aeshna_uk | Fanfic: "Up Above, Down Below"

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Fanfic: "Up Above, Down Below"

Title: "Up Above, Down Below"
Author: Aeshna
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG, gen
Word count: 2,387
Characters: Jack Harkness, Tish Jones
Summary: And to think that she had once been excited about Mr. Saxon giving her a job.
Spoilers: Heavy for DW3.12, The Sound of Drums and DW3.13 The Last of the Time Lords
Disclaimer: Not mine, no matter how many DVDs and toys I buy! Everything here belongs to RTD and to Auntie Beeb, who already has my licence fee.
Archive: Sure, whoever wants it – just let me know where it ends up!
Notes: Discussing The Last of the Time Lords with

mimarie, it occurred to us that by the end of that lost year, for all that Jack may like and respect Martha, he'll probably have known her sister far longer and far better; it is, after all, hard not to bond with someone who is quite literally spoon-feeding you. This bunny followed on soon after. :) Unusually for one of my fics, I think it may spawn a sequel at some point.

Many thanks to

mimarie and

jwaneeta for sterling beta services – any remaining weirdnesses are all mine. Feedback of any variety is very much appreciated but not compulsory – I'll post anyway! I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn....

Am claiming this for the

100_situations fanfiction challenge, prompt "Friend".

And to think that she had once been excited about Mr. Saxon giving her a job.

One hundred and twenty seven days after the end of the world, Letitia Jones' life was an unnerving combination of dull routine and terrifying unpredictability. The Valiant was all that there was now, its metal corridors forming the breadth and the borders of her own personal universe. Scurrying along a half-lit passageway on one of her more regular errands, Tish tried not to think about what might be going on somewhere far below her, what might be happening to Martha and to Leo and to all her friends. At least she knew where her parents were....

The hiss and thud of heavy machinery sounded around her, still startling after four months of captivity. There was a nuclear reactor – and how had they ever gotten permission for that? – at the Valiant's heart, but here amidst the grating and the steam ducts she could easily imagine men shovelling coal into hungry furnaces, an image of hell somehow more real than the IKEA blandness of the Master's domain on the upper decks. Figures moved in the shadows, technicians slipping in and out of her vision through the pipework, and she felt painfully aware of the way that the maid's outfit clung to her curves in the stifling heat of the engineering decks. She doubted that any of them would touch her – she was, after all, a Jones, one of the Master's favoured playthings – but that didn't make her feel any more comfortable.

Still, she told herself firmly, she didn't really have cause to complain. Others here had it far worse than she did.

Tish arrived at her destination as a group of black-clad guards left, the last of them glancing at her – his eyes lingering a moment too long on her sweat-damp uniform – and smirking as he held the cage door ajar. She swallowed nervously and nodded her thanks, stepping quickly past him with her tray and trying to ignore the weight of his gaze. The gate closed behind her with a clang and she looked back to see one of the men taking up position just inside, an expression of bored contempt on his features as he cradled his gun. "Nice timing, love," he told her with a leer. "Master's not long finished with him – freak's had a busy morning...."

Suppressing a shudder, Tish turned away from the guard. Oh yes, some had it far worse.

Stepping further into the makeshift cage, she could smell him before she saw him – stale blood and sweat and piss and filth – and her heart and gut both clenched at the rancid animal stink, at what was being done to him here. The steel tray was cool against her palms as she swallowed hard and shifted her grip, peering through the steam that escaped from the piping and ductwork. "Captain Harkness?" she called cautiously. "Jack?"

There was no response. Tish bit her lip, then squared her shoulders and walked resolutely forward. It wasn't as if she was going to find a corpse, after all, and something told her that he needed to see a friendly face even more than she did.

It was obvious that today's session had been a bad one – she could tell by the way he simply hung forward on his chains, his shoulders twisted painfully back and his legs barely supporting him. His head was bowed, chin resting against his chest, and if it wasn't for the slow rise and fall of each breath she would think that he wasn't... back yet. He looked so defeated....

"Captain?" she ventured carefully, not sure if he could hear her. "Jack? I've brought you food."

One blue eye cracked open and he smiled weakly. "Room service? Forgot I'd ordered. What's on the menu today, Tish? Something suitably bland, I hope...."

"Only the most tasteless slop here at Chez Saxon, sir," she assured him, though her heart really wasn't in the familiar joke. She glanced back towards the guard, half-hidden by the steam. "Are you all right?"

"No." Jack visibly gathered himself and struggled into a more upright position, taking the strain off his shoulders. "I swear, one of these days I'm going to get my hands on that psychotic alien bastard and see how much he likes the taste of his own medicine." His lip curled into the ghost of a snarl. "Should have snapped his sorry neck when I had the chance...."

Tish stirred at the creamed mess in the serving tin, letting the scrape of metal hide her words from prying ears. "Why didn't you?"

"Someone was having issues with being the last of an endangered species." He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing deeply. "Doesn't matter. He'll slip eventually. Everyone does."

"Everyone did," Tish noted sadly, thinking of the election. She looked down at the tin. "Come on then, Captain," she said with forced enthusiasm. "Dinnertime! Got to keep your strength up, right?"

He snorted at that but obediently opened his mouth for the spoon. "Mmm, turnip today?" he said, swallowing with a grimace. "They're spoiling me."

"I think they ran out of swede," she admitted, delivering another mouthful of the cold, pale pulp. She suspected it had all the nutritional value of cardboard and she knew that it just went straight through him, but food was food and if she wasn't here to feed him then who else could he talk to? The guards who never used his name? "Culinary standards are definitely slipping around here...."

"I'd settle for something I could chew," he said, eyeing the spoon unhappily. "Or taste. I miss texture. Something with a bit of crunch and flavour and –" He broke off to accept the next pureed mouthful, swallowing quickly. "God, I grew out of baby food... well, a long time back, let's just leave it at that. And it's not as if I'm ever likely to get toothless and old...."

Tish used the edge of the spoon to catch an escaping dribble before it dripped from his chin, receiving a grunt of thanks. "If it helps," she said quietly, "we don't eat much better. He has lobster and caviar and curry while we –"

"Curry? Spices?" Jack stared at her, his throat working as he swallowed once, twice, then looked away, cursing under his breath. "Fuck, fuck, fuck...."

"I'm sorry," she murmured, stirring the sloppy contents of the tin and wishing she could conjure up something more edible for him. There were days when he seemed almost amused by his predicament, calm and cheerfully flirtatious... but on other days, days like today, he would be a little too bright about the eyes, a desperate, dangerous edge barely hidden by his determined mask. "I shouldn't have mentioned it."

"It's not your fault," he said roughly, then winced and arched his back, rotating his head slowly. Something crunched unpleasantly in his neck. "Sorry, always a bit stiff after – well, you can guess."

"I'm not sure I want to." Tish raised the spoon once more, taking care not to bang it against his teeth in the delivery. "I saw the guards," she said quietly. "They took you upstairs today?"

"Yes." He swallowed the proffered mouthful. "Decided he wanted to share his fun – it's not easy getting a wheelchair down here."

"The Doctor was there?"

"Oh yes." Jack's expression turned dark. "He pleads for my life so much more prettily than I do."

Tish shuddered. The Master had made her watch once, down here in the humid half-light, an unwilling witness to murder as he'd set about his captive immortal with a crowbar. Jack had clenched his jaw – during the brief period when it wasn't broken – and refused to scream, but she had been hoarse for days. It was one thing to know that death was not a permanent state for the man before her, but quite another to see the blood and meat, to hear the muffled crunch of bone. She had barely slept for a week afterwards. "I'm sorry." She swallowed hard. "How... how many?"

"Eight," he told her wearily. "And I think the guards added an extra one on the way back down, if the headache's anything to go by. You know, there was a time when that would have counted as a bad decade. Now it's just a bad morning...." He shook his head and accepted the next spoonful of pulp, gulping it down before he could taste it. "But hey, enough about me – how are you? How are Clive and Francine?"

"We're... okay. The Master might be mad but we're more fun to him alive, I think, at least so long as Martha's still out there." She sighed and fed him another spoonful. "I think Lucy suffers more than we do."

"Good," Jack growled. "Psychotic bitch. Enjoys having me up there more than he does – I think she gets off on the coups de grâce."

Tish lowered the spoon, aghast. "You mean she –"

"Oh yes, when he lets her. When he's getting bored and once I've been... sufficiently disabled." He snorted. "Like a cat teaching its kitten to kill half-chewed mice. One day she'll get too close and I'll show her what it's like from the other end."

There was a gleam in his eye, a hint of desperation that was as much pain and exhaustion as it was anger and Tish had to look away, busying herself with the spoon, with the slip and scrape of metal on metal as she gathered every last piece of the vile mash to feed to him. It wasn't much, but what else could she offer? For all that they never spoke of it, she knew why he was here, why he hadn't gone to fight at Martha's side when it would have been so very, very easy for him to have made his escape with her.

A trapped immortal was too shiny a toy to be ignored, too tempting a target for the boredom of a psychopath. A trapped immortal offered the chance to inflict never-ending, ever-changing torment, a prize far more interesting and entertaining than an old man and a handful of terrified captives. Without Jack as buffer and distraction, she didn't even want to think what her already hellish life would be like....

"You sure know how to show a boy a good time," he said with a wink as she finally set the tin aside. It was a feeble attempt, but she smiled anyway, reaching for the mug of water that was his daily ration of liquid. "I'll make it up to you when we get out of here. Buy you dinner. Anything you want, long as there's no turnip and absolutely no swede...."

"Chinese," she said quietly, raising the cup carefully to his lips. She'd been dreaming of Chinese food lately, of tastes and textures that neither she nor anyone else would ever know again. "Good Chinese and champagne. Dim sum. Soy sauce. Chilli. Carved carrots. None of your takeaway nonsense – I want somewhere with proper tablecloths and candles and hot towels. And fortune cookies." She smiled. "And overpriced cocktails with stupid paper umbrellas."

"And chopsticks and jugs of iced water and windows and flush toilets," Jack added with a sigh once he'd drained the mug, licking his lips in pursuit of the last, precious drops. "Speaking of which...."

Bucket duty was completed with the same quiet efficiency as usual, neither of them acknowledging anything beyond the simple necessity of it. Tish cleaned him up as best she could, glad that she'd never yet seen a fly down here, and tugged the ruined clothing back into place. "There." She glanced towards the guard, who gazed back and tapped his wrist meaningfully before turning his attention to something beyond the gate. "I have to go. I'm sorry."

"Yeah." He fell silent and she busied herself with the tin, the tray, the mug, trying not to think about him chained down here like an animal for another day, with only the contempt of the guards for company. It wasn't fair, not after all he'd sacrificed to – "Tish?"

She turned back. "Yes?"

His smile was tired in his filthy face, but it reached his eyes. "Thank you."

And there weren't any words that she could find that could convey how ridiculous it was that he was thanking her. So she didn't try, simply put the tray down and wrapped her arms tight around him, hugging him fiercely and trying to impart all the sorrow and gratitude she felt through that contact. It didn't matter that he stank of four months of neglect, didn't matter that the cloth against her face was stiff and ripe with sweat and worse. It didn't matter that he had no way to hug her back.

All that mattered was that he knew that, even amongst all of this, someone still genuinely cared.

She felt his too-smooth cheek settle against the top of her head, felt his jaw clench, the movement of his throat as he swallowed. "Thank you," he whispered again, pressing a kiss against her hair. "Don't give up, Tish; never give up. One day we'll be out of here, I swear –"

A hand grabbed roughly at her shoulder, hauling her away from him, and she staggered slightly in the guard's grasp. "That's enough from you, Jonesy. Get the tray and get out before I treat your freak boyfriend here to number ten." He hefted his machine gun pointedly. "Go on, get."

Jack quirked a small smile, his blue eyes apologetic. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said with more composure than she was feeling. He winked. "Hey, maybe they'll have some more yummy swede for me!"

"I'll make sure to ask," she replied softly, lifting the tray and swearing to herself that she would find some way to raid the pepper for him if she couldn't get at the Saxons' leftovers. "Goodnight, Captain."

"'Night, Tish."

And then she was hurrying back along the corridor towards her next chore, leaving him to the mercy of the guards and the whims of the Master. But, for all that she knew it was hopeless, she couldn't help clinging to his words, to the one thing, the only thing that she had left to believe in. One day....

Just not today.

~ fin ~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, wow. That was so good.

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

Gah, this is so upsetting in some many ways, but it's terrific as a story, capturing not only Jack's motives but what Tish is going through, too. I'm not sure we'll see her again on the show, but I wish we would, to see how this experience has changed her.

Anyway :) Very well done, as always.

I'd love to see Tish turn up in TW but I doubt it'll happen (not least because of the confusion potential with Tosh!). I'm oddly fascinated by the relationship between her and Jack and what they both went through on board the Valiant. It must have been hell for the both of them but I rather like the idea of them finding some small comfort in each other, and by the end of it Jack will have known Martha for just a handful of days, but Tish will have been a constant for a year. There has to be some sort of connection there.

Glad you enjoyed it, even if it was a bit upsetting. :)

Excellent work. Thank you.

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. :)

Oh, you *darling*, I've been wanting Jack and Tish lately! Is there any way I could beg for their date after they finally get off the Valiant? Because you're so right; technically, he spent more time with Tish than with Martha, and the way they interacted in LotTL touched me--Jack trying to keep Tish's spirits up, her trying to care for him. So, dinner? Maybe some touchy-feely? *bats lashes*

I totally second this!

I adored their interaction in LotTL, where everything is going to hell but they're trying to keep a grip. Plenty to build on there! I have a couple of ideas to expand on this a bit - they really do need to sort things out together after it's all over.

Glad you enjoyed it!

This was good. Hard to read, but very well done.

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

Oh this is just excellent. And I loved your explaination as to why Jack stayed on the Valiant... and the shiny new toy... chilling, but it explains so much!

It took more effort for him to stay behind than it would have for him to escape. And, really, there was no way he wasn't going to be instantly contained and used as a punchbag, and I think he knew it. But if he's there taking the brunt of it, then the others aren't, and he's got that whole "fixed point in space-time" thing going, which they don't.

Well, that's the only explanation that makes sense to me, anyway. :)

Glad you enjoyed it!

Awesome! Today's been a good day for Jones family fiction, or so it seems to me. Nice study of the two of them.

Thank you - I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

I've developed a rather unhealthy obsession with the missing year and this is just perfect. I love Jack in it, just the right mixture of cocky and tired and Tish is great. My mind boggles at the thought of a year of swede (and turnip ;)) and this conveys it all so well - the desperation and the exhaustion and the beaten down hope.

Brilliant.

Thank you. :) The missing year is a gift for fanfiction - there's an awful lot that you can explore both on the Valiant and down on the ground. Jack's situation isn't a pretty one, but at least he has some sympathetic contact during that time and you have to figure that that connection with Tish will come in handy for the both of them afterwards, when there are only a handful of people that they can talk to about it.

As for the culinary range available on the Valiant: I have a feeling that Jack isn't going to be safe to let loose in Tesco without a minder for a while.... ;)

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

I loved the connection with Tish that we saw - it'd be a lifeline to Jack.

Jack isn't going to be safe to let loose in Tesco without a minder for a while
Oh my! I hadn't thought of that! Are you thinking of doing anything with it and if you're not, would you mind if I did?

I may do at some point, but please feel free to have at it if you're feeling inspired! :)

I got bitten hard by a crack!fic plot bunny earlier on, and I seem to be in the mood for silliness. Thanks! :D

That was very hard to read but beautifully written. So much hurt, and so little comfort.

I hope you you will write Jack and Tish in the aftermath of this horror - because if they haven't formed a special bond, who would?

It wasn't really a situation in which either could offer much comfort to the other, but the bunny that caught me was just Tish giving Jack a hug to let him know that he wasn't alone. The rest of it built from there. It's the little things that count when you have nothing else left.

I do want to get back to these two again - they have a lot of issues still to work out when they find themselves in happier circumstances.

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

Brilliant job. I can most definitely see this scene happening off-camera, and I love the dark/honest outlook you provide on Tish, on Jack, and on their situation. I love the banter between Jack and Tish, the way they hate their situation but try to banter and make it bearable. And their musings on the little things, like Chinese food--so believable.

Also, this part:

"The Doctor was there?"

"Oh yes." Jack's expression turned dark. "He pleads for my life so much more prettily than I do."

So delightfully angsty.

So, in other words... amazing fic, unique viewpoint, very well-written, IC, and full of spot-on angst. This is definitely going in my memories.

Wow, thank you. :D I try to approach situations as realistically as possible in writing, which works for me although I know that some people can be a bit uncomfortable with it. Jack and Tish are in a bad place here, but they're not giving up and they're trying to keep each other sane, which is really all that they can do given that they don't know that there'll be a happy ending to it all. When they do get that happy ending, I have a feeling that some high-end Chinese restaurant isn't going to know what hit it.... ;)

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

This was just utterly amazing and exactly what I had in my head for what happened and why Jack stayed. I'm so glad you wrote this.

I think the reason I was so utterly disenchanted by the finale was that Jack never got an apology from the Doctor. Just some hint that he'd understood what Jack had been through and was mildly upset about it would have been nice. I know he was going through the whole last of the species angst thing again but still. Some kind of recognition would have been nice.

Or maybe I just love Jack too much to be objective about the whole thing :)

Anyway great fic - heartbreaking but with little lovely cheery bits, I'm adopting this as my canon :)

Thank you. :D

I think the sad fact is that the Doctor (and this regeneration in particular) can be a bit of a git at times... well, most of the time, really. He'd rather die than give acknowledgement of Jack's suffering on his behalf - Jack's immortal, after all, it's not like it's going to slow him down for long (see how quick he was to volunteer Jack for the radiation room in Utopia). I take some comfort from the fact that Jack, having finally been given the choice and the time to think about it, chose Torchwood over the TARDIS. He's got over his issues and has realised that he has a home and a place he belongs... and it's not with the git in the blue box!

Glad you enjoyed the fic! :)

I was going to post this in "A Teaspoon & an Open Mind", but I suspect it will be too lengthy, so with your indulgence:

A very subtle, concise & realistic portrayal of the characters & situations as of "LoTL." One of the things that I particularly liked was portrayal of the petty harassments & tacit threats to which Tish & Jack were subjected aboard the Valiant, not just by the Master, but by other human beings. The other "Year that Wasn't" fic I've seen so far has dealt with overt types of abuse, particularly of Jack, & I believe that constant petty, subtle abuse can be just as damaging.

Speaking of the Master's human flunkies: in the episode, I could not believe that the guards would immediately join in defeating the Master after the Doctor's revival. I don't doubt that after months of atrocities ordered by the Master the human race would be cowed & hopeless, & I can certainly believe that the Master would take perverse delight in being guarded by people who hate him, but--hopeless people are capable of taking knowingly suicidal actions of minimal effect for the satisfaction of striking out at their perceived tormenters. The Master might be crazy, but he's not crazy enough to endanger the Valiant. So, in the circumstances of LoTL, I can only believe that the Master would get his human guards from amongst traitors, psychopaths & collaborators, none of whom could I believe joining the Doctor's & Co.'s coup d'etat; I can, however, believe people of those categories treating prisoners exactly as you describe in your story.

As for Jack & Tish: in LoTL, Tish had gone from a petty, shallow & self-absorbed young woman to a brave, noble & self-sacrificing heroine; your story gave a glimpse at the experiences that caused the change, & one moment in the process. Jack, of course, began & ended the series as a hero, but your story showed that the hero was, after all, human--& that being a hero is neither easy nor pleasant. The interaction between Jack & Tish was a quite beautiful illustration of how courage can consist of performing the tiniest kindness when that tiny kindness is all that is possible, & how the tiny kindnesses from one person to another is sometimes the only way that people survive.

I realize I haven't said anything original, but I had to let you know what a gem of a story you've written.

Wow, thank you! It's always wonderful to get in-depth and thoughtful feedback of this kind. :D

It's the small and petty harassments that I wanted to get across in this one. The Doctor has a special status as the Master's personal plaything, but Jack and the Joneses aren't kept quite so close, even though they are marked out as different, whether by uniform or by chained captivity. They're easy targets (quite literally in Jack's case) for the fears and frustrations of others. And while they may be able to set their jaws and let the big, grandstanding forms of abuse wash over them to some extent, it's the little, niggling, petty things that can be more psychologically damaging in the long run. And they have no real defense against that sort of thing. They're caught between two extremes and can really only rely on one another.

With the guards, my thought (which very nearly went into this story but which I couldn't make fit neatly!) is that the majority of them are UNIT soldiers who were already on the Valiant and who chose expediency when everything went to hell. Some would have resisted and paid the price - I can just see the Master getting a kick out of making people walk the plank at 35,000 feet - but others would have seen that as useless and, with no other hope available to them, have offered their loyalties to the only real power remaining. Plus, you have to suspect that a lot of the UNIT grunts would rather enjoy getting hold of a senior member of Torchwood and being allowed to "play", in a frequently (if temporarily) lethal manner. UNIT soldiers who have already changed sides once would be more likely to switch back again when the time came, to my thinking, though that may not win them a great number of brownie points with Jack. I don't think we ever did see any of that group again after Jack led them after the Paradox Machine, and my suspicion is that he just let the Toclafane have them in the assault. They did note that they were going to get slaughtered, after all.... ;)

There may be others still surviving, of course, who Jack may need to interact with again in the future. There's a half-formed bunny there but it hasn't found a structure yet....

how courage can consist of performing the tiniest kindness when that tiny kindness is all that is possible

Thank you - that is exactly what I was trying to get across with this piece. This is all that Tish can offer Jack and he knows it and accepts it for what it is. It's just a small thing, but it's infinitely valuable to both of them, a moment of simple humanity in amongst all the madness. It's so often the little things that matter the most.

So glad you enjoyed this! Thanks again! :)

Good point about the guards; I withdraw my objections to their hopping to when Jack said "go." I still think, though, that since the Master had essentially turned the Earth into a gigantic complex of concentration/slave labor camps, that the psychology of that situation applies: the only people the Master could trust to serve him in those circumstances would be traitors, psychopaths & traitors.

Given that destroying the Paradox Machine seems to have reset reality outside the Valiant to just after George W.--um, the American President (oh, I am sooo going to have karmic debt), was killed by the Toclafane, that *is* an interesting question; another is, who besides the Doctor, Jack & the Joneses remember the Year That Wasn't, & of those who remember, why do they? Those are important points to me, as I was working on a fic which was derailed by LoTL unless I go the AU route--& I hate AU. [DIATRIBE ALERT] There is some very good AU out there, but, bluntly, a lot of AU is written because the writers are too careless, or lazy, or (again bluntly) too untalented to create a story that coincides with canon. Now, I realize that's hard work, particularly with DW, where the canon is self-contradictory, nor do I expect fan writers to be the equal of, say, Mark Twain, but I absolutely expect writers to do their best. I will never criticize someone who's tried her best, but the Gods of Science Fiction help careless, lazy writers who cross my path. [DIATRIBE ENDS]

Anyway, you succeeded in conveying the ideas you wanted in some extremely well-written fiction. I'm very much looking forward to your future work.

the Master could trust to serve him in those circumstances would be traitors, psychopaths & traitors

And the Master, of course, is both. I think he's pretty good with the psychology of the situation and he always was the persuasive one.... :)

to just after George W.--um, the American President (oh, I am sooo going to have karmic debt), was killed

Oh, we all have karmic debt on that one... ;)

There were a lot of people on board the Valiant, there had to be for it to operate, and it seemed that the whole ship was caught in the "eye of the storm". Which means a lot of people who remember... and presumably, a lot of unexplained deaths, given that the ship didn't "reset" like the rest of the world. There's a lot of story potental there.

If a story has been overtaken by canon, I wouldn't necessarily count it as AU. There's not really a lot that you can do about that! It depends on how the change makes you perceive the story, I guess. I have something underway with friend which has Jack arriving in Victorian times, in 1881. Canon now places him in 1869, but we've had this bunny since before TW started and the timing is necessary for the storyline so we're carrying on with it. And sometimes it can just be fun to play with the "what-ifs" of a situation - I've done that myself. :)

But I suspect that what you're talking about is more the character-driven wish-fulfillment end of the spectrum, where the tag "AU" can be taken to mean "throwing all canon out of the window", which can be extremely annoying to stumble across.

I'm very much looking forward to your future work.

Thank you. :D

Damn that was good!

When do we get to see Jack take Tish out for dinner?

That will come, though I think there may be something with a shower before then.... :)

Glad you enjoyed the fic!

Oh, Jack. Painful, but brilliant.

But he suffers so prettily... ;)

Glad you enjoyed it!

Nice. :) (Well - in a manner of speaking)! Jack was so badly underused in TLOTTL, and it's good to see people filling in some gaps. And you're right about Jack barely knowing Martha, and knowing Tish far better. Unless there was a big gap between the victory and Jack's departure, when the three of them perhaps spent some time together aboard the TARDIS, Jack is likely to be far closer to Tish.

The problem with Jack on DW - and the reason why he'll never be a long-term companion - is that he's simply too knowledgeable and capable a character... and that was before they made him immortal! DW is the Doctor's show and that means that for the Doctor to shine, Jack would always have to be taken out of the equation early on. And so he gets chained up on the Valiant for a year rather than actually doing anything - he really is better off on TW, where at least he's allowed to participate.

But that year in chains does allow for some interesting explorations in fic, so I guess I can't complain too much!

It's hard to tell how much time passes between the victory and Jack's departure. I get the sense that it's probably not very long - he has people he wants to get back to and the Doctor has made it quite clear that he's not comfortable having Jack around (I can only imagine that the TARDIS is even less comfortable with him after he's taken a machine gun to her innards). Plus, I doubt that Jack wants to spend any more time on the Valiant than he absolutely has to!

Which is a long-winded way of saying that, yes, he probably knows Tish a lot better than Martha when he leaves, though I'd imaine that he keeps in touch with both once the Doctor has gone on his way once more.

Glad you enjoyed the fic! :)

That was very well done; true to voice and character. I can definately imageine this as a missing scene.

Thank you - I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

"Like a cat teaching its kitten to kill half-chewed mice. "

[INTAKE OF BREATH] Of course! He's training her to always put down a caged/wounded animal... Just in case anything ever happens to him bad enough that he needs to use the ring plan! =:o}

And more generally: Wow! I mean... [WAVES A HAND VAGUELY UPWARD] ...what they all said. And also: Wow!

[SALUTE]

Just in case anything ever happens to him bad enough that he needs to use the ring plan!

Hey, it always pays to be prepared.... ;)

And also: Wow!

Thank you. :) Glad you enjoyed it!

Hi. I'd been thinking how I'd like to read a fic with Jack/Tish interaction, so I searched on del.ici.ous and came across this fic. I liked how you showed Jack and Tish both trying to reassure the other and how you dealt with some of the practicalities of having a man chained up for a year.

Oh god. Ow.

So fucking ow.

Perfect.

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! :)

(better late than never!)

frankly, I don' tknow what to say beyond wow.

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! :)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fanfic: "Up Above, Down Below"

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