Fic: Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (1/1) Ten/Rose PG-13
Title: Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Character(s): Ten. Rose (off-camera).
Pairing: Ten/Rose (same old, same old!)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Author’s Notes: Angst, because I’m in something of a dark mood today. In this one, we have Ten drawn back again and again to the "night for lost things being found", because he needs to see her again and this night is all he has left of her. Set simultaneously during the episode Fear Her and Season Four (no S4 spoilers other than the name of that season’s companion). The title is from the song of the same name by U2.
Summary: He’s lost count of just how many times he’s spent tracing and re-tracing his steps, trying to keep out of sight and out of trouble.
He likes to pretend to himself that he has no idea what so draws him unquestioningly, to this place and this time, although he knows very well why. It’s the chance it gives him to see her again. He’s tried, repeatedly, to keep away - he can’t deal with the pain it brings, now that she's gone - but the lure of the place, and what it can give him, is too great for him to ignore.
Whether it is because he can feast his eyes on what his heart grieves over or because there is another reason that even he isn’t willing to admit to himself, he comes to this same place repeatedly. He’s lost count of just how many times he’s spent tracing and re-tracing his steps, trying to keep out of sight and out of trouble. It amazes him how difficult he finds it to behave even when he's trying to be good.
He remembers saying something about how he’d loved the 1948 Olympics so much he had gone back and watched it all over again; he doubts he’ll ever be able to say the same about the Olympics of 2012. If it weren’t for the love of her, he wouldn’t come within miles - decades - of this place. Not any more.
He comes most often when he has been through the mill and cannot resist any longer, when seeing her again is the only thing that can settle him. He doubts Martha - or Donna, for that matter - will ever know quite how often the TARDIS had landed in that particular city on that particular day; the only person who knows is him, and he certainly doesn’t intend telling them.
He has been tempted, more than once, to do what would amount to kidnap - to take her and the TARDIS and disappear off to somewhere on the other side of the universe. He has come closer to doing that the last few times he’s been here than he is comfortable admitting to himself. The things he is willing to countenance for love!
He listens to what amounts to his conscience most of the time, eventually, but on the very worst days - when the ache of missing her is at its strongest - not even the threat of Reapers is really enough to dissuade him and the only thing that stands between him and his bringing down two universes for the love of her is willpower, strained to its utmost.
He’s tired of coming back here, so very tired. But it’s all he has left of her, and he knows himself well enough to know he’ll never give it up. Whatever it takes. He promised that he’d never leave her behind; this - for him - is the only way, now, he can keep his promise.
For her, for that unique girl he loves still so very much, he’ll do it.