Title: Music to His Ears
Author: Jinni
Rated: Pg13
Disclaimer: All things Torchwood belong to RTD, the BBC, et al.
Character: Jack Harkness
Spoilers: Torchwood s1 finale - End of Days.
Summary: As much as he's seen and done, prevented from happening and caused to happen, the one thing Jack Harkness knows is that things still happen when they're going to happen.
Wordcount: 617

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Sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways. As much as he's seen and done, prevented from happening and caused to happen, the one thing Jack Harkness knows is that things still happen when they're going to happen. Coincidences are just those moments that line up with each other, creating an opportune outcome to make you see what you want to see.

So he Jack doesn't read too much into it when only a minute after he admits to Gwen that he would have been tempted by a vision of the right kind of doctor, the hand starts to resonate with energy. The water bubbles, the hand glows and pulses. It's like it's being called out to.

Still, he doesn't let himself hope. After so many long years, lost in time, trying to make sense of what his life has become, hope is something that Jack finds in short supply. He wants to believe that this is the right time, that finally the Doctor is coming back for him. Wonders, too, if this isn't the right time, when will be? If the Doctor didn't notice the Rift opening and spewing forth a creature from nightmares, then when else would he notice? Even then, would he come to Jack if it wasn't time for the two of them to meet again?

There's anger in him for what happened on Satellite Five. Anger because he was abandoned… and because of what was done to him. He doesn't know if that's the Doctor's fault, but logic says who else could be to blame? And even if it's not his fault, if anyone knows how to fix him, it'll be the Doc.

But more than anger or hurt or pain or abandonment, there's joy.

They were a team once. Him and Rose and the Doctor. Friends. People that he could have come to care about even more than he already had. Jack knows that Rose is gone. On the list of the dead from the battle at Canary Wharf. There will never be a chance for him to say goodbye to her. But there's still the Doctor. New face, same man, that's how it works, right? He's seen security footage salvaged from Torchwood Tower. Knows what the Doctor looks like now; could recognize him on the street if they were to pass. Not that he thinks that is probable. No, when the Doctor finally comes for him, it will be all too deliberate and at a time and place that the Doc has chosen.

Is this it, then?

Still, he refuses to hope, even as he watches the hand pulse with energy from within. Hope hasn't been his friend for a long time. Letting himself feel it now can only allow the possibility of heartache and disappointment.

Then he hears it. It's the one sound in all the universe that he's dreamed of hearing again. A whir and grind that fills the air. A breeze kicks up in the surrounding area, fluttering papers to the ground that his team had only just finished cleaning up earlier that day.

Lips spread, a smile forms. He's grinning like a crazy man when a familiar outline appears a few feet off, right there inside of the hub.

The materialization sequence has only just barely ended when the door opens, a figure in the opening. Tall, imposing. A pin-striped suit and tousled hair. Laughing eyes, and a beckoning hand. The fingers crook come on, and Jack is moving.

Only a tiny thought to what his team will think when they discover he's gone, and that's as he's running for the doorway.

He doesn't need to be asked twice. The Doctor has come calling. And Jack's going to get his answers once and for all.

END

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