Hero
Title: Hero
Rating: PG
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Alice Carter, Jack Harkness
Spoilers: Children of Earth up to end of “Day Five”
Summary: Alice reflects on her relationship with her father before her world comes crashing down.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything, but I wish I did. BBC and RTD own it all. I do own some of the books.
Note: I know we don’t know much about Alice’s life other than she had her name changed and she was put into cover. This short story assumes that Jack was there for her for part of her childhood, but left when her mother didn’t want him around anymore.
Hero.
If Alice Carter had been asked as a young child what her father was to her, she would have told that person that he was her hero. Jack Harkness would rescue her from a bad day at school, a scrape, and the boredom of life.
Bad days at school happened for Alice during her grade school years. When those days happened her dad was there to comfort her and cheer her up. On the days when work did not take him out late, he would pick her up from school and take her out for ice cream and the park. They would play for a while. Then, he would have her sit down with him and they would talk about what upset her at school.
She would tell him everything down to the smallest detail. He would nod and listen carefully, only interrupting if it was very important. He treated her as an adult and she loved him for that. He did not tell her that it would get better with time and she was just a child. She knew now that sometimes he hid stuff from her like his real age and immortality for her own good.
Those days at the park when they played and she fell over. Her father was always there to pick her up. If she had a scrape or hurt, he would kiss it and make it feel better. He would distract her from her sadness and tears. He would get out the ointment and put on a plaster even if she didn’t need it. As a child she loved to put them on and say that she hurt herself. Her mum and dad would roll their eyes and play along with it.
Bedtime was one of her favorite parts of the day. Her father would help her get ready and occasionally help her with her bath. He would tuck her in bed and kiss her on her forehead. Every night she would plead with him for a story. He would always cave in to her requests. Most of the time the stories he told were ones he made up himself. A lot of the time they involved tales in faraway times and places.
One memorable group of stories he told was about this man who traveled through Time and Space in a blue police box that was bigger on the inside. He always wore an old leather jacket, jumper, and jeans. He was an alien, the last of his kind. He traveled with a yellow-haired girl. They had adventures and did a lot of running. He saved many people, lands, and planets alike.
A couple adventures featured a man who came from the future. He was handsome and rescued the yellow-haired girl the first day they met. The adventures made him sound like a war hero. From the descriptions of this man, Alice thought it sounded like her father. One day she asked him. He laughed, gave her a hug, and said something like how time and space travel was not possible. Alice forgot about it after that, but still a small part of her believed he was that man.
Now, watching her father doing all he could to save the world once again, she thought of how once again he was being her hero like he was during her childhood. For many years after he left her and her mom, she had lost her hero worship for him. He was her hero again. He was going to be everyone’s hero.
Observing him in action and knowing what she did now, she knows for a fact that that man, from the future, in her father’s stories is him. He is the hero of her childhood, her stories, and in her present life.