Just a little Jack/Erica something. I've wanted to write a short one-shot with them for a while and this kind of came into my head, so I gave it a shot. Reviews are very much welcomed! :)
There was cost to everything.
Father Jack Landry had learned the hard way that this was true. Every decision was a trade-off. They had gained contacts in the mothership and Ryan's life had been saved, but they had lost Georgie. They had lost the man who had the least to loose and even that cut deep. What if they lost another person, one who had a bit more to live for?
They had traded the life of a high-school science teacher for an assassin. Jack had never meant for that to happen. He never wanted it to happen, but it did, and he would never forget the feeling of his heart dropping out when he arrived in Alex's father's room to tell him what happened to his son. But there would be more casualties before this was all over. He was constantly reminded of it. Jack hated it when Hobbes said that.
They had even traded something for Kyle Hobbes, although they didn't realize it at first. They needed someone like him to get things done. He made their Resistance legitimate. But Jack had never met someone like him. Someone who was so cold and efficient that he didn't seem to even feel anything. Hobbes was the closest thing Jack had ever seen to a V. Everything about him was calculated. In gaining Hobbes, they had traded away their integrity. They now had someone to do their dirty work, to do those things that "decent people" had to leave the room for. Jack despised it. He hated that side of things.
They had been forced to make decisions that Jack never wanted to face again. Most of the trade-offs just blurred together in his mind and he was almost glad for it. But there was one that he wished he could change. One he wished he could go back to and stop from ever happening.
It was her. It was always her, right from the very beginning. She was the one who made him want to fight. Before, he was just a guy with a package of pictures that he didn't understand. She gave him a direction. And when he wanted to walk away and pretend all this never happened, she was there to set him straight.
And now she wasn't.
It hurt every day. Even now that they had won. Even now that the V's had left and the war had been won, it was too difficult to think about. Tyler was okay and Jack made sure to check in on him every once in a while. He was despondent most of the time, but was slowly getting over it.
Jack, however, was stuck running in circles. He should've stopped her from going. There hadn't been any time. He tried to convince himself of that. She hadn't told anyone her plan. She had wanted to save the world and she had succeeded. Jack had never guessed and he blamed himself for that. He wanted her back more than anything in the whole world. If he had just said something, if he had just pried that little bit more, maybe she would still be here.
But then again, maybe they would still be here too.
Everything had a cost. He just didn't understand why it had to be her.