A/N: Jack's back! And he brings with him a new method of writing/storytelling, just to keep things interesting. Teehee, enjoy ;)
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"And that was when you went back for Jack."
"Precisely."
He's throwing levers in the TARDIS again, feeling the old girl wince at his roughness, but for once, he doesn't care. It seems that he's doomed to be alone forever, no one will stay with him while he's on this mad quest. But what had he expected? No one else cares for Rose as he does...
He stops. A thought.
No one cares for Rose as he does. But there's someone that might be a pretty decent second place.
Back to England. 2006. It doesn't take much work for him to find out that Jack Harkness, his Jack, is affiliated with Torchwood. He supposes he shouldn't be surprised, after all...for someone of Jack's talents, Torchwood is perfect. Either that or running an international crime ring. And after what Jack said on the Gamestation - "I was much better off as a coward," - it seems he has chosen the hero's path.
He'll wonder later how Jack got to the 21st century. For now, he has an appointment in Cardiff.
The Doctor looked up, and a smile reluctantly crossed his features. He tapped Rose on the shoulder.
The two figures that had earlier raced out of the TARDIS and tumbled down amidst the flowers were walking towards them, hand-in-hand. One was a short woman, thick shoulder-length auburn hair glinting in the afternoon sun.
The other...
"Trust you never to miss an entrance, Jack," he greeted the man. "I was just getting to your part of the story."
"Yeah, well, Kris and I were getting bored, so we decided to come see what you were up to." Jack flashed his debonair grin, the one which had gotten him into and out of trouble on countless worlds. "Besides, it sounds like we got here just in time."
"Why's that?" Rose lifted her head from the Doctor's chest and smiled at the Captain lazily.
"Because this part's my story, and I'm gonna tell it." Jack grinned again. "He'll mess it up."
The Doctor glared playfully at Jack. "Oh, will I?"
"Well, some parts anyway. You weren't standing there in the Torchwood bay, after all, watching the TARDIS materialize..."
-8-8-8-
First the bubbling hand. Then the air, displaced by the thing that was slowly materializing, ruffling his hair.
Jack Harkness smiled.
And finally...the whooshing that he could still identify instantly, even though it had been so many years since he'd heard it. There was only one thing in the universe that made a noise like that.
The blue box was solid. The sound of the engines stopped.
The doors opened. And a man he'd never seen before leaned out.
"Oi! Jack! Are you coming or not?"
It's got to be the Doctor. Somehow.
Jack didn't waste any more time thinking about it. He hurled himself across the short distance, barreling through the TARDIS doors. Skidding to a stop, he looked behind him.
The stranger closed the doors and leapt up the ramp, jumping around the control console, lit by the green glow that Jack had seen so many times in his daydreams. That whooshing sound that he remembered so well began again, stopping a moment later.
"There. Okay," the stranger breathed. "Sorry 'bout that...I wanted to make sure those Torchwood blokes didn't give us any trouble." He straightened up, looking Jack in the face. "You must be wondering..."
Jack cut him off. "You're the Doctor."
The thin man in the pinstriped suit nodded. "Got it in one."
"What happened?"
"Regeneration. Time Lord trick. Cheat death, live hundreds of years...and get a new body in the bargain."
Jack blinked. "You...died?"
"Yeah. Long story short, Rose took the Time Vortex into her head, and I had to take it out of her to save her life. Killed me in the process. Tell you all of it sometime."
Jack slowly walked up the ramp. His mind was still spinning. "Rose. Where is she?"
An expression unlike any Jack had ever seen before crossed the Doctor's face. "Gone."
"Gone? You mean she left? Oh God, don't tell me she finally shacked up with Mickey..."
The Doctor shook his head. "No. She's gone. I...lost her."
"Um...Doctor, I believe a lot of things that most people think are impossible, but I'm not sure how you just lose a person like you lose a pencil."
"It wasn't like that," the Doctor murmured. "I tried to keep her safe. But she wouldn't let me."
"Sounds like Rose."
That brought a smile, however brief, to his lips. "Yeah."
"So...you lost her?"
"She's in a parallel universe. Safe...alive...but gone."
Jack sucked in his breath. "Oh. And I take it...that that's a problem."
The Doctor's eyes met his, and he was finally able to put a name to the expression on the other man's face. Haunted.
"I need her, Jack."
"You should've come back for me earlier. I could've told you that."
"Will you help me?"
Jack's lips twisted, in a cynical smile. "So is that why you came back for me now? You need my help? If it weren't for that, would you have just left me there rotting with fcking Torchwood forever?"
The Doctor rounded on him. "What do you want me to say?"
"I don't know! Maybe, 'I'm sorry'? 'I'm sorry, Jack, we brought you back to life and accidentally made you immortal, and then just for kicks, we decided to leave you behind, on a space station full of dead people. Our fault, please accept my apology and let's go have a drink.' That might be a good start."
"Accidentally made you immortal? What the bloody hell are you talking about?"
Jack was breathing hard. "You don't know?"
"Obviously not!"
"Whatever you did...whatever brought me back to life...now I can't die. I've tried." He grinned bleakly. "Working for Torchwood is dangerous. I keep getting killed. But..." He spread his hands. "Here I am."
"The Time Vortex," the Doctor murmured. "When Rose brought you back to life...it must still be in you. Keeping you alive."
"Gee, you think?"
"Well, what am I supposed to say, Jack?" He'd forgotten how angry the other man could make him. "I had no idea where you were until a few months ago! I knew you were off being a hero somewhere, but that's as far as I got! And what with the Daleks and the Cybermen and the parallel universe and all, I've been just a mite busy lately! So I'm sorry, all right? I'm sorry that you got stuck in Cardiff instead of being out in the universe with me and Rose. Are you happy?"
"No."
The Doctor blinked. "Good, then. Because I'm not either."
"The last time I really felt happy...really felt alive? It was on the Gamestation. With you and Rose." Jack stared at the floor. "Part of me's been broken ever since."
"How long has it been? For you."
Jack sighed. "Over two hundred years. Give or take some."
Two hundred years of pain. Two hundred years of loneliness, immortality, feeling like half a person.
Somehow, the Doctor understood. As Jack had known he would.
The Doctor's hands dropped to his sides, and he let out a long breath. "Jack...I'm so sorry."
Jack shook his head. "Forget it. It's not important."
"Yes it is. I...ah." He ran a hand through his hair. "I should have come back for you sooner. You belong on the TARDIS."
"That much we agree on, at least." A glimmer of his old, roguish grin appeared. The Doctor was heartened to see it. "So what's the plan, Doctor?"
"Plan?"
"You know. Get Rose back. Rescue the fair maiden and save the world?"
"Right. Ah. Here, look at this."
Jack stepped up to the viewscreen as he shrugged his greatcoat off, peering down at the lines of text. "The Court of Appeals? What the hell is that?"
"It's a Gallifreyan fairy tale."
"I'm lost."
"The Court of Appeals is a legend told to children on Gallifrey. It's a mythical governing body with the power to make anything that's impossible possible. Fix paradoxes. Change time always for the better without consequences. Do your homework for you." He grinned. "Always liked that part."
"Okay, so how is a mythical court going to help us find Rose?"
"Because it's not mythical. Here." The Doctor punched a key and the text changed. "Look at these. This is what I've been doing the past years: researching. Trying to find a way to get to the Court."
Jack's eyes rapidly scanned the text, picking out a reference here, a note there. "Doctor, these are all legends too..."
"Right. But they're legends from worlds that my people had no contact with."
Jack nodded slowly, straightening up. "So you think that there has to be a reality behind the legends. And sooner or later, you're going to find a way to get there."
"Precisely."
"Hmm. Sounds like a wild goose chase to me. Running around looking for something that no one knows for sure if it exists or not." Jack spread his hands again, smiling and shrugging. "Then again, I don't really have anything better to do."
"Then you'll help me?"
He reached out, clapping the Doctor on the shoulder. "I'll help you. But I've got a price."
The Doctor looked wary. "What is it?"
Jack was looking at the floor again. "You have to help me, too."
"Your immortality...Jack, I'm not sure we can reverse it. This hasn't happened before as far as I know..."
Jack slashed his hand through the air, cutting the Doctor off. "No. I don't want you to reverse it. At least not now. Maybe..." He glanced at the doors. "Maybe if I'd been going to be stuck in Cardiff for the rest of forever. Maybe then. But now that I'm back here, I want a different kind of help. I want you to teach me how to live with it. That's my price."
The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets, looking down, then back up at Jack again. "Deal."
Jack extended a hand. "Shake on it?"
The Doctor grinned, slowly, and took Jack's hand. To his surprise, he was yanked into a rough hug, feeling Jack's arms encircle him tightly.
"If you ever leave me behind again," Jack growled, "I swear I will kill you. Deal?"
"Deal."
---
"Do you need to say goodbye?"
The question gave Jack pause. The Doctor was standing at the console, beginning to set the controls for their next destination, halting as he waited for Jack's answer.
"I took us out pretty quickly. I didn't think...if there's anyone that you need to say goodbye to..."
Jack shook his head, then nodded, then shook his head again. "I don't know. I should...well. There are some things I wouldn't like to leave behind. And...yeah. Yeah. I should tell them goodbye. I owe them that much."
"All right." The Doctor slammed a lever down. "Next stop, Torchwood, about two minutes after we left."
---
Jack stepped out of the TARDIS with the Doctor at his back, and was instantly accosted by his team.
"Where did you go?"
"What happened?"
"What is that?" This last by Toshiko, who was glaring at the police box. "And who is that?"
Gwen stood a little apart from the rest of the group. Her voice almost went unheard. "It's the right kind of Doctor. And Jack's leaving."
The group fell silent.
Jack swallowed. "She's right. This is the Doctor."
"Hello!" came from behind him.
"But..." Ianto was looking at him almost desperately. "You just...you're leaving? Sir?"
Jack's head dropped. He nodded.
"I came back to say goodbye," he murmured. "I'm going with the Doctor. There's something we have to do."
"But then you're coming back?" Ianto again.
Jack shook his head. "No. I'm not coming back."
The team stood in silence, all of them looking at him. It made his skin crawl, and he turned to the Doctor. "This will only take a minute."
The Doctor had already parked himself at Jack's desk, beginning to fiddle with the bits of alien technology that were strewn around it. He picked up the piece of coral with a grin. "A baby TARDIS! Jack, where did you find this?"
"Long story."
"Well, we'll take it with us! Give the old girl a bit of company." The Doctor grinned, tucking the piece of coral into his jacket pocket. "Haven't seen one of these in ages. Oi, I thought you were going to pack? Hurry up then, we haven't got all day."
---
Gwen followed him into his rooms. He'd known she would. She sat silently in a chair as he pulled out his old military duffel and began packing.
"Where will you go?" she asked finally, when his drawers and closet were almost empty.
"Everywhere." He paused, giving her a smile. "Everywhen."
"What is it that you have to do?"
"We have to find a friend. Someone who was with us before. She got...left behind."
"Left behind." Gwen paused. "Like you."
"Yeah. You could say that." He tossed the last of his clothes in the duffel and zipped it.
"Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"What do we do without you?"
He knelt, pulling a box from under the bed. It was a case of Scotch that'd he'd been saving since the fifties...no reason to leave that behind. Straightening, he shouldered the duffel, tucking the box under one arm.
"You keep going," he said firmly. "You're in charge now."
"What? Jack, I'm the new girl, the team would never..."
"Yes they will." He reached out, ran his free hand over her hair. "You'll be fine. You'll be better than fine. Someone's got to look after them."
She was silent for a moment. When she finally spoke, her voice was very small. "Who's going to look after me?"
He didn't have an answer. Instead, he put the box down by his feet, reaching out and drawing her into a hug. "Goodbye, Gwen."
---
It was the same with the rest of the team. Hugs for all. Tears from some. Pleas to come back. Pleas to stay. Cries that they needed him.
What made it worse was that they were right. They did need him. But he didn't need them.
Not anymore.
When he got to Ianto, there was one thing more: a salty, bitter kiss goodbye. No words, other than, "Goodbye."
"Goodbye, sir."
When it was over, he unhooked the jar with the hand in it from its support systems, and tossed it to the Doctor, who caught it, surprised. "I think this is yours."
The Doctor turned the jar over in his hands. "You're right. It is."
"Then let's go."
Without a backward glance, Jack picked up his box of Scotch for the last time. The Doctor was directly in front of him, walking into the TARDIS. As he crossed the threshold, he heard Gwen call out, "Jack!"
He turned.
She was smiling at him, standing behind the rest. "Have fun," she said quietly.
He grinned in answer. Then he pushed the box under one arm, and with the other, swung the TARDIS doors shut.
"Right then," he heard the Doctor say behind him. "Shall we?"
