rose_griffes: (Default)
rose_griffes ([personal profile] rose_griffes) wrote2010-09-20 07:46 pm
Entry tags:

Doctor Who fic: Rocketman (PG, Mickey Smith)

title: Rocket Man (Five times Mickey Smith thinks about kissing)
characters: Mickey Smith, Jake Simmons, alt!Pete Tyler, Rose Tyler, alt!Rita-Anne Smith, Donna Noble, Martha Jones
pairings: mentions of past Ricky/Jake, definite Martha/Mickey
rating: er, PG? No real warnings other than what the title tells you already.
spoilers: through "End of Time, part 2"
beta-reader: thanks to [personal profile] jashyr, a trusty BSG and DW expert
note: section titles taken from Elton John's song "Rocket Man"


and I think it's going to be a long, long time (Jake)
"Vive la France!" yells Jake, and the bartender pours them all another round. Paris: first stop in the Preachers-versus-Cybermen world battle.

Sounded a bit pompous, Mickey thinks as he takes another swallow. But tonight they're all allowed to be as pompous or arrogant as they wished. France is free of Cybermen and that's in large part due to their work.

Two hours later and Mickey is half-dragging Jake back to their base of operations here in the capital. Jake's not a maudlin drunk; most of the evening he was as cheery as anyone else celebrating in the bistro. Now he's gone silent, though. After they arrive, Mickey clears a couch for Jake to sleep on, then helps him over to it. "Here you are, mate," he says.

"Ricky," says Jake from the couch.

"I'm not--"

Jake's eyes focus on his face and he says, "Wish Ricky'd seen this."

Mickey nodded once. "Me too," he tells him.

Jake's asleep almost instantly. Mickey watches him for a moment, remembering his Gran and how she used to kiss him on the forehead when she thought he was asleep. He wonders if Jake's grandmother did the same. He doesn't even know if Jake has a living grandparent.

Ricky would have known. It's one more moment in which Mickey is very aware that stepping into another person's life doesn't work.

'til touchdown brings me 'round again to find... (Rita-Anne Smith)
Rita-Anne Smith on this world has every bit as much stubbornness as her counterpart did from his own, thinks Mickey.

Before leaving for Paris he and Jake told her what happened to Ricky. Mickey made sure that the neighbors--those still living--would keep an eye on her. He even persuaded Pete Tyler to check in on her now and then.

Now he's back in London--this London--and staying in Pete Tyler's too-empty mansion with a dog named Rose. (Mickey just calls it Dog.) They're both negotiating their first days working with this world's Torchwood, Mickey as a full-time employee and Pete as a sort of consultant. He still has his multi-million pound company to run, after all.

With Pete's permission Mickey invites Rita-Anne to stay with them at the mansion... and she refuses. It takes a couple of falls and a looming stay at an assisted care center to change her mind.

Her first night there, he and Pete are both trying far too hard to act casual. Talking about work is limiting and the atmosphere is uncomfortably strained.

Dog doesn't help; she attacks Rita-Anne's shoelaces as they sit around the dining room table.

That was enough. Rita-Anne launched into a magnificent speech about how Pete needed to teach his dog some manners, how Mickey should learn to act interested in other people besides himself and his job, and how the cook had oversalted the meat.

It's the most welcoming sound Mickey has heard since he arrived here. Pete grins at him from across the table, meekly agrees with Rita-Anne's assessment and promises to talk to his household staff the next day.

"I'll do it myself, since I'm going to be living here as well," announces Rita-Anne. Neither Pete nor Mickey dares to disagree.

Mickey wants to kiss her cheek right then, like he'd done with his own Gran when he was feeling pleased or happy; she isn't his Gran, and he's not her grandson.

He sits quietly at the table, half-smiling over his sadness.

I'm not the man they think I am at home (Rose)
Rose came here, and Jackie. It's great and awful at once. He's pleased to see Pete so content--it's a side of Peter Tyler that Mickey hadn't known during his three years in this world. Jackie is still Jackie, but he's glad to see her as well. It makes him more homesick but he's chosen this life twice now.

Rose didn't choose this world, though. She's stuck here by accident. She acts like she's adjusting, but then it falls apart after her trip to Norway. Jackie's distraught for her daughter and the pregnancy hormones make her reactions much more volatile.

Mickey keeps a low profile; he's one more reminder of what Rose has lost, because he'd traveled with them too. With the Doctor. Rita-Anne is sympathetic, a surprise considering that Mickey's Gran had never liked Rose very much.

Because she's Rose and she doesn't give up, she pulls herself out of the despair. Gets herself a flat, starts to work all hours on something. At Jackie's behest, Mickey tries to intervene. He goes to her flat to talk; instead he finds himself dumbfounded when she kisses him. His first reaction is to kiss her back. This is Rose, after all. The first woman he really loved, the one who made him try harder, do better, be more.

Instead he pulls away. "What's this about, then, Rose?"

"Moving on," she tells him. "Isn't that what you were supposed to tell me?"

"Not like this," he answers. "I don't want to be anyone's second best. So if you can really say that it's me you want..." He shrugs as he leaves the sentence unfinished. "Otherwise I'm not interested."

She looks at him--really sees him, he thinks, for the first time in a long while. Finally she says, "Come here and I'll show you what I've been working on."

As Mickey listens, he thinks that Jackie was right to worry. That would be a perpetual state for her with Rose Tyler for a daughter, though. Maybe the whole universe should worry.

Oh, no, no, no (Donna)
He spies her talking on her mobile at the park. That bright red hair glints in the sun. She says something emphatic, then disconnects with a disgusted glare at the phone.

"Donna!" he blurts out, realizing immediately afterward that he should have said nothing.

"Do I know you?" she asks. A line creases between her brows.

"Oh, er... we met at a party one time. Guess you made a bigger impression on me than I did on you." Mickey shrugs and does his best fake-bashful grin.

She seems somewhat mollified by his attempt at self-deprecating humor.

"Mickey Smith," he says next, and puts his right hand out.

She shakes it and asks, "So whose party was it?"

"Not really sure. Me and my mates, we were crashing." He gives her a flirtatious smile and that definitely warms her attitude. "Don't tell on us."

"Cheeky," she tells him. "Well, if I don't know whose party it was, I can't tell, can I?"

They chat for a few seconds more, then he excuses himself. After walking a moment, he turns and watches her walk away; she's grabbing her phone again. He wishes he could tell her, "Donna Noble, you helped save the world and I could kiss you."

Instead he looks until he loses track of her red hair in the crowd.

I'm a rocket man (Martha)
Martha was just a pal--until she wasn't. Sometime after she confided that she'd broken off her engagement to Tom, it happened. Hearing her voice on the phone made him feel like smiling. Her nerdy grin was--well, it was still nerdy, but in an adorable way.

He was still debating over whether to say anything. If Tom wasn't for her, than what chance did he, Mickey, have?

No time right now to arrive at a conclusion, though he does notice how well Martha runs in her high-heeled combat boots.

Without needing to discuss it, they both turn the next corner and lean against the wall, out of view. They stand listening, waiting to hear the alien go past so they could have the advantage again.

Suddenly Martha's walkie cracked. "--Seventeen, the Poozer has been captured. Repeat, the Poozer has been captured."

Martha leaned forward slightly, put her hands on her thighs and took several deep breaths. Then she laughed. "I kind of love this part," she said. "The running."

Mickey smiled. Serious business, this, but yeah--it was fun sometimes.

She smiled back, her big eyes wide with the excitement of the chase. Mickey though about his internal debate. She looked so beautiful, as always. This is the moment on the telly when the hero on the show would lean in for a kiss: just after danger had passed, the lead couple alone together in a secluded spot.

He's not a hero on the telly, so he doesn't do anything. "Need to radio in?" he asks her. The spell of the moment was broken.

"No, they know my location."

"We should probably get back, then," Mickey says.

"Right," she says. "Let me just check one thing first." Then she leans in, puts her hands behind his neck, pulls him toward her and kisses him. He's surprised, but Mickey has always had quick reflexes. He kisses her back, and it's wonderful--her lips warm, her arms wrapped around him.

She finally breaks the kiss and they stand close, just breathing deeply and grinning at each other. "You were taking too long," she finally says.

"Sorry 'bout that," he replies, and gives her his not-so-bashful smile. Martha rolls her eyes, laughs and nudges his chest with her shoulder.

Stepping back into his own life has never seemed like a better idea.
ext_61669: (DW: Martha Jones)

[identity profile] emmiere.livejournal.com 2010-09-21 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
I love it! Mickey's one of those characters I appreciate a lot more in retrospect, and I love how it moves from not quite fitting into someone else's life to reclaiming his own.
Edited 2010-09-21 02:33 (UTC)

[identity profile] rose-griffes.livejournal.com 2010-09-21 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Aw, thanks! And Mickey is one character whose story arc plays into why I learned to like him later, rather than instantly, so there's that.

[identity profile] joyful.livejournal.com 2010-09-21 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
Love it. :D

[identity profile] rose-griffes.livejournal.com 2010-09-21 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you!

[identity profile] chelseagirl.livejournal.com 2010-09-21 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
Really nice!

[identity profile] rose-griffes.livejournal.com 2010-09-21 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay, I'm glad you liked it!
ext_3965: (Duo of Awesome Martha & Mickey)

[identity profile] persiflage-1.livejournal.com 2010-09-21 10:48 am (UTC)(link)
The last section's my fave (well duh!). For all I hate the way RTD just shoved Mickey and Martha together so carelessly and thoughtlessly, there's no denying they'd make an awesome duo (and they're damned hawt too!)

[identity profile] rose-griffes.livejournal.com 2010-09-21 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks!

I didn't see "The End of Time" until months after it aired in the UK (and in the US, actually), so I was spoiled rotten for lots of things, including the Martha/Mickey aspect. So that helped. But frankly, since they're two of my favorite characters on new Who, I love it. And yes, they're gorgeous together.
ext_3965: (Doctor of Pwnage)

[identity profile] persiflage-1.livejournal.com 2010-09-22 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, don't get me wrong, Mickey is one of my fave pre-S3 characters (along with Jack when he's on DW not TW). And I'm a major Martha fan - I think they'd be fantastic together. What I object to is the way in which RTD through them together just because he wanted all the companions paired off for Ten's swansong. So Martha's suddenly gone from being very happily engaged to Dr Tom Milligan and working for UNIT in the Sontaran two-parter and 'The Doctor's Daughter' to apparently working freelance and very happily married to Mickey. I find that (and the fact that he's thrown the two characters of colour together with no explanation whatsoever) to be problematic. As I said, it's thoughtless and careless. And since Noel's sworn never to appear in the show again, and I suspect it's highly unlikely we'll ever see Martha in Moffat-era Who, we're left with no explanation - which I find lazy, infuriating, and (frankly) typical of RTD's slapdash style.

Fic Pimpage! - Rocket Man

[identity profile] pingback-bot.livejournal.com 2010-09-22 07:50 am (UTC)(link)
User [livejournal.com profile] jashyr referenced to your post from Fic Pimpage! - Rocket Man (http://jashyr.livejournal.com/42812.html) saying: [...]   has given me a reason to use my Doctor Who icon with a Mickey Smith story:  Rocket Man [...]
ext_18106: (Martha Jones considers the possibility)

[identity profile] lyssie.livejournal.com 2010-09-26 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
<3 Mickey is so awesome, and so is this. I love Rita-Anne SO MUCH and Pete, in an odd way. But mostly Mickey, and the end bit and the beginning bit with the grief and all of the things in-between. =D

[identity profile] rose-griffes.livejournal.com 2010-09-27 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks! It was fun to write Mickey, a character I find more and more intriguing.

[identity profile] stars-inthe-sky.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
The first four were so full of feeling, and then the last one just made me smile. Yay, I love that pair.

[identity profile] rose-griffes.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I love both Mickey and Martha, and the idea that they ended up together makes me really happy.