Title: To Die For
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Table: 12
Prompt: 46, Chieftain
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.

***

Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all, coming back into the past, Jack thought, looking worriedly at the people surrounding him. Somehow, they'd managed to separate him from the Doctor; the Time Lord was standing in the middle of another circle of impassive-looking people, casting worried glances at Jack.

The Doctor couldn't expect him to get them out of this. He hadn't had nearly as much experience at dealing with other cultures as the Doctor had -- and besides, he had no idea how to speak to someone who was sizing the two of them up like they were prize cattle.

Not that he minded being looked at in such an appraising way, Jack though, taking his own measure of the man sitting tall and proud on the black horse in front of him. He definitely wasn't bad-looking, in a rough way -- though he couldn't hold a candle to the Doctor, at least in Jack's eyes. To his way of thinking, no one was as gorgeous as his Gallifreyan lover.

The man's eyes swept over him, then he looked away, as though dismissing Jack from his thoughts. He moved his horse forward, two of the people circling Jack making room for him to ride through and into the ring of people around the Doctor. This time, when his eyes took in the Time Lord, his lips curved in a smile, and he nodded.

Jack felt an icy chill of foreboding go down his spine as he watched this unknown man's eyes moving over the Doctor's body. He wanted to scream a protest, break through the circle of men surrounding him and move to the Doctor's side, step in front of the Time Lord and hide his love from the searching eyes that he could swear were mentally stripping the Doctor naked.

The Time Lord must have been thinking much the same thing; he raised a hand to shade his eyes from the glaring sun, nodding and speaking pleasantly to the man who studied him so intently from the back of his horse. "I don't fancy being looked over like a piece of meat. It's rather flattering, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't. In fact --"

His words were cut off by a sweeping gesture from the man on the horse; two of the men in the circle around the Doctor stepped forward, grabbing the Doctor and pulling his arms behind his back. Jack's hands clenched into fists, but he didn't want to make a move too soon.

"Silence." The mounted man spoke, looking down at the Doctor, his eyes now shadowed with disdain. "Speak when you are spoken to, or asked a question. Otherwise, you'll find yourself gagged and unable to speak."

The Doctor's eyes widened, but he didn't speak again; he glanced uneasily at the two men holding him, then focused his gaze back on the man astride the horse, whose eyes were still on the Time Lord. He seemed to be assessing the Doctor's physical appearance -- which was making Jack very uneasy. Why was he looking at the Gallifreyan with that speculative expression on his face?

Finally, the man spoke, gesturing towards the Time Lord with a wave of his hand. "Yes, he will do nicely." A smile spread across his features; the look in his eyes when he surveyed the Doctor again was almost hungry. "It seems that our hunting trip today has given us much better prey than we thought to find."

The two men holding the Doctor's arms started to drag him towards the man on the horse; Jack's fists did raise this time, one hand going to his gun. "Let him go!" he barked, hoping that he sounded authoritative enough to make these people listen to him. He had no idea what they planned to do with the Doctor, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

The circle of men closed in around him, one of them reaching out for his gun. Jack pulled it out of reach -- but another man had reached from behind him and wrestled it from his hand, leaving him defenseless. And now, he had no way to protect the Doctor; this was definitely not situation he wanted them to be in.

The man on the horse had dismounted; it was obvious that he expected the Doctor to get onto the horse he'd been riding. The Time Lord looked over his shoulder at Jack before he was pushed forward, his expression one of panic. Jack wanted to scream, to fight his way through the people separating him from the other man, but that would be useless; he could do nothing but watch.

The Doctor reluctantly heaved himself into the saddle, looking down at the men around him as though he was surprised to find himself in this position. The horse's apparent owner swung himself up into the wide saddle behind the Doctor, and Jack almost wanted to laugh at the expression on the Time Lord's face when he realized that the other man intended to sit behind him.

The Doctor's eyes met Jack's; the immortal could read the fear there, the uncertainty. He knew there was no way he could try to defend the Doctor, not in the position they were in now. There were too many men for him to fight; he'd only end up giving the man who held the Doctor prisoner a distinct advantage.

One of the men standing around the horse bound the Doctor's wrists to the horn of the saddle with a length of rope; the rider then kicked the horse into movement, turning it and cantering off. Jack made a small sound in the back of his throat, taking a few steps forward before stopping. He couldn't catch up to the speed of that horse. Useless to even try.

If only there was some way he could catch up to them, and get the Doctor off that horse .... but no, it was impossible. He was tied to the saddle, and the other man's arm was around his waist. It was too risky. The one thing Jack knew he wasn't going to do was put the Doctor's life in danger. It was a risk he wasn't willing to take.

He'd looked so scared when the horse had moved off .... the look in his eyes had cut through to Jack's heart. The glance that the Time Lord had thrown him had almost seemed resigned, as though he'd accepted whatever fate was in store for him. As though he'd given up already. Jack had never seen the Doctor look like that, and it frightened him more than he could say.

No. He wasn't going to think that way, and once he found the Doctor, he wasn't going to let the Time Lord give in to that way of thinking, either. He'd find a way to get them out of here. And he'd keep the Doctor safe, no matter what he had to do.

"Where are you taking him?" he demanded, looking at the faces in a circle around him. "What are you going to do with him?" He struggled to keep his voice from rising to a hysterical note. That wouldn't help the Doctor at all.

One of the men laughed, glancing in the direction the rider had taken the Doctor off in. "It's not what we're going to do with him," he said, shrugging. "It's what he intends to do with him. He's been looking for a new plaything for a while -- don't worry, you'll get him back. He'll just be a great deal more used when you do."

Jack could feel the color draining from his face; he shook his head wildly, trying to assess just how hard it would be to get past these men and go as quickly as he could in the direction that man had taken the Doctor. He didn't want to contemplate just why the Doctor had been taken prisoner -- those words told him why, but he didn't want to acknowledge it.

The men turned away, almost as one -- Jack was surprised that they apparently didn't consider him a threat any more. "You won't be able to get to him," one of them told him, as if he'd seen the look on Jack's face and was warning him against trying to free the Doctor. "The only thing you can do is wait until he's returned to you."

"What, in a body bag?" Jack said bitterly, scowling at them. "If you think I'm just going to stay here and let some barbarian do whatever they please to him, you're mistaken. I'll fight to get him out of there and away from that bastard. I'll do whatever I have to do."

"You won't have a chance to fight," one of the men told him bluntly, shaking his head and gesturing to the others to move away. "Once he's inside the palace, you won't be able to get to him. The best you can do is wait for him to be given back to you, and accept the fact that he's become the chieftan's concubine."

"He's nobody's concubine," Jack growled, clenching his fists again as a wave of anger threatened to overwhelm him. "He's the man I love, and nobody else is going to touch him. I don't accept anybody else so much as touching him, because it's not going to happen. The person who tries to do it dies a slow and painful death."

The man who'd first spoken laughed unpleasantly, pointing away in the distance to what looked like a fortress. "If you think you can get him out of there without both of you being caught, then go ahead and try. But I doubt that your lover will thank you if you manage to get him -- and yourself -- killed. I wouldn't try it, if I were you."

"I'll take my chances," Jack told him, looking around and scowling. Of course, it wasn't like he could head off to the fortress with these men all around him. They'd been left here to keep an eye on him, more than likely; to make sure that he didn't try to break in and free the Doctor, on the off-chance that he'd actually be able to manage it.

But to his surprise, they were moving away, heading towards the fortress themselves. Jack didn't question this; he only sat down and ran a hand over his face, trying to give them the impression that he was taking their words seriously and not intending to try to rescue the Doctor. If they thought he would give up and stay here and wait, then so much the better.

As soon as they'd gotten far enough away and he was sure that they weren't watching him any longer, he'd make his way to the fortress, he thought, studying the building in the distance and trying to gauge just how far away it was. If he could somehow manage to trail along behind them, hiding himself, not letting them know he was there ....

The man who'd spoken to him before turned around and gave him a pitying glance, shaking his head. "You're making the right choice. You can do nothing but wait here for him to be returned to you -- and then leave before the chieftain decides to take him back permanently."

Jack's fists clenched again at the words, but he managed to keep himself silent. Permanently? Over his dead body, he growled inwardly, giving no outward sign of his anger other than a slight narrowing of his eyes. If he could possibly stop it, that bastard wasn't going to get a chance to touch the Doctor at all. He'd just have to hope he could make it there in time ....

He didn't acknowledge the man's words, just sitting there silently and staring off into the distance. Finally, the man shrugged and turned away, the others following him, none of them looking back. Jack watched silently as they moved off, tense and alert for any sound or movement near him that would tell him they'd left a guard to make sure they weren't followed.

Finally, when the men were out of sight among the trees and he was sure that there was no one watching him, he rose and looked around him. He had a few options, as he saw it; he could go back to the Tardis and try to figure out how to get her closer to the fortress, or he could trek there himself -- and possibly be too late to get the Doctor out of there before ....

Before what? Jack didn't want to think about what their "chieftain" had planned for his lover. When he'd heard the word "concubine," he was in no doubt as to the reason that the Doctor had been taken -- that man intended to rape him. Maybe they didn't look at it as rape, but Jack sure as hell did. And he was sure the Doctor would, too.

There was no way he was going to just sit here and let the Doctor suffer through that. He hadn't spent all this time being so slow and gentle with the Time Lord after what the Master had done to him through the years, only to have all of his gentleness and patience obliterated by some dark-age chieftain who thought kidnapping and raping helpless men was acceptable behavior.

Jack didn't give a damn if that was the way things were in this time. The Doctor was being threatened; and he was the Doctor's companion, so it was his duty to protect the Time Lord. Not only his companion, Jack told himself fiercely. His lover. And he would protect the man he loved with his life, if that was what he had to do.

Sighing, he stood up and squared his shoulders. That fortress actually didn't look too far away, he told himself, trying to look on the bright side of things. He'd made longer treks than this in a short amount of time. And when he'd done that, he hadn't had nearly such a personal reason as he did now. Then, he hadn't been ready to fight for someone he loved.

Now, he had someone to fight for. To die for, if need be. Someone who he loved more than anything -- more than life, if he was completely honest. And he wasn't going to just give up and abandon that person to whatever fate might have in store for him. He fight for the Doctor until he drew his last breath.

Jack took a deep breath, looking towards the fortress again before moving determinedly forward. He was going to figure out a way to get inside the place, find the Doctor, and get them both out of there and back to the Tardis -- and get the hell away from here. And he was going to make sure that it was one place and time they never came back to.

***

Next story in series - Poetic Justice.