Chapter 13: Happy Endings

Jack stared at the tableau before him, noting the motions of the people around him in detail. There, an agent shifted nervously, his fingers edging toward the trigger of his gun. There, a UNIT soldier caught the movements, his eyes narrowing as he moved to cover the agent. There, the Doctor - his back tense - watched as Brigadier Bambera stared down at Director Yvonne Hartmann. And, to his side, Rose had ceased her struggles and mimicked his movements, her gaze flicking from side to side as she caught the almost palpable tension between UNIT and Torchwood.

He'd been in enough situations such as this to know that it would only take a moment for the wrong move, the wrong word, or the wrong expression to cause the delicate balance to break into battle. He braced himself, intent on breaking away from the agent guarding him and then barrelling into Rose's captor if the situation degraded further.

Everything depended on Director Hartmann's next words. Across the lawn of the hostel, more agents and soldiers began to twitch as the silent conflict between the Brigadier and Yvonne stretched.

Seconds faded into minutes and nothing was said. Just a quiet war of gazes, each one willing the other to drop, to give in, to give up. He looked at Gwen and said another silent goodbye. He'd said his goodbyes to the others earlier, if only in his mind, but he hoped that this wouldn't be the end. It couldn't end like this, not when there was so much left to do. Not when he had yet to answer the Doctor's question as to whether he'd return to the TARDIS. It couldn't.

When they finally came, the words were almost too soft for him to hear. "Let them go," Yvonne bit out the words, each one an apparent torture. "We're finished here."

One by one the Torchwood agents stepped away and holstered their weapons. The bruising grip on his arms was released and the man that had been guarding him pointedly put some distance between them. "Your weapon, Harkness," the agent said, holding out his sonic blaster.

He grinned and took the device, sliding it back into its holster. "Thanks."

Yvonne turned around and stared at the Doctor, her very posture a threat. "I'll see you again, Doctor. That's a promise."

"Oh, are you planning on inviting me over for a cuppa? Or just to lament that you've been stonewalled? I'd say sorry about that if I meant it, but I don't," the Time Lord replied and he could hear the grin in his voice.

"This isn't over," Yvonne vowed.

"Yes it is," Bambera interrupted. "And that is UNIT's guarantee."

With as much of her battered dignity as she could muster, Yvonne countered, "We'll see about that, Brigadier. Agents, we're going back to the Institute." In the flurry of motion from the suited personnel and the thump of car doors, she paused, her hand on the car door handle. "Oh, and Agent Cooper? Agent Harkness?"

"Yes, Director?" Gwen asked absently, as she moved to join him. He didn't even bother to acknowledge that Yvonne had spoken to him.

"You're fired."

Gwen pointedly winked at him and grinned. "Too bad, I already quit."

He stared at her in shock even as, in the background, a car door slammed and, with the rumble of car engines, Torchwood left the hostel. "You quit?"

Gwen nodded. "Soon as I learned what Yvonne was planning, I turned in my resignation letter. Admittedly, that was after I called someone mentioned in Torchwood's files on the Doctor. A Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Nice man, rather gruff, but typical military despite being retired. He still has some pull in Geneva and this, well, this was the result."

Words didn't seem to have enough substance to explain how he felt about her actions. She'd saved his life and, most especially, the lives of the Doctor and Rose. "Thank you doesn't even cover it, Gwen."

"No," she replied, grinning as she pulled him into a brief hug. "But it'll do."

Rose had joined the Doctor and, together, they faced the Brigadier. He could hear only parts of their conversation as most of his attention was on Gwen's explanation what else had happened at Torchwood after her call.

…Blimey, it's almost like a walk down memory lane…

…Ancelyn? Oh, he's fine. He'd be here, but he's busy minding the Torch…

…Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart wanted me to pass on his regards, as well as a request that you pop by for a visit, just mind the rhododendrons…

That was when his attention was captured by another voice. A very familiar voice. A very angry and familiar voice. "Jack Harkness!" Evelyn. Oh, hell, Evelyn. He'd almost forgotten about her. He turned toward the house and watched as she advanced on him, her very posture a threat. He suddenly understood all too well what her students must have felt like if they'd done something wrong. "You hadn't the right to do that."

He swallowed. "Evelyn, I didn't want you getting hurt. It was safer for you in the cellar..."

"Safer? Safer! Honestly, Jack, I travelled with the Doctor for years. There is no place that's truly 'safe'. Besides, you told me you wanted to check the locks on the cellar's external doors. Not keep me safe!" Evelyn said. She folded her arms in front of her in a gesture he knew was calculated to make him feel guilty.

"And I did," he replied. "But I wanted to..."

"Protect me," she completed the sentence on the breath of a sigh. "What is it with you lot?" She must've caught his confused expression as she continued, "Men. Human or alien, doesn't matter. They think they've got to protect me just because I'm a woman. Honestly!"

"It's not that!" he protested. And it wasn't.

"Or is because I'm old?" Evelyn asked, dropping her arms to brace her hands on her hips.

He shook his head mutely, wondering how on Earth he was going to get out of this one. It wasn't because of her age or her gender. He just genuinely didn't want to see her hurt. It didn't even matter that he'd barely met her, but he considered her a friend. He'd do the same for anyone.

"Evelyn! Wondered where you'd got to," the Doctor said as he deliberately inserted himself between the two of them and placed his hands on Evelyn's shoulders. "Now, Evelyn, don't kill the former head of the Cardiff branch of Torchwood. He was only doing what he thought was his duty. Believe me; he would've done the same with anyone."

Evelyn shook her head and sighed. "Are you sure of that?"

He couldn't see the Doctor's face, but he could hear the grin in his voice. "Positively positive. Honest. Oh, and Jack, did I mention that there's a lovely restaurant on the far side of Malkaresh IV that has the best examples of trilk'nik'ta this side of the Milky Way? Also has a brilliant view of the twin sunsets. Fancy a visit?"

"Doctor, you're bein' rude again," Rose scolded from his side, tugging on the Time Lord's sleeve.

"I am?" the Doctor asked, brow furrowing in confusion. Understanding dawned as he seemed to note Evelyn's posture. "Oh, apparently I am. Sorry about that. Meant to say I'm glad that you're all right, Evelyn. And Gwen, Bambera would like to have a word with you. She mentioned something about a job opportunity."

Gwen gave him a look of astonishment before she excused herself to join the Brigadier.

Evelyn just shook her head. "Doctor, you never change."

The Doctor blinked. "I change all the time! Well, not all the time. But sometimes. Change bodies, style, personalities. I even change my Chucks."

"Ah, but you're still you," Evelyn corrected. "Now I'm going back inside. You're welcome to come in for some cocoa, but I believe that this is enough excitement for me for one day."

Jack looked at her carefully at that moment, but she seemed to be okay. Probably just a headache, but the Doctor looked sad as he nodded. "Okay. And Evelyn?"

"Yes, Doctor?" she asked.

"Thanks for everything," the Time Lord said and tugged her into a tight embrace. When the Doctor pulled away from Evelyn and stepped back, he was rewarded with a brilliant smile. However, the Doctor's expression was still sad as he smiled in response.

"You're welcome."

"Doctor?" he asked once Evelyn was out of ear shot. "What's...?"

The Time Lord shook his head. "We're not meant to know the future. Right. I'll go check the TARDIS. If everything's in order - and I'm sure it is - we'll be able to head off within the next hour or two. Is there anything you want to bring with us, Jack?"

Oh, right. An answer. He still owed the Doctor an answer. The battle was done, the good guys had won, and now he could think about the future. The future. He'd pushed it away, ignored it in favour of the fight against Torchwood, so much so that he'd almost forgotten the question, the offer.

"That is…you are coming with us, right?" the Doctor asked hopefully. From his side, Rose looked at him with the same question in her eyes, the same hope.

Possible futures were opened before him and all he had to do was choose. And he wasn't sure he knew how to answer.

How many times? How many faces? How many moments in his nine-hundred odd (well, more than that, but he'd always been fond of his nine-hundreds) years had he been stuck in this same situation? Not many, admittedly, but each one hurt just as much.

He didn't want this to be goodbye or even a 'see you later'. He wanted 'good mornings' and 'hellos' and 'goodnights' spanning months, years, decades. Though he knew it was impossible, that forever was a meaningless word, it didn't meant he couldn't wish for it, hope for it. He wanted Jack back on the TARDIS as it should be, temporal anomalies be damned.

However, as he watched the hesitation cross Jack's face, he worried. Would he say no? Would he refuse to come home? Was this - the unintentional abandonment on Satellite Five - a wound that would never heal? He wouldn't beg, he never begged, but this time he was tempted. Sorely tempted.

Did I mention it also travels in time?

"Jack?" Rose asked, stepping away from his side to touch the other man's arm. "Are you gonna come home?"

Jack stared at her for a long moment, his gaze flicking between them both. He could almost see the thoughts churning in the other man's expression, weighing his options. He had no right to influence that choice. No right to try and force him to come back to the TARDIS. No right to manipulate him into making the one choice that he - the Doctor - could live with.

He felt every single second of his age in that instant of silence. He wouldn't acknowledge that it was trepidation he felt. Wouldn't acknowledge how much he truly cared. No, he corrected himself, how much he truly loved. With a soft sigh, he decided that he'd been associating with humans for far too long.

He knew how Jack would reply. That was the only possible answer as to why he was delaying for so long. A second, he'd long ago learned, could easily stretch to eternity.

The former Time Agent suddenly grinned that carefree and debonair grin that he felt like he hadn't seen in years. "Well, I did just lose my second job and I suppose I never really did give up my first. Time Lord's companion sounds fantastic to me. So just you try and stop me," Jack said.

Rose let out a squeal of joy and launched herself into Jack's arms, planting a kiss on the other man's lips. In another lifetime, perhaps, it would've bothered him to watch them kiss. Now, he just settled for a fond smile and ignored the tiny voice inside of him that urged him to join in.

However, Rose had other ideas. Once she'd extracted herself from Jack, she switched to him, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tight with the same joyful glee that she'd exhibited with Jack. His arms wrapped around her automatically, holding her close.

The feel of her heartbeat fluttering against his chest was enough to cause his hearts to skip a beat or two. It was dangerous, he knew. Far, far too dangerous for him to keep accepting these touches, for needing them, for desiring them. Each day it grew harder and, after almost losing her - this time, permanently - it was that much worse.

But she was here. Jack was here. And everyone was coming home. He tightened his embrace for a moment and let her go, but not before he pressed a tender kiss against her hair. It was the only contact, the only kiss, he could allow himself. Any more and he was afraid that he might not be able to stop.

"Welcome back, Jack," he said and, without even thinking about it, he opened his arms in an unspoken invitation.

Jack took it, crossing to him quickly and pulling him into another hug. It was different from Rose, where she was soft curves, he was hard lines, but the underlying emotion was just the same. When they finally separated, he smiled brightly at the other man. "Is there anything you're going to need before we go?"

The former Time Agent shook his head. "Got everything I need right here."

He grinned. "Then I'll go check the TARDIS. Back in a jiff!" A jiff? Had he just said he'd be back in a jiff? "Another word I'll try to avoid in the future."

And, with that, he marched off toward the TARDIS.

Thankfully, the garden shed hadn't been disturbed since he'd last been there. It creaked in protest as he opened the door, casting light into the darkness. The blue police box looked far better than she had several hours before. Admittedly, he'd been concerned about Reapers at the time and hadn't truly tried to determine how much longer they'd have until she was healed, but he had seen enough to know that it would've been some time. Now, however, the hum that was essentially her heartbeat was stronger and the edges of her exterior shell were sharp and distinct.

He slid his key into the lock and, this time, it turned easily. He opened the doors and stepped inside the dim console room. She felt smaller, but he knew that that would change. She was still repairing herself and, if he hadn't missed his guess, at least thirty percent of her interior structure still needed to be rebuilt.

However, the rest of her was intact. The important bits, at least. Environmental controls, gravity, and their ability to travel through time and space. He planned on going easy on the old girl, give her time to heal. Drifting about the Vortex for a day or two would be best, especially if it meant getting away from Cardiff as quickly as possible.

It didn't matter how often he ended up in Wales, he could never manage to leave quickly enough. At least not without some sort of injury or adventure or mishap occurring before he could escape. This time, he'd almost lost Rose. No, worse than that, he'd almost had to kill her.

He braced himself against the console, letting his head bow as the weight of the past several days tried to crush him. She was back, yes. She was safe, yes. But he knew things would be different now. Bad Wolf wasn't just a memory, not anymore. She knew what had happened when she'd held all of time and space in her grasp. She knew that he'd kissed her, that he'd died for her. But, despite that knowledge, there was so much left unsaid.

He'd always fancied himself a man of action, despite his tendency to prattle. He could say so much and yet have it all be nothing more than babble. In his actions, he tried to tell her how he felt. In his actions, he told her he loved her.

Now, he suspected that that wouldn't be enough. Not anymore. Not when she'd been the Bad Wolf and a vampire and had manipulated time and space to save them. Then again, he'd never needed to hear the words. He knew. Yet he found that he wouldn't mind hearing them. In fact, he wanted to.

He really had been spending too much time amongst humans.

Then there was Jack. No matter how much of a temporal anomaly he was, no matter what his people might've said about his continued existence, nothing had changed from one regeneration to the next. He still loved him. Still cared enough to ask him to come back. Better with three.

The events of the past few days replayed themselves in his mind, chasing over and over again in a never-ending cycle. The betrayal, the hurt, the anguish, the loss, the grief, all filtered through him and he thought he might lose his mind from the intensity of the emotions. Only one facet of the events was over, now they had to deal with the aftermath. He was certain that nothing would ever be the same again.

"Doctor?" Rose's voice was tentative and it caused him to startle at the sound. "You okay? Jack an' I were worried. You've been in here for hours an'…"

Hours? He blinked and realised that his legs did feel rather stiff. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said and turned toward her, no, them. Jack was just behind Rose.

"Is the TARDIS okay?" she asked. He thought that there was another question veiled within the first.

"She'll be fine. A few days drifting in the Vortex and the swimming pool will be back better than ever," he replied, grinning.

A myriad of expressions crossed her face before one began to dominate, a look that he knew far too well. Guilt. Intense guilt. "Doctor, 'M sorry about the TARDIS. I shouldn't've..."

He shook his head as he crossed the distance between them, tilting her chin when she refused to look at him. "No, you did exactly what you should've done, Rose. It's a textbook causal loop. If you hadn't brought us here, you never would've become a vampire, you never would've saved the day, and Jack wouldn't be back here with us. Admittedly, it is a bit of a miracle that it worked, not to mention that the Reapers didn't show up to 'fix' things, but what matters is that it did. You did the right thing, Rose. Exactly the right thing."

She shook her head, tears glistening in her eyes. "But I almost killed..."

"You didn't," he insisted, willing her to believe him. "You didn't, Rose. You beat it. You won. You saved the day. You saved Jack, you saved me, and you saved the Earth. Not too shabby for a stubborn ape, yeah?"

There. A flicker of a smile and then it was gone. "I almost lost you..."

"I almost lost you," he countered. "But I didn't. You didn't. All safe and sound and back in the TARDIS." The temptation was too much. She was so close. Barely centimetres separated them and he could so easily complete what he'd started before in Evelyn's hostel.

"I could've..." she whispered, unable to complete the sentence.

"But you didn't," he said and gave in. It took less than a second to close the distance, less than a moment to press his lips against hers, less than an instant for her arms to wrap around him and his to wrap around her.

When they finally broke apart, they were both gasping for air. Rose's expression was dazed, her heart racing, her skin flushed, and he felt a dash of purely masculine pride that he'd been the one to do that to her.

Then he realised with flash of panic that he'd changed everything. What if she didn't feel that way? No, he knew she did. What if she didn't...? Enough.

Now this, he decided, was what being a human was like. Regrets and worries climbing to a crescendo in his mind and, without either Jack or Rose saying a word, he didn't know what to think.

What if he'd made a terrible mistake?

The Doctor had kissed her.

Kissed. Her.

It changed everything and nothing at the same time. She smiled brilliantly at him in reassurance as panic and regret darted across his face. "I don't regret it, Doctor," she said softly, willing him to believe her. She'd been about to succumb to her guilt, but he'd stopped that, prevented that, with just the touch of his lips against hers.

He smiled in response and lifted his hand to caress her cheek, keeping the other against her back. She couldn't help but lean into it as he traced mindless patterns against her skin with his thumb. "Good."

Was now the time? she wondered to herself. Was this the moment that she should say the words that had remained unspoken between them for so long? She could see the meaning behind the words in his eyes and knew that her own echoed them.

Maybe it was. With Jack returned, with the Doctor here, she knew now that she couldn't live in waiting for someday to arrive. Someday she'd tell them how she felt, someday she'd say the words, someday they'd know even though they already did. She'd almost lost that chance. The two bite-marks on her neck had stolen those somedays from her.

She couldn't wait for it. Someday was today.

"I love you," she said.

His smile deepened as his thumb paused in its caress. She knew he couldn't say the words, or perhaps wouldn't, but she needed him to hear them. Needed him to know. However, she was surprised when he nodded and ducked his head to kiss her again. The words were murmured against her lips, but she heard them.

He said he loved her. And, once again, it changed everything and nothing at the same time.

That was when she heard someone shuffling quietly around them, probably heading for the interior of the ship. Jack, she identified. Jack! He must think he's not…Oh, bollocks!

"Where do you think you're going, Jack?" the Doctor asked before she could say anything.

"Seeing if my room's still there," he said, nodding toward the doors that led deeper into the TARDIS. "Trying to figure out what sort of redecorating I have to do. You know, the usual. 'Sides, I figured the two of you wanted to be alone."

She didn't. Not without Jack. The Doctor looked at her intently for a moment and it seemed that he read her correctly as he replied, "Why would we want that?"

"What?" Jack asked, shocked. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, but what?"

Still caressing her cheek, the Doctor held out his other hand toward Jack. "Did you think that you're not included, Jack? 'Cause you are."

He still looked shell-shocked, but he joined them. She dropped one arm from the Doctor's neck and wrapped it around Jack. "Didn't you know, Jack?" she asked as swiftly kissed him and leaned back enough to let the Doctor echo the gesture. "Some things are better with three. An' love is one of them."

Later that night, she dreamed. In some of the dreams, she remembered the days when she'd held the power of a god at her fingertips, when the craving for blood filled her soul, when she'd almost killed the men that she loved. She dreamed about it, but the ending was different now. It was better, far better, than she'd thought it ever could be. She'd learned that endings were beginnings in disguise.

Her earlier dreams had been nothing more than the prologue to the true story. She remembered when the future had been an open book at her fingertips and she smiled. Though she had no idea what the future might hold - no one was meant to know the future - that didn't matter. What mattered was here, now, with them. With the Doctor. With Jack.

This wasn't how her dream ended. This was how it began: with three little words.

I love you.

And, as all good dreams are, it was a work in progress.

THE END