Rose Tyler Ficathon Entry - Stockholm Syndrome
Title: Stockholm Syndrome (1/4?)
Rating: PG-ish, for some potentially distressing situations.
Disclaimer: It isn't mine, yada yada. Doubt the Beeb would go to the effort of suing me anyway.
Summary: Stockholm syndrome n: The phenomenon in which a hostage begins to identify, and grow sympathetic to his or her captor.
Authors Notes: Written for the Rose Tyler ficathon for lilsisshotgun who wanted some kind of wild west chase on horses, The doctor having to heal Rose in some way - not showing her how worried he is, and Rose getting the giggles at a really inappropriate time. I do hope, i've done her justice. Much thanks to my wonderful Beta bohemianrose24.
Rose took refuge from the hot sun under a shop front at the side of the road. The Doctor followed, nose wrinkled, his left hand tangled in his hair as it often was when he was deep in thought. The place was packed and full of noise, reminding her of Covent Garden markets.
‘I think, we may have landed on the wrong planet’ he said slowly, enunciating every syllable, as if to make sure he were pronouncing it correctly. Rose raised her eyebrow.
If she hadn’t known better, she would have said they’d landed on Earth. The locals certainly looked human enough, with deep chocolate skin, they could easily have been in Namibia or some such place. However, the bright green unblinking eyes of the people passing her begged to differ. Their clothes were made out of some brightly coloured material that seemed to float around their bodies, and they moved in a way that could be mistaken for flying, except their feet stayed firmly on the ground.
They must be in a city she thought, the sheer amount of people made that clear enough. They didn’t seem to notice or indeed care about the presence of two pale skinned strangers, and Rose wondered how many people were packed into this place. ‘Probably millions.’ She thought. Talk about over-populating.
'Bordeaux' The Doctor said proudly, as if waiting for applause.
‘But that’s in France...’ She began, quickly silenced by his look of disbelief.
‘Do you never listen? Bordeaux the planet, not Bordeaux the city!’ He shook his head and she felt the blush rising to her cheeks.
‘Not much happening today though...’ He stood up on the tips of his toes to peer over the crowd and down the street, and Rose knew his attention span would not last long with this serious lack of action.
Then the screaming began. For a moment, she doubted she’d even heard the first scream, but then there was another, and another, and people appeared to be running about in a blind panic. There was utter chaos and pandemonium, the Doctor’s two favourite words.
She looked up at the Doctor and saw with a feeling of dread, his face had lit up.
‘Doctor, no...’ She began, but her sentence was cut off as he disappeared into the crowd and Rose found herself standing alone.
________________________________________
She stood very still in front of the shop and tried to stay calm. Whilst her instinct was to panic and run into the crowd after the Doctor, she didn’t think that a good idea, and she had no idea in which direction he’d run, let alone what she might find when she caught up with him.
Then again, no use in standing about waiting. It wasn’t the Doctor’s style, and certainly not hers either. Besides, more likely than not he’d need her help for something.
Pushing through the panicking crowd was easier than she expected, and she found after a while the noise volume was almost unbearable, which told her she was close to the action.
Except the screaming she could hear was not one she recognised. Not the screams of the beings around her, and not anything remotely human-esque, but rather another, different sort of scream. Almost a song, or a chant, it was hard to tell.
She was in a large open area that reminded her of the ancient Roman forums. There was a wooden platform built in the centre upon which were standing several figures, including a woman who looked like nothing she’d ever seen before and, surprise, surprise - the Doctor.
Except that he was behaving very strangely. The woman looked like she was speaking to him and he was staring straight ahead, glazed expression, as if lost inside his own head.
The other people around him also seemed to be lost in their own heads, all wearing a look of complete peace. Slight smiles dancing on their lips and eyes drooping as if they might be falling asleep.
The only one unaffected was the woman, if she could be called that. She didn’t look like the other people on the planet, though she also had dark skin. She seemed to radiate peace and calm, and her eyes were gold to match her long hair, tied in an elegant knot at the base of her neck.
She looked as if she were speaking to the people, but Rose knew suddenly that she was not speaking to them. The scream that wasn’t a scream was coming from her, and it seemed to be spreading, the people in front of Rose stopped pushing to get away and suddenly stood still, faces expressionless, lost inside their own heads.
She felt the wave pass over her, and the people around her fell still and quiet. The same feeling of calm did not hit her. She almost wished it might, but knew that she would have no such comfort.
A surge of pure fear sent Rose barreling towards the platform. She stumbled up the wooden steps and into the Doctor, knocking him sideways and into the railing.
‘Rose...’ He gasped, eyes rolling and his whole body shuddering as if he must be in terrible pain. He pitched forward, clinging onto her jacket and screaming wordlessly, his right hand tugging her sleeve helplessly.
‘What is it?’ She could feel the tears stinging behind her eyes, tried to speak again and failed.
‘Rose, Rose’ He kept repeating her name over and over, like a mantra. The sound of screaming rang in her ears, fogging her mind, and she could have sworn she heard singing. So soft and clear and beautiful, she might have fallen asleep if she cared to listen any longer.
‘Rose...’ The Doctor was shaking her arm, whether by choice or the great shudders that perpetually passed over his body. She forced herself to look at him, to really look, and not at his deathly-white skin or his rolling eyes, but at him, to understand what it was he was trying to tell her.
‘Rose... Think...’ He gasped, his eyes shining with renewed hope, his hands clutching at her like a baby to its mother. Finally it seemed he stopped fighting, as his body slumped to the ground and he let out a loud shriek, his body twitching and writhing as if he were fighting invisible captors.
It was a long moment before he fell still and silent and Rose could bear to breathe again. She turned to the woman who stood silently, watching her with deep golden eyes.
‘Whatever you did, undo it,’ she hissed, the rage welling up inside her, dark and vicious and screaming to get out.
The woman threw back her head and laughed, a cold laugh that only served to increase Rose’s fury and make her want to hit and kick and hurt her in the most horrible ways imaginable.
‘Silly little earth-child,’ the woman spoke softly, with a hiss in her voice that chilled her to the bone. ‘He is mine now, as are they all,’ her eyes flashed and Rose felt the fogginess returning, white and thick, and not beautiful and peaceful as before but angry and suffocating. She pushed it away, even if only for a moment, and saw the woman's eyes flash with anger.
‘You resist earth-child. Forever fighting me away. I cannot take your mind; it burns like a thousand suns. No, no, you will not be tamed, not put to a purpose, not even I, strongest of them all can take it, and yet...He has taken it...’
Her gaze shifted from Rose to the lifeless figure of the Doctor and Rose saw he began to move, pulling himself upright and staring at the woman with adoration.
‘He will be first,’ the woman spat, her elegant face twisting and contorting. A strange sensation overcame Rose as if it were pushing its way into her mind, a pleasant, tickling sort of feeling. A wave of pleasure washed over her body and caused her knees to buckle.
‘What was that?’ She struggled out, still reeling from the sudden intensity. The woman laughed again, and another wave of pleasure rippled over Rose’s body, pushing her to her knees gasping and shaking.
‘Had enough earth-child? If you will not surrender to me, I have no use for you.’ Rose lifted her head slightly, enough to watch the crowds of people all succumb to the waves of euphoria washing over them.
She curled into herself, willing the sensation to leave her, but still it came. It hit her repeatedly like waves on the shore until she could take no more and collapsed on the warm wood.
Around her, the world went black.
__________________________________________________________________
When she woke, she immediately kicked out, her mind still struggling to catch up with the events around her. Her foot hit something very solid and she felt the tears of pain immediately spring to her eyes.
She carefully groped the very solid thing in front of her, and found it to be a cold piece of metal, smooth and probably shiny, if she could see it through the solid blackness.
‘Shut up and keep still.’ She fought the temptation to scream as a very clear voice sounded through her head, and the metal disappeared from in front of her. Light burst into the confined space and she immediately recoiled from it, feeling the heat as if it burned every inch of her flesh.
‘God you’d think you hadn’t seen sunlight before!’ The voice sounded unimpressed, and she wondered who or what exactly it was. She didn’t much like her mind being tampered with, as she had explicitly told the Doctor a time or two.
Oh God, the Doctor. No sooner had the thought come to mind, she had tumbled forward onto the warm ground, and immediately inhaled a mouthful of dirt. Coughing and spluttering, she sat upright and spat the mouthful of mud on the feet of someone.
‘Gee, thanks for that. I’ll treasure it always.’ The feet were not grateful. Neither, apparently, was the owner of the feet, a girl who looked younger than Rose herself.
‘What happened? Where’s the Doctor? Who...‘ The girl silenced her with a wave of her hand and a shake of her head. Rose heard muffled cries above her, although she couldn’t be sure if they were shouts of joy or pain.
She saw she was in a pit apparently underneath the wooden platform she remembered being on before she had passed out. Next to her was a metal box that evidently she had been stuffed inside. It gave her a horrible feeling she would have been left alone in the dark to die had it not been for this girl.
‘Follow me.’ The voice inside her head hissed and the girl next to her began to pick her way through the mess of wood and God knows what else. It was well lit by the rays of light between the wooden planks but it was still hot and stuffy and impossibly dirty.
They came to a door and Rose knew it must lead outside. The girl put a finger to her lips and gently opened it, slipping outside silently. Obediently, she followed and found herself standing behind the wooden platform, the sun impossibly hot on her back.
She turned to thank the girl and saw that she suddenly possessed a dazed look, her lips drooping in a sort of half-smile. The girl’s brilliant green, half-lidded gaze seemed to stare right through her as if she didn’t exist at all.
‘Thank you,’ Rose whispered, dropping to her knees and crawling through the crowds of people. She thought that in theory, if she stayed low, she might not be seen. The cobbles dug into her hands and knees but she continued to crawl forwards until the crowd thinned and she knew she must have reached the edge of the forum.
She quickly stood and ran.
Rating: PG-ish, for some potentially distressing situations.
Disclaimer: It isn't mine, yada yada. Doubt the Beeb would go to the effort of suing me anyway.
Summary: Stockholm syndrome n: The phenomenon in which a hostage begins to identify, and grow sympathetic to his or her captor.
Authors Notes: Written for the Rose Tyler ficathon for lilsisshotgun who wanted some kind of wild west chase on horses, The doctor having to heal Rose in some way - not showing her how worried he is, and Rose getting the giggles at a really inappropriate time. I do hope, i've done her justice. Much thanks to my wonderful Beta bohemianrose24.
Rose took refuge from the hot sun under a shop front at the side of the road. The Doctor followed, nose wrinkled, his left hand tangled in his hair as it often was when he was deep in thought. The place was packed and full of noise, reminding her of Covent Garden markets.
‘I think, we may have landed on the wrong planet’ he said slowly, enunciating every syllable, as if to make sure he were pronouncing it correctly. Rose raised her eyebrow.
If she hadn’t known better, she would have said they’d landed on Earth. The locals certainly looked human enough, with deep chocolate skin, they could easily have been in Namibia or some such place. However, the bright green unblinking eyes of the people passing her begged to differ. Their clothes were made out of some brightly coloured material that seemed to float around their bodies, and they moved in a way that could be mistaken for flying, except their feet stayed firmly on the ground.
They must be in a city she thought, the sheer amount of people made that clear enough. They didn’t seem to notice or indeed care about the presence of two pale skinned strangers, and Rose wondered how many people were packed into this place. ‘Probably millions.’ She thought. Talk about over-populating.
'Bordeaux' The Doctor said proudly, as if waiting for applause.
‘But that’s in France...’ She began, quickly silenced by his look of disbelief.
‘Do you never listen? Bordeaux the planet, not Bordeaux the city!’ He shook his head and she felt the blush rising to her cheeks.
‘Not much happening today though...’ He stood up on the tips of his toes to peer over the crowd and down the street, and Rose knew his attention span would not last long with this serious lack of action.
Then the screaming began. For a moment, she doubted she’d even heard the first scream, but then there was another, and another, and people appeared to be running about in a blind panic. There was utter chaos and pandemonium, the Doctor’s two favourite words.
She looked up at the Doctor and saw with a feeling of dread, his face had lit up.
‘Doctor, no...’ She began, but her sentence was cut off as he disappeared into the crowd and Rose found herself standing alone.
________________________________________
She stood very still in front of the shop and tried to stay calm. Whilst her instinct was to panic and run into the crowd after the Doctor, she didn’t think that a good idea, and she had no idea in which direction he’d run, let alone what she might find when she caught up with him.
Then again, no use in standing about waiting. It wasn’t the Doctor’s style, and certainly not hers either. Besides, more likely than not he’d need her help for something.
Pushing through the panicking crowd was easier than she expected, and she found after a while the noise volume was almost unbearable, which told her she was close to the action.
Except the screaming she could hear was not one she recognised. Not the screams of the beings around her, and not anything remotely human-esque, but rather another, different sort of scream. Almost a song, or a chant, it was hard to tell.
She was in a large open area that reminded her of the ancient Roman forums. There was a wooden platform built in the centre upon which were standing several figures, including a woman who looked like nothing she’d ever seen before and, surprise, surprise - the Doctor.
Except that he was behaving very strangely. The woman looked like she was speaking to him and he was staring straight ahead, glazed expression, as if lost inside his own head.
The other people around him also seemed to be lost in their own heads, all wearing a look of complete peace. Slight smiles dancing on their lips and eyes drooping as if they might be falling asleep.
The only one unaffected was the woman, if she could be called that. She didn’t look like the other people on the planet, though she also had dark skin. She seemed to radiate peace and calm, and her eyes were gold to match her long hair, tied in an elegant knot at the base of her neck.
She looked as if she were speaking to the people, but Rose knew suddenly that she was not speaking to them. The scream that wasn’t a scream was coming from her, and it seemed to be spreading, the people in front of Rose stopped pushing to get away and suddenly stood still, faces expressionless, lost inside their own heads.
She felt the wave pass over her, and the people around her fell still and quiet. The same feeling of calm did not hit her. She almost wished it might, but knew that she would have no such comfort.
A surge of pure fear sent Rose barreling towards the platform. She stumbled up the wooden steps and into the Doctor, knocking him sideways and into the railing.
‘Rose...’ He gasped, eyes rolling and his whole body shuddering as if he must be in terrible pain. He pitched forward, clinging onto her jacket and screaming wordlessly, his right hand tugging her sleeve helplessly.
‘What is it?’ She could feel the tears stinging behind her eyes, tried to speak again and failed.
‘Rose, Rose’ He kept repeating her name over and over, like a mantra. The sound of screaming rang in her ears, fogging her mind, and she could have sworn she heard singing. So soft and clear and beautiful, she might have fallen asleep if she cared to listen any longer.
‘Rose...’ The Doctor was shaking her arm, whether by choice or the great shudders that perpetually passed over his body. She forced herself to look at him, to really look, and not at his deathly-white skin or his rolling eyes, but at him, to understand what it was he was trying to tell her.
‘Rose... Think...’ He gasped, his eyes shining with renewed hope, his hands clutching at her like a baby to its mother. Finally it seemed he stopped fighting, as his body slumped to the ground and he let out a loud shriek, his body twitching and writhing as if he were fighting invisible captors.
It was a long moment before he fell still and silent and Rose could bear to breathe again. She turned to the woman who stood silently, watching her with deep golden eyes.
‘Whatever you did, undo it,’ she hissed, the rage welling up inside her, dark and vicious and screaming to get out.
The woman threw back her head and laughed, a cold laugh that only served to increase Rose’s fury and make her want to hit and kick and hurt her in the most horrible ways imaginable.
‘Silly little earth-child,’ the woman spoke softly, with a hiss in her voice that chilled her to the bone. ‘He is mine now, as are they all,’ her eyes flashed and Rose felt the fogginess returning, white and thick, and not beautiful and peaceful as before but angry and suffocating. She pushed it away, even if only for a moment, and saw the woman's eyes flash with anger.
‘You resist earth-child. Forever fighting me away. I cannot take your mind; it burns like a thousand suns. No, no, you will not be tamed, not put to a purpose, not even I, strongest of them all can take it, and yet...He has taken it...’
Her gaze shifted from Rose to the lifeless figure of the Doctor and Rose saw he began to move, pulling himself upright and staring at the woman with adoration.
‘He will be first,’ the woman spat, her elegant face twisting and contorting. A strange sensation overcame Rose as if it were pushing its way into her mind, a pleasant, tickling sort of feeling. A wave of pleasure washed over her body and caused her knees to buckle.
‘What was that?’ She struggled out, still reeling from the sudden intensity. The woman laughed again, and another wave of pleasure rippled over Rose’s body, pushing her to her knees gasping and shaking.
‘Had enough earth-child? If you will not surrender to me, I have no use for you.’ Rose lifted her head slightly, enough to watch the crowds of people all succumb to the waves of euphoria washing over them.
She curled into herself, willing the sensation to leave her, but still it came. It hit her repeatedly like waves on the shore until she could take no more and collapsed on the warm wood.
Around her, the world went black.
__________________________________________________________________
When she woke, she immediately kicked out, her mind still struggling to catch up with the events around her. Her foot hit something very solid and she felt the tears of pain immediately spring to her eyes.
She carefully groped the very solid thing in front of her, and found it to be a cold piece of metal, smooth and probably shiny, if she could see it through the solid blackness.
‘Shut up and keep still.’ She fought the temptation to scream as a very clear voice sounded through her head, and the metal disappeared from in front of her. Light burst into the confined space and she immediately recoiled from it, feeling the heat as if it burned every inch of her flesh.
‘God you’d think you hadn’t seen sunlight before!’ The voice sounded unimpressed, and she wondered who or what exactly it was. She didn’t much like her mind being tampered with, as she had explicitly told the Doctor a time or two.
Oh God, the Doctor. No sooner had the thought come to mind, she had tumbled forward onto the warm ground, and immediately inhaled a mouthful of dirt. Coughing and spluttering, she sat upright and spat the mouthful of mud on the feet of someone.
‘Gee, thanks for that. I’ll treasure it always.’ The feet were not grateful. Neither, apparently, was the owner of the feet, a girl who looked younger than Rose herself.
‘What happened? Where’s the Doctor? Who...‘ The girl silenced her with a wave of her hand and a shake of her head. Rose heard muffled cries above her, although she couldn’t be sure if they were shouts of joy or pain.
She saw she was in a pit apparently underneath the wooden platform she remembered being on before she had passed out. Next to her was a metal box that evidently she had been stuffed inside. It gave her a horrible feeling she would have been left alone in the dark to die had it not been for this girl.
‘Follow me.’ The voice inside her head hissed and the girl next to her began to pick her way through the mess of wood and God knows what else. It was well lit by the rays of light between the wooden planks but it was still hot and stuffy and impossibly dirty.
They came to a door and Rose knew it must lead outside. The girl put a finger to her lips and gently opened it, slipping outside silently. Obediently, she followed and found herself standing behind the wooden platform, the sun impossibly hot on her back.
She turned to thank the girl and saw that she suddenly possessed a dazed look, her lips drooping in a sort of half-smile. The girl’s brilliant green, half-lidded gaze seemed to stare right through her as if she didn’t exist at all.
‘Thank you,’ Rose whispered, dropping to her knees and crawling through the crowds of people. She thought that in theory, if she stayed low, she might not be seen. The cobbles dug into her hands and knees but she continued to crawl forwards until the crowd thinned and she knew she must have reached the edge of the forum.
She quickly stood and ran.