A/N: Apologies for the short chapter, but it suited to cut it off where I did. So, in hindsight, apologies for the cliffie as well....

The Doctor was in the middle of preparing himself a cup of tea when he sensed the change. It was as though another puzzle piece had finally slotted into the right place. He smiled, sensing the TARDIS's satisfaction as well. Jack and Ianto had finally worked through the biggest of their issues, and perhaps now they could all move forward.

"What are you smirking at?" Rose asked, cutting in and derailing his train of thought. "You look like the cat that got the cream."

"Jack's awake," the Doctor explained. "He seems to be more or less recovered, and not just from his most recent death."

Rose's eyes widened as she realised what he meant.

"You mean he's back to normal?"

"Well, normal is a fairly subjective term, isn't it? I'd be more inclined to say that he's back to functioning as a mature adult… albeit, with maybe a few extra personality quirks."

"But that's good, isn't it?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Yes, it's good. We're coming to the crossroads, though, aren't we? Jack's going to have to start choosing his own path. We can't dictate to him any longer."

Rose frowned a little. She suspected she knew what he was saying, but didn't want to accept it.

"Doctor? What are you trying to say? That he might leave?"

"I'm saying, Rose, that if he wants to leave, we can't stop him."

When Jack emerged from their bedroom that time, he was quietly amazed at the way everything seemed different from his newly reacquired adult perspective. Previously, he'd been in awe of the TARDIS, like a little child observing something wondrous that was beyond their comprehension. He still felt awe, but it was tempered now by memories of his original time spent as a companion of the Doctor.

As Jack walked along the corridor, he ran his fingertips over the coral wall with a loving touch, and felt her sing gently to him in return. Her song had been with him almost constantly since his return to her after the Canary Wharf disaster. Any time that he'd felt any degree of fear or uncertainty, he had felt her loving touch in his mind, comforting and reassuring him. Again and again, he sensed her sorrow and regret at abandoning him on Satellite Five, and her shared guilt for what he'd suffered as a result.

Sighing, Jack slowed and turned to press himself against the cool wall.

"I forgive you," he whispered, "and I forgive him. I'm going to be around far too long to be holding grudges. Just... promise me you'll never run away from me again, because I don't think I could stand being abandoned a second time."

"We promise."

Jack turned slowly, showing no surprise at seeing the Doctor standing there. The Time Lord's expression was inscrutable as Jack approached.

"It worked," Jack said quietly. He splayed his arms, as though offering himself for inspection. "I'm back. I remember everything. Well, nearly everything. I'm myself again."

The Doctor quirked an eyebrow.

"No, Jack, I think you're an entirely new creature, and I mean that in a good way. What you've been through has given you a new and unique perspective that you never had before."

"What are you trying to say?" Jack asked. The Doctor smiled, a touch sadly.

"You were always a good person, Jack. Always a bigger on the inside. I think you can figure it out."

Jack huffed in irritation.

"You still to play mind games, don't you?"

The grin that lit up the Doctor's face was infectious, and Jack couldn't help but smile in return.

"There, now, there's the famous Harkness grin," the Doctor said enthusiastically, and Jack's smile widened. It faded just as quickly, though, and when Jack spoke again the Doctor could hear traces of the insecure child in his voice.

"You won't, will you? Leave me, I mean. I couldn't cope if I was left behind again."

The Doctor closed the distance between them, and gently cupped Jack's cheeks with his palms before placing a feather-light kiss on Jack's forehead.

"I will never abandon you again, Jack. I promise. And thank you for forgiving me."

Jack didn't speak. He didn't need to. The look on his face spoke volumes, and the Doctor responded without hesitation, pulling Jack in close for a prolonged and affectionate hug that Jack returned with interest. When they finally parted, both men wore more genuine smiles; the tension between them finally gone.

"Care to help me with a few minor repairs, Captain?" the Doctor asked. Jack's grin could easily have lit the TARDIS by its own power, and the Doctor laughed in delight. He took Jack's hand without hesitation, and tugged Jack along towards the control room.

Jack felt like he'd finally come home. As he sat by the open panel and listened to the Doctor curse fluidly in Gallifreyan, Jack reflected that he hadn't felt this happy or at ease since their arrival in Cardiff prior to discovering Margaret the Slitheen. Then, he hadn't had a care in the world. He'd had a home, a family that loved and accepted him...

He couldn't quite suppress an unpleasant shudder as those memories inevitably led to less happy ones. Satellite Five, the Daleks, dying that first time... and even worse than dying, watching the TARDIS vanish in front of his eyes.

A cool palm on his cheek drew him gently out of his memories, and Jack blinked dazedly as the Doctor's face swam into focus.

"I'm sorry, Jack," the Doctor murmured sadly. Jack rubbed self-consciously at his eyes.

"Said I forgave you."

"I know, but it doesn't help it to hurt any less."

"No," Jack agreed softly. "It doesn't."

"Jack, if you'd rather not talk about it, then I understand but just how long did you wait on Satellite Five before you gave up on me coming back?"

Jack's gaze dropped, and so did the Doctor's stomach.

"I guess... around the equivalent of one Earth month."

"Rassilon... How did you survive? You must have been the only living thing left on the satellite."

"I was. Just me, Dalek dust, and a whole lot of rotting corpses. I ended up holing up in one of the Big Brother houses, and setting my manipulator to scan for your bio-signature at regular intervals. I think part of me knew you weren't coming back, but I waited anyway. I waited until I was out of food, fresh water... But the time I made the jump back in time to Earth, I was nearly dead of dehydration."

"How on Earth did you survive the trip through the vortex? It should have killed... oh..."

Jack smiled ruefully.

"It did kill me. Of course, I didn't realise it at the time. I just thought I'd gotten lucky. That is, until I found out when I'd landed. I totally overshot the twenty-first century, and landed in 1869." He shook his head and fresh tears stung his eyes at the remembered despair. "I thought that was it. My manipulator burnt out from the jump, making it useless, and I had no way to fix it. Thought I was condemned to living out my life in a backward time on a backward planet, so I figured I might as well make the most of it."

The Doctor's eyebrows rose in surprise as he read between the lines.

"You married."

"Yeah. Susan, her name was. I was taken in by her family not long after I arrived back on Earth, and we fell in love. We had eight years together before she died of pneumonia."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah. So was I. I mean, seriously, pneumonia? Pneumonia only exists in the history books by my time!"

"Jack," the Doctor said quietly, "when did you realise?"

Jack didn't need any help understanding what he meant.

"It was 1892. That was when I realised I couldn't die. I'd given up hope of finding you, or anyone else who could help me, so I decided to head somewhere that I wouldn't stand out so badly. I went to America, but I never even made it to the mainland. I got into a fight on Ellis Island, and a man shot me through the heart, When I woke up covered in my own blood, with a hole in my shirt and not a mark on my body, that was when I started to question all of those so-called near death experiences. I took the next boat back to the England, and headed for Cardiff. Figured if I hung around the rift long enough, I'd find you. 'Course, by then it also occurred to me that I should have looked about thirty years older than I did." Jack shook his head. "I was scared, confused and alone. I did what any normal guy would do. I drank myself into oblivion, and in the end that was how they found me."

"Torchwood?"

"Yeah. Torchwood. Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd, their names were. The barracudas of Cardiff."

The Doctor chuckled softly, and Jack fell quiet, giving no hint that he was willing to say anymore. The Doctor drew in a long breath, steeling himself for a negative reaction.

"Jack, how did it happen? How did someone manage to get the better of you so badly that they were able to keep you locked up for the next hundred years?"

Jack grimaced.

"Why do you need to know, Doctor?"

"Because I know you, Jack. You wouldn't have gone down without a fight, and there was no one they could threaten you with... or was there?"

Jack didn't flinch, or look away. He simply watched the Doctor with a hooded gaze that gave nothing at all away. The Doctor spoke again in a calm tone that belied his own nerves. He knew he was treading on shaky ground.

"Jack, I'd like your permission to back to Cardiff, to when Torchwood captured you. I'd like to see for myself what happened."

"Why? Can't you just let the past lie, just this once? It happened, and it can't be changed. Why interfere?"

"I don't intend to interfere, Jack. Just observe. I want to understand."

It was a pathetic reason to offer, and the Doctor knew it. He fully expected Jack to baulk then and there, and was bracing himself for an angry outburst.

"Okay."

The Doctor stared at him, astonished by his easy acquiescence.

"What, that's it? No argument? No 'this is a bad idea' lecture?"

Jack smiled very faintly and offered a lopsided shrug.

"You're a big boy. You should be able to decide for yourself whether it's a bad idea or not. I just have two requests."

"And they would be...?"

"Take Ianto with you. Not Rose. They didn't know what you looked like back then, but they did know you were travelling with a girl from London. You can mask your accent and dress down your appearance with period clothes, but Rose will stand out like a sore thumb no matter how appropriately she dresses. Ianto won't."

The Doctor nodded slowly. He wasn't entirely sure he agreed with Jack's logic, and Rose certainly wasn't going to like it, but instinct warned him not to argue.

"All right, Jack. I'll take Ianto with me instead of Rose. What was the second thing?"

"Whatever you do, don't go inside Torchwood. Stay away from it, no matter what you see or what happens. Paradoxes aside, if they catch you it'll be a disaster."

to be continued....