could be triggering, definitely tissue alert

Chapter 7=

They hadn't even been there a day and yet there was still trouble, sometimes Jack really wondered if it was the universe's personal mission to make his life as shit as possible. They had been having a nice breakfast, Gray was happily making his way through his second bowl of Sorelki (he was still just as messy and just as much of a pig as he had been as a child) when a scream ripped through the peaceful air followed by a noise that Jack was unfortunately familiar enough with to know was a vortex manipulator burning out. And there was only one person that he was close to and knew where he had grown up and had a vortex manipulator several years past its guarantee. Yep, you guessed it: Captain John Hart. The why ceased to matter as the immortal man raced out of the house and down the gravel path to where the sound had come from, Gray and Zaphira following closely behind.

Zaphira stumbled clumsily after Jack and gasped, hands flying to her mouth. "Oh my God." Gray said as he came to a stop beside her.

"What happened?!" Jack demanded as he gently cradled the limp figure lying on the sand. The blonde time agent gave him a wily grin and a trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.

"Hey honey." He wheezed in a voice that was so weak that Jack struggled to hear it less than a foot away.

"What happened?!" Jack repeated desperately.

"Got hit with a Falarope gun, must have been faulty though 'cuz usually those things will kill you instantly. Knew I should have followed your lead and quit the con game." Jack blanched as his mind registered what his friend had told him. Falarope guns were notorious throughout the universe for transporting your insides to another planet away from your outsides then back again in a matter of seconds, the trauma was the thing that killed you.

"Why didn't you transport to a hospital?!" the immortal man asked him, "Damnit, John, you're as good as dead now! Why here?!" he vaguely noticed tears running down his cheeks and ignored them, focusing all of his attention on his dying partner.

"Heard just before I left earth that you planned on coming back here," John told him through laboured breaths, "wanted to see if it was as nice as you made it out to be."

"You idiot," Jack told him bluntly, "God, John, I'm sorry, you're going to die and it's going to hurt like fuck."

"I know," he nodded "just… make sure you drop in and visit sometime ok?"

"I will, I promise," the elder swore. John glanced over at the other two who had been silent for the whole duration of their talk.

"Alright… Gray? Told you your hair was…better like… that. Saw a photo… of you Mrs… Zaphira, just… to let you know… you're still a nice bit of eye candy."

"Thank you." Zaphira told him sincerely, tears cascading freely down her face. When will all the death end? She pleaded inside her head desperately, please if there's someone, anyone, out there, just make it all end. John locked eyes with Jack and his mouth twitched upwards into one last smile.

"You were always… my favourite partner Boe." He gasped.

"I'm sorry." Jack whispered tearfully.

"It's ok," John promised him just before his whole body spasmed in pain, "now, to use an old…cliché," he wheezed between waves of pain, "I love you." He closed his eyes and shuddered a little and then the only movement he made was because Jack was rocking back and forth on his heels with the deceased form of possibly his best friend clutched tight in his arms almost like a rag doll.

~0~

Gray watched as Jack carefully arranged the planks of wood around the sheet-wrapped body then lit the funeral pyre alight and took a step back. "Did you love him?" Gray asked his elder brother after the silence just became too much for him to bear.

"Not like I used to, 150 years will change a person." Came the dismal reply.

"So how did you love him?" he honestly didn't want to be rude or anything but he was confused, relationships were complicated enough for him already without factoring in an immortal or psychotic con-man.

"I don't really know," Jack admitted, "it wasn't like I used to when we were at the agency, I matured, but it was a bit more than just the normal love you have for your family. Does that make sense?" he asked as he looked across at him, the fire casting shadows on his face and making him look more older than ever.

"Why did he keep coming back to you though? If he loved you as much as he told me that he did then why didn't he just leave and love you enough to let you be happy?" Gray queried, painfully aware that his wording was shit.

"A year or so before the time agency wiped my memories," The immortal blue-eyed brunette started, "me and John were practically inseparable. There was a mission, can't remember the exact details but we have to go to a planet and blend in for a while and we got caught in a time loop. Not the 2 weeks/5 years one, a 1 year/4 year one instead but we needed a way of passing the time and of course knowing us it was mostly sex. One day though we found out I was pregnant because Boeshane men are capable of getting pregnant if they're in an all-male relationship and four months later we had a little girl because male pregnancies only last five months. We called her Mary-Lace, we didn't know if when time went back she would disappear so we made the most of our time together. But John, he could never do domestic so he would be out most of the day and rarely come home and kids at that age are exhausting. One day a couple of months after she had learned to walk I'd been up almost an entire week and I fell asleep on the sofa and there was no one to watch Mary Lace, one of us must have left the door unlocked because she toddled out into the middle of a busy street…"

"Oh my God," Gray blanched, a sick feeling rising up in his throat, "that's…"

"I know," Jack nodded sadly, "I know."

"I'm gonna go… help Mom." The younger stuttered before almost running back up the cliff, leaving Jack alone with his memories and the burning body of his friend.