Fic: Cold
Title: Cold
Rating: U
Word Count: 399
Pairings or Characters: The Doctor, River
Warnings: None
Summary: Sometimes the Doctor has to be cold.
"Save them."
"I can't."
"Save them!"
"No."
They had made the weapon for a war that had been going too long.
It was their nature. War was in their very souls. The planet was, depending on the day, almost equally divided between the two nations. Constantly they gained and lost ground all along the front line that encircled the world.
River had come to study them. Envoys from both sides had come to her. Their simple question: What started the war? They had offered a hefty payment and access to any records and sites she wished, even agreeing temporary cease fires if she needed to visit active fighting zones.
She found many reasons for the fighting. Hatred. The shades of their skin. Religion. Retaliation for atrocities on both sides.
It was an all consuming global conflict, to River it was a miracle that there was a planet left at all.
It was in a library in an expanse of rubble that used to be a city that River found out why.
"Why are you here?"
She looked up and there he was, her beloved. "They wanted to know why this started."
He nodded and ran his hand through his hair. In the distance there was the continual thrum of explosions far away. He fidgeted with his bow-tie and shuffled his feet. "And?"
"And I found out."
He sat down across from her. "What you have to understand," he said hurriedly, "is that I was trying to help."
"I know sweetie," she put her hand on his. "Tell me." With her other hand River patted the ancient book. It was open on a page with an illustration of a familiar Police Box. Standing beside it was a man in rather unkempt clothing with a striped scarf around his neck and a floppy hat atop curly hair.
The Doctor told her.
Above the planet, the Tardis doors wide open, River and the Doctor watched. The weapon was the inevitable end. As the devastation spread, killing the world, River grabbed his arm. She asked him to save them. There had to be a way.
But there wasn't.
He watched coldly. He had to. When he made mistakes he had to accept the consequences. He had to shut off the emotion and learn from the error. Getting angry at himself and upset at the universe did no good.
He'd tried that enough times.
Rating: U
Word Count: 399
Pairings or Characters: The Doctor, River
Warnings: None
Summary: Sometimes the Doctor has to be cold.
"Save them."
"I can't."
"Save them!"
"No."
They had made the weapon for a war that had been going too long.
It was their nature. War was in their very souls. The planet was, depending on the day, almost equally divided between the two nations. Constantly they gained and lost ground all along the front line that encircled the world.
River had come to study them. Envoys from both sides had come to her. Their simple question: What started the war? They had offered a hefty payment and access to any records and sites she wished, even agreeing temporary cease fires if she needed to visit active fighting zones.
She found many reasons for the fighting. Hatred. The shades of their skin. Religion. Retaliation for atrocities on both sides.
It was an all consuming global conflict, to River it was a miracle that there was a planet left at all.
It was in a library in an expanse of rubble that used to be a city that River found out why.
"Why are you here?"
She looked up and there he was, her beloved. "They wanted to know why this started."
He nodded and ran his hand through his hair. In the distance there was the continual thrum of explosions far away. He fidgeted with his bow-tie and shuffled his feet. "And?"
"And I found out."
He sat down across from her. "What you have to understand," he said hurriedly, "is that I was trying to help."
"I know sweetie," she put her hand on his. "Tell me." With her other hand River patted the ancient book. It was open on a page with an illustration of a familiar Police Box. Standing beside it was a man in rather unkempt clothing with a striped scarf around his neck and a floppy hat atop curly hair.
The Doctor told her.
Above the planet, the Tardis doors wide open, River and the Doctor watched. The weapon was the inevitable end. As the devastation spread, killing the world, River grabbed his arm. She asked him to save them. There had to be a way.
But there wasn't.
He watched coldly. He had to. When he made mistakes he had to accept the consequences. He had to shut off the emotion and learn from the error. Getting angry at himself and upset at the universe did no good.
He'd tried that enough times.