I was inspired by this post to write a feelsy Jack Harkness ficlet:
Ocean of Memory
Jack Harkness twitched. He felt like he was falling, memories rushing by like an ocean, reef and shoals trying to slow his descent. With a grunt he landed in dalek dust, alone save a fading screeching echo. He had died to save them. And he had been abandoned. He had died. But he wasn’t dead now. Anger swelled up. He deserved an explanation. He deserved answers.
The memory shifted. A train car, many tiny wings. Alone with death, who had once again passed him by.
A battlefield. Which war? Did it matter? A shell, blinding light. Waking screaming in pain as an unwilling body knitted back together.
Another bomb. Sending them off. A hasty kiss and a promise. But that man couldn’t come back. None of them could. His own grandson’s dying eyes. More names falling behind where he couldn’t reach.
Jack jerked, someone was here, someone was trying to get at his memories.
Training started to kick in, to force the intruder out. Pain lit up his nerves, but pain he could handle by now as he struggled with the invisible foe. The rushing sound turned into water pouring over his head, limbs too weak to struggle for the surface, drowning, sinking, dying again.
He kicked for air. Dirt covering him, smothering him. A few seconds of air, just enough time to know and remember and then he was choking on the weight of the city above.
The intruder was frustrated. So many memories to sort through. Good. Jack fought. He always fought. Tooth and nail and whatever weapons he had at hand. One time he used a tractor.
There. Not death, love. Hands seemed to bear him up. The faces were faded with time but their touch was familiar. Lovers, friends, never was, could have beens. But they were here, too, and love could be stronger than death, especially when carried by a man who was all too familiar with both.
Gritting his teeth, Jack roared back to consciousness, yanking the device off his head. The humans standing next to him stepped back in fear. “What do you want?” he asked. They looked between themselves. Jack took another step, dizzy, almost stumbling. One of them reached for his arm just as the door was kicked open. Jack smiled, grateful. His team, the family he had in this time and place.
One of them moved to his side while the others quickly subdued the scientists. “You okay?” the man asked.
Jack leaned in and kissed him. This moment, this love, to one day be filed away with all the rest. “Now I am.”
They finished the clean up quickly, Jack still leaning on his team.
They stepped out under the stars and he glanced up at them, one for every memory, twinkling in the darkness.