Rec: Mother Knows Best by Wish Wielder

[dark-aegis.livejournal.com]

Story: Mother Knows Best
Author: Wish Wielder
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 26,216
Author's summary: When Jackie makes a flippant comment in the presence of an alien artifact, she wakes up to find her entire world flipped around – and not in the good way. There’s only one man – well, alien – she knows who could possibly fix it, and she’s just wished him out of their lives.
Characters/Pairings: Jack Harkness, Jackie Tyler, Martha Jones, Mickey Smith, Pete Tyler, Rose Tyler, The Doctor (10th), The Doctor (9th)
Warnings: none

Recced because: I adore stories that delve into the intricacies of 'what if' and toying with time. This one is a true gem. It starts with the premise of Jackie wishing for one thing, one thing only: That Rose Tyler never met the Doctor. From that moment on, it hits the ground running. It's an engrossing, well-written story and it contains one of my absolute favourite characterisations of Jackie Tyler in fan fiction.



“It’s not worth it, sweetheart,” she said. They both started and looked at her, eyes wide. “The Doctor’s an amazing man, I’ll give him that, but I’ve seen what loving him like Rose does will do to you.”

“What?” Martha asked, her forehead scrunching as she watched her. She was caught in Jackie’s stare; the woman looked so torn, caught between happiness for her daughter and wanting something better for her. Something that didn’t put her life in danger. Jackie smiled weakly and sighed.

“It breaks your heart. It only breaks your heart,” she said.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

I've read this now, and I think it would appeal more to hardcore Doctor/Rose shippers than others. I do like the way that Jackie is shown to be loving Pete and missing his absence, but I was hoping for her to be a bit more proactive, rather than having everything resolved by deus-ex-machina. Certain things don't make sense. I know that most of the point of the story is to say how much worse off everyone is if the Doctor didn't meet Rose, but I think the changes would have been more wide-ranging than they were, especially with regard to Jack. Besides the wish-fulfilment ending, I think this would appeal mainly to Doctor/Rose shippers because the characterisations of the other companions seem to be a bit "off".

[dark-aegis.livejournal.com]

I didn't find the other characters OOC at all, but that is, of course, my opinion. I enjoyed the story and I don't count myself as a "hardcore Doctor/Rose shipper", though I like the pairing. What I really enjoyed about it was the focus on Jackie. But, as I said, this is my opinion, though you may disagree.

[kerravonsen]

But of course you enjoyed the story! You wouldn't have recced it otherwise.

(ooh, I *love* your icon! Such fun.)