Childish Things (TAGD-verse) 1/1
Story: Childish Things
Author: wmr / wendymr
Characters: Rose Tyler, Ninth Doctor (Pete's World), Jack Harkness (Pete's World)
Rated: G
Universe: Through A Glass Darkly
Summary: "I love this. Reminds me of when I was a kid."
Written for lindenharp, in grateful appreciation of the gorgeous TAGD-verse icon she made for me at my request. Her prompt was Childhood memories. This story takes place three months after the end of Through A Glass Darkly.
Childish Things
Rose sits on the sea wall, swinging her legs and licking her blue and yellow ice-cream. “I love this,” she announces, grinning at the Doctor and Jack through yellow lips as she waves out at the purpley-blue sea. “Reminds me of when I was a kid.”
“What, turnin’ your lips yellow?” The Doctor gives her a sardonically amused grin.
She ignores him. “You know I told you I grew up on an estate, right? And my dad died when I was a baby? We never had much money. Wasn’t deprived or anything like that,” she adds quickly with a smile. “Mum did a great job making ends meet. Just meant there was never anything for luxuries. She used to save up the children’s allowance, an’ we’d go to Brighton for a couple of day-trips every summer. I loved it.”
“Brighton?” Jack asks.
“Yeah. Seaside town, about an hour away by train. We’d get cheap day returns an’ have about seven hours there. I loved it.”
Jack frowns, looking puzzled. “What did you do? Watch the waves go in and out?”
For a moment, she wonders if he’s winding her up - the Jack she knew in the other universe would have - but then she sees his expression. He really doesn’t know. It makes her wonder what his own childhood was like. Did he ever see the sea?
“Sometimes. Mostly I played in the sand, built sandcastles, went swimming, walked on the pier, stuff like that.”
The expression on Jack’s face tells her that she might as well have been speaking Swahili. It’s obvious that none of it made any sense to him. “You never made sandcastles as a kid?”
He shakes his head. Then, she notices, he glances past her. At the Doctor, who’s come to sit on her other side - well, of course, he’s known Jack since Jack was sixteen, so the Doctor probably understands why none of this is making sense to Jack.
“I grew up next to the sea,” Jack says, shifting his gaze back to her. He did? Then why...? And that’s when she notices that even though he’s smiling his eyes are distant. “Wasn’t like this, though. When I was a kid, we were under constant threat of invasion. Every so often, ships would fly over and just strafe the beach with bombs - just because they could. It wasn’t exactly a safe place to be.”
Oh, god, yeah. Oh, shit. How could she have forgotten? He told her about the random bombings, that day when he told her what had happened to his planet. Chewing her lip, she gives him an apologetic grimace. “Yeah. Sorry. Should’ve remembered.”
He loops an arm around her shoulders, hugging her. “Nah. Never told you we were next to the sea, so how could you have realised?” Leaning in, he kisses her briefly. “Don’t start thinking you’ve gone and stirred up bad memories or anything. It’s fine,” he assures her, smiling warmly so she knows he means it. “And we did have fun as kids. Just not the same.”
His expression’s nothing but fond memory as his gaze drifts out to the sea. “There were abandoned, half-ruined houses in the town, remnants of older attacks. Course, we kids didn’t know any better. We played all kinds of games in the ruins. Pretended they were battlements, and we were army commanders, setting up defences against the enemy.”
“Always a soldier,” the Doctor comments. “Suppose it’d have been more surprisin’ if you’d played doctors and nurses.”
Jack turns and waggles his eyebrows. “Oh, I did that too,” he says, voice laden with innuendo. The Doctor actually blushes, and Jack leans across, in front of her, and kisses him. The Doctor’s smiling as Jack pulls back, and it’s affectionate, directed at Jack.
She can understand why. She’s been with them three months, and Jack’s a different person now from the closed-off, traumatised bloke he was when she met the two of them. Oh, he still has his dark moments, but he laughs now and teases the two of them. He’s still not as carefree as the Jack she knew in the other universe; he barely pays attention to other people when they’re out and about and never flirts with anyone other than her and the Doctor. From things the Doctor’s said, he used to be much more like the other Jack.
It’ll take time. It’s still been barely nine months since he lost everything.
He’s smiling again now, though. “We thought we were being so clever, that our parents hadn’t a clue what we were up to. Wasn’t until a few years later I realised not only were they well aware of it, but they’d also reinforced the ruins we played in and sealed off the ones that were more dangerous.”
“Parents, always spoilin’ your fun,” the Doctor comments dryly, though his eyes are amused.
“What about you, Doctor?” Jack asks. “What did you do for fun as a kid? Or was it all work and no play for baby Time Lords?”
She stills at that. It’s not a question she’d ever have asked her Doctor, either of them. He was always very touchy on the subject of his planet and the Time Lords, rarely volunteering information and usually avoiding questions - though she stopped asking once she realised it hurt him.
“Oh, we had fun,” the Doctor says, stretching his legs out in front of him and tilting his face up to the warmth of the afternoon sun. “You should’ve seen Gallifrey, you two. Red grass, orange sky, silver trees...” He smiles in reminiscence, and now it’s his turn to stare into the distance. “We’d leave the Citadel behind and run through those fields, up towards Mount Perdition, and then we’d lie in the grass for hours and pretend we could see timelines. We couldn’t then,” he adds, a dry twist to his voice. “Far too young, we were, and the little we could see none of us could understand, but we all wanted to pretend so we could outdo one another.”
Jack laughs. “Good to know even Time Lord kids could be obnoxious.”
“Oi!” the Doctor retorts, but it’s not really a protest. “All gone now, of course,” he adds softly.
“Yeah,” Jack says, and as she glances at him he’s flattening his palms on his lap. As he meets her gaze she sees sadness, but not grief, in his eyes. She lays a hand over his, and he turns his over to clasp hers.
“Me too,” she adds. At Jack’s raised eyebrow, she explains. “Brighton’s not a seaside resort in this universe. Couldn’t believe it the first time I drove down there. Suppose I should’ve asked, really. Can’t expect everything to be the same.”
“What is it?” the Doctor asks.
“Oil terminal,” she says, with all the disgust she felt when she drove along what should have been Old Steine, leading to the East Pier.
The Doctor bursts out laughing, and after a moment Jack joins in. Her indignation at their amusement only lasts a few seconds before she’s laughing too.
“Come on.” The Doctor slides off the wall, then pats her on the shoulder. “Can’t sit around here all day! No matter what’s gone, there’s still lots left in the universe we haven’t even discovered yet.”
“True,” she agrees, wrapping her arms around both of them. Jack and the Doctor fold their arms around her and each other, and for a long moment they stand together in the sun and the warmth of the breeze.
Then she pulls away and gives them an impish grin. “Last one back to the TARDIS is a stupid ape!”
She’s off and running already before they can catch her.
- end
Author: wmr / wendymr
Characters: Rose Tyler, Ninth Doctor (Pete's World), Jack Harkness (Pete's World)
Rated: G
Universe: Through A Glass Darkly
Summary: "I love this. Reminds me of when I was a kid."
Written for lindenharp, in grateful appreciation of the gorgeous TAGD-verse icon she made for me at my request. Her prompt was Childhood memories. This story takes place three months after the end of Through A Glass Darkly.
Childish Things
Rose sits on the sea wall, swinging her legs and licking her blue and yellow ice-cream. “I love this,” she announces, grinning at the Doctor and Jack through yellow lips as she waves out at the purpley-blue sea. “Reminds me of when I was a kid.”
“What, turnin’ your lips yellow?” The Doctor gives her a sardonically amused grin.
She ignores him. “You know I told you I grew up on an estate, right? And my dad died when I was a baby? We never had much money. Wasn’t deprived or anything like that,” she adds quickly with a smile. “Mum did a great job making ends meet. Just meant there was never anything for luxuries. She used to save up the children’s allowance, an’ we’d go to Brighton for a couple of day-trips every summer. I loved it.”
“Brighton?” Jack asks.
“Yeah. Seaside town, about an hour away by train. We’d get cheap day returns an’ have about seven hours there. I loved it.”
Jack frowns, looking puzzled. “What did you do? Watch the waves go in and out?”
For a moment, she wonders if he’s winding her up - the Jack she knew in the other universe would have - but then she sees his expression. He really doesn’t know. It makes her wonder what his own childhood was like. Did he ever see the sea?
“Sometimes. Mostly I played in the sand, built sandcastles, went swimming, walked on the pier, stuff like that.”
The expression on Jack’s face tells her that she might as well have been speaking Swahili. It’s obvious that none of it made any sense to him. “You never made sandcastles as a kid?”
He shakes his head. Then, she notices, he glances past her. At the Doctor, who’s come to sit on her other side - well, of course, he’s known Jack since Jack was sixteen, so the Doctor probably understands why none of this is making sense to Jack.
“I grew up next to the sea,” Jack says, shifting his gaze back to her. He did? Then why...? And that’s when she notices that even though he’s smiling his eyes are distant. “Wasn’t like this, though. When I was a kid, we were under constant threat of invasion. Every so often, ships would fly over and just strafe the beach with bombs - just because they could. It wasn’t exactly a safe place to be.”
Oh, god, yeah. Oh, shit. How could she have forgotten? He told her about the random bombings, that day when he told her what had happened to his planet. Chewing her lip, she gives him an apologetic grimace. “Yeah. Sorry. Should’ve remembered.”
He loops an arm around her shoulders, hugging her. “Nah. Never told you we were next to the sea, so how could you have realised?” Leaning in, he kisses her briefly. “Don’t start thinking you’ve gone and stirred up bad memories or anything. It’s fine,” he assures her, smiling warmly so she knows he means it. “And we did have fun as kids. Just not the same.”
His expression’s nothing but fond memory as his gaze drifts out to the sea. “There were abandoned, half-ruined houses in the town, remnants of older attacks. Course, we kids didn’t know any better. We played all kinds of games in the ruins. Pretended they were battlements, and we were army commanders, setting up defences against the enemy.”
“Always a soldier,” the Doctor comments. “Suppose it’d have been more surprisin’ if you’d played doctors and nurses.”
Jack turns and waggles his eyebrows. “Oh, I did that too,” he says, voice laden with innuendo. The Doctor actually blushes, and Jack leans across, in front of her, and kisses him. The Doctor’s smiling as Jack pulls back, and it’s affectionate, directed at Jack.
She can understand why. She’s been with them three months, and Jack’s a different person now from the closed-off, traumatised bloke he was when she met the two of them. Oh, he still has his dark moments, but he laughs now and teases the two of them. He’s still not as carefree as the Jack she knew in the other universe; he barely pays attention to other people when they’re out and about and never flirts with anyone other than her and the Doctor. From things the Doctor’s said, he used to be much more like the other Jack.
It’ll take time. It’s still been barely nine months since he lost everything.
He’s smiling again now, though. “We thought we were being so clever, that our parents hadn’t a clue what we were up to. Wasn’t until a few years later I realised not only were they well aware of it, but they’d also reinforced the ruins we played in and sealed off the ones that were more dangerous.”
“Parents, always spoilin’ your fun,” the Doctor comments dryly, though his eyes are amused.
“What about you, Doctor?” Jack asks. “What did you do for fun as a kid? Or was it all work and no play for baby Time Lords?”
She stills at that. It’s not a question she’d ever have asked her Doctor, either of them. He was always very touchy on the subject of his planet and the Time Lords, rarely volunteering information and usually avoiding questions - though she stopped asking once she realised it hurt him.
“Oh, we had fun,” the Doctor says, stretching his legs out in front of him and tilting his face up to the warmth of the afternoon sun. “You should’ve seen Gallifrey, you two. Red grass, orange sky, silver trees...” He smiles in reminiscence, and now it’s his turn to stare into the distance. “We’d leave the Citadel behind and run through those fields, up towards Mount Perdition, and then we’d lie in the grass for hours and pretend we could see timelines. We couldn’t then,” he adds, a dry twist to his voice. “Far too young, we were, and the little we could see none of us could understand, but we all wanted to pretend so we could outdo one another.”
Jack laughs. “Good to know even Time Lord kids could be obnoxious.”
“Oi!” the Doctor retorts, but it’s not really a protest. “All gone now, of course,” he adds softly.
“Yeah,” Jack says, and as she glances at him he’s flattening his palms on his lap. As he meets her gaze she sees sadness, but not grief, in his eyes. She lays a hand over his, and he turns his over to clasp hers.
“Me too,” she adds. At Jack’s raised eyebrow, she explains. “Brighton’s not a seaside resort in this universe. Couldn’t believe it the first time I drove down there. Suppose I should’ve asked, really. Can’t expect everything to be the same.”
“What is it?” the Doctor asks.
“Oil terminal,” she says, with all the disgust she felt when she drove along what should have been Old Steine, leading to the East Pier.
The Doctor bursts out laughing, and after a moment Jack joins in. Her indignation at their amusement only lasts a few seconds before she’s laughing too.
“Come on.” The Doctor slides off the wall, then pats her on the shoulder. “Can’t sit around here all day! No matter what’s gone, there’s still lots left in the universe we haven’t even discovered yet.”
“True,” she agrees, wrapping her arms around both of them. Jack and the Doctor fold their arms around her and each other, and for a long moment they stand together in the sun and the warmth of the breeze.
Then she pulls away and gives them an impish grin. “Last one back to the TARDIS is a stupid ape!”
She’s off and running already before they can catch her.
- end