Rationally, Jack knew sleeping with Captain John Hart was probably not the wisest decision he'd ever made, but after years of battling with himself, for a few moments at least, he knew what peace felt like.
It was funny, in a sort of sad way, how when his actions could upturn his whole life, he'd barely paused to think before making a move toward the man who drew him like a magnet, but now that his life had been upturned every time he thought of taking that step again, he felt himself falter.
James told him to spend the night as if it were his last, as if there would be no tomorrow, and Jack had every intention of doing so, caught up in the urgency in the other man's voice, but they were interrupted by a flash of light, and while morning did dawn the next day, Jack faced it alone.
For an instant the world stills, and he steps out of his life, away from his duty, and into the fullness of life, but then the air itself shatters and splits, the decades slide in between, and he is left standing with his mask in tatters, alone.
A history altered by a man in need of a name says he disappeared, and the man who changed that recorded destiny believed him dead, but somehow the words on the page have become the truth, and Jack cannot help but marvel at the strange workings of fate as he looks out on the new century he must learn to make his own.