[It's not usually in her nature to actually just sit there and listen, but in this case? After what she's put him through- What they've been through together? Donna knows she owes it to him. So, she's quiet, even when he breaks in places, and her heart aches. For him, for the woman, even for Lennie. The problem is that it's so messy. Even if it was a mistake--an accident--Lennie had murdered someone. In the modern day, she'd have advocated for putting him into an institution. From what it sounded like, he wouldn't have belonged in prison, but that woman deserved justice... and other people needed to be kept safe.]
George, I... It's okay. You don't need to say anything else. I'm just... [She lets out a breath.] God, that's complicated and unfair and- I wish you were from my time. We have- some of the problems, the problems he had, Lennie, there are places that can help handle that. Compassionately, not just throwing him to some medical wolves.
[He's not from her time. If traveling with the Doctor has taught her anything, it's that her current morals and the opportunities and choices she has don't apply to most. Certainly not those in the past.]
I don't know what I would have even done. There weren't any good options.
[The police would put Lennie in prison or kill him. They do that in America still. The lynch mob would kill him horribly. Lennie escaping would have been a travesty of justice for the woman. George taking Lennie and running with him, then containing him would have been unfeasible, not to mention as much a punishment for George. A mental health clinic, from the sound of it, would have been a nightmare.]
I hate you had to make that choice. It's not fair. None of it's fair. And you-you resenting how hard he made your life is... understandable. It really, really is. Even when you love someone, it's still- you just get tired.
[He hadn't known how hard acceptance could hit until he's hearing it through the phone to his ear, his hand still over the mic to hide the sounds he's trying desperately not to make, choked little noises that click his throat and ache like strep. His cheeks are wet.
Complicated and unfair. Life, all of it, from the top down, no one making it out without scars and holes. Some just get the real shit end of the stick, like Lennie. He'd never understood that. Never will to the day he dies.
No good options. One of the more ragged sounds breaks through the muffle. He curls in tighter on himself and drops his hand away from the phone to bring the gin bottle up to his chest for a crush of cold, curved glass. Pain to counter what's happening to his throat and that trapped feeling rearing its head from recent memory, how his mind had raced circles like a wildcat in a tight cage with only one inevitable end facing him down no matter where he turned.
Understandable.]
Naw. Naw, please don't... Don't say that. God.
[His voice is so twisted and thick he isn't sure how much of that she could understand, if any. He tips his head back against the wall, mouth open to gulp shallow breaths.]
I don't know how to...
[He can't let himself have that with Lennie in the ground and so much of it his fault. That realization is enough to give him hold of himself and swallow past the knot. His voice is steadier now.]
You're a good person. I 'preciate you hearin' me out. But I gotta go. I'm sorry.
[He taps the button to end the call. Lifts the bottle in the dark. Burning comfort is the only kind he knows what to do with.]
[Donna holds the phone up to her ear for a few seconds past the point he hangs up. It's far too long later that her hand slowly drops away and the phone slips from her fingers to land on the floor. Bath. She's taking a bath. She doesn't care wherever that medieval girl is or if she needs the toilet. For now, Donna's claiming the bathroom as her own. She can almost convince herself she's not crying when she splashes the water across her face.]
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rosecarmine
(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-23 01:42 pm (UTC)George, I... It's okay. You don't need to say anything else. I'm just... [She lets out a breath.] God, that's complicated and unfair and- I wish you were from my time. We have- some of the problems, the problems he had, Lennie, there are places that can help handle that. Compassionately, not just throwing him to some medical wolves.
[He's not from her time. If traveling with the Doctor has taught her anything, it's that her current morals and the opportunities and choices she has don't apply to most. Certainly not those in the past.]
I don't know what I would have even done. There weren't any good options.
[The police would put Lennie in prison or kill him. They do that in America still. The lynch mob would kill him horribly. Lennie escaping would have been a travesty of justice for the woman. George taking Lennie and running with him, then containing him would have been unfeasible, not to mention as much a punishment for George. A mental health clinic, from the sound of it, would have been a nightmare.]
I hate you had to make that choice. It's not fair. None of it's fair. And you-you resenting how hard he made your life is... understandable. It really, really is. Even when you love someone, it's still- you just get tired.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-23 10:58 pm (UTC)Complicated and unfair. Life, all of it, from the top down, no one making it out without scars and holes. Some just get the real shit end of the stick, like Lennie. He'd never understood that. Never will to the day he dies.
No good options. One of the more ragged sounds breaks through the muffle. He curls in tighter on himself and drops his hand away from the phone to bring the gin bottle up to his chest for a crush of cold, curved glass. Pain to counter what's happening to his throat and that trapped feeling rearing its head from recent memory, how his mind had raced circles like a wildcat in a tight cage with only one inevitable end facing him down no matter where he turned.
Understandable.]
Naw. Naw, please don't... Don't say that. God.
[His voice is so twisted and thick he isn't sure how much of that she could understand, if any. He tips his head back against the wall, mouth open to gulp shallow breaths.]
I don't know how to...
[He can't let himself have that with Lennie in the ground and so much of it his fault. That realization is enough to give him hold of himself and swallow past the knot. His voice is steadier now.]
You're a good person. I 'preciate you hearin' me out. But I gotta go. I'm sorry.
[He taps the button to end the call. Lifts the bottle in the dark. Burning comfort is the only kind he knows what to do with.]
(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-24 02:35 am (UTC)[Donna holds the phone up to her ear for a few seconds past the point he hangs up. It's far too long later that her hand slowly drops away and the phone slips from her fingers to land on the floor. Bath. She's taking a bath. She doesn't care wherever that medieval girl is or if she needs the toilet. For now, Donna's claiming the bathroom as her own. She can almost convince herself she's not crying when she splashes the water across her face.]