FIC Torchwood: "About Death"

[fajrdrako_fic]

Title: About Death
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Gwen
Challenge: theatrical_muse prompt #227 - recommending a book.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims, all property of the BBC.
Notes: Spoilers for Torchwood 2x13, "Exit Wounds". Cross-posted to theatrical_muse, torchwoodgwen, and to my LJ. 434 words.


About Death

A few days after Tosh and Owen died, Jack found Gwen crying silently in the autopsy room, cross-legged on the floor. Without a word, he sat beside her, and gathered her into his arms. After a while she subsided and he said softly to her, "Yeah. Me too." His breath was tickled her left ear.

"It isn't fair," said Gwen.

"No." He entwined her fingers with his. "I know you can't talk about it, but I know you loved Owen."

She held his hand tightly as she snapped, "Not just Owen. Both of them. I loved both of them."

"I know," said Jack. "Me too. Me too. It's never simple."

They were silent for a while.

She said, "You've been carrying on with the work, haven't you?"

"It's important," said Jack. "The Rift is still there. The dangers are the same as always." Then, after a moment, "It's my duty."

"How can you bear it?"

He was leaning his cheek against her hair, so that she could feel his smile, though couldn't see it. "I've had some help. Ianto was reading to me just now."

"Did it make a difference?"

"I suppose. His voice is very... melodious."

"What was he reading from?"

"The Prophet," Jack said, and quoted gently:

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
...Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountaintop, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

"Nice," said Gwen.

"Owen would have scoffed, but I think he'd have liked it, secretly. Tosh... she would have cried and smiled."

"Tosh was a closet softie," said Gwen. "Do you think it's true?"

"No. Not literally. But anything can be true metaphorically, or psychologically, and everything is connected... People are connected. You, me, everyone. Sometimes in paradoxical ways. Time and space aren't different, really. It just seems that way."

"Pop physics?" she teased, gently. "Or is that just pop philosophy?"

"More like wishful thinking.' Smiling at her, he wiped a tear off her cheek. "If I could end suffering, I would."

"You'd save us all, wouldn't you? If you could?"

"It's a work in progress," admitted Jack. "I've a way to go."

She took a deep breath. "No one ever said you weren't ambitious, Gunga Din. Okay. Give me some Torchwood work to do."