Alonso may have been cute, but there was one thing about him that made Jack stop before he could go all the way.

He didn't have a stop watch.

The Doctor would have been right, best way to say goodbye to Jack was to pair him off with some stranger.

But not this time.

He wasn't the same Captain Jack Harkness now; his world had fallen apart around him. He had lost so many people in so many ways. His home was not home anymore, there was nothing left to anchor him to that old him.

New life, as if.

Because he'd learned something, back in that old life, that old him. Maybe, Jack Harkness had learned to love, in-between the adventures and the stopwatch, someone had gotten into his heart in a way no one had before.

Ianto Jones was something special, someone he really couldn't forget. But in the end, the young man had suffered for it. Not only losing his life, but his innocence too.

Jack had seen that as he cradled him in his arms.

Ianto had a proper, normal life once. Looking down at his dying face, the evidence of Torchwood's effect was obvious. His face was no longer like that of a child; his eyes didn't glitter with naivety.

It was startlingly similar to Jack's.

In the end, Ianto had changed him, and in the end, Jack did nothing for him. Pushed the man aside, used him when he felt like it and got absorbed in his own problems. He never mentioned how much the Welshman meant, or tried to dissuade him from thinking they were he was just a shag. He led Ianto Jones to his death and still couldn't say what he felt.

Jack stared up at the ceiling, vaguely aware of the damage the alcohol was inflicting on his liver.

A new man, a new start, a new persona for him to use as he went about his life.

He'd loved Ianto Jones, dearly. And look what that love had led to.

Maybe he wouldn't get involved with someone again because he was afraid to hurt them.

Or maybe it was because they'd never be an Ianto Jones. After all, how many other people had stop watches?

Just a short one shot I wrote in a fit of Janto depression, feedback loved.

MizzSY X