Title: A Wish Away
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Jethro Cane
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1, fanfic50
Prompt: 23, Wish
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 Jethro Cane. Please do not sue.

***

"If you could have one wish -- just one -- what would it be?" Jethro asked the Doctor as they lay under the blue sky of Cardiff on a blanket, watching fluffy white clouds drift across the cerulean expanse above them. "Make it a good one -- you only get one wish."

The Doctor sighed softly, closing his eyes as if deep in thought. "Hmm. That's not an easy question to answer, Jethro. Only one wish? Don't you usually get three?" His tone was light, teasing. "A genie in a bottle would give me more wishes than just one."

"Do I look like a genie in a bottle?" Jethro laughed, pushing himself up on one elbow and looking over at the Time Lord with an impish grin on his face. "I wouldn't be comfortable in a bottle. Far too little room to move around in."

The Doctor couldn't help laughing at his young lover's words. "I know what I would wish for, but it's a large wish. I doubt that any genie, no matter how powerful they were, could grant the one thing that I'd wish for. They might not even want to."

"So, what would that wish be?" Jethro asked, his brows lifting in question. The Doctor's words piqued his curiosity; it sounded as though this might be something that the Time Lord had given a good deal of thought, judging from the seriousness of his tone.

The Doctor sighed, not speaking for several long moments. Jethro began to get the feeling that his lover was hesitant about voicing his wish aloud -- maybe he still held to that childish belief that if your wishes were known, they wouldn't come true.

"You can tell me," he said softly, moving closer to the Doctor and reaching out to lay a hand on his lover's shoulder. "I'm not going to laugh at your wish, whatever it is, Doctor. And I'll do everything I can to make it come true, if it's that important to you."

"I know you would, sweetheart," the Time Lord whispered, looking up at Jethro from where he lay on the blanket. Jethro sat there, gazing down at the man he loved, resisting the urge to reach out and stroke his cheek. He simply waited for the Doctor to continue.

"I would wish for all the strife and anger and discord between people to end," the Doctor said softly, his gaze focused on the clouds above them. "Not just on Earth -- but everywhere. In every galaxy, from this time on. No more wars, no more hatred. All of it just .... gone."

Jethro swallowed hard, tears coming to his eyes. It was a wonderful wish -- and one that he'd like to see come true. But he knew that it would never happen. Not in his lifetime, anyway -- and more than likely, not in the Doctor's. Or ever.

"That's a beautiful wish," he finally said, his gaze not wavering from the Time Lord's face. "I wish it could come true for you, Doctor. I wish that kind of wish could come true for everyone. Not just in this time, but for all time. But I don't think it can."

"Neither do I," the Doctor said softly, his gaze shifting to Jethro. "But still, it's a lovely dream, isn't it? To imagine the entire universe with no strife, no wars, no hatred, no killing -- it would be a perfect utopia, but there would be a spanner thrown into the works sooner or later."

"I have to agree with you there," Jethro said, sighing. "It seems that any time people seem to be getting along, someone has to muck it all up. Doesn't matter if it's on Earth or on another planet -- I don't think the entire universe will ever be free of anger and hatred."

"Unfortunately, that's the truth." The Doctor crossed his arms behind his head, looking up at Jethro with a smile on his face. "Enough of such a depressing subject. What would your one wish be, love? I've told you mine -- now let's hear yours."

Jethro looked down, a slight flush stealing into his pale cheeks. "I --" he began, before taking a deep breath and starting over. "My wish would be to have a much longer life span than a human's. So I could spend more time with you -- and you wouldn't have to be alone."

The Doctor's throat tightened at the words; he swallowed back the lump in his throat, and blinked back the tears that came into his eyes at his young lover's words. "That might very well be the most beautiful thing that anyone's ever said to me," he whispered, reaching for Jethro's hand.

"It's true, every word of it," Jethro whispered, squeezing his hand. "I'd give pretty much anything to live longer. A human life span seems so short, now that I'm with you. Before I met you, it seemed long enough to do everything I wanted to. But now ...."

Jethro's voice trailed off; he looked away from the Time Lord with a sigh, squinting against the bright light of the sun. The Doctor sat up, moving to wrap one arm around the young man's waist and pull him close. Jethro rested his head on the Time Lord's shoulder, sighing again.

"Sometimes it seems like the things I'd like to have are only a wish away," he murmured, sliding his own arm around the Doctor's waist. "And then I remember that wishes don't come true, and that there aren't any fairy godmothers to wave a wand and make them happen."

"Wishes can come true, love," the Doctor said softly, looking out over the vista of the city that was spread out before them from their vantage point on the hill. "But you have to work at them. They don't just happen because you want them to."

"I know," Jethro replied, his gaze lifting to the clouds again. "Wishing for things doesn't make them happen. If it did, then everything would be just a wish away -- and people would get into a lot of trouble wishing for things they'll regret later."

"And that, my love, is the power of wishes," the Doctor laughed, trying to lighten their mood. "No one seems to realise that wishes could have some bad consequences if they actually came true -- but that doesn't stop people from wishing for anything and everything."

"If only those bad consequences could be swept away --" Jethro cut off his own words with a smile. "But that's not the way the world works. I'm not going to wish for impossible things -- I'll just wish for being safe and happy, and being with you."

"I think that may very be the best wish that either of us could make," the Doctor murmured, turning his head to look at Jethro. The young man leaned forward, brushing a gentle kiss against the Doctor's lips and wishing that this peaceful interlude in their lives never had to end.

***