Jack had spelled Carter at the controls so she could stop in and see Daniel before he got some rest. Daniel had given him enough of a crash-course in the Odyssey's control systems to be able to fake his way through it. The navigation systems Carter had set up before leaving the Supergate were doing all the work, and he was happy to just sit back and listen for any bells or whistles to alert him to a problem. Besides, "I flew a spaceship at work today" sounded so damn cool. Much better than just updating his paper football score. He crossed his feet at the ankles and watched the purple hyperspace waves slip by. It felt like he was surfing in the gnarliest tube ever, man.

Oh, God, he thought. Tell me I didn't just think that. He shuddered at the thought of a man his age using surfer lingo and checked his watch. About time to call it a day. Or... a night. He squinted at the watch to see if it was AM or PM and then switched it over to military time. Ah. Night it is.

He pushed out of the chair and headed for the elevators. It felt like ages since he'd wandered these dark, spartan halls. He suddenly realized that he had never wandered these halls. He'd been on the Prometheus lots of times, the Daedalus once or twice, but never on the Odyssey.

None of them held a candle to the Prometheus, though. It had guts. It had taken on human-form Replicators while only half-finished. That was a good little ship, boy... He missed the old bird and hated that he hadn't been there when the grand little ship had gone down. It would've felt the same for Ahab to have missed the sinking of the Pequod or James T. Kirk skipping the scuttling of the Enterprise.

He ran his hand over the bulkhead before stepping into the elevator. Everyone had changed when he wasn't looking. Daniel, Teal'c, Carter... if he'd been shown these three people ten years ago, he would have asked what had happened to his real team. Of course, if he'd been shown a gray-haired geezer with a desk job, he probably would've shot whoever made the accusation.

Still, just because he was old didn't mean he was dead... even if the Asgard had named a ship after him.

He paused at the door of the infirmary before anyone had spotted him. Daniel was sitting up in bed, gesturing to indicate something small and round. Vala was sitting at the foot of the bed, her back to the door, laughing at Daniel's story. Teal'c and Mitchell stood to Jack's right, Carter to his left.

As he watched, Carter threw her head back and laughed. Vala kicked out with one foot and playfully kicked Carter's calf. Teal'c looked at Mitchell with a smile on his face, said something too low for Jack to hear it, and Mitchell laughed out loud. He clapped Teal'c on the arm and shook his head.

It was bizarre. Unsettling. An out of body experience of the highest order. The patches still said SG-1, but this wasn't his team. This was an evolution of that team. Carter, Daniel and Teal'c were a real family now. He may have set them on the path to get them here, but he couldn't take credit for the end results.

Carter, Mitchell, Jackson, Vala and Teal'c. SG-1. Not the same team he'd banded together all those years ago. How could they expect to be, after all the things they'd done and seen together? For years, he had been a part of this exclusive club. He'd been the one who laughed with Teal'c, who sat with his injured compatriot while the boss man sat to one side and watched enviously. This is what Landry felt every time he sent the team through the Gate. This is what Hammond went through all those years.

It sucked. Big time.

Carter finally spotted him and straightened slightly. The smile stayed on her face, though, and he was glad. "Sir," she said.

"General. Who's minding the ship?" Mitchell asked.

"You are," Jack said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder. "Go on. Git."

"Yes, sir," Mitchell said. He slipped away from the bedside and pointed at Daniel, "Get some rest, prior-Prior."

Jack stepped aside to let Mitchell out and said, "I think we all ought to get a little shut-eye before we get back to Earth. It's likely to be a... long and interesting briefing." He smiled and said, "Boy, I've missed those."

Carter smiled and said, "You'll get over that fast, sir. Good night."

She waited at the door as Vala gave Daniel a kiss on the forehead. She waved good-night to Jack and he turned as the ladies left the room. Vala slipped her arm around Sam's elbow and leaned in close just as the doors slid shut. Jack raised an eyebrow but decided not to comment. Comfort where you could get it, that was the motto.

Teal'c stopped in front of Jack and said, "It is good to see you off-world again, General O'Neill."

"Good to be here, T," Jack said.

Teal'c turned and bowed to Daniel. "Sleep well, Daniel Jackson."

"Night, Teal'c."

Jack watched Teal'c leave and sidled up to Daniel's bedside. "So."

Daniel raised his eyebrows.

"Still dying?"

"Every chance I get," Daniel said.

"What are you up to?"

Daniel squinted and did some calculations in his head. "Twenty? Twenty... something, I think."

"It's gotta be a record."

"One can only hope," Daniel said.

Jack shoved his hands into his pockets and looked back at the door. He sighed and said, "Well. I should..."

"Well, you don't have to..."

"No, you need your rest..."

"Really, I'm fine. Stay awhile. It's been a while since we've talked."

Jack smirked and moved to the bed next to Daniel's. "Yeah. It's been a couple weeks. What kept you from calling?"

Daniel waved vaguely in the air. "Sorry about that. I, uh, I had a thing."

Jack grinned and hopped up onto the bed. He swung his feet and looked around the room. "So. What did you want to talk about?"

"Uhhh, oh! I heard you got into some trouble on Atlantis a while back."

"Oh, yes," Jack said. He winced at the memory and said, "Remind me again why you want so desperately to go there?"

"Jack, come on..."

"Ah, yes, Ancient knowledge, fun toys just lying around waiting to be played with... still, the whole underwater thing got old after a while."

"It hasn't been underwater since the team arrived."

"Says you. I'm still knocking water outta my ears."

"Says me. I managed to stay dry the entire time I was there."

"Oh, right!" Jack said. "I forgot you'd gone."

"Finally made it."

"Now all you have to do is go to Disneyland and you can finally throw away that list of a thousand places to see before you die... again."

"I think that list becomes moot when you've walked on a couple dozen alien planets. And that's not the point. Atlantis wasn't just a... a place I wanted to go. It's... Atlantis."

Jack laid back and laced his fingers behind his head as Daniel continued to expound about the virtues of Atlantis and how much he could benefit from having just a few months to research there. He smiled at the ceiling, ignoring Daniel's words and just basking in the sensation of being bored by Daniel once again.

Even if he wasn't a member of the team anymore, even if he was a desk jockey, there was one thing he could always count on and one place he would always belong.

end