Well, I'm sorry for not updating anything lately...my puppy had a big operation to remove his eye. So I haven't been in the mood to even think about writing. But all is well now, and I just thought of a new idea for a story...so I hope you like. And for once, I have a plan of where this is going lol. Enjoy. xx


It all started with a pub. A smoky, ancient, perfectly ordinary pub. Where two remarkably unordinary men had decided to catch up on the recent if tragic events in their lives. Where an idea muttered by a Captain in a drunken stupor had twisted and planted itself into the brilliant mind of a Time Lord.


It had been a perfectly ordinary day....for the Doctor that is. He saved two planets at once which was an achievement even by his standards. No one had died, and the day was looking up. So when his phone had started to ring, he answered it with a cheerful hello.

"Doctor?" He brightened as he heard the muffled voice of Captain Jack Harkness float from the end of the phone.

"Jack! Long time no see, eh?" The Doctor flopped into the worn sofa in the control room, pleased to talk with his old friend. To be honest with himself, he was kind of yearning for company, even he could only be alone for so long.

"Yeah, well, lot's of things have been happening." The voice coming from the phone seemed meek and small, not at all like the bold sound the Doctor was accustomed to from the Captain.

"Jack...are you alright?" A frown twitched about his face as he heard a suffering sigh from the reciever.

"Yeah. Look, I was thinking, maybe it's time for you and me to go for a drink?" The Doctor sat forwards in his seat as the monotone voice of the usually bright Captain rolled out of the phone.

"Yeah, just give me your date and coordinates, and I'l be there."


That was how the Doctor soon found himself sitting on a hard stool with a fraying cushion, listening to Jack's story of the 456. Of the deaths that had happened, and the horror of chosing between his own Grandson and hundreds of others. And in return the Doctor told him what had happened on Mars, and of the death of the woman he had so admired. The shame and guilt of depriving her of a hero's death. Soon enough the atmosphere around them both was so thick with depression and something more like self loathing, that everyone in the pub had started to give them a wide berth. Drink upon drink was bought until Jack had consumed enough to be classified as completely and utterly wasted.

"I envy you sometimes Doctor." Jack said as he stared into the depths of his newest drink, wondering how his life had ended up here. The Doctor looked up at him with an aged look upon his own face.

"Jack Harkness if you knew anything about my life then you wouldn't." Each word was forced through gritted teeth, the Doctor almost angry for anyone believing that his life was anything worth envying. Jack gazed at him for a moment with bleary eyes before swinging back the last of his beer.

"Well, think about it. You can go about travelling, doing what you will. It's a distraction. While people like me have no option but to sit in bars like this and drink ourselves into a wreck." The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the man beside him.

"You sound like you've given up. The Jack I know wouldn't do that. Not on my life." In a sudden wave of fury, Jack slammed the glass onto the table, the surrounding parties looking up briefly to check the source of disturbance. As the gazes left them, Jack leaned into the Doctor.

"It's my fault that my team died. Owen, Tosh…and now Ianto…" His voice cracked as the memories boiled in his head.

"I'm sorry. You and Ianto were-"

"Yes, I remember." The Doctor frowned as Jack hissed at him.

"Jack…if you let this consume you, then you'll turn out like me. Unable to let anyone close to you because you're scared of losing them. Scared of hurting yourself. I don't want to see anyone let alone you turn out like me." He said softly, trying to work some sort of comfort into his words. But Jack just shook his head.

"No. I can't…how did you do it, Doctor? When you lost Donna? Rose? Or even when Martha left you…how could you just move on?" The Doctor bristled in anger.

"I didn't just move on-"

"If I were you, I'd just go back and change it. Change the timeline, do whatever I needed to do to keep them safe. With me." The Doctor stared at him with something akin to wonder.

"Jack, that would change too much…I would if I could, but it would change so much-"

"Wouldn't those changes be good?" Jack probed, now sliding his glass back and forth along the dark wood of the bar. The Doctor said nothing.

"I mean, for example, if you were to go back to Canary Wharf...change what happened...wouldn't that be better?" His words were becoming quieter and slurred as his drunk state lulled him into a sleep. The Doctor swallowed audibly.

"Of course it would be...it would be....amazing, I..." The Doctor's jaw closed, trying to block the idea from his mind. The temptation startled him. It spun round and round his head, latching itself into every crevice of his mind...What if?...

"Come on! What could go wrong-?"

"The universe could unravel."

"That's you being pessimistic. You could make it work, you're the Doctor. Just slip your past self a note or something. Easy." The Doctor spluttered, not knowing how to counter the argument.

"It's not as simple as that-"

"You said it yourself, Doctor. You control time now." Jack gazed intensely at him for a few moments before blearily closing his eyes and resting his head on the tabled. After a few minutes a soft drunken snore rumbled from his chest, leaving the Doctor staring at the ancient stains on the wood of the bar.