The apologetic glance was taken with an awkward little nod. He knew what he was getting into in offering her his jacket, so he really didn't need it pointed out to him again. Besides, he felt strangely patronized by the look and decided, for the sake of his own well-being, that this wasn't a woman he wanted to upset.
Rory took their explanations with a series of nods that achieved little but making him look like a bobble-head doll, thinking all the time of his own explanation. Something happened in the TARDIS. Maybe they veered off course. Maybe the Silence got them already; then again, there wasn't a lot of silence around here, just rain. Maybe they got transported out of the TARDIS and someone was holding it prisoner. Maybe holding the Doctor prisoner. Maybe holding Amy prisoner. The more Rory thought about it, the more he knew -- even if he didn't really know -- that they needed to get moving
( ... )
Sookie thanked her stars as Rory asked a question that she could actually give a definitive answer to, no guesswork or hypothesizing- even if the query that followed immediately after demanded it. At least there was something, though, to help her prove that she wasn't just a thorn in his side or helpless to contribute to the group at all. "About ten miles across the widest part of the island, so I don't think the dinosaur territory's any more than five miles, since over half of the island is fine to live on. Um. As for the rain, I doubt it's supposed to last forever, but... I have no idea if it might stop soon, 'cause it's been rainin' for about three weeks now
( ... )
"What?" Jenny asked, voice so high-pitched that it sounded nearly like a shriek. Probably she ought to have been keeping quiet, but if Rory and Sookie were right, and they had to be, when she'd noticed the same things, then it wasn't going to make much of a difference either way. She thought herself entitled to a little bit of audible panic, seeing as they were apparently about to fucking die. "Circling? No, it could still just... go away, right? We aren't really going to..."
She trailed off there, swallowing back a lump in her throat, not wanting to spend her last few minutes alive crying in the middle of dinosaur territory, though it was a near thing. They had seconds, maybe, left, and being such a mess already, her appearance wasn't what mattered. "Oh, God," she whimpered, keeping as close to Rory as she could, figuring he was absolutely trustworthy for any attempts to keep them safe, even if a giant stick wasn't likely to do much good, either. "Oh my God, I am way too young to die, I don't want to, at least not without saying
Was this what the Doctor dealt with every time he tried to save the day? Rory didn't know how he handled it if it were. He didn't have to look around to know the tension in Sookie's body, like he could feel it just by her standing beside him, and Jenny whimpering about being too young to die just made him want to cry and join her. He was too young to die, too! In this go-round anyway.
Whatever it was didn't circle completely, but doubled-back, like it chose to focus on one side of their party or was drawing an invisible line where they should not cross. It wove back and forth, some foliage breaking down under its feet, the stomping plain to the ear. They didn't have time to decide that running in the opposite direction would be an option before the thing burst from the trees with a roar, displaying its very dangerous looking head
( ... )
No matter how many times Sookie wanted to prove that she was strong, that she could handle herself, it was hard not to buckle under a situation where she couldn't even reason with the threat looming menacingly in front of them all. It took everything that she had in her not to whimper along with Jenny, looking instead to Rory's example as an adult who was, if not necessarily well-versed in dinosaurs and knowing how to have them escape the situation, at least not losing his head completely. Yet
( ... )
Jenny didn't manage anything half so coherent as either of the other two when the dinosaur appeared, letting out a loud shriek of her own, shoulders raised up by her ears. That was it, she thought, this was over, the island which had put her through so much already was now going to literally be the death of her, and it left her momentarily frozen, watching wide-eyed as Rory swing at it with a stick, convinced that it was going to do nothing. Hell, if anything, it was bound to just make the creature angrier, though chances were, it would happen faster that way, too. If she was going to die, she didn't want it to be slow and drawn out; she just wanted to be done with it
( ... )
The cave was a godsend because Rory was pretty sure any and all bravery had left him now. He still hadn't dropped the branch, now stained with an odd splash of dinosaur blood, his muscles too tight and tense with fear and adrenaline to permit him to let go. But he cowered against the wall of the cave, pressing his shoulder into the rock and tried to will himself to look around the corner to see if the thing was trailing them. Or if any other thing were trailing.
It took several gasping breaths before he could so much as consider moving though, and by that time, the lack of roars and stomping probably told them what they needed to know. "I think--" he panted. "I think-- I think we're okay?"
Despite himself, Rory had the overwhelming feeling that that couldn't be right.
Tentatively, Sookie made an effort to look down at her feet, spotting various cuts that had started to bleed. Somehow, the fact that she could see the damage done but not feel any of it managed to calm her down, the numbing sensation spreading all the way to the tips of her cold, stiff fingers. They were alive, they had come across a dinosaur and they were still alive, and Sookie couldn't help but spare a moment, feet pushing through mud, to clasp both hands together and send a glance in the direction of the sky
( ... )
Instinctively, Jenny drew closer to Sookie, slim fingers curling around the fabric of the other woman's shirt. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was well aware, of course, of just how ridiculous, how childish she must have seemed, but in that moment, it wasn't something that could be helped. For all that she had been through here that absolutely sucked, none of it even began to compare to this, and now that they were, supposedly, safe, the whole ordeal began to sink in, seeming that much less surreal with each passing second. She had just narrowly escaped being killed, was still stuck somewhere out in the middle of dinosaur territory, and hadn't the first idea of what to do next
( ... )
Hell, Rory thought as he looked back at Jenny, at a loss as to how to comfort her. He'd always wanted kids, to live that kind of life with Amy, dedicated to a family and being the best dad he could be. But he didn't actually know how to do any of that stuff yet, none of the deeper stuff that required some kind of connection. Comforting a little kid getting a booster shot was not the same as comforting a teenage girl who nearly just lost her life to a dinosaur. Maybe in a calmer set of circumstances, where the mantle of leadership hadn't been thrust upon him, Rory could have done some good, but the way Sookie's eyes turned to him for direction made his stomach knot all over again.
He took a deep breath, eased his hold of the branch and considered their situation. "Did you say it doesn't rain this much?" he asked of Sookie, completely forgetting her answer in the rush of action only minutes ago. "Maybe we just.. stay put for right now. Try to dry off. Catch our breaths." Wait for the Doctor and Amy to find us. "If the rain
( ... )
"Well," Sookie began, even the simplest of facts becoming hazy in her mind with memories being wiped away by the adrenaline coursing through her bloodstream. Blinking, she ran a hand through her hair first- keeping the other arm wrapped tightly around Jenny- and then cleared her throat. "Well, no, normally it doesn't rain this much at all, but for almost a month now, we've been caught in like... monsoon season or somethin', and I've got no idea how long it'll last. It's- the rain's been pretty constant for three weeks now. But yeah, a couple of hours sounds good." While Sookie wanted to rush back to the Compound as much as possible, her legs also felt like they were made of jelly, certainly not in shape for any type of running until her heart and stomach both settled down. Feeling a sudden wave of nausea, Sookie swallowed thickly, trying to help it subside, and then turned her attention to Jenny again.
"Jenny, you've been doin' great, you can do this, okay? You can't give up, Rory and I need you to keep on tryin'." The tone of voice
( ... )
Grateful for Sookie's doing the explaining, Jenny merely nodded along, faltering then only when Sookie addressed her again. Technically speaking, she knew she could do it, if only because there weren't really any other options, but she still felt paralyzed, convinced that she, at least, wasn't going to make it out of here alive. They'd had one such close call already; there was no way they could wind up that lucky again, and despite the general idea of a place, they still had no real idea of where they were, which way to go or how far. A few miles ordinarily wouldn't have been much at all, but between the rain, the unexpectedness of the situation, and the location, it turned into something a hell of a lot more daunting. She just wasn't cut out for things like this
( ... )
"Yeah," Rory said softly, almost as though agreeing with everyone else, adding his voice to an idea from some forth party. Then he remembered that he was the leader in this situation, and nodded strongly. "Yeah. I'll keep watch. You two just try to catch your breaths and stay dry. Thing's will look better in a few hours."
They had to, he reasoned. In a few hours, they wouldn't be only a few minutes away from having been attacked by a dinosaur, from finding themselves in the middle of nowhere, from being ripped away from the right world and right chain of events. Let things settle, and they'd be better able to handle it, to contemplate a solution.
Rory took their explanations with a series of nods that achieved little but making him look like a bobble-head doll, thinking all the time of his own explanation. Something happened in the TARDIS. Maybe they veered off course. Maybe the Silence got them already; then again, there wasn't a lot of silence around here, just rain. Maybe they got transported out of the TARDIS and someone was holding it prisoner. Maybe holding the Doctor prisoner. Maybe holding Amy prisoner. The more Rory thought about it, the more he knew -- even if he didn't really know -- that they needed to get moving ( ... )
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She trailed off there, swallowing back a lump in her throat, not wanting to spend her last few minutes alive crying in the middle of dinosaur territory, though it was a near thing. They had seconds, maybe, left, and being such a mess already, her appearance wasn't what mattered. "Oh, God," she whimpered, keeping as close to Rory as she could, figuring he was absolutely trustworthy for any attempts to keep them safe, even if a giant stick wasn't likely to do much good, either. "Oh my God, I am way too young to die, I don't want to, at least not without saying
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Whatever it was didn't circle completely, but doubled-back, like it chose to focus on one side of their party or was drawing an invisible line where they should not cross. It wove back and forth, some foliage breaking down under its feet, the stomping plain to the ear. They didn't have time to decide that running in the opposite direction would be an option before the thing burst from the trees with a roar, displaying its very dangerous looking head ( ... )
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It took several gasping breaths before he could so much as consider moving though, and by that time, the lack of roars and stomping probably told them what they needed to know. "I think--" he panted. "I think-- I think we're okay?"
Despite himself, Rory had the overwhelming feeling that that couldn't be right.
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He took a deep breath, eased his hold of the branch and considered their situation. "Did you say it doesn't rain this much?" he asked of Sookie, completely forgetting her answer in the rush of action only minutes ago. "Maybe we just.. stay put for right now. Try to dry off. Catch our breaths." Wait for the Doctor and Amy to find us. "If the rain ( ... )
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"Jenny, you've been doin' great, you can do this, okay? You can't give up, Rory and I need you to keep on tryin'." The tone of voice ( ... )
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They had to, he reasoned. In a few hours, they wouldn't be only a few minutes away from having been attacked by a dinosaur, from finding themselves in the middle of nowhere, from being ripped away from the right world and right chain of events. Let things settle, and they'd be better able to handle it, to contemplate a solution.
They had to be.
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