Where I Stood (1/1)
Title: Where I Stood
Author: tromana
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Ten/Romana
Spoilers: None
Summary: He smiled her a lop-sided smile as he approached her, feeling oddly dry and as if time was slowing down.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. You should be very relieved about that. Lyrics are from Where I Stood by Missy Higgins
Where I Stood
cause she will love you more than I could/she who dares to stand where I stood.
The rain pelted down on them, soaking Romana through to the skin. She looked up and beamed as she saw the Doctor approach her. He smiled her a lop-sided smile as he approached her, feeling oddly dry and as if time was slowing down. In fact, as he gazed down to his feet, it got to the stage he could identify the moment each raindrop splashed on the ground.
Time stood still as she lifted a hand to his face and placed it carefully. He held his breath for what felt like an eternity and wished he could feel the fingertips brushing gently over his cheek. She turned and motioned for him to follow. She ran, surprisingly fast, to the extent that the Doctor struggled to keep up with her.
He felt out of breath, yet at the same time, not, when she finally stopped and brushed a sodden lock of blonde hair behind her ear. He opened his mouth and suddenly became tongue-tied; he tried again and still had no luck. Romana placed a slender finger to her lips, so he simply stood, staring at her, slack-jawed.
Her words tickled in his ear. The Doctor couldn’t quite tell what she was saying; they always seemed to get lost in the ether, even if they were barely millimetres apart. He’d quickly learned her words didn’t matter, it was simply her presence that did. He smiled, and reached forward to embrace her, wrap his arms around her slender waist and place a kiss gently on her lips.
They fell through, as they always did, and she dissipated. In a moment, the Doctor was quickly reminded why it was he avoided sleep.
He felt - or appeared to feel someone tapping gently on his shoulder. He turned, still trapped in this dreamland and Romana was standing there, smiling in that oh so irritating fashion, acting as if nothing had happened. It was always the way, he’d try to touch her, however gently, and she’d disappear and reappear behind him. Still, he wasn’t going to let something like that hold him back.
“Why?” he muttered. “Why do you, of all people, have to taunt me?”
She laughed, and sat as rain sped up around them, pouring down at a frenetic rate.
“You do realise this is only a dream? It’s your fault I’m here.”
Well, that was new. It was the first time he’d ever heard her speak in this situation. Normally, she’d just smile or he’d wake up. He wasn’t sure whether to complain or not, but still stuck his bottom lip out like a petulant child.
“That you’re in control of my every action? That you can satisfy your every whim with me? In this dreamland,” Romana stated. “Your dreamland,” she added quickly.
“Nonsense.” The Doctor picked up a leaf. It should have felt squelchy, but didn’t. “You’ve always been your own Romana. You said so yourself.”
“Therefore you think of me as my own entity and I can do what I like,” she replied, quickly.
“However much I may look like the Romana you once knew, I am not her and never will be.”
“You know what? Telling me I’m talking to a figment of my own imagination doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“It wasn’t meant to.”
The Doctor stood, sighing heavily before glaring at her. He cast his eyes to the horizon. After fifty metres or so, it blurred somewhat and soon become a grey nothing-ness. He could remember companions describing in great detail the vividness of their dreams in the TARDIS. It seemed that he wasn’t blessed with the same thing, but cursed with rather annoying ghosts from his past.
“I loved - love you, you know.”
“Not me, her.”
“Oh, stop it.”
“Remember, she did say she forgives you.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better either.”
“There’s no winning with you, is there?” Romana snapped. “I swear you just mope around to…”
The Doctor jumped with a start; he was slumped in the Captain’s seat, his sonic screwdriver on the grating beside him. There it was again, a sharp knock on the TARDIS door. People didn’t see the TARDIS, they just walked straight by. Unless, the perception filter was on the blink again? But he’d only checked that a decade or so ago and it was fine. He approached the door, tentatively. Whoever was behind it was very persistent. Eventually, the person found a key and the Doctor took a step backwards as the doors swung open.
“I knew I had the key on me somewhere.”
She beamed sunnily at the Doctor who stood gawping at her.
“Now really, Doctor, what has got into you?”
“But I was, how did, what are you doing here?”
The Doctor stopped gabbling and enveloped her in a hug whilst beaming from ear to ear. She
was solid, real and quite, quite wet.
“Now why exactly did you blow up the planet?”