A rose for my Rose ❤️🌹 #tennytravelstheworld #tenny #tenthdoctor #funkopop #rose #rosetyler #teamtardis #doctorwho #stanleypark #roses #vancouver #tenrose (at Rose and Perennial Garden) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiQ2KiLsKq2/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
AN ~ A moment of mutual grief, sharing, and healing between Thirteen and Graham that I've been meaning to write since It Takes You Away (the Solitract ep) and never quite managed, until I took the opportunity from Promptober 2019′s prompt “It’s not always like this.” Song title from Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran. Enjoy <3
This is the second of what I am hoping will be approx a ficlet a day throughout December across a range of fandoms so keep your eyes out. Prompts welcome but unfortunately not guaranteed.
Thirteen & Graham, mentions of Doctor/River and Graham/Grace
Rated T. Discussions of death & mourning.
Read on AO3 (~1300wd)
a heart that’s broke is a heart that’s been loved
It feels strange, entering the empty flat. The absence of Grace’s warmth is palpable, even if its ghost remains in the way she has lovingly crafted and lived in her home.
The Doctor follows Graham up the steps and over the threshold, and waits in silence, trying not to watch or to fidget too much, as he is once again reminded of the striking absence of his wife. All too well, the Doctor knows what that is like, and even if she couldn’t hear Graham’s heart begin to race and his lungs struggle against the tears that suddenly fill his throat again, she would know. She also knows there is no cure for that feeling but time, so she waits, and browses the pictures on the wall and on the bookshelf. Mostly, they’re of Grace and Ryan.
“Tea?” Graham offers.
“Please,” the Doctor agrees. She strolls past a macaroni frame with a crayon drawing inside it; another frame, with what she assumes is a very young Ryan sitting atop a scruffy black pony, with an older man she doesn’t recognise – perhaps his father; more likely his grandfather – standing at its head. Then she comes across a third, and it’s an aged frame, like it’s something special, but the photo inside it is too new to match. It’s Graham and Grace, on their wedding day.
Time, she thinks. Isn’t that always the problem?
Graham clears his throat, and she moves away from the bookshelf to the lounge and sits with him. Usually, one or the other of them would be making up some distracting ramble by now, but it’s been a long… however long it’s been… and they’re too tired to pretend at anything else but the heaviness in their hearts. The Doctor tastes the tea – piled high with sugar, just the way she used to like it – and it goes down bittersweet.
“How do you do it, Doc?” Graham asks at last.
“Do what?”
“Do this. Anything. Everything.” His voice starts trembling, despite everything that’s led them here, and the Doctor feels a prick of a tear at her eye. She knows what he’s asking. “- How do you get up in the morning, without her?”
Though she knows no other way would have been less painful, the Doctor can’t help but wonder what inspired Graham to ask in that specific way. In the way that fills her memory with the red and golden light of all those mornings on Darillium. Years, she’d got. Years and years of waking up to the sunlight filtering through those curls and a tired smile and Morning, Sweetie.
Until the morning she hadn’t.
How had she gotten up in the morning? Well she hadn’t at first. And when she had, there had been a great deal of crying and throwing of things. But when, how, had she started healing? That was, after all, what he was asking, was it not? Well, that had to have been when she had carved River’s name into a panel for her ceiling. Or perhaps… after the regeneration, when she had found…
She slips her fingers into her pocket, and pulls out the ring. Twirls it on the table in front of her, because rings have a way of making her want to do that (and because she kind of wants to be reminded, this time, of the exasperated smile it would put on River’s face).
“It’s not always like this,” the Doctor says, and as she watches the ring spin she knows it’s true. She spins it again. But though healing she may be, there’s an ache that still remains. An ache of wanting to hear River’s voice, to see her face, the way she almost thought – maybe the Solitract could have – she knows she never should have hoped for such a thing but deep down there’s still a part of her that would have given anything for one more moment of sweet pretence…
“Doc, I’m sorry,” Graham whispers. Suddenly the Doctor realises the ring has stopped spinning and has fallen flat on the table. How long has she been staring at it? How long have there been tears on her face?
Graham reaches across the table and takes her hand. He requests gently; “Tell me about her?”
The Doctor takes a deep breath.
“Her name was River,” she explains. “I lost her a long time ago, actually, but also quite recently. It’s… complicated.”
Graham hums, nods, tries not to interrupt.
“The first day we met,” the Doctor continues, “was the day she died. And the last time I saw her…”
She swallows hard. Graham squeezes her hand, and she squeezes back, as hard as she dares, until she finds the strength to continue.
“We were always meeting out of order, River and me. Just a time traveller’s lot, I s’pose. And she was infuriating and tragic and clever and brave… and somehow, I think she always knew that I knew. And if she could get up, every day, knowing that, and not regretting it, how can I not? Does that… make any sense?”
“You know, actually,” Graham muses, “I think it does.”
He’s just about got tears on his face to match the Doctor’s now, as he thinks back to when he and Grace had first met. He’d always thought he’d be the first one of them to go, what with his cancer and all, but even when the writing had seemed written on the wall for him, she’d still wanted in on it. Now that he’s actually time-travelled he feels he has the experience to say what he’s always claimed; that it was like she’d known the Titanic was going to go down, and stepped onto it with him anyway. More than anything, Graham knows, the hurt he feels over Grace’s death is at the cruel twist of fate that it was her and not himself who had gone first. And sure, she had gone out bravely and lovingly, but hadn’t there been enough death in their lives? Hadn’t they earnt their peace?
But it was never about earnt, was it? It was about choices. His choices. Grace’s choices. To raise Ryan. To fall in love. To get married. To protect their family. Wasn’t that how he’d gotten up every day since then? For his promise to Grace. For Ryan. For Yaz. For the Doctor. For the earth, and the people they had saved, maybe even the universe a time or two. Maybe he can keep getting up, for all that.
(“And if you don’t,” a familiar voice reminds him, “you know who’ll you be answering to.”)
A smile touches his lips at that, and out of the corner of her eye, the Doctor sees it. Taking a deep breath, she shakes out her hair as if the misery might fall right out of it, and lets her own smile grow a little.
“She’ll always be with you,” the Doctor promises, “but it won’t always hurt.”
Graham nods, and takes a deep breath of his own. It smells like Grace – like her perfume, her knitting, her favourite plants – less and less these days, but it doesn’t feel like forgetting anymore. This time, dare he say it, it’s almost pleasant; like a memory of her, blessing the place she has left.
“I think I can live with that,” Graham says, and before either of them can delve into the fact that he doesn’t really have a choice in the matter, he clears his throat and stands again. “Now. Let’s see what we’ve got in these cupboards. The kids’ll catch up in a mo’ and they’ll be ready to eat us out of house and home. Plus, I could go for a sarnie if I’m honest. Whaddaya say, Doc - cheese and pickle?”
You make me miss my family. That's quite some achievement, considering my dad drives me bananas and my sister's trying to get me to move out so she can have my bedroom. And I only saw them yesterday.
What if Doctor Who and Gentleman Jack had a overlap episode?
What if yaz talks about this new show about a real life women that lived in the 19th century Yorkshire and was gay af and got married and everything!
Yaz : Doctor have you seen this new show that has been on tv, about a woman named anne lister, supposedly she was the first woman to have a gay marriage in Britain!It’s
Doc: No yaz, I haven’t, I’m a 2000 year old Alien with a blue box.. I don’t have time to watch tv! .. let me see it?
*yaz smiles*
Yaz: here!
Doc: *watching intently* hm, it seems okay but it’s no quite as accurate as the real thing.
*doc pulls a level trying to not to draw any attention*
Doc *looking away from the phone* right, here we are people!
Graham&Ryan: *looking confused* Where’s here?
Doc: let’s go and have a look!
*doc opens the door to bump into anne lister (play by Suranne Jones) who stops and looks the doctor up and down before openly flirting with her*
Welcome to the 2018 31 Days of Ficmas! List provided by the wonderful @doctorroseprompts. @timepetalscollective for 13xRose and therefore fulfilling multiple bingo slots (including wearing another regeneration’s clothing, though it’s Rose wearing it)
31 Days of Ficmas masterlist
Summary: Rose and the Doctor disagree about 13's level of responsibility when it came to the Death Eye Turtle Army. Deciding to settle it like adults, they split Team TARDIS down the middle - and wage the snowball war for the ages.
AO3
Three weeks onboard the TARDIS had done little to diminish Yaz’s wonder for her new surroundings. While Ryan preferred to spend his free time in the Entertainment Room playing 23rd century video games and Graham took advantage of the library, she opted to wander the halls, learning the layout of the spaceship. Two years of training as a police officer had drilled into her the importance of knowing her whereabouts in relation to where she needed to be.
Of course, her explorations had limited value; every morning a different path led to the galley, and a single path never took her to the same place twice. The TARDIS is alive, Yaz, the Doctor had said, and that was never more evident than in the changing floorplans.
She loved it.
Surprisingly for someone who liked to have control, it didn’t bother her that she was habitually lost. The few times she’d grown worried enough to call for help, within two minutes she’d either walked through a doorway into the console room or the Doctor had appeared, leading her back to where she’d been trying to go, babbling a hundred miles an hour the whole way. That only made her more confident in her investigations.
So far she’d found two pools, four squash courts, a garden, an art gallery, and several disused bedrooms. Today, she was on the hunt for a fitness center or exercise room. The Sheffield Constabulary had certain expectations of its officers, and running with the Doctor proved that endurance was key. She was doing well so far, able to keep up, but without a training regimen she was worried that might change.
Ryan had scoffed, dismissing her concerns, but a few days before she had stumbled across him in a mostly empty room practicing climbing a ladder, padded cushions on the ground in case he fell. She’d quietly backed out, letting him have his privacy, all the while fiercely proud of her friend.
Feminine voices ahead alerted Yaz that she was about to get sidetracked, but she wasn’t too bothered as the hallway spilled into the console room. Leaning against the doorway with her arms folded, she smirked as she watched the Doctor and her wife argue.
Despite heated tones and hands perched on hips, their stance and closeness suggested flirting more than anything, and it never failed to make Yaz smile. Her new friend carried the universe on her shoulders – and as strong as she was, she still needed someone to help lighten the load, and the other woman appeared to do so with ease.
“-which is why I’m absolutely right, and Yaz agrees. Don’t you Yaz?” The Doctor’s raised pitch invited her in, and letting her arms fall to her sides, she stepped further into the room.
“What trouble are you causing now?”
The Doctor’s indignant splutter was drowned out by her wife’s laughter.
“Oh, she’s got your number, love,” Rose sniggered, leaning back against the console. “And it only took three weeks. That might be record. Well done, Yaz.”
“Thanks,” she grinned at the slightly more petite blonde. The couple looked very similar, standing at nearly the same height with matching bottle-blonde hair and mischievous grins. The only way she could tell them apart the first few trips was the Doctor’s tigger-like energy and manner compared to Rose’s steady, laidback attitude, and their outfits – the Doctor only ever seemed to change her shirt whereas Rose was always in a new, cute outfit that made Yaz jealous of her closet and apparent budget.
“You didn’t answer my question, though,” Yaz prompted, raising her eyes at the now-pouting Time Lord.
“I’m not causing trouble,” the alien denied hotly. “I was just saying that the Death Eye Turtle Army was not my fault.”
“Ehhh…” Yaz grimaced, considering, before shrugging one shoulder. “To be fair, it wasn’t not your fault either.”
“Traitor!” the Doctor gasped, before turning a glare on Rose who was bent in half, howling with laughter as she clung to the console for support. “And you, Rose Tyler!”
“What?” she gasped, holding her sides.
“You- you- you impugn my honor!”
“Oh, I’m really glad you didn’t say belittle,” her wife sniggered, before bursting into giggles again.
Yaz’s nose wrinkled, slightly lost. The couple clearly had a rich history, if their frequent incoherent asides were any indication.
“Inside joke,” Rose explained briefly, confirming the theory. “If you ever meet a Sontaran, it’ll make perfect sense. Long story.”
“Well, we all came out of it safe and sound, so no harm no foul,” Yaz offered, giving the Doctor a tentative smile.
“Thank you, Yaz. Nice to see someone appreciates me.”
Rose rolled her eyes, grinning at Yaz as she directed at her wife, “I appreciate you more when you when you get us out of trouble than when you get us into it. And even moreso when we can have a nice day out without any trouble at all.”
“You love it.”
“Yeah, and I love chocolate cake, doesn’t mean I need to experience it every single day.”
Yaz coughed deliberately, trying to derail another bickering session at least long enough to get out of the room; it tended to get a bit too close to the line between flirty and foreplay for her to feel comfortable observing. Never mind that Rose was staring at the Doctor like she was chocolate cake. “Are we going anywhere today?”
“Yes,” the Doctor said decisively, moving towards the controls as if struck with inspiration and starting to throw switches and press buttons in a possibly-meaningful order. “We’re going to settle this disagreement like adults.”
Rose sighed deeply, the knowing exhale of a fondly exasperated spouse. Yaz heard it often when her father started on his conspiracy theories. “Somehow I doubt your idea of what qualifies as ‘adult’ is vastly different from mine.” Turning, she began manipulating the controls in front of her with a familiarity Yaz found fascinating. Nothing was labeled yet she never hesitated in her movements, graceful and efficient. Even the Doctor sometimes struggled with apparently new systems, and if she didn’t know better she’d think Rose was the original operator of the craft. Though the Doctor’s occasional jealous look was usually humorous.
“Rose! Not that kind of adult!”
“I didn’t- that wasn’t- shut up,” Rose groaned, stretching to flick a switch almost out of reach before swatting at her spouse. “I meant something along the lines of just letting it go, being the bigger person. Accepting responsibility.”
“Ah.” The Doctor’s nose crinkled, and she shook her head. “Nope, no thanks, not me.”
“Where are we going?” Yaz cut in, grabbing onto a holdbar as they careened through the Vortex, watching with awe as the couple flew around the console, giving happy laughs at every bit of turbulence.
“There’s this planet called Woman Wept,” the Doctor started, only for Rose to immediately cut in.
“-An’ it’s absolutely gorgeous. Once upon a time it was pretty much all water, only the sun died suddenly and everything flash-froze. ‘S called that because when you look at it from above, it looks like a woman crying. Now it’s all snow and ice.”
“And what does that have to do with settling your disagreement like adults?”
“Snowball fight,” the Doctor said brightly, as though it were perfectly reasonable and obvious.
Yaz just shook her head, capitalizing on her last few moments with the women as she could hear Ryan and Graham stumbling down the hall. “You’re gonna settle it with a snowball fight?” For just a moment, she remembered the last call she’d taken before stumbling across Ryan in the forest – two grown women needing supervision to resolve a parking dispute. These two were far more entertaining.
The boys burst in then, Ryan in front with Graham hot on his heels.
“Wha’s goin’ on?” They moved to their stations, taking hold for dear life just as they hit a nasty bit of turbulence.
“Snowball fight on an alien planet. You up for it?” The Doctor’s indefatigable adventuring spirit made them all grin, and Ryan was the first to agree.
“Hell yeah.”
“Why not?” Graham added, as the ship landed with a final shudder.
“Brilliant!” The Doctor leapt towards the door, throwing them open and revealing a tantalizing glimpse of white.
The companions made to follow, only turning back when Rose cleared her throat.
“It’s freezing out there. There’s hats, gloves, scarves, and coats in this closet,” she said, throwing open a door in the wall to reveal a multitude of wintery items in all shapes sizes and colors, selecting an absurdly long, multi-colored scarf for herself.
“Really? You’ll trip and die on that thing,” Yaz muttered as she pawed through the items to find a matching set.
Rose winked, still winding it around her neck. “Not before the Doctor dies of hearts failure.”
Suitably kitted out, the four humans (though Yaz still wasn’t fully convinced about Rose) stepped out to find a dozen snowmen of various sizes and incredible detail in the snow around the ship. Each had a different face and body type, or as much as a snowman could have, but they must have meant something to Rose because she giggled and went up to the fourth one from the ship and gave it her scarf.
“Wicked,” Ryan breathed, making Yaz look up – and gasp.
“Oh my…”
A sixty-foot frozen wave towered over them, glistening in the moonlight. Rose was right; it was spectacular. Similar shapes rose out of the darkness in the distance, giving the place an eerie but serene feel.
“Does anyone live here?” Graham asked, looking around, his face showing the same marvel as Ryan’s and her own.
“Not anymore. Planet died when the sun did,” the Doctor reported sadly, dropping the snowball she held, her wife wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders.
“So, how are we splitting up the teams?” Ryan stepped closer to the Doctor, staring at the wave overhead in awe.
“Boys against girls?” Rose suggested, making Ryan and Graham frown at her.
“What, the two of us against the three of you? Nah, man, that’s not fair!” Ryan protested, crossing his arms.
“What? No, the two of you with me,” the Doctor said cheerfully, kissing Rose quickly before moving away. “Then Rose and Yaz.”
Graham didn’t seem assuaged, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe I should sit out, keep score, that sort of thing. Make it even.”
“What? No!” The Doctor’s face fell as she wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “We’ve only barely got a chance the three of us.”
“And it’s not just two,” Rose smirked, disappearing through the TARDIS door only to return a moment later with Grace, who was grinning widely. “The TARDIS is a cheater, taking pity on the Doctor and not letting Grace know we’d landed.”
“Oh, you’re going down,” Ryan’s nan gloated, poking her husband in the chest. “You haven’t a prayer, love.”
“That’s not fair,” the Doctor whined, glaring at her wife. “You three’ll be too good.”
“All’s fair in love and war,” Rose retorted, “and this most certainly is war.”
“My dignity’s at stake!”
“What dignity?”
“Children, children,” Grace soothed, laughing, “three on three seems like a fair fight.”
“I heartily disagree-” the Doctor started, only to splutter at a sudden mouthful of snow as Rose shrieked with laughter and took off across the frozen tundra. “Saboteur! Come back here!”
The Doctor began chasing Rose as Grace, unseen by Graham, carefully packed a solid snowball, and with a wink to Yaz, lobbed it at her husband.
“Oi!” he yelped, before scooping up a ball as well and throwing at Yaz.
“Hey!”
And the war was on.
-
Twenty minutes later it had devolved into each of the married couples chasing their spouses around, fighting bitterly and taking no prisoners. Every so often someone would yelp or scream as snow was shoved unceremoniously down their shirtback, and Yaz and Ryan watched it all with a laugh.
“It’s nice to see them so happy,” Yaz commented, sipping at the hot chocolate the ship had provided. She and Ryan had easily declared a truce after the third snowball in a row she’d nailed him with, and they’d brought out a bench and pile of blankets to watch the ‘adults’ battle for supremacy play.
“Yeah. I think Nan loves this travelin’ more than the rest of us combined.”
“Definitely.” They shared a laugh, though Yaz’s smile slipped at the reminder of how closely they’d come to not having Grace with them. If Rose hadn’t been there to cushion her fall… Sure, both women hobbled away with bruised ribs and aching bodies, but they’d walked away.
“Hey, stop that,” Ryan chided, elbowing her in the side. “She’s fine, ‘s all good. What’s that Rose keeps saying, ‘Don’t borrow trouble’?”
Yaz nodded, forcing the thought from her mind as she nudged him back. “I think the TARDIS gave us a snowball gun – want to take them all down?”
“But the Doctor doesn’t like guns.” He gave her a wide-eyed, innocent look before he started laughing, throwing his head back and letting it ring out. “Hell. Yes. You pack, I’ll shoot.”
It didn’t take long to build a well-stocked cache, deciding that Ryan would aim and Yaz would load – part of the gun seemed to be an old automatic tennis ball launcher; all she had to do was feed the snowballs through as fast as she could, and Ryan would do the rest.
Within five minutes they were forevermore known as the undisputed Snowball Fight Champions.
Who's The Doctor and who is your TEAM TARDIS? #doctorwho #thedoctor #friendshipbracelets #friendshipbracelet #teamtardis #etsytribe https://www.instagram.com/p/BqTGA7ig0aP/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1b06k9meqst4f
