Put Your Shoes At The Door

[preserved_ginger]

Title: Put Your Shoes At The Door
Author: The Bitter Rose / lived_in_hope
Character(s): Ten. Rose. Mention of Ten II.
Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: 12
A/N: This was originally a first-person Rose POV piece examining how she might have felt during and just after the events of Journey’s End, but I thought it worked better as a third-person narrative. Hopefully I wasn’t wrong. The title, and the quotes at the beginning and end of the fic, are from Rhapsody on a Windy Night by T. S. Eliot.
Disclaimer: Not mine
Spoilers: Journey’s End.
Summary: She’d said she’d never leave him.

Put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life.

He’d made her think she was special, that she was different. He’d told her that she could spend the rest of her life with him, and then had heavily implied that he would never leave her.

And then what had he done, first chance he’d had after she had spent all that time trying to find a way back to him that didn’t involve bringing down two universes? He’d taken her straight back to that same universe she’d tried so hard to escape and had left her there with a clone of him.

The clone had looked like him, talked like him – but the woman he’d left behind knew as well as he did that he wasn’t him, or not in the way that mattered.

She’d thought they were — well, he’d have known what she’d thought they were, because that’s what they had been. And that they weren’t that any more, or ever would be again, made her angry in some ways – because even if he’d stopped loving her, she hadn’t stopped loving him – and terribly sad for him in others.

Because even if he’d never managed to say those words to her – she’d known.

“My Doctor.”

She’d always known.

The last twist of the knife.

Comments

[the-lucky-stars.livejournal.com]

That was a lovely piece of writing. Very sad, too.

[bananasandroses.livejournal.com]

That was a lovely piece of writing.

Thank you!

Very sad, too.

I know, but to make it anything else wouldn’t really have done justice to what happens in it, and the pathos of the whole thing, IMHO.

[shaela]

Ouch. And yet, there’s a part of me that thinks the first words out of Rose’s mouth after the Tardis dematerialized were something like, “I always knew he’d do that to me someday.”

postscript

[shaela]

I just noticed that Rose is thinking of Ten II in the past tense (“The clone had looked like him”). Does that mean what I think it means?

Re: postscript

[bananasandroses.livejournal.com]

I just noticed that Rose is thinking of Ten II in the past tense (“The clone had looked like him”). Does that mean what I think it means?

In this case, probably not (although it’s ambiguous enough to mean what you want it to mean), if only because the whole piece is in past tense.

But it’s a good idea, and one of these days if I’m brave enough to alienate half my f-list I might follow the idea up.

[bananasandroses.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

Yes.

And yet, there’s a part of me that thinks the first words out of Rose’s mouth after the Tardis dematerialized were something like, “I always knew he’d do that to me someday.”

Oh, yes. Especially since that conversation in School Reunion.

[maniacalshen.livejournal.com]

This hurts!

because even if he’d stopped loving her

Aw, don't think that, Rose!

[bananasandroses.livejournal.com]

This hurts!

It’s meant to.

Aw, don't think that, Rose!

I think it’s quite likely to have been up there on the list of things she was thinking — because why else, in her mind, would he have brought her back to the place she’d spent so long trying to escape?

[maniacalshen.livejournal.com]

because why else, in her mind, would he have brought her back to the place she’d spent so long trying to escape?

Oh, I know. I was just crying out in futile denial. XD

[effulgent-girl.livejournal.com]

*wibbles*

[bananasandroses.livejournal.com]

*wibbles*

*hugs*

[xbriyeon.livejournal.com]

Just oh, the last line.. </3

[bananasandroses.livejournal.com]

Just oh, the last line..

I know. *hugs*

[helygen.livejournal.com]

Poor Rose :(

Beautifully written, hun

[bananasandroses.livejournal.com]

Poor Rose :(

I know. I was a bit mean, I think, but it’s all in the cause of getting my head ’round all this (just don’t expect Ten II/Rose fic from me any time soon!)

Beautifully written, hun

Thank you!

[helygen.livejournal.com]

"(just don’t expect Ten II/Rose fic from me any time soon!)"

I don't. I'm more than happy that you're still writing Ten/Rose after all the trauma of JE
*hugs*

[reetinkerbell.livejournal.com]

So sad. Very nice though.