Title: The Truth is Easy to Find in Time
Author: lollobrigida
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG
Summary: A look back at the choice Captain Jack made that led up to the events of 2x11 Adrift.

***

Time doesn't forget. It doesn't forgive either, and he should know because he's watched countless people fade over the years until there is nothing left but the want to forget. For so long he's allowed his life to be linear. One single line stretching out across a span so vast that it's a wonder he just didn't give up. Especially when he could've given up so easily. A thousand times over he could've just walked away. Said, "That was the last time."

He never did, because if it truly was going to be the last time... he wanted to make sure his words didn't ring false to those that heard him. If it was going to be the last time... he wanted the words to be his last.

Time doesn't forget though. It doesn't shelter those that have been cast aside, pushed out of it's way for bigger and bolder things. It doesn't make it easier for those left behind, and so many get left behind that he knows it's always the difficult choice to leave them be. That even if they wanted to know the truth... the truth might not find them so easily.

Standing on the rocky cliffs with the lighthouse to his back he hears the footsteps stumble upon the rock filled grassland. Her voice is calm, soothing... the way it should be when it's the only one you hear beside the sound of your own screams.

"People will look..."

"I know. Most of them will never give up too."

"What will you tell them?"

"Nothing."

"You're alright with that Jack? Knowing someone could be looking for them and not givin' them that peace of mind that they're out there somewhere still alive?"

Turning around he met her gaze with his own, steely and near pained, "That... that isn't alive.. that is just not forgotten." Jack didn't wait for her reply as the ferry came up to shore. The wind caught the inner lining of his coat, billowing it out behind him as he tugged it closer to his form once he got on the deck.

He looked back at her from the confines of the waves, her own features too far away for Jack to recognize the sympathy she was feeling for Jack as well. The answer to one of her questions never answered because when she asked, his answer seemed so definitive.

***

"What happens to them when you're gone? When you come for the last time Jack?"

"There will never be a last time for me."

***