Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Jack

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG

Length: 1,493 words

Content notes: none

Author notes: Written for Challenge 346 - Waiting

Summary: Jack has high hopes that tonight is the night he'll find his Doctor.


'Good night, sir,' came the greeting from the last of Jack's team to leave for the night. Oh, he added, pausing his exit a moment longer, 'and merry Christmas.'

Jack waved off his general supper officer with a small hand gesture to go home. It was Christmas eve after all, and Jack had places to be.

No sooner was Ianto gone from the hub, Jack scooped up the keys off his desk and made for the underground car park and the SUV that was waiting there patiently for him. He hesitated only a moment before hopping in and revving the engine, making short work of the spiralling levels of Millennium Centre car park and bursting out onto Bute Street. Within minutes he'd navigated the local streets and was on the M4, heading east.

Torchwood would be abandoned on Christmas Eve but that didn't concern Jack. The place was rarely ever left unmanned, but Jack knew nothing would happen in Cardiff tonight that would require either his or his team's attention. If anything was going to go awry tonight, it would be in London, not Cardiff. And when it did, he knew who would show up to make things right again.

Jack had been in two minds all day about whether this was a good idea. He knew that the Doctor would eventually return to Cardiff to refuel his TARDIS from the very energies that powered the rift which caused Jack so many headaches. The century had turned twice now, just as the fortune teller had told him, but all this waiting for the Doctor was killing Jack. There just had to be a way to expedite things. He'd already waited a century and a half for the answers to a million questions about how he was still alive and why he couldn't die. He didn't think he could wait another fifty years.

The plan was a risky one in some respects. Jack couldn't afford to mess with timelines and meet an earlier version of the Doctor who didn't yet know how he was. Conversely, meeting one too far into the future could also be problematic. He tried not to think about potentially meeting himself in the process if that happened and how much chaos that could cause.

Still, if there was any chance of finding the Doctor - his Doctor - London on Christmas Eve was the best chance he had of forcing the matter. London seemed to have no shortage of Doctor worthy calamities which always managed to befall them right on Christmas Eve. From possessed high street mannequins, to a Sycorax spaceship, to the invasion by aliens of an old Torchwood facility that Jack had personally assumed was defunct, there was always something to liven up this tiny little corner of planet Earth.

Jack wouldn't get involved, he promised himself as he pressed firmly on the accelerator, causing the SUV to surge along the unusually quiet motorway towards its destination. It wasn't Torchwood business, though he would most certainly save someone from deadly danger if needed. Tonight was about observing from the shadows to make sure he wasn't about to commit Time Agency crime number one: messing with one's own timeline. He'd need to see for himself if the Doctor that appeared tonight was his Doctor before making any moves. He was hopeful though. His Doctor would come looking for him if he knew Jack was here. How could he not after having accidentally abandoned him aboard that game station, thinking he was dead. All Jack was doing was expediting the process.

Jack twiddled dials and flipped through radio stations to pass the time. On one he got a choral service from St Paul's, on another a callback show for last minute gift ideas and a bombardment of Tesco ads. Chris Needs was playing song requests on Radio Wales and Barry Beat FM had very graciously bowed out of contention by the time Jack had crossed the Severn Bridge.

It should have taken an age to get there, yet time flew by and soon Jack was feeling the crush of London city streets as they squeezed against the sides of the SUV, taking umbrage at its size daring to wend its way through their narrow junctures.

Jack found a park not far from Covent Garden. He got out and walked for a bit, trying to extinguish any nervous energy whilst not straying too far from the suv. There was no telling where chaos might erupt and he didn't want to be far from his most reliable source of transport and miss his Doctor's arrival. He could turn up in Trafalgar Square or Canary Wharf of the Tower of London. Jack kept his vortex manipulator attuned to even the slightest disturbance.

Jack found himself wandering the tinsel and fairy-light lit high street, pausing to admire the fancy dressed windows of the department stores and finding himself with a sudden urge to buy a nice pair of leather gloves for a Christmas present. But who would he be buying them for, he wondered. If tonight went well he'd be leaving Earth, perhaps for good. There wouldn't be a Christmas morning or anyone he knew to gift them to. Perhaps the Doctor could use a pair of gloves. He'd never worn any before, unless Jack counted that planet they'd visited which was totally snow and igloos and snowball fights with Rose.

He missed Rose. Almost more than he missed the Doctor. She was like the little bossy sister he'd never had. He could buy her something; a gift to apologise for all the missed adventures and the promise of those they hadn't had yet. Just being back together with the pair of them would be the best present Jack could ask for.

Everywhere he looked he saw people racing from shop to show, arms laden with glossy tote bags full of gifts or wandering arm in arm and just enjoying the magical air that the lights and the chill promise of Christmas eve could bring. It wasn't quite cold enough for a light sprinkling of snow, but that didn't seem to dull the atmosphere one bit. Getting excited about Christmas was something he'd worked at for a long time. He loved the lights and the sparkle, trimming the tree and the naughty potential of mistletoe but it still didn't have that same feeling that ordinary Earthlings held for the season. For them it was a memory all the way back to childhood of Santa and excitement and toys and delight. Even now as adults, not all of that magic could be diminished by the reality of adulthood. For Jack, any thoughts of family had become a distant and faded memory. His was probably gone for good, trapped off in the distant future, and simultaneously preserved in a mkentn where bad times had tey to befall them. That was the hardest part about being trapped in one bubble of time, so far from everything he'd known. Only the Doctor could change that for him now, which only made it that much more important to find him.

Jack wandered, picked up a takeaway hot chocolate and a bag of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor as his stomach protested having skipped dinner. He spared a few extra pound coins for a homeless man, and bought him a hot chocolate as well. He sat on a bench and demolished both his own as he waited for the signal to leap back into action.

One by one though, the high street department stores rolled closed their doors, shuttered their window displays and dimmed their lights, putting the magic of Christmas Eve into hibernation for another year. The people filtered away into the night, back home to their beds and the promise of Christmas morning. All that remained now was the clear night sky, dazzling with stars to replace the fairy lights down below that had now twinkled out. Jack was the only one left roaming the streets, and still not a shred of commotion was to be found anywhere. Not even a stray alley cat prowled in search of mischief. Christmas this year it seemed would come and go like a windswept tide, sweeping in before retreating with little fanfare. There'd be no chaos to control, no enemy to defeat, and no whirlwind of police box blue whirring onto the scene to rein in the madness. No Doctor and no Rose.

It had been a fool's errand to hope that tonight might bring Jack the answers he'd waited so long to know and to rejoin the friends he'd so long ago left behind, or been left behind by. With a heavy heart he pulled the collar of his coat higher around his neck and buttoned down the front, sealing in his body warmth as he trudged despondently back to the SUV. Tonight was not going to be the night and the waiting would have to endure a little while longer.