Challenge 880 - Temporary reprieve
Aug. 31st, 2025 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
m_findlowTitle: Temporary reprieve
Character: Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 200 words
Length: 200 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 880 - Kick at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
torchwood100
torchwood100Summary: Jack should have known that the 456 would return eventually. A double drabble.
Jack took the scorn of his two teammates as he knew he rightly should. Of course they would be furious with him for ever having willingly sacrificed the lives of innocent children in what was nothing more than a protection racket.
It had been such a long time ago that he’d forgotten all about it. For a few decades his conscience had been clear of the atrocity because he’d had other things to focus on, and because it had worked. The aliens had provided the cure to the virus they’d unleashed and taken those twelve tiny souls and left Earth in peace.
Of course he should have known they’d eventually be back. All he’d done that night back in Scotland in 1965 was kick the can down the road. Now they wanted more kids. A lot more kids. Far more than Jack could ever accept as being collateral damage.
Perhaps if he'd fought back harder that first time, they wouldn’t be here now, but back then he’d just been following orders. Now his team were looking to him for theirs, though he already knew that they would fight this until the bitter end, whether he commanded them to or not.
Jack took the scorn of his two teammates as he knew he rightly should. Of course they would be furious with him for ever having willingly sacrificed the lives of innocent children in what was nothing more than a protection racket.
It had been such a long time ago that he’d forgotten all about it. For a few decades his conscience had been clear of the atrocity because he’d had other things to focus on, and because it had worked. The aliens had provided the cure to the virus they’d unleashed and taken those twelve tiny souls and left Earth in peace.
Of course he should have known they’d eventually be back. All he’d done that night back in Scotland in 1965 was kick the can down the road. Now they wanted more kids. A lot more kids. Far more than Jack could ever accept as being collateral damage.
Perhaps if he'd fought back harder that first time, they wouldn’t be here now, but back then he’d just been following orders. Now his team were looking to him for theirs, though he already knew that they would fight this until the bitter end, whether he commanded them to or not.
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Date: 2025-08-31 09:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-31 02:25 pm (UTC)