Untitled Stargate Fic

Title: Untitled
Author: shansgrl
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Characters: Jack O’Neill, mentions of Daniel, Teal’c and Sam, Jack/Sam
Warning: some cussing
Spoilers: Referral to season 4 of Atlantis, slight hint of spoilers for season 5 with one bit being AU
Summary: Jack’s thinking.
Author notes: Written for lj community [info]picfor1000, link to inspiration picture included at the end of the story. This is incredibly late (it was due last year)…but at least this is my second story, so I got one done on time! Un-beta’d like whoa, so all mistakes are totally mine. Especially tense issues.

Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come
Watching the ships roll in
And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah

The familiar strains of Otis Reading’s classic song drifted out towards them from the cabin. It was an appropriate song to a point, as they were sitting on a dock, by not on a bay, just on a lake with no fish.

It had been awhile since he has been able to come back to Minnesota for some R and R. Life in Washington definitely kept him busy; busier than he thought was possible. But then, he had to deal with politicians whose habit of making mountains out of molehills, which was way more complicated than dealing with anything at the SGC. He still couldn’t decide who was worse; the Goa'uld, the Ori, or politicians. It was a toss up, but at least the politicians had better fashion sense, for the most part.

He can hear Daniel snore softly in the chair beside him. T was inside bringing out more beer, and the only thing that was missing was Carter, who was in Atlantis. He had invited Mitchell, but the man had begged off, perhaps sensing that Jack really just wanted his team. Mitchell is a smart man, if he hadn’t been he wouldn’t now be in charge of SG-1. And as long as Jackson, Teal’c or even Carter was a part of SG-1, they were his team, his family, always would be and there was no way in hell he would trust their lives with anyone stupid.

He smiles as the thought of Carter crosses his mind again. He’d be back in Washington by the time Carter came back home to Earth, wrapping up loose ends and passing the torch to someone else; finally retiring, then he’ll be back in Colorado Springs. He chuckles when he thinks of how surprised Daniel and Teal’c are going to be when they find out why he’s back. But he can’t help but feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have a second chance at the kind of happiness that he’s going to have with Carter. Finally.

Both he and Carter had agreed that although they want to share their news with their family, they would wait until she was home from Atlantis and he was back in Colorado. It’s been hard not to blurt it out this weekend, because he wanted to shout from the rooftops that he was going to marry the smartest woman in the galaxy, but he somehow has managed to keep his mouth shut. He just knows Daniel’s going to give him hell later on for not telling him sooner, but he’s not only marrying the smartest woman in the galaxy, he’s marrying one that could potentially kiss his ass. Ass kicking will always trump pouty looks and whiney statements, so Daniels going to lose that battle.

He never thought that he would ever be this happy again, never thought that he would have people he cared enough about to consider them to be family. Ever since Charlie died, he had kept himself at a distance from everyone. It was safer, if he let no one in, then he couldn’t be hurt again. Sarah was the first casualty of that philosophy, which to this day he regrets deeply. She was a good woman, and didn’t deserve the way he treated her after they lost Charlie.

Then he was pulled into the Stargate program. The first time he went to Abydos, he was fully prepared to die. Hell, he wanted to, just to end the pain. But somehow, a geeky, sniffling, pain in the ass archaeologist managed to ignite a spark in him. It had been one hell of a roller coaster ride since then, and there had been times he thought for sure that he was going to die, which was mighty inconvenient for him, because by the time Daniel came back from Abydos, he had known that he wanted to live. The inevitable came along though and the ride came to and end. His back and his knees just wouldn’t let him go off world and keep up, so he became “the man” at the SGC replacing to what he still considers a great man and a great leader. He may have grumbled about the endless damn paperwork and the diplomacy (and tact for God’s sake) that he had to endure, but he really didn’t mind it so much. No, he had minded the fact that he wasn’t out there with his team covering their sixes and making sure they all came back home safe and sound. But they had learned well, and had managed without him.

When it became apparent that the IOA and other interests were going to stick their noses into the SGC (and later Atlantis), he realized that he could help his people better by going to Washington and heading up Homeworld security. If anyone had told him ten years ago he would be at this point, he would have laughed his ass off. But that was the beauty of working for and with the SGC, nothing was ever boring.

Daniel snuffled and shifted in his lawn chair. The pole that he had been pretending to fish with finally slipped from his lax fingers and landed on the dock. Jack smiled fondly at his best friend as he heard Teal’c come out of the cabin, clinking beer bottles together. He leaned over to open the cooler so that T could put them in to keep them cold and took the one that was offered to him. He took a long pull, and felt, rather than see the other man sit down. They remained silent, not because of Daniel, but because they rarely needed words. The song played on.

Sittin' here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's two thousand miles I roamed
Just to make this dock my home

Jack O’Neill wasn’t lonely anymore.