Originally Posted:  Aug. 4th, 2008
Length/Rating:  187 words, PG
Pairing/Warnings: Ten/Jack
Summary: Written for drabbles Day 8 Prompt: Song/Poem: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

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Jack’s younger the next time the Doctor sees him, centuries younger and still flaunting that unabashed joy in life he never seems to lose. Time travel plays merry havoc with personal continuums and it’s hard not to tell him go away, stay away, stop before she breaks you… because the Jack that was and the Jack that is are nothing but distorted images, ripped to pieces by the weft and weave of time.

But Jack is Jack, warnings will only guarantee the inevitable, so the Doctor turns to leave.

“Do I know you?” There’s a hand on his arm and blue eyes, earnestly confused.

“Not yet.”

There’s the flash of a smile, and it’s not what he meant, but it’s how Jack takes it, and the Doctor already knows he’ll be forgotten, because he’s already been forgotten, so what does it matter?

The future can wait, just a little bit longer.