[Fic] Rigamortis (PG) DW: The Doctor/Jack Harkness
Title: Rigamortis
Author: faynia
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Pairing: The Doctor/Jack Harkness, reference to past Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Word Count: 459
Warning: Side Character Death, Angst
Rating: PG
Summary: The Doctor allows Jack to say goodbye.
A/N: Written for scap3goat's birthday. I got Jack/Doctor and relationships. I'm sorry about the lack of fluff! It just...refused to be written with fluff.
“How long?”
“Ten minutes.” Jack took his face out of his hands and stared up at the man beside him. It was early. He couldn’t recall the last time he had woken up this early on a Saturday. “In his sleep. It was fast.” Jack ran a hand through his hair. “I never got the chance to tell him I’d come back.”
“Any family?”
“All dead.” He grasped the withered, wrinkled hand before him and squeezed it. It was cold and stiff. “I tried to get a hold of Tosh but I couldn’t find her number.”
“Jack.”
“I knew it was getting closer, I just-“
“You can’t predict death, Jack.”
“But I can outlive it,” Jack muttered, falling to his knees beside the bed. “I’m going to outlive them all. Aren’t I, Doctor. Every last human on Earth.”
“Yeah, but think of all the good you can do for them.”
“I thought there was something about interfering.”
“Nah, that’s only for the past. The future’s wide open. Always has been. You just got to know when you can fool it into becoming what you want.”
The Doctor laid a hand on Jack’s shoulder, squeezing it gently. He never should have asked to come back here. He thought…he had wanted to be there when it had happened. The need to reassure himself that his friend, lover, partner wouldn’t be dying alone, but he had failed.
“I couldn’t save him.”
“You loved him.”
There was a long pause where the Doctor’s grip got just that much tighter. Jack ignored it in favor of dusting a kiss along Ianto’s weathered brow. No words could explain how much it meant to Jack that the Doctor had stayed. It had always been there between them. The knowledge that the Doctor could strand Jack somewhere in time like he had once before. Jack was, after all, an anomaly.
An acute pain shot through Jack when he let go of Ianto’s stiff hand. He hoped the younger man had known that he had been there. That Ianto had passed on knowing that Jack still cared for him deeply despite his absence.
Jack grasped the warm hand that was offered to him, letting the Doctor pull him to his feet. It was a comfort that Jack wasn’t going to look lightly upon. He almost sagged in relief when the Time Lord didn’t let go.
They had other adventures to go on. New planets to explore and embrace. The human race needed to be saved from its own ignorance, and despite all the things they could have done that day, the Doctor had let Jack watch another tie to his life slip away from him.
Both of them destined to be eternal wanders. Neither of them minded.
Author: faynia
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Pairing: The Doctor/Jack Harkness, reference to past Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Word Count: 459
Warning: Side Character Death, Angst
Rating: PG
Summary: The Doctor allows Jack to say goodbye.
A/N: Written for scap3goat's birthday. I got Jack/Doctor and relationships. I'm sorry about the lack of fluff! It just...refused to be written with fluff.
“How long?”
“Ten minutes.” Jack took his face out of his hands and stared up at the man beside him. It was early. He couldn’t recall the last time he had woken up this early on a Saturday. “In his sleep. It was fast.” Jack ran a hand through his hair. “I never got the chance to tell him I’d come back.”
“Any family?”
“All dead.” He grasped the withered, wrinkled hand before him and squeezed it. It was cold and stiff. “I tried to get a hold of Tosh but I couldn’t find her number.”
“Jack.”
“I knew it was getting closer, I just-“
“You can’t predict death, Jack.”
“But I can outlive it,” Jack muttered, falling to his knees beside the bed. “I’m going to outlive them all. Aren’t I, Doctor. Every last human on Earth.”
“Yeah, but think of all the good you can do for them.”
“I thought there was something about interfering.”
“Nah, that’s only for the past. The future’s wide open. Always has been. You just got to know when you can fool it into becoming what you want.”
The Doctor laid a hand on Jack’s shoulder, squeezing it gently. He never should have asked to come back here. He thought…he had wanted to be there when it had happened. The need to reassure himself that his friend, lover, partner wouldn’t be dying alone, but he had failed.
“I couldn’t save him.”
“You loved him.”
There was a long pause where the Doctor’s grip got just that much tighter. Jack ignored it in favor of dusting a kiss along Ianto’s weathered brow. No words could explain how much it meant to Jack that the Doctor had stayed. It had always been there between them. The knowledge that the Doctor could strand Jack somewhere in time like he had once before. Jack was, after all, an anomaly.
An acute pain shot through Jack when he let go of Ianto’s stiff hand. He hoped the younger man had known that he had been there. That Ianto had passed on knowing that Jack still cared for him deeply despite his absence.
Jack grasped the warm hand that was offered to him, letting the Doctor pull him to his feet. It was a comfort that Jack wasn’t going to look lightly upon. He almost sagged in relief when the Time Lord didn’t let go.
They had other adventures to go on. New planets to explore and embrace. The human race needed to be saved from its own ignorance, and despite all the things they could have done that day, the Doctor had let Jack watch another tie to his life slip away from him.
Both of them destined to be eternal wanders. Neither of them minded.