This is one of the drabbles that I wrote a little while ago on my LiveJournal. There's a matching one that Orrien wrote but that she refuses to put up on FFN, called Time after Time, which is a 500 word reflection on how the Doctor feels about Jack. Both drabbles were written as challenges for each other, but it was harder to stick to exactly 500 words than I thought it would be. All the same, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC, particularly the representations of Nine and Ten. Eleven isn't the Doctor portrayed by Matt Smith, but the creation of templremus1990, as are some of the assistants mentioned. The rest of the assistants are my creation. Twelve is the Doctor as represented in The Scarf Warriors' fics and Thirteen equally the creation of Orrien, as portrayed in her fics under the penname Flinch-Hayward and in some of my other fics. However, some inspiration was taken from templremus1990's fics "Lives Lived in Hope" and "Thirteen".

That disclaimer was nearly as long as the drabble.

It was Ten that had made him fall in love. Nine had made him curious, but not in the same way. Nine was just a little too introverted; a man who kept too many secrets and told too many lies – in a way, a man that was too much like Jack himself.

Ten had something incredibly childlike about him – a cheeky grin, a wink and a knowing little smirk coupled with twinkling eyes. And a cracking fashion sense, Jack wouldn't hesitate to add. At the same time, the intelligence that blazed behind those eyes both scared and intrigued him – all the more so because hardly anything scared Jack. The Doctor did. The Doctor always had, and rightly so. Ten was zealous and passionate, with a spitfire personality that would have made even the Time Agency proud.

Twelve he scarcely knew, and Eleven not at all, though he heard wistful tales of the many companions he had travelled with back in those days – Alex, Steven, Harvey, Gallen, Lucent, Ix; the list went on. Judging by the stories he was told, Jack guessed Eleven to be open and warm, the sort of man who naturally drew people towards himself. He sounded like the life of the party. Jack would have liked to meet him; he often wondered why he never had.

Twelve only visited twice, but he made a lasting impression – calm, reserved and sensible, with a spectacular sense of companionship. Twelve was more like a father than anything else, taking sheer pride in those who became almost his adoptive children. Perhaps that was why he hadn't stayed – Jack wasn't the sort to respond to being treated like a child, particularly seeing as by this point he was older than the Doctor. Twelve also claimed that Jack had no appreciation for good music, which Jack refuted, but the conversations that the two shared were memorable.

Thirteen made him fall in love all over again.

There was something about that familiar-unfamiliar grin, that buzz of excitement, that zing of boundless energy – a man as bright as his ginger hair. Thirteen was nothing short of intense, an impatient man who wanted to see all that the universe had to offer before his time ran out. Thirteen was the man who took him back, who showed him everything, who made Jack right again without even meaning to. Thirteen was the one who got them both caught in an impossible situation, who faced the end with a fantastic smile plastered on his face, even as he sent Jack home. Even as Jack was dragged back through the vortex screaming for his Doctor.

It was Thirteen that Jack mourned four millennia before he lost him. It was the memory of Thirteen that kept Jack going, that kept him with a brave smile on his face. Jack watched over the Earth knowing that Thirteen no longer could.

Fourteen was an impossible man, as Jack was wont to repeat during both arguments and simple conversations. Jack loved impossible things.