Just over a month after Jack had arrived in Atlantis, news spread that the Apollo was only a few days away from Atlantis. The excitement amongst the staff of the expedition was tangible. Each and every person was curious to know whether DADT was really being revoked, or if it was just a rumor. The excitement was such, that Jack actually had two whole sentences spoken to him, which he considered somewhat of a breakthrough.

Upon the Apollo's arrival, Jack wandered over to the disembarkation area, the designated beaming area that was at the moment alive with excited chatter. However, as his presence was noticed, silence fell. Rolling his eyes he made his way to a wall on the opposite side of the room to wait for the passengers.

As the arrivals began being beamed down, Jack began scanning the crowd. Spotting the person he was looking for he pushed off the wall and ambled over to them. Two hands grabbed his face, and pulled thim into a kiss, before the lecturing began, "I come back from offworld trip be told that you had retired – to another galaxy! And that it would be three weeks until I could see my partner of seven years. And then, as if that wasn't enough, I find out that DADT had been revoked which, by the way, makes me wonder why the hell would you retire now of all times."

Jack just smirked at the surprised and confused stares he was now receiving, and replied "I'll tell you later. So how were the brass reacting?" The two of them began walking from the Gateroom.

"To your retirement? They were overjoyed. To DADT being revoked? Completely and utterly annoyed."

"Well we kind expected a backlash from that. Those bigots always react to anything new or something that isn't completely conservative." Jack paused and kissed his partner.

"Was that an apology?"

"No. That was just because I finnally could," he told Daniel, grinning.