Title: Died Alive
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Table: 2
Prompt: 9, Cemetery
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.

***

"Hey, Doc, you ever thought of making out on a gravestone?"

The Doctor's head came up from his contemplation of the marker on the grave in front of him, his eyes wide. "Jack! That's a horrid thing to say! Even you wouldn't desecrate someone's grave like that!" He looked at the other man, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Would you?"

Jack laughed, shaking his head. "No, I wouldn't. I might not be able to die, but I respect the final resting places of those who have. I'm not going to expect you to make out on a gravestone with me, Doctor. Don't worry. I was just kidding."

"I've heard that humans do things like that." The Doctor wrinkled his nose as he looked around him, an expression of distaste on his handsome face. "That's disgusting."

"Not this human!" Jack shook his head, laughing as he looked around them. "I never did anything like that, even when I was younger. It never seemed right to disturb people after they've gone to their rest, somehow."

The Doctor nodded, shuddering. "I can't imagine why anyone would want to do something like that. It seems as though they would have more respect for someone who's lived and died -- though I don't think some humans are big on the idea of respect."

"You don't think I'd ever act like that, do you?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrows in question. "I'd like to think you have a better opinion of me than that. I know I've done a lot of things you don't approve of, but that's too far even for me."

"Really?" Now it was the Doctor's turn to raise his brows. "Are you sure that anything would be too far for you, Jack?"

The immortal's brows drew together in a frown as he nodded. "Yeah. There's a lot of things that would be going too far for me. Regardless of what you might believe, there are some lines I won't cross, Doctor. Lines of respect."

The Doctor sighed, nodding. "I know, Jack. My opinion of you hasn't sunk that low."

"You taught me some of that respect, you know." Jack's voice was quiet, but the words were firm and sure. The Doctor looked over at him again, a little started by his words. That was something he hadn't expected to hear.

"I did?" he asked, astonished. He blinked a few times, as if he was searching his memory for an incident that he could relate Jack's words to. Finally, he shook his head, frowning at the other man. "How did I manage to do that?"

"Yeah, you did." Jack's voice was serious now, the usual light, bantering tone completely gone. "The first time I walked away from you, I learned that I should respect what was in my heart and not try to ignore it even if I thought I was doing the right thing."

The Doctor swallowed hard, not raising his gaze to Jack's. He merely stood there, his eyes on the ground, deliberately avoiding looking at the other man.

"I hate talking about that time in our lives," Jack said softly, taking a deep breath. "But it happened, Doctor. We're going to have to let our feelings out about it sometime. And I might as well be the first to do it, since I was the one who walked away."

The Doctor nodded, still not looking up; Jack thought he almost seemed afraid to say anything, his body taut and unmoving, as still as a statue.

"To put it simply, I felt like I'd died when I wasn't with you," Jack told the Doctor, taking a tentative step towards the Time Lord. "I felt like I'd died alive. Like I was just sleepwalking and that I hadn't existed from the second I turned my back on you."

He took another step, then another, moving with purpose to the Doctor's side and wrapping his arms around the other man's slender waist. The Doctor gasped in surprise to find himself in Jack's embrace, his eyes widening as they met the immortal's gaze.

"I spent some time walking through cemeteries then," he whispered, his eyes fixed on the Doctor's face. "Wishing that I could just let go of this life and sleep forever, if I couldn't have you. I figured I'd screwed things up so badly that I'd never have another chance with you."

"I felt the same way," the Doctor murmured, his voice husky with emotion. "I wanted so badly to be with you, but I didn't think you wanted that."

"I wanted it more than anything," Jack told him, shaking his head. "I felt like I was one of the walking dead when I was away from you. All I could think about was what an awful mistake I'd made, and how I'd do anything to fix it."

"You did fix it," the Doctor reminded him. "The next time we saw each other, you admitted that you'd made a mistake. I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to come back to you. I almost did, so many times -- but a part of me felt dead, too, and I had too much pride to admit it."

"I've wondered what would've happened if I'd done what I wanted to do and turned around that day," Jack said, sighing. "I don't know if you'd have wanted to take me back after I hurt you that badly, but I should have done what my heart told me to."

"We wasted a lot of time," the Doctor told him, his voice breathless.

"Yeah, we did -- but we've been making up for that, haven't we?" Jack asked, leaning forward to brush his lips across the softness of the Doctor's mouth. "But not here," he added with a laugh. "Like I said, there are some lines that I won't cross."

"It's a good thing, too!" The Doctor laughed right along with him, glancing at the gravestones around them. "I'd be worried that we would end up living a scene right out of 'Night of the Living Dead,' with angry spirits rising up in the form of zombies."

"You've been watching too many horror movies, Doc," Jack told him. "Things like that don't happen!" But he couldn't help glancing around them, as if the Doctor's words had made him cautious about what he might see.

"Oh, really?" the Doctor challenged him, stepping away and tilting his head to the side, his hands on his slender hips. "Then why do you look so nervous?"

"I'm not nervous!" Jack denied, laughing but sounding a bit uneasy. "I'm .... oh, okay," he admitted, shaking his head. "I'm nervous. That movie always freaked me out -- even though I'm the last person who should be afraid of dead people."

"I was never all that fond of it, either," the Doctor agreed, casting another glance around them as he moved closer to Jack. "Let's do whatever it is that you came here for, Jack, and get out of here. I think we can find better things to do than to hang about in a graveyard."

"You're right about that. But I think I've already gotten what I need from this place." Jack slipped an arm around the Doctor's waist, turning back the way they'd come.

The Doctor didn't look back as they exited the place; though he was glad that some confessions had come out while they were there, he would be happy if that was the last time he saw a burial ground for quite a while.

***