'The Doctor and I' is a collection of individual oneshots, stories of moments when Jack sees a piece of the Doctor in himself. The quality and crossoverity (?) may vary.

In which a rose by any other name is not just 'sweet',

and Jack knows the error of his ways and knows what he needs.


By any other name

"She's exactly what I need." That had been the Doctor's answer the one time Jack had dared, without any innuendo or foolish bravado, to ask about it. About why Rose Tyler, an ordinary London girl, was travelling in the TARDIS. Not that he was objecting or anything, she was clever, funny and not too hard on the eyes. Jack could think of a million things he could do with her... except that he never would. Never.

She's exactly what I need. Normally Jack would have had a field day with such a statement, but something in the Doctor's eyes - the thousand simultaneous emotions, the memories of other roses, now scattered through time, the eternal loneliness - stopped him from saying anything that he would have only regretted later. All he could do was to be thankful that with his limited lifespan he would never have to feel like that, to look like that.

About 150 years later, when Jack Harkness looked in to the big, brown eyes of a brunette who carried pizza boxes, he finally understood why Rose had been there.

She had cared. Her heart had been big enough to love when the two hearts of the Doctor were too tired. When Gwen Cooper looked into the eyes of a rift-fallen and smiled, or patted the back of a grieving friend, she did it with all her heart, so overly warmly and lovingly that it annoyed Jack to death. But silently he thanked her for it.

She had questioned. With a few words she had been able to stop the fury of a Time Lord from getting the better of him. When Gwen Cooper looked at Jack and challenged his words and actions, she did it with all her power, so naïvely, insubordinately and often at what seemed like the completely wrong time that Jack wanted to strangle her. But silently he thanked her for it.

She had been innocent.

Jack hated to admit that he was not the same man he had once been. He was no longer so giving. He was more than ready to pull the trigger without offering a choice, not only because he couldn't but also because he didn't want to. He was cold. Immortality had made him regress to what he had been before he'd met the Doctor. And now he had that look in his eyes. He needed someone to be what he wasn't, and teach him to be that again. It had to be Gwen, the others couldn't do it.

They were already broken.

Toshiko would never completely leave that UNIT cell. She would sometimes go there in her sleep, and her mothers eyes would stare at her from the walls.

Owen would continue looking for something, anything - a drink or a meaningless fuck - to at least for a moment forget how the white theatre doors opened to reveal a nightmare.

Ianto seemed to think that if he hid behind the suits and politely blank expressions, no one would notice how his fingers hesitated above the 'delete' key, or how he disappeared to the archives for hours. It worked too well.

Gwen Cooper was clever, funny and not too hard on the eyes. Jack could think of a million things he could do with her... except that he never would. Never. The attraction was there, but he would fight it, even if it meant prying her hands off him by force.

"By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?"

And the blonde smiled and ran to the TARDIS

By recruiting her he sealed her fate, but she was exactly what he needed. Torchwood killed everything in the end, but Gwen Cooper's innocence Jack Harkness would protect as long as he could.

~fin~


That was the first chapter of a story that will be a wibbly wobbly bunch of stuff. Hope you liked it! Let me know what you think, and I might put up a new one :)

PadawannaB