Title: The Missing Piece
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ross Jenkins
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 4, 50ficlets
Prompt: 44, Missing
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Ross Jenkins, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

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How had he gotten through his life up until this point without the Doctor being in it? Ross almost smiled as the question popped into his head. He didn't have an answer for it; he had no idea how he'd managed to exist without the Doctor by his side.

Maybe that was why he'd never felt completely happy with his life. He'd always had the feeling that he was sleepwalking through a lot of what he did, that he was never really quite there. There had always seemed to be something missing.

He'd looked at the other soldiers with their girlfriends when he went out with his friends, and felt a pang of regret that he was alone. But he wasn't going to be with someone he didn't care about; that wouldn't be fair to either himself or them.

And then the Doctor had come barreling into his life -- and everything had changed.

He had known from the first moment he saw this man that the Doctor was the missing piece. He'd been drawn to the tall, handsome Time Lord at first sight; it had been hard to keep himself from staring at the other man and immediately moving closer to him.

When the Doctor had urged him to come into the Tardis, to go away with him into the stars, Ross had been a little hesitant at first. He hadn't been sure if it had been the right thing to do, but he'd quickly overcome any reservations he might have had.

And now, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he'd made the right choice. Being with the Doctor made him happy in a way that he'd never been before; he felt complete, as though a missing part of himself had finally settled into its proper place.

He couldn't be the only person in the world who'd ever felt like this. There were others who never felt that they quite fit in with the rest of the world -- and who never got lucky enough to find the person who was the missing piece of their lives.

What would he have done if he hadn't found that missing piece? He stretched his lean body out in the chair he was sitting in, leaning his head back against his crossed arms and staring up at the Tardis' ceiling to contemplate the question.

He really didn't know what he would have done. Stayed in UNIT, obviously, and probably spent most of his life there. He would have left the military at a much older age, hopefully with honors -- that is, if he hadn't gotten himself killed first.

It had been something of a shock when the Doctor had come to him and asked him to come out into time and space with him. Ross hadn't expected anything like that; and he certainly hadn't expected that request to be directed at someone like him.

The Doctor had always seemed like some shadowy legend to him, with all the tales that he'd heard of the Time Lord. Being asked to be the person who would have the honor of joining him was something that Ross would never have dreamed of.

He'd followed the Doctor readily; Ross had known from the first moment that he set eyes on this man that he couldn't refuse anything that the Doctor might want from him. He'd fallen head over heels at first glance, as much of a cliché as that might seem.

And it hadn't taken long for him to realize that this was what he'd been missing in his life, that piece of the puzzle that he'd been searching for. The emotion that he felt for the Doctor, and that he felt flowing from the Time Lord right back to him.

There had been no choice at all. He'd known where he belonged.

He had no regrets, and he never would. He'd spent his entire life waiting for this to happen to him; he'd always wondered when and if he would find the right person, the one who would make him feel complete and who he could trust with giving his heart and soul.

All the time that he had waited and wondered if he would find that missing piece, or end up spending his life alone, had been worth it. Finding the Doctor had been a long, slow journey, but it was one that he was glad he had taken.

That journey had ended now -- and he was right where he belonged, and right where he wanted to be. Ross smiled, closing his eyes and letting thoughts of his lover fill his mind. It was good to finally have that missing piece firmly in place, and to know that it would always be there.

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