Prologue:

"Don't."

Lost in his grief as he watched Ianto slip away from him, Jack abruptly felt every hackle he possessed stand on end. Given his experience, he was fully aware when the flow of time changed around him and right now it had come to a halt. His skin prickled as he lifted his head to look around a little wildly, hoping against hope that the Doctor had arrived in the nick of time and was doing something that might save the man Jack abruptly realised he loved more than honour, life or morality.

There was no sign of the familiar blue box or the lanky frame of the Timelord. Instead there was a woman standing just to one side of him. She was spectacular for her sheer ordinariness. Average height, mid-brown hair cut in a non-descript style, pale blue eyes and slightly plump figure. Clothes that looked like something an ordinary housewife would wear. Utterly, perfectly ordinary in every way, standing in the middle of a room where the atmosphere was lethal to humans, and her very ordinariness made her extraordinary.

She smiled at him kindly. "Hello, Jack."

Jack blinked, wondering if he had momentarily lost his mind and was hallucinating. He was distracted as he felt Ianto shift in his grasp and couldn't hold back the harsh, shuddering breath he pulled in when he saw that Ianto no longer looked like he was dying. He looked like he was asleep instead but he failed to respond when Jack shook him frantically.

"He won't wake up right now," the woman said gently. "He's caught between one heartbeat and another and quite safe for the moment."

"He's… we're… dying," Jack whispered.

"In this timeline, yes, you are," the woman said calmly.

It took a minute, which Jack spent staring down at the face he had realised far too late that he loved to distraction and would do anything to keep safe. Something eventually clicked inside his head and he lifted his head to stare at her suspiciously. "In this timeline?" he echoed, making it a question. When she nodded, giving him an encouraging smile, he gave her a hopeful look. "Did the Doctor send you?"

A shadow passed across her face and she shook her head. "No, he didn't send me. I came because of you."

Jack ignored the stab of disappointment he felt at the fact that the Doctor wasn't coming and confusion soon pushed it aside. "I don't understand. I don't know you?" Despite his conviction, he ended his statement on a questioning note.

Again the wave of sadness passed across her face but the smile she gave him was soft and gentle. "You don't remember me," she explained, "but our paths crossed once, long ago, and you did me a tremendous service, at great personal cost to yourself. You lost your memories but you saved an entire reality, Jack, and I promised that I would be here when you needed me the most."

Jack's eyes widened. "I lost two years of my memories…"

The woman – being – inclined her head. "Yes, you did. Partly to save you from being the focus for revenge and partly because you learned things that made you a danger to the Timelords and the Time Agency. If your memories had been left intact they would have come after you."

"You? You were the one who took my memories?" Jack demanded. "I thought it was the Time Agency!"

"No, they would have extracted what they wanted to know and then they would have killed you. You had already shown yourself to be able to throw off their conditioning when they demanded that you act too far outside your true nature. When they caught up with you and realised what had happened, they thought to keep you close and work on seeing if they could retrieve the memories but you had broken their conditioning and escaped them."

A proud smile curved her lips and Jack felt the warmth of her proud gaze. "My marvellous Captain. The saviour of my universe. I didn't have the time to give you what you wanted then as I had to go back and stabilise what had been rescued, but I marked you and swore I would come when you needed me most. This is that moment."

Jack caught his breath again and returned his attention back to Ianto's still form. "Can you save him?" he begged.

"I can save you both, but with a condition."

Jack gave her a mirthless smile. "There's always a price."

She inclined her head. "I would consider it a condition but it is true that I am asking you to give something up." She leaned a little closer and placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. He was surprised at the level of warmth that seeped through the layers of clothing. "I can save Ianto and banish the 456 from the Earth. I can also free you from your curse of immortality."

"What?" Jack's head snapped up as he stared at her incredulously. "But the Doctor said-"

She snorted, a scowl replacing the fond smile she had had on her face. "The Doctor is not half as clever as he likes to think he is and there are times when he is excessively selfish. There was always a way of 'curing' you, Jack, but it was one that held an element of risk for the Doctor and he decided that-" She suddenly stopped.

"And he decided that I wasn't worth it," Jack finished quietly. He knew he was right by the wince she gave.

"He would have had to take you to another reality and leave you there. There was a risk that he would not have been able to return to this reality, because of the way the cracks shift and change. He has risked it before but that was for Rose and Rose… was special."

Jack managed a shaky smile. "It's okay. I realised a while back that I was never going to have his full approval. I was never going to be one of the special ones."

She sighed and nodded. "He's an idiot," she said and smiled a little impishly at the surprised crack of laughter that Jack gave. "Jack, your immortality is tied to this reality and this reality alone. It doesn't matter where in space and time you are or whether or not you're in a time loop or a dimensional pocket; you're still in this reality and you remain immortal."

"But if I go to another reality," Jack said slowly, the pieces falling together. Just for a moment he felt a flare of excitement, of joy, but then his attention was drawn back to Ianto's still face. "But what about him?"

"He is dying in this timeline. He is supposed to die in this timeline. If I cure him and he continues to live in this timeline then there will be consequences. Nothing like that will happen if he continues to live in another timeline. With someone who cares a great deal for him."

"Who loves him," Jack corrected, his throat tight with tears – either joyful or dismayed, he wasn't sure. "I couldn't say it. It felt so shallow to wait until he was dying to say it. So ungrateful."

"You can say it now, if you like," she said gently and reached down a hand to touch a single finger to the space between Ianto's closed eyes.

Jack felt his lover wake up in his arms, the slate-coloured eyes opening and gazing up at him. Confused, at first, but then with gradually dawning realisation.

"Jack?" There was still a faint rasp to that glorious voice as Ianto looked at him and then flicked a glance towards the woman. "What-?"

"We've got a second chance, Ianto," Jack said, swiftly explaining what he'd been told. His marvellous lover took it all in and processed it without a single superfluous question and Jack felt a deep warmth that had nothing to do with lust.

"Rhiannon?" Ianto asked. "Jack's family?"

The woman shook her head. "They have their own lives to lead, just as Gwen Cooper does. This is an adventure for those dead to this world. Will you come with me, Jack Harkness and Ianto jones? Will you make a new life in my reality and leave this one behind?"

Jack could see the answer in Ianto's eyes, knew that it was shining in his own. A chance at a mortal life, with a man he had come to love and respect, as a colleague, friend and lover? It was more than he could ever have hoped to have. And yet he had responsibilities and while it clawed his heart out, he had to consider them. "What about Gwen? And Cardiff? With Torchwood gone…" He desperately hoped that Ianto would understand that he had to ask.

"And the 456. They're menacing the entire world," Ianto added. Jack chided himself for ever doubting this man. "We can't claim happiness for ourselves and abandon our duty and responsibilities."

She laughed, fond exasperation on her face. "Was there ever such a pair? I will deal with the 456. I have no liking for beings who feed off the dreams and innocence of children. The Rift will be closing soon because of something the Doctor will do. Gwen will survive and prosper. She has friends and the government will have far too much to worry about once the 456 have vanished to concern themselves over one woman. I will send a message to Martha Jones. She will assume it is from the Doctor and will watch over Gwen. Torchwood's time has passed for the moment. It will rise again but under a new mission statement and that will be several centuries into the future."

Jack felt a surge of elation as the only real barrier to his accepting the offer crumbled. It hurt in a small dull way that he had to leave Alice and Stephen behind but he had long since accepted that Alice would never really accept him wholeheartedly the way he longed for her to do and he dreaded the day when Stephen would realise that his 'uncle' wasn't ageing. "What about Rhiannon?" he asked Ianto.

Ianto shifted and sat up, still a little too pale but no longer gasping for life, and looked over his shoulder to where the 456 were standing frozen behind a silvery shimmer of arrested huon particles. "We've not been close for too long. We love one another best when we're apart. Besides," he bit his lip, "if I stay here then I die and she'd grieve for me anyway." He turned to look at Jack, almost shy. "Would I be enough for you?"

Jack exploded into laughter at that ridiculous question. "Oh, Ianto, if you only knew! I should be the one asking you that question!" He sobered at the flicker of uncertainty in the other man's eyes. He'd been an idiot, trying to distance himself from Ianto in an effort to escape the pain he knew would be inevitable. And it had been a futile thing to do. "Yes, Ianto, you'll be more than enough for me. We'll build a new life together." He turned a questioning look in the woman's direction.

"You will have a new life. I will provide you with a beginning and a light furrow for the first year. After that it will be your choices and your desires that map your lives. I give you a single life, Jack. A new beginning with something of the old intertwined. Make of it what you will and go with my blessing."

She laid a hand on each of their heads and Jack felt warmth spread through him. Every atom of his body suddenly seemed to tingle and he felt as though he was bathed in champagne. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed were the eyes of the woman, suddenly glowing a deep gold and a look of tearful joy on her face as she finally repaid her debt.

He realised that he had never asked her name.

OOOO