Title: Still Standing
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Table: 12, 50episodes
Prompt: 7: Pyramids
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.***
"It's amazing what the human race can do when they try, isn't it?" the Doctor murmured as he and Jack watched a group of men and horses hauling stones across the desert. "Those pyramids have lasted for so many centuries."
"When I read about them as a kid in school, I never thought that I'd actually have the chance to see them being built," Jack answered, squinting in the bright sunlight, his eyes on the workers. "Thanks, Doc, for giving me this chance. It's one in a million."
"This isn't something that I would have come back to see again, but I knew that it was important to you," the Doctor told his lover with a smile. "Most people would like to see the great wonders of their world come into being. I knew you wouldn't be any different."
"I've never been the kind of guy who was all that turned on by history," Jack admitted, shaking his head. "But since I've been with you, I think I've developed a new interest in it that I never had before. Maybe it comes with the territory."
"Most companions develop that interest once they realise that they can actually see history being made and be a part of it, in a way," the Doctor told him, his tone absent and preoccupied. It was obvious that he had something on his mind, and Jack wondered what it was.
"What's the deal with you today, Doc?" he asked, not wanting to betray his curiosity -- and his worry. It had been a while since he'd seen the Doctor like this, and he couldn't help but wonder if the Time Lord might be keeping something from him.
The Doctor shrugged, then sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Sometimes I wonder if people only want to be with me because of the things they can see by traveling with a Time Lord," he said, his voice very soft and low. "Not for me myself, but because of the experience."
Jack had never known what it was like to feel his jaw drop with astonishment before; it was an interesting phenomenon. It took him a few moments to close his mouth and start to formulate the words to answer the Doctor; when he did, the words came tumbling out.
"You shouldn't think like that," he said, keeping his voice gentle. "People are attracted to you, Doc, not to the experiences you can give them. I should know. I didn't fall in love with the things you could show me. I fell in love with you."
"I know you did, Jack," the Doctor whispered, his voice a little unsteady. "But everyone else probably didn't. It's not me that people want to travel the stars with. It wouldn't matter if it was me, or any other Time Lord. They just want what I can give them."
Jack shook his head, feeling a need to defend the people who had traveled with the Doctor in the past, in all of his incarnations. "That's not true," he said, his tone soft and a slight admonishment creeping into his voice. "People want to be with you, Doctor."
He hurried on before the Time Lord could protest. "Do you really think that people understand all that you can show them when they first start traveling with you? They're not in it just for what they can get, or what they can see. They want to spend time with you."
The Doctor looked thoughtful for a few moments; he finally nodded slowly, releasing a pent-up breath. Jack wondered if he was going to give in that easily, without an argument -- it was rare that the Time Lord simply accepted what he had to say.
"I suppose you're right," the Doctor told him, not meeting his gaze. "But there are times when it's hard for me to believe that, Jack. Especially when I look back at all the companions who've made the decision to leave me far sooner than I'd thought they would."
Jack could hear the regret in the Time Lord's voice; he couldn't imagine how it must feel to be more or less rejected by all those people over the centuries, people who had said that they wanted to be with the Doctor for all of their lives, but then had changed their minds.
"I don't think they were rejecting you," he said softly, wishing that he could reach out and comfort the Doctor, but knowing that this was neither the time nor the place to try. "They just realized that the lives they'd thought they wanted to leave behind meant something to them."
"That's why I never held them back," the Doctor said sadly, shaking his head. "They all had friends and families that they needed to go back to. I always thought in the back of my mind that they would -- I just never expected it to be so soon."
"That's one of the things that you show people, Doc," Jack told him, swallowing hard. "Being with you out here in the stars shows them that what they have on Earth is precious, and that they have to treasure it. That's not a bad thing -- not for them, anyway."
But it was horrible for the Doctor to be left behind, to find himself alone time and time again when he had thought that he finally had someone as a companion who would spend a lifetime -- at least a human lifetime -- with him. That kind of rejection had to hurt.
He would never do that, Jack vowed to himself. His own breakup with the Doctor had been a mistake, and he was just glad that he'd had the sense to see that and to rectify things between them. He would never put anything else in his life before this man. Never again.
"I'd never do that, y'know," he said, not knowing exactly where the words came from but wanting to get them out into the open. "I left you once because I was scared. I didn't want to leave, but I felt like I had to. It was a mistake that I wish I hadn't made."
The Doctor turned to look at him, a small smile starting to curve his lips before it seemed to grow and spread over his entire face. Jack caught his breath; it always amazed him how the Doctor's smile could light up that beautiful face.
He didn't intend to leave this man again, not ever. He wanted to spend all of his life with the Doctor -- and given what he was, that life would be a very, very long one indeed. He loved this man beyond all reasoning, more than he'd ever thought he could love anyone.
His love for the Doctor was as unchanging and eternal as those Great Pyramids they were seeing at their very beginning; put together a bit at a time, and standing solidly until the end of time -- and beyond. His feelings would never fade away, never change.
It hardly seemed possible that he, Jack Harkness, could be so in love with anyone. He'd had his loves before, but none that had ever come close to what he felt for the Doctor. They had all been fly-by-nights compared to the enormity of his emotions concerning this man.
And miracle of miracles, the Doctor felt the same way about him. Maybe that was why he had run away when their relationship had seemed to become too committed; he'd been terrified of that love being returned, and then having the relationship somehow break down.
He had always told himself that good things didn't last forever, that they were only temporary. And that was why he had left the Doctor -- he'd been too afraid that he had been right all along, and that the happiness they shared couldn't possibly last.
He'd been so wrong about that -- and fortunately, he had been able to swallow his pride and come back to the man he loved. That separation had somehow made them stronger -- and he was absolutely positive that the two of them would last even longer than the Pyramids of Egypt had been standing.
Those pyramids were still standing, centuries after they had been built -- and the love he felt for the Doctor would still be standing tall and proud for centuries in the future. He'd never seen a future with anyone else he'd ever cared for; with the Doctor, a future was all he could see.
"What are you thinking about?" the Doctor asked him, his voice soft and a little uncertain. Jack smiled, reaching out to wrap both arms around the Time Lord's slender waist and pull his lover close to him. Somehow, embracing didn't seem so out of the question now.
"I'm thinking about us," Jack told him, his happiness at just being here with the Doctor coming through in his tone. "About our future, and about how happy I am that I have you. And how what we have is going to last for even longer than these pyramids have."
The Doctor's answering smile made his heart beat faster in his chest; he was sure that they wouldn't be standing here watching the construction of the Great Pyramids for much longer. He wanted to be in a much more intimate place -- and he was sure that the Doctor would agree.***
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