Hand In Hand
You both wear one. If she moves more than ten feet away, she gets zapped by ten thousand volts. – Captain Jack Harkness, Boom Town
"It's very simple."
He held up the small silver bracelet between them.
"It goes on your wrist." He explained and held up his own right hand, so that she could see an identical ring around his own.
She smiled and giggled as if he had told her the most hilarious joke.
"You actually want to do it. 'Clap me in irons'."
"You leave me no choice."
She didn't answer.
The memory of cradling a body in his arms, feeling it slowly go limp, rose from his subconscious.
"And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you?"
"I'm sorry."
He held out his hand for her wrist.
She held out her hand for the ring.
Hesitation.
The ring dropped into her open palm.
There was no hint of emotion he could detect on her face. She was hiding, always hiding.
"I adjusted the settings. If you move away further from me than two metres, you will get zapped. Just strong enough to knock you out for a while – but it hurts."
She grimaced, but her fingers wrapped around the piece of metal that seemed so innocent to the eye. Her elegant fingers turned it around as she studied it from all sides. He should be suspicious that she was looking for her a loophole, but he knew better. She was weighing her options.
Closing her eyes for one brief moment she slid her hand through the silver ring, hiding a wince when she felt a hint of the voltage running through what looked like an innocent bracelet. Her eyes opened again, looking down at her hand, at the band of metal wrapping around her pale wrist and when she looked up she wasn't hiding any longer.
She was scared. She was scared of this and she was scared of him and she was scared of weakness and she was scared of herself and of whatever was out there, whatever had been done to her in those long years he hadn't seen her after she went back into the Time Lock. Whatever had hurt her so much that she was willing to submit to imprisonment with him- a punishment she had once considered worse than death.
"I wish you would just…trust me." She said eventually.
"I can't."
"I know." She admitted. "But I still wished you would."
He didn't know how to comfort her.
He was scared too.
Of her.
For a long moment they were only looking at each other, staring. He could feel his sense tingling, a constant reminder of the presence of another Time Lord, his starved mind longing for the mental contact. Her hand slid under his arm, effectively linking arms with him, before he could pull away. Their eyes met.
She flashed her teeth.
"Just staying close…we don't want to have any accidents, do we."
He could feel his mind reaching out for her, brushing against hers. It's been centuries.
He removed his arm from her grip – she resisted, just for a moment, but then she let go. His fingers wandered down her arm, coming to rest in her hand, just the brush of their palms making his mind burn with longing. The silver rings around their wrists brushed against each other with a tinkling sound.
"This won't last forever." He didn't know why he said it. Because it was true, probably. Their paths would separate again.
He held on to her hand.
The gates of her mind opened for him, controlled and slowly but yet he could feel her impatience, when their minds collided.
He could hear her answer inside his own head.
'It will last for now.'
End Note: I haven't written anything in a while - but I need to get back into it. I'm not a native English speaker, so I hope you forgive some of my insecurites. Lots of love.