Author's Note: About the question about Jesse's height (6'8") I think that was a typo. I'm pretty sure that I meant something more along 6' or 6'2" -ish. Thanks for catching that for me. Thanks for all the reviews. Enjoy the chapter and please R/R

Summary: When Jesse is cleared to leave the SGC, Jack takes him home. But how well do the two adjust?

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Chapter Three:

Father and Son

Jesse was lying with his back on a board holding him up as he was scanned. He had never had a MRI before. It was both scary and exhilarating all at the same time that Jesse didn't know what to make of it. He didn't know why they were scanning him. He hadn't been hurt or anything like that. He just assumed that it was protocol or something like that. But, whatever it was, he didn't care.

He found that he cared about little anymore. It was just that he had no reason to. No reason to care that they wanted to take an image of his head or that he was stuck farther than the mind would allow from his true home.

Slowly, the long bed-like board was moved out and Jesse's view changed from being that of white walls inside the machine to the dull grey of the ceiling. The moment the bed stopped, Jesse found a face leaning over him.

Dr. Janet Fraser smiled down at him. Her hands reached up to his head and undid the strap holding his head to the table. "You did a great job, Jesse."

"Thanks," Jesse responded after sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "What was that for anyway?"

Janet looked at him. She wasn't sure if he didn't realize that they could tell a Gou'ald had inhabited a body by using a MRI or he simply didn't know what a Gou'ald was enough to know that they were even symbiotes.

"Well, using something like this, we can tell if a Gou'ald symbiote has taken someone as their host," Janet explained.

"I don't understand. The Gou'ald, who are about to or already have destroyed my world, are… symbiotes?"

"Yes." Janet looked at the boy before quickly glancing at his "parents" who stood waiting in the room far above their heads. "They force people to become their hosts. Inhabit their bodies and force them to do as they wish. Their host has no control over their actions at all."

"And that's one reason you fear them. They could easily take anyone as their host. Use them in whatever way they wish?"

"Yes." Janet was surprised. She knew that, if it was true, his mother was extremely smart, but she would have never thought that he would be that perceptive or quick to understand such hard concepts.

Jesse looked back at the strange contraption that he had been in for almost twenty minutes. He wasn't one of those Gou'ald but, if they were so dangerous, it was a good precaution and he could understand why they had made him do such a thing.

"Come on," Janet told him, putting her hand on his shoulder. Jesse hopped off of the straight board and walked with Janet trough the door. She walked him back to the main section of the Infirmary and had him sit down on one of the beds.

"I'll be right back," she told him.

Jesse nodded and whispered, "Ok."

Looking around, Jesse saw nothing thoroughly interesting. Medical equipment, beds, computers, but nothing else. Not really beside the guards stationed at the doors. He looked back in the direction Janet had gone and waited for her to come back.

After a minute or two, she was back holding a tray. "Ok, now I just need to draw some blood and then you're free to go." Jesse nodded and watched her roll up his shirtsleeve. From the tray, she pulled out a long yellow rubber string. Tying it around his left arm, she grabbed an alcohol wipe and cleaned his arm.

Jesse watched her closely. Especially after she grabbed the needle. Sticking it into his vein, he cringed when he felt the slight prick. Looking at his arm, he watched the blood fill the container. Then the next one. And then the third.

"Alright, you're all done," Janet announced once she had pulled out the needle and removed the string.

"Thank-you," Jesse said to her and stood. After getting his feet flat on the ground, he smiled at her.

"No problem." When Jesse went to move around her and meet his parents, she said, "I noticed you seemed more comfortable around me than I would have expected."

Jesse shrugged and said, "You're a nice person in my reality. I figured I could trust you." Jesse smiled, showing dimples that could match his fathers. Janet smiled back at him and slapped him on the shoulder.

"Go find your parents," Janet said without even thinking about it. He was too much like them to deny the fact they truly were his mom and dad.

**Jack's House**

Jack's normal routine was to drive home by himself, walk in the house by himself, perhaps eat some dinner or something by himself, grab a beer and watch some TV by himself and, when he could no longer keep his eyes opened, go to bed by himself.

But, that night, it changed. It changed forever. He now had Jesse with him, who would be there for some time, he would think. There would be little to no more drowning his sorrows in beer bottles for that was not something he was about to show and teach Jesse.

But then there was also Sam. And the prospect of Sam spending more and more time over at his place. It was enough to no longer need the booze. That the pain might go away a bit with the idea of her being around.

Jack looked over at his son, who was already looking around with curious eyes. He smiled as he watched him thoroughly inspect the living room. He took in the couches and their arrangement. Then the TV. The windows and where they were- even their view.

Jack would assume that things were a little, maybe even a lot, different. But Jesse was acting like a child in a gigantic candy store: looking at every piece of candy with the same scrutiny that a Jeweler gives when working.

While Jesse took in every detail of Jack's house that he could find, Sam and Jack talked quietly just outside the door. They had talked in great depth during Jesse's examination. Both realized that Jesse was used to the idea of two married parents who he lived with, but, no matter how they felt, they knew that neither could move into the others house. Not even for their son.

The two had come to the conclusion that Jesse would live with Jack, in his house. On the weekends, he would stay over at Sam's or, at least, visit. All except that one. It was the easiest solution to the odd situation they had been thrown.

"Carter… just remember my offer. You can stay here whenever you'd like. Just… come over," Jack told her, watching Jesse out of the corner of his eye as he looked over the room he was in.

"Yea, I know."

"Will you ever come?" Jack asked suddenly. Sam looked at him with shook clearly showed on her face. Jack knew that she was hesitant by the idea allow but the fact that she might do it would be a whole different thing.

Jack looked up at her, his eyes showing how much he truly wanted her to say yes. Sam smiled the smile she saved for him and him only. But Jack never got his answer for, at that moment, Jesse had finished his exploration of the living room and had rejoined his parents.

"Major?"

"Yes, Jesse?"

"Will you be staying here?" Jesse asked, his tone and eyes innocent as if ignorant to the regulations prohibiting the two to ever get together.

Sam looked at Jack, his eyes asking the question. Sam smile grew said, "No, I'm not. Not today, Jesse. Actually, I should get going." Sam looked up into Jack's eyes.

His lips became a thin line as he nodded and said, "Yea. This way." Jack gestured to his left and led her to the door. "You sure you want to go now?" Jack asked once out of the ears of his son.

"Yea. Bye, sir. See ya tomorrow, Jesse."

"Bye, Major," Jesse called with a wave of his hand.

Sam gave Jack one last quick grin and stepped out of the door. Jack raised his hand with a short wave. He pushed the door closed and looked at his son. Now a permanent member of his house.

"Uh, the Air Force has settled everything with school and all. You start Monday," Jack told his son. Jesse just nodded and continued starring in his glass of Pepsi. Sighing, Jack decided he would try a different approach with him.

"So, tell me about yourself," Jack said, taking a seat next to Jesse on his couch.

Jesse finally looked away from the glass he was cradling. He shrugged and said, "Well, I like basket ball. I… was the captain of my school team." Jack nodded with approval and let him continue with his story. "I have straight A's in school. I was on the track team- cross-country. I love going snowboarding in the winter."

"How 'bout a girlfriend?" Jesse blushed and looked back at his pop. "That's a yes. You've got to tell me now."

Jesse smiled at his father, his checks becoming darker red every second. "Her name's Alyssa. She's… gorgeous. Long blonde hair and beautiful green eyes. Her smile… it's… And she's really smart… and funny and… nice." Jesse looked at his hands and the smile began to fade- his eyes showing his remembrance of what was going to happen to her. "I miss her."

Jack looked down. He too understood his feeling of loss. It must have been extremely hard on him. Just trying to understand everything was one thing, comprehending it and moving on was another.

"What about you?"

"Huh?" Jack asked, looking up to find blue eyes starring at him.

"What about you? What are you like?"

Jack shrugged and told him, "I've been in the Air Force for a long time. I… like to go fishing at my cabin. And… I don't know."

"You have a cabin up in Minnesota?"

"Yea, why?"

"You'd… I mean, my dad would take me fishing there all the time. Sometimes my mom would go, but… it was mostly just the two of us. She said we needed our "father, son bonding time" but I think she just wanted to play with her toys at her lab."

Jack laughed, remembering all the times he had tried to get Sam to go with him. But she always turned him down to work in her lab. "Good to know some things never change."

"Yea." The two stayed quiet a minute or two before Jesse asked, "Are you married?"

Jack looked at him a second. First confused, then surprised he would ask. "Well… I was married. We, uh, we had a son. His name was Charley."

"What happened?" Jesse asked, his brow creasing as he recognized the pain covering his father's face.

Jack looked up at his son. The sympathy on his face was clear but the sorrow was more pronounced. "He found… my gun. And shot himself." Blue eyes found brown ones and Jesse was instantly sorry to make him relive that part of his life.

"About a week later I was called in to command the first team to go through the Stargate. I was ready to commit suicide on that mission. But there were a few factors holding me back. When I returned, Sarah had left me."

"Sarah was your wife?"

"Yea. I retired after that. Then, a year later, the Stargate program reopened. I was recalled and put in command of SG-1," Jack explained. "I didn't met Carter until then. She's my second in command." Jesse nodded. It was different, but he could accept it.

"You're what… thirteen, fourteen?"

"Fourteen."

"Right. That would mean that Sam and I had known each other for, what, fifteen, sixteen years?"

"That's sounds about right," Jesse agreed. "My mom was a civilian scientist working for the Air Force. She and my dad met at Cheyenne Mountain, I think, working on the Stargate program."

"You mean your Stargate program has been going on for almost sixteen years?" Jack asked in disbelief.

"Yea. Well, for a while anyway. I know I've heard about it ever since I could remember. I would always listen closely to my parents talk. They would say things about the Stargate and the Gou'ald. It meant nothing to me at the time. But now I think I understand most of it."

Jack watched Jesse closely. He was a well-adjusted child considering everything he had gone through. And, considering everything, he seemed to be a good kid who had been spared the problems of the SGC for quite awhile.

"You never went to the SGC, though. Did you?" Jack asked.

"No, not that I remember. I think the only time I was ever there was when they told me about the mirror. And here of course," Jesse told him.

For a minute or so, the two said nothing. Looking over at the wall where the clock had been hung, Jesse said, "It's getting late. I should get some sleep."

"Yea, I'll see you in the morning then," Jack said, bidding him goodnight.

"Goodnight."

"'Night," Jack said, watching him raise and move away, heading to his room- cup still in hand.

He could hardly sleep. No matter how hard he tried, the unconscious bliss called sleep would not permit him to enter that night. There was something in the back of his mind that had been trying to wiggle its way forward ever since he had stepped foot in the SGC.

It was like a memory or something. It was like a dream. You knew you had one, you just couldn't remember anything about it. And it was freaking Jesse out. He had never entered the SGC before that day… or had he?

All that night, Jesse spent digging through his mind; trying to pull out anything that dealt with the SGC. Thinking hard, he couldn't remember where or how he had met Janet or Daniel. He just knew them. And no amount of searching his brain brought him any closer to solving his newest problem.

A light knock at the door told him his father had come to cheek on him. Perhaps it was time to get up. Pretending that he was asleep, Jesse rolled over on his side and put his face into his pillow. When the door opened, Jack saw him lying with his back toward him and his eyes closed.

But Jack knew better than to think that he was asleep. He had spent many nights with Charley, talking to him about whatever. And plenty of mornings were spent finding him awake, thinking about what had been discussed. The only thing would be that Charley always tried to make him think that he was sleeping soundly. And Jack could see that Jesse wasn't that different from Charley.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Jack stretched out a hand and shook Jesse's shoulder a little and said, "Jesse, wake up. You've got to get dressed."

Faking a groan, Jesse asked, "What time is it?" His voice was a perfect imitation of a sleepy child.

"0600 hours," Jack told him, his military mind forgetting to shut down but Jesse didn't seem to mind. "We have to be at the Infirmary at eight o'clock." Jesse nodded and sat up, his features covered with fatigue. Seeing that, Jack asked, "How much sleep did you get last night?"

Jesse looked at his father. He was genuinely concerned for him, just like his real father always was after long talks at night and the little sleep that followed. Jesse just shrugged and said, "Not a whole lot. Maybe I'm just not used to the bed."

Jack nodded at the excuse, knowing he wouldn't get very far if Jesse didn't want to talk about it. "Alright, why don't you hop in the shower and I'll make some pancakes."

"Ok," Jesse agreed. With little effort, he pushed back the covers and stood up, his feet barely holding him up off the ground. Moving in slow, sleepy steps, Jesse made his way to the bathroom he had been shown before while Jack just watched him leaving, shaking his head at his son.

After a freezing cold shower, Jesse felt awake enough to at least hold a conversation with his father and, perhaps, make it through whatever he needed to do at the Infirmary. He guessed that it was just Janet- or, Dr. Fraser- going over his labs and such.

"How was the shower?" Jack asked once he noticed Jesse standing in the doorway.

"Good," Jesse responded, not moving from his spot.

Jack looked away from his cooking. Jesse stood leaning against the doorframe, the jeans and shirt he wore a little big on him, but filled well. Jack smiled and looked back at his pancakes. "Have a seat, stay for a while."

Jesse smiled at the use of words: the same his father used when Jesse stood rather than sat while eating a meal. Like mentioned the previous night when he and his father were talking, he was glad some things hadn't changed. It was the little things he noticed in his new world that made it just that much easier to live with.

Jesse looked behind him at the formal dining table with eight places to sit at. Stepping back, he pulled out the closest seat and plopped himself down in it. Sitting sideways, he watched his father prepare breakfast.

Something Jesse had become accustom to at his home was every Sunday his father would prepare breakfast for his mother, him, and himself. Pancakes were traditional. It just seemed funny that that was what Jack had decided on. The only difference was the where and who since he was not in his home nor was Sam there.

With an air of confidence, Jack walked out of the kitchen with two hands filled with plates stacked with three fluffy pieces of pancakes. Setting the first down in front of Jesse, he put the second down in front of the chair next to him.

Straightening, Jack turned and went back into the kitchen to retrieve the forks and knives along with the maple syrup; no pancake could be eaten without it. Reaching out a hand, Jesse took the syrup and a set of silverware from his father before turning in his chair properly.

Opening the seldom-used bottle, he poured a modest amount of the brown syrup on his pancakes and handled the bottle over to Jack.

"That's all you're going to put on?" His father asked as he dumped twice the amount on his own. Jesse shook his head with a smiled, remembering his list of similarities. "What?"

"Nothing," Jesse said with as smile just before taking a large bit of his breakfast. Jack, too, shrugged it off and took a bit of his own food.

Jesse was three fourths of the way done with his breakfast before he asked the question that had been weighing heavily on his mind. "D-Colonel?"

"You can call me Jack if you want," he informed him, understanding his hesitance in using the title Jack- in some ways- biologically held.

"Jack? I know that you and m-Major Carter are in the Air Force together and all and that she's your second in command but… I was wondering, since she's sort of my mom, will she ever come over and visit? You know, for dinner and stuff," Jesse asked with a shrugged, not looking away from his fork poking at his food.

Jack looked away from his almost empty plate and regarded his son seriously. He knew that the question was coming, it was just a matter of time before Jesse had gotten the guts to ask. He knew he couldn't speak for Carter, but he could tell him what he thought.

"I don't know. I guess we could ask her if she'd want to come. Maybe set up some kind of…" Jack didn't want to make it sound like he and Carter were some kind of divorced parents talking out arrangements for their son but that was just how it seemed to be. "Schedule, I guess. You know, perhaps you could spend so many days at her house or she could come here for dinners on certain days."

Jesse listened to his father stutter over an idea to allow his mother some time with him and visa versa. Like Jack, he thought it sounded a lot like the two were divorced. But, in some strange way, they were. To him anyway.

"You know, we can talk to her when we see her at the mountain today," Jack continued. "Whenever," Jack finished with a shrug. Then he looked away and said, "I should probably get the dishes cleaned up and get ready."

"Um, I'll do the dishes for you. You cooked." Jesse rose and picked up the two plates and grabbed the syrup bottle before walking into the next room. That was the other part of his Sunday morning routine. His father would cook, he would clean the dishes, and his mother would help in between the two.

Without a look behind him, Jesse set the syrup in the refrigerator and began to clean their dishes.

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How'd you like the "father, son bonding"? Either way, R/R and tell me how it's going and what you think of everything.