A Contemplative Thing
Peter awoke early, consciousness coming to him as though a switch had been thrown. He had been asleep, dreaming about...something involving cars and Pennington and a skein of wool...and then suddenly he was awake, very aware of the woman asleep in his arms, of the chill of the room against his exposed skin.
Two thoughts immediately came to mind: ( Read more... )
Dreaming about Pennington, eh?
he’d have to feed the fire in the fireplace and get the room warmed up
Oooh, old-fashioned-- no central heat, or even radiators?
He did hiss as his feet came in contact with the icy cold of the tile
I do this nearly every morning when I go to get breakfast and walk down the tile in the hallway.
The sweater Rose had worn when she’d returned to him the afternoon before was folded neatly on a shelf, and he pulled it on over his other clothes before silently closing the doors.
Hmm... maybe he wants "Eau de Rose"?
Childhood memories of playing hide-and-seek with Martin, learning how to work out where his brother had gone using the same methods, flooded his mind even as he slowly walked southwards, seeking Rose.
Nice detail, especially reaching into his past.
She needed time to think-time alone...it was as Rose as could be, wanting to get away for a bit to sort through her thoughts. He’d much rather she had stayed so they could talk right away, but he had a feeling that she’d not appreciate him sauntering up to her at just that moment... She’d return to him when she was ready to talk; he’d need to be patient, and trust that it would be soon.
I think it's huge that he's realizing this and that he knows, even if it stings, that it's not personal-- she's not running away from him, just running away to clear her head before returning.
He might still suffer from disbelief that Rose was with him, was interested in him-but he needed to work through that, to come to trust her at her word for things not just work-related.
Poor Peter, will the man ever get that self esteem?
As well, it was far better for Rose to hear about Loreen from his lips than from the tabloids, even if the timing had exceptionally bad. He hated his ex-hated the power she still held over him, even a decade removed from their marriage.
Ah, so he was thinking about the tabs! He seems very much someone who likes to be in control-- it must be awful for him to have Loreen have such power.
she simply had a knack for turning up at the wrong time. She’d been there when he’d first been passed over for promotion, smirking on the arm of the man she’d left him for, who’d been transferred out and promoted; she’d been there after Natalie had left him, her voice gloating at the other end of the line.
How could she be so cruel to him? What could she possibly gain from constantly mooning about evilly in his life?
And she’d been there, threatening, on the other end of the line two days previous. “I see you’ve moved on yet again, Peter,” she’d purred over the phone, her voice holding no warmth and only steel. “Does the little heiress know about your real past? About the misery you’ve caused, about what a failure you are?”
Yikes! Well, we know why it was so present on his mind-- will there be a story in the tabs from her? And what misery? Just the usual "I hate you, you hate me" divorce stuff, or is there something bigger here? It sounds as though she's hinting at some terrible crime.
he hadn’t thought there were wellies in the house
Why not? In windswept rainy Scotland? Very practical to have them.
He grinned, taking another sip of the blessed brew. “I am but mad nor’ norwest.”
Yay, goofy again.
I worried, ever so briefly, that you’d found a way to leave me, for good.”
*huggles Peter*
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Poor Peter, dreaming about work when he's on holiday!
Oooh, old-fashioned-- no central heat, or even radiators?
No central heat at *all*. Just four fireplaces and a very cold kitchen.
I think it's huge that he's realizing this and that he knows, even if it stings, that it's not personal-- she's not running away from him, just running away to clear her head before returning.
He's learning how it is she copes with *personal* stress--just as she is slowly coming to learn how he functions and reacts when things don't go well.
Poor Peter, will the man ever get that self esteem?
Oh, he'll get there in the end.
He seems very much someone who likes to be in control-- it must be awful for him to have Loreen have such power.
YES! Exactly right.
What could she possibly gain from constantly mooning about evilly in his life?
Some people thrive on having that kind of power over someone else.
It sounds as though she's hinting at some terrible crime.
She's hinting, I think, at the fact that his brother is/was shady, and that Peter was no saint when he was younger (although in a forthcoming fic, I only have him dabbling in drugs, not really going completely off the deep end with them. Just enough to get perilously close to his life going a different way, before he pulls back and makes a choice to do something else).
Yay, goofy again.
I couldn't resist the Hamlet quote.
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I wonder if he'd not had the visible object lesson of Martin to go on, whether he'd either have gotten completely sucked into the life, or never even dabbled in the first place?
How dabbly was his dabbling? (e.g., I mentioned in a comment somewhere a while back that he might not be keen on taking painkillers, knowing his addictive tendencies - would that be true?)
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Correct--no dabbling in ye olde painkillers.
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So serious enough for him to be leery of anything like painkillers or sleep medications or the like in the future. Anything potentially habit-forming.
Oi. I am just picturing things as not going particularly well if/when Peter gets seriously injured - he'd be like an animal with its leg caught in a trap. I'm thinking in particular of that hunted look on the Doctor's face when Donna is hounding him at the start of TRB, just amplified by the pain.
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Oooh. Sounds very intriguing. Can't wait to see what combination of factors made him choose the straight and narrow.
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