Title: In the Right Direction
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Table: The Romance of Tropes Challenge, tv_universe
Prompt: I Will Find You
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Tenth Doctor or Jack Harkness, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

He would find Jack. Somehow, some way.

He and Jack were destined to be together, meant for each other. He'd felt it the first time they had crossed paths again, with him in this body. There had been an immediate attraction, one that neither of them had been able to hide, or to deny.

Denying his attraction to Jack, his feelings for the other man, would be denying his own hearts, and he couldn't bring himself to do that. He couldn't downplay the importance of the immortal in his life. He couldn't walk away from Jack, no matter what the cost might be.

He had to find Jack. He didn't know where his lover was; all he knew was that he wasn't with Torchwood, and that he wasn't on Earth.

Wherever Jack was, there wasn't a place in the universe where the Doctor couldn't search for him. He would find the man he loved, and he would bring him safely back to Earth in the Tardis, no matter where he was and what situation he'd gotten himself into.

Jack was in some kind of danger; he could feel it. He didn't know what that danger came from, but he would do whatever he had to do to free his love, to take him away from that danger. He would find Jack, and he would save him.

There was no price too high to pay to get his lover back.

All right, so maybe he was being more than a little hopeful when he told himself that he could find Jack with no problem. He didn't know where to begin searching; he didn't even know what species held Jack captive. If indeed he was a captive.

Jack wasn't dead. He knew that for a fact. He would feel it in his hearts if Jack was gone; there would be an emptiness that could never be filled again.

No, Jack was alive. He knew that with all the certainty in the world. He just didn't know where to find the man he loved -- or even if he could.

But that problem could be overcome, the Doctor told himself firmly. He could search, and find Jack by trial and error. The only problem with that plan was that there were so many possible places to search. Jack might run out of time before he was found.

He wasn't going to let that happen, either.

Somehow, he would figure out where Jack was, and he would rescue him single-handedly, if that was what it took to have his lover back with him. He wasn't going to accept the fact that Jack was lost to him, gone forever, unable to he saved.

That was ridiculous, he told himself with an inward snort. He'd been in situations that seemed worse than this one before, and he had found a way out of them. He had saved planets, even universes, full of innocent souls. Certainly he could find a way to save one.

And this particular soul meant more to him than any other ever had. This soul was his lover, the man closest to his hearts, the man he wanted to spend the rest of this life, and any others that he might have, loving and giving his hearts to.

He would find a way to do that. He would find Jack, and they would be together again. It didn't matter that at the moment, finding him seemed akin to looking one very small needled in one very large haystack. It could be done. There had to be a way.

If that way was there, he would find it. He'd do whatever was required of him.

This might not be easy -- in fact, he already knew that it wouldn't be. It would be a challenge to all that he was, to all of his experience in searching the universe and keeping it together. But he would do it, no matter what it took, no matter what he was asked to do.

He wasn't going to lose his love. Jack was his future; Jack was the gift that he had been given after years, decades, centuries of being essentially alone.

Even when he'd had companions with him, they hadn't been lovers. Jack had been the first in a very long time, and the only one he ever wanted to have.

Jack was his world. His lover meant everything to him. And he hadn't found Jack so recently when they'd met for the first time in this new body, only to lose him to some unknown entity that had managed to spirit him away to some far-distant place.

Or was it so distant? That was a new thought.

Maybe Jack was nearer than he thought. Maybe finding him wouldn't be so hard at all, the Doctor mused. It would be a good tactic -- hide what was being sought right in plain sight. And he felt that he would somehow know when he was close to Jack.

His hearts would tell him that his love was near. He could always feel that when Jack was in the vicinity; his hearts would feel as though they lifted a bit in his chest, as if they raced faster just because the man he loved was near to him.

Yes, he would know when Jack was close. His enemies hadn't counted on that. Whoever had taken Jack hadn't figured on the strength of true love.

The Doctor squared his shoulders, searching his mind for the right place to start looking. Ah, he had it. The place where he had last seen Jack might give him some clues as to where he had been taken. It was the only place he could think of to start looking.

Whatever happened, he would find his love. There was no way that the two of them could be kept apart for long; true love would lead them to each other. Love would lead him in the right direction, and when he found Jack, he would never let his lover go.

The search had begun. It was only a matter of time until he found what he was looking for.

***