The thing of it was, while Rory didn't have a lot of experience tramping through muddy jungles while being chased by imposing reptiles, he had enough and he didn't have the energy to whinge about it
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The last time he'd tried for something to read, the bookshelf had seen fit to give him a biography of the Boston Reaper, but Hotch is nothing if not both stubborn and persistant. Today, he's standing in front of the bookshelf with his hands set on his hips, hoping for something better.
The weekend hasn't left him optimistic.
Martha snuffles around his feet and then gets bored, padding off to bother somebody else. She sets her chin on the guy's lap and rolls her eyes to look up at him.
"Oh," Rory said at first, in the mildly surprised manner of someone told that the canteen was out of shepherd's pie.
"Oh," Rory said again, in the more morbidly concerned manner of someone who had just spent several days avoiding large carnivorous creatures and had no idea where this beast of a dog had suddenly come from. Its eyes were lolling in a particularly blood thirsty fashion, and its drool was getting all over his jeans.
"Oh, hello. You are... What's this now?" he asked of the dog, the thought to look around for an owner only occurring to him after the fact. "Um... help?"
"Martha," says Hotch in a firm tone that he may or may not have picked up from Pepper. Martha isn't quite as quick to obey as Piper would have been, but she does move, padding back to Hotch who smiles as apologetically as he can manage.
"Sorry," he says. "She's got no idea of personal space."
"It's alright," Rory weakly assured the rather stoic looking man, waving his hand in a weak, dismissive gesture. "Dogs, right? It's how they are."
All the same he felt better with a little breathing room and could consider the hulking dog as the anomaly it was rather than a threat to his existence. "Is that-- Did Martha arrive here with you? Do people's dogs usually do that?" Rory couldn't imagine travelling around in the TARDIS with a dog, but Sookie had said she had been standing next to her brother and her boyfriend before coming here, hadn't she? Maybe the man had been walking his dog, but why then did he get his dog and Rory didn't get his wife?
...No, he did not just equate Amy with a dog, not even in his mind. It was the principle of the thing.
River had been delighted when the bookshelf had provided a Dr Seuss book that she hadn't already read aloud several hundred times. A short time late, five times into Hop on Pop, she was slightly less delighted herself, but Zoe was just getting into it. At the suggestion of moving on to something else, the baby protested with a rather loud "Op! Op! Op!"
With an apologetic glance at the nearby man, River started again.
"Up. Pup."
She figured another reading would probably be better than making everyone in the room listen to the consequences of stopping.
Rory liked kids. He really, really did. So much so that he wanted to have some of his own some time in the future. Of course, the future wasn't his favorite topic at the moment, so he had tried to ignore mother and baby for a little while and just bury his (perfectly good if somewhat long) nose in his books.
But by the sixth run through, he had given up hope of actually studying (for the time being, not entirely) and stared in an unfocused, unobtrusive way at the pair. Chin cradled in his hand, he grinned faintly at the look, tired and letting his brain coast along on the surface details. "It's funny how they never get tired of anything at those ages," he said.
"Until they do, and want nothing to do with something you'd just resigned yourself to doing forever," River answered, taking a break from pages of "small" and "tall". "I'm sure it'll be any minute now."
Zoe declared that theory wrong with a firm "op", and the reading continued for a few more pages. River paused again when she noticed her baby's apparent fascination for a particular illustration.
"I'm River and that's Zoe, and I'm thinking that you're probably new around here." She'd been around long enough to recognize a person still getting used to the island.
"That obvious?" he asked with a friendly but slightly sheepish grin. Rory was used to not standing out, or standing out in how much he didn't stand out. Relatedly, it was funny how much people took a freakishly anachronistic Roman centurion standing by a giant artifact for granted after said centurion had been there a few centuries.
"It's nice to meet you, River. And Zoe," Rory added with a little grin to the distracted child. "I'm Rory. Just came in a few days ago into... what I suppose you call dino territory?" His half-grimace, half-grin of an expression communicated what a great entrance that had been. For Rory, anyway. "Lovely place you've got here."
Chase had been well-engrained in the book that he hadn't even glanced up to notice that anyone else might want his spot until about half an hour into meditation and hypnosis techniques. He had been making notes, scribbling in fairly decent writing, even if it was a bit girlish -- he would never really get over how every thing that he did was teasing opportunity for House. "Sorry," he said, blurting it out suddenly. "Did you want the couch?"
Blinking rapidly, Rory looked up from his book. He hadn't really been reading, the words just swimming in front of his eyes, but he had been deep in his own thoughts. Thoughts which involved blue boxes and cottages and Nile penguins, not a couch anymore.
"What?" he said, a sort of autopilot response, before barging right into a proper answer. "No, no, it's alright. I'm sorted, thanks."
Chase turned his attention back to the book for about two more seconds before he gave up on it, his attention taken away from him as he got up anyway and wound up close to the other man. "You sure? Really, now I feel bad." Guilt, apparently, got to infect everything when you hadn't resolved bigger issues, letting them fester under your skin.
Rory blinked again, unsure of the best course of action now. Was he going to do that "No really, you first" thing to Rory's refusals or just let it drop? He appreciated the fact that it was well-intentioned, but also that it was unnecessary. The last thing he wanted just then was to be made a big fuss over.
"I'm sure," Rory said, sounding distinctly not sure. "Don't worry. It's.. not an uncomfortable chair?" It wasn't, at all, but Rory wasn't sure how else to reassure him.
Amy knew better than to say that the past week had been easy. If asked, she'd hem and haw her way around giving an honest answer. It wasn't that the people here weren't nice and that the whole dinosaur bit was interesting. The rain had even stopped which made the whole thing a bit easier to stomach.
That didn't make it alright. It just made it livable. For now, until she managed to find a way out of here or make her boys, her proper boys get here safe.
Flipping through some magazine she'd picked up off the shelf, her attention wasn't on who was sitting where. People had a way of being under foot (or bum as the case may be) and she was halfway seated in the seat before noticing someone else was already there.
"Oh, whoops," she laughed, springing fully to her feet once again. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she shrugged and tried to brush the whole thing off as she turned to face the poor soul. "Suppose this thing was more engaging -- wait, hold on a minute, Rory?"
Alternate dimensions really were engaging, but more than that Rory's mind was whizzing away, firmly in some arena that didn't relate to the Compound, the rec room, the table and the person that was now sitting in his lap. He jumped himself as she pulled away, blinking like a classic deer in the headlights, unsure of what just happened.
And then the red hair, the slim figure, the voice all melted together and he knew it wasn't just a familiar face, it wasn't some kind of mirage or day dream. It was Amy.
"Amy!" he half laughed, half cried, rising to his feet as well. A bit slow but, you know, he hadn't had the kind of workout he'd had that weekend in a while. "It's you! She said you wouldn't be here but I knew that was rubbish."
"Who said that?" A frown tugged on her features, forehead furrowed as her arms stopped their natural impulse to reach out for him to rest on her hips. Amy tried to be open minded about a great many things but when it came to people being doubting of the improbable, she found it hard to think kindly. It wasn't her fault really. She just knew better.
"Of course I'm here, I've been here for a week. When did you get here?" An accusatory finger pointed at him, she wanted to both leap for joy and shout at him. How could he have just shown up and gone to read something rather than look? That was just rude and doubting and not what she wanted from her new husband.
"This odd woman," Rory answered with a dismissive wave of his hand. The only odd woman he cared about just then was Amy.
"You've been here a week?" he sputtered, brows drawing together. "But we were on the TARDIS. We were all together and I've only been here three days. How did-- Is it some kind of delayed effect? Did the Doctor get here first and we just trailed after?" Because the Doctor had to be here. If Amy was here, the Doctor had to be. He'd all but given up the frustration he had once (briefly) felt for them being a pair. Just about now he would have been grateful for it.
I'm still shaky after my own experience in Dinosaur Territory, but Zell and I can't hide in my hut forever, no matter the incentive. There's still work to be done. The Children's Office needs manning, especially with children traumatized over their parents vanishing and almost getting eaten.
So I'm on break in the rec room, putting a brave face on things. I paused when I spotted a man I haven't seen before, loaded down with books. Books. From the bookshelf. I can't help but wonder if the Island has been kind to him and, at that thought, be a little jealous at the possibility.
I approach, and glance at one of the covers. "Find what you were looking for?" I asked.
"No," he answered at first, not looking up from his page, still half-absorbed in the book and his thoughts. What he was looking for was a wife and a madman and a blue box. He hadn't found that. Far from it, he'd found no trace of it at all. (Not that Rory knew how to trace the TARDIS, or if it left a trace. Maybe particles of something...)
"Yes," he answered immediately after, checking himself, acknowledging that his short term goal had been achieved. He'd wanted to do his research and he was.
Then, "Sort of." Researching involved a lot of dead ends sometimes, and required one to be paying attention. Rory sighed and finally looked up at the young woman, forcing a polite little smile on. "Kind of a big ask, and probably mostly futile."
I meet his smile. His befuddlement is entirely appropriate and easy to sympathize with. "I've been there," I said. "And while someone might say that you'll get used to it, I won't be so trite. You won't get used to it. But you're among friends, at least. You're new here, right?"
Friends. Rory's mind closed off a bit at the thought. He had friends: back home in nice little sleepy Leadworth. He had a life and he'd thrown it all away on a chance, a chance which appeared to have abandoned him to somewhere weird and frightening spectacular (or spectacularly frightening) to fend for himself. He wasn't bitter (certainly not yet) and he didn't blame anything or anyone. It had been his own choice. But it was tough luck and not any kind of favor, nothing to get used to.
He blinked slowly, a frown forming as he pulled himself out of his thoughts (Why couldn't he have gotten lost in Space Florida?) again and refocused on what the woman had said. "Yeah, I'm-- Wait. Sorry.. you've been ankle-deep in theoretical physics books?" That had been what they had been talking about, hadn't it?
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The weekend hasn't left him optimistic.
Martha snuffles around his feet and then gets bored, padding off to bother somebody else. She sets her chin on the guy's lap and rolls her eyes to look up at him.
Reply
"Oh," Rory said again, in the more morbidly concerned manner of someone who had just spent several days avoiding large carnivorous creatures and had no idea where this beast of a dog had suddenly come from. Its eyes were lolling in a particularly blood thirsty fashion, and its drool was getting all over his jeans.
"Oh, hello. You are... What's this now?" he asked of the dog, the thought to look around for an owner only occurring to him after the fact. "Um... help?"
Reply
"Sorry," he says. "She's got no idea of personal space."
Reply
All the same he felt better with a little breathing room and could consider the hulking dog as the anomaly it was rather than a threat to his existence. "Is that-- Did Martha arrive here with you? Do people's dogs usually do that?" Rory couldn't imagine travelling around in the TARDIS with a dog, but Sookie had said she had been standing next to her brother and her boyfriend before coming here, hadn't she? Maybe the man had been walking his dog, but why then did he get his dog and Rory didn't get his wife?
...No, he did not just equate Amy with a dog, not even in his mind. It was the principle of the thing.
Reply
With an apologetic glance at the nearby man, River started again.
"Up. Pup."
She figured another reading would probably be better than making everyone in the room listen to the consequences of stopping.
Reply
But by the sixth run through, he had given up hope of actually studying (for the time being, not entirely) and stared in an unfocused, unobtrusive way at the pair. Chin cradled in his hand, he grinned faintly at the look, tired and letting his brain coast along on the surface details. "It's funny how they never get tired of anything at those ages," he said.
Reply
Zoe declared that theory wrong with a firm "op", and the reading continued for a few more pages. River paused again when she noticed her baby's apparent fascination for a particular illustration.
"I'm River and that's Zoe, and I'm thinking that you're probably new around here." She'd been around long enough to recognize a person still getting used to the island.
Reply
"It's nice to meet you, River. And Zoe," Rory added with a little grin to the distracted child. "I'm Rory. Just came in a few days ago into... what I suppose you call dino territory?" His half-grimace, half-grin of an expression communicated what a great entrance that had been. For Rory, anyway. "Lovely place you've got here."
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"What?" he said, a sort of autopilot response, before barging right into a proper answer. "No, no, it's alright. I'm sorted, thanks."
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"I'm sure," Rory said, sounding distinctly not sure. "Don't worry. It's.. not an uncomfortable chair?" It wasn't, at all, but Rory wasn't sure how else to reassure him.
Reply
That didn't make it alright. It just made it livable. For now, until she managed to find a way out of here or make her boys, her proper boys get here safe.
Flipping through some magazine she'd picked up off the shelf, her attention wasn't on who was sitting where. People had a way of being under foot (or bum as the case may be) and she was halfway seated in the seat before noticing someone else was already there.
"Oh, whoops," she laughed, springing fully to her feet once again. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she shrugged and tried to brush the whole thing off as she turned to face the poor soul. "Suppose this thing was more engaging -- wait, hold on a minute, Rory?"
Reply
And then the red hair, the slim figure, the voice all melted together and he knew it wasn't just a familiar face, it wasn't some kind of mirage or day dream. It was Amy.
"Amy!" he half laughed, half cried, rising to his feet as well. A bit slow but, you know, he hadn't had the kind of workout he'd had that weekend in a while. "It's you! She said you wouldn't be here but I knew that was rubbish."
Reply
"Of course I'm here, I've been here for a week. When did you get here?" An accusatory finger pointed at him, she wanted to both leap for joy and shout at him. How could he have just shown up and gone to read something rather than look? That was just rude and doubting and not what she wanted from her new husband.
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"You've been here a week?" he sputtered, brows drawing together. "But we were on the TARDIS. We were all together and I've only been here three days. How did-- Is it some kind of delayed effect? Did the Doctor get here first and we just trailed after?" Because the Doctor had to be here. If Amy was here, the Doctor had to be. He'd all but given up the frustration he had once (briefly) felt for them being a pair. Just about now he would have been grateful for it.
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So I'm on break in the rec room, putting a brave face on things. I paused when I spotted a man I haven't seen before, loaded down with books. Books. From the bookshelf. I can't help but wonder if the Island has been kind to him and, at that thought, be a little jealous at the possibility.
I approach, and glance at one of the covers. "Find what you were looking for?" I asked.
Reply
"Yes," he answered immediately after, checking himself, acknowledging that his short term goal had been achieved. He'd wanted to do his research and he was.
Then, "Sort of." Researching involved a lot of dead ends sometimes, and required one to be paying attention. Rory sighed and finally looked up at the young woman, forcing a polite little smile on. "Kind of a big ask, and probably mostly futile."
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He blinked slowly, a frown forming as he pulled himself out of his thoughts (Why couldn't he have gotten lost in Space Florida?) again and refocused on what the woman had said. "Yeah, I'm-- Wait. Sorry.. you've been ankle-deep in theoretical physics books?" That had been what they had been talking about, hadn't it?
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