badly_knitted (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
badly_knitted) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomweekly2024-04-06 01:00 pm
badly_knitted) wrote in fandomweekly2024-04-06 01:00 pm
Entry tags:
[#215] A Normal Life (Torchwood)
Theme Prompt: #215 – Normal
Title: A Normal Life
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Jack has never seen his immortality as a gift. He’d give anything for the kind of normal life other people take for granted.
Gwen picked fretfully at the edge of her cast, frowning at it, knowing it meant Jack would restrict her to Hub duty until her broken wrist healed; there was no way she’d be of any use in the field if she couldn’t even hold her gun.
“It’s not fair, all I did was slip on a patch of ice!” She hadn’t even been working at the time, just out having dinner with Rhys. The accident had completely ruined their date night, since they’d spent the next several hours at the hospital. Gwen scowled at Jack, who just last week had broken both legs in an unfortunate accident involving a cement mixer and a pile of bricks. “You don’t know how lucky you are. You get injured, even killed, and next thing you know, you’re walking around, cracking jokes, like nothing ever happened!”
“You think I’m lucky?” Jack turned to stare at Gwen, disbelief colouring his tone. “I get to watch everyone I know, everyone I ever care about, grow old and die while I have to carry on alone, not just once, but time after time, for the rest of eternity! Let me tell you, Gwen Cooper, I’d trade places with you in a heartbeat if I could, let you live forever while I enjoyed the normal life you take for granted every single day. You have no idea what I’d be willing to sacrifice if I could have what you’ve got, the chance to live my life with the man I love, maybe raise a family, grow old together, knowing I’d find peace at the end of a life lived to the full. You’re the lucky one. So your arm will take a few weeks to heal, so what? That’s a small price to pay for only having one life to live.” With that, he spun on his heel and stalked back to his office. Nobody would ever understand what it was like to be him, to be as far from normal as it was possible to get.
“You were a bit harsh with her,” Ianto said quietly a little while later, joining Jack in his office and closing the door gently behind him.
“Was I? You heard her, she wants to be like me!”
“She’s just frustrated, hates being stuck at her desk all the time. You’d feel the same way, in her place.”
“That doesn’t mean she gets to tell me I’m lucky when I’m anything but! Immortality isn’t a blessing, something to be grateful for. It’s a curse!”
“I know, but you have to admit the quick healing comes in handy.”
“If I could have that without the rest…” Jack trailed off with a weary sigh. “I just wish we could be like Gwen and Rhys, looking forward to a normal, happy life together.”
“We’re never going to be normal, Jack, not with the life we lead, working for Torchwood. Nothing about what we do here is normal. I think there must something about that in the Torchwood Charter. We gave up all hope of normality long ago.”
Jack managed a weak chuckle. “Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean I can’t wish things were different.”
“I’d trade places, take the burden from you, if I could.”
“I’d never do that to you.” Slumped in his desk chair, Jack glanced out the window into the main Hub. “Might do it to Gwen, if I could, since she thinks it would be so great, but not you. Never you. I couldn’t condemn you to eternal life. You don’t deserve to suffer like that.”
“Neither do you.”
“The difference being, I wasn’t given the choice. I’m stuck with this whether I like it or not.”
OoOoO
A few hundred years later, on a distant planet so far from earth that the locals had never even heard of it, Jack drew a sudden, convulsive breath as he jolted back into life, legs and arms flailing.
“What the Hell!” the being bending over him exclaimed, or words to that effect, since the language he was speaking wasn’t English. He scrambled backwards in alarm, almost tripping on his own appendages.
“Nothing to worry about,” a calm voice responded. “Coming back is always a bit disorienting. He’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
The grey-skinned alien turned towards the other person. “You know that’s weird, right? I mean, people don’t just suffer fatal blaster wounds, then come back to life, good as new! He should be dead!”
“He was, and now he’s not. Death just doesn’t stick.”
“Well, it’s not natural!”
“Perhaps not, for most people.” Ianto gave the alien a small but reassuring smile, tight-lipped to avoid showing his teeth, which was frowned upon here. “But for us, it’s completely normal. Not pleasant, but you might say we’ve grown accustomed to it. Sort of had to.”
“You’re like that too?”
Ianto inclined his head. “Yes. Let’s just say, as unpleasant as the dying and coming back can be, it still beats the alternative. I died, a long time ago, in a most unpleasant manner, then found myself alive again. I have no complaints.” He looked down at Jack, who was clinging to him, getting his breath back. “He still feels guilty about it, even though he had nothing to do with it.”
“I’m the one who got you killed,” Jack rasped out.
“No, actually I got me killed, by going into what I knew was a dangerous situation without taking the proper precautions. If I’d stopped to think, I would’ve gone looking for that bloody Hazmat suit before facing down an alien known for manipulating viruses. Still, things worked out for the best in the end. Right, Jack?”
Jack sighed, sitting up. “When you put it that way…”
He’d wanted a normal life, one he could spend with the man he loved, and instead he’d got an infinite number of lives, but he didn’t have to live them alone.
It might not be normal, but it was so much more than he deserved.
The End
“It’s not fair, all I did was slip on a patch of ice!” She hadn’t even been working at the time, just out having dinner with Rhys. The accident had completely ruined their date night, since they’d spent the next several hours at the hospital. Gwen scowled at Jack, who just last week had broken both legs in an unfortunate accident involving a cement mixer and a pile of bricks. “You don’t know how lucky you are. You get injured, even killed, and next thing you know, you’re walking around, cracking jokes, like nothing ever happened!”
“You think I’m lucky?” Jack turned to stare at Gwen, disbelief colouring his tone. “I get to watch everyone I know, everyone I ever care about, grow old and die while I have to carry on alone, not just once, but time after time, for the rest of eternity! Let me tell you, Gwen Cooper, I’d trade places with you in a heartbeat if I could, let you live forever while I enjoyed the normal life you take for granted every single day. You have no idea what I’d be willing to sacrifice if I could have what you’ve got, the chance to live my life with the man I love, maybe raise a family, grow old together, knowing I’d find peace at the end of a life lived to the full. You’re the lucky one. So your arm will take a few weeks to heal, so what? That’s a small price to pay for only having one life to live.” With that, he spun on his heel and stalked back to his office. Nobody would ever understand what it was like to be him, to be as far from normal as it was possible to get.
“You were a bit harsh with her,” Ianto said quietly a little while later, joining Jack in his office and closing the door gently behind him.
“Was I? You heard her, she wants to be like me!”
“She’s just frustrated, hates being stuck at her desk all the time. You’d feel the same way, in her place.”
“That doesn’t mean she gets to tell me I’m lucky when I’m anything but! Immortality isn’t a blessing, something to be grateful for. It’s a curse!”
“I know, but you have to admit the quick healing comes in handy.”
“If I could have that without the rest…” Jack trailed off with a weary sigh. “I just wish we could be like Gwen and Rhys, looking forward to a normal, happy life together.”
“We’re never going to be normal, Jack, not with the life we lead, working for Torchwood. Nothing about what we do here is normal. I think there must something about that in the Torchwood Charter. We gave up all hope of normality long ago.”
Jack managed a weak chuckle. “Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean I can’t wish things were different.”
“I’d trade places, take the burden from you, if I could.”
“I’d never do that to you.” Slumped in his desk chair, Jack glanced out the window into the main Hub. “Might do it to Gwen, if I could, since she thinks it would be so great, but not you. Never you. I couldn’t condemn you to eternal life. You don’t deserve to suffer like that.”
“Neither do you.”
“The difference being, I wasn’t given the choice. I’m stuck with this whether I like it or not.”
OoOoO
A few hundred years later, on a distant planet so far from earth that the locals had never even heard of it, Jack drew a sudden, convulsive breath as he jolted back into life, legs and arms flailing.
“What the Hell!” the being bending over him exclaimed, or words to that effect, since the language he was speaking wasn’t English. He scrambled backwards in alarm, almost tripping on his own appendages.
“Nothing to worry about,” a calm voice responded. “Coming back is always a bit disorienting. He’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
The grey-skinned alien turned towards the other person. “You know that’s weird, right? I mean, people don’t just suffer fatal blaster wounds, then come back to life, good as new! He should be dead!”
“He was, and now he’s not. Death just doesn’t stick.”
“Well, it’s not natural!”
“Perhaps not, for most people.” Ianto gave the alien a small but reassuring smile, tight-lipped to avoid showing his teeth, which was frowned upon here. “But for us, it’s completely normal. Not pleasant, but you might say we’ve grown accustomed to it. Sort of had to.”
“You’re like that too?”
Ianto inclined his head. “Yes. Let’s just say, as unpleasant as the dying and coming back can be, it still beats the alternative. I died, a long time ago, in a most unpleasant manner, then found myself alive again. I have no complaints.” He looked down at Jack, who was clinging to him, getting his breath back. “He still feels guilty about it, even though he had nothing to do with it.”
“I’m the one who got you killed,” Jack rasped out.
“No, actually I got me killed, by going into what I knew was a dangerous situation without taking the proper precautions. If I’d stopped to think, I would’ve gone looking for that bloody Hazmat suit before facing down an alien known for manipulating viruses. Still, things worked out for the best in the end. Right, Jack?”
Jack sighed, sitting up. “When you put it that way…”
He’d wanted a normal life, one he could spend with the man he loved, and instead he’d got an infinite number of lives, but he didn’t have to live them alone.
It might not be normal, but it was so much more than he deserved.
The End
no subject
no subject