Author's note: All OC's are mine, the kids, Greer, Jack's family. SG1 is not. Please review.

Chapter Six: Telling the Folks

Jack called Daniel's line countless times before he gave up on Daniel answering the phone. Several other people answered but didn't know where Daniel was. The third stranger convinced Jack he shouldn't keep calling since he wasn't going to get to speak to Daniel again. He couldn't believe what Daniel said, that they couldn't be divorced because they weren't really married. He didn't know what he was going to do if Daniel gave up on him and their marriage.

Jack also knew that Daniel had a right to worry and be upset at Jack's behavior. He didn't know how to make it better for Daniel. He needed to contact his parents and let them know he was still alive but he wondered what their response was going to be as well, didn't know if they would be able to accept the new Jack who came with a husband and children. They would be thrilled to have grandchildren again but he didn't know how they would feel about his partner in parenting.

Benjamin and Lauren O'Neill were pretty old fashioned.

And Jack was afraid, he sighed knowing it was the truth. Seeing Sarah again and not really feeling her agony but when Daniel saw them and left in pain, Jack felt the tear in his heart. He knew now that the love he shared with Sarah was not the same as the soul mate bond he held with Daniel. He didn't know if that made him a liar because he hadn't really loved Sarah but he knew now he could dare to watch Sarah walk out on his life but Daniel could not leave him. Daniel was just as important to Jack as the air he breathed and the food he ate.

He walked over to the side table and picked up the phone, dialing the phone from memory. He thanked whatever SF got their phone line back on as well as the cable which Sam and Teal'c were utilizing to show television to the children in the den.

"Hello, this is Lauren."

Jack just listened to his mother's voice for a second then realized she was getting suspicious of the silence so he needed to speak up, "Hey Mom, please don't have a heart attack but I finally got back from where I stuck."

"Johnny," Lauren cried, using the name she always had growing up. She called out, "Ben pick up the other phone."

Jack smiled, when his father could be grumbling at his wife in the background before he lifted the other set and spoke, "Hello."

"Dad, its Jack."

"Jackie! I always hoped you would be back, your mother and I never gave up hope."

Jack smiled at the phone, "I can't tell you much of anything because of my job but I'm back and I want you to meet some friends of mine. I can get some time off and come see you, let you know I'm okay."

"Oh Johnny, we would be thrilled to have you even for a visit."

"Okay, I will make the arrangements for sometime next week but I got to talk to the people that I'm bringing with me. I don't know what to tell you over the phone and what to let you see with your own eyes," Jack stated, confusion swirling through his tone and words.

"Don't be confusing son, I have enough of that with your mother."

Lauren snorted over the phone. Jack sighed, rubbing his eyes "I will come a little earlier and have some time with you."

"What about your brothers, do you want to see them?" Lauren asked.

Jack sighed into the receiver, "I don't know Mom, and there is so much I need to say to you guys, so much has happened."

"Okay well give us some time and we'll figure it out together."

Jack smiled, "I love you guys, see you soon."

He hung up the phone and returned to sit on the couch.

"Why didn't you tell them?" Daniel asked from the foyer.

"Danny!" Jack exclaimed and jumped up to cross the room and took Daniel into his arms. Daniel stood still, his hands trying to get between them so Jack pulled back a little only to take Daniel's cheek into his palm. Daniel struggled to escape Jack's embrace but he refused to let go. "Don't push me away Daniel, we have been together for ten years and I have loved you so long. Please don't end this between us!" He knew he was pleading but he couldn't seem to help the fact that the possibility of losing Daniel turned him into a whimpering pansy. He wasn't proud of it but that changed nothing.

"Jack, let me go," Daniel demanded but Jack heard the quiver in his tone. Instead of doing what he asked, Jack dragged Daniel towards the stairs and tugged him up into the bedroom. Jack pushed Daniel towards the bed and closed the door, closing them in together and alone. "I am not your slave to boss around! Let me out!"

Jack crossed his arms and shook his head, "Daniel, do you think that I don't want you? That I don't love you?" Daniel looked down at his feet and Jack watched his lover, felt his heart breaking when Daniel didn't answer. "Daniel?" he asked again.

"Jack please," Daniel whispered.

Jack stepped forward and took Daniel's hand to pull him to sit down next to him on the bed. Daniel kept looking at their hands and Jack noticed for the first time that their rings were rings again, no long a tattoo under their skin. The magic built into the rings was no longer present. He reached out and pulled Daniel's left hand into his and twisted the ring on Daniel's hand.

"Do you want to take this off?" Jack asked suddenly.

Daniel looked up at him and heaved a sigh, "Jack, why did you let Sarah talk to me like that?"

"I was freaked that she was here and she saw Zada and we had to go through all that at the same time. I didn't know how to defend something that for the first time I had to defend. I was scared Danny, I didn't know what to do or say. In the Vannas world, we never had to defend us and now I am being forced to defend the relationship that has come to define me but I also don't want the fact that I am in love with a man to be what defines us."

"You don't want to be a fag," Daniel hissed and tried to pull away.

"Daniel, I couldn't love another man, only you. I could also never love another woman, only you."

Daniel stared at him, "Are you sure Jack? This isn't just you wanting to keep me until the next time someone calls you gay or a fag or something equally derogatory."

Jack pulled Daniel's hand close and kissed the back of it gently. He didn't want to make Daniel pull away before he got a chance to say what he needed to say. "I told Sarah that its over between the two of us no matter what she thinks, that I am with you for always."

Daniel nodded, "And your family?"

"I didn't want to say anything over the phone, they thought I was dead and now I am bringing home my husband and kids to them. I want them to know you are the only one who holds my heart and it doesn't matter that you're a guy."

"Except you don't want to let it define you, being gay."

"Because I am not gay! I just love you; I don't want to have sex with other men. I am just in love with you."

Daniel nodded, "You're going to see them this coming week?"

"No," Jack said and kissed Daniel's palm, "We're going to see them, all of us."

Daniel's head snapped up and his blue eyes locked on Jack's face, "What?"

"You heard me love, I need to make arrangements. We can all go together and you and the kids can stay at a hotel until I tell them then come and meet them."

"Jack, we can't go anywhere without the MIA crap being taken care of as well as the kids' identities."

Jack nodded, "Only if we don't fly ourselves."

"Huh?" Daniel asked.

"I can fly, I just gotta talk to Hammond."

"To go meet the parents?" Daniel laughed.

Jack waggled his eyebrows, "Hammond really likes me and he likes you even more Danny."

Daniel laughed, "Sure Jack."

Jack stood and watched as Daniel watched him before he knelt down in front of him where he was sitting on the bed. Jack held Daniel's hands in his, "I need to tell you again because I think somewhere in the past couple of day we forgot. I love you so much Daniel Jackson-O'Neill and I am asking you again with our friends and our children to marry me?"

Daniel pulled back from Jack slightly, "Jack you can't be serious!"

"I am, I want my family to be there. My parents are going to love you and even if they don't I do, and you and me together is the only way I want to live the rest of my life."

Jack watched as the tears shimmered in Daniel's eyes, "Jack, you want to have another ceremony?"

"Yes, so no matter where we are, here or in the future, we will always be together and those kids will belong to both of them. There would be no reason for the mothers to fight for custody since they aren't here. It can be written into the paperwork that we each adopted each other's babies."

Daniel leaned down and pulled Jack up next to him in the bed and leaned forward to kiss Jack, slipping his lips across Jack's and he smiled into the motion. Jack sat back a little bit, "Was that a yes Danny?"

"Yes Jack, I sometimes think that I should never have said yes the first time but I can't seem to stop myself."

"I can't stop myself either, we are two halves to the same whole and I want everyone to know."

Daniel smiled and nodded, leaning forward and kissing Jack again gently.