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Title: A new journey begins
Fandom: Torchwood / Doctor Who
Characters: Jack, The Doctor
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,162 words
Content notes: Spoilers for TW Coe and DW "The end of time"
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, on the road again..." at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack is down and out, but there's always one person looking out for him.
The hypervodka burned the back of Jack's throat, making him cough on the first sip. The bartender rolled its singular eye at him in a away that clearly said "amateur" or even "newbie".
Jack was no stranger to the marvels of the universe and the particularly potent drinks that could be ordered. Hypervodkas weren't everyone's cup of tea but Jack was an old hand and they'd always been his go to drink of choice most of his life, mainly because he knew he could get hideously drunk on them. No amount of immortality was going to make him immune from the effects of six hypervodkas drunk in quick succession. That was that plan, anyway. He had to get the first one down first, and it was proving more challenging than expected.
This is what you get for being a virtual teetotaller for a hundred years, he told himself. He'd gotten soft. A few glasses of scotch here and there but that was nothing compared to the headspin of 85 percent proof alcohol.
He took another sip, this time prepared for the onslaught to his physical senses, and letting out a sigh as it went down, hitting his bloodstream almost in an instant. That little warm fuzzy sensation that blurred the edges of his consciousness was already taking effect. In a few hours, he'd be lucky if he could walk back to his pod and collapse into it in a happy unconsciousness that would last all of tomorrow and some of the following day. Then he could come back here and do it all over again.
Finding himself here shouldn't have come as a surprise. Somewhere in the back of his mind he'd always known he'd end up back on the road again. It was foolish to think that he'd stay on Earth forever. He'd been trying to get off that rock for so long it almost felt absurd to think that no sooner had he finally found his Doctor then all he wanted was to go straight back home. And by home he meant Earth. He'd grown to love that little planet with its funny humans and their complicated politics. If they had any idea what else was out there in the wider universe, they'd have forgotten all of their wars and arguments in a heartbeat. He'd also grown to love the people that he'd met there, keeping a special place in his heart of them, even after they'd moved on from him and from Torchwood.
But now it was his turn to move on from them. They weren't all gone, of course, but he'd finally reached a point where he'd lost more than he could stand. It felt like a graveyard full of friends and lovers he'd never see again. He might as well have been the only person left alive on Earth for all the deep and unending loneliness he felt.
Moving on was easier than expected, but now that he'd cut himself adrift, he didn't know where to go or what to do next. Surrounded once more by the plethora and variety of life in the universe, he actually felt even more alone than ever.
What had he done to deserve so much heartache and loss? Why had he been chosen as the one to have to carry the burden of immortality? He had forever to dwell on the unhappy memories of all the people he'd let down and the prospect of permanent despair had lead him here, ready to lose himself in oblivion. He couldn't live with an eternity of guilt. He could barely cope with it for a day.
He threw back the remnants of his drink and ordered two more, downing them quickly. He should have let the rift take him, he decided. It had only been a few months but already he couldn't stand it. He'd lived longer than anyone had a right to. He'd had his one chance to finally enlive - to beat immortality and deal it a fatal blow - and he'd messed it up. All because he couldn't let go of that one tiny, totally impossible sliver of hope that he might be able to be redeemed.
Part of him knew it was a trick. There was no bringing back the dead - no stepping back over that invisible line between life and death - no matter how close one stood on its precipice. But still he wanted to believe it. He wanted to think that there was a way of taking back just one person who had meant so much more to him than so many people he'd been forced to say goodbye to. Only Ianto would be so selfless as to wish for Jack to keep on living, instead of joining him. Didn't he understand how impossible that was? What was he supposed to do with his life now? He'd never been so hopelessly without purpose.
He downed another glass and set it on the counter. When he looked up and across the bar his breath hitched in his chest. The last person he expected to see in this down and out place was his Doctor.
The Doctor gave him a small nod and Jack knew that now was not the time for them to rejoin. He was still too broken and not ready for fun and adventures. In that one look, they seemed to understand one another perfectly. The barman pushed a slip of paper across the bar at him. Without having to ask, he knew it was a message from the Doctor. He unfolded it reverently, reading the four simple words penned there. Jack gave him a salute. He'd follow any command the Doctor gave him, however strange it might seem.
He frowned as a handsome young man in a naval uniform slumped down at the bar next to him. Jack had always had a penchant for guys in uniform, and there was something about this one that the Doctor clearly thought he needed to discover for himself.
Jack grinned to himself, sliding back the last drink in front of him. He hadn't done this for a while, so a little Dutch courage wouldn't go astray.
'So, Alonso...' he began, 'going my way?'
The young man seemed startled at being addressed. 'How do you know my name?'
'I'm kind of psychic.' He smirked at how east the lies and the unflappable charm came rushing back to him.
'Really?'
'Yeah.'
A naughty little expression crossed the man's face. 'Do you know what I'm thinking right now?'
Jack nearly burst out laughing at the absurdly unconcealed and flirtatious inference. Could he have been any less subtle? Jack grinned. 'Oh, yeah.'
He didn't know what kind of road he was traveling down, but for now he trusted that someone was looking out for him. Maybe it would all work itself out in the end. Until then, why not try and eke out of it whatever happiness he could. Forever was a very long time.