Disclaimer: not mine.

A/N: This is it people, there is no more.

Jack had spent his evening hoping the doorbell would ring and hoping it wouldn't. Turning the television on and then turning it off again. Taking the whiskey out of the cabinet, looking at it and then regretfully choosing yet another bottle of beer instead.

He resented not being able to relax in his own house. He made sure that he did all his work on base – it wasn't as if he ever had any papers that he could take out of the mountain anyway – so his home was his refuge, where he slept and watched cartoon DVDs and did anything but think about his job. When he had nightmares after a particularly bad mission and woke up in the middle of the night, shaking and tangled in damp sheets, he'd always leave his house and go for a run, weather permitting. He preferred to work through the tension, fear and horror away from the place he lived and slept.

Except that evening Jack didn't feel like running, or going out at all. He pretended to himself that the sky threatened rain, but he knew the clouds didn't look at all threatening. He wanted to be at home in case anyone stopped by, and yet he didn't want to phone his teammates and find out what they were doing because they needed time and space, and probably didn't need their commanding officer breathing down their necks.

Except knowing and doing what was best for his team didn't stop Jack from feeling bitter. Maybe he needed noise and distractions, but no one seemed to care. He could have stayed on base for the night and heckled with the on-duty airmen, but they weren't the company he wanted.

Sometimes command could be very lonely.

So he wasn't going to phone his friends, he wasn't going to go out, and he couldn't sit still. The only course of action left to him seemed to be to pace around his house, restless as a caged animal, no matter how frustrating it might be. He felt as if he were stuck in one of those briefings that seemed to drag on for hours, listening to Daniel droning on and on about the cultural significance of a broken pot, or to Carter babbling (not mindlessly, never mindlessly, but sometimes it seemed like it) about types of ore and percentage yields and the pollutants an extraction process might (or would) release. Of course he never fidgeted around Teal'c: even when explaining some boring minutia of Jaffa life, Teal'c had a way of making people pay attention. He was a natural born teacher.

And yet Teal'c had given his son into the care of another. Jack wondered, not for the first time, how Teal'c really felt about living away from his family while he fought on another planet, ostensibly on behalf of a world that wasn't his. It was too painful for him to think about – far more painful than considering Daniel and Sam's tendency to use five words when one would do – and spurred him to make another visit to his liquor cabinet. Putting the whiskey away untouched was becoming harder each time.

When someone finally knocked on his door it was almost an anticlimax, and it wasn't hard to persuade himself to take his time in answering.

He'd expected to see all three of his teammates standing on his porch, not just Teal'c. Pleasure mingled with distaste: had they drawn straws to determine who should visit him again? But surely they wouldn't be so tactless. He felt cold: why had Teal'c come alone?

Teal'c obviously grew tired of waiting to be invited in because he finally pushed his way past Jack and headed straight for the sitting room, settling into the couch. Jack followed him, still feeling somewhat off balance, a bottle of beer clutched in one hand.

"Can I get you a –" Jack gestured with his beer and then realised his mistake, "– A soda?"

Teal'c bowed his head and Jack headed back to the kitchen, rummaging in his fridge to see what he had. After a couple of weeks off world he seriously needed to do some grocery shopping, but he found a couple of cans of coke lurking behind some rotting vegetables.

Jack returned to his friend and resisted the urge to toss the can to him – soda stains wouldn't do much for the decor – handing it to Teal'c instead. Then he sat down in a nearby chair, feeling awkward, not knowing where to start.

Overenthusiastic banter was always a good place. "So Teal'c, did ya miss me?"

Teal'c regarded him steadily. "Colonel Makepeace did not command all of my respect, O'Neill. I believe that Major Carter and Daniel Jackson felt the same way."

That wasn't the light-hearted response he'd hoped for, but was oddly comforting nonetheless. "Even before you knew Makepeace was a traitor?"

Teal'c nodded again. "Indeed."

"Cool." Jack took another swig of his beer. "Seriously though, did you miss me?"

Teal'c didn't reply but his lips curved upwards ever so slightly: Jack figured that was as much as he was going to get. "Right."

He fidgeted slightly. Though he counted Teal'c as one of his best friends, they were action-buddies, not the type who sat around and talked. Mind you, Jack didn't really sit around and talk with anyone – except for Daniel, occasionally, and that wasn't normally through choice. And Jack didn't want to come out and ask the question he really wanted the answer to, so...

"Do you feel like heading into base and sparring a little?" Jack wasn't particularly keen on the idea, but it was one way of showing Teal'c how much he appreciated his visit. If that meant letting the Jaffa beat him into a bloody pulp or, to be more realistic, leaving him bruised and aching for days, then so be it.

"I believe that would be unwise after the alcohol you have consumed, O'Neill."

Jack looked at the bottle in his hand. "Right." He took one last gulp of beer and then put it aside on the table. "So." They were silent once again, and Jack started fiddling with the clasp of his wrist-watch.

"There was no dishonour in your actions, O'Neill."

Jack felt suddenly exposed – how was that Teal'c always seemed to read his mind? – and reached back for the beer bottle. "I know that."

"As do Daniel Jackson and Major Carter."

"Sure." Jack cursed the sarcasm in his tone.

"They struggled to understand your actions on Tollana and your subsequent resignation, as did I." Jack was amazed to see that Teal'c almost looked uncomfortable – almost. "Now they need time to accept the truth."

Jack felt a spark of anger flare within him, but forced it to subside. He understand what Teal'c was saying, even if he didn't like it. Wasn't that what he'd suspected would happen all along?

"But you?" He stopped.

Teal'c made a small gesture that served to remind Jack both of Teal'c's age and his long experience in carrying out duties he found personally distasteful, even as it reproached him for needing to have matters spelt out.

"Right," Jack said. "Sorry."

Teal'c bowed his head.

Jack searched for an easier topic of conversation – there was no point in taking out his bitterness on Teal'c. "There's a late night hockey game on tonight; I don't suppose you feel like watching it?"

The glare he received in return left him in no doubt as to the Jaffa's feelings for the idea. "Great. No hockey then."

He found himself yawning slightly as he wondered how long this awkward yet enlightening conversation would last. He wasn't quite having the relaxing evening, complete with beer and pizza, that he'd hoped for. Of course he had already eaten on base, but still...

"Hey Teal'c, do you want to order pizza?"

"Only if it comes from Pizza Hut, O'Neill."

"But I prefer Domino's." Jack didn't like the faint whine that came into his voice, but decided to pretend he hadn't heard it.

"You merely prefer Domino's because they sponsor the Simpsons, O'Neill." Jack marveled at the way Teal'c could radiate smugness, all without moving a muscle.

"Your point being?" Jack stared at Teal'c, who clearly wasn't going to budge. "I have just come back from an off-world secret mission." Nope, no budging. "Fine: they have better garlic bread anyway."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Indeed."

Jack called up his local Pizza Hut to order their usual pizzas and then hung up. Again Teal'c didn't say anything. Jack wondered how Teal'c could spend so much of his time in silence: Jack found it oppressive and always felt compelled to fill it. Or maybe that was the point.

His anger suddenly seemed pointless. While part of him wanted to cultivate it and keep listening to the tiny voice that screamed about betrayal and how he had the right to take out his feelings on the people around him, he knew better. He could do better.

"Thanks buddy." Jack spoke so quietly that he wasn't sure the Jaffa would hear him. "I owe you."

Sam would have flushed and stared down at the floor, and Daniel would have embraced him in some sort of a man hug, leaving Jack feeling embarrassed and more than a little uncomfortable. Teal'c merely clasped his arm below the elbow, holding it firmly, and Jack returned the grip, his chest tightening with unfamiliar emotion.

He broke away awkwardly. "I'd better go ready the guest room, if you want to stay the night?"

Teal'c nodded. "I would be most grateful."

As he made up Teal'c's bed – not that the Jaffa would use it, but still – Jack found himself smiling at how after three years on Earth, Teal'c still spoke with an almost painful formality. He thought about everything Teal'c had said that evening, both with words and through silence.

The sting of seeing Teal'c standing alone on his doorstep had eased; he knew that, given time, the team would bounce back from everything that had happened. It always did. As it was, he found the one-on-one time with Teal'c soothing, and maybe a night of quiet comradeship with a brother-in-arms was better than an evening spent in a noisy group after all.

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