"Yeah, but that never works," the Doctor said, pressing a kiss to Jack's forehead. This quiet intimacy was comfortable, wonderful. He'd spent so long not allowing himself vulnerability that being so open was new. He liked it, he thought.

He wished he could've had the same sense of loyalty Jack had to his home world to his own. Gallifrey was beautiful but terrible, and he felt no loss when he made the decision to destroy it. He should've, he figured, but he didn't. He felt nothing. Nothing but the empty hole where a home world should've been.

"We'll keep this place safe," he promised.