Jack opened the door, looking around the demolished room and letting out a low whistle. Desks were toppled on the floor, the drawers falling out of them and spilling their contents on the floor. The usually pristine white walls were scratched and stray scorch marks made erratic patterns. All the windows were broken, some of the glass falling into the streets below, but most of it was shattered on the floor.
His footsteps seemed unnaturally loud in the silence, glass crunching beneath his heel with every step. Jack rummaged around for a short while, but didn't see what he was looking for. He let his gaze sweep around the room one more time before going out the door and heading down the stairs. He was almost at ground level when he heard a noise. A very familiar noise.
"Doctor!" he yelled, jumping the last stairs and running to the sound. He ran down another flight of stairs leading to the Artifacts Room, taking them four steps at a time. He sprinted through the doorway, the sound of the TARDIS echoing around the room, fainter and fainter. By the time he skidded around one last corner to the source of the noise, the phone box was gone.
Jack cursed loudly and kicked a mummy of some sort leaning on a stack of crates in frustration, sending it toppling to the floor. He ran a hand through his hair agitatedly and took a deep breath, pacing a small spot of the floor, but stopped when something caught his eye. He bent down to retrieve it, and it was a pair of 3D glasses.
"What the hell?" he muttered. Jack stuffed them unceremoniously into his pocket; he could worry about random 3D glasses later. With a final look around and a heaving sigh, he left Torchwood before anyone would find him there.
Later that week, Jack sat with his back against a wall at his base in Cardiff, a list of the dead laying beside him. He hadn't expected to see anyone he knew there, but thought it would be right to check just in case. Now he was scrubbing the tear tracks from his face with his hands because of the one name there he had never thought he might see.
"Damn it," he muttered. "I would've thought you'd save her over anyone else, Doctor. Guess I was wrong." He got to his feet, leaving the list on the floor for someone else to take care of. The page it was opened to just looked like a normal piece of paper, but one of the names was blurred where a stray tear had fallen. The name of the person whom Jack had assumed would be alive and well, traveling space and time with the Doctor.
The name was Rose Tyler.
A/N: I know, I should be working on Rose's Drums or Temper, Temper (both, really), but I had a plot bunny and it wouldn't go away! Anywho, working on the other ones now!