Title: Sweetest Downfall
Rating: PG
Characters: Ten/Martha and Rose… Martha reflective.
Author: Atheniandream
A/N: Don't get me wrong Martha's great, but I really miss the whole ROSE DR thing, and I unfortunately came in on the 2006 Xmas Special. As you can imagine, I caught up and then... was disappointed all in the space of 3 weeks… lol
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I loved you first, I loved you first,
Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth
I have to go, I have to go
Your hair was long, when we first met... Regina Spektor 'Samson'
-
You'd have thought, in all the worlds, all the galaxies that revolve so seamlessly around one another that two people, so far away, so disconnect from each other's worlds would ever find their way back to one another. And yetthings never turn out the way you plan them… But... Sometimes...
Martha looked down at her fingers, their light touched intertwined with the fingers of the familiar, then to her companions face. Dead. Fixed and lacking any tangible expression, or at the very least any expression she'd ever witnessed. She'd never doubted its existence, but perhaps wondered if he'd tamed it, and hidden it among his many hearts.
"That's her, isn't it?" She whispered, trying to find his gaze that was so intensely fixed on another among the crowd. He didn't answer her.
Love. That was it... love. Blind and Quiet and Reflective...
In the relatively short time Martha had traveled with the Doctor, she'd always felt, besides their comfortable relationship and lucid connection, that the man inside the Time Lord had gone through a substantial emotional change before meeting her. She'd accepted that the attraction was one-sided, and that like many of the women that graced his path she too had fallen under his spell.
The Lonely Time Lord without a Title and that wicked smile and Heroic Stance...
It annoyed her, and challenged her, causing her to hide the affection she felt for him and play instead upon his wit and intelligence forgetting that she could, maybe... possibly adore him.
But it could no be and that is the end.
Yet in the back of her mind she'd always wanted to ask. The companion, from not so long ago, the one who seemed to steal his heart and run so far... What was she like? How did she make you feel? What did she do/What did you do that caused you two to part, leaving a man so scarred?
And most of all... why did you never tell her that you loved her?
Still watching his eyes and waiting for an answer, she too unfixed herself upon the object of his suspected affections.
A small girl, couldn't have been an older than Martha herself; blonde hair with a natural, almost child-like bounce to it trailed along an impish face with heavy eye-makeup and pouting crimson lips. Arms waving animatedly in front of her face to the white-coat beside her and a smile that she knew probably won her over to strangers in a second. She was dressed in casual trousers and a top, standing out from the more formal residents and armed guards that they'd seen passing through the torchwood institute, leading her to believe that she was of an oddly high status for her age as she directed a white-coat to a station in the corner of what looked like some kind of mock-up operations hangar.
"Doctor?" She asked, as the man seemed to gather himself and gain a little focus. And then seemingly exasperated as he drew breath lose his confidence all over again. She'd never seen him like this before. Unsure. Thinking without talking. Torn between the rock and his obvious hard place. If she'd known any better he looked like he would run. "What's her name?"
"Her name is..." He Hesitated, " Rose Tyler."
His hand uncurled -much to her sudden disappointment- from hers, causing her to turn her focus back to the girl no more that twenty foot away from her. She had been left alone with a clipboard and a mobile phone fixed to her ear, turning in their direction she began talking on the phone, brow furrowing and started to walk. Her eyes darted, unfocused. Still talking in the direction of the receiver on her ear. Martha watched the Doctor stiffen, and then...
She saw him. Eyes wide and non the wiser...
-
Rose dropped the phone slowly from her ear, voice coming from the receiver faded. 'There's been a sighting Rose, you're going to want to…'
In all the universes in all the galaxies in ALL the alternate realties and parallel worlds...
Neither moved first. Neither dared.
Finally Rose broke the silence... "Fought' I'd never see you again." She said frank and true like she'd always been.
"...You were never supposed to." He replied, his intent pure in his reply as his eyes darted between hers and her face, watching, examining her.
She thought of all the times he would find herself back to the Doctor in dreams... since the one that had led her heart to break at bad wolf bay she'd never quite gotten her dreams back. Fearing that he would plant another message in them, she'd restlessly and tirelessly tried to get on with her life and see the brighter side of normalcy without hoping that one-day he would whisper in her head again. Mickey had told her that no matter how it had all turned out they would always be close and Jackie had done all she could to keep her daughter occupied, a sustainable way of life, which for a girl that gave up her family to be with a strange man in a strange box, had seemed like more than just your average adjustment.
And yet, the face of the man she knew would change was standing in front of her. Freckles all in place and the same hair, chocolate brown eyes burning hers, and yet not speaking or moving or gesturing animatedly. In the past they would have run to each other, her giggling as he enveloped her in a hug that could have last forever. But they were unsure. Both tired and weary, and holding themselves back... they'd split a fork in the road of fate and ended up together at the end to both their amazement.
Turning to his companion, she nodded shyly, smiling at Rose briefly and walked a distance away from where they stood.
"She New?"
"Kind Of." replied.
She tried to hide her disappointment in knowing that when he'd told her, that day on the beach that he'd travel alone from then on; that it wouldn't hold for long. After all, she couldn't expect him to be alone forever... she wouldn't want that for him.
Figured.
With a brief look over his shoulder, she took in the dark skin, almond eyes and red leather jacket of his mysterious new companion before thinking to herself You don't know what you're in for love... Her gazed returned to him and for a second as she stepped closer,
"This is in't how I thought it would be... seein' you-"
"How have you been?"
"Oh, same old." Her slight reply fell flat. Bringing back to fresh a memory of their last meeting. "Torchwood is pretty much my life. 24/7."
"Rose Tyler, defender of the Earth." The First real smile grew on his lips. "How's your mum?"
"Oh she's… Mum! You know." She laughed dryly. Jackie had never been so like herself since getting a version of her husband back. "Her and Dad are fine. As usual."
The Doctor's tone iced slightly, like it always had in asking, "How's old Mickey? You too still-"
"No. He's fine. Pain in the arse but he's fine. Have you got-"
"No."
"But what about...?" She gestured to Martha.
"Just Friends."
You were my sweetest Downfall...
-
His Rose. In front of him, same hair, same eyes, same look and yet... hesitant. They were both unsure. Both aware that it wasn't just them anymore. It was Him, Her, Martha, Mickey, Jackie, Pete, The Daleks, The Cryllitanes and every galaxy out there. He wished he could touch her... but… maybe... just maybe...
"What, Doctor?
Doctor the way she said his name delicate and direct it curled him inside.
You were my sweetest Downfall...
"I never got to say, I, I came to say…" Three small words.
"Say What?"
"I...love you. I love you"
Her eyes fell under a pearly gaze and she smiled just for him like she had a year ago. "I loved you first." She laughed.
Dragging her into and embrace, finally all the hurt and regret and disappointment, all the frustration in his body and the trouble he'd given Martha like a 900 year old man with a bitter past fell away.
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You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the stars came fallin' on our heads
But they're just old light, they're just old light
Your hair was long when we first met Regina Spektor 'Samson'