Chapter Text
Walking into his apartment, exhaustion clinging to him. Just wanting to eat dinner and head to bed. However, walking past his kitchen counter he notices the pile of mail he left from this morning. Not wanting to deal with it but knowing he needs too, shoves it to the back of his mind till he gets something to eat.
Opening the fridge he's rewarded with scraps. Half a jug of milk, a little bit of cheese, and maybe a container of day old take out. Deciding to brave the takeout cause it looks decent. Closes the fridge and turns to the microwave.
Dinner, going he heads back to the counter to sort through his mail. Ads, ads, oh a tax bill. He will have to send that to the civilian department at the base. While ruminating about that, the sound of beeping lets him know the food is done. Taking what he's gone through so far, putting the ads in the recycling, he grabs his food from the microwave and sorts through the rest of the mail.
It seems to be just ads till the last one. His name in big bold letters on the front. With his address right underneath.
Daniel Jackson
321, Window Blvd, Apt 509
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
Looking at the return address, he didn't recognize it.
"Sally Jackson-Blofis"
"### Diamond District"
"5th floor"
"New York, NY 10103"
Sally Jackson-Blofis rings no bells and with his food all but forgotten he opens the envelope. Within in neat blue pen it starts
Dear,
Daniel Jackson
My name is Sally Jackson-Blofis, I'm unsure whether or not you know this. However, I'm writing to you because I've recently discovered we are cousins. If this is the first time, you're hearing about it I'm sorry for giving you a fright. My parents were Jim and Estelle Jackson. My father was your father Melburn's brother. Both my parents died in an airplane crash in 1975, and I was adopted by our uncle Rich Jackson.
Rich is actually how I found out about you. While going through his old things trying to see what he had kept all these years. I found a box full of letters from Melburn & Claire as well as old fostering or adoption request documents.
While reading the letters and documents I found out that my parents were actually thinking about adopting you. They hadn't heard of your parents' deaths till you were already in the system. Then they sadly died before all the paperwork went through. Then I was adopted by our uncle Rich. He was actually asked if he would be able to adopt you after my parents passing. However, he was already having trouble getting by with me and thought it would be best for you to stay within the system.
I know all of this might be a shock and you'll probably need a while to adjust. My main reason for writing to you was wondering if you'd like to get to know each other. If not, then all you have to do is toss this letter and I won't reach out again. However, if you'd like, my phone number is at the bottom of the page and I'm free for your reply till the end of this week. If I haven't heard from you till, then I'll know your answer, and we can go back to not knowing each other.
All the best,
Sally
Just underneath her name like mentioned is a phone number. The area code does match the return address. However, all of this is so bizarre. After Nick decided to stay on P7X-377 he had resigned to the fact that he had no immediate family. That SG-1 would be all he has left. This letter however has opened a sliver of hope.
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The next morning after re-reading the letter with his morning coffee. He decides that he's gonna call Sally. He knows already he has enough PTO to cover him for a while. So, grabs the letter, phone, and coffee and heads to the sofa. With the number dialed in, he checks the clock to make sure she'd be up then hit the call button. He's surprisingly nervous. Hopes from the kind way she seemed in the letter that this would go over well.
"Hello, Jackson-Blofis residents, who is this?" That was definitely not a woman's voice. But from the hyphenated name in the letter this must be Sally's husband.
"Hello, Mr. Blofis?"
"Yes, this is him, what's this about?"
"Hi, uh, my name is Daniel Jackson. I received a letter from Sally Jackson-Blofis yesterday. Is she available?"
"Oh! uh! Mr. Jackson, yes, I'll go get her. Give me a sec", He could hear footsteps, then quiet murmurs, then the rustling of the phone being handed over.
"Hello, Daniel!?, this is Sally", with that one sentence he let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. And felt the constriction in his chest ease.
"Uhh... Hi, Hello, Sorry I'm not exactly sure what to say", hearing the voice on the other end laugh. His nerves release. He just has to keep thinking, this is a first for her too, there is no pressure.
"You have a nice laugh.... Uhm....Sorry that sounded weird." Shaking my head I move on
"Anyway, I got your letter, well obviously uhm or I wouldn't be talking to you. But umm it's the reason I called. I would like to accept your offer of getting to know each other."
"Well, that sounds wonderful Daniel, I'm honestly super glad you decided to reach out. I was kinda nervous while waiting but hearing back so fast was quite the surprise"
"Yeah, after pondering over it last night and re-reading the letter this morning I wasn't quite sure how long that time frame you mention was since I wasn't sure when you sent it nor how long it had been sitting in my mailbox. So, I wanted to get in touch as soon as possible to not pass it up."
"Ohh, I'm terribly sorry I was thinking about the time frame on my end. I didn't take into account how long it'd take to reach you. Funnily enough it ultimately hasn't been that long"
"Well, that's nice to hear. And regarding the contents of the letter, I'm sorry about your parents and uncle Rich"
"Yeah, thank you, same to you about Melburn & Claire." An awkward silence rang out from the end of that sentence till Sally spoke again
"When are you thinking about getting together? Or if traveling from Colorado to New York is a little difficult at this short of a notice we could schedule calls. Just wanted to let you know that I have a newborn Estelle and a son Percy", Her tone suddenly shifting,
"If this is a deal breaker or you have any issue then this call is over and I won't be speaking to you at all", hurriedly I replied not wanting this connection to slip,
"That is not a problem. If you'd be acceptable, I'd love to meet them and the rest of your family. It’s just my fish and friends at work."
" Sorry about the tone.... I just they're my whole world and I'd rather get that out of the way."
"No harm done I think that's very caring and understandable"
"Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry I haven't even asked you what you do!"
" I'm an Archeologist, Linguist, and Egyptologist"
"Wow! And I'm just a humble Novelist with an English Teacher Husband" we shared a chuckle for a minute when I remarked
" I've actually got three PhDs. With normally everyone calling me Dr. Daniel Jackson. So, it was refreshing to be called just Daniel Jackson in your letter.", I could hear an intake of breath from the other line. She's probably getting ready to ask me something, starts a little hesitant, growing confident as she keeps talking.
"Well, I'm quite glad to hear it. Depending on how flexible your schedule is, would you want to spend the rest of the summer being a guest at our house? Paul, my husband is off work for the summer, and I don't currently have an expected publication deadline and I'm sure the little help and quality time with Estelle would be nice. I could even give you a little tour of New York."
"Wow! Uh umm. Are you sure? I can definitely get the time off to spend the rest of the summer or even into the new school year. But are you sure you'd want me to stay that long? I don't want to intrude or take up time. I'm sure you have plans with your family."
"Oh, you don't have to worry. You're family too Daniel. All you've got to do is let me know when the time off is approved and then we can schedule the best flight to get you here."
"Uhh... umm. Ok, that sounds like a good plan", Thankfully we got that sorted cause a high-pitched cry suddenly burst through the other end of the line. With quick goodbyes and text soon. The call ended. Probably Estelle being fed up with dad and wanting mom back. Now all I have to do is let the SGC know I'll be going on vacation for the rest of the summer unless they absolutely need me.