Fic: The fairest of them all
Title: The fairest of them all
Author: psyfi_geekgirl
Characters/Pairings: TenII/Rose
Rating: PG-13
Teaser: He stood over Rose-his beautiful, perfect rose-and felt more helpless than he’d ever felt in his long, long life.
Word count: 1,200
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em. “Not nobody, not nohow…”
A/N: Written for challenge 44 at then_theres_us (Disney) + pics under the cut. Hooray, my first official entry!!! Leave it to me to make something wholesome and fun like Disney a big ball of angst!
This was bad. This was several suitcases of bad. He whipped her ornamental compact mirror into the undergrowth with an enraged howl. Its reflective surface had failed to register any breath.
He stood over Rose-his beautiful, perfect rose-and felt more helpless than he’d ever felt in his long, long life.
He saw no signs of life: No vitals, no pulse, no nothing. Just Rose, in her beautiful perfection, frozen forever.
It had been his fault, naturally-because throughout time and space, incarnations or clones he would always take final responsibility for the health and wellbeing of Rose Tyler, just as he had promised he would do to Jackie, years and parallels away from this moment. That was his prerogative, as Timelord-or former Timelord or half-Timelord or whatever he was now. Except now he saw his only burden as not to shoulder the weight of humanity, but only to keep what was most precious to him safe. That’s all he had talent or energy for now, trapped in this new body that wasn’t so new anymore.
But he couldn’t even get that right.
And he didn’t know how to fix this. With the TARDIS he could have jumpstarted her molecular enzymes and bypassed the respiratory distress-hell, he could even make do with regular hospital right now, but they weren’t anywhere near anything and nobody could help now. What he wouldn’t give for Jack and his nanogenes! He didn’t even have a way to make tea! But perhaps it was a good thing the TARDIS wasn’t his anymore, because the way he was feeling he really could rip the universe apart without a second thought. He just wanted to destroy. And he knew there wouldn’t be anyone around to stop him. There never would be again.
Not even the Doctor could fix this patient. She was beyond his help.
They had gotten separated-yet again-on their field mission… “Field mission...” He hated those words, stupid bloody Torchwood and their pointless, ridiculous buzzwords for everything. Bloody “point people” and “team players” who thought “proactively, outside the box,” to “co-create” and put things into the “pipeline.” They were just mindless whistling drones, and he hated the lot of them! He seriously considered just burning the place down once he got back, if he ever did get back, which was looking more and more unlikely because he would never ever leave her. Certainly not here. He saw eyes reflected in the dark and he wasn’t obtuse enough to believe that these woodland creatures were actually keeping guard over her or something. They wanted a meal. He wanted revenge.
They were supposed to be following the Schneewittchen, a crafty shape-shifter that had fallen through their parallel’s rift and was causing general havoc throughout the New London countryside. Despite his better judgment he’d allowed them to use the short-range transmat devices-didn’t know why as those things never worked properly anyhow. And, surprise surprise-the rubbish things threw him wildly off course and her right in the middle of it. Then he’d been captured by some of her henchmen, some of those dwarf or gnome things or whatever it was that the little buggers preferred to be called. There were seven of them-maybe more down in the mine they were tunneling in, looking for jewels to power their makeshift craft back through the rift. There was one real surly bloke who wasn’t interested in hearing him run his gob-but that Doc fella was the only one who would attempt to negotiate with him, even though he had some sort of speech impediment. Of course, after he’d broken out of those useless handcuffs all he had to do was wait until they were asleep and sneak out of their lousy little cottage. He only knew where to find Rose because one was so thick he’d written their plans down and then promptly left it out in the open for him to pinch it. So “X” practically marked the spot.
He’d found the remnant of the poisoned apple in Rose’s hand as she lay on the bed of moss in the middle of the clearing in the woods. But it was too late. He imagined that alien thing had given it to her, like some sort of a peace offering, as they waited together in the woods for backup to call the extraction team. The little basket that had carried her doom lay a few feet away, a strange item left behind that littered an otherwise picturesque forest scene.
How could Rose have been so naive?
He felt the stars in his universe blink out as she lay lifeless on the forest floor. Like a planetless moon, he had lost his orbit-his fairest companion of them all-and he began to drift into darkness. It would take a miracle to bring her back to him, and he wasn’t the sort who believed in miracles.
He leaned over and caught her up in his arms, the tears streaming. He struggled to keep her upright, gravity pulling her dead weight down-
Dead weight…
His eyes swam before him and he was struck with a panic he had never known: He just couldn’t fathom life without her. He could barely begin to imagine eternity without her before, but now, trapped in a mortal, finite existence without Rose somehow seemed more desolate and more harrowing than he could possibly imagine. He had only but one heart, one song and one love that kept him singing-and they were all for Rose-but that was gone now. Although, perhaps it was just desserts for all of the terrible things he’d wrought over the millennia. He thought about just walking away, sitting under a tree and waiting for death, but he just couldn’t bring himself to let her go. She was his Rose, and for all the world it just looked like she was sleeping.
Wait a minute… Just looked like she was sleeping?
Could he be that lucky again, just this once?
Could the Prince of Time really awaken the Big Bad Wolf?
Without taking time to smooth back her hair he pressed her lifeless lips to his, silently attempting to connect whatever straggling remnant of Timelord genetics he had to any part of the vortex that still existed within her.
It was his last shot, and it was all he had. Oh, please make my dreams come true…
As he pulled away he thought he saw her eyes flutter, but it had to be a trick of the searchlights from the helicopter that brought the extraction team-a figment of his overwrought, tortured imagination.
“Wotcha, hero,” murmured Rose breathlessly as she regained consciousness. For all she knew, she’d just fallen asleep, so she was surprised by the ferocity with which he clung to her, crushing her into his chest as if attempting to make her a part of him. He sobbed violently into her hair. Hastily, awkwardly, he scooped her face up into his hands and faced her towards the light. She had never seen him so full of emotion before, and it spilled out of him like overfilled glass. Choking on his own tears, he begged her:
“Promise me you’ll never leave me again.”
She promised him.
Author: psyfi_geekgirl
Characters/Pairings: TenII/Rose
Rating: PG-13
Teaser: He stood over Rose-his beautiful, perfect rose-and felt more helpless than he’d ever felt in his long, long life.
Word count: 1,200
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em. “Not nobody, not nohow…”
A/N: Written for challenge 44 at then_theres_us (Disney) + pics under the cut. Hooray, my first official entry!!! Leave it to me to make something wholesome and fun like Disney a big ball of angst!
This was bad. This was several suitcases of bad. He whipped her ornamental compact mirror into the undergrowth with an enraged howl. Its reflective surface had failed to register any breath.
He stood over Rose-his beautiful, perfect rose-and felt more helpless than he’d ever felt in his long, long life.
He saw no signs of life: No vitals, no pulse, no nothing. Just Rose, in her beautiful perfection, frozen forever.
It had been his fault, naturally-because throughout time and space, incarnations or clones he would always take final responsibility for the health and wellbeing of Rose Tyler, just as he had promised he would do to Jackie, years and parallels away from this moment. That was his prerogative, as Timelord-or former Timelord or half-Timelord or whatever he was now. Except now he saw his only burden as not to shoulder the weight of humanity, but only to keep what was most precious to him safe. That’s all he had talent or energy for now, trapped in this new body that wasn’t so new anymore.
But he couldn’t even get that right.
And he didn’t know how to fix this. With the TARDIS he could have jumpstarted her molecular enzymes and bypassed the respiratory distress-hell, he could even make do with regular hospital right now, but they weren’t anywhere near anything and nobody could help now. What he wouldn’t give for Jack and his nanogenes! He didn’t even have a way to make tea! But perhaps it was a good thing the TARDIS wasn’t his anymore, because the way he was feeling he really could rip the universe apart without a second thought. He just wanted to destroy. And he knew there wouldn’t be anyone around to stop him. There never would be again.
Not even the Doctor could fix this patient. She was beyond his help.
They had gotten separated-yet again-on their field mission… “Field mission...” He hated those words, stupid bloody Torchwood and their pointless, ridiculous buzzwords for everything. Bloody “point people” and “team players” who thought “proactively, outside the box,” to “co-create” and put things into the “pipeline.” They were just mindless whistling drones, and he hated the lot of them! He seriously considered just burning the place down once he got back, if he ever did get back, which was looking more and more unlikely because he would never ever leave her. Certainly not here. He saw eyes reflected in the dark and he wasn’t obtuse enough to believe that these woodland creatures were actually keeping guard over her or something. They wanted a meal. He wanted revenge.
They were supposed to be following the Schneewittchen, a crafty shape-shifter that had fallen through their parallel’s rift and was causing general havoc throughout the New London countryside. Despite his better judgment he’d allowed them to use the short-range transmat devices-didn’t know why as those things never worked properly anyhow. And, surprise surprise-the rubbish things threw him wildly off course and her right in the middle of it. Then he’d been captured by some of her henchmen, some of those dwarf or gnome things or whatever it was that the little buggers preferred to be called. There were seven of them-maybe more down in the mine they were tunneling in, looking for jewels to power their makeshift craft back through the rift. There was one real surly bloke who wasn’t interested in hearing him run his gob-but that Doc fella was the only one who would attempt to negotiate with him, even though he had some sort of speech impediment. Of course, after he’d broken out of those useless handcuffs all he had to do was wait until they were asleep and sneak out of their lousy little cottage. He only knew where to find Rose because one was so thick he’d written their plans down and then promptly left it out in the open for him to pinch it. So “X” practically marked the spot.
He’d found the remnant of the poisoned apple in Rose’s hand as she lay on the bed of moss in the middle of the clearing in the woods. But it was too late. He imagined that alien thing had given it to her, like some sort of a peace offering, as they waited together in the woods for backup to call the extraction team. The little basket that had carried her doom lay a few feet away, a strange item left behind that littered an otherwise picturesque forest scene.
How could Rose have been so naive?
He felt the stars in his universe blink out as she lay lifeless on the forest floor. Like a planetless moon, he had lost his orbit-his fairest companion of them all-and he began to drift into darkness. It would take a miracle to bring her back to him, and he wasn’t the sort who believed in miracles.
He leaned over and caught her up in his arms, the tears streaming. He struggled to keep her upright, gravity pulling her dead weight down-
Dead weight…
His eyes swam before him and he was struck with a panic he had never known: He just couldn’t fathom life without her. He could barely begin to imagine eternity without her before, but now, trapped in a mortal, finite existence without Rose somehow seemed more desolate and more harrowing than he could possibly imagine. He had only but one heart, one song and one love that kept him singing-and they were all for Rose-but that was gone now. Although, perhaps it was just desserts for all of the terrible things he’d wrought over the millennia. He thought about just walking away, sitting under a tree and waiting for death, but he just couldn’t bring himself to let her go. She was his Rose, and for all the world it just looked like she was sleeping.
Wait a minute… Just looked like she was sleeping?
Could he be that lucky again, just this once?
Could the Prince of Time really awaken the Big Bad Wolf?
Without taking time to smooth back her hair he pressed her lifeless lips to his, silently attempting to connect whatever straggling remnant of Timelord genetics he had to any part of the vortex that still existed within her.
It was his last shot, and it was all he had. Oh, please make my dreams come true…
As he pulled away he thought he saw her eyes flutter, but it had to be a trick of the searchlights from the helicopter that brought the extraction team-a figment of his overwrought, tortured imagination.
“Wotcha, hero,” murmured Rose breathlessly as she regained consciousness. For all she knew, she’d just fallen asleep, so she was surprised by the ferocity with which he clung to her, crushing her into his chest as if attempting to make her a part of him. He sobbed violently into her hair. Hastily, awkwardly, he scooped her face up into his hands and faced her towards the light. She had never seen him so full of emotion before, and it spilled out of him like overfilled glass. Choking on his own tears, he begged her:
“Promise me you’ll never leave me again.”
She promised him.