TW-DW Ficlet: Finding Happiness
Mar. 9th, 2026 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Finding Happiness
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 631
Spoilers: End of Days, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Doctor Who: Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords.
Summary: Jack only realises how happy he was back in Cardiff when he’s chained in the Valiant’s engine room, serving as the Master’s plaything.
Written For: The prompt ‘Any, Any, Happiness comes’, at
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
threesentenceficathon.Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Happiness comes, when it does, unexpectedly, and perhaps because he’s been looking for it in the wrong place, he misses it until it’s almost too late, having tuned his ears and his heart to one particular sound so that, when at last he hears it, Jack runs without a moment’s thought to the TARDIS and the Doctor. He’s sure that this is all he needs, to travel through time and the universe once more, but it turns out it’s not; the excitement and adventure last no more than a few short days, and then he’s a prisoner, aboard an aircraft carrier high above the earth, with nothing to occupy himself. Nothing, except to think, to remember, and to die repeatedly at the hands of a mad Time Lord.
And what he remembers are stormy blue-grey eyes, sharp suits, delectable Welsh vowels, and the aroma of coffee and cologne, pale skin, eager hands, a quick wit, and an adventurous spirit… Jack’s heart clenches, knowing the Master will inevitably target his team, kill them at all costs, seeing them as an impediment to his supremacy, unlikely to pose any serious kind of threat, but still a nuisance to be exterminated.
And Jack realises he never told them goodbye, never thought of them at all when he ran, not even Ianto, who he might never see again. The thought hurts so much more than he ever expected, and as much as he’d longed for the Doctor to come and take him away, now he wants nothing more than to go home, back to Cardiff and the Hub, because that was where happiness had been all along, without him even being aware of it.
It’s true that you never know what you have until it’s gone. He should have learned that lesson long ago, when the Doctor and Rose left him stranded on the Game Station, or maybe even before that, when he worked for the Time Agency, before they stole two years of his memories, or when he still live on the Boeshane Peninsula, with his parents and his little brother, before the raiders came…
Well, he’s learned it now, at long last, and Jack swears that if the Doctor’s plan works, if the Master can be defeated, the paradox ended, and time rewound, if the earth can be put back the way it was, with everything intact and all the people killed by the Toclafane alive again, he’ll ask to be taken back to Cardiff. Back to where he was happy without even being aware of it, back to Torchwood, the Hub, and his team, back to a young Welshman named Ianto Jones. And this time he’ll be thankful for what he has instead of wasting his days dreaming of a time long past which can never be recaptured and wouldn’t be the same anyway.
This time, Jack will make sure Ianto knows how much he values him, how much he cares, and he’ll start by asking Ianto out on a proper date, dinner and a movie perhaps, something that says I see you, I want to share this with you, to spend time with you when we’re not working. I want to get to know who Ianto Jones is when he’s not being my super-efficient personal assistant, I want to get to the heart of the man whose memory sustained me through one of the worst years of my life, the man who has MY heart.
That will be a good place to begin, and from there, who knows? Perhaps together they can build something that will stay with Jack for the rest of eternity, something he’ll be able to look back on knowing that for a time, however long or short it might be, he knew the true meaning of happiness.
The End
And what he remembers are stormy blue-grey eyes, sharp suits, delectable Welsh vowels, and the aroma of coffee and cologne, pale skin, eager hands, a quick wit, and an adventurous spirit… Jack’s heart clenches, knowing the Master will inevitably target his team, kill them at all costs, seeing them as an impediment to his supremacy, unlikely to pose any serious kind of threat, but still a nuisance to be exterminated.
And Jack realises he never told them goodbye, never thought of them at all when he ran, not even Ianto, who he might never see again. The thought hurts so much more than he ever expected, and as much as he’d longed for the Doctor to come and take him away, now he wants nothing more than to go home, back to Cardiff and the Hub, because that was where happiness had been all along, without him even being aware of it.
It’s true that you never know what you have until it’s gone. He should have learned that lesson long ago, when the Doctor and Rose left him stranded on the Game Station, or maybe even before that, when he worked for the Time Agency, before they stole two years of his memories, or when he still live on the Boeshane Peninsula, with his parents and his little brother, before the raiders came…
Well, he’s learned it now, at long last, and Jack swears that if the Doctor’s plan works, if the Master can be defeated, the paradox ended, and time rewound, if the earth can be put back the way it was, with everything intact and all the people killed by the Toclafane alive again, he’ll ask to be taken back to Cardiff. Back to where he was happy without even being aware of it, back to Torchwood, the Hub, and his team, back to a young Welshman named Ianto Jones. And this time he’ll be thankful for what he has instead of wasting his days dreaming of a time long past which can never be recaptured and wouldn’t be the same anyway.
This time, Jack will make sure Ianto knows how much he values him, how much he cares, and he’ll start by asking Ianto out on a proper date, dinner and a movie perhaps, something that says I see you, I want to share this with you, to spend time with you when we’re not working. I want to get to know who Ianto Jones is when he’s not being my super-efficient personal assistant, I want to get to the heart of the man whose memory sustained me through one of the worst years of my life, the man who has MY heart.
That will be a good place to begin, and from there, who knows? Perhaps together they can build something that will stay with Jack for the rest of eternity, something he’ll be able to look back on knowing that for a time, however long or short it might be, he knew the true meaning of happiness.
The End
