Warning: Self-Harm!

''Are you… fine? No urge to kill yourself?'' His hand was squeezed, and a slight smile found its way towards his face. It was nice to know that someone was looking after you.

''No, why would I?'' Jack looked afraid to say a word, but eventually, he did.

"Well, you know that catch I just mentioned? If it goes wrong, when there's no mutual love, or if they just couldn't believe it, then the other partner would kill themselves afterwards. Part of the curse. There've been too many women who have killed themselves in brutal ways right in front of my eyes.'' Jack let go of his hand and put both on the wristband.

''I don't love this part, I do really hate it. It makes my heart clench to think about what could happen. I can't lose you, but I need to show you this." He opened up the wristband in his hands and pushed a button. Out of nowhere, their whole surroundings started to change. Gone was the white, sterilised hospital room and instead they were sitting on a sandy beach. His toes dived between the sand and his pockets filled with the tiny grains of sand. He could hear and see the sea lapping in front of him. The waves creating a calming effect on him. Far away into the sea, he could see something that looked like some kind of drilling platform.

"This is my home, the Boeshane Peninsula. Most of this colony just consists of grassy sand dunes and beaches." Jack said calmly from next to him. From the corner of his eye, he could see children playing and grownups talking while they kept an eye on the children.

"That's her… that's my daughter." He said pointing towards one of the girls playing catch with the boys. Her long brown hair was flying behind her while she ran, giggling, on the ever-changing sand. One look at Jack told him how much he missed her.

" That's the girl from your picture." Left his lips.

"Yes, that's her. Her name is Jane. It's been a while since I've seen her. Since I've seen him." There only a few metres away from them stood Jack also conversing with another man. They looked happy.

" It's a memory we see right now, it's a day of my past when I was most happy. They can't see us." Jack's hands disappeared into the sand while he stared at his past self. His casts still there, but somehow didn't seem affected by the sand. It must've been a torture to see how happy you were and to know that you could never get that back.

"Can they see us?" Jack shook his head, but never averted his eyes from his family because that's what it was, he was watching a family gathering, he could clearly see that. He'd been to so many already that it was hard to miss.

"What was she like? Your daughter?" He asked mesmerized, as he watched his family interact. It was a truly enchanting world to have lived in, but nothing was as it had seemed. As the dangers had been almost constantly present. The girl, Jack's daughter fell down, probably on something hard, as she began to cry and clutch her knee while she was at it. Jack's past self stopped talking to the man and quickly walked towards the girl. He kneeled down and took her into his arms. A kiss found its way on top of the girl's head as he could hear soothing words escape his mouth.

" She was… my girl. I carried her, in the future, it's possible for men to get pregnant with medical assistance. I could feel her kicks, could watch her sleep for hours on end. She and my partner were my world. She was fierce, believed that every creature should get a second chance, kind, she loved learning about our past, but above all, she loved animals. She was always asking us for a pet or to go to the zoo with her." He'd turned his focus towards his Jack, the future Jack, when he spoke about his daughter - who currently was being carried away by past Jack on his shoulders - and it was visible that it hurt Jack a lot to talk about her, to talk about his past. A tear slipped past Jack's cheek as he stared at the retreating back of his family. Something had happened behind him, but he hadn't really noticed what as he'd been too worried about his Jack to watch the adorable family gathering behind him. When he took Jack's hand once again their surroundings changed back to the hospital room and their dark surroundings Jack's expression had turned anxious once more. It was like he expected something to happen, but he couldn't deliver.

" Maybe one day you can tell me more about them?" He whispered into thin air. He hoped Jack would hear him, but he didn't trust his voice enough to speak any louder. Whatever happened, it had put a damper on his mood and made him wish for Jack that he could've stayed in his own time, with his own family, instead of being condemned to stay here.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked him aloud. His anxious face had turned more worried with the second, and that's when he remembered what Jack had told him. All the others had killed themselves after his revelation. But wonder by wonder, he hadn't, yet.

"I'm… Fine. If you mean the killing part at least. I'm just so sad that you had to leave them behind. It's not fair."

" I… what… I'm not sure…" Jack seemed very confused about everything. His hands went into his hair while he became a frantic mess. A strong wind blew through the room and silently he could hear a cackle that could've been from the woman who cursed him but could also come from the hallway. He knew for sure that John - who could act like a perfect witch, was perfectly capable of producing that sound - but this was something else, it felt different. No window or door was open so he knew for sure that something magical was happening in front of his eyes. Jack looked up in panic at him.

"Did you hear that?" He nodded as he watched Jack panicking. With the speed of light, Jack was out of the bed - and didn't even look in pain when he walked on his bad leg - he tried to persuade him to get back to the bed, but Jack didn't want to hear him or he had temporarily gone deaf.

He could hear the rummaging of metallic objects through the drawer - on which a computer stood to constantly update his medical file - which scared him to death.

Quickly he stood up and ran after him, without looking he knew that he only had to take a few steps before he reached his side, but in those few seconds, the thing he feared he would do had already happened. He held a sharp scissor above the palm of his bad arm. Just like the day before, only then it had been a knife.

"PUT THE SCISSORS AWAY JACK!" He couldn't help his outburst, and he truly hoped no one would come to check on them. But he just had to get Jack to listen to him. If he truly had a problem with the urge to cut himself than he had to get help, not deny it and keep it going. Jack looked up at him, a glassy look in his eyes like he watched the thin air in front of him and didn't really see him standing there. This time, the scissors weren't situated above his wrist, but instead hung above his hand palm, luckily. While he walked slowly closer towards Jack, so as not to scare him and get the scissors situated in his body instead, he could see Jack's right hand gripping the scissors harder as the scissors were only millimetres away from his left hand's skin.

"Jack, please, don't do this again." But his pleading seemed futile when Jack pierced the skin of his palm. When the scissors clattered on the ground he made his way towards Jack as fast as he could and took his hand in his. Inspecting the wound he noticed that it didn't seem as deep as he'd thought it would be. It looked rather like a cutting accident, only a little deeper than just the upper skin.

Jack watched with bated breath for something to change. But nothing did, the wound didn't heal as it had before. Not even slower, because after an antagonising long hour it was still just as deep as it had been before. Was it really true?

"Jack, just tell me, what are you doing?" He had already tried to ask what felt like a thousand times during the period of an hour. Only this time, Ianto managed to pierce through his hypnotic kind of state.

He'd been so focused on his hand that he hadn't even noticed that Ianto had come to stop him. He blinked once, then a few times more before Ianto came into focus.

"I… I think I'm mortal." He whispered.

"You're what? Jack, what is going on?"

"I'm mortal. Or at least I think I am." He whispered again, a smile plastered itself on his face while glee took over his mind. Finally, he'd broken the curse. Out of pure ecstasy, he took his hand back and took Ianto's face between his hands. A still confused Ianto looked him in the eye when he delivered him an enthusiastic kiss on the lips - which lasted longer than he'd intended.

" We broke the curse." He told a still very confused looking Ianto. It had taken him so long, it had cost him so much heartbreak, that in his mind it was only logical to react so chipper. He'd been dreaming about this moment for such a long time.

" Are you sure?" Ianto asked him enthusiastically. This was why he loved Ianto so much, he would always be there for you when you needed him the most. And right now, he needed him to celebrate this with him… and maybe stitch his hand.

"Positive, otherwise this wound would've been long gone. Remember yesterday?" He drew up his sleeve and revealed the place on his wrist - of his good arm - where only yesterday a gaping wound had been. Now there wasn't even a sign that there had ever been something like that. Not even a scar. Amazed Ianto looked at him, Ianto Jones was something else.

" That's amazing, but what does that mean?"

''It means that I can finally die. That I can live life alongside you and not see you die while I have to live on for thousands of years. And god forbid, I'll turn grey.'' He said far more enthusiastic than necessary.

-0O0-

His head hurt a little because from all the information that had been thrown at him in the middle of the night. He still couldn't really comprehend it that Jack had been immortal all the while they'd known each other. And now, because all of this, Jack had finally become mortal again. It felt crazy, and he was definitely not going to tell it to anyone else if he didn't want to risk getting locked up in an asylum, but he still believed Jack with every fibre in his body.

He didn't know what it was, but Jack just had something that made you believe him on the spot, maybe they where his puppy dog eyes or maybe something else. He would have to find out sometime.

"So… what… you know... are we?" He didn't even dare say the word when he stood watching Jack lying down on his hospital bed again. It was so late that the sun had already declared to come up again. Within no time a doctor or nurse would come in and check Jack, to see if he could go home and they could get their hospital bed and room back for other patients.

"Well if you want, we could be dating. Or we could wait with that label until our first date? Whatever makes you comfortable." Jack explained through a few long yawns.

"Let's stick to dating and maybe you should get some sleep, it won't be long before you're going to need to answer to their demands." He said and sat down on his own bed for the coming hours - which wasn't long.

" Why don't you hop in? Will be a lot more comfortable than that seems to be." He didn't answer that and just lay down on top of the covers.

" Oh come on Ianto, we've shared a bed before, nothing to be afraid of. And I'll promise I won't bite." Jack joked, in the end, he sat up and made his way to Jack. It was a tight fit, especially with all the wiring which had been coupled to Jack, but they lived. It felt nice to lay next to Jack while they faced one another. Jack's arm circled around his hips and stayed there while his eyes dropped close.

" Goodnight Jack." He whispered before he himself fell asleep.

It was too soon, they didn't have enough sleep when they were rudely woken up at 7 am sharp.

" I'm sorry but who are you?" The kind nurse asked him. It seemed like barely anyone knew him outside his own ward.

"I'm sorry, Ianto Jones mam." He said, rubbing his eyes didn't particularly make his vision any less blurry when he sat up on the bed. His brain was still clouded by sleep when she'd asked him that.

" Yes, but why are you here? Are you Jack's relative?"

" Not really, I'm the closest thing he has, he doesn't have any living family anymore." He answered he reached for the bedside table on which he'd put his glasses just before he went to sleep.

"I'm sorry, but can you stay outside while the doctor comes to examine him?" He didn't really agree with her, but he didn't want to cause a scene. Especially not in the hospital he worked. He was in no mood to get fired any time soon.

"Sure. I'll be back." He said more to a wide-awake Jack than to the nurse. He passed the doctor who was going to examine him on the way out and went towards the bathroom. His… morning problem had become quite visible the moment he crawled out of the bed. This was going to get embarrassing.

A/N: I hope you like it and please leave a review.

XXXFredAndGeorgeForever