Title: Journey To The Past
By: el_evergreen
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: *sigh* They all belong to someone else. I just borrow them.
Author's Notes: Again, pointlessness. I've just been rambling out one-shots... This is set a few weeks into Jack's stay on the TARDIS. It's short...sorry. =(
Summary: Nine and Rose take Jack for a surprise trip back to his home in the 51st century, but it's not exactly how they expected.

***

"We've landed!" Rose says, nearly bouncing off the ground with excitement.

"Where are we?"

"About time you woke up!" She says, crossing her arms as she watches Jack stumble into the console room, half-way into his coat.

"It's seven in the morning!" he retorts, flopping into the captain's chair. He's only been aboard the TARDIS for two weeks, but he figures he should know by now that these two get an early start.

"Yep!" Rose says, bouncing over to him. "Seven in the morning, on a bright and sunny day on Earth in the fifty-first century!" He stares at her. Her smile is frozen on her face, as though she's waiting for him to return it. But he doesn't, and hers fades. "What's wrong, Jack? We brought you to see your home and your family!"

Jack stands, pushing by her gingerly. "There's nothing to see here, Doctor."

The Doctor and Rose exchange looks, but Rose seems to be in one of her determined moods. "Jack! Come on, don't you miss home?" When he doesn't answer, she circles around him, holding his face in her hands. "Just one look, Jack."

He wants to scream at her, ask her what part of "no" she doesn't understands, but he decides that wouldn't be fair. Inhaling deeply, he closes his eyes and says quietly, "Okay."

-- --

Rose blinks against the sun, staring at her surroundings with her mouth half open. Jack hadn't wanted to come here, and she hadn't understood why; who leaves their home behind with the intention of never returning? Who takes off from their family, with no plans of ever seeing them again? Jack Harkness does, and now she knows why.

There's every kind of vehicle to be named, floating weightless in the sky; just like she imagined. There are buildings, each of them made of glass, sparkling under the sunlight in the distance. She can practically hear the buzz of engines and wireless technology… but that, she knows, is not why Jack ran from this place.

Here, closer to her, at her feet, a small girl stares up at her with large, brown eyes. She grips what looks like a teddy-bear from her own time, and her bare feet are caked with mud. Dirt smudged her face in various places, and her brown hair is matted. The left strap of her simple dress is torn, and she holds it up with one hand.

"Are you from the city?"

Rose, too shocked and frightened to speak, turns to look at the Doctor and Jack. She knows that look in the Doctor's eyes — the one that voices his pity and sympathy for this fragile race. Jack, on the other hand, isn't looking at her. He's turned his back to them, his head turned skyward.

"Doctor? Th-this is… the fifty-first century, right?"

"This is it," Jack says sourly. "The grand future of the human race."

Rose stares at his back for a moment, until he turns around, then shifts her eyes over to the buildings that are glimmering in the sun. "But you–"

"This is my home. Here."

She turns, her eyes scanning the area once more. The little girl has disappeared, only her footprints left in the mud where she had been standing. There's a small, shack-like building to her left where a human woman and an unmistakeable alien — his appearance human for the most part, save for his cat-like eyes and reddish skin — are reclining in the mud, taking comfort in the shade. The woman's stomach is large — much larger than a normal pregnancy, Rose knows.

To her right, a group of small children kick around what looks like a football; a little piece of history, trapped in this…place.

Jack comes into her line of view, and she sees him walking slowly to a small, seemingly-abandoned house a ways down the path before them. The children stop playing to stare up at him as he passes, and they whisper amongst themselves when he's gone.

Rose grasps the Doctor's hand as they follow him into the house, standing in the doorway out of both respect and uncertainy.

"This was my home, for a while. There was a woman here… never knew her name. She took care of all of us after the war started. I don't remember much about her, just that we always heard her mumbling to herself about the government not doing their job again."

She looks around the small house; a few doors in the back which she guesses lead to bedrooms, and a table and some sofas in the room they occupy now. She wonders exactly how many of them there were, and if there was really enough room for them all.

"It wasn't always like this," he says quickly, turning to them, and Rose thinks she spots a hint of desperation in his voice. "It used to be really, really nice. We had…"

"What about your family?" she asks quietly after he trails off.

He shrugs, "Don't remember them. These guys were my family. I left when I was sixteen to join the agency…you know the rest. I took off from here and never looked back. Not until now."

They stand in silence as Jack's eyes wander around the house. It seems like forever to Rose, but she doesn't want to complain; she knows that if it were here, she'd want all the time in the world in this place.

She thinks she sees him tremble, but it's hard to tell in the darkness of the room. With a sigh, the Doctor steps forward, taking Jack's hand tenderly in his. Rose can't help but smile to herself, and to Jack as he lets himself be led back to the doorway.

Opening her arms as they reach her, she wraps them around the two; her right around Jack's shoulders and her left around the Doctor's. "We're your family now, Jack," she whispers, saying what she knows the Doctor wants to, but can't.

He laughs, but the sound that comes out is more of a sob, and he squeezes them both. "I know," he replies.

They stand there like that until Rose's arms begin prickling from lack of circulation, and she pulls away, batting her eyes quickly to stop the burning. "So," she says, "where next?"

The Doctor grins widely. "Paris, 3012!"

***