for rude_not_ginger Welcome back to Cardiff.

[quitehomoerotic]

Jack pressed the button on the manipulator and in a flash they were gone. Away from the tower, away from Gallifrey, through the vortex and through the rift. It pulled them through time and space and everything in between

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[rude_not_ginger]

The tug was not fine. The Doctor dropped to his knees and scrunched up his face, waiting for the time distortions to finally calm around him. He adjusted his neck and struggled to fight off the oncoming nausea. He had to go through quite a bit to digest that food block, he wasn't about to lose it now.

"Have I mentioned," he said, irritably. "How much I hate time travel without a capsule?"

Oh, but Jack's grin was infectious. And he was a bit of a genius, wasn't he? Here they were, back on Earth. Right when they should be, or so it appeared at least.

After a few deep breaths, he pulled himself to his feet. "Not bad in a day's work. Well, day and a half's work.

[quitehomoerotic]

Trying not to laugh (but mostly not achieving it), Jack attempted his straightest face, "Oh once or twice," he nodded, "ohhh come on, it's just like driving with the top down, that's all!"

He smacked him gently on the back and all but giggled before pacing himself over to the open pizza box on the coffee table. Grabbing a slice, he promptly took a large bite and spoke around a mouthful, "Mmm! Still warm!"

He shot him a triumphant grin and walked over to the window, peering around the curtains. "But we still better stay here until tomorrow morning. Still people out there looking for us. Oh there's three of us here now! Well, four of me actually. You want some pizza?"

This time the adrenaline that ran through his system was pleasant in every way.

[rude_not_ginger]

"In a minute, once my stomach stomps spinning." Driving with the top down, indeed. The Doctor liked driving with the top down in motor vehicles, but he knew better than to try it with the time vortex!

Well, actually, apparently he didn't.

He stepped back around and snatched up the bottle of whisky from before. Still left open, just as he'd left it before he dashed out. He wondered if he would be able to see himself running about. Probably best not to look.

He poured himself a few fingers of the amber liquid. "Four fixed points in time and space wandering about. Not the most intelligent decision, but I doubt the Time Lords will be after us any time soon."

[quitehomoerotic]

Jack rolled his eyes dramatically, teasing, grinning to him stupidly as he took another bite of the pizza. Oh it felt good to eat something that wouldn't send him mad. Especially pizza!

"Drinking are we, Doctor?" Jack smirked, looking over to him. "Pour me one."

He shook his head and waved a hand dismissively, "I know where they all are. It's fine. And one of them isn't wondering anywhere," he took another bite, "frozen in the Hub. Pretty sure he's there to stay for a while."

Pausing, perhaps for dramatic (or maybe comedic) effect, he looked up and fixed his gaze on a random point on the wall. "Huh. You know I really do get around, don't I?"

He grinned again and laughed, "Oh I think the only Time Lord's wrath I need to worry about is that of the one opposite me. And I think I'm pretty safe there for now."

[rude_not_ginger]

"Figure after the day we've just had, and we still have another night to work through..." He poured Jack a glass and handed it to him, taking a drink from his own. "And no, no, all out of wrath today."

So much had happened in a few hours. He couldn't quite wrap his head around Gallifrey. He tried, but he couldn't. Gallifrey, the Death Zone. So close to Time Lord minds but unable to touch them.

He dropped back onto the couch, and he could almost swear it was still warm from when he'd last sat in it.

"She doesn't forgive you, then?" he asked, looking over to Jack. "Even though her son saved the world?"

[quitehomoerotic]

Jack polished off the last of his slice of pizza and reached his hand out for the glass. It was nice to have a drink, and it went down smoothly. He was thankful for the burn.

They could stay here now, a few hours of actually doing nothing, which right now was incredibly appealing. Then they'd leave. They'd go back to the TARDIS and not look back.

He turned his back and leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath. The last thing he expected to hear was the Doctor bringing up that."Don't," he said immediately and glanced down at his feet

[rude_not_ginger]

"Because you can't forgive yourself, either." It wasn't a question. The Doctor knew. He understood.

He wished he could've broken through that fixed point in time. But there were laws. The laws didn't obey him.

"Tell me this, though, Jack," the Doctor said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. He looked away from his companion and back into his drink, where the amber liquid marbled against the edges of the glass.

"Did you have any other choice?"

[quitehomoerotic]

"No," Jack sighed, "no, I can't. And I won't. Not ever."

He strode over to the table and picked up the bottle to refill his glass and take a long swig. This sort of conversation required it.

"That's not the point," Jack urged, not answering the question directly because the answer was no. "I should have found another way. I owed that to her. There must have been another way. I just didn't look hard enough."

But however hard Jack had tried, he really couldn't have found another way. He just didn't have the time. "They were going to take the kids. Literally, just about to take them." He took another drink and a breath to help him go on.

"The worst thing is you know is that it was Alice that told them to get me. They'd locked me up but she told them they needed me. Look how I paid her back. And I stood there Doctor. I stood there and..." he trailed off and drained the rest of the glass.

[rude_not_ginger]

"Stood there and saved every child on the planet," the Doctor said, solemnly.

He'd once stood there and heard the screams of two worlds being destroyed. He'd never forgive himself, either. They were too alike, him and Jack. It wasn't fair, but if there was one thing the Doctor learned about the universe, it was that it was not fair. No matter how desperately he wished it could be.

"I imagine she understands," he said, draining his own glass. "I can't...pretend that she'll forgive, but she'll understand. You don't do what you do idly, Jack. Neither of us do."

But they'd both been fathers, in the past. They'd both known what the fight to protect a child was like.

[quitehomoerotic]

"Ten percent, actually," Jack was eager to play down what he did. He couldn't see it as heroic. Maybe some things he did he could. Maybe he'd even call himself a hero at times, even if mostly in jest. But that, that wasn't heroic. It was desperate. The actions of a broken man. If he'd have had more about him he would have found another way. He would.

"Oh I doubt it," he shook his head and pulled a face. "Why would she? Why should she?" In truth maybe she would. Maybe she did. She cared about him even though she could be cold. He was still her father, despite it all, and for all her hard exterior, she was softer inside. Maybe she'd picked that up from him.

He shook his head again and sat himself down on the sofa beside the Doctor.

"Different topic, Doctor," he said, not wanting to think about it.

[rude_not_ginger]

"How about that weather?" the Doctor said without hesitation. "It sure has been something."

He turned to look at Jack, raising an eyebrow. Topics they shared could be light, but sometimes the harder ones were important. He wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulders and pulled him into an embrace.

Sometimes, hugs were a bad idea. Sometimes, there just wasn't time for them. RIght now, though? Right now, he felt like they needed it.

[quitehomoerotic]

Jack tried a half laugh and a weak response of "Oh yeah," but both fell far from their desired end, and Jack's shoulders felt heavy again. Weighted down by the memory of what he'd done and the people he'd hurt. The people he loved.

Jack glanced his eyes to the Doctor and leaned into him automatically in the embrace, showing just how much he really needed it.

He gripped him tight and wrapped his arm around the Doctor's back, clutching and holding as he took a deep breath.

"Maybe she does understand," he went on. A silent agreement that perhaps yes he did need to talk about this. He just needed to be pushed into it. "Maybe she does. But I doubt I'll ever find out. I won't go back again. I couldn't do that to her."

[rude_not_ginger]

"Course you won't," the Doctor agreed without hesitating. He'd said the very same thing about Susan, when he abandoned her to live with the man she adored but would not give up the TARDIS for. But he did, of course. And Jack would, one day.

They had forever, after all.

He wasn't one for telling the future (not in this lifetime, at least), but he felt like he had to, for Jack. For condolences.

"In fifty years," he said, taking a breath. "Someone---and it's never discovered who---releases the truth about the 456. Well, part of the truth, at least. Your grandson is remembered as a hero for hundreds of years."

[quitehomoerotic]

It helped, having the Doctor there. And it helped having him to talk to. Not just talk to, having him prompt him. Not allow him to stay so closed up. Jack needed people who would do that. He often surrounded himself with people who would do that, though he never really realised that was the case.

Pulling back quickly, Jack stared at the Doctor with his mouth agape. "What?" he asked as though he hadn't heard.

But he had.

"So he..." Jack shook his head and looked away. He was overcome with emotion all too quickly to hide it, and his eyes were red and wet before he could force it back. He glanced forward and down to his hands.

"Steven Carter," Jack whispered, "he was a great kid. He'd have been an even better man. It's good that he's remembered. Because it wasn't me that saved the world, it was him."

[rude_not_ginger]

"It's part of that immovable history, Jack. The one I couldn't touch." He thought back to his history and nodded. "Remember Carter Base 722 in the Omega Cluster? That was still about in the 51st century, wasn't it? Named after him."

It was so long in the future, few people knew where the names originated, but the Doctor remembered. He remembered because it was one of the reasons he couldn't go. He couldn't help. Though he almost did. Somewhere nearby, he was practically begging Jack to let him go and do just that.

He pressed a kiss to Jack's forehead. Donna was right. He needed someone to stop him. He was glad, in this moment, that it was Jack.

[quitehomoerotic]

"Carter Base 722," Jack echoed back and shook his head incredulously. Of course he'd heard of Carter Base, he'd stayed there for a month during part of his Time Agency training.

Time could be strange, but sometimes? Sometimes the intricacies of it could really hit you over the head.

This was one of those times.

He glanced his eyes up to the Doctor's and shook his head a little. "You know so much..." he commented on a breath. It blew him away just how much, and how hard it must be to wear all that knowledge. From his own experience he knew it could be hard, but to know that much...

Suddenly, he was reminded of something the Doctor had said back on Gallifrey. Something about meeting him in the future. Were Jack anyone else, he'd ask about that. But no. No he knew there were some things that should be kept. Some things you shouldn't know about yourself. He just hoped it was nothing bad.

"I guess I should watch out for any future 'Harkness Pleasure Palace's' then?" he asked, trying to inject a touch of humour.