Jack shook his head, sadly. "I... I'm not sure that running away would have solved anything, really. But it would've been a whole hell of a lot easier than having to come back and deal with all of this without him. Because I can't. I can't just start rebuilding Torchwood, rebuilding the Hub, sifting through his archives, going to restaurants we'd gone to together, living in the city without him. It's bad enough that Stephen--..." Jack trailed off, shutting his eyes and turning his head to press his face into Ianto's hair for a moment.

"It's bad enough sticking around, knowing what I've done to Alice, what I've done to Stephen. But having to stick around, without him, knowing what happened to him... They're my team, Sulu," he said, softly, fiercely. "They were my team, my first team that I ever hired as the leader of Torchwood. And they've all died, one way or another. Everyone except for Gwen. What does that show about my qualifications as a leader? If... If I can't fix him, if we can't do something about this...then what hope is there?" He looked up at Sulu. "I don't want him to ever have been right about just being a blip in time..."