Title: The Talk
Author/pseudonym: Abydos Dweller
Fandom: Stargate SG-1/Diagnosis Murder
Pairing: Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill, Jesse Travis/Steve Sloan, Jack O'Neill/Steve Sloan, Jack O'Neill/Charlie Kawalsky.
Rating: NC-17
Status: Very Incomplete
Archive: Yes to anywhere. Just let me know.
E-mail address for feedback: WormholeXtreme@hotmail.com, Series/Sequel: Here And Now. Part 2.
Other websites: It's in the making. Get back to me.
Disclaimers: Nothing is mine except the plot.
Summary: It's the anniversary of Charlie's death and Jack gets an unexpected call.
Warnings: None so far.

*~*~*~*~*

The Talk

*~*~*~*~*

"O'Neill."

"Hey Jack, long time no see. How are you?"

"Steve! Wow I didn't expect this. I'm okay, what about you?"

"I'm great. Listen, I know what today is, how you holding up?"

"I have great friends here Steve, I'll be fine."

"Need a couple of extra friends? Dad, I, and a few friends are heading out that way tomorrow. What do you say we meet up?"

"That would be great. You can stay here if you want, how many of you are there?"

"Well there's Dad and I, Jesse, Amanda and her two sons. Jesse and I can share, and Amanda will share with the kids. Sure you can spare 3 rooms for a couple of nights?"

"No problem Steve, I'll see you tomorrow."

"OK Jack. See ya."

"Bye."

Jack smiled and put down the phone, it had been ages since he last spoke to his good friend Steve Sloan, and even longer since he'd talked to Mark. Jack envied the father and son. He'd never had a relationship like that with his father.

Jack turned to face Daniel.

"That was a friend I knew during Vietnam, he saved my ass." Jack said smiling at the memory.

"So I have him to thank?" Daniel asked.

Jack just smiled and walked into the kitchen, he returned with two cups of Daniel's favourite coffee and sat down on the sofa. He put the cups on the table, and patted the seat next to it. Daniel picked up his coffee, and sat next to Jack.

"I was only 17. I'd just had a big argument with Dad. He was fed up of me always getting into trouble with the law."

Daniel lifted an eyebrow at that statement.

"I was a little sod Daniel, racing cars, joyriding, pinching sweets - nothing heavy. I was just repetitive. That's what got me caught in the end. Luckily dad bailed me out. He told me to get my life in order, or I was out of his. I joined the airforce to prove to myself to him. I had two weeks of basic training, and then was drafted to Vietnam. The war was nearly over, but they still insisted on sending us in. There were 30 of us on the plane, we were split up into pairs and put into mixed teams. I was put with Kawalsky, two marines, and two grounders. Steve was our team leader. He'd just been promoted to Sergeant and was one hell of a soldier. There was a sniper hiding in the part of the jungle we were heading into. He was up in a tree, he took out everyone who set foot in there, I headed in with Kawalsky behind me, and I heard the gun go off before I felt anything. The bastard had aimed at my head. That's how I got this."

Jack indicated the scar that bisected his left eyebrow.

"The sniper had already taken out the four marines and grounders. There was only Steve left. My gun fired and fortunately took out the sniper before I collapsed. He came in and dragged me out. He thought I was dead. There was so much blood. I think I lost about a pint. The bullet had grazed straight across my head."

"When we got back to base camp they fixed me up, but they made me stay in overnight to make sure it wasn't more than a graze. Steve offered to stay, and they shipped Kawalsky off to another team. The next time I saw Kawalsky was in 1977. They cleared me and I was put back onto Steve's team that now consisted of 14 grounders and me. I thought it was strange but shook it off. We had a job to do, so we did it. There was a factory in this clearing. Ammunitions. We set mines all around it and blew it up. We got out all intact apart from a few guys, and they only had a few cuts. Steve got a formal commendation, and I got promoted to lieutenant. We were sent home for R&R for 6 months. Through the time we spent together, Steve and I became good friends. I didn't want to go home to my parents. I still didn't think I could face my dad. He knew what I had done, and he didn't even congratulate me. Steve invited me down to California with him. He and his dad share a house right on the edge of the beach. I went and stayed with him for the 6 months."

Jack sighed and leant his head back to rest against the sofa.

"A week before we were due to report back I got a letter sent down from my dad. Steve had been sent an identical letter a week beforehand. I knew mine had already been opened by dad. It didn't matter, I knew what it was about after reading Steve's. We had been chosen to be trained for Special Operations. I was delighted but Steve wasn't. He said he didn't want in and sent a letter of resignation to his commander. He had already done two tours and didn't want anymore. We said our goodbyes, and parted. We kept in touch, when I could I phoned him every week. The longest we ever went without speaking to each other was about 3 weeks. I was stationed over at Andrews for a while to train new cadets about 1987. I met Sara there, she was the General's secretary. We went on a couple of dates, the next thing I knew, she was pregnant. We got married in a registry office 3 months later, then another 6 months later, Charlie was born. I asked Steve and Mark to come up and be godfathers."

Jack leant forward and took a mouthful of his coffee.

"Steve didn't like that I had married Sara. He knew I wasn't happy with her from day one. He agreed none the less and he and Mark came up for Charlie's christening. We argued and after the christening they went back and we didn't speak for years."

"When I came back from Iraq in '94, I couldn't talk to Sara. She tried so hard, but I was such a selfish bastard I couldn't talk to her. Her mother was ill and she nearly had a nervous breakdown. I told Steve what had happened and he told me to bring Charlie and come stay down there for a while. Sara wasn't happy, but she thought it was a good idea. To this date, he is the only one I ever told what happened. Charlie loved it down there, he went swimming every day, and I promised him we'd move down there in a few years when I stopped going away. While I was down there, it was my birthday. Steve woke me up in the morning, and presented me with a box. I opened it, and inside was a .22 Caliber pistol with my name, rank, and service number engraved onto it. I treasured that gun. We went back up to Sara and she left the Iraq subject alone, and we went back to normal, arguing of course but that was normal for us."

"Then, when Charlie died, I had to phone Steve to tell him. When he asked how Charlie had died, I couldn't tell him. I just hung up. They came up and Sara told him. He was distraught, he blamed himself. I blamed myself. I went up to the cabin after the funeral, Steve followed me the entire journey, he'd never been that way before. I only took him up there once and he slept the whole way. Anyway, he came up behind me as I parked, and made me talk about everything."

Jack sighed, stood up and went over to the window and looked out onto the street.

"I tried to make him believe it wasn't the gun he gave me that Charlie was playing with, but he wasn't having it. He made me tell him what happened. He didn't pressure me, he just sat there until I talked. I knew I couldn't ignore him the whole time. We left the day after, we didn't have much to say to each other. I was grieving for Charlie and he had just gone through a divorce. We came back down here, and Mark and Steve went back to Malibu."

Jack sighed and turned towards Daniel. He then glanced at the clock and noticed it was nearing 1700.

"Wanna watch the hockey? I taped it last night."

Daniel sighed and realised he wasn't allowed to ask questions about what he had just been told.

"Sure, who's playing?"

Jack grinned. He knew Daniel wasn't a fan of hockey, but he still watched it every week with Jack.

"Wild V Avalanche."

Daniel gasped. Jack would've had a lot of bets on base for this one. Jack was the base's only Minnesota Wild supporter. Every team in the NHL was supported by at least one person on base. Even General Hammond was a fan of some team or other.

"So how much are you set to lose if Minnesota don't make it?" Daniel asked.

Jack grinned. "You know me too well Danny-Boy. I've got a $5 bet with Ferretti, $20, with Makepeace, and $50 with Kawalsky. But even if I lose, I won last week so I'm already $350 up. It's a good job SG-10 are off-world or else I think Stan would've wanted a chance to win his money back."

Daniel laughed. He got up and grabbed his jacket. He fished out his wallet, and pulled out $30. He laid it on top of the television, and sat back down. They sat on the sofa and watched the game start. About 15 minutes into the first period, Wild had a penalty shot. Jack sat on the edge of his seat, and when Wild scored, Jack tried to jump up. Unfortunately, his socked foot slipped in the carpet and Jack promptly went flying, and landed hard on his butt. Jack yelped out with pain as his butt connected with the floor, then looked, and scowled at Daniel. It was too late. The archaeologist was already curled up in a ball on the sofa laughing his eyes out. Daniel had given up wearing his glasses earlier in the day as he carried a set of contacts with him at all times in case his glasses got broken, and they were easier to replace if his glasses did get broken. He preferred the contacts to his glasses when he wasn't at work anyway, there was less chance of them being broken at least. Daniel continued to giggle through the whole of the interval during which Jack had picked himself up off the floor, and gone into the kitchen. Just as the second period started, Jack came back and sat carefully next to Daniel on the sofa. Daniel bit his lip to prevent himself from laughing out loud again. He took a couple of deep breaths and stated in as calm a voice as he could manage, "Are you okay, Jack?"
Jack turned to look at Daniel and sneered. "I'm fine thank you Dr Jackson. Nice to see you care after all."

The rest of the game went on without interruption and the final score stayed the same, Wild 1 Avalanche 0. Jack grinned as he picked the $30 bucks up off the top of the television and turned it off. He went over to the stereo and put in a CD and went into the kitchen for more beers and to order their usual post-game pizza. As Jack spoke to the pizza place on the other end of the phone, he noticed Daniel was pacing in the front room, and looking up at the mantelpiece where Jack kept a few select photos. Jack finished up the call and replaced the handset on the wall. He walked into the living room and threw a bottle at Daniel which he neatly caught in his left hand. Jack sat on the sofa and Daniel kept looking at what Jack could now see were his various medals. Daniel then sat down, but continued looking up at the framed case. Finally Jack got up, removed the case from its hook on the wall, and placed it in Daniel's lap.

"You'll get a crick in your neck looking up all the time like that."

Daniel moved closer to Jack as the older man sat back down.

"There's a hell of a lot of these Jack. What are they all for?"

Jack spent the next half an hour pointing to each medal and explaining what each was for and telling a short story behind it. The doorbell rang shaking the both of them out of their little world, Jack paid the delivery man, and the two men ate their pizza in silence.
The rest of the afternoon was uneventful and Jack went to bed at around 2200 complaining of a sore backside. Daniel watched CNN for a while after Jack went upstairs, but soon got bored and went to the spare room to sleep.

The next morning Jack slept unusually late. He awoke around 0900 to the sound of someone laughing, and the sound of kids giggling. Completely forgetting his manners, Jack stumbled downstairs in his usual bedroom attire - which unfortunately only consisted of a pair of boxer shorts and an old baggy tee shirt. He stopped in his tracks half way down the stairs as he saw Daniel sitting in the armchair, and five other people scattered around the room. They all turned to look at him as they heard the foot steps down the stairs and everyone went silent. The silence was broken as one of the children asked their mother if they could go outside to play. She said yes and Daniel let her out the front door followed by a tall man with white hair and a moustache in his early 70's, and a short blonde haired blue eyed young man aged about thirty five. Daniel pushed Jack back up the stairs and told him to go and get showered and changed and be down stairs in 15 minutes unless he wanted to make his own damn coffee. Jack dumbly nodded and went upstairs. He came own ten minutes later with his hair still wet and a pair of jeans and a shirt. He went into the kitchen and stopped in his tracks again. The visitors hadn't gotten through to his foggy morning state when he had been standing on the stairs, but now as he stood watching his two best friends in the world talking and laughing at his kitchen table, the whole world seemed to catapult back into his face.

"STEVE!"

The other man jumped around at the voice and a broad smile quickly appeared on his face as he stood up and drew the man into welcoming arms.

"Jacky! Long time no see boy, how you doing?"

"I'm good Steve, I'm good. I see you've already met Daniel here."

"Yep, he played gracious host while you were upstairs snoring."

"Hey!!" Jack playfully slapped Steve on the arm. Then he turned to Daniel.

"You could have woken me up Danny."

"Ha! Let me refresh your memory of the last time I tried that? I had a black eye and a dislocated jaw if I remember correctly…" Daniel continued muttering quietly to himself as he picked up his coffee and walked towards the front door. He walked through it as the shorter man appeared Jack vaguely remembered from earlier.

"Uhh, Jack let me introduce you to Jess."

The younger man smiled at the sound of his name and walked towards Steve. Steve grabbed the younger man by the shoulder and pulled him into a one armed hug.

"Jack this is Dr Jesse Travis. Jess, Colonel Jack O'Neill United States AirForce. We were in 'Nam together."

"Wow, cool." Jesse offered his hand to Jack, who took it and shook it firmly.

"Hey listen, sorry to interrupt, but do you have a ladder? I'm afraid Dion lost his disc in the tree out front." Jesse asked.

"Um sure," Jack walked over to the backdoor and grabbed a set of keys off the rack on the wall. He tossed them to Jesse who caught them nicely.

"In the garage, back wall. Whatever you do, and no matter how much he insists, don't let Daniel go up the ladder. We have to be at work in a few days, and if he turns up with anything broken, I'll be murdered." Jack said in a slightly agitated voice.

"Sure." Jesse gave Steve a quick smile and bounded off through the front door back outside.

"Steve? Something you want to tell me?"

"Tell you? About what?"

"Well you and Jesse being together would be a start…."

Steve gasped. He didn't know what had given Jack that idea. 'Are we THAT obvious? How… I mean… Oh Hell Jack, how did you know?"

"Steve, I know you. Enough Said."

Steve laughed and sat back down at the table. He grabbed his half cold cup of coffee and drank it in one gulp.

"So what do you want to know? We've known each other for around 6 years. We met around the time you left. I fell in love with him the moment I saw him. I avoided telling him for about 4 years until one day dad got so sick of us dancing around each other that he sat us both down and said, and these are his exact words, "Will you two cut it out and just admit you're in love with each other? Anyone would think you were trying to hide something." We talked and we've been together ever since."

Jack blinked a few times trying to take it all in. "Congratulations Steve, I'm happy for you."

Steve smiled. "So how long have you and Daniel been together?"

Jack inhaled the mouthful of coffee he was about to take, and then spat it out through his nose. He grabbed his mouth too late, and started laughing so hard, he had to sit down on the floor before he fell onto it. Steve looked down at his blue tee-shirt that was now covered in coffee. He shook his head and told Jack to grow up. Jack finally stopped laughing and stood up and deposited himself on the opposite dining room chair.

"I'm sorry Steve. Um, Daniel and I aren't together. He stayed over last night and the night before because a) he gave himself concussion and I was worried about him,
b) he's my best friend and he often stays around here, and c) we were watching the Wild V Avalanche hockey game last night."

Steve looked a mixture of disbelief, embarrassment, and puzzlement as Jack spoke.

"You and Daniel AREN'T together?"

"Correct. Why on earth would you think we were?"

"Well forgive me for being observant, but Daniel never stopped talking about you when you were still upstairs, and also he lit up like a Christmas tree when you came downstairs. You just look like you're together. Does he know about you?"

Jack was too dumbstruck to reply to the observations but the question was easy.

"No he doesn't. And I would prefer if it stayed like that."

"Ok, he won't hear it from me. Dad might have already come to the same conclusion as me though."

"Oh crap."

Jack rushed outside onto the front lawn where he spotted everyone crowded around the large tree in the middle of his lawn. He walked over and looked up the ladder where he spotted the white hair of the man up the tree.

"Mark. What in hell's name are you doing?"

The older man jumped at this and nearly fell off of the ladder.

"Jack! Give an old man some warning next time you sneak up on them." Mark made his way down the ladder and Jack removed it from the trunk.

"Dion lost his disc up there but we can't seem to see it."

Jack nodded and grabbed the lowest thickest branch he could reach, and swung his legs up so he could grip the other half of the branch. He rolled so he was now over the branch and laying on it and sat up.

"What colour is it, Dion?"

"Blue." The voice replied, and Jack spotted the blue shape hidden in a higher branch. He stood on the branch he was sitting on, and grabbed the disk, throwing it to a further part of the garden, he grabbed the main trunk of the tree, and slid down it hitting the floor with a thump.

"Great to see you Mark. How are you?"

"I'm fine Jack. This is Dr Amanda Bentley, Jack. Amanda, Jack O'Neill."

Amanda kissed Jack's cheek, and smiled.

"Nice to meet you, thanks for letting us stay here."

"No Problem,"

Amanda smiled and was drawn over to the shouts of "Mom" coming from over the other end of the lawn.

"So Jack," Mark asked, "How long have you and Daniel been together?"

Jack glared at Steve then threw his hands up in the air.

"Why do I bother? I'll be inside."

Jack stalked back inside and slammed the door.

"DAD! What did you ask that for?"

Mark was speechless and just shrugged.

"Sorry Daniel. Jack told me you weren't together, bit of a misunderstanding."

"Umm no problem, just a bit shocked. One question though, what made you think that Jack and I were together?"

Jack sighed and put some more coffee beans into the coffee maker and got out 6 fresh cups.

Daniel walked into the kitchen as Jack was reaching into the cupboard.

"Jack, why didn't you tell me you were gay?"

*~*~*~*~*

End 'The Talk'

Return To Series Index