Spoiler alert: Out of Time
Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian
Jack was smitten with John and his old fashion values. Not in the way that he would seduce him, it was clear that he couldn't be reached like that, but in the way of friendship. He could understand John better than he could understand himself. His pride and his ways of viewing the world, expecting it to behave in an acceptable way that made sense, it was just adorable. He forgot how much he loved that era and the time that preceded it. Sure, things were horrible behind the door; there were so many prejudices, so many boundaries, but their belief in a world that complied with their commands, that they could predict the future made them innocent in their play of life. It was enjoyable to be near it once again, it was like time had bent and a younger him and a present him could enjoy it together, drinking a pint with a man that believed strongly in the world that he came from. It would be hard for him to adapt, he would have to break his beliefs to adjust himself to new surroundings but it could be done. He had done it many times to adapt to new circumstances. You had to leave a part of yourself behind to keep going, often that included the people that needed to be forgotten.
His clothes, suitcase, radio, his careful movements told him the story of that man's life. Of all the order and slow days, all the approval of his surrounding, the respect he earned. He was lucky to have that kind of life, shielded from the chaos of changing history around him. He held a strong grip on that life, on that future that he had foreseen for himself and those around him. It was hard for him to see what life had brought for his son. That was hard, Jack knew, maybe the hardest thing, to be forced to see all of demeaning outcomes that life brought to your children. It was merciful really to die when your children were still young enough that you could believe that they would have different destiny, that they wouldn't shrink when faced with life, that they wouldn't be defeated.
It was heartbreaking, but there was nothing he could do for John, he wouldn't let him. In his world John was obligated to do everything by himself, he was provider and caretaker, he deeply believed that. He couldn't accept the world where things didn't convey like they should, where everything he ever believed, he ever did was crushed by time, eaten like it had never been. Everything was useless, inutile. Jack could understand that feeling, he walked through it more times then he'd like to admit. He understood the solitude, the fear, the unknown rules and incomprehensible values. He was so used to standing alone in the middle of a changing world that he was apprehensive to someone else that was lost in time and left without anyone.
Jack needed him to overcome those obstacles, to sustain the pain and go on, but that was too much to ask. In the end he realized that, unlike him, John had a choice, and that he could simply die. He let him do it. He sat beside him inhaling smoke that wouldn't even grant him comfort of a temporary death. It took more and more to kill him. The other man died and, not for the first time, death seemed like a reward Jack couldn't receive. He hoped in that moment that Suzie was wrong, that there was something else besides darkness out there.