In which Melody Pond becomes slightly less murderous and slightly more River Song...

Melody Pond hated her parents.

Just a little. She hated them for leaving her at that hospital, all alone, without so much as a note. Abandoned in a future century so completely different from what she was used to, completely alone while they sailed away on their adventures with the Doctor. It was funny- she'd never hated them before. She'd been raised to hate the Doctor and everything he'd stood for, everything he'd done, but never them.

Pity them, Madam Kovarian had told her. For they'd been blinded by the pretty words and lies of the Devil himself, tricked into trusting him. Don't try to save them. They'd always pick the Doctor, fanatical in their faith. Don't love them. They didn't love their only child enough to pick her over the Doctor.

She'd thought Madam had been right. One meeting, and little Amelia's entire life had been upended. Melody had watched it happen. The little girl already regarded as a bit of an outsider, who quickly branded herself as an oddity thanks to her obsession with the Raggedy Doctor. It had worked in Melody's favour- she slid right into the spot of best friend. But as they grew older, grew up, she realised quickly neither she nor Rory could hold a candle to Amy's not-so imaginary friend.

Madam wasn't wrong, in that regard. But that didn't make her right, either. Not that Melody had much chance to ruminate on it- she might have had brushes with the future, but she'd spent over a decade and a half living in Leadworth in the 21st century. She didn't know this place. It might have been a hospital she'd been left in, but it was so far from familiar that that was no comfort at all and every instinct she had was screaming.

So she left. Slipped away when no one was watching and emerged onto unfamiliar streets, under a sun that wasn't the one she was used to and onto ground that moved differently to the planet that was as close to hers as she had. Different smells and a sky that was the wrong shade of blue, while languages unpronounceable on a human tongue filled the air.

She walked, soaking it all in. A young couple raced up the street in front of her, hand in hand and laughing. Across the road, a toddler made a break for freedom, caught within a few steps by his mother, who looked somewhere between amused and exasperated (the fact that both mother and son appeared to have metallic scales instead of skin was neither here nor there). A man with no legs waited for a break in the traffic at the curb in a chair, and that the chair had no wheels and was hovering on its own didn't negate the fact that it was a more familiar sight than Melody had anticipated, and something inside her eased. Suddenly, things were more familiar.

People were still people, even spread out amongst the universe. They lived their lives much the same, and so could she.

She launched herself into the experience, learning everything she could. She watched people at parks, listened to them talk at coffee shops. She chatted up a nice android at the market, and spent three straight days and nights at the library, reading everything she could get her hands on. History, economics, modern classics, geography and astronomy- which were now far more closely linked than when she'd been in school. She studied the few branches of science that hadn't been drilled into her head, learnt planetary and intergalactic law (after all, she'd need to know exactly which ones she'd be breaking at any given moment), and at some point along the way, absently noted that all this time studying wasn't quite as excruciating as it had once been, and considered that maybe, university might not be such an awful concept.

Not yet, though. Instead, she wove her way through society, starting at the bottom and working her way up. Criminals were criminals, after all, and a good way to flex her skills. And then she moved higher, flirting and charming her way through until she was dressed to the nines and rubbing shoulders with the upper echelons that swam around this planet. She met a woman there who was rich enough to own her own ship, and gullible enough to believe Melody would fall into line. Some flirting and just enough coyness, and the deal was sealed. Her first true taste of space travel, and she was grateful enough that when she finally walked away several planets and three months later, she took only the least sentimental of the woman's jewellery.

But she heard nothing from the Doctor or her parents. She knew what they'd said, about finding herself without influence, but she'd thought they'd at least check in. If not on their daughter, then on their best friend- she was still Mels, although she supposed even that was ruined now.

It had led her to Luna University though. Now thoroughly imbedded in the current century, she had began to search for herself. The Silence's teachings whispered through her brain, but her parents had contradicted them. The Doctor was worth it, her mother had said. Melody intended to find out for herself, searching through history, through stories and myths and fourth-hand accounts of long-ago battles. It wasn't as tricky as she'd feared, once she knew what she was looking for. And once she'd started, she kept going, right into beginning a degree. She'd needed a better library, and if she was spending all this time reading and studying, she may as well gain something other than knowledge from it. Her subject choice was fairly easy too. She'd considered history, for all of five seconds. Far too dull for her tastes. All shut up in rooms doing nothing more than talking about the past. But archaeology, on the other hand… well, there was potential for adventure there (and she remembered her father's admiration for Indiana Jones, oh so long ago).

School on her own terms suited her. In another life, Amy and Rory would have laughed themselves silly over the thought of Mels not only willingly attending university, but getting good grades there. River Song, however, fit right in. The academics she found easy, the practical side required an attention to detail that she found almost soothing and university itself… well, she always did enjoy shaking things up a bit. She confounded them, she found. A disgraceful flirt and serious academic, with the ability to debate topics as well as the professors before turning into the life of the party with her fellow students that same evening. She charmed her lecturers, attended digs during the holidays that usually only students far further on in their studies were invited to. She joined the archery team, of all things, and made friends with a farm boy from an outer planet who took turns with her in bringing different weapons for target practice (it helped that he was thoroughly besotted with a girl back home, and had eyes for no one else). She spent her weekends buried in the library, or shopping (stealing), or dressing up in exquisite dresses and dancing her night away.

She thought she'd seen the Doctor, a few times. Out of the corner of her eye, lurking amongst crowds or at the back of a darkened room. Checking up on her, she realised, once she'd accepted that he wasn't an hallucination but really there. But each time when she'd turn to look properly, the space she'd seen him would be empty, no sign of the man who'd left her here.

Until he was. Out of the blue one day, she turned around and there he was, snazzy suit and a grin on his face. She wanted to rage at him. Wanted to hug him. Wanted to demand answers on where he'd been for two whole years, wanted to slide her hand into his. Kill him or kiss him (but not both. Been there, done that.)

She clamped down on the anger, tilted her head. "Well. Hello sweetie. This is a surprise."

"River. No urge to shoot me?"

"I haven't decided yet."

He beamed at her, the ridiculous man. "Excellent! I have tickets to the very first production of The Merchant of Venice. Want to go?"

She blinked. "I haven't seen you in two years. I killed you."

"And then saved me," he said cheerfully. "Are you coming?"

She considered him for a minute. "Okay."

And so her life changed again. Now, every so often, that blue box would appear and whisk her off to places unknown. It took her only a few trips to realise that The Doctor was trying to show her the beauty of the universe, taking her to cascading firefalls and a planet where the flowers glowed like stars. He tried to keep them away from battles, but this was him and he didn't always succeed. But the first time she chose to stun a soldier instead of killing him, he looked at her with something close to pride and she had to hide her pleased smile.

Her parents showed up soon after that. Standing at the door to her flat, both looking hesitant and awkward and she thought about scowling, about demanding to know why they'd left her. But she already knew, really. So instead, she grabbed her jacket and took them for dinner at a restaurant that used telepathy to cook any dish the diner desired.

University here was different to how it had been in her time. Students came from all backgrounds and at all stages of life, studied at their own pace (to make allowances for different species, a voice in her head whispered) and so she finished her degree as quickly as she could. Waited until she'd passed her geoarchaeology module to date her professor, just in case. Her parents attended her graduation, the Doctor bouncing on his toes beside them and they all pretended it wasn't painfully uncomfortable, pretended that this wasn't so many shades of wrong. And then, River was so far from finished her research, she simply carried on. Taking full advantage of that big old library, built to mimic ones she'd seen in pictures on earth, researching the Doctor whilst becoming one herself. She still had questions, after all, especially since she'd long since realised she was part of some of those stories she'd found.

She went to Saturn IV, and caused a riot without ever pulling her blaster out. Spent the summer at an archaeological dig back on earth (and ignored the way her blood seemed to hum the moment her feet stepped onto the planet), and almost became accidentally engaged to a rather understanding fellow on a planet where smiling had very different connotations to what she was used to.

The Doctor popped up again, just in time to take her to research her doctorate in person. All excitement and hyperactivity and insulting archaeology, right up until he made a quip she didn't respond to, and his smile was wiped from his face. Something from the future, she deduced, but before she could ask him he'd whirled around and started babbling about ice warriors.

She went back to Luna, and signed up for an expedition to the Caves of Ibraxus. Spent several weeks dating a Draconian and researched her parents back on earth. There were a sudden lack of references, she noted, beyond a certain point. Birth records for both, a marriage certificate. Her father's degree and subsequent nursing registration, kept meticulously up to date. Until it wasn't. She found a couple of old articles written by her mother, managed to track down some old modelling shots. And then nothing. No death records either, not ones that matched. It all gave her an uneasy feeling deep in her stomach, and she hastily shut that particular line of enquiry down. For the first time, she understood what the Doctor had said about foreknowledge.

She was almost finished with her doctorate, and she took a break. Not officially, as far as anyone at Luna was concerned she hadn't been gone at all. But the Time Agent she was flirting with was shockingly easy to persuade, which was how she found herself celebrating a new millennium in a galaxy she'd never been to before.

She bumped into someone, turned to apologise and wasn't sure whether she or her mother were more surprised to find the other standing there. They stared at each other for a long moment, before River pushed a drink into her hand and ordered her to try it. Amy's eyes lit up at the taste, her mouth curving into a smile and for the next few hours, it was as if they were back to being teenagers, drinking contraband alcohol in the woods.

Of course, the hours after that she didn't quite remember. She'd woken on the TARDIS, wandered around unimpeded for the first time. Her parents were both asleep, her other mother had told her, as was the Doctor.

And so she'd shown her child her secrets. Had guided her to the library with its thousands of books and the reading nook she'd made just for her. Had taken her down, shown her a brilliant burning star hidden inside herself. Explanations into the workings of the TARDIS were whispered into River's brain, settling in beside the knowledge of how to fly her. There were rooms full of artefacts that River poured over, and a wardrobe containing boots in her size, beautiful evening gowns and lipsticks just right for her skin tone.

The Doctor appeared hours later, a little perturbed to find her exploring freely. But he covered it with a smile, and enclosed her hand in his as he continued the impromptu tour.

He dropped her back to Luna a few hours later, before her parents were even awake. It was better that way. She'd kissed him goodbye and made him blush, and later that night, sprawled on her back as she looked at the stars and felt the planet spin beneath her, she realised that she was happy. Happy and free, and the realisation had her grinning like a mad woman, all alone in the grounds of the university.

It lasted for a couple of weeks. Right up until graduation, when a woman with an eyepatch found her in the library.