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Archive Warning:
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Language:
English
Series:
Part 6 of Happily Ever After
Collections:
Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
Stats:
Published:
2020-11-05
Words:
385
Chapters:
1/1
Kudos:
7
Hits:
1,003

To Remember

Summary:

A coda to my Happy Ever After universe where the Doctor saved real!Jack and brought him back, because he wanted his Jack to have a happy ending but even Happy Ever After has to have a final.

Work Text:

To Remember
by Lilithangel
 
 
There is a tree in a garden that has grown larger than the house it flanks.  The house is empty, nobody has lived there for a hundred years but it isn’t rundown.  Staff cared for the garden and the house, paid by a law firm for a mysterious owner that nobody has ever seen.
 
Under the tree is a small wooden cross, worn smooth over the years, and a small climbing rose that blooms once a year with a single white flower.  It has no scent and only blooms in perfection for one day.
 
That day is the day that nobody works on the property and a man comes to pick the rose as the dawn catches its petals and the dew has yet to dry.
 
It is his hand that smoothed the paint from the small cross and his hand that makes sure the list of names is always clear, occasionally adding a new one as the years pass.
 
He is melancholy but always smiles as he reads the names and waits for that moment.  He knows one day the house will crumble and the tree will fall and he will be there to take a cutting from the rose and lift the cross free.  Even after a hundred years he cannot live in the house and hear the memories ring through its empty rooms, despite the joy those memories bring.
 
He can still hear the voices in the garden but it is only for those few perfect moments and his heart cannot break again in that short time.  Their graves might be scattered across the city and time, but they would always be there, in the garden under the tree.
 
“We’re planting it so you can watch it grow while you watch over us, James.”
 
“We won’t last forever but you will.  It’s nice to know someone will remember us.”
 
“We ain’t talking about it alright, but don’t forget us.”
 
John
Ianto
Rhys
Owen
Tosh
Jack
Gwen
Ross
Donna
Rose
John
Doctor
 
The rose opened and he snipped it free and pinned it to his lapel.  One final caress of the names of his heart and it was time to go again.
 
There is a tree in a garden that grows next to where once a house stood.  Nobody goes there but the garden is always tended and once a year a rose blooms so a man who will live forever can remember.
 
END

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