Title: MIA
By: protoplasmica
Pairing: Jack/Jack
Rating: PG
Summary: Written for tw_flashfic's alternate lives challenge.

***

The seat wouldn't eject, the white-hot flames had breached its internal security control three seconds ago; there was now nothing left to do but wait. Jack screwed his eyes against the fear, mumbled a prayer that all his men had survived, and desperately tried to remember the smell of Captain Harper's cologne.

Jack's last thought as his plane plummeted to the ground was that it smelled far better than his own piss.

--

"It's remarkable," Jack grinned as Owen dragged the man out from under the mangled wreckage of what looked like a bomber. "You say you saw him fly?"

"For a few seconds from one of the palace windows," Owen gasped as he knelt to put an ear to the man's chest. "He's alive, barely. We'd better call for an ambulance."

"Do it." Jack pulled his hand out of his pocket and reached for the man's unblemished face. "I'll take care of him until you return."

--

"Want to tell me how an RAF volunteer from the forties ended up in Queen Elizabeth's favourite garden?" Jack heard as he reluctantly opened his eyes. "Because let me tell you, she was definitely not amused. You killed her prized petunias."

"I didn't mean to." Jack gulped, winced at the metallic taste in his mouth, and tried to get up onto his elbows only to find them held firmly to the ground. "What the--" Lolling his head back, Jack forced his eyes to focus and gasped. "Am I dead?"

"Not yet." Captain Harper leaned forward to press warm open-mouthed kisses along Jack's jaw. "Not if I can help it."

***