And now, a few afterthoughts I have about this story.

Family Issues has a special place in my heart because I started working on it during a very hard period in my life. It was when my own parents were getting separated, and my siblings and I were going through our own personal crises on top of that. Mine being that I had been laid off my job and I was unsure of what would happen in my life, or if I would ever manage to do anything of my life.

I suppose that is the reason why I wanted this story to reflect Jack's journey into being an adult, and into being self sufficient. I wanted a character development for him that felt real. I feel like all too many fics skip on the growing part of him. It's easier to go "he gave up on Wu hunting and decided to grow up and do his own thing", and I suppose when the story you want to tell is something that happens after he has matured, that's a fair tactic.

But I wanted to see him grow. I wanted him to find the reasons to grow up and see the strength developing in him. Because there is a lot of pain in growing up. The pain in dealing with his mother's alcoholism, the pain of a distant father, the pain of his childhood ghosts. It is all stuff that we deal with in our way through life.

"They aren't bad people, just bad parents." I think that is the spirit of the story. Jack's parents aren't bad people. They love him just as much as any parent loves their child. But they ARE bad parents. His father is distant and cold, constantly avoiding having to face how much his family was falling apart. It was only when he felt the pressure of his imminent death that he reached out to look for Jack, and try to find a way to steer him into a path that would help him grow.

His mother too hurt him with her love. In my language there is a saying that goes: "So much the devil loved his son, that he clawed off his son's eyes." Which is exactly what happened to Jack and his mom. She loves him completely, absolutely, overwhelmingly. She loves him so much that she doesn't realize how her love is asphyxiating him. And of course he loves her so much that he endures the pain he feels from her violent outbursts from her alcoholism, from her overprotection... Their relationship was full of love, and incredibly toxic. I think that's true for a lot of toxic relationships though. Sometimes a toxic person isn't someone out to hurt you, but someone hurting you despite how much they love you.

Sometimes we hurt those we love. Despite our best intentions, despite the truth of our love. It's a very harsh truth, not only when you realize the person you love is hurting you, but also when you are the one who inflicts the pain. There is a very knee jerk reaction when that happens. "I love them! I do this because it's the best for them!" always refusing to accept that overprotection is worse than letting people experience pain. Because we grow through pain. The pain of disappointment, the pain of loss, of fear, and despair. Strength grows in us every time we are defeated.

One aspect that I think I failed at, was Chase and Jack's relationship. They are my OTP and I really wanted them to smooch and hit it off, but it never felt like the right moment. Near the end I came to a point where I really wanted to push them together, but I felt like that would have been too forced and would have betrayed the spirit of the story. They had their own journeys, and their own monsters to fight.

Chase's relationship with his dead mother was one that I didn't really plan for (and I'm someone who does A LOT of planning for my stories) so seeing it developing organically in the story was a pleasant surprise. Especially because it developed in complete opposition to Jack's relationship with his mother. Chase's mother was the complete opposite to Jack's mom: a cold, detached figure that never managed to fix her relationship with Chase in life. And so, even in death, parents still manage to love their children. I don't know how true it is. But I feel it true myself.

There was a lovely comment by Harrison Orion Black that got me thinking a little about the events of this fic. It said the following: "I can see this is the path that lead him to one day becoming a ruthless businessman that no longer has time for 'childish adventures'. Or perhaps this is what happened in the timeline where he became the ruler of the world"

This story was an exploration of the pain that Jack goes through in his dysfunctional family. But it is also an exploration of how he grows through it. An exploration of how hard it is to take that pain and sadness and keep going. Of how growth in life comes from a lot of things going wrong. And of course I chose to take this story towards a happy ending, because that is the story I wanted to tell.

But maybe, in another universe, in another timeline, the events happened differently. Maybe, in another timeline, Jack's father overestimated the time he had left. Maybe he kept putting off going to see Jack and making sure he met the professor. Maybe he got caught up in the day to day toll of work. He thought he had more time than he did, and never wrote the letters. Never made sure there was someone there to guide Jack and his mom during the worst moments. In this timeline, Jack's mom had to deal with everything while Jack saw the meaninglessness of the showdowns, but had nothing else to cling to in life.

He might have defeated Chase in this timeline. Or maybe not yet. Maybe he stayed with his mother as she struggled to keep everything from falling apart, even though the cracks left on her heart from her husband's death deepened. Maybe he saw her drink more and more. Wasting away before his eyes. And in this timeline, he didn't have enough strength left to ask her to get help, and to hold everything together while she recovered.

Either way, in this timeline, he had to go through two funerals, and then come back to an empty house. Alone.

That does sound like enough to arrive to an episode known as "Time After Time: Part I", where Jack has conquered the world.

But that is not the story I wanted to tell.

Because even though we are not perfect…Most of the time we're not even good… And yet despite that, we still take good decisions sometimes.

And sometimes those decisions are enough for a happy ending.