The Date That Never Was

"If ever I to the moment shall say:
Beautiful moment, do not pass away!
Then you may forge your chains to bind me,
Then I will put my life behind me."
(From Goethe's Faust, Part I.)

Notes/Preamble: So here I am again with another bit of Ten/Jack :o) I just can't keep my fingers off this pairing because their relationship (or the potential thereof) leaves room for so much, well, beauty. After all, both are struggling on their lonesome paths throughout time and space - and I for one think those paths should cross much more often :B

So now this is another approach at having them find each other:

We know Jack has a crush on the Doctor, and we know the time lord doesn't exactly cope well with the existence, let alone the presence of an immortal being.
But what if the Doctor couldn't return Jack's feelings for an entirely different reason?
What if Jack wasn't quite as immortal as he thought?

Pairing/Warnings: Jack and the Doctor, together, as a couple. There will be some more adult content, but nothing particularly explicit.

Points of view: Jack, Doctor, switching with every chapter - which means we'll have a couple rather short chapters (I hope you don't mind).

Disclaimer: I don't own anything about the Doctor Who-niverse.

Chapter 1: The question

Jack: "Aww, sweet, look at these two. How come I never get any of that?"
Doctor: "Buy me a drink first."
Jack: "You're such hard work."
Doctor: "But worth it."

- Scene from "The Doctor Dances"

Satellite Five, Season 1 finale from the Doctor's point of view.

"Well, it's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye."

The room, filled with cables and machinery, looked just as dreary as their prospect of winning the upcoming battle against the Dalek emperor.

As two pairs of blue eyes met, both men knew that they might never see each other again.

"I wish I'd never met you, Doctor," Jack declared and cracked a grin, "I was much better off as a coward."

The honesty in the Captain's words left the time lord staring back wordlessly. Since the beginning of their shared adventures, Jack had changed for the better, rather dramatically so. Nonetheless, the Doctor had never heard him admitting it so openly.

Nor had he expected it.

What he had expected even less, however, was to receive a goodbye kiss.

Well, now... that was...new.

"See you in hell," Jack grinned as he turned on his heels to take off in another direction.

See you before that, the Doctor wanted to reply, but he did not have it in him. They were likely to lose this battle, yet at least Rose would be safe. However, he needed Jack's help to accomplish even that much. No matter how much he had grown to enjoy the presence of the human before him, no matter how much he admired the man said human had become...the chance of losing him was very real one.

Who was he to claim otherwise? Who was he to instil a hope that was entirely unfounded?

Who was he to silently thank Jack for lingering with them for just another moment?

"Then again," the Captain added as an afterthought and halted in his step, "if hell happens to offer some nice restaurants, I'd love to buy you a drink one day, Doctor."

This time the Doctor actually blinked in surprise, speechless once again.

Thankfully, an amused Rose replied in his stead. "First a kiss, now a date?" she drawled incredulously, tilting her head a little.

Grinning sheepishly, Jack was about to reply when the Doctor beat him to it. "I'm looking forward to it," the time lord said simply, his face blank yet his eyes full of meaning, "So don't stand me up."

It did not really matter he had just agreed on a date he might have declined under most other circumstances.

It did not really matter he had never decided whether he was, in fact, attracted to the admittedly rather handsome Jack.

It only mattered that he dared hoping to meet his friend again after all – against all odds.

Chapter 1 - End

Notes: So this is a ridiculously short first chapter (sorry!), but since I have been told to publish stuff throughout a larger time span, the story's actually not entirely written down yet and being refined all the while and it's frustratingly late again anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. I hope this was intriguing enough at least, so... See you next time! (And feel free to leave a review? This will make me work faster, after all :) )