amythest_n_ice: Passing (Jack/10)(PG)
Title: Passing
Author/Artist/Vidder/...: amythest_n_ice
Challenge: 2011 Doctor/Jack Bingo Fest
Prompt used: Old Soldiers
Rating: PG
Pairing: Jack/10
Spoilers/warnings: Character death (past character)
Summary: Jack and the Doctor get news of an old friend.
It was raining when the TARDIS landed, the roar of her arrival seeming somehow muffled for once as she materialized in the quiet out of the way corner of the churchyard. Jack and the Doctor stepped out as soon as the materialization sequence ended, neither of them paying any attention to the traditional British weather, they had other things on their minds today.
The call had come in while they had been getting ready for bed the night before, from Martha, as she hadn’t thought anyone else would think to let the pair know what had happened; Alister Lethbrigde-Stewart had died in his sleep at the age of 81, and his funeral was being held in this sleepy little church today, where he would be laid to rest beside his wife Dorothy at last.
They stood under the scant shelter offered by an ancient Oak, its winter nude branches reaching up toward the charcoaled heavens, out of the way of the other mourners, not wanting to intrude on those who had likely known him longer, better.
A sprinkling of former UNIT personnel, all looking equally old and world weary, a few civilian friends Alister had presumably gathered over the years, all huddled under black umbrellas, and Martha, representing UNIT, and representing them too, the Doctor supposed, they hadn’t told her they would be there, they didn’t intend staying, or speaking to anyone, they were just two old soldiers, paying their last respects to a fallen comrade.
They stood in silence as the coffin was lowered into the ground, and as people began to move to drop their flowers or handfuls of earth down onto the rain dappled wood, Jack’s warm hand closed around his, and they walked back to the TARDIS, vanishing as unnoticed as they had arrived.