CHAPTER 45

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, story alerts, and reviews!

RIVER'S MASTER PLAN

"You're smiling," Rory said in a wary voice to Amy as they stood there together in their TARDIS' console room.

"So? Have you got something against seeing me happy?" Amy asked.

"So it's because you're happy?" Rory asked as he began to look more at ease now.

"Of course it is. That's what I generally do is smile when I'm happy. You've known me since we were kids and you still haven't figured that out yet? It's really not that hard to grasp," Amy said as she looked at him with an amused expression.

"You don't always smile because you're happy though do you? Sometimes you smile when you're up to something. And that something usually ends up involving pain," Rory said.

Amy shook her head at him as she said with a warm smile, "Not this time, Rory. I promise. Why wouldn't I be in a good mood? First Charlotte came back from the dead and then the Doctor and Rose finally made it back home again safe and sound. I haven't been anything but happy lately thanks to that. Stop worrying so much."

Rory wasn't quite sure that he believed that however because the issue of Melody's eventual departure was still looming over them casting a long shadow over everything. He decided not to press the issue though because he knew that Amy wouldn't talk about it until she was ready. Besides he liked seeing her with a smile on her face for once even if it probably wasn't a hundred percent genuine. He hadn't seen her even try to act happy since their two friends had been lost so this was a welcome change as far as he was concerned.

"Yeah, we shouldn't worry about the fact that Clara's not so sweet and chipper dark side, the Matriarch, stole Rose's powers and is currently on the loose. That's no reason for concern whatsoever," Selene said.

"Oh, there's always some universal threat running around somewhere. The Doctor and Rose will sort it all out sooner or later now that they're back again. Don't worry about it," Amy said dismissively.

Rory and Selene exchanged a surprised glance now as Selene said, "Two 'Don't worry about its' in a row? Rory, I think we should check and make sure that she isn't some kind of imposter. The real Amy may be in a lot of trouble somewhere. Then again maybe we should stick with this one whether she's real or not. At least she's not violent."

"Not yet," Amy said as she shot her sister a dirty look.

"Oh, so it is you after all. Now I can finally relax," Selene joked.

"Cut the comedy routine. Can't I be happy without it meaning that something's wrong?" Amy protested.

"Of course you can. It's just that it usually doesn't happen that often," Rory admitted.

"Yeah, it's throwing us all for a loop, Mum. You're upsetting the natural order of things," Sirona said in a teasing tone.

"Fine. I'll yell a lot and smack Rory around some. Happy now?" Amy said with a straight face.

"I'm not," Rory said as he slowly started to move away from her.

"Oh, stop it, Rory. I was just joking," Amy said with a sigh.

"With that stony expression of yours, who can tell?" Selene shot back.

"We're just teasing, Mum. We're actually glad that you're happy for once," Sirona said.

"For once? Does it really happen that rarely?" Amy said with a frown.

"Only lately because of . . . well, you know," Sirona said as she hesitated to bring up the topic of Melody out loud for fear of spoiling the current light-hearted atmosphere in the TARDIS.

"Yeah, well I decided not to let Melody leaving us someday spoil the time that we have with her right now. I'll worry about that when that day actually comes and not a moment before then," Amy said firmly.

"Another 'don't worry about it' from you? It must be a sign of the end of the universe or something," Selene teased.

"Stop it, Aunt Selene. Just let her be happy for once," Sirona said.

"No. Sorry, I just can't do that. That would be violating my sacred oath as the little sister," Selene said as she winked at Amy to let her know that she was just joking around.

"What was that oath exactly? That you must be constantly annoying and unbelievably irritating at all times?" Amy asked.

"How'd you guess? Did one of my fellow little sisters turn traitor or something and tell you about it?" Selene asked with a chuckle.

"Oh, do stop bothering Mother, everyone. Why can't she be allowed to have a moment of happiness every once in a while without it turning into an inquisition? My crew acts the same way about me. Every time I even so much as smile everyone looks at me like I'm about to start shooting at any moment," River said as she suddenly appeared in the middle of the room.

"No comment," Selene said causing Amy to shoot her a dirty look while River laughed.

"I must be getting much more mellow since I had Dorothy. I don't even feel like getting back at you later for that little remark," River said.

"Really? Then why do I still feel like I just made a huge mistake?" Selene asked.

River only smiled at her ominously for a moment in response but said nothing further.

"If you're done scaring Selene now, Melody, maybe you can tell me why you're here. I can already tell by the way you're looking at me that it's not just for a social call," Amy said with a frown.

Before River could answer her though, Melody and Julia suddenly came into the room together. Melody immediately looked at River as though she were star struck and wouldn't stop staring at her.

"Hello. You're not going to believe this but I met another version of you lately that was from another universe. It's so nice to know that you exist in our world too. I thought that the other you was pretty cool, but you're even cooler than she was," Melody said as she smiled at River.

"Thank you very much, dear. It's nice to know that at least someone here appreciates me," River said with a smile.

"It doesn't count if that someone is also your past self," Selene whispered to Julia who just barely managed to repress a giggle.

"Can you please tell me why you're here?" Amy said to River in an irritated voice as she started to become impatient.

"Contrary to what you might think, I actually did just come along to visit you. That's the only reason that I'm here I swear," River said with a mad grin.

"Uh huh," Amy said not buying it for an instant because she knew River far too well to ever fall for that.

"How do you know my mother? Who are you to her?" Melody asked River curiously.

"I'm an old friend of hers, dear. We used to go to school together," River said which was true enough of course.

"You look too old to have gone to school with her though," Melody said.

"Oh, that? Well, I'm much older than I look I'm afraid, Melody. That's what not listening to your parents does to you. It ages you well before your time. Remember that," River said with that mad grin of hers on her face the entire time.

"Very funny," Amy whispered to her.

"I thought so," River whispered back.

"If anyone was aged before their time, it was me by having to deal with you while you were growing up," Amy replied in a low voice.

"I thought you said that you'd always forgive me for everything," River said with a smirk.

"You would still remember that, wouldn't you? You really are going to age me before my time," Amy said with a sigh.

"Oh, don't worry so much. You look like I'm about to tell you that I blew up the Earth or something. I won't take advantage of your promise to me, Mother . . . well, not too much anyway," River said with an evil smile.

Melody couldn't hear a thing that they said since they were still whispering, but she could tell that her mother was really angry at this woman for some reason. She was giving her the exact same look that she always gave her whenever she did something bad only ten times worse.

"When am I going to learn to keep my big mouth shut?" Amy said in exasperation.

"I could have told you that a long time ago. No wait. I did," Selene said with a chuckle.

"So how long do you plan on staying with us?" Rory asked River as he desperately tried to change the subject before Amy killed her sister right there in front of the children.

"Oh, I think that a few days will be long enough," River said.

"And what do you plan on doing during all of that time?" Amy asked suspiciously.

"I just want to spend a couple of days doing whatever it is that you do. I'm just here to spend some time with you, Amy," River said.

"Why?" Amy asked even more suspicious than ever now.

River's expression softened as she said, "Maybe it's because after I had a baby of my own that it finally made me understand what you went through when you lost your own child and exactly how you felt when you didn't get to raise her. I couldn't even really begin to imagine how much that had to hurt you until now, Amy."

All of Amy's suspicions faded away instantly now. She now realized that River was there because she knew that she was going to have to lose the past version of her again sometime soon. She wanted to make sure that she was alright.

Amy smiled at her and said, "I really wish that everyone would just stop worrying about that. I'm alright. Really."

Melody looked away sadly not wanting to think about the future as she tried not to cry.

"Don't get so upset. You aren't leaving today, Melody," River said in a sympathetic voice as she noticed this.

"You sound so sure about that. How can you possibly know when I'll leave?" Melody asked.

"I just know and it's not today. It won't be for a while yet. Trust me," River said as she looked just as much as Amy as she did at her past self.

"Is that really true?" Melody asked with an uncertain expression.

At the same time, Amy gave her a questioning look as well. She knew that if anyone would know exactly what was going to happen that it would be River.

"Yes, Melody. You still have plenty of time left so stop getting so upset about the future and enjoy the present," River said as she looked at both her mother and her past self at the same time once more.

"Do you hear that, Melody?" Amy said as she smiled back at River in appreciation to let her know that she certainly had.

"Thank you," Melody said in an emotional voice as she ran to hug her future self.

Amy was completely surprised when River actually hugged her back. Apparently having a child really was changing River. She had never seen River actually wanting to hug someone before much less one of her past selves.

Rory looked at Amy in alarm as he whispered, "Are they supposed to be doing that? Won't having two of them touching like that blow up the universe or something?"

"Oh, that doesn't affect Time Lords," Amy said dismissively.

"Why?" Rory asked curiously.

"It's because the time differential is prevented from shorting out with us due to our unique connection to time. We can suppress the effect by redistributing the energy. Sometimes that actually causes our past selves to temporarily look older as a result. It's one of those really weird side effects of time travel that you'll have to learn to put up with sometimes," Amy explained.

"River actually does look a little bit older come to think of it," Rory said.

"Are you going to tell her that?" Amy said with a smile.

"Not a chance," Rory said with a shiver.

Then he suddenly became serious as he said, "Did what River said make you feel any better?"

Amy gave him a questioning look as she said, "Yes, she did actually. I'll admit it that I was still a little bit worried about Melody leaving soon despite trying to put up a brave front. Now I have a question for you, Mr. Pond. Did you ask her to come here?"

Rory smiled a little as he said, "I may have mentioned how you've been acting lately to her."

"So you actually managed to convince River to give us a semi-spoiler? I'm impressed. Thank you," Amy said as she kissed him.

"So it doesn't bother you to have her stay here for a while then? I mean she can tend to cause just a little bit of . . . trouble at times," Rory said.

"Only a little bit? You can really tell that you weren't the one bailing out of jail when she was growing up can't you? It'll be fine, Rory. Don't worry about it," Amy said.

Rory looked at her with a frown as he said, "You just said it again, Amy. Does that mean that it does bother you?"

Amy smiled as she said, "Okay, it does a little bit but I'm always happy to see her no matter what problems it might cause. It's fine."

Amy's attitude didn't change at first as the days went past with River traveling along with them everywhere. In fact River actually came in handy when they came across a group of angry aliens who Sirona had cheated once in her past life as a con artist. At first they were relentlessly attacking the TARDIS and threatening to blow them all up if they didn't give Sirona to them.

Then they heard that River Song was onboard.

Amy had never seen a ship move that fast in her life. One moment they were right next to her and the next they were in another galaxy.

Amy was definitely grateful to have her around that day. Who knew how long it would have taken Amy to get rid of them otherwise?

As time passed though, she began to become bothered by the effect that River was having on Melody. Amy's eyes almost burst out of her head when Melody suddenly emerged from the bathroom one day with a huge mass of curly hair on her head that looked just like River's. She still didn't know how she had gotten her hair to look like that.

Then things became even worse as Melody started to dress like River and even act like her. One day Amy even caught her flirting with one of the alien children that they came across on one of their adventures.

The absolute last straw for her though was when Melody threatened to blow someone's knee caps off if they didn't give her a toy. Needless to say Rory bought out the whole toy store that day even though Amy was almost sure that Melody was just joking. Well, she was almost sure anyway.

Amy hated to admit it to herself but by that point she was really starting to think that River was becoming a bad influence on herself.

That wasn't the only thing that was bothering her about traveling with River either. It seemed that for as many aliens that River scared away she also drew more to her. There were several attempts to attack River by old enemies of hers that had almost gotten all of them killed. Amy had enough problems with her own old enemies trying to kill her. She didn't really need River's showing up too to make things even worse.

The other thing that was bothering her about the last several days was the fact that just like Mels had before her River seemed to actually enjoy causing trouble. One day she had even picked a fight with the largest (and drunkest) alien in a bar for no apparent reason.

When Amy asked her about it later, River admitted that she had just beaten that alien unconscious in order to preserve her reputation. Apparently she routinely picked bar fights with the biggest and strongest aliens around in order to show just how tough that she herself was to everyone else.

After Amy had to knock out half a dozen aliens herself in order to save Rory from getting a broken nose during one of those bar fights that River started, she finally decided that she had had more than enough. River had to go home. The question was: How was she going to tell her that?

Or more accurately, how was she going to get Rory to tell her that?

"So how are you going to tell River that she has to go home?" Amy said out of the blue one day when they were both alone in the Console Room.

"What?" Rory said as he gave her a deer caught in the headlights look.

"Well, you agree that River's causing trouble and not really fitting in here as well as she did at first, right?" Amy said as she gave him her most winning smile.

"Well, I do admit that she has caused some trouble, yeah," Rory said in a hesitant tone.

"Some trouble? Your hair still hasn't finishing growing back from where Melody accidentally burned it off while she was imitating her by playing around with one of her guns," Amy said.

"That was an accident," Rory said in a tone that suggested that he really didn't want to be having this conversation.

"It was an accident that wouldn't have happened if she hadn't been trying to imitate her future self. So you agree that River should go home then. Good. We're both in agreement. Therefore you're going to tell her to go back home to Donald," Amy said.

"Why can't you? She probably won't get too angry if it's you that does it," Rory asked.

"Don't tell me that you're afraid of your own daughter," Amy said with a frown.

Rory said nothing but the answer was obvious from the look on his face.

"You were a Roman centurion once. You fought who knows how many people over the centuries. How can you still be afraid of River after all of that?" Amy protested.

"Amy, I know that you don't want to upset her but . . ." Rory started to say.

"She only came here because she wanted to make me feel better. She was actually doing a nice thing, Rory, and I'd really like to encourage that sort of behavior in her. That's why I can't be the one to tell her to go. It has to be you," Amy said.

Rory quickly shook his head which caused Amy to groan and say, "Look, I'll even give you a lead-in line to start the conversation off. All you have to say is: 'River, don't you think that Dorothy needs you? You can't leave Donald there to raise her all by himself after all.' That's easy enough to say, isn't it? It's a perfectly legitimate observation."

"I'd really rather not," Rory said firmly.

Amy rolled her eyes at him as she said, "Maybe I can get Selene to do it. She's always been a bit suicidal and I'm pretty sure that River wouldn't do any permanent damage to her."

"It's okay, Mother. You don't have to get anyone to do anything. I'll go," River suddenly said from the doorway to the corridors behind the Console Room.

"Melody, I – I didn't mean to . . ." Amy said with a look of shame on her face.

"It's alright. I know you didn't want me to hear it that way. I already knew how you felt though because I know you so well. I was one of your best friends for years after all. I could already tell that you didn't want me here anymore so I was planning on leaving anyway," River said.

"Melody, you don't have to do that if you really don't want to," Amy said already feeling guilty about the whole thing.

"No, it's time, Mother. I can definitely tell," River said with a mischievous smile.

Amy looked at that smile in surprise. Why did she have the feeling that River hadn't been completely honest with her about her reasons for coming there after all?

River meanwhile said nothing. She had already accomplished her true goal after all. She had kept Amy so worried about dealing with her and the many problems that she had caused her that she was sure that she hadn't thought about losing Melody once in the entire time that she had been there.

She had noticed that Amy had seemed much happier lately and that the anger and pain in her eyes were gone now. She had completely taken her mind off of her worries which had been her intention all along, and she hoped that would have a permanent impact on her once she had left. She didn't want to ever hear any more stories about her mother going to Telos to pick a fight with the whole planet after all.

That was much more her style than Amy's.

Next: Amelia Williams is the much loved writer of the best-selling Melody Malone detective series and the number one book in the country, Winter Falls. Amelia seems to have the perfect life living in her lovely home in Leadworth with her three young daughters Melody, Amber, and Julia and her husband, Doctor Rory Williams. So why does she have dreams about a man in a bow tie crashing in her yard night after night and wake up crying? Why does she have this incredible feeling of emptiness in her heart as if she's lost something very important? Perhaps that same strange bow tie wearing man from her dreams can help her with the answer to that question when he suddenly shows up at her front door.