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m_findlowTitle: End of the road
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Gwen, John Frobisher
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 185 - Strong at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
anythingdrabble
Summary: Jack can't find it within himself to be strong any longer.
Jack felt his heart break for the hundredth time in as many hours as he glanced across at Gwen. She slid to the floor with her knees pulled up, mobile phone discarded at her side as she hugged her knees and buried her head between them. Long brown hair fell around her head, covering up the remainder of her grief and tears, but Jack could see all of her pain regardless. It was impossible not to, and still only a fraction of what he himself was feeling. If it weren't for the despised public servant sitting opposite him at the cheap cafeteria table he might have slid to the floor in a pool of tears himself. He had just enough left to deny the man that much.
He'd loved and lost so many people. Each and every one of them had hurt more than he thought he could bear, but he'd always found a way to move on. There'd always been someone else he needed to be strong for; someone else who needed him more than he needed that inner reserve for himself. Now though he felt stripped bare and empty. He couldn't be strong for Gwen. He couldn't even stand to look at her anymore, thinking of all the good times before their lives had been destroyed. It didn't feel right seeing just the two of them when there should have been three. Three was with them of course, but hidden under a shroud and just thinking about Ianto there made Jack's eyes prickle with tears.
'Leave us a moment to grieve,' he demanded of Frobisher. They weren't going anywhere. They were arrested in all but actually being cuffed. Torchwood was finished.
Jack bowed his head as Frobisher finally stood and left. Jack kept his eyes to the ground so that he wouldn't have to see Gwen, or his lover's body. Both things made his heart ache to the point where it might stop altogether.
He wanted polished shoes to enter his field of vision, look up and see Ianto standing there, all neat and calm. He wanted that hand to reach out and help him to his feet, just as it had done so many times when the weight of all the years made Jack feel like he'd never be able to stand again. Ianto did that - picked him up when it seemed like he couldn't go on - but now he was gone and he would never stand there again, just as Jack realised he could never stand again. His long fight against immortality was done. He was done. Immortality could preserve his body forever, no matter how much damage it sustained, but one thing Rose had never conceived was that the one thing it couldn't ever heal was his heart. It was broken completely and nothing was ever going to make it better. Dying of a broken heart was something people spoke about but had never been scientifically proven. It was the living that was killing Jack.
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Gwen, John Frobisher
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 185 - Strong at
anythingdrabbleSummary: Jack can't find it within himself to be strong any longer.
Jack felt his heart break for the hundredth time in as many hours as he glanced across at Gwen. She slid to the floor with her knees pulled up, mobile phone discarded at her side as she hugged her knees and buried her head between them. Long brown hair fell around her head, covering up the remainder of her grief and tears, but Jack could see all of her pain regardless. It was impossible not to, and still only a fraction of what he himself was feeling. If it weren't for the despised public servant sitting opposite him at the cheap cafeteria table he might have slid to the floor in a pool of tears himself. He had just enough left to deny the man that much.
He'd loved and lost so many people. Each and every one of them had hurt more than he thought he could bear, but he'd always found a way to move on. There'd always been someone else he needed to be strong for; someone else who needed him more than he needed that inner reserve for himself. Now though he felt stripped bare and empty. He couldn't be strong for Gwen. He couldn't even stand to look at her anymore, thinking of all the good times before their lives had been destroyed. It didn't feel right seeing just the two of them when there should have been three. Three was with them of course, but hidden under a shroud and just thinking about Ianto there made Jack's eyes prickle with tears.
'Leave us a moment to grieve,' he demanded of Frobisher. They weren't going anywhere. They were arrested in all but actually being cuffed. Torchwood was finished.
Jack bowed his head as Frobisher finally stood and left. Jack kept his eyes to the ground so that he wouldn't have to see Gwen, or his lover's body. Both things made his heart ache to the point where it might stop altogether.
He wanted polished shoes to enter his field of vision, look up and see Ianto standing there, all neat and calm. He wanted that hand to reach out and help him to his feet, just as it had done so many times when the weight of all the years made Jack feel like he'd never be able to stand again. Ianto did that - picked him up when it seemed like he couldn't go on - but now he was gone and he would never stand there again, just as Jack realised he could never stand again. His long fight against immortality was done. He was done. Immortality could preserve his body forever, no matter how much damage it sustained, but one thing Rose had never conceived was that the one thing it couldn't ever heal was his heart. It was broken completely and nothing was ever going to make it better. Dying of a broken heart was something people spoke about but had never been scientifically proven. It was the living that was killing Jack.
