Doctor Who/Torchwood Fic: I Bring Life
So I had a long, frantic rant posted about Torchwood Children of Earth Day Four. But it's nearly 2 in the morning, and the rant was not helping me calm down. So instead I wrote fic. Denial!fic in which I make it all better. Seriously, this is just the only way I could get some sleep. This is one of the fastest things I have ever written. It is unbeta'd, but I did proofread.
Title: I Bring Life
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Spoilers: Nearly all of Doctor Who up to Season 4. Torchwood Children of Earth Day 4.
Word Count: 660
Summary: A glimpse into what Rose Tyler saw the day she looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and saw a young man with brown hair, blue eyes, and a liking for suits.
The day Rose Tyler looked into the heart of the TARDIS and became Bad Wolf, she finally saw what the Doctor meant about time. It was all around her. Her past, her present, her future. The lives of those she’s loved, those she’s touched. The futures of so many, encircling her, enticing her.
She had all of time and space at her disposal. She could take a quick peek into her future on the way to rescue the Doctor.
She saw her mother, and her reunion with Pete Tyler, the Pete from the other world. She saw the worst day of her life, the day she lost her Doctor, now with a new face. She saw the day she would get him back again. She saw Mickey grow old, her little brother Tony join Torchwood.
Torchwood. The name, the thought, sparked a new wave of images. Of people. Ones she knew, or thought she knew (was that Gwenyth from old Cardiff with Charles Dickens?) and ones she’d never seen before. She saw a constant within them. She saw Jack. Her Jack. The Jack she adored, trusted. Her Jack had been killed. In her future, her past, her present, it was all flowing together now. But she knew one thing.
Jack Harkness had been killed by the Daleks.
She was there now. She was in that room, the room where everything would change. She saw it happen even though it hadn’t happened yet. The last moments with the Doctor, her Doctor, before he changed his face and fell deeper into her heart. She’s talking to him, explaining, but at the same time she’s working. She’s scattering words, scattering atoms, and she’s looking at life.
There’s a man there. A man she will meet, only briefly, only through a videoscreen. But he’s there. A man with short brown hair, beautiful blue eyes and a penchant for suits. She sees the way this man looks at Jack. And Jack, the man who’s been looked at like that for more years than anyone but Rose to count, Jack looks back at him. She sees the bond there. The love. Jack Harkness deserves love.
When she brings back Jack Harkness she knows what she’s doing. She brings him back permanently. A fixed point in time. A way of saving planet Earth when the Doctor isn’t there. Rose Tyler can’t always be there to save the world, after all. Someone ought to be.
But she can’t leave him alone. No one should be alone, and especially not forever. So Rose has one more task to complete. It is not so heroic as destroying a Dalek Empire, nor so necessary as to scatter hidden clues across time and space. But it is something remotely human, and it is something she can’t not do.
She gives Jack his love. She instills in this brown haired man, this Ianto Jones, the same gift she gave Jack Harkness. The gift of time. Of life. So that neither one would ever be alone. She looks into their future and sees that Ianto won’t quite need to call on it as often as Jack. But he will eventually. He works for Torchwood after all. And she can’t help but sneak a look (quickly now, the Doctor is coming to take this from her) at Jack’s reaction when he find Ianto waiting for him. She makes the adjustment to slip a stopwatch in his pocket. Just in case.
When the Doctor takes the heart of the TARDIS from her, Rose remembers little of what she did. The more important details stick, those more demanding to saving the human race at that moment. She recalls nothing of the young man with the beautiful blue eyes, nor the power she gave him. She won’t remember.
But the day Jack found Ianto waiting for him, stopwatch somehow in his pocket, he closed his eyes for a moment and chuckled to himself.
“Rose Tyler. You tricky girl.”
Title: I Bring Life
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Spoilers: Nearly all of Doctor Who up to Season 4. Torchwood Children of Earth Day 4.
Word Count: 660
Summary: A glimpse into what Rose Tyler saw the day she looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and saw a young man with brown hair, blue eyes, and a liking for suits.
The day Rose Tyler looked into the heart of the TARDIS and became Bad Wolf, she finally saw what the Doctor meant about time. It was all around her. Her past, her present, her future. The lives of those she’s loved, those she’s touched. The futures of so many, encircling her, enticing her.
She had all of time and space at her disposal. She could take a quick peek into her future on the way to rescue the Doctor.
She saw her mother, and her reunion with Pete Tyler, the Pete from the other world. She saw the worst day of her life, the day she lost her Doctor, now with a new face. She saw the day she would get him back again. She saw Mickey grow old, her little brother Tony join Torchwood.
Torchwood. The name, the thought, sparked a new wave of images. Of people. Ones she knew, or thought she knew (was that Gwenyth from old Cardiff with Charles Dickens?) and ones she’d never seen before. She saw a constant within them. She saw Jack. Her Jack. The Jack she adored, trusted. Her Jack had been killed. In her future, her past, her present, it was all flowing together now. But she knew one thing.
Jack Harkness had been killed by the Daleks.
She was there now. She was in that room, the room where everything would change. She saw it happen even though it hadn’t happened yet. The last moments with the Doctor, her Doctor, before he changed his face and fell deeper into her heart. She’s talking to him, explaining, but at the same time she’s working. She’s scattering words, scattering atoms, and she’s looking at life.
There’s a man there. A man she will meet, only briefly, only through a videoscreen. But he’s there. A man with short brown hair, beautiful blue eyes and a penchant for suits. She sees the way this man looks at Jack. And Jack, the man who’s been looked at like that for more years than anyone but Rose to count, Jack looks back at him. She sees the bond there. The love. Jack Harkness deserves love.
When she brings back Jack Harkness she knows what she’s doing. She brings him back permanently. A fixed point in time. A way of saving planet Earth when the Doctor isn’t there. Rose Tyler can’t always be there to save the world, after all. Someone ought to be.
But she can’t leave him alone. No one should be alone, and especially not forever. So Rose has one more task to complete. It is not so heroic as destroying a Dalek Empire, nor so necessary as to scatter hidden clues across time and space. But it is something remotely human, and it is something she can’t not do.
She gives Jack his love. She instills in this brown haired man, this Ianto Jones, the same gift she gave Jack Harkness. The gift of time. Of life. So that neither one would ever be alone. She looks into their future and sees that Ianto won’t quite need to call on it as often as Jack. But he will eventually. He works for Torchwood after all. And she can’t help but sneak a look (quickly now, the Doctor is coming to take this from her) at Jack’s reaction when he find Ianto waiting for him. She makes the adjustment to slip a stopwatch in his pocket. Just in case.
When the Doctor takes the heart of the TARDIS from her, Rose remembers little of what she did. The more important details stick, those more demanding to saving the human race at that moment. She recalls nothing of the young man with the beautiful blue eyes, nor the power she gave him. She won’t remember.
But the day Jack found Ianto waiting for him, stopwatch somehow in his pocket, he closed his eyes for a moment and chuckled to himself.
“Rose Tyler. You tricky girl.”