A/N: I intended to add this to my drabble collection entitled For Once, but I couldn't think of a way to make it fit with the theme, so I separated it. Please review.
)O(
This is the funeral service for a girl lost in battle. But there is no body in that coffin, because she isn't dead, only presumed so. People can be so presumptuous. They think she died, these strangers gathered here to pay their respects. "So young," they'll sigh. "She was too young."
This must be how humans say goodbye, then. But it doesn't help. Maybe because when the priest says how Rose Tyler will always live on somewhere, and especially in our hearts, he has no idea how accurate his empty words truly are.
"She is in a better place now." Well, the Doctor wants to reply, It's actually a parallel version of London, to be specific. But she's got her family, so it'll do.
He can only hope she's having a fantastic life, full of the mad domestic adventures he can never have with her.
)O(
For once he attends a funeral, even though they are a constant mocking reminder of the very likely possibility that he will never get one. Everyone else here will someday die. So it goes. Funerals seem like a waste of time eventually. Then again, what does he have now if not time to spare?
Jack Harkness is mourning a girl he believes to be dead. He doesn't recognize the man wearing a pinstriped suit and he won't remember seeing him either. There are many Jack has forced himself to forget over the years.
He saw her growing up once or twice, always from a distance (some things the Time Agency cautions about timelines are true) and now she's gone. Apparently fiery Jackie Tyler disappeared as well. Very mysterious circumstances, mother and daughter vanishing. Maybe swallowed up by the Void. He doubts even he could survive that, and really hopes he can't.
Rose Tyler was worth fighting for.
Jack wants a lot of things. A numb little part of him wants to die. He wants a strong drink. He wants Torchwood to become something the Doctor will be proud of. He wants the Doctor to come back for him and explain why he is like this. He wants to wake up in bed next to someone and not have to talk. But in life, particularly a very long one, you don't usually get what you want.
He'll keep fighting. She was worth it.
)O(
The Doctor had sensed Jack's presence immediately. It set off loud, blaring alarm bells in his head. Wrong, wrong, WRONG. Well, it isn't the captain's fault that he's immortal. That had been Rose's gift. A human with all the power of a god and still such blessedly human intentions.
He just can't help his instincts, and he really can't face Jack right now. Not here. Not today.
There are things the Doctor wants, too. He wants Rose back. He wants his time machine to fix everything. That's what humans always say, isn't it? "If only I had a time machine..."
They don't have to consider paradoxes and personal timelines. They can be reckless and selfish, but when he does the same people die. Good people disappear from the world and end up somewhere else. It isn't fair.
Unfortunately, the universe has never been very fair to him, and it isn't about to start being kind now.
