X

The Zagrite ship listed, flying above the planet Earth. Parts of it were already damaged, from the various sabotage efforts by the two factions, and with the bridge gone, the ships controls were shot, and she was drifting further out. Inside, things were worse.

--

Jack took out another Zagrite trooper, and rolled to avoid a barrage of laser fire that shredded the console he had been at even more than it had been already. Even if he had wanted to follow Eilidh, he couldn't.

Oh well, he thought, at least this is fun. He shot down another trooper, and sighed behind his cover – a wall. Brilliant.

He had already died twice here, and there was no sign of the Doctor coming to get him. For all he knew, Eilidh had lied to him, said Jack had betrayed them – and knowing the Doctor, he'd believe little miss perfect –

No, that train of thought didn't help at all. It really didn't. Concentrate on the positive.

One: there are only limited numbers of them, and he couldn't die. They'll run out of troops after a while, and then he could get away.

Two: Eilidh, despite his misgivings, Eilidh probably would tell the Doctor about the pickle he was in, and they'd come to rescue him, and then he'd kiss them both. Well, the Doctor anyway, he wouldn't touch Eilidh with a barge pole. Although…

No, bad Jack, down boy! Don't even think about it.

Three: He didn't have a three. Damn.

He shot another Zagrite down, and grinned to himself slightly. This was not the worst day he'd ever had. There was after all the day he got pregnant, and the day the Doctor abandoned him...

Abandoned him. What if he did it again? Left Jack here to fight a bunch of hunky aliens, while he was swanking around with his female companion? He'd done it before, when he'd left Jack on Satellite Five – the Games Station. He'd run away, leaving Jack to pick up the bits of his shattered life, and try to find him again. Leaving him to get caught by Torchwood.

Jack shot another Zagrite down. He was getting angry now, though whether it was at the persistent aliens or the Doctor, he couldn't tell.

--

"Where's Jack?" asked the Doctor, as they ran along the corridors.

"I think he's gone to Earth," Eilidh said. "Like you said for him to do."

"Good man," the Doctor said, grinning. "Finally he's listening to me. Which is good, because the ship's about to explode."

"What?!" Eilidh said. "When were you going to tell me that?"

"Now," the Doctor said. "Anyway. Escape pods?"

They ran on, Eilidh now genuinely hoping Jack had gotten to the planet below. Immortal he might be, but even he couldn't survive a ship exploding. She didn't think.

--

Jack peeked his head out. There was no one else coming. All the Zagrites had died trying to kill him, and while his beloved Webley revolver had run out of bullets, the Zagrite weapons he'd used in its place were adequate enough for the task at hand.

Nobody there, so he decided to go. Find the Doctor. Get Eilidh to explain why they hadn't come looking for him. Possibly kiss the Doctor. Maybe Eilidh. No. Don't think that. You don't like her. Concentrate.

He ran along a corridor, searching for them, and held his borrowed Zagrite laser close to his chest, hoping he didn't have to use it again. It'd be just his luck if it ran out of power when he ran into a squad of Zagrite Shock Troops.

--

Just as he left the teleport room, Eilidh and the Doctor entered it.

"What happened to escape pods?" asked Eilidh.

"This is neater, pods make me space sick," the Doctor said slightly sheepishly.

"Eurgh," Eilidh groaned. "Don't make me think about that."

"Anyway," the Doctor rattled on. "Teleport controls... appear," he continued, examining the console, "to have been shot to bits. This isn't the one you were in, was it?"

"I think it was," Eilidh replied, slowly, carefully. "I'm not sure if Jack made it out, come to think of it..."

"Well, we'll have to hope he did, we can't wait any longer," the Doctor said, waving the Sonic Screwdriver over the controls. "We'll be able to teleport, but we can't tell if anyone else has. Oh Jack," he murmured to himself quietly. "Please be on Earth."

He stood on the teleport pad, and closed his eyes. Eilidh stood next to him, and together, they dematerialised, the familiar sensation of falling apart and reconstituting waving over the Doctor. He had no idea how Eilidh felt.

She felt quite queasy, actually.

--

"Doctor?!" Jack called as he ran through the shattered Zagrite ship. "DOCTOR?!"

There was no sign of him, or Eilidh. What if they were dead? No, they couldn't be. Back on Earth? Yes, that would be the most plausible. The Doctor up and leaving him again...

'Stop thinking that!' he thought. 'It's not doing anyone any good.'

He decided to head for another transmat chamber. That was the best idea. It would probably be –

"Alert," an inhumanly calm voice sounded, from the only speaker on this level that hadn't been shot. "The self destruct sequence has been activated. This is your only warning. Silent countdown initiated. 60 minods to self destruct.

Jack looked at the speaker in disbelief. He ran to the nearest terminal and quickly confirmed this. The ship was gonna blow.

Had the Doctor known that? Was he banking on Jack's immortality to save him? The immortal former Time Agent didn't know, but didn't care either. If this was it, he thought to himself, then he'd at least let the world know his final thought, even if he was the only one who'd hear it.

"Oh sh -" he began.

The ship exploded, fire roaring towards him, burning and twisting the corridors…

There was only light.

--

On planet Earth, the Doctor and Eilidh watched the ship explode. It was like a second sun had been born, filling the sky. The Admiral had piloted it out to just near the moon, so there'd be a few new craters there, and the remains that fell here would have U.N.I.T and Torchwood squabbling for months over debris. Lovely.

"I'm sorry," Eilidh said. "He was..."

"Magnificent," the Doctor finished quietly. "A one-of-a-kind man."

"Alright," Eilidh whispered to herself. "For a sexist rake."

The Doctor stared at the sky. He wished Jack well on the next great adventure, and hoped that he'd enjoy himself.

'Plus side,' he thought to himself, 'he'll get to meet a heck of a lot of beautiful women. And Noel Coward. That should be fun for him.'

Then he squinted. What was that thing, falling from the sky? Down and down it flew, faster than a bullet, hurtling towards the ground, screaming.

"What?!" he yelled, as he recognised it. "That's... that's..."

"What?" Eilidh asked. "What is it?"

"Impossible..." the Doctor said. "Not even he could..."

They were interrupted by the object crashing down into the ground, with a splash of mud. The Doctor and Eilidh were showered with it, Eilidh screaming in shock.

"What the hell was that?!" she yelled after a moment. "What in Gods holy name was that bloody –"

The Doctor said nothing as a stark bullock naked figure crawled out of the crater. His skin was red, his hair was charred, and he looked like he'd just been through a war zone. Minus the fact he was naked, naturally. As they watched, his skin returned to its regular paleness, his hair grew back, and normalised, and with that, Captain Jack Harkness smiled at his friends.

"Hi guys!" he said. "Did ya miss me?!"

"WHAT?!" Eilidh yelled. "How the... what the... bloody hell!"

"Took the words right outta my mouth," the Doctor muttered, pointedly looking away from the Captain while taking his coat off and holding it out. "Put this on quickly. Please!"

Jack took it, and buttoned it up. He was still grinning like a crazy person.

"Whoo!" he yelled after a moment. "That was a rush!"

"What was it like being on an exploding ship?" Eilidh asked.

"It was..." Jack said, "Beautiful. There was a light, bright as a star, and then there I was, staring at space. I didn't even notice that I couldn't breath, or that I felt sick, or anything... and the Earth..." his face looked wistful at this, "shining like a jewel. And then I was falling, down and down and down... it burned, but I was alright, and through clouds I fell, which cooled me off, and then... oh England is beautiful here. And Wales. I could see Cardiff!" he laughed. "And then... then the ground rushed up to me and I hit it and..."

"What?" the Doctor asked, as the Captain paused.

"I woke up," Jack said. "And that was it."

"Coool," Eilidh said, appreciatively.

"Anyway," the Doctor said. "With the loss of their flagship, the Zagrites will probably leave."

"You sure?" Eilidh asked.

"Yep," the Doctor grinned. "Without a flagship, they have no overall commander, and if the ship is lost, then that's a major blow to their honour. They'll want to go home, face the retribution. Earth's a primitive world, and losing a ship trying to take it'll seriously damage their mentality. So they'll go home. Get punished. The Admiral'll get a statue for heroic death. Etc."

"Doesn't seem right for that loony to get anything like that," Jack commented.

"Well," the Doctor said, "they'll blame whoever they got their strategy off of. Quantill or something. I dunno."

"Can we go?" Eilidh asked quietly. "I'm really sick of 1973."

"Yeah," the Doctor said, nodding in agreement. "This isn't really the best year of the 70's, apart from 1979 which was absolutely awful..."

And so going, the time travellers headed for where they'd parked the Cortina.

--

The Doctor walked back from the TARDIS garage.

"The Cortina's all parked," he said. "Where shall we go now?"

Jack and Eilidh looked at each other.

"I don't care," the girl said. "So long as it's somewhere where there aren't any vampires, or fairies, or alien invasion fleets, or anything else like that."

"I just wanna go somewhere where I can get a good beer," Jack said. "You haven't got a good alcoholic drink on this entire ship."

The Doctor smiled. He walked over to the console, flicked a switch, spun a wheel, pulled a lever, pushed a button, twiddled a knob (well he called it a knob, it was actually an old snow globe), pulled another lever, flicked another switch, and pushed a big red button.

"We're off," the Doctor smiled. "To..."

Jack grinned like a loon when the Doctor said where they were going. Eilidh smiled softly.

"Do we have a choice?" she asked.

"No," the Doctor said, still smiling. The rotor slowed, and the TARDIS landed.

"Well," Jack said, "I cannot wait."

He ran out, the Doctor following with a brisk walk, hands in pockets.

Eilidh sighed. Big boys in a big toy, she thought. Could be worse. At least it's not boring.

She followed them out, putting her cardigan on. They were off on another adventure.