Try
Paring: Rose and Duplicate Ten
Disclaimer: If I owned it, you'd know it.
~Try~
He was a lot of things. He was tall, lean, young, handsome. His teeth were still perfect, smile just as bright, his hair still velvet soft. His eyes were deep and welcoming, his arms strong and warm, his laugh, oh his laugh, still like a cool breeze on a summer's day. So he was a lot of things. But he wasn't him.
That's why she pushed him away. Faced away from him in bed at night. Walked along the beach's shore until her skin looked like it would be pruney forever.
That's why he was trying. Laid awake at night in bed incase she woke up needing to talk. Waited for her in the car with a bag full of sunblock and so many sandwiches that half of them almost always went bad. But it did no good for either of them.
"Rose," he murmured to her one night before she could fall asleep and forget he existed, voice soft to avoid scaring her off.
"Yeah?" she returned, voice shaky and hollow.
"I'm really trying, you know that?" He put his hands behind his head, scrunching his toes against the comforter.
"Yeah," she repeated, turning on her side, away from him, eyes staring out the window at the moon, "I know."
"Well, it doesn't seem like you really know."
"What? You want me to apologize? The real, original Doctor is out there and I have to have a… a duplicate."
The word laced scars in his heart. But he knew why she was saying it.
"I am him, you know that. I am the Doctor. Your doctor."
"Yeah…," she turned onto her back, staring up at the ceiling, trying to see beyond her universe into his, "I'm not so sure about that."
They laid side by side in silence, not touching, just thinking, until he reached his arm out and pulled her gently, closing the wide gap between them. Despite her reasoning to remain stiff and frozen in her spot, she went with his arm instinctively, turning onto her side, staring at the ridge that was the doctor's body, resting her head agains the left side of his chest.
She could hear it. His one heartbeat. A steady, soft, lulling rhythm so comforting she felt the tension in her body unfurl.
"I could leave, you know," he breathed quietly, chin resting on the top of her head.
"Yeah," she whispered back, tears springing to her eyes, "I know."
"Do you want me to leave?"
Her tears spill over, sliding sideways down her cheeks, making splotches on his nightshirt. Her arms came up, wrapping around his shoulders, tightening her grip. She buried her face in his chest, a sob forcing its way out of her mouth.
"No," she whispered against him, "No, please don't leave me. I'll try. I really will."
He let out a laugh. "Don't worry about trying. You already have me."
"Yeah?" She inhaled shakily. He reached down and brushed the tears from her cheeks with his thumb, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Yeah," he murmured, "Always."
He tilted her head back, touching their lips together. His lips, still full and clumsy and just like home.
And she began to try.