Chapter 8

"Colonel O'Neill, come in."

Jack waved at the UAV circling overhead as he squeezed the radio's push-to-talk switch. "Reading you loud and clear, sir."

"Major Carter tells me you have good news," General Hammond continued.

"Oh, she's letting me be the one to surprise you, eh? Well, Jonas has been working hard and heavy but understands only about one word in three, so we could definitely use that Greek-speaker. Oh, and you can toss my retirement papers in the shredder. Again."

Hammond chuckled. "I take it you found something to renew your sense of adventure."

Jack grinned. "Not something, sir. Someone." He paused for a moment before finishing, "Daniel."

"Doctor Jackson? My god, Jack, he's there?"

"He was. Actually, if we'd been five minutes earlier, we'd have met his corporeal self at the 'Gate."

"Corporeal? Well, is the boy all right?"

He glanced at his Kelownan teammate, who seemed to be trying to explain what the UAV was to the locals. "From what Jonas has been able to determine, Daniel's suffering from amnesia. That could be a side-effect of expulsion from Oma's School for Ascended Archaeologists. The village leader, Atrus, says he appeared in a flash of light about four months ago. Didn't know his name or anything. He only remembered his name was Daniel yesterday, after talking with some chick who crashed her cargo ship here. The two of them headed out this morning, but nobody got the address."

"And you're sure it was Doctor Jackson?"

"Ninety-nine-point-nine-with-one-of-Carter's-repeating-decimals-percent sure. They put him at Jonas' height, build, and coloring, but blue eyes and trouble seeing distance or at night."

"It's a big galaxy, son," Hammond cautioned.

"Yeah, well besides remembering his first name, his parting gift to the villagers was a wood-carving he told them he wasn't sure but thought meant 'home' or 'family'. I can't tell you how utterly tickled I am that the engraving was clearly a unit patch for SG-1."

"That's incredible, son!" He couldn't see the general gaping, but could definitely hear it in his voice. "But no idea where he or the cargo ship's pilot went?"

"No, sir, but I'd like to leave a GDO with these folks. Apparently, Daniel promised them he'd come back to visit someday, though they don't know how long he'll be gone."

"I'll send one through with Major Carter," Hammond assured him. "Anything else?"

"Not much yet. Carter hasn't dug in the dirt any and there's the wreckage of that cargo ship to inspect, though I doubt we'll get anything out of that since it was blown up to keep Jaffa from asking too many questions. Jonas and I are going to keep on making nice with the natives until Carter and Teal'c get back."

"Keep me posted," the general ordered, then signed off the connection.

Casting another glance at the reconnaissance drone continuing on its pre-programmed flight, Jack rested his hands atop the butt of his P90 and walked over to Jonas and Atrus. "How's it going?" he asked casually.

The younger man looked up. "Oh, well enough, I guess. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this language." He broke into yet another grin. "Atrus was just telling me how Doctor Jackson jumped into a river to save a boy from drowning."

"He's good at that sort of thing," Jack commented.

"Yeah," Jonas replied, flinching almost imperceptibly. He was probably thinking of a similar situation, when Daniel had leapt to the rescue of his whole planet... and died painfully as a result.

Inwardly, the colonel winced, but he wasn't about to let anything spoil his good mood. Laying a hand on the Kelownan's shoulder, he squeezed gently. "You're doing a great job, Jonas. I know I haven't said it often--well, maybe not ever--but that doesn't mean it's not true."

Jonas beamed. "Thank you, Colonel. That... uh, that means a lot to me. Really."

"Zhek-sen?" Atrus questioned.

"Uh, Doctor Daniel Jackson," Jonas clarified, stumbling over another string of vaguely-Grecian words. He tapped his own chest, "Jonas Quinn," then pointed at the team leader, "Colonel Jack O'Neill."

"Zhek?" the village leader asked.

"That's me," Jack replied.

Atrus and Jonas exchanged a few more words, a smile spreading across the older man's face. "He says, uh, that you and Da--Doctor Jackson must have been very close friends."

"When I wasn't being an ass," Jack agreed. "Don't translate that one, Jonas."

The village leader seemed to understand without interpretation, or perhaps saw something in Jack's expression he recognized. Solemnly, he clasped the colonel's left arm, looking up at him and offering a short statement which ended with a knowing smile. Then a villager called to him, so he excused himself and walked away.

"I'm sorry, Colonel, I didn't quite catch what he said."

Jack shrugged, having got the gist of it without understanding a word of the language. "I did. Basically, he just said that any true friendship with Daniel would have to be a very complicated one." He grinned. "But worth it."

"Oh."

Shaking his head, Jack gave the village another look-around, noting for the first time that no one was taller than five-eight or nine. Daniel must have stuck out like a dark blond sore thumb, he realized. In typical fashion, though, he probably fit right in anyway.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of his teammate practically twitching. "Spit it out, Jonas," he offered casually.

"I'd always been told--thought you and Doctor Jackson were close," the younger man admitted.

Jack shrugged. "It's like Atrus said, friendship with Daniel is complicated. I mean, the guy's nice with pretty much everyone and everything he's ever met that wasn't a snake, but there's a difference between acquaintances and friends." He blew out a loud breath. "Still, there were times when I was a grade-A asshole to him... but of course, he could be self-righteous bastard, too."

"Sounds complicated," Jonas agreed. He shuffled his feet a little. "Colonel, when he comes back--"

"I like that," Jack grinned. "You said 'when' not 'if' 'cause it's definitely a 'when' thing. A when-win situation."

Jonas smiled again, but his eyes weren't in on it. "When Doctor Jackson comes back, will I be transferred to another team or... uh..."

The colonel froze. "Look, Jonas... just because we know Daniel's alive doesn't mean he's going to step back onto SG-1 like he never left. For one thing, we don't even know where he is right now. For another, Atrus said he doesn't remember much of anything other than two languages and a few vague images. I'm not so small-minded as to think all those ancient scribbles and cultures crammed into his skull were the be-all-and-end-all of his contributions to the team, but they were still very important. Until he can show me he's the same stubborn genius he's always been, he won't be allowed out in the field... not on my team, not on anyone else's."

The younger man swallowed heavily. "Oh. I just thought..."

"What?"

"I just thought you'd want your friend back on your team, that's all."

Jack sighed. "Believe me, I do. But there's one thing I guess I haven't made clear to you yet, and it's long overdue: you've earned it. It shouldn't even have taken me almost a year to spit it out, but you've earned your place on this team. When--and again, I'm stressing that it's 'when' not 'if'--Daniel comes back and remembers all those obscure things that practically no one else in the known universe does, we'll look at making SG-1 a five-man team. Hell, the combined brain power of you, Carter, and Daniel should be enough IQ to start your own version of MENSA."

The Kelownan gaped. "Really? I mean, you'd let me stay on your team?"

"Our team, Jonas," he corrected. "And if for whatever crazy reason Hammond won't let us have a five-man team, I'll resign and let Carter take command. But as Teal'c would probably say, 'let us traverse that overpass when we arrive at it.'"

If anyone had told Jack a year ago that he would take such delight in seeing Jonas smile--really, truly smile--he'd have probably socked them in the eye and dared them to say it again. If losing Daniel had taught him nothing else, it was that life was too short and unpredictable. Maybe if he'd tried putting a smile on Daniel's face more often, the younger man wouldn't have...

Well, actually Daniel probably still would have disarmed the naquadria bomb with his bare hands. But he might also have let Jacob Carter try to heal him, rather than throwing in the towel and floating off to the Great Glowing Beyond with Oma Desala. What's done was done, though, and it took attempting to re-retire yet again to mellow Jack out enough to tell Jonas some of the things he should have said to Daniel, too. He was turning into a sap in his old age.

"Oh, and Jonas? Don't tell anyone I'm being nice to you. I have a reputation to maintain, after all."

That was better.


Author's Notes:
//wicked grin// Of COURSE I'm going to make you wait another day to find out what's going on with Vala and Daniel.