Fic: The Plumber's Tale (Valiant Tales)

[lindenharp]

Title: The Plumber's Tale
Series: Valiant Tales.  Read them in order here.
Rating: PG
Characters: The Master (Simm), Jack Harkness, other characters
Genre: drabble
Words: 100
Spoilers: Minor spoilers for The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords.
Summary: A series of drabbles about the people who lived, worked, and suffered on the Valiant during the Year That Never Was.
Disclaimer: I am not the BBC.  I am not making money from this.  (I am, however, having a great deal of fun.)
A/N: Thanks to wendymr  for being so agreeable about doing a late-night Brit-pick.


I'm a steam boiler engineer.  The arsehole guards call me 'the plumber'.  They can't 'discipline' the techs, but they've got ways to make life miserable for a bloke who works all over the ship.  Complaining would just make it worse.

The idiots joke about dripping taps.  Steam makes them think of kettles, but at 50 PSI steam becomes a different beast.  Today, Jack Harkness broke a pipe and aimed it at a guard.   The bastard's alive -- pity, that -- covered with second-degree burns.

I could have warned him: anything under pressure is always more dangerous when it gets loose.

Comments

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure you should underestimate the guilt that the Doctor feels over the Time War. For the other points, I agree, especially since the escape attempt occurs just a few days before the end of the Year. At this point, Jack has been killed hundreds of times.

Thanks for commenting.

[kensieg.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that Jack has more guilt than the Doctor. Only that he has as much. Personal guilt can be quite as debilitating as that resulting from a public source.

Jack's guilt over his brother and over surviving his comrade in arms is quite strong. Jack has survivor's guilt as well as the Doctor. He lost his home, his family and his first comrade in arms. Jack's guilt is a difference in degree not kind from the Doctor's.

Jack is as unmoored (Unstuck in Time) as the Doctor.