Title: No Place Like It
By: hence-the-name
Pairing: 10/Jack
Rating: PG
Summary: The Doctor pops in for a visit, far in the future. A bit of Doctor/Jack fluff.

***

Out of respect for the nerves of the latest members of the Torchwood team, the Doctor parked the TARDIS down the road in an alleyway out of site of the CCTV network, and walked in through the front door.

He needn't have bothered. The reception desk in the tourist office was unattended. The Doctor let himself into the concealed inner door and walked through the dim corridors to the underground expanse where Torchwood Three had its headquarters. The Hub was empty except for Jack, quiet but for the low hum of computers and the swoosh and drip of water. The pterodactyl flapped its wings once and then settled.

The place looked just the same. New computers, of course; a different collection of gadgets scattered around amongst pizza boxes and coffee cups, the detritus of long hours in an unpredictable job. Different traces, too, of the people who worked here: different photographs on the desks, one so scattered with papers the surface was invisible; another tidy, with papers in stacks and pens and pencils lined up in neat rows; a third covered with an unfurled blueprint held open with a toolbox on one side, three mugs on the other, and various tools and wires strewn haphazardly over it.

Jack was alone in his office, poring over his paperwork in the golden glow of what was now a relatively old-fashioned lamp. He had a cup of coffee at his elbow. Funny, the way the sense of him, like a bright thread winding through the whole of the fabric of the universe, used to throw the Doctor so off-balance. It felt like a comfort, now, drawing him in.

Jack, of course, still looked just the same as well; close to three hundred now, he still looked just shy of forty. Although... He flipped a page in the file he was reading and the light caught a few flecks of silver in his dark hair. The Doctor smiled. He put his hands in his pockets and lounged against one side of the doorframe, kicking one foot back.

"In a few millennia," he drawled, "you might have to start dyeing your hair."

Jack looked up, his eyes crinkling as he grinned. He closed the file and winked. "But you'll still find me irresistible, won't you, Doctor?"

The Doctor grinned back. "Buy you a drink?" he asked.

Jack was already standing and shrugging into his coat. On his way out the door he paused to shake his finger in the Doctor's face. "On Earth," he said firmly.

"Of course." The Doctor flicked the light off and followed him down the stairs. "Because we can't possibly get into trouble here."

"I heard that."

The Doctor joined him on the invisible lift. "That's my planet you're knocking," Jack said.

"Oi! I wasn't knocking it." He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked up, watching the ceiling approach. "Besides," he added, just before they reached the top he added, "my planet, too."

Jack glanced at him. They stared at each other for a moment. The false paving stone snapped out of the way and the lift came to a stop. The Doctor grinned and hopped off onto the pavement, his coat flapping behind him.

Jack chuckled and followed him, and together they walked off into the Cardiff night.

***