<Italics: denotes whispers>

“How are you boys doing here?  Shall I top you up?”

“No thanks, I’m good.”

“Yeah, hit me again.”

“Jack!  You’ve had enough.  You drink any more and – “

“Daniel, we’ll leave off discussing my health issues in front of the nice lady, if you don’t mind!”

“Oh yeah, you gents are definitely a couple.   I can tell.”

“It’s that obvious, is it?”

“Just a little.  If you don’t mind me asking, how long have you been together?”

“Not at all.  Thirty wonderful years.”

“That’s really sweet.”

“Yeah, it has been.”

“Jaaaack…”

“Aw, lookit him blush.  Quick, while he’s busy being embarrassed, coffee, mug, fill.”

“There you go, sir.  Coffee as requested.”

“Excellent, and now, to go with, how about you bring me – “

“You’re wasting your time, and the roguish grin won’t work either.  He already told me you can’t have a donut.”

“Ah, you can’t blame an old guy for tryin’”

"You’re quite the charmer, aren’t you?  I’ll bet you turned a few heads in your day.”

“You have no idea.”

“Look who’s talking, Mister ‘babe on every pl – “

“Jack!”

“You guys are so cute! You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Not…exactly. We were.  We used to live here…um…”

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.  How did you know?”

“I’ve never seen you in here before.  And the car you drove up in, noticed it was a rental.”

“Good eye.  You ever get tired of pouring java you should consider a new career path.  Ever thought about the Air Force?”

“Air Force?  Not really, but you never know.  But for now, speaking of serving coffee, I’d better get back to it.  You gentleman have yourself a nice day, and if you need anything else, just shout out.”

“All right Jack, now you’ve had your fun with Carrie, who has no idea she knows us both very well, and was flirting with the older version of the man who’s come in here most mornings for the past two years chatting her up just as shamelessly  – “

“Ah, Danny, you know I only have eyes for you!”

“And the fact she’s now young enough to be your grand daughter – “

“Well, there’s that too.  Nice ass, though.  I’d forgotten about that.”

“Jack!”

“Hey, I’m old, I’m not dead!”

“Oh no, if last night was anything to go by, definitely not dead.”

“Well, you know what they say, while you’ve got it, use it.”

“Well, that’s not quite – never mind. Omigawd, Jack, I can’t believe we’re really here!”

“We’re here all right, Danny, and it’s been one hell of a ride, hasn’t it?”

“Where has the time gone? It’s been thirty years since we last walked through those doors and yet, being here now, seeing this place again, feels like it was just yesterday when we... You know, we really shouldn’t be here.  We promised Sam we wouldn’t.”

“Ah, relax, Daniel, what Carter doesn’t know won’t hurt her.  Besides, what harm could it do?  We’re just going to sit here, have a nice cup of coffee, maybe a donut or two  – “

“No.”

“No?”

“No, no donuts.  You know better than that, Jack, you can’t have a donut.”

“Not even a little one?  For old times sake?  This place makes the best bear claws in the Springs, if you will recall.”

“No!  I love you, Jack Russo, and I want to keep you around for a few more years yet.”

“I love you too, but one little donut isn’t gonna k – “

“No!”

“All right, all right, chill, don’t get yer truss in a knot.  Man, you’re strict.  Okay, I’ll be good.  No donuts.”

“Thank you.  Oh, by the way, you did it again.  Sam hasn’t called herself Carter in thirty years.”

“I know!  I’m not senile yet, I’ll have you know!”

“I never said you were, it’s just – “

“Yeah, I know, I know, Carter hasn’t been a Carter since 1969, any more than you’ve been a Jackson, or I’ve been an O’Neill,  but no matter what handle she’s using now – “

“McKay.”

“I know that too!  McKay, McSmay, whatever, she’ll always be Carter to me.  Ah crap, Danny, I know we’ve been using ‘em all these years, but I’ll never get used to our aliases. I remember when it turned out we were…stuck Carter kept yammering on about the time paradox thingee and how we shouldn’t go around creating any, so just to be on the safe side she thought it was better if we didn’t use our real names while attempting to…blend in.  So you couldn’t be Daniel Jackson because there already was a downsized version of you running around and I couldn’t be Jack O’Neill because there already was a Jack O’Neill out there, even if he was only…twelve years old.”

“I was so happy when you finally got over thinking it was funny driving Sam nuts for the first five years threatening to send yourself a birthday card every year.”

“I still think it’s funny, I just got tired of you busting my chops about it.”

“She’s still pretty pissed at you for the whole stock market thing.”

“Hey, we had to live!  And it’s not like I changed anything!  I didn’t see the harm in cashing in, we knew those companies were gonna go through the roof and make billions, so what if there were a couple extra million in the pot for us?  I spread it around, didn’t make any waves, covered my tracks.  Besides, she should talk.  She doesn’t know I knew about that secret room in her basement where she built all her whatizs.”

“You knew about that?”

“Of course I knew!  Special Ops, remember.”

“Ohhh, how could I forget?”

“Besides, are you kidding, we’re talking Carter here.  I knew she’d have to have something with going on with gizmos or she wouldn’t be Carter.  Stuck in the past or no, if she didn’t have something to tinker with she’d have gone insane.  She didn’t have any alien doohickeys to futz with any more, but applying what she knew about future technology to make what already existed bet-ter – no way she could resist that.  And of course, she didn’t.  That computer she built to do her research, considering what she had to work with, it was amazing.  The woman is a frigging genius, too bad she didn’t go public with some of the contraptions she jerry-rigged, think of the killing we would have made if she’d ‘invented’ a few gadgets early  – “

“She couldn’t, Jack, that would have changed things.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Still, it would have been pretty cool to have had the big screen in 1975. Oh yeah, and the VCR, DVD player, oh, what about the Playstation?”

“I was wondering when you’d get around to that one.  You’ve finally got one now, so get over it already.”

“Yeah, waited all those years and now my reflexes are shot.  There’s irony for ya.”

“Thirty years.  I still can’t believe it.  Any regrets, Jack?”

“Not a one, Dannyboy.”

“Oh, that’s so not true!  It took you six months to snap out of the funk you were in when you realized it was really over.  We’d never go through the gate again.  And we were stuck in a past with no Simpsons.”

“Or Playstations.  But let’s not dwell.  Okay, maybe one or two regrets.”

“I can think of one really big one.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Teal’c?”

“Yeah.  Him.”

“We haven’t talked about him in years.”

“He’s gone.  What else is there to say.”

“Jack, what you had to do, it wasn’t your fault. It was his decision.  He knew better than any of us what was eventually going to happen to him when his symbiote matured.  And he also had the courage to make us see it was too risky for him to try and live amongst us, even for a short time, while he waited for it to happen.”

“We could have put it off a little longer, found a way to save him.”

"How?  We haven’t found a way for him to survive without the symbiote in 1999, back in 1969 – there was no chance of that.  And as for waiting…  Face it Jack, he was right.  We all knew there was no place for him in our world in 1969.  Especially in 1969.  Hell, he’s enough of a security risk in 1999, but back then, if something had happened to him, an accident, any reason whatsoever for anyone to have examined him, found his symbiote – “

“I know, I know, it could have let the whole thing out of the bag, jeopardized all our futures, potentially put the kibosh on the program, thrown the entire universe out of whack, dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria and all that.  Still it was a pretty crappy way for him to go.  Even worse, I’m the one…”

“I know, but it was his choice.  He knew there was no other way.  He had to disappear, completely, leaving no trace behind, no possible chance anyone could find any evidence of his existence, or learn about the Goa’uld.  At least it was quick – he didn’t suffer.”

“I miss him.”

“Me too.  But he died free, Jack.  It’s what he wanted.”

“Crap.  It still sucks.”

“I know.  I know how hard it was for you to have to…do it, and it didn’t get any easier for you, all those years, knowing it was coming, and then, when it was Charlie’s time…”

“It had to go down the way it was meant to.  End of story.  At least this time, I didn’t have to see it.  But enough about me, how about you?”

“What about me what?”

“Regrets. You got a few?”

“You know I do.  My parents.  It was hard, knowing they were still alive, and I couldn’t…  And then, knowing where, when and how they were going to…”

“Die.”

“Yeah.  And I had to let it happen.  Couldn’t save them a second time.”

“You know why we had to let that scenario play out too.”

“Yeah, I do, the same reason why you…couldn’t stop Charlie from…you know.  If I changed my past, I’d change my future and probably all of our futures because if my parents had lived it's not likely I would have become me and ended up where I needed to be when Catherine came to recruit me for the program.  You know, Jack, there have been many times I couldn’t help thinking, maybe that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing.  Maybe the world would have been better off if I hadn’t opened the damned gate in the first place.”

“Well, I can’t speak for the world, but whatever state it would be in with or without you being there to get the whole gate rolling, one thing I do know for sure if you hadn’t, I  wouldn’t be here.”

“What?”

“You heard me. If you hadn’t opened the gate I’d be six feet under right now.  Getting called back for the Abydos mission was the only reason why I didn’t put a bullet in my brain.”

“No, that’s not true, I know you; you wouldn’t have done it.”

“Oh yes, I would have.  You know the man you made me.  You’ve forgotten the suicidal bastard I used to be.  I owe you my life more times than I can count, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that, and for you.  So let’s not hear any more ‘maybe the world would be better off if I’d never done anything’ crap talk.”

“Shau’ri.  How is she better off?”

“Daniel, she’s been beyond your reach for thirty years.”

“Don’t you think I know that?  When we went back in time, she wasn’t even born yet.  In a way, that made it worse, because I knew what was coming and when, I knew what was going to happen to her, and I couldn’t reach her, couldn’t warn her, couldn’t stop it a second time.”

“Daniel, I went through all of that too with Charlie, and it’s just – it’s just no good thinking that way.  There was nothing I could do to save him, nothing you could do for her, you’ll only make yourself mental dwelling on it.”

“I know, I know, that part of my life is long gone, I love you now, and even if we somehow met...again, there’s too much time and distance between us.  I’m – I’m old enough to be her grandfather now and she’s…she’s young, she could have her whole life in front of her. If she ever gets the chance to live it.  Our present selves are about to go into the past, and when we do, we’ll be gone – and she’s still out there, Jack, still a prisoner.  Who’s going to help her, look for her now?”

“I don’t know, Danny, we’ll think of something.”

“It’s too bad we couldn’t have kept in touch with Michael and Jenny.”

“You kidding, they’d seen too much already.  That hokey cover story we had to come up with had them convinced we were aliens, we couldn’t very well hang out with them after it became clear we weren’t going anywhere.  So we had them drop us off and we went on our way pretending we were rendez-vous-ing with the mother ship and they were none the wiser.”

“Yeah, I understand all that, but still, I wonder what happened to them.”

“They were good kids, I’m sure they made out fine.  Enough chit chat, where the hell are we, anyway?  The other us-es, I mean.  We’d better hurry up and get here, I’m gonna have to hit the can again soon and I don’t want to miss anything.”

“Again?  I told you not to have that third refill.”

“Well, what was I supposed to do, you wouldn’t let me have a donut!”

“Shhh!  Jack, there’s your truck!”

“Don’t shush me – they can’t hear us, they’re out in the parking lot.  Oh God, you’re right, there she is!  Look at that beauty, Daniel isn’t she gorgeous?  Oh baby, I’ve missed you!”

“Jack, grow up, it’s just a truck.”

“Just a – wash your mouth out with decaf - you’re lucky I love you, Mister!”

“Jack – Jack  – omigawd, there we are!  Oh my, I forgot I had all that hair, I look like a cocker spaniel and I’m…did I really look like that?”

“Still do, baby.”

“That’s sweet.  Totally delusional, but sweet.”

“I aim to please.”

“And you...you’re so handsome, and…your hair it’s brown!  Wow, barely a hint of silver.  Not that I mind the silver, in fact I love it – “

“Hope so, you’re mostly the reason for it.”

“Shut up, I’m talking.  As I was about to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, I do love the silver, but there’s something so – so sexy about the brown, maybe because it’s been so long since I’ve seen you, like this.   Oh Jack, look at us, I can’t believe we were ever that young.”

“You kidding, you were even younger.” 

“I have no idea what that means. Now behave yourself, we’re coming this way!”

“DANIEL, GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!  WE’RE LATE!”

“<Jack, I – I remember this!  You were yelling at me, and then I – >“

“Jack, will you just…we are not late.  You know, you really don’t have to do this.  Pick me up on the way to work, I mean, especially if it’s going to be such an obvious inconvenience for you.  I can drive myself to work, I have a perfectly good car and I do know the way.”

“< – and then he – I mean you – >“

“That may be, but your alarm clock doesn’t work worth shit.”

“<Yeah, I remember this too.  They’re making straight for us.  Wait for it…>”

“It works just fine!  Once, once I didn’t hear it and you’re never going to let me forget it.”

"Once?  Seems to me your memory’s on the fritz too.  I make it at least three – “

“Jack!  Watch where you’re going!”

“Crap!  God, I’m sorry old timer, I didn’t mean to walk into you like that.”

“God, we’re sorry!  He’s just – so – are you okay?”

“I’m fine, sonny, we’re fine.  No harm done.  As you were.  Carry on.”

“You too, gents.  Have a good one.  Come on, Daniel, let’s go!”

“God, Jack!  I can’t believe you did that! You could have really hurt that poor old man!  What’s next, bowling over blind men?”

“Daniel, Daniel, you had quite a mouth on you back then, didn’t you.  Still do, if I recall correctly.”

“Omigawd, Jack, we walked right past ourselves and didn’t even know it!”

“Right into ourselves, you mean.  So what do you know, Carter did all that freaking out for nothing.  We were supposed to come here today because we were here back then.  I mean now.”

“We’ve come full circle.”

“Yup.  Touched ourselves and everything.  So much for Doc Brown’s theories.”

“What?”

“Doc Brown?  Back to the Future?  Exploding time and space continuums?”

“I thought you didn’t like sci fi.”

“I’ve developed a new appreciation for it over the years.  Got caught up on a lot of stuff I passed on the first time around.  Look at him, the younger me.  Lucky bastard, his Daniel lets him have a bearclaw.”

“Well, firstly he doesn’t have to watch his sugar intake like you do, at least not yet.  Secondly, Daniel isn’t ‘his’.  Not now, anyway.”

“Only because I never said anything.  You might not have been mine then, but I sure’n hell was yours.”

“God, Jack, that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“And I meant every word.  Now can I have a donut?”

“No, but I’ll make it up to you later.  Oh Jack, look at us.  We have no idea what’s about to happen to us, that this is our last trip to the mountain, and through the gate, and the next time we see this place it’ll be thirty years later.”

“We could change that. There’s still time.  We missed our shot to get back using the solar flare info Hammond gave Carter because we didn’t know Catherine would be at that conference in Chicago, and not at home in New York.  Without her, we had no way of finding the gate in time.  That was our bad luck when we made this trip, but we could make sure that doesn’t happen to them.  We can walk right up to those other us-es and tell ourselves where the gate will be in 1969 – in a huge, honking crate in an armoury in Washington.”

“Jack, I thought you gave up trying to find out where the gate was in 1969 years ago.”

“Nope.  Took some doing, but I finally found it.  Don’t look at me like that, I wanted to know.  Call it closure, if you will.  It won’t do us any good now, but it could make all the difference to them.  And Teal’c.”

“We could do that.  We could tell them. But what about us?  And Sam?  We tell them where to find the gate in 1969 and we’ll change our past. If they get to the gate and go through in time, if they make it back, here, to their time, if we don’t stay in 1969, you and I, everything we’ve shared together for the last thirty years, it would never have happened.  Jack, we wouldn’t happen, we’d – we’d cease to exist.”

“I know.  And, as time paradoxes go, this one would make Carter’s head explode. I never said we should do it, just we could.  However, having put it out there, I never seriously meant for us to follow through.  They are us, and the very fact we’re even here to see ourselves from the other side, not only can we not say anything to them, obviously, we didn’t.   We matter, Daniel, just as much as they do. Though it wasn’t the life we would have chosen, it was ours, it is ours, and all things considered, it hasn’t been so bad.  We’ll let them go.  We’ll let it play out for them just the way we lived it before.  Maybe in another reality we get home and good on us if we do, but in this one – this was meant to be – we – we were meant to be.  I know we were talking about regrets before, and we both have them but I’ll tell you one thing I have no regrets about.  You – us.”

“That’s two things.”

“Technically – yes, and no.  Stop being so damned pedantic you old coot; I’m going for a moment here. I’m trying to tell you something you  – “

“Hah, look who’s calling whom ‘old’ you incorrigible asshole – “

“I don’t regret a moment of every day we’ve spent together.  You’ve brought me thirty years of – “

“If you’re talking the amount of time we’ve actually been together  together, well, technically, it’s 28 and a half years – “

“DANIEL!”

“What?  Oh, I’m sorry, you were saying?”

“Forget it.  You ruined it.”

“Oh stop pouting. Admit it, if I’d allowed you to finish that sentence and commit an actual, emotional infraction you’d probably have died of embarrassment.  I love you too.  I wouldn’t have missed the last thirty years with you for all the gates in the universe and I’m with you.  Let us go, so we can be us.”

“You really mean that?”

“Yeah?  You?”

“Youbetcha.  You’re the only reason I made it through all those years, and I’m the man I am today.  Damned glad I had you, babe, damned glad we had each other.  We were the lucky ones, though.  Shame about Carter, she didn’t have it nearly so good.  She must have been pretty lonely, on her own.”

“It was her decision, Jack.  You know she couldn’t allow herself to get involved with anyone in the past, it could have changed history. I mean, what if she met and married some guy who should have married someone else and had a baby that was supposed find the cure for cancer or something, but now wouldn’t because they’d never be born.”

“That line of logic still makes my head hurt.  Well, anyway, I always thought she was nuts to put herself on the shelf like that, but what are you gonna do.  Mind you, after today all that will no longer apply, so it maybe it’s not too late for her.   Okay, sure, she’s a little longer in the tooth now, but for a women her age she’s still a looker and she’s got a few good years left in her yet.  It could still happen.”

“What do you mean after today – “

“Come on, Daniel, put a lid on that thing and let’s go!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming!”

“Sorry again, dudes.”

“It’s okay, son, we’re old, but we’re tough.”

“I’ll bet you are.”

“You boys work up at Cheyenne Mountain ?”

“As a matter of fact, we do.  Good call.”

“<Jack, what are you - >”

“Your name Jack?  Funny, so is mine.”

“You don’t say. Small world.”

“Isn’t it?  Say, you look kind of familiar.  Don’t I know you from somewhere?”

“Don’t think so.    Well, boys, don’t let us keep you.  On your way, now, go save the world.  Look after yourself son, and watch out for Daniel too.”

“Thanks, I will.  See you later.  Well that was…weird.  How the hell did he know your name, Daniel?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you’ve been bellowing it from one end of the shop to the other ever since we walked through the door!”

“Pissy!  Shut up and drink your coffee.”

“Are you nuts! Talking to yourself like that – what were you thinking?  Like playing with fire much, Jack?”

“I married you, didn’t I?”

“No comment.”

“And there we go.  On our way to the past.  Looks like our job is done here, Tonto.”

“To quote our dear friend, indeed.  Now what, we go back to the motel?  Hobble about the Springs and reminisce about old times?  What?”

“No, actually, I had something else in mind.”

“What?  Oh yeah, what did you mean before, when we were talking about Sam, what you were saying after today that would no longer apply – what would no longer apply?”

“Just what I said.”

“Jack, I’m too old for headgames.”

“You’re never too old for headgames.  Come on, Daniel, work with me here, you’re a bright guy, you can figure it out.  For the last thirty years we’ve had to lay low and play it safe because we were living in our own past, and we had to be careful we didn’t do anything to change it.  Well, this is the day when that all ends, the second those other us-es go through the gate, all bets are off.  Danny, don’t you see, you said it yourself earlier, we’ve come full circle.  As of today, the past is officially over.  From this point onward, we’ll be living in our present, creating a future for us that hasn’t been written yet.  We’re finally free.”

“Omigawd, you’re right.  We can be – we can be us again because – because – “

“Now yer gettin’ it.  Listen Daniel, I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.  We’re off the clock now, we don’t have to hide.  There’s nothing stopping us from being who – and what we used to be.”

“Jack, are you thinking about what I think you’re thinking?  We – we can’t!”

“Why the hell not?  Give me one good reason!”

“Well, we’re old now, for one thing!  In case you hadn’t noticed!”

“Okay, I wasn’t suggesting we walk up to Hammond and demand he let us back through the gate, but we still have a lot we can bring to the program.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but you are now the only person on the planet who speaks Goold.  And all that research you’ve been doing through the years, the SGC should know about that.  That guy in – in  - “

“ Seattle .  Seth.  Yeah, I definitely think he bears investigating.”

“Yeah, him.  You could tell them about him.  You could make sure they still keep looking for Shau’ri.  Maybe it won’t be you, personally who finds her, but who better to evaluate whatever intel the SG teams bring back, you could look for clues, tell them where to go to track her down.  There’s plenty you still have to offer to the SGC they desperately need.  And they do still need you Daniel, even a version of you that’s thirty years older than the one who was working for them until today.”

“And you too.”

“Maybe not so much.  I figure I can use you as a bargaining chip.”

“Make us a package deal, no me without you?’

“You got it, kiddo.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go back without you anyway.  You know that.  Wow, you’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?  I’m impressed.”

“They still need us, Danny.&