The Maid's Tale (Valiant Tales)

[lindenharp]

Title: The Maid's Tale
Series: Valiant Tales.  Read them in order here.
Rating: PG
Characters: The Master (Simm), Jack Harkness, Francine Jones, Martha Jones, Clive Jones, Tish Jones, other characters
Genre: drabble
Spoilers: Minor spoilers for The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords.
Summary: A series of drabbles about the people who lived, worked, and suffered on the Valiant during the Year That Never Was.  100 words according to MS Word.
Disclaimer: The sandbox belongs to RTD and the BBC. I'm just playing here, in the corner, making little sand-TARDISs.
A/N: This one has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while.

 

Jack offers me pills. “You can forget everything.”

So much to forget.  Nightmares of Martha, dying horribly.  Will God ever accept prayers from my Judas lips?  Clive: helpless, frustrated.  Tish, cringing as the guards whisper, “He’ll give you to us, bitch…”

Other memories shine in the darkness.  Love rediscovered.  Tish’s grin, seeing us hug.  Friends risking death for small kindnesses.  Giovanni and Etienne cooked a Valentine’s dinner with food Sam Yellowtail “liberated” from Special Supplies.  Savanna did my hair; and silent, ghostly Meghan drifted into Hydroponics, returning with a crumpled fistful of violets.

No pills: remembering will be our victory.

Comments

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

Oh WOW

You've caught her so well, just wow

I am just amazed at your capacity to put so much into so few words!

[garpu.livejournal.com]

I like how you've characterized Francine. There was something noble about the character that didn't come out until the very end of the season.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Once again, very nice - especially the positive moments: love rediscovered. And, yes, remembering is their victory.

Tiny Britpick: I'd say 'cut my hair', or 'did my hair', depending on what you wanted it to mean; 'fixed' only means 'mended' in Brit-English.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Thank you. We don't know a lot about Francine Jones, because she hasn't had much screen time. She's a strong-willed woman who doesn't suffer fools gladly, and a fiercely protective mother.

It's my personal canon that Francine spent much of the Year feeling guilty that she cooperated with Saxon and thereby betrayed Martha.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Her fierce devotion to her family was evident from the beginning. We didn't get to see the courage and quick-wittedness until LOTTL.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The skeleton of this one has been sitting on my flash drive -- as a drabble in the third person -- since before the Valiant Tales series began.

Thanks also for the Britpick. I've fixed "fixed". (It is a bit galling that I can't manage 100 &%#^% words without falling into transatlantic error. Perhaps I should find a Britpicker for the drabbles, preferably one who will be awake and online when it's 2 or 3 AM Eastern Time.)

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

That may explain why she tried to shoot Saxon.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

It's probably one of the reasons -- there are millions more.