Title: Coming Back again
By: lilithangel
Pairings: Jack/real Jack Harkness
Rating: G
Summary: “Every time I was born I remembered flying and your face,” Jack said. Through the years, through the centuries love will only grow stronger if you let it.

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With the Christmas he went through twice, thanks to the year that never was, he celebrated the second time with his team, but made time for his own pilgrimage to the site of the old Ritz ballroom.

It was amazing how a man he had only met the once, could have such an impact on him. He could still taste the ghost of Jack’s kiss on his lips if he concentrated, flavoured with whiskey and aftershave.

A young man was standing in front of the empty site, hands shoved in pockets looking very much like he didn’t want to be there. When he saw Jack he straightened up, a look of recognition on his face.

“James Harper?” He nodded in shock at the almost forgotten name. “I have something for you,” the boy said, and he was a boy they were all boys to him. The boy grabbed his face and kissed him. Jack wasn’t one to turn down a kiss so he participated with enthusiasm.

When they broke apart the boy blinked and him and grinned. “You are that good, I didn’t believe it, but you are. Almost enough to turn me gay.” The boy turned and left, jumping into a car before Jack could stop him.

He came back the next year, or a thousand years later it was hard to keep track, but there was only him and the ghost of memories.

Forty years later a young woman with grey eyes and bright red hair stopped him in the street.

“Captain Harkness sends his regards,” she said, kissing him hard and fast and then dancing away in the crowds. When he got over the shock he realised what the date was, but she was gone.

Ten years on and he was bidding farewell to Cardiff. The rift had been stable for five years and they had finally developed reliable automatic scanning systems. There had only been two of them for over a year and when Gayle died, run down by a truck in a stupidly human accident, he didn’t bother looking for a replacement.

He stood on the invisible lift and triggered the shutdown of the Hub. A family unit were snapping photos of the tower and a little boy broke free of his mother to run right up to Jack.

“I’m supposed to kiss you,” he said with a look of disgust, “but that’s just icky so let’s just pretend I did okay?” He ran back to his mother who scolded him and asked who he was waving to.

He waited until they left and then stepped off the flagstone. He didn’t really understand what was going on, only that it seemed to involve a man and a date he had never forgotten.

Five hundred years later again and he waited for his pilot at the New Cardiff spaceport, a thousand light years from Earth. The lithe figure that jumped down from the ramp was attractive enough to stir his interest, jaded though it might have become.

“Hello Captain,” said a voice he shouldn’t still be able to recognise. The eyes were instantly recognisable though and he nearly forgot all about the hand he had extended in greeting.

“You know me?” he said in confusion, doubting the evidence of his eyes.

“I’ve been trying to find you for over six hundred years.”

“Jack?” his voice broke on the name. “How is this possible?”

“Every time I was born I remembered flying and your face,” Jack said. And it was his Jack, his Captain Jack Harkness. The face wasn’t exactly the same but the eyes and the voice echoed through memories to a dance and a kiss.

“I would try to find you but my lives never matched and your name kept changing,” Jack continued, moving closer to him and taking the still outstretched hand into his own. “So what should I call you?”

“James,” he said, “I will always be James for you.”

“And I will always find you, James.” Jack closed the gap and kissed him.

It was different/better than their first/last kiss. Jack was more confident this time, not letting him lead the way completely.

They rested their foreheads together, content to inhale the essence of the other.

“I always knew I would find you,” Jack whispered. “I guessed the second time I saw you that you weren’t aging, weren’t dying and I knew.”

“I’ve never forgotten you,” James said with a smile.

“So, what do you say, Captain Harper,” Jack said, “Fancy a trip to the stars with me?”

“Sounds absolutely perfect.”

Every time he lost Jack he knew he just had to wait and Jack would find him again. The one thing he had was time.

END

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