“It’s cool,” Jenny said, stroking Daniel’s hair. “Michael’s solid. He won’t freak out or anything. Don’t sweat it.”
“I can’t,” Daniel said, giving only a token protest and a glance at her sleeping lover. “I have somebody—“ He wasn’t exactly sure whether he meant Shau’re or Jack.
“Relax, man. Everything’s copasetic.” She smiled, and between the ache in his heart and the contact high from the joint Jenny and Michael had passed back and forth earlier, Daniel forgot why it was such a bad idea.
Jack, pretending to sleep while Teal’c drove and Sam navigated, watched through slitted eyes while Daniel – his Daniel – made love to this woman, this stranger whose kindness seemed to know no bounds. God, Daniel was beautiful when he was breaking Jack’s heart.
~*~
When they got back to the SGC, to their own time, Daniel hadn’t given it another thought. It was a fleeting encounter he wasn’t entirely sure had actually occurred, in a time when free love was more or less the law of the land. He’d only done what he always tried to do, exercise a “when in Rome” approach to anthropology, after all. In time, it was nothing but a vague memory.
Jack hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. He’d called in favors to track down the couple who’d been oh so accommodating, and had been surprised at what he found out. Jenny Cameron and Michael Mitchell had married just a few months after their run-in with SG-1, and six months after that they had a son. A son who was, of all things, a hotshot young officer in the United States Air Force.
Who looked nothing like Michael, and way too much like Daniel for it to be a coincidence.
Telling Daniel was out of the question. The guilt would tear him up inside, and telling a man who was practically your own age that you were his father was more likely than not to get you tossed in the loony bin.
So Jack kept it under his hat. He couldn’t be with Daniel, couldn’t tell him how he felt, even if Daniel didn’t reciprocate, but he could do this. He could provide for Daniel’s son, make sure he got every opportunity for advancement. He never dreamed that one day Cameron Mitchell would be taking up a spot by his father’s side, saving the world as part of SG-1.
~*~
When they’d returned from Mitchell’s 200th trip through the gate – and consequently, his 201st - Daniel took longer than usual showering up. Sam and Vala were getting irritated, waiting for their turn, but Daniel needed to think, and he did some of his best thinking in the shower.
They’d only been joking, screwing with Mitchell’s head, right? So why did Daniel suddenly see Jenny’s kind eyes looking at him from Cameron’s face? The timing was too close to be a coincidence, and he couldn’t remember Jack taking much of an interest in Mitchell before the solar flare. Had their joke struck closer to home than any of them had imagined?
Jack’s face appeared in the doorway. “Wanna hurry it up in here, Danny? Vala’s about to march in here, stark naked, and take her shower anyway.”
Daniel looked at him for a long moment. Cameron looked nothing like Jack, and he had no reason to believe that Jack had been with Jenny, anyway. Finally, he spoke. “We need to talk.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Can we do it someplace with less steam and more clothes?”
Daniel looked down and had the good grace to flush slightly. “Starbucks?”
Chuckling, Jack shook his head and smiled. “Some things never change.”
~*~
The coffee shop was bustling, as always, and Jack was already seated with two paper cups in cardboard sleeves sitting on the table in front of him.
Daniel sat down, inhaled the steam from the cup farthest from Jack, and met his eyes steadily as he took his first sip. Setting the cup down, he furrowed his brows.
“Face is gonna stick like that, Danny,” Jack said, smiling fondly.
“How long have you known?”
Jack blinked. “It’s just an old wives’ tale. It’s not really going to stick—“
“About Cameron.”
“Oh.” Jack looked down at his hands, then his coffee cup, anywhere but at Daniel while he gathered his thoughts. “What about him?”
“Damn it, Jack, you know what,” Daniel said, his voice low and dangerous. “How could you not tell me I had a son?”
Face hardening at Daniel’s tone, Jack shot back, “What good would it have done? It wasn’t like you could have had a relationship with him, Daniel. I did what was best for you, and for Mitchell.”
“And since when do you have the right to decide what’s best for me?” Daniel demanded.
Jack muttered something under his breath.
“What?”
“I said since I fell in love with you!” Jack hollered, grateful he was in street clothes now instead of his blues. For a long while, the sounds of the café’s other patrons enveloped them.
“How long?” Daniel asked, when he could speak again.
“Hmm?”
“How long?” he repeated. “How long have you felt this way?”
Jack shrugged, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “I don’t know. It wasn’t like I woke up one morning and said, ‘gosh, I think I’ll fall in love with my best friend today.’ It was more like… well, I guess I woke up one morning, thinking you were dead, and I didn’t want to go on. Not just with the SGC, or the Air Force, but with anything.”
Daniel stared at a spot on the table where someone had written their initials in Sharpie marker. “Antarctica,” he mumbled.
“What?”
“Antarctica,” he said, more clearly. “When the ‘gate malfunctioned and you and Sam nearly froze to death. That’s when I knew.”
Jack looked up sharply. “Daniel? Are you…”
“Saying what you think I’m saying?” Daniel flashed a bright but nervous smile. “I think so.”
“Huh,” Jack said, looking perplexed. “Wow.”
“Yeah, wow,” Daniel agreed. “Now what?”
Jack let out a low whistle. “It’s gonna be tricky. We’ll have to sneak around for a while. Play it real close to the chest.”
Daniel nodded. A secret, long-distance relationship would probably lead to more heartache than happiness, but he’d loved Jack so long that he would do whatever it took to be with him.
“I guess I should tell you I’ve already put in for retirement,” Jack offered. “It’s not effective immediately.”
Daniel started to speak and found he couldn’t. He cleared his throat and tried again. “When?”
“Six months.”
Daniel’s grin was bright enough to light up the whole café. “If I can do nine years, I can do six months.”
Jack grinned back, then glanced around the café before leaning over the table to give Daniel a quick kiss. A promise of something more to come. In doing so, he managed to knock over both cups of coffee. The lids kept the spill from being too disastrous, but Daniel’s khakis, regrettably, were officially a casualty. “You should change those,” Jack said sagely, handing Daniel a sizeable stack of napkins. “You look like you pissed yourself.”
“Thanks,” Daniel said dryly. “You’re a big help, Jack. You’re right, though. I should change them. Uh, if you wanted to come back to the apartment with me…?”
Jack smiled, reaching over to stroke Daniel’s bottom lip with his thumb. “Always wanted to do that,” he explained. “Nine years is long enough, Danny. Lead on.” Gathering up what remained of their coffee, they walked out of the café into the sun. “So, do you think we should tell him?”
“Are you kidding me?” Daniel laughed. “Do you have any idea how much fun I’m going to have telling him to listen to his father?”