Ficlet: Making Amends
Title: Making Amends
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: John Hart, Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Gray.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Exit Wounds with an AU twist, and slight spoilers for Doctor Who: The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived.
Summary: John Hart can’t understand why Jack chooses to remain on earth.
Word Count: 566
Written For: My own prompt ‘Torchwood, John Hart, It's Such A Small World,’ at
fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC
It's just one planet, and not a particularly big one at that. John Hart doesn’t get it. Why would Jack, as he calls himself now, choose to strand himself on this backwater when there’s a whole universe out there? What’s so special about this place?
It can’t just be because of Eye Candy. Sure, he’s cute, but he and Jack have both had far more gorgeous conquests in their time. And as much as she might wish otherwise, Jack’s not there for the gap-toothed girl either. Whatever she is to Jack, she’s not his bed-warmer, that role goes exclusively to Eye Candy, and isn’t that a surprise? Five reasonably attractive people on his little team and Jack’s only bedding one of them? That’s just wrong in so many ways that John doesn’t know where to start.
So, it’s not Team Torchwood that’s holding him here, and it can’t be the provincial little ‘city’ of Cardiff, and since when does a place so small get to qualify as a city anyway? So why is Jack so bound and determined to stay here with his merry band when John could give him whole galaxies and riches beyond his wildest imaginings? One day, maybe when he comes back with Gray, John intends to find out.
OoOoOoO
The whole thing with Gray ends up being a fiasco; two of Jack’s team dead, and Jack himself buried alive for centuries. If it weren’t for the stasis ring John had tossed into the grave with him, that experience might have been something even Captain Immortal could never recover from.
As it is, the little gang have been shattered and Jack holds the two he has left close to him, all protective. Against his own nature, and his better judgement, John does what he can to help; not that Jack wants any help from him but for once, John doesn’t care what Jack wants. Except that he does, which is why he’s doing this. It’s complicated.
He gets Jack alone at last, manages to pry him away from the other two briefly.
“I helped cause all this; I didn’t mean to, but I wasn’t given much choice. Doesn’t matter though; what’s done is done. Least I can do is try to make amends.”
“There’s nothing you can do to make any of this better,” Jack tells him.
“Maybe not, but I can try.”
“Can you bring them back? Tosh and Owen? Can you do that?”
“No, but I have this. I was going to use it myself, but… Hell, who wants to live forever? I’ve seen what immortality’s done to you. Doesn’t seem like such a great gig after all.” He offers Jack the chip.
“What is it?”
“Mire technology, programmed for humans. Immortality in a computer chip, only one in existence. Well, only one not in use anyway. Offer it to Eye Candy; my betting is he’ll accept it. It’ll repair him when he gets hurt and go on repairing him, forever. Just tell him to put it on his forehead, let it be absorbed.”
“Why?”
“Because you love him, and being alone sucks.”
“What about you?”
“Thought I’d take a look around this planet you like so much. Who knows, maybe we’ll run into each other again. It’s a small world.”
With that, John salutes jauntily and leaves. Maybe if he looks hard enough, like Jack, he’ll find someone worth staying for.
The End