Mirror : Reflect (1/1)
Mirror : Reflect
Pairing: Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose
Rating: G
Potential Spoliers: Season 1 - "The Christmas Invasion
Beta: the amazing froxyn
Author's Notes: Set in the very early part of “The Christmas Invasion” - all completely off screen. Written for Challenge 44 at then_theres_us.
“Here you are then, a good cuppa.” Jackie hands the mug off with a speculative look that tells Rose her silence is only delaying the inevitable.
But she’s not ready to talk about it. She barely knows herself what happened. How can she possibly explain it to someone else?
“Mum, I’m jus’ not…I can’t…’m not even sure myself what -“
“Didn’t say a word, did I?” Jackie clucks about, arranging the blanket over Rose, brushing hair back from her face and behind her ear…feigning disinterest where Rose knows there is only insatiable curiosity. But then, she looks at her daughter like she’s seeing only her little girl, and is once again fully her mum. “Listen sweetheart, I’m dying to know what happened, no denyin’ it. But you’ll tell me when you can. For now, just rest love.” She presses a kiss to Rose’s forehead.
It’s all Rose can do to hold back the tears welling in her eyes.
**
The blanket is warm, her tea sweet, her eyes heavy. She’s settled on the couch in front of a childhood favorite: Beauty and the Beast.
She can almost hear her blue-eyed Doctor roll his eyes at that.
“Oi, thought you only liked pretty boys, Rose.” He’d say.
Yeah, Doctor, and I thought s’only the “good-looking ones” that leave.
She laughs, but it sounds like a sob, heavy with snot and saline.
Her eyes drift closed as the opening song starts up.
Little town, it’s a quiet village
Every day, like the one before
What was she going to do now? Was it back to Henrik’s? Back to eat/sleep/work - back to footie matches and beans on toast?
Onscreen Belle enters the bookshop.
In her mind’s eye, Rose enters the TARDIS.
There must be more than this provincial life!
How can she ever go back to…this? She can’t, not after being with the Doctor. “A better way of living,” that’s what she’d told Mickey and her mum. And it is. Was? Will be?
**
Rose smiles in her half-sleep. Dreams of the moment they met, the weight of his hand in hers. The most right thing in the universe.
The movie plays on for its unconscious audience of one.
And when we touched, she didn’t shudder at my paw.
In her sleep, Rose smiles a little more broadly.
**
“You two be alright, sweetheart? I could call Mickey ?” She can hear the concern in her mother’s voice.
“No mum, we’ll be fine. You go on.”
“Well, if you’re sure… I’ve just got to nip down to the shop. Got nothin’ in for Christmas dinner, and now with you and himself being here…if himself even is himself…”
Rose turns her attention back to the movie as her mum talks to herself.
She tries to gauge how long she’d been asleep, doesn’t hear the door when it shuts.
Ah, the ballroom scene. She’d loved this part when she was little.
Belle, gliding down the stairs, and the look on his face when the Beast sees her.
“Blimey, you’re beautiful.”
Rose swallows hard.
Belle wants to dance. The Beast looks like he would find it easier to resonate concrete.
Tale as old as time…
But he does dance with her.
And he had danced with her.
(at least, in the literal sense)
And, oh, Jack.
She had actually forgotten him for a moment.
Her head hurts, her heart aches, she takes a paracetamol and prays for sleep. Or at least, oblivion.
**
Rose’s breathing slows down as the movement behind her eyelids speeds up.
On the telly, Belle’s brown eyes avoid the Beast’s blue ones.
“If only I could see my father again.” She says. “Just for a moment.”
“There is a way.” He holds up the enchanted mirror, with a look that says “your wish is my command…”
“…But be careful what you wish for.” Her Doctor finishes.
Rose can’t meet his eyes.
But Belle can’t stop at just seeing her father - she has to save him, too…
… dashes into the street, pushes her dad out of the path of the car.
She holds the silver mirror aloft, beautiful and terrifying in its enchantment. The mob breeds rabbit-fast: Kill the Beast.
And when Rose is thrust into her own arms, she holds herself without thinking. A reaper appears, there inside the church, and then the Doctor is gone.
She gasps awake. Tears on her cheeks. A litany of apology on her lips.
**
Rose makes herself another cuppa.
Stands in the bedroom doorway, watching the Doctor (or the interloper in his leather, she can’t decide). He sleeps and her tea brews.
She climbs back into her nest on the couch, determined to stay awake till her mum gets back. Her dreams, for the moment, worse than reality.
Gaston is on the roof now, she notes, in a death match with the Beast.
Belle is gone…
… and the Doctor sent Rose away.
All is lost. Then something shifts. Belle.
She has returned.
“Belle,” the Beast says with undisguised wonder and not a little awe, “you came back.”
“Of course I came back…” Belle cries.
“…I want you safe. My Doctor.”
And it’s like the lyric of a song she’s heard and can’t remember. A memory she can’t quite touch.
Belle is pleading with the Beast to “hold on,” and Rose’s mind tickles with a Northern accent begging her to “just let go.”
Let what go?
The Beasts is still. Belle sobs over him.
And when his blue eyes roll back, lifeless, Rose can’t stop her own tears. Can’t halt the sobs wracking her body.
There’s an anguished “I love you” just before the last petal falls. And Rose can almost feel the ghost of lips, firm and so much cooler, against her own.
She watches through car-wash-window eyes as the Beast is drawn up in a whirlwind of magic and meteors. Arms, legs, face: all change shape. Light spears from his fingers and toes.
He explodes and is…replaced.
He is young, and beautiful, this new man. (pretty, even) And Belle looks…terrified.
“Who are you?” She asks.
“Belle,” he says in wonder, “it’s me…”
“…I’m the Doctor.”
She looks uncertain.
And he’s talking, giving her scientific explanation - of which she only hears one word in twenty.
Hesitantly Belle reaches towards him, sifts his hair through shy fingers. But then she looks into his eyes…
…and he tells her of the first word he ever said to her.
He takes her hand, and whispers, “Run.”
“Doctor?”
“It is you.” And Rose doesn’t know if her voice or Belle’s said the words. She only knows they’re true.
Pairing: Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose
Rating: G
Potential Spoliers: Season 1 - "The Christmas Invasion
Beta: the amazing froxyn
Author's Notes: Set in the very early part of “The Christmas Invasion” - all completely off screen. Written for Challenge 44 at then_theres_us.
“Here you are then, a good cuppa.” Jackie hands the mug off with a speculative look that tells Rose her silence is only delaying the inevitable.
But she’s not ready to talk about it. She barely knows herself what happened. How can she possibly explain it to someone else?
“Mum, I’m jus’ not…I can’t…’m not even sure myself what -“
“Didn’t say a word, did I?” Jackie clucks about, arranging the blanket over Rose, brushing hair back from her face and behind her ear…feigning disinterest where Rose knows there is only insatiable curiosity. But then, she looks at her daughter like she’s seeing only her little girl, and is once again fully her mum. “Listen sweetheart, I’m dying to know what happened, no denyin’ it. But you’ll tell me when you can. For now, just rest love.” She presses a kiss to Rose’s forehead.
It’s all Rose can do to hold back the tears welling in her eyes.
**
The blanket is warm, her tea sweet, her eyes heavy. She’s settled on the couch in front of a childhood favorite: Beauty and the Beast.
She can almost hear her blue-eyed Doctor roll his eyes at that.
“Oi, thought you only liked pretty boys, Rose.” He’d say.
Yeah, Doctor, and I thought s’only the “good-looking ones” that leave.
She laughs, but it sounds like a sob, heavy with snot and saline.
Her eyes drift closed as the opening song starts up.
Little town, it’s a quiet village
Every day, like the one before
What was she going to do now? Was it back to Henrik’s? Back to eat/sleep/work - back to footie matches and beans on toast?
Onscreen Belle enters the bookshop.
In her mind’s eye, Rose enters the TARDIS.
There must be more than this provincial life!
How can she ever go back to…this? She can’t, not after being with the Doctor. “A better way of living,” that’s what she’d told Mickey and her mum. And it is. Was? Will be?
**
Rose smiles in her half-sleep. Dreams of the moment they met, the weight of his hand in hers. The most right thing in the universe.
The movie plays on for its unconscious audience of one.
And when we touched, she didn’t shudder at my paw.
In her sleep, Rose smiles a little more broadly.
**
“You two be alright, sweetheart? I could call Mickey ?” She can hear the concern in her mother’s voice.
“No mum, we’ll be fine. You go on.”
“Well, if you’re sure… I’ve just got to nip down to the shop. Got nothin’ in for Christmas dinner, and now with you and himself being here…if himself even is himself…”
Rose turns her attention back to the movie as her mum talks to herself.
She tries to gauge how long she’d been asleep, doesn’t hear the door when it shuts.
Ah, the ballroom scene. She’d loved this part when she was little.
Belle, gliding down the stairs, and the look on his face when the Beast sees her.
“Blimey, you’re beautiful.”
Rose swallows hard.
Belle wants to dance. The Beast looks like he would find it easier to resonate concrete.
Tale as old as time…
But he does dance with her.
And he had danced with her.
(at least, in the literal sense)
And, oh, Jack.
She had actually forgotten him for a moment.
Her head hurts, her heart aches, she takes a paracetamol and prays for sleep. Or at least, oblivion.
**
Rose’s breathing slows down as the movement behind her eyelids speeds up.
On the telly, Belle’s brown eyes avoid the Beast’s blue ones.
“If only I could see my father again.” She says. “Just for a moment.”
“There is a way.” He holds up the enchanted mirror, with a look that says “your wish is my command…”
“…But be careful what you wish for.” Her Doctor finishes.
Rose can’t meet his eyes.
But Belle can’t stop at just seeing her father - she has to save him, too…
… dashes into the street, pushes her dad out of the path of the car.
She holds the silver mirror aloft, beautiful and terrifying in its enchantment. The mob breeds rabbit-fast: Kill the Beast.
And when Rose is thrust into her own arms, she holds herself without thinking. A reaper appears, there inside the church, and then the Doctor is gone.
She gasps awake. Tears on her cheeks. A litany of apology on her lips.
**
Rose makes herself another cuppa.
Stands in the bedroom doorway, watching the Doctor (or the interloper in his leather, she can’t decide). He sleeps and her tea brews.
She climbs back into her nest on the couch, determined to stay awake till her mum gets back. Her dreams, for the moment, worse than reality.
Gaston is on the roof now, she notes, in a death match with the Beast.
Belle is gone…
… and the Doctor sent Rose away.
All is lost. Then something shifts. Belle.
She has returned.
“Belle,” the Beast says with undisguised wonder and not a little awe, “you came back.”
“Of course I came back…” Belle cries.
“…I want you safe. My Doctor.”
And it’s like the lyric of a song she’s heard and can’t remember. A memory she can’t quite touch.
Belle is pleading with the Beast to “hold on,” and Rose’s mind tickles with a Northern accent begging her to “just let go.”
Let what go?
The Beasts is still. Belle sobs over him.
And when his blue eyes roll back, lifeless, Rose can’t stop her own tears. Can’t halt the sobs wracking her body.
There’s an anguished “I love you” just before the last petal falls. And Rose can almost feel the ghost of lips, firm and so much cooler, against her own.
She watches through car-wash-window eyes as the Beast is drawn up in a whirlwind of magic and meteors. Arms, legs, face: all change shape. Light spears from his fingers and toes.
He explodes and is…replaced.
He is young, and beautiful, this new man. (pretty, even) And Belle looks…terrified.
“Who are you?” She asks.
“Belle,” he says in wonder, “it’s me…”
“…I’m the Doctor.”
She looks uncertain.
And he’s talking, giving her scientific explanation - of which she only hears one word in twenty.
Hesitantly Belle reaches towards him, sifts his hair through shy fingers. But then she looks into his eyes…
…and he tells her of the first word he ever said to her.
He takes her hand, and whispers, “Run.”
“Doctor?”
“It is you.” And Rose doesn’t know if her voice or Belle’s said the words. She only knows they’re true.