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"So how does Tessa like motherhood?" Daniel asked.

Duncan grinned. "She loves it. I love Richie more than life itself. I can't wait until he's grown and out of the house so I can have my wife back!"

Jack and Daniel grinned. "Well, it did take awhile for her to get pregnant," Jack said.

Daniel shook his head. "I still can't believe that any of us have kids. I mean, because of the whole Immortal thing. I was just getting used to the idea that it would never happen. It always hurt me to see the longing in Casey's eyes when she'd see babies at the mall or wherever."

"I know exactly what you mean," Duncan said. "Tess would stop and look at baby things, and give this sad little sigh…it used to break my heart. Before she died…I tried to get her to leave me, to find a good man so that she could have a family. A couple of times I thought about doing something that would force her to leave…but I loved her so damned much I just couldn't do it, and I wasn't strong enough to walk away from her."

Jack shook his head. "Until Oma changed her Quickening, Sam never said a word about babies. I mean, she said she always thought that someday she'd settle down and get married and have a family…and then we met, and that whole non-fraternization thing with the Air Force got in the way. We both tried to have other relationships, but we were in love with each other, and that's all there was to it."

"I'm glad Case and I never had to worry about that," Daniel admitted. "I'd have left the SGC in a heartbeat if that's what it took to be with her."

"You aren't…weren't…career military," Jack reminded him quietly.

"True. Best thing that happened was when Oma influenced General Hammond to change that," Daniel replied.

Jack nodded. "It certainly was. So, Teal'c, how's life with Carly?"

"It is most pleasing, O'Neill," the large man replied.

"Any plans on getting married?"

The Jaffa smiled. "I would be honored to be bound to Carlotta. She however, has yet to decide that she wishes to be married."

"You've asked her to marry you?" Daniel asked.

"Indeed I have, Daniel Jackson. She replied that she would think about it, and 'get back to me'," Teal'c replied.

Duncan grinned. "I've known Carly for almost a hundred years. She's always been a…free spirit. If she marries you, Teal'c, it will be the first time she's ever married. And it will be the only time."

Teal'c inclined his head. "Of this I am aware. She is a woman of great passion. Also of great honor."

"That she is," the Highlander agreed.

Jack took a drink of his beer, then grinned. "You realize we're probably the luckiest men alive." His companions agreed wholeheartedly with him. "Yep. Beautiful wives…or significant others," he said, pointing his beer bottle at Teal'c, "kids, nice homes, people we can call family, good friends. Yep. Pretty damned lucky."

"I never thought I'd ever have a family of my own," Daniel said quietly. "For years I never really thought about it. When I met…was given…Sha're, even then I really didn't think too much about kids. She'd talk about the sons she was going to give me-" he broke off, took a drink of his beer. "When I met Casey-"

Jack started laughing. "When you met Casey, you were knocked for such a loop you didn't know which way was up, Space Monkey!"

Duncan chuckled. "Sounds interesting."

Jack and Teal'c were both laughing now. "The day we brought her back from…where the hell was that place?"

"P7X 193," Daniel said quietly.

"Yeah, from there…well, guess you should hear this story from the beginning," Jack said. "We found Seth on Earth, hiding out as a 'spiritual leader'…cult leader was what he was. Daniel found that he'd been forming cults, then killing all the members when it was time to move on, for centuries. Anyway, we took his ass out…Sam killed him, used a ribbon device to do it. This snakehead named Weepy something…"

"Wepwawet," Daniel sighed.

"Yeah, Weepywet, finds out and moves in on all of Seth's old territories. I hadn't been OIC of the SGC very long when the Tok'ra come in and tell us this guy has to be taken out. So I send SG-1 to do the job. The mission went FUBAR on them almost immediately, and they barely made it back through the 'gate alive. Weepywet and some of his goons managed to follow them through. Well, the NID found out about the bastard and came, with orders from the president, to take him to Area 51. Which they didn’t do. They took him to some place in Seattle. The bastard gets loose, and he kidnapped Casey, demanded that she take him to a set of coordinates he had. It bugged the hell out me for years…why didn't he just signal and ring up to the ship from where he was? Found out later that all the cell phone towers and power lines and the jet traffic, yada yada yada, anyway, it all interfered with his signaling device. Evidently the idiots at the NID had let him see a map of the area, and he found a nice secluded spot." He paused, took a drink of beer.

"He had her for five weeks," Daniel said. "My Angel has gone through hell again and again and again. I can't help but wonder how much more she can take."

Jack nodded. "We told the Tok'ra that an innocent civilian had been taken, and we needed info as soon as we could get it. They were the ones who gave us bad intel to begin with, and I reminded them of that every time they started hedging on finding out anything about this young woman named Casey Webster. So we find out where she's at, and we went through the 'gate. I had Hammond pull some strings so that he was temporary OIC of SGC so that I could go on that mission…I figured I owed her."

"Nothing that happened was your fault," Duncan said quietly.

"I should have shot the bastard when I had the chance…when I wanted to," Jack replied. "So, I send Sam and Daniel on one path, heading toward a village our intel says isn't too far from the gate, Teal'c and I took the main road. We hadn't been there, what fifteen, twenty minutes, when Daniel radios that they found her. Actually, she found them. Seems she dropped right down on top of Daniel. We headed back to the gate, we figure they found old Weepywet's body, 'cause Casey had killed that snake bastard, and the Jaffa were heading our way. When we took her to the infirmary-" he broke off, shook his head.

"The shirt she had on had to be cut off," Daniel said. "Doctor Williams, and two nurses, had to pull fibers out of the wounds on her back so it wouldn't become infected. Her back looked…" he shook his head, closed his eyes. He could still remember walking into the room with Sam and Teal'c, seeing that beautiful woman laying on her stomach, her back ripped to pieces.

"It looked like hamburger," Jack said. "Doc had given her something to keep her knocked out while they cleaned her back, then they put her on her side, more or less. Daniel wouldn't leave her. Sat there and held her hand the entire time. He'd only been un-Ascended for about six months, and was dealing with Sha're's loss all over again. He…" he looked over at his young friend. "The man was damned lonely."

"That's for sure," Daniel mumbled.

"Well, enter one Casey Webster. Methos had just dropped the whole Immortal thing on us-"

Duncan smiled. "That part I remember!"

"Well, while I had her in my private version of boot camp, Daniel here became very proficient at watching her. When we went back to the SGC, he'd make up excuses to go to Sam's lab, Casey was helping her do some filing work there. He'd stand and watch her…Sam said he looked like a starving man looking at a buffet table covered with food. I thought he just looked like a man who saw what he wanted but was too damned afraid to go after it."

"Hey, I loved Sha're, Apophis took her, I had loved Sarah, and we might have gotten back together, but Osiris took her, I figured if I gave in to my love for Case, some damned Goa'uld would come take her!" Daniel said.

"Ah ha!" Jack exclaimed. "You did love her!"

"From the first time I looked into those green eyes and saw that beautiful smile," Daniel admitted.

"Hush, let the man finish," Duncan teased the young archaeologist.

"The night before Methos was to…kill her…Daniel came to my office. He was upset, thought she deserved to know what was going on-"

"I still believe that," the young man muttered.

"As did I," Duncan conceded.

"I understood Methos' reasoning. I didn't like it, but I understood it," Jack said. "Anyway, he was pacing back and forth, trying to convince me to let him go talk to her. This is the same man who would run to the other side of the room if she got too close, had become so possessive that if the other guys were staring at her, he'd walk up and ask them if they didn't have jobs to do… the same man that wanted her so bad he was calling out her name in his sleep!"

Daniel jerked and looked at his friend. "When did I do that?"

"I stopped by your office for something…a report I think, and you were asleep. I tried to pull the papers I needed out from under you, and you started muttering about Casey, and that she belonged to you, and for whoever it was to keep away!" Jack said, grinning.

Duncan laughed.

"When she woke up from that first death…I guess somehow…in my mind…I thought I'd been given a second chance… and I wasn't going to blow it," Daniel confessed. "I thought she was interested in me…although I was getting some mixed signals from her."

"Probably as many as you were sending out, Danny," Jack said.

"I kissed her, I had to kiss her, and I knew in that moment I had to have her in my life. I wanted forever with her."

Duncan looked down at his beer. He remembered those days as well, had memories of two years with her. "Well, my young friend, you have been granted what you wanted."

Daniel smiled. "Yep. I think we've all come off pretty well in the deal," he said.

The Scot nodded. "I will admit that it took longer than it should have to find my way back to Tessa. I'm glad she was patient with me. I can't imagine my life without her."

"To our wives…or significant other," Daniel said, raising his beer bottle.

The men toasted, drank the beer, ordered another round. "I don't think I've been here since the night our wives came here with Kelley and Gretchen," Daniel said, looking around.

"I have never seen Tessa that drunk," Duncan laughed.

Jack and Daniel laughed. "Sam and Casey got drunk as skunks one night," Jack laughed.

"Yep. Case passed out as soon as I got her out the door," Daniel said, grinning broadly.

"Did you hear what happened to the Marine that assaulted Casey that night?" Duncan asked.

Daniel shook his blonde head. "I just thought he did a couple days in jail, for drunk and disorderly."

The Scot shook his dark head. "That was all that happened…officially. Seems that some regulars from Rinaldi's, regulars who know Casey, heard about what happened. They showed up here just before young Lieutenant Waurez was taken home by his buddies. They didn't do anything that night, but about a week later he and a couple of his friends showed up at Rinaldi's, as they were…and still are…persona non gratis here at Esteban's. Anyway, these regulars started talking very loudly about what a great lady Casey is, how beautiful she is, what a class act she is…that sort of thing. Well, young Lieutenant Waurez isn't just dumb, he's stupid. He said that he'd seen her on the dance floor acting like a slut, and that she was nothing but a cock-tease."

Daniel's hands clenched into fists.

"Easy, Space Monkey," Jack said, patting the young man on the back.

"Don't worry, Daniel. Waurez spent three weeks in the hospital. Then I received a request from Robert, in his official capacity as mayor of Hope, that Lieutenant Waurez be confined to base, there had been too many complaints made about him."

"The patrons at Rinaldi's?" Daniel asked.

"Every one of them," Duncan grinned. "I talked to George, and he said to transfer him over. Last I heard, he's on Beta. Not too many folks on Beta know Casey."

The men laughed.

"I swear, that woman has friends she'll never even know about," Daniel said.

"Yep." Jack looked at Duncan. "So are you ever gonna tell us about being tied down?"

Duncan rolled his eyes. "I already did!"

"We gave you details, we expect the same," Jack said.

The dark haired man shook his head and sighed.

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