Fic: Mercy (Ten/Rose, PG, Season 2)
I suppose there comes a time when we've all got to write Girl in the Fireplace fic, eh ?
Title: Mercy
Author: orange_crushed
Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose, Mickey (if you blink)
Rating: PG
Summary: The glass shatters around him, but it only lasts an second.
Disclaimer: If I owned it, my apartment would be bigger.
Author's Notes: Short fic, just a thought on parting.
He's already on the horse when that immense brain-pan decides to flash; and in that deflating instant he's no longer a legendary hero on a steed, but a confused and selfish man too high in the air. He looks at Rose, who helped him get on the damn thing in the first place.
"I-" he says, and his mouth doesn't work. Or his mind leaves out some of the important parts.
"You've got to hurry, Doctor," she murmurs, unwilling to meet his eyes. She stares at the stirrups instead, at his left foot. He thinks himself cruel in that instant, worries where his honesty's gone; probably down the same well as his mercy. He's good at this, this rushing away and playing Scarlet Pimpernel, this everything to everybody, but he can't be that for her- no, he can't. Won't. Either way, doesn't matter, he got on the horse without even really looking at her, because if he did-
"I could stay," he says suddenly, ashamed of the weakness in his own voice, and how long it took him to get there. "I could stay, if you wanted me to. Ask me to stay."
"I want you to stay," Mickey pipes up, from behind a bank of monitors. "But I don't suppose you'd listen to me."
Neither do.
"Rose-" he begins, but she's frowning; he wonders where her head is going, to which what-ifs. The human imagination has limits, hers less and less. She stops, tilts her head, smiles. Looks up.
"Go," she says, without hesitation. "Go, go now." He almost laughs, because he's been looking for this the whole time, and she's found it, she is it- the mercy, the grace he's missed so long. In that instant he finds himself a hero on a horse again, committing to Reinette and the adventure, the slow path; and in that instant, too, he loves Rose Tyler more than anything else in the universe.
"Wait," he calls out, like a vow.
"I'll wait," she says, like an answer.
The glass shatters around him, but it only lasts a second.
Title: Mercy
Author: orange_crushed
Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose, Mickey (if you blink)
Rating: PG
Summary: The glass shatters around him, but it only lasts an second.
Disclaimer: If I owned it, my apartment would be bigger.
Author's Notes: Short fic, just a thought on parting.
He's already on the horse when that immense brain-pan decides to flash; and in that deflating instant he's no longer a legendary hero on a steed, but a confused and selfish man too high in the air. He looks at Rose, who helped him get on the damn thing in the first place.
"I-" he says, and his mouth doesn't work. Or his mind leaves out some of the important parts.
"You've got to hurry, Doctor," she murmurs, unwilling to meet his eyes. She stares at the stirrups instead, at his left foot. He thinks himself cruel in that instant, worries where his honesty's gone; probably down the same well as his mercy. He's good at this, this rushing away and playing Scarlet Pimpernel, this everything to everybody, but he can't be that for her- no, he can't. Won't. Either way, doesn't matter, he got on the horse without even really looking at her, because if he did-
"I could stay," he says suddenly, ashamed of the weakness in his own voice, and how long it took him to get there. "I could stay, if you wanted me to. Ask me to stay."
"I want you to stay," Mickey pipes up, from behind a bank of monitors. "But I don't suppose you'd listen to me."
Neither do.
"Rose-" he begins, but she's frowning; he wonders where her head is going, to which what-ifs. The human imagination has limits, hers less and less. She stops, tilts her head, smiles. Looks up.
"Go," she says, without hesitation. "Go, go now." He almost laughs, because he's been looking for this the whole time, and she's found it, she is it- the mercy, the grace he's missed so long. In that instant he finds himself a hero on a horse again, committing to Reinette and the adventure, the slow path; and in that instant, too, he loves Rose Tyler more than anything else in the universe.
"Wait," he calls out, like a vow.
"I'll wait," she says, like an answer.
The glass shatters around him, but it only lasts a second.