Reflections=

The Doctor watched on the monitor as Ianto approached Jack from where he was sitting lonely on a bench and wrapped his arms around him tight. The two shared a gentle kiss before the immortal ex con-man let himself break down crying and the Welshman pressed a kiss to his forehead while he rocked his lover gently back and forth and rubbed soothing circles on his back. There was sound so that he didn't have to guess the words that were being exchanged between the two lovers, "I told you he would say that Yan, I told you that I was wrong and a freak didn't I? Why are you even still here?"

"Sshh cariad, the Doctor was such a bastard to say that to you. You are not a freak or an abomination or anything like that, I promise. Are you ok?"

"I dunno, I feel weird Yan,"

"What sort of weird?"

"I dunno Yan, I th-"

On the monitor screen Jack reared up off the bench and dry-heaved into the bushes that were near the bench, Ianto grabbed him just before he fell and hit the floor and held onto him tight before the two made their way in the direction of the hub. The Doctor idly flicked at the controls for the monitor and the picture switched to Rhys, Gwen and Martha going off to the pub. The time lord absently wondered where Mickey was whilst he randomly twisted some dials on the Tardis' console and pulled a few levers but the old time ship merely shuddered and gave a small groan-like sound, she wasn't happy. He mused on whether it was because of the stuff that he had said to Jack or one of the others or even simply because he had insulted Wales and its people. The Tardis gave another groan and the Doctor decided that he should probably leave.

He walked slowly out the door and over to the metal railings and looked out over the black sea reflecting the bright, silver moon- like a plate floating on oil. Footsteps sounded behind him and he knew who it was without even having to turn around to look. "Mickey," he acknowledged.

"Doctor," the younger man returned, equally cold. The anger that he had felt just minuites earlier had melted away and he felt confused as to why he had gotten do riled up at what- compared to some of the stuff his other companions had had to do over the years, was really nothing, "why?" Mickey asked, and the time lord knew what he was referring to, "I mean, Jack's been through a lot you know."

"Of course I know that!" the Doctor snapped, "I know him better than probably anyone!"

"Yeah?" Mickey asked him doubtfully, but still refusing to lose his temper, "then did you know that the thing Jack always regretted the most was letting go of his little brother's hand?" at the Doctor's confused expression he shook his head, "yes Doctor, you were his best friend, but in your previous regeneration and even then you didn't let him stick around long enough to get to know him properly."

"That's different! Back then Jack wasn't-"

"If you dare say wrong or anything like that you will regret it!" Mickey snarled in warning.

"Ok, so I screwed up where Jack's concerned," the Gallifreyan conceded, "but what I don't get is why Rose is so angry with me, explain that one Mickey Mouse."

"You abandoned her for two years!"

"I told her I would come back! And she knows what my landings are like!"

"Yes, you got yourself a new companion for two years, one of which was spent watching Jack get tortured over 800 times and then spent the final year just drifting until you eventually remembered that you had responsibilities back here in Cardiff! Why did you even leave in the first place?!"

"I…" the Doctor started before trailing off into an awkward silence, he didn't know why actually. It had been only a couple of months since the battle of Canary Wharf and being so close to the breach between two universes must have done something to addle his brains. Mickey took his failure to answer as an excuse,

"You're a bloody coward Doctor, you always run away from your problems don't you?" then the younger man walked away, he already knew the answer to that question.

~0~

Martha didn't like the hub at night, it was too cold and empty and full of shadows. She knew she wasn't alone of course, Ianto was asleep in Jack's bunker under his office, Mickey was pacing around the tourist office, calming himself down after his confrontation with the Doctor and Jack was… well she hoped she was about to find him otherwise she'd have cut her evening in the pub short for nothing. Her footsteps echoed eerily on the cold hard floor as she headed in the direction of the cryo-freeze chambers, more specifically Gray's cryo-freeze chamber.

She saw his legs first, then the rest of his body emerged out of the shadows; the tear tracks on his cheeks clear to see. Oh Jack, she thought sadly. Despite the noise that she had made getting there he didn't appear to have noticed her, just sitting opposite Gray's drawer in the freezing cold. Martha took her leave and went back the way that she had come.

~0~

Ianto was awoken by a shoe hitting his head. A woman's shoe actually, the two inch heel of which narrowly missing his eye. "Oi!" he shouted up at the hatch to Jack's office blearily; through sllep-laden eyes he saw Martha.

"Are you decent?" she asked him, completely disregarding his yell.

"Yes," he replied irritably, "what d'you want? She simply chucked down a bottle onto the bed accompanied by a strange rattling noise that indicated that it was filled to the brim with tablets of some kind. "Sleeping pills?" the Welshman asked her in confusion as he read the label.

"They're for Jack," the medic told him.

"Jack?!" Ianto demanded, confusion growing.

"You told me that he hasn't slept well ever since you got together with him." She reminded him.

"Well, yes, but pills?" he queried incredulously, "It isn't that serious is it?"

"When was the last time that Jack slept the whole night through?" the tea boy couldn't answer that.