Chapter 4

…Investigation…

SG1 had finally got permission from General Hammond to investigate what had happened to Jack.

Mid week found the whole team headed to Jack's house to look for clues.

Jack followed Sam and Daniel into his living room while Teal'c investigated in the kitchen.

"Well," Daniel said as he looked around at the slovenly contents of the living room. "Some things never change."

"I didn't expect to have any visitors," Jack shrugged in response.

"We can send everything to the lab," Sam said as she set the box of stale, half eaten cartons of Chinese food on the coffee table.

"Well, if it was in the lo mein, I'm never ordering from there again," Jack joked as he looked around the room and frowned. 'How are we gonna fix this?' he wondered to himself.

"What's the last thing you remember, Jack?" Daniel asked as he looked around.

"Being older," was the teen's response.

Teal'c, who came to the doorway from the kitchen and said, "Are you conducting an experiment, O'Neill?"

Jack looked over to see Teal'c with a Tupperware container of moldy cheese in his hands.

"Hey," Jack protested as he rescued the limburger, "scrape off the green bits and it's still good." He went to put the pungent cheese back into the refrigerator.

He came back from the kitchen with a bottle of beer, which Sam took from him.

"Hey!" he protested loudly.

Daniel smiled as he realized that Jack reminded him of someone from his past. That someone also had a thing for beer, and sassy quips.

"What was the last thing you ate, Sir?" Sam asked as she ignored him.

"Spring rolls and soy sauce."

"Anything else?" Daniel asked.

"A beer, then I went to bed," Jack said as he eyed the beer Carter had taken from him.

"So," Sam concluded, "whatever happened, happened when you were asleep."

…Night Watch…

Sam and Teal'c had gone home while Daniel told them that he would stay and keep an eye on Jack.

"When you remembered everything that happened to you," Jack began as they sat on the couch. Both of them had a beer since Carter was not there to play den mother, "was it hard to integrate what you knew then with what you know now?"

Daniel rubbed his face as he thought of his response. "No, not really, it was almost the same as absorbing a Quickening. Once I remembered enough of the recent past, things just fell into place."

Jack nodded deep in thought as he sipped his beer. "Ya know, I don't need a babysitter," Jack said as he looked at the older/younger man sitting quietly next to him.

"I didn't need a babysitter last week either," Daniel said quietly after he took a long pull off his beer. "That's what family does for one another. Be there when they need them most."

Jack looked at Daniel, "Is that what we are? Family?"

Daniel looked up at the teen, hazel eyes intense, "Did you expect any less? When warriors go into battle together for 2, 5, 8, 10 years… you can't say there isn't a bond between the four of us."

"I can agree with that," Jack said quietly, surprised at Daniel's words.

"No matter what happens," Daniel said equally as quiet as he laid a hand on Jack's shoulder, "We'll always be family. We'll always look out for one another. That's a rare thing, for one of my kind to find that kind of kinship with others, especially mortals. Even if, for now we step into the rolls of father and son, and later when you get older, the rolls would be reversed."

As dusk fell into night, darkness stole over the house. Daniel stretched to turn the lamp on and the light nearly blinded Jack.

Daniel watched as Jack stared into the lamplight. He recognized a flashback when he saw one.

"Whoa..." Jack said.

"Intense?" Daniel questioned.

Jack nodded.

"What was it?"

"Either the hot and sour soup affected me more than I'd like to admit," Jack said perplexed, "Or I got a visit from the Asgard last night."