Title: All is Done
By: Elizabeth Wilde
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: G
Note: This was written after Matt Smith was cast but before any of his episodes as Eleven aired - so this is basically my take on a possible entrance for him that also fixes the end of "Children of Earth." You're welcome. Seeing CoE is not strictly necessary to read this, it just adds a bit of flavor.
Summary: The Doctor steps in during "Children of Earth" to clear his debt to Jack.

***

He was staggering out of the building before he even remembered why he was in it. "That was..." He trailed off, staring ahead of him as if remembering how to see before taking another breath and jogging down the stairs. "Younger than usual... haven't been this young since..." The Doctor stared down at his own hands, wheeling for a moment to find the nearest reflective surface - a well-polished pole near the entrance - and gazing into it. The view was distorted but gave at least a blurry vision of his new face: sharp angles, bright eyes, and shaggy ash blond hair. "Still not ginger," he observed with a flicker of a frown. That was replaced soon enough by a bright smile. "But I had forgotten how nice it was to be this young - well, in terms of," a flick of the wrists indicated the new body as the subject of the discussion in case there was any doubt.

As if for the first time realizing he had an audience, the Doctor turned his new eyes on Jack and Ianto. They were watching just as intently. The younger of the two men looked shaken. He might well be considering how close he had just come to death. For Jack, dying would have been a temporary inconvenience and little more. Before either of them could be too worried about it, he clarified, "Just me," with a bright smile. The excitement of the change, of discovering a whole new part of himself, was always hard to contain, but he was beginning to decide that he wasn't the sort of man who felt the need to scream his excitement from the rooftops.

Deciding Torchwood's leader would be the easiest to convince - as he was the only one that the Doctor truly knew - he took a few steps closer to Jack. "You look... fantastic." A slow smile spread across his face, and for a moment the Doctor forgot what he'd intended. "Ah, but that's not what this is about. This is about..." He glanced back at the building as if it was still too soon to discuss what had passed inside. The man flashed a warmer smile at Ianto, who was standing as near to Jack as he could without it seeming inappropriate. They were so careful that things look professional even when everyone knew. So careful.

"I couldn't let them take him. Jack, that's the least I owe you." Some of the excitement was drawn away by a sudden, sharp sadness, and the Doctor reached out to touch Jack's cheek for the briefest of moments. "I should have come back. The moment it was done, but whatever I felt then, when I was him, I should have come back. You deserved that. You meant so much... *do* mean so much, and I treated you horribly. Those months alone, Rose and I... you should have been there. I couldn't let them take away your family now that you've found a new one."

A hint of the smile returned as the Doctor took a step back. "But you're well looked after now, I see. He'll take care of you. I won't ask you to come with me. I know that you can't," the Doctor said with a sadness that was tempered with obvious joy for the change in Jack. "I know that Earth needs you... and he," he nodded to Ianto, who lingered not far past Jack, "needs you." At last the Doctor took a breath and added, "Haven't let anyone get a word in, have I?"

The simple observation broke the tension that lingered, and Jack smiled again. "Wondered what kind of man you'd be this time." He gave the Doctor a long stare and amended, "Don't know that 'man' is quite the right-"

"Bite your tongue! I'm old enough to be your grandfather a hundred times... well, I *am* a grandfather. Was one. Will be? Well, time's not one of those things that tends to go sequentially with me." The Doctor shrugged as if it was of no particular consequence. "In any case, up here," he tapped the side of his head, "is what counts."

"Do like a man who knows how to use his head," Jack answered, though his lecherous smile was flashed back to Ianto.

Taking that moment as the perfect punctuation to all that had happened, the Doctor stepped back again. "It's done. Finished. It's time for me to be moving on too. I think that Torchwood can handle the clean-up?" Once he received a nod of affirmation in response, the Doctor smiled and strolled back to the TARDIS as casually as if he hadn't just died and been reborn an entirely different man. The doors closed only to open again a moment later.

The Doctor appeared smiling in the door and then darted toward Torchwood's leader once again. "Oh, what the hell!" Grabbing the back of Jack's head, the Doctor dragged him in for a brief, intense kiss. At last he released the man with a sigh. "I owed you one," he murmured as he pulled away and sprinted the distance to the TARDIS. A brief wave and then the doors fell closed, the Doctor safe in his box until the next adventure.

***