AN: Torchwood and Doctor Who are not mine – all the characters are RTD's except my OC's…and RTD's a Serious Big Blue Meanie! Don't really know where this one came from – but just go with me here.

Summary: In present day mythology, a doppelganger is someone different that looks just like you. Jack has seen many in his time that looked like others he knew in the past…he just never thought he'd see him again. – Set five years after CoE.

Torchwood: Doppelgangers

Chapter One: Prologue

Near the village in the Brecons, there were a series of crevasses and underground caves that opened jaggedly across the flat plains…some kept their secrets well. Others disgorged them to the outside world to deal with.

Welsh authorities discovered human remains near one such crevasse. Seven years after the Cannibal incident, the discovery hit the media. Everyone was tired five years after the 456 incident of fearing destruction coming from the skies; they preferred instead to hear the gory details of humans gone mad in their back garden. Family members of the victims of the Cannibals wanted closure; an ability to bury their dead, if possible.

So, a call went out for experienced climbers, cave explorers and spelunkers for the purpose of mapping the cave and crevasse system and the collection of any remains. Another call went out…to Torchwood. They had been rebuilt after the debacle the government created destroying them. The Crown reinstated Torchwood and gave Torchwood 3 control status over the Institute/Archive located in Scotland and Torchwood London. Since Jack had failed to return, Gwen Williams was named 'Director' until the Captain's return. The Hub in the Plass was rebuilt and the new Government and UNIT were given a simple warning: Stand in Torchwood's way, try to destroy them again – and they'd all look like they'd died in their sleep.

Gwen brought in Lois Habiba and Martha Milligan. Martha brought in Mickey Smith and a Jackson Devereaux formerly of UNIT. They ran the Hub well. Myfanwy was killed in the explosion, but an egg was found in her nest – and after 4 months of nervous waiting – a new pteradon flew proudly overhead. Mickey named it Spero…the Latin word for 'hope'.

And so, two years previous, five years to the day of his departure, Captain Jack Harkness returned. For him though, it had been much longer – a few decades. He met up again with The Doctor – and between the pair they had many adventures…but his conscious kept telling him it was time to return…to come home. He listened only because the voice had a certain Welsh lilt and timber that he knew he would never hear again.

He was still a broken man…he ran as far and as fast as he could before The Doctor stumbled across him on some far flung world, but he couldn't banish the guilt. A line of a poem ran constantly through his mind every time he made planetfall on a different world, a poem Ianto liked: He saw, but not as one that wakes, the city that he sought. He had escaped from London town, but not from his own thought. Ianto was gone, Steven died at his own hand and his daughter wished him every evil in the universe. And he was going to live forever…whether he wanted to or not.

He knocked on the Tourist Information Office door hesitantly. He almost walked away because he couldn't bear the thought of not seeing Ianto Jones perched behind the counter in one of his impeccable three piece suits, a claret red silk shirt and matching striped tie. Ianto…

Just as he was about to turn away, the door flew open and Jack found his arms filled with two women who tugged him into the office and promptly shut the door. Gwen and Martha both were crying, hanging onto Jack as if their lives depended on it. Jack, in turn, began to cry himself. Long ago he thought he had lost the ability to cry…but these two beautiful women that meant a great to him made him realize it was time to let ghosts rest. It was time to forgive himself and remember the good times with the wonderful gift that was Ianto Jones.

And maybe…he could live again.