who_contest | All Of Time & Space (Vast entry)

Title: All Of Time & Space
Rating: PG
Genre: Drabble
Word Count: 500
Pairings/Characters: 10th Doctor, Reinette (Girl In The Fireplace"
Warnings: None
Summary: When the Doctor enters her mind, he sees himself.

My 1st ever entry! Only just found this comm and have a feeling I'm about to get hooked!

"Reinette, I need to look inside your mind to see why the Clockwork Men are after you," the Doctor said softly, bringing his palms up to either side of her forehead. He splayed his fingers against her pale skin and closed his eyes. "You've had some cowboys in here," he commented idly. Her mind exploded under his fingertips; fragments of memory and history swirling like the Vortex. The Doctor mentally sifted them - junk, gossip, the first time she'd seen him, her nightmares. The marks of the Clockwork Men were like jagged tears in the fabric of her thoughts, easy to follow, leading him right to the answer.

"Such a lonely boy." The Doctors' eyes snapped open, focusing on hers, "How are you doing that?" It shouldn't be possible for a human to slip into his thoughts. This mental contact was a gift of the Time Lords. No-one had slipped inside his mind since the Ma...he shook his head. Focus. Why were the Clockwork Men after Reinette?

"A door once opened may be stepped through either way," she reminded. Which was very poetic but didn't answer his question. The Doctor watched as she closed her eyes, feeling stumbling human footsteps walking amongst his thoughts.

"It is vast in here my lonely angel," she murmured, "So empty and alone." Images were sifted clumsily, like photographs being pushed suddenly, violently to the front of his mind. Under his bed back at home, crying. He was alone & the darkness was not yet beautiful. The Untempered Schism was the next day; Koschei was eager, he was terrified. The Pyrdonian Academy - Koschei in his Gallifreyan robes, stood perfectly still in the middle of the Great Hall while they bickered gently about politics. Koschei in his highest temper - the dark eyes that he had then, flashing with pure rage. The hurt he hadn't yet learnt to mask evident on his face. The Doctor mentally shied away from that image.

He felt Reinette dig around in his memories, like a blunt instrument. It hurt, but he drummed his fingers lightly against her temples, focusing on the task at hand. A knife twisted in his skull as the Time War flashed before his eyes. Time Lord bodies crumpled on the floors of the Citadels. Dalek spaceships.

Stars being born. Stars collapsing to dust and nothingness. Planets, thousands of them, flashing before his eyes like a slideshow. Skaro, Gallifrey, Xaros 5, Earth. The beings on those planets who had died for him, in his name. The ones he'd left behind. The Doctor found himself choking on the memories.

Reinette had fallen silent. Even her thoughts came slower, shifting fractionally under his mental filing. "What is your mind Doctor? All these images...they are too much for one soul to bear. What do I see?"

The Doctor gently removed his fingers from her temples, taking a deep breath. He forced his eyes open, to focus on the woman in front of him. "All of time and space."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Very well done! It reminds me of my own entry in some ways--both deal with sifting through memories. You described what it must be like to look through the Doctor's head very well. I especially like the lines "Koschei in his highest temper - the dark eyes that he had then, flashing with pure rage. The hurt he hadn't yet learnt to mask evident on his face. " A very subtle characterization of the Master in a few sentences. As a side note, I think you forgot to select all the text when you did your spoiler cut. But besides that, Bravo, and welcome to who_contest! I look forward to more from you.

Welcome to the community!

Could you please fix your lj-cut per our rules? Thanks!

Gorgeous!! Utterly beautiful and darned well done!!

First post here, yes? I look forward to many more entries to come! (Yes, this comm is an easy one to get hooked on!)

*HUGS*

Thank you very much for your lovely comments!

I hope I've fixed the LJ cut, thanks for pointing it out to me! I haven't used LJ in 3 or 4 years so I'm getting used to cuts & LJ's little foibles all over again. Please let me know if its still not working right so I can go find "Dummies Guide to Cuts"

I was literally just watching Girl In The Fireplace before I wrote it. Your entry is amazing!!!

This is a pretty great interpretation of this moment, I love the way you expanded on it, portraying Reinette's clumsy exploration of the Doctor's mind, and all the things there… The focus you had on the Master/Koschei and the vibrant, aching feelings of their connection were rather wonderful :) And all the things the Doctor saw and did, all the losses accumulated, of course. It was all very vividly, beautifully portrayed. Great job :)

You only had one typo: "The Doctors' eyes" :)

All Of Time & Space (Vast entry)

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