Amelia Williams loved her family very much. She loved her daughter, and her granddaughter, and even the Raggedy Man who had interweaved himself throughout her life. Sometimes, though, they really dragged on her nerves. This was one of those times.

"Mum!" River called from the living room. "I'm hungry!"

It was impressive, really, considering that Amy was on the top floor of her three-story house and River was on the bottom. It was like she was in the room next to her. She'd always had quite the pair of lungs of her. When she'd been a baby she had screamed the house down and that had never changed.

"Go make something to eat, then!" Amy shouted back down, not worried about whether she could hear her. Well, Melody had to get it from somewhere, didn't she?

"Aren't you going to make something?"

Amy turned to a picture of her husband that was hung on the hallway wall. It was a lovely picture of Rory, one that she loved seeing every morning when she came out of her bedroom and headed down for the day. He had been so handsome. "She's your daughter too, you know?" she reminded him. "Can't you have a word with her?"

The doorbell went downstairs, followed immediately by River calling up. "Mum! Someone's at the door!"

River was older than any of them, including herself, really knew. Why did she revert to being a child when she was home?

"You could answer it yourself!" Amy snapped on the way past. She opened the door and saw Danni on the other side, a large grin on her face. She should have expected her granddaughter to turn up at some point.

"Hi Gran!" she greeted happily. "I don't have my key; hope you don't mind."

Amy stepped out of the way to let her in. "As long as you've not lost it again," she replied. "I don't need any aliens trying to rob me."

"That only happened once," Danni defended. "Plus, I'm sure it's still in my cell. I just didn't grab it because I didn't think I would be coming today."

She went straight into the living room to where her mother was leisurely laying on one of the two couches, her legs over one arm. Amy followed as Danni mimicked her, laying on the other couch and chucking her legs over the arm as well. "What made you change your mind?"

"The Doctor," Danni replied. She looked over at River, who very obviously was trying not to react to her. "You've really pissed him off this time, mum."

"He'll get over it," she dismissed. "Plus, it's really gross, don't you think?"

"What is?" Amy asked, forcing River to move her legs so she could sit down as well. River did, but without making Amy feel like she was a teenager yet again.

"Mum changed some timeline or another," Danni explained. "He's not happy about it. He wanted me to lure you out to the TARDIS so he could make you fix it."

"Melody!" Amy snapped.

"Trust me, I made the whole universe better off for it," River replied. "If I'd given up Danni like he wanted me to, she would have grown up in a whole different universe. Who knows what could happen to her?"

"Really?" Amy asked, suddenly less angry at her daughter meddling in time. She looked to her granddaughter, who she loved so much, for clarification and she gave it in a form of a nod.

"Oh yeah, a whole load of stuff would have changed," she confirmed. "He wants to change it back. Like, super badly. I thought we could hang out for a bit as he slowly forgot what he wanted, then everything will go back to normal."

"Sounds like a plan to me," River agreed. "Mum was just about to make us something to eat. We could make a lunch date out of it."

"No, you were…" Amy started before deciding it was an argument that could wait five minutes. She looked at the two most important people in her life, lazing around like nothing was happening, when in fact they all knew that something rather huge was happening. She should have expected the slightly uncaring attitude from both of them, and yet it was a little surprising considering the scale of what her daughter had done. "If the Doctor thinks something is wrong, you should listen to him," she scolded both of them.

"He's not an expert on everything," Danni pointed out. "Once you told me his name didn't even mean anything, and it definitely didn't mean he knew what he was doing."

"I meant that on the small scale and you know it," she replied. "On the big stuff he comes through. Every time. You wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for him finding you again."

"But I am here, and I don't want to grow up in some strange universe," she replied simply.

"We should at least talk to him," Amy reasoned.

River and Danni looked at each other, silently communicating in a way that made them seem much more like sisters than it ever did mother and child.

"No."

Amy rolled her eyes, standing up. "Fine!" she snapped. "Don't come crying to me when this all blows up in your face. I'm not cleaning up another one of your messes."

She stormed out and River, ever aloof, picked up the remote for the television. "She'll calm down," she told Danni, who watched her leave with a concerned look on her face. "Movie?"

"You pick," Danni replied. "I'm gonna get a drink. Want one?"

~0~0~0~

Amy stormed into the kitchen and straight over to the oven, turning it on with more aggression that most ovens would ever see. She didn't care that she was just making something to eat because River had asked her to, in fact it didn't matter one bit. Apparently nothing she did, or said, mattered at all.

"You have left me with so much mess," she ranted to the picture of Rory that sat on the wall. In fact, it was a few pictures of Rory. She'd decorated the largest bare wall with photos of the entire family, stretching all three generations and two regenerations of the Doctor. She loved all of them, but she only ever talked to Rory. "You know it's bad when the Doctor is sending her to do his dirty work. The last thing he wanted was her running around after him. What if something bad happens and he's trying to stop it?"

She threw the freezer door but stopped before she grabbed what she wanted out of it. She had raised Danni like she was her daughter, not a granddaughter. Both she and Rory had been more than happy to take her in and raise her, and the thought of her being in some other universe hurt deeply. But so did the thought of what had actually happened to her. She had been taken by the Silence and tortured, abused, and used in ways that they probably would never truly know the extent of. Even now, after so many years, they still weren't sure if there would be any adverse side effects that had yet to come to the surface.

She slammed the freezer door shut, her motivation to cook the best damn meal she'd ever made quickly fading away. As she got older it was harder to keep the fury that used to make her a force to be reckoned with. Sometimes her emotions just felt heavy.

"I'm not sure what the freezer did to you, Gran, but one more slam like that and you'll need to get a new one."

Danni was stood in the door and just the sight of her made Amy smile softly. She adored her so much, and she should have known that she would have followed her in. She pretended to be like her mother, who of course Amy loved dearly but sometimes she wished Melody was a little more empathetic. Danni, though, could never fend off her concern for others for too long. She got that from her grandfather.

"We should talk to the Doctor," Amy told her again and Danni nodded.

"I know," she agreed softly. "He's really upset. She's really messed a lot of things up."

"Why, though?" Amy asked. "What could possibly have gotten into her head to do this? How did she even find out about what happened to you in some other time line?"

Danni pressed her lips together. She didn't really want to explain that it had nothing to do with saving her, but rather River Song's intense need to keep the Doctor in her life at all times. It was rather hurtful to know that she came secondary to the Time Lord, when she was supposed to be at the top her list. It was why she never really felt like she was her mother.

She stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. "In this other time line, I- I think Grandad's still alive," she offered, trying to make it sound like an offhanded comment, even as she swayed on the spot, nervous energy running through her.

Amy's immediate reaction was an overwhelming need to drag River out of the house and to the TARDIS, demanding that she fixed everything immediately. The pain of losing Rory had never gone away, and even just the thought of him still being alive brought tears to her eyes.

But she looked at Danni, who apparently was so integral in all of these events, and a hundred memories with her hit her like a wave. Of her first step, and her first day at school. Rory helping her ride a bike for the first time, and that time she had found a good month's worth of homework hidden underneath the sofas in the living room. All those moments would be gone in a flash, and she had a feeling she wouldn't remember them either.

She walked over to the blonde, cupping her face with both hands. "Your grandfather would not want you sacrificing yourself to save him," she said gently.

"But it's my fault. If could save him…"

"None of this is your fault," Amy cut in. It was a conversation they'd all had countless times, a guilt that Danni had always carried with her despite the efforts of her family. "You didn't kill him. You didn't ask to be taken. You are not at fault for simply existing, Danni. He loved you so much and he would never, for one moment, want you to think that he'd give any of it away. But if the Doctor says there is something wrong, we have to believe there is."

Danni looked up at her with shining eyes. "I don't want to lose my memories of being here," she whispered. "I don't want to lose you as my mum."

Amy was surprised at how hard those words hit her and instantly pulled her in for a hug. "You never will," she promised. "No matter what."

"I suppose I didn't do a good job explaining what was happening," another Scottish voice said from behind them. Danni immediately pulled away from Amy, wiping her eyes so she didn't seem like she was crying.

The Doctor had come in through the back door. He'd known from the moment Danni had left his side that she wasn't going to help him fix the time lines, so he had he come to do it himself. However, he'd stepped in on the two having a moment and kept himself back. He saw the pictures on the wall of a happy family, of his wife when she was a little ginger kid. He saw Amy and Rory, both proud parents. He saw how happy Danni was with her life and that made him wonder, for just a moment, whether fixing it was a good idea after all. Maybe he could let her go and be happy with River.

But there was a reason Rory's pictures stopped when she was a teenager, and there was a reason why she was in Stormcage and not travelling the universe in a TARDIS and he couldn't leave it like that. He just couldn't bring himself to lose her.

"Melody says that if she fixes the time lines Danni would be given away," Amy stated, taking control of the situation. "Is that true?"

He nodded solemnly. "We take her to another universe, where she can grow up safe and away from the Silence. She'll never get taken, but she won't know about us." He nodded to the picture. "And she is right; the Roman wouldn't die the way he did. He'd live a long and happy life with you."

Amy pointed a finger at him. "Don't use Rory as a bargaining chip," she warned. "It's not fair."

"None of this is fair, Pond," he snapped back. "But it's the way it's supposed to be. Time lines on this scale aren't supposed to be messed with, we have to fix it before the universe collapses on itself."

"And this has nothing to do with the fact that you're married to me instead of my mum?" Danni cut in, stepped forward. She'd spent most of her life with people talking about her, rather than to her. She had been fine with her grandmother fighting with the Doctor, but listening to him lie to her had made her rather angry.

"Wait, what?" Amy asked.

"Of course it does," the Doctor retorted, ignoring Amy's surprise. He'd explained it enough, he didn't have time to argue. "Her life was hard, our lives were hard, but we made it better. We made each other better. There is nothing I wouldn't do for her."

"How is damning me to a 'hard' life better than what it is now?" she countered. "How are you doing your Danni any favours by making me disappear?! This is my life; this is my home! Grandad dying is my tragedy, Koschei was my heartbreak. Why does she deserve to live more than me?"

He growled; hands clenched at his side. River was going to win, and no one was going to remember how it should be except for him. He was going to lose his wife, and their life, to River's plan. And the worse thing of all was, eventually, he was going to forget too. The time line would fix itself and his old life would just become a strange feeling. Like a dream he couldn't quite remember.

"I don't want to forget who I am," she told him. "I don't know who she is, all I know is that she isn't me!"

"Your memories are so important to you?" he asked and she nodded. "Fine!"

Before she could react, he reached out and grabbed both sides of her head. He brought his forehead to hers. Unlike Craig, he didn't headbutt her, but he flooded her with everything he knew. How he'd first met Danni, all of the lives she had saved. How she helped him grow, and how he'd shown her the universe. How he'd loved her so completely and how he knew she'd loved him back in return.

She was stunned by the influx of memories for a moment before she struggled out of his grasp. "What the hell was that?" she shouted at him.

"I can't share her memories, but I can show you mine," he replied. "There is nothing I wouldn't do for you, Danni. There is no universe without you, it crumbles to dust and darkness. It's black and white and I can't sit back and let you make that decision without knowing what your choice means."

"Why is it my choice?" she countered. "She's the one who changed everything, not me!"

"Because you are the only one who can get her to change it back," he replied. "She'll listen to you. Please, Danni…"

"I am NOT your Danni!" she said, taking a step back from him. "But River's your wife! You love her so much, why would you want to change that?!"

"Do I?" he countered. "Maybe you should look at what I showed you before you make any assumptions about me."

"Fine!" she snapped. She closed her eyes. "It's not going to change anything."

She took a deep breath, calming herself, before she started diving into everything that he showed her. There was anger, and pain, as she watched herself jump to and from him over and over again. She saw hundreds of years with his Eleventh body, in one small town. She watched herself – the body she was now – chuck a wedding ring at him and storm out of the TARDIS. She watched him float in the time vortex, with no hope, lost. She couldn't leave as she stared at him, sat on the floor, taking in every detail of what he felt. She came to a very quick, very stark and very real realisation as he started running harder than she'd ever seen him run before away from the feeling of being alone.

"Is this a good idea?" Amy asked her oldest friend. "Really?"

He nodded. "This isn't how time is supposed to be," he promised her. "It's stable for now, but I don't know what will happen if it changes."

"And-And she'll be happy?" she asked, unsurely and he nodded.

"I can promise you that, Pond. Everyone, in time, will be very happy."

They both watched as she swam through a lifetime of information in moments, before her eyes slowly opened again. She swallowed heavily and met his gaze. "You said the universe would crumble to dust and darkness," she said quietly. "You didn't mean the whole universe, did you?" She looked at her hands, which she had started worrying. "All your memories were black and white," she whispered. "Without her, your universe died."

He didn't reply, but he didn't need to. Her own thoughts were going through her head as she barrelled towards the conclusion that he wanted to her. Yes, he had influenced her slightly, but he also knew that she was clever enough to realise his plan. The very idea of not only losing her to River, but also losing the mere memory of her was worth every backhanded, devious plan he could think of.

Danni, on the other hand, was in a turmoil of emotions that came not only from him, but from herself. It was hard to deny that he loved her completely, and she knew from her own actions that she had seen that she loved him too. It was such a strange thought, and just a little uncomfortable, to think that she was in love with her own stepfather. But there it was. Playing out in her head, mushing up with her own memories and contorting everything she knew. She knew that her grandparents both had two sets of memories from different periods in their lives. Was this what it felt like?

"Um, when-when she went to see her younger self, she told her not to give me up," she told him, much to Amy's surprise.

"Danni, wait," she cut in. "Do we really think this is the best idea? Our lives, all our lives, will be completely rewritten."

"No, they're being reverted," she replied. "She told her not to give me up so that she could keep you. Going back and convincing her that giving me up will have the same effect is what fixes everything."

"How do you know that?" he asked, a little suspicious. She had very quickly relinquished that piece of information. He wasn't quite sure if he trusted this Danni as much as his own, after all she had much more of River's influence in this universe.

"Because she told me the story when I was a kid. About how she had almost been forced to give me up but didn't. That's what you need to do. Convince her that it's how she wins you, then everything will be back to normal."

The Doctor didn't want to leave her behind. It felt like he was abandoning her. But he also knew that she wouldn't come with him and he didn't have time to argue. "Thank you," he offered before dashing out of the door.

Amy turned to her granddaughter. "Why did you do that?" she asked, panicking at the thought that she had just sent the Doctor to erase them all.

"Because I lived on the TARDIS," she explained. "Mum never did, because they can't actually get along for too long. But we did. He wasn't alone, Gran. He's been the best stepfather, it's the least I can do." Her nose scrunched up. "No matter how weird it feels to even think that. It's so gross."

Amy chuckled and pulled her in for a hug, holding onto her tightly. "Your hearts are much too big. You get that from Rory, you know?"

"I know," Danni boasted. She pulled away and took a deep breath. Any moment now they were going to blink out of existence and they both knew it. "How about we make… What time of the day is it?" She looked at the clock on the wall. "Lunch. Let's make lunch."