Jack came to facedown in a ditch. For several minutes, he contemplated just rolling into a nearby puddle and drowning himself, but then he remembered that he hadn't been in the ditch last night. Someone had thrown him in there.

He felt furiously for his wallet. It was still there, still empty of course. So was his vortex manipulator.

But his watch was gone.

Jack let fly a string of curses in every language he knew. He felt tears prick the corners of his eyes. Ianto had given him that watch, in the last few days they'd had together. It had been essential, just a replacement like his clothes, but he had still been attached to it.

With everything he regretted doing and not having done, the least he could do was not let go of the few things he had left to remind him of what he'd lost. He had promised Ianto he wouldn't forget him, but he was beginning to worry he would.

The memory of where he was gradually began to come back to him. This was the thirty-second planet he'd visited since he'd begun traveling, the twenty-ninth since he'd gotten his vortex manipulator properly fixed on Spledonia.

He'd gone back a couple of times, to watch Ianto. He knew it was risky, all this time travel, but he was nearly past the point of caring. Hell, maybe if he brought about the end of the universe, he'd actually get some rest.

His stomach rumbled.

He needed food–unless he felt like starving to death. He'd done that a couple of times and it was always really inconvenient. He usually needed someone to take him to a doctor–an actual doctor–but he wasn't sure where to find any doctors here. At least not any doctors he'd trust.

Jack staggered to his feet. He didn't really fancy going back to the town he'd been in last night–he couldn't explain why he wasn't dead for starters. That meant he needed to do a bit of walking. There'd be another town in a few miles, if this planet was anything like any of the others of similar technological level he'd visited.

He brushed himself off and started to walk.

After a few hours, he did come to another town. It looked practically identical to the one he'd been in the previous night. Thankfully, that town had a moderately-sized spaceport, probably the only one on this backwater planet. Jack wasn't sure where he wanted to go, but he didn't want to be here.

He let himself get lost in the crowds near the docks, wandering aimlessly, though not aimlessly enough to get himself picked up by security. He was looking to stow away. He hadn't done that in centuries, so he wasn't sure his stowing-away skills were up to snuff. It briefly crossed his mind that he could get a job and work legitimately for his passage, but he decided against that. He didn't need to get attached, and he didn't want to have to answer any questions.

He finally settled on a mining ship, bound for a distant colony on Draxa IV. He'd never been there, but mining towns were usually fun. He'd learned that in California in 1849, on one of his few trips to Earth's past.

He'd spotted himself there, with Rose and the Doctor–their first Doctor, of course. He'd forgotten he'd already been there, though they didn't come near the part of town the second version of Jack hung around in. But he'd watched them, in disbelief that he'd ever been that happy.

Jack shook his head. Those days were over. He could see why the Doctor now insisted on traveling alone and Jack was determined to do the same.

He crouched behind a crate, watching as the automatic forklift approached to carry it onto the ship. At the last minute, he hauled himself over on top of the crate, pressing himself against the rough wood. The forklift picked up the crate with Jack on it and carried it into the hold of the ship. He lay there, on his back, waiting for what seemed like eons, as the rest of the cargo was loaded, but luckily, no one came by.

It would probably get cold in the hold, but that wasn't much of a problem for him. He closed his eyes and let his mind drift, lost in the sounds of a heavy cruiser getting ready for takeoff. All the familiar sounds he hadn't experienced in years brought back a lot of memories of the old days, before he met the Doctor and his life changed.

He braced himself against his crate as the primary rockets kicked in and the ship broke the atmosphere. It was the kind of rush you couldn't find anywhere else. Teleport was nice, and so was the TARDIS, but sometimes you just had to travel the old-fashioned way.

**

The Doctor was not looking for Jack on purpose. After all, he wasn't a lost puppy. He was more like a cat, actually–he'd come home when he was good and ready. Which was funny, he realized, since the Doctor wasn't really a cat person.

He did keep an eye out for Jack, though. It couldn't hurt, could it? After all, Jack wasn't really the expert on keeping a low profile. If they happened to wind up in the same place at the same time... well, he'd just have to talk to him, should the situation present itself.

In the meantime, he was doing what he usually did. Traveling, investigating. He usually let the TARDIS pick the destination–he had trouble making these kinds of decisions on his own. It was usually quite random, the places the TARDIS decided to take him, though she did tend to prefer places brewing a crisis that he could prevent–not that he'd fault her for that.

If there was something niggling in the back of his mind when the TARDIS materialized on Draxa IV, he only realized it in hindsight.

"So, let's see," he said to himself. "Draxa IV, Draxa IV. That's... a mining colony, isn't it? Well, then!"

He surveyed the TARDIS interior, once more reminded of the fact that he was alone. But he couldn't travel with someone–they'd just wind up leaving him. He just had to... not talk out loud, that was it. He hated the way his voice sounded in the empty ship.

He grabbed his coat from the support on which it hung and shrugged it on. "Allons-y," he murmured under his breath, as he pulled the doors open and stepped out onto the planet.

The Doctor found himself in a copse of trees on the edge of a cluster of buildings. "Not a bad parking job," he observed. "Nice and secluded." He stuck his hands in his pockets and set off in search of something interesting.

"Hello! I'm the Doctor," he said brightly to a young woman who was outside of her house, sweeping the front step. "Can you tell me where I am exactly?"

She spun quickly and stared at him as if petrified with fear.

"Oh come on," said the Doctor gently. "I don't bite."

She shook her head.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Cat got your tongue?"

The young woman took a deep breath and glanced frantically to both sides. "Leave," she said quickly. "Go, now. Hurry!" She yanked open her front door and made to go inside.

"Wait, wait, at least tell me where everyone else is!" The Doctor reached out to grab her shoulder and she looked as though she might drop dead from panic.

"Please, sir, just go! I can't be caught talking to outsiders."

The Doctor lifted his hand and the woman flew inside.

"I'm sorry," said the Doctor, sticking a foot in the door, preventing her from shutting it. "Just tell me why this town's deserted and I'll be on my merry way."

"Down by the docks," she said in a quavering voice. "There's a supply ship coming in. Now go! They are watching!" She slammed the door just as the Doctor withdrew his foot.

"They?" the Doctor repeated. "They don't sound like a pleasant lot. Well, I suppose I'll make my way down to the docks. Still… can't go wrong with a supply ship. Lots of interesting… supplies. Typically. You know."

**

As soon as the ship made the jump to hyperspace, Jack rolled off his crate and went exploring. To his glee, he realized this wasn't mining equipment after all. It was food! And real food, at that. Jack couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten real fruit.

He settled himself on his rolled-up coat on the floor of the cargo hold with a large hunk of bread, a wedge of cheese and an apple. It certainly wasn't the kind of meal he would have expected if he had been living full-time in one place, but it was better than the bar food he'd been subsisting on lately. Who knew such simple food could be so delicious? He also found a crate full of bottled water from which he drank liberally. Having eaten his fill, Jack lay down on his back, hands pillowed behind his head.

This wasn't a bad life, actually, the life of a stowaway. It reminded him of some of his favorite holodisc films as a kid. He and his brother had played at those games for hours with the neighborhood kids, pretending to be stowaways and space pirates, dreaming of running away from home.

Maybe that was an idea–a whole new life. He'd been Captain Jack Harkness for too long, worn out his welcome in this stolen identity. It was time for something new, a name free of all the terrible things he'd done in the past. And he had a plenty-long journey to come up with one.

He yawned. He'd just sleep for a little bit. He'd charted the trip on his vortex manipulator and programmed the device to wake him up half an hour before the ship landed so he could hide again. Then he'd see what trouble he could get up to in a lawless mining town.

He was lying with Ianto, in a grassy field far from the city. It was a dark night, this far from the lights of Cardiff, but the starry sky was enough for them.

"Can you tell which one you were born on?" Ianto asked, breath warm against his neck.

He scanned the stars, trying to find the correct one. "I don't know," he said finally. "Maybe that one?" He pointed at a bright star directly above their heads.

"Mm," said Ianto skeptically. "I thought you said that's where the fuzzy green things were from. You don't look fuzzy and green to me."

He looked again. The stars looked different somehow. "No, wait." He lifted his head off Ianto's shoulder, looking at another part of the sky. "There. I was born over by that one. That one there."

Ianto made a face. "That star burned out millennia ago, but its light's just reaching Earth now. You can't have been born there."

He looked down at Ianto frantically. "Then I don't know! Maybe we can't see it."

"We should be able to," Ianto pointed out. "Did you forget?"

"I don't know!"

"Who are you?" asked Ianto. His voice was harsh but his hands were gentle as he pulled him back down for a kiss. "What are you doing here?"

His eyes snapped open.

A cluster of men in black uniforms stood around him, guns pointed at him.

"Who are you?" said one of them coldly, his expression hard. "What are you doing here?"

**

The space docks were indeed very crowded. The Doctor had trouble seeing what was going on. An ominous-sounding bell tolled three times and the crowd roared. He peered around an especially large man.

"What's happening?" he asked. "I'm the Doctor, by the way."

"They've found a criminal aboard that ship," said the man, looking at the Doctor as if he'd just asked what trousers were for. "He's been sentenced to execution. Three rings means by firing squad."

"Oh," said the Doctor, nodding. "That seems a tad extreme for... what did he do?"

"He's a thief," said a woman on the Doctor's other side. "A stowaway."

"Ah," said the Doctor. "That... seems very extreme actually."

"There he is!" someone else shouted. "There he goes!"

The Doctor stood on tiptoes. "Oh my," he said, when he saw the man who was being led by in handcuffs. "That's a coincidence, that is. A real coinkydink." He made a face. "Did I just say coinkydink? Don't ever let me do that again." The man beside him regarded him suspiciously and moved as far away as the crowd would allow.

"I guess I can't let him be executed," said the Doctor thoughtfully. "Martha would never let me hear the end of it." He caught the eye of the woman. "Which way's the prison?"

"Over there," she said. "But why would you want to go?"

"Oh." The Doctor glanced to the side. "I just... want to heckle the prisoners? Up close, you know. Dirty rotten scoundrels, all of them. Especially that one." He jerked his head in the direction of the police transport that was making its way through the crowd.

The woman said nothing, but moved as far from him as the crowd would allow.

"Oh, well," said the Doctor, walking away with his hands in his pockets. "Gwen and Martha will never believe this wasn't on purpose."