Daniel knocked on Jack's office door on Friday afternoon, and entered at his call. "Hey Jack. Whatcha need?" He asked curiously. He had gotten a rather abrupt phone call, simply asking him to come to the General's office.

"Oh, hi Danny, I need you to do me a favor." He was bent diligently over his computer, typing furiously with a skill Daniel had known he had possessed yet never witnessed him use before. "Mom and Kathy are arriving in about an hour at Peterson's and I meant to pick them up but got kind of tied up doing this." He paused for a moment and glanced up. "I've been helping Kathy trace this guy but when she is on the plane she won't be able to access the internet so I've gotta keep at this or he might get away, I'll tell you more later."

Daniel took that as the dismissal that clearly was and headed out to his car with a sigh. He looked forward to seeing the two women again and showing them around but he knew he would have no privacy whatsoever, insofar as that Jack kept close tabs on all of his friends. He had good reason to worry, of course, given all the trouble they had been given, especially by the NID. He had admitted once they had gathered in his house following their return from his reunion that he hadn't had them bugged all along, but only gradually as he realized what danger they were in, and even so he hadn't been able to prevent all the problems. At any rate, he did feel safer than he had in awhile.

He pulled into the air force base and showed his ID, revealing his status as a civilian attached to the Air Force and given high security clearance. He was brought to the room where Jennifer and Kathy were waiting.

"Welcome to Colorado, ladies," he said brightly. "Nice flight?" He grinned at the expressions of dismay flitting across their faces. Stepping through the wormhole as many time as he had had mostly dispelled any twinge of the airsickness he would have once experienced during the kinds of flights military planes did. He grabbed the small overnight bags, ignoring their protests and leading them out to the car. At one point he was stopped by one overzealous young private.

"Excuse me, sir. What are three civilians doing in a high priority base?" This question was accompanied by a firm hand on his left shoulder, and he groaned inwardly at the man's stupidity.

"First of all, private, I have shown my proper ID at the gate, as these ladies did at the gate of the base where they boarded this plane as well as to the guards that escorted them around until I arrived to pick them up, second, these are relatives of General O'Neill, a person friend of the president, and third, if you want to prevent a person from moving, much less attacking you, you grab their dominant arm, here," he demonstrated with was straight face as he dropped one bag and disconnected the man from him, bringing him to the ground in a smooth movement Jack had grilled into him. He heard muffled laughter from behind him and then applause from an assortment of airmen who had been watching the show. He also saw money exchange hands and groaned as he let the man up and picked the bag back up. "So what was the bet?" He asked them, recognizing a few as guards on rotation at the outer gates of Cheyenne Mountain.

"Well, first there was the bet that he would try to stop you and then there was the bet that you would bring him down, Dr. Jackson. Heck, we have no clue what goes on at that mountain of yours, but we have noticed that you spend a great deal of time with the colonel—I mean General. There is also the legend that has circulated for the past few years about a certain bar fight…"

Daniel scowled at the reminder. "They finally let up the ban on us last summer, change of ownership, I think. What about Jack, though?"

The woman who had answered him before said, "He has given one or two demonstrations at the academy. Everyone has long since figured out that if he considers a person a friend, he won't let them go unprotected, which means he'll teach them self-defense, if only so he won't feel quite so guilty when he has to leave them alone. How are you related to the General?" she asked the women directly.

Jennifer fielded the question with a relaxed smile, now that she saw the high regard everyone had for Jack. "He's my son, and she's his sister. Do you know Jack well?"

"2nd Lieutenant Karen Sanders, ma'am. I wouldn't say we are well acquainted, but he has come through a few times interviewing us for positions at the mountain." She turned back to Daniel. "Haley is a good friend of mine, and even though she couldn't tell me what is going on up there, she did tell me that General O'Neill is a good boss, and…" She broke off, remembering that Haley had a crush on Dr. Jackson.

Daniel smiled, guessing her thoughts. He had quickly picked up on the aforementioned woman's crush on him, though of course he was not interested. "Have you been interviewed?"

Karen blushed. "Yes, sir. I just got notice today that I am to go into special training starting next week. Do you have any advice?"

Thinking hard over all the missions he had been on, he said, "Work on running in your spare time. Other than that, pretend it is boot camp and be prepared for anything. Perhaps I shall see you then. I'd better get going before Jack sends out a search party." As he said this, his cell phone rang and he laughed, answering it without looking at the caller ID. "We're fine, Jack. No I am not psychic, you are just predictable. Are too…Are too…Are—never mind, we're scaring the people…What do you mean it's all me—no way! Here, tell your mom." And he tossed the phone her way without looking, blushing at the looks of amusement and awe—amusement from those who knew Jack personally, and awe from those who had only heard the rumors of his reputation that had spread. Daniel knew many of them, which got more detailed every year on supposed exploits.

Kathy caught his elbow as Daniel sped up too fast for her mother, who was distracted by Jack on the phone. "I'm glad he has a sense of humor," she murmured in his ear.

Daniel took a deep breath as he processed that statement and nodded. By now, the onlookers had mostly dispersed to their duties and the civilians were out the door. He waited until he got to his car and put the bags in before answering. He was sort of glad that Jack was keeping surveillance on his car since he wanted Jack to know this but would never dream of telling him to his face. "I know. When we first met, he didn't. When I saw him again a year later, you'll hear more about that later, by the way, he had changed. He still had that whole soldier aura about him if you know what I mean but he seemed lighter. As time went by, he started to be a lot more flippant, which annoyed General Hammond, I'm sure and did occasionally get on my nerves but I always knew that he would be there when I needed him. He was too. He did the best anyone could do, but he never seemed to see that. Sometimes he would joke about wanting fanfare for having done something, but when it came down to it and reporters came through wanting to do interviews, Jack brushed them off at every opportunity, other than taking one chance to tell off Senator Kinsey in front of the camera for having interfered on several occasions that almost got us killed." He fell silent for a moment, remembering that horrible day.

"Tell me," Kathy whispered. She had seen Daniel's aura darken in grief and knew he needed to talk about it.

"That was when Janet died. She was Cassie's mother and the base doctor," he added, unsure if that information had ever been shared with her. "Someone got hurt and Janet had to go to him. I was filming him so he could have last words with his wife just in case and then, then…" He couldn't finish and pulled the car over onto the shoulder of the road as his eyes clouded with tears.

"Have you ever spoken to Jack about this? I mean, if you were there, he probably was too, wasn't he and he obviously knew her since she was Cassie's mom and the doctor."

Daniel chuckled hoarsely at that. "You could say she knew us. She first met Jack, oh, a few weeks after he was called out of retirement the second time. There was a disease going around the base that everyone caught except Teal'c, Janet and me because, well because Teal'c is an alien and Janet and I were both taking antihistamines for our allergies. I did catch it later, actually, but anyway, since she was just guessing at the cure, Jack ordered her to experiment on him first. And Jack was there, sort of, on the day Janet died, but he was shot shortly before her and we didn't know if he was going to live at first. I think he feels guilty that he lived and she died. I know I do." He added the last in a low voice.

"Don't. She was military and a doctor so she knew the risks and had the drive to protect, since as military she is a protector of the country and as a doctor her rule is: first harm none. Right?"

Daniel nodded like a whipped puppy and sighed before pulling back on the road. With that to ponder, the drive to the SGC took no time at all. He flashed his ID at the guard and waited as the man looked over the visitor's list for the two other passengers. He was mildly amused to realize that they were O'Neill's and hoped that the base would survive having more than one around. He knew that the General was reputedly a major war hero, but on the grapevine he was also in the middle of any trouble that went on inside the sacred walls of the mountain and who was to know whether he had helped instigate any of it. He had served at the SGC long enough that he had seen the inner sanctum, as it was called by the SF guards and was very glad that he wasn't in charge of dealing with all that went on inside.

Jennifer and Kathy were amazed at the number of checkpoints they had to go through. Daniel remained silent now as he led them to the elevators and down deep into the mountain. Just after they got out, he heard the sound that always gave him a major adrenaline rush of mixed excitement and terror. "Unscheduled off world activation!" He pushed the women flat against the walls as SFs rushed down the hall. Sam burst out of the stairway in their midst and ran with them. Normally he would have joined in the traffic, but this time he had Jack's family under his protection so he did the second best thing and pulled out the zat he had stored in the back of his pants. Jack had authorized, and in fact ordered, him to carry it with him knowing the kind of trouble he was apt to run into. He then pulled them down to the nearest door, which entered one of the armories. This required him to enter an access code, which he did quickly and pushed them in, watching carefully to see that the blast doors were closed before entering himself.

"What's going on?" Kathy asked urgently. She had been rather shocked earlier when he had taken down the soldier, but seeing him in full soldier mode despite his claimed civilian status was rather shocking, and she guessed he had seen a great deal of combat.

"Um, this is usually known as trouble, though not quite every time." He sighed as her eyes demanded a much fuller explanation. "We told you that we deal with aliens. Well, there are a lot of bad guys out there. Some of them have our address and try to come through, which results in a great deal of violence and mess. Sometimes it's a team that has run into trouble and rushing in with the enemy on their six, which again results in a great deal of mess. See that announcement happens every time the gate opens from outside. If it's our people or allies, there is a signal sent through and we open up the shield, called an iris, that covers our stargate and guards gather around in the gate room to guard against any intruders that might follow."

Kathy nodded in acceptance then said, "So what's that?"

"It's called a zat'nic'a'tel, but Jack immediately christened it a Zat and the name stuck, first beam stuns, second kills, third disintegrates. I am qualified with ordinary firearms but I prefer this." He fell silent as the all clear was sounded and closed his zat with relief. "Let's go see what happened this time." He led the way to Jack's office and knocked perfunctorily before entering.

Jack looked up with tired eyes at his visitors. "I caught the creep." He said without preamble. "I alerted the FBI in that area and they are picking him up. Sorry for the unpleasant greeting, by the way. It was just SG-7. They are all present and accounted for, Daniel. There was just a small incident with a cliff resulting in a sprained ankle and concussion. All in all, it's been pretty quiet around here. How was the flight, Mom, Kathy?"

"A bit faster than I truly like." Jennifer admitted. "Otherwise, no problems. We kept occupied with so interesting reading materials we found. Did you know that they kept a transcript of your meetings with them at the Air Force office? We can talk about that later when we get to your house though. I'm fascinated with what little I've seen and heard."

Jack scrubbed at his face with his hands for a moment and then looked up apologetically. "Daniel, would you mind giving them a tour while I shower? I feel filthy just hacking through that guy's websites. He's almost worse than the Goa'uld. And he hasn't even been the soul sucking sarcophagus." He forced a quick grin at the alliteration and then dropped it. "Please?"

"Sure, Jack. No problem. But I think you should hug them first so they don't feel neglected."

The general got painfully to his feet and held out his arms to his mom and sister, who rushed into them.

"I'm sorry," Kathy whispered, regretting asking Jack to do her work for her.

"Don't be! Don't you dare feel guilty that you didn't wade through that muck. I would much rather have it on my shoulders than yours. I've been dealing with tragedies for years, remember?"

"That doesn't mean you should continue to, though. You aren't alone, remember, Jack?" Daniel said fiercely. "Maybe I haven't been in all the same situations as you have but I know enough to help you shoulder the burden." He stared Jack sternly in the eyes, willing him to accept his support. "After all these years do you doubt it?"

Jack's smile was sincere his time as he released the two women and grasped Daniel's hand tightly. "Thanks, Danny. Now get out of here so I can go shower. I'll meet you in the mess in twenty minutes."

Jennifer and Kathy watched in amusement as the two men made sure their watches were synchronized and then they were ushered out of the office. "Since we are already here, ladies, let's start with the briefing room." He explained that the room was the site of many meetings both of teams and with alien ambassadors, including various Goa'uld. Next he led them down to the control room, where Walter, better known as chevron guy, was bent over the computer. "Hey Walter, this is Mrs. Jennifer O'Neill, Jack's mom, and Kathy Larson, Jack's sister. Guys, this is the guy who dials the gate for us to go and then opens the iris when we return. We couldn't do without him. Uh, Jack had to do without him for a few weeks and was very unhappy about it." He blushed as he remembered the whole embarrassing episode with Vala. "And that is the stargate. The gate room has seen a great deal of action. I've fallen down that ramp more times than I care to recall. You can hear more about that later though since we only have fifteen minutes left. See ya later, Walter."

He led the way out and took them briefly by the infirmary to prove that the equipment was the highest quality was the care though he still missed Janet's presence and attitude. He then stopped off on the floor which held his office and let them glance in before leading them to Sam's lab. She wasn't present and he guessed Jack had sent her up to the cafeteria already. Just to confirm that, he stopped by the gym where Teal'c usually was and found that he was absent as well. He checked his watch then and headed for the mess. As he had expected, the rest of SG-1 was waiting for him, though the smirk on Jack's face told him he had just barely beat him.

"Slowing down in your old age?" Jack asked impudently.

Daniel just rolled his eyes. "So what's today's poison?" he teased. The food was actually pretty good here, considering what the meals had been like when he had first come to the SGC.

Jennifer was amused by the dynamics displayed here on their home ground by the Jack and his people. Despite the relaxed atmosphere, she could tell that everyone had a watchful air about them and a competence that spoke of too much experience with violence, in her opinion at least. However, she also felt relief that the fate of the world was in the hands of these people. She watched as Jack devoured a bowl of Jell-O and tried to snitch food from the plates of his friends. Daniel glared at him but accepted the theft. Sam smacked his hand, not showing quite as much equanimity with the situation but obviously accustomed to such behavior. Teal'c, however, leveled a glare at the man and said, "O'Neill, if you wish to eat ice cream, you must get your own."

Jack leaned toward his mother and sister and said conspiratorially, "He is very protective of his ice cream."

Teal'c's smirk told them that he had heard the remark clearly but he continued to protect his treat.

"So can you now tell us the full story of how all of you me and what goes on here now that I am in a place where there is no chance of the wrong person overhearing? Please?"

Jack smiled. "I suppose… Would you mind if we continued this conversation in Teal'c's room? It is more comfortable and there is always the chance I will have to rush back to the control room, especially since there are still two teams off world. You don't mind, do you, big guy?"

"I do not, O'Neill. You are always welcome there."

They took their dishes up to the counter and then headed out together. This time they were in march formation, with Teal'c on point followed by Jack, then Kathy, then Jennifer, then Daniel, with Sam on their six. They walked in single file, so as to keep the hallway mostly clear, though they had been known to walk two abreast when there were only the four of them.

Once there, they all settled on cushions on the floor as Teal'c lit some candles before turning off the light. The four friends looked at each other then, share a silent conversation before Daniel spoke up. "I guess I'll begin. A long time ago there were people we call the Ancients, and they are the ones who built the stargate system. They are also known as the Sidhe and are the people who lived in Atlantis. Then, for whatever reason, some of them discovered ascension, going to a higher level of existence not in any way connected to the biblical term. A bunch of them left earth, taking Atlantis with them. Then some time later the Goa'uld showed up. Jack tends to call them snakeheads because they look like snakes but are actually sentient parasites which enter a host at the back of the neck. Humans are their most common host now but they have also used various aliens in the past.

"The one that showed up was none other than Ra, whom I'm sure you've heard of. He enslaved humans, as did the others with him, and they all deported a bunch to various planets where they were made to be slaves. Some became Jaffa, who are warriors in whose stomachs larval goa'uld are implanted to take the place of an immune system. Eventually the people rose up against their 'gods' and drove them out and buried the stargate. Oh, and by the way, the pyramids were made to be landing ports for the alien spacecraft. Anyway, in the forties some archeologists found the stargate and dug it up. They spent years trying to figure it out but only got it to open once; the man they sent didn't return… When I was brought in years later to translate, I had just gotten laughed at because of my theory that the pyramids are older than they were dated at. I figured out in two weeks what they had been working on for two years, mostly because of my linguist abilities and luck. Then Jack was brought in.

Jack took up the tale. "I had just lost Charlie at that point and was definitely suicidal. I was told to take a team through the wormhole and find out what was at the other end and then blow it up if there was danger to earth. I was not a nice man at the time. We ended up on a planet called Abydos. Daniel admitted after we got there that he didn't know the address for earth so we were stuck until further notice. However, he did manage with a lot of charades to pick up the language of the natives. Yes, I am good at languages as you now know but at the time I truly didn't care so there was no point. I didn't even really listen to them speak at the time so it wasn't until I got back that I actually learned the language, sort of remembering what was said in my dreams and nightmares I suppose. So Danny got to know them and even inadvertently was married to a native girl, Shauri. I got to know her younger brother Skaara, mostly because he wouldn't leave me alone. Then Ra arrived and we ended up in trouble. Danny got himself killed stepping in the way of the shot that should have killed me. However, he had already fascinated Ra so I was knocked unconscious and thrown in a dungeon with a few others while he was revived by a sarcophagus. He then proceeded to free, Charlie, Lou and me with the help of the natives. Then, when I was getting the bomb ready to blow up the stargate, Daniel talked some since into me about living. Some of the details are cloudy now but Ra stole the bomb and tried to send it to earth and it was rigged so it couldn't be turned off. Then Shauri got killed by some of the Jaffa so Daniel took her up to the ship to revive her and when he returned, we together sent the bomb up to the ship, which was heading into orbit, and blew it to kingdom come. Daniel decided to stay with Shauri but he had figured out how to get the rest of us back to earth so we told the General that he died and the other gate was gone."

"I got the others to help me bury the gate and I had a great time living among the natives and learning to be one of them. Then a year later we unburied it. I had found a bunch of gate addresses, they are made up of constellation symbols, by the way, and was trying to open the gate but I couldn't. Then one day a Kleenex box came flying through the gate and I knew it was Jack's doing."

"Well you do have horrible allergies, Daniel."

"I can't help it. Besides, I adjusted quite well to the desert. Remember, I was born and raised in Egypt."

Kathy shook her head at the two of them and said to Sam, "Are they always like this?"

"Worse, usually. When we are on missions, Daniel starts lecturing on all the significance of the findings and Jack retorts by garbling the names of everyone we meet whom he takes a dislike to, which is almost everybody."

"Well, I'm usually right, aren't I? We meet people, I distrust them, they betray us, we blow them up. I've made some horrible judgments along the way, I know, but we have somehow survived and I don't know how, and I'm not talking about the Nox and sarcophagi either." His face held a guilty expression, only recognizable as such by those who knew him best.

"Jack, get off it. You are not responsible for all the ills of the universe. You've made mistakes, we've made mistakes. Moving on I thought we were planning on telling your family some of our adventures." Daniel stressed the last word and watched as Jack rearranged his facial expression to better hide the guilt.

"Okay, so I spent a year of peace after Abydos. I started getting interested in Astronomy again and got out my telescope, searching for Abydos. Then I got called in by the Air Force. They told me that the gate had reopened and someone had been kidnapped. General Hammond assumed, of course, that it was Ra and we had lied about everything. He was half right. It was a guy named Apophis. We didn't know that at the time of course so Hammond threatened to send a bomb to Abydos to eliminate the threat. Finally I gave in and told the real story. He wanted to send a MALP through but I told him I had a better idea and threw in the box of Kleenex, knowing Daniel would then know it was me. We went through after he returned the box but shortly afterward, Apophis came to Abydos and kidnapped Sha're and Skaara. Lou had seen the address he had used to leave and we went after them. We were too late, they were both made hosts. That means they had no control over their bodies, they were just observers to the evil the snakes perpetrated through their bodies. Teal'c was the leader of the Jaffa but he defected to our side and saved us so we brought him back with us."

Teal'c broke in to share his perspective. He knew better than the others the feeling of guilt Jack had. He had done a great deal of evil in his time in the name of Apophis. "I was first prime of the dead false god Apophis. My mentor had tried to convince me of the falsehood of my god yet I had no way or real plans for breaking my allegiance. O'Neill spoke to me when I was ordered to kill him and all the others that were prisoners. Together we defeated the other Jaffa and escaped. O'Neill brought me back here and trusted me, despite knowing what I was and what I had done."

Sam decided it was time for her to put in her own two cents worth. "I had been working on figuring out the stargate for quite awhile before Daniel was brought in. I wanted to go on that first expedition but wasn't permitted. When it reopened I expected General, then Colonel, O'Neill to be one of those male chauvinists and said as much to him. He eventually proved to me that it wasn't my sex that bothered him but the fact that he had never worked with me before so didn't know all my strengths and weaknesses. I guess that's because he had sisters. I just had a brother whom I didn't get along with. After the mission to bring Daniel back, I was chosen by the Colonel for his team along with Daniel and Teal'c. It's worked out amazingly well."

"Apart from all your technobabble, Carter." Jack wore a sly smile on his face and she gaped at him for a moment as she remembered that he was just as good with computers and scientific language as she was.

"You are sooo dead, sir!" She exclaimed. It had taken her years to get out of military deference mode with him, but she had come to realize that he would respect her more if she made her opinions clear.

"Yeah, yeah, all talk, no action. Let's see you take me down in the gym! Aht, but no attacking the knee. I know you are trained to take advantage of weaknesses but do you really want me out of operation because of a frigging operation for the next few months?"

Sam sighed in annoyance. It would be so nice to take the general down, but she doubted she could do it without causing far too much pain on both their parts. She had the advantage of youth and continued combat experience while he had the whole covert ops deal under his belt. "Some other time, perhaps. We don't want to scare the lovely people."

Jack snorted at that sally and said, "Just for that, how 'bout you tell them some tales from beyond the wormhole." Just then the alarms went off and Jack was paged. "Stay here and tell them about some of these alarms. I'll be back in a few, I hope." He got back to his feet with agility that belied his years.

When he got to the control room, SG-12 was coming in hot. He sent out a call for the medical team and once the iris was closed went down to check on his people. They had a variety of injuries but none seemed fatal, much to his relief. After setting up a time for the debriefing, he headed back to Teal'c's room but was intercepted by Siler, who informed him that there was something going on with the computers and he needed Colonel Carter. Jack sighed in annoyance and decided it was time for some things to change. "Let's go." He led the man, still protesting, to his office, which was connected to all the systems in the mountain, even NORAD. There he began typing and scanning the computer. The man he had caught had been better than most and had managed to insert a virus that would infect any computer that hacked into his. Well, the man might have been good, but he was better, and he quickly managed to harness it and fix the damage, thanks to the layers of backup files he had included when he had been programming the computers. There were so many levels that a virus could never reach them all.

By the time he turned around with a flourish, Siler's face had taken on an expression of speculation. However, the sergeant merely said, "Thank you, General. It won't get out from me."

Jack nodded and got up, heading back to his friends again. "Nothing major," he said casually. "No fatalities but a few staff burns. How far did you get?"

Kathy spoke up. "You came close to death way too many times, Jack. Why…?"

"Why didn't I just break down and contact you? Stupidity, I guess. I figured it hurt less if someone you didn't know well died."

"Jack! How can you say that? Maybe I don't know you quite as well as they do now, but I am still your sister and it will always hurt. It devastated me not to hear from you. I knew you were alive but that was all. It terrified me when you went missing for three months."

All four teammates gaped at her. That was one tale that they hadn't gotten around to telling her yet. "How did you…oh yeah. I'm surprised you didn't try storming the SGC or something. Heck, why didn't you? Getting mellow in your old age?"

Kathy rolled her eyes at her brother. She felt as though she were a teenager again, with Jack alternately annoying and protecting her. "I was on the verge of it but I had one of my dreams. I hadn't dreamt of you in years, not since before…but then when I was getting ready to panic because you hadn't done your monthly check in, I dreamed about you trying to dig a hole. You didn't seem to be hurt or a prisoner so I did my best to relax. I had another dream a month later and one more after that and then a few days later I got another one of your little teaching tidbits and decided it was not worth it to try interrogating you so I just wrote you a letter saying I hoped you were well and the kids were great, etcetera. So? Tell all!"

Jack sighed and told that tale, emphasizing the amount of work Sam and Daniel and put them selves through and the danger Teal'c had put himself into. He had read the reports and heard the news from everybody when he had returned. Then he began to tell them about his covert ops mission he had been forced into immediately on his return and how he had betrayed his friends' trust in order to catch the bad guys.

"Hammond gave me very little time after I returned from Edora. I just had time to shower before I ended up in his office with him informing me that I had to do this. Then Thor showed up and since I owed him for saving me from that download... Uh, I'll tell you about that after this. So the first thing I had to do was go home and make sure my house was proof against anyone snooping around to set bugs and all. Then I had to stretch my acting abilities so that everyone around me would be convinced that being stuck off world for three months had changed me irrevocably. It was hard, since I was so glad to be back among my friends, with ordinary conversation and beer.

"So we got our mission to go speak with the Tollan. They are real snobs with the whole 'we are so far superior to you that you should feel honored to speak to us and kiss our feet' attitude. That was really horrible because I knew Danny had just spent a great deal of time and energy writing a speech to convince the idiots that we were worthy of their attention and to be told how to make their technology. I acted like a first class jerk at the earliest possible moment and then paused on the way out to steal one of their devices. All part of the 'Master Plan' we had worked out, of course. Stage two was the opportunity to yell at Hammond, which I did appreciate since I needed some way to vent my frustration at being used like this. When you guys showed your loyalty to me, it made me feel even worse since the way I was acting I definitely didn't deserve it and I knew that I would have to be horrible to you to put you out of harm's way.

"And I did, Mom. I threatened Teal'c, insulted Sam, and basically told Daniel to get the heck out of my life because I had never liked him anyway. That last part was at my house when he came by to see how I was doing since I had been 'fired.' He took my crap and left and then Maybourne showed up. I knew my house was bugged, since his bugs were so amateur even an idiot could see them. He 'approved' of me and so I was recruited into their 'secret' organization and told that if I betrayed them, I would disappear. Of course I did betray them. After I saw that Makepeace was our mole, and that he had been given charge of SG-1, I left a calling card for Thor which had the address of the traitors' planet and went back, with the Asgard not far behind. Thor opened the iris for me since I didn't dare smuggle a GDO, that's a garage door opener, with me. Then I went to earth and held the gate open waiting for the agents to follow, since their only choices were to be beamed up or come through the gate to wherever I had opened it.

"The worst part was trying to get back into everyone's good graces. I guess I was kinda popular because a lot of people came up to me after everything had been explained to thank me for getting us back on good terms with our alien allies. They do have big guns after all, and even though they rarely helped us except on their own terms, if they thought we were a threat to them they could do us some major damage. It was awhile, though, before I could convince my team that I was not and never had actually been the bad guy. I still feel bad for the words I had to use to keep them from interfering…" He broke off with a sigh and looked down at his hands.

Jennifer and Kathy eyed the rest of the audience, who had apparently never heard Jack's side of the story before. Daniel and Sam looked devastated, and the exasperated women did the only thing they could think of. Rising as one, they grabbed the two friends and pushed them toward Jack. Proving they were as smart as they claimed, both reached out to hug him, which resulted in his falling backward beneath the onslaught. This served to stem any hint of tears as all in the room began to laugh.

"With friends like these, who needs enemies?" Jack gasped out between chuckles.

"You have more than enough enemies. Geez, is there any system lord you haven't ticked off?"

"Is there any we haven't met yet? Heck, I probably tick them off just by existing so I guess that's a no." He looked down at his watch, suddenly exhausted. "Huh, it's time to go home. Grab what you need and let's head to my house to finish this discussion. Um, that means you have to get off me. Argh!"

He was helped to his feet and they headed out, this time in a more disorderly fashion. The only team still out had gone to the Alpha site so he felt no remorse in leaving. They left in three vehicles: Jennifer with Jack, Kathy with Sam, and Teal'c with Daniel.

Teal'c reflected on the division of people and pointed it out to his younger friend. He was not normally given to idle conversation but this was a conversation way overdue so he began with an 'innocent' remark. "It is good to see JenniferO'Neill and KathyLarson again. O'Neill's mother will speak to him about this guilt."

Daniel thought about that. "You know, I'd forgotten that she was a psychiatrist. That's handy."

"Indeed. O'Neill carries much guilt," he hinted again, very broadly.

"Teal'c. You think we were harsh to Jack."

"I killed your wife. I have perpetrated many crimes in the name of my leader over the many years. Do you hate me for this?"

Daniel sighed and kept his eyes on the road, pondering Teal'c's words before he answered. "For a time in the beginning I resented you for choosing my wife, but in time I came to understand you and forgive you. Then there was the incident with Ammonet and Sha're's death. But she told me to forgive you, and since I knew of the agony of guilt that comes from watching your body do something disconnected from your mind I felt the relief from her that she was no longer an instrument of evil. I don't hate you. I can't explain my reactions about Jack. I wasn't rational and I'm not sure why. It might be because I had seen him as such a hero and then he suddenly showed that he might not be the person I believed him to be. I was devastated by that betrayal, because even right after Charlie's death, when he was such a hard man, he did try to protect me. He saved my life and the world countless times. I did forgive him after he explained, but part of me never understood how he could do what he did until he let us read his black ops mission reports. I knew the rumors but the reality was different than I expected. I was such a pacifist before, you remember, and the thought of assassins always filled me with horror. Then I saw with each report a description of the people he had helped bring down. I know that he will do anything that is necessary to protect us at the expense of his soul. But I wish he didn't have to."

"Indeed."

The two friends remain silent until they neared Jack's house. Then Daniel broke the silence. "Thanks. Thank you, Teal'c. And thank you, Jack, for protecting us."