Movies (Ender's Game)
Characters: TenToo, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler
~Pairings: TenToo/Rose
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Rating: K+
Note: Spoilers for the movie/the book Ender's Game
"Whatcha watching?"
Rose jumps slightly as the Doctor's voice floats into her ears.
She turns to see him grinning.
"Sorry," he says, sheepishly. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"I wasn't scared," she huffs and he laughs, before sitting down next to her.
"The question still stands though, whatcha watching?"
"An American film," Rose replies easily. "It came out a while ago, but I thought what the heck."
"American?"
Rose shrugs, "ya, it's called Ender's Game, apparently it's based off some book."
"Never heard of it."
Rose looks shocked, "Really?"
The Doctor's nose scrunches up, "I haven't read everything in existence Rose. I'm old, but not that old."
Now it was Rose's turn to laugh, "I never said you were. Now quiet you, the movie's starting."
oOo
Together they watch in silence, until that is the Doctor broke it.
"This is disgusting," he sneers, his eyes going dark and hard. "Who would do that?"
"Doctor?" Concern laced Rose's words.
"Who takes people, children, and turns them into soldiers, into weapons? Who does that?"
Rose's gut churns, "maybe we should stop," she begins to stand, but the Doctor pulls her back down.
"No," he tells her, "No I need to know what happens."
And so Rose sits and watches, even as her instincts screamed at her to take the DVD outside and burn it.
By the end of the movie she would wish that she had listened to them.
oOo
She becomes enthralled, watching as Ender leads his army into battle. Watching as he ruthlessly plays through his test, watching as he ruthlessly destroys a planet.
Watching as Ender discovers that the planet he destroyed wasn't just a part of the game, watching as he actually destroys a whole world.
And that world burns.
Rose goes very still, her eyes roaming to the Doctor, who has practically frozen his eyes wide in horror.
"He—"his voice cracks. "He destroyed them, a whole planet gone."
"Doctor?" Hesitantly she places a hand on his shoulder, he doesn't respond.
"They tricked him into destroying a whole planet, and they watched as he burnt it to the ground, a child tricked into committing genocide," his voice had taken on a desperate, hallow tone. "How could they do that?"
Rose's mouth has gone dry and she stares at the Doctor, unsure of what to do.
His eyes are ablaze with disgust and horror and hatred, but beneath that she can see the guilt, the hurt, the lost, and she doesn't know which hurts her more.
Finally she pulls him into a tight hug, cradling him, holding him, as if trying to keep the monsters of the world away.
"I'm so sorry," she mutters, "I'm so sorry, I should've turned it off."
He's breathing fast now, his breaths coming out in gasps. Somewhere in her brain she realizes that he's panicking, but she doesn't know what to do.
So she just holds him and mutters (empty) words of comfort into his ear that is until Jackie enters the room, takes in the situation and takes over.
Making her way around to the other side of the Doctor she sits next to him and gently lifts his head, so that he'll look at her.
His eyes are bright and far away, but she'll deal with that later.
"Doctor," she says softly. "I don't know about you, but us humans we faint if we start breathing too fast, so I want you to do something for me okay?"
He doesn't respond, but his eyes seem to be focusing on her.
"Just breathe with me sweetheart, okay? In and out, one and two," she breaths in deeply and after holding it for a bit calmly exhales, repeating the motion until the Doctor begins to do the same. "There you go, you big oaf, nice and easy."
"I'm sorry," he mutters, his eyes full of something. Shame, Rose decides, but that's not important.
"It's fine sweetheart, you're okay, it's not your fault you got all those human emotions inside you."
"It's just they—"He chokes and Jackie looks up at the TV.
"What movie did you watch?" She asks Rose and upon Rose's answer Jackie goes tense. "And why would you let him watch that?! Surely you must've know that—"
"I didn't know!" Rose defends herself. "I'd never seen it before!"
Jackie huffs and looks over at the screen, "Have you finished it?"
"What no I—"
"You need to."
"What?! We can't! You saw what it did to him!"
"Trust me Rose, please," and after a moment's hesitation Rose does, pushing a button on the remote and watching as the movie resumes.
The Doctor goes tense in Jackie's arms, but she just hugs him tightly.
"Just for a moment love," Jackie tells him softly. "You just need to see the ending okay?"
He doesn't look at the TV.
She keeps talking, "because you see Doctor that planet may be gone, but not all hope is lost, because guess what? One of them lives."
The Doctor blinks and looks up blearily to stare at the TV, watching as Ender discovers the egg and begins to make his journey into space, carrying his precious cargo.
"One of them lives and if I've learned one thing, it's that sometimes one survivor is all you need."
The Doctor nods, his eyes shining with something that might've been hope, but it's so hard to see beneath the guilt that Jackie isn't entirely sure.
"I'm going to go get some air," he says all at once, and Jackie watches sadly as all of the Doctor's defenses and masks began to snap back into place.
"Right course," she says.
He gets up and leaves, Rose goes to follow, but Jackie grabs her and pulls her back down.
"Next time, you screen the movie before he watches it, okay? The last thing we need is for this to happen again."
Rose stares at her mum and nods mutely, before getting back up and going after the part Time Lord.
Alone Jackie sinks into the couch and stares at the screen, watching the rolling credits, she knew she should've burned that movie when the Doctor came to stay with them.
So I recently saw Ender's Game (and read the book) and all I can think about is the Doctor, and how he'd be so disgusted/horrified by this movie
And so I wrote a chapter about it...
On another note, I've been trying to do research on panic attacks/hyperventilation, because I honestly believe that it's something that TenToo would start to suffer from, so if somethings off please tell me and I'll fix it
For now just know that I do my best and please excuse my horrible medical knowledge
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