Thanks to my faithful few for their reviews, without whom I'd give up…please R & R guys! C'mon...it's not that bad surely!

YESTERDAY.

by Lingren.

Italics...indicate the internal conversation between the host and his Tok'ra symbiote.

Previously:

Ryan shrugged, spinning round to face them all again, a huge grin on his face.

"Hi kids! I gather ya missed me, huh?"

Chapter 7

"Jack?" cried Hammond and Sam together, hardly able to comprehend that Ryan was in fact, none other than the missing Colonel Jack O'Neill.

"O'Neill?"

"How?" everyone gasped at once.

"What can I say? For some reason that wormhole spat me out into the past. At first, I didn't know where I was. Then I discovered I was in fact right here on Earth, but way back in the past. There was no way I could get home again, so I had to wait until now."

"Is it really you Jack?"

"Yes Daniel. It's really me. I knew as soon as I opened my mouth that you would recognise me, hence, Adam," He shrugged.

"What happened sir?" Sam asked, too shocked by the outcome to allow her heart to overrule her curiosity right now.

"It's a long, long story Carter. An' god, I've really missed you guys!" he grinned ruefully, shaking his head.

"All...all the time you sat there listening...and you...let me go off at a tangent?" Daniel couldn't quite get his thoughts out. "Jack! So help me..."

"Daniel," Jack laughed and strode quickly up to his best friend.

"Oh god, Jack!" Daniel sighed, standing to face him. He was overwhelmed to have his friend back again.

They stood gazing at each other for a long moment, then suddenly Jack was hugging him tight, grinning like there was no tomorrow. Daniel hugged him right back, though at that moment, he was unsure whether to welcome him back or strangle him.

"Thank you for the speech, Spacemonkey. I appreciate you were defending my honour. Thanks."

Sam waited until he'd released Daniel, standing quietly until Jack stepped away from his friend. Now it was her turn. Jack looked at her, held her eyes with his, until she frowned, pointing to his eyes. Jack frowned too until he realised as to what she was referring. His eyes. He bent over to pop out the coloured contact lenses then blinked a few times, now she could see it really was him.

"Sorry about that. I had to try and disguise myself otherwise you might have guessed before I was ready to reveal myself."

Sam smiled up at those familiar dark brown eyes and grinned. Now she could see the real Jack, despite the beard, and the longer hair. She raised a hand up to run a finger along his lips; they were just as she remembered them less than a week ago in her reality. Her memory of him so vivid as they'd kissed that night before the mission.

"It's been a hell of a long time Sam," he whispered softly.

He swept his arms around her and kissed her thoroughly, making her forget all the recent sorrow, so that she was left with new memories of him; of his arms holding her close. He ignored the fact that Hammond was watching, he didn't care at this point, besides, he was John Ryan right now. He'd waited for this day for a lifetime.

Sam felt the warmth of his body against her, making her spine tingle. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, holding on and never wanting to let him go; the deep kiss dragging her thoughts from bad to wonderful, of...

"Kanan?" she uttered suddenly pulling out of his embrace. "It was Kanan wasn't it? He kept you 'younger', more like you were. All this time and...That's why you...Ryan...was a recluse."

Jack nodded, grinning. Yet again Sam had reminded him of her intelligence. It hadn't just been a dream of long ago, and it wasn't a rumour.

"Just how far into the past were you thrown?" Daniel asked full of curiosity.

"Too long ago Daniel. I couldn't let on to anyone that I was a Tok'ra. No-one had the slightest inkling about them back then. I'd have been tossed in a nut house, or worse; dissected and studied at area 51."

"So where is Kanan?"

Jack dipped his head and Kanan spoke to them.

"I'm here. Hi!" he greeted them in his typical Tok'ra timbre. "Jack sure is glad to see you folks again. He really missed you guys..."

Daniel laughed and Sam sniggered.

"What?" Kanan asked puzzled at to their reactions.

"Oh, you've definitely been around Jack for far too long!" Daniel smirked.

"Ya think?" Kanan grinned.

"Definitely! But it's good to know that you and Jack are safe."

"He wouldn't have made it without me. He's not so young any more."

"Hey! I heard that!" Jack pouted.

"It's true! You'd be an old man now if it wasn't for me!"

"Yeah, don't remind me."

Kanan retreated after a sharp mental nudge from Jack.

"You'll have to excuse him, he gets a little..."

"Hassak!"

"Big-headed!" Jack whispered, grinning.

He made his way over to his Commanding Officer.

"General."

"It's good to see you again Jack. We all thought we'd lost you," Hammond said, standing to face him.

"Not me sir. You know how difficult it is to kill me off."

"Yeah! You're like the proverbial bad penny Jack, you just keep coming back!" Daniel quipped, making Sam giggle. "Do us a favour...just keep on doing it!"

"See! Now if I was still around they wouldn't be acting like this!" Jack grumbled to Hammond.

Hammond grinned, and put his hand out to take Jack's.

Jack took the outstretched hand and shook it.

"I'm glad you're back anyway Jack!" he laughed.

"Thank you General!"

Jack turned to Teal'c now. The Jaffa stood and bowed his head in salute, and then Jack clasped his arm in the traditional Jaffa greeting before he pulled him in for a hug too.

"It is good to see you again O'Neill. You were sorely missed."

"Thanks 'T'."

By now Jack wasn't sure how he felt. He was so happy to see his team again, and yet he felt as near to tears as he'd ever been. The warmth of their greeting overwhelmed him, and Daniel's speech had floored him.

"So why don't you sit down and tell us what happened son?" Hammond drawled, more than happy to have Jack back with them again.

"As I said sir; it's a very, very long story. Forty years too long to be exact."

"What?"

"That long?" Daniel gasped, hardly able to grasp the fact that Jack had waited for nearly half a century before he could return.

Jack nodded and his face twisted into a sad wry grin as he sat down.

"We thought we had lost you when the gate shut down, and then I redialled it and you were gone. One minute you were there, and then next there was no trace of you," Sam sighed.

Jack could see the sadness and guilt in her eyes. He reached across to take her hand in his and began his side of the events.

"I was knocked for six when that..."

"Lightning strike?" supplied Daniel.

"...yeah I guess it was, that shifted the wormhole and somehow it sent me back to 1963. It was like Antarctica all over again, only worse. Don't ask me how Daniel, because I don't have the foggiest idea. You and Carter know all about that stuff. Anyway, I woke up to find myself in a warehouse, full of obsolete stuff all packed away in crates and boxes... There was no DHD of course; and computers with the dialling programme weren't around in those days, nor could I predict when the next sun spot or whatever would erupt so that I could return to the present. I had to face it; there was just no way home, and no way to tell you guys what had happened. I just had to bide my time and let the years pass me by, until today, when I knew you would all be 'mourning' my loss. I couldn't risk coming back here to meet myself."

"Because it would have caused a paradox?" someone asked, though who, Jack wasn't sure because he never lifted his head as his mind was wrapped up in his recollections.

"Something like that I guess. I remember all that stuff Carter spouted about time lines when we were sent back to 1969. I wouldn't risk it. I didn't want to change anything."

"But you did change things sir, by becoming Ryan."

"Ryan already existed Carter. Even I knew that. Though I must admit that it never occurred to me that he would be...me! I'm sure if you looked up the details you would understand as I did when I discovered the truth. Gah! It's all so complicated."

"So how did you choose the name?"

"It was a combination of my Grandfathers' names actually. John is a family name on both sides, handed down generation after generation. It is my own name, as you already know Daniel; I just preferred to be called Jack. It was easier with Dad around at the time; and Ryan was the name of the old folks over in Ireland. It's my mother's family name."

Both Sam and Daniel took all this in with fascination. It was the most that they had gleaned from Jack about his family in all the years they had known him.

TBC