Not Mine, Yadda Yadda Yadda

Coming Home

None of it was about Jack, at all. It was about the Doctor, about Rose, and about Donna. He, Martha, Mickey, and so many others were just participants in a mildly helpful way, but the denouement was those three all the way. The Doctor's mind, Donna's human spirit, and Rose's heart were the key to everything, which was exactly as it should be, and as it would always be. All the others were brave and loyal soldiers fighting the battle in their name.

Jack had always been a soldier. The Time Agency was a place of battles and mercenaries, and he'd grown up in a war zone. That was the way he did it. The long, agonizing, two mile climb through the air vents thinking of a plan, running on adrenaline and necessity, and you'd think he'd no longer feel the fear if he knew he couldn't die, but his palms were sweaty and his heart beat too fast and he knew he was scared for everyone he loved, but pushed it to the corners of his consciousness. You couldn't let yourself be distracted by things like that during a battle.

Mickey, Mickey the Idiot, Mickey Mouse, stood waiting at the other end, and he'd never been so glad to see him. He'd grown, over the years, into a solid warrior, another soldier, a kindred spirit. The unwelcome worries were banished during the fighting and the raging and the daleks and Donna and the Doctors and Rose and then, abruptly, they were all in the Tardis and the Doctor was calling Torchwood.

Jack's heart leapt all the way into his throat. They'd been there, a constant pressure at the back of his mind that he hadn't let himself think about lest something had happened and he drowned in guilt. But there they were, Gwen's familiar voice and gap-toothed grin, and he hardly heard the blasé comments by the Doctor and Rose about her, and then…then Ianto came into the picture, another soldier, with 'Sir' and everything and Jack could feel himself sag in relief. He hadn't even known he'd been that scared.

By the time they landed, he was jittery and anxious to get to Cardiff. The Doctor disabled the teleport, which was all kinds of unfair because now he had to actually use public transportation to get home, and then Martha was talking to him, and he was making her a job offer, and Mickey, too, and he realized he'd come home with the vacancies filled, never the people, but the jobs, and from then on it was just agonizing. Two hours by train, and he thought he'd go mad, Mickey asking all sorts of questions about Torchwood and the Rift. Martha could cover plenty, but there were those situations that required technobabble.

He practically sprinted out of the train, coat billowing out behind him, till he was at the plass. Martha and Mickey ran behind him, Mickey huffing a bit, but Martha shut him up. She knew, he figured. She'd known since the unit cap fiasco.

They went down the lift. It just wouldn't go fast enough for Jack, though Mickey adored it. And then they were grinding to a halt and Jack was running towards his team, his faithful, wonderful team, accepting Gwen's hug and kissing her forehead.

Ianto. Hanging back, unsure of himself in any public situation. And Jack was walking up to him before he quite knew it himself, and taking his face in both hands before kissing him as deeply as he could, eerily reminding him of when he'd woken up after Abaddon, only not, because this meant so much more.

Gwen cleared her throat loudly, by now almost used to them. Martha looked like she had a tear or two in her eyes. Mickey raised an eyebrow. "Never took you for the settling down type, Jack."

Ianto blushed a gorgeous shade of red.

"Right, guys, this is Mickey Smith, former Companion of the Doctor."

Mickey snorted. "More like Companion's Companion."

Jack grinned a bit. "Mickey, this is Gwen Cooper and this is Ianto Jones. Mickey and Martha'll be joining the team."

If Gwen and Ianto thought it strange, they said nothing. "Are you any good with tech?" Ianto asked. "Our last tech expert died recently."

"Oh, way to make the job appealing," Mickey answered good-naturedly, and they were off at the computers, doing nerd things.

"I never said I'd join," Martha said half-heartedly. "Anyway, I've still got to shut down that program."

"Torchwood can do it on higher authority," Jack said with an expansive hand gesture. "Come on. You know you want to." He added a lewd eyebrow movement.

"No flirting with engaged candidates for the job, Jack. You'll scare her off," Gwen said laughingly, and Jack knew he was home and all was well.