In a flash of light, River Song, Melody Tyler, arrived outside her home near Luna University. Pushing the door open, she fought back tears. She hardly ever cried but today it felt like she couldn't hold it back, didn't want to hold it back. The house would be empty. It always was nowadays. Her family was all but lost to her. She hadn't spoken to her Mum in years. The last time that she had spoken to her father had been at his sixth birthday. Nan and Tony hadn't known her then.
She had always known that this was going to happen. One day the people who meant the most to her would have no idea who she was. Even with that knowledge, she wasn't prepared for the reality of it. Honestly it was why she had panicked and gone to Trisha and Tony's wedding.
The only reason that she hadn't gone in was because, peering through the window, she had seen herself. She had looked so different in her second regeneration and despite the heartache of not truly feeling like a part of the family, she had been so happy then.
Pops had stopped her from running away and in that moment, she had been tempted to tell him everything. To tell him that his time was running short and that she was his granddaughter and to beg him in return to tell her what fate she must befall. Thankfully, he had kept his head on straight and refused to let her do anything rash.
She grabbed a photo album and collapsed on the sofa. A part of her had always assumed that the day would come when they would stop living out of order and find a more linear way to meet up. However,
A storm was coming, one that she didn't know if she could survive.
Idly she flipped through her photos. There were ones of family vacations, before Mum knew the truth about the family. There was a photo of Granddad holding his newborn daughter Clara while her Dad was holding his second-born child, a son. Melody had many times felt the sting of jealousy over the life her little brother, Edwin, got to have, would get to have.
Eddie didn't have to carry the burden of the Bad Wolf. He got to be raised by their parents. Hell, he got to remember being a child. She couldn't blame him however. It wasn't his fault that his life wasn't nearly as complicated as her own. Nor could she fault her parents for wanting to have more children. She had seen first-hand what the circumstances of her birth had done to them.
What she really needed was someone to talk to. She wanted Jack, but he hadn't been around in a while. Mostly, the pair of them travelled concurrent to each other, only occasionally having to hop around each other's timelines. Their relationship was complicated and unconventional, but she loved it, loved him. He just wasn't around that much anymore, and that in and of itself was troubling. She desperately wanted to see him before her trip to the Library.
A thought struck her, why not ask Jack to meet her there? He was always up for an adventure.
~oOo~
The fire popped and crackled in the hearth. Hannah took a sip of her scotch before throwing another file on the Tyler family into the flames. All the physical evidence of the confidences she had kept were going up in smoke. She chuckled ruefully at the witticisms of her fire related humour and added a small stack of photos.
The time had come and gone for keeping secrets from her daughter. Ironically, she knew that Trisha was keeping something from her, something important. At work, the only common ground that mother and daughter typically had, Trisha was distant. Well, more distant than normal. She was also clicking out of computer screens whenever anyone walked into her office.
Personally, while Hannah and her daughter were spending more time together outside of work, Trisha was tense. She fussed more over the children and fought back panic when one of them would leave her sight. All the tell-tale signs of someone ready to give up a life of a military operative were there. That she wanted to run and protect her own.
The question was what was Trisha willing to do to ensure her family's, her children's protection?
And would she let Hannah know what she was planning?
~oOo~
"And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again." Jenny closed the book and looked at the smiling faces of her niece and nephew. Human nursery rhymes were very confusing. Never, as far as Jenny could tell, was it ever explained that Humpty Dumpty was an egg. Nevertheless, two year old Jamie and year old EJ seemed to enjoy it and while she was not yet completely comfortable around children, reading them stories was something the three of them could enjoy.
"Will you do another, Aunt Jenny?" EJ asked sweetly.
"Well, it is your bedtime and the two of you need to brush your teeth. Why don't you go help Jamie get washed up and we'll do another story before you go to sleep, yeah?"
The two children scampered away and Jenny sighed and stood up to clean away the remnants of tea and playtime. It wasn't often that she was left alone with them, but Tony and Trisha had something they needed to take care of and Sabrina had a last minute date. Apparently she had run into an old friend from Uni while out on a take-away run earlier. Hopefully, Tony and Trisha wouldn't mind it just being her with the children.
Since Amy's kidnapping, the family had certain emergency protocols in place for Jamie and EJ's safety. Luckily, that was the one area where Jenny felt the most comfortable. Even though she no longer routinely carried any weapon with a setting higher than stun, that didn't mean that she couldn't take down an enemy combatant with ease.
"Aunt Jenny," EJ called from the other room. "We're ready for our story now."
Thirty minutes and four short stories later, Jenny finally closed the door to the children's bedroom. Thankfully they were both asleep. There was a bit of tinkering that she wanted to do on the TARDIS. After she made herself a cuppa, naturally.
As she passed into the lounge to grab the novel she was reading, she heard a soft knocking on the front door. Immediately, she stiffened and cautiously made her way over to see who was there.
"Who is it?" Jenny asked through the thick wood.
"It's Rory and Amy," her brother's muffled voice came from the other side.
Not quite letting her guard down, Jenny slowly opened the door. When she could see Amy and Rory's faces, relief flowed through her. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked, flinging the door wide open.
"I wanted to talk to Tony," Rory replied, moving into the house and pulling his sister into a hug. "But I'm glad you're here. I need to talk to you too." Amy stepped over the threshold and shut and locked the door behind her.
Jenny pulled away from Rory and hugged Amy. "Tony's not here. He and Trisha had to go out so I'm babysitting."
"Where's Sabrina?" Amy asked moving towards the kitchen.
"Out on a date of some sort," Jenny responded with a shrug. "Some boy she knew from Uni. They are going to grab a bite to eat and then go to a club. I like going to clubs, dancing is fun, but I guess I still don't understand human mating rituals."
Amy sniggered. It was nice for Jenny to hear that sound again.
"The kids in bed then," Rory enquired, slowly trailing behind the two women.
"Yep," Jenny said, popping her p. "I had to read them so many stories."
"I think I'm going to pop my head in, kiss them goodnight," Rory said, stopping at the foot of the stairs that led to the bedrooms. Looking over at Amy with a gentle expression on his face, his eyes flicked up the stairs. Immediately, Amy looked away and shook her head.
Rory headed upstairs, and Amy's gaze followed him but she didn't say anything. There was a heavy, awkward silence hanging around them and Jenny was unsure what to do next. "Tea," the blonde said suddenly. "I was going to make tea. Would you like some tea?"
"Yeah, that sounds good," Amy replied with a nod. Turning she headed back down the hall towards the kitchen.
Things continued to feel a little awkward while Jenny boiled water. Several times, she tried to start a conversation with Amy. This shouldn't be so hard. It wasn't like she had never had a conversation with Amy before or spent time alone with her. Admittedly, there hadn't been many words exchanged post Demon's Run.
"Thank you," Amy said softly.
Jenny shrugged and poured the hot water into the mugs, over the tea bags. "It's just tea."
Amy gave the blonde girl a small smile. "No, I meant for before. For you taking me to see Mels, I mean Melody. I know I shouldn't have asked, timelines and all. It could have been really dangerous. But I really needed it. So thanks."
Yes, things could have gone horribly wrong with those visits, Jenny knew that. Yet, she also knew that she had a way help someone that she cared about ease their overwhelming grief. Even if it didn't fix things completely for Amy, Jenny was just glad that she could help. Not knowing exactly what to say, Jenny nodded and went to finish the tea.
A minute later Rory walked back into the room and Amy visibly relaxed. He sat down next to his wife before speaking. "So, I need, we need to talk to you about something."
"You said that earlier," Jenny pointed out as she handed them both a mug. Grabbing her own drink and a plate of biscuits, she sat down at the table.
Rory rolled his eyes and Jenny realized that maybe he was repeating himself because he wasn't sure where to begin. "Whatever it is, you can tell me," Jenny said comfortingly.
"It's a bit complicated," Amy said at the same time that Rory replied, "I know how to save Melody from the Library."
Jenny blinked. "Wait… What? No." In one of the books that she had read on losing a family member, there had been a chapter on how grief could cause normally rational people to lose touch with reality. "River, Melody's death is a fixed point. Altering the events of that day in any way, and the current timeline won't exist and neither will you."
"I've been thinking about this since I was a teenager, Jenny," Rory affirmed. "I have run though thousands, tens of thousands of scenarios in my head. I have opened my time senses and traced the outcomes. If anyone can make this work, it's me."
"But we can't change the outcome," Jenny argued again. "I know that you don't want to believe that. None of us do. And that you want to help but…" She shook her head. More than anything, Jenny wanted her brother to be right about saving her niece.
Amy laid a hand on Jenny's arm. "Just let him explain what he has in mind to you and then decide if you think it will work."
That was fair enough. If she knew the facts, then she could rationally discuss why this couldn't happen. "All right, what did you have in mind?"
At her acceptance, Rory visibly relaxed. "Okay, so I've heard stories of the Library almost my whole life. And I know it's not just the moment of River's 'death' that is supposed to be fixed. It's the entirety of the events of that day that needs to happen exactly as Dad remembers, but what about the moment after?"
For a moment, Jenny wondered how difficult it must be to reconcile three people into one, Mels, Melody and River. And she wondered if sometimes, calling them by one specific name was a defence mechanism. Like by specifically using the name River here is a way for Rory to disassociate, to keep his emotions out of it. Blinking away her thoughts, Jenny returned her attention back to the conversation at hand.
"What he means is," Amy interjected, "what really happened to Melody's body?"
Jenny furrowed her brow. "The strain of downloading the people in the computer was too much for her. There was nothing left but ashes." A shudder went down her spine.
"Exactly," Rory responded with more excitement than anyone should have when speaking of their daughter's death. "All Dad saw was a blinding flash of light. There was no body, just ashes. Now remember what Mum and Dad said about the Games Station?"
Shaking her head, it took a moment for Jenny to connect the dots. "The transmat!" she exclaimed. "When the Anne-droid shot Mum, she was trasmatted to the Dalek ship, leaving behind nothing but dust."
Grinning, Amy chimed in. "Maybe, just maybe Melody didn't die but was transmatted away."
There was a niggling in the back of Jenny's mind. "What about all of the people? How did all of the people get out?"
Rory sighed. "This is the tricky and slightly dangerous part. We would route the download through the TARDIS, the young TARDIS."
"No," Jenny yelled. "You'll kill her."
"Wait." Amy turned to her husband. "You didn't tell me that."
With a deep sigh, Rory took one of Amy's hands in his. "If I temper the download myself then the TARDIS may sustain serious injury, but it's nothing that she can't recover from."
"Then you'll die instead of Melody," Amy concluded, a slight tremble in her voice.
"No, at worst I'll regenerate," he explained. "Giving up one regeneration for our daughter's life is an easy choice. You never know, I might end up with a much more handsome face."
Amy snorted. "I like your stupid face just the way it is."
He wrapped his arms around his wife. "I know."
"For a genius, you ain't half stupid, you know?" Sabrina's familiar voice called from the doorway.
The legs of Jenny's chair screeched against the tile as she jumped up. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to figure out what you were planning," Sabrina replied, crossing to the counter and setting down her handbag. "And I have a message for you."
"A message from whom?" Rory asked.
"Idris."