Fandoms: Torchwood, Arrow

Characters: Malcolm Merlin, Jack Harkness

Prompt: Jack Harkness is Malcolm Merlin

Prompt Made By: I. H. Scribe

Disclaimer: I don't own the following series(es) or any character(s) that follow, and unless I. H. Scribe is listed after Prompt Made By chances are I don't own the idea for this story either.

Malcolm Merlin hadn't always been Malcolm Merlin. Once he was Jack Harkness. He hadn't always been Jack Harkness either, but it was Jack Harkness that was important.

He had met Ianto Jones as Jack Harkness.

He had loved people before that, yes, but none of them had been Ianto. The depths of his feelings for the other man ran so deep, Jack was afraid he'd drown in them.

And then Ianto said, "I love you."

And then Ianto was gone.

Jack hadn't been able to say the same. Hadn't been able to say three little words or even just two others. Jack had been in love with Ianto, but also had been pregnant at the time. Gwen still thought the never doing that again line had been a joke.

After saving the world – losing the last of his remaining family – one to defeat the aliens, one to anger and disgust with him – Jack left. All he had left was the little body growing within his.

It was a legend – a story. The Frozen Star of Karyxa – rainbow colored and shining beautifully – that could bring back the dead just once, hidden deep underground on a planet somewhere in the universe.

Jack paid little mind to it. Even if the stories were true, what were the odds someone hadn't already found it and used it? The baby kicking his bladder and a surge of hormones changed his mind. He was just about to give up when he found it.

The Frozen Star was on Earth, buried deep within Starling City.

And so, Jack Harkness took up the name Malcolm Merlin.

He found a wife – a woman who understood he would never truly love her, no matter how doting he was – a good woman to help him with his and Ianto's son, Tommy, as he searched the depths of Starling City. The day his wife died, he wasn't in a meeting, but was nearing the location of the Frozen Star.

Nearly losing his son put his plans on hold, as Jack kept a closer personal eye on him. Tommy was so much like Ianto, not just in looks, but in personality too. But as the deadline of his plans to get the Frozen Star came closer, Jack started distancing himself from him.

Tommy had a life here in Starling, a wonderful girlfriend, a best friend Jack was sure Tommy was at least half in love with, a job he wouldn't want to walk away from. Tommy would likely want to stay, even if Jack managed to explain everything. It would be better if the public could see them separating before everything went down.

Tommy wouldn't suffer too much of the backlash when he destroyed the Glades.

It was the only way he could get to the Frozen Star, and he already had such a convenient excuse if someone else found out – he couldn't let anyone else know about the Frozen Star, but he could tell them his wife was killed in the Glades.

Tommy fell. After fighting with the Hood – Tommy's friend Oliver – he found out Tommy was buried under a building in the Glades.

He screamed in frustration, killed three police officers as he left the cell they were holding him in, and made his way to the Glades. He was so close. He only had to find the Frozen Star and he'd have his lover and his son back.

But then his heart fell into his stomach. There was the limit on the Frozen Star. He could only bring one of them back – his lover or their son.

He chose Tommy.

Because Jack knew, while there was a small chance Ianto might forgive him for the death of all the people in the Glades, he'd never forgive Jack for the death of their son. There would be no way to get Ianto back now. His son, not to mention the rest of Starling City, would never forgive him for what he had done to the Glades. There was only one choice.

Jack Harkness left Earth again.

He returned when the word Torchwood was sent everywhere. Everyone became immortal, except for him, who returned to his mortal state. And when Gwen mentioned that it could have happened just a year earlier, and maybe Ianto would have been saved, Jack gave her a sad smile.

Ianto was gone, and wouldn't be coming back. He's son was gone – for all that he was alive and well, he'd never speak to Jack again, even if he did return to him. His daughter felt the same as his son, for different reasons. And his grandson, Steven, was hopefully happy with Ianto watching over him.

Not for the first time, Jack thought he might not be meant to have a family.

Why do I keep hitting myself in the feels like this?

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I. H. Scribe