ABC Challenge Ficlet: 'Unintentional'
I'm making slow but steady progress on the Alphabet Challenge Ficlets. This one is Dr. Who, set sometime roughly between The Doctor Dances and Boomtown.
Unintentional
“Can I move yet?”
“Not yet. I’m trying to capture a moment.”
They’re on the upper deck of the steamer Assyria, somewhere halfway between Lisbon and Glasgow. It’s 1912, and in eight days time the Titanic will sink, taking the last remnants of the Gilded Age with it.
On this day, though, the sun is bright and the air is clear, Rose is laughing and Jack has his tongue caught between his teeth. He’s trying not to laugh himself, his head bent over a leather-bound sketchbook.
“I don’t believe for one second that you can actually draw, you know,” she says to him, trying to move her mouth as little as possible.
“Of course I can draw,” Jack says, with a brilliant smile, “provided I have an inspirational subject. And, let me tell you,” he leers at her, “right now I’m very inspired.”
The Doctor manages not to roll his eyes, but it’s a close thing.
Rose is wearing a lilac afternoon dress, her hat and shawl abandoned on the deck beside her. She looks fresh and lovely, and a small part of him is forced to admit that Jack is right. Jack must sense this, too, because he looks up and gives the Doctor a wink.
The sketch, when it’s finished, is actually rather good.
Jack puts it next to Rose’s place setting at dinner and she nearly spills her glass of Bordeaux on it before she notices.
“Maybe next time you’d like a go, Doctor?” Jack says. “But would you rather draw or pose?”
Jack grins at Rose, who rolls her eyes. But then they both look at him, with twin smiles and cheeks flushed from a little too much wine, and he briefly loses his equilibrium. There’s something wrong with him this time around, something broken, something different. He closes his eyes, and he gets himself back under control.
It’s like trying to turn the Titanic. An apt metaphor, considering.
He mentions the ship, that it will be in Southampton when they get there, trying to steer the conversation into safer waters. (Another metaphor, or maybe a pun, depending on your point of view.) Rose jokes that the Titanic would be his idea of a holiday, and he assures her (despite the looks she and Jack are giving one another across the table) that he has absolutely no intention of having anything to do with it.
So what happens later is entirely unintentional. Mostly. Mostly unintentional.
Definitely not planned, at any rate.
They get separated in Southampton. That sort of thing doesn’t normally worry him, and this time is no exception.
Two days, several adventures and one telegram to New York later, he’s sitting in the parlor of a very nice hotel taking tea with the Daniels family of Southampton.
“Well, I don’t about you, but we’ve had the most interesting day,” a voice says from across the room. It’s Jack.
The family looks up from their tea, surprised.
The Doctor just smiles and says, “Ah, these are the young companions I mentioned. I thought they’d find their way back to me.”
Jack has a black eye and Rose’s hair is mussed, but otherwise they both appear relatively unscathed. There’s something different in their body language, though, in the way they keep a safe distance between them and won’t quite meet his eyes. He files that away, and decides not to think about it until later. And, anyway, it’s a relief to see them.
“The Titanic sailed today,” he says instead. “The Daniels have decided to stay behind. Sit down and have some tea with us.”
for melodylemming
Unintentional
“Can I move yet?”
“Not yet. I’m trying to capture a moment.”
They’re on the upper deck of the steamer Assyria, somewhere halfway between Lisbon and Glasgow. It’s 1912, and in eight days time the Titanic will sink, taking the last remnants of the Gilded Age with it.
On this day, though, the sun is bright and the air is clear, Rose is laughing and Jack has his tongue caught between his teeth. He’s trying not to laugh himself, his head bent over a leather-bound sketchbook.
“I don’t believe for one second that you can actually draw, you know,” she says to him, trying to move her mouth as little as possible.
“Of course I can draw,” Jack says, with a brilliant smile, “provided I have an inspirational subject. And, let me tell you,” he leers at her, “right now I’m very inspired.”
The Doctor manages not to roll his eyes, but it’s a close thing.
Rose is wearing a lilac afternoon dress, her hat and shawl abandoned on the deck beside her. She looks fresh and lovely, and a small part of him is forced to admit that Jack is right. Jack must sense this, too, because he looks up and gives the Doctor a wink.
The sketch, when it’s finished, is actually rather good.
Jack puts it next to Rose’s place setting at dinner and she nearly spills her glass of Bordeaux on it before she notices.
“Maybe next time you’d like a go, Doctor?” Jack says. “But would you rather draw or pose?”
Jack grins at Rose, who rolls her eyes. But then they both look at him, with twin smiles and cheeks flushed from a little too much wine, and he briefly loses his equilibrium. There’s something wrong with him this time around, something broken, something different. He closes his eyes, and he gets himself back under control.
It’s like trying to turn the Titanic. An apt metaphor, considering.
He mentions the ship, that it will be in Southampton when they get there, trying to steer the conversation into safer waters. (Another metaphor, or maybe a pun, depending on your point of view.) Rose jokes that the Titanic would be his idea of a holiday, and he assures her (despite the looks she and Jack are giving one another across the table) that he has absolutely no intention of having anything to do with it.
So what happens later is entirely unintentional. Mostly. Mostly unintentional.
Definitely not planned, at any rate.
They get separated in Southampton. That sort of thing doesn’t normally worry him, and this time is no exception.
Two days, several adventures and one telegram to New York later, he’s sitting in the parlor of a very nice hotel taking tea with the Daniels family of Southampton.
“Well, I don’t about you, but we’ve had the most interesting day,” a voice says from across the room. It’s Jack.
The family looks up from their tea, surprised.
The Doctor just smiles and says, “Ah, these are the young companions I mentioned. I thought they’d find their way back to me.”
Jack has a black eye and Rose’s hair is mussed, but otherwise they both appear relatively unscathed. There’s something different in their body language, though, in the way they keep a safe distance between them and won’t quite meet his eyes. He files that away, and decides not to think about it until later. And, anyway, it’s a relief to see them.
“The Titanic sailed today,” he says instead. “The Daniels have decided to stay behind. Sit down and have some tea with us.”
for melodylemming