Torchwood - fic - Shot At Dawn, Jack & Tosh, PG
For persiflage_1
Title - Shot At Dawn
Author - laurab1
Characters - Jack & Tosh
Rating - PG
Length - 364 words
Spoilers - TW: 1.12 Captain Jack Harkness & 2.3 To The Last Man, DW: New Who to 3.11-13
Summary - “Those soldiers you told me about, they received posthumous pardons in 2006. You could have said that. Why didn’t you?”
Disclaimer: alas, none of these people are mine
Feedback is loved and appreciated :) Enjoy!
Shot At Dawn
by Laura
A couple of days after they’ve returned Tommy to 1918, and his fate, Tosh comes to him.
“Posthumous pardons, Jack,” she says, and hands him a pile of papers.
“Tosh...” he replies, and there’s a warning in there. Let it go, he’d tell her, if he believed he could do the same thing himself. And he knows he can’t.
“Those soldiers you told me about, they received posthumous pardons in 2006. You could have said that. Why didn’t you?”
He has to take a breath, pull out the memory. “Because they shouldn’t have had to receive them in the first place, Tosh. They were kids, and their nerves were shot to pieces by the never-ending war, nothing more than that.” He’d had the misfortune to witness just one dawn execution, and had promptly vomited, afterwards. The boy had been just seventeen. Some were even younger than that; so many underaged kids had faked their way into the Army.
“What about you, Jack?” she quietly asks. Tosh knows there’s something particular he’s keeping from her.
“Spent a while in Craiglockhart,” he tells her. “Don’t ask me why I ended up there, please.” Jack’s silent for a couple of minutes. “In the mid sixties, after the fifty years rule was up, and the war records started emerging, the executions became public knowledge. I threw my Torchwood weight behind the pardoning campaign.”
“Surely that wasn’t politically safe, Jack?” Tosh asks, wide-eyed.
“Hell, no, Tosh,” he says, laughing just a little at himself. “But doing the right thing was far more important than listening to Whitehall.”
“Tell me about the campaign, Jack,” Tosh says. Or, rather, orders. “Pour us some whisky and tell me.”
It’s the same look she had on her face when she held his hand in 1941. He had to obey her then, as well. “Yes, ma’am,” Jack says, and goes to fetch his decanter and two glasses.
He pours the whisky, and they talk. It’s actually rather good to tell someone, and let out just a little of far too many years of hurt, both his, and that of others. When they’re done, the two of them offer vague salutes to three hundred soldiers.
-end-
Note - Jack's time in Craiglockhart, and how he got there will be detailed in The Torchwood Girls
crosspost:
torch_wood
torchwood_fic
dwfiction
galactic_conman
jashiko_tw3
Teaspoon
Title - Shot At Dawn
Author - laurab1
Characters - Jack & Tosh
Rating - PG
Length - 364 words
Spoilers - TW: 1.12 Captain Jack Harkness & 2.3 To The Last Man, DW: New Who to 3.11-13
Summary - “Those soldiers you told me about, they received posthumous pardons in 2006. You could have said that. Why didn’t you?”
Disclaimer: alas, none of these people are mine
Feedback is loved and appreciated :) Enjoy!
Shot At Dawn
by Laura
A couple of days after they’ve returned Tommy to 1918, and his fate, Tosh comes to him.
“Posthumous pardons, Jack,” she says, and hands him a pile of papers.
“Tosh...” he replies, and there’s a warning in there. Let it go, he’d tell her, if he believed he could do the same thing himself. And he knows he can’t.
“Those soldiers you told me about, they received posthumous pardons in 2006. You could have said that. Why didn’t you?”
He has to take a breath, pull out the memory. “Because they shouldn’t have had to receive them in the first place, Tosh. They were kids, and their nerves were shot to pieces by the never-ending war, nothing more than that.” He’d had the misfortune to witness just one dawn execution, and had promptly vomited, afterwards. The boy had been just seventeen. Some were even younger than that; so many underaged kids had faked their way into the Army.
“What about you, Jack?” she quietly asks. Tosh knows there’s something particular he’s keeping from her.
“Spent a while in Craiglockhart,” he tells her. “Don’t ask me why I ended up there, please.” Jack’s silent for a couple of minutes. “In the mid sixties, after the fifty years rule was up, and the war records started emerging, the executions became public knowledge. I threw my Torchwood weight behind the pardoning campaign.”
“Surely that wasn’t politically safe, Jack?” Tosh asks, wide-eyed.
“Hell, no, Tosh,” he says, laughing just a little at himself. “But doing the right thing was far more important than listening to Whitehall.”
“Tell me about the campaign, Jack,” Tosh says. Or, rather, orders. “Pour us some whisky and tell me.”
It’s the same look she had on her face when she held his hand in 1941. He had to obey her then, as well. “Yes, ma’am,” Jack says, and goes to fetch his decanter and two glasses.
He pours the whisky, and they talk. It’s actually rather good to tell someone, and let out just a little of far too many years of hurt, both his, and that of others. When they’re done, the two of them offer vague salutes to three hundred soldiers.
-end-
Note - Jack's time in Craiglockhart, and how he got there will be detailed in The Torchwood Girls
crosspost:
torch_wood
torchwood_fic
dwfiction
galactic_conman
jashiko_tw3
Teaspoon