Title: The Stars Died
By: el_evergreen
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: *sigh* They all belong to someone else. I just borrow them.
Author's Notes: The Doctor's final body dies, and Jack's there with him to see it through to the end.
Warning: Character death.
Summary: The Doctor's final death and Jack's there with him.

***

There's fire, he knows. He can feel it's heat. There's screams, nearby and far away, partially drowned out by the sound of explosions and crumbling buildings. Torchwood's gone; he knows that, too. The base fell apart a long time ago, and now the world was going with it. He could hear the sound of the Earth being ripped apart.

But he couldn't see it. He couldn't see the black smoke that covered the sun. He couldn't feel the rain, cold and hard, beating down on him. He couldn't even see the rubble and dead bodies, soldiers and civilians who paid the price for standing up for teir planet, that littered the ground around them.

The only thing Jack saw was the man in his arms, trembling and clutching at the wound in him stomach from which blood pours freely. "I'm here," he whispered, barely heard over the explosion somewhere nearby. "I'm here, Doctor."

The Doctor gave him a quivering smile. He'd changed three times physically since the two of them had been back together — twelve regenerations, all used up. It was strange to Jack, but he always thought this last regeneration reminded him of the Doctor he first met long ago — the northern accent, the cheeky comebacks, the love for a leather coat.

This was his Doctor, and now, in the far future admist a war he had no business fighting in, he was dying. He was dying because he promised Jack he'd fight; dying because he refused to let another race be destroyed when he could do something about it.

Brushing the Doctor's hair off his forehead, pale and clammy, Jack smiled back. "You'll be okay," he said, more to reassure himself than the one in his arms. "You'll be okay…"

The Doctor shook his head negatively. "You know better," he says.

Another explosion, and the ground beneath them trembled from it. Right then, Jack didn't care how close it was. If it would take him with the Doctor, he'd be more than happy if it were right underneath him.

"What happened to you?" he asked, his voice trembling as he looked down at the wound. He hadn't heard the Doctor scream, hadn't seen him fighting… but he'd seen him fall, and he'd been there to catch him before he was halfway to the ground.

"What's it look like?" the Doctor replied, fighting to keep his voice level. "Got blown up. Oh, well…" He started to say something else, but the words caught in his throat and his face went ghost white. He reached up with one hand, tangling his fingers in Jack's hair. He grins — not a weak grin, or one of surrender, but that signature grin that seemed to last beyond the regenerations. "Goodbye, Jack, and don't look at me like that."

He's crying like a fool now, but he doesn't care. "Don't leave me," he whispers, grasping the Doctor's shoulders firmly. "Not again."

"'Course not," the Doctor says, his voice breaking. "Never makin' that mistake again." Pushing firmly on the back of Jack's head, he pulls him down so that they're inches apart. He studies him for a moment, his eyes staring into Jack so profoundly that Jack wonders if he's looking through him. Nudging him down a little further, he whispers, "I love you, Captain."

The hand in his hair loosened it's grip, and slipped down the side of his face, over his shoulder, and came to rest on the ground between them.

Jack doesn't know how long he held him. Minutes, hours, days…years. There was no way to tell. He never heard the sirens and shouts of victory. He never felt the hands clapping him on the back. He never saw the smoke clear and he never saw the sun come out.

Though the war was long over, the Earth still shook beneath him. He could still feel the heat of the flames, though it felt as though they were coming from inside him now. The human race had won once again, but for Jack Harkness the universe had been ripped to pieces.

He'd never look at the stars the same again. He'd never look up at the Milky Way and feel that itch to touch the sky. He'd never step foot off the Earth again, because he had no one to go with him; no one who truly saw Space and Time as it really was.

His Doctor was gone, and he took with him Jack's will to embrace his immortality. Sitting there in the ruins of the war, Jack, for the first time in a very long time, felt that emptiness beginning to resurface.

For this first time in a long time, he wanted to die. And he couldn't.

***