Disclaimer: I'll swap my Collector's Limited Edition Lego Millenium Falcon for rights to Doctor Who! Any takers?
A/N: Nine/Rose. Thoughts really from the Doctor's perspective…and set throughout "Bad Wolf" and "Parting of the Ways." Oh, and credit for the story's title and partially the overall idea goes to Francesca Montag (Thanks). Enjoy all!
Moments
The moment he realized he loved her was the moment he remembered when he first fell in love with her. And he never could have had the second epiphany without the first. The first realization occurred in the sort of situations you'd never have thought something as pure and innocent as love could exist. In the middle of battle, war, dying. Namely, her death. Her death that wasn't a death. When she disintegrated on the sadistic set of the Weakest Link. When she had, as he'd always feared she would, turned into dust.
The moment she disappeared in front of his unbelieving eyes on the game station was the moment he realized how much she'd melted his cold hearts, how much the continuation of their beating depended on the beating of her own far more fragile, but huger human heart. When she was gone, when he thought he'd never see her alive again, was when he realized he'd fallen into the exact trap he'd been eternally trying to avoid. She'd stolen his daft alien hearts explicitly against his permission.
The moment that followed that one tripled his pain because he thought back to the moment she'd committed her lovely crime right under his unsuspecting nose. November 7th, 1987. She'd disappointed him terribly but never in a way he ever would have expected. She wasn't asking for power or money or any of those things these stupid apes killed for. She did what she did out of love. She was the most human of everyone he'd ever known. And right at that moment, his hearts broke with the love that pulsed through them.
So, when the time came to wish her goodbye, he gave himself one selfish allowance. If she remembered when it was all over, he could pin it on the vortex. The continuation of her precious existence depended on that kiss, he could tell her, though he'd be lying through his alien teeth. So he saved her, and all he took in return was one sweet human gesture because he'd hate to forget just how humane she could make him feel.
The moments lasted mere human seconds, but he was timeless, and in him those moments were infinite. He'd always feel what it felt like to fall in love with her as if it were only just happening. It was a fantastic feeling, made the better by her presence, and he couldn't bear the thought of having to feel it in her absence because those moments would become as hopeless as they were beautiful.
A/N: I wanted to say thank you to everyone, readers and/or reviewers alike. Thanks to you, we've reached over 10,000 hits, 29 story alerts and 26 favorites. Yay, thanks to all of you! But hmmm…29 story alerts with over 10, 000 hits but only an average of about 5 reviews per chapter…I've got quite a few lurkers. And to think, you could become a full fledged reader for the price of only one review. I hear reviewers are happier, in general, than non reviewers. True story…just ask one of my loyal, faithful reviewers…those of you to who this applies, I thank you! To all my lurkers, review if you please…though I'll love you either way really…