Fic: Blindsighted (Doctor Who)

[keep_counting]

Title: Blindsighted
Characters/Pairings: pre-Nine/Rose
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Temporary blindness, giant spiders, fluff
Genre: Hurt-Comfort/Friendship/Romance
Word-count: 1,307
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in relation to this.
Summary: In where Rose is blind for a while, almost gets eaten and the Doctor brings the ice-cream.

”Are you sure you’re alright?”

Rose sighed. ”Doctor, you’ve asked me if I was alright fifteen times now.”

”But are you sure?”

”Very sure,” she got out through gritted teeth, hands clenching at her sides. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the Doctor’s concern – she secretly enjoyed it quite a bit – but this was getting a little out of hand, and she was getting tired of reassuring him of everything being okay when really it was not.

How could it be – she was goddamn blind.

“Rose,” he must’ve sensed her thoughts or change in mood, or whatever magic-tricks he worked these days, because he leaned closer to her, hand gently brushing over hers – she automatically relaxed a fraction, revelling in the simple feel of having him this close to her, his warm breath fanning over her neck.

“Everything’s gonna be fine,” she insisted. “You said it yourself yeah, it’s only temporary, my eyes will work in a few hours right?”

“They will, without a doubt,” the Doctor hurriedly said, reassuring her again. “Neruba’s spider is a pretty vile fellow, but its sting only paralyses, it doesn’t damage. It’s like if you’ve gotten morphine to not feel the pain.”

“Yeah, only this time it’s so I can’t see the big, hunkin’ mother-spider sneaking up on me,” Rose mumbled, shuttering at the thought of the size that thing had been. She had only caught a glimpse before the darkness had come over her, but having that be the last thing she saw for a while definitely didn’t sit well with her.

“Oi! That didn’t happen, remember? I saved you.”

She wanted to say something sappy like ‘of course’ or ‘never doubted you’ or ‘you always save me’, but she couldn’t quite get herself there, as if the words were standing ready to jump off her tongue, but couldn’t really find the courage to and ended up just crawling back in her throat.

“Thanks for that, by the way,” she said instead, her voice only shaking a little bit, and honestly, she’s blind and almost got eaten by Aragog’s cranky grandmother, she’s allowed to be a little out of it. Apparently the Doctor agreed, because he didn’t try to make a smart remark or be offended that she didn’t recognize his grand skills with his sonic, he only placed a large, warm hand on her shoulder, sitting in silence and letting her know he was there.

“How long ‘till it wears of?” Rose asked.

“About five to seven hours more,” he answered. “It would have been forty or more if not for the TARDIS upgraded medical system.”

“Lucky me,” she half-smiled and half-meant as well. She imagined that he was smiling at her as well.

“I’m sorry you were in danger,” he said and she really doesn’t know how to respond to that at all.

~

“C’mere!”

“What?”

“I want to see you!”

Rose could hear the Doctor’s surprise.

“Rose…”

“I’m still blind, so come over here.”

“Aaah,” he mumbled, moving closer. They were sitting in the library, in front of the fireplace (she had several times asked him if having an open fireplaces right next to so many books wasn’t a fire-hazard, but he’d snorted and said that his TARDIS was brilliant every time, and gotten even more annoyed when Rose had pointed out that he called her brilliant on occasion as well, and they had clear evidence that she wasn’t fire-proof), and it had been only an hour of the Doctor tinkering around and Rose listening to loud pop music – of which the Doctor detested, but her pouting and reminding him that she was blind and had almost gotten eaten by a spider – a giant spider Doctor! - had made him shut his mouth about it.

She’d gotten bored of it though, and the silk-scarf tied over her eyes so as to give them some peace and quiet, was starting to slip down and when she tied the knot she tied it too tightly and that’s when she realized how amazing an excuse to touch the Doctor’s face this was.

No. Seriously. That was her exact line of thought.

It might be taking advantage of her situation to an immoral degree (as was making him get her ice-cream and three cups of tea already), but Rose was blind and she had almost gotten eaten by a giant spider, so she figured she was allowed.

Besides it looked fun and romantic in the movies and it was always such a thrill, having him this close, wondering if he could hear her heart pumping faster, superior senses and all, if he knew how much everything about him affected everything about her.

“Ow!” he yelped as she poked him in the eye.

“Ooops,” she said. Right, so not quite the sweet moment she had been aiming for. He made a ‘hrmpf’ sound and for one bleak moment she thought he was going to pull away and go back to his tinkering or whatever, but then he gently grabbed hold of her wrists, controlling her movements as she slid her fingers over his face.

“Eyes,” he breathed, this time closing them, her fingertips tickling as it touched the fragile skin there.

“Nose. Cheekbones. Cheeks. Chin.”

“Mouth,” she choked out and really, in a second her heart would burst free of her chest and splatter blood all over them both.

Okay. Did that spider’s poison make people morbid as well? Or was it just her?

And why the hell was she contemplating this when she was still touching the Doctor’s mouth?

Oh yeah, because she would start hyperventilating if she thought about it too much.

The problem with the Doctor, she thought, wasn’t that he always broke moments like this, because he didn’t. Sometimes he let them go on, until she broke them: and in the end, she always had to, because he never ever tried to go any further, and if he didn’t, then she didn’t. She didn’t have the courage to.

“Ears!” she exclaimed, coordinating her movements and grabbing perfect hold, yanking gently and ignoring his shout of indignation as he pulled her away again. Indignation and something like relief.

Right.

“Now, how about some more ice-cream?” she asked, trying to pout without the use of big, brown eyes.

“You’ll get fat.”

The pillow she threw at him missed by miles of course, but she could still hear his laughter ringing through the TARDIS as he went to get it anyway.

~

“So?”

“So”

“Working again?”

Rose experimentally closed her eyes, then opened them again, then closed them again, before slowly opening them, one after another.

“Yep. Everything’s fine,” she beamed a smile at him. “Didn’t the scan tell you that everything was fine?”

He stood awkwardly beside her, fiddling with the sonic screwdriver. “It did.”

“And isn’t your screwdriver infallible?”

That got her a large grin. “Of course it is. I made it.”

Rose did the mature thing and poked out her tongue.

“So now that I can see again, do I have to start making my own tea?”

“Yes. And get your own damn ice-cream,” he added, rolling his eyes.

“Alright Mr banana’s-are-the-only-food-for-me.”

“Not only food.”

“Right, I forgot about the Cronk Burgers.”

She’d expected a snort at that, but all she got was a fond, exasperated look and a hand reaching out to gently cup her face.

“I’m glad you’re alright again,” he said and she thought, so am I.

She also thought he looked really, really swell in that dark-blue jumper he was wearing right now, and maybe also that he had been a lot more worried about her that he had been letting on.

“Of course I’ll be alright, you’re here to take care of me, remember?” she was only half-teasing. Honestly? She really, really wanted to know the answer.

“Yeah,” he said. “Sure.”

“Sure?”

“Always.”

Comments

[keep-counting.livejournal.com]

I struggled a bit with having them kiss or not, but decided against it: I wanted to write something that could be canon and represented their relationship as shown on the show instead of subtext. I'm very glad you liked it! :)