"On sleepless roads the sleepless go." -Hear You Me, Jimmy Eat World
disc: don't own it
warnings: slash, non graphic non con
For a week they just 'floated around' and by the end of it the Doctor was quite sick of it.
True, Jack had been quite ill after the Death Ray Incident (as they had taken to calling it) and hadn't been able to keep a meal down for the first three days, but he was eating again now, and was no longer having any trouble with his speech or walking.
There had been a few frightening moments the day after when his legs just wouldn't work, but by early evening he had gotten some of the mobility back, and now was absolutely fine.
It hadn't escaped the Doctor's notice that he still wouldn't even broach the subject of the space pirates when the Doctor was anywhere near, but Rose assured him that he was dealing with it, and that he talked to her about it.
The Doctor tried very hard not to feel jealous.
It wasn't like he resented the fact that Jack had chosen Rose to confide in, it was just…his feelings for Jack were getting stronger, a lot stronger, and most of time he felt like some sort of God awful hormonal teenager around him.
The other day he had caught his palms sweating. Him! With sweaty palms! He didn't think that had ever happened to him before. Ever. Damn this new body.
Still, he couldn't deny that he quite liked the way his hearts sped up just a little when Jack sent him a slightly secretive smile, or when they were leaning over the console, their shoulders brushing together, Jack's unique sent buzzing in his head.
He'd even found himself grinning aimlessly in the mirror when he'd tried to shave the other day.
And of course Rose knew something was up. She kept sending him these knowing smiles, and raised her eyebrows whenever she saw him standing too close.
The thing was, the Doctor was pretty sure Jack felt at least a little bit the same way.
Oh, he knew that Jack always flirted, he remembered that well enough, but he'd changed since his ordeal. At first it had been the way he shied away from the Doctor, stiffening at any touches, but since New Year, and especially the Death Ray Incident, Jack had been leaning into the innocent touches. The Doctor could have sworn he was always standing closer. And that smile…
He shook his head now, sitting at the kitchen table.
He really was turning into a teenage girl. It was sickening. And incredibly soppy.
He spread some marmite on his toast, one of Britain's best inventions, and flipped aimlessly through a week old Telegraph that Rose had put in her bag at New Year.
"Morning."
He looked up with a smile as Jack walked in, ignoring the little flip flop in his stomach. This was getting ridiculous.
He stopped, though, to notice the way Jack's grey pyjama bottoms hung low on his slim hips below an old black t-shirt, his hair all messy from sleep. It was longer than when they'd left him on Satellite 5, the edges just brushing his eyes and ears. He needed a hair cut. The Doctor desperately wanted to run his hands through it.
Stop it.
"Sleep well?" he asked, trying to keep his tone neutral.
"Like a baby," Jack replied, reaching into his cupboard for a box of red cereal with pieces of marshmallow in it.
They'd made a pit stop at early nineties Earth before Satellite 5, just so Jack could get some. Lucky Charms it was called.
Jack frowned as he peered into the box.
"Rose has been eating my cereal again."
The Doctor laughed.
"You'll have to take it up with her."
Jack poured the cereal into a bowl, frowning.
"Oh I will, believe me. Any coffee?"
"Yeah, if you make it."
The Doctor was more of a tea man himself.
Jack made a face, but unscrewed the cap on the silver espresso maker, spooning the required coffee grains into it, adding water and milk before turning it on.
He plopped himself down at the table next to the Doctor, digging his spoon into his cereal.
The Doctor stared determinedly at the paper.
"I need to talk to you about something. Two things actually."
Jack was sorting his marshmallows into colour coded piles.
"Sure, go ahead."
"Um, okay." He hesitated. How to say it? "When I was looking for you, in the Foreline institution, it wasn't by chance that I found out the space pirates had taken you."
Jack chewed slowly, a slight frown between his eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"Someone told me they had taken you."
Jack stared at him, his spoon stopped in mid air.
"Who?"
"A Dr Cartwright."
Jack went very still, and the Doctor could see his throat moving as he swallowed several times in quick succession.
"And, ah, what did he say?"
"Just that you were alive and had been looking for me. He wasn't very coherent."
Jack nodded slowly, putting his spoon back in his bowl.
"I thought he was dead," he said softly. "When they took me, I saw him. He looked dead."
"He nearly was. He'd been shot in the chest. It was a miracle that he managed to survive as long as he did."
"Yeah, a miracle," Jack said, a trace of bitterness in his voice.
"Do you want to talk about it?" the Doctor asked.
In the following silence, the espresso machine whistled, and Jack stood to make coffee with slightly shaking hands. The Doctor watched as he added too much sugar and frothy milk.
"Yeah," he said finally, when he sat back down at the table, Lucky Charms pushed aside.
"Dominic was my doctor. And he was in love with me, and I thought I was in love with him."
The Doctor tried to ignore the little twist of jealousy he felt.
Jack shook his head, as if he was trying to order his thoughts.
"You have no idea what it was like," he said. "I would wake up screaming, with no idea who I was. When they told me what I'd supposedly done, I'd go so mad they would have to sedate me. And then the whole process would start all over again." He took a long sip of coffee. The Doctor waited patiently.
"When I finally remembered my name, Dominic had already decided I was innocent. He said he was going to help me get my memories back, that if I had had some kind of memory modification it would be getting all the signals mixed up. Or something."
"The two years taken from you by the Time Agency," the Doctor said.
Jack nodded in confirmation.
"He said he could do a sort of reversal operation to help me regain my memory, that he would do it the next day, but then he came back in the middle of the night and said we had to do it then. He told me later it was because the Time Agency had learnt where I was and were going to come for me."
He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.
"It was horrible," he admitted quietly. "One minute I thought that I was feeling something for this guy that I'd never felt for anyone before, and the next I knew exactly who I was, and what sort of person I was. The sort of person who uses other people for my own satisfaction. For my own pleasure."
"That's not true," the Doctor said quietly. He didn't want to believe it was true, not now.
"Isn't it?" Jack asked. "When I first met you, what could you say about me other than I was an enormous flirt? That's all I was doing with Dominic, flirting. Being shallow and empty. And then there was Veronica."
The Doctor frowned.
"Veronica?" he repeated.
"Veronica Baudelaire. She had been sent by the Time Agency, and spun me this big story about us being passionate lovers, that the reason I couldn't remember her was that my memory of her had been erased. She wanted us to run off into the sunset together, and the second we were away from Foreline she was going to hand me over to the Time Agency. And let me tell you, they would be a little too happy to see me, if you know what I mean."
"So then what happened?" the Doctor asked.
"The space pirates happened," Jack replied. "But not before Veronica Baudelaire managed to tell me exactly why I have lost two years of my memories."
"She told you?" the Doctor asked, surprised.
Jack nodded.
"Apparently I was part of an undercover operation infiltrating a child prostitute ring using time gaps to kidnap the children. I was working for about twenty months before I was discovered. They're not really sure what was done to me, but when they found me, two months later, I could barely talk I'd been tortured so much, and they had removed all my memories to do with the case. The Time Agency took the remaining memories of my torture, and when I woke up the next morning with two years of my life missing, I took off. They've been looking for me ever since."
The Doctor stared at him.
"I'm so sorry," he said.
"For what?" Jack asked.
"For everything you've had to go through," the Doctor replied.
Jack looked at him for a moment, then nodded.
"Yeah well, it's over now. I'm here, safe." He played with his spoon, still resting in the soggy cereal. "Thanks," he said. "For, you know, listening. I mean, I have Rose to talk to, but it was nice to talk to you. Different."
"You can talk to me about anything," the Doctor said, tying to make his voice sound open and inviting. "Anything at all."
Jack smiled.
"Thanks," he said again. He took a sip of his coffee, wincing as it hit his bitten tongue. "But there was something else you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Ah. Yes." How to even broach this topic? "I, uh, have a sort of plan."
Jack raised an eyebrow.
"A plan? Tell me."
"I don't think you're going to like it," the Doctor warned. "It involves going back to Satellite 5."
Jack stared at him.
"Excuse me? I think I must have misheard you, because it sounded like you said Satellite 5 just then. And you can't mean that, because that was the same Satellite 5 I died on last time, and what else? Oh yeah, you left me there!"
The Doctor winced slightly. He knew Jack was still upset about that, no matter what he said.
"Just hear me out," the Doctor protested. "We have to go back, because otherwise we'll never know what happened there. We need to find out how and why you're still alive. You're obviously supposed to be here, that was tested by our robotic friends and their trigger happy death ray, but what I want to know is why."
"I just am!" Jack snapped, looking upset and a little agitated. "Why can't we just leave it at that? I'm here, and it's all great!"
"Because we have to know the truth," the Doctor snapped back. Why didn't Jack understand how important this is?
"Why?" Jack asked loudly. "Fucking why?"
"Because if I don't know why it happened how am I supposed to stop it being reversed?" he yelled.
There was sudden silence in the kitchen, and the Doctor avoided Jack's eyes.
"You think it's going to reverse?" Jack asked finally.
"No," the Doctor said immediately. "I mean, maybe, I don't know." He sighed. "I just…I just have this feeling."
"A feeling," Jack repeated, and when the Doctor chanced a look at him, he was trying not to laugh.
"It isn't funny," the Doctor snapped. "I had a feeling like this before we found you again. This…niggling in the back of my mind."
"And you think this feeling means I'm going to drop dead or something."
"No. Why are you twisting my words?"
Jack held up his hands defensively.
"I'm not twisting anything."
The Doctor sighed. He was beginning to wish he'd kept his mouth shut.
"Look, all I'm saying is that I would very much like to know why you are miraculously still alive. It couldn't hurt, could it?"
Jack looked like he was mulling the whole thing over.
"So basically what you're saying is you're scared that-"
"I'm not scared," interrupted the Doctor.
"You didn't let me finish."
"I didn't need to. Because whatever you're going to say will be wrong."
"So you're not even a tiny bit scared you might have to go on without me again?" Jack asked.
The Doctor wasn't sure what hit him harder; that Jack had got it exactly right, or that for the first time Jack had said 'have to go on without me' not 'left me behind'.
"Alright. Maybe I'm a little bit scared."
Jack gave him a smug smile.
"I knew it."
He then surprised the Doctor by leaning over and dropping a brief, unexpected kiss on his lips, before walking towards the kitchen door.
The Doctor gaped.
"What was that for? Not that I'm complaining or anything."
Jack sent him a little smile over his shoulder.
"Just to keep you guessing, Doctor."
The Doctor sat back in his chair, unable to stop the smile that spread across his face.
Jack was flirting again.
And the best part? Jack was flirting with him.
The Doctor had to find some very precise co-ordinates to get them back to Satellite 5 at the right time and in the right place.
They couldn't land anywhere near where the TARDIS was parked already, which meant they had to go lower, and that posed the risk of using the lifts.
The Doctor had explained to them about twenty times the risk of seeing themselves or touching themselves, and Jack was getting a bit sick of hearing it. He knew that to touch another of himself would create a paradox. What time traveller didn't?
Finally the Doctor finished his lengthy lecture, and they were able to step out onto Satellite 5. Again.
It gave Jack more than the creeps being back here, being back where he died, and it didn't escape his notice that Rose was sticking unusually close, and the Doctor kept sending him almost unnoticeable glances. He didn't mind too much though.
"Right," the Doctor was saying. "The Daleks are going to invade in a couple of hours. We need to get to the top floor, where we can see what's going on with Jack, but at the same time keep an eye on me and you, Rose." He frowned. "But how we going to get there? At the moment the Controller is still in full use, and Floor 500 will be teaming with staff."
"Distraction?" suggested Rose.
The Doctor shook his head.
"They can't see any of us, or they would have recognised us the first time we met them."
"They wouldn't recognise you," Jack pointed out. "You look completely different to last time you were here."
The Doctor grinned.
"Good one. Now why didn't I think of that? You'd think I would be the one to realise I was different, considering I am actually the one who is different. It makes much more-"
"Doctor," interrupted Rose hastily. "The plan?"
"Ah yes, sorry. The Plan. Right. Um, I create a distraction whilst you and Jack find somewhere to hide. Somewhere with good viewing. Oh, and it has to be somewhere the Daleks can't find you. Otherwise they'll kill you."
"Right," Jack murmured. "Piece of cake."
"You'll be fine," the Doctor said confidently, but Jack wasn't so sure. He had a churning, sick feeling in his stomach. How ironic if he was brought back from the dead, only to be killed again the second time round?
The Doctor was staring at him, he realised suddenly, and fought an unnatural blush at the intensity of that gaze. What was wrong with him? Blushing? A little too schoolgirl for his tastes.
The Doctor stood suddenly and sent him a small wink.
"Good luck," he murmured, then strode out of their hiding spot by the lifts.
"Hello," he called out. "I've escaped from the games, just thought you should know."
There was a long moment of silence, then several voices talking at once.
"Who are you?"
"What game were you in?"
"What's your identity number?"
Jack heard the Doctor shout "Catch me if you can!" and a moment later he raced past them, several staff on his heels.
They waited a moment, then slipped out of their hiding place towards the main section of Floor 500, which was deserted, save for the controller who took no notice of them.
"Come on," Jack murmured, and they moved systematically across the floor, looking for a suitable spot.
"This is impossible," Rose said, sounding discouraged. She was standing by the gaming consoles, hands on her hips. "We can't possibly see both areas at once, there's a bloody corner."
Jack nodded in agreement.
"So we choose," Rose continued. "Stay here or go into the corridor?"
"I don't know," Jack muttered. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to go drastically wrong. He was feeling suspiciously sick, and he hated feeling sick.
Rose was looking at him in concern.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," he said, a little too quickly.
Rose opened her mouth to respond, but a shrieking siren suddenly split the air around them.
"Damn," she said. "Quick, under here."
She grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him under one of the consoles, hidden from view by the slight overhang. He felt her squeeze his hand.
Legs appeared, a harried voice saying "Clear the floor. He's on his way up here. With a gun!"
There was confused shouting, then Jack heard the doors slide open and a new voice saying "Okay, move away from the desk. Nobody try anything clever. Everybody clear, stand to the sides, and stay there."
Jack felt shock racing through him. That was him, that was his voice. Those were his shoes and his legs. And behind him…
"It's him." Rose whispered beside him, so soft he could barely hear her. But he knew what she meant. It was the Doctor. The other Doctor, the old Doctor. "It's really him."
"You're not allowed in there, Archive 6 is out of bounds," a woman shouted.
"Do I look like an out of bounds kind of guy?" Jack heard himself say.
"This is so creepy," Jack murmured. He felt Rose wince and stifle a gasp as the Controller was zapped away. She squeezed his hand a little tighter.
"Where's the Doctor?" she whispered "I mean, the other Doctor, our Doctor."
Jack bit his lip.
"I don't know," he murmured. "But he's safe."
"How do you know?"
Jack didn't reply. He didn't know.
The Doctor was leaning against the doors of the main control room, experiencing the very odd sensation of listening to and seeing a him that no longer existed.
He couldn't see Jack and Rose, just hoped they were safely hidden. The niggling at the back of his head had become a fully fledged itch, and he didn't like it.
They shouldn't have come back here. Jack was right. They should have run away and never looked back.
He heard the TARDIS engines, and knew that he and Jack had gone to board the Dalek ship, to rescue Rose.
He hesitated, then stepped out into the control room.
The staff turned to him as one, with wide, frightened eyes.
"It's him again," Davitch Pavale said. "The one who escaped from the games."
"I didn't escape from the games," the Doctor said. "And I can't explain what's going on here, but it's all connected. Jack, Rose."
There was a long pause, then Jack and Rose slowly climbed out from under one of the consoles. He felt a wave of relief, seeing them both there, safe.
"Wait!" the woman cried. "I just saw you leave, and you…" She was pointing at them, eyes wide.
"We can't explain," the Doctor repeated, walking to Jack and Rose, grasping their arms reassuringly, for himself as much as them. "We have to hide in here, and you can't mention our presence to the other Jack and Rose. Or the Doctor," he added.
"But I don't understand," the woman said. "Who are you?"
"We're them," the Doctor replied. "From the future. But if we meet our past selves we'll create a paradox which could undo time and space. Basically, it would be very, very bad."
"You're from the future? Then you know how this ends?"
The Doctor felt his hearts clench at the question. Poor, sweet Lynda with a Y who hadn't wanted to leave him and lost her life as a result. He could still remember her scream as the Daleks took her. He would be hearing it again in too short a time.
"I can't tell you what the future is."
"But do we live?" she asked. "Do we defeat the Daleks?"
The Doctor nodded slowly.
"You defeat the Daleks," he said softly. He couldn't answer her first question.
"There's an incoming ship on the scanner," Davitch Pavale reported.
"That's you," the Doctor said to Jack and Rose. He didn't feel like explaining the whole regeneration thing to everyone else right then. "We have to find a safe spot."
"What about by the doors?" Jack asked. "They were open when-" He broke off, unable to say it, but the Doctor nodded.
"Good. Great."
He cast his eyes over the few occupants of the room again. They were all going to die. Here. Tonight.
"Let's go."
"Wait!" Lynda cried. "You can't just leave us!"
"The Doctor will be back any moment. He's going to save the planet. You just have to trust him." Even as he spoke, the words tasted like bile. He was sending these people to their deaths. Again.
He grabbed Jack's hand, pulling him toward the doors and pushing him into a tall alcove. "Rose."
She followed Jack into the alcove, and the Doctor took one last look at the people left behind.
"Not a word," he said, then slipped into the alcove behind them.
It was a tight fit, and the Doctor was hyper aware of Jack pressed against him, tense and nervous.
The sound of the TARDIS engines was close, suddenly, and they could see it materialising, barely a metre away. The Doctor got that funny feeling in his stomach again, as he watched himself, Rose and Jack all climb out of the TARDIS. The old him ran straight to the energy banks and began manically pulling wires out the banks, shouting about a delta wave.
He wanted to laugh.
A delta wave. He should have known it would never work. He should have known. He should have taken Jack, Rose and the other remaining people and run.
"We should have run," he whispered.
He felt Jack squeeze his hand.
"No we shouldn't," he said.
They watched as Jack said goodbye to both of them and as the Doctor and Rose built the delta wave, as the Doctor sent Rose back into the TARDIS.
He stood with his face a blank mask as it faded, Rose's shouts to be let out clearly heard from inside.
"I hated you," Rose said softly. "For a moment I really hated you."
"I know."
He reached for her hand too, and the three of them stood perfectly still, holding hands, barely breathing.
"It's soon," Jack said.
The Daleks began to invade.
They were living the nightmare again, but this time there was nothing they could do. They couldn't help. They couldn't fight. They had to stay and listen to everyone else dying.
They heard the people on the first floor dying, followed by Lynda's heartbreaking screams as they shattered her window.
"Last man standing! For God's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and kill them!" Jack yelled from beyond the doors.
The Doctor gripped his hand tighter.
We shouldn't have come back. We shouldn't have come back.
"Doctor! You've got twenty seconds maximum!"
And then Jack's bullets ran out.
"Exterminate."
Those awful words.
"I kind of figured that," Jack snapped.
There was the sharp, metallic sound of the Dalek's death ray. And then the hand holding the Doctor's slackened, Jack's body slumping against him.
"Jack!" Rose gasped.
The Doctor caught him, staring down at the lifeless body in his arms.
"No," he said. "No, this isn't supposed to happen. You're not supposed to die!"
"Doctor, do something!"
He held Jack's body tighter, willing him desperately to wake up.
"Come on, Jack. You can't give up. Not now."
Jack eyes were closed. His heart wasn't beating.
"But he lived," Rose was protesting, her voice thick with tears. "He lived. He can't be dead now. Not again. Please."
They were barely even standing in the alcove anymore, but the other Doctor had his back to them, his attention focussed on the screen, and the Doctor had lost any sense of caution.
What did a paradox matter if he'd managed to kill the man he loved twice?
"Jack, come on. Come on!"
The TARDIS materialised beside them, but the other Doctor's eyes didn't even register them. It was almost like he couldn't see them.
The doors burst open with a shock of golden light, and Rose was framed in the doorway, her eyes alight with the power of the universe.
"My God," the Rose beside him murmured.
"I am the Bad Wolf," Rose said. "I create myself. I take the words. I scatter them, in time and space. A message to lead myself here."
The Doctor could hear her, could hear the voices of himself, of the Dalek God, but could only feel Jack, still and lifeless in his arms.
"You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space, every single atom of your existence and I divide them." The Daleks began to dissolve into golden light. "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies."
They just disappeared. Right before Rose and the Doctor's eyes, the Daleks disappeared again, obliterated from time and existence again.
"Rose you've done it," the Doctor said. "Now stop, just let go!"
"How can I let go of this?" Rose asked, her eyes glistening with golden tears. "I bring life."
The Doctor felt a sudden rushing in his ears, his hearts, running through his body.
In his arms, Jack gasped.
The Doctor tightened his grip on the suddenly thrashing body, Rose's words loud and echoing in his head.
"I bring life."
"Jack."
He held Jack as close as he could, crushing their bodies together, feeling the triple beats of their hearts.
"This is wrong!" the Doctor was shouting. "You can't control life and death!"
"But I can," Rose said. "The sun and the moon. The day and night."
"Doctor," Jack gasped.
"I've got you," the Doctor murmured. "I've got you, I promise."
Jack reached desperately for him, bringing their mouths together, kissing him deeply, and the Doctor wiped the tears from his cheeks, holding him so, so close.
The other Doctor was kissing Rose, the golden light streaming from her eyes to his, and then he was swinging her into his arms, disappearing into the TARDIS, the doors slamming closed behind them.
The Doctor heard Rose take a shuddering breath beside them, and he reached for her too, pulling them all into a messy heap of limbs and tears.
"You did it," the Doctor said into her hair. "It was all you."
The TARDIS engines hummed around them, and they watched it disappear.
"It's over," the Doctor said.
The door beside them burst open, and Jack propelled through it, staring anguished at the spot the TARDIS had just been. His eyes flicked briefly at them, still piled in a heap on the floor, then away, then back to them again.
"Rose!" he cried, taking a half step towards her, then he saw himself, still entwined in the Doctor's arms, and stopped. "Oh God. I've lost it."
The three of them quickly stood up, untangling themselves.
"You're not going mad," Rose said quickly. "I'm from the future. But it's still me." She gestured at their Jack. "And you."
"And him?" Jack asked, eyeing the Doctor, who was still holding Jack's hand, suspiciously.
"I'm the Doctor."
Jack was shaking his head.
"No you're not. The Doctor doesn't look like that!"
"He does now," Rose said quietly.
"No, that's not right. And let got of my hand!"
The Doctor immediately let go of his Jack's hand. This was not good. This wasn't supposed to happen.
"Jack, please," said Rose. "The Doctor regenerated. He had to, or he would have died."
Jack seemed to be processing this.
"You left me," he said slowly. "But you're all still together. So you must come back?" He glanced toward the spot the TARDIS had been, as if expecting it to come back right then.
"Yes," the Doctor said carefully. "But not right away."
"Then what happens?"
"You know I can't tell you that."
"I don't remember this," his Jack said suddenly. It was the first time he'd spoken to the other Jack. "I don't remember any of this. This isn't right."
The Doctor frowned at him.
"What do you mean?"
Jack glanced warily at the other Jack then leant closer to the Doctor.
"When I lost my memory, Dominic told me that it wasn't accidental. That someone had fixed it like that, that someone had wiped my memory so I wouldn't remember what happened on this satellite."
The Doctor stared at him, the sickness in his stomach back. He didn't want to hear this.
"I don't understand."
Jack stared at him calmly.
"Yes you do. It was you. You erased my memory. You must have. There's no other way."
The Doctor shook his head.
"No."
"Yes! That's the way it has to be. It's already happened. You can't undo it."
"I won't do it to you again! Not after we know what's going to happen."
"And if you don't you risk destroying everyone and everything! You know you can't do that."
The Doctor shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. He could not do this. It wasn't fair to make him do this.
"You said you'd rather die than let the space pirates take you."
"Everything's different now." Jack reached out a hand, touching the Doctor's cheek gently. "It's all different."
The Doctor covered Jack's hand with his own, holding it tightly.
"I'm so sorry."
"I know."
"Jack," Rose said softly. "You can't let him. You can't let them-"
"I have to Rose," Jack interrupted, moving away from the Doctor and towards her. "Besides, it's already happened. It's not like I can erase it from me. And I'm still here, aren't I?"
Rose nodded, her eyes glistening with tears, and Jack held her close.
The Doctor turned towards the other Jack, who was watching them, warily.
"What are you going to do to me?" he asked.
"I have to erase your memory," the Doctor said. "That was how you were found. I'm sorry."
Jack's eyes flickered from the Doctor to Jack and Rose, then back again.
"But you come back for me, right? You come back."
The Doctor nodded.
"I come back," he promised.
Jack paused for a long moment, and they could see the decision struggling behind his eyes.
"Then do it," he said finally. "Never doubted you. Never have, never will."
He closed his eyes, and the Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, programming the right setting.
He stepped close, being careful not to touch him, and leant forward to murmur softly into his ear, so the others couldn't hear.
"I love you. Hold on to that."
Jack's eyes opened, and for a moment they just stared at each other, then the Doctor pressed the button and Jack's body shook, once, before dropping to the floor, still.
There was a long moment of silence as they all stared at him, then the Doctor turned abruptly.
"We have to go."
Rose shook her head.
"We can't just leave him here."
"We have to," the Doctor said grimly. "They'll find him in a few hours. This has already happened. We can't change it now."
He reached for Jack, pulling him close for a brief second, reassuring himself that he was still there.
"Feeling okay?" he asked.
"A little fuzzy," Jack admitted.
"Yeah well, two of you died today. That's to be expected."
Rose stepped towards them, and they enveloped her in a hug, all three of them clinging to each other.
"Come on," the Doctor said. "Let's go."
Limp, tired and tangled together, they went to find the TARDIS.
tbc
