AN: Hi guys! I am a horrible person because I write to many fanfics at once! It should be easier now that I have my own 'computer' but I still have a small attention span, so just bear with me!

This is because I am in such denial of CoE and FOR CRYING OUT FUCKING LOUD Jack deserves a bloody respite!

.:~:.

"This isn't right!" The Doctor shouted. He was whizzing around the TARDIS controls with a panicked look on his face.

Not far away, Amy and Rory clung to the railing for dear life, but their balance was still thrown off by the TARDIS's wild spinning.

"What do you mean it 'isn't right' Doctor?" Amy shouted, her teeth clenched in effort as a particularly violent shift threw her balance. Next to her Rory remained silent.

The Doctor, not paying attention to her, ran around the controls once more to the screen, clinging to the bottom of it as he read the data flashing across the screen. What he saw made his face go pale.

"... No..."

'Oh, no, no, no, no, NO! You are not doing this today, sweetheart!' He thought vehemently at the TARDIS. She only groaned in defiance. He gave her a wicked glare that turned to wide eyed shock as the TARDIS threw herself to full stop.

All the passengers on board yelped as they were thrown to the ground, Amy landing next to Rory whose groan was drowned out by the screaming engines. When all was past, the Doctor stood up and went to the monitor with panic and dread written all over his face.

Amy gave him a wary and suspicious look from the floor, slowly pushing herself up. "Doctor?" She was about to ask what was happening but was cut off quickly.

"Not now Amy darling, we are in a bit of a spiff because SOMEONE DECIDED TO LAND IN THE MIDDLE OF BLOODY CARDIFF!" He yelled at the ceiling. The redheaded girl gave him a wide eyed look with furrowed brows.

"Why are we in Cardiff?" She asked cautiously. Behind her, Rory stood and sat in the chair next to the railing, taking deep breathes.

The Doctor glanced at her before going back to the controls.

"It's the TARDIS. She's known for doing this sometimes, but of ALL the places I do NOT want to be, it's here!" Again his shouting was directed at the roof. There was no response.

With a helpless sigh, the Doctor stepped back from the controls and looked at Amy with the look he usually wore when things weren't going his way. "I'm afraid, dear Amy, that we are stuck here..."

Amy fixed him with a suspicious look. "What's so wrong with Cardiff?" She doubted there could be anything wrong with the place. From what she'd heard in the past from her school friends was that it was a sleepy city.

The Doctor merely rolled his eyes. "Everything. There is everything wrong with this place. There's a rift in space and time running right through the city." The man made a wide slicing gesture over his head to emphasize his description.

Rory, looking up from where his head had been in his hands, then gave the doctor a confused glance. "Sorry, not getting what you mean by a 'rift'. What does that mean?" His hand moved in a questioning move.

From behind the controls the Doctor heaved a small sigh. "It means, Rory, that things - alien things- fall through the rift and land throughout the city." He pushed himself away from the controls and moved towards the door, silently brooding.

Amy moved over to stand next to Rory, who pushed himself from the chair. She looked over at him, concern shining in her eyes. In response, he wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her close.

After a few minutes in these positions, the Doctor turned abruptly, looking up at the pair with an unreadable expression. "Alright kids, lets visit the neighbors." He clapped his hands together and wrung them.

Amy straightened from her position, and looked at the Doctor with a furrowed brow. "Neighbors, Doctor?"

The man sighed heavily, and shifted on his feet. "Yes... The rift causes problems, as you could have guessed and... Years ago an agency was created to control that. Torchwood, it was-is called... I... May know their leader. But right now I'm not sure if he'll be right pissed to see me or not." Giving them a weak smile he moved to the doors.

Behind him Rory and Amy moved with him, hand-in-hand. The Doctor hesitated outside the door of the TARDIS. There was a far away look in his eye, one that concerned Amy - like he was in another place completely. Hesitantly she reached out her hand and placed it on his shoulder.

"Doctor? Are you alright?" Her brow furrowed as he jumped slightly and turned around to look at her quickly before facing forwards again.

"Hm? Oh, yes, fine Amy, dear." Exhaling quickly, he opened the the latch to the door, but stopped before he opened it. "Oh! Don't be surprised to have guns aimed at you, Torchwood is very weapons friendly."

Amy stared after him in wide eyed shock as he opened the door and stepped out quickly. Next to her, Rory gripped her hand tighter as they moved to the door. Pulling it opened slowly, Amy took in the scene around them.

In front of them was a large copper roofed building with words silhouetted in stencil and large glass doors extending around it. The ground beneath their feet was made of a whitish stone that extended all around them to a small viewpoint bay area. Amy let go of Rory-who was also looking around in amazement- to spin around.

She stopped and gasped slightly at the huge water tower before them. "Wow."

Behind her the Doctor stared around with his hands in his pocket, his face an expression of indifference. He was silent, caught up in his own thoughts. He knew what day it was-or what day had passed- from the newspaper of the lady sitting on the far bench, but he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge it.

There was a reason the TARDIS had brought him here, and now he knew why. Leaning his head back the Doctor looked up at the cloudy sky above Cardiff.

'You owe him. You know you do.' That voice that sounded oddly like Martha's whispered in the back of his mind. His jaw clenched. Martha... Voice of a nightingale... His lips quirked at that.

With a long suffering sigh, he looked back in front of him for a moment before turning around to his two current companions. A small chuckle built in his chest at their open faces of shock and awe. They had obviously never been here before.

Turning back around, the Doctor spoke to them before walking forward. "Come on, kids. Neighbors are waiting!" He didn't have to look behind himself to know that they were following.

.:~:.

'He's dead... He's dead... He's gone... He's left...' No matter how he put it, that was all Jack could think about. It was a mantra that didn't take any conscious thought.

Ianto, his Ianto... Dead. Gone. Cold in the morgue downstairs. Pale, unmoving, on a metal slab... Dead.

'I wish I were dead...' It was no longer a wish for his immortality to disappear so he could live and then die... No, he just wanted to be dead. He was done with the world. Done with its cruelties and injustices. All of its pain... of his pain...

'I love you.'

'Don't...'

How could he have said that... 'Don't...' What the hell kind of response is that? How could he have said that as the person who grounded him was lying in his arms dying...

Looking down at the city life below him, Jack wallowed in the stabbing emptiness and pain of his existence. It wasn't a life anymore, it hadn't been for weeks. Or days... He didn't know. He'd been sitting on this ledge for days- not moving.

Sometimes he thought he'd jump- but then he'd have to explain as he'd come gasping back to life. He didn't want to come back anymore. Loosing Ianto was worse than all of his previous losses combined. Worse than Estelle, worse than Rose... And definitely worse than the Doctor.

He wasn't really a loss though-no! He'd just come in when it's too late, when everything's over with and apologize. Or he wouldn't come at all... Either way- Jack didn't see him meeting that man again. Ever.

'... Perhaps I should jump... Just this once...' Looking down at the street life below, Jack saw a man in a suit with a cup of coffee in his hands cross the road. He couldn't help himself a small bitter smile that quickly turned to a sob as he remembered Ianto, how he would prepare those suits so finely because Jack loved him both in one and out of one...

It was with this though that Jack pushed off his greatcoat, draped it over the side of the building, and moved to the alley side of the building.

'No use getting it ruined. Ianto would kill me...' If only...

Closing his eyes Jack let the pain he'd been keeping somewhat at bay flow over him.

The bone shattering realisation as he'd woken up that first time with Ianto wrapped in his arms.

The emptiness he felt as he revived yet again without his beautiful Welshmen, not even gasping for breath because it wasn't worth it unless Ianto was breathing too.

The loneliness that overwhelmed him when the Hub was rebuilt and he spent his first night lying awake in his bunker.

Tears streamed down Jack's face as he propelled himself forward. His last thought before the blissful darkness took him was of hot houses and weevil hunts.

When he landed on the ground a small smile quirked his lips, but lines of sorrow and grief remained, forever etched in his face.

.:~:.

AN: I'm going to go crawl in a very small hole and cry now...