Jack and Donna had decided to join the Doctor and Harry in the Bio Lab for a bit of work, but they didn't get within twenty feet of the dome before something stopped them in their tracks. Neither of them could quite put a finger on it, but there was something turbulent in the air, something pushing them away from the dome. There was nothing physical to be seen or felt, just a heavy and uneasy feeling in the air that told them to go away.

"We shouldn't leave without checking on them," Donna said worriedly, tugging on Jack's sleeve. "What if they've done some kind of stupid experiment that's gone wrong?"

"Alright," Jack agreed quickly. "I'm sure everything's fine but I want you to go back outside, just in case."

There was a sudden burst in that strange energy, strong enough that Jack actually took a step back. Donna gave a surprised shout and was quick to hurry off, calling out that she would prop the doors open so that he wouldn't get stuck in the decontamination chamber if he had to run out. Jack crept up on the dome, noticing now that the strange energy seemed to be clearing up.

When he peeked in the room and saw nothing but clothes on the floor, he thought for the briefest of moments that the Doctor and Harry and somehow vaporized themselves in whatever experiment-gone-wrong scenario they had created. But then he saw the two pairs of feet sticking out from behind the central table and realized what exactly he had walked in on.

At first he was just going to leave them to it, but then he heard them speaking to each other Gallifreyan and realized that they had apparently finished. The temptation was just too strong. For weeks now, he and Harry had been punching each other when they thought the other was not expecting it. The biggest problem with such a game was that he was playing against a powerful telepath and Harry almost always knew when Jack was coming. He would never expect him now.

The feet on the floor kicked about as the Doctor started laughing and suddenly Jack's mind was set. He rushed inside to find Harry still on top of the Doctor, punched him as hard as he dared in the back of his ribcage, then turned and ran.

He found himself laughing as his feet pounded against the soft, mossy ground towards the exit as Harry called after him. "I'm going to kill you!"

He tore through the open decontamination chamber where Donna was waiting on the other side. "Oh my God, what's happening!?" she shrieked when he nearly flew into her then she turned to look back into the lab. "HE'S NAKED!"

"Then don't look!" Harry barked as he ran past her.

Jack was surprised with how fast Harry was catching up and he tried to push himself to run that little bit faster, though it was getting harder because he was laughing at the same time and wasting all his breath. He turned corners frequently, trying to shake the Time Lord off, until he realized that Harry wasn't actually following him anymore. For a second, he thought maybe he'd actually gotten away until he remembered that Harry knew the TARDIS inside and out like the back of his hand and, more importantly, was capable of reading Jack's mind.

Just as that thought sunk in he went to turn another corner and practically ran face first into Harry's fist. It actually knocked him off his feet and he found himself lying flat on the floor, staring up at a grinning and still very naked Time Lord.

"So is it my turn now?" he asked cheekily. "I would have just laid down if you had asked me.|

"Keep dreaming, Jack. Give me your coat."

"I'm pretty sure you broke my nose," Jack groaned, sitting up and obediently removing his coat and handing it over.

"You'll be fine in a minute."

He sat there, holding his palm to his nose to hold back the blood until it healed and smirked as Harry put on Jack's coat and buttoned it up. "I was gonna say that it was worth it for the view, but I actually kinda like the whole naked-under-my-coat thing. I had a boyfriend once who used to do that—very hot."

"Shut up before I hit you again."

"Whatever you say, babymama."

Harry punched him again, making sure to hit him squarely in the nose so that, if it wasn't broken before, it was certainly broken now. He held his hand over it, feeling it crunch and move as it tried to heal and he watched a smirking Harry walk away in his coat.

Jack's heart had been through a tumultuous storm of emotions for the past several months of his life and it didn't seem to feel like slowing down now. When the Doctor called him that day to ask for his help he thought that it might be a second chance for him. He was lonely and mourning and completely unsure of what he supposed to do with himself after the terrible losses he'd suffered and suddenly he got a call from the one that got away.

Then he saw Harry on the ship and, worse, realized very quickly that somehow a mass murderer had slipped in from nowhere and stolen the Doctor's heart. Everything changed from winning over the Doctor to saving him from a mad man. Then it changed to saving the mad man himself. Now, it seemed to be changing again.

Whatever people may have thought about him, Jack did have boundaries and lines that he never intended to cross. But, while he could control his actions, he could not control his own emotions. He was still just as infatuated with the Doctor as ever, but now he was seeing Harry in a different light as well. That day in the storage room, when he saw Harry in a truly vulnerable state and realized he had been chosen as the one to be trusted, and then when he actually found himself losing in the fight, it seemed like a light had been turned on somewhere. Harry was suddenly very attractive.

Where he felt love for the Doctor, he felt lust for Harry and he was sure that it was just his mind acting out of desperation in its heartache, trying so hard to fill the empty void inside. A silly game of sucker-punch had been a way of getting some attention, he supposed. That was why he couldn't resist running into that room during what was clearly a very intimate moment and hitting those exposed ribs hard. It was very childish and he was completely aware of that, but he knew he didn't have a chance of catching either Time Lord for himself so he may as well just have fun with them.

Harry knew. When they were cleaning themselves up after the storage room fight and he was looking at Harry in that new light for the first time, there was some sort of moment. Harry turned and looked at him too suddenly, and Jack was certain that his thoughts had been heard. Maybe that was why Harry had gone along with this strange little game—maybe he was just humouring him. Or maybe he thought sibling-like revelry would ensure that Jack knew exactly where he stood.

It wasn't until that day that he thought the Doctor knew anything though. He had been looking through some of the books in the library when the Doctor found him, holding a drink in each hand. They sat together in silence for a long time before the Doctor finally sighed and began to speak.

"I'm sorry I never let you buy me that drink."

He chuckled, amused. "It never would have worked out anyway."

"No, it wouldn't," the Doctor agreed. "But at least you'd know that for certain and gotten over it already. And I can tell you right now, Jack, that it would never work for you and Harry either."

"What, did he tell you?"

"No," the Doctor answered in a way that sounded perfectly truthful. "But he didn't have to. You're not exactly subtle when you have a crush on someone, Jack, and he's been acting a bit different around you too because he knows. I think that normally he wouldn't care, but the baby is changing him and I need you to understand that sometimes it makes him uncomfortable."

"Did you not see him playing naked tag with me today?"

The Doctor chuckled and nodded his head. "Like I said, I don't think he cares most of the time. It's not like him to shy away from an admirer anyway. It's just that the hormones he's experiencing tell him to protect the family unit, and you act as a threat to that. Pay attention to how he's behaving—if he seems even the slightest bit shy, just leave him alone. Alright?"

"Okay," he sipped the drink that the Doctor had given him. "I'm sorry I'm bothering anyone. I'll keep my comments to myself and I'll try to control my thoughts around him. Will that work?"

"It could," the Doctor said slowly. "Mind you, it might be nice if you kind of . . . well, only on days when he's in good humour obviously, but . . . you could play it up a bit."

"What do you mean?"

"Harry seems to be unhappy about, in his own words, his 'lumpiness'. I honestly can't keep away from him but he thinks I'm just trying to make him feel better about it," the Doctor shrugged his shoulders a bit and smirked. "So . . . you know . . . if it seems to be a day when he's feeling playful . . ."

"Are you telling me to flirt with your boyfriend?"

"Partner, remember? He's too old to be someone's boyfriend," the Doctor said in a mock-stern voice before smiling. "But yes . . . maybe a little. He might believe you more than me at this point. I just don't want him feeling badly about himself."

He wasn't entirely sure if he could believe what he was hearing. "Okay then . . . whatever you say, Doc."

"Thank you, Jack," the Doctor clinked their glasses together and took another sip. "And I'll tell you what, if there's ever room for one more we'll call you."

Jack laughed. "And I can expect that call any day, huh?"

"Over my dead body," the Doctor answered with a pleasant smile. They chuckled for a moment, but then the Doctor looked him right in the eye and said in a frighteningly serious tone: "I'm sorry you're lonely, Jack, but hands off. With both of us. I'm his and he's mine."

"No, of course," Jack agreed quickly, startled to see the Doctor acting territorial. "I know that. Really."

The growing bump on Harry's chest had definitely changed everything. Harry's bizarre hormonal swings and aggression aside, he seemed to be becoming more patient and quiet while the Doctor was getting more energetic and protective. Harry was more tolerant of a day of rest, while the Doctor constantly needed to occupy himself, and it seemed most often that he wanted to occupy himself with Harry. It was painfully clear that neither Time Lord felt threatened nor enticed by Jack's attractions, but both had become very willing to remind Jack of their territory if his jokes became a little too flirtatious.

Any time the Doctor stepped in to tell Jack that enough was enough, he always secretly thanked him later. If Harry wasn't getting an ego-boost from Jack flirting with him, he definitely got one from seeing the Doctor get territorial. He supposed it was a good thing that at least his wasted feelings were helping in some way.

Two weeks after the incident in the lab, Harry began to show difficulty in keeping his mind stable. He wasn't just slipping into pre-attack behaviour, he was getting confused and upset and was completely aware of the fact that he could become dangerous at any moment, which only made things worse.

It always started with something simple. They would all be having breakfast and would get up to leave, but Harry would ask where his wheelchair or crutches had gone. He didn't believe them when they told him that his leg was not broken anymore and the Doctor had to physically take Harry's leg and bend it for him to show that it was all intact. He frequently asked what happened to Lucy, usually able to accept the answer quickly but occasionally kicking up an argument over it. Once he even asked where Qhoya was and the Doctor visibly paled—luckily Wilfred had been in the room to use his remarkable influence over Harry and distract him. Days would go by where the Time Lord seemed just seconds away from an attack and then suddenly he would snap out of it, and be fine for another week.

The denndi was the size of a baseball when the Doctor took them to a tiny little moon orbiting the planet of Vaxet. Vaxet itself was primarily a game reserve but the second moon was famous for its spas. Donna was thrilled to be taken somewhere that didn't involve tracking through mud or being surrounded by loud and oily machinery and repeatedly told the Doctor that they should go to places like spas more often. The group was split into pairs and the Doctor practically begged Shaun to let him take Donna. Harry and Wilfred stuck together, as always, and so Jack found himself enjoying sitting in a mud bath and having his hair cut with Shaun beside him all along.

"See, the thing is," Shaun said after Jack asked him why he decided to let his wife go off with the Doctor. "I love Donna to bits but she does talk an awful lot. I thought that she's going to want to chatter nonstop and so will the Doctor, so they may as well go together and give us a bit of quiet."

Shaun was definitely a quiet person compared to most of the Doctor's companions. He was a hard worker and rather skilled with handy work but, while everyone else had a tendency to make an awful lot of noise, Shaun preferred to sit quietly and work. He supposed that might be why he and Donna were so well suited to each other—she had someone who would listen to her all day while Shaun wasn't really expected to talk much. Still they did talk quite a lot as they were pampered, mainly because a spa wasn't exactly what either of them considered great fun.

At the end of the day they all met up and took a moment to admire fresh haircuts and laugh about what seemed to be a loss of at least three layers of skin to various exfoliates. Donna was simply beaming with happiness as she showed off her professionally styled hair and make-up. She proudly told them that she had convinced the Doctor to get his toes painted because he complained about being bored while she was having hers done. After a bit of begging, the Doctor sheepishly removed one shoe so that the others could see the purple nails on the ends of his hairy toes.

"Well, that's step one done anyway," the Doctor declared after the laughter had subsided. "We're going somewhere very nice tonight so you might want to dress it up a bit."

"Already done," Wilfred said with a perfectly straight face as he quickly pulled on one of the complimentary robes they'd received over top of his clothes.

There was a bit of muttering between Donna and Shaun once they were back on the TARDIS. She suspected that there was something they weren't being told and, after presenting her argument, both Shaun and Jack had to agree with her. They might have expected the Doctor to take them all to a spa if someone had begged him, but it was strange for him to take them just for fun.

"When I asked him why we'd gone, he said there was somewhere else we were going afterwards and that everyone ought to look nice," Donna explained, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "But that doesn't really make much sense, does it? I mean, we went to Pompeii and he couldn't be bothered to change out of his suit."

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "I've never really seen him worry about if he looks good for where he's travelling."

"Maybe it's Harry's idea," Shaun offered. "Or maybe, the Doctor's just doing it for Harry. I mean, I know he's a man and everything but, if Donna were pregnant, I'd want to take her out on fancy evenings and spoil her a bit."

"Aw! See why I married him?" Donna smiled happily and took Shaun's hand in both of hers. "Though you don't have to wait till I'm pregnant to spoil me. I'd let you do it right now."

Things seemed even more suspicious when they all met up in the control room. They'd been warned that they were making a short stop before going to dinner and that it was going to be cold, so everyone was wearing coats over their fancy clothes and Donna had on some nice fur trim gloves. The strange thing wasn't that Harry was wearing a new suit, black and well-tailored for him, but it was strange to see him actually wearing the jacket for it. That alone might have slipped by without much notice—after all, he did wear his suit jacket in the Year That Never Was when he wasn't quite as sick—but he was also wearing a scarf.

"I thought you'd never wear it!" Wilfred exclaimed once he saw noticed the blue material wrapped snugly around Harry's neck.

"Well, you know," Harry muttered quietly in reply. "It's probably going to be a bit chilly."

"My God, are we going to freeze to death!?" Donna asked loudly. " 'Cause we've put coats on and everything but we're not exactly prepared for the North Pole!"

"Donna, it's going to be fine," the Doctor assured her and Jack noticed that he had changed into what looked like a brand new black suit too. "No one is freezing to death. Alright? Now everyone just hold on to something."

"No, no, hang on," Harry said quickly, looking around the room. "Boris isn't here yet."

"Boris?" the Doctor repeated the word as though he were surprised. "There's going to be wind."

"I know."

The Doctor opened his mouth as if he were going to argue some point but then seemed to decide against it, closed his eyes, and shook his head a little. "Where is he then?"

"Getting ready I expect."

"Getting ready how?"

"We had to get a little creative," Harry answered quietly. "I crushed up some crystal into dust and dug out an old suit for him to wear."

"You gave him one of my suits?"

"You're too tall to wear it now anyway," Harry crossed his arms stubbornly. "He was really excited about it, okay?"

Boris turned up a couple of minutes later and it was no wonder that it took him so long. The swarm seemed to be struggling to coordinate moving inside the navy blue suit without dropping it or losing shape. Occasionally a section of arm or leg would fall flat and dangle, empty for a moment until Boris could figure out what he'd done wrong and relocate the wandering patch of particles. Jack wasn't sure what Harry had meant about the crushed up crystal thing until he saw Boris moving in the light and the black shadow lit up and shimmered rather beautifully. It seemed that the areas of the swarm that weren't hidden beneath the suit were occupying themselves with holding onto particles of crystal dust to achieve the effect. He had even been clever enough to condense the dust in some areas so that he had properly visible and sparkling eyes and fingernails.

"Wizard!" Donna exclaimed upon seeing him.

Wilfred helped Boris with the silver tie that was hanging loosely around his neck—understandably, the swarm had been unable to tie it on his own. And with that they were ready. The Doctor input the co-ordinates of where they were supposed to go and they jostled and rattled their way along. Boris lost a shoe during the flight and Shaun chased it across the control room to bring it back before they even managed to land.

When the doors of the TARDIS opened, everything lit up with green light. Everyone hurried forward to get a good look and Jack wasn't entirely sure what he was seeing. They seemed to be standing on top of a snowy mountain, staring at a wall of green fire all around them. Tendrils of light stretched out towards them and floated about like little wisps of smoke.

"Aw, it's snowing!" the Doctor said happily. "I love snow."

"My word!" Wilfred exclaimed. "It looks like the Northern Lights!"

"Well, it is," the Doctor answered quickly. "Well, it's similar anyway. Well, as similar as you can get when you're half way across the universe. Take some particles charged by a solar wind, collide them with the atoms of the thermosphere during a geomagnetic storm and you get—"

"It's like one of those disco clubs!"

"Yes, Donna, you get a disco club," the Doctor finished in annoyance.

"Ohh, and Boris can be our disco ball."

"I've never seen anything like this before," Shaun said quietly. "What is this place?"

"The planet is called Aurenis," Harry answered, grinning widely. "But this mountain is known as the Bridge. It reaches high enough in the atmosphere and has a strong enough magnetic pull that the lights touch the ground—the sky meets the earth."

"The Horizon," the Doctor grinned widely and reached his hand out towards Harry. "If there was ever a place you could call the horizon, this would be it."

Everyone else was busy looking up at the sky, but Jack kept his eyes on the Time Lords. Harry took his scarf off and wrapped one half around his hand while the Doctor's outreached hand took the other half. Boris was paying close attention, standing next to Harry like a personal guard as both men took delicate care with wrapping the scarf. He wanted to ask what they were doing but the way they were looking at each other, like there was no one else in the universe, told him that maybe he didn't need to ask that question.

No one else seemed to be aware that anything was strange. As Harry and the Doctor spoke quietly to each other in Gallifreyan, with words that sounded well rehearsed rather than normal conversation, Wilfred was busy taking pictures of the sky while Shaun and Donna had their arms wrapped around each other, watching the lights.

"Wilfred," Jack muttered quietly, hoping that the Time Lords would notice him as he took Wilf by the arm. "Take pictures of them. Don't say anything, just keep taking pictures."

Wilfred didn't ask any questions—as soon as he laid eyes on Harry and the Doctor he was certain that Wilf was thinking the same thing he was. The brilliant light of the sky was more than enough to allow him to photograph them without the flash and, being so distracted with each other, it seemed that neither Harry nor the Doctor noticed.

After a few phrases were exchanged in words that Jack didn't need to translate to understand, the Doctor leaned forward to kiss Harry. They couldn't really hold a kiss properly as their lips kept pulling away to grin but they did try and gave each other multiple pecks as a result. He could hear the quiet clicking of the camera's shutter as Wilf took photo after photo.

It wasn't until the Doctor and Harold pulled apart that they noticed they were being watched. Harry just grinned even wider and looked at Wilfred with his eyes lit up while the Doctor shyly bowed his head and grinned at his feet instead.

Harry reached his free hand towards Boris. "I'll just get it out myself," Harry said apologetically as he reached into Boris's jacket pocket. "Sorry, but I don't really want it being dropped and rolling down the mountain."

Then, just as Jack expected, Harry pulled out a gold ring. Wilfred audibly gasped beside him and the camera clicked away with much more enthusiasm than before. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Donna turn around at the sound.

"You're really gonna make me wear that?" the Doctor said with a mock whine.

Harry just squinted his eyes in a way that would have looked threatening if he hadn't been smiling so much and tugged on the scarf to pull the Doctor's hand closer. He slipped the ring on the Doctor's finger and Jack watched breathlessly as the Doctor did the same in turn.

"Hang on a minute," he heard Donna say loudly as she stepped towards the scene.

The Doctor two or three words from Gallifrey, which Harry repeated, both of them smiling wide.

"Doctor?" Donna said, even louder this time. "Now, just a minute."

Wilfred had tears streaming down his cheeks and he sniffled loudly as he stepped a little closer for a better picture. He got another shot as Harry and the Doctor, with their hands still bound tightly together with the scarf, kissed each other once more.

"Just hold on," Donna practically shouted. "Doctor!"

"Oh, blooming hell, Donna," the Doctor barked as he pulled away from Harry. "What!?"

"Did you just get bloody married!?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, my God," Donna gasped, staring at them in shock for a moment. "Oh, my God!" she suddenly gave an excited squeal and ran towards the Doctor with her arms flung open wide to jump on him. "Oh, my God! You twit, you should have said something! I almost missed it!"

Within seconds, she was crying too. Wilfred rushed forward to join in on the hugging while Jack and Shaun both waited patiently to shake their hands and offer congratulations. The sky danced and Boris glittered and a small group of people embraced and laughed and cried with joy.

Wilfred found a suitably tall rock to set the camera upon to get a picture of them all together on top of the mountain. They had to take the picture twice because he had accidentally turned the flash on and the crystal dust Boris was carrying made him look like a blinding pillar of light in the first one.

The Doctor popped inside the TARDIS for a moment and came back out with a bottle of champagne and handed around glasses. Everyone said a little something as the champagne was poured out.

"I never thought I'd find myself standing on another world watching an alien wedding," Shaun said kindly. "But I'm sure glad that I have. Thank you for letting me be a part of your amazing lives."

"Boris says that he's always wanted to be a whole rather than a group," Harry translated while the sparkling shadow nodded happily. "But he is happy to be a part of a group if it means that we all are a part of it with him."

"I just can't believe this is happening," Donna said when it came her turn, still clearly in a genuine form of shock. "But I suppose if anyone's got the brass to put up with the Doctor for the rest of their life, it's you, Harry. You two maniacs were bloody well made for each other."

"Oh, my beautiful boys," Wilfred said tearfully, stepping forward to pull them both into a hug again. "I can't tell you how happy I am for you both. I can't tell you how wonderful I think your lives will be together. And I can't tell you how privileged I feel to be a part of it. You can always come to me to moan about each other or to ask me to take care of that little baby of yours when it comes along. I'm not going anywhere. We're a family—all of us—and we're all damn lucky to be together."

Jack was certain he saw Harry wipe away a tear when Wilf hugged him for the hundredth time. "I suppose I really missed my chance," he said, smirking. "Two brave, intelligent, and downright handsome men and they just had to fall for each other. Now I know what all the women are always complaining about. Still, I've never seen two people who deserved each other more. Live forever, Doctor, together."

"Alright!" the Doctor cried happily and raised his glass. "To a bright future, and to always having something worth fighting for."

"To being with everyone we love," Harry added, raising his own, then he looked Jack straight in the eye and smirked. "And Jack."

And before Jack could even think, a fist hit him squarely in the jaw.