Fic Post!

[happydalek]

Title:  The Woman at the Well
Rating: PG
Word count: 1380
Characters: Peri, Sixth Doctor
Summary: Peri gets some interesting advice. 
A/N:  In honor of Passover (and the Orthodox celebration of Easter next weekend), I bring you this unlikely little fic.  Warning: very crack. 

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"I came here to watch a guy get killed.  What's wrong with me?" she wailed miserably, sinking to the ground in the deserted intersection. She leaned back against the cool wall of the city well, wondering why she was trying not to cry.

"Why did you come?"

Peri shook her head, her eyes stubbornly wet. After everything that had happened, didn't it just figure that she wouldn't even be able to find a quiet corner to cry in? The burden of truth was so heavy on her that she didn't even care that someone had found her. "I keep thinking, 'I have to know; I have to see it.' I don't even know what I was expecting to find here, anymore. I knew what it was, going into it, but...the only thing I can think is that there is such a thing as knowing too much."

The man was silent. Then he sat down on the well next to her. "What did you see?"

Peri hugged her knees and squeezed her eyes shut. "The crucifixions that happened a few days ago. I came here to watch them. How sick is that?" The man said nothing, so she went on. "Okay, I guess it's not that simple. There was this one particular guy that was executed with them the other day. He was...important. He's the one I came to see. I'd heard...well, I wanted to know if there was any truth behind what I'd heard about him."

"And did you find any?"

Peri smiled humorlessly. "About him? I don't know. About people in general, on the other hand..." she shook her head. "How can people care so much about an idea that they'd go to such horrific lengths to stop it? It was like the bottom just dropped out of everything I'd ever believed about the human race. He wasn't hurting anybody; he wasn't enslaving people, or throwing them to lions. The hatred was so strong, though! And not even that; it was the sheer indifference of the people in charge that really got me. They just let it all happen. It wasn't even civilized. He had to know what he was walking into. I mean, talk about pearls before swine!"

She was working herself into a good, angry rant. "And these people won't even get it! Hundreds and thousands of years from now it'll get used to justify the most inexcusable actions. It'll become just one more way for governments and kings to keep people oppressed; get spun into a nonsensical, ritualistic web for ignorant people to hide behind! Pointless." It slowly dawned on Peri that most of what she'd just said probably made no sense to the man, but hey, it was his fault for asking, wasn't it? He'd intruded on her private pout, after all.

"Love isn't pointless. It's everything," the man said.

"Love!" Peri jeered. "It's all about control. The point gets lost so quickly, that's the horrible part."

"If the path to truth were wide and smooth, everyone would follow it."

"Then a truly loving God would have done it that way," she was quick to retort.

"Commanded love is no love at all. That is why men must have free will."

Peri opened her mouth, closed it, reconsidered her argument, and opened it again. "What was the point in giving people a choice in the first place when they didn't have the necessary understanding to make an informed decision? Paradise, or...who knows?"

The man said nothing, but in his silence Peri realized that he had caused her to answer her own question. Absurdly, she was reminded of a movie quote that summarized the point: "What is light, without darkness?" If people were already so wholesome and good, what need would there have been for any of this? Annoyed that she'd lost her own argument, Peri took backwards solace in the fact that it still didn't change the fact that the vast majority of human civilization was going to make a mess of it for the next two millenia. And it still seemed, from the perspective of God, like a ludicrous handicap to impose on oneself, counting successes on a global scale in terms of single human souls.

Though, she supposed that if there really was a supreme being ruling the universe, its methods should be beyond her finite understanding. Drat. The ultimate trump card.  Peri sighed resignedly. "So I take it you knew him?" she asked her companion wryly.

"I am him."

Peri jerked. She finally looked at her companion. She took in his Mediterranean color, Roman haircut and short beard, searching for--and simultaneously afraid to find--any similarity to that corpse of a man she'd seen driven through the streets. "What?" she spluttered.

He extended a hand, offering to help her up, and the sight of it caused Peri's throat to close in shock. There was a massive, fresh-looking scar on the back of his hand. It was circular, and as he held it out to her, she could see it went all the way through. "You looked at me, and then you ran," he said softly.

Stunned, Peri forced herself to look at his face again, and found herself recognizing--without the blood; without the pain--that same expression of compassion she'd witnessed on the street that had made her so hideously aware that she couldn't bear it another second. It was so intense she again felt an urge to flee from it. But how could she pass up a chance like this?  Instead, Peri reached up and took his hand. His palm was calloused, and warm, and she could feel the rough edges of the scar against her own palm, and it made her stomach flip. His grip was firm--as she imagined a carpenter's would be--as he helped her to her feet.

She stood beside him, utterly lost for words. "I...I'm sorry. Those things I said...I--I just can't believe--!"

He clasped her hand tightly for a moment, stopping her mad babbling. "It's all right. Just remember, those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. Though when they find, they will be disturbed. But when they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all."

If Peri had any further doubts, they were gone, now.

"Peri! There you are!"

The Doctor's usually commanding tone sounded so dim and far away that Peri barely noticed it. She couldn't take her eyes away from the man in front of her, desperate to burn every last detail into her memory forever. He glanced behind her briefly, smiled and released her hand, obviously intending to leave. "Peace to you, sister."

"PERI!" Clanging cymbal, indeed.

Peri tried to say something--anything--to keep this incredible moment from ending, but her mind was still reeling. There was so much she wanted to know...!

"Perpugilliam Brown!" the Doctor's voice intruded.

"What?" she turned, and saw the Doctor hurrying towards her, waving broadly to get her attention. His crazy curls and gaudy lapels and tails made for a distressingly comical interruption.  "What part of 'hurry to the TARDIS before the Centurions catch you' didn't you understand?" he panted, catching her up.

"I was going, but..." she turned to indicate the man she'd been speaking to, but her mouth fell open when she found herself facing an empty street. He was gone.

"What? Stopped for a drink?" the Doctor asked, glancing at the well.

"No! There was a..." Peri stopped. She couldn't say it. Didn't even know where to begin. She began to hear the distant sounds of shouting voices and horse's hooves. Yes, it was clearly time to go.

"Are you all right?"

Peri looked at the Doctor, and wondered how many moments like this he had experienced. How many strange and wonderful and unbelievable truths must be hidden away behind those mercurial eyes? More than ever, she understood why he kept going, and why, in spite of everything else, she had stayed with him 'til now.

"What happened, Peri?"

"There they are!" a Roman soldier cried out from the street behind her.

Peri grabbed the Doctor's hand. ...And the truth shall make you free. "I'll explain later!" she said, and they raced away towards the TARDIS.

~~~ Fin ~~~