John Camden
From FitzyWiki
Born 19th November, 1965, Jack Camden dated Claire Fitzwilliam from 1982 to 1984. Each made a lasting impression on the other's life.
Jack never knew his father, and Jack's mother, Lindsay, never told him anything about the man, other than that he was allegedly a layabout (he wasn't--he was a sailor from Scotland). Lindsay loved Jack as a baby. She had relocated to Edinburgh before her pregnancy, and raised Jack there until he was five or six. Because by the time Jack had reached toddlerhood and was not a cute baby getting all the attention in crowds (he was a very, very chubby, adorable baby), Lindsay had lost interest in parenting and began to abuse him.
She dated, and let her boyfriends toy with her son, as well. An incident at his school, where Jack hit another girl and said it was only a game, alerted his teachers to the abuse, and Lindsay fled before charges could be filed.
They relocated to Spitalfields and lived in a beaten down council flat while Lindsay "worked" (did and sold drugs) and Jack made half-hearted attempts at going to school. Around the age of ten or eleven, he was exposed to London's SEX shop through groups of friends he had slowly begun to made (not yet out of his baby fat, he was more of a tagalong than a member). By the time he turned thirteen, he had grown and thinned and shaved his hair into a colorful mohican. The people he tagged along with had become his friends, and soon he was at the center of his own groups of friends due to his fearless nature in a fight and love of music.
His closest friend at the time was stabbed and killed with Jack as a witness, which hardened the last soft edges he had.
He was rarely at home.
His mother was a monster. She slept with different men out in the open, and even allowed Jack to be molested. As he started getting more mature, she took an interest in her own son, likely around the time she became aware that he was doing drugs, too. Drink was his favorite thing, though he never turned into the alcoholic addict of his mother.
At around fifteen, he began to cultivate the reputation that would define him for the next few years. He had a wall covered in phone numbers, would sleep with multiple partners in one night, and bounced from girl to girl like bags of crisps.
He attended St. Mary's, though barely went to class (this was a theme amongst many of the students). After school, to earn a living that would take him away from his mother, he worked at a local mechanic shop (Third Street Garage) and found mentors and father figures in the three older men running the place, Bob Stanwood, Arthur Bowne and (especially) Walter Dering. For a boy of his age, he was quite dedicated and also quite good--but it may have had something to do with the fact that he had such a miserable to non-existent homelife and friends who weren't friends at all (the core three he hung around, other than Melanie, were Roman, Thom, and George--Roman had an infant son).
His red Trans Am (nicknamed Lucky) was his prized possession, as was his leather jacket covered in patches and pins and words.
In November 1982, he met Claire Fitzwilliam while breaking up with Melanie for the dozenth time. Tranfixed by the blonde, he urged her to go out with him just once. But Claire was a girl comfortably set in her virginity and not interested in dating. However, using more words than he would use in the years to come (he rarely spoke), he convinced her to come out with him just once, on a half date, and see that he wasn't so bad.
He thought for sure he'd be nailing her, though there was certainly something about her that was more interesting than the other one night stands. However, when they went out for ice cream together, and Claire chattered and eventually told him that she wasn't interested in serious relationships, that she wasn't going to have sex, and that she had a career, Jack deflated a little. But only a little. Whatever she had said, he didn't seem to care. He nodded and agreed and they began to date slowly.
At which point he realized she was serious.
But still, for about two years they saw each other daily, becoming virtually inseparable. He even thought of himself marrying her, having children with her. She was an escape. The only good point he had ever experienced in his life. He needed her as much as she needed him, and probably several degrees more. He got food at her home and was babied by her mother. He got showers. He got a bed to sleep in, even if he had to wait a year and a half to have sex.
Lindsay became oddly jealous, lashing out at her son on many occasions, often forcing him to take refuge at Claire's house. She was vaguely intent on having Claire turn away from Jack.
In 1983, he formed a band with some of his partners in crime, much to Claire's dismay. Though the group was relatively short-lived, they did perform on a few occasions and were probably not all that bad. Still, conflict within the group, specifically with Jack's core group of friends, Thom, George and Roman, about Claire's involvement in Jack's life prompted far too much animosity and the band went cold.
But Jack was still a punk with a volatile temper that Claire often saw manifested on his person in bruises and dried blood after he was out fighting. She had once made him promise never to fight again, but he broke it to defend her (in a twisted sort of way) and landed himself with a three year prison term.
Prison was where he always expected to end up. He had failed his love and in failing her, lost her. After an incident involving a telephone call (he couldn't stand hearing her crying and begging for him to come back, as there was nothing he could do), they never spoke again. Jack attempted suicide by hanging himself, but Claire had dug through her recently deceased grandmother's things and quietly made him immortal after a car accident and his snapped neck healed instantly.
Three years in Wormwood Scrubs saw him grow taller and bulk up. When he was released, Claire was gone. His mother had got rid of his things and his new motorbike, which he bought shortly before his sentence began. He had nowhere to go and was too nervous to ask Ruth and Charlie where Claire was.
He went back to working at the garage until he had enough funds saved to move away from the city. Despite the fact that he was only in his early twenties, he no longer cared much for the lifestyle he had left outside the prison walls.
Losing the brightest light, but still seeing her face and name in the papers, was a heavy burden. So he stopped paying attention. He moved out to Ludlow and started a mechanic shop there. He had no relationships and his only real friendship, aside from the employees, was with his tattoo artist, Tony, and Tony's family. Tony was told about Claire when Jack got drunk one third of the month (their old anniversary).
But time has helped heal the worst wounds, and he's moved on without her just as she has moved on without him.
Prose
Adage: Claire and Jack's relationship
