Title: Promises of Forever
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Table: 2
Prompt: 42, Promise
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.

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He hated making promises. Hated it with a passion. Any promises he made usually ended up getting broken, for one reason or another, Jack reflected. But it wasn't that he wanted to break them; it was something that had to be done, for the good of all the people involved. Promises weren't meant to be kept -- at least, not the ones that he made.

But this was different, a small voice in the back of his mind argued. This was the Doctor; this was a promise that he should be able to keep. He had forever, didn't he? He wasn't going to die. Oh, maybe he would, sometime in the far future. But not any time soon. That had been proven time and time again, and at this point, he was starting to wonder if his death would somehow signal the end of the world, or some other catastrophic event.

He looked down at the man sleeping beside him, curled in an almost fetal position against the pillows. The Doctor's face was slightly flushed, his lips parted, long lashes fluttering in the throes of some dream. Jack reached out to smooth the dampened hair back from the Time Lord's forehead, a look of worry crossing his face. The Doctor hadn't been sleeping well lately; his dreams had inevitably turned into nightmares from which he woke up screaming.

Whenever he tried to talk to the Doctor about his dreams, to find out why they were plaguing him, the Time Lord had brushed off his questions with vague answers that weren't really answers at all. Jack had no idea why the Doctor was so unwilling to talk about the cause of those nightmares, but he wasn't going to be put off any longer. Somehow, he was going to talk to the Doctor about the situation. Today.

He didn't want to wake the slumbering Time Lord; this was one of the few times he'd seen the Doctor sleeping soundly in the past week or so, and he wasn't going to disturb that rest. But apparently something was already disturbing the Doctor; he was starting to stir, his small, long-fingered hands clutching at the sheets and trying to pull them up around himself, as if he wanted to hide from something that was frightening him.

Jack reached out to shake the Doctor's shoulder, wanting to startle the Time Lord out of what looked as if it was going to turn into another one of those unpleasant nightmares. "Doctor, wake up!" His voice was sharp with worry, though he hadn't meant it to sound quite so brusque. That certainly wasn't going to be a good thing for the Doctor to wake up to, especially if his mind was still clinging to the remnants of the dream that had disturbed his sleep.

The Doctor's eyes snapped open, wide and terrified. A soft cry escaped him, a cry that went straight to Jack's heart. What in the world could have such power over the Doctor's dreams, to make him wake up in such a state? He reached for the slender Time Lord, pulling the other man into his arms and stroking a hand through the silken strands of his hair.

"Shhhh, it's okay," he murmured, trying to soothe the Doctor as best he could. "You're safe, Doctor. I'm here, it's okay." He could feel the body in his arms tense, then relax slightly as the Doctor slowly came to his senses, taking in the room around him and the fact that Jack was there, holding him and whispering soft words.

"I'm all right," the Time Lord whispered, pressing his face against Jack's shoulder. "A b-bad dream, that was all."

Jack frowned, not believing the Doctor's words. Something that was merely a "bad dream" wasn't going to make him flail around and whimper in his sleep, or wake up with such a heartrending cry. And it definitely wouldn't make him shake from head to toe like he was now. Whatever it was, Jack was fairly sure that it had some basis in fact, in memory. And he wanted to find out exactly what it was, so that he could at least try to battle it.

"Doctor, what is it?" Jack whispered, holding the trembling Time Lord close against his body, feeling those dual heartbeats racing in the other man's thin chest. "You've been waking up like this for over a week now. I'm worried about you. I know you're not sleeping well, and I need to know what it is that's doing this to you."

"I .... I don't w-want to talk about it," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "It was nothing, Jack. Nothing that can ever be changed. It doesn't concern you, so please, don't ask me about it again. I'll deal with it myself, in my own way."

Jack placed a hand under the Doctor's chin, tilting the Time Lord's face upwards to his. His eyes searched the other man's, gazing into those dark depths, knowing that whatever it was that was causing the Doctor's distress did indeed have something to do with him. How he knew, he couldn't say. But the feeling that he was right in the middle of the Doctor's nightmares wouldn't go away.

"You don't have to deal with things alone, you know," he said softly, his gaze locked with the Doctor's. "You aren't alone now. You have me. That's one of the things I'm here for -- so you can have someone to go to with your fears, so you don't have to be alone. I'm here, Doctor, and I'm not going anywhere. I can promise you that."

The Doctor turned his face away, not speaking. His thin body went rigid in Jack's arms, the soft, vulnerable look fading into something more stubborn and implacable.

"So you say," the Time Lord said, his voice sounding more bitter than Jack had ever heard it before. "It's all too easy to make those kinds of promises, isn't it? Forever isn't a concept that humans can grasp. They don't have forever. For them, it's a handful of years before they get tired of companionship and they're ready to move on. I don't expect any promises of forever from you, Jack. I've found out the hard way that promises aren't meant to be kept."

So that was what the Doctor had been dreaming about, what had been waking him in the dead of night. Being left alone again. Jack didn't blame him for that; it had happened so many times in the past that the Time Lord had to be cynical about any promises made by anyone. But still .... Jack was a little hurt that the Doctor would assume he was going to be like all the rest of the humans he'd known.

After all, he was different. The others hadn't had forever to give; their life spans were limited, and they had known that however much they cared for the Doctor -- or he for them -- their lives weren't meant to be spent traveling through space and time. They'd hurt the Doctor by leaving, but he would have hurt more to see them meet some sort of untimely end while they were with him.

But he was the exception to the rule. He was the one companion who would stay. There wasn't a life waiting for him anywhere else -- and there was no person in the universe, in this time or any other, that he would rather spend his life with.

Jack tilted the Doctor's face up to his again, lowering his head to brush a gentle kiss across the Time Lord's soft lips. "You seem to forget that I have no reason to leave," he whispered, his arms tightening around the slender, fragile man in his arms. "And you're also forgetting that I can't die. I can't leave you in that way -- and I wouldn't leave you in any other. I'm afraid you're going to be stuck with me forever, Doctor. You should get used to it."

"Do you know how many people have promised me forever?" The Doctor's voice was soft, broken, hovering on the edge of tears. "Too many to count, Jack. All of them meant it when they said it -- but it didn't happen. They all left. They left me alone. I've always been alone, and nothing is going to change that."

"No. Not any more," the immortal murmured against the Doctor's lips, more insistent than he'd ever been about anything in his life. The Doctor had to believe his words. He had to.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," the Time Lord whispered, swallowing hard, a few tears managing to escape to streak down his pale cheeks. Jack pressed gentle lips to the Doctor's skin, kissing away the tears as they fell.

"I'll keep them all. I couldn't do any less for the man I love." His voice was soft, as gentle as a caress, but the words were strong and full of meaning. "I've never liked to make promises to anybody. You know that. But you .... I can promise you anything and know they're promises that I'll keep. You aren't just anybody, Doctor. You're ...." He had to pause and swallow back a lump in his throat. ".... You're my whole life."

The Doctor lowered his head, resting his forehead against Jack's shoulder. "Don't make promises, Jack. Let's just go on one day at a time. And if we're very, very lucky .... then those days will become our forever."

Jack nodded, knowing that he wouldn't get anything better than that from the Time Lord -- at least, not today. Later, he could try to have this discussion again, when the Doctor was in a more receptive mood. This wasn't the right time to argue his sincerity.

"All right," he agreed, keeping his voice soft, knowing that the Doctor was overly sensitive to tone and expression at the moment. One wrong word could send him running behind that protective wall he tried to keep around his emotions, and the last thing Jack wanted was to send the other man running for cover again. It had already happened too many times.

There had to be a way to break through that wall, if he could just find it. He wanted to tear those walls down, crumble them to the ground and kick them away for good. It was going to take time, but he'd do it. Somehow.

He leaned back against the pillow, the Doctor still clasped in his arms. The other man was gradually relaxing, settling comfortably against Jack's broad chest. There was something to be said for being used as a pillow, Jack reflected, smoothing the Doctor's tawny hair back from his face. There was nothing like it to make a person feel strong and protective and .... needed.

He hadn't realized how much he liked feeling needed.

"Can you sleep like this?" he asked softly, glancing down at the man in his arms. The Doctor nodded sleepily, eyes closed, curling up against Jack and letting out a barely audible sigh.

"Good night, Jack," he murmured, one thin arm slipping around the immortal's waist. "I hope I don't wake you again."

"It's all right if you do," Jack said softly, closing his eyes and relaxing against the pillow. "That's what I'm here for, Doctor. To protect you from anything. Including your fears."

"No one can protect me from those," the Doctor whispered, falling still and silent.

The Doctor drifted off to sleep quickly in Jack's arms, but the immortal lay there wide-eyed and sleepless for what seemed like a very long time, pondering the enigma that was the Doctor and trying to discern just when he'd lost his heart.

Maybe those promises weren't going to be easy to keep. But he'd find a way to keep them, no matter what sacrifices he might have to make to do it.

***