Okay so I finally got to see Aftershock the other day and it was an amazing episode…sad but amazing. Anyway I wanted to write something related to it… This is the first one but it probably will not be the last one I write about this episode. One other thing… I did not actually write this as Jack/Claire romance, but it can certainly be read that way if you wish…either way. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Law and Order or the characters

Spoilers: Aftershock

Life wasn't fair. He knew that. Hell, any five year old could tell you that. Most days he didn't mind. After all, if life was fair he and a lot of other people he knew would be out of a job. If life was fair people wouldn't get killed and people won't kill. The things he saw everyday proved that life wasn't fair. Most days he didn't mind it. Most days he could deal with the inequalities of the world, but today he couldn't. He wanted to scream or cry or do something to let the world know that this was not okay. It was okay for life to be unfair, but this was more than unfair…this was…

Jack couldn't even put words to what he was feeling. He wondered if anyone in his position could. What do you say when someone you know, someone you care about, gets ripped from you by a twisted turn of fate? There really were no words for it.

Jack felt a lump rise in his throat. Everyday he met people who had committed crimes. He met the victims of those crimes. He met the families of those victims. However it was not until now that he realized just how much it hurt of be on the other side of one of those crimes. Usually he was cool and detached, but today neither of those were an option because today wasn't about trying a case. There was no case to try.

The bastard had pleaded guilty and was given a measly ten years. Normally Jack would have seen someone pleading guilty as a good thing. It made the legal proceedings much simpler. However today he almost wished that the man had tried to maintain his innocence. After all it, was an open and shut case. If it went to court the guy would be convicted and probably receive a much higher sentence, but Jack was not in charge of this case so he did not get to make that call.

It just seemed that ten years was barely anything compared to the pain Jack was feeling right now. Of course he knew that there was nothing in the world that could take away his pain, but he was also pretty sure it would help to know that the bastard who caused it was going to spend the rest of his miserable life rotting in a jail cell…not that there was any court in the world that would give him a life sentence…the maximum was about twenty years, but even that was better than ten.

Ten years was just not enough for the life that was mercilessly snuffed out by his careless actions. Driving drunk was illegal for a reason…it was illegal because people can get killed. Everyone knew that and still this guy had chosen to get into his car a try to drive himself home from whatever bar he was at.

Jack wondered if the other man even considered the risks of his actions. It was unlikely…unlikely that this man had considered even for a fraction of a second that his stupid, reckless actions were about to take the life of a woman, who did not deserve to die. After all, if he had considered that he would not have done it…right? Jack found it hard to believe that there was anyone in the world who could be that selfish.

Thinking back to the night of the accident, he could still clearly see the whole scene. In fact, it was the only thing he could see when he closed his eyes. He could see a still intoxicated Lennie pacing aimlessly back and forth behind the police tape. He could see the driver of the other car sitting in the back of the ambulance. He could see the smashed car sitting in the middle of the street. He could see her. Her limp, bloody body was still in the driver's seat with her head tilted to one side. She was not moving. She was not breathing.

She was dead. The other driver had all of one cut on his forehead. He would walk away from this accident. Sure he would spend a little time in jail, but what was that in the grand scheme of things. In a decade he would be released and free to live his life as he pleased. She could not. She was gone from this world forever, and there was nothing that was going to bring her back. Her life had been taken, snuffed out.

Jack would never see her smiling back at him from her desk when he came into the office early in the morning. He would never see the sparkle of determination that she got in her eye when they were trying a case. He would never hear her laugh. He would never be able to talk to her at the end of a long day. He would never be able to experience those things again because she would never be able to experience anything again.

Everybody who had known her had lost something because of that one man's actions. Actually everyone had lost something with her death whether they had known her or not. After all, the world was a slightly darker place now. It was darker because an innocent woman died, while her killer walked away without a scratch. Nobody could benefit from that.

Jack could not take it anymore. The tears that had been hiding right below the surface started to run silently down his checks as he bent his head. No one was there to see him, but he would not have cared if the entire state of New York were watching. It did not matter to him. At that moment, all that mattered to him was the precious life that had been lost.

God or fate or destiny or whatever you chose to call it had taken her away, and all he had left was a hole in his heart.

A perfectly Claire shaped hole.

So did you like it? I'm not sure how the ending worked out in relation to the rest of the story but I think I liked it. Please review.