Sep. 7th, 2013


[info]by_any_other

Shelter (10.5)

Rose spent more time at her dad's than she usually did. It was better than going home to an empty flat. But at night, when the quiet settled over her bedroom, she wondered if it were better that John Smith was gone. She missed... Every time she tried to finish that thought, it ended up so warped and confused that she'd given up. It didn't hardly matter, anyway. She finally accepted what John Smith was telling her the day he'd left: her Doctor didn't need her. Her Doctor was done with Rose Tyler. And now, so was John Smith.

It'd been eight weeks and three days since John Smith left. There was some relief in not seeing his face every day. Occasionally, she'd catch sight of him at work, sometimes escaping his notice, sometimes not. Both of them had lost weight, but the darkness under his eyes grew deeper every time she caught a glance of his face. They never spoke.

She wasn't proud of spying on him, of using her father's connections to clandestinely find his new address, to learn what he'd been working on... to check up on him. It was true that her Doctor had made John Smith an unwanted responsibility of hers. Now that he wasn't her responsibility anymore, she wanted him to be. No, that wasn't quite right... But she felt responsible, all the same.

So when she overheard that John Smith hadn't reported in for work the last two days, Rose made it an early day out and used that new address. She found the flat above the fish and chips place just a block away from Torchwood. From the street, it looked like nothing special. She swallowed her nervousness and headed up, knocking first, then ringing. When no answer came, she did it again.

Then she pulled out a credit card and jimmied the lock - a trick Mickey'd shown her years ago. She closed the door quietly behind her.

Sep. 6th, 2013


[info]by_any_other

Pale (10.5)

It was petty, and she knew it.

Walking slower and slower toward the Powell Estate, Rose was doing her best to make excuses for herself, but -- it was bloody petty and she needed to act like an adult.

As she grew nearer to the door to flat 48, Rose finally gave up altogether and stopped on the sidewalk. She leaned against the wall and shrugged off the fabric strap of her grocery bag. It took a few seconds of rooting around in the sack to pull out a clear plastic bag full of pears. There were so many, she had to support the bottom with her other hand or risk ripping the bag altogether.

Slipping the strap of the grocery sack over her shoulder, she carefully started toward the closest metal trashcan. She was making a face at a memory of hers when she arrived at the bin. The pears went in, then she pulled her grocery tote back up onto her shoulder.

Walking into her mother's old flat, knowing that only he would be in it now that Mum was with Pete and Toby, she braced herself to see her roommate again. The face was hard to look at, even now, months after her Doctor left them here. She let out a slow, collected breath when she closed the door, then hurried into the kitchen to put away the groceries.