Ficlet: Homecoming

Title: Homecoming

Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Jack, Team, the Doctor

Rating: G

Spoilers: Mostly Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Summary: Jack had to leave before he knew where he belonged.

Word Count: 338

Written For: theruinedcastle’s prompt ‘Any, any, returning home,’ at fic_promptly.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.

Jack had thought that if he could just get back to the TARDIS and the Doctor, he’d be home to stay, but he’d been too long away and too much had changed. New Doctor, new companion, new décor… the only thing that remained the same was his room aboard the TARDIS, and with everything else that was familiar now a distant memory, he couldn’t even bear to sleep there, on those few occasions he got to sleep.

After the events of the Year That Never Was, all he could think of was going home, but now ‘home’ meant Cardiff, the Hub, and that little cubby-hole he called his room, tucked away beneath his office. It wasn’t much, but it was his; he’d been happy there, even though her hadn’t realised that at the time. The old adage was true; you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

But it was still there waiting for him, and so was his team. If the Hub was his home, then the team was his family. He’d missed them more than he’d believed possible, couldn’t wait to see them. They’d be angry with him; that went without saying. Not that he could blame them, he’d deserted them, left them to fend for themselves for who knew how long. It didn’t matter. Let them yell at him, he could take it. As long as they were safe and well, everything would be okay.

They weren’t in the Hub when he let himself in, but checking the computer logs and the SUV’s GPS was the work of a few minutes; they weren’t hard to find.

Standing in the doorway, watching his people, his friends, in a standoff with a blowfish, Jack knew once and for all that this was where he belonged. If he travelled from one end of time to the other, visited every planet in the universe, he’d never find what he had here, in this time and place.

“Hey kids, did ya miss me?”

At long last, he was home.

The End