Polyamory 1

Polyamory

by Belladonna

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asb/belladonna/polyam01.php
Summary: Daniel ascends and Jack meets Alex. Alex gets hired and his past comes back to haunt the SGC. Will Daniel and the rest of SG1 ever be the same?

Double Jeopardy- Missing scene

Daniel re-read the report he'd just finished. Damn that Harlan anyway. He'd made copies of SG-1 and instead of burying the gate, like the other Jack had promised, the mechanical SG-1 had been visiting planets. And damn Jack and his 'save the galaxy complex' anyway. He snorted; he was just as guilty as Jack in that respect.

A noise at the door made him look up. He watched as Jack hesitated in the doorway, his eyes moving over Daniel's face with such intensity that it made Daniel wonder what in the hell was going on.

"Jack?"

"Um, just seeing, well, checking..." Jack paused. "So, how are ya?" he stuffed his hands in his pockets, his eyes roaming around Daniel's office.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "I'm fine, Jack. ~Trying~ to finish my report."

Now Jack's eyes met his and he nodded. "Good. Good. So, I've got...um paperwork," and he fled.

Blink. "Okay, what was that, the fourth time he's been here?" Daniel asked himself aloud. It was past time to see what in the hell is making his friend so squirrelly.

.*>

Jack was staring blindly at his desk, his emotions in turmoil. He couldn't stop himself from checking on Daniel and he knew his friend was getting a little weirded out by it.

It had started when he'd found the ~other~ Jack, the robot Jack, staring at a picture of Daniel, a look of such grief on his face. Then finding out that their Daniel, the robot one, was dead. And knowing his unresolved feelings for the archeologist had been transferred to his robot self....

"Jack?"

Jack jumped and scowled at his friend. "Geez, Daniel. Give me a heart attack."

Daniel moved farther into Jack's office while stuffing his hands in his pockets, unconsciously mimicking his friend. "You okay?"

"Yee-ah." Jack drawled.

The archeologist nodded solemnly. "Okay. Then what's up with the babysitter from hell routine?" he watched in bemusement as his friend went a dull red.

"Ja-ack."

Jack looked up. "I guess I'm just reassuring myself that you're still here," he waved a hand. "You know, since your other you, well, isn't."

That was one of the sweetest things that Jack had ever said, but Daniel knew the guy code and would never let his friend know it. "Well stop it! You're starting to wear a spot in the concrete in front of my door. I'm fine," he said emphatically.

Yes, you are. Jack was amused at the voice in his head. "Okay, Danny. I'll try to rein it in."

"Thank you," Daniel turned to walk out, then stopped and looked over his shoulder. "How about we get Sam and Teal'c and go to O'Malley's tonight?"

A wide smile crossed Jack's face. "A team night! You're a genius!"

"I know," came the sassy answer, and Jack had to laugh as Daniel left.

Then he sighed, a smile still on his face. "God, I love him."

:*:

X-Files Essence- missing scene

"Drive safe."

Krycek ignored the look that the pregnant Scully sent his way and watched as Agent Reyes pulled away, driving the non-descript sedan. Though to be honest, was there anywhere safe on Earth? He shoved away the morbid thought. They'd win. They had to.

The sound of footsteps made him look over his shoulder, and into the eyes of the man he'd loved, well, forever. "She's safe. For now, anyway," he told Mulder, ignoring the assistant director who had shown up as well.

Skinner shook his head. "I'm going home. I suggest that you do the same, Mulder. Wait for Reyes' call," he ordered and left the two men standing on the dock.

Alex looked at his companion. "Your place probably isn't safe, come back with me?"

An absent "Fine," was Mulder's answer as he stared in the direction the vehicle had disappeared in.

Mulder looked around Krycek's apartment curiously. "Nice place." There were dark hunter green walls with cream trim, framed travel posters including one of Washington D.C. which made Mulder want to snort, and the usual bachelor type entertainment center with a top of the line t.v. and stereo system. A computer system in the corner made his fingers itch, he wondered what kind of secrets he might find on it.

Alex popped his head in from the kitchen. "Want a beer?"

"Sure."

They sat on the couch, an uneasy silence between the two men. "Why did you trust me with Scully?" Krycek blurted suddenly, and wanted to kick himself. He put his beer on the glass coffee table and adjusted the harness to his artificial arm nervously.

Mulder shrugged his shoulders. "I can trust you," he said quietly, refusing to meet the other man's eyes. He was already conflicted and wasn't sure he could even explain it to himself.

Confused, Krycek pushed the question. "You've never trusted me before, now you trust me with the mother of your child?" he wanted to understand, he needed to understand.

Mulder rolled the bottle of beer between his hands absently. "I just, I could see--" he made a face. "I just knew, all right?" His hazel eyes met the green eyes of the other man.

Shaken by his trust, this ~honest~ trust in ~him~, and more aroused by it than he knew what to do with, Alex threw all caution out the window. He took Mulder's beer bottle and pulled the other man to his feet, then moved forward and quickly pressed his mouth to Mulder's. He moaned as he felt those lush lips open to his, and he quickly slipped in his tongue to taste.

The kiss ended almost as quickly as it had begun. Frozen, with Alex's body pressed against him, Mulder could feel the other man's arousal, his taste in his mouth. "What was that?" he asked, his voice shaky. 'God, ~god~, I wish....'

Alex smiled, shaking his head. "Fox, if you have to ask, then I'm not doing it right," outwardly he put on the cloak of roguish self-confidence, inwardly he was quaking like an aspen leaf in a full gale.

Overwhelmed by the emotions that were see-sawing though him, 'Oh Alex, ~why~ couldn't this have happened years ago?', and the fact that he had to make sure that Scully and the baby were safe, all that Mulder could do was raise an unsteady hand to touch Alex's lips, and whisper brokenly...

"Too little, too late."

Alex had never known that hearts could actually shatter, but the words, spoken so softly did just that. "I'm sorry, Mulder," he said stiffly. He stepped back, wrapping his heart tightly in its tattered shields.

"Me, too."

~*~

Added scene to 'Existence'
Later-FBI Parking garage

Mulder stood frozen, remembering that sweet kiss as he looked into the desperate green eyes.

Gun steady, Alex pointed it at his former partner. "I could've killed you so many times, Mulder. You've got to know that. I'm the one that kept you alive," his voice cracked a little. "Praying you'd win somehow, praying that you'd see--" the word 'me' he swallowed.

"I wanted to stop them. All you wanted was to save your own ass," Mulder threw back, his heart squeezing painfully at the sadness and despair in the other man's eyes.

Krycek closed his eyes. "No. I tried to stop them. Tried to kill --," he swallowed the lie but forced himself to go on. "--Scully's baby to stop them." He opened them back up to see the accusation and betrayal in Mulder's eyes. "It's too late. The tragedy is that you... you wouldn't let it go! That's why I have to do this. 'Cause you know how deep it goes. Right into the FBI. "

Enough was enough, Mulder couldn't stand anymore pain. "You want to kill me, Alex, kill me. Like you killed my father. Just don't insult me trying to make me understand," he said flatly, his gun limp at his side.

'Where is he?' Alex thought desperately as he stared into Fox's eyes, his finger beginning to tremble on the trigger, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt he could never kill the man he loved. Over Mulder's shoulder he finally saw who he was looking for, and the muzzle flash made him jolt with pain then fall to the concrete floor.

Mulder jerked in surprise, and looked over at Skinner. Skinner didn't even glance at him, keeping his eyes on the man on the ground. When Krycek reached for his dropped weapon, Skinner shot him again.

Alex winced as he felt the wounds bleed sluggishly. "It's going to take more bullets than you can..." he hissed in a breath, "ever fire to win this game. But one bullet... and I can give you a thousand lives," he said cryptically. Looking up at the man he loved, he said, "Shoot, Mulder."

Mulder looked over at Skinner who met his eyes, and he winced as his boss's gun fired one last time, breaking his heart into a million pieces.

'Goodbye Alex'.

Not able, or wanting to see the vibrant man that he'd known (~loved~?) lying dead, Mulder started to leave. "Skinner, are you with me?" he had to concentrate on Scully and the baby now. God, ohgod, ohgod.

"You just go, I'll get him," Skinner replied. He made sure that Mulder was gone before he headed quickly to kneel beside Krycek. "Hey," he shook the 'dead' man less than gently.

Alex moaned. "Damn it Skinner, I'm bleeding here, be careful!"

Skinner snorted. "Come on. Let's get you up before you whine to death."

*>>

Missing Scene-Fair Game

The various races were arguing vociferously, blaming one another for being abducted and taken to this unknown room where they'd been deposited, without their weapons. There were two Oiliens in their stolen human bodies, a Grey leader, a shapeshifting bounty hunter and one of the rebel human clones, Jeremiah Smith.

All fell into startled silence when Thor materialized at the head of the table. "Greetings."

"You!" the first Oilien hissed.

Thor blandly eyed the group. "It has been ordered by the Asgard High Council that the planet called Earth is now under the Protected Planet's Treaty."

Everyone except Jeremiah and the shapeshifter began to complain. "We don't see why we should leave this planet. We were here first," the Oilien smirked at Thor through its borrowed human host.

The Asgard, the Ancients and the Oiliens had a long and bitter shared history on Earth, beginning with the Ancients who'd built the Stargates on Earth and placed an outpost. The Oiliens appeared soon after and chased them off through the 'gate after a vicious battle. Then when an Asgard exploratory and science team innocently arrived to discover what had happened to the Ancient's, they were taken over by the Oilien's. It was this tragic set of circumstances that had created the Grey's.

The Oiliens were too weak to stave off any more attacks so they went into hiding, leaving a spy to watch as the Goa'uld and the Asgard came and went. They waited for their progeny, the Grey's to come back and help them take over Earth. The U.S. government discovered the plan in Roswell in 1947.

The Grey, (who had their own name for themselves but didn't use it in front of others) leaned forward and spoke, "The governments of this planet have invited us to stay. We believe colonization would benefit these primitive people."

"The darkest and most corrupt corners of their government only interested in saving themselves," Jeremiah spat. "I hardly think that the rest of the populations on Earth would agree so cavalierly." The rebel clones were descended from one of the first generation Grey Human hybrids that had survived. They were the most human in appearance, though some could shape shift, and they turned on their creators. Their belief that they needed to fight with the resistance to keep Earth from being taken over by the Grey's and Oiliens was a pain in their creator's collective backside.

"There weren't asked because they are not intelligent enough to comprehend what we can do for them," the Grey replied simply.

"Oh yeah, not intelligent enough to realize that all life on Earth would be corrupted or completely wiped out. I mean, even Alex Krycek and Agent Mulder realize that," Jeremiah shot back.

As interesting at ~that~ information was, Thor interrupted the argument. "It does not signify. The humans have discovered the Ancient's Gateway and encountered not only the Asgard but other races."

A resounding silence fell.

"That was the secret that our government contact was hiding," the Grey said bitterly.

"What happens next?" Jeremiah asked curiously.

Thor eyed the Rebel thoughtfully. "There can be no colonization. The High Council will not allow it. We will supply transportation to the Oiliens, the Grey's and whomever else desires it, and they will not be allowed to return."

"Earth is ours!" The first Oilien hissed defiantly. "We were the first here, even before the humans were able to think for themselves!"

"Very well," Thor agreed. Too easily. "We will let the Goa'uld Council know that we were misinformed and that the planet is now open for colonization. If you want to protect the humans from the System Lords then we will bow out gracefully, and let you."

The Oiliens and the Grey went into a huddle, the bounty hunter leaning hanging back, it wasn't his planet after all, while Jeremiah eyed Thor.

"Who are the goa'uld?" he asked curiously. He was a third generation clone and as such wasn't as knowledgeable about other races outside of Earth.

The Asgard blinked with surprise. "The Goa'uld are a parasitic race, much as the Oiliens, but instead they are snake like creatures called symbiotes which take human hosts. They steal technology from their host worlds and go on to conquer the next without impunity."

"You forget, they take their names from human mythology and liked to be worshipped as gods," the bounty hunter added genially. "Much as the Asgard have done."

"We never demanded worship," Thor reproved the shapeshifter.

The bounty hunter waved a hand dismissively. He was just jerking the little guy's tail.

The other finished conferring and the first Oilien spoke. "Very well, we have agreed to leave Earth." They didn't have the resources to fight the resistance and the overwhelming forces of the System Lords. They had one last outpost which the Asgard was unaware of. That would have to suffice until they could come back and claim what was theirs.

**>

Missing Scene for Meridian

"No god, no!" Jack slammed his fist into the locker. "No." SLAM. "No." SLAM.

Teal'c walked up and frowned as he watched the crowd in front of the locker rooms, about to ask what was happening, when he heard a familiar voice inside. The voice of a man grieving.

"Everyone leave," he ordered, scowling impartially as they all scattered. The continued noises and cries made him square his shoulders and open the door.

Jack punched the locker again, not noticing the smear of blood he added to the rest. "No!" he shouted again.

"O'Neill," came the calm voice of his friend.

Shoulders slumping, Jack became aware of the pain in his fist, and the blood spray on the lockers in front of him. "He's gone."

"It is not your fault, O'Neill."

Spinning around, Jack, pinned his friend with a glare, "I should've been there!"

"Then you too would have died," Teal'c pointed out.

Silent, Jack smeared the blood that was on the locker. "Then maybe Oma would have taken me with him," he whispered.

Teal'c sighed, then sat down on the bench, his back ramrod straight. "Then I would be mourning two of the best comrades in arms that I have ever had the privilege of knowing," he slid a look over at his friend. "But I am not. DanielJackson would want you to live."

Jack huffed a sigh, and knew that Teal'c was right. He gazed at his friend, seeing the same sadness in the formidable warrior's eyes that he could see in his own. Suddenly the door opened and in whirled the even more formidable five foot nothing, red-headed Napoleonic power monger known as Dr. Janet Fraiser.

"Colonel O'Neill!" she snapped. "What in the hell do you think you are you doing?"

Jack looked at the dented and bloodied locker, then over at the bland faced Teal'c, and his lip twitched. "I dunno, Doc."

She made an impatient sound and grabbed his right fist. "You damned idiot."

There was a rustle from the bench and a stately. "Indeed."

"Shut up, Teal'c."

A couple of months later

Maybourne watched as a man dressed in black jeans and a black leather jacket sauntered into the bar. "Well, well," he murmured. He'd recognized the former assassin from his meetings with the now defunct Consortium. He stood and caught the man's attention, and then sat back down.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief and headed over to the stocky former military man. "Hey, Maybourne," he said as he slid into the booth.

"Krycek."

A perky waitress came up and took their drink orders and Alex leaned back against the faux leather seat, absently rubbing his shoulder. "So, how's the Bahamas?" he asked after their drinks arrived.

Harry shrugged and drank his beer. "I've been a little busy, and haven't been back there for a while."

Alex nodded. "Okay. Now that the pleasantries are over with, I need a favor."

This made Harry chuckle. "Ah, down to business. Ask away," he gestured gracefully with his beer.

The other man looked around, weighing the risk of doing business in such a public place. "Do you have somewhere clean?" Alex asked after a long moment. Clean of course meaning no ears, electronic or human to eavesdrop on them.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Yeah," he drained his beer. "Follow me."

In the ratty motel room, Harry watched as Krycek checked it from top to bottom, very thoroughly. The kid knew what he was doing. "Satisfied?"

Alex nodded and slumped into one of the vinyl chairs. "I need men for a mission that has a likelihood of certain death."

Eyebrows rose. "Ooookay, how about you give me some details?" Harry asked a little snidely.

"How much do you know about aliens on Earth?"

Harry smiled slightly. "Surprisingly, since the NID was a bastard sibling of the Consortium, a lot. But you knew that, so why the question?"

"There's still one batch of aliens that need to be take care of. Well, they're not really alien, but they're not human either. Humans mixed with the Grey's and they made super soldiers with them. My ex- FBI partner is their target, and he's on the trail of their secret base," Alex explained, his voice quiet, his eyes on Maybourne, alert for any scorn.

However, Harry had taken out a PDA and was scribbling. "So, do you know if all of them are on the base?"
His mind was whirling, 'Jack needed to know about this'.

Alex sighed. "I think that if they know that Mulder is headed for them, they'll all be there to meet him, to take him out. He's thwarted a lot of their plans and stayed hidden, making them a wee bit pissed."

"That's cold, Krycek. Using your ex-partner as bait?" Harry chuckled, "I approve."

"He's not gonna get harmed. Is that understood? I haven't kept him alive for all of these years to have him taken down by the fucking aliens. Bait yes, expendable, no," Alex's eyes blazed with fury, and Harry recognized an unmovable force when he saw it.

"Letting emotions get in the way, Krycek," he replied blandly.

"Fuck you, Maybourne."

~*~

Colorado Springs, CO

Jack was on his roof, a 9-mm on his lap and a half-empty bottle of whiskey beside him when he heard a rustle below. "Whoever it is, I'm armed."

A pair of arms in blue jacketed sleeves came up first, and an amused chuckle floated up. "I'm just here for a social visit, Jack."

"Harry," it came out as a resigned sigh.

Harry came up, saw the whiskey bottle and knew why Jack was sitting by himself in the early twilight. "Sorry to hear about, Dr. Jackson."

Jack only grunted. He watched as Harry slouched in the other chair, and glared when he saw the other man eye his whiskey.

There was silence for a bit, then Harry sat up. "So, I have something for you. A job, if you will."

"Harry, I have a fucking job."

Harry stood up and went to the rail, and sighed. "A rogue section of the Consortium has made a group of alien-human hybrids, a sort of super soldier," he looked back at Jack. "From what my contact said, I think they are a more immediate danger than the goa'uld," he said.

"Jesus," Jack scowled. He set his glass down and ran his fingers roughly through his silver hair, "You'd better tell me what's what, Harry." And Harry did.

Jack sat frozen in thought before saying, "Then we're gonna need Dixon's team, and Coburn's team, C-4, zats, full body armor and the usual weapons. They may come back like Energizer bunnies, but zats should work. "

Harry nodded. "Here's where you're going to meet your contact. See you there." He then disappeared down the stairs. Jack stayed on his roof for another minute, then hauled himself to his feet to make some phone calls of his own.

2 days later-

Alex paced nervously in front of the motorhome. He'd rented 6 of them and had them parked at a remote and empty State Park. A familiar noise made him sigh in relief and he watched as five humvees pull into the clearing, and then muscular men began to pile out. A tall, silver haired man assessed the area then his brown eyes latched onto Alex's, and Alex actually felt a jolt. Oh yeah, this man was in charge, and hot as hell.

Jack smiled slightly at the waiting man. "You must be Krycek." He held out his hand and the other man met him. "I'm Jack O'Neill, but call me Jack. We're not using rank."

Alex shrugged. "I have no rank, so call me Alex."

The group of soldiers was milling around and a large, very large black man with a baseball cap worn backwards strode up to them. "All are accounted for, O'Neill."

"Thanks, T," Jack turned to the men. "Okay guys, this is Alex, our host. First motorhome is mine and Alex's, second and third will be Dixon's, fourth and fifth will be Coburn's team, the last is Teal'c's. Every one get settled."

There was a chorus of, "Yes, sirs," and the men scattered.

Alex waved at the motorhome. "Welcome to Camp Last Hope, Jack."

"Been there, done that," Jack grinned as he hoisted his bag. "Lost the t-shirt."

The other man laughed and led him into the motorhome. Jack looked around and whistled. "Nice digs, Alex." Inside there a lot of glass and mirrors, curtains and couches done in a textured navy and burgundy fabric, dark blue corian tables and plush carpet. There was room for 6 people to sleep, 1 queen bed, 1 double bed and the table made down into a third.

"It was easier to do this than find a hotel, and I hate roughing it," Alex shrugged. "Plus we're about 50 miles closer to the base." He wearily flopped down onto the couch and rubbed his shoulder, absently adjusting the straps to his arm.

Jack eyed his host. "Where'd you lose the arm?"

"Russia," Alex said shortly. "Did Harry tell you what's up?" he asked, neatly changing the subject.

'Oo-kay. Sensitive subject,' Jack thought. He nodded. "We're going in to take out the super-soldiers, destroy their base and everything on it. Total wipe."

"That's it. Hopefully, this is it. No more." Alex swiped his hand through the air.

The older man sighed. "It's never over Alex, you should know that." He met resigned green eyes. Oh yeah, Alex knew.

There was a bang on the door, and Jack went to swing the door open. "Yeah, T?"

"DavidDixon would like to have a 'wienie roast'," Teal'c said with a straight face.

Alex grinned. "I haven't had one of those since I was a kid. Do you have s'mores?"

The honest smile made the serious faced man seem much younger, and Jack felt a strong pull of attraction. "Duh!."

The men sat around the campfire, eating, joking and laughing as they ate vast quantities of hotdogs and sausages, chips, fruit salad and s'mores. Jack watched his teams with satisfaction, none of them were nervous. Not that they wouldn't be careful, it's just they had combat experience in spades against the galactic bad guys already.

Alex watched them as well, envious at the camaraderie that the men had. He wondered what would've happened if he'd joined the military instead of the FBI. If he'd had the support system to fall back on, a good CO like Jack obviously was...if he hadn't made a million bad choices in his life...if he hadn't chosen to die...

"Alex?" Jack nudged his left shoulder, rocking the younger man gently. "You okay?"

Alex blinked and focused on Jack. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just tired. I'm gonna turn in," he got up, heading to the motorhome.

The men all watched quietly as the door shut, then Dixon looked at Jack. "What's his story?"

Jack shifted slightly. "My sources say that Krycek is former FBI, and then he did a lot of special ops, related to the alien's attempted incursion on Earth. My guess is that he did a lot of his work alone, making huge decisions by himself and taking the flack if they weren't right. No chain of command like the military, you know, all blame goes upwards," he paused with a grin. He didn't tell them about the more questionable things that Alex was supposed to have done. "More of a lone wolf type," Jack knew the type. Before he came to the SGC, he ~was~ the type.

"He's a warrior," Teal'c said simply.

"He's a loose cannon," Harry corrected as he stepped into the firelight.

Jack snorted. "You should talk, Maybourne."

Coburn stood slowly, his face turning red but Jack saw him and barked. "Stand down, Jim. He's with us, this time anyway."

"But sir!" the other man protested.

Dixon had also stood, hand on his weapon. The other SG team members were tense but taking their cues from Jack. Jack merely raised his eyebrow, making Coburn and Dixon sit back down. "If it makes you feel any better, I trust him as far as I can throw him," he glanced over at Maybourne. "And he's gained some pork there, so it wouldn't be very far."

Harry grinned and placed a hand over his heart. "I'm hurt Jack."

"Yadda," Jack stood and stretched. "Teal'c, you mind company?"

Teal'c turned a dark eye on Maybourne, who visibly swallowed. "I do not."

"Good, you've got a roomie," Jack grinned at Maybourne's unhappiness. "Have a good night, kids. Coburn, your team's got first watch. Dixon, you've got second, six hour shifts."

"You got it, Jack," Dixon replied. He gestured to the men and they started cleaning up the area.

Picking up a trashbag, Jack did a quick trash run and then began a perimeter check. The campground was beautiful, well kept bathrooms and laundry room, lots of trees that were in the peak of fall color interspersed with blue spruces. He came to a large lake and stopped to admire the moonset. A noise from behind him made him smile. "Teal'c," he said, not bothering to turn around.

Teal'c walked up to stand beside him. "O'Neill," they stood companionably in the dark. "MajorCarter is going to be very unhappy with us."

Jack chuckled. "She'll live. Jake would kill me if I got her involved in this mess. She'll be fine," he felt more that heard Teal'c agreement. "Plus Jonas will keep her company."

"JonasQuinn will be unhappy as well."

"Yeah well, I don't know if he'd understand what we're about to do," he sighed, rattling the keys in his pocket. "I'm gonna head to bed."

Teal'c stirred slightly. "AlexKrycek is very attractive," the big man's voice was quiet, but with just a hint of a smile.

Jack laughed. Teal'c knew he was gay. He had known that Jack loved Daniel from afar and he had been very supportive when Daniel had ascended and Jack had felt suicidal. Including offering himself to Jack, which Jack had seriously considered, then declined.

"Yeah, he is. Goodnight, big guy," he said, slapping his big friend on the shoulder.

Teal'c smiled slightly. "Goodnight, O'Neill," he made his own circuit of the camp before finding his camping buddy. He lay a friendly massive arm around Maybourne's shoulders, making the shorter man jump. "Come, HarryMaybourne. It is time for rest."

<3

Inside the motorhome Alex had stripped down to his black jockeys and black t-shirt and was lying on one of the beds. Jack came in and he immediately felt his cock get hard. Geez. The younger man looked like sweet sin, his green eyes sleepily watching him. "Alex."

"Jack."

Jack made sure all of the curtains were drawn then moved to his bed and began to strip, aware that the younger man was watching him. "So, Alex, how's the shoulder?" he asked, to fill the deepening silence.

"Fine."

Now ~that~ was familiar. "Uh huh. You want me to rub it for you?"

Alex sat up and turned slightly until he was facing the other man, "No, really, I'm okay." Actually, he'd have given most of his ill-gotten gains to have someone rub his shoulder right then. It really was aching like a bitch.

Jack, now down to his boxers, merely raised an eyebrow. "Come on Alex, I can see that you're sore. Let me rub it for you," Inwardly he had to smile, he'd rub anything else that Alex wanted too. He sat down beside Alex and twirled his finger. "Turn around, kid."

Slightly outraged, Alex forgot his objections as he turned. "Kid? I'm fucking 34 years old Jack! Hardly a kid," then he moaned as Jack's thumb dug into the knot at the base of his skull. "God, that feels good."

"Told ya so," Jack replied smugly as he massaged the muscular back in front of him. "You look good. How do you keep the muscle mass in both shoulders?" he asked absently, working his thumbs into the mass of knots on Alex's left shoulder.

"I work out, use my prosthetic to have the resistance. Do karate, tai chi, the usual." Alex moaned softly as Jack's hands rubbed up his back, then began to knead his neck. After a few minutes he felt the warm pressure of lips on his neck and he sighed, arousal singing through him, "What do you want, Jack?"

"A million dollars, sex, peace on Earth," Jack replied, nipping the tendon in Alex's neck and smiling at the shaky groan received. He reached for the hem of Alex's t-shirt, making the younger man jerk away. "Alex?"

Slightly embarrassed, Alex moved away, then turned to face Jack. "Leave it," he growled, trying to keep up the front of tough guy and assassin.

Jack gazed at the grim face and suddenly understood. "Hey," he yanked off his own t-shirt and took Alex's hand, placing it on one of his newest scars, a staff weapon burn. "I've been in combat. Your arm, or the lack thereof will ~not~ bother me."

The younger man felt the scar, and in the light he could see more scars that decorated the man in front of him. His green eyes met understanding brown ones and he hitched in a breath and gave in to his desire. "Okay," he pulled off his shirt and had to smile at the look of lust in Jack's eyes. He felt gentle fingers help him out of his harness, and then his arm was carefully laid on the table.

"Neat arm. State of the art?" Jack asked curiously.

"Not really, but it's been pretty good." Relaxing slightly, Alex rubbed the achy stump, then felt Jack push his fingers away and touch the stump curiously. His eyes flew to the other man, but he didn't see any kind of the disgust he'd seen on other lover's faces.

Jack ran his fingers over it gently, massaging it while his eyes checked Alex for any discomfort, but only received a smile. He trailed his fingers underneath to touch the silky hair in the armpit, feeling the shimmy of a chuckle. "Ticklish?"

A shy grin. "Maybe."

He followed his fingers with his lips and kissed the stump, pressing his lips to the slightly reddened spot that was chaffed before sliding his lips up to the muscular shoulder. "You're very beautiful," Jack murmured.

"No," Alex shook his head, feeling breathless by the tenderness. He'd been expecting a rough and ready buddy fuck, but this was fulfilling a need that he hadn't even known he had. The feel of teeth nipping his pec made him moan, arousal now a fire in his blood. "How do you want me?" It had been too long and he craved the human contact.

Jack slid his tongue up the side of Alex's neck, then pressed a kiss to the side of his face. "Um, how about you inside of me?" he turned cupped Alex's face in one hand and kissed him gently.

"Really?" Alex was surprised; he'd have bet good money that Jack was a top.

"Yes, really," Jack nipped at the lush lips, then kissed him hard. Alex moaned and opened his mouth and their tongues tangled, sliding wetly as they explored each other. After a long couple of minutes, Jack pulled back to breathe. "Wow."

Alex laughed and used his weight to push Jack to lay flat on the bed. "We're gonna have to be quiet, these campers are pretty but not very soundproof," his tongue swiped over a nipple and Jack arched and moaned, quietly. Underwear was quickly disposed of and hands explored hard cocks, sliding fingers through pre-cum and kisses were exchanged.

Jack smiled up at Alex. "Come on Krycek, getting older here," he complained as he arched, rubbing up against the other man like a cat, their cocks sliding together

After an unsteady gasp, Alex rolled his eyes. "Hey, one arm makes me a little slower," he lowered himself to his left side and eyed Jack. "Lube?"

"Wait a sec," Jack scrambled up and dug through his bag, holding up condoms and lube. "Well?" he asked smugly.

"Someone was a boyscout," Alex commented dryly.

"Always prepared, that's me," Jack smiled wickedly. He lay back down and handed the lube over, then teased the younger man as he rubbed, stroked and otherwise caressed the leaking cock as he slid the condom down.

Arching helplessly into those rough hands, Alex bit back a curse, then he rolled to his left side and shoved Jack back, pouncing on him with a deep kiss. He slid his lips up over Jack's cheekbone, nipping the older man's ear before sitting up to straddle Jack, his painfully hard cock almost pointing at the ceiling. Snatching the lube up, he held it out wordlessly to Jack, who smirked and took off the lid, then took the tube and squirted some into Alex's hand. "I don't need any prep, just grease me up."

Dark eyebrows rose, "Keep yourself busy, do ya?" Alex teased as he slid a finger into Jack's ass, feeling the tight muscle give easily. Jack's body arched and he rose with it as the man underneath him cursed with impatience. Sweat bloomed over aroused bodies.

"Damn it Alex, fuck me already," Jack complained and was rewarded with a husky laugh.

"You got it. Get on your hands and knees."

"About damn time," Jack grumbled as the two men arranged themselves, Jack on his hands and knees, legs spread widely, with Alex tucked in behind him.

Alex rested his right hand on his cock and guided it slowly into the moaning man, the sensation of his cock getting massaged so tightly almost making him come unglued. "Yesss." His right hand gripped Jack's hip and he began to slowly move in and out. "Oh yeah. Damn, that's good Jack."

Jack grunted. Good was a vast understatement. It had been a very long while since he'd been fucked, and Alex knew what the hell he was doing. Especially when he twisted his hips like that! "Fuckingholycow!" Jack yelped as his prostate was slammed. Shards of feeling swept him and he felt his cock get impossibly harder making him groan, his anal muscles squeezing Alex deliberately.

Alex moaned again as Jack's muscles tightened around his cock, "Won't last, been too fucking long..." and he grunted softly as Jack tightened again, pushing back. Thrusting became harder as both men fought to climax, quiet curses and moans filling the air. It was like a battle, but with both men about to win.

Adjusting his arm to he could hold himself up, Jack began to stroke his cock. He felt Alex lay on his back and his hand gently shoved out of the way, a husky, "Mine," making him almost come. Alex's cock stroking his prostate, and the hot hand on his cock suddenly made Jack gasp, "Ohgod, I'm close."

A wicked voice in his ear growled, "Do it, Jack. Come for me." Alex gasped a laugh as Jack arched and jerked, covering his fingers with hot cum, then moaned as he felt his own come fill the condom. Both men panted, blinking sweat from their eyes as they slowly came back to Earth.

"Now, ~that's~ what I'm talking about," Jack said smugly as he collapsed onto the bed. "Eww."

His spent cock slipping out, Alex, still slouched over Jack's back lifted his head. "What?"

"Wet spot."

"He who bottoms has to deal," Alex said pompously, then laughed as Jack reached back and swatted him on the ass. "Hey!"

Jack wriggled. "Let's get cleaned up. We've got a busy day tomorrow."

The men got up and cleaned each other off, then settled down in the clean bunk, snuggling against each other. Jack immediately fell into a deep sleep, while Alex mentally reviewed plans for the next day's mission.

The muted chirp of a phone woke both men. Alex leaned over the side of the bed and snatched his phone. "Krycek."

Immediately he heard, "Mulder has disappeared, and Scully is almost to the Utah border. I think she's on his tail."

"~Govno~. Damn it. They must have him already and are just waiting for her," he spat as he sat up and felt Jack do the same, his hot body pressed against him. "Thanks, Byers."

"Just take care of Mulder and Scully and we're even." And the phone went dead.

Jack swung his legs to the floor, "Time to go?"

Alex nodded. "I think they've got Mulder, and his partner isn't far behind. We need to beat her there, and keep her away."

The older man, who'd gotten up to head to the bathroom swung his head around, "Her?"

"Yeah. She's Mulder's wife by now, I'd guess." The pain that crossed Alex's face made Jack curious, but he decided to leave it for later.

As they dressed Alex paused. "Jack, they can't recognize me. I'm supposed to be dead."

"What?" Jack exclaimed.

"It's a long story, and I'll tell you if I can," Alex said quietly.

Jack gave him a long look, walking over to touch the younger man's face. "I'll hold you to it."

~*~

It was hot and dry, even in the pre-dawn hours, and Scully had her window rolled down. She pulled up to the corner, checked her map and screamed. A hand belonging to a man dressed all in black reached in, unlocked her window then jerked her door open, "Agent Scully?"

Dana hadn't been an FBI agent for nothing and had her weapon out and pointed in a matter of seconds, "What is it to you?"

The man in black held up one hand, the other still cradling his own weapon, "I'm here to keep you safe. That's all. Some guy named Byers called a friend who sent me. Someone else is rescuing," the man paused, "Molder."

"Take off your mask," she ordered.

The man hesitated, then slipped off his mask. Underneath was a man who looked all of twelve. "I can't tell you anymore than my first name, ma'am. It's Simon."

Dana's instincts were well honed after being on the run for so long and she didn't sense any kind of threat so she sighed and put up her gun, "Where are we going?"

Simon smiled as he got into the passenger seat, "Do you like camping?"

~*~

Fox moaned as his head snapped back again. He leaned over and spit blood, "Haven't we done this before?"

"Where's your partner?" the man spit out.

"Fuck you," Mulder replied. And was hit again.

Suddenly there were loud explosions and the building rocked underneath their feet. The last thing that Mulder saw was the supersoldier's gun swing up to his face, 'I'm going to die', something black behind him and the flash of something blue and electric, then nothing.

Alex gave a cry as the man in the chair slumped to the floor. "Fox!" he leaped forward and knelt by the fallen man.

Jack zatted the bad guy two more times, watching impassively as it disappeared. Then he stepped forward to check on Alex and his friend. "Hey, is he ok?"

The younger man shook his head. "He's got a concussion and I think some cracked ribs." There were more explosions making background noise.

"Jack!" crackled over the radio.

Jack pressed his mike. "Go."

"We're meeting some resistance at the labs," came Coburn's voice. Alex's head came up, "I'll go. Get him out of here." At Jack's indecision, he added, "Please?"

Jack nodded, then clicked his radio. "Help's on its way," he said, and watched in bemusement as Alex caressed the downed man's face briefly, then get up and stride out. "Oo-kay." He knelt down in his friend's spot and slapped the downed man on the cheek. Gently, of course. "Hey Fox, wakey, wakey."

The man on the floor moaned, then said, "Mulder. My name is Mulder."

"Whatever. I need to get you out of here." Jack got the wounded man onto his shaky feet and helped him to the door.

Outside, Mulder blinked. There was nothing left of the buildings that had formerly housed the supersoldiers, and there were looked like soldiers in black rounding up what humans they could find. One caught his attention, broad shoulders, and a familiar build. 'Alex?' The sound of a radio made his head turn making him groan at the injudicious movement.

"Jack, I need you," the radio crackled. The voice seemed familiar to Mulder, but his head was hurting so badly he couldn't make himself concentrate.

Jack made an impatient sound then keyed his mike. "I need the medic." He saw a head turn and a man in black jogged towards them. As soon as the man reached them, Jack handed Mulder over. "Take care of him then get him outta here."

"Yes, sir."

An arm grabbed Jack's and he looked over to the injured man. "What?"

"Who is that?"

Jack looked across the compound to where Alex was standing. "He's one of my men. No one you know, Agent Mulder." He gave a look to the medic who nodded and then he strode towards where Alex stood waiting.

Alex knelt down to survey the floor then peered into the darkness of the lab. The sound of footsteps behind him made him look over his shoulder. "Hey."

"Hey, yourself. What's up?"

Alex looked back into the darkness. "I need you, and someone else cold enough to do what needs to be done." He looked back at Jack, his eyes stark.

Without letting Alex's eyes go, Jack took his mike. "T, Harry, meet me at the labs."

As the four men entered the lab, Alex kept back and let Jack take the lead. They could hear noises in the dark as they made their way cautiously deeper. Jack took the flashlight from his leg and turned it on and all hell broke loose. Something sprang out of the dark at Teal'c and Jack zatted it, while something else attacked Alex.

Jack watched as his lover held up his prosthetic arm to receive the blows intended to kill him. Alex twisted his arm up and shot underneath it, then Harry backed him up and zatted the attacker. When nothing more attacked, Teal'c went to a wall and frowned at it, then touched something and the lights came on.

"Okay, totally grossed out," Jack said under his breath. He exchanged glances with Harry and realized that they were in complete accord.

Around the room there were glass tanks with fetus like creatures floating inside. There was a ring platform and an ultra sophisticated lab set-up, and what looked like a scientist huddled dead on the floor. Teal'c looked around in curiosity. "O'Neill, we have seen this type of laboratory before."

And suddenly Jack knew that Teal'c was right. "Nirrti. I am so glad that the bitch is dead."

"Who?" Alex asked. "What does a Hindu goddess have to do with this?"

Harry was curious too, but Teal'c and Jack shook their heads. "No one you need to worry about, Alex," Jack said. He walked over to one of the glass tanks and tapped on it, making the 'thing' inside twitch. "Eww. These things are alive."

"They're like cockroaches; their biological imperative is to survive. All of them have to be destroyed," Alex said firmly.

Jack looked around, distaste on his face. "Let's do it."

~*~

Dana's head shot up as the sound of a vehicle reached her ears. She cried as she saw Mulder being helped from the vehicle and she cried as she hugged him. "Are you okay?" She checked his eyes, concerned as she saw the uneven pupils and his sweaty face.

The man in black looked at her. "You a doctor?"

"Yes."

"Good. He's got some cracked ribs and a concussion. We've got to get back," he nodded at Simon and the two men got into the truck and left.

Fox shivered violently in the cooling air as Dana checked him over thoroughly and both their heads shot up as loud and violent explosions sounded in the distance, making birds fly up out of the trees in alarm.

"It's finally over," Mulder whispered, the grief filling his eyes surprising Dana.

~*~

The men were all in their motorhomes, it had taken a long while to make sure every thing on that base had been eradicated, including computer files, but it was finally over. The few living civilians had been taken away to be interrogated and now it was time to wind down.

Jack watched as Alex sat at the window and watched the night sky. There was a stillness about the younger man, the look of grief in his eyes making Jack's heart ache. He knew that kind of grief, still felt it, and occasionally wallowed in it. "Alex?"

"I hate loving him so much," came the whispered reply.

Now this Jack was an expert on. He crawled up beside Alex and wrapped his long arms around him. "It sucks, I know, babe."

"He was my first partner in the FBI. I looked up to him, he was..." Alex paused, "he was so amazing. Then I made fucking stupid choices and he hated my guts, and he was right. To save him and his wife and baby I had to stage my own death," he stopped, sighed a little. "It was worth it, just to see him today. To know he'll be alright."

Jack was silent for a long time then said, "I've loved Daniel from afar, oh, for some years now. He's gorgeous, brilliant and he was the Jiminy Cricket to my Pinocchio," he felt Alex laugh. "You laugh but it was true. He made me a better person. Then he died."

"I was never the good guy, Jack."

Jack shrugged. "Neither was I, a lot of the time."

Alex pushed away and his green eyes were hard. "I killed people!"

The older man reached out and snagged the younger man, dragging him back down. "I was in black ops, so have I. Tell me what you think ~you've~ done that was so bad."

There was a full body shudder, and Alex began to speak. Quietly he told Jack what he'd done with his life, how his downward spiral into darkness, possession and death had made him such an evil person. After he was finished he went still, as if waiting for a blow.

Jack sighed. "Ah, Alex," he gently gripped the younger man's chin and looked him in the eye. "I don't think you're evil, or terrible. I think you were idealistic and got caught up in a bad situation that went south. Look at you now."

"It's not enough. It will never be enough," Alex whispered.

"Maybe not, but at least you're trying," Jack tilted his head to study the younger man, then kissed him. He sighed inwardly with relief when Alex melted into him, their passion flaring brightly.

Gallup, N.M.

Dana watched as Mulder slept, his body jerking restlessly as he dreamed.

"Alex," he cried softly. After a moment, he rolled over to his side and settled into a deeper sleep, the tear tracks drying on his cheeks.

It was a familiar name to Dana after two long, hard years. There had always been something between Krycek and Mulder, something angry and hot, and surprisingly tender. Something she could never have explained before, but knew in her heart now. As much as she knew she could never fill the empty place in her partner's heart that he hadn't even known belonged to the other man.

It was time. Time to let Mulder go.

There was nothing to hold them together anymore. William was safe with his new family, even though it tore her and Mulder's heart to pieces.

Fox had been with her ever since the trip to the Anasazi ruins, where finally, the Cancerman had died a spectacular death. Then they had been on the run, trying to stay alive, one step in front of those who wanted to see them dead. Now finally the super soldiers had met defeat, with help from a mysterious group. It was finally safe for them to go home. Without each other.

It was time. She impatiently wiped the tears streaming down her face.

~*~

One Year Later- Colorado Springs, CO

Jack shut the door to his office and opened his e-mail. He didn't recognize the top e-mail address but knew Carter's security protocols wouldn't let anything harmful through, so he clicked on it-- and found a huge picture of a hairy ass on his screen. Then in the middle there was a short message...

'Your computer security sucks. Love, Alex'

Laughing, Jack clicked on it and found a live cam shot of Alex. He hadn't seen the man in over a year, ever since they'd closed down the secret base together.

A dialogue box obligingly popped up and he typed—'Hey Alex, how did you get this e-mail address?' There were security issues to consider. He watched the cam shot and saw Alex roll his eyes, then start typing.

'If you know where to look nothing is secure. And Jack, you have a hole the size of the Titanic.'

Jack sat back for a long moment. Then he typed-- 'Where are you?'

'Close. Why? You wanna see me?'

Jack definitely wanted to see his former lover. 'Yeah. Tonight?'

'I know where you live. See you tonight, hot stuff,' Alex winked, and the cam shot blinked out. The ass unfortunately stayed on his computer as a screen saver.

"Damn it."

*~*

One week later~

Jack watched as the man signed the last form with a flourish, then shook his wrist. "Goddamn paperwork."

"I know, kill a bureaucrat, save a tree." Jack smiled at the man in the seat across from him, "So, now that you're officially alive, you wanna go to Disneyland?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "You still aren't much of a conversationalist, are you Jack?"

"When we were together we didn't need much conversation," Jack smirked, the veiled reference to their brief time as lovers making the other man's cheeks turn pink.

"Knock it off, O'Neill," Alex growled, his lips quirking as the other man laughed boisterously at his embarrassment. The door opening made both men look up.

Daniel's eyebrows rose as he took in the visitor in the chair in front of Jack. "Sorry Jack, I didn't realize you were busy. Walter wasn't at his desk."

Alex stood and admired the handsome man with the big blue eyes. "You must be Daniel. Jack's told me so much about you," he held out his right hand and Daniel shook it automatically.

"Really, and you are?" Daniel asked, his tone cool at the familiarity. Jack made a surprised face at the tone and Alex had to grin.

"Danny, this is our new Computer Security geek, Alexei Krycek. Alex, this is Dr. Daniel Jackson, my best friend and the one we have to thank for the program."

Daniel eyed the other man carefully. He had dark hair that swept back from a strong forehead, unbelievably green eyes, and a very nice body, even though he had an artificial left arm. "Nice to meet you, Alex. I gather you're Russian?" he asked the other man in fluent Russian.

"Dah."

"English please," Jack grumped, making Alex throw him a smile.

"Sorry. Yeah, my parent's were first generation Americans of Russian/Ukrainian emigrants," he continued in English, with a warm smile for the archeologist.

"That's interesting. So, what did you do before Jack hired you?" he asked in a not so subtle bid for information. Jack had never mentioned this man and the almost tangible bond between the two disturbed him. However, he couldn't put a finger on why.

Shooting Jack a look, Alex shifted slightly. "Let's just say I was, well, free-lance..."

"Now, Alex, Daniel can handle the truth," Jack pointed to the door. "Shut that and sit yourself down, Danny boy. Have I got a story to tell you."

It took an hour for Jack and Alex to fill Daniel in and afterwards he could only shake his head. "The super-soldiers here on Earth. I remember reading the mission brief," he fixed an accusing stare on Jack. "And it was very brief. No mention of half the stuff you just told me. And I don't remember Alex mentioned at all."

Jack squirmed under Daniel's righteous indignation and Krycek's amused smile. "Aw, c'mon Danny! It wasn't that dangerous, I mean, after everything we've been through? I didn't want to bother the General with the small stuff," he grinned as Daniel huffed out a breath and Alex rolled his eyes. "Anyway, it worked out in the end, and now we get to keep Alex."

"I'm not some puppy that followed you home, Jack," Alex complained.

"So, it wasn't dangerous, huh? What happened to Alex's arm?" Daniel asked pointedly then realized from the look on Alex's face that he had made a big assumption.

Alex swallowed hard. "It was cut off a long time ago. It had nothing to do with the super-soldiers." Almost nothing.

Immediately remorseful, Daniel placed his hand on the artificial arm. "I'm sorry, Alex. Me and my big mouth."

The other man shook his head. "It's okay, Daniel. It's a long time past," he said flatly. He didn't want to think about Tunguska and Mulder.

Daniel saw the emotions that crossed Alex's face and resolved to find out more about this man that Jack suddenly brought into their midst. .

"So, let's show you your new office," Jack stood with energy that made Alex groan.

"What's with the 'get up and go?' You're old, for Pete's sake," he teased and ducked out of the way as Jack made a half hearted lunge for him.

"Old? I'll show you old, Krycek."

Alex pursed his lips and blew a raspberry, making Daniel laugh. "Good for you, Alex. Keep Jack in line."

"Et tú Bruté?" Jack said mournfully, ignoring the snickers from the peanut gallery. He opened the door and motioned the men out, closing the door behind him. Sgt. Harriman took that moment to show up with his hands full of folders, "Oh, General, I have more files for you, Sir."

Jack grinned. "Just take them to Director Krycek's office. They're for him to look through."

"Director? I sound like I'm gonna make a movie," Alex grumbled.

"You have the assimilated rank of Colonel, but you're a civilian and I had to call you something," Jack insisted as they walked down the bustling passageway.

Jack led them to a busy lab where a pretty blonde and other science types were working. "Carter."

Sam's head came up and she couldn't help but admire the three handsome men in her doorway. "Hello, sir, Daniel. What's up?" Her curious eyes were on the dark haired man beside the General.

To her bemusement the General turned red and cleared his throat. "Colonel Carter, this is Alex Krycek." He watched as they shook hands. "He's our new Computer Security Director."

Sam felt like she'd missed something. "Excuse me?"

"It's like this, Carter. You've done a great job with the computers and everything else, but I think that you're spread too thin. So I hired Alex to take care of the base computer security systems," he winced inwardly as her face went still and rushed on. "It'll give you more time to fiddle with your generators and stuff. More time with Pete!"

Alex decided to step in before the pretty, mad blond decided to shoot his friend. "Listen, Colonel Carter, was it? You've done a fantastic job, it's just I knew where to look when I hacked in."

"Hacked in?" Sam gave a disbelieving laugh. "Impossible. I designed those systems."

"And they're top of the line, better than the Pentagon and Microsoft," Alex agreed, then gestured to her computer. "If I may?"

She waved a hand. "Make yourself at home," the sarcasm in her tones biting.

Daniel winced and was about to try to play peacekeeper when Jack shook his head. Daniel raised an eyebrow but understood, better to let Sam and Alex sort it out between them.

Alex sat down, bent the fingers of his artificial arm and started typing rapidly. "Okay, here's where the first firewall failed..." he pointed with his good hand and Sam reluctantly rolled her chair closer."Here and here..." then he typed some more and she suddenly saw.

"Ohmigod. I never even considered that a weakness," she said, shocked.

He nodded knowingly. "I met this kid, a college hacker, about seven years ago. He's a bloody genius, and he showed me all of his tricks in exchange for keeping him out of jail. He's started his own business, you might have heard of it, 'PhoenixTron'?"

Sam nodded. "I've requisitioned some of their programs, and they're superior. Better than what the Air Force gets."

Computer geeks. Jack thought affectionately, then sighed loudly. "Okay kids, you can play together later."

They both turned as if just realizing that they still had an audience. "Sorry, Jack. You ready?" Alex stood, fixing his arm. "Nice meeting you, Colonel."

Sam stared as she suddenly realized that he had a prosthetic arm. He'd typed incredibly fast. "You too, Mr. Krycek."

"Please, call me Alex," he said graciously, making her feel a bit like a heel.

"Well, let's get you to your office," Jack shot Sam an apologetic look as they left her lab.

Outside the men stopped and Alex shook his head. "You are ~such~ a bastard."

Jack grimaced. "It was such a great idea that I kinda ran with it, and forgot to let Carter know."

This shamefaced admission made Daniel grin. "She's gonna kick your ass, you do realize?"

"Not if I stay out of sight," Jack retorted, scowling at Alex who was laughing.

As they were about to pass a group of men, Alex smiled widely. "Hey, Dave!"

Dixon's eyes widened, and he grinned back. "Alex, you old dog. What are you doing here?" the two men shook hands enthusiastically.

"Jack hired me. For some reason he thought maybe I could do some good around here," Alex replied, grinning as Jack merely rolled his eyes.

"Well, it's about time that the old man did something right." Dixon smirked at Jack, "Hey, can I introduce him around?"

Jack shook his head. "Not yet, Dave. I need to show him to his office, then ..." a beeping from the vicinity of his waist made him scowl. "Damn it." He grabbed the beeper and looked at the message.

Alex only smiled. "Go, I'm sure Dave can show me around."

Daniel held up his hand. "Colonel Dixon is probably busy, I'll show Alex around. Which office is it?" It would also give him time to pry without Jack around.

"It's level nine, by the communications room," Jack frowned then looked apologetically at Alex, who only made a shooing motion.

"Go, be the old man, Jack. You can take me to dinner to make it up to me."

The General's face brightened. "Cool. See you guys," and he strode the other direction. He stopped dead in the hallway for a moment, then turned around. "Danny, get him some temporary quarters on 25 and soothe Carter's feathers for me, would ya?" he beseeched his best friend, started to walk away then turned again and fixed Alex with a look. "And get that damned ass off of my screensaver."

Alex choked on a wild laugh. "Sure, Jack."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I don't even want to know."

Dixon glanced at his watch and shook his head. "Dr. Jackson's right, I've got a meeting, Alex. See you tomorrow?"

Alex nodded. "I'll hit the gym first thing. Then after the meeting I'll probably be in my office."

"I'll track you down," the Colonel nodded and headed the same way as Jack.

"I hate when Jack does that," Daniel complained.

This made Alex grin. "He makes you do his dirty work, huh?"

With an eyeroll and a heartfelt sigh, Daniel agreed. "You have nooo idea. He thinks I'm such a people person, and I don't know why."

~~

It was late as Alex relaxed as much as he could in the stiff office chair. "First things, first. I have to replace this stupid chair."

An amused voice came from the doorway. "You always talk to office furniture?"

"Jack," Alex smiled with pleasure. "Come on in."

Jack meandered in, glancing around. "Will this work for you?" he indicated the office with a careless wave.

"It's great. More than I expected." He looked around in satisfaction. It had been too long since he'd held a legitimate job, one that gained him acceptance from his peers. His mind involuntarily went to Fox, and he shut down the thought.

"Good. Doc Warner would like to take a look at you, but you can do that in the morning. Unfortunately I can't take you to dinner tonight..." Jack made a face, "A budget meeting."

"That's okay. Take a load off for a second," Alex ordered.

Jack smiled and sat down in one of the chairs, sighing with relief. "Ah, this feels good. I think I've been on my feet since we left my office. I dread seeing my inbox."

Alex made sure the door was shut, leaned back in his chair, tapped his computer and watched the red light on the camera blink out, "So, I really like your Daniel."

The older man stiffened. "Alex, shut the fuck up," he looked up at the camera but knew that his friend would've dealt with it already. "He's not mine."

"I know," Alex nodded in understanding. "I was just telling you I like him. He's smart, and he puts up with all of your petty bullshit. Not everyone can do that."

Jack chuckled. "True. True." He sat for a long moment, staring at nothing before meeting Alex's sympathetic green gaze. "He's my best friend, Alexei. I won't do anything, or say anything to jeopardize that. He's just too important. To me, and to the program."

There was a knock at the door and Alex called. "Come in."

An airman stuck his head in, his face lighting with relief. "There you are, Sir. General Vidrine is on the phone for you."

"Oh joy."

Alex smiled sharply. "I can take care of him for you."

Jack stood and laughed. "Nah, he's really one of the good guys. See you at tomorrow's meeting, Alex."

"Oh joy," Alex snarked back, and was rewarded by Jack's wicked laugh. "Good night, Jack."

**

It was early in the morning when the alarm starting beeping. Loudly. Alex rolled and slapped it off, scowling with irritation, then he looked around in confusion before he realized where he was.

"Oh yeah, a real job." He grinned and got up, slipping on a pair of gym shorts and a sleeveless sweatshirt. He cursed and pulled off the sweatshirt and put his arm on, then slipped the shirt back on, "Moron," he told himself in Russian before slipping into his running shoes and heading to the gym.

It was empty when he got in, so he chose a treadmill and began to run. After a half-hour there were a few stragglers and he'd hit his second wind, jogging comfortably. He largely ignored his fellow exercisers, until he heard someone mutter in Russian. "Who is the dick on the treadmill?"

Alex had to hide a smile, it had been a long time since he heard good insults in his parent's language. One of the other Russians replied back sharply.

The reply made Alex snort softly. The literal Russian translation meant 'Quit trying to shake the pears out of the tree by hitting the trunk with your dick.' He finished his time on the treadmill and wiped his face with the towel, remarking in impeccable Russian as he walked by, "Thinking with your dick will get it stepped on."

The Russian colonel looked up and scowled. "Tell me that to my face," he stood, using his lanky but muscular 6'3" frame to try to cow Alex.

Alex's eyes became green ice as he stared at the other man. "This will be your final warning, Comrade," he drawled in Russian, "I'm not someone you fuck with." His body was still but his muscles were coiled in anticipation.

The colonel blanched, the unfamiliar sensation of fear making him uneasy. The other man's eyes were flat, reminding him of one of the fabled rattlesnakes that he'd seen since he'd moved to Colorado. No expression, just 'strike' and you were dead.

Teal'c walked into the gym at that moment and saw the tense confrontation. "ColonelFedeyev, Alexei Krycek, is everything well?"

Alex broke the stare first, grinning at Teal'c. "Hey, how are you?" He moved around the frozen Colonel and went to shake Teal'c's hand.

"I am well, AlexKrycek." He gave the Russian colonel a look and the man unthawed and went back to his workout. Teal'c looked back at Alex. "I am interrupting your workout."

Looking around, Alex shook his head. "I ran 15 miles, I'm set for today. I may try some weight training tomorrow."

"I will be here to assist you if needed," Teal'c bowed and went to start his own workout. Alex grabbed his towel and headed back to his quarters, a little annoyed with himself. It seemed like he'd turned back into his old self without a second thought. He took a shower, his internal debate continuing as he got dressed. A knock at the door made him sigh. "C'mon in, Jack."

Jack opened the door, almost pouting as he saw Alex cover his chest with his t-shirt, "So, I hear you were trying to scare my team leaders? You've been here just one day!"

"I'm sorry Jack. It was just..." he shrugged. "I hate when people get in my face."

With a sigh, Jack sat on Alex's bed. "Look, this is just like when you were at the Feebie academy, there's a lot of testosterone and alpha male posturing. Just let it slide, you've got more important things to do here."

Looking shamefaced, and all of about 12, Alex nodded. "You're right, Jack. Sorry."

Jack stood and yanked Alex to him for a hug. "Don't be stupid. I don't care if you tweak Fedeyev's tail, I just wanna watch."

This made Alex chuckled as he relaxed into Jack's embrace. "You got it," they stood that way for a long moment, taking comfort in each other.

After a minute Jack pulled back. "I actually came here to walk you to the conference room. You ready to go?"

Alex reflexively rubbed his chin. "Shaved, check," he ran his tongue over his teeth and grimaced. "Let me brush, then get me shoes on."

"Please do, dragonbreath," Jack teased.

"Yeah, I didn't hear you complaining when we..." and he yelped as Jack not so gently kicked his ass. "Hey, if you're not nice to me I won't...damn, I need to stop by my office first." Distracted, he started brushing his teeth, his mind rapidly going through what needed to be done so far and he hadn't even been there a full day.

Jack listened as Alex brushed his teeth then began to mutter to himself as he finished up in the bathroom. "Hey Krycek, getting old here."

"Already old there," Alex threw back cheekily. "Okay, ready to go," he ducked as Jack tried to smack him, both men laughing as they headed into the passageway. Once at his office Alex used his keycard and unlocked the door, and winced at the sound of alarms blaring.

"What the fuck is that?" Jack asked testily.

Alex was rapidly typing, "It's my alarm system. Just a sec..." he typed, eyed the screen and typed some more and the alarms shut off. "Okay, yeah, just as I suspected..." he muttered and the printer began to spit out papers. He stood and waited until the printer was done then grabbed the papers. "Okay, ready to go."

Daniel was slouched in his chair, watching Dixon and Coburn playfight with a couple of pens. Geez, and he thought Jack was childish...Fedeyev came in next, followed by Teal'c, Sam and then Jack and Alex. Jim looked up and grinned. "Hey, Alex."

"Hey, Jim," Alex went over to shake Coburn's hand before going to the chair that Jack pulled out for him.

As he watched the body language between Jack and Alex, Daniel wanted to sigh. He and Jack had been that close, once upon a time. As he continued to watch Alex he saw Colonel Fedeyev jerk away as Alex walked by. This made Teal'c smile slightly. What was that about?

Jack settled into his seat, and smiled. "Hello, kids. Beautiful day, isn't it?"

There were a couple of 'Yessirs', and several eyerolls, which made Alex chuckle quietly. Jack had a unique command style, no two ways about it.

"Okay, the new guy is Alexei Krycek. Call him Alex. He's the new Director of Computer Security. He's been in the fight against the alien bad guys longer than any of us. He also worked with the FBI for awhile before becoming a freelance assassin/alien hunter. He's a brilliant computer geek, and plays a mean game of poker," he nodded at Alex who was blushing slightly.

"Gee Jack, thanks, I think," there was easy laughter around the table, but dark suspicious eyes from Fedeyev. Alex stood, "So, you want the good news or the bad news?"

Jack sighed. "Geez, now what? Give me the bad news."

"You've got a spy that's been siphoning info through the computer systems."

Sam winced. "Damn it. I thought I'd locked this place up airtight."

Alex looked at her. "Don't be too rough on yourself. You kept it from becoming a flood of information."

"So what's the good news?" Daniel asked curiously.

"I sent a tracer on the information and I can get you into their computer systems," he grinned with glee. He liked getting his own back from the bad guys. He handed the printed out sheets to Jack who took one and passed it on.

"It's the fucking Trust! Alex, you're a star. We've been wondering what the players were doing since Carter exposed them," Jack looked up and his eyes were deadly with intent. Alex's cock stirred in his pants, Jack was fucking hot when he was like this.

Fedeyev watched all of this silently. He would never let the man know, but he admired General O'Neill greatly. The man had great personal courage and he'd saved Earth time and time again. He knew that the General wasn't the biggest fan of the Russians in the Stargate program, but he'd never let his prejudice stand in the way of giving Fedeyev and his team a fair chance. Maybe it was time to repay the General's trust.

"There's a couple of options, starting with sending them a virus," Alex pointed out. .

"First, whose computer on base is it coming from?" Dixon asked as he read down the list of names.

Alex's face tightened, then he sighed. "Jack's."

"What?" Jack yelped.

"It's not leaking sensitive information anymore, I plugged that hole when I was in my office," Alex shifted, slightly adjusting his artificial arm to a more comfortable position. "What it is leaking right now is the amount of toilet paper it takes to run a place this size, and would you believe how much maple syrup that you guys serve here?" He shook his head in amazement. There was more laughter around the table.

Dixon laughed. "You would if you've seen Coburn here, eat." Coburn scowled and popped his friend and fellow teamleader on the head with the flat of his hand.

Alex snorted. "I have, remember? Teal'c had disappeared and we had to check and make sure that Jim hadn't eaten him?" Coburn was about to flip him off, but decided that discretion was the better part of valor and satisfied himself with chucking his pen at Alex.

Everyone including Fedeyev laughed at their antics, "Make sure you leak the fact that we need our vodka for only medicinal purposes," he joked. There was a startled silence, and he froze, unsure if what he'd said was wrong. It was hard to figure out when the American's were serious, and when they were not.

Daniel laughed and Jack shook his head and chuckled, then there was more easy laughter and kidding about replacing the water in the kits with vodka.

Alex laughed heartily. "Heck, if I'd known that you had vodka here I'd have been nicer to you this morning. You do have the good stuff, right?"

Colonel Kristoff Fedeyev nodded soberly, "Stoli."

Coburn snickered. "That's not alcohol, that's antifreeze."

"Bite your tongue. Stolichnaya is the nectar of the gods," Alex sat down, then made a face, "The non- snaked ones of course."

"Hmmph, maybe vodka would improve their dispositions," Fedeyev grunted. Even Daniel chuckled at this.

"So, Carter," Jack asked, bringing the meeting back on track. "How do you think that my computer got infected or sprang a leak or whatever?"

Sam gazed at him thoughtfully. "I'd guess it was when General Hammond was still here. I don't think anyone thought to check the computer. They didn't even give you a new one, just changed the identity of the owner on the operating system."

"Not even a new one? Boy, the Air Force is a cheap outfit," Alex said, smirking when Jack only sighed. "It's okay, I'll check your computer over again and make sure there are no more leaks."

Jack nodded and stood. "Thanks, Alex. Okay people, that's everything. SG-2, remember your briefing is at 1400. Dismissed."

Everyone stood and the chatter started, Alex mingling with Dave, Jim and Teal'c. He even snagged Fedeyev and the four men spoke animatedly.

Daniel stood awkwardly by Jack as he watched Alex. "He seems like a good man."

Jack shot Daniel a startled look, then looked back at Alex with a fond smile. "He's worked hard at it."

~^~

Mulder finished typing his report, e-mailing a copy to his supervisor before printing another for his files. He stretched as he watched the printer, then glanced out of the window of the office building he was working in, just in time to see the spectacular Denver sunset. He stood and walked to the window, admiring the spectacular reds, oranges and blues as the sun rapidly set behind the mountains.

He'd been in Denver for nine months, and had surprised himself by fitting in. His reputation as 'Spooky' Mulder had preceded him, but the local SAC and the agents in the Denver office didn't hassle him. Apparently they'd had their share of 'weird phenomenon' in their area, which included Colorado Springs, so they weren't so quick to judge.

"Mulder, aren't you done yet?" the sharp voice of his supervisor made Mulder turn around and smile.

"Yeah Bill, just waiting for the printer to finish up."

SAC Bill Connor smirked. "It's been done for about ten minutes."

"Shit," Mulder went over and collected the copies, stapled them together then placed them in the file and in his outbox. "Done, going home!" he sing-songed.

"Do that. Have a good night, Mulder."

"You too, Bill," Fox replied cheerfully and left the office.

He got into his Jeep Cherokee and drove to his apartment in Aurora. Once there he jogged up the steps and unlocked the door, dropping off his mail onto the bar before heading to his fridge for a beer.

Fox had a good life here. He was lonely, no doubt about it. Ever since Dana had left him and gone back to Washington D.C. he'd not dated, nor had he wanted to. It was too painful still. Shaking his head to get rid of his depressing thoughts, he went to his freezer, pulled out a frozen dinner and nuked it, then settled in front of the t.v. Another night in paradise.

~^~

SG-3 had been off planet for over a month, supporting an engineer and exploratory team on planet P-493X. A flyover by a UAV had discovered a crashed ship of unknown design and the SGC had sent teams to recover its secrets.

The reports sent back had placed the crash at over 200 years before, which meant that the race who'd built the ship had been in the stars for awhile. There were a lot of questions yet to be answered. Had the inhabitants survived the crash or had they left by the stargate? What did they look like? The ship controls had been so alien in design that they hadn't been able to glean much. Which is why SG-3 had been relieved and were due to arrive.

Alex was in the control room, watching curiously as the gate techs did their thing. Jack had invited him that morning to watch since he'd been too busy to, so far. Eyeing the big ring through the glass, Alex admitted that it was, as Jack had said, 'pretty damn cool'.

A loud whine and a thunk as the gate dialed the first 'number' of its address made him jump and the gate technician hid a smile as he said, "Incoming wormhole."

Jack nodded. "Who is it Lieutenant?"

"It's SG-13, sir."

"Open the iris, Lieutenant," Jack ordered.

"Wow," Alex said as the wormhole flooded out then settled back into a stable event horizon.

"Didn't I say it was pretty cool?" Jack beamed.

"Where did they go?" Alex asked curiously. He knew that some missions were recon, and some were for making allies and then some were for Daniel, or better known as archeological interest.

"Ah, P3X-9915. It's the planet of the pink cheeked topless women," Jack replied knowledgeably.

Alex's eyebrows went up. "When can ~I~ go through the gate?"

There was laughter from the other people in the control room and Jack waggled his eyebrows, leering cheerfully.

They watched as Dixon's team stepped in, with what look like lei's around their necks and smiles on their faces. The team handed off their weapons and waved at Jack and Alex in the control room, with Dixon going so far as to pretend hula before they headed out to be checked over in the infirmary.

"What a nut," Jack chuckled.

"So what do the topless women offer to Earth?" Alex enquired.

"They have a plant that has a lot of promise for healing the kidneys and we're trading them material and sewing stuff."

Alex nodded. "Huh, pretty mundane items. I guess I'm surprised."

"Maybe mundane, but it's how we really fund the SGC. The scientific discoveries are researched and released and we keep the patents. And sometimes because they can trust us with the small shit, the most mundane planets hold a surprise in the big honking weapon department," Jack explained.

"Gotcha," Alex said.

Another whine and thunk announced the gate dialing again. "Incoming wormhole," was announced.

"SG-3 is due back, right?"

"Yes, sir. It's SG-3's IDC."

"Open the iris," Jack ordered. He smiled at Daniel who arrived to watch SG-3 arrive, wanting to speak to his archeologist.

The gate finished dialing as Jack filled Alex in on the Marine unit, whom he hadn't met yet. Colonel Reynolds, whom Jack trusted implicitly, Sgt. Penhall, Lt. Bosco and one of Daniel's archeologists, a Dr. Larabee.

Four men dressed in Marine camouflage stepped into the gateroom, chatting as they began to hand off their weapons. The Colonel glanced up at the control room, his oily black eyes a way too familiar sight and Alex froze. "~Govno~!" he gasped.

"What is it?" Daniel asked as he stepped up beside Alex to peer into the gateroom.

"Lockdown the gateroom," Alex ordered frantically.

Jack turned to stare at Alex. "What? Why?"

Alex stared with dread as the team started to head towards the doors, and to possible freedom. "Jack, if you ever trusted me, lock it down."

"Do it," Jack ordered immediately, and they watched as the doors started to close which made the Colonel's head snap around and he made an inhumanly fast dash through the doors before they sealed.

"Fuck! Lock the base down, and have security detain that Colonel!" Alex called, racing for door.

"I wish I knew why I was doing this," Jack complained as he picked up the phone and did what Alex had asked.

Alex pounded down the metal stairs dodging confused security. At an intersecting corridor he froze, his head swiveling, when he felt that creepy crawly feeling and spun around. There. Somehow he could feel the Oilien

"Let me leave," the voice said, and suddenly the Oilien in its stolen host was standing in front of him.

Terror, plain and unexpected, hit Alex. He remembered being the unwilling prisoner of the Oilien, its oily tentacles digging around in his brain for information. "You've lost the war here and the ship hidden in Antarctica was destroyed," he told it.

Jack came around the corner in time to see Reynolds leap forward and grab Alex by the throat, and something black and disgusting pouring out of his mouth and trying to crawl into Alex's.

"Alex, duck!"

Alex struggled and choked, wrenching back his head. The Oilien slipped to the ground between the men, and Reynolds staggered back, choking and gagging as well. "Everyone stay back," Alex warned, relief making him weak. He was immune, he'd forgotten.

"Sir, radiation levels are rising in your area," Carter's voice said over the speakers above their head.

"How can we kill it, Alex?" Jack loudly asked, moving back from the moving puddle of what looked like viscous and dirty motor oil.

"I don't know, Jack," Alex replied sharply.

Daniel came around the far corner with his weapon up and peered with curiosity at the puddle on the floor. "What is that?"

The Oilien started to move towards Daniel, far too quickly for Alex to stop it, when there was a whine of a zat and the blob fell to the floor in a messy splat.

"Get a hazmat team down here," Jack ordered. "And what in the fuck is that thing?" he demanded.

"It's an Oilien," Alex answered, going over to the pale Colonel who'd slid down the wall to sit on the floor, staring with horrified fascination at what had been in him.

"You're going to be okay, trust me," Alex said firmly. He had his hand on the man's shoulder and could feel the big man shivering as shock set in. "Jack? We need a medical team."

Jack came up and knelt in front of Reynolds. "What have we told you about bringing back souvenirs?" he teased gently. The Colonel laughed and then choked up more nasty black stuff.

Alex stood and gazed at the blob on the floor. A thought struck him and he snapped his fingers at one of the security guards. "Let me have your zat."

"Sir?"

"Now!" Alex growled and the Captain handed it over without argument. Alex went over to the 'unconscious?' Oilien and zatted it again, making Jack whip his head around and open his mouth, then once more to make it disappear.

"What in the hell? Alex, why did you do that?"

Alex shook his head and handed the zat back to the man he'd borrowed it from. "Because I had to," he said simply.

In the conference room there was chaos as everyone was talking at once. SG-13, Dixon's team were there, SG-2, Coburn's team who'd been on security duty in the gateroom, Fedeyev and SG-4 who'd been in the passageways, Teal'c, Daniel and Sam. Hell, everyone except Jack who was in the infirmary with SG-3 to make sure no one else had been infected . Alex was sunk in his chair, remembering his own private hell.

Jack strode in making everyone quiet down and Alex sat up. "How is he?" he asked.

"Reynold's is still upchucking that black stuff, and the doc wants to talk with you. What I now need to know is what ~was~ that thing and what did it want and why did you kill it?"

Alex stood, keeping his eyes on Jack's face. "They are a race known as Oilien's, or as I like to call them, the Black Cancer. They've were on Earth millions of years ago. Another group of aliens, I think Asgard, came to Earth and were taken over by them, creating a new race we call the Grey's. Some left and some stayed behind in stasis. In 1947 the Grey's started bringing reinforcements, one ship crashing in a town everyone's heard of, Roswell, New Mexico."

Sam blinked. "Area 51? Why have we never heard about them?"

"Because factions in the government didn't want you to know," Alex said simply. "As I've learned more of what you're doing here, I figure that since you were fighting the battle with the goa'uld, they used people like me to fight this particular battle. "

"And why did you kill it?" Jack asked.

Alex sighed and rubbed his neck. He could still feel the soreness of where the Oilien had tried to force its way down his throat. "The Oilien's were doing genetic experiments on humans, creating Grey human hybrids to colonize Earth and they had our shadow government, the real power behind Russia's government," his eyes flicked to Fedeyev, "and several other government's help. They were going to sell Earth to the wolves..." he stopped, memories of losing his arm in Tunguska and what he'd done to stop the aliens spinning through his head.

After a minute Jack spoke. "Alex?"

Alex jerked. "Sorry, um, I was taken over by one of the Oilien's in a men's room in the Tokyo airport and..." he bent his head down and sighed gustily. "It was scary as hell but it was addictive too. The euphoric feeling it gives you is like a drug. But the crash when it leaves? Let me put it this way, you usually end up dead."

There was a quiet in the conference room as the various personnel absorbed what they'd heard about Alex's first hand account.

"Sounds remarkably like the same MO the goa'uld use," Coburn commented.

"Indeed, I believe that you did the correct thing, AlexKrycek," Teal'c said soberly.

Fedeyev nodded. "I had heard about KGB agents and Army special forces teams mysteriously going missing, or soldiers going insane and dying with what was called 'Black oil disease'. I passed them off as old wives tales, the things you tell new officer's to scare them straight. Now I see that I was wrong," he finished soberly.

Jack leaned back in his seat, tapping his pen rapidly. "Considering the threat to the base, I'm inclined to agree with Teal'c. But I just know that they're gonna ask why we didn't contain it instead of killing it."

Alex snorted. "Because I don't know if they can be. Remember when Sam warned about the radiation level's rising? That was from the Oilien."

Nodding, Jack stood. "I want a report from everyone who was there. And this is me, please keep it short and concise, guys," he pleaded playfully, causing wry laughter in the room. "Dismissed."

Alex watched as everyone streamed out, until it was only Daniel, Sam, Teal'c, Jack and himself left. He looked at his CO. "I'm sorry, Jack. Do I need to resign?"

"Don't be an ass," Jack said severely, startling a laugh out of Daniel.

"If it the radiation was going to increase like it was, then what you did saved a lot of lives, Alex," Sam pointed out. "We generally don't punish people for that."

"And dying of radiation isn't a fate I'd wish on anyone," Daniel added. He didn't see the quick wave of grief that passed over Jack's face, but Alex did.

It was time to head home, but Jack was leaned back in his chair, his boots on his desk as he sipped some whiskey he kept in his desk drawer. He'd been right, he'd been read the riot act for not containing the creature, but he knew, as did Washington, that if Alex hadn't killed the damn thing and it had escaped? Well, the compromise of the SGC would have only been the start.

Reynolds and his team were going to be okay, thanks to Alex. They were damn lucky that Jack had hired the former assassin. He toasted the air with his glass and took another drink.

"Jack, are you okay?"

Jack looked over at Daniel who was standing in his doorway looking adorably concerned. "Just having a drink. It's been a helluva day." There was no way he could remain detached if Daniel stayed within arms reach, just too many damn memories had been stirred up.

Daniel heard the dismissal in Jack's voice and sighed. "Okay, but if you need to talk..."

"I know where to find you," Jack said. He watched Daniel leave and let his boots thump to the floor as he sat up to pour himself more whiskey.

"He's worried about you," came Alex's voice a moment later.

"I'm fine," Jack said, waving Alex in. "It's all fine."

"Bull, but hey, denial is not just a river in Egypt," Alex said as he sat down.

Jack snorted as he poured a drink for Alex and handed it over. He noticed the tightness and stress lines around Alex's mouth and realized that his friend was probably reliving one of his nightmares after what had happened. "I forgot to ask, are ~you~ okay?"

Swallowing most of the whiskey, Alex settled into the chair with a sigh. "Yeah, I think so. I'd forgotten that once you have one of them inside of you, and if you survive them leaving you, you're immune."

"Scared the crap out of you," Jack said knowledgeably.

"Scared the crap out of me," Alex agreed wryly.

Outside Daniel leaned against the wall and listened, wishing he was the one in the office with Jack.

~^~

It had been a long couple of months, filled with the usual emergencies and catastrophes that the SGC dealt with on almost a daily basis. Alex was fitting well, he had stopped the flow of information out of the mountain, and the Oilien, proving to Jack that again a wild idea was sometimes one of best ideas.

Jack had invited Daniel and Alex over for dinner and the game. It had been a fun and relaxing time, time to wind down which was something that the three men had desperately needed.

Jack finished the dishes and went to say something to Alex, who was sound asleep on the couch. Daniel looked up from the program he was watching. "He's crashed."

"I see that," Jack smiled at the man fondly, taking the afghan off the back of the couch to cover the sleeping man.

"His arm's gonna hurt sleeping on it that way," Daniel pointed out.

Surveying the problem, Jack shrugged. "Waking him up to take it off to go back to sleep seems counterproductive."

Daniel stood and stretched, then picked up the clicker and turned off the t.v., unaware of the look of longing on Jack's face. "Well, I'm going to bed."

"Okay Danny, see you mañana," Jack said softly. He watched as Daniel went to the guestroom and closed the door, then he sat in his recliner. He wasn't very sleepy, and he liked watching Alex sleep. It had been too long, too long since he'd been with Alex, since he'd been with someone he'd cared about. He wished he could be with Daniel, but fear kept him from saying anything. Fear of losing Daniel again, permanently.

Alex rolled and groaned. "Damn." He'd slept with his arm on again.

"Here, let me help," came Jack's gentle voice.

He felt himself being helped to sit up and warm fingers unstrapping his arm. "Mm, better," Jack's fingers digging into the knots in his shoulders made him purr. "Give you a month to stop that."

Jack chuckled and pressed a soft kiss to Alex's neck. "Come to bed with me."

They had both kept back from each other, sexually that is. They wanted a chance to get to know each other again, to be friends first before lovers. It had been tough but they both agreed that it was worth it.

Alex looked over his shoulder and smiled. "Fuck me here."

This challenge made Jack moan, his cock quickly hardened and he pressed himself against Alex. "Don't have to tell me twice," he pulled the younger man to his feet and began to slowly undress him, first slipping off Alex's t-shirt and pressing kisses to the broad shoulders, then letting his fingers trail down to the waistband of his khaki shorts. He could feel Alex's cock jump as he brushed it with the back of his hand. "Patience," he purred.

"Fuck patience," Alex rasped, his eyes slowly sliding shut at the sensations that Jack was creating. His own hand slipped under Jack's t-shirt and slowly rubbed Jack's nipples, making him moan. Jack's mouth captured his mouth in a heated kiss, then he stepped back and quickly stripped. "Jesus," he'd forgotten how incredibly hot Jack was.

"Nope, just Jack," he kissed Alex again, his tongue sliding over the younger man's, their moans swallowed by each other. Jack's skin felt hot and tight, his arousal making his head swim and his cock leak. He got on his knees and jerked Alex's shorts and underwear off in one rough move, then nuzzled the rosy cock with his face, sliding his tongue up to lick the clear fluid off of the tip.

"That's so good," Alex's head was tilted back and his eyes shut, trembling with need. "Please, Jack," he whimpered.

Jack swirled his tongue around the head, then glanced up. "What do you want Alexei? Want me to suck you off or fuck you?"

"Decision, decisions," Alex looked down through his long eyelashes, eyes glowing jade green. "Fuck me Jack, and make me feel it."

Jack licked his way up Alex's stomach, loving the purring moans and sighs he received. He got to his feet and then turned him. "Put your hand on the couch, 'Lexei."

Alex braced himself and spread his legs, moaning when he felt Jack's tongue slide over his hole, making starbursts of pleasure shoot through him. "Ohyeah," he slurred. After a moment he felt slick fingers slide into him, making him arch and hiss. Pleasure and pain was all mixed up, making him harder than ever.

Daniel rolled over and sighed, his bladder was really complaining, but he was so warm and comfortable. Damn it, he shouldn't have had that last beer. He got up and grabbed his glasses, sliding them on with a yawn. He opened his door and when he stepped into the hallway he heard a moan. At first he thought it was Jack having a nightmare and he turned towards Jack's room, when he realized the noise was behind him. He turned around, and froze in his tracks.

From his place in the hallway, it was as if the scene from one of the erotic friezes in Pompeii had come to life. Alex's muscular body was glowing from sweat and arousal, his good arm was braced on the couch with Jack behind him all backlit by the dying fire and a table lamp.

And Jack. God, Jack was amazing. He was lean and scarred, but regal, like some alpha lion of the savannah. As Daniel breathlessly watched, Jack cupped Alex's ass and slowly slid his rampant cock inside of the impatiently moaning man.

It was shocking and devastatingly beautiful. The looks on their faces were ones of pure pleasure, especially as Jack began to move. At first it was playful, Jack nipped Alex's shoulder and the younger man laughed quietly, turning his head for a tender kiss. Then Alex grunted and began to move back, arching into each of Jack's thrusts, both men starting to pant. "God Jack, faster. Give it to me."

The low sensual laugh from Jack startled Daniel, and abruptly he realized that he should be probably let them have their privacy. He slipped back into his bedroom, silently shutting the door. Sitting down shakily, his own body surprised him with its surging arousal. It didn't mean anything, he thought desperately. It was what happened when any guy watched porn...

A loud moan from the living room made his head whip up and his hand slid into his boxers, gripping his own erection. Daniel closed his eyes and saw the two beautiful men making love, their hips moving together and groans like music when his climax burst from him, and he felt the silky hot liquid cover his hand, the pleasure surprising in its intensity. "Ohgod, ohfuck," he whimpered, stroking himself slowly until it became uncomfortable.

"Well shit."

For a goddamned genius he sure had been clueless. What a way to discover that he loved Jack. Needed him in his life like he needed air to breathe. No wonder he had been so unhappy with Alex around. He liked the man now, but still...

Daniel was tempted to smack himself in the forehead and say d'oh! "Geez, sublimate much?" he asked himself acerbically.

And on top of everything else, he still had to pee. Daniel got up and listened at the door for a moment then peeked out, but the men were gone and the lights were out. He scuttled across to the bathroom, took care of business and went back to bed. Sleep was obviously out of the question, he had way too much on his mind.

Jack had gone for an early morning run and Alex was standing at the kitchen window drinking coffee when he heard Daniel stumble sleepily in. "Hey, Daniel."

"Mmph. Coffee."

Alex chuckled quietly and poured Daniel a large mug of coffee, handing it over to the sleepy man. While Daniel was distracted Alex took his time looking the other man over. He was handsome of course, and muscular but at that moment, with his hair was sticking up, his eyes closed against the early morning sunshine, he just looked plain adorable. God, how Jack could resist this man was beyond him.

Daniel was aware of the other man's inspection, and he opened one eye to glare. "What?"

"Nothing," Alex smiled. Cute and cranky to boot.

There was silence in the room, then Daniel said, "I saw you and Jack last night."

Last night? ~Chyort voz' mi~. "Uh, whoops?"

"You could say that," Daniel replied quietly. He sipped more of his coffee. "So, how long have you two been together?"

Alex shrugged, better to be honest. "Since last night. We agreed to wait, wanted to become friends before we became lovers."

Daniel nodded, absurdly, that made sense to him. "You know that this could end Jack's career."

"Are you going to tell?"

"No, Christ no! Jack's my best friend, and if you make him happy..."

The door opened and Jack jogged into the house, panting lightly. He saw their serious faces and was about to ask what in the hell was wrong, when he suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.

"What the fuck?" Alex exclaimed.

Daniel sighed. "It's the Asgard," he moved to the phone and dialed the mountain.

~*~

The sound of ringing woke Mulder and he rolled over and grabbed his phone. "Mulder."

"Agent Mulder. How are the X-files treating you?" came a muffled voice.

"Give me a break, I haven't had the X-Files for years."

There was a startled silence, then the voice said, "Very well, you may not be interested then."

Always curious, Mulder shrugged. "Try me."

"Come to the warehouse on Palmer and Trion in Colorado Springs. See proof that we are not alone," the voice said.

Fox laughed. "I have seen proof. Listen, take a hike, I'm going back to sleep."

There was a long silence. "What if I told you that you'd find what you are looking for?"

"Now that's a good one. I don't even know what I'm looking for." Wandering, without aim or purpose. Did they consider that depression?

"If you don't want them to die, come to the warehouse by noon," the now irritated voice snapped, and the phone went dead.

Mulder regarded his phone with surprise. "Touchy." However, he did all of the FBI things like trying to find out where the call originated, who the caller was etc. but with no success. Deciding to get dressed and go to Colorado Springs, he tried to figure out what to tell his boss. He'd call it stupid curiosity.

~*~*~

Jack scowled at the unfamiliar Asgard that looked up at him with those puppy dog eyes. "You've lost Thor? How in the hell could you lose him? Can't this ship find him ~anywhere~?"

The Asgard blinked. "Well, normally yes," it said in its high voice. "However, we believe that Commander Thor and Freyr are being shielded from us."

"Of course they are. So, where?"

"On Earth." The little gray alien moved to a console. "We've narrowed the location to this section of your city. However, it remains a problem to pinpoint their location."

Jack's eyes narrowed as he took in the map. "That's the old warehouse section. Can you tell me why Thor and Freyr decided to take this little jaunt?" His voice was acid. The 'without telling me' was loudly implied.

"We received a distress beacon from what we believe is a Furling device. Commander Thor thought it would be wise for us to, as you Taur'i say, 'check it out'. The little alien sounded so pleased to be using an Earth idiom that Jack let his frustration stay firmly banked. Wouldn't do to bust the little guys chops for something he had no control over.

"Fine. Send me back to my house, Dr. Jackson, Alex and I will check it out. Can you get us some zats?"

"Of course, O'Neill," and Jack was suddenly back in his living room.

"Jack!" Alex and Daniel chorused.

"Hey, kids. We have a problem," Jack took off his sweat soaked t-shirt as he walked down the hallway, "We have to mount a rescue mission," his voice was muffled by the half open bathroom door.

Alex looked at Daniel who shrugged. He went to the bathroom door. "Who are you supposed to rescue?"

"Not just me," Jack said as he finished washing his hair. "You and Daniel are coming with me. And we're not even gonna leave town."

Daniel jumped as three zats were deposited on the dining room table. "We've got zats."

Jack grunted, clambering out of the shower and drying himself off. "Danny, get a map of the 'Springs' and find the Palmer warehouses," he called as he moved to his bedroom to get dressed.

"Can I ask why?" Daniel called as he went to a cabinet and pulled out a folded map of Colorado Springs and unfolded it on the bar.

Jack came out and looked at Daniel. "Catch a quick shower, Dannyboy. We're gonna rescue Thor."

"Ooookay," Daniel said and went to take a shower. He stopped and turned. "Why is Thor here?"

"I guess the Furlings left some kind of distress beacon here and it was activated. So Thor decided to come here in person, so to speak, and rescue who ever it is." Jack waved his hands. "Now shoo."

Alex listened to all of this and shook his head. He was only a little confused.

**~

Mulder had his weapon out and he was skulking through abandoned warehouses. 'This is so stupid.' And he had to smile because Dana would say, "It's just like you, Mulder", and she'd be right. The sound of scratching made him head right, and the itchy scratchy feel of some kind of electronic system led him further down the very dark corridor.

From the opposite direction Jack and Daniel were slinking through dark shadows, Alex on their six as they came closer to a buzzy feeling that was almost audible. Jack was about to touch the doorknob when Alex stopped him with a touch. 'Let me,' he mouthed, holding up his artificial arm.

Jack frowned but Daniel nodded. It made more sense. So Jack stepped back and Alex moved up, gingerly touching the knob. When nothing obvious happened, he silently turned the knob and the door swung open on silent hinges, revealing yet another dark room.

Mulder knelt down beside what looked a puddle of goo, touching his fingers in it gingerly, then holding it up to his nose. He winced. Yuck, whatever it was it was nasty and he wiped his fingers on his pants. He got back to his feet and maneuvered down the gray passageway, another noise catching his attention. He saw that the corridor dead-ended in yet another room, took a deep breath and entered the room, stopping in absolute surprise.

Thor looked up and blinked at the surprised man in the doorway. "Greetings. Who are you?"

*~*

Daniel motioned Alex to move forward, then Jack after him. The three men flattened themselves on each side of the doorway, with Jack stepping in first. "There you are," he said then Daniel went in, followed by Alex.

Alex froze, his eyes not even seeing the two aliens in the room. His eyes were on the bane of his existence, the love of his life. "What are you doing here?" he blurted and immediately wanted to take it back.

Mulder stood slowly, the blood draining from his face as he saw the man he thought was dead. "Krycek?" He shook his head. "You're dead. I saw you die!"

"Hi," Alex croaked, emotions overwhelming him. Fox looked great. His hair was a little longer and there were more lines around his eyes, but the integrity and wild eyed passion were still there.

Torn between wanting to throw his arms around the man he had lost and shaking him until his teeth rattled, suspicions suddenly raised their ugly head. "Are you a clone? One of the super soldiers?" Fox asked harshly.

"Don't be stupid," Alex lifted his artificial arm. "Would I still have this?"

Fox fell silent. That made sense, why clone something and not replace the arm. "Then why stage your death?"

Alex winced, then decided to ignore the question for now. He glanced at the aliens, then at Jack. "Um Jack, Daniel, this is Fox Mulder," he looked at Fox. "Are you working for the FBI again?"

"Yeah, someone called me here because of my previous connection to the X-files," he nodded dazedly at the other men.

Jack pointed to himself. "I'm Jack, that's Daniel and the little guys are Supreme Commander Thor and Freyr. And this is all fine and dandy but we need to get out of here. Pronto," he said as he looked at Thor. "And you two. You're in big trouble. You couldn't have called first?"

Thor blinked. "It wasn't intentional, O'Neill. We were here to affect a rescue."

"So your little navigator said," Jack moved to the door to check and see if anyone was coming, but was stopped by a force field. "Huh, we can come in but we can't get out. Sorta like a roach motel," he grumbled.

"It is a Furling device. One that has not been seen for many years," Freyr piped up.

Mulder frowned. "What is, or who are the Furlings?"

A noise outside the room made Jack hold up his hand and everyone tensed. Then suddenly the doorway was filled with a big blonde man who had a gun in one hand and a shimmering box in the other. "Well, isn't this cozy?"

Alex got between the doorway and Fox. "Oh look, Jack. One of them got away," he snarled, while out of the corner of his eye he saw Jack ease his zat out. "Too bad."

Jack snorted. "Okay, who are you and what do you want?"

The man shrugged. "Revenge, to get off of this fucking planet. That's not in any particular order," he smiled evilly. "Come here, Agent Mulder."

Alex shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. "Not on your fucking life. To get him you have to get through me." He wasn't losing Fox, not again.

The man shrugged. "So be it," and he raised his weapon and fired.

Alex flung his prosthetic arm up in defense, while all around him was chaos. If he slowed everything down in his mind, he saw Daniel fling himself in front of the aliens, Jack zatting the supersoldier, and from behind him, an anguished "No!" as something knocked into him, then everything went black.

~*

Mulder saw the super soldier's finger tighten on the trigger and he realized that he was about to lose Alex all over again, "No!" he shouted and threw himself forward even as he realized that he was too slow. He saw Alex throw his prosthetic arm up and saw the projectile, he didn't think it was a bullet, hit the arm making it explode into a dozen different pieces. He hit Alex's side knocking him down and threw himself over the man, realizing that he could hear more odd weapons noises, then silence.

"Alex! Mulder, are you okay?"

Slowly raising his head up, Fox nodded as he looked around, "Yeah, I'm okay. Alex?" He got off of the unconscious man and began to check him over. "His arm is trashed," he pulled off the part that was still strapped on, then moved up touching the younger man's face. "I think his head bounced off the concrete though," he felt through the silky hair to the back of the downed man's head and winced as he felt a goose egg. "Oh yeah, big bump back here."

Daniel had gone to the doorway and waved his arm through it. "We can get out of here now," he made to pick up the Furling object but Freyr got there first. "I will take it, Dr. Jackson."

Daniel exchanged a resigned look with Jack and nodded. "Okay."

Thor walked over to Jack and looked up at him. "I will take the offender into custody and transport us to the Biliskner so that..." he looked over at the unconscious man, then in silent question at Jack.

"His name is Alex Krycek. He works with me," Jack said helpfully.

The Asgard's eyes widened in recognition. "We will ascertain if Alex Krycek has any more injuries."

Jack wondered what that was all about, but looked at Mulder. "Don't freak," he warned and suddenly they were in a new room, all gleaming metal, colored shapes and technologically advanced.

'I'm not freaking, I'm not freaking,' Fox chanted silently to himself as a couple of the small aliens began to check Alex over.

Daniel walked over and gave him a sympathetic smile. "How are you?"

"Good," Fox said, lying through his teeth. "So what happens next?"

"Well, they'll make sure Alex is okay, then Thor will send us back," Daniel answered, watching with a frown as Jack walked up to Alex and touched him on the cheek before answering a question from one of the Asgard. Jack nodded and had headed back towards them when some kind of barrier rose up and covered whatever the aliens were going to do to Alex.

"So," Fox began lamely, stuffing his hand into his pockets.

Jack grinned. "I'll bet you didn't expect to spend your Saturday doing something like this!"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Jack, leave him alone."

"What?" Jack pouted. He grinned at his friend and meandered over to where Thor was waiting. "How do you know Alex?" he asked quietly.

Thor tilted his head up to regard Jack. "His name has been noted in the fight for Earth. I understand that you had an Oilien infiltrate Stargate Command?"

"No!" Jack said indignantly. "It ~almost~ did, but we were lucky to have Alex who spotted him before any damage was done."

An expression, which on an Asgard amounted to a smile, crossed Thor's face. "You did well, O'Neill. I believe he makes you happy," he said.

Dumbfounded, Jack was about to ask how Thor knew when the barrier slipped away, leaving Alex lying on the table. "Wow, that was quick," he commented instead.

"His physiology made it easy to correct his infirmities," Thor replied blandly.

A moan made Fox move quickly to Alex's side, his emotions in a welter of confusion while his mind was full of questions.

Alex felt like he was crawling bellyfirst through the blackest tunnel. Then he realized his eyes were closed, and with the utmost effort he willed them open. "Ugh," he croaked. His throat was desert dry.

"Hey Alex, back with us?" came Jack's voice.

"I guess. Head hurts. Thirsty."

Jack moved to get some water when suddenly Alex heard Mulder say, "I'll get it."

Alex watched with hungry eyes as Fox accepted the water from one of the Asgard before he brought it over, drinking it all with relish. "Thanks," he rubbed his face roughly, trying to get his bearings. "What happened?" he looked around and found that he was on a flat surface in a really stark, gray metallic room. "And where am I?"

Jack smirked. "We're on Thor's ship, we zatted your friend and he dropped the Furling box thingy which lowered the forcefield. You're okay, took a knock on your hard head, but your arm was destroyed." He was waiting for the truth to dawn on his lover.

Alex abruptly sat up. "~Govno!~, I just got that damn thing comfortable," he said, pissed. "God, I wish I could kick his ass," then he stared, as his new reality occurred to him. His arm. He'd rubbed his face, with two hands. "My arm. Ohmigod, ohmigod," he whispered.

"You're worried about your fucking arm?" Mulder asked, beyond upset. "I thought you were dead, you bastard!" His hazel eyes were bright with pain, and something else that Alex couldn't read.

Thor titled his head curiously as he heard this emotional outburst. "How are you, Alex Krycek?" he asked mildly. Mulder subsided and walked away to get a hold of himself.

Alex looked around at Thor. "I'm fine. Thanks for my arm." It was hard to put the emotion, the relief, the fucking grateful surprise into words, and he hoped Thor knew what he meant. Jack's warm hand on his shoulder let him know his lover understood.

"It was not difficult. The Asgard appreciates all of your assistance," Thor said ambiguously but with a polite head nod.

Fox came back to stand beside Thor, his concern plain on his face. "I'm sorry I yelled. I'm glad you're okay," he said softly.

"Thanks. You don't seem surprised about them," Alex pointed out to Mulder. He waved his hand towards Thor and the other milling Asgard. It was funny, the little gray guys were as extremely curious about them as Fox and himself had been once upon a time.

Fox turned and quirked an eyebrow. "I've been trapped with, beaten by, talked to and threatened by a number of aliens, Krycek. I think I've lost the element of surprise a long time ago."

Not letting himself get lost in those amazing hazel eyes, Alex looked at his hand with a small smile. "A point." Two real hands. He felt like Pinocchio or something. It was amazing.

Jack leaned against the bench, raising one hand to brush Alex's hair from his forehead, a gentle gesture that spoke volumes. "So, are you ready to blow this popsicle stand?" He let his hand drift to Alex's new hand, giving it a squeeze.

Alex twined his new fingers with Jack's, marveling at the sensations. "I think so," he looked up at Jack, his eyes vulnerable.

Mulder didn't like the familiarity he could plainly see between this Jack and Alex, and as he glanced at Daniel, he could see the other man wasn't thrilled about it either.

Jack nodded, then he looked at Thor. "Thanks, Thor. Just set us down by the warehouse where we found you," he ordered.

"As you wish."

"I don't suppose we could keep the Furling doohickey?" Jack asked hopefully. He thought he saw a twinkle in Thor's eyes before they were abruptly deposited by the warehouses. "Damn, I guess that meant 'no'," he complained.

Daniel shook his head. "I guess we're not ready yet."

Jack exchanged a grin with his friend at the old refrain, then looked over at Mulder who was staring at Alex. "So, you know that this was all classified and shit, right?"

Mulder looked over at Jack. "I'm in the FBI. I know when to keep a secret," now he looked back at Alex, "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

Alex threw a desperate look towards Jack, who shook his head. "He deserves an explanation, Alexei," Jack dropped an arm around Daniel's shoulders. "Danny, let's take a walk. I think there's a Starbucks a couple of blocks north. Just meet us there, Alex."

When Jack tossed Alex the keys, he caught them automatically with his new hand. And blinked. As he watched them walk away, his whole body was thrumming with the awareness of Mulder so close to him. On one hand he wanted to rejoice and on the other he wanted to scream at the injustice of it all. "So, how's Scully?" he hoped his tone was nonchalant.

Mulder had tucked his hands in his pockets, jingling his change. "Um, last time I talked with her she was fine. She's in D.C. now."

"What?" Alex was incredulous. "You're not married? What about William?"

A look of pain crossed Mulder's face. "Scully gave him up for adoption to keep him safe," he closed his eyes as he remembered when Dana had told him. "Then when everything was over..." he shrugged. "He's almost three, and Dana and I decided that he should stay with the only family he's ever known."

"God," Alex said, he couldn't imagine making such a huge sacrifice. Then he abruptly realized that he already had. He'd given up Mulder. "That must have been the hardest thing in the world."

"It was the most loving thing that we could think of doing. He's happy and healthy, they're very good to him," Fox pulled a hand out of his pocket to wipe his face and was surprised to feel tears on his cheeks.

Unable to stop himself, Alex wrapped his former partner in a hug. "I'm so damn sorry."

Mulder shuddered with emotion as the younger man held him tightly with both arms. "Why Alex? Why did you do it?"

Alex sighed, his lips by Mulder's ear. "Because of William. I stayed behind the scenes to clean up the mess that the Consortium left behind. If I could get rid of everyone and everything, then he'd be safe. I didn't expect...I didn't mean for you...." his voice was heavy with guilt.

Mulder pulled back. "No, it wasn't your fault. It just was," he gazed into the face that had haunted his dreams for so damn long. "What are you doing now? Do you live close by?"

Unable to understand why Fox would ask, Alex only nodded. "I work at NORAD."

"Really?"

Alex sighed at the surprise on his old partner's face. "Yes, really! I can do respectable," he scolded his former nemesis as he carefully stepped back and patted his pockets, stopping to stare at his new arm for a moment before continuing to look in vain for a pen.

"What are you looking for?" Mulder asked, then held out a pen, making Alex smile.

"Thanks, you have your notebook too?" he asked, remembering the omnipresent notebook that Mulder always seemed to have.

Mulder silently handed it over, and Alex wrote his phone numbers, home, cell and work. "Call me anytime," he gave the pen back. "I need to go," he held Mulder's eyes as he stepped back, then he turned, "See you around, Fox," and he walked away.

Unable to say anything, not ~knowing~ what to say, Mulder let him.

Daniel sat down where Jack had insisted, and watched as his friend went to get him his favorite coffee. He was filled with ambivalent feelings as he watched Jack chat up the barista, all the while keeping an eye on the door for Alex. He wished he knew how to broach the subject of what he'd seen last night, and his own feelings about it. That, and he didn't want to take away from Alex's happiness about his new arm.

"Danny?"

Daniel looked up into Jack's concerned eyes and his heart gave a roll in his chest that made his hand shake as he took the coffee. "What?" was that ~his~ voice that had squeaked?

"Are you okay?" Jack asked as he sat down across from him.

Taking a sip, Daniel composed himself. "I saw you and Alex," he blurted and mentally cursed himself as a clumsy idiot.

"Saw?" Jack asked, confusion on his face.

"You. And. Alex."

The blank look on Jack's face made Daniel chuckle and roll his eyes. "Last night?"

Last night. Then Jack realized what Daniel meant, and blushed as red as a rose. "Shit. Damn, god Daniel," he said flustered. "I'm ~so~ sorry."

Daniel waved a hand. "You don't need to apologize to me. You're both adults," he took another desperately needed sip of his coffee. "I just don't know why you didn't think that you could tell me."

Jack sighed. "You know it's a big no no. Don't ask and don't tell, and all that entails. Plus I didn't want to put you in a position where you would have to lie for me." ~And the fact that you're straight and I love you has a big part in it~, Jack thought to himself.

This made Daniel roll his eyes. "I'd lie for you in a heartbeat, Jack."

Jack smiled. "Me too, Dannyboy."

The bells on the door clanked as it opened and Alex walked in, a troubled look on his face. Jack got up immediately and went to him. "You okay, Alex?"

Alex smiled at the concern on Jack's face. "Yeah, I'm okay," he held up his hand, staring at it before he glanced up at the board and ordered, "Get me one of those strawberry frozen things, would ya?"

"Youbetcha."

Daniel watched the two of them and then watched as Alex looked lost for a moment when Jack went up to the counter. The other man had been severely shaken, confronted by an old enemy, an old friend and having his arm and hand given back, it was no wonder he looked overwhelmed. Daniel couldn't be mad at this man even as much as he felt unexpectedly betrayed. Jack was happy.

"Alex," he motioned him over.

Alex looked at Daniel, asking with his eyes if he was sure. Daniel grabbed an empty chair and pulled it over.

Sitting down with a sigh, Alex nervously tapped his fingers on the table. Daniel took a sip of his coffee, then asked, "So, how's the arm?"

Twisting it one way, then another, Alex sighed. "I'm not sure if I quite believe it, yet."

Daniel sat his coffee down. "I guess you and Agent Mulder have a history?"

Alex barked a bitter laugh. "You could say that."

Ooo-kay. This was obviously a hot button. "He seemed to care for you," Daniel pointed out.

Jack suddenly appeared and set the strawberry drink in front of Alex, then straddled the chair opposite of Daniel. "So, Fox looked good."

"Yeah," Alex took a sip of his drink. "But get this--" the sudden anguish in his voice made Jack and Daniel sit up in alarm. "I did everything I did and it wasn't enough. He didn't marry Scully, they didn't get their baby back. It was all for nothing!"

"But the baby's alive? Safe?" Jack asked quietly. He reached out gentle fingers to touch the clenched fist on the table.

"Yeah. He's three now," Alex replied.

Jack gave the new hand a comforting squeeze. "Then it was worth it. What his parents decided, or didn't decide to do, not your problem. That the baby is safe, and happy? That's what it's all about."

Daniel listened with awe. Jack played the buffoon often, but when he decided to listen, to really be a friend? He was the best. He watched as Alex looked up, his green eyes dark, searching Jack's. Then Daniel could see the peace settle over his face.

"Thanks, Jack."

"Not a problem. I'm the General. I see all, know all."

Daniel and Alex groaned in unison.

~*
Fox lay on his bed, his mind filled with Alex's face. He couldn't believe it, Alex was alive. And whole.

Whole and alive.

He fingered the paper he'd pulled out of the notebook, already having memorized the phone numbers on it. Rolling to his side, he propped his head up on one hand, his fingers smoothing the paper out. "What do I want?" he asked out loud.

Alex. Well, his heart knew what it wanted, but could his brain get around the betrayal? The loss of his father? Of Scully's sister?

Alex had changed. There was something about him, something calmer, more focused. And he could tell the men Alex was with trusted him, felt affection for him. The man he'd known had changed for the better.

He rolled over and grabbed his phone, dialing before he could change his mind.

"This is Alex, you know the drill."

Mulder smiled at the terse message. "Hey Alex, um, so," he trailed off. "How does pizza sound one night? We can meet half-way somewhere, or I can come there. Or whatever," he knew he sounded lame and sighed, rubbing his neck. "I'd like to talk. My number is 455-1212."

*~*

Daniel sat in the dark of his living room, drinking coffee heavily laced with brandy. "What am I going to do now?" he whispered to no one.

Epiphanies were a bitch to live with.

*~*

Jack could sense Alex's mood as they sat together on the couch. He sat beside his friend, playing with the fingers of Alex's new hand. After awhile, he turned to face his lover.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"When does it stop hurting?"

Jack grunted. "No idea," he gave Alex a look. "Daniel knows about us."

Alex snorted. "He said." He threw his head back and laughed loudly, remembering the expression on Daniel's face when he's mentioned it. "Can you imagine what would've happened if we'd seen him watching?"

Smiling admiringly, Jack could only shake his head as he followed the obvious thought. "You're a kinky son of a bitch."

Alex leaned forward and kissed Jack hungrily. "Let's see how kinky we can be, hmmm?"

Cock at the ready, Jack stood and pulled Alex with him. "I'll bet I'm kinkier," he teased, making the younger man laugh. This was all Jack had wanted, for Alex to relax and forget for a little while. The rest was just gravy.

~**

Sam looked up as Daniel stood in her doorway. "Hey, Daniel. What's up?"

It was early morning and Daniel had already had his coffee fix, so he ignored the pot in the lab and sat down. "Have you seen Jack today?"

She shook her head. "I got in about an hour ago, I haven't seen anyone except the other scientists."

Daniel nodded and told her about the weekend and the Asgard. Sam frowned, feeling betrayed somewhat. "Why didn't you guys call me? Or Teal'c?"

"It would've taken too long, and we handled it. Though it was a little dicey." He grinned suddenly. "You should see Alex when he notices his new arm, he just stares at it like he can't believe it's there."

Sam snorted. "I can imagine. Wow, and the FBI agent is secure, he won't blab to the press or whatever?"

Daniel shook his head decisively. "No, he and Alex have a history with several other species of aliens we've never encountered, which is something that Jack should probably tell you about. I don't know that much about it."

"Right, like I can get him to tell me anything," she sighed, a bit wistfully.

Daniel scuffed a foot on the concrete, then looked up at her. "Can I ask you for some advice?"

"What kind of advice?"

He glanced around to make sure no one was about. "Romantic."

Sam was thrilled. Daniel rarely asked her about any of the women in the SGC. "Sure, who do you like?"

Daniel pursed his lips. "I'm not going to name names for right now. I just need some advice."

Disappointed but not surprised, Sam waved a hand. "Go ahead."

He got to his feet and paced. "I've fallen for someone, someone I've known for a lot of years." He wanted to tell her, but wasn't sure how she'd react.

"That's good. Right?"

"You'd think. Except this person is involved with someone else."

Sam's eyebrows rose. Was it her? "Are they happy?"

"Yeah, they seem to be. What I want to know is should I give up, or should I fight for them?" he asked.

"Um," Sam watched her friend pace, "do you think she likes you?"

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Does it have to be a 'she'?"

Shock and disbelief shot through her. "It's a guy?"

He shook his head impatiently. "I didn't say, I asked if it ~had~ to be a she. The point is should I fight for them?"

Rattled, more so than she let on, Sam nodded. "Yes. If you love them, then fight for them."

Daniel sucked in a long breath. "Yeah, that's what I think. Thanks, Sam." And he disappeared out of the lab.

Left on her own, Sam examined her choices and found that maybe she should follow her own advice. She loved Pete, but not like she loved the General. Jack. Energized, she dove back into her project, mentally making plans for her new life, and reminding herself to thank Daniel later.

**

Jack was going through his inbox when his door opened, he finished signing a requisition with a flourish and looked up, grinning at his visitor. "George!"

Hammond smiled fondly at his former second in command. "Hello Jack. You look good behind that desk."

The men shook hands and Walter came in with coffee and cookies, smiling as he shut the door behind him. George took a sip of his coffee and smiled in surprise, "This is Dr. Jackson's, isn't it?"

Jack smiled into his mug as he took a drink. "I steal it from him to make him crazy, then replace it. It's fun."

"Only you, Jack," George snorted.

They drank in silence, then when they finished, Jack took a cookie and eyed his old CO curiously. "So, not here for a social visit."

"Actually, I am, but only because I had to come see you anyway," Hammond prevaricated, smirking at Jack's exaggerated eye roll.

Getting serious, Hammond leaned forward slightly. "I understand that you've hired someone new to handle computer security in the SGC."

"Someone's complained about Alex's background," Jack said flatly.

"Well Jack, what do you know about it?" George asked seriously.

Jack smiled. "I know everything, because he's trusted me and told me everything, from his childhood to his assassination of the collaborator, Bill Mulder and everything in between. He's not proud of what he's done, but then neither am I, but he was serving a bigger purpose. Besides, Thor likes him."

"And how did Thor meet him? I didn't know the Asgard were here recently."

Jack winced. "Shit."

"You mean, you weren't going to submit a report?" Oh, this was Jack all over.

"It wasn't a big deal. A super soldier lured Thor and Freyr here, for revenge and to get off of Earth. We took care of it, rescued Thor and Freyr and in return they helped Alex. Nothing to report, really," Jack replied breezily, knowing that Hammond wasn't buying it for a second.

George could tell that there was something that Jack was holding back, but he knew that the man would never endanger Earth, so he sighed. "You trust Krycek?"

"With my life and everyone's in this mountain, sir."

George nodded and got to his feet. "Good enough for me," he said. He trusted Jack's instincts without reservation. "Introduce me to this paragon then I've got to get going. I've meetings back to in DC."

Alex was busy. He now had four computers in his office, keeping track of various programs and spyware that he'd either bought or had made for this very purpose. He was satisfied that he was doing a good job, he'd stopped the hemorrhage of top secret information out of the SGC. He hoped whomever was still lurking about was enjoying the porn he'd sent them.

With the other part of his mind he was mulling over Fox's invitation for dinner. Wondering if he wanted to torture himself, and knowing he couldn't say no, but he needed to discuss it with Jack first. A knock in his doorway made him look up and smile warmly.

"Hey, Jack! Speak of the devil. What can I do for you?"

Jack waved Hammond in and Alex stood. He knew who this man was, even though they'd never met. "General Hammond, it's an honor," he said sincerely.

"George, this is Alexei Krycek, former FBI agent, KGB agent, and now working for the good guys. Alex, meet General George Hammond, the best boss in the universe."

Alex chuckled at the discomfited look that the General gave Jack, but Jack only smiled. "Please, call me Alex," he said instead.

The two men shook hands and measured each other silently. Hammond saw a man about Dr. Jackson's age, wary green eyes, in excellent shape with a cheerful attitude, which was at odds with what he knew about the man. But then Jack wasn't a slouch as a CO either. "I've heard a lot about you, Alex."

Alex snorted. "Oh, I'll bet. And none of it good."

"Let's just say that your arrival back from the dead raised some consternation in D.C."

This made Alex grin evilly. "Good. Maybe they'll sleep poorly, never knowing when it all could come crashing down around their ears."

Jack chuckled and Hammond shook his head, "Just give me a heads up before the shit hits the fan, will you?"

"It's okay, sir. I won't do anything to put the SGC in danger," Alex replied seriously.

"That's all I can ask. Nice meeting you, son."

Jack flashed a bright smile and a thumbs up as he escorted Hammond out. Alex sighed and sat down, wishing he could sensor his mouth sometimes. Jack had gone out on a limb to hire him, and making the former General nervous was no way to pay him back.

**

That evening Sam pulled up to the General's home, her palms sweaty with nerves. She'd just had to let Pete down gently, knowing that he loved her more than she loved him, and her stomach was already tied in knots. She got out and marched up to the General's door, stared at it, trying to decide whether she should knock, or ring the doorbell. Closing her eyes, she rang the doorbell.

Alex laughed as Jack snapped him with the wet towel. "Cut it out, the pizza's here."

Jack walked nude into his room, making Alex's mouth water. He stared after his lover for a minute, then grinned at Jack's shameless behavior and answered the door, and froze in surprise. "Sam."

Sam stared at Alex, taking in the shorts, and ~only~ shorts that he was wearing, his muscular chest, and the obvious lovebite on his shoulder. "Oh," she said, non-plussed. "I thought that the General would be alone."

"Where's the pizza, 'Lexie because I'm gonna eat..." and Jack's voice trailed off as he caught sight of Sam. "Carter? What are you doing here? Is there an emergency?"

Unsure of her welcome, Sam stayed on the front stoop. "No, sir. Um, I was, well, there's," she stopped, frustrated with herself and stared at her feet. "I'll come back another time, sir." Ugly suspicions started to form in her mind.

"Carter?" Jack asked gently. He could see her magnificent brain starting to figure out the evidence of what she saw in front of her.

"I think I've made a mistake, sir," she replied, her face pale as she took him in, wearing only sweatpants and a towel around his neck, his silver chest hair cradling his dogtags. The men were acting easy, like they were lovers...and suddenly the truth dawned on her. Daniel had been asking her advice about the General, and the General was having an affair with Alex, and she was probably the stupidest person on the face of the planet Earth. "Ohmygod," she whispered.

"Shit," Jack said with feeling. "Just come in, Carter."

Sam walked in like a zombie, her eyes following Alex as he grabbed a shirt and slipped it on. She sat down, heart crushed as she watched the way the two men were around each other, and wondered why no one had caught onto this before.

Jack walked into his bedroom and pulled on a shirt, staring out of the window for a long moment until Alex came to the doorway. "Jack? Are you alright?"

Jack turned his head slightly to smile at his lover. "Define alright?"

Alex smiled wryly. "C'mon, Sam has questions."

The two men sat on the couch across from the chair Sam was stiffly perched on. Jack sighed at the frozen expression on her face. "Can I ask you why you came over?"

Sam opened her mouth, then swallowed bile as the enormity of what she'd done that evening hit her. "I broke up with Pete."

"Why?" Jack asked incredulously, "I thought you were happy with him?"

Miserable blue eyes met his. "I gave some advice today. I told someone that they should go for what they wanted if they loved the person, and felt like a hypocrite since I hadn't done the same." She didn't name Daniel because she couldn't bring herself to utter his name, not with what she understood now.

"Ah shit. Carter? I thought we'd worked all of this out when Jacob died?" Jack said with exasperation, "I thought you moved on, forcryinoutloud!"

Paler, Sam laughed bitterly. "So did I."

Alex stood resolutely. "I should go. You two obviously need to talk."

Jack pulled him back down. "Oh no, if I have to stay then you have to."

"Thanks for making it such a chore, sir," Sam snapped.

"Carter," Jack said helplessly. "What? What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to love me!" Sam shouted back, on her feet, all of her emotions writ large on her face and in her posture. No fight or flight, but fight all of the way.

Jack slowly stood, feeling every one of his 48 years. "Carter. Sam. I ~do~ love you. Like a sister, actually I like you even ~better~ than my sister. I just can't love you more than that."

The two powerful, brilliant people who'd literally lived and died for each other, stood and stared. It was heartbreaking to Alex, because he could see the relationship that had been built on such a solid foundation begin to shatter.

"Carter, I'll see you at the mountain. I want you to decide what you want to do. Press charges or let me retire."

Sam stared at him, cheeks flushed red with anger and humiliation, then she spun around and ran out of the door.

"Fuck me," Jack said, rubbing his face roughly.

Alex's lips twisted. "Well, nice offer but I think I need a drink."

Jack snorted and went to the liquor cabinet, pouring them a hefty amount of Jack Daniel's. They knocked them back then sat beside each other. The sound of the doorbell startled them, and Alex laughed and went to get the pizza while Jack sat on the couch.

They ate pizza quietly, then cleaned up. Jack lay in Alex's arms, neither man able to sleep the entire night.

**

Dana was working on an experiment, music playing quietly in the background when she heard someone clear their throat. She glanced up, then blinked, "Sir, what a surprise!"

Skinner smiled at the ever more lovely redhead. "Hello Scully, how are you?"

"I'm fine," she gestured around the large FBI lab that she was in charge of. "Busy, but doing really good. And you?" No aliens, no one trying to kill her, just her and science that made sense. Life was good.

"Oh, good. I've retired, done some fishing, a lot of relaxing. Now I'm doing a little consulting on the side," he said.

"Good," Dana said, eyeing him curiously. He had to have a reason for suddenly just dropping in.

He wandered around, peering into different sections of the lab before turning to look at her. "I was surprised to hear that you came back to D.C. without Mulder."

Dana suppressed the wistful feeling his words invoked. "It was time. We left William with his new family and we didn't have that connection between us anymore," she shrugged. "It was hard, I won't lie to you, but I thought it was for the best."

"Ah," he said, looking serious. He watched her check something else, then said, "I don't know if you'd heard the rumors, but Alex Krycek is alive."

Dana turned to stare at him. "I thought...but I heard, I was sure that Mulder said that ~you~ shot him?"

"I did. It was Krycek's idea to play dead, he convinced me that he could better protect you, William and Mulder if he dropped off the radar," he shrugged. "It worked. But now he's back, and I thought you'd like the heads up."

Thoughts in a whirl, Dana sat down heavily in one of the chairs. "Mulder dreamed about Krycek, constantly, well, more like nightmares really. I didn't know how to help him."

Skinner nodded. "Honestly, I always thought that there was something... more, between them. Their fights... but I guess I was mistaken. At least on Mulder's side of things."

Dana shook her head slowly. "No, I don't think you were. But I don't think he ever did anything about it, there was too much history between the two of them," she looked up at him. "Where is Krycek now?"

"Colorado Springs." He caught the surprise on Dana's face. "I know, Mulder is in Denver. Which is another reason why I came by, you probably need to call Mulder and give him a heads up."

"I will. Huh. What is Krycek doing?" She wouldn't have put it past him to have been in prison, or living like a millionaire.

"He's working for a top secret project for the government, if you can believe it," Skinner said wryly.

**

Daniel walked blindly into the elevator the next morning, coffee in one hand and bobbling a pile of folders in another and reading something on the top. He was about to drop everything when a hand reached out and grabbed them, "Thanks!" Daniel beamed to his rescuer.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Even with ~both~ arms I don't carry this much!"

Daniel snickered. "Yeah, well, usually I can juggle better than this."

Several more people piled on, then Sam stepped on. "Good morning, Daniel," she said, not greeting Alex at all.

"Hey, Sam," Daniel smiled, then he frowned as his friend pointedly ignored Alex. Alex looked pained but didn't speak and the long trip down was tense, affected by the blonde Colonel's icy silence.

Everyone piled off of the elevator as quick as they could. Daniel tucked his files under his chin and snagged Alex's arm. "C'mon, we need to talk."

Alex gently shook his head. "Speak to Jack. I need to get to work."

But Daniel could be as bullheaded as Jack and he dug in his heels. "My office, Alex. Now."

Whoa. Dr. Daniel Jackson, large and in charge. How hot was that? Alex followed Daniel into the archeologist's office, watching in bemusement as Daniel shut the door, started his extra large coffeepot, then sat down to stare at Alex.

"Spill it."

Alex laughed softly. "I'll bet not that many people see this bossy side of you."

"Only people I like, quit changing the subject, Alexei Krycek," Daniel said severely.

"Fine," Alex got up and went to stare at some primitive artifact that looked liked it had been made by a three year old with two fingers on each hand. "Sam came over last night. She wanted to fight for Jack."

"What?" Daniel squeaked. This was bad. Bad, bad, bad.

Alex shot a look over at Daniel. "She'd broken up with Pete so she could be free for Jack. Apparently she'd given someone advice to fight for the person you love, and she decided to take her own advice. Except I was there, and she put two and two together, getting twenty-two."

"Fuck," Daniel said, out of the blue.

"I'm going to leave," Alex said quietly. "Maybe that will satisfy Sam, because I can't let Jack take the fall for this."

Daniel stood and touched Alex's arm. "Let me talk to her, see what she's planning to do."

Alex made a face. "Let me know, alright?"

Daniel nodded and let the other man go. He never ~dreamed~ that this mess would be the result of him asking Sam for advice. He was a fucking moron. Heaving himself to his feet, he headed towards Sam's lab to do some damage control.

*~*

Mulder was in the zone, typing away when his phone rang. Glaring at it peevishly, he wished it would disappear and when it didn't he snatched it up. "Mulder," he snapped.

"Wow, you sound like sunshine today!" came a cheerful voice.

Laughing wryly, Mulder leaned back in his chair. "Dana! How are you?"

"Busy as always. How about you?"

Mulder knew Scully very well, and could sense that his former partner was fishing for something. "I'm fine, Scully. What's up?"

In D.C. Dana made a face. Mulder knew she was checking up on him. "Guess who I had a visit from?" she asked instead. And a date, though she wasn't sure how that was going to go yet.

Mulder leaned back in his seat. "Um, I don't know. Your mom?"

This made Dana laugh. "I see my mom all of the time, guess again!"

The cursor on his computer blinked accusingly at him. "Dana, I'm at work."

She winced. "Sorry, sorry. Walter Skinner dropped by."

Now this was interesting news. Skinner had retired and was working as a contractor for the government, the last Fox heard. "Really. How's he doing?"

"Good," Dana said, thankful that Mulder couldn't see her blush.

There was an odd silence and Mulder sighed. "What's going on, Scully?"

"Krycek's alive," she blurted.

Oh. He understood now. Skinner was supposed to have killed Krycek, and somehow the ex-FBI director found out that he and the former assassin were in the same state and could possibly run into each other. A day late and a dollar short, Walt, Mulder thought a bit resentfully.

"Mulder?"

"I'm here, and, um, I already knew."

"You've seen him?" his former partner sputtered. "And you didn't think you could tell me?"

Running a hand through his hair, and absently noting he needed another haircut, Mulder sighed. "Look, it was a bit of a shock for me, okay?"

That, Dana could understand. "Was it awkward?"

A snort escaped Fox. "You could say that. Listen, everything is fine. I haven't killed him and I need to finish this damn report. Tell Walter I said hi, okay?"

"Okay," Dana said, and then her phone was buzzing because Mulder had hung up.

*~

Alex picked up his phone and dialed the number resolutely. He needed to get away from the mountain, away from the situation and he had the ideal solution.

"Federal Bureau of Investigations. How may I direct your call?"

"I need to speak to Agent Fox Mulder, please. This is Director Krycek of Deep Space Telemetry at NORAD," Alex said. He grinned to himself, it felt like he was undercover and playing a part. A legit title and job was still something he was trying to get used to.

"Just one moment, please," the woman said.

At the same time Daniel knocked on the door jamb of the lab, making Sam look up from her computer.

"Sam?"

"Hello, Daniel," Sam said lifelessly.

The archeologist shut the door behind him and sat down across from his friend and team-mate, eyeing her with sympathy and not a little trepidation. "You can't do this to Jack," he said softly.

"Why not? Because you want him to love you and he's with someone else? That's not good enough, Daniel," Sam snapped.

"We need him," Daniel replied, not letting her see how hurt he was by her cheap shot. "He's the best one to run the program, Sam. Your feelings, or mine not withstanding. If we lose him, will the program survive his successor? Will we?"

Sam glared at the machine she'd been working on, even as Daniel's words finally got through. She hated it when Daniel was right. The General's successor would surely be a Kinsey sycophant, or worse, a puppet of the Trust. And God, she even called him the General in her mind, how messed up was that?

She sighed. "I know. It's just...I didn't expect this."

"Ya think?" Daniel snarked, even though his voice was subdued, the remark made Sam smile.

"Are they in love?" she asked after a minute.

Ah, the question of the millennia, Daniel thought. "I'm not...maybe, yeah." He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "What I ~do~ know is Alex cares enough to leave the mountain to keep Jack safe, so I think so," he said. What was that old saying? No greater love than to giveth your life for a friend...

"Shit," Sam exhaled. "That's what the General said." She closed her eyes and let her head drop. "We can't lose either of them. Alex has done good things for the SGC, and you're right, Daniel. We need the General." Boy, was it going to hurt for a long time. She'd lost Pete, well, technically she'd thrown him away, and she didn't have anything to show for it but heartbreak.

There was a long silence, broken only by the noise of the machinery around them. "We could start a club," Daniel quipped, dipping his head to look at Sam mischievously. "The Jack O'Neill fan club. Get buttons and everything."

Sam snorted. "We could invite Thor," she added.

Daniel gaped at his friend, and they both said, "Ewwwwww!" and collapsed into laughter. It was better to laugh about it when the other choice was to cry.

*Ring*

'I'll never get this bloody report finished,' thought Mulder crankily as he picked up his phone. "Mulder."

"Can I call you Spooky?" came a familiar voice.

Rolling his eyes, Fox smiled, "Fuck you, Krycek."

Alex laughed. "Sorry, couldn't resist. So, about that dinner. How about I meet you in Denver and you can take me to your favorite restaurant?"

"Really?" Fox asked in surprise. "I mean, yeah, that would be great. When do you want to meet?"

"Tonight? I can be there around six," Alex countered. He badly needed the distraction, and seeing Mulder would be that.

"Six is fine. I'll call you if a case comes up," Mulder said.

"I'll see you then," Alex said, smiling as he hung up the phone. It was weird, almost a sense memory, the feeling of other phone calls to Mulder but made for far darker purposes than dinner.

"So, guess you're not gonna be home for dinner?" Jack said from the doorway, his hands in his pockets and his brown eyes dark and set.

Alex leaned back in his chair. "Have you heard from Sam yet?" he asked, avoiding Jack's question because he wasn't sure from Jack's tone ~how~ to answer it.

Jack came into the office and shut the door before slouching in the chair in front of Alex's desk. "Nary a peep. You?"

"I ended up on the same elevator with her and Daniel," Alex said wryly.

"Oy. I'll bet that was fun," Jack rolled his eyes.

"I'll take running from assassins for a thousand, Alec," Alex joked. Jack only sighed at the false levity.

A knock on the door made Alex stiffen. "Yeah," he called.

Daniel opened the door and stuck his head in. "Alex, I've...oh, hi Jack."

"Daniel," Jack drawled. God, Danny was sexy when he had that little line between his eyebrows. 'Shut up, Jack', he said to his obnoxious inner voice.

"What did Sam say?" Alex asked, getting to the point.

The archeologist came in and sat beside Jack, unable to look at him without giving up the game. He kept his eyes on Alex. "She's not going to do anything. I think that she's embarrassed at how badly she read the situation," he finished.

"I thought we'd settled this when Jacob died," Jack said, reiterating the point he'd made the evening before. "It's gonna be awkward, isn't it?" he continued morosely.

Now Daniel turned to look at Jack. "Sam will keep it professional, Jack. She knows what's at stake here if we lose you."

Alex was watching the two men, and he'd caught something in Daniel's expression before the other man had turned to speak to Jack. Like he was preparing, or girding himself...or ~hiding~ himself. Daniel was Jack's best friend, what did he need to hide from him?

Jack slapped his hands on the arms of the chair, then got up. "Walter has a ton of stuff for me to sign, so I've got to get going."

"Go, have fun, buy more toilet paper for the mountain," Alex waved grandly and Daniel snorted in amusement.

"Bite me," Jack said by way of a good natured good-bye and opened the door and left.

And to Alex's surprise, he watched Daniel watch Jack's tight ass as it disappeared. Wow. This was food for thought. He shook his head, he'd deal with that revelation later.

"Thanks, Daniel," he said instead.

Daniel slowly got to his feet. "Just don't hurt him," he warned.

"Never happen."

With a nod, Daniel left Alex's office, and Alex shook his head. Fuck. Jack's dream come true and he wanted to rail and cry about it. Oh, he knew that Jack cared for him, maybe even loved him a little, but the feelings were nowhere near what the General felt for Daniel, of the hot bod and blue eyes, Jackson. The pisser was when had his feelings gotten so strong for Jack?

Fuck.

~*

Jack sat in his office and stared at his desk, his mind on Alex, and peripherally Daniel, and not his work. Alex had made a date with the Feebie, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He wasn't sure how he'd even classify his and Alex's relationship. Hell, ~was~ it a relationship? Was he jealous?

Ohforfuckingoutloud, he was!

"D'oh!" he exclaimed softly.

~*

Fox held up one shirt in front of him, critically eyeing it in the mirror before holding up the second. Then he sighed and tossed the second on the bed before pulling on the first. "Face it Fox, you're becoming a girl."

He was nervous, excited and if he was honest, a little nauseous. This was the beginning of a different kind of relationship than he and Krycek had ever had before. Not as seasoned agent and newbie, not as Consortium traitor and idealistic government worker, hell, not even as wannabe savior and alien believer on the run, but as two normal guys. It was going to be a whole new dynamic. It was going to be weird. He gave up and just pulled on a shirt.

A knock at the door made him jump, and snicker at himself. He walked over and opened it, and tried not to drool. Alex was wearing tight black jeans, a dark blue t-shirt with the Air Force emblem emblazoned on it and a black leather jacket held over his shoulder. Seems like some things never changed.

"You gonna invite me in?"

Whoops. "Sorry, come in." Mulder stepped aside and waved Alex in, the irony of inviting the other man in not lost on either of them, judging by the sly smile on his former nemesis' face. "And just shut the hell up, too."

"Hey, I'm not saying anything," Alex held up his hands.

Mulder grabbed his blazer. "Yeah, but I can hear you thinking," he teased, amazed at how easy it was between them. "We're going to the Palm. It has steak and jumbo lobsters, does that sound okay?"

"Perfect," Alex said, trying not to stare. Mulder was dressed in beautifully cut grey slacks that showcased his tight ass, and a hunter green pullover. That devastating duo was capped off by Fox's hair which was artfully mussed, on purpose or by anxiety, Alex wasn't sure, but it worked. Oh baby, did it ever.

Outside, Alex frowned at Mulder's sedan. "Oh, fuck no. We're not riding in the government special."

Fox sighed. "What's the matter? It offends your sensibility?"

"Damn right," Alex said. He grabbed Mulder and dragged him over to a convertible midnight blue '68 Camaro. "Now ~this~ is a car," he said proudly. "Get in."

Mulder rolled his eyes as he got in. "This ~is~ yours, right? We're not boosting someone's muscle car?"

Alex laughed. "Yes, 'Oh Doubting Mulder', this is mine. I make good money at what I do. Legitimate money."

"Fine, fine," Fox raised his hands. "I'll admit that your car is cooler than mine, okay?"

"You betcha," Alex smirked.

At the restaurant they talked about their jobs, both privately marveling at how normal it was, comparing notes on co-workers and what it was like to live in Colorado. They lingered over dessert, neither wanting the evening to end.

"How about we walk around downtown?" Fox asked as he paid the bill, admiring the play of muscles under the t-shirt of his 'date?' Was this a date? Hell, Alex was probably the prettiest date he'd had in awhile.

"Sure," Alex shrugged into his leather jacket, not noticing the admiring looks he was getting.

Once outside of the restaurant the trees that lined the street were strung with white fairy lights, giving the entire area a romantic glow. The area was bustling with tourists and locals, all enjoying the cool night and the full moon shining down between the high rise buildings. Fox and Alex slowly walked up and back the main street, the FBI agent pointing out his favorite coffee shop and hole in the wall bookstore.

Stopping dead, Alex did a complete turn, his face puzzled.

"What?"

"I don't see a porn store or a titty bar anywhere!" The dark haired man teased, laughing when Mulder playfully shoved his shoulder, making him stagger.

Finishing their walk, Alex drove Fox back to his apartment. Getting out of the car, Fox tucked his hands in his pockets and bent own to peer into the driver's window. "Do you want to come in?"

About to say yes, Alex's eyes caught the time. "Shit, it's late. I've got to get going."

Checking his own watch, Fox's eyes widened. It was already past one in the morning. "Damn, me too," he said, and squeaked in surprise when Alex grabbed the lapel of his blazer and jerked him close for a quick kiss.

"Thanks for dinner, Foxy," Alex said with a grin. He started his car, gunning the engine before he sped away.

Mulder snorted. Definitely prettier than his usual dates, and a better kisser too.

**

2 months later~

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Marita Covarrubias was seated at her patio table on the veranda, her blonde hair pulled back in an elaborate French twist, eating a light breakfast of yogurt and the local fruit. She watched as the traffic on the boulevard below ebbed and flowed, the cacophony of honks and cries thin to her ears from the penthouse. As she was finishing her maid brought out her laptop, then began to clear the table.

"Obrigada," she murmured as she logged into her account.

"De nada," the maid bobbed her head and hustled out with the dirty dishes.

There was the usual garbage, in both English and Portuguese, which she deleted. As a former personal representative of the Secretary General at the United Nations, she still received minor communiqués, none of which interested her and she deleted those as well. It wasn't the same, the loss of her career, her lover fatally shot, the invasion stopped, being forced to leave her home, her country...to be exiled for obeying orders.

An email subject caught her eye. It was labeled, 'Resurrection?' and included a file that was from a trusted source. She clicked on the attachment, noting absently that it was a jpeg, and gasped. It was a recent photograph of her supposedly dead lover, judging by the date stamp in the corner.

Her mind went back to the moment she'd been told that Alex had been shot dead by Director Skinner.

"He's dead Marita, and you are a liability that we cannot afford. I suggest you disappear, and don't come back to the United States, I'm having you placed on the terrorist watchlist just to make sure," the assistant secretary's lips twisted cruelly. He'd been after her job for as long as she could remember, and now...she had nothing.

But Alex. He was alive. And the sonofabitch never came to find her, to rescue her from her exile, and after all she had done for him...The anger from her humiliation flashed and her mind twisted what happened, blaming Alex Krycek for everything that had gone wrong for her and she burned to make him pay.

"Fernanda!" she screamed.

"Senhora?" the maid asked as she scuttled onto the veranda.

"Pack me for me," Marita ordered as she checked out the rest of the email and smiled vengefully. "And make flight arrangements for me. I'm going to Colorado Springs. Oh, and use the extra passport."

"Sim, Senhora,"

**

Alex was working on one of his computers, laying on his back under the table as he reconnected cables and cursing under his breath. "You're gonna work this time, you sorry sonofabitch, or I'm going to toss you into the event horizon," he promised vengefully.

"Talking to the office furniture again, 'Lexei?" came Jack's amused voice.

"Don't worry, Jack," Alex said as he pulled himself up to grin at his friend. "If they talk back then you can worry."

"Around here? That's not so farfetched as you might think," Jack rolled his eyes as he shut the door. "So, I missed you last night."

Pouring himself and Jack cups of coffee, Alex handed over Jack's before both men settled into their chairs. He reached over to restart his computer. "We went bowling this time. I had fun. Mulder and I have finally learned to leave the past in the past and have a reasonable conversation."

"Everyone has to grow up sometime," Jack teased.

"Fuck you," Alex retorted mildly.

"So, did you?

Did I what? Alex wondered, then realized Jack was referring to fucking Mulder. "What? No!"

Jack smirked and Alex sighed. He'd fallen right into Jack's trap. "I try not to cheat on the one I'm with," he said tartly.

This made Jack soberly look at him. "Alexei, you ~love~ him. Don't throw that away for me."

Alex gazed solemnly back at Jack. "We need to talk, Jack."

Jack's beeper buzzed at his waist and he grunted in annoyance. "How 'bout when we go home?"

Relieved that he could have Jack a little longer, Alex nodded. "Ribs?"

"Sounds good," Jack replied distractedly. "I've got to get to the gateroom. Later, Alex."

"Later," Alex said, to the closing door. Hell, what was he going to do now? If he was honest with himself, he selfishly wanted to keep Jack for himself. They were very similar, he and Jack. Both of them had dark pasts, a history of tragic losses...a compatible taste in beer...who was he kidding, he was in love with Jack. And Fox. And wasn't this a bitch of a predicament?

*~

Daniel morosely eyed his car. How in the hell did it get a flat in military parking was the question of the hour. And him with no spare because of the last flat. Damn it. He walked back to security and borrowed a phone.

"O'Neill," came the clipped response.

"Wow, I'm actually out of there before you? Should I be looking for signs of the Apocalypse?" Daniel teased.

Jack smiled. "Hey, Danny. Har de har har, you're not as funny as you think you are," he shot back, giving a scowl to Walter who shoved another requisition form under his nose to sign.

Daniel chuckled. "Let me guess, you're not getting out of there early tonight?"

"No," Jack pouted as he signed another piece of paper. "Why, what's up?"

"You're not going to believe this..." Daniel began.

"~Another~ flat?" Jack asked disbelievingly.

"Shut up," Daniel grumbled back. He listened to the laughter from his friend with resignation. "Are you done yet?

"Sorry. Listen, I'm buried up to the top of the 'gate in paperwork. Let me call Alex and have him take you home, okay?"

"Fine," Daniel pouted. "I'll meet him up by his car which is clearly a sign of testosterone poisoning," Daniel said scornfully.

"You've just got car envy," Jack replied, then waited a beat. "His car works and yours doesn't."

"I hate you, Jack," Daniel replied sincerely and hung up to his friend's laughter.

~*

Alex grinned at the sight of Daniel pouting against his car.

"Aw, what's up, Doc?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Please tell me you weren't saving that up just for me?"

"Just for you," Alex agreed cheerfully. He unlocked his Camaro and gestured for Daniel to get in. "C'mon, I need to stop and pick up groceries tonight."

"Don't forget coffee," Daniel replied as he buckled himself in.

Alex laughed as he pulled out of the parking lot and spun a little gravel. "Like I'd forget your coffee," he snorted. "Jack would never let me, you know that."

Just the absoluteness of the statement gave Daniel a warm fuzzy. Jack's friendship with Daniel had not changed one iota, which had gone a long way to reassure him that Alex was good for Jack. He hadn't quite worked up the nerve to go after Jack himself, not with Sam still stiff and formal all of the time.

"Think you'll spring for the good stuff and not that crap you bought last time?"

"Fuck you very much," Alex laughed. "Coffee snob."

"Youbetcha," Daniel replied happily, making the other man laugh some more.

~*

Daniel frowned as he caught sight of the vehicle moving way too rapidly in his mirror. "Alex, I think..." then both men cursed as the back window blew into smithereens.

"Someone's after us?" Alex finished Daniel's thought as he jerked the wheel, both to avoid the bullets from behind and the innocent people in the cars ahead. The sound of more bullets whizzing around them made them both wince.

"Yep," Daniel agreed. Then, "Ohgod!" the cry of pain startling him when it came from his own lips.

"Daniel?" Alex exclaimed, then cursed as he saw the blood bloom on Daniel's chest, the splash of blood on the dashboard. He jerked the car hard to the right, stomping on the brake and causing it to skid off into the gravel at the side of the road. He grabbed his phone and pressed the panic button before grabbing Daniel's and doing the same.

"Get out of the car!" an enraged woman's voice shrieked. Fuck, he knew that voice. He cursed himself for not wearing his sidearm, he'd gotten lazy in the safety of the SGC.

"I'm coming out," he held up his hands.

Daniel woozily watched as the blonde woman stalked over to the car and knew he was going to die when she pointed her weapon at him. Then Alex lurched between them cutting off his view, the last thing he remembered seeing was Alex's broad back.

Alex saw Daniel's death in Marita's eyes and stepped in front of her. "Don't shoot him. I'll come with you, just don't kill him," his voice hitched and he could hear the pleading tone. He couldn't let Jack suffer like that if he could prevent it.

"Get in the car," she ordered, waving her gun at him and ignoring the incoming sirens and witnesses.

~*

"Danny, ohgod, please don't leave me again!"

"J'ck?" Daniel could feel blinding, gut wrenching breath stealing pain, could hear frantic voices over him as they relayed his physical condition back and forth. He could feel movement and decided he was being moved on a gurney. "Jack?" he called again.

"Right here, Daniel. Listen, you need to stay with us! Stay with me, got it?"

"Sir, we need to get him to surgery," another voice said impatiently.

Struggling, Daniel forced his eyes open and saw blurry people. "Jack?" Ah, there was Jack. He'd recognize that silver haired blur anywhere.

"I'm here, Danny. I'll be waiting for you when you come out of surgery, okay?" Jack move closer and cupped Daniel's face with a shaking hand.

Daniel was astounded at the tears he could see coursing down Jack's face and struggled to reach up and brush them away but his arms felt too heavy. "I'll be okay," he whispered hoarsely.

"Sir, we have to go ~now~," the Doctor said.

Jack nodded and stepped back, fear making his chest hurt as the gurney was rapidly rolled away. Daniel couldn't die...

"Jack?" he could hear Daniel call for him.

"It's okay, Danny. They're gonna fix you up," he called back as loud as he could through his tight throat.

Daniel batted the nurse's hand away and lifted his oxygen mask. "It was a blond woman, she knew Alex," he called with every bit of strength he could muster then he collapsed back, the oxygen mask was replaced over his face.

The elevator doors closed and Jack sucked in a shaky breath, he'd lost Alex and wasn't sure if Daniel would live. He kept his eyes wide, trying to keep the tears back as his mind heard the doc again, 'Too many unknowns until after the surgery'. Surgery to remove the bullet from the sack around Daniel's heart. Jesus, if only he'd gotten off of work earlier, taken Daniel home himself.

And Alex. His heart ached for his missing lover.

"Sir, is Daniel okay?" Sam strode up to him, Teal'c, Fedeyev and Coburn on her heels.

Composing himself, Jack held up a hand to forestall any other questions. "The doc said it will be touch and go. Danny's lost a lot of blood and the bullet is in his pericardial sac," he looked at Teal'c. "By his heart," he explained to his friend who nodded his understanding.

"What happened?" Fedeyev asked in frustration. He and Alex had a weekly standing appointment to go drinking at a Russian owned local club where they'd bonded over their Russian heritage and love of good alcohol, becoming fast friends to the surprise of them both. Now he wanted to go out and find the person who did this and shoot them.

"Daniel said that it was a blond woman who knew Alex," Jack said, taking a deep breath. It seemed like he couldn't breathe, the panic was sitting so solidly in his chest.

"Perhaps someone from AlexKrycek's past?" Teal'c said.

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinkin'," Jack said darkly. He knew Alex's past wasn't pretty, and wondered who'd crawled out of the woodwork.

*~

Denver-FBI Headquarters

"Hey, Mulder. We've caught a case," Fred said as he stuffed the rest of a diet pita in his mouth in the vain hope that he'd lose weight. He was a big man, 6'4" and about fifty pounds over his optimal weight and he'd been yo yo dieting for the past six months, driving all of his fellow agents crazy.

"Where?" Mulder asked as he grabbed his bag. He shook his head at his co-worker who was on the fast track for a heart attack. "And we're not stopping at Burger King," he said pointedly.

The other man's face fell but he sighed. "We're headed to the 'Springs. Some muckety muck from NORAD got himself kidnapped after a shootout."

Alex.

Dread filled Fox and he casually leaned forward to nip the papers out of Fred's hands. "Hey!" Fred yelped but Mulder ignored him. His heart sank because his instincts had been right on the money, the photo on the page belonged to one Alexei Krycek.

*

"Sir, the FBI is here," Walter said quietly.

They'd arrived on the scene just shortly before, and he'd grabbed the General when the man had paled and staggered at the sight of Director Krycek's bullet ridden and blood soaked vehicle. He and the security team kept close, he'd making and taking phone calls while the General and the head of the Security team had question the local police.

"About damn time," Jack grunted and turned then stopped in surprise. He'd recognized one of the Agents. "Agent Mulder. God, I didn't even think of calling you," he said.

Needing to be professional, needing to keep his churning fear to himself, Fox stepped up and shook Jack's hand. "General O'Neill, good to see you again, sir. This is Agent Fred Wills," he introduced then asked, "What can you tell us?"

"Daniel said it was a blond woman who knew Alex, but..." Jack trailed off at the look on Mulder's face. "You know who it is!"

"Maybe," Mulder temporized. "I'll need to speak to witnesses, but there's only one blonde woman who comes to mind," he finished. God, he hoped Alex was still alive, he'd already lost too many people in his life.

He and Fred interviewed the witnesses and got a better picture of what they were dealing with. Fox was sure that their suspect was Marita Covarrubias, though his fellow agent thought he was on drugs.

"She was the personal assistant to the ~fucking Secretary General of the UN~ for god's sakes," Fred exclaimed when Mulder told him of his suspicions.

"It doesn't stop her from being a criminal," Fox pointed out.

Jack walked up in time to hear Mulder's last sentence. "It sounds like you knew her."

Mulder nodded. "She helped me once, a long time ago," he said vaguely. He didn't want to go into his trial. "Marita and Alex were lovers, but had a falling out. There are other things that I can't discuss that have to do with national security, but the upshot was she was tossed out of the U.S. with a 'don't call us, we'll call you," he finished.

"Where do you think she'll take him?" Jack asked, ignoring the phone call that his Sergeant was answering.

"I don't know, sir," Mulder answered honestly. "We have an APB on her vehicle, it's a waiting game."

"Sir, that was Colonel Carter. Dr. Jackson is out of surgery," Walter said and winced at the look of hope on his boss's face. "We need to get to the hospital to say goodbye, sir."

"Ohgod," Jack paled. "I've got to go, call if you find anything," he ordered Mulder and strode away to his waiting staff car, Walter on his heels.

Fox sighed and rubbed his eyes and Fred shook his head. "Let's get going. Maybe we'll hear something."

Hours later they had covered a lot of ground and come up with nothing except Marita's alias when Mulder's phone rang.

"Agent Mulder," he snapped. He listened for a moment then smiled. "We'll be right there, don't confront the suspect and consider her armed and extremely dangerous!"

Fred was already digging for his keys. "Found the car?"

"Found the car," Fox replied and both men ran to their car.

~*

Alex abruptly came to, heart beating frantically. He tried to move but realized that some sort of paralytic agent must have been used since he couldn't move anything except his eyes. Ahueyet. This wasn't good, by any stretch of the imagination and a sick feeling in his stomach told him that it was about to get that much worse the more he became aware.

"Alex, Alex, ~Alex~. You've been holding out on me," Marita purred, the knife in her hand taking Alex back to the frightening time in Tunguska. "You've been healed," she said with fake interest and ran the blade quickly, slicing where his former arm had been forcibly removed. He could feel the adrenaline shooting through him and the fear was making him flash between the present and the past.

"S'tp," he gritted out between numb lips and distantly heard Marita laugh.

"Stop? Why?" she asked innocently, then she bent down to hiss in his face. "You faked your own death and left me to ~rot~ in Brazil~ !"

She slipped the knife down his chest and Alex could feel the blood pool and drip down his side and closed his eyes. The feeling to his extremities was rapidly coming back, along with the pain that was messing with his senses. He remotely heard Marita still ranting, but a word caught his attention and he opened his eyes to stare at her.

"I've decided you should pay, Alex," Marita continued. "I think I'm going to castrate you first, then put the knife into your miserable, shriveled heart and leave you here to die. No one will fix you this time. A fitting end, don't you think?" she asked brightly, obviously not expecting an answer from the incapacitated man, the light of madness in her blue eyes.

Alex tried to scream as he felt the knife between his legs, when suddenly the door burst open and a wave of police and FBI agent's poured into the room.

"Put the weapon down!" Alex heard the commands, then the sound of gunshots.

"Jesus, get the paramedics!" a voice said.

"Alex? Alex, you're going to be alright. C'mon, look at me!" Mulder ordered frantically. Dull green eyes locked onto his, and then rolled back. "Alex? Damn it, he's stopped breathing!" Fox called and immediately began CPR, wishing Scully was still his partner.

~*

"I'm sorry, Jack. I've looked over his records and they did everything possible but his heart was just too damaged..." Bill Warner trailed off. The bullet had done far more damage than anyone had previously thought. He hated what this was doing to Jack, but it didn't look like Daniel was going to pull through this time. "It will only be a few more hours," he said quietly, looking at the man who was on full life support, his chest being mechanically moved up and down.

"Thanks doc, I appreciate you looking in on him," Jack said sincerely.

Warner nodded. "I'll start letting people in, in ones and twos, okay?"

Jack kept his hand on Daniel's, his brown eyes bleak but nodded his okay at Warner. Over the course of the next few hours Daniel had a lot of visitors including Coburn's and Fedeyev's teams- Dixon's was off-world but they'd been notified, Daniel's geeks, Teal'c and Bra'tac who happened to be visiting, Carter and General Hammond who had flown in from D.C. and assorted others. It didn't surprise Jack at how many people loved his Danny.

The beeping monitor had perceptibly started to slow down and now it was a waiting game, and Jack vowed to be there 'til the very end...

*~

The man didn't garner a second look. He was of medium height, medium build, sandy hair and unremarkable features. He wore orderly scrubs was pushing a crash cart. Stopping outside of a room, the man took a deep breath and opened the door, the miasma of grief thick inside of the private room.

"I'm sorry, I need to check on Dr. Jackson," he said respectfully. He watched as the silver haired man touched the injured man's face with such love that it made the fake orderly's throat tighten.

"Take care of him," the man said as he, a grief stricken blond, a very large black man and an Air Force General left the room.

"I will," the orderly said sincerely. He closed the door and turned to the man on the bed. "Well, Dr. Jackson, let's see what I can do for you," Jeremiah Smith said.

Jack leaned against the wall, his eyes shut against the tears that threatened. He was losing Danny and who knew if Alex was still alive or not? He hadn't felt this level of grief since Charlie died and it was ripping him apart.

George Hammond exchanged a look with Sam and walked over to Jack. He'd known how Jack had felt about the gifted linguist, archeologist/anthropologist cum conscience of the SGC, for a long time. "I'm so very sorry, son," he said quietly, placed a beefy hand on Jack's shoulder.

A couple of tears escaped down Jack's cheek but he wiped them off, stiffening and taking a deep breath. "Thanks, George. It means a lot to both of us that you're here."

"Nowhere else I'd rather be," Hammond agreed.

Sam stifled a sob and Teal'c wrapped his arm around her shoulder, an uncharacteristic display of affection from the normally stoic man. "He will be with his parents and Shar'e, SamanthaCarter. We need to celebrate his life, not mourn his death," he said solemnly.

The door to Daniel's room opened and the orderly stepped out. "It's okay to head back in now," he said and took his cart and disappeared around the corner.

Jack took a moment to compose himself then pushed off of the wall, opened the door and gaped in astonishment. "Danny?"

Hammond moved quickly to Jack's side, Teal'c and Sam not a second behind and all they could do was stare. The pale man on complete life support of a few minutes before was sitting up, rosy cheeked and looking confused.

"Jack, what am I doing in the hospital again?"

Stumbling into the room with everyone on his heels, Jack sank into the chair beside Daniel and clasped his friend's hand in his trembling one. "How do you feel?"

"Confused. Hey, guys, General Hammond," Daniel said to the others.

"It's good to see you, son," George said soberly, blue eyes bright.

Sam gasped and covered her mouth as tears of happiness streaked down her cheeks. Teal'c could only smile, "You are looking well, DanielJackson."

"Thanks, Teal'c. ~Now~ can you tell me what happened?" Daniel asked a little impatiently.

Sheer joy was making him dizzy, but Jack grinned. "Well, Dannyboy, it's like this..." he began.

*

Doc Warner could only smile. "The original Come-back Kid, that's you Dr. Jackson." He let the file shut and shrugged at Jack, George Hammond, Teal'c and Sam. "I don't know what to tell you, but Dr. Jackson is in perfect health." He could still hear Jack's frantic phone call, making him turn a law breaking u to get back to the hospital.

"Did you see anything, Daniel?" Sam asked curiously.

Daniel shook his head. "I woke up when Jack opened the door."

"I don't care," Jack said stoutly. "All I know is that I'm not gonna have to plan another funeral for my best friend and I'm so okay with that, thank you very much."

"Indeed," Teal'c replied with heartfelt enthusiasm.

"Let me get the paperwork rolling to get him out of here," Warner said and left the room. There were too many questions about a man who was supposedly dying, suddenly healed.

Jack sighed, trying to think of everything they needed to do. "Carter, Teal'c, you need to keep everyone outta here. Sir, you need to fly back to D.C. and pretend that Daniel is still ill, but there's been a change for the better."

Hammond smiled. "Well, it's partially true." He squeezed Jack's shoulder, patted Daniel's leg and followed Teal'c and Sam out of the hospital room.

Daniel's eyes went down to the hand that Jack hadn't relinquished since he'd come into the room. "Have they found Alex yet?" ~That~ he did remember.

"No, but the way my luck's going today? They will," Jack said firmly, refusing to believe anything else with the proof of miracles in front of him. He brought Daniel's hand up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to it, enjoying how Daniel's eyes widened in total surprise.

"So, Danny. I need to tell you something."

Daniel just nodded, blue eyes wide.

Jack quaked inside but wasn't going to let that stop him. "When I saw you on the gurney and the doc's faces told me that you weren't going to make it, all I could think was, 'I should have told him. I left it too late, and now he'll never know'."

Daniel could hear the emotion in Jack's voice and wished~prayed~hoped...

"I love you so damn much, Daniel Jackson. You are the sunshine in my life, and I'll do you in myself if I ever hear that repeated," Jack growled.

"What about Alex?" Daniel asked, his heart beating a mile a minute.

Jack sighed. "I love him, I'm not gonna lie to you. But it's always been you, Danny, and he knows it."

Daniel could see the love in those marvelous brown eyes and felt like he was going to explode from happiness. He was alive and Jack loved him! He smiled and pulled Jack to him, letting his mouth cover the older man's in a sweet if shaky kiss.

"I'm your sunshine, huh?" he teased huskily when he pulled back. His groin ached fiercely and he wanted to crawl into Jack's lap and....well, his imagination could supply him with a lot of things to do.

Jack groaned and rested his forehead against Daniel's. "What do I have to pay to have you not repeat that to anyone?"

"Let me think about it," Daniel promised huskily and laughed delightedly as Jack blushed.

*~

"Fred, can you handle this?" Mulder asked, a little frantic as he watched Alex being loaded into the ambulance. "Alex used to be my partner."

Fred's eyebrows raised, this was unexpected information, but he nodded. "No problem. If I have any questions I'll call Connor's," he said.

"Thanks," Fox said and ran over to climb into the ambulance.

At the hospital Fox held up his FBI id so he could stay with Alex who'd now regained consciousness and was struggling. The young doctor tried to place the oxygen mask over Alex's face again and sighed when his patient twisted his head away. "Marla, get me some restraints," the Doogie Houser look alike ordered.

Mulder stepped forward in alarm. "No! Alex doesn't like restraints." Not after the Black Oil, Tunguska and everything else. Who would?

"I need him to calm down so I can get a line in and to suture him," the resident said with exasperation.

"Let me try," Fox said and the resident waved a hand that implied 'good luck'.

Moving to the top of the gurney while trying to stay out of the emergency personnel's way, Fox grabbed Alex's sweating face in his hands. "Alex! C'mon, Alex, settle down." He kept his voice matter of fact, trying to penetrate the terror.

Panicky green eyes latched onto his. "Fox?" Alex whispered hoarsely.

"Yeah, it's me. You need to settle down so they can patch you up, okay?"

"Set up a ringer of plasma and type and match him," the resident called.

Fox glanced up. "He's AB," he said and the resident nodded and changed his order.

"Is it, did she...Is it gone?" Alex whispered desperately.

"What? Is what gone?" Fox asked, wondering if Alex was flashing back.

"She was going to..." Alex couldn't finish, his face white, and Mulder suddenly understood.

"No! She cut your thigh, but everything is still there. The paramedic said she cut into some muscle and you're going to be sore but fine, okay?" Mulder brushed the dark sweaty hair back as the oxygen mask went on and he could see Alex visibly relax.

"What happened?" a nurse asked as she slipped the needle into Alex's arm to start the blood.

"He was almost castrated," Fox said flatly, mildly amused at the various expressions of discomfort on the men in the busy room. "He couldn't move when we arrived, so she had to have used some kind of paralytic on him. It made him stop breathing, then his heart stopped and I started CPR."

"Do you know what she used and how long it was?" Mulder was asked.

"No idea. He was kidnapped almost seven hours ago."

The resident nodded. "Set up a CBC and a chem. 7," he said to another nurse who scurried out. He looked at Mulder. "Okay, we've got him now. I need you to leave."

"But..."

A nurse gently escorted him out. "We'll come and get you, alright?"

Knowing he needed to make phone calls, Mulder reluctantly nodded.

~*

It was early morning and desperate for some caffeine, Mulder wandered into the hallway and almost ran over a military type.

"Are you Agent Mulder?"

Fox nodded wearily, he was starting to suffer from adrenaline crash. "Yeah."

"I'm Sergeant Harriman. I understand you found Director Krycek?"

Mulder thought back and remembered the man being with the General at the site of the kidnapping. "Oh, right. Yeah, we found him in time. They're still working on him."

"His condition?" the Sergeant asked.

Scrubbing his hands over his face, Mulder sighed. "She was about to castrate him when we found him. She was shot dead and his breathing and heart stopped. I started CPR and he was semi coherent in the emergency room."

"Holy fuck," Harriman said softly.

"Yeah, I need coffee," Mulder said with feeling.

"Let me get it for you, sir."

~*

Jack peeked into the room and smiled. Alex was asleep in a semi reclining position, and Mulder was sound asleep, his head resting on the side of the bed. He walked in and over to the bed, frowning over the dressing on Alex's shoulder, touching it gently. Eyelashes fluttered and Jack smiled as he saw the green eyes he knew so well.

"Hey, you."

"Daniel?" Alex asked desperately.

"He's gonna be okay," Jack replied, smiling as Alex sighed in relief. He snagged the other chair and quietly moved it over so he could sit down. He was beat, the emotional toll of the past day was more than enough to wipe him out. "I heard what happened to you. Where the hell was your weapon?" he asked severely.

Alex sighed and glanced away guiltily. "I've gotten spoiled working in the SGC. I let myself forget, on purpose, that I still have enemies out there. I fucked up, Jack and I'm sorry Daniel almost paid for it with his life."

"Oy. Shut up," Jack said with an eye roll. "Spare me your martyrdom, okay? The only one to blame was that bitch and she's dead. Though what you saw in her in the first place..."

Mulder lifted his head and rubbed his eyes. "No kidding," he yawned, and dodged Alex's swat with a laugh. "Did I hear that Dr. Jackson is okay?"

"Yeah, it was the damnedest thing," Jack said. "He was dying, Alex," he continued, the despair in his voice unfeigned. "They couldn't repair the damage to his heart and he was on total life support."

Mulder gripped Alex's blindly groping hand and they exchanged glances. They were pretty sure they knew where this was going. "And suddenly he's completely healed?" Mulder said.

Jack's eyes narrowed. "Yee-ah," he drawled.

Mulder nodded. "Did anyone see a man, medium height, sandy hair, blue eyes, hanging about?"

And suddenly the forgotten orderly came to Jack's mind. "Yeah, who was he?"

Alex snorted. "One of our many alien friends who still live on Earth. He's one of the good guys, Jack. Trust me."

"I always have," Jack said. He glanced over at Mulder who took the hint and stood up. "I need coffee, I'll be right back."

"Me too," Alex said and was resoundingly ignored as Mulder snorted and left.

"I like him," Jack smirked. He sat beside Alex on the bed and took his hand. "I'm so damn glad that you're okay."

"I was scared shitless," Alex said softly.

Jack nodded. "I wish I'd been there," he absently played with Alex's fingers. "I can't thank you enough for saving Daniel's life. The witnesses said that you put yourself in front of him."

Alex shrugged. "I did it for you, Jack."

The two men fell silent, then Jack squeezed Alex's hand. "I told him how I feel about him," he said.

This declaration made Alex's heart clutch but he smiled. "About fucking time! How did he take it?"

"He kissed me," Jack smiled.

Mulder had found coffee and called Fred, making plans to head back to Denver as soon as possible. He needed to tell Alex good-bye before he left, and now he lurked outside the door not wanting to interrupt the two friends.

"I'll miss you, Jack," Alex said softly and Mulder thought he could hear a kiss. This confirmed what he had thought, that they had been together the first time he had seen them.

"Me too, 'Lexei. I'm glad that you have Mulder," the General said. Fox nodded, Alex would always have him if he had anything to say about it. He wanted Alex in his life and he would fight anyone who tried to keep them apart, Mulder thought, and snorted as he realized he sounded like a lovelorn teenager.

"He's important, Jack. I want to take it slow," Alex said and laughed softly. "We had ~such~ a fucked up relationship before, it's nice to be normal." Mulder heard a snort and heard Alex add, "Yeah, yeah. As normal as we can be."

There was a noise of what sounded like the General standing and Mulder took his cue, squared his shoulders and stepped into the room. "Hey, I'm going to have to head back to Denver. Can I get you anything before I go?

Alex smiled and shook his head. "Nope, go ahead, Mulder. "

"I'll make sure he has a ride home," Jack added.

Mulder went over to the bed, his hazel eyes solemn. He took Alex's hand in his, "Don't do anything stupid, Krycek," he said, kissed Alex possessively and left.

Alex blinked, a little dazed as he tried to unscramble his brain. "Zhopa," he muttered and Jack chuckled.

"Ah 'Lexei, you know you love him."

"Maybe," Alex replied with a smirk. "When he's not busy being right."

In the hallway Mulder smiled, pumped an arm triumphantly and left.

*

It was later and Alex was resting after having a steady stream of visitors. He wasn't used to people liking him for himself, and not for what they could get out of him. It had been...eye opening, and it undermined his sense of being a badass. He blamed Jack.

His door opened and he braced himself for more well-wishing when an oh-so familiar face stepped into his room.

"Hello, Krycek."

"Skinner," Alex greeted resignedly. "I should have expected that my past would start crawling out of the woodwork."

The former director of the FBI smirked. "You're a very un-popular guy. And there are a lot of people in Washington that don't trust this side of you, and who you're working for."

Not hurt by the unflattering representation of himself, Alex smirked. "I didn't realize that many people were afraid of Jack."

"General O'Neill has very powerful allies; he's not a man to cross," Skinner said with a shrug.

Alex thought of Thor and chuckled. "You have no idea," he said. He tilted his head and eyed the older man. "Was there something else that you wanted?"

Skinner looked back at Alex steadily. "I understand Mulder was the one who found you."

"Him and his partner, who needs to be put on the FBI weight loss program, he's going to drop dead at a scene one of these days."

"So, have you seen Mulder before now?" Skinner asked, ignoring the jab at Mulder's partner. Feebie solidarity and all of that shit, Alex supposed,

"Why?" Alex asked and was surprised to see Skinner shuffle nervously and actually rub his head.

"Dana asked me to make sure that Mulder was okay and that you weren't jerking him around, okay?" Skinner huffed impatiently.

Alex stared, then burst into laughter. "Ohmigod! You're seeing Scully!"

"So?" Skinner scowled.

"So nothing," Alex replied with a chuckle. "It's nice to see she hasn't changed. Tell her that I'm not going to hurt Fox, we're just friends. For the moment," he added, just to be a bitch.

"You'd better be sure," Skinner warned. "If you hurt him Dana will be out here finished what Covarrubias started."

Fuck. Alex shuddered. "Thanks for that mental image that I didn't need, and don't worry. I'm well aware of how ruthless Scully can be." Hell, she shot Mulder to save my life, Alex thought.

"Then my work here is done. Get well soon," Skinner said with a small smile and he left.

His door opened again and he was about to say something rude and crude to Skinner, when an orderly stepped into the room with a cart. "I'm not hungry," he said instead.

The orderly smiled. "That's okay, Alex Krycek, I'm not here to feed you."

Alex's eyes narrowed. "Jeremiah Smith, I presume?"

Jeremiah smiled cheerfully, leaning against the bed. "My reputation precedes me, I see. I just came by to see how you were doing."

"I'm fine. And no, I don't want to be healed. It would look suspicious if suddenly I didn't have my wounds for the doc to poke at, especially after Daniel," Alex pointed out, and absently wondered how they'd explained it to Daniel's doctors.

The other man shrugged. "So be it. Give the Asgard my best," he said and with a cheerful wave took the cart of food and left Alex's room.

"I know Jack said normal is overrated," Alex mused aloud. "But I think a day of normal would be a welcome change."

*~*

Daniel slowly awoke, confused when he realized he was all tangled up with someone, then he smiled. Jack. And he suddenly remembered what had happened.

They'd pulled into Daniel's garage and gotten out of Jack's big Dodge and walked into the house. Jack had flipped the lights on, opened his mouth and Daniel had jumped him.

The first time had been down and dirty against the door, leaving them both come splattered and gasping for breath. The second time had been on the couch, because that time Jack couldn't wait, and Daniel had experienced a 'Jack O'Neill special' blowjob that had made his eyes roll back into his head and his ears ring.

The third time, god, Daniel squirmed slightly, feeling the burn in his ass and relished it. He twisted his head to stare at Jack who was asleep, and no wonder, the third time had been slow, sweet, hot then pyroclastic. Jack had kissed his body all over, calloused fingers skimming his body and caressing his cock. The overload of sensation had short-circuited Daniel's speech centers and all he could do was grunt, groan and hang on for the ride.

Before long Jack had flipped him over and had rimmed him, a first that made Daniel blush just thinking about it again, then he'd been stretched so very carefully. Next, god, Jack had slid his big cock inside of him and they'd made love until Daniel had come so hard that he felt like he'd been convulsing, including passing out briefly which had made Jack preen like a peacock.

Movement from Jack made him smile at the sleepy eyed love of his life. "Hey."

"Hey," Jack's gravelly just awake voice wasn't any different from any of the thousand planets they'd woken on together, but this time it sent waves of arousal shooting straight to his cock.

"I love you," Daniel said softly, smiling into the kiss that Jack pressed firmly to his lips.

"Love ya too, Dannyboy," Jack assured him.

The touch of now familiar fingers made Daniel's eyelids flutter close and a moan come from his throat. "Uh, Jack..." he moaned again as the fingers pinched and rolled his nipples. Just those simple touches already had his cock hard and leaking precum against his belly.

"Hey, Danny," Jack asked in a teasing whisper against Daniel's ear. "How would ya like to fuck me?" he asked and was rewarded by a gasp and a hard jerk of Daniel's gorgeous cock. "Like that, huh?"

"Jack, don't tease," Daniel complained breathlessly. There was no way Jack wasn't a top, he was a General and everything.

"M'not," Jack muttered, snagging the lube with one long fingered hand and proceeding to slick up Daniel's cock, making him moan and squirm. "I love you," Jack said as he moved over Daniel's body.

Daniel's eyes widened as he felt the head of his cock pushing into Jack. "Diosmio," he whispered, needy and desperate, watching Jack's hard strong body as it slowly lowered itself onto his cock. His hands gripped Jack's hips as he fought to keep his eyes open as Jack rose up again, the head of his cock massaged by the tight ring before being swallowed up in the velvet vise of Jack's ass over and over. "I never...I didn't think..." he arched as Jack kissed him passionately.

"Just for your information," Jack panted after the kiss, pulling Daniel's hand up to stroke his throbbing cock, "I love it both ways," he grunted and hot come splattered them, the tightness inside making Daniel's eyes roll back as he thrust deep into Jack and came.

"Wow," Daniel said, starry eyed and sprawled looselimbed with Jack still slumped over him.

Jack grunted a contented laugh. "Four times in twelve hours, I think you've broken me, Danny," he said, then yelped as his eyes caught sight of the bedside clock. "I've got to pick up Alex!"

"I need to head to the mountain, death didn't clear my work load," Daniel said stiffly. .

Pulling off of Daniel with a wince, the older man rolled carefully off and sat down on the side of the bed, taking Daniel's hand and pulling him up into a sitting position, brown eyes serious. "I need you to understand something," he kissed Daniel slowly, then leaned back. "I love you, am ~in love~ with you. I love Alex, but only as a really good friend that I slept with. No," Jack shook his head, trying to stay totally honest. "Maybe more than that, but we both went into the relationship knowing that I love you, and he loves that FBI agent, but neither one of us expecting to actually get who we really wanted!"

Daniel could only smile back at the bright grin. "I didn't even know that I loved you until I saw you and Alex together. Then all I could think that Alex was good for you and not wanting to screw that up for you."

Jack shook his head, "Alex is a good friend. But you're what I need," he said.

"You've got me," Daniel whispered, giving Jack a kiss. As Jack headed to the shower, Daniel grinned mischievously, and began to whistle, 'You are my Sunshine..."

Poking his head out, Jack scowled. "I know where you live!"

~*

The future~

The Fourth of July picnic at Alex and Mulder's home in Manitou Springs was full of people that Dana didn't know. She kept Walter's hand in hers as she nervously stood at the entrance to the large backyard filled with the sound of music, people laughing and kids screaming as they ran by. It was so far from what Dana knew about Alex Krycek and Fox Mulder that it may have been another planet.

"Dana!" A fit, tan and obviously happy Mulder came over taking the covered dish that she carried, handing it off to Krycek before wrapping her in a bear hug.

"How are you?" she asked after they pulled back. The loving look that shot between the two men should have surprised her, but didn't.

"We're good. Sir, it's good to see you," Mulder said to Skinner and held out his hand.

"Call me Walt," Skinner said, shaking both Fox and Alex's hands.

Dana smiled at Alex. "How are you doing? I was worried about you after I heard what happened."

Alex smiled back easily. "I'm fine. Thanks for the flowers, by the way."

"I told her to send you vodka but she didn't listen," Skinner said teasingly, laughing when she elbowed him and rolled her eyes.

Fox smiled at the obvious love between them and knew he could relax. Dana was in good hands. "Let me introduce you to everyone," he said and he led them into the yard.

A hand in the small of Alex's back made him jump, but the beer that appeared in front of his nose made him grin. "Thanks, Jack," he said and nipped it out of the older man's fingers.

Jack grinned back and gestured with his own beer. "Everything looks great, 'Lexei. You and Fox must have worked your asses off."

With smug satisfaction Alex looked around the backyard that he and his partner had landscaped. There were aspens and blue spruce delineating the boundaries to the big backyard that went with the large a-frame house that he and Fox had bought together. The nodding Columbines and Indian paintbrush that were everywhere added beautiful color and the grass was weedfree, an exercise that aggravated Alex more than some of the missions he'd been on. And behind the trees was a clear mountain stream that currently held all of the beer, wine coolers and hard lemonades that people had brought. "Thanks, Jack. Who's manning the grill?"

"T said he'd watch it for a bit. Daniel is watching him and he told me to come over here to see if you were okay," Jack sipped his beer, watching his ex-lover out of the corner of his eye.

Alex took another sip of beer before turning to Jack. "I don't deserve the happiness I have, Jack," he answered seriously. "I've done some really shitty things, a lot of them to Fox, and he still loves me. I can't get over the miracle my life has become, and I owe it all to you."

"To me?" Jack asked incredulously.

"~Yes, you~", Alex emphasized. "If I hadn't met you, if you hadn't trusted me and hired me, if I hadn't met, well, you know who," he gestured to the sky with his beer bottle, "that brought Fox back into my life? Oh yeah, I owe it all to you, pal."

Jack took a sip of his beer and contemplated Alex's words. "Meeting you was one of the best things in my life, Alex. But I didn't change your life, you did that all on your own."

Alex ducked his head, swallowing against the tightness in his throat. He glanced back up, the emotions turning his eyes emerald green and he quirked a smile at Jack. "Thanks for that."

"I love you, Alex," Jack replied simply.

"Me too," Alex said. He nudged Jack, sipping his beer but keeping his eyes on Fox as his lover moved through the crowd. "What do you think Daniel and Fox would say to a foursome?"

Jack quirked an eyebrow and took a drink of his beer, then sighed. "We could ask but then Daniel would kill me and Fox would kill you, and where would be the fun in that?"

*

Fox stopped beside Daniel and gestured at their respective lovers. "I wonder what they're talking about?"

Glancing over, Daniel could see a very familiar gleam in Jack's eye, and shook his head. "I don't want to know."

The FBI agent met Alex's mischievous gaze across their yard and pursed his lips. "I think you're right.

*

Alex snickered, eyeing the two gorgeous men by the grill and took another drink of his beer. "Yeah, but damn, wouldn't they be pretty?"