Thanks again to BruisedReed for the awesome beta work!
Three years later
It had been years since he had regained a memory he'd forgotten. Like a flash it appears to him as Daniel clinks the neck of his beer bottle against his own. Usually when this happens Daniel says a toast in some other language, this time it's actually English.
"Cheers," Daniel says somewhat sarcastically as the beer bottles clinked together.
"Daniel you'd better speed up, our goal was to kill the brain cells that contain certain memories," Jack says.
"I guess I just use more of my brain than you do," Daniel says.
Then they are silent, because Jack doesn't know what to say.
"Do you love her?" Daniel suddenly asks.
Jack practically shouts at Daniel, "Who? That slimy snake ass, Hathor? Hell no!"
"No!" Daniel says offended, "I just thought….I mean what Hathor did to me, was worse, because I loved Sha're. I know she didn't do to you what she did to me, but…you listened to Hathor instead of Sam, and it would be worse if you loved her."
Jack stares at his drink slowly, spinning the beer in the bottle around and around. "Daniel, I know you don't know much about the military," he begins.
"I'm not asking if you are dating her, I'm asking if you love her," Daniel says.
"You need to drink more," Jack says.
"I think you've answered my question," Daniel says with a grin.
"What Hathor did to you wasn't betraying your wife, because you didn't have a choice," Jack says.
"Jack…" Daniel says.
"Would you blame Sha're if Apophus…" Jack begins, but Daniel's shaking of his head stops him, "Jesus, Daniel. I shouldn't have opened up that can of worms."
"You think that's the first time that particularly painful thought has crossed my mind?" Daniel says quietly. Then he looks at his friend, "If it wasn't for the Air Force…."
"Danny boy, I've got to retire someday, and when I do…" Jack replies with a touch of a smile on his face for the first time since he'd met Hathor. "And someday, we're going to get that wife of yours back," Jack adds.
"To someday," Daniel says, clinking his bottle to Jack's again.
Jack pushes away the guilt of unfulfilled promise. Things hadn't worked out like he'd wanted them too, but they had worked out. "Daddy," Jackson says running up to his father, "Come play!"
"I'm being called away," Jack says with a grin.
"Tell my wife to come sit down and rest on your way over," Daniel says.
"Now look at this, when we first met you were talking me out of suicide missions, and now you're talking me into them," he says.
He allows his son to pull him into the yard. When they are near Sam and Vala he lifts Jackson onto his head so he will stop long enough for him to talk with the girls.
"Your husband thinks you should sit down," he says.
"Did you tell him that a being a doctor of old stuff and languages doesn't qualify him to boss around his wife on medical matters?" Vala retorts.
"You could go tell him," Jack suggests, "But I think he's just worried about the baby." Jack had long ago learned that saying things were done for the sake of the baby was a great way to get a pregnant woman to agree with almost any opinion. Vala smiles, and waddles toward her husband.
Sam looks at her husband with that grin that lets him know she's hiding something. "Maybe I should go sit down to," she says her grin spreading, "You know…for the baby's sake."
"Baby, Sam?" he asks.
"Yeah, I just found out," she sputters. And with their son still on his shoulders he gives her a kiss.