EPILOGUE

"Just think how happy you would be if
you lost everything you have right now,
and then got it back again."
Frances Rodman

When Martha stepped out into the Cardiff morning air Jack was leaning against the railings looking out to Penarth and the horizon beyond. She lingered a moment, hand still on the door of the Tourist Information Centre, watching Jack as his gaze followed a Bay tour boat chugging out towards the barrage.

Martha joined him at the railings, leaning beside him and staring out to somewhere beyond the horizon. She waited - she wasn't sure what she was waiting for really, some great compelling speech about morals at the end of the story, or a long goodbye maybe. A joke was probably more likely.

"How's Ianto this morning?" Martha asked, breaking the silence between them, and almost startling Jack out of his daze.

"He'll live," Jack answered, not turning to look at Martha, eyes still firmly on the horizon.

Martha let out a quiet laugh. "I know he will, Jack. I am his doctor after all," Martha retorted, watching Jack now. He didn't say anything, just leant further over the rails, clasping his hands together.

"I meant how is he mentally?" Martha pressed, leaning further over the railings too, her hands steepling under her chin. Jack looked thoughtful for a long while, obviously mulling over something in his mind. Martha wondered if they'd talked. She could tell they more than dabbled now, that they were more than just sex. She'd seen the look of fear in Jack's eyes when Ianto's life had been threatened, the determination in him to get Ianto back.

"Guilty," Jack replied, leaning back so he was grasping the railing with both hands at arms length. "He's feeling guilty, and like he has to apologise for everything, including the broken mug when he passed out the other day."

Something twisted in Martha's stomach at the word guilty. "I know how that feels," Martha mumbled, not looking at Jack, but she could feel him looking at her as a solemn atmosphere descended over them.

"You did what you had to do," Jack said softly a hand moving so it rested over Martha's on the railings. "I don't hold it against you."

Martha was quick to reply. "I know. I know what I did was the right thing to do, Jack, the only thing we could have done to save them, but it doesn't mean I don't still feel guilty." Martha turned to look at Jack finally, their eyes meeting as Jack gave her a reassuring smile before pulling her into a one armed hug.

"What about Gracie?" Martha asked as she lent into Jack's embrace, her head fitting snugly under Jack's chin. Jack sighed into Martha's hair.

"She'll no doubt be waking up with the worst hangover she's ever experienced, that is until she reaches University, and she'll have no recollection of building Noah's Ark," Jack answered with far too much fake cheer.

"But she'll be alright?" Martha asked as she pulled away from Jack, looking up into his face.

"Yeah." Jack breathed out a sigh as he nodded. "Yeah, she'll be fine." There was a fraction of a second's pause where Martha barely had time to consider pressing the matter before Jack's face changed as quickly as the wind did.

"So how are the wedding plans going?" Jack asked.

Martha didn't even take a moment to consider the change in conversation before she sighed, rolling her eyes. "God, Jack, at this moment in time I just wish the Doctor would show up and sweep me away to the actual day where someone's done all of the organising for me. I've reached the stage where I'm willing to let my nephew pick out the canapés."

Jack flashed Martha a smile, chuckling slightly. "Oh, canapés, very posh." Jack almost licked his lips at the prospect.

"I think you've got a long way to go before you top Gwen's wedding, though," Jack commented and Martha glared at him. "I'm told it's all worth it in the end," Jack added as an afterthought.

Martha smiled wistfully, a look in her eyes that Jack knew only too well. "I can still un-invite you to the wedding you know," Martha threatened half-heartedly.

"Oh I'm coming, Martha Jones. Barring the end of the world, I will be there," Jack told her adamantly.

"Just keep your hands to yourself," Martha warned, pointing the finger now. "Leave the bridesmaids alone."

"Oh Tish and I go way back," Jack retorted, winking at Martha. "Anyway, I plan on bringing a hot date to your wedding, so my hands will be distracted from the bridesmaids," Jack replied, a cheeky smile on his face that made Martha consider revoking Jack's invitation again. Martha smiled though, a knowing smile, because her suspicions had just been confirmed. Definitely more than dabbling.

"Good to hear," Martha replied quietly, smiling up at Jack for a long moment as she considered what else to say to him. But, in the end she didn't say anything else on the subject, she didn't need to.

"It was so good to see you again, Jack," Martha voiced instead of the questions that were fluttering round her brain, reaching up on her tiptoes to hug him as he reached down for her.

"One of these days we'll meet and the world won't be ending and people won't be dying and we'll just have coffee," Jack whispered past her ear. Martha laughed, because it was a ridiculous notion. They were part of the end of the world survivors club after all.

"One day," she replied quietly, her lips brushing against Jack's cheek before she pulled back from him, squeezing his hand before she turned to leave.

"I'll see you soon, Jack," Martha bid as she started back towards the Plass.

"Be seeing you, Miss Jones," Jack called after her. She turned back at the corner, watching as Ianto joined Jack at the railings, leaning beside him where Martha had previously been. Jack looked across at Ianto as he said something, a smile breaking out on the Captains face before he was laughing. The smile Ianto gave him in return matched the look of mirth Jack was portraying. She watched the years and horrors strip away from the two men as they leant on the railings, watching the horizon.

Then Martha Jones had a thought, and smiled.