A Blessing and A Curse

[donutsweeper]

I just realized I never posted my wintercompanion Crossing the Line Challenge Fic here, it was posted there 9/24 so it may be familiar to some of you:

Title: A Blessing and A Curse
Word Count: 290
Rating/Spoilers/warnings: Rated G, vague spoilers for "Utopia"
Summary: Two old friends meet over and over again throughout time.
A/N: Thanks to unfeathered for the beta!

At first Jack didn’t recognize that there was a pattern.  Every so often the Doctor randomly appeared on his doorstep and, after refueling the TARDIS on the rift, he would suggest they go off on an adventure.  Jack, of course, would say yes and the two of them would take off in the TARDIS to parts unknown. 

They’d have a blast, but as soon as the adventure ended the Doctor would say how it’d been fun, but he couldn’t stay, but they should do this again sometime soon.  Soon was, of course, a relative term.  Jack knew that no matter how many decades passed for him the Doctor would only age a few months, or maybe a year at most.

And Jack accepted it; what choice did he have?  He knew that his immortality was a blessing and a curse for his friend.  A blessing because no matter what, no matter when, there would always be a familiar face willing to welcome the Time Lord so that he would never have to be truly alone.  But a curse because that same immortality, that wrong-ness for lack of a better word, had drawn a line in the sand that could never truly be crossed as the Doctor would never be completely comfortable in Jack’s presence.

Jack just hoped that the times when it was a blessing would outweigh the times it was a curse.  He didn’t regret it, and he didn’t want his friend to either.  If he was to be a fact, he wanted it to count for something, even if it was only the ability to momentarily keep the darkness at bay; a moment’s respite for the Doctor’s loneliness.  That was all he asked for, and it was enough.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Either way... we know Martha will be back, so we can hope there's some sort of resolution there. It seems to me she will just be likely to take up with her handsome doctor from TLOTTL and that will be that. Why does that feel so unresolved to me?

Because the Doctor is the more interesting character, dammit.

I'd settle for Ten to grow a little and learn to appreciate the people around him.

I'd like to see him do or say something that shows some understanding of what he's been doing. And maybe why.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there really needs to be some reason for Martha to go back with the Doctor, otherwise it'd make no sense for he to leave behind her career and her doctor (Tom?) without making her seem flighty or foolish.

I'd like to see him do or say something that shows some understanding of what he's been doing. And maybe why.

from your post to RTD's ear!!!! I'd love to see that!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't like it that Martha left the Doctor in the first place - but having done so, will she have a reason to go back?

As for the rest, let's hope.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I see that she left him because she realized she was worth more than what he could give her, deserved more. She had her family, and her job and her soon-to-be-sweetie and didn't need to be someone's sloppy seconds.

As to why she'd go back? I have no idea.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I know why she left... I just don't like it. I liked her with the Doctor. I wanted him to love her, and show it. Yeah, I know, I'm totally out of luck.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Hey, maybe her coming back will get him to see her that way! Stranger things have happened!