't matter. They're trying to make sure you learn from everything they did," Rory told her, before switching back into nurse mode. "Okay, it doesn't look like this needs stitches, so I'll just bandage it for you."
"Huh, I guess it looked worse than it actually is. Cool, stitches are such a pain," Raina commented, apparently choosing to drop the topic of her misbehavior. Despite her nonchalant attitude, she actually seemed rather relieved that she didn't need stitches.
"Where did you even get one of those?" Amy asked, gesturing to the vortex manipulator. "Did you steal it from River?"
"No way, it'd be much too risky to steal from Mum. She'd be furious. I…borrowed it from a friend of Dad's. He's much more likely to forgive me if he notices I took it," her granddaughter explained.
"How did you get hurt?" Rory asked her. Even though he was still in shock about being a grandparent, he was already showing concern for Raina. Amy could relate to that feeling.
"Well, I went to a bar in the fifty-first century-"
"What were you doing at a bar? How'd you even get in?" Amy interrupted her. So maybe a part of her was a little impressed, because that's exactly the sort of thing she would've done at that age, but the part of her that was now a wise and mature adult didn't like the sound of this.
"It's the fifty-first century. Humans live alongside so many other species and everyone has their own rules and customs. Plenty of bars can't be bothered to keep track of them all," Raina explained. "And psychic paper always does the trick if anyone does try to ask my age."
"You don't look old enough to drink, though," Rory pointed out doubtfully.
"Well, I just say I'm only partly human, which is the truth. Not every species ages at the same rate, so I could easily be way older than I look. I mean, you've seen my dad. Doesn't look any older than thirty despite being over a thousand years old." Raina did make a fair point. That didn't mean that Amy had to like it though. Raina continued, "Anyway, I had a couple of drinks and then I went outside to get some air. It was super crowded in there, and I wasn't feeling it. Some dude followed me out and tried to take the vortex manipulator from me. I wasn't expecting him to have a knife."
Amy and Rory exchanged alarmed looks. From the sound of it, Raina was very lucky to have gotten off so lightly. This also sounded exactly like the kind of situations that River had gotten into back when she was Mels. Of all the things for Raina to inherit from her mother, it had to be the disregard for her own safety?
"Am I allowed to ground a grandchild that I just met?" Rory asked nobody in particular, seemingly just vocalizing his thoughts. Raina pouted at him.
"Nope, you're not, because you're going to mostly be dealing with baby-me and kid-me for the foreseeable future, and you can't ground me for something I haven't even done yet," Raina pointed out, looking far too pleased with herself.
"Fine, but once I see a version of your mum or dad from your current time, I'm telling on you," Rory warned her. Amy couldn't fault him for that.
"Aw, come on, I know you guys got into trouble at my age. Well, Mum and Grandma did, and you kind of just got pulled into it," Raina complained to Rory.
"Yeah, and it was all stupid. And you stealing a time-travel device to drink in a sketchy alien bar in the future is beyond stupid," Amy scolded her. "No more running off and getting yourself hurt."
Raina clearly wasn't happy with Amy laying down the law, but she also seemed oddly amused. "You know, considering you just met me, you're already acting exactly like the Grandma I know."
"Well, I might not know more than a handful of things about you yet, but you're my granddaughter. That's all I need to know to care about you, and that's why I want you to be safe," Amy said fiercely. There were so many things unspoken, the most prevalent being that she didn't want her granddaughter suffering as much as her daughter had. Raina clearly seemed to know Amy and Rory very well, and had already admitted that they'd get to see her as an infant and child. That gave Amy hope that her life was a lot happier than River's had been.
Raina took Amy by surprise by suddenly hugging her. But, well, what else was there for Amy to do but hug her back?
"Thanks, Grandma. And I'll be more careful," Raina promised after she pulled away. "I should probably go now."
"Do you have to leave already?" Amy honestly didn't want her to leave yet. Now that she knew she had a granddaughter, she never wanted to let her out of her sight.
"I can't risk staying too long," Raina said apologetically. "It's too risky at this point, since in your current timeline I haven't even been conceived yet. But you'll probably be seeing me again really soon? I'm sure you're getting closer to when you'll meet me as a baby."
Amy and Rory both smiled at that thought. They had only had moments with their daughter as a baby, but hopefully they would get a lot more time with their granddaughter.
"Try not to give your parents too much trouble, yeah?" Amy suggested with a smile.
"No promises." Raina grinned. She turned to Rory and said, "Thanks for patching me up!"
"Anytime," Rory said awkwardly. "Wait, no, not anytime, don't get hurt anymore."
Raina and Amy both laughed. "I'll do my best," Raina assured him as she gave him a hug. Rory seemed as surprised as Amy had been, but he hugged her back without hesitation. "Well, here's to hoping Mum and Dad won't notice I left. Bye, guys! Love you!"
She typed something into the vortex manipulator, and disappeared. Rory turned to Amy and asked, "Doesn't she realize her parents will notice her coming back with a bandage wrapped around her arm?"
"She's a teenager, and probably too clever for her own good. If she's anything like the Doctor, she probably sometimes misses the obvious," Amy pointed out, smiling fondly. She was looking forward to seeing more of her granddaughter. She wanted to see how much of the Doctor she had in her, and how much of River, as well as to see what parts were all Raina.
Not much earlier, Amy had been pondering on how complicated her family was. She and her husband often travelled through time. Her best friend was an alien, and the imaginary friend of her childhood. Her daughter was older than her, and had worn a few different faces. She had thought it couldn't get any more complex than that, but it had. However, now it was even more wonderful. She knew she would have to be very careful not to reveal anything to her daughter or the Doctor. She was sure, in time, she would be getting a visit from her daughter with an announcement of pregnancy. All she had to do was be patient, until she could see Raina again.
Author's Note: Here's my post for the month of May! I decided to revisit my Raina Song AU. Fun fact, this was actually the first fic I ever wrote for this AU but I just never quite finished it until now.
For Raina, this takes place between chapters 4 and 5 of Family Stories. For Amy and Rory, this takes place before Family Stories.
It was fun getting to write Raina at this age. For most of Family Stories she was a kid, and in the last chapter, as well as in my fic After Manhattan, she was 18. So it was definitely different getting to write her being more reckless and rebellious. I feel like after being sheltered a lot as a kid she definitely would've gone a little wild as a teen. Of course, she grows out of it. As much as anyone in her family can, anyway. She's always going to love adventure and be at least a little reckless!
Thanks to the wonderful Aviantei for beta-reading this! Despite not being in this fandom, she's still very willing to help me out and I appreciate it. 3
See you guys next month, where I'll most likely be uploading the next chapter of Defining Moments. Perhaps in July I'll revisit Raina and have something new for all of you!