Chapter 3

…Going Back to Work…

After the briefing, Daniel went back to his office and tried to work on one of his numerous projects. He immersed himself in the translation.

Jack looked around the door jamb and noticed that Daniel was by himself, engrossed in his work. He entered the room and sat down in his usual chair after making sure that Daniel was alone.

"What is it, Jack?" Daniel said even though his back was turned to the young man.

"What?" Jack protested, "Can't I visit you whenever I want to talk to my friend?"

Daniel scoffed as he turned to look at Jack, "You usually join me in here to avoid Carter when she goes scientist on you, or to avoid getting any actual work done."

A long stretch of silence passed between them as Jack decided not to respond. The sounds of Daniel puttering around in his office were comfortable to Jack and he was almost asleep when he realized that there was something he wanted to know.

"How'd you know it was me and not some imposter?" Jack asked quietly as he lifted his head from the table and asked the archaeologist.

Daniel turned hazel eyes on the young man and gave a small, secretive smile. "The mannerisms are the same. The way you speak, the stance, how can it not be you?" Daniel looked at Jack for a long moment, "Mostly, I recognized you by your eyes… no child has seen the amount of death and destruction that you have seen and had that look you get in your eyes."

"Carter and Teal'c are enjoying this way too much," Jack pouted, elbows on the table, as he rested his chin on his folded hands.

"Sam probably thinks you're a cute kid, and Teal'c probably assesses that this body is better than the other one." Daniel observed as he rubbed a hand over his face and continued translating text that had previously gone untranslated because the Daniel Jackson of before could not understand it. Written in Celtiberian, it was the language of his tribe, long dead, it had similar symbols to Nordic runes but closer to cuneiform.

"That's about right," Jack agreed as he watched Daniel pour over some rock. "What's that?" he finally asked with interest.

Hazel eyes looked up in concern, "You're asking about my so called rocks?"

Jack shrugged, "I got nothing else better to do for the foreseeable future. Can't go on missions, can't go off world, can't go home."

Daniel sighed, "I'm looking at something I wasn't able to translate before."

"Before?" Jack looked at him, and then realization dawned, "Oh, before you got your memories back and realized you were a really old guy."

Daniel looked at the teen for a long moment with a frown on his face. "Yeah," he snapped, "before I realized I was a freakin' old guy."

Jack smiled in that delighted way he had when he enjoyed messing with his friends.

Realization finally sunk in, as Daniel glared at the teenager. Sitting with him in his office was a de-aged Jack O'Neill. No matter what the outcome, Daniel would help him.