The rest of the afternoon had proceeded without incident. Minor disagreements and bickering broke out from time to time but the slightest move or sound from General O'Neill brought everyone back into focus. As a matter of fact things moved along so smoothly that the man in question became bored and would cough and shift in his seat just to see the reactions of the others in the room until Daniel caught on and kicked him under the table.
Much to Jack's chagrin the meeting went on longer than initially planned and he and Daniel ended up missing the last transport of the day and instead were booked into a nearby hotel.
At 1 o'clock that morning Daniel was reviewing some of the work from earlier in the day. Deciding that a military perspective would be helpful he proceeded across the hall to get Jack's input. He knocked on the door a few times.
"Jack? Jack come on, you're light's on. Jack? Jack…" Despite receiving no acknowledgement Daniel kept banging on the door until the door to his right opened to reveal a bleary eyed middle-aged woman.
"Excuse me! Some of us are trying to sleep."
"Oh! I'm sorry," Daniel juggled the folders in his hand and pushed his glasses up his nose, "I just needed to talk to my friend…"
The woman appeared disinterested, "Well he's not answering and I'm trying to sleep."
Daniel blustered, "Uhhhh right. I'm sorry. Ummm…"
The woman rolled her eyes and let out a long suffering sigh, "You're friend tall, short grey hair, air force t-shirt?"
Daniel looked at her in grateful surprise, "Uh, yes, I mean probably. He wasn't in a t-shirt when I saw him last but he is in the Air Force and has Air Force t-shirts and everything else sounds like him so…"
The woman held up her hand to silence Daniel's blabbering, "He was walking toward the elevator when I came in around 10. He had a water bottle, looked like he was going for a run or something."
"Oh, uh thank you." Daniel nodded in appreciation while the woman shook her head in annoyance and disappeared back behind her door.
A few minutes later Daniel found Jack alone in the hotel gym, pushing full speed on the elliptical.
"There you are Jack…" Daniel called from the door but received no response from his friend. Jack was focused with an intensive glare at some invisible spot in front of him. Daniel came closer and waved his hand at Jack, hoping to catch his attention but when that didn't work he called out again, "Jack. Jack? Jack!"
At last the General finally noticed Daniel in the room, "Daniel?" He panted.
Daniel stepped over to look at the machine's digital display, "Jack, you've been on here for over 3 hours!"
"Huh?" Jack shook his sweat slicked head and looked down to the display. "Oh, yeah." He acknowledged distractedly.
Daniel shook his head, "It's after 1am Jack, do you really need to be running?"
Jack slowed his pace down to a cool down and shrugged as he brought his shirt up to wipe his face.
Daniel shook his head but decided to let Jack's midnight marathon and whatever its cause was go for now. "Jack, I was looking for you because I wanted to run this by you; it's the paragraph defining non-combatant science team…Jack? Jack! Are you listening at all?"
Jack stepped off the machine and shook his head. "No, No I'm not Daniel." He was still breathless but his tone was distant and disinterested.
Daniel huffed in annoyance as Jack rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms before refilling his water bottle at the fountain. "Damnit Jack! You thought this was important this afternoon! You're the one who got the ball rolling on this whole thing; you can't just act like you don't care and leave me to deal with it on my own!"
"DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT?!" Jack whipped around and shouted at Daniel who stepped back a stepped and held up both hands. Jack eyes widened as he processed his over reaction and immediately deflated, turning back to the water fountain.
Daniel tried to get his mental whiplash under control. "Okay…What was that about?" He asked.
Jack ran his hand over his forehead, "Nothing, forget about it. Let me see what you've written." He turned back around with a forced smile on his face and held out his hand for the folder which Daniel immediately pulled back up against his shoulder, eyes wide and curious.
"Uhhh…no. Don't think so."
"Daniel, come on, let me see it." Jack gestured with irritation.
"No Jack, not until you tell me what the heck is going on."
"Nothing is going on."
"I think something is."
"Well it isn't."
"Is."
"Isn't"
"Is.
"Gah! Whatever Daniel." Jack picked up his water bottle and left the gym, rolling his eyes as Daniel scrambled to follow him in to the elevator.
"Jack, seriously. What is this all about? The late night distracted exercise session? Randomly shouting at me? I'm not an idiot; I'm friend and even if I wasn't it'd be pretty clear there's something on your mind."
Jack shook his head and exited the elevator heading to his room. Daniel followed him down the hall, pushing past him as Jack unlocked and opened his door.
"No, please, why don't you come in? Make yourself comfortable." The general sarcastically offered after Daniel was already sitting in the room's desk chair.
He shut the door but stood with arms crossed looking on in annoyance at his best friend. Daniel just stared back matching Jack's crossed arms and obviously waiting for a response. The two men stared in silence for a minute before Jack sighed, "Daniel, it's really late. I have to shower and get to bed."
Daniel didn't move.
"Daniel…" If anyone doubted that a Brigadier General would whine obviously hadn't been around this particular general when he was annoyed by this particular archeologist / linguist.
Daniel just raised his eyebrows.
Jack pouted. "Fine, I'm taking a shower and going to bed. I hope you are comfortable in that chair."
5 minutes later Jack emerged from the bathroom, a towel around his waist and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Daniel was no longer in the chair.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold it!" Daniel's shouts caused Jack to groan and freeze his hand where it had been about to release the towel from his waist.
He turned to see Daniel leaning back against the headboard of the room's only bed surrounded by his folders and papers. Jack let out a heavy sigh, "Daniel, please, it's late and I'm tired. Do you need to be such a pain in the ass now? Can't it wait until morning?"
Daniel cocked his head to the side and pushed his glasses up his nose, "May be you wouldn't be so tired if you didn't just go on a 3 hour run."
Jack rubbed his face vigorously with both hands. "You're not leaving, are you?"
Daniel looked down at the paper in his hands, "Not until we talk about whatever is bugging you."
Jack glared at the bespectacled man on the bed. "Fine." He spat out with a smug smirk. He turned around and dropped his towel before making a show of bending over to put on his sweat pants.
"Awww! Jack! C'mon! Old man butt! No one wants to see that!"
Jack pulled his pants up and turned back to frown at Daniel, "Old man butt?! Really Daniel? I'll have you know that I have it on good authority that I have a very cute butt."
Daniel groaned, "I really don't want to hear it Jack…I don't care how annoyed you are at me right now; that was hardly a proportional response!"
"You're in my room Daniel! " Jack gesticulated around.
Daniel forced his fingers under his glasses and rubbed his eyes vigorously. Jack smirked in victory and dropped into the desk chair. "Hammond's looking to retire in the near future."
Daniel dropped his hands from his face and looked at Jack, "What?"
Jack shrugged matter-of-factly, "It's what's on my mind. Hammond wants to retire in the near future."
Daniel's brow crinkled in confusion and he nodded slowly, "I know…we talked about it a little throughout the little adventure of ours on the Prometheus. So he told you today he's actually going to do it then? Okay. I guess that could be cause for reflection…" he trailed off, and looked to Jack, expecting more explanation for his mood.
Instead of offering more words Jack just looked pointedly at Daniel, willing him to figure it out to which Daniel tilted his head and leaned forward, confusion on his face. After a minute of silence Daniel pursed his lips and squinted at Jack who raised his eyebrows. Daniel mirrored him and raised his eyebrows to which Jack nodded solemnly in response.
"Really?!" Daniel asked.
Jack nodded again, "Really." After a beat of silence Jack looked back and forth, "I mean as long as your really means what my really means…" he pointed back and forth between the two of them and then stopped, seeming to confuse himself.
Daniel ignored him but sat straight up, "You're replacing him here in Washington."
Jack sighed and resumed his serious and slightly grumpy posture, "Maybe. Nothing's for sure. Hammond just knows that the president is open to the conversation."
Daniel nodded in understanding, "Because of today. You impressed him."
Jack shrugged non-committedly.
"Wow." Daniel's gaze was unfocused, his mind visibly working through the scenario, "That's…wow Jack. I can see why you'd have a lot of thinking to do and some nervous energy to burn off."
Jack sneered, "I'm not nervous."
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, not now thanks to a little 30 mile jaunt. Good thing they had an elliptical, you're knees would be killing you tomorrow if you did all that on a treadmill."
Jack rolled his eyes and got up to grab a glass of water.
"So what are you going to do?"
"Hrm?" Jack turned back around to see Daniel staring at him intently.
"Are you going to take the job?"
Jack shrugged, returning to the chair. "I don't really have a choice. It's an order from the president."
Daniel pursed his lips, "You could quit."
Jack's eyebrows flew up, "Quit? You'd want me to do that?"
Daniel shook his head, "No, no, no. That's not what I mean. I just mean that they've let a civilian run the program before so you could stay in Colorado. I can't imagine that you want to move to DC." Daniel paused, a sudden look of a thought crossing his mind, "Unless you do…or rather you'd like to move away from Colorado Springs…?"
Jack narrowed his eyes, "No Daniel, I don't want to leave Colorado Springs, for any reason." He sighed and scrubbed his hands through his still damp hair, sending water droplets everywhere, including Daniel's papers. The linguists scowled for a moment but said nothing.
"Honestly Daniel, I don't think it matters. If I want to remain in the program, civilian or not the President is going to be able to dictate my assignment and if he and Hammond want me in DC than DC is where I'm going to be. The only other choice would be to retire and leave the program in its entirety and I don't really think that's something either they or I are willing to accept."
Daniel nodded in understanding, "So you're leaving then…wow."
Jack rolled his eyes, "Not leaving really…just moving. I'm still going to be involved and will come around for holidays and important events. I've been thinking of buying a Cessna or something anyway; I'll be back and forth all the time. Besides, nothing is definite yet and won't be for a while yet. Hammond still needs to talk with the president,"
"Which they probably did tonight." Daniel interrupted.
Jack sighed, "Maybe. But even still, we need to find a replacement for the SGC and transition plans need to be set in place. Nothing is going to be happening quickly. This isn't like when I took over at the SGC; I already was familiar with everything on base and Weir was needed ASAP in Antarctica. We won't be able to fast track this one and there is no need to so how about we just calm down and keep this between us for now?"
Daniel stared back, "You don't want to tell Teal'c or Sam?"
Jack shook his head, "Not until everything is settled. A new CO can be a stressful thing and Carter already has a lot on her mind what with Anubis being a pest, still settling in to her own command not to mention Cassie's graduation and planning her wedding. And you know how Teal'c worries."
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Jack…we can't not tell them. They'll want to know. If you're going to DC we've got to plan a team thing or something."
"And we will Daniel. Just not now." Jack snapped, getting irritated.
Daniel sighed, "Fine. But I don't have to like it."
"Much like I haven't liked this conversation from the start." Jack grumbled.
Daniel glared at him but didn't move. Just as Jack was calculating how hard it would be to physically toss Daniel from the room Daniel sat up straight again as if struck with an idea. He looked at Jack quizzically.
"Whaaat?" Jack dragged the word out, certain he was not going to like the answer.
"So, Sam's wedding…"
Jack ran his hand down his face, yup, he wasn't going to like where this was going.
"…is it still going to happen as planned?"
Jack gaped at Daniel who looked back as if his question was the simplest thing in the world. Jack shook his head, two could play at that game, "What a stupid question Daniel. Why wouldn't it and how would I know otherwise?"
Daniel shrugged, "I just figured that perhaps with this change that other things might change too…open opportunities and avenues that weren't there before; that perhaps you never thought could happen…"
Jack took a deep breath in through his nose while staring daggers at Daniel. "Daniel. Let me set this straight. That's not going to happen because there is nothing to change. Nothing that is happening with me in the near or distant future has an impact on what is going on with Carter's personal life. Got it? I think it's really time you go now. It's obvious that lack of sleep is making you stupid."
Daniel shook his head and started gathering his papers. "Fine Jack. I'll leave and let you get some peace but you should know that I know…so instead of giving yourself a heart attack just talk to me, okay? Even if I'm annoying I am your friend and I do care."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jack shooed an aggravated Daniel to the door but at the last minute grabbed his friend's shoulder, "Leave the thing you wanted me to look at. I'll give you notes at breakfast."
"Oh…Okay. Thanks." Daniel stumbled through his arms' contents finally pulling out a folder and handing it over.
Jack took the folder and looked Daniel square in the eye, "Thank you." He said with more gravitas than a simple folder was worth. Daniel nodded, understanding his true meaning and walked across the hall to his own room. "And get some sleep!" Jack whisper shouted as Daniel disappeared behind his door.
Jack got himself situated in bed but it was still a long time before he was able to follow his own order and fall asleep.
