Authors Notes: No beta. All mistakes are my own.
"Jack!" Exclaimed Daniel Jackson as he walked into the briefing room with his arms full of files.
"Daniel," Jack acknowled the younger man, his face worn and tired.
"You look..." he trailed off, unsure if he should continue his train of thought. He glanced at the other people in the room.
The younger SG-1 and Jacob Carter. His eyes flicked between the Jack of the present timeline and the younger version of them all.
"Clean?" Jack offered as he ran a hand over his face. He knew he had let himself go. He wasn't proud of it.
The last time Daniel had saw him, he was a mess. His hair was longer, he was unshaven, probably hasn't showered for a while, he couldn't remember how much he'd been drinking at that point.
"Well... yeah..." Daniel smiled sadly. He knew the reason for his friends lack of personal care.
"I got my ass handed to me," he shrugged sadly as he remembered Cassie storming into his house and cleaning up his mess. She had refused to leave until he at least resembled the man she knew.
She had watched as he cut his hair and shaved his face. She had cleaned his living room and kitchen while he showered. Jack had argued with her as she made huge meal upon huge meal, before separating everything and fully stocking his freezer with enough food to last him a month.
"Cassie?" Daniel asked as he set the files on the briefing room table.
"Cassie," Jack confirmed as he looked at the files Daniel was spreading over the table. "Is this all of it?"
"Everything I could find," he nodded before looking up at the younger Samantha Carter. "This is all your research on solar flares and time travel... it's quite a bit more than what you would have in your timeline. You'll need to go through it yourself and tell us what you need us to do."
"Sam isn't able to help herself?" Jacob Carter asked. "That would help speed up the process."
Daniel cleared his throat uncomfortably before chancing a look at his friend. He saw Jack's jaw clench as he closed his eyes and took a long steadying breath.
"I'm sure she would if she could," Jack said quietly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jacob asked, his eyebrows raised.
"We... Uh..." Daniel stammered.
"We don't know where she is," Jack finished coldly, his hands slamming down on the table. "All we have to work with is what's on this table, and the people around it. And that's just going to have to be good enough."
"What happened?" Jacob asked softly.
"We don't know. One minute she's off exploring another galaxy and everything is fine... and the next... the whole expidition has gone MIA," Jack slumped down onto a chair and ran his hands over his face.
"How long?" He heard his younger self ask.
"Two years," Daniel supplied when it was obvious his friend couldn't talk about it any more.
He watched Jack run his hands through his hair and over his face before he pulled a file towards him and open it. Jack let out a long breath before turning the page.
"Jack?" Daniel asked softly.
"Yeah?" Jack sighed.
"Did you bring the laptop?"
Jack raised his eyes back to the tables surface and scanned it. He had brought it with him, right?
"Yeah. It must be with the other stuff. I'll grab it," he said before pushing away from the table and leaving the room.
"O'Neill seems most distressed," Teal'c observed as he pulled a file towards himself.
"Yeah well... it's been hard on all of us," Daniel replied as he poured himself a mug of coffee.
"He won't even look at her," Jacob said as he sat down at the table, and looked at his daughter, who smiled weakly at him, before diving into her own research.
"Yeah... Well... it's especially hard for Jack," Daniel said so quietly Jacob had to strain to hear him.
"Why?"
Daniel looked at the younger members of SG-1 before him, before looking back at Jacob. He sighed. He knew their memories would be getting erased before they all got sent home.
"Because..." He paused. "Because Jack's a protector. And he wasn't able to protect her this time..."
"Daniel," Jacob urged.
"Because that's his wife out there. And he has no idea if she's even still alive, never mind not knowing what she's been through, or if he'll ever see her again. He has a right to be distressed."
"Wife?" The younger Jack asked, his eyebrows raised.
"What?" Sam asked as she dropped the file in her hands.
Daniel cleared his throat again as Jack walked back into the room, laptop in hand. He felt five sets of eyes land on him as he placed the laptop on the table and opened it.
"What?" He asked as he hit the power button and pulled the power cable from his pocket.
"You married my daughter?"
"Daniel," Jack growled while fixing the younger man with a hard stare. "We need to have a serious talk about the term 'need to know'."
"That's why you won't look at her?"
Jack sighed before looking at his suddenly alive father in law.
"I don't trust myself enough to do that," he admitted before turning his attention back to the laptop and typing in the password. "I'll let Hank know that everything is set up," Jack said before he quietly left the room.
"Rough day," younger Jack commented before picking up a pen and tapping it against the table.
"Indeed."