Five things Daniel had hoped for Jack.

[vain_glorious]

1. That he would be happier in Washington. Of course, Daniel only hoped that after a number of contrary things like “asteroid hits D.C; Jack can’t leave” and “Generals hate Jack so much they send him back”. Neither of those options were particularly farfetched, especially if you substituted ‘asteroid’ with ‘Asgard bomb’. Daniel held out hope for the second option, actually put 20 bucks on it in the SGC pool. He lost, of course, and Landry of all people won.

“Sorry, Doctor,” Landry said. “I’m sure they hate him, but he also outranks a lotta them.”

Then the crisis – well, crises after crises – with the Ori started and Jack wasn’t there. It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was so hard it hurt. Not because Cameron Mitchell was a poor leader (he wasn’t), not because the Ori were terrifying (they were), and not because their few victories felt ultimately futile (oh yeah). The night that Daniel realized if they won, they would do it without Jack it hurt solely because he wasn’t there. And that night, coming down off the adrenaline high of victory and the emotional rollercoaster of looking at the same battle the next day, Daniel hoped Jack was happier in D.C.

2. That Jack was jealous of Cameron Mitchell. This was petty and unnecessary, and Daniel felt it almost as intensely as he missed Jack. Mitchell himself was surprisingly and unknowingly helpful with Daniel’s mission. The man was so damn excited about joining SG-1 that Daniel didn’t have to exaggerate just how much fun the new team leader was having in Jack’s former role. Although he couldn’t see Jack’s face in their weekly telephone conversations, Daniel had learned to identify the way his teeth ground together and vibrated the handset as the sound that meant he’d kissed Cameron’s ass enough for the moment.

One morning after their usual chat, Cameron came into the SGC briefing room with his arms full of government-issue classified manila folders. The stack was so high, Daniel couldn’t even see his face until he dropped it loudly on the table.

Vala immediately reached for the nearest folder and Sam smacked her hand away. “Those are classified,” she said.

Of course, Vala managed to open it anyway and read the first page before Sam forcefully took it away again.

“It’s about me,” Vala protested. “If I’m in it, I’m allowed to read it.”

She looked to Mitchell for support, only to find him slumped in a chair, hand over his face. “Uh-oh.” Vala said. She looked from Daniel to Sam to Teal’c. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Cam, what’s wrong?” Sam asked, somewhat alarmed. “What did she do?”

“Nothing!” Vala slammed her palms down on the table top in indignation. Quickly, she slid back into her seat and rolled it closer to Cameron. “What did I do?” she asked, considerably softer and sounding genuinely curious.

“I don’t think it was you,” Cam said, eyes moving suspiciously around the table.

“Yes,” Vala agreed. “Of course not.” She smiled and folded her hands primly.

“What are those documents?” asked Teal’c.

Cameron grimaced. “They’re the ‘review materials’ for the thirteen mission reports I have to defend against a review board of more brass than a marching band.”

Teal’c raised an eyebrow. Vala looked at his reaction and nodded. “What?”

“There have been twelve allegations of impropriety and misconduct against my command,” Cameron said tightly.

“Oh.” Vala’s eyes went big.

“What is the thirteenth?” Teal’c asked.

“That’s about her.” Cameron pointed at Vala. “I have to defend the presence of an untrustworthy alien thief on SG-1.”

All eyes shifted to Vala, who smiled with what seemed like pride.

“When did you get these?” Daniel asked, with creeping suspicion that he already knew.

“This morning,” Cameron growled. “0600.”

Sam scooted over and patted his arm. “Don’t worry about it. Colonel O’Neill had to attend thousands of those things.”

. Vala. Daniel had tried to argue that Vala’s skills and knowledge of all things illicit would be of incredible value to O’Neill’s work in Washington. He talked really fast, filled out about 3000 pages in triplicate, and had almost booked her a one-way plane ticket before he got shut down.

“No.” Landry said.

“General,” Daniel started.

“I said, no,” Landry repeated, in a tone Daniel had never heard before. It was pleasant yet icy, and distracted him while the General swept his entire stack of government forms off the desk and into a basket marked “to shred”.

“Sir –”

“Still no.” Landry shakes his head. “I admire your creativity, Dr. Jackson, but you can’t compete with what he’ll do to me.”

Of course, Vala found out shortly after that. She blew into Daniel’s office, snatched his book out of his hand, and used it to knock everything off of his desk.

“You tried to send me away!” she accused.

Sighing, Daniel got up out of the seat and started putting the objects back into place.

“Yes,” he said. “Yes I did. I wonder why I did that.”

Vala answered him with a diatribe which he mostly disregarded, since she was simultaneously pocketing half of what had been on his desk. Grabbing her arms, he forcefully peeled back her fingers and emptied her palms.

“You know,” he said, shoving the shinier pieces into his own pockets, “Washington, D.C. has several buildings devoted purely to the storage of priceless objects.”

Vala stopped with one hand halfway into his back pocket. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said. “They’re called Smithsonians. One of them has a whole section of really large, expensive gems.”

“Yeah?”

“They have poor security. I thought you’d be happy there.”

Vala looked at him through squinted, doubting eyes.

“Also, they print money in D.C.”

“Print it?”

“In a factory. Pump it out in giant sheets. Give it away free to tourists.”

“So you wanted to send me there so I could steal your national treasures and rob your money factories.”

Vala was not dumb. Greedy, but not dumb. Opportunistic, as the hand now caressing his butt was demonstrating, but not dumb.

“No, I just wanted you to go away. I’m pointing out incentives for you to go away.”

Daniel grabbed a business card relocated from his desk to the floor and handed it to her. “Call this guy. He wanted you to come.”

“Call General Jonathan-”

“Yep. A lot. He was really excited to work with you. You should call him all the time.”

Vala tilted her head. “Why should I?”

Daniel paused. “I’m letting you pinch my ass, Vala.”

Before she could reply, he snatched his phone up and placed it solidly in her hand. Removing the hand that was still in his pocket, he lead her to his desk chair.

“Call him,” he said. “You’ll enjoy it as much as I will.”

“Fine,” Vala said, taking a seat. “But I get to pinch your ass again.”

4. Family.

On one of his non-Stargate related trips back to Colorado, Jack brought a lady Marine with him. Initially, Daniel had thought she was a military escort of some kind and hadn’t paid her much attention until he saw the torn expression on Sam’s face. Vala turned out to be useful, as she quickly relayed all relevant information that Daniel hadn’t paid attention to.

Her name was Lieutenant Colonel Lisa Walker. She was widowed with three children, her husband dying in action a few years ago. And she and Jack had started dating a couple of weeks after he moved to D.C.

She was almost as tall as Jack and had been in the military for quite a while. Although she was prettier than the typical jarhead, Lisa maintained the posture and body language even when she was off-duty. It made Daniel kind of uncomfortable. Once he realized who she was and why Jack had brought her along, he tried to talk to her and found very little to say.

Sam and Teal’c didn’t seem to have the same problem. They liked her, a sentiment they both privately shared with Daniel. Vala said she was boring and had ugly hair, which Daniel couldn’t disagree with. Cameron’s opinion was already clear, as he’d hit on her before realizing she was Jack’s girlfriend.

Over beers one night, long after Lisa had claimed jetlag and gone back to the hotel, Jack mentioned they’d be visiting again.

“In the summer,” he said. “When her kids have off from school, we’re going to my cabin. Gonna teach her youngest to fish.”

“There aren’t any fish in your pond, Jack.”

“Yeah.” Jack frowned. “Don’t tell him that.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Yeah, they are. You haven’t said anything about Lisa.”

“She’s nice. And, um, she has good posture.”

Jack looked at him over the top of his beer bottle. “That’s what you have to say?”

“Oh, yeah, you should have warned Sam.”

“Ha.” Jack grimaced. “That’s what Lisa said. She gave me so much shit last night, I needed a shovel to dig out.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, she’s worse than you when you get started.”

Daniel smiled.

5. That Jack would come back to the SGC.

Cameron was a good guy, a capable leader, and a new friend. SG-1 was functioning fine. The Ori hadn’t won yet. Jack was happy in D.C.

It didn’t matter.

Daniel will always want him to come back.