A/N – I will be updating every week; probably around the end of the weekend as my week can get really crazy, and for disclaimer please see prologue.

P.S – Thanks to all who reviewed, it's much appreciated!

Chapter 2

Cassie was almost literally bouncing in her chair in front of her computer. She had been up all night, and pumped up with too much caffeine, excited that she can help Daniel find out more about his family. She had always felt a special connection to him, from one orphan to another, he was her big brother and if she could do anything for him, she would. So she searched the web for information on Daniel's parents, which she had gotten a lot of hits concerning their work as archaeologists, but not about their families. Well, except for Clair Jackson's father, Nick Ballard and his work, but nothing on Melbourne Jackson until she got to the site of Who's Who in the United States. Cassie got the motherlode, she lunged to the phone to call Daniel.

And pouted when she heard his voicemail from home. She then tried his cellphone, and waited patiently after the fifth ring and was rewarded with a sleepy, "H'lo"

"Hi Daniel! You'll never guess what I found." She paused for about a second, "Come on, guess! This is soooo awesome! I'm so excited for you that I'm jumping up and down for you. Can I come with you when you meet each other? Or would you feel more comfortable on your own? Cause I totally get that, some things you just need to do on your own-"

"Cassie!"

"Yeah?"

"It's four thirty in the morning. It couldn't have waited till I came over later?" Daniel rolled over in Jack's spare bed to get into a more comfortable position and closed his eyes in preparation of sleeping some more once he got off the phone with Cassie.

"Daniel! You have an aunt, and two cousins still living that I can tell." The exasperated statement from Cassie had Daniel sitting upright but he managed a hoarse reply, "What? But… how can that be?"

"Uh, Daniel, Do I have to explain the birds and the bees to you? You see your grandparents, who I found out are Henry and Victoria Jackson, decided to have more nookie after your father and produced his younger sister by the name of Emily."

Daniel shuddered at the thought of two strange elderly couple going at it like bunnies, "Thanks Cass, for that wonderful image now burned into my brain." He heard her giggle through the phone, "I meant how come social services never tried to place me with her if she was around. They tried with my grandfather; you would think they would try with another family member."

Cassie sighed; her excitement went down several notches at Daniels depressed tone. "I don't know Daniel. There could have been any number of reasons…You know the best way to find out?"

"How?"

"Talk to her yourself. Maybe give her a call and see if you can visit or something and you can ask then."

"It's not that simple Cassie. What am I going to say? Hi, you don't know me, but you're my aunt and I was hoping I can come and see you?"

"Sounds good to me."

This time it was Daniel who sighed, "I'll think about it. Can you give me the information on her anyway?"

"Yeah, sure, you betcha."

Daniel grinned, "You know what I said before about hanging around Jack too much."

"Like you haven't picked up a couple Jackisms yourself. Anyway, her name is Emily Gilmore, married to Richard Gilmore. Has a daughter, Lorelai Victoria Gilmore and a granddaughter Lorelai Leigh Gilmore." Cassie paused wondering if she was reading the name wrong, "Jeez, talk about keeping a name in the family. Emily and Richard live in Hartford, Connecticut. There's no phone number here so I'll check on that and give you a call, okay?"

"Okay, and thanks Cassie."

"Anytime."

It was an hour after Cassie called and Daniel was on the couch in the living room of Jack's house staring at the phone on the coffee table and debating whether or not he should call Emily Gilmore. The piece of paper that he wrote the number on was already worn with the amount of times he had folded it up and unfolded it.

It would be about 8:30am in Hartford, so it's not like he would be waking anyone up, unless they were late risers. He's not a morning person, so it could be hereditary. If anything that's just an excuse not to call. The real question is: Could he go through the emotional upheaval of finding out that the reason social services never placed him with this aunt was because she didn't want him? There must have been a reason that he never knew about his father's family when his parents were alive. But could he live with himself for not finding out more about his family.

"Hey." Daniel's head snapped up as he heard the soft greeting and saw Jack leaning against the doorway to the room, "Are you actually going to use the phone or are you using your very intimidating stare for it to tell you all the secrets of the universe?"

Daniel smiled a little at that, "I wish."

Jack came into the room and sat across from Daniel in the chair, "So are you going to tell me what was so important that someone called you twice before 05:00 when anyone who knows you that to wake you before 09:00 on your day off is conducive to suicide. And now you're sitting here in the dark wondering debating with yourself if you should make a call."

"Gee, Jack, are you sure you're just a General? You're not doing some detective work on the side are you?"

"Sarcasm does not become you, you know." Jack picked up the phone from the table, "So, are you going to tell me what's on your mind?"

Daniel rubbed a hand over his face, "Cassie called me early this morning. She had been working all night trying to find some more information about my family. Well, she succeeded. She found an aunt, a sister of my father's, Emily Gilmore. She also found a phone number for me, so now I'm sitting here and trying to figure out if I should call her or not."

Jack blew out a breath of air and sat back, "Wow, and that's before you even have had breakfast. A lot to think about on an empty stomach." He looked at the phone in his hand, "So, what did you decide?"

"I think…I'm going to call her. I just have to figure out what I want to say. I was thinking of playing it by ear but what kind of first impression is that?"

"An accurate one." Jack tossed the phone to Daniel who was just able to catch it with his good hand, "So call."

"Yeah, just give me a couple more minutes." He looked up, "You know now that you mentioned breakfast…"

"And there is my cue." Jack stood up, "Bacon and eggs good for you?"

Daniel nodded, "Scrambled? Coffee?"

Jack patted Daniel's shoulder, "You bet."

Daniel unfolded the paper again as Jack left the room and dialled the number.

"Gilmore Residence, how may I help you?" A perky voice answered the phone.

"Uh, yes. May I please speak to Emily Gilmore?"

"Certainly, may I ask whose calling?"

"I would rather not say until I speak to her." Daniel grimaced, was that a wrong thing to do, maybe he should have given his name.

"I will see if she's available. If you would please hold the line. Thank You." Next thing Daniel knew there was classical music playing on the other end.

"Yes, hello. This is Emily Gilmore." The abrupt, no nonsense tone made Daniel sit up straight and maybe have a little regret calling her, it might have been a bad time.

"Mrs. Gilmore, I'm not exactly sure how to ask this so I'm just going to ask straight out. Do you have any connection to Melbourne Jackson?" Daniel sucked in a breath and held it while waiting for a response.

"Who is this? How do you know that name and why do you want to know any such thing?"

"I'm sorry, my name is Daniel Jackson and Melbourne was my father. I just came by some information that you were his sister and I wanted," Daniel paused, and took a deep breath, "needed to know if it was true."

On the east coast, Emily stood tall and proud, but her eyes were fixated on the wall; she didn't see anything as memories of an older brother went through her mind. Memories of the last time she saw her brother, it was at her wedding to Richard and she remembered that he brought his wife and his little son, Danny.

"Mrs. Gilmore"

The voice on the other end shook her out of her daze, "Little Danny boy. That's what you're father would call you." Emily's eyes narrowed as she thought back to what Daniel said, "You said he was your father. What happened?"

Daniel closed his eyes as doubts flew out of his head, "You don't know."

"No, we lost touch after my wedding and we never heard from him again and no one had ever contacted us about anything."

Daniel sucked in another breath, and blew it out, "My parents were killed about 30 years ago in New York."

"Thirty…years." Emily felt as if her knees would buckle before her weight and looked frantically around for a chair which she found a couple steps away and collapsed into it, "Why did no one contact us? My God, you would have been a young child."

"I don't know, I've been wondering that myself since I found out about you." Daniel paused for a response but all he got was silence, "Mrs. Gilmore, I don't want to seem presumptuous, but I was wondering if I could meet you? And we could talk more in person."

Family. She had other family, that wasn't a part of Richard's Gilmore side and he wanted to meet her. A lone tear sneaked down a cheek, "Yes of course, I would love that. Would you be able to come here to Hartford?"

"I could. I'm actually taking some leave in the next couple of days as my boss wants me to rest some after breaking my wrist. May I come Monday? I can make arrangements if it's okay with you."

Emily started to mentally review her schedule then thought that she can re-schedule anything that comes up, her nephew was coming to visit. "Monday is good."

"Good, let me make those arrangements and I'll call you back on the details."

"Okay." Emily paused, "Daniel?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you

Daniel smiled, "Your welcome."

When Daniel hung up, he looked up to see Jack once again leaning in the doorway, "So…when do we leave?"