salienne

Title: The Coward’s Way Out
Author: Salienne
Characters: Jack, Ten, Master
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly enough. Then again, I don’t know if I’d ever get the guts to torture my own characters for a year.
Spoilers: Through LotTL

Summary: The Doctor speaks in a quiet, urgent voice. “Jack, I can take the pain away.” His eyes pierce those of his once-companion, and his stomach clenches in something like fear, but not for himself.

After a particularly gruesome torture session, the Master leaves the Doctor and Jack alone in a cell together.

A/N: Well I've had this fic hidden away on my computer for a while now, a collection of my thoughts about why Jack chose to stay behind and just how the Doctor would feel about that. I'm araid it hasn't been betaed, but I'm content with it and I hope you guys will be too. So... enjoy! :)

A/N 1: wendymr pointed out that I wasn't entirely clear on Jack's motivations in this piece, so I tweaked it a little. I haven't actually changed anything that occurs or taken anything out; I just provided a larger peek into his thought processes. Hopefully things are a bit clearer now (and, obviously, work in the greater context of the story).

( They are left alone together in a cell meant for one person, a hard cot in one corner and a toilet in another. )

Okay, so, for IFP, we had to read Gwendolyn Brooks. And while this poem is about God, this part just screamed "Doctor" to me:

But who walks with Him?--dares to take His arm,
To slap Him on the shoulder, tweak His ear,
Buy Him a Coca-Cola or a beer,
Pooh-pooh His politics, call Him a fool?

Perhaps--who knows?--He tires of looking down.
Those eyes are never lifted. Never straight.
Perhaps sometimes He tires of being great
In solitude. Without a hand to hold.

*Jumps up and down pointing to that last line* "Fear Her" anyone? Rose, anyone?

And that last stanza: "Here you are, living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have."

I need to write a fic. @_@

From a fanfiction that I will probably never do anything with:

“Are we gonna be all right, Doctor?” Rose asked quietly. “After all that… after what happened, are we gonna be okay?”

“’Course we will,” he responded. “Give it enough time and you and I’ll be good as new, right as rain, peachy as… peaches.”

Heee, it amuses me. And it just came out so very... right. It be very Ten. :D

And now to bed! Because it's past 3 AM and I told myself I'd be asleep an hour and a half ago.

Night all!

Well, since I just wrote this long comment on "The Girl in the Fireplace" and don't want to lose it, here it is, my thoughts on Reinette and the Doctor and Rose. Why am I so obsessed...?

( My in-verse interpretation of TGitF (a little ranty, but I hope you'll excuse that :P) )