It Was Worth It
Title - It Was Worth It (Part 3 of 3)
Characters - Ten, Rose, mentions of Jackie
Genre - Post Doomsday reunion fic. Angst
Spoilers - Mentions of Series 3 final
Summary - The Doctor finds his way across the void with only one thought on his mind.
Part One
Part Two
Once again he awakes with a jolt. The clock on the bedside table reads 17:15 with large red numbers that glow in his dim surroundings. He stares at it for a long while before realising that this is odd, and not the Tardis and definitely not the void. He roles over to find Rose seated beside him, on the edge of the bed, muttering words as if in prayer.
“I’m not dead,” he whispers and a grin explodes onto her face. She’s hugging him in an awfully uncomfortable position, and really awfully tight for someone who had just gone off a respiratory bypass and actually required to breathe. He taps her arm like a wrestler tapping out of a painful hold and she loosens her grip.
“You stopped breathing,” she says and continuously strokes his face as if he might just disappear at any moment.
He nods, a little amused, a little afraid, “I think it’s supposed to happen.”
He finds himself touching his face, his nose, his ears.
“Did I regenerate?” he asks, but he knows that’s not right. He still feels like him, or he thinks he does. It’s been so long since he felt like himself. Nearly a millennia of that awful place. A year previous to that stuck in an old mans body in the Master’s prison. Only one thought permanently on his mind, ‘Must find Rose.’ After centuries all essence of himself had drained away, but that chant, that constant reminder remained. But now, now his brain and memory synapses seem to have restored themselves during his healing coma, and he is aware that the pain, physical and mental has vanished. And he knows, or feels that he is he and no longer the stranger he became. He fought the battle and won. He survived the treachery of the journey and made it to his destination alive. He is elated. He is relieved.
He reaches for her with a small smile. “I know you,” he says quietly. “I came back for you.”
And there has never been a truer word spoken. This flower in front of him used to belong to him, and he knows this now, no doubt at all in his mind. She was his and he wants her back. He tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and she catches his hand in both of hers. He can see she wants to know what happened, but doesn’t want to ask, never wants to inflict pain of any kind upon him. She hasn’t changed, his Rose, one eternal constant in his mind and hearts.
“I’m glad,” she says at last, and the words are obviously an understatement.
They spend the evening sat in bed, whilst her mother brings them soup, and the maid brings them tea. She tells him about her life in ‘Pete’s World’, tells him about Torchwood, about her new sister and her mother’s attempt to start a pop career. As the sun disappears behind the horizon and the world outside goes black, the Doctor snuggles closer to her, and asks her more intimate questions. She cries as she tells him how she missed him, how she never got over him, how she’s spent that last 3 years searching for him. He wasn’t planning on kissing her, but he does, and keeps kissing her and before he knows it he’s lying above her, face buried into her neck as he possesses her in the way he always should have done, always regretted never having done.
He promises never to leave her and he means it. She promises him forever, and this time he thinks he believes it. That night he holds her close to him, warm and soft and comforting. He has got her back, finally, at long last, but in doing so he had to give up everything. Faced with the same choice he would do it again, in one beat of his two hearts, but he’s really not sure how cut out for a nine till five life he really is. For the first time in his life he is truly terrified. This is new, this is unknown, this is not the type of adventure he has ever gone out looking for. He cries silently as she sleeps. If she ever leaves him he will have nothing. No home, no Tardis, no life or family or friends. And she will leave, however unintentionally. He knows this, fears this; counts down every second until this truth finds him. It makes his blood run cold, his hearts beat fast, his forehead sweat. He clutches her closer; she is all he has now. ‘It was worth it’ becomes his personal mantra. With time he’ll believe this too.
Characters - Ten, Rose, mentions of Jackie
Genre - Post Doomsday reunion fic. Angst
Spoilers - Mentions of Series 3 final
Summary - The Doctor finds his way across the void with only one thought on his mind.
Part One
Part Two
Once again he awakes with a jolt. The clock on the bedside table reads 17:15 with large red numbers that glow in his dim surroundings. He stares at it for a long while before realising that this is odd, and not the Tardis and definitely not the void. He roles over to find Rose seated beside him, on the edge of the bed, muttering words as if in prayer.
“I’m not dead,” he whispers and a grin explodes onto her face. She’s hugging him in an awfully uncomfortable position, and really awfully tight for someone who had just gone off a respiratory bypass and actually required to breathe. He taps her arm like a wrestler tapping out of a painful hold and she loosens her grip.
“You stopped breathing,” she says and continuously strokes his face as if he might just disappear at any moment.
He nods, a little amused, a little afraid, “I think it’s supposed to happen.”
He finds himself touching his face, his nose, his ears.
“Did I regenerate?” he asks, but he knows that’s not right. He still feels like him, or he thinks he does. It’s been so long since he felt like himself. Nearly a millennia of that awful place. A year previous to that stuck in an old mans body in the Master’s prison. Only one thought permanently on his mind, ‘Must find Rose.’ After centuries all essence of himself had drained away, but that chant, that constant reminder remained. But now, now his brain and memory synapses seem to have restored themselves during his healing coma, and he is aware that the pain, physical and mental has vanished. And he knows, or feels that he is he and no longer the stranger he became. He fought the battle and won. He survived the treachery of the journey and made it to his destination alive. He is elated. He is relieved.
He reaches for her with a small smile. “I know you,” he says quietly. “I came back for you.”
And there has never been a truer word spoken. This flower in front of him used to belong to him, and he knows this now, no doubt at all in his mind. She was his and he wants her back. He tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and she catches his hand in both of hers. He can see she wants to know what happened, but doesn’t want to ask, never wants to inflict pain of any kind upon him. She hasn’t changed, his Rose, one eternal constant in his mind and hearts.
“I’m glad,” she says at last, and the words are obviously an understatement.
They spend the evening sat in bed, whilst her mother brings them soup, and the maid brings them tea. She tells him about her life in ‘Pete’s World’, tells him about Torchwood, about her new sister and her mother’s attempt to start a pop career. As the sun disappears behind the horizon and the world outside goes black, the Doctor snuggles closer to her, and asks her more intimate questions. She cries as she tells him how she missed him, how she never got over him, how she’s spent that last 3 years searching for him. He wasn’t planning on kissing her, but he does, and keeps kissing her and before he knows it he’s lying above her, face buried into her neck as he possesses her in the way he always should have done, always regretted never having done.
He promises never to leave her and he means it. She promises him forever, and this time he thinks he believes it. That night he holds her close to him, warm and soft and comforting. He has got her back, finally, at long last, but in doing so he had to give up everything. Faced with the same choice he would do it again, in one beat of his two hearts, but he’s really not sure how cut out for a nine till five life he really is. For the first time in his life he is truly terrified. This is new, this is unknown, this is not the type of adventure he has ever gone out looking for. He cries silently as she sleeps. If she ever leaves him he will have nothing. No home, no Tardis, no life or family or friends. And she will leave, however unintentionally. He knows this, fears this; counts down every second until this truth finds him. It makes his blood run cold, his hearts beat fast, his forehead sweat. He clutches her closer; she is all he has now. ‘It was worth it’ becomes his personal mantra. With time he’ll believe this too.