For Better Or Worse (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

You're Not Him.

Jack woke up on his bed, with the comforting feeling of the Doctor rubbing his shoulders and back. It was the perfect combination of intimate and respectful, and Jack leaned into it.

As he paid more attention to it, he noted that the Doctor was writing in Gallifreyan. He didn't know the language well enough to know what he was tracing with his fingers on him, but he hoped it was something positive.

The Doctor noticed that Jack had woken up, but didnt say anything when he saw how much he was comforted by the Gallifreyan words traced onto his shoulders. He wrote random words and letters at first, but progressed unto phrases and sentences. At one point he traced the lyrics to an old love ballad.

After several minutes of this silent interaction, the Doctor cleared his throat. This was nice, and he was glad he could help, but they needed to talk about Jack's reaction just a few hours ago.

Jack clenched his eyes in response, anxiety rising about the conversation that was about to happen.

He sighed, and sat up. "Franklin," he said, a blank statement delivered with a scratchy voice. He kept his eyes closed, and his face towards the floor. He was next to the Doctor, but avoided eye contact with him.

"What?" The Doctor asked, quietly. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to such a bare statement. "Who's Franklin?"

Jack took a while before responding. He weighed his words as if they were anchors he was tying to himself. Should I tell him? I want to...but how? A plethora of problems and possibilities tore through the front of brain.

"Jack?" The Doctor prompted, concerned with his companion's deadly silence. So much had happened in such a short window of time, it was hardly fair to press him for answers about the past. Time is a mess, so 'past' is irrelevant, but still.

Jack wiped his eyes, he didn't like being weak. He sniffed and raised his head a little more. "Franklin was my father- if you could even call him that. He used do..things to Gray and me. He sighed. Nevermind, not important, forget about that last part." Jack added quickly, too embarrassed to put into words what had been done to him.

At this, the Doctor's expression of concern deepened. His eyebrows furrowed. Was all of this- all of the blood, the cuts, the breakdowns, the near deaths of both of them- because of his father? And whoever Gray was?

Trying to stay calm, The Doctor asked a question he dreaded the answer to. "Jack, what do you mean? Who's Gray? What did your father do?" His voice was shaking slightly with a mix of fear and anger towards Jack's so-called father.

Jack's breathing became more labored as he fought back memories. "Gray was my little brother. I lost him when we were running away from these aliens, I went too fast. I couldn't find him, Doctor. Years later, I looked again for him. I wish I hadn't. He was insane, he had been tortured for so long, he was broken. He hated me. He was almost as bad as..him. I failed him." Jack's voice was breaking by the end.

The Doctor was stunned into silence for several minutes. How do you even reply to something like that?

"Jack, I really need you to tell me about your father," the Doctor pressed cautiously. He knew he couldn't force it, shouldn't force it, but there was so much he needed to know.

"My father...My father doesn't matter. He's dead. Killed by those monsters that stole my brother. I wasn't there when he died, so I never got to see him pay. He was terrible. A monster to me, would have been the same to Gray, but I always protected him as best as I could. Sometimes it wasn't enough. I just wasn't enough." Jack stated all of this with an almost deadpan voice, but cracks of emotion leaked through, especially when he mentioned Gray.

The Doctor was growing more and more frustrated. He didn't know what he couldn't protect Jack from, and he didn't know how to protect him. "Jack," the Doctor said, with urgency in his tone, "what did your father do? Please, trust me so I can help you!"

At this Jack started to laugh. "Doctor, you couldn't help me if you had been in the room when it happened." His chuckle was dark, and wistfully bitter. "When I was growing up with him, there was no help, no rescue. There was just him, the bottle, and constant pain. I have been called every name under every sun, just by him. The reason I'm so damn promiscuous is him teaching me at age 10. Is that enough information Doctor? Do you want more details about being fucked by your own father? How about lessons on dodging beer bottles? Is that enough?" Jack was practically screaming, the amount of built up emotion in him soaring over his walls, flooding the distance between them like a tsunami.

Of course, staying in the theme of the past hour, the Doctor had no reply. There is no way to reply to that, nothing anybody could say to make it better. Jack had been through so. much. And he could do nothing about it.

"Was that enough?!" Jack yelled again. He wanted an answer, but there was none.

"I'm so sorry, Jack. I had no clue. And I'm so sorry that I can't do anything about it. I would go back, but I can't risk a paradox.. especially with your immortalality...the universe itself would be fundamentally changed. I don't know what to do." The Doctor rambled on, because there was really nothing else to do.

"I know. I didn't want to tell you, because there's no goddamn point. What happened, happened. And I am stuck with the consequences. Listen, Doc, I know you didn't mean for anything to happen, you didn't know what you were in for, so I'm sorry for blowing up on you. You're not him. I know you're not him." Jack cooled down throughout his speech. He knew, but he couldn't forget.

The Doctor closed his eyes and rubbed his palms over his lids. That was the best compliment he could get from Jack. His desire to fix Jack Harkness was fueld to an inferno, and there was nothing in time and space that could stop him.

The Doctor wasn't him, and he would be damned if he let him get away with what he'd done.

He was the Doctor, it was his job to fix things.

A/N: I'm going to keep updating this story, but it might be slow. Give me feedback if you'd like me to focus on this fic more, or if you have input!

P.S. this is what Gray looks like, I didn't make him up.

And this is Franklin. He really wasn't a bad guy.