A/N: Welcome back to a new chapter. I hope you enjoy it :)

Chapter 3: Telling the Parents

River was already knocking on her parents' door before the TARDIS even finished dematerializing.

Though, looking back, two seconds later, she began having second thoughts. She suddenly felt uneasy about being here, as, over a month ago, she was literally standing with her husband over her parents' grave in Manhattan, New York, after a nasty run-in with the Weeping Angels, and she hadn't seen them since. To her, now it almost felt wrong to be standing on their doorstep after witnessing what will soon be (to them) a tragic future, and one that could not be prevented.

Not that she had any time to make her mind up, because she could hear rapid footsteps approaching the door from inside the house. The door opened, and her mother, the lovely Amelia Williams (formerly Amelia Pond, or "Amy," as she now preferred to be called), emerged, wearing a long cooking apron over her chest.

"River!" she exclaimed upon seeing her daughter, wrapping her arms around her. "It's so good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too, Mother," River replied, returning the hug.

Though, it was a very tense hug, as this was the first hug she'd given her mother since New York. That sense of wrongness increased the longer they embraced, and at this point River was telling herself, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, and yet one tear still managed to slip down her cheek. Damn hormones, she thought as she quickly wiped it away, hoping her mother wouldn't notice.

And, luckily, she didn't, as she said, happily guiding her daughter inside, "Come in! Your father and I are almost finished cooking lunch."

"Ooh!" River smiled. "What's on the menu?"

"Steak and Mash."

"Tasty."

River followed her mother into the living room where she saw her father, Rory Williams, reading the day's newspaper.

"Hello, Father Dear," she greeted him.

"Hey, River," her father smiled as he stood up and hugged her, much like Amy. "I didn't expect you to visit."

River shrugged. "I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by for a few hours." Which was half-true, she thought, as she actually insisted on the Doctor dropping her off to tell them the good news—at least, she hoped it'd be good news to them. "I hope that's alright."

"Of course that's alright!" Amy said as she came back into the living room from the kitchen to check on the meal. "You're always welcome here, Mels."

"Thanks, Mummy Dearest," River smiled as she sat on the sofa across from Rory as he sat back in his chair, setting the newspaper aside.

"So, what's new in your life?" he asked as he sat in a comfortable position, crossing his legs.

"In as few spoilers as possible," Amy added jokingly as she joined her daughter on the sofa.

"Not much, at least spoiler-wise," River chuckled. "Just finished my sixteenth year teaching at Luna University, and now I'm just settling in for a long holiday."

"Nice," Rory nodded proudly.

Amy smiled, just as impressed. "Wow! Sixteen years! No wonder you look so exhausted. You definitely deserve a long break."

"I see you've put on a few pounds as well," Rory said in a slightly concerned tone. "Are you feeling alright, River?"

Oh, here we go, River thought, rolling her eyes. Father's going into Nurse-Mode again. Typical.

She shrugged again. "I'm perfectly fine, Father. About that, it's not just the teaching and grading that's tiring me out. It's something else. Something wonderful."

"And what's that?" he asked eagerly.

"I'm pregnant," River said casually. This time she felt a lot more comfortable telling her parents, as it wouldn't be dangerous at all to tell them, unlike when she told the Doctor.

No surprise, both of her parents' eyes widened in shock.

"No way!"

"You're pregnant?"

"I can't believe it! You're pregnant! Our baby is pregnant!"

"Not so much of a baby anymore," River chuckled at her mother.

Though, suddenly looking back, that wasn't a very good thing to say, as their baby got taken away and trained into an assassin by the Silence. Still, River could understand Amy's reaction and how proud she was to see her daughter about to have her own child (granted, River's child doesn't get taken away from her, should the Silence end up finding out).

"How does the Doctor feel about it?" Rory asked in a somewhat nervous tone. "It's his child too, right? Did you tell him?"

"Of course I told him," she replied. "He's my husband. He has a right to know these things, as do you. And yes, the child is also his."

"How did he take to the news?" Amy asked curiously.

"Not as well as I hoped," her daughter sighed sadly. "I mean, he was excited about the idea of being a father again, since it's been centuries since he was one last."

"But he wasn't at the same time," Amy said knowing. "Why?"

River sighed again and then said after a long pause, "You remember what happened at Demons Run?" Her parents nodded, glancing at each other uneasily. "Well, he's worried that that may happen again."

"But that can't happen again," Amy frowned in disbelief. "That 'Kovarian' witch is dead. I killed her in cold blood, remember?"

"You killed her in an aborted timeline," River corrected her mother. "That timeline got rewritten when the Doctor and I married, and when I 'killed' him at the lake. Kovarian survived in our timeline; rather, she got resurrected when we corrected the timeline. She's alive, and she's still out there, continuing her fiendish plots to kill us."

"So the Doctor thinks Kovarian and the Silence are still out there," Rory theorized, "and they're out to kill you and our unborn grandchild?"

"Basically, yes," River nodded. "At least, that's our theory. We don't actually know if they've survived or not, but it's safe to assume they have."

"So what're you guys gonna do if they have survived?" Amy asked nervously. "If they found out about your child…"

"We haven't really discussed that yet," River said honestly. "I said that even if they did find out about her existence, we'd protect her with our lives at all costs. He didn't really say what we'd do if worse came to worse." Frankly, this was a topic she was not at all ready to discuss, especially if it involved giving their child up for her own safety, or—what River considered to be even worse—to not be able to raise her own child.

Amy frowned. "Wait! 'Her?'"

"You guys are having a girl?"

"Aw, Mels, that's amazing!"

"Oh, yeah," River chuckled at her mistake of words, "we don't actually know if it's a girl; it's just a feeling. The Doctor said he's hoping for a girl, though, mainly so he can name her after his late granddaughter, Susan."

"I hope you have a girl too," Amy smiled sincerely. "Plus, I find that girl names are much easier to come up with. Have you guys decided on names yet?"

"I only just told my husband about my pregnancy, Mother," River chuckled again. "We're nowhere close to coming up with names. We still don't know our child's true gender. It'll be a while before that happens."

"You said you felt like it might be a girl," Rory pointed out.

"'Might.' It might be a girl. I never said it was a girl. We won't know for sure for another few months. I've only been a month pregnant, maybe slightly longer."

"Hang on!" Amy frowned. "If you're pregnant with the Doctor's child, doesn't that make you more attracted to danger? I remember him once talk about how there are certain 'beings' that are attracted to his Time Energy. He once said that he had to go into hiding from a group of aliens by turning himself human."

River nodded. "Yes, that's right, he told me that story. About that, before I found out I was pregnant—in fact it was the exact moment I found out—I ended up accidentally cutting myself, and strangely enough, Regeneration Energy appeared and healed the cut. When I first saw that, I knew that shouldn't be possible, since, you both know, I gave up all of my regenerations for the Doctor back in Berlin 1938. That being said, I knew there was only one other explanation: I was pregnant with the Doctor's child."

"But that doesn't explain why you may or may not be more attracted to danger, like Amy said," Rory frowned, puzzled.

River nodded again before confirming, "Yes, Father, I was just getting to that. The Doctor told me about this Time Lord hormone, called Lindos, that triggers Regeneration. He said that the TARDIS had found a lot of the stuff in me, due to there being another Time Lord forming inside me; and he said that because my Lindos levels were so high, I would have to watch myself, since danger would be attracted to me more, and they could appear at any time."

At this, her parents glanced nervously at each other, obviously feeling concerned for their safety even with their daughter, whom had dealt with danger much longer than they could remember, in the room.

Sensing their uneasiness, River sighed. "I'm sorry, dears. I was so anxious to tell you about my pregnancy that I didn't think to follow my husband's advice to stay in the TARDIS. I didn't realize that my being here would just attract danger to your house. I should never have come here; it was a mistake. I'll call him now and tell him to come pick me up." She rose to her feet and prepared to use her Psychic Paper to call her husband, but her mother stepped forward.

"No, Mels, wait!" Amy said, firmly grabbing her daughter's hands. "You don't have to call him. It's alright. Your father and I don't mind."

"We don't?" Rory spoke up, evidently not feeling thrilled about the idea of imminent danger tearing down his front door and killing them all where they stood—for approximately the fifth time in his case (he wasn't really sure, as he'd honestly lost count as to the number of times he's died since travelling with the Doctor). However, he felt obligated to change his mind once he saw his wife's sideways glance. "I mean, no, we don't."

Amy reached out and hugged her daughter again. "It doesn't matter if you attract danger to our house. We've had plenty of experience with danger, having travelled with the Doctor for so long. If they come for you, we can take'em. We're Pond Girls; we can handle anything!" At this, Rory gave a disapproving snort, and Amy added, "Oh, yeah, and your father once led and defended against armies as a Roman Centurion."

"For almost two-thousand years!" Rory pointed out what he considered to be the painfully obvious. "And plastic!"

"Yes, Stupid Face, we know," Amy chuckled with River. She then gestured back toward the sofa. "Come on, sit back down. It's very rare, these days, that we get to be a proper family together."

"A normal family," Rory added.

"Exactly," Amy agreed with Rory. "Let's put all worries aside and just be a normal family for once. What do you say, Mels?"

"It's funny that you still call me 'Mels,'" River smiled as she sat back down on the sofa, "even after all these years knowing me by a different name and with a different identity." She knew Amy and Rory knew her much longer as 'River Song' before finding out her true identity of being their daughter, even though, technically, they'd known each other their whole lives, even long before they'd met the Doctor.

"That is how I named you, after all," Amy smiled, rubbing her daughter's back lovingly. "Melody, Mels, River—it doesn't matter. You'll always be not just our daughter but also our best friend. Nothing and no one is ever gonna change that."

"Agreed," Rory said as he rose from his chair and wrapped his arms around his girls. "We'll always love you, no matter what. You, the Doctor… Even our new grandchild, whoever he or she will be."

"And I will always love you," River said, hugging them tightly back. "You both are seared onto my hearts always."

A/N: TO BE CONTINUED!

As always, be sure to check back every once in a while for updates, since I tend to edit my chapters shortly after initially posting them. As most writers well know, our biggest curse is that our rewrites never end.