A/N: Hey everyone. Yeah I did warn you that I don't update super regularly, didn't I? If I didn't, whoops. I had a little time and the idea for this chapter, so I managed to get it done, but be warned: all this week and next i'm crazy busy with school musical, so don't be expecting anything for a bit. I got this chapter and the next done because I had the ideas for both of them (actually, I wrote the next chapter a while back...... :P) but just thought i'd let ya know, bye!

p.s: I know nothing EXTREMELY interesting happens in this chapter, but it was kinda necessary, and I had fun writing it :) cheers!

Amy walked a few strides behind Lily and the Doctor, feeling it was proper to let them have this time to catch up by themselves. They talked and laughed as if they'd never been apart, and Amy still found herself wondering what this girl was to the Doctor, and couldn't help feeling a bit jealous of the easy way they acted around each other.

Lily led them to a decent-sized white house with a red roof. She gave a conspiratorial grin to the two of them and then opened the door, which swung open with just a slight creak.

"Mum! I'm home!"

"I'm in the kitchen, darling!"

Lily motioned them into the house. "I've brought visitors," she called out. "And you'll know one of them! You'll never guess who!"

"If you've brought that boy home again..." A woman turned the corner, wiping her hands on a dish towel. She trailed off as she saw them. She stared. The Doctor smiled and waved.

"Hello, Rebecca!" He said brightly.

"D-doctor?" She looked a bit more than a little surprised. There was a moment of tension as everyone froze, and then she took a few hesitant steps forward before the Doctor strode over to her and let her fling her arms around him.

"I'm giving a lot of hugs today," he chuckled. Amy noticed how his face softened when he looked at the woman as he released her from the hug.

"I thought it would be alright to invite them for supper," Lily grinned.

"Of course. And who's this?" Rebecca smiled softly, turning to Amy. She seemed much more reserved than her bubbly daughter, although just as kind.

"Second time he's forgotten to introduce me today," Amy smirked. "Forgetful, isn't he?"

"Oi, I have a lot of information I need to remember, I'm allowed to forget a few things occasionally!" the Doctor said defensively. "Besides, I was getting 'round to it!" He turned back to Rebecca. "This is Amy, my current companion."

"Lovely to meet you," Rebecca said, extending her hand with a smile. Amy took it and shook it warmly. She somehow found her much easier to trust from first sight than her daughter. She turned and began walking back down the hall. "You three had better get cleaned up," she called over her shoulder. "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes." She paused and turned, smiling. "Lily, show them to the bathroom. I'm sure you can all share the sink to wash your hands, and Doctor, don't act like too much of a child.

Lily and Amy shared glances and snickers as the Doctor protested, "Hey!"

Shaking her head and laughing, Rebecca walked back to the kitchen. Lily beckoned to the other two with a wave of her hand. "Follow me, then. Mum's a stickler for clean hands before meals."

They followed her down the hall. She turned to the left and opened a door. Behind the door was a fairly large but simply decorated bathroom. There were two sinks, so the Doctor used one while Lily and Amy shared the other. Lily picked up some hand towels out of a basket on the floor and tossed one to each of them before taking one for herself. "Dry your hands, then, and let's go see if my mum needs any help finishing up."

She led them to the kitchen. Rebecca was bustling around, finishing up the meal. She had a nice bowl that she was pouring steaming spaghetti into, while a pan of sauce boiled on the stove. A table sat in an area a few yards away from the stove, several windows on the wall showing a pond with ducks and sparrows around the perimeter.

"I hope you're not going to any trouble on our account," the Doctor said. Startled, she looked up and smiled when she saw them standing in the doorway.

"No, don't worry."

"Could we help with anything, Mum?" Lily asked.

"Well, I don't think our guests need to do anything, but could you set the table, sweetheart?"

"Sure."

Amy didn't want to stand just feeling awkward and useless, so she said, "Really, ma'am, it's no problem, we do like to be helpful."

"Well, alright then. And you can call me Rebecca, you don't have to call me ma'am." She offered the bowl of spaghetti to her. "If you could put this on the table, then?"

"Absolutely." She walked over to the table, and once she had carefully placed the steaming bowl on the table, proceeded to help Lily distribute the silverware.

"Doctor, do you think you could put some lettuce in a bowl? It's in one of the drawers in the refrigerator, and there's a bowl here," she said, lifting it up. She turned back to the stove and turned off the tomato sauce, pouring it into a small bowl and handing it to Lily as she and Amy came back. "Onto the table, please. Amy, would you mind grabbing salad dressing out of the fridge? Top shelf, just grab all of them that you can see."

"Rebecca, do you want anything else in the salad? Because there are tomatoes and cucumbers in here as well," the Doctor called over his shoulder as he stood in front of the open refrigerator.

"Not in the salad, but in side dishes, here are a few," Rebecca replied, pulling shallow patterned glass bowls out of a cupboard. "And don't leave the fridge open."

"Seems like extra work, why not just put them into the salad?" the Doctor asked as he stepped aside to let Amy grab the salad dressing.

"Because Lily hates tomatoes, and she puts up a fit if she gets so much as a drop of tomato juice on even one of her leaves of lettuce."

"That's an exaggeration, Mum!" Lily said indignantly.

The Doctor turned to Lily. "Why don't you like tomatoes?" he asked incredulously.

"Why don't you like pears?" she shot back.

He shrugged, smirking. "Touche."

"I just don't like the taste of them, that's all there is to it."

"So... don't you like spaghetti sauce?"

"No, I love spaghetti sauce! When tomatoes are processed into something, it's fine, it's just raw that I don't like them."

The Doctor shook his head, confused. "You're a very strange girl, Lily."

"I thought we'd established that," she laughed. "But how can you understand all those complex scientific theories but the concept that someone doesn't like a certain kind of food but it's fine when cooked or processed eludes you?"

"Humans," he shrugged. Lily laughed again.

"Alright, you lot, to the table, sit down so we can eat!" Rebecca exclaimed, ushering them to the table.

They all sat down and began to eat. There were many announcements of how wonderful the food was before they could get any real conversation in.

"So, what are you doing letting your daughter traipse around the place armed to the teeth, Becca?" the Doctor asked, disapproval evident in his voice.

"Well, she's incorrigible, isn't she?" Rebecca didn't seem overly pleased with her daughter's choice of accessory either. "But there are times when it's necessary."

"How could that be necessary?"

"Doctor, the aliens don't always just disappear with you. They come back." The Doctor opened his mouth to interrupt, but Rebecca held up a hand and he closed it again. "They're not too dangerous, we can handle them. But if we didn't use any weapons, then they would be."

The Doctor nodded his head, resigned. In a moment, his face brightened with a mischievous smile. "So what was this business with a boy?"

Rebecca smiled back. "Lily's boyfriend."

"MOM! He is NOT my boyfriend!" Lily shrieked with a tone of voice that indicated that this had been discussed many times before.

The rest of the meal and the after-meal clean-up passed in comfortable banter, but Amy felt like the Doctor desperately wanted to talk to Rebecca alone, although she wasn't entirely sure why. So as she helped Lily dry the last of the supper dishes, she decided to give him the chance. "Hey, Lily, do you think you could show me around outside? Then while we talk, these two can have their special grown-up talk," she said with a wink.

"Ugh, must they always look down on those younger than them?" Lily rolled her eyes despairingly. "Alright, sure." But she was looking at Amy strangely as they walked out into the inky night, leaving the Doctor and Rebecca in the kitchen to conversations of their own.