Chapter Text
Owen swung around in his desk chair absentmindedly as he pondered what to do next, all his autopsies were done as was his paperwork for a change and the rift was quiet as a mouse. He supposed he could get off early and spend some time with Dianne but Ianto and Tosh had been taking the evening shifts all week since Jack buggered off on his little holiday and they were starting to look a little worse for wear.
To say the team had been surprised when they returned to the hub to find Ianto waiting all alone with a grave expression would be an understatement, Gwen had cried, Tosh had grilled him for more information and Ianto, the poor sod, looked utterly wrecked though that may have something more to do with the fact he was still recovering from his gunshot wound.
“Tosh?” He stopped swirling about as he considered his words, yes, he thought to himself, he really was about to ask for this, “Do you have any reports I could help you with? I’m dying over here”
“You?” She gave him a suspicious look, clearly waiting for the punchline, “Want to do my reports for me?”
“Well see if I offer again” he huffed, crossing his arms, “I’m just saying that I’m all caught up and you must be knackered from all the late shifts”
“Are you saying I look tired?” Tosh raised an eyebrow and if it wasn’t for the mirth on her face Owen would have been ducking for cover.
He may not be an expert on women but even he knew that you don’t tell them they look knackered if you want to keep your head, “Look, do you want my help or not? I’m sure Gwen has some stuff I can do for her”
“Sure,” Tosh wasn’t about to refuse and she was feeling a little worn down, “Here” she grabbed a few half finished mission reports and brought them over to him and smiled, “Thank you Owen”
Returning her smile, Owen picked up his pen, “Don’t get used to it”
-
The last thing Martha Jones expected to see when she stepped off the Tardis in the year One Hundred Trillion, or whatever it is the Doctor had said, was a man laying on the ground right next to where they had landed who didn’t appear to be breathing, “Oh my God!” She immediately crouched down next to him and checked for any sign of life, “Can't get a pulse. Hold on. You've got that medical kit thing”
The Doctor watched as she ran back inside the Tardis and shook his head sadly, “Hello again.” This is exactly what he had been trying to avoid, “Oh, I'm sorry’
He turned his back when Martha returned with the medical kit and tried to prepare himself for the confrontation he knew was coming, “Here we go” she crouched back by the mans side and spoke to the Doctor over her shoulder, “It's a bit odd, though. Not very hundred trillion. That coat's more like World War Two’
“I think he came with us.” The Doctor admitted
“How do you mean,” Martha asked, “from Earth?”
“Must have been clinging to the outside of the Tardis all the way through the vortex.” The Doctor rolled his eyes, “Well, that's very him”
Her stomach sinking, she asked, “What, do you know him?”
Refusing to look at Jack for all the wrongness that was pouring off him in waves, The Doctor told her the bare essentials, “Friend of mine. Used to travel with me, back in the old days”
She had always dreaded this part about being a doctor, “But he's,” she stalled, “I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat. There's nothing. He's dead” The Doctor was almost amused when Jack gasped back and scared her, not really because it was horrible that he had been dead in the first place but Martha was sort of unflappable, “Oh, so much for me. It's all right. Just breathe deep. I've got you”
Jack caught his breath and looked around wildly, where the hell was he? This wasn’t how the reunion was supposed to go, “Captain Jack Harkness” he introduced himself once he got his wits back, “And who are you?”
“Martha Jones”
“Nice to meet you, Martha Jones”
The moment was broken however when the Doctor decided to intervene, “Oh, don't start”
“I was only saying hello” and he really was, the Doc would know he was in a happy, committed, very long term relationship if he had bothered to find him or even ask
Martha helped Jack to his feet, “I don't mind”
Jack spared her a quick smile before turning to the man he had been waiting for, “Doctor”
“Captain” he replied
Wait, really that was it? No hug, no apology, nothing? This man may be the Doctor, but he wasn’t his Doctor, “Good to see you” he tried again
“And you. Same as ever,” he said briskly, “Although, have you had work done?”
Momentarily gobsmacked, Jack was quick to turn the tables, “You can talk”
“Oh yes, the face. Regeneration. How did you know this was me?” The Doctor asked
Was he serious? He looked serious but maybe that was just the new face talking, “The police box kind of gives it away” he got straight to it, “I've been following you for a long time. You abandoned me”
“Did I?” The Doctor asked as if he had no idea the pain and heartbreak he had subjected Jack to over the years, “Busy life. Moving on”
Feeling petty but also wanting some answers even if they weren’t to the most pressing questions, Jack touched on what he knew must be a sensitive subject for the Time Lord, “Just got to ask. The Battle of Canary Wharf… I saw the list of the dead. It said Rose Tyler.”
The Doctor just grinned though, obviously not a sensitive subject then, “Oh, no! Sorry, she's alive”
At least it was good news, “You're kidding?”
The Doctor crowed, “Parallel world, safe and sound. And Mickey, and her mother”
“Oh, yes!” Jack pushed aside his annoyance for a moment and pulled the Doctor in for a hug, all this time he had never known what had come of Rose Tyler, it came as a great relief to know she was safe.
-
Ianto sighed as he looked down at his dinner, rationally he knew Jack had to go with the doctor, he had known for years that the day would come where he would be left behind waiting for Jack to come back but it had been two weeks now and Jack had claimed the Doctor had a time machine, so where was he? He didn’t know how Jack hadn’t gone mad when he’d disappeared. Everyday was a battle, rats seemed to have taken up permanent residence in his stomach and he hated waking up to an empty bed in the morning.
You’ve got to understand, Ianto had barely been away from Jack in all the time he knew him and had gotten very used to him being close by at all times. Going cold turkey was not very fun.
At first he had tried to stay busy at work, he’d been putting more and more hours in until Gwen caught him asleep at his desk in the archives and put a stop to that. He needed to sleep in a proper bed and eat some real food every now and then apparently, she had extended an invitation for him to join her and Rhys for dinner at her flat, rift permitting. Jack hadn’t been wrong though, it was more volatile than ever. That was something at least, he was cleared by Owen for field duty. It as not something he thought he would ever enjoy as he’d seen enough fighting to last a life time but it was strangely exhilarating. Turns out he was a bit of an adrenalin junkie. He’d give it all up in a heartbeat though if it meant he could have Jack back. He missed him.
Spearing a potato from his plate, Ianto forced himself to eat his own terrible cooking. Dianne had been trying to teach him how to cook a Sunday roast but he was god awful at it no matter how hard he tired. It should be easy for him, he liked order and timing things to perfection but there was always something he buggered up, be it burning the meat black or over cooking the vegetables into a mushy gloop. It wasn’t clear to him anymore if he was trying to learn to better himself or if he was just too stubborn to admit he was terrible at something. Still, he thought as he washed down the over-salted food, maybe he could improve by the time Jack came back, he could surprise him with a lovely home cooked meal.
Shaking his head with a smile, Ianto asked himself what Lisa would think if she could see him now. She’d probably slap him round the back of the head with her tea towel and tell him off for wasting food like this before giving him one of her all-fixing hugs and tell him to hang on, Jack would come back for him, he always had and he always would.
-
“So there I was, stranded in the year two hundred one hundred, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me.” Jack told the story with his usual flair as he explored the planet he found himself on with the Doctor and his new companion Martha, “But I had this” he brandished his vortex manipulator with a flourish, “I used to be a Time Agent. It's called a vortex manipulator. He's not the only one who can time travel”
“Oh, excuse me,” The Doctor scoffed, “That is not time travel. It's like, I've got a sports car and you've got a space hopper”
Martha was grinning ear to ear, obviously loving every second of this, “Oh ho. Boys and their toys”
“All right, so I bounced” Jack conceded, “I thought 21st century, the best place to find the Doctor, except that I got it a little wrong. Arrived in 1869, this thing burnt out, so it was useless.”
The Doctor practically sang, “Told you so”
Really struggling not to throw a tantrum like a child and demand his answers, Jack instead focused on Martha, “I had to live through the entire twentieth century waiting for a version of him that would coincide with me.”
“But that makes you more than one hundred years old” Martha clearly didn’t believe him
“And looking good, don't you think?” Jack knew he was a little vain, Ianto called him on it often enough but he didn’t care, it was all part of his charm, “So I went to the time rift, based myself there because I knew he’d come back to refuel. Until finally I get a signal on this detecting you and here we are” he adjusted his backpack to try and make it more comfortable, it wasn’t exactly light
Maratha shot the Doctor a sharp look, “But the thing is, how come you left him behind, Doctor?”
Jack didn’t even bother to hide his flinch as the Doctor shrugged, “I was busy” he barely recognised the man in front of him anymore. As soon as the Doctor fixed him he was going straight home to Ianto and he’d never leave his side again. Jack hadn’t realised just how quick he’d slipped back into his old habits, he expected his lover to always be by his side and now he wasn’t it was just adding salt to his wounds.
“Is that what happens, though, seriously?” Martha demanded, “Do you just get bored with us one day and disappear?”
Feeling a little bitter, Jack told her, “Not if you're blonde”
“Oh, she was blonde?” Martha threw her arms up in the air, “Oh, what a surprise!”
Seemingly at the end of his tether, the Doctor turned around to tell them off like naughty school children, “You two! We're at the end of the universe, all right? Right at the edge of knowledge itself and you're busy blogging! Come on”
Things were a little tense after that, no one willing to break the awkward silence until they stumbled across a sophisticated cave system of sorts, “ Is that a city?” Martha asked
“A city or a hive, or a nest, or a conglomeration.” The Doctor squinted to get a better look, “Like it was grown. But look, there. That's like pathways, roads? Must have been some sort of life, long ago”
“What killed it?” Martha looked around wearily
Jack watched closely as the Doctors new face closed of slightly, “Time. Just time. Everything's dying now. All the great civilisations have gone. This isn't just night. All the stars have burned up and faded away into nothing.”
“They must have an atmospheric shell” Jack pointed out the obvious, “We should be frozen to death”
The Doctor looked him up and down, unimpressed, “Well, Martha and I, maybe. Not so sure about you, Jack”
“What about the people? Does no one survive?” Martha continued her questions, ignorant to the thinly vailed barbs being traded right in front of her
“I suppose we have to hope life will find a way” The Doctor shrugged
“Well,” Jack nodded over in the opposite direction, “he's not doing too bad” a man, human looking but from this distance it was hard to tell, was running as if his life depended on it through the city. He was being pursued by what looked like a tribe of sorts that were shouting something unintelligible at him
“Is it me, or does that look like a hunt?” The Doctor asked as he led the charge , “Come on!” Jack barely had time to curse the uncomfortable shoes he was wearing before he was chasing after the Doctor, no way he was getting left behind again, blisters be damned
“I've got you” Jack panted as they reached the running man, he was in fact human. At least, he looked it.
“They're coming! They're coming!” The man gasped in a frenzy, pointing to the savages still running towards them. Jack pulled his gun out and pointed it at them without a second thought, he wasn’t going to kill anyone, just scare them off
“Jack, don't you dare!” The Doctor warned him
Jack fired into the air, and the tribe stopped in its tracks, “What the hell are they?” Martha asked with morbid curiosity
“There's more of them.” The man was taking in ragged breaths, “We've got to keep going”
Nodding, the Doctor tried to steer the man in the other direction, “I've got a ship nearby. It's safe. It's not far, it's over there” however luck was not on his side as more tribesmen appeared In their way, “Or maybe not”
The man was tugging on his arm frantically now, “We're close to the silo. If we get to the silo, then we're safe.”
The Doctor glanced between Jack and Martha, “Silo?”
“Silo” Jack agreed
Martha nodded along, “Silo for me”
Looking back, Jack would rather have faced off against the tribespeople with his bare hands than step foot inside that miserable Silo but in that moment he simply chased after his Doctor again. He never learns, does he?