The Stolen Earth Incident - Chapter Fifty-Four - Complete
20 May 2009
Epilogue Four - Torchwood Hub
Cardiff
The Letter
The dragon moved to stand beside Jack, and he welcomed his mate’s close proximity as he stared at the envelope. “Do you know what it is?” he asked quietly.
Jack shook his head. “No idea…from the Doctor, maybe?”
Even as he said it, Jack doubted that. The Doctor wouldn’t have given him the time of day, let alone a letter.
“I’m going to head up to my office and read it,” he said. “Think you could get me one of those coffees you were offering Donna?”
“Well, I don’t know…she was a guest, after all…”
“I’ll make it worth your while…”
“Jack Harkness, you are such a tease,” the dragon growled.
“Only for you.”
“Jesus, they’re at it again,” Owen moaned. “Thank god I haven’t had lunch yet ‘cause I’d be losing it about now.”
Rhys clapped the medic on the shoulder. “You and me both, mate.”
“Get back to work, the lot of you,” Jack chuckled.
“Go and read your letter,” Ianto urged, “and I’ll be up with that coffee in a bit.”
Jack took his mate’s advice, and headed up to his office, closing the door behind him. He wanted a bit of privacy for this, because there really was only one person that Jack knew who would have trusted Donna to bring this to him.
He truly was surprised that Donna wasn’t with the Doctor anymore, and Jack hoped that he wasn’t alone. The Doctor didn’t do alone all that well. He wondered why she’d decided to move on, and made a mental reminder to ask her the next time he spoke with her.
Jack sat at his desk, slitting the envelope with the fancy opener that Toshiko had gotten him for Christmas one year. There were two sheets of paper inside, and he could tell by the handwriting that it was written in a hurry.
Dear Jack;
By the time you get this, I’ll be back on that alternate Earth. I really thought I’d be staying around a bit, but after you left I was given a few things to think about, and I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with my decision to go back after you read this.
For a really long time I wanted to come back and find the Doctor. It was my one goal. But then I realised that, as much as I loved the Doctor, he was never going to tell me that he loved me too. I doubt he’d ever really show it either, to be honest. Jack, you know how he is…all emotionally constipated, but he thinks he’s all so superior because he’s so repressed and above all that sort of bollocks (makes me wonder what his parents were like, honestly!). And, eventually, he would have dropped me off somewhere and moved on, or he would have regenerated and changed from the man I wanted to be with and I’d left him.
Well, the thing is, now there’s a man who’s nearly the exact same person as the Doctor, only he has one heart and won’t ever regenerate. He’ll grow old, and he wants to do that with me. Problem is, the Doctor doesn’t want him in the same dimension as he is…not sure why, really, but I think it’s because he doesn’t like to be faced with himself all that much. Maybe the human version of him reminds him he can be just as cruel and cowardly as anyone else.
You and I already know he can though, don’t we?
So, I came to realise it wasn’t travelling with the Doctor that I wanted…it was the Doctor himself, and the Time Lord version would never be that for me. The human one will.
Yeah, I’m going to miss the TARDIS. I think she’ll miss me, too. But this is my chance to be happy in a way I wanted all along and didn’t know I did until it was pointed out to me.
I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in person. I really did want to meet the guy who settled you down, too. Maybe someday I will. Who knows…maybe that Dimension Cannon will work again and me and my Doctor will come by for a visit.
I asked Donna to give this to you, whenever it was her time to leave the TARDIS. She’s promised she would, and she strikes me as the kind of person that keeps her promises.
Jack, you’ll never know how sorry I am for what I put you through. I know you’re glad I did, but I also know it wasn’t all so good for you until you met Ianto. I’ll always be sorry for it. I just wanted you to live and I messed it all up.
Anyway, this is goodbye for now. Like I said, maybe someday we’ll show up on your doorstep. Tourist Office, Mermaid Quay, right? I didn’t even realise that your Hub must have been right under our feet that time the Rift nearly blew up! I’m right, aren’t I? You were right there all the time!
See, time is weird. We never know what it’s going to do next.
Have a good life, Jack. Tell that dragon of yours to look out for you. You know you’ll make a right hash of things if you’re on your own!
Love you always!
Rose.
Jack sighed, wiping a tear away that had hung itself up on his lower eyelash. He’d really wanted Rose to come and see him, and to introduce her to his dragon, but he did agree with her: this was the best thing she could do.
At least it was her decision. Jack wouldn’t have been at all surprised to learn that the Doctor had planned on dumping her off right back onto that alternate Earth without giving her the choice.
The Doctor could be such an idiot, because he’d just given up the best thing that could have happened to him, simply because he couldn’t say three little words.
Yes, Rose was going to be better off. Jack hadn’t really had a chance to speak to that metacrisis Doctor, but if he was willing to admit the one thing that their Doctor couldn’t…then more power to her.
“You alright?”
Jack glanced up from the letter. His mate was standing just in front of the desk, a mug of coffee in his hand, his expression concerned.
He folded the letter and set it on his blotter, mentally reminding himself to put it away in his box of memories later. While he hoped he’d see Rose once more, with the dimensional walls sealed once more he doubted it would ever happen, and this would be the last thing of hers he would ever have.
Jack got up from his chair, and made his way around the desk to his mate. He took the cup of coffee out of Ianto’s hand and set it down on the desk then rested his hands on the dragon’s human hips, pulling him closer.
“I’m fine,” he admitted. Then he reconsidered that. “Nope, I’m better than fine.” He pressed a gentle kiss to Ianto’s lips. “Have I told you today that I love you?”
Blue eyes deep with age and understanding met his, and Ianto smiled softly. “You have, but I never get tired of hearing it.”
Jack promised himself then and there that he wouldn’t be like the Doctor, loving someone and never admitting it to them out of fear of loss. Love was precious, and he would never run from it again like he once had. It would hurt when the time came to say goodbye to his mortal family, but it would be so worth it in the end.
But there was one person he’d have throughout all eternity, and he was standing there, in his arms, loving the immortal as much as Jack loved him.
Silently, he wished Rose all the happiness she deserved. And she did deserve it all, for giving him what he’d once thought of as a curse.
Because that one wish of hers, long ago and far into the future, that the man she considered her brother would live again, had brought him to a valley nearly hidden in the Welsh mountains, and to an immortal dragon who was his mate.
The Doctor had given her up. Jack thought that was for the best.
Rose had her happy ending. Just as Jack had his.
Fin.
Epilogue Four - Torchwood Hub
Cardiff
The Letter
The dragon moved to stand beside Jack, and he welcomed his mate’s close proximity as he stared at the envelope. “Do you know what it is?” he asked quietly.
Jack shook his head. “No idea…from the Doctor, maybe?”
Even as he said it, Jack doubted that. The Doctor wouldn’t have given him the time of day, let alone a letter.
“I’m going to head up to my office and read it,” he said. “Think you could get me one of those coffees you were offering Donna?”
“Well, I don’t know…she was a guest, after all…”
“I’ll make it worth your while…”
“Jack Harkness, you are such a tease,” the dragon growled.
“Only for you.”
“Jesus, they’re at it again,” Owen moaned. “Thank god I haven’t had lunch yet ‘cause I’d be losing it about now.”
Rhys clapped the medic on the shoulder. “You and me both, mate.”
“Get back to work, the lot of you,” Jack chuckled.
“Go and read your letter,” Ianto urged, “and I’ll be up with that coffee in a bit.”
Jack took his mate’s advice, and headed up to his office, closing the door behind him. He wanted a bit of privacy for this, because there really was only one person that Jack knew who would have trusted Donna to bring this to him.
He truly was surprised that Donna wasn’t with the Doctor anymore, and Jack hoped that he wasn’t alone. The Doctor didn’t do alone all that well. He wondered why she’d decided to move on, and made a mental reminder to ask her the next time he spoke with her.
Jack sat at his desk, slitting the envelope with the fancy opener that Toshiko had gotten him for Christmas one year. There were two sheets of paper inside, and he could tell by the handwriting that it was written in a hurry.
Dear Jack;
By the time you get this, I’ll be back on that alternate Earth. I really thought I’d be staying around a bit, but after you left I was given a few things to think about, and I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with my decision to go back after you read this.
For a really long time I wanted to come back and find the Doctor. It was my one goal. But then I realised that, as much as I loved the Doctor, he was never going to tell me that he loved me too. I doubt he’d ever really show it either, to be honest. Jack, you know how he is…all emotionally constipated, but he thinks he’s all so superior because he’s so repressed and above all that sort of bollocks (makes me wonder what his parents were like, honestly!). And, eventually, he would have dropped me off somewhere and moved on, or he would have regenerated and changed from the man I wanted to be with and I’d left him.
Well, the thing is, now there’s a man who’s nearly the exact same person as the Doctor, only he has one heart and won’t ever regenerate. He’ll grow old, and he wants to do that with me. Problem is, the Doctor doesn’t want him in the same dimension as he is…not sure why, really, but I think it’s because he doesn’t like to be faced with himself all that much. Maybe the human version of him reminds him he can be just as cruel and cowardly as anyone else.
You and I already know he can though, don’t we?
So, I came to realise it wasn’t travelling with the Doctor that I wanted…it was the Doctor himself, and the Time Lord version would never be that for me. The human one will.
Yeah, I’m going to miss the TARDIS. I think she’ll miss me, too. But this is my chance to be happy in a way I wanted all along and didn’t know I did until it was pointed out to me.
I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in person. I really did want to meet the guy who settled you down, too. Maybe someday I will. Who knows…maybe that Dimension Cannon will work again and me and my Doctor will come by for a visit.
I asked Donna to give this to you, whenever it was her time to leave the TARDIS. She’s promised she would, and she strikes me as the kind of person that keeps her promises.
Jack, you’ll never know how sorry I am for what I put you through. I know you’re glad I did, but I also know it wasn’t all so good for you until you met Ianto. I’ll always be sorry for it. I just wanted you to live and I messed it all up.
Anyway, this is goodbye for now. Like I said, maybe someday we’ll show up on your doorstep. Tourist Office, Mermaid Quay, right? I didn’t even realise that your Hub must have been right under our feet that time the Rift nearly blew up! I’m right, aren’t I? You were right there all the time!
See, time is weird. We never know what it’s going to do next.
Have a good life, Jack. Tell that dragon of yours to look out for you. You know you’ll make a right hash of things if you’re on your own!
Love you always!
Rose.
Jack sighed, wiping a tear away that had hung itself up on his lower eyelash. He’d really wanted Rose to come and see him, and to introduce her to his dragon, but he did agree with her: this was the best thing she could do.
At least it was her decision. Jack wouldn’t have been at all surprised to learn that the Doctor had planned on dumping her off right back onto that alternate Earth without giving her the choice.
The Doctor could be such an idiot, because he’d just given up the best thing that could have happened to him, simply because he couldn’t say three little words.
Yes, Rose was going to be better off. Jack hadn’t really had a chance to speak to that metacrisis Doctor, but if he was willing to admit the one thing that their Doctor couldn’t…then more power to her.
“You alright?”
Jack glanced up from the letter. His mate was standing just in front of the desk, a mug of coffee in his hand, his expression concerned.
He folded the letter and set it on his blotter, mentally reminding himself to put it away in his box of memories later. While he hoped he’d see Rose once more, with the dimensional walls sealed once more he doubted it would ever happen, and this would be the last thing of hers he would ever have.
Jack got up from his chair, and made his way around the desk to his mate. He took the cup of coffee out of Ianto’s hand and set it down on the desk then rested his hands on the dragon’s human hips, pulling him closer.
“I’m fine,” he admitted. Then he reconsidered that. “Nope, I’m better than fine.” He pressed a gentle kiss to Ianto’s lips. “Have I told you today that I love you?”
Blue eyes deep with age and understanding met his, and Ianto smiled softly. “You have, but I never get tired of hearing it.”
Jack promised himself then and there that he wouldn’t be like the Doctor, loving someone and never admitting it to them out of fear of loss. Love was precious, and he would never run from it again like he once had. It would hurt when the time came to say goodbye to his mortal family, but it would be so worth it in the end.
But there was one person he’d have throughout all eternity, and he was standing there, in his arms, loving the immortal as much as Jack loved him.
Silently, he wished Rose all the happiness she deserved. And she did deserve it all, for giving him what he’d once thought of as a curse.
Because that one wish of hers, long ago and far into the future, that the man she considered her brother would live again, had brought him to a valley nearly hidden in the Welsh mountains, and to an immortal dragon who was his mate.
The Doctor had given her up. Jack thought that was for the best.
Rose had her happy ending. Just as Jack had his.
Fin.