AN: Short chapters... It gets better. I promise.
The long slow haul
Things just kind of puttered along. There was the incident with the Trust. Jack had been incredibly glad he hadn't had Grace with him when he came home to Kinsey of all people wanting help. It was nice that the cat was out of the bag but they had stressed to Grace that she still needed to call her father Uncle Jack in public and around Pete. Sam still hadn't broken things off with the guy in spite of Grace's pointed remarks to her mother about leading people on.
Grace was losing patience with her mom pretty rapidly.
Oddly though their relationship settles back into friendship at least for now, Sam is still a little jumpy around him but Jack figured it was wedding jitters. She didn't say anything to him about it of course. She seemed uncomfortable with the whole topic still. He supposed that was normal. He was technically her ex and a recent one at that.
Shortly after there was that odd run in with the barber. Seemed like a really nice guy. For years Jack had just thought he had weird daydreams of a normal life. Just an average simple guy doing his job and going home at night to his wife. Maybe he had to deal with a couple chain smoking sisters-in-law or some other nonsense. The weirdest part had been how it started. He'd been talking to Sam on the phone like they used to before things got weird between them.
He noticed she called more now, at least when the cop wasn't in town. In fact, she hadn't said anything about the cop in a while. And when they do talk outside of work it's almost… normal? Like they were okay again.? Jack wasn't going to look a gift Jaffa in the mouth. Whatever had changed… well, he'd take it. He'd missed her. More than he'd ever be willing to admit.
And then while Sam is off on a mission Jacob finally shows back up. With not such great news. And then Sam and Teal'c come back sans Danny and things go from bad to worse. Evil twin Sam seemed to think Danny was the solution to all her problems regarding ancient tech. Jack was almost positive that was unlikely to be true but… well, it wasn't entirely impossible and if she found out Danny was worthless she wouldn't hesitate to kill him either.
Sam feels guilty about losing Danny to evil twin Sam. Jack tells her it's not her fault, that he told her to work with the machine to get information. If they weren't at work he'd hug her and let her cry about it as she clearly needed to but right now they didn't have time for her self blame. He did suggest using the time machine. Honestly, he had a pretty strong urge to use it right now anyway. But Sam for obvious reasons worried they might only make things worse. And Thor didn't waste any time collecting her to do something about her buggy little clone.
And for the first time Jack actually has a disagreement with Jacob but in Jack's defense, it's about Teal'c safety. Jack will sacrifice a lot of things. His friends are not on that list of things. And then the object of their argument pops in like a sleazy ex. Ba'al.
Sam pulls their fat out of the fire though. He knew she would. It's what she does. Or… he thought she had but then she's in his office cussing up a blue streak. He's actually a little impressed. And it doesn't sound like Thor can fix this. "Hungry?" He asks her.
She gives him an amused smile. He takes it as a yes and they head for the commissary.
Bocce is peeved at Jack for running late for their little meeting... which was Jack's entire point. He enjoys annoying the snake back. His delicious tuna however, no longer sits well when Bocce fills him in that Anubis is perfectly happy to use a M'Kraan[1] crystal level doomsday weapon.
Jack ends his long distance call with his least favorite snake and calls Sam and her dad into a conference. They hash out a plan and he sends them off. If anyone could solve this it was the two of them. Jack went back to his office and worried about Daniel. He hoped if evil twin Sam killed him that it would be quick and mostly painless.
But he has other problems to deal with. Replicators swarm the base and Jack has to make the call. He needs to get everyone out and orders a nuke up to drop down the hatch as it were. He's a little miffed. The novel he was reading is in his desk drawer unfinished. He and Reynolds get Siler out of his hidey hole with a bit of spontaneous disassembly of a blast door. Jack quips that he'd better be in Sly's will and the younger man quips back that he already is. Smartass.
Jack and Al group up with everyone that hasn't gotten out yet and fall back. He tells Walter on his mark to drop the hammer even if he's not out yet.
While he and Al are trying to hold the damned things off they suddenly stop dead. "That's odd." He says, they shrug at each other and go back to shooting the damned things. Of course it didn't last but the reprieve was nice whatever caused it.
Once she's dirtside, they bicker a little about Daniel's status, that he might have been why the replicators stopped for a short time. Sam still doesn't seem to believe Danny is able to squeak out of some pretty crazy situations but Jack knows Spacemonkey. He brushes her off about it but after she leaves Jack is pensive. If he was on the ship… he hoped Danny was able to ascend again.
[1] Various comic book weapons most-powerful-marvel-weapons/