For hey_capn_jack: Tagbrain revival attempt.

[aint_a_shepherd]

[[AU!Riftverse, more or less, assuming Book didn't vanish and Jack found himself back in the Tower.]]Book is worried. This isn't exactly a novel feeling, but it's been growing more acute since the return of Captain Harkness. He's been on -- if not the same path, one that shares that general direction. It's enough to know the risks the Captain's

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[hey_capn_jack]

Resignation is... almost something Jack is coming to terms with.

He's standing just beside and behind the stairs of the lobby, watching to door. Well. Observing the door. Rationalizing the door. There's always a door when you turn to look for one.

Once upon a time, running seemed so like the best of all available options, or if not the best, at least the easiest, and even the most kind. It still does, sometimes, in drags and spurts, and when they hit, he finds it important to come here and watch

Because there's always the door. And he's not walking through it.

...it still feels a bit like death, if he's honest; the long slip of control, the sealing of options. But he's survived that and he supposes he'll survive this, even if it's a matter of holding on with the grip of his nails indefinitely.

[aint_a_shepherd]

Book notices Jack -- oblivious as he may seem most of the time, there's not a lot he doesn't notice. You get a feel for where people are lurking, after a while.

He moves down the stairs; quiet, but not so quiet as to hide the sound of his steps.

"You care for these children a great deal, don't you?" It's a quiet observation, nothing more.

[hey_capn_jack]

Jack doesn't startle at Book's approach. He tries not to startle at his words.

They haven't talked, not really, not in any real way - of course, he hasn't talked to much of anyone. He's tried, when they've asked, but he's something of a wolf in the fold here and he knows it. It's not easy for any of them.

You care for these children a great deal, don't you? Oh, there were ages when the answer would have been obvious. Now nothing falls quite he way it's supposed to. He looks away from the door, but he's still facing it - just studying Book's face, trying to know what he's asking. What, really.

After a moment, he looks back, the better to disguise how much he doesn't know how to answer. "They don't stay children very long, do they?"

[aint_a_shepherd]

And if there's anyone who knows a thing or two about being a wolf in the fold... And the irony of a wolf becoming a Shepherd isn't exactly lost on Book.

It's obvious the boy's hurting -- and he ought not to think of Captain Harkness as 'the boy', but the face is deceptive, even for him. His eyes, though... Those were older than they had any right to be, staring out of that face. He's seen eyes like that, among people he used to work with. Seen eyes that tried to be that old on Captain Reynolds, but Harkness has him beat on that count. Not that he's terribly inclined to tell the Captain that, if they ever meet again.

"They never do," he says. "If there's a world out there that's kind to children in this line of work, I've yet to see it." He raises an eyebrow. "And in most cases, children are the only ones fool enough to get into it in the first place."

In most cases. He's here. So is Jack. That's saying something, even if neither of them are quite sure what.