The party was turning out to be a disaster. The more intergalactic alcohol that seemed to find its way into the punch seemed to make the rest of the party-goers lose their minds. They had all lost semblance of normalcy and had taken to heatedly playing tonsil hockey, or worse, in various parts of Heston Vincenze's penthouse.

The slightly raggedy girl with an abundance of dishwater blonde curls was disgustedly picking up empty cups, plates of food, while stepping over or avoiding the embarrassing obscene acts ongoing through the suite. Every time a hand reached for an area in her dress that was against her personal rules, the perpetrator found himself with a few broken fingers.

Usually the man was so inebriated that he wouldn't feel them until the next day, but it kept her from being groped frequently as she just tried to do her job. The job she had only taken when the Londinium Council had decided to raise the cost of receiving a general education.

The maid's name was River Song, and she had one of the fiercest sets of blue eyes on that side of the Taboros System, and could fire a sonic blaster and never miss up to 70 yards. She was still busy making her way through the education system set up by the Tri-Galaxy Senate, and was quite smart.

Working a party where most of her classmates were hammered, however, was not her idea of fun.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey pretty lady….." another drunk boyfriend of the cheerleader passed out on the floor slurred as River picked her standard black heels off the floor to carefully make her way through the wreckage of Heston Vincenze's father's Impedian Crystal Coffee Table. The boy's hand reached up River's skirt and in a flash he found himself pinned to the floor, his face painfully pressed into the shards of the table.

River smirked. "I don't think so."

She let the drunk go and finished cleaning. As her shift drew to a close and the replacement came to work on the incredible disaster that only 20 teenagers had caused, River began to pull off her apron and reach for her coat.

A hand with three obnoxiously large rings reached out and took hold of her wrist.

Heston Vincenze smiled down at River, his blonde hair slicked to the side, and his smile oily and perverse. He was dressed in the standard finery he wore to class, the top brands of the Third Moon Rim fashion designers.

"Leaving so soon?"

Although Heston's speech was clear, River could detect the alcohol under the layers of suave charm. She smiled and nodded, quickly yanking her wrist from the snakes grasp and rushing to the door, barely remembering to grab her purse as she stepped on the exit pad to find herself in the chill night air of the Third Moon Rim.

River Song liked living on the Third Moon Rim. It was the illiterately named third moon of the planet Londinium, the highest power of the grouping of colonized worlds. Third Moon Rim was inhabited by the rich and famous, and the people who worked for them.

It also had the best schools system in the Tri-Galaxy. In the Taboros system, most children were guaranteed a public education up until they were twelve, but then a price was placed on their continued schooling. Of course, most 'proper occupations' required up through grade sixteen, when a student was legally considered an adult.

Although River's mother scoffed, River wanted to pursue her schooling past grade sixteen and go to a real training school.

"You're nothing!" her mother would screech. "You can work your way through the rest of your education to become the maid to some high baller and maybe his fancy whore, but you'd be a bloody fool to think you can make anything of yourself!"

"I'm going to be something mother!" River screamed back, her face red from crying and frustration and anger at her mother. Her flyaway hair stuck out oddly from her head. "I want to be an archaeologist! I want to travel the galaxy and discover new and old peoples and places!"

Her mother would screech something fierce and throw another hologram vase at her head, to watch it shatter with sickening joy.

"Fine," her mother would snap. "Just wait. Don't come crying when you're in a cat house."

River took a deep breath as she entered the chill of the night and shrugged her thin coat over her shoulders. Before she could walk away from Heston Vincenze's building to trek home, a larger coat was draped over her shoulders.

"You look cold."

Heston Vincenze was looming over River, a charming smile on his absurdly handsome features. River had never considered him attractive, but under the moonlight, with the look he had in his eye, she started to see why the girls in class found him so dashing.

Against her will, a blush crept into River's cheeks.

"Thanks…but I can take care of myself." She turned on her heel and left Heston standing with his coat as she vainly tried to hurry away in her painful black heels.

"Woah-woah-woah!" Vincent shook himself from his stupor to jog up to River. "It's freezing. Let me walk you home at least."

River shook her head. "I'm fine, thank you."

The coat laid across her shoulders again and River had to admit that the warmth it provided was very welcome. And Heston hadn't put a finger on her yet, so maybe it was just a gentlemanly thing he was trying to do…

River softened.

She looked up into Heston's dark eyes. They looked nearly as black as his pupils, making his iris' look like deep pools of obsidian rock. River took a deep breath.

"Thank you… Mr. Vincenze."

Heston chuckled. "Call me Heston. We're in the same class… Arturian's Ancient Civilizations and World Religions."

River giggled. "Right."

Heston took a deep breath. "So…how old are you, River? You seem pretty smart for a girl."

River's blue eyes glinted proudly.

"Sixteen."

Heston whistled. As they had been talking, Heston had cautiously laid a hand on River's elbow. River was so caught up that she hadn't noticed Heston to start to lead her towards a darker area of the city, until they were down an alley.

"So you're legal then. You'll be done with school this year."

"No, I'm going to University to be an Archaeologist." River suddenly felt a sick feeling sink into the depth of her stomach. She had been tricked. And Heston was a good foot and a half taller than her, and a member of every sport team offered in the Third Moon Rim school.

A frightening smile lit Heston's face as he saw the realization dawn on River. River pulled away quickly.

"I can find my way from here, thank you."

Before River could see what was happening, Heston had slammed her against a wall, his alcohol saturated body pressed against her frame. River felt bile rising to her throat as she felt his hips grinding against her. Heston had pinned her arms above her head and was breathing into her face.

"The school bitch thinks she can make something of herself…what a joke." Heston laughed. "The most you'll be is some Rim World Owner's piss cleaner. Why not at least spend a night with a real man?"

River felt her nostrils filling with his awful, alcohol stench. It wasn't just any alcohol, however. It was the nauseating Londinium trade Lipdin Alcohol. A disgusting drink that could knock even the largest Bane off of its tentacles in minutes.

"Get off Vincenze," River snarled. It was a fine show, but with her arms locked in a vice grip, River realized she was helpless. Heston realized this as well and just laughed, pressing his large, drunk, trout lips against River's tiny mouth, smothering her.

River tried to scream, squirming in protest.

There was a creak from the wall behind her and before she knew what was happening, Heston Vincenze was on his ass in the dirt, a look of sloppy disgust and shock plastered on his face, and a warm, large hand had engulfed her own and a voice was urgently telling her to run.

River had just enough time to see an ancient set of hazel eyes, floppy black hair, and a red bowtie, before she found herself running…for not the last time in her life.