The Doctor called again. He was different - he always seemed to be different. Captain Jack Harkness answered the call of course, swept once more into the Doctor's inertia and the expanse of the TARDIS. His locker was still there, although his things seemed to number somewhat fewer than they had before (seriously, who the hell took his squareness gun?). All in all, it was a grand thing to be back, to be useful, and to be important to his sometimes-mentor.
The adventure matters little. Oh, it meant a great deal to the universe - although as usual, the universe would never truly understand the extent of its own peril. But to this story, the relevant detail was Jack's sideways slip into the 'nothing' between realities. For enough hours to count as 'days' to Earth, Jack did not exist. Not in the way things with good solid grounding in our reality exist. Or in any other, for that matter.
That part wasn't pleasant at all. It was literal hell. But the homecoming rather made up for it. This time, Jack not only had someone waiting for him 'back home,' he had someone literally watching for the registry of his existence. The door of the TARDIS swung inward on Mermaid Quay - in need of a fuel-up after that by-the-skin-of-our-teeth (and maybe a little seat-of-our-pants) escape.
And there was an unremarkable man in a pale overcoat with an expression somewhere between a bonfire and a thunderclap.
"WHERE WERE YOU." Castiel demanded, in a voice that could shake the foundations of a small village a millennia ago. Here and now, with good solid Cardiff beneath his feet, it could almost have been confused with the vibration of traffic. Still impressive, really.
Jack glanced at the Doctor, who regarded Castiel with consternation. Castiel regarded the Doctor in turn, stonily - maybe a little accusatory - in utter disregard for the Chameleon Circuit which should have been shielding the whole works. He was, after all, still in the doorway.
"Yep," Jack said cheerfully, "this is my stop. Cas, this is the Doctor."
"I know who he is," Castiel replied, in a tone clearly unimpressed with his existence. Jack might have been irritated - hell, he could easily have been pissed - but he was just too glad to be home and alive and find Castiel so worried about him (hello, ego) to care too much.
"Jack-?" The Doctor asked, sounding a bit uncertain. He'd left Jack behind in plenty of scrapes, but seemed unusually reluctant to abandon him to the tender mercies of an angry angel of the Lord.
Jack waved him off. "Can't stay, things to do." And because the wariness was still there between them, Jack swatted him on the shoulder and launched himself out of the thick blue door. "Don't worry about me. What's the worst he could POSSIBLY do to me?"
"Don't give me an opening," Castiel threatened. He stood rooted to the pavement, inanimate as a lamppost until Jack slung an arm around his neck, at which point Castiel came violently, explosively to life. The Doctor lingered for a moment - probably just to make sure Jack wasn't about to be kissed to death (again). Then - quietly - the TARDIS door closed.
Jack was more than a little sorry that he'd missed his chance to say goodbye. But somehow, he doubted it would have been a forever kind of goodbye. To be honest, with all the people hanging around long-term these days, he was getting a bit spoiled.
"Miss me?" Jack teased Castiel.
Castiel glared up at him. "Ask that again at your peril."
Jack kissed him a second time, with just as much enthusiasm and just a little more heat than before. The Doctor wasn't watching now and it was, after all, better than earning a smiting.
This time, anyway.