Chapter Text
'This wasn't one of my best ideas,' Jack O'Neill mused to himself while heading towards home after his very first day in high school… again. Except it wasn't his first day and it wasn't his home, now was it? No, it was just an apartment building near the high school, arranged for him by the Air Force. It had the bare necessities, he got just enough money per month to feed himself and that's… about it.
'No, this wasn't even one of my average ideas,' he continued, absently kicking a piece of rock that lay in the middle of the side walk. It had been a fascinating idea to be sure. After all those times Carter had babbled away in technogeek and the times when Daniel had worked himself into a rant over some historical event or figure Jack himself knew nothing about… after all the times he had just felt stupid next to those two, he had wanted to learn. To be a bit better, to understand it all. To feel… not so stupid.
Of course, it was just hindsight. It wasn't like he could go back with what ever he could now learn and do it all over again, no way in hell. In that aspect it was rather meaningless. But at the same time… well, despite feeling stupid so goddamn often, he wasn't. He knew perfectly well that once he was old enough, the Air Force would whisk him away and he would once again become part of the oh so honourable military establishment. And once they would, a little bit of book smarts wouldn't hurt, huh?
But, oh god, the kids at the school. Jack knew childishness, hell, he revelled in it; but this? Had he really been that shallow back when he had been that young? Had life really revolved around girls, sports, causing trouble, partying on the weekends and outsmarting teachers and parents over some stupid things which, in the long run, had no meaning? And had high schools been so vicious back then? Had the girls been so mean and the boys so thoughtless? Had skipping school been so "cool" back then too?
Maybe it was because of what he had seen and what he now knew. He could no longer see why the geeks were losers and why they had to be bullied -- Carter and Daniel had saved his ass so many times that he had started to respect the so called geeks. They had the brains, after all, and it was the brains that exploded suns and ascended into higher planes of existence, not the brawns and their fists.
And what did looks have to do with anything? There was a girl in his new class who had braces and more zits than Jack had cared to count -- and apparently because of that everyone hated her. He remembered that maybe, back when he had been young, someone might've been teased about something like that but he just couldn't see it anymore. The braces would make her teeth straight and the zits would go away once she got through puberty. Hell, he had his own share of the goddamn things.
He sighed and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his slightly too big pants. Despite looking as young as he did, he felt as old as he knew he was. And that was the main problem. The novelty of being young and in high school again had lasted for about an hour and then he realised how things really were. He was in high school, surrounded by goddamn teenagers, and he himself was what? He was almost fifty! Hadn't anyone realised just how weird that was?
'Well, I do now,' he grunted to himself and looked up as he came to the apartment building where he was supposed to live. It was nice enough, and in a decent neighbourhood -- the yard was well taken care off and there was a small playground just in front of the building. By the looks of it, it was well used -- even now there was a small boy running around the playground, the kid's father walking after him with an amused look about his face.
'Huh, locals,' Jack mused, eyeing the man and the boy. After a moment of thinking about it, he stepped forward. 'Making friends here won't hurt, especially since it seems like I'm not going anywhere.'
The man was tall and thin and he had a messy black hair and glasses. He didn't look like the bookish type though, he stood too straight and too proud. When Jack came closer, he started to realise just how young the man was. Younger than Daniel had been when they had first met, probably not even twenty five. Yet the kid was probably over four.
"Careful, Teddy, you don't want to fall again," the man called to the boy who was enthusiastically tackling the climbing frame. The boy just grinned and climbed, getting an amused sigh from the man. Then the man noticed Jack. "Hullo, there. You lost, kid?"
'He's British,' Jack thought with surprise. "Yeah, I'm fine," he answered quickly. Little awkwardly he motioned at the apartment building. "I, uh… I just moved in."
"Oh, so you're the one who rented old Frank's apartment. They were moving your stuff in just few days ago…" the black haired man nodded thoughtfully before raising his eyebrow slightly. "You're a bit younger than I thought," he mused before shrugging and offering his hand. "Well, welcome to the neighbourhood. I'm Harry and that rascal there is Teddy," he motioned at the kid who was wearing a beanie.
"J-Jonathan," Jack said while taking the hand. It had been his decision to go by Jonathan rather than by Jack in his new life -- just to put some distance between himself and, well, himself. He still struggled a bit with the name, after being called Jack for so long. "You been livin' here long?" he asked. "I mean… you're obviously not from here."
"No, I'm not. Teddy and me, we've lived here about three years now," the man said, glancing at the boy who was struggling to climb higher. "Moved here straight from the UK." There was a bit of melancholy in his tone before he shook his head and glanced at Jack. "I haven't seen your parent's around here yet."
"That's because, uh, I don't have any anymore," Jack answered a bit awkwardly. Seeing the worried frown that appeared to the man's face, he quickly struggled to explain. He had been told not to make too much noise about himself. Saying that he was being taken care off by the Air Force wouldn't work either, so… "My uncle got me the apartment so that I could go to the local high school. He lives outside the town, so the way to school would've been a bit long otherwise."
"Hm," the man hummed, raking his green eyes up and down Jack's frame before nodding and turning to look at the kid again. "Bit reckless of your uncle to leave you alone like that… but who am I to judge," he folded his hands and shook his head before glancing Jack. "I live on the fifth floor, in apartment twenty nine. We're there most of the time so if you need anything… you can come and knock."
Jack smiled awkwardly. 'Ah, yeah, probably not,' he thought, having no intention of asking anyone's help. He could take care of himself perfectly well -- he had for dozens of years already. "I'll keep that in mind," he said with a nod, before motioning at the building. "I have some homework to do. It was, uh… it was nice meetin' you."
"You too, Jonathan," the man nodded.
'Well, he seemed decent enough,' the former Air Force Colonel mused while heading for the front door of the apartment building. He hated living in apartment buildings -- too many people and too much noise -- but maybe this one wouldn't be so bad. 'Maybe the rest of the folk living here won't be bad either.'
Now he only needed to get adjusted to this whole high school thing and keeping himself sane in the midst of teenagers and he would be fine. Maybe.
Harry -- whose last name was Potter apparently -- was at the playground surprisingly often with Teddy -- whose last name on other hand was Lupin. Sometimes when Jack left for school the two would be there and more often than not they were there when Jack came home from school. Sometimes there were other kids and other parents there, sometimes Harry was talking with that pretty blonde mother with the twin girls or the young parents of two boys and sometimes Teddy was chasing said girls with the boys.
It was obvious that Harry didn't have a job and that he worked as a full time dad. Single parent too, which was something Jack could almost relate to but not quite. Thinking about children and parenthood was painful because it made him think of Charlie and Sara, but he still couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Teddy's mother and how come the father and the son had different last names.
But in the end it wasn't any of his business.
There weren't any other teens in the apartment building. There was an older girl who was in university and studying all the time, and there were the kids, the eldest of them barely eight, but that was it. Somehow Jack was relieved about it. He was already fairly certain that he wouldn't be able to make any friends in the high school -- he and the kids had barely anything in common -- so he was glad that he didn't have to go through trying and failing at the place where he lived.
Instead he did what he was supposed to. He tried to study. It wasn't nearly as easy as he had thought that it would be and despite his age he wasn't immediately the prodigy of the class. It had been a very long time since he had gone through high school and college and it seemed like everything from math to literature had changed whilst he had been busy growing wrinkles. So passing wasn't exactly obvious and he actually had to study -- which he hated. With a passion.
Soon he realised that he was prone to getting sudden urges to see if the Simpson's were on -- even though he knew better -- every time he tried to study. Decades of acting was integrated into his very core and no matter how useful that skill had been in SGC, he knew he couldn't pass his classes by drawing doodles and trying to look like he was doing something important.
"You wouldn't happen to know anythin' about linear algebra?" Jack asked Harry one day after he had decided to take a break from his math homework before he would stray off to see if anything interesting was on TV.
"I'm afraid I've never been much good when to comes to maths and such," the man said apologetically, his eyes now and then straying to Teddy who was building sand castles with the twin girls. "You could ask Cecilia. She's majoring in maths, or something similar."
"Cecilia… oh, right. The college girl," Jack nodded before realising what the man had said. "You never went to college?"
The man shook his head and smiled with strange bitterness. "Never went to high school either," he said with a sigh before scratching his head. "So I'm not going to be any help with that sort of thing. Sorry."
"It's okay, I suck with that stuff too," the former Air Force Colonel said, looking at the man curiously. "What did you do since you didn't go to school?"
"A lot of very stupid things," Harry answered with a dry chuckle.
With the man being such a dedicated father to Teddy -- hell, he wouldn't let the kid stray from his sight for even five minutes -- it was hard for Jack to imagine the man being reckless in any way. Or maybe that was it. Maybe he had done so many stupid things that he was wiser for it. Wiser and cautious. Just like Jack himself after leaving his gun lying around.
Jack missed the SGC more than he would've liked, more than was comfortable, more than he was really allowed to. He missed the Stargate and going to other worlds, despite all the times it had almost gotten him killed and all the pain it had given him. He missed Daniel, even the man's annoying habit of making Jack wish there was a discreet way to tear one's hair. He missed Carter and her ability to make him feel like his brain cells were in a lower level of evolution than hers. He missed Teal'c and the man's constant ability to unknowingly remind Jack that he wasn't getting any younger. Except he had and it definitely hadn't made things better.
'Maybe I should start going to the gym or something,' he mused more than once. His fifteen year old body wasn't in top condition, exactly. If anything, he was scrawny. But what point would there be in going to a gym? It wasn't like he would have any use for physical strength in this new life of his. 'Except if I go for sports or something. And I'm not.'
Being so bored all the time was what bothered him the most. Back in SGC and in the body of old man, the dull and quiet moments had been rare. Two missions per week and unscheduled incoming wormholes every now and then -- a megalomaniac or two every two months or so. And of course, every now and then they had gotten the chance to save the planet in one way or another. He had been too old for that sort of thing but damn if he didn't miss it.
It was possible -- highly probable more likely -- that he would be taken back into the program one day. Once he was old enough he would be taken in by the Air Force again and maybe he would even get stationed at the SGC eventually. But how many years until then? More than he could handle right then, that was for sure. And would he have to go through the rank ladder? Going from Colonel to airman, that didn't sound too nice.
'Whether I want that or not is another thing too,' Jack thought. The Air force had been his life for so many years, and when he thought about it… there were better ways of living. But it was, for him, probably the only way he could get back into the life he had been forced to leave behind. There was no way in hell he would ever have the right qualifications for a civilian contractor. Unlike Daniel and Lee, he just didn't have the brains for that sort of thing. 'No matter how much I study now, I'll never get to their level.'
So the Air Force or the military in general was his only ticket back to the Stargate program. Though he supposed that he could live with being part of the X-303 program too, next to Stargate that was possibly the sweetest posting on Earth. Either way the military was the way for him to go. Easy way too, given his history. He had been part of the establishment long enough to know they wouldn't let someone like him go. Someone with expertise, training and time to spare. He was probably their very favourite future recruit.
'And for that, I don't exactly need an education.' He knew as much. The Air Force probably would've offered him other possibilities, his older self certainly had, but he had chosen otherwise. Because of the nagging feeling of inferiority which the elder version of himself was no doubt happier ignoring. Because he had been given a second chance to prepare for the unknown future. Because he had the chance to make more out of himself than he had the first time around.
And because of that he stayed. No matter how he missed Stargate and everyone and everything involved, no matter how boring it got and no matter how he felt like he was going insane, he stayed right where he was. He stayed and struggled to understand what the teachers were lecturing about.
"You know, you could probably take some courses or something if you want to get a high school diploma and a degree and stuff," Jack said to Harry one day while he was outside reading a book -- for his English class. "I think there's a way to take some of them online too."
"Hm," the man hummed, eyeing the five year old who was playing tag with the other children. "I guess I could," he said with slight disinterest.
Jack glanced at him. He was well set thanks to the Air Force and his former life and all that, but Harry didn't have any of that. No education, no job, and a kid? How did the man manage to pay his bills not to mention about renting an apartment from a block as nice as theirs? "Education might help you, uh, get a job and stuff," he pointed out cautiously.
Harry glanced at him and then chuckled. "I'm not exactly poor, Jonathan," he answered with amusement. "Nor am I unemployed, not really."
"Oh?" Jack raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side. He had certainly never seen the man leave for work. In fact he had never seen the man without Teddy being somewhere near. So he had to work from home and with loose hours. "What do you do?"
"I'm a novelist," the man answered with a shrug, his eyes straying back to the kids as one of them fell with a loud thud. The fall didn't seem to slow the kid down though, because immediately he was back on his feet and dashing after Teddy who was giggling loudly. "You don't need an education to use your imagination," Harry added and then chuckled. "That sounded almost like a quote."
"Novelist? You write books and stuff?" Jack asked. 'Is that sort of job actually profitable?'
"Yeah. I write fantasy novels," Harry shrugged again.
"Cool. Can I read them?"
"I can get you copies if you want, but only if you promise not to tell that I wrote them," the man grinned at him. "I write under a pen name and no one here knows what I do. I'd like to keep it that way."
Harry's books -- which were written under the name of Evan Jameson -- were almost like fairytales, telling stories of a world of witches and wizards and an incredible school of magic. With a little research Jack found that they weren't only well liked but bestsellers almost everywhere they had been released. It was no wonder too. Jack loathed reading with a passion, but still managed to read all three books from the man within a week.
So, Harry wasn't exactly a bum. In fact it seemed like the man, who had seemed like nothing but a quiet dedicated single father at first, was possibly the wealthiest man in Colorado Springs. After realising that, Jack felt rather stupid for worrying after something like the man's education -- it seemed like he had no need for it. That was, of course, until Harry asked him if he knew anything about computers.
"I thought about what you said, and I guess it wouldn't hurt to get a few courses done in my free time," the man answered when he asked why he was interested in getting one now. "Ever since I hired him, my editor hasn't stopped whining about my spelling so I think I could at least get that sorted out."
"I don't really understand computers either," Jack answered with a frown. "But I think we could check some computer stores out."
So they did and Harry got his computer. Jack offered to help set it up but the man politely refused. The former Colonel still had the impression that it took Harry the better part of a month to learn how to turn the thing on and off without making mistakes, but the man seemed fine with the slow process. When it came to time and spending it, Harry was the most laid back man on Earth. He was more likely to go out to play with Teddy than do anything productive. Which was why Jack had to ask him if he had ever fished.
"Can't say I have. I've never had the chance I guess," Harry answered, looking at him curiously. "I guess you have, Jonathan?"
"Well yeah, of course. I used to fish a lot at my, ah, uncle's house," Jack nodded, struggling not to think of the said house as his house. "There was a pond there. No fish in it, but that's not necessary."
"Why fish when there's nothing to fish for?" the man asked amusedly.
"Because it's fun. You gotta try it sometime with Teddy. Seriously."
About four months after Jack had regained his oh so wonderful youth, Harry took him and Teddy fishing. While Teddy was happier throwing rocks and poking at the bugs on the shore, Harry took to fishing like, well, like a fish to water. If Jack hadn't already decided that he liked the man, that would've been the start of a beautiful friendship. It was especially beautiful since Harry bought him his own fishing gear, something he couldn't have afforded on his own with the measly allowance from the Air Force.
Things got even better when Jack found out that every Saturday night, Harry and Teddy had a habit of stargazing. After finding out that Jack knew a thing or two about the stars -- it was one subject at school he had absolutely no problems with -- Harry had invited him to these stargazing sessions. It was nice and Harry even had a telescope – an ancient, ancient thing which surprisingly enough worked just as well as the more modern models. Teddy definitely liked stargazing more than he liked fishing. He always asked them to point the telescope at Sirius first.
"My godfather's name was Sirius," Harry explained with amusement, gently adjusting the beanie on Teddy's head while the boy was peering through the telescope. "I've told stories about him to Teddy and since then he's decided that my godfather Sirius is living on the Sirius star."
'That system doesn't have life in it,' Jack mused. "There are actually two Sirius stars, you know," he said out loud. "Sirius A and Sirius B. A is a spectral type star, a white main sequence… and B is a white dwarf. They're so close and A is so bright that you can't see B with the naked eye." He paused. 'Did I just go geek for a moment?'
"I'll take your word for it, Jonathan," Harry chuckled, peering up at the night sky through his glasses. "I prefer just to think of stars as pretty bright dots in the night sky. I leave further analysis for those who are better at it than me."
'Some of those pretty bright dots don't only have life on them, but creatures who would like to see Earth bite the dust,' Jack mused before shaking the thought away. Currently that wasn't his worry. Folding his hands he gazed up to the sky, wondering if SG1 were out there somewhere right then, or were they pretending to lead boring lives on Earth.
"It's incredible though. There's so much empty space out there," Harry murmured. "Whilst down here it seems like every corner is so crowded."
"Yeah," Jack mumbled, even though he knew that space wasn't nearly as empty as people thought. "Maybe one day we will fill the empty spaces."
Harry chuckled while crouching beside Teddy. "What do you see, kiddo?" he asked softly, rubbing his hand over the boy's shoulders gently.
"Sirius. It doesn't look like a dog to me," the boy answered, offering the telescope to the man. Jack wasn't sure that he didn't imagine the sudden flash of pain in the man's eyes just before he bent to look through the old equipment.
They celebrated Teddy's birthday in April. The kid turned six and Harry was understandably the proudest father around. The kids in the neighbourhood were of course all invited, as was Jack. It was the first time Jack saw Harry's apartment, and he had to say that he was a bit more curious about it than about the games being played by the kids. There were a lot of candles. Lots and lots of candles and almost no lamps whatsoever. And like with Teal'c and his countless candles, Jack found himself wondering how long it actually took to light them all.
But on that day the only candles that burned were on Teddy's birthday cake, blown out by a powerful huff of lungs which were now six years old. After that there was cake -- very good cake which Harry had apparently made himself -- and then there were presents. Jack hadn't had the money to buy anything special but Teddy seemed delighted by the picture book of astronomy. As the kid proudly explained his to friends what stars were and how many planets there were, Jack couldn't help but wonder if he was creating the Carter of a new generation.
It was a surprisingly gratifying thought.
Later, after he had returned to his apartment, Jack realised that the birthday party had been the first time he had seen Teddy's hair. Always whilst outside, the boy was wearing a beanie or some sort of hat. This time he hadn't been. 'Well, it wasn't much of a shock really,' he mused, thinking back to the boy's messy black hair. 'It's just natural that he would take after his dad.'
Jack could remember how once upon a time, summer holidays had been the best time of his life. Not so much anymore. He had gotten through the spring semester with dignity, somewhat, and now he found months on his hands and nothing to do with them. Whilst the others in his school had bragged about the holiday plans they had, and places their parents were going to take them, Jack wasn't going anywhere, nor was he doing anything. And these days sitting home doing nothing but watching TV wasn't as glamorous as it had once been.
Harry seemed to notice his boredom, though. "I was thinking of taking Teddy to the lake. He likes to swim there," the man said. "You can join us if you want to."
Jack did join them, on more than a few occasions at that. He didn't exactly like swimming, certainly not as much as Teddy did, but it was fun enough and a good way to pass time. He and Harry spent almost every trip to the beach entertaining Teddy, who had the most hilarious swim hat ever. Jack kept getting distracted by the eyes and the fins on it and swore that the fish hat thingy was watching him. "It's not a fish, it's Nemo!" Teddy kept insisting, but Jack was happy to forget it just so that he could see the kid stomp his foot so hilariously.
Teddy was special, Jack had concluded a while ago. Not like slightly-slower-than-most special or a whole-lot-faster-than-most special either. Jack couldn't exactly say what about the kid was different in comparison to other kids, but Teddy was different. He felt different every time Jack saw him. Which was strange because Teddy had a perfect American accent, it was Harry's strictly British way of speaking that usually turned heads. Female heads.
"You know Harry, those ladies over there would really like your attention," Jack pointed out more often than not when they were at the beach, glancing at a group of giggling girls somewhere between the ages of high school and college. Slightly too young for Harry, but not too young.
"I know," Harry always answered, never looking up from the sandcastle he and Teddy were building. Sometimes Jack wondered if whatever had happened to Teddy's mother had turned Harry off women entirely, but then Harry would buy them pizza and ice cream and he decided that it didn't really matter.
Despite the occasional boredom, the summer wasn't as bad as it could've been. They went to the beach a lot, ate out a few times, saw a lot of movies -- kids movies mostly, but Harry and Teddy had fine taste. They even went hiking for a day and visited the Garden of Gods, though Teddy was probably too young to appreciate the place and Jack really didn't care about rocks, no matter how big they were. The place made him wonder if Daniel had ever visited it though.
Around the middle of the summer, Jack started to wonder when he had become part of the family Harry and Teddy made. Suddenly it wasn't just about seeing each other now and then or going out to the beach, but Harry wanted to know things like if he was hungry, if he was bored, if he needed anything from the grocery store, if he needed ride anywhere…. Things family members asked, not neighbours. Except Harry wasn't, couldn't be, a parent to him. Jack was way too old to have a parent. Twice as old as Harry, in fact, which was probably why it was so awkward at first.
But… it wasn't bad, per say. Harry was pretty cool in his own laid back, bit out of it and often a bit lost way -- which occasionally reminded Jack of Daniel. And damn if Teddy wasn't one of the most charming six year olds he had ever met. Of course there were barriers -- things Harry never said and never explained and things Jack never said and usually ignored -- but it was better than anything Jack had even hoped for. He hadn't actually even thought of anything like this, so it was… nice even if it was a bit weird.
He still couldn't stop thinking of SGC or SG1 and everything he was missing out on, but he held hope that some time soon a day would come when he wouldn't think of them even once.
It was around the end of the summer when Jack noticed that he had somewhere along the way gone from "why doesn't Harry care about women" to "why are those women always bothering Harry", though perhaps not in that exact wording. But it did happen. As Harry was approached by a few young women who asked a lot of -- in Jack's opinion, stupid -- questions about Teddy, the former Air Force Colonel found that with each time he got a bit more annoyed.
What was up with that? Some of those women were damn fine to look at, Harry could certainly do worse than sharing his time with them now and then. And they seemed kind, being all accepting about Teddy and all -- though maybe that was why they were so interested, seeing that Harry didn't seem to have a girlfriend or, indeed, a wedding ring. Jack should've been able to sit back and enjoy the show -- with possible feelings of jealousy and a little bit of rooting for his awkward friend. But no, he wasn't. Instead he found himself wanting to say something along the lines: "Excuse me, can't you see that we are busy building sandcastles here? Buzz off, this is important work here."
Thankfully towards the end of the summer it got a bit rainy and they started to cut the trips to the beaches. The thought still nagged him like Daniel after working himself into a rant. Why did he care about who made passes on Harry? The man could handle himself -- in fact he did handle himself well, refusing every display of interest and budding affection with polite smiles and slight indifference. But even though the man only had eyes for Teddy -- and Jack occasionally -- and no interest towards relationships, it still bothered Jack.
And that was the doorway to all sorts of weird thoughts. Like what Harry would think of him if he still had an older body, or how Harry would react to meeting the original him, or what Harry would say if he ever get the chance to tell him that he wasn't human, per say, but a clone with a genetic glitch. The weirdest thought that wouldn't leave him alone was possibly "what would we look like out on the beach if I was still older"?
'Except I never really was older. Hell, as it is I'm barely one year old really,' he thought with a little bit of annoyance. Mentally forty-six, physically fifteen and technically not even one. A bit pathetic really.
When autumn came and Jack's fall semester began, he was assaulted by the most worrisome thought of all. 'Now that I think about it… Harry isn't really bad looking.' And that opened a can of worms he had no way of sorting out with his sanity intact. Thankfully right then Harry's fourth book was published and Jack got distracted by the following media rumble, at least for a little while.
"I didn't realise that they were this popular, your books," he said with a little bit of shock, sitting on Harry's living room floor playing with Teddy and watching the TV while Harry sorted through his bills. The local news report was using the overcrowding in their Barnes and Noble as a relief. Apparently people of varying ages, from seven to seventy, had been lingering around the bookshop since five in the morning in hopes of getting their reserved copies of Harry's book quicker.
"I find that people can appreciate a good fantasy," Harry answered without looking up from his bank statement.
"You ever read the books to Teddy?" Jack asked, making the six year old glance up from the block building he was making. There were some elements in the books which were a bit dark, but they were essentially kids books.
"Of course I do. I wrote them for him," the man sighed, scratching his temple before laying the statement down. "I'll sort through this later," Harry mumbled and got up from the dinner table. With a sigh he sat down on the couch right next to Jack and Teddy. "Banking business isn't my favourite pass time."
Jack glanced at him before turning his attention to the TV, where the reporter was telling the story of the elusive and mysterious Evan Jameson. "Why did you tell me about this… you know, book writing business?" Jack then asked, motioning to the TV. "I mean, you haven't told anyone else around here about it, right? Why me? I could go to the press with it and get fame for it and all that jazz."
"If that was your intention, you already would've done it," Harry said with amusement, taking the remote control and starting to skim through the channels. "You seemed trustworthy enough, so I told you."
"Trustworthy, huh?" Jack mumbled, not sure what to make of that. But then Harry found the right channel -- the one where the Simpsons were on -- and he decided to think about it later. Instead he turned to lean onto the couch's edge while Harry called to Teddy not to watch the TV so close. As the kid quickly climbed over Jack's shoulder to sit beside Harry, Jack tried to be not so hyper-aware of the fact that his shoulder was leaning onto Harry's knee.
'Stupid, stupid, stupid,' was a litany Jack repeated to himself often during the early fall whenever he didn't manage to distract himself from the revelations he had been forced to face. 'Stupid rogue Asgard scientists and their stupid experiments, stupid me for ever thinking that going to high school was a good idea, stupid Air Force for settling me in that stupid building, stupid younger body, stupid, stupid, stupid….'
Except in this case, it wouldn't have been any better if his body had been older. No, it would've possibly been a bit weirder. Like this he was some seven years younger than Harry, but like that he would've been some, ugh, twenty three years older. Neither was really good for him. 'But if I had never been cloned, I would've never gotten myself into this stupid situation in the first place. I would've never met Harry and I wouldn't have this stupid problem.'
After hiding his flickering attraction for Daniel and Carter for so many years, one would've thought that he had gotten better at ignoring his feelings. But back then he’d been older, his body had been more, uh, controlled and there had been the whole Air Force business keeping him in check. Now he was young, his stupid body was full of hormones and the Air Force only checked up on him once every month or so. And it seemed like being young was eating away his elder mind, because he was seriously getting more teenagerish every passing day.
But no matter how he tried to ignore it or insult himself about it, it didn't matter. His hormones had happily latched onto Harry and way too often while spending time with Harry and Teddy Jack had found his thoughts straying to wonder what it would feel like if…. There were many 'ifs' to complete that sentence, all of which he tried not to think about too often, but which attacked him in the early hours just before he woke up and forced him to wash his nightwear every day.
It was embarrassing.
And what’s more, it wasn't just hormones, not unless they could actually turn him into goddamn girl at times. No, during boring geometry lessons he would drift off to happy, though slightly disturbing, daydreams of things he hadn't thought about since Sara had left him. Like sleeping beside someone and waking up with their warmth seeping into him and having a pleasant morning with banter over breakfast. He also found himself wondering what Teddy would become when he was a little bit older, wanting to be there and see it. Well, he was already seeing it, but he wanted to see it up close, from the position Harry stood in.
Not soon after he had started to wonder about things like what a quiet night in Harry's house was like and what it would be like to creep up to the man and kiss his neck while he was writing, Jack decided that he had to distract himself. This, whatever this was, was getting dangerous and disturbing. He was too old and too young for this, and way too many things were against him in way too many ways. He shouldn't even be thinking about this.
So he decided that it was high time he started going to the local gym. He had just enough money to pay for the monthly premium, with which he could spend as much time in the gym as he wanted to. He ended up spending a few hours there every other day, just in the evening hoping to tire himself out so that he wouldn't have one of those damn dreams again. It helped some but not enough -- but at least he would fill out some and not be so damn wimpy.
Soon he ended up finding another hobby aside from body building. Since he was already fishing with Harry and Teddy, and doing some astronomy with an ancient telescope -- Jack really needed to ask Harry where he got it -- he decided to go with something else. Something he hadn't tried in a few years. Thankfully there was a group of -- mostly middle aged women -- in the town who shared his hobby, had a nice oven and didn't mind him joining.
Harry found his new hobby of pottery interesting and said something along the lines that it would be fitting for him, being a Potter and all, but Jack was happy he didn't decide to join. After all it wouldn't be much of a distraction if the thing he tried to distract himself from was right there with him. Jack got a few interested looks from the others in the group but mostly the others seemed delighted to find that a teen like him had such a hobby. Jack was nowhere near good, throwing wasn't as easy as it looked, but it was fun and properly distracting.
He gave the first vase he managed to make to Teddy. The kid broke it within a week but Jack didn't mind, he just made another.
Time went by and winter came. Juggling between school work, the gym, pottery and all the hobbies he shared with Harry and Teddy like fishing and astronomy, Jack managed to keep himself in check, somewhat. But like with his past attractions, he soon found that with Harry there he wasn't able to give his attention to anyone else. Well, in a way it was good -- seriously, he was old enough to be the grandfather of the girls at his school -- but on the other hand it was nerve-wracking. He didn't want to spend the next few years pining after someone he couldn't have, just like with Daniel and Sam.
He was getting slightly worried about it when someone he had promised never to see again walked back into his life. It was, in a way, a rather amusing scenario. He was at the so called "club house" of the ceramist group, finishing up a tea cup with his hands dirtied by clay all the way up to his elbows, when Jack O'Neill walked in wearing not only Air Force dress blues, but a star where a bird had once been. After moment of staring at the aging man, the teen groaned. "Oh, god. They made you General?"