Drabble: Failed

[bk_forever]

Title: Failed

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Jack, alludes to the Master

Rating: G

Spoilers: Meat, DW Last of the Time Lords/The Sound of Drums.

Summary: Jack mourns the space whale’s fate.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.

A/N: For the prompt ‘Burn’, one of the prompts I didn’t get around to using for tw100’s challenge 292: Billboard Hot 100 last year. I’ve dug them out again to supplement the prompts I got from my f-list, just because there are still loads I wanted to use.

Jack stood watching the warehouse burn.

They’d failed, he had failed, and it tore him up inside. He was supposed to protect the helpless, but an innocent creature had been captured, chained and tortured. Exploited as a source of meat, carved up while it still lived.

He’d empathised with it. Not long ago he’d been the one in chains, tortured for someone else’s benefit. True, in his case it had been to entertain an insane Time Lord rather than for profit, but still…

He’d wanted so badly to save this one, but instead they’d been forced to end its suffering.

The End

Comments

[cjulina.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, so moving. Very sad but at least Jack can take some consolation that he was able to give the creature a few moments of care and empathy. Lovely writing about such a sad situation.

[bk_forever]

Thank you.

Yes, at least the space whale was among people who cared when it was given release from its torment. It had suffered so much, it deserved a quick and relatively painless end, and that was all the Torchwood team could give it. Poor whale =(

(Thanks for the emails, I'll get to them as soon as I can but mum's not well and I'm run off my feet. I'll start to catch up once she's better and I have a bit less to do. I need to get some writing done now, I haven't missed a day all year so far, even if sometimes all I write is a drabble.)

[cjulina.livejournal.com]

No rush - our talks about Cajun music can wait. Seriously! Take care of your mum. She's far more important.

[bk_forever]

She's getting better, but being the main carer for an 83 year old who is almost permanently confused about everything is tough, especially for someone like me who's not in good health at the best of times. I'm beginning to think she'll outlive me because I'm being run into the ground and I don't get enough help and nowhere near enough sleep, never mind a day off.

Sorry, feeling grumpy. Up at 7.30, breakfast at after 11, no time or appetite for lunch and I'll be lucky if I get to be before 1am. And at the weekend I have to get up at 7. And there's my sister, going on vacations and having nights out. It's alright for some.

Ah well, off to do more chores.

[cjulina.livejournal.com]

*Hugs* It's a tough situation - just make sure to take care of yourself as much as you can. You can't be an effective caregiver if you aren't taking care of your needs too. It's not easy but it can be done ... even a five minute "me time" timeout can make a huge difference.

[bk_forever]

I find myself dozing off when I sit down, which just makes me feel worse. I can nod off mid-sentence.

The only reason I'm stuck with the job is because my own health problems meant I was never well enough to leave home. The government doesn't provide enough help for caregivers. I've been waiting for counselling to help me deal with the stress for almost a year. Still nothing.

I'm not an effective caregiver at the best of times. I'm small, not very strong, I have zero patience, I don't handle stress well - it makes my health problems worse - and I have OCD. Mum never listens to me, never has. If I tell her to do something she usually either ignores me or does the exact opposite, or complains that I'm nagging. What energy I've got is gone once I've cleaned out the fire, shovelled coal, done the laundry and washed the dishes, so everything else gets left. I feel like a hamster on a wheel, running like mad but getting nowhere. Wish I could take a day off.

[owensheart.livejournal.com]

Poor Jack, that episode made me so sad.

[bk_forever]

Me too. I so desperately wanted them to save the space whale, it was such a beautiful, noble, gentle creature. It deserved a better and kinder fate than the one it got, butchered to make someone a quick buck. I can imagine Jack taking all the money Dale and co had made and donating it anonymously to a charity protecting whales.

Thank you.

[asia27.livejournal.com]

A fitting end for that warehouse; but that poor creature never stood a chance. Jack did his best and he's got to realize that.

A very poignant drabble and beautifully written...

[bk_forever]

Thank you. Jack tries his best to save the innocent, but sometimes it's just not possible. Knowing that doesn't make it any easier to accept when you have to kill a beautiful, innocent creature that's simply been damaged too severely.

The warehouse needed to burn, to erase every trace of what had been done there.

[milady-dragon.livejournal.com]

I do really wish they'd been able to save the poor whale. Jack's empathy with it was so very sad.

[bk_forever]

At least you managed to save it! I console myself with thoughts of happy whale singing in the sea.

Jack's empathy really struck me during the episode, he really felt for the poor whale and wanted so badly to save it. =(

Thank you!

[jedi-harkness.livejournal.com]

Aw man, that episode always leaves me gutted.

Great drabble.

[bk_forever]

Me too. Poor space whale =(

Thank you!

[timelordshines.livejournal.com]

They did what they could for it.
Sometimes they just cant win.
It would have died knowing that at least someone cared.

[bk_forever]

That's the only comfort any of them had, knowing they'd freed it from suffering.

Thank you!

[black59.livejournal.com]

laughs
the picture is aahahahahahah

[bk_forever]

Thank You.