La Fin du Voyage (1/1)
Title: La Fin du Voyage
Rating: All Ages
Characters/Pairings: Ten II/Rose, OC narrator
Word Count: 1198
A/N: In the south of France, the Doctor stops running. Written for Round 2.06 of writerinatardis, and the prompt was this image.
I’d been awake. I’m always awake. I told Maman that I didn’t know where they were from or how they came to be found in our barn, sleeping, wrapped around one another like vines. Truth is, I watched them arrive in an old Citroen, leaving a wake of churned-up dust behind them that felt like it, too, had come from thirty years ago.
They cut the engine when they got close to our house and coasted to a stop behind an outbuilding. Through my bedroom window I watched the man who’d been driving-a long-limbed sort with studied, deliberate movements-exit the car and shut the door behind him, trying to muffle the sound. He crossed to the passenger side, and was obscured from my view for a time.
When he stood again, he cradled a blonde woman in his arms. For a moment I thought she might be dead, or injured, but she wrapped her arms around the man’s neck and nuzzled sleepily into his collarbone. He inclined his head and whispered something that I couldn’t hear, before stalking off towards the barn.
I wasn’t afraid that they were murderers or thieves. I was about ten years old when I realized that Maman was a paranoid, and that the world was, in fact, not full of people waiting to murder us in our sleep. It was quite the revelation, and the thing that allowed me to finally enjoy my nights alone and awake rather than fear yet another nine hours in which I was the sole defender of everything I loved and held dear.
When I set foot onto the front porch, I heard our two geldings nicker quietly, probably discussing these strangers in their midst and what they might be up to-and whether or not any oats or apples might be forthcoming.
“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t stay awake any longer,” the man said, in English.
“Mm,” his companion replied sleepily. “It’s okay.”
“Is it? I’m not sure if any of this is okay. And me needing to sleep, it’s probably the least okay thing there is.”
I watched in between the boards that made up the wall of the barn and saw that he was sitting, while she was lying down next to him, her head in his lap. His hand had long, elegant fingers that twined through the woman’s hair. Her eyes were closed but her full mouth approximated a tired half-smile.
“I told your mum that I’d always protect you-“ He said, and it seemed like he might be on the verge of tears.
“Again with my mum,” the woman said, and her eyes fluttered open to look up at him. “For all your talk of me getting old and my life being so short, I can’t believe you never realized…” She trailed off and reached a hand up to cup the man’s face and rub his cheek with her thumb. “I grew up, Doctor.”
“I guess he didn’t… I never thought.” He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.
“And here I’d been worrying that he wouldn’t love me anymore, as a grown woman.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, and I started to wonder if my English was failing me, with all of the unexpected pronouns, and that I was misunderstanding what each was saying.
“Because I’m different now” she replied quite matter-of-factly. The man seemed to be overcome with both fatigue and emotion, but the woman, despite her attitude of repose, was straightforward and practical.
The man laughed, deep in his chest. “I think I win this round of the Different Olympics.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like I knew that ahead of time. It’s not exactly how a girl envisions her reunion with her beloved, you know?”
He chuckled again, though there was an edge to his next words: “The fact that I even had a beloved couldn’t have come as any more of a surprise to me, I assure you.”
“You can stop that right now,” she said, as if this was a road they’d both been down several times before. “Spend enough time among the natives, you start to act like them, yeah? And now you’re stuck with us.”
“You were right,” he said. “It’s not so bad.”
“Thank you for the enthusiastic vote of confidence,” the woman smirked and closed her eyes again. “So you’ll let me know, when we get to the right place? None of this keeping secrets or agonising over it like a… well, like a romantically confused Time Lord.”
“I promise,” he murmured and contorted his body to lean over and kiss her at a skewed angle. “And you promise to not ask if we’re there yet.”
“It’s a deal, sir.”
They both settled in a bit more as if they were going to sleep. The grass under my bare feet was wet with dew, but I thought that I might want to get comfortable where I was as well. The sound of their breathing, the sight of them, it was soothing. I leaned my head against the outside wall, smooth from years of being touched by rain and wind and the dust of the yard.
“What if it’s right here?” the man said, after several long, quiet minutes of listening to crickets and the heavy breathing of the horses.
The woman made a small hiccuping noise and opened her eyes again. “Pardon?”
“Right in this spot. In Provence, in the barn of an old vineyard, planet Earth, the year 2012 of the Common Era. Right here, right now… I stop running.”
She sat up, resting her back next to his along the wall, both of them staring almost directly at where I sat, unseen outside the barn.
“Does that mean we have to become French farmers? Because I’m sort of rubbish at gardening.” Her smile was beautiful, but still lop-sided. She didn’t believe what he had said, was protecting herself behind a joke.
“I’m not kidding,” he said, vaguely offended. “I want to stop. It hasn’t even been a week and already I’m tired in my bones. I can feel my life slipping through my fingers and I don’t want to waste it on running any more. I’m ready.”
“If you’re sure.” The woman came to kneel so she could face him, and took his hands in hers. She waited a beat before continuing, waiting for him to stop her, but he didn’t. “How long are you going to stay with me?”
“Forever,” he said solemnly. He leaned in to kiss her tenderly, saying, “Forever,” again as he did so.
I turned my back to the wall to look up at the stars, and the gauzy clouds racing across the sky. Behind me, the couple murmured a few barely-audible words of love and then there was only the sound of deep slumber. I brought my knees up under my jumper and closed my eyes.
When Maman found me the next morning, it was the first time she’d seen me sleeping since I was an infant. And the first time strangers had been found on her property and been welcomed with brioche and fresh milk rather than the barrel of her shotgun.
------
Hello faithful readers! I'm participating in the Support Stacie Author Auction, which begins this Friday. Read more about it all here.
Rating: All Ages
Characters/Pairings: Ten II/Rose, OC narrator
Word Count: 1198
A/N: In the south of France, the Doctor stops running. Written for Round 2.06 of writerinatardis, and the prompt was this image.
I’d been awake. I’m always awake. I told Maman that I didn’t know where they were from or how they came to be found in our barn, sleeping, wrapped around one another like vines. Truth is, I watched them arrive in an old Citroen, leaving a wake of churned-up dust behind them that felt like it, too, had come from thirty years ago.
They cut the engine when they got close to our house and coasted to a stop behind an outbuilding. Through my bedroom window I watched the man who’d been driving-a long-limbed sort with studied, deliberate movements-exit the car and shut the door behind him, trying to muffle the sound. He crossed to the passenger side, and was obscured from my view for a time.
When he stood again, he cradled a blonde woman in his arms. For a moment I thought she might be dead, or injured, but she wrapped her arms around the man’s neck and nuzzled sleepily into his collarbone. He inclined his head and whispered something that I couldn’t hear, before stalking off towards the barn.
I wasn’t afraid that they were murderers or thieves. I was about ten years old when I realized that Maman was a paranoid, and that the world was, in fact, not full of people waiting to murder us in our sleep. It was quite the revelation, and the thing that allowed me to finally enjoy my nights alone and awake rather than fear yet another nine hours in which I was the sole defender of everything I loved and held dear.
When I set foot onto the front porch, I heard our two geldings nicker quietly, probably discussing these strangers in their midst and what they might be up to-and whether or not any oats or apples might be forthcoming.
“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t stay awake any longer,” the man said, in English.
“Mm,” his companion replied sleepily. “It’s okay.”
“Is it? I’m not sure if any of this is okay. And me needing to sleep, it’s probably the least okay thing there is.”
I watched in between the boards that made up the wall of the barn and saw that he was sitting, while she was lying down next to him, her head in his lap. His hand had long, elegant fingers that twined through the woman’s hair. Her eyes were closed but her full mouth approximated a tired half-smile.
“I told your mum that I’d always protect you-“ He said, and it seemed like he might be on the verge of tears.
“Again with my mum,” the woman said, and her eyes fluttered open to look up at him. “For all your talk of me getting old and my life being so short, I can’t believe you never realized…” She trailed off and reached a hand up to cup the man’s face and rub his cheek with her thumb. “I grew up, Doctor.”
“I guess he didn’t… I never thought.” He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.
“And here I’d been worrying that he wouldn’t love me anymore, as a grown woman.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, and I started to wonder if my English was failing me, with all of the unexpected pronouns, and that I was misunderstanding what each was saying.
“Because I’m different now” she replied quite matter-of-factly. The man seemed to be overcome with both fatigue and emotion, but the woman, despite her attitude of repose, was straightforward and practical.
The man laughed, deep in his chest. “I think I win this round of the Different Olympics.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like I knew that ahead of time. It’s not exactly how a girl envisions her reunion with her beloved, you know?”
He chuckled again, though there was an edge to his next words: “The fact that I even had a beloved couldn’t have come as any more of a surprise to me, I assure you.”
“You can stop that right now,” she said, as if this was a road they’d both been down several times before. “Spend enough time among the natives, you start to act like them, yeah? And now you’re stuck with us.”
“You were right,” he said. “It’s not so bad.”
“Thank you for the enthusiastic vote of confidence,” the woman smirked and closed her eyes again. “So you’ll let me know, when we get to the right place? None of this keeping secrets or agonising over it like a… well, like a romantically confused Time Lord.”
“I promise,” he murmured and contorted his body to lean over and kiss her at a skewed angle. “And you promise to not ask if we’re there yet.”
“It’s a deal, sir.”
They both settled in a bit more as if they were going to sleep. The grass under my bare feet was wet with dew, but I thought that I might want to get comfortable where I was as well. The sound of their breathing, the sight of them, it was soothing. I leaned my head against the outside wall, smooth from years of being touched by rain and wind and the dust of the yard.
“What if it’s right here?” the man said, after several long, quiet minutes of listening to crickets and the heavy breathing of the horses.
The woman made a small hiccuping noise and opened her eyes again. “Pardon?”
“Right in this spot. In Provence, in the barn of an old vineyard, planet Earth, the year 2012 of the Common Era. Right here, right now… I stop running.”
She sat up, resting her back next to his along the wall, both of them staring almost directly at where I sat, unseen outside the barn.
“Does that mean we have to become French farmers? Because I’m sort of rubbish at gardening.” Her smile was beautiful, but still lop-sided. She didn’t believe what he had said, was protecting herself behind a joke.
“I’m not kidding,” he said, vaguely offended. “I want to stop. It hasn’t even been a week and already I’m tired in my bones. I can feel my life slipping through my fingers and I don’t want to waste it on running any more. I’m ready.”
“If you’re sure.” The woman came to kneel so she could face him, and took his hands in hers. She waited a beat before continuing, waiting for him to stop her, but he didn’t. “How long are you going to stay with me?”
“Forever,” he said solemnly. He leaned in to kiss her tenderly, saying, “Forever,” again as he did so.
I turned my back to the wall to look up at the stars, and the gauzy clouds racing across the sky. Behind me, the couple murmured a few barely-audible words of love and then there was only the sound of deep slumber. I brought my knees up under my jumper and closed my eyes.
When Maman found me the next morning, it was the first time she’d seen me sleeping since I was an infant. And the first time strangers had been found on her property and been welcomed with brioche and fresh milk rather than the barrel of her shotgun.
------
Hello faithful readers! I'm participating in the Support Stacie Author Auction, which begins this Friday. Read more about it all here.