Broken Pasts [ On Going ]

1. A Face From the Past

River Song was known for many things; she was a "child of the TARDIS," a prisoner at Stormhede imprisoned for killing a man called The Doctor.

But what she was most well known for was for being the wife of the man she killed. River over the years has gone by many names during her first few years of life she went by her birth name, Melody Pond.

After a regeneration, however, she started going by River Song. River also would get into other relationships besides the one with her husband.

While she loved The Doctor she knew he was not the type of man who would want to settle down in one place for a long period of time and start a simple, slow life like River would sometimes secretly wish to do with him.

She also knew that there was probably no chance of The Doctor ever wanting to start a family with her, he would just say that his life was too dangerous for that type of nonsense. But what The Doctor didn't know was that a small part of River wanted all that.

Because of that she would get in relationship with other men she meet; one of those men was Quentin Lance.

He was a wonderful man who she eventually married. When she married Quentin she changed her name to Dinah Lance in order to protect her husband and one day her two children, Laurel and Sara Lance.

River didn't want any of them to get involved with her life as River Song, she especially didn't want them to be put in danger because of her and her dealings with time travel, aliens, and The Doctor.

Eventually River would tell Quentin the truth about her monstrous trips and why she sometimes wouldn't be around for weeks or maybe even months.

But the two decided to split up, though they still stayed on good terms and River would come by to see her children as often as she could.

But their two daughters remained in the dark about all the things River had done. They had agreed that it would be better and safer for them that way...

Then, the Queen's Gambit wrecked and all their dreams were shattered. Sara disappeared on and off for the next months, and it was then that River knew she had fallen into the same habit the rest of her family had. Time Travel.

Though she had never expected to see her father again. So when Sara introduced her captain to her mother, saying River was shocked was a understatement.

She wasn't sure why Sara had brought him home. Maybe whatever dangerous time travel mishap had forced them to come to her. Maybe there was an alien on the loose that they were chasing down.

Whatever the case, they were knocking at the door of her apartment early one Tuesday afternoon. (Strange the way the weirdness seemed to be attracted to that day.)

She was shocked enough to see her daughter -- her beautiful blonde hair trailing over her shoulders, blue eyes sparking with intensity.

Sara and Laurel rarely ever came to visit now that they were both grown adults who were busy with their own lives.

But she instantly froze when she spotted the man next to her daughter -- the sandy hair, the piercing green eyes. He looked a little older, and he'd gained a bit of scruff, but it was still very much him, indeed.

He was dressed differently -- a grey shirt under a leather jacket and long trench coat. On his belt was a dumpster a revolver that would have made the Doctor enraged.

However, this 'Rip Hunter' as he was called, didn't seem to recognize her even in the slightest, which River instantly found suspicious.

(Unless of course he was pretending to keep Sara in the dark, but River didn't think so.) She was hoping to pull 'Rip' aside to talk to him in private.

She needed to see what the hell was going on with him. If she was lucky, perhaps she could even scan him with one of her sonic devices.

She managed to get him alone when Sara slipped away to the bathroom.

River eyed him cautiously, and 'Rip' stared back at her nervously. She could tell she was putting him off, but she didn't dare back down.

"Do I know you?" he asked suddenly, confirming his lack of memories.

River shrugged, hoping to avoid raising suspicion. She didn't want to scare him off before she managed to get some answers. "Maybe we had the same doctor."

He knit his brows together, perplexed. She could tell he was thinking her words over, maybe trying to figure out if they had ever actually been to the same clinic before. Though even in his hazy state it was clear that he knew that wasn't quite right.

River watched him carefully as she moved across the room, taking a seat at the end of the couch in her living room. She was hoping he would take the hint, but there was no such luck.

She decided to keep pressing. "How long have you and my daughter been...working together?" As far as he knew, River had no idea about time travel. It would be best to keep things vague for now.

"Er, a few months," he said. He glanced at the bathroom door, like he was silently urging Sara to hurry up.

Though River wasn't sure if his unease was due more to feeling as though he knew her or because he felt uncomfortable being in the same room as one of his employees' parents.

"Hm. Interesting." River slowly reached for her sonic device disguised as lipstick, pretending to apply it.

(She'd gotten the idea from one of the Doctor's old friends -- Sarah Jane Smith. The two had met once when River was tracking down a Slitheen in London a few years ago, and they had really hit it off. River had even named her second daughter after her.)

As she brought the sonic lipstick down again, she scanned him discretely. In the same instant, Sara came out from the bathroom, and a few seconds later she and her captain were rushing out the door with a quick goodbye.

River sighed as they went, deciding she would have to find them again later. First, she needed to decipher the results of her sonic's findings.