Ficlet-ish: Look Up (1/1)
Title: Look Up
Author: karenor
Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: G
Summary: She sensed that this trip wasn’t a random journey.
Disclaimer: BBC owns, etc. etc.
Beta: Thanks and a big hug to missperkigoth for the very quick beta.
Author's Notes: Somewhere between a drabble and ficlet, is 792 words. Just a… moment between the Doctor and Rose.
The Doctor hadn’t told her where they were going or why, but by the way he checked and double checked the monitor when the engines stopped wheezing, she sensed that this trip wasn’t a random journey. There was something specific he wanted to show her.
They stepped out of the TARDIS onto a dark hillside plateau. They were standing on hard-packed dirt and surrounded by low shrubbery. It was cold and breezy and the air smelled a tiny bit like the ocean. Spread out beneath them was a quiet valley, dotted with the twinkling electric lights of a city at night.
“Where are we then?” Rose asked.
“Los Angeles, mid 1990’s,” the Doctor answered, like that should mean something in particular.
She looked out at the view with him. It was beautiful, in its way, but it didn’t look much like Los Angeles if you asked her. No familiar sky line, no whatever that thing was at the airport, no Hollywood sign. And was it ever this cold in LA?
“Bit chilly, isn’t it?” she said, pulling her light jacket tighter around her.
“It’s January, half-four in the morning.”
She took a few cautious steps around, careful not to get too close to the cliff’s edge. She didn’t see anything... remarkable. What was special about this place?
“Why have you brought me here?”
“Look up,” he said.
She did. The sky was clear, but a murky grey-blue. Only one or two stars were bright enough to poke through the gloom.
“I don’t see much of anything.”
“Yeah. Hang on.”
“Okay…” she said, even more puzzled. “For what?”
“No, literally, hang on.”
He clutched the TARDIS handle with one hand and wrapped his other arm firmly around her waist. Suddenly there was a sound unlike anything she’d ever heard before. Or rather, a quick series of sounds… silence, like everything abruptly stopped… then dogs far away, and the wind through the trees seemed like it was taking a breath. Then a distant rumble, as if the earth itself was groaning. No, not groaning-shaking. She was nearly knocked off her feet as the trembling caught up with them and the earth began to quake violently beneath them.
She’d felt the ground shake beneath her feet several times now on their travels, but never anything like this. Not even when the rift ruptured in Cardiff. This went on for what seemed like forever, but the Doctor would later tell her it was less than a minute.
“What was that?” she asked when the shaking subsided and she’d caught her breath.
The Doctor eased his grip around her, but didn’t let go.
“That, Rose, was what will be referred to, in just a few minutes, as the Northridge Earthquake. Which really wasn’t centred in Northridge at all, but rather a bit closer to where we are now. Just a few miles that way, actually.” He pointed to a spot somewhere in the middle of the horizon. “And actually-”
The ground rumbled again, almost as strongly, but she was ready for it this time, and it didn’t last nearly as long.
She looked at the Doctor nervously.
“That’s it for the shaking right now,” he assured her, and finally withdrew his arm from around her.
She took a few steps, eyeing the city below a bit more carefully.
“Northridge Earthquake?” she mused aloud. Mid-nineties she’d been a little kid. The name was recognisable enough… a major LA earthquake. A few random details she wasn’t sure of drifted through her memory. She turned suddenly to the Doctor standing behind her. “But Doctor… aren’t people dying out there, right now?”
He looked surprised at her question. Then his face softened into… something like admiration.
“Some, yes,” he said quietly. “A few. Unfortunately.”
“Why have you brought me here?” she repeated. And as she watched, the power failed, patch by darkened patch, across the city.
“Look up,” he said again, when the whole horizon was black.
She did. And gasped at what she saw. It was completely different to just a few moments ago… as if the twinkle from below had shifted into the sky above. She’d never seen so many stars. Not on Earth, in modern times anyway. Like a blanket of them had descended to cover and comfort the frightened city, woken from a nightmare.
“Right now…” the Doctor said, stepping beside her and wrapping his arm around her again, for a wholly different reason this time, she thought. “Right now, thousands of people down there are seeing something they’ll remember long after they forget what the shaking felt like.”
She looked at him, asking without words, what he meant.
“They’re looking up,” he said, “and seeing a sky full of stars, for the first time.”
FIN
Author: karenor
Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: G
Summary: She sensed that this trip wasn’t a random journey.
Disclaimer: BBC owns, etc. etc.
Beta: Thanks and a big hug to missperkigoth for the very quick beta.
Author's Notes: Somewhere between a drabble and ficlet, is 792 words. Just a… moment between the Doctor and Rose.
The Doctor hadn’t told her where they were going or why, but by the way he checked and double checked the monitor when the engines stopped wheezing, she sensed that this trip wasn’t a random journey. There was something specific he wanted to show her.
They stepped out of the TARDIS onto a dark hillside plateau. They were standing on hard-packed dirt and surrounded by low shrubbery. It was cold and breezy and the air smelled a tiny bit like the ocean. Spread out beneath them was a quiet valley, dotted with the twinkling electric lights of a city at night.
“Where are we then?” Rose asked.
“Los Angeles, mid 1990’s,” the Doctor answered, like that should mean something in particular.
She looked out at the view with him. It was beautiful, in its way, but it didn’t look much like Los Angeles if you asked her. No familiar sky line, no whatever that thing was at the airport, no Hollywood sign. And was it ever this cold in LA?
“Bit chilly, isn’t it?” she said, pulling her light jacket tighter around her.
“It’s January, half-four in the morning.”
She took a few cautious steps around, careful not to get too close to the cliff’s edge. She didn’t see anything... remarkable. What was special about this place?
“Why have you brought me here?”
“Look up,” he said.
She did. The sky was clear, but a murky grey-blue. Only one or two stars were bright enough to poke through the gloom.
“I don’t see much of anything.”
“Yeah. Hang on.”
“Okay…” she said, even more puzzled. “For what?”
“No, literally, hang on.”
He clutched the TARDIS handle with one hand and wrapped his other arm firmly around her waist. Suddenly there was a sound unlike anything she’d ever heard before. Or rather, a quick series of sounds… silence, like everything abruptly stopped… then dogs far away, and the wind through the trees seemed like it was taking a breath. Then a distant rumble, as if the earth itself was groaning. No, not groaning-shaking. She was nearly knocked off her feet as the trembling caught up with them and the earth began to quake violently beneath them.
She’d felt the ground shake beneath her feet several times now on their travels, but never anything like this. Not even when the rift ruptured in Cardiff. This went on for what seemed like forever, but the Doctor would later tell her it was less than a minute.
“What was that?” she asked when the shaking subsided and she’d caught her breath.
The Doctor eased his grip around her, but didn’t let go.
“That, Rose, was what will be referred to, in just a few minutes, as the Northridge Earthquake. Which really wasn’t centred in Northridge at all, but rather a bit closer to where we are now. Just a few miles that way, actually.” He pointed to a spot somewhere in the middle of the horizon. “And actually-”
The ground rumbled again, almost as strongly, but she was ready for it this time, and it didn’t last nearly as long.
She looked at the Doctor nervously.
“That’s it for the shaking right now,” he assured her, and finally withdrew his arm from around her.
She took a few steps, eyeing the city below a bit more carefully.
“Northridge Earthquake?” she mused aloud. Mid-nineties she’d been a little kid. The name was recognisable enough… a major LA earthquake. A few random details she wasn’t sure of drifted through her memory. She turned suddenly to the Doctor standing behind her. “But Doctor… aren’t people dying out there, right now?”
He looked surprised at her question. Then his face softened into… something like admiration.
“Some, yes,” he said quietly. “A few. Unfortunately.”
“Why have you brought me here?” she repeated. And as she watched, the power failed, patch by darkened patch, across the city.
“Look up,” he said again, when the whole horizon was black.
She did. And gasped at what she saw. It was completely different to just a few moments ago… as if the twinkle from below had shifted into the sky above. She’d never seen so many stars. Not on Earth, in modern times anyway. Like a blanket of them had descended to cover and comfort the frightened city, woken from a nightmare.
“Right now…” the Doctor said, stepping beside her and wrapping his arm around her again, for a wholly different reason this time, she thought. “Right now, thousands of people down there are seeing something they’ll remember long after they forget what the shaking felt like.”
She looked at him, asking without words, what he meant.
“They’re looking up,” he said, “and seeing a sky full of stars, for the first time.”
FIN