Hobson's Choice
Hobson's Choice
by Atlanta Lea (c. 1986)
No one ever said you couldn't love two people
Even at the same time, and even if they're not a bit the same.
One of them is a Time Lord:
Two hearts and two faces that were somehow one person, and there can never be anyone like either of him. Merlin and Feste, a long-shanked Peter Pan who goes through an awful lot of Wendys. They keep growing up on him, but he never does. There's nothing in the universe he can't fix with a sonic screwdriver or a jellybaby, nothing he can't talk you into with one of his smiles.
The other one - well, he's human:
Kind and ordinary and as faithful as tomorrow's sunrise. You can't count on sunrise when you're traveling in a TARDIS. You don't know when or where or which sun will rise. But if you're going to live the rest of your life on Earth, it's not a bad thing to rely on. He's cheerful even at six o'clock in the morning and it's going to get him murdered some day.
One's out roaming Time and Space - him stay put on Gallifrey? He's sure to have another Wendy by now.
One belongs to my time and my place - he's right beside me. He prefers trains to TARDISes, on the whole.
Kaleidoscoping through the cosmos too fast to keep up with, never stopping to explain what sort of miracle he pulled out of his pocket this time. Quicksilver changing from a solomon to a clown.
Tennis on Saturday morning and muffins for tea, talking of everything - anything! - under the sun. Beer and rugby and lousy puns and the hundred everyday things that are part of home.
I don't love either of them more or less, just differently. (I hadn't planned on loving anyone at all.)
I know which one I'll always miss in some corner of my heart, wishing I could have had more time.
And I know which one I’ll be spending all my time with. It’s not as though the choice was mine to make. But if I had to choose between them…?
by Atlanta Lea (c. 1986)
No one ever said you couldn't love two people
Even at the same time, and even if they're not a bit the same.
One of them is a Time Lord:
Two hearts and two faces that were somehow one person, and there can never be anyone like either of him. Merlin and Feste, a long-shanked Peter Pan who goes through an awful lot of Wendys. They keep growing up on him, but he never does. There's nothing in the universe he can't fix with a sonic screwdriver or a jellybaby, nothing he can't talk you into with one of his smiles.
The other one - well, he's human:
Kind and ordinary and as faithful as tomorrow's sunrise. You can't count on sunrise when you're traveling in a TARDIS. You don't know when or where or which sun will rise. But if you're going to live the rest of your life on Earth, it's not a bad thing to rely on. He's cheerful even at six o'clock in the morning and it's going to get him murdered some day.
One's out roaming Time and Space - him stay put on Gallifrey? He's sure to have another Wendy by now.
One belongs to my time and my place - he's right beside me. He prefers trains to TARDISes, on the whole.
Kaleidoscoping through the cosmos too fast to keep up with, never stopping to explain what sort of miracle he pulled out of his pocket this time. Quicksilver changing from a solomon to a clown.
Tennis on Saturday morning and muffins for tea, talking of everything - anything! - under the sun. Beer and rugby and lousy puns and the hundred everyday things that are part of home.
I don't love either of them more or less, just differently. (I hadn't planned on loving anyone at all.)
I know which one I'll always miss in some corner of my heart, wishing I could have had more time.
And I know which one I’ll be spending all my time with. It’s not as though the choice was mine to make. But if I had to choose between them…?