Jack gazed out over the water, lost in thought. He'd been contemplating telling the Doctor about Rex, and what they'd discovered about his blood, and the final resolution of the 'miracle,' but now, seeing the way the Doctor looked at Clara, and hearing her story, he wasn't so sure. He wasn't sure anyone should be possessed of that knowledge; it was simply too tempting.

In the midst of that horrible scene in Thames House, Jack would have done anything, dared anything, if it meant saving Ianto. In his heart though, Jack wasn't sure that this was a 'gift' he'd willingly share with anyone. It would have killed him to see the love in Ianto's eyes turn to something else when he realized that Jack had doomed him to die, over and over again, feeling and remembering all the pain each time.

He and the Doctor were subject to some of the very same impulses. Jack didn't know how far the Doctor might go to save Clara from dying again, but he knew he wouldn't wish this existence on anyone else. He decided he'd keep his own counsel for now.

He smiled as Clara came up to lean against the railing beside him.

"It's beautiful here," she breathed.

"Isn't it against the law for anyone English to say anything nice about Wales?"

Clara laughed delightedly and laid a hand on his arm. "I'm so glad I got to meet you properly this time, Jack."

"So am I. Where's the Doctor?" he asked, surprised to see her out alone. If she were his, he'd never let her out of his sight, especially not after coming so close to losing her forever.

"Still in the TARDIS, fiddling about. But I'm sure he's got a scanner aimed at me," she added, sensing Jack's unspoken question. "He blames himself for what happened at Trenzalore. He thinks there should have been another way. But there wasn't…not that any of us could see…and there was just no time. Bit rich, that."

"He thinks he should be able to protect everyone, all the time."

"The universe doesn't always agree."

"And that frustrates the hell out of him." Jack cocked his head and stared very intently into her eyes. "Do you love him?"

Clara's face blushed a delicate pink. "Yes, I suppose I do. It's just…it seems so - I don't know - insignificant - for someone like me to talk about loving someone like the Doctor. When that thing was killing him, whole star systems were going out, millions of people. I had to save him, so he could save them. It didn't matter about me."

"It does matter, Clara," Jack told her emphatically. "Love is never insignificant. It was the love of a simple human girl that saved him after the Time War, and it's the love of another that's saving him right now."

"Saving him from what?"

"From himself."