This series is dedicated to all the Jack's-butt-lusters that I know: gen, ship, and slash. Enjoy, girls!

Two-Way Street

"Thanks for the lift home, Jack," Daniel offered, with a smile over at his team-mate.

"Huh. Wasn't about to let you drive home after your one beer."

"That," the younger man said with careful dignity, "was over two hours ago with dinner."

"Yeah, whatever." Okay, so Jack wasn't in the best of moods tonight. Faced with the choice between keeping the conversation going or just shutting up, Daniel decided to go with shutting up. One thing he'd learned about working with Jack in the last four years was that if Jack didn't want to talk, there was almost no force on Earth which could make him - and none off Earth either.

Of course, there had been times when Daniel had opted for the 'let's see how far we can push Jack' alternative, and the results had been fairly spectacular. Sam usually chided him for it later, but Daniel couldn't help it. Jack's personality could grate on Daniel's nerves, and Daniel wasn't such a saint that he'd forgo the fun of a little bit of payback.

They were a few blocks away from Daniel's apartment when Jack brought the topic up. "That guy you were talking to…at the bar."

"Johan?"

"The one with his hair all slicked."

"What about him?"

"You…were talking to him for a long time."

Daniel regarded Jack the way Jack usually regarded new aliens. Cautiously. "Ye-es. And?"

"Um… What did you guys talk about?" That was definitely not the question Jack had been going to ask, but for the time being, Daniel would play along.

"Oh, this and that. He wanted to know what went on in the mountain. I told him the usual story. He was going on about conspiracy theories for a bit - something about the Roswell aliens and such… He was a long way from the truth of the Asgard though…"

"Oh."

"Why?"

"Well…" Jack seemed to be considering something as he navigated a corner, "You did know he's gay?"

Daniel knew. Anyone who'd looked at the guy for more than a second knew.

Ah. So that was what was rolling around Jack's head.

"What of it?" Daniel asked. "I'm bisexual."

The statement had exactly the reaction he'd expected.

Complete and utter shock.

The truck screeched to a halt in the middle of the deserted street, the engine spluttering to a standstill as the driver forgot to clutch. Jack rested his hands on the steering wheel and looked disbelievingly at his friend as if he'd just swallowed something disagreeable. "You're what?"

Button pushed. Explosion imminent.

Daniel had to fight hard not to laugh at the older man's expression. Jack might be cosmopolitan when it came to women in the armed forces and in front-line units, but when it came to the question of sexual orientation, the man was stuck somewhere back in the dark ages - or maybe the 18^th Century. He repeated the statement. "I'm bisexual, Jack. The street goes both ways for me."

"Oh, now that is so…" Jack's head dropped into one of his hands scrubbing through the greying strands. "How long has this been going on? I mean…"

"How long have I known, or when was the last time I did a guy?" The crudity was deliberate. Jack was leading a mixed-sex team - but more than that, he was leading a mixed-sexuality team. And they'd known each other for four years, after all. Trusted each other for four years. Daniel was just as bisexual now as he'd been then.

"Daniel!"

"I've known since I was twenty-three, Jack. About ten years now, at least six years before you met me. I did some…experimenting while at college."

"Whoa! Way more information that I wanted!" Jack lifted his head from his hand, "Shit…"

"Jack, it's no different than being straight."

"It's completely different…"

"No, it's not." Daniel use his 'being-patient-with-Jack' tone of voice. He'd think of it like explaining a culture that Jack didn't understand. And wasn't that it, after all - just another culture that the military man would have to wrap his brain around? "You like women, don't you, Jack? You'd never look at a guy that way - that's your emotional make-up. You'd never fall for a man because…well, I don't know why, you just wouldn't. You wouldn't let yourself. Women are 'it', for you, Jack. Like Kynthia, or Laira."

"What about Hathor then?" Jack grunted, "Or Shyla? Or Linnaea - young Linnaea? Shit, what about Sha'ure?"

"I said I'm bi, Jack, not gay. I don't have a problem with women. I'm kinda surprised that Makepeace and his guys never cornered me in the locker room though."

"Don't tell me they were…"

Daniel snorted, "No. But they didn't have a problem with roughing up some others in the SGC who didn't have your protection." He remembered one young Sergeant who had requested reassignment after an 'incident' in one of the storerooms, and another Lieutenant who transferred into the SGC with stars in his eyes - and transferred out with black eyes.

"Don't ask, don't tell," Jack muttered, staring out the windscreen.

"Sam tells me it's a joke, anyway. You can't tell me that some of the young men don't get brutalised in the rougher parts of the Force, Jack. Bullies are the same whether they're in school or in the military. There are men who don't give a shit who or what they stick it into - as long as it gives them a kick."

"Can we not go there?"

Good point. He was getting off-topic. "Remember loving Sara, Jack?"

"Yeah."

"What if she'd been a guy?"

Jack snorted, "I wouldn't have married her for one."

"Exactly. You might have been friends, but you'd never have been lovers. That's you. I loved Sha'ure - fell for her like a stone - you saw that. It made no difference to me that she was female and therefore the socially acceptable kind of partner. I wouldn't have cared if she was a guy, we'd just have been doing things differently…and Apophis wouldn't have taken her from me." He'd never thought about it in those terms before. It was surprising how much it hurt - especially given her death had been nearly two years ago. He shook himself out of that thought. "Bisexuality is nothing big, Jack. Just a different way of looking at things."

There was a pause, and Daniel wondered if this time the situation really was going to explode in his face. Jack was about as firmly heterosexual as you'd ever get in a guy. It didn't mean he shied away from physical contact with other guys - the casual thumps and punches and claps on the shoulder he shared with his team-mates and the other men on the base were given without so much as a second thought. Male-bonding kind of stuff, no problem. But if it ever came down to something which could be interpreted otherwise…

Daniel had to know. "Are you okay with this?"

"No!" It was a very distinct Jack-whine. This time, the grin was hard to stifle; whining was usually Daniel's specialty. It was good to know that if he was acquiring bad habits from Jack, Jack was doing the same from him. "I'm still trying to work my head around…"

"It's nothing big, Jack. I've already told you." Daniel sighed. "It doesn't make any difference to us, Jack."

"Us?"

"You and me."

"There is no 'us', Daniel!" The words rather too closely resembled Jack's denial back when he'd been undercover with the black-market Stargate organization, and both men realised it. "Look, I didn't mean it like that, Daniel. You're my…" Jack swallowed, "…friend. Just…not like that."

The other worry het men tended to have about gay and bisexual men was that they immediately became attractive to them. Just because a man was interested in other men sexually, didn't mean he was interested in all men sexually, or he was unable to have any male friends.

He searched around for a comparison Jack would relate to. "When was the last time you looked at Sam like she was a sex-object, Jack?" Daniel tried not to sound like he was talking to an idiot. Jack was no idiot, he knew that. He just could be very dense when he didn't want to learn.

Jack choked. "This conversation is getting seriously freaky, Daniel."

"I'm making a point here. You and Teal'c don't look at Sam as 'sex on a stick', do you?" Daniel watched his friend's face go red and added, "Don't answer that if you do."

There were some things he didn't want to know about the dynamics of their team. Sure, Sam was an attractive woman - you'd have to be buried for a couple of years before you failed to spot that one - and a great friend, but Daniel had as much sexual interest in Sam as she did in him: which was to say none at all. However, after two alternate universes in which Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter had something going, he couldn't quite say the same of Jack and Sam.

There was certainly something on Sam's side - at least there had been after the incident when Jack was stranded on Edora - but whether there was anything on Jack's side… Sure, Jack was protective of Sam - but he was protective of all of SG-1. Sam might have gotten the extra concern because she was female, or there might have been another reason. And then there was the consideration that if he didn't know one way or the other, he couldn't tell.

"Just because she, or Janet, or any other woman on this base happens to be female doesn't mean you're going to jump their bones, does it?" Another pause. "I'll take that as a 'No, I'm not'."

"Definitely no. Carter would have my balls…" Jack broke off.

"…on a plate with sauce if you tried anything on her, right?" Daniel grinned. "And Sam doesn't run around throwing herself at anything with a y-chromosome, does she?"

"She doesn't need to," the other man grunted, "They're all too busy throwing themselves at her."

"There you go, then. Same thing. I'm not about to make a pass at you, Jack, just because I'm bisexual. Give me credit for some discrimination at least!" He got a slightly hurt look from Jack before he realised what he'd said and grinned. Jack's ego was definitely male - it needed stroking. "Your orientation isn't towards guys. I'm not about to try to change that. Besides, you get on my nerves as it is. You'd get on my nerves more if I was sleeping…"

"Ooo-kay, I think that's enough deep conversation for the evening." The speed with which Jack changed the subject and restarted the pickup was highly amusing to Daniel, but he said nothing and they continued down the road in silence.

As they reached the block of apartments, Daniel wondered if he'd done the right thing in telling Jack. He was a little surprised nobody had yet said anything - maybe the people who had worked it out all figured Jack already knew. Or maybe they'd seen what Daniel hadn't - that it was better for Colonel O'Neill to deal with someone of an alternate sexuality by not knowing they were of an alternate sexuality. "All righty then. Have a good night." Much to Daniel's relief, there was no discomfort or forcedness in the last statement. "I'm going home. To sleep."

"Alone?"

The roll of the eyes was clearly visible by the street light. "Good night, Daniel."

Daniel put his hand on the handle of the door, "Does my orientation bother you?"

"Yes. And no." The older man grimaced. "Look, you're my team. That doesn't change. I…just need a bit of time to get used to this…news…"

"Take whatever time you need, Jack. I'm off with SG-12 on their next mission anyway, so you don't have to worry about me lusting after your butt." He grinned.

"See, if you continue with comments like that, I'm gonna get nervous." Jack was half-serious, half-kidding, and Daniel decided to throw another spanner into the works.

"Huh, you should worry more about the women on base who lust after your butt, Jack. You're safe from me - to them, you're prey."

Shock rippled across the older man's face: "What? Who?"

The smile which Daniel gave his friend was deliberately insufferable, "That would be telling, Jack."

Jack thought that over for a moment. "Do Carter and Teal'c know?"

"About the butt-lusting?"

"Daniel!"

"Sam, yes. It came out a couple of years ago during one of our all-nighter talks. Teal'c…I'm not sure. He might have suspicions, but…" Daniel shrugged, "This is Teal'c we're talking about."

"So I'm the last to know."

"Pretty much."

"All right." Jack didn't sound too annoyed. Which was a relief. Yeah, he'd have to think it over, maybe readjust some things in his mind, but Daniel didn't think his place on SG-1 was in too much jeopardy. Which was as well. Irritating or not, the man did have a way about him. "Step out of the car and go into your apartment, Daniel." The words weren't angry or offensive, just typically I'm-tired-right-now-so-don't-argue-with-me Jack.

"Night, Jack." Daniel grinned and slammed the door, then watched as the other man drove down the street.

As the pickup turned the corner, he stepped into the warm of his apartment building, nodding at the security guard in the lobby. He'd gotten that off his chest anyway. It'd only been hanging around for, what, four years?

And it was all out of the way.

All in all, it had been a good night.

* FIN *