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Written for a user on tumblr. Also written in about fifteen minutes or so.

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mirror for the sun


Jack's asleep, presumably, in his room. It's late (or is it early? There's no real time on the TARDIS) but she can't sleep, even after Cardiff and Margaret. She wanders the TARDIS halls, opening and closing doors at random. Some are locked, and some swing inwards and some swing outwards. She finds a laundry room, a broom closet with five and a half brooms, and a room of just mirrors.

She steps into that one. There are tall mirrors, and small mirrors, round mirrors and square mirrors. She finds mirrors that distort her shape like at a carnival, and strikes a silly pose, hoping for her heart to stop hurting.

It doesn't. It does, however, choose that moment to clench as she thinks, Rose Tyler, so self obsessed that she'd choose the mirror room to try to distract herself. If she wasn't trying to ignore it, she'd probably wonder why it sounded like stupid Jimmy Stone's voice dripping with Mickey's anger.

Mickey. She sighed and walked further into the room. She did not want to think about Mickey right now. But then, wasn't not thinking about him what kinda caused the problem in the first place? She stopped at a mirror framed with simple black spirals. She stared at her reflection. She had changed into her pajamas, a simple tank top and yoga pants, and had brushed her hair out of her pigtails.

"Rose?" The Doctor's voice came from behind her. She turned to see him walking into the room. "I thought you were going to bed?" He looked around. "Ah, I forgot about this room. Would have thought they'd had all broken…talk about bad luck!" He grinned at her, but she could only muster up a weak smile. "What's wrong?"

She turned away from him, looking at them both through the a mirror. "Mickey and I had a fight."

"Ah. What'd Rickey the idiot do to upset you?" He stuck his hands in his pockets and waited patiently, ever on her side. She felt instantly angry, and wasn't entirely sure who it was at.

"He brought up Trisha Delaney."

"No!" He sounded so horrified that she couldn't help but break a smile. He smiled back, pleased that he had gotten her to, and then asked, "Who's Trisha Delaney?"

Rose crossed her arms. "She works in a shop. Always wears bright red lipstick. Mickey's been seeing her." The smile had faded as soon as she had started talking, and she internally winced at how jealous and pouty her voice had sounded. The Doctor was silent behind her. "Mickey didn't even see fit to tell me until—" She stopped and went to another mirror, examining the beading around it.

"….Until?" The Doctor had turned away, so that she could only see the profile of his face.

In for a penny, in for a pound. "Until after we had agreed to get a hotel."

She didn't see any reaction from his face, but she swallowed nervously anyways. She couldn't be sure what he was thinking, but she could just sense, no matter how slightly, him close off to her.

"Am I horrible? For being angry and betrayed? I mean…we never really broke up, never agreed to stay together…I just figured…we'd have the conversation later, y'know?" Pulling on her hair agitatedly, she turned to face him. "Does that make me awful?"

For a moment, she was afraid of what he was going to say. His opinion meant the world to her, and she had just a bad enough day to start crying if she disappointed him too. Instead he just walked over and enveloped her in a hug. "Oh, Rose." He breathed into her hair. "It makes you so very human."

She hugged him back, not bothering to look at the reflections in the wall. Mirrors on the wall, Jackie's eyes (set in fear), Mickey's eyes (radiating hurt and anger), none of them mattered to her. The only reflection she cared about was the one in her Doctor's eyes.


End