donutsweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
donutsweeper) wrote2007-08-20 11:43 pm
donutsweeper) wrote2007-08-20 11:43 pm
Painful History and Past Mistakes (2/2)
Title/Series Info: Painful History and Past Mistakes (sequel to Poison and Painful History)
Pairing/Rating/Warning: PG, spoilers for DW S1 and DW S3
Word Count: 1176
Summary: The Doctor and Martha must track down Adam Mitchell after he poisons Jack
Author's Notes: After posting Poison and Painful History for the "Jack hurt-fic" prompt at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
wintercompanion I was accused of writing only half the story. Here is the other half.
Part one (Torchwood's Perspective) :
Poison and Painful History
Part two (The Doctor's Perspective):
Pairing/Rating/Warning: PG, spoilers for DW S1 and DW S3
Word Count: 1176
Summary: The Doctor and Martha must track down Adam Mitchell after he poisons Jack
Author's Notes: After posting Poison and Painful History for the "Jack hurt-fic" prompt at
wintercompanion I was accused of writing only half the story. Here is the other half. Part one (Torchwood's Perspective) :
Poison and Painful History
Part two (The Doctor's Perspective):
He had to find Adam.
Adam Mitchell, he hadn’t even thought of that man in years. Didn’t really think of him much when he’d known him either. The man was one the strays that Rose picked up, like Jack and Mickey the Idiot. But Adam hadn’t played by the rules and, with Rose’s blessing, they’d left him behind. They never thought of the damage he could cause.
The damage he did cause.
Damage he’d never have learned about if Martha hadn’t given him the mobile phone. He hadn’t actually expected her to call. But she did. And the sound of the panic in her voice had ripped into his soul.
“Doctor, you have to come. I just got a call, Jack’s been poisoned and he thinks who ever did it will be after me next...”
He’d tried to make a joke, speak of the ironies of Jack being afraid of a little poison but her terror was leaching though the phone. And then she mentioned Phloriantian poison, if anything could kill Jack, really kill Jack for good, that certainly could. Icy tendrils of fear gripped him, and didn’t let go.
Time and space being what they were it was mere minutes before he’d collected Martha, and confronted Torchwood. Torchwood. Jack’s team. He could see how they had to fight all their better nature and instincts to let him try to help their fallen Captain. Their Captain. Not his. Not anymore.
But they did let him help. And then they’d helped him. Toshiko Sato, that brave scientist he’d met in London back when, she’d shown him a picture of Jack’s assailant. And that’s when his hearts nearly broke.
Adam.
It was a photo of Adam. And it didn’t make sense. He’d left Adam in 2012. This was 2008. And Adam was so much older in the picture. It wasn’t possible. It shouldn’t have been possible. But there he was. And he could hear Margaret’s voice echoing in his mind. “I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Never mind the consequences, off you go.” Margaret. Or to be fair, Blon Fel Fotch Pasameer Day Slitheen, she’d asked how it had felt to finally have consequences. He hadn’t felt guilty then. She’d been pleading for mercy from a dead woman’s lips afer all. But now... this was different.
This was his fault.
It had never even occurred to him that Statten could have had more alien technology hidden about. Or that Adam would have sought to use it. To use it to kill. To kill someone to just punish him. It wasn’t suppose to be like this.
And then there was the look from Martha and the others when he’d tried to explain. The shock, the revulsion on her face when she’d heard what he’d done. How he’d just left Adam behind without a second thought.
He had to find Adam.
He had to know how Adam found Jack. Would he go after Martha next? Sarah Jane? Were other of his former companions in danger as well?
Rose would have laughed over the way he chose to find Adam. He scanned for alien tech. Exactly what she’d always begged him to do. Exactly what endeared Jack to her.
It turned out Adam wasn’t that hard to find. Once he’d narrowed down the scan to exclude Torchwood, and to ignore all the tiny bits of time debris that had drifted through the rift Adam stood out like a beacon.
A terrifyingly dangerous and broken beacon.
Adam was crouched in an alley, rocking back and forth. The Doctor had cautioned Martha to stay back and he slowly approached. There were piles of machinery surrounding him. He was filthy and incoherent, muttering to himself while snapping his fingers over and over causing the computer interface port in his forehead to open and close and open and close.
“Adam?” The wreck of a man looked up, startled.
“These are my toys! Mine!” He shouted, pulling a vial out of his pocket with one hand while still snapping with the other. Open. Close. Open. Close...
The Doctor quickly threw his hand up in mock surrender. “Oh, don’t worry, I won’t touch your toys.” He noticed a picture on the ground. He saw Jack, Rose, Mickey and himself outside the TARDIS, laughing. “Is that your picture?” He asked, already knowing the answer.
“Gotta make the Doctor pay.” Open. Close. Open. Close... “I finally found a way to make him pay.” Open. Close. Open. Close... “Got my revenge...” Open. Close. Open. Close...
“Adam?” He asked again. “It’s me. The Doctor. I’m here.”
Open. Close. Open. Close... Adam peered at him, obviously confused. Open. Close. Open. Close... “No. That Doctor.” He stopped snapping for a moment and pointed to the picture.
“That’s me, Adam. That’s how I looked before I regenerated.”
The snapping started up again, even faster than before. Open. Close. Open. Close. Open. Close. Open. Close... “He left me. I can’t find the others. Rose, or that one...” Open. Close. Open. Close... “But I found this one. Smug arrogant Captain. The Doctor must’ve left him too.”
“Adam, I’m so sorry. Don’t you understand? I’m the man who left you. It was wrong of me.”
Open. Close. Open. Close...“You’re the Doctor.” Adam’s voice was emotionless now.
“Yes.”
“Was he your friend?” Open. Close. Open. Close...
“Yes. Now please let me help you.” Open. Close...
“Is he dead?”
“Yes,” which was not technically a lie, “now let me...”
Adam grinned ferally. “Good.” He snapped open the port and sprayed the vial directly into the hole. The glittery mist poured out before the Doctor could react and within seconds the brain matter it contacted with burst into flame.
Adam had been completely turned to ash by the time Martha ran up.
She saw the pain and anguish on his face. “Oh Doctor,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
“Maybe it was for the best,” he replied softly. “I was far too late to save him. I should have... I could have... I didn’t think... I hadn’t known.”
She put a hand on his shoulder. “At least you were in time to save Jack, yeah? Let’s go see how he’s doing.” Pausing long enough to collect all the alien paraphernalia Adam had left scattered about, they quietly returned to the Hub.
Somehow the Torchwood team accepted his explanation of what happened, but he had no idea what he’d say to Jack. If Jack hadn’t recognized the poison immediately. If he hadn’t had a stasis chamber. If he hadn’t called Martha. If he wasn’t immortal... Jack would have died forever. And it would have been his fault. How do you apologize for that?
In the end, he didn’t have to. Jack had just listened to his ramblings and smiled. Even exhausted and flushed with fever Jack’s rakish grin was a sight to behold. With an air of bravado and acceptance he merely shrugged off the pain and suffering the Time Lord had caused him and echoed his blind trust from all those years ago.
"Never doubted you. Never will."
Adam Mitchell, he hadn’t even thought of that man in years. Didn’t really think of him much when he’d known him either. The man was one the strays that Rose picked up, like Jack and Mickey the Idiot. But Adam hadn’t played by the rules and, with Rose’s blessing, they’d left him behind. They never thought of the damage he could cause.
The damage he did cause.
Damage he’d never have learned about if Martha hadn’t given him the mobile phone. He hadn’t actually expected her to call. But she did. And the sound of the panic in her voice had ripped into his soul.
“Doctor, you have to come. I just got a call, Jack’s been poisoned and he thinks who ever did it will be after me next...”
He’d tried to make a joke, speak of the ironies of Jack being afraid of a little poison but her terror was leaching though the phone. And then she mentioned Phloriantian poison, if anything could kill Jack, really kill Jack for good, that certainly could. Icy tendrils of fear gripped him, and didn’t let go.
Time and space being what they were it was mere minutes before he’d collected Martha, and confronted Torchwood. Torchwood. Jack’s team. He could see how they had to fight all their better nature and instincts to let him try to help their fallen Captain. Their Captain. Not his. Not anymore.
But they did let him help. And then they’d helped him. Toshiko Sato, that brave scientist he’d met in London back when, she’d shown him a picture of Jack’s assailant. And that’s when his hearts nearly broke.
Adam.
It was a photo of Adam. And it didn’t make sense. He’d left Adam in 2012. This was 2008. And Adam was so much older in the picture. It wasn’t possible. It shouldn’t have been possible. But there he was. And he could hear Margaret’s voice echoing in his mind. “I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Never mind the consequences, off you go.” Margaret. Or to be fair, Blon Fel Fotch Pasameer Day Slitheen, she’d asked how it had felt to finally have consequences. He hadn’t felt guilty then. She’d been pleading for mercy from a dead woman’s lips afer all. But now... this was different.
This was his fault.
It had never even occurred to him that Statten could have had more alien technology hidden about. Or that Adam would have sought to use it. To use it to kill. To kill someone to just punish him. It wasn’t suppose to be like this.
And then there was the look from Martha and the others when he’d tried to explain. The shock, the revulsion on her face when she’d heard what he’d done. How he’d just left Adam behind without a second thought.
He had to find Adam.
He had to know how Adam found Jack. Would he go after Martha next? Sarah Jane? Were other of his former companions in danger as well?
Rose would have laughed over the way he chose to find Adam. He scanned for alien tech. Exactly what she’d always begged him to do. Exactly what endeared Jack to her.
It turned out Adam wasn’t that hard to find. Once he’d narrowed down the scan to exclude Torchwood, and to ignore all the tiny bits of time debris that had drifted through the rift Adam stood out like a beacon.
A terrifyingly dangerous and broken beacon.
Adam was crouched in an alley, rocking back and forth. The Doctor had cautioned Martha to stay back and he slowly approached. There were piles of machinery surrounding him. He was filthy and incoherent, muttering to himself while snapping his fingers over and over causing the computer interface port in his forehead to open and close and open and close.
“Adam?” The wreck of a man looked up, startled.
“These are my toys! Mine!” He shouted, pulling a vial out of his pocket with one hand while still snapping with the other. Open. Close. Open. Close...
The Doctor quickly threw his hand up in mock surrender. “Oh, don’t worry, I won’t touch your toys.” He noticed a picture on the ground. He saw Jack, Rose, Mickey and himself outside the TARDIS, laughing. “Is that your picture?” He asked, already knowing the answer.
“Gotta make the Doctor pay.” Open. Close. Open. Close... “I finally found a way to make him pay.” Open. Close. Open. Close... “Got my revenge...” Open. Close. Open. Close...
“Adam?” He asked again. “It’s me. The Doctor. I’m here.”
Open. Close. Open. Close... Adam peered at him, obviously confused. Open. Close. Open. Close... “No. That Doctor.” He stopped snapping for a moment and pointed to the picture.
“That’s me, Adam. That’s how I looked before I regenerated.”
The snapping started up again, even faster than before. Open. Close. Open. Close. Open. Close. Open. Close... “He left me. I can’t find the others. Rose, or that one...” Open. Close. Open. Close... “But I found this one. Smug arrogant Captain. The Doctor must’ve left him too.”
“Adam, I’m so sorry. Don’t you understand? I’m the man who left you. It was wrong of me.”
Open. Close. Open. Close...“You’re the Doctor.” Adam’s voice was emotionless now.
“Yes.”
“Was he your friend?” Open. Close. Open. Close...
“Yes. Now please let me help you.” Open. Close...
“Is he dead?”
“Yes,” which was not technically a lie, “now let me...”
Adam grinned ferally. “Good.” He snapped open the port and sprayed the vial directly into the hole. The glittery mist poured out before the Doctor could react and within seconds the brain matter it contacted with burst into flame.
Adam had been completely turned to ash by the time Martha ran up.
She saw the pain and anguish on his face. “Oh Doctor,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
“Maybe it was for the best,” he replied softly. “I was far too late to save him. I should have... I could have... I didn’t think... I hadn’t known.”
She put a hand on his shoulder. “At least you were in time to save Jack, yeah? Let’s go see how he’s doing.” Pausing long enough to collect all the alien paraphernalia Adam had left scattered about, they quietly returned to the Hub.
Somehow the Torchwood team accepted his explanation of what happened, but he had no idea what he’d say to Jack. If Jack hadn’t recognized the poison immediately. If he hadn’t had a stasis chamber. If he hadn’t called Martha. If he wasn’t immortal... Jack would have died forever. And it would have been his fault. How do you apologize for that?
In the end, he didn’t have to. Jack had just listened to his ramblings and smiled. Even exhausted and flushed with fever Jack’s rakish grin was a sight to behold. With an air of bravado and acceptance he merely shrugged off the pain and suffering the Time Lord had caused him and echoed his blind trust from all those years ago.
"Never doubted you. Never will."
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Couple of typos spotted :-)
And then they’d help him. - helped
The Doctor must’ve left him to. - too
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*sigh* there is always one or two things that slip by. Thanks for catching them!
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Love it, though.
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