Title: Fate
Characters: Jack, Suzie, Owen, mentions of Rose
Spoilers: None, really, although refers to Doomsday.
Rating: PG
Summary: Rose Tyler. On the list of the dead. Drabble-ish.

He finds it by accident.

The computers are down and he's in his office, frantically running his finger down a list of names, searching for a boy who hasn't been seen since the Battle of Canary Wharf, when suddenly there it is. Rose Tyler. On the list of the dead.

Jack's heart constricts painfully and his eyes burn as he stares. Somehow, stupidly, he's always thought that they would be infinite, always believed that, like himself, the Doctor and Rose would live and travel together forever. He should have expected that something like this would happen.

The door bursts open and he looks up to see Owen and Suzie standing there, asking impatiently if he's found anything. Jack shakes his head no, and he's relieved that they don't stick around to ask anything more, so that they don't see Jack stand quite still for a moment, finger still hovering over Rose's name as he collects himself.

Then he goes back out, focuses on the task at hand. He won't let this get in the way.

Much later, when he meets the Doctor again and learns what really happened to Rose, he thinks of the way her eyes had always lit up when they went to a new place, and the way she'd sparkled when she looked at the Doctor.

Somehow, he can't help wondering if maybe the official fate would have been better.