Fic: Free Spirits (Doctor Who) Nine/Rose, pg
Title: Free Spirits
Author: lily_268
Pairing: Nine/Rose
Summary: Set right after The Long Game, when Rose and Nine leave Adam in his house. The Doctor decides to cheer Rose up by showing her something.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all characters within are not mine. I made no profit from writing this.
Word Count: 1,500
Her stomach turns as the stony silence settles, suffocating them. A world destroyed by satellites and a life destroyed by greed.
She’s seen him angry before and she convinces herself its not directed towards her but she blushes with shame under his fiery gaze.
She shuffles her feet to break the tension with her toes, shattering the silence with scuffed sound of metal grating.
He looks relieved when he next looks over, and she smiles.
~
She looks down at her feet and shuffles her legs to bring warmth back into her toes. She breathes in the pine-scented air and twirls a loose blond tendril around her finger. She looks up at the red and blue explosions lighting the cloudy sky.
She gasps in awe, drawing the attention of the shade next to her. She moves forward, slowly, drawn to the lights. She almost wants to stretch her fingers up to try and touch the light blossoms. The small chuckle from behind her stops her.
~
The warm glow of the console does nothing to lighten their mood. They joviality of the situation has vanished under the realisation that this life of time travel has claimed another.
She thought it would be easy and fun. New cultures, new people, minimal danger now and then. Nothing serious. Just enough to keep her on her toes. She trusted him, this stranger from the North.
She smoothed out the faded military badge that fell from his pocket, reading ‘Senior Technician, Van Statten Industries’. Funny how she never knew how old he was.
~
She’s got mud on her shoes and she’s shivering despite her jacket but she still follows the faint blue glow through the foliage.
“You gonna tell me why the big rush?”
He sigh, but slows. “You humans, always centered on the end result, never appreciate the journey.” He looks back, as though testing her.
“I’d appreciate it a bit more if there were less bugs. We gonna be eaten alive before we get there?”
"Where's your sense of the exotic?"
"This might surprise you a bit, but we didn't do much campin' out 'round the Powell Esates." She quips, also walking into him as he stops suddenly.
"You mean, no s'mores? No campfires? No ghost stories in a tent?"
"Is that normal?"
He looks down like he's about to pat her head and Rose huffs off in front of him, not particularily wanting to be compared to a pet that's just done something inadvertantly cute. Unfortunetly, she gets lost and has to wait for him to catch up and correct her path.
The finally arrive at a clearing and he’s smiling like he’s so impressive that she can’t help but skip the last few steps to his side to grab his arm. She’s momentarily distracted from the reason she was brought her when she realises that her boots are ruined, but the changing spark from the sky pulls her attention soon enough to the sky.
~
She didn’t know that people could be so easily corrupted like that and mopes for two hours while he calibrates the navigation system. Her only comfort is the memory of their accomplishment, what they did, just the two of them.
Just the two of them.
It sounds so exclusive and Rose never took herself for a snob. For a second she’d thought he’d be strong enough to travel with them forever. However, it seemed that only a select few could handle the adventure.
She didn’t know how she felt about that yet.
~
“It’s beautiful.” She praised the show reverently, afraid to offend a hidden composer. Such magnificence could not be just purely fate and chance.
Could it?
She moves closer into his side, but she tells herself that it is only because of the chill that falls down on them.
Starbursts accompany loud cracks and golden showers of light fall shimmering down above them, only to face before touching the ground.
“Never seen fireworks like this before.”
“We’re watching more than just fireworks here, whole new generation is being spawned before our very eyes.”
“Wait,” she looks up into his eyes. “You telling me this is alien...sex”
“For this species. Nature’s fantastic, isn’t it?”
She tries to hide her surprise, knowing that this is not the time for a typically human response, not right after losing faith in Adam so completely. She chooses her words carefully, like pulling them one by one out of a cloth sack.
“Isn’t this...I mean,...just a little...bit perverted? I just mean that...well, maybe...shouldn’t this be more...private?”
He chuckled again, his shoulders moving with the motion and his smile reaches his ears. Before he’s able to insult the puritanical mindset of the human race she playfully punches his arm and lets the fear of the betrayal and the ambition leak out of her into the glow of the sky.
For this moment, she’s filled with hope and joy and she silently thanks him for bringing her along. It’s the one time she wishes he could read her mind.
Unfortunetly, he decides to follow the course of action that she finds most disagreeable and shifts his body to turn back to face the forest.
It’s darker now in the woods, without the fireworks to illuminate the path, but she trusts that he knows where he’s leading them. She warily tests a log bridge with her foot and jumps back when it falls breaks in half when it meets the stream before.
Through the dust and dirt that the ancient, rotting log exposed, a hand reaches out to guide her.
The smile from before is now permanently plastered on her face and is reflected in his caring eyes as they walk back to the TARDIS. She’s warmed knowing that however he may sigh exasperatedly or roll his eyes, he’s got a loyal friend to help through the rough patches.
~
“You want to see something neat?”
What she wants is a proper bath and a cup of tea to help soothe her nerves. Afterall, she had just almost gotten eaten by an alien, and then saw the inside of someone’s brain. But no, it's worse than that. She saw the pitfalls. The real danger. That one day she could get left.
She pushes that thought from her mind and convinces herself that what she wants most of all is to joke with him for getting his history wrong, to tease him about his plans not always falling through. But it tastes of cruelty and Rose wants to mend the rift rather then widen it.
She wants to see him open his arms to embrace her, to assure her that in the future, everything is okay.
But the memory of Suki stops her from walking towards him, and Adam’s face floats before her eyes.
Seeming to read her mind, his face falls with failure and he buries himself in the mechanics of the TARDIS.
She wants to see him happy or passionate, the same energy that flowed through him while they were chained up, so she suggests they stop off at her Mum’s beauty parlor, ensuring him that the women they’d see sitting there would be more alien than the ones he’d already shown her.
He looks up with fright until he realises she’s kidding and chuckles. Only then does she relax her grip on Adam’s ID badge. The Doctor continues to talk about a green planet and a lightshow that will put Guy Fawkes to shame but she’s not paying much attention anymore. She’s happy so long as he’s prattling off about some unique alien custom.
She’s finally found what she’s best at, what she can do that it appears not everyone else can do. She wonders how long she’ll continue to do it.
~
The metal is cold and restrictive against her wrists and she can’t tear her eyes away from the bodies. So many of them. All looking like frozen dolls in a painted house, trying to fool everyone. She thinks she’ll never feel warm again.
She’s felt like this once before, on Earth. She walked into the exam room. Trapped. Locked in and bound to her desk. Her pen lazily traces out her thoughts while the rest of her body tries to drift elsewhere, anywhere but in the dull grey cage.
The first thing she does when her hands are free is to tuck her hair behind her ear, she wants to see everything, to absorb every moment with the Doctor. No obstructions.
~
“Fun, wasn’t it?”
Her only response is to flop down onto the pile of pillows, letting her hair down to cascade around her shoulders. It’s been a long day, she moans as she stretches.
She wiggles her toes under the blanket, waiting for sleep to claim her.
She dreams of running through winter to spring to summer to pick red and blue flowers from a clearing.
She’s a free spirit.
Author: lily_268
Pairing: Nine/Rose
Summary: Set right after The Long Game, when Rose and Nine leave Adam in his house. The Doctor decides to cheer Rose up by showing her something.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all characters within are not mine. I made no profit from writing this.
Word Count: 1,500
Her stomach turns as the stony silence settles, suffocating them. A world destroyed by satellites and a life destroyed by greed.
She’s seen him angry before and she convinces herself its not directed towards her but she blushes with shame under his fiery gaze.
She shuffles her feet to break the tension with her toes, shattering the silence with scuffed sound of metal grating.
He looks relieved when he next looks over, and she smiles.
~
She looks down at her feet and shuffles her legs to bring warmth back into her toes. She breathes in the pine-scented air and twirls a loose blond tendril around her finger. She looks up at the red and blue explosions lighting the cloudy sky.
She gasps in awe, drawing the attention of the shade next to her. She moves forward, slowly, drawn to the lights. She almost wants to stretch her fingers up to try and touch the light blossoms. The small chuckle from behind her stops her.
~
The warm glow of the console does nothing to lighten their mood. They joviality of the situation has vanished under the realisation that this life of time travel has claimed another.
She thought it would be easy and fun. New cultures, new people, minimal danger now and then. Nothing serious. Just enough to keep her on her toes. She trusted him, this stranger from the North.
She smoothed out the faded military badge that fell from his pocket, reading ‘Senior Technician, Van Statten Industries’. Funny how she never knew how old he was.
~
She’s got mud on her shoes and she’s shivering despite her jacket but she still follows the faint blue glow through the foliage.
“You gonna tell me why the big rush?”
He sigh, but slows. “You humans, always centered on the end result, never appreciate the journey.” He looks back, as though testing her.
“I’d appreciate it a bit more if there were less bugs. We gonna be eaten alive before we get there?”
"Where's your sense of the exotic?"
"This might surprise you a bit, but we didn't do much campin' out 'round the Powell Esates." She quips, also walking into him as he stops suddenly.
"You mean, no s'mores? No campfires? No ghost stories in a tent?"
"Is that normal?"
He looks down like he's about to pat her head and Rose huffs off in front of him, not particularily wanting to be compared to a pet that's just done something inadvertantly cute. Unfortunetly, she gets lost and has to wait for him to catch up and correct her path.
The finally arrive at a clearing and he’s smiling like he’s so impressive that she can’t help but skip the last few steps to his side to grab his arm. She’s momentarily distracted from the reason she was brought her when she realises that her boots are ruined, but the changing spark from the sky pulls her attention soon enough to the sky.
~
She didn’t know that people could be so easily corrupted like that and mopes for two hours while he calibrates the navigation system. Her only comfort is the memory of their accomplishment, what they did, just the two of them.
Just the two of them.
It sounds so exclusive and Rose never took herself for a snob. For a second she’d thought he’d be strong enough to travel with them forever. However, it seemed that only a select few could handle the adventure.
She didn’t know how she felt about that yet.
~
“It’s beautiful.” She praised the show reverently, afraid to offend a hidden composer. Such magnificence could not be just purely fate and chance.
Could it?
She moves closer into his side, but she tells herself that it is only because of the chill that falls down on them.
Starbursts accompany loud cracks and golden showers of light fall shimmering down above them, only to face before touching the ground.
“Never seen fireworks like this before.”
“We’re watching more than just fireworks here, whole new generation is being spawned before our very eyes.”
“Wait,” she looks up into his eyes. “You telling me this is alien...sex”
“For this species. Nature’s fantastic, isn’t it?”
She tries to hide her surprise, knowing that this is not the time for a typically human response, not right after losing faith in Adam so completely. She chooses her words carefully, like pulling them one by one out of a cloth sack.
“Isn’t this...I mean,...just a little...bit perverted? I just mean that...well, maybe...shouldn’t this be more...private?”
He chuckled again, his shoulders moving with the motion and his smile reaches his ears. Before he’s able to insult the puritanical mindset of the human race she playfully punches his arm and lets the fear of the betrayal and the ambition leak out of her into the glow of the sky.
For this moment, she’s filled with hope and joy and she silently thanks him for bringing her along. It’s the one time she wishes he could read her mind.
Unfortunetly, he decides to follow the course of action that she finds most disagreeable and shifts his body to turn back to face the forest.
It’s darker now in the woods, without the fireworks to illuminate the path, but she trusts that he knows where he’s leading them. She warily tests a log bridge with her foot and jumps back when it falls breaks in half when it meets the stream before.
Through the dust and dirt that the ancient, rotting log exposed, a hand reaches out to guide her.
The smile from before is now permanently plastered on her face and is reflected in his caring eyes as they walk back to the TARDIS. She’s warmed knowing that however he may sigh exasperatedly or roll his eyes, he’s got a loyal friend to help through the rough patches.
~
“You want to see something neat?”
What she wants is a proper bath and a cup of tea to help soothe her nerves. Afterall, she had just almost gotten eaten by an alien, and then saw the inside of someone’s brain. But no, it's worse than that. She saw the pitfalls. The real danger. That one day she could get left.
She pushes that thought from her mind and convinces herself that what she wants most of all is to joke with him for getting his history wrong, to tease him about his plans not always falling through. But it tastes of cruelty and Rose wants to mend the rift rather then widen it.
She wants to see him open his arms to embrace her, to assure her that in the future, everything is okay.
But the memory of Suki stops her from walking towards him, and Adam’s face floats before her eyes.
Seeming to read her mind, his face falls with failure and he buries himself in the mechanics of the TARDIS.
She wants to see him happy or passionate, the same energy that flowed through him while they were chained up, so she suggests they stop off at her Mum’s beauty parlor, ensuring him that the women they’d see sitting there would be more alien than the ones he’d already shown her.
He looks up with fright until he realises she’s kidding and chuckles. Only then does she relax her grip on Adam’s ID badge. The Doctor continues to talk about a green planet and a lightshow that will put Guy Fawkes to shame but she’s not paying much attention anymore. She’s happy so long as he’s prattling off about some unique alien custom.
She’s finally found what she’s best at, what she can do that it appears not everyone else can do. She wonders how long she’ll continue to do it.
~
The metal is cold and restrictive against her wrists and she can’t tear her eyes away from the bodies. So many of them. All looking like frozen dolls in a painted house, trying to fool everyone. She thinks she’ll never feel warm again.
She’s felt like this once before, on Earth. She walked into the exam room. Trapped. Locked in and bound to her desk. Her pen lazily traces out her thoughts while the rest of her body tries to drift elsewhere, anywhere but in the dull grey cage.
The first thing she does when her hands are free is to tuck her hair behind her ear, she wants to see everything, to absorb every moment with the Doctor. No obstructions.
~
“Fun, wasn’t it?”
Her only response is to flop down onto the pile of pillows, letting her hair down to cascade around her shoulders. It’s been a long day, she moans as she stretches.
She wiggles her toes under the blanket, waiting for sleep to claim her.
She dreams of running through winter to spring to summer to pick red and blue flowers from a clearing.
She’s a free spirit.