Jack Donaghy, Meet Sally Draper: When FacFic Gets Creepily Creative

February 20, 2010

FanFic creeps me out– I don’t want to read poorly written, sex-crazed stories about Harry & Ginny, Bella & Jacob, or any other fictional pop culture couple. But, when this particular piece of fan fiction from Live Journal blogger lz1982 hit my Google Reader, I couldn’t help but check it out.

In “The Sins of the Fathers,” lz1982 imagines Sally Draper and Jack Donaghy meeting at a MoMA art exhibit in 1990 when Sally is 36 and Jack is 31. As Jack is a newly appointed Microwaves Division head that is newly separated from his uppity first wife and Sally is a freewheeling Montessori teacher, the match is, as they say, made in heaven.

I have to admit that this fanfic actually made me want to read it–and not just because of the creepily creative plot. Lz1982’s language is vivid, a bit raunchy, and completely engrossing, and her ability to capture both characters’ already established quirks is impressive. To get a taste of what I mean, I’ve listed some of my favorite parts after the jump.

After Sally & Jack’s first meeting:

“Sally turned out to be an English teacher at a Montessori school on the Upper West Side, but this slightly unpleasant revelation was not enough to make Jack reconsider. She wrote her phone number on the back of a Zabar’s receipt that she unearthed from her pocketbook. When he got home, Jack filed the number in his address book under “Contacts, Pleasure.”

Jack’s realization that Sally is Don Draper’s daughter:

“Oh my God,” Jack said. “Your father isn’t–”

“Don Draper,” Sally said. “Oh no, don’t tell me.”

In response, Jack stood up, dusting off his pants, and pulled a book off one of the shelves lining the room. Zen and the Ad Man, by Don Draper. Copyright 1981, a little late for that kind of gender-specific language, which was one of the things Jack loved about it.

“We read this in Harvard Business School,” he told Sally as she joined him. “It changed the way I thought about everything.”

Don giving business advice to Jack:

“Maybe that’s the problem.” Draper leaned forward. “Today’s woman, she grew up in the 50s and 60s, right? Her mother stayed home, had dinner on the table every night, and her idea of a shortcut was, what–not cleaning her own chicken? Now, our mother today, she goes to work for eight hours, her kids come home to an empty house, she tells herself she’s fine with it, because–she’s liberated. But the truth is, every time she puts that TV dinner in, hears the little ding on the microwave, it’s like a message from her conscience telling her she’s a bad mother. Not that she is one, but that’s what she thinks. So what you’re really asking is, ‘How do I make her stop thinking that?’ “

Other plot points include Sally meeting Jack’s (awesome) mother Colleen, a couple of steamy bedroom scenes, and learning the fates of Don and Betty Draper. Check out the full fanfic here.