Torments Of Tantalus
Word Count: 200
Summary: Jack meets an old friend.
Characters: Jack Harkness, Death
Rating: PG
Spoiler: None
Warnings: Jack dies
Author's Note: Written for the tw100 prompt #200: Reverse Fandom Stargate SG-1. We had to write a double-drabble (200 words) and use an episode title from Stargate SG-1 as a prompt. This drabble was inspired by the title Torments Of Tantalus – one of my favourite episodes.
Disclaimer: I'm not making money with this fanfic. The tv-show Torchwood and the characters appearing within it belong to their producers and creators. Any similarities to living or dead persons are purely coincidental and not intended.
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It stares at him without eyes and Jack stares right back. It has no body, it's just an endless darkness. It's the place everyone will end up sooner or later. Jack has been here more often than he can count.
The darkness doesn't talk, but he can feel it asking, almost gently, "Don't you wish you could stay forever?"
Jack answers, "Sometimes … sometimes not."
He can feel it: his body back in the warehouse where the Weevil killed him is healed. Now it's ready to revive.
The darkness is angry. It always gets angry when it realizes that this time, again, Jack didn't come to stay.
"I'll keep coming for you," it says. "I'll have you one day."
Jack feels pain – the pain of dead muscles trying to move again, the agony of nerve-endings coming back to life, the way his body tenses just before drawing in the first ragged breath.
He gasps and opens his eyes and then there's Ianto holding him, soothing him. Jack clings to him. He's glad that he's back, but he also feels strangely betrayed.
Because he's chained to this life and even though death is within reach, he can never have it.
END
06/11