River wants to find her wife, Romana wants to find home and Sarah Jane gets pulled into it all when she is asked to find an entire planet. Unfortunately, they are all time-travellers. And when time is not linear, things can get confusing.

Right. Well. This story was, originally, planned as a slightly elaborate OS that got out of hand (as per usual, why am I even surprised?). The working title I saved it under and constantly used when I talked about it was 'the timey-wimey story', which I guess, summs it pretty well. I can't really say much more because, you know, spoilers.
But, alas, I can tell you that because of the timey-wimey-ness of it all, I did write the entire story before posting any of it, so there will be weekly updates.

Obviously, I don't own any of the characters, they belong to the Beeb and I'm just borrowing them to play for a little while.

A big, big thank you goes out to my wonderful beta readers, BookAndCatLady and noellefray!

'I drop you Ponds off with your daughter for the afternoon and pick you up again after dinner,' the Doctor dutifully repeated Amy's instructions. Both she and Rory nodded.

'Yep. And don't be late again, River's got class in the morning, so we can't stay over!'

'Yes, yes, leave the nagging to the wife,' he grinned and pulled another leaver. With a jolt, the TARDIS' started wrooping - they'd landed.

'Bye, raggedy man!' Amy called and then followed Rory outside with a smile on her face. It was nice to know that the air between them had been fully cleared and though she wasn't exactly sure what River had known about their almost-divorce, it felt right to let her know things were fine again. She was, after all, still their daughter, even if she was currently living 3000 years in the future and was older than her parents together.

Still smiling, they rang the doorbell and waited. Nothing. Rory rang again - they were fairly certain that they had called ahead for this visit to make sure River was actually in, but perhaps the Doctor had dropped them off at the wrong day again. Just when Amy, impatient as ever, reached over to ring once more, the door flew open.

'Yes - oh.'

'I take it you didn't expect us to drop by for tea?' Rory half asked, already cursing his son-in-law for his inability to be on time. Next to him, his wife seemed to have come to the same conclusion - the look of horrified, startled delight on their daughter's face was, after all, a dead giveaway.

'Certainly not,' River said, finally having got a hold of herself again. Smiling, she stepped aside to let them inside and lead them towards the kitchen. 'I should have, really.' She threw them a look over her shoulder and immediately began to busy herself with the kettle. 'You said you came to see a future me, I just never thought it'd be this far in the future.'

'What do you mean?' Amy wanted to know, clearly not quite sure what to make of her daughter right then. Not that Rory blamed her, there was something different about her that he was certain hadn't been there before. Not quite like that. Always observant and perceptive, it only took a moment before it hit him. Watching his daughter as she was preparing their tea had it dawn on him.

In all the time he had known River, she had never changed. Of course, he hadn't actually known her all that well during their first few encounters - from his point of view, and when she actually was River, not Melody or Mels - but it felt safe to say that this River had changed tremendously. It did take Rory a moment to pinpoint what exactly it was that felt different, but when she turned to smile at them, it clicked.

Her eyes. Every time he had seen her before, River's eyes had been guarded, sad, desperate to hide her greatest fear - the first secret she had ever told him as River. But now that fear was gone - she must have met a Doctor who didn't know her and worked through it with him. Whatever the reason, Rory instinctively knew that this version of his daughter was much older and wiser than any her they had met before. It was the way she moved, lighter than ever, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and there was a wisdom in her smile that he had only ever seen in the Doctor before.

'Well.' River placed their mugs in front of them, pulling Rory from his musings. She glanced at him as if she had known he had just been far away, then placed a plate with biscuits between them and finally settled on her own chair before answering Amy's question. 'In linear fashion, that husband of mine dropped you off, what, maybe two decades late? Not too long, in the grand scheme of things.'

'Twenty years isn't long?' Amy interrupted, incredulous, but River just shrugged.

'Not when you take the greater picture into account, no.' For a moment, she looked thoughtful, then she nodded. 'You know time isn't linear. My timeline certainly isn't. The twenty something years you're late in linear time on Luna - I've lived a lot longer in other places across time and space. Hundreds of years. The last twenty years here, they seem both longer and shorter.'

'Hundreds of years?' At that, both Amy and Rory blinked. It was one thing to know your child was a part-alien with an accelerated lifespan, but it was something completely different to hear it so nonchalantly. River nodded.

'Yes. I'm still younger than the Doctor, but...the last time you saw me, I've been barely two hundred. I'm nearing a thousand now.'

'Almost one thousand years?' It seemed that Amy couldn't help repeating her daughter's words, too caught in her disbelief of what she was saying. And who could blame her, it was a lot to take in and River seemed to be well aware of it because she gave her a warm smile and a nod.

'Indeed. I told you - twenty years isn't a terribly long time to wait for you.'

'So...what happened? Since you last saw us,' Rory quickly added, not quite sure if he even wanted to know. 'If you can tell us, without, you know, Spoilers?'

At that, River chuckled. 'Now that is a word I haven't heard in a long time. Or used, mind you. Let's see, what did happen? Mhm. You died. I died. Then the Doctor died - again, several times. Not that I've seen the latest him - or her, if the rumours are true, but that's just a matter of time…' she trailed off, that thoughtful look once more in her eyes, but while Rory didn't even know what to address first, Amy seemed to have finally caught herself.

'The Doctor is a woman now?' she wanted to know with a grin. Her daughter smirked.

'If my information is correct - which it usually is - then yes. I've got a wife now, marvellous, isn't it?' She seemed genuinely delighted about it, but then again, Rory thought, that was River for you. He had never quite understood how but gender had never mattered - not if River's stories were to be believed. It wasn't that he minded, but he was from the 21st century. Then again, his daughter wasn't. Sort of. Better not think about it, that usually ended with a headache.

Still, he tried to focus on the other things River had just dropped on them. That he and Amy died didn't seem too surprising, considering their daughter was over nine hundred years old and they were merely human - it was inevitable, really. Much more concerning, in Rory's opinion, was her nonchalant statement that she herself had died, which made him wonder how she was sitting in front of them now.

'Now, tell me about yourselves,' River smiled. 'It's been far too long since I've seen these versions of you and we never seemed to have time to properly catch up.'

'That's why we came by today!' Amy agreed and then launched into an animated tale of their latest ongoings in their life. Under the table, River gave Rory's hand a squeeze as if she knew what he was thinking and wanted to soothe his worries. In a way, it worked and in no time, he was caught up in Amy's storytelling as well, adding bits here and there and laughing with the two most important women in his life.

'I'm glad you're okay again' River said eventually as she went to refill the plate with biscuits. 'I know it's silly to worry about you, I know how your story goes, but…' she trailed off with a shrug, for a moment looking younger than ever, perhaps a result of being face to face with her parents after centuries. By the time they had blinked, she was back to herself again, any sign of insecurity gone.

'We are worrying about you too, you know?' Rory reassured her gently. 'And you shouldn't be worrying about us.'

'Rory's right,' Amy nodded, 'You might be a thousand year old alien but you're still our kid, so us worrying about you, that's okay - the other way around? Not so much.'

At that, River couldn't help but laugh, even shaking her head in amusement.

'Alright then, mother, I'll try not to worry about you,' she said jokingly and both Amy and Rory gave her a satisfied nod. For a moment, River's eyes seemed far away again and when her focus returned to them, her face, albeit still adorned with that warm smile, had sobered. 'I know the two of you have a lot of questions. So go on. Ask away.'

Amy and Rory shared a look. What were they supposed to say, what to ask first - where to begin?

'You said you were two hundred the last time you saw us? And you're over nine hundred now? The seven hundred years in between - did you spend them with the Doctor?' It was a good question, Rory thought, and one much lighter than the one that preoccupied his mind. River seemed to agree, because she shot her mother a bright smile.

'The Doctor and I were together for a long time. Until I moved back to Luna, two decades ago, that was the last time I've seen him. But I know I'll see him again. Her,' she corrected. 'We were together for a long time, in a very linear fashion. Not linear linear, but...linear in a not quite linear sort of way.'

'What?'

'It's complicated, dad,' River sighed. 'I told you the details the last time I saw you, but that's far in the future for you, even if it's in the recent past for me.'

'Right - River, what's that?' For a moment, Rory wondered what Amy was talking about but then he heard it as well.

A key in the lock. They frowned at each other but River seemed unconcerned. Still, her face had taken an odd expression, as if she was preparing herself for something unpleasant.

They didn't have to wait long to find out what it was. The front door opened and closed, there was a short shuffle in the hallway, then steps coming towards the kitchen and then the door flew open. A young woman strode in, clearly upset.

'Grandmother, you have to - oh!' She stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed the Ponds on the kitchen table, both staring back and forth between the newcomer and their daughter in shock.

'River? Is there something you'd like to tell us?' Amy aske, her voice shrill, but River ignored her.

'I have to do what, Susan? What happened?' she made no effort of hiding her worry, pushing back her chair to put an arm around Susan. But whatever was going on, Susan was clearly uncomfortable to speak about it in front of Amy and Rory, casting them sideways glances, before biting her lip and turning back to River.

'May I, grandmother?' she asked and River gave her a sharp nod. With practiced ease, they rested their foreheads against each other, falling silent for a moment that stretched like eternity.

When they both pulled back, a satisfied smile graced River's lips. 'And so it begins,' she whispered before finally turning her attention back to her parents. She still had an arm around Susan's shoulders and gave her a small squeeze. 'Mum, Dad, I'm terribly sorry for all this - that idiot husband of mine has picked the worst possible day to drop you off.'

'Or perhaps the best,' Susan mused, shooting River a meaningful look. She just shrugged.

'Perhaps. It all depends on your point of view. But now, let me introduce you properly, seeing that you haven't met yet. Susan, these are Amelia and Rory Pond, my parents. Mother, Father, my youngest granddaughter: Susan.'

'How do you do?' Susan gave them a polite smile but neither Amy nor Rory could stop gaping at her. River used the stunned silence to get Susan situated on the chair next to hers and equipped her with a teacup of her own. Only when she, too, was seated again, Amy turned back to her daughter, eyes narrow.

'You have a granddaughter. A granddaughter. Or several, by the sounds of it! I'm too young to be a grandmother - let alone a great-grandmother! You can't just spring something like that on us!' She hesitated, frowning. 'Can you?'

'I'm not going to apologise for having a family, mother,' River said, strangely calm. 'But I am sorry that you have to find out about things this way - I was hoping to warm you up to it a little more gently. As I told you just before: I already explained certain things to you, so I can't tell you about them now. Besides, it would be careless to let you run around with knowledge like that if you are still going to come across younger me. The things I didn't tell you then and can't tell you now, I'll happily tell you the next time we meet. Perhaps you could even meet the children?' She paused for a moment, contemplating the possibility. 'They're in and out all the time, it could easily be arranged…'

'I think they'd like that,' Susan agreed quitely, still not looking at either of her great-grandparents, rather choosing to focus on her grandmother instead.

Eventually, it was Rory, dear, kind Rory, who carefully brought the focus to Susan and away from his daughter, who gave him a grateful smile at his question.

'So, Susan, how old are you?'

'217,' she answered, 'but I'll be 218 next month.'

'218.' Rory looked at Susan. 'Fair enough. I guess if my daughter is close to a thousand, that makes sense?'

'It does, dad, it does. And you don't even know half of it - if it wasn't for Susan here, you would have never travelled with the Doctor and then I would have never even been born in the first place.'

'Can we just go back to the bit where you have grandkids?' Amy interrupted. While Rory seemed to have taken this particular revelation remarkably well, once he'd gotten over the first shock, she seemed to rather struggle with it. Her gaze was fixed on her daughter now, but River just shrugged.

'What do you want me to say, mother? I'm an adult. I'm married, I had children, they grew up, had children. It's life.'

'I'm not even 30!' Despite Rory's calming hand on her arm, Amy couldn't hold her protest back any longer. She understood that her daughter was half alien and lived at a different pace, a different timeline than they did, but that didn't mean she had to be happy about something like this being dumped on them. 'Grandkids? Fine. But great-grandkids? Mum'd kill me if she knew about that!'

'Well, Tabetha is not going to find out. Amy, calm down, please.' It always worked a charm when River called her "Amy" instead of "mum", especially in that tone, and she already hated how much it usually stung. 'I know this isn't easy for you - goodness, when you were standing on my doorstep earlier, I thought I was hallucinating! But you're here, you're really here and you can meet my family - and I will never apologise for them.'

'We don't want you to,' Rory was quick to assure her, giving Amy a nudge to shut her up when he saw that she was about to say something. Once he was certain she would let him finish first, he turned back to his daughter and her granddaughter. Funny, he thought, how they looked nothing alike but when he looked at their eyes, the resemblance was uncanny. They were so old and wise, much older than human eyes, even Susan's, who were still sparkling with the energy and curiosity only the young possessed.

'I - we - are happy for you. Ever since you told me about the day you feared most, I worried about you.' A shadow hushed over River's face at the mention of that but Rory decided to leave it be for now and continue. 'I hoped you and the Doctor would manage but I was afraid you'd be all on your own. But you're not, you've got kids, a family of your own - I'm proud and happy, River. Melody.'

'Thanks, dad,' she said, her smile a little more teary than she'd have liked, and reached over to squeeze his hands. 'That means a lot. And you know -' she put an arm around Susan's shoulders again to ground herself, '- that day, it was horrible. It really was the worst day of my life. I died.' Susan snorted at that, which made River roll her eyes. Rory didn't say anything, just watched them, but Amy next to him frowned slightly at that. He realised, with a jolt, that he had never told her about that particular conversation with their daughter, busy as they had been afterwards, running from the silence.

'I'm happy for you too, Melody,' Amy finally said and all eyes snapped to her. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to avert her daughter's gaze before continuing. 'I didn't mean to sound like I wasn't, `cause I am. Happy for you, that is. It's just, it's a lot to take in. Which I should be used to, shouldn't I?'

'Mum,' River said gently and finally, Amy looked at her. 'I never thought I would ever see the two of you again. For me, you died centuries ago. That you are here, really and physically here, that makes up for every ill treatment you give me by tenfold. Because you're right: I live at a different pace than you do and when our timestreams cross, it's bound to be shocking for you - this time more than ever. And while I'm sorry that things have to be that way, I'm not sorry for any choice I made that brought me here.'

'We understand that. And for what it's worth, I'm kind of glad I got to know my great-granddaughter - even if she's old enough to be my own great-grandmother.' And there it was, that trademark Amy grin and everyone let out a breath no one had noticed they had been holding.

Now that the air had been cleared for the most part, Susan too began to partake in the conversation. She seemed to enjoy being quizzed about her life so far and was only too ready to relay the story about how she got to see the universe.

'Grandfather took me travelling a long time ago. I wanted to try human school, grandmother had always talked about it and it sounded much more fun than the Academy. So he took me to earth and I went to school there for a bit, it was quite different - but marvellous. It's how he met Ian and Barbara - they were the first humans to travel with him, they were my teachers. Did you manage to find them yet, grandmother?' The last question was clearly directed at River, who nodded.

'I didn't actually have to do anything - it's in that marvellous little book Sarah gave me. Which reminds me, darling, it might be better if you weren't here when that husband of mine gets back - he can't see you, I think at this point, he hasn't even time locked Gallifrey yet.'

'Oh, we wouldn't want to mess up that timeline!' Susan exclaimed, though she seemed rather serious. Then, she hesitated for a moment, giving her grandmother a questioning look. 'Do you think Romana would mind if I went to see them sometime? I'd like to go now, but I probably should go and help her, don't you think?'

'That might be best, yes - but if you want to go now, I'll deal with Romana for you.'

'No, I think it can wait a little,' Susan said decidedly and River smiled.

'Well, then, granddaughter, I have to ask one more favour before you go back. That note I gave you the other day? I think it's time for you to go see to that, if you don't mind?'

'Of course, will do. Time-Space-Delivery-Service Susan Foreman, at your service.' Laughing at her grandmother's incredulous face, Susan hugged both Amy and Rory tightly before giving River a smacking kiss on the cheek. River rolled her eyes, then pulled her back down and returned the favor, leaving Susan to rush towards the door with a squeak, laughing and waving at them. It was such a natural scene, so homey and familiar, that Rory couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of his daughter. How often had he wished that they'd have a chance to be like that with their daughter, little Melody, who had never been their little girl at all.

Once again, River seemed to catch onto his thoughts because she gave him a gentle nudge.

'Don't worry dad. You'll get a chance to do things the right way.'

He shared a look of disbelief with Amy. How, he wondered, could they possibly have that chance? Then again...who would know, if not River. She sensed their doubts, because she reached over to squeeze both their hands reassuringly.

'You'll be fine. Happy. You'll be fantastic. And that is a promise.'

'Thank you,' Amy said quietly and for the first time since they arrived, the three of them sat in the companionable silence so familiar to them, just enjoying their moment of peace before their ways had to part once more.

It wasn't long before the grinding of the TARDIS disrupted the quiet and moments later, the Doctor burst in, rambling on and on about the odd run-ins he had while they had been with River.

When they finally said their goodbye, the three Ponds all found themselves surprisingly teary.

'Are we going to see this you again?' Amy wanted to know but only received one of those enigmatic smiles her daughter was so famous for.

'If you did, I wouldn't know, now would I? I haven't done it yet. But tell you what.' She lowered her voice and leaned over to whisper right into Amy's ear. 'Bit further in the future you will meet a not far in the past me, just when you think it's never going to happen again, and not far in the future you is going to run into a far in the past me soon.'

'Isn't that spoilers?'

'I didn't tell you when or where, did I?' River smiled and pulled her mother into a tight hug. 'Love you, mum.' Then Rory. 'Love you, dad. See you both soon.'

And then they disappeared into the TARDIS, just a little more running to do for them.

There's a tin with biscuits, if anyone would like to leave a comment? Thank you for reading!