An almost palpable silence filled the room. Rita had her cup halfway to her mouth; Dennis was staring - again open-mouthed - at the Doctor; Allen was fiddling with a piece of paper he had in his hand. After a moment, Rita slowly put her cup down and stood up to confront the Doctor.<br/><br/>"Well," she said, her voice a little breathless. "That sounds very interesting. But I'd like to say something. I very seriously doubt that you ruined her life. Robin is a very, very smart girl. If you'd ruined her life, she would have nothing to do with you. She knows how to take care of herself, and she knows who to include in her life and who not to include. If she's decided you're someone to have in her life... Well, I trust her judgement." At that, she sat down on the couch and looked to Dennis, who heaved a sigh.<br/><br/>"If you couldn't tell," he said, placing a hand on his wife's knee and patting it gently, "Robin is adopted. When she was just a baby, someone left her on our door with only that locket. There was nothing else... no name, no nothing. Only a little note that said<em>'Keep her safe.'</em>No one knows where she came from... We had to get all new documents for her and go through legal hell to keep her."<br/><br/>"It's been worth it, though," Rita added. "She's amazing. We never kept it from her - not that we could have, anyway - but she's not like most. She had no desire to find her birth parents. She figured if they left her behind they must not have wanted her. She's never called us anything other than Mom and Dad. Like I said. She knows who to keep in her life, and who to let stay out of it, Doctor."<br/><br/>"If Robin trusts you, and if she likes you and feels safe with you... We feel the same way," Allen added with a smile. "She's always been sort of like our guardian angel. Even though she never got into the alien thing... Which I guess has changed now... Well, you can imagine the way people make fun of us. And Robin was always there to stand up for us. So yeah. We rely on her a lot, and we trust her."