who_contest | One-Shot Challenge #8: Deathcoaster

Title: Deathcoaster
Author:

timelord1
Word Count: 728
Rating: All ages
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even the name Deathcoaster.
Summary: The Doctor has two tickets to ride the Deathcoaster. Rose needs some convincing to join him.
Author's notes: Idea prompted by the fabulous

a_phoenixdragon .

The towering, twisted metal structure didn't look sound enough to hold up the birds that were resting on the rails, let alone a metal sled rocketing over its surface at fifty miles an hour. Rose stared at the coaster's highest point; the apex of a loop that spun like a bobby pin mangled beyond recognition to hold a complex hairstyle in place.

"That can't be..." she began.

The Doctor grinned as he tilted his head back to take in the wood-and-steel behemoth. "Deathcoaster," he said, and pulled two tickets out of the inner pocket of his leather jacket. "We've got next."

Rose gaped at him. When she found her voice again, she used it the way women in her family had done for generations. Sharply. “You are out of your bloomin’ mind. I’m not gettin’ on that thing for nothing! What makes you think I want to get on some mad alien roller coaster that looks like it’s bein’ held up with toothpicks and dumb luck? No sir, I’ll take another ride on that nice little carousel with the five-legged ponies, thank you very much.” She started to walk away but the Doctor caught her by the elbow.

“Rose Tyler,” he said, “since when are you afraid of tryin’ something new and dangerous?”

She cocked her head to one side. “So you admit it’s dangerous.”

He shrugged, chuckling. “Course I do! Why d’you think they call it ‘Deathcoaster,’ anyway? I mean, they could have called it ‘Super Jolly Fun Ride’ as easily, couldn’t they? People have died on that thing.”

“And you want me to go on it,” she said.

He grinned. “Absolutely. I’m goin’.”

Rose’s eyes went wide. “No you’re not! What if you get killed and I’m stuck on this…place whose name I can’t remember right at the moment?”

“Klum Seven,” the Doctor said.

She waved her arm at him. “Klum Seven! What am I supposed to do? Get a job as an intergalactic carnie? Spend the rest of my stupid life wearing a plastic hat and handing out candyfloss to little alien kids like an idiot?”

The Doctor turned an apologetic smile in the direction of the woman in the plastic hat standing nearby, working the candyfloss booth.

The woman shrugged. “She’s not wrong,” she said.

Rose poked the Doctor in the chest. “I’m not goin’, and neither are you.”

“You’re not seeing the bigger picture,” the Doctor said.

“There is no bigger picture,” Rose said. “Get on the Deathcoaster, risk death. Stay off Deathcoaster, go on living. Easy choice.”

He smirked. “It’s not the choice you made when you said you’d come travelin’ with me.”

“What?”

“You could’ve stayed in London after we first met; gone back to work, chips, telly. But that’s not you. Nah, you want so much more out of life, and you’re willing to go get it instead of sittin’ around in a chip shop, wishing it would find you. My Rose, who laughs at danger and grins at the promise of trouble? She’s not afraid of some silly Deathcoaster. And that’s why I l…why I need…why…” the Doctor’s inspiring speech trailed off in a sigh. Before Rose could say anything, he waved the tickets at her. “That’s why you and I are goin’ on the Deathcoaster together.”

She smiled up at him, took a deep breath, and followed him to certain doom.

Of course the safety bar was cranked down one click too many for her to be comfortable, though at the same time she was fairly sure the thing would pop open at the first hard jostling and she’d go flying off into the candyfloss booth. The initial climb took nearly two minutes to reach the top; the only sounds in the world were the nervous murmurs of her fellow passengers and the clickety-clank ratcheting of the car being pulled to the top. By the time they got up there, Rose was dizzy and slightly sick at the gentle rocking of the structure in the cold and whistling wind. They seemed to hang at the precipice forever, about to descend on a drop so steep Rose couldn’t see the tracks beneath them. It looked like it was miles down, a straight drop.

And then the Doctor’s hand closed over hers, just as the car went over the edge and the screaming began, and Rose felt completely at home.