Two other figures were waiting for him when Jack left Sam and her father. "I've got a couple more stops to make," he informed them. "then you can tell me what the Hell you need me for."

"We thought to offer our help in adjusting to this new existence," Orlin hesitantly explained.

"You don't really expect me to buy that load of bunk do you?" Jack asked Sam's former uninvited houseguest.

"No," Oma admitted with a mysterious little half-smile that Jack just knew he was going to grow to absolutely hate. "You are much more than you at first appear, Colonel."

"And suddenly the mystical monks of the Orient crap disappears as well," Jack noted with a quirk of his eyebrow.

"The Others were watching," she explained. "Now that you have made your decision, they have gone."

Jack sighed. "Wait here," he told them before stepping through yet another wall into the apartment of Dr. Daniel Jackson. The sight that greeted him was definitely not what he had expected. In fact, it was a sight that he had long since decided he would never see. Daniel was drunk. This was not the slight buzz Jack was used to seeing when it came to Daniel and booze. Daniel was, to put it bluntly, shit-faced. He sat on the floor in front of his couch with a nearly empty bottle of bourbon in his hand. An empty glass sat abandoned on the table next to a second bottle of bourbon completely empty. "Danny," Jack admonished as he reached out to touch his friend's shoulder.

"Wha'!" Daniel exclaimed as he turned towards the sound of his name losing his balance and sliding towards the floor. "Hallu'nating...drunker than I thought," Daniel mumbled as he unsteadily righted himself.

"Drunker than I thought I'd ever see you," Jack agreed. "What are you doing, Danny!"

"Gettin' drunk" Dr. Daniel Jackson, Ph.D. replied as if his current behavior made all the sense in the world.

"I see that," Jack acknowledged as he squatted down to look his friend in the eye. "Now cut it out!"

"Probably should," Daniel admitted. "Talking to hallu'nation can't be good."

"I'm not an hallucination, Daniel" Jack informed his friend. "I ascended...like Oma and Orlin."

"Right," Daniel scoffed reaching once more to bring the nearly empty bottle to his lips.

Jack concentrated all his anger on that bottle aiming it like he would a knife and suddenly, as if some invisible barrier had been removed, the bottle shattered. "I said cut it out, Daniel!"

Daniel's gaze moved from the broken neck of the bottle still in his hand to the apparent hallucination in front of him then back again before finally returning to the figure in front of him. "Jack?" Daniel asked with no small amount of disbelief and wonder in his voice.

"Yes, Daniel" Jack answered calmly.

"What are you doing here?" Daniel asked trying to decide if the label 'ghost' fit his friend best.

"Checking up on you," Jack replied. "Look, Daniel, I need you to do something for me."

"Teal'c and I'll look after Sam," Daniel instantly promised.

"Good to know, but I'm pretty sure she can take care of herself, Daniel" Jack replied. "If you are going to look after her though, I'd much prefer it if you did it sober."

"Right," Daniel agreed finally dropping the bottle. "Have you seen Sam?" he asked curiously.

Jack nodded. "She couldn't see me," Jack admitted.

"Why not?" Daniel questioned.

"She wasn't drunk out of her mind," O'Neill teased lightly.

"Umm," Daniel hedged.

"It's alright, Danny boy" Jack assured him.

"What should I tell her?" Daniel asked Jack.

"Whatever you think you should," Jack replied before turning absolutely serious. "Daniel, I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened to me now."

"What do you mean, Jack?" Daniel asked desperately trying to shake off the fog of alcohol.

"It's just a feeling I've got," Jack admitted. "Just...keep your eyes open, Danny. Oh, and if they don't believe you actually saw me tell Jacob the guest bed would have been more comfortable than the rocking chair."

"Huh?"

"Just remember, Daniel" Jack ordered impatiently.