Disclaimer: The Doctor and all his companions are the property of the BBC and Russell T. Davies. They are not mine, nor will they ever be.

Spoilers: 'Boom Town'

A/N: set between 'Boom Town' and 'Bad Wolf'

The Doors of the Mind

Part Three

Jack's mind was in turmoil. On the one hand, he saw the Doctor's suggestion that he look into the heart of the TARDIS as his last chance to find out what his missing memories really held. But on the other hand, he knew what a dangerous idea it could prove to be. Nobody knew what they would see if they looked into that well of time and space and knowledge.

"Why on earth didn't you mention this before? We could have saved ourselves, and Jack, a lot of time and trouble." Rose sounded indignant, and while Jack was grateful that she was willing to leap to his defence, on this occasion she really didn't know what she was talking about.

"Because it could be incredibly dangerous," replied the Doctor, echoing Jack's earlier thought. "Who knows what will happen if Jack looks into the heart of the TARDIS? You saw what happened to Margaret. She regressed all the way back to an egg. Do you really want that to happen to Jack? Or it could send him completely insane. A lot of people can't cope with what they find out about themselves if they pursue this course of action."

"Er…excuse me." Both Rose and the Doctor turned to look at Jack, who had been standing quietly by while they had their mini-argument. "First of all, if I regress back to an egg I'll be so small you won't be able to see me, and you'll probably step on me while trying to find me. Which would be the end of the problem. And secondly, I don't think looking into the heart of the TARDIS is going to send me any more insane than not remembering my memories, and yet knowing that there was a way I could have found out about them." He took a deep breath, trying to steady his rattling nerves. "Let's do this, Doctor."

The Doctor looked at Jack carefully. "Jack, do you really understand what this means?" he asked. "Whatever your memories really hold, it must be something pretty big in order for the Time Agency to take them, but also plant false ones in case you ever managed to break through the block in your mind. Are you prepared to deal with what you might find? Forgive me for saying this, but you didn't exactly cope very well the last time around, and those memories weren't real."

"I know," replied Jack. "But I think that situation taught me something. Like the fact that there will always be someone who believes in you, no matter how awful you think you are." He smiled at the Doctor. "I trust you, Doctor. I know you won't let me down. Ever."

The Doctor grinned at him, then led him around the central console until he was standing on the same spot where the Slitheen Margaret had turned into an egg.

"But how are we going to expose the heart of the TARDIS?" asked Rose. "Last time it took a pretty big burst of energy to do it. I hope you're not planning on blowing something up, Doctor."

"The TARDIS knows that this is important," said the Doctor. "It can feel what I feel, and I know that this is necessary. It understands the need for what has to happen."

But the Doctor's voice sounded like it was getting fainter, and Jack almost turned his head to see if the Time Lord was walking away from them or something. But then he became aware of a bright light, so bright that it hurt his eyes, and all at once he was inside his own mind.


At first there was a just a jumble of images and snatches of memory, as the TARDIS rifled through his mind to find what it sort. Jack saw briefly the moment when he had graduated from the Time Academy, his first mission as a fully fledged agent, his initial meeting with Rose inside the stolen Chula ship, and his first kiss with the Doctor. But then all these images were wiped away, and Jack found himself in a situation that was at once familiar and at the same time completely new to him.

He was walking down that same corridor towards Director Regis's office, just as he had been at the beginning of his fake memories. And, as before, he knocked on the door, was admitted by the secretary, and was instructed to enter the inner office. But it was here that events diverged somewhat.

"Sit down, Harkness." The Director's voice was serious, with none of the forced friendliness of the other memory. "I'll get straight to the point. There is a very important, and very secret, mission that we need you to carry out for us. It will require discretion and ingenuity. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Yes, sir," replied Jack. "You can count on me. What is the mission, sir?"

"There is a war raging, Harkness. One that needs to be stopped, right now. It's been going on for a long time, so long that it's virtually come to a stalemate. The two sides are bitter enemies, but neither seems confident enough to make the final big move that would put an end to the conflict. We need you to go in there and try and solve the problem. Whether that's by negotiation, or by simply persuading one side to make a move on the other, we don't care. This war needs to end, and it needs to end now."

Jack hid his surprise at the matter-of-fact way that Regis had informed him that millions of people might have to die, and asked the question that seemed most obvious. "Why haven't I heard of this war before, sir? If it's so important and it's been going on for so long, it seems like something that would be in the history books."

"It is not being fought in a time or place that we can observe," replied the Director. "It took a lot of research and effort for us to even become aware of it, but now that we are, it is vital that it is brought to an end."

Suddenly there was a flicker in the memory, and for a moment Jack felt the Doctor's presence clearly in his mind, felt the start of surprise from the Time Lord that Regis's words had elicited. Then it was suppressed, and Jack slipped back into the memory.

"We can send you to exactly the right time and place for you to infiltrate yourself into the situation. Once there, it is your choice what to do, so long as you fulfil the ultimate objective of the mission. Unfortunately, we don't have much more intelligence on the war than what I've already told you, so you'll be going in pretty much blind. Are you prepared to accept this mission, Harkness?"

Jack nodded. "I am, sir. It sounds intriguing. I won't disappoint you, Director."

From there the memory spun on through the necessary preparation for the mission – boring, mundane stuff – until the moment came for Agent Harkness to actually input the space-time coordinates into his time ship and land himself in the middle of a war. The coordinates themselves didn't seem to be particularly special – in fact they were downright un-special, planting him right in a time and place that history noted as being particularly dull. But Jack knew that, due to the un-historical nature of the war he was about to try and stop, his ship had been specially modified to take him to the rather unusual space-time setting, and that therefore the dullness of the actual history was just a cover. It was all very complicated, according to Director Regis, and although he was a Time Agent, Jack didn't pretend to understand all of it – he was just going where he was told.

"Initiating final checks," he said into his mouthpiece to the guys at HQ. "Preparing for time-jump in thirty seconds. Vortex generators are online, coordinates are set. Jump in ten seconds. And five…four…three…two…one."

There was the familiar-unfamiliar feeling of being dislocated in time as his ship spun through the time vortex, and then his readouts announced that he had arrived at his destination.

However, there didn't seem to be anything there. His ship hung in a region of space that appeared to be completely devoid of solar systems, planets, or even asteroids. The star-field was out there, but that was it. It was as if he had dropped into a very big no-mans land on the day that both armies had declared a hiatus.

And yet, Jack knew his arrival hadn't gone unobserved. On the surface everything appeared static and calm, but the Time Agent knew that he was being watched. Maybe not from close by, in either time or space, but someone was definitely there. It was like being caught between two cautious, but very hostile, predators. It was just a question of which would get to him first.

He quickly decided that announcing his presence further was probably not the way to go. He had a distinct feeling that both of the sides involved in this war wouldn't take too kindly to an intrusion by a terran Time Agent. He needed to be more discreet than that.

But, all of a sudden, the choice was taken out of his hands as his communications display lit up, signalling an incoming transmission.

"Who are you?" The voice was strange, mechanical and stilted, almost as if it was issuing from a computer.

Jack decided that discreet was still the way to go. "Just a passer-by," he replied. "Nobody, really."

"How did you get here?" The questions were sharp and to the point, as if details were irrelevant.

"Not really sure. Got a bit lost, I guess."

"You are lying. Nobody comes here. It is not allowed. You are an intruder."

Jack didn't like the way the conversation, if you could call it that, was going. Hastily he tried to diffuse the hostility in the alien voice. "Look, I'm not an intruder. I'm only here by mistake. I'll be on my way as soon as you like."

"It is too late. You have broken the treaty. You will be punished."

"Look, you've made a mistake. What treaty?" asked Jack, but it was too late. In the empty space in front of him an armada of ships materialised out of a time vortex, surrounding his vessel in a matter of seconds. They looked none too friendly, and Jack suddenly began to wonder what exactly he had gotten himself into. Then the mechanical voice spoke again.

"Intruder, you have broken the Cessation of Espionage Treaty. We will not allow this. You will be exterminated."


In retrospect, Jack acknowledged to himself later, he should have known what the mission was. A war that was 'not being fought in a time or place that we can observe' could mean only one thing. But that event was the stuff of myth, a tale that academy cadets told each other to try and increase the excitement of time-travelling. That it had actually happened was severely in doubt, and it had long been accepted as 'just a story.'

Jack Harkness, of course, now knew differently. He was travelling with the only survivor of that war, one person alone left from billions of combatants.

But none of that occurred to him at the moment that he realised what exactly he had done, at the moment that the TARDIS withdrew itself from his mind at the behest of the Doctor and he found himself back in the control room with Rose and the Time Lord.

For a moment he couldn't speak, he could only think about the new horror in his mind. Then his mouth found some words to say, to stutter through teeth that were chattering so hard they nearly drowned out his voice.

"The…the Time War."

"Yes." The Doctor's voice was hard and cold and flat, and it was that which finally brought Jack properly back to his senses, and made him realise the awful truth.

"Oh god."

"God can't help you now."

Rose was confused. "What's going on? I don't understand. What about the Time War?"

"It destroyed my people and it destroyed the Daleks. And why? Because one stupid human stuck his nose in where it didn't belong!"

"But, Doctor," continued Rose timidly, frightened by the vehemence in the Doctor's voice and not wanting to upset him further, "you said you were responsible for the destruction of the Time Lords and the Daleks. That it was the only way to stop the Daleks from gaining control, from winning."

"That is true, yes," conceded the Doctor. "But why were they so close to gaining that control? Because they thought that the Time Lords had sent someone to spy on them, and that violated the only treaty ever made in the whole history of the war!" The Doctor was nearly shouting now, and Rose recoiled from the anger in his face. The Time Lord noticed her fright and suddenly his expression calmed and he smiled at her, but it was a brittle, hard expression, one full of bitterness and heartache.

"The Cessation of Espionage Treaty," he explained. "Not the most snappy title ever thought up, but it did exactly what it said on the tin. The Time Lords and the Daleks had been fighting the Time War for so long that it had reached a deadlock. Both sides had been spying on the other throughout time and space until there was practically nothing left to learn about the enemy. In an unprecedented move, the two sides agreed to stop all forms of espionage, as it was getting us nowhere and was creating suspicion and dissention among the various members of each race. In reality it was a small concession for both sides, since the Daleks were so confident in their superiority that they felt they didn't need to spy anymore, and the Time Lords had other, much more subtle, ways of finding out what they wanted to know, in any case. After the treaty was signed, a kind of uneasy peace fell. The stalemate was such that only a very big move – and I mean the kind of move that would obliterate the opposing side – would end the war. My people knew that such a move could be devastating to the whole of time and space, and were understandably reluctant to engage in any such action. And even the Daleks realised that a galaxy without anyone else to rule over wouldn't make much of an empire. So we were just sitting and watching each other, hoping to find a way to win without destroying all of history. And then he shows up."

Both the Doctor and Rose turned to look at Jack, who for the whole time had simply been standing there, not saying a word and staring at some point in space about halfway between himself and the Doctor. There was a pause, as if the Doctor expected him to say something, but when he didn't the Time Lord went on with his explanation.

"As I said, the Daleks assumed that the Captain here was a Time Lord spy, and that we had therefore broken the treaty. You've met a Dalek, Rose. You must have noticed that they're not the most well-balanced of creatures. They thought the treaty had been violated, and they interpreted it as a direct act of aggression on the part of the Time Lords towards the Dalek race. It tipped them over the edge. They made their move. A move that would have wiped out the Time Lords and left the Daleks as the most powerful beings in the galaxy. Of course, that wasn't something that could be allowed to happen. But they launched an all-out attack on us. One that was so devastating that they all-but gained control of my planet and all its technology. I did the only thing that I could do to prevent that. I destroyed my home and my people. I wiped out the Daleks, but I also wiped out the Time Lords."

"Doctor…" Jack had found his voice again at last. "I'm…sorry. I know it's not enough, but I am…so very, very sorry."

"You're right." The Doctor's voice was cold and hard again. "It's not enough. My people are gone, and it's your fault. I always wondered what it was that provoked the Daleks. And now I know. Who knows how the war might have ended if things had been allowed to continue as they were? But once again, some stupid humans thought that they could make everything their business, and as usual it all went horribly wrong."

"I'm sorry," Jack said again. "I know there's nothing I can ever do to make this right, but…"

"There is one thing you could do," said the Doctor, interrupting him.

"Name it. Anything."

"Leave. That's all. Just leave."

"Doctor, please!" interjected Rose. "You can't. It's not…"

"No, Rose. It is fair," said Jack, finishing her sentence for her. "He's right. I'll leave. I'll leave now. You'll never have to see me again."


The good-bye was a tearful one, at least on Rose's part, and Jack was grateful that at least one person would be sorry to see him go, even as her tears made his already aching heart hurt even more. The Doctor stood on the other side of the room, watching their parting impassively, although Jack could tell that his anger was still there, simmering under the surface. The Time Lord didn't say anything, and Jack, in turn, didn't try and say good-bye. Instead he hugged Rose one final time.

"Take care of him for me," he said, nodding towards the Doctor. "He's going through a lot of pain right now, and he needs you to be there for him, even if he doesn't know it."

"But…"

"Promise me," interrupted Jack, not wanting to hear her protestations.

Rose hesitated, and then nodded. "I promise," she whispered.

Jack smiled. "Thank you. Well," he continued, hefting his bag on to his shoulder, " I guess it's time for me to go. See you around, kid." Then he smiled again, somewhat sadly. "Or maybe I won't," he added. Planting a soft kiss on Rose's forehead, he turned and left the TARDIS.

Caught up in her tears, Rose didn't notice the Doctor quietly exiting control room.


Days passed and turned into weeks, then months, then years. Bereft now of any friendship, self-worth, or purpose, Jack returned to his old lifestyle as the dashing conman. He flirted and conned his way around the galaxy and through history, never stopping anywhere long enough for anything except the completion of his latest con…or his latest conquest. It was a fun and exciting way of life – every day different, every new scam a challenge.

Except that Jack wasn't finding it particularly fun or exciting any more. On the outside he preserved the persona of a charming rogue, capable of conning people with so much charisma and so much ingenuity that they barely even minded being taken advantage of.

But all that was just on the surface. On the inside he was empty. Any enjoyment he might have taken in life had been ripped away from him with the revelation of what he had done to the Time Lords, of what he had done to the Doctor. He missed both the Doctor and Rose terribly, but the awful ache that arose in his chest whenever he thought of them meant that he tried to put them, and his regained memories, out of his mind as much as possible. He had little realised how much he had grown into his life on board the TARDIS. You couldn't have said it was steady or safe, but he had finally found a place where he could be comfortable, and where he felt like he belonged.

And then of course there was the Doctor himself. But there Jack's thoughts always came to a grinding halt. He couldn't even contemplate what losing the Doctor meant to him, so he preferred not to think about it at all.

He supposed he could have just ended it all, but despite not having anything to live for, he was too much of a coward to resort to suicide. So instead he carried on with his shallow, one-dimensional life, subsisting on one-night-stands and elaborate schemes to cheat people out of their money and possessions.

Of course, it didn't help that he was now a wanted man. When he had originally gone AWOL from the Time Agency, he had known that all Time Agents would have been told to keep an eye out for him, and to bring him back to face judgement if they ever caught him. But the Agency's confidence in their memory manipulation techniques, along with the added safeguard of planted false memories, meant that no one was actively searching for him. He had crossed paths with other Time Agents a couple of times before meeting up with the Doctor, but each time he had managed to slip away without too much bother.

But now the Time Agency was actively trying to find him. His unauthorised visit to the Agency had not gone unnoticed, of course, and Jack had known that it was only a matter of time before they worked out that he was responsible. While he was on board the TARDIS this hadn't mattered. He was safe there – untouchable and unfindable. But now he was without that protection, and it was becoming more and more difficult to avoid the agents specifically assigned to find him. He was only one man with one ship, while they had all the resources of the Time Agency behind them.

The problem was, his lifestyle as a conman didn't really tally with keeping a low profile. But conning was just about the only thing he knew how to do apart from be a Time Agent. Travelling with Rose and the Doctor had begun to show him another side to himself, but that was gone now, along with any chance of ever becoming a good person.

So he continued bouncing around through time and space, pulling off ever-more elaborate schemes and simultaneously trying to avoid being captured by his former employers. And gradually he also became more successful at suppressing his feelings and his memories, until he became nothing more than a shell of a man, continuing to live with no purpose or reason, except to avoid spending the rest of that life looking at the inside of a jail cell.

And so, three years, eleven months, two weeks, and six days after regaining his memories, Jack Harkness found himself back on Earth in the middle of the Second World War. He had landed a few months after the time when he had previously been there, not wanting to risk crossing his own timeline…or seeing the Doctor again. He had thought about looking up Algy again, but decided against it for the reason that it wasn't fair to subject his friend to the new and unimproved Captain Harkness.

He wasn't entirely sure why he had come back to this time and place – he sure as hell didn't need any more reminders of what he had lost. But it seemed like as good a place as any to hide from the Time Agency – fifty-first century government had a hard time believing that anyone would want to voluntarily experience such a backward period of history as the twentieth-century Earth in the middle of its biggest conflict.

It was the night of the 22nd April 1941, shortly before the end of the Blitz, and Jack had wandered down to the Embankment, partly to clear his head and partly to escape the attentions of the women at the rather shady nightclub he had taken to frequenting. Sure, they were lookers, but their obviousness was beginning to grate on him.

So he had ended up stood by the banks of the Thames, listening to the wail of air raid sirens signalling the approach of the Germans for the first time that night, and watching the orange glow of the explosions as buildings across the river were bombed.

The night, apart from the intermittent bomb blasts, was peaceful. It seemed that he was entirely alone. But Jack knew that he wasn't. He knew that he was not the only person stood out there watching the Germans destroy Britain's capital. So he showed not a flicker of surprise when a tall man dressed in dark clothes walked up and stood beside him.

"What do you want?" There was no happiness or sadness, anger or enthusiasm in Jack's voice – it was the voice of a man whose every emotion has drained away, a man who no longer cares about anything, a man who wouldn't react even if the person he wanted to see most in the whole universe had suddenly appeared beside him.

"I want to talk to you."

"Well, you'd better talk then, hadn't you? Can't guarantee I'll listen, though."

"I'm sorry."

Jack gave short bark of cynical laughter. "Do me a favour! I've heard it all before, and let me tell you, I don't tend to believe people when they say those words any more."

"You should believe me."

Straightening up, Jack left off his contemplation of the air raid and turned to face the man standing beside him.

"Why? Give me one good reason why I should believe you, Doctor."

The Doctor looked at Jack, and what he saw shocked and saddened him to his very core. Here was a man who was dead on the inside, a man who had given up on life. And this was a situation that he had caused.

"Because it's the truth," he answered softly. "I have no better reason than that. I realise that you don't want to believe me, but it is the truth, Jack. It really is."

"Well, I'm not sure if it's enough," said Jack flatly. "Look, I realise I did an awful, terrible, unforgivable thing, and I know that I deserved your anger and your disgust, but what happened made me realise that a man shouldn't trust anyone but himself. I trusted you, Doctor, and we both got burned. I won't make that mistake again."

"But…"

"No," interrupted Jack. "Don't say anything else. Because if you do, I might start to believe you. And neither of us can afford to let that happen. Good-bye, Doctor." So saying, Jack turned his back on the Doctor and walked off into the darkness.


As Jack walked back to his lodgings, he tried to believe that he had just done the right thing. He hadn't shown it, but he would have given just about anything to accept the Doctor's apology and throw himself into the Time Lord's arms.

Except that he had spoken the truth when he had said that he was reluctant to trust anyone else any more. All that had come out of their being together was pain and heartache, both for himself and for the Doctor. In the long run it would be better for both of them if they were separated.

But these thoughts didn't dull the longing ache that had arisen in Jack's chest upon seeing the Doctor again, and more than once he nearly turned back. But he held his resolve, and eventually managed to get back to his flat.

Standing on the front doorstep fumbling with his keys, he told himself sternly that this was the end of it – no more Doctor, no more Rose, no more TARDIS. It was just him, and him alone, from now on.

Suddenly, his ears were assaulted by the high-pitched wail of a feedback loop from a megaphone, and then a loud voice range out along his street.

"Jack Harkness! Put your hands on your head and turn around slowly. Step away from the door. No sudden movements. You are surrounded."

Jack paused for just a fraction of a second, which was all the time it took for him to decide that he definitely wasn't going to go down without a fight. Then he pulled his gun out from under his jacket, at the same time leaping sideways off his doorstep and into the mouth of a conveniently situated alley just next to his building. Shots rang out, and his front door was peppered with bullet holes, right where his head had been only milliseconds before.

Knowing the situation was hopeless, Jack nonetheless answered with a few shots of his own, but since he had no idea where his assailants actually were, it ultimately ended up being a waste of ammunition. Pinned down in an alley, with limited bullets, it was only a matter of time before the Time Agents sent to capture him succeeded in their mission. Cursing softly at his own stupidity, Jack fired a few more rounds off into the darkness, and then stopped to listen, trying to work out where the agents might be coming from.

But instead of the sound of surreptitious footsteps and the controlled breathing of someone trying to creep up on him, Jack heard a very different noise – the mechanical thrum of the TARDIS as it landed right behind him in the alleyway. As soon as it had fully materialised, the door opened and Rose stuck her head out and beckoned to him vehemently.

But when Jack didn't move, she gave a loud sigh and reached out to grab his arm. "What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation? Come on!"

Still somewhat surprised at the reappearance of the TARDIS, Jack allowed himself to be dragged inside. Rose slammed the door shut behind him, just in time. Jack could hear the sound of gunshots as the Time Agents outside fired on the ship.

"Got him, Doctor! We can leave any time you like." Rose hurried over to the central console, where the Doctor was busily manipulating the controls to take them out of range of both irate Time Agents and stray German bombs.

But Jack remained standing where he was, just inside the door, feeling both grateful to have been rescued, and a little like he had been hi-jacked. The whole situation reminded him uncannily of the time that he had first met Rose and Doctor – they had ultimately snatched him right out if the jaws of death on that occasion too. And, like that first time, he wasn't exactly sure what his reception was going to be once they were safely out of danger.

A few minutes later everything had calmed down. The TARDIS had shifted down a gear to its usual contented hum, Rose had thrown herself on to the bench next to the console and was fanning herself with a magazine, and the Doctor had returned to his eternal tinkering with the ship's circuits.

"So, I take it that was the Time Agency, then? Not very popular with them at the moment, are you?" The Doctor's voice was conversational, and he didn't look up from the panel he was examining as he asked his questions.

"Er…yes, and no," replied Jack hesitantly, still not exactly sure where all this was going.

"Oh well, they can't get you here," said the Doctor. "I know!" he exclaimed suddenly. "A nice cup of tea, that's what we all need. Great for soothing the nerves. Rose, would you do the honours, please."

Making a show of being annoyed, Rose levered herself off the bench and headed for the kitchen. However, as she exited the control room she threw Jack a significant look, one that left him feeling more confused than ever.

"Doctor, what's going on here?" he asked tentatively, afraid to provoke an adverse reaction.

"Didn't think I was going to give up that easily, did you?" replied the Doctor. "You don't get to be nine-hundred years old by giving up every time you encounter an obstacle, you know."

"But I thought I made myself pretty clear on the subject," said Jack, feeling a little put out that his opinions on the matter weren't being taken into account.

"And I think I made myself pretty clear too," answered the Doctor, looking at Jack for the first time since he had entered the TARDIS. "Now, are you going to come away from that door, or do I have to come over there and drag you away?"

There was a very slight twinkle in the Doctor's eye as he said this, but for once Jack wasn't going to allow himself to be drawn into any flirting. Still, the Doctor was right. He did look like an idiot hovering by the door, as if he was going to run away any second. Not that there was anywhere to run to right at this moment. Slowly he stepped away from the door, coming to a halt again about halfway between it and the Doctor.

The Doctor looked faintly disappointed that Jack hadn't come all the way to him, but then seemed to accept it with a shrug of his shoulders. "I suppose I can't ask for more at the moment," he muttered to himself. And when Jack didn't seem inclined to reinitialise the conversation, the Doctor shrugged again, realising that it was up to him to make the next move.

"You didn't, you know," he said cryptically.

"Didn't what?" asked Jack, forced into speech.

"Do an awful, terrible, unforgivable thing. In fact, you didn't do anything."

"Er, Doctor, in case you hadn't noticed, I provoked the Daleks into making a destructive move on the Time Lords, one that ultimately resulted in their annihilation."

The Doctor's brow momentarily creased with pain, then cleared. "That would have happened eventually anyway," he said. "It was only a matter of time. The point is, it wasn't your fault that my people were destroyed. It was mine. I did what I had to do, and it would have had to have been done whether you had showed up or not. But that doesn't stop me from feeling guilty about it every single day. And I thought having someone to blame would lessen that guilt."

"And did it?"

"No. If anything it made it worse. Because not only did I still feel guilty about what I'd done to my people, but I also felt guilty about what I'd done to you."

"I understand, Doctor." And Jack did understand. He had never blamed the Doctor for pushing him away, he had only ever blamed himself. And now it seemed that the Doctor was trying to relieve that burden. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be that easy. "It doesn't change the fact that I was there, though," Jack continued. "And that I had a hand in the downfall of the Time Lords."

"Not your hand, Jack," replied the Doctor. "The Time Agency's. They knew exactly what they were doing when they sent you into the Time War. They never saw negotiation as a valid option. You were there purely to provoke a catastrophic end to the war, bringing about the destruction of both sides. That was a situation from which the Agency couldn't fail to profit. Not only were the Daleks, the most power-hungry and destructive race in the galaxy, wiped out, but the Time Lords were also removed, meaning that they couldn't interfere in or regulate the Time Agency's activities. I can't imagine that Director Regis would have been particularly happy with someone like me turning up to offer him advice or warnings every time he wanted to do something that would adjust the timeline."

Jack smiled faintly at the thought of Director Regis being instructed in the finer points of time travel by the Doctor. Then the Doctor's voice brought him back to attention again.

"How the Agency managed to discover the Time War within the Time Vortex, we'll probably never know. I told you that it wiped the Daleks and the Time Lords out of time completely, so by rights we shouldn't have been there to find. But find us they did, and they were therefore ultimately responsible for the end of the war, and the erasure of those involved from history altogether."

"Stop," said Jack suddenly. "You're making my head spin." He smiled ruefully. "I was never very good at the temporal physics side of things," he admitted. "I just went where I was told and carried out the mission."

"And that's why the Agency chose you," replied the Doctor. "They knew that you wouldn't question the orders you had been given too much, and therefore create any problems."

"At least until afterwards," corrected Jack. "They wouldn't have wiped my memory otherwise. But then again, they were probably always going to mess with my mind," he continued speculatively. "There was no way I could avoid realising what I had landed in the middle of after meeting the Daleks. And the Agency couldn't afford to have an agent on its hands who knew that the Time War was more than just a myth."

"What happened to you after you did meet the Daleks, anyway?" asked the Doctor. "That's the one part I don't get. The whole mission, from the meeting with Regis to the encounter with the Daleks, only took a few days from your point-of-view. Why did the Time Agency take two years of your memory? I kind of cut you off before finding that part out," he finished a little sheepishly.

"Well, actually, it turns out that the Time Agency didn't really take two years of my memories," replied Jack, smiling wryly. "After the Daleks announced they were going to exterminate me, I only had a few seconds to get myself out of there," he explained. "Not really enough time to make any particularly accurate calculations on my instruments. In my hurry I slightly misdialled, as it were, and ended up back at the Agency two years after I left. I told them what had happened, and they deduced that I had been successful. And then they wiped what little I knew of the whole event from my mind, but without bothering to send me back to the exact time I had come from first. So here I was, two years later, with no memory of what had happened in those two years. Which turned out to be because I hadn't actually lived through them at all!"

"Ah," said the Doctor. And there didn't really seem to be much more to be said on the subject than that. Then: "So, where does this leave us, then?"

Jack shrugged. "Not really sure," he said. "I can't deny that I've really missed you, and Rose, over the past four years, but…"

"Whoa, hold on a second. Four years?! You've been alone for four years?"

"Well, yes. Although I wouldn't say that I've been alone, exactly. Why, how long has it been since you last saw me?"

"A month. A month that I spent nearly pretty much all of searching for you," replied the Doctor. "Rose made me see how stupid I was being pretty quickly," he added. "But by the time we returned to where I'd dumped you, you were already gone."

"Yes, I'm resourceful like that," said Jack ruefully. "Of course, there was the added complication that I was also trying to hide from the Agency," he continued. "Although I'm quite surprised you didn't think to look for me in the 1940s sooner. That was a bit of an obvious destination, on my part."

The Doctor looked sheepish again. "The thought never crossed my mind," he admitted. "At least, not until Rose suddenly thought of it herself." Then his face turned serious. "Four years," he repeated softly. "I'm sorry."

Jack smiled. "You know, if you say that often enough, I might finally start to believe you," he said.

"Well, in that case, I really, really am sorry," said the Doctor emphatically.

"Okay, okay, enough already. I believe you!" said Jack, holding his hands up in mock-surrender. "You don't have to say it again. Quite apart from anything else, I don't think I could cope with seeing you grovelling on your knees. Although…" he mused, suddenly flashing a wicked grin, "on your knees doesn't sound quite so bad after all…"

"Oh, please, will you two get a room!" Rose had returned, balancing three mugs of tea rather precariously on a tray. Putting it down on the bench she had recently vacated, she turned to Jack and the Doctor. "So, can I take it that everything is sorted out between you two, then?" she asked. "Honestly, you should have seen him," she continued, addressing Jack and gesturing to the Doctor. "Talk about one track mind. It's been 'Jack this' and 'Jack that' for the last month solid. He never gave up on finding you, you know," she added more gently. "Although I did have to bang some sense into that head of his first, of course."

The Doctor coughed. "Yes, thank you, Rose," he said, rather loudly. But it was too late.

"Wow, Doctor. I knew you cared, but I didn't know you cared that much," said Jack, his voice dripping with innuendo. "I think you're going have to prove to me that what Rose says is true."

Rose sighed. "For the final time, will you two get…a…room," she protested.

The Doctor rolled his eyes at Rose and then looked at Jack. "I will prove it to you, Jack," he said, moving closer to the other man. "Starting right now." Taking Jack's face in his hands, he kissed him forcefully, putting as much proof as he could into that one action. When the kiss ended the two men drew apart and then rested their foreheads together.

"So, are we alright then?" asked the Doctor.

"Not yet," replied Jack seriously. "There's still a lot to come to terms with here, and we still have a lot to talk about."

The Doctor rolled his eyes again. "Oh great, more talking," he said.

"But all that can wait until morning," continued Jack. "Right here and now, let's just say that we're not alright yet, but I think we're going to be."