Title: The Right Thing
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Table: 2
Prompt: 13, Decisions
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.

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Jack leaned against the console of the Tardis, wondering if the ship could feel what was going through his mind. She had such a strong bond with the Doctor, and he couldn't help but wonder if somehow, that bond might extend to him, given his relationship with the Time Lord.

If he had someone to talk to about his feelings, it would be so much easier to be out here with the Doctor. Jack wanted to slap himself for that thought; it shouldn't be hard for him to be here. He'd made his choice, and he didn't regret it. Staying with the Doctor hadn't really been a decision at all. It was just what he had to do.

He didn't stay here out of any feelings of obligation towards the Doctor. No, the Time Lord had told him that his decision had to be his and his alone, and that whatever Jack wanted to do, he wouldn't interfere. The Doctor wasn't one to try any sort of emotional blackmail to keep anyone with him if they didn't want to be there.

Even if the Doctor had done that, if he'd known in his heart that he couldn't stay with the Time Lord, he wouldn't have. Jack knew himself well enough to know that was true, no matter what anyone else would have liked to believe. He knew that he wasn't going to sacrifice everything that he wanted, not even for the Doctor and their relationship.

He was here because he truly wanted to be here.He wanted to be with the Doctor, to spend as long as he could with this enigmatic man who both enthralled and frustrated him. He wanted to be with the man he loved, for as long as they could be together.

In short, he was here because he loved the Doctor.

But was that love enough to keep him here? He asked himself that question periodically, and felt like a traitor to the man he loved for asking it. There were things on Earth that called to him, particularly Torchwood. Had he been right to leave them? Could they really get along without him? Did they ever need him?

Or did it really matter if they needed him? Every time he and the Doctor went back, they all seemed to be getting along just fine, handling their work and their lives without one Captain Jack Harkness being a part of them. Maybe that was what rankled with him; maybe he wanted those people to miss him, to have problems without him.

He hated to think of himself in that way, as someone who was expendable. But the fact that Torchwood could exist without him was proof of what he knew in his heart, what he'd always known since he made the choice to be with the Doctor.

Torchwood didn't need him. The Doctor did.

All right, so maybe the Time Lord didn't need him completely. The Doctor could get along without him; he could find another companion, someone who would travel with him and be there for him. He could find someone else who would be a friend, someone for him to talk to and share parts of his life with.

But he would never find anyone else like Jack. He might find someone to be a friend and a companion to him -- but not a lover. He would never find anyone else who could be exactly what Jack was -- and he'd never find anyone who could stay with him forever. No one else had Jack's life span, the forever that the Doctor desperately needed.

No one else could be what he was to the Doctor. And that was why he needed to stay with the Time Lord. Not only because of what he could give the Doctor -- but because of what the Doctor could give him. It was an even trade.

The Doctor gave him a love and devotion that he'd never had from anyone else, not in his own time or in any other. Everyone had always left him, either because of his freakish life span that far outlived theirs, or his unfortunate tendency to be attracted to too many people and to let that attraction overtake his emotions.

With the Doctor, that never happened. He might smile at someone, might look at them, but he would never seriously consider even flirting with them. Once upon a time, he would not only have considered a dalliance with anyone he found attractive, he would have done it without a second thought. Not now.

The Doctor was the perfect man, in Jack's eyes. He would never find anyone else like the Gallifreyan again; there wasn't another man like him in the whole of the universe, past, present or future. No one else would be so devoted; no one would challenge him in all the ways the Doctor did.

He couldn't imagine his life without this man in it. But there were times when he couldn't help wondering if he'd ultimately made the right decision. Would he be better off going back to Earth, back to Torchwood, letting the Doctor only be an incidental note in his life?

Jack hated thinking like this; he hated the idea that he could be fickle enough to tell the Doctor over and over again that he would stay forever, and then contemplate leaving him. He knew that his going would break something in the Doctor; there would be a part of the Time Lord that would wither away and die, shrivel into nothingness.

He didn't want to be the cause of that. He couldn't hurt the Doctor in that way; the other man had already been hurt too much during his long life. He wasn't going to be the person to add another layer of pain to the almost unbearable burden that the Doctor already carried with him every day of his life. He couldn't be that cruel.

Besides, he couldn't just walk away from the Time Lord. He'd be punishing himself if he did that, punishing both of them for a crime neither of them had ever committed. The two of them loving each other would never be wrong, not in his eyes.

The Doctor had been too abused, both physically and emotionally, by too many people in his past. Jack wasn't about to do the same thing to him. He'd only begun to earn the Time Lord's complete trust, but it was growing every day, and he wasn't going to let the Doctor run back into his shell of caution and distrust again.

These thoughts were always unbidden, sneaking into his mind when he least expected them. They were the last thing he wanted; he wished that he could just push them away and never think about them again, let them fade into the back of his mind. Why couldn't he just be happy and content with what he had?

After all, he had more than most people. He had a beautiful, fascinating lover who meant the world to him; someone who loved him more fiercely than he'd ever expected to be loved. And he returned that love wholeheartedly, in every way.

Then why did he sometimes feel that he didn't belong here, that he was somehow in the wrong place? Was it just because he was out of his own time? Of course, the Doctor could always take him back to his time -- but what would he do there? He didn't belong there any more, not really. His life there was over and done. There was no reason for him to go back.

Still, it was a decision that hung over him more than he wanted it to. He didn't want to think that he'd made the wrong decision to be with the man he loved, and nearly all of the time, he was sure that he'd done the right thing. But there were those moments of indecision that would attack him when he least expected them to, turning his perceptions upside down.

It was right for him to be here. He belonged with the Doctor -- and what was more, he wanted to be here. The Doctor needed him. He knew that. He'd known it from the first time he'd held the Time Lord, the first time he kissed the Gallifreyan.

The Doctor needed someone to care about him, more than anyone Jack had ever known. He could literally feel the other man's loneliness when they'd first met -- and he'd felt the unmistakable attraction that had flowed between them. He'd always been used to feeling that from people, but never as strongly as he had with the Doctor.

And the first time they'd made love .... that was something he would never forget. The Doctor had been so unbelievably wanton, taking what he needed without any hesitation. Jack had never had a lover who took him over so completely, someone who was so unapologetic about their own needs and desires. The perfect man for him.

If he was completely honest with himself, he'd loved the Time Lord when they'd first met, when he was in a different body. But things hadn't progressed to the point that he'd known for sure just what his feeling for this man were until he'd regenerated -- and he'd looked into those eyes and seen his own desire mirrored there.

Had the Doctor felt the same way about him when he was in that other body, the first one Jack had known him in? They'd never discussed it, but he was sure that if he asked the Time Lord about it, the answer would be in the affirmative.

What was in their pasts didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was their present -- and their future. If he left the Doctor, he knew that they would both still have their futures ahead of them; but he wouldn't be happy, and he knew that even though the Time Lord would replace him as a companion, he wouldn't find happiness, either.

No, the only way that both of them would find what they needed was for him to stay. And that was no hardship. He was needed here -- needed and loved. Leaving the Time Lord would leave a breach in his life that nothing would ever fix, an emptiness that would never be filled. It wasn't even a consideration, no matter how many times he thought about it.

Why did he have these thoughts, anyway? They always came down to the same thing. He wouldn't leave the Doctor. He couldn't. They belonged together -- and the Time Lord owned his heart and soul. He'd given them up gladly -- and received the other man's devotion in return.

That was more than enough for him. He had the Doctor's love, and that was all he needed to let him know that he'd made the right decision.

Jack smiled, pushing himself away from the console. No matter how often he thought about things like this, he always came to the same conclusions, and they were stronger every time. Maybe it was just his subconscious, pushing his realizations of how contented he was with the Doctor to the forefront of his mind to be certain that he wouldn't forget them.

Whatever it was, he wasn't going to give up what he had. There was still so much to do, so much to be explored -- and he'd have his lover by his side. His lover. The man who meant everything to him, the man who'd stolen his heart from the first moment he'd looked into those big brown eyes and felt that rush of desire over his body.

He looked up when he heard the Doctor enter the main control room, a smile spreading over his features as he held out his arms to his lover. The Doctor came to him, sliding his arms around Jack's waist, the two of them sharing a kiss that was as gentle as it was passionate. A kiss that spoke of promises to come, the future that they shared.

"Where to now, beautiful?" Jack inquired, letting the Doctor turn around in his arms to study the console. "Somewhere that we can stay out of trouble and just enjoy ourselves, or another adventure that lets me play the hero again?"

The Doctor turned his head to mock-frown at Jack, shaking an admonitory finger at him. "I never get into trouble of my own accord, you know," he said, trying to sound severe and failing. "It just .... follows me from place to place. It's one of the big disadvantages of being a Time Lord, you know."

"Oh, I know." Jack pulled the Time Lord back against him, lowering his head to whisper into the other man's ear, his breath hot against the Doctor's skin. "Do you think we might have time to spend a little time locked away before we get to wherever we're going?" He nipped at the other man's neck, illustrating his point.

"Oh, I think that could easily be managed," the Doctor murmured, his voice going husky and breathless. "We have plenty of time -- that's one thing I can make sure of."

Jack laughed, bending to hook an arm under the Doctor's knees and sweeping the Gallifreyan up into his arms, heading towards the corridor that led back towards the bedroom the two of them shared. "Then I think you should set the Tardis' controls to automatic, and find somewhere to park her. We may be a while."

"I believe she already knows," was the Doctor's answer, his words cut off as Jack lowered his head for a kiss. As his lips met the Time Lord's, the thought flashed across his mind that he had most definitely made the right decision -- and that he'd never doubt it again.

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