Title: My Favorite Mistake
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1, fanfic50
Prompt: 40, Mistake
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 Jack Harkness. Please do not sue.

***

Jack sighed with contentment as he lay next to the Doctor in their bed, feeling a peace that he hadn't known for a long time. He hadn't felt like this since the day he'd walked out on the Time Lord and gone back to Torchwood.

He'd made the wrong decision then, and it hadn't taken him long to realize his mistake. He'd spent every day with a gnawing need to be with the Doctor, a need that no one else had been able to fill, even though he'd tried his best to assuage the growing ache.

There had been people in his life during that time who he'd cared for deeply. Ianto had been someone who would always stay in his heart, even though he hadn't loved the young man in the way that he loved the Doctor. But he had been special.

Still, that ache inside him had grown larger and larger, and with each passing day his regret over leaving the Time Lord grew as well. Yet whenever the Doctor had been in Cardiff, Jack hadn't been able to tell the other man how he'd felt.

He'd tried, more than once; but the words had always stuck in his throat. He had always had a hard time admitting to his mistakes, and an even harder time saying that he was sorry and asking for anyone's forgiveness.

It was even harder with the Doctor than with anyone else, because this man's forgiveness was far more important to him than any other person's had ever been. What would he do if the Doctor couldn't forgive him and take him back into his life?

Jack closed his eyes, letting out a breath that he'd been holding for the last few seconds. He didn't want to think about what his life would be like if the Doctor hadn't taken him back. He didn't want to begin to contemplate the emptiness he'd face then.

He had made so many mistakes in his life, and now that he was immortal, he'd probably make a lot more. But none had been so huge as letting the Time Lord slip out of his life -- and worse, walking away from this man willingly, of his own free will.

How could he have been so stupid? He'd berated himself for doing that every day that he'd been apart from the Doctor; he'd even known when he was walking out that he was making a mistake, but at the time, he couldn't stop himself.

He'd made his choice, and he had to stand by it. That was what he'd told himself with every step he'd taken as he'd moved further away from the Tardis and the man he loved, even though every fiber of his being had been screaming at him to admit he'd made a mistake and go back.

He hadn't done that -- and because he hadn't, he'd spent far too much time away from the person he was meant to be with. That was a mistake he'd regret for the rest of his life -- but he had a very long time to make up for it.

The Doctor stirred in his arms, looking up at Jack with a worried frown. "What are you thinking about?" he asked, a worried edge to his tone. "And don't tell me it's nothing, Jack. You forget, I can sense when you're disturbed, even though I won't pry into your mind."

Jack laughed ruefully, knowing that there was no point in trying to convince his lover that he wasn't thinking about something that he might not like. "I was thinking about the mistakes I've made in the past when it comes to us," he said softly, running a hand through the Doctor's hair.

The Time Lord sighed, shaking his head. "You've made some mistakes, Jack, but so have I," he said, his words surprising the immortal. "I shouldn't have stayed away from you as much as I did. If I hadn't, we might have been back together much sooner."

"Maybe we would have," Jack said slowly, turning the Doctor's words over in his mind. "I wanted to come back, Doc. You know I did. I just had too much pride to be able to say that I was wrong. I wish I hadn't been so damn stiff-necked."

The Doctor sighed again, snuggling closer to him. "That's all water under the bridge now," he said, his voice firm. "We've both made mistakes, but we've gotten past them. I just hope that you won't ever see coming back to me as being a mistake."

Jack shook his head, laughing softly at the words. "No way. That's one thing I could never see as being a mistake. I've never been happier in my life than I've been since we found each other again. I'm right where I belong, Doc. I know that now."

"Are you sure?" The Doctor raised himself up on one elbow, a frown marring his brow as his gaze locked with the other man's. "I don't want you to feel that you made a mistake leaving Torchwood and feel that you have to go back."

"That isn't going to happen." Jack reached out a hand to cup the Doctor's cheek, his gentle fingertips caressing the Time Lord's soft skin. "I've already had that talk with myself more than once. Leaving was the mistake. I've fixed that, and it's going to stay fixed."

This time, it was the Doctor's turn to let out his breath in a sigh of relief."That's good to hear. I've been worried that you'd eventually look at me as being a mistake -- and that you'd regret being here and start to feel resentful that I was keeping you away from your life."

"My life is here with you," Jack said, his tone unwavering. "And there's no way I'd ever consider you one of my mistakes, Doctor. I didn't feel that way when I left. I just felt like I had to get away before I lost any more of my heart to you. I was scared of being in love."

"I think a part of me felt the same way," the Doctor said softly, raising a hand to stroke Jack's hair. "I'd been in love before, but never like this. I'd never felt so strongly about anyone, and it was the most frightening feeling I'd ever experienced."

"I was beyond scared," Jack admitted, shaking his head. "I kept thinking that loving you would make me weak. It took me a long time to realize that loving isn't a weakness -- it's the greatest strength anybody can have. That's a lesson I'll always remember."

The Doctor nodded, settling back into Jack's arms and resting his head on his lover's shoulder. "Loving someone might make you more vulnerable in some ways, but it doesn't make you weak. It took me quite a while to find that out, too."

Jack wrapped his arms around the Time Lord, smiling as he pressed a gentle kiss against the Doctor's hair. "So we've both learned a lesson from all this. And believe me, Doc, even if I thought of you in that way, you'd be my favorite mistake that I've ever made."

The Time Lord didn't answer, merely laughing softly as he snuggled into Jack's embrace. The immortal placed a hand beneath his lover's chin, lifting the Doctor's face to his own and kissing him in a way that proved he could never be thought of as a mistake.

***