Trying out my hand...
...at this wonderful universe. A Jack snippet, with Daniel, of course. *g* Also Ford, because he felt neglected. It's my first time writing anything with the Atlantis crew, so I'd appreciate any feedback. *g*
(Oh yeah, though I've backtracked in the timeline here a bit, I've pretty much been trying to incorporate everyone's snippets in this fic's universe. So there might be slight references to other people's fic. Just a note.)
A Day In the Life
------
Daniel’s lips were smooth and full, and they felt absolutely wonderful on Jack’s cock.
Jack stood drunkenly against his bedroom wall, one of his hands clenched in Daniel’s hair, holding the younger man harshly by the scruff of his neck. Jack thrust in and out desperately, straining against the slick wetness of Daniel’s tongue, reveling in the furnace-like heat of Daniel’s mouth, and Daniel hummed around him, his wicked eyes looking back at Jack from underneath thick glasses.
Jack groaned in response, a low, earthy sound, and buried himself deeper in Daniel’s throat…
…and suddenly woke up, panting, the sheets around him wet and stained.
“Goddamnit,” Jack cursed furiously, getting out of his empty bed. “I so do not need this.”
It was two hours till his shift started, Jack saw, looking at the alarm clock over his bed. The room was still dark--the sun on Atlantis hadn’t yet risen, and Jack had shut off all the weird little lights in his Ancient-derived room before going to bed.
He wasn’t, however, going to get any more sleep.
Might as well get an early start.
------
Sometimes Jack wondered why he even bothered.
He sat fidgeting in his chair at the command table, staring at the people around him. Even galaxies away, it was so much like the SGC that Jack wanted to push back his chair and just leave.
He couldn’t, of course.
“The Genai,” Sheppard was saying in his slightly nasal, high-pitched tenor, “are offering to help us. It might be a good idea to take them up on it--from what Teyla’s been saying, they could help us out quite a bit.”
Jack found himself glancing at the ceiling in irritation at the statement--they known those Genai for what? Two days?--but he quickly leveled a noncommittal gaze back onto his second in command.
The other man hadn’t missed the look, though. Sheppard was staring back at him with his trademark doleful expression--and suddenly, it was as if Jack was back in his old life with his old team. Sheppard’s displeasure was so very familiar--his eyes held almost the exact same expression that Carter’s had started out with, back in their first mission together: the same stubbornness, the same awed respect, the same determination to show Jack that he had his place on the mission.
Jack stared back at Sheppard silently.
Sheppard went back to his briefing.
The rest of the table, Jack noticed as he immediately tuned Sheppard out, was also nothing more than a sick imitation of the SGC. He looked at Weir, sitting at the head of the table. If she was nothing like Hammond, Jack thought to himself, in either appearance or manner, she still had the same ability to listen, the same grave consideration for the members of her team.
The choked feeling in Jack’s lungs only increased.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Jack suddenly found himself saying. He didn’t know what they were talking about, but he found himself needing to see what she would do.
Everything was exactly the same--Weir frowned at him, using almost the exact same frown that Hammond had on similar occasions. Then she nodded towards him, silently asking him to continue his objection. Which again, was just like the General.
Jack forced himself to meet her eyes. It was more difficult that he thought it would be.
“Well, Colonel?” she prompted him.
He waved her request away, subsiding into silence.
Ford, Jack found, was also difficult to deal with, sitting silently across from Jack as he was. The darker man’s expression was almost stoic as he listened to the reports, with only quick flashes of humor flitting briefly across his tanned face. It was like looking at a younger, more relaxed version of Teal’c, Jack suddenly thought--and then Jack couldn’t bear to look at him, either.
Even McKay was somewhat familiar. The man had, for one, actually worked at the SGC for a time, and even if he hadn’t done so, McKay was just a stand-in for the same old scientists that Jack had seen in some form or another back at the Stargate program.
Jack found himself seriously considering just backing up from the table and leaving.
Someone tapped loudly on the table, startling him.
Jack looked up.
Daniel was staring at him distractedly, his fingers playing a staccato beat. He caught Jack looking at him, stopped tapping for only a second, and then he smiled in return.
Daniel, Jack thought to himself, Daniel. The man was utterly out of place with the rest of them--in fact, Daniel didn’t really have a place at the table at all. As an archeologist, he wasn’t supposed to be involved in the command decisions.
Daniel smile turned puzzled, an acknowledgement of Jack’s thoughtful look.
Jack’s lips started to twitch in return.
Daniel was…different, Jack found himself thinking. Unpredictable. The man could be volatile--he had point-blank refused to vacate the room when he had been asked to leave, saying “I belong here” in such a stubborn voice that nobody had the heart to make him get out. It had left McKay exasperated and Weir utterly flustered.
It was almost…fun…to see what the man would do next.
Unpredictable, weird, out-of-place Daniel. Uncertain and rather clumsy at some times, Jack conceded inwardly, and yet at others, forceful and sure. Afraid of gate-travel, and yet willing to face anyone down without hesitation, willing to back a hardened and-if he did say so himself-rather frightening colonel into a corner in a deserted hallway with nothing arming him but a look. Jack still didn’t know how the other man had done it-it seemed that lately, Jack didn’t know a lot of things about himself when it concerned the other man.
His latest dream, for instance…
“It can also be heaven,” Daniel said in his mind.
And that, Jack thought to himself, was definitely a sign that he was losing it. He didn’t really know what was going on between him and the archeologist, but that was no reason to jump to conclusions--or for his mind to jump in the gutter. No matter what reputation Daniel was developing for himself.
Jack snorted at the thought.
Then he dragged his attention back to the briefing, and the morning wore on.
--------
The afternoon, Jack thought to himself as the world exploded around him, was a bit more exciting.
“You’re fucking crazy, sir,” Ford was yelling, following Jack as they made their way into the wraith hive ship they’d found on their first week in Atlantis. “I can’t believe Dr. Weir actually agreed to this.”
“Beckett says he wants a Wraith,” Jack told him, firing his P-90 at the monster blocking the passageway, “and he made Weir want a Wraith. So here we are.”
Somewhere above them in a puddlejumper, Sheppard was hopefully blasting some of the Wraith assholes to hell, getting most of their attention in the process. Jack was hoping that the Wraith weren’t too bright--and from what Jack had seen on his previous mission, there seemed like there was a better than average chance of that--and would fall for the distraction, drawing them away from the ground level of the ship and into whatever constituted their shield and hanger bays. Jack himself was only heading up a small detail in this find-and-retrieve mission--himself, Ford, and the Athosian woman, Teyla--and they could really use all the help they could get.
“This could hardly have been the only way to obtain one,” Teyla said, running up beside him. She had no trouble keeping up with either him or Ford, Jack noted gratefully. She wasn’t military; it was always an iffy thing with the civilian types.
“I figured we had pretty good odds,” Jack finally told her, keeping his weapon pointed firmly ahead of him. “They’re not exactly expecting us.”
“You’re just happy they can’t eat you,” Ford told him, a grin on his face.
“That too,” Jack answered, and they turned a corner.
Bingo, Jack thought to himself as they arrived in a large room. Bingo, Jackpot, and a good ‘Yee-haw’ for good measure. “Mission accomplished,” he muttered to Ford and Teyla, and the three of them came to a quick stop.
Eloi stared back at them, or maybe it was a creepy little twin of his. Jack didn’t particularly care.
He started firing.
The thing went down pretty easily--the moron just stood there and took it. The things really were kinda stupid, Jack thought, but he continued to fire at it just in case.
Teyla, for her part, kept her gun trained on the monster. “Dr. McKay recommended using these, did he not?” she asked, and then began to fiddle in her pack one-handed for the metal shackles McKay had given them.
Jack confirmed her question, keeping up his fire.
“You think we can hold this guy?” Ford asked him.
“As long as his friends don’t come to the rescue,” Jack said grimly. He pointed at the Wraith. “And pick this up for me, will you? I’m going to go check on him, and I really don’t want him getting up.”
“You got it, sir,” Ford answered, and started firing his weapon in periodic shots.
It was the only sane way, Jack thought to himself, taking the manacles from Teyla. He wasn’t affected by the any of the Wraith’s feeding bullshit, so it made sense that he’d be the one to get near the damned ugly thing. Not that Jack would have let any of his team near it even if he didn’t have a nifty Wraith-allergen; that was his job.
The thing seemed pretty dead, though. Jack put the manacles on the creature.. He knew it’s ‘death’ was only an illusion--he’d seen one of them jump back up after a couple of minutes of being shot in the chest--so hopefully Beckett wouldn’t be too upset at him if it came back a bit damaged. In any case, he wasn’t carrying the thing around while it was conscious.
Even he wasn’t that stupid.
“Alright,” he said when the thing was securely tied, “let’s up and outta here.”
Holding Eloi between himself and Ford, they started their way back towards the way they came in.
A sudden explosion rocked them in their tracks.
Oh crap, Jack thought, and clicked on his radio.
------
Evening found Jack sitting in an alcove in the mess hall. He sat by himself, looking out one of the intricately designed windows--the day was almost over and the Atlantian sun was sinking beneath the waves. The view from the city, Jack admitted to himself, was pretty damned beautiful.
Jack reached for another mouthful of food, and refused to look up when a shadow suddenly fell over him.
“You know,” Daniel said, standing awkwardly before Jack, “you really don’t have to sit here alone.”
Jack glanced up at him, and then went back to his food with what he hoped looked like indifference. “I doubt all of them,” he said, pointing without looking up at a table that contained Sheppard, McKay, and a few others, “would agree with you, Dr. Jackson.”
“Well,” Daniel said, his voice adopting a stubborn tone, “they would be wrong.”
Daniel shuffled a bit more in place, seeming perfectly content to stand where he was for however long he deemed necessary. For a second Jack considered letting the man hang there, but after a moment Jack sighed, indicating the seat across from him.
“You can join me if you like,” Jack said, trying to seem reluctant.
Daniel smiled down at him, a quick flash of a grin, and settled next to him. For a long moment, he only sat there looking at Jack, but then he turned to stare out the window. A moment passed, and he looked back at Jack again, tapping his fingers on the table restlessly. Daniel met Jack’s eyes intently.
Jack felt his lips curve into a smile without his volition. Did the man have a twitching problem or something? What was up with all the tapping? Was it a nervous habit, or was he just doing it to get on Jack’s nerves?
Jack decided to ignore those questions in the hope of making conversation. “You’re already eaten?” he asked, noticing Daniel’s lack of a plate or any other type of food.
Daniel’s fingers stopped their tapping. Maybe it was just restlessness. “No,” Daniel said slowly, blinking across at him with something like surprise. “I…huh. I must have forgotten.”
“Well,” Jack said, not entirely shocked that Daniel had come to visit him while still hungry. He looked almost instinctively at his own plate. “Do you want some of mine? I’ve got carrots and peas, and I think this stuff might be beef…” he pointed at whatever it was.
“I, no, it’s okay…” Daniel trailed off, looking at him. Then, “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Go ahead,” Jack said, handing Daniel a spoon and pushing his own plate to the center of the table. He wondered, in the back of his mind, just what the hell he thought he was doing, feeding the other man from his own plate. Daniel always did something screwy to him, he thought, and looked up at Daniel uncertainly. “Um, unless you want me to get something for you? The stuff’s just over there…” he motioned towards the kitchen.
“No, no,” Daniel told him, looking over Jack’s plate with a quick press of his lips. “This is fine.”
“Oh,” Jack said, still a bit confused by whatever they were doing. “Okay.”
They ate in silence for the next few minutes, with Jack alternating between looking at Daniel and looking out the window. He felt Daniel doing the same.
Jack decided to try conversation again. “So…” He said the first thing that popped into his mind. “Have you gone offworld, yet?”
Daniel stared at him.
Jack kicked himself.
Nice one, he chastised himself harshly. Go and bring up a sore spot between them. Why wasn’t conversation this hard, he wondered, when the two of them were alone in the hallways together?
Jack decided he didn’t want the answer to that.
But Daniel wasn’t offended--instead, he was smiling slightly. “I went with one of the scientific teams off world,” he said, his eyes crinkling hopefully. “One of the worlds already explored by the first contact teams, I mean. Where I knew it was safe. It’s just a start, but…” he trailed off, shrugging.
“We need you out there,” Jack had told him.
Daniel’s eyes had been hard and a little frightened. “You know how I feel about that, Jack.”
Jack nodded. “A lot of guys,” he ventured, “wouldn’t have tried to get back in the saddle.”
“I have my motivation,” Daniel said, and continued to stare into Jack’s eyes.
“Thanks,” Jack replied, and his voice was soft. No use playing dumb, he thought. Not with Daniel.
They continued to stare at one another.
And stare some more.
Just what, Jack thought, the hell are we doing here?
This was stupid, stupid, stupid…
“Mind if I join you, sir?”
Jack looked up, startled, and felt Daniel do the same across from him. Lieutenant Ford stood above the both of them, his eyes questioning as they fell squarely on Jack. Jack wondered, for just a second, what the other man had seen, but then he looked at Daniel, who was nodding.
“Sure,” Jack finally answered, taking Daniel’s cue. “Why not?”
Ford grinned a little, and then sat down between them.
“Just had to say, sir,” Ford said, holding out the beer he had brought with him, apparently toasting Jack, “that I thought you were amazing out there. With the Wraiths and everything.”
Daniel blinked at Jack, and then turned to Ford. “The Wraiths?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Ford answered, looking at Daniel enthusiastically. He waved a hand in Jack’s direction. “This man here was a monster. He had us running around in the middle of the hive--I thought for sure I was a dead man.” He sat back, smiling, and thumped himself on the chest. “But here we are, thanks to him.”
A smile quirked on Daniel’s lips. “You’re a hero, Jack?” he asked softly, turning expectant eyes on the colonel.
For a moment, there was silence.
“You know better than that,” Jack finally said, his own voice just as soft. “But I appreciate the sentiment,” Jack continued briskly, turning back to Ford. “And I have to tell you--you were a hell of a soldier out there. I’d have you on my six any day.”
Ford’s took another sip of his beer. “I’ll hold you to that, sir,” he said, grinning.
Looking at the lieutenant, with his smiling face and innocent eyes, a sudden thought entered Jack’s mind: the kid really isn’t like Teal’c at all. They’re as different as it’s possible for two people to be. Night and day. The kid’s his own kind of man.
Jack felt himself relax a bit more.
“You got it, kid,” Jack finally said, smiling back. “I’ll look you up.”
Daniel smiled at them both.
Later, when dinner was over and Jack was walking Daniel back to his office--did the man ever stop working?--Daniel turned back to him.
“You know,” Daniel said, his lips quirking, “that he’s got a crush on you, right?”
“Ford?” Jack asked, then waved the thought aside. “Nah. He’s just--giddy. Hero worship, I’ve seen it before.”
Daniel nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe,” he conceded. A wicked gleam appeared in his eyes. “But he has been talking about you. Ever since you got back, really.”
Jack’s eyebrows raised. “I thought you didn’t know about the mission. About what happened.”
“Hmmm,” Daniel said. “Well, I lied.”
“You lied.”
“Uh huh.”
Jack looked down at Daniel, feeling his face twist wryly. “Well, aren’t you devious?” he said.
Daniel smiled back at him. “I am. I can be.”
Jack rolled his eyes.
Daniel’s face became serious. “You are a hero, though, you know,” he said, slowing his step to turn and look at Jack.
“Oh, god,” Jack groaned, rolling his eyes again. “Not you, too.”
“It’s not hero worship,” Daniel said stubbornly. “Or not all of it--I’m just telling you what I see.” He hit Jack lightly on the arm. “I’m usually right about stuff like this,” he said pointedly.
“I,” Jack told him firmly, “am not a hero.”
“You’d be surprised,” Daniel murmured, but then he changed the subject.
-----
When Jack went to sleep that night, the lights of the city still flashing across his face from the other occupants in the city, he hoped really hard that he wouldn’t dream about Daniel. Too much trouble, he thought to himself. They didn’t know what they were doing.
He needn’t have bothered.
When he closed his eyes, it was Baal who met him in his dreams.
(Oh yeah, though I've backtracked in the timeline here a bit, I've pretty much been trying to incorporate everyone's snippets in this fic's universe. So there might be slight references to other people's fic. Just a note.)
A Day In the Life
------
Daniel’s lips were smooth and full, and they felt absolutely wonderful on Jack’s cock.
Jack stood drunkenly against his bedroom wall, one of his hands clenched in Daniel’s hair, holding the younger man harshly by the scruff of his neck. Jack thrust in and out desperately, straining against the slick wetness of Daniel’s tongue, reveling in the furnace-like heat of Daniel’s mouth, and Daniel hummed around him, his wicked eyes looking back at Jack from underneath thick glasses.
Jack groaned in response, a low, earthy sound, and buried himself deeper in Daniel’s throat…
…and suddenly woke up, panting, the sheets around him wet and stained.
“Goddamnit,” Jack cursed furiously, getting out of his empty bed. “I so do not need this.”
It was two hours till his shift started, Jack saw, looking at the alarm clock over his bed. The room was still dark--the sun on Atlantis hadn’t yet risen, and Jack had shut off all the weird little lights in his Ancient-derived room before going to bed.
He wasn’t, however, going to get any more sleep.
Might as well get an early start.
------
Sometimes Jack wondered why he even bothered.
He sat fidgeting in his chair at the command table, staring at the people around him. Even galaxies away, it was so much like the SGC that Jack wanted to push back his chair and just leave.
He couldn’t, of course.
“The Genai,” Sheppard was saying in his slightly nasal, high-pitched tenor, “are offering to help us. It might be a good idea to take them up on it--from what Teyla’s been saying, they could help us out quite a bit.”
Jack found himself glancing at the ceiling in irritation at the statement--they known those Genai for what? Two days?--but he quickly leveled a noncommittal gaze back onto his second in command.
The other man hadn’t missed the look, though. Sheppard was staring back at him with his trademark doleful expression--and suddenly, it was as if Jack was back in his old life with his old team. Sheppard’s displeasure was so very familiar--his eyes held almost the exact same expression that Carter’s had started out with, back in their first mission together: the same stubbornness, the same awed respect, the same determination to show Jack that he had his place on the mission.
Jack stared back at Sheppard silently.
Sheppard went back to his briefing.
The rest of the table, Jack noticed as he immediately tuned Sheppard out, was also nothing more than a sick imitation of the SGC. He looked at Weir, sitting at the head of the table. If she was nothing like Hammond, Jack thought to himself, in either appearance or manner, she still had the same ability to listen, the same grave consideration for the members of her team.
The choked feeling in Jack’s lungs only increased.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Jack suddenly found himself saying. He didn’t know what they were talking about, but he found himself needing to see what she would do.
Everything was exactly the same--Weir frowned at him, using almost the exact same frown that Hammond had on similar occasions. Then she nodded towards him, silently asking him to continue his objection. Which again, was just like the General.
Jack forced himself to meet her eyes. It was more difficult that he thought it would be.
“Well, Colonel?” she prompted him.
He waved her request away, subsiding into silence.
Ford, Jack found, was also difficult to deal with, sitting silently across from Jack as he was. The darker man’s expression was almost stoic as he listened to the reports, with only quick flashes of humor flitting briefly across his tanned face. It was like looking at a younger, more relaxed version of Teal’c, Jack suddenly thought--and then Jack couldn’t bear to look at him, either.
Even McKay was somewhat familiar. The man had, for one, actually worked at the SGC for a time, and even if he hadn’t done so, McKay was just a stand-in for the same old scientists that Jack had seen in some form or another back at the Stargate program.
Jack found himself seriously considering just backing up from the table and leaving.
Someone tapped loudly on the table, startling him.
Jack looked up.
Daniel was staring at him distractedly, his fingers playing a staccato beat. He caught Jack looking at him, stopped tapping for only a second, and then he smiled in return.
Daniel, Jack thought to himself, Daniel. The man was utterly out of place with the rest of them--in fact, Daniel didn’t really have a place at the table at all. As an archeologist, he wasn’t supposed to be involved in the command decisions.
Daniel smile turned puzzled, an acknowledgement of Jack’s thoughtful look.
Jack’s lips started to twitch in return.
Daniel was…different, Jack found himself thinking. Unpredictable. The man could be volatile--he had point-blank refused to vacate the room when he had been asked to leave, saying “I belong here” in such a stubborn voice that nobody had the heart to make him get out. It had left McKay exasperated and Weir utterly flustered.
It was almost…fun…to see what the man would do next.
Unpredictable, weird, out-of-place Daniel. Uncertain and rather clumsy at some times, Jack conceded inwardly, and yet at others, forceful and sure. Afraid of gate-travel, and yet willing to face anyone down without hesitation, willing to back a hardened and-if he did say so himself-rather frightening colonel into a corner in a deserted hallway with nothing arming him but a look. Jack still didn’t know how the other man had done it-it seemed that lately, Jack didn’t know a lot of things about himself when it concerned the other man.
His latest dream, for instance…
“It can also be heaven,” Daniel said in his mind.
And that, Jack thought to himself, was definitely a sign that he was losing it. He didn’t really know what was going on between him and the archeologist, but that was no reason to jump to conclusions--or for his mind to jump in the gutter. No matter what reputation Daniel was developing for himself.
Jack snorted at the thought.
Then he dragged his attention back to the briefing, and the morning wore on.
--------
The afternoon, Jack thought to himself as the world exploded around him, was a bit more exciting.
“You’re fucking crazy, sir,” Ford was yelling, following Jack as they made their way into the wraith hive ship they’d found on their first week in Atlantis. “I can’t believe Dr. Weir actually agreed to this.”
“Beckett says he wants a Wraith,” Jack told him, firing his P-90 at the monster blocking the passageway, “and he made Weir want a Wraith. So here we are.”
Somewhere above them in a puddlejumper, Sheppard was hopefully blasting some of the Wraith assholes to hell, getting most of their attention in the process. Jack was hoping that the Wraith weren’t too bright--and from what Jack had seen on his previous mission, there seemed like there was a better than average chance of that--and would fall for the distraction, drawing them away from the ground level of the ship and into whatever constituted their shield and hanger bays. Jack himself was only heading up a small detail in this find-and-retrieve mission--himself, Ford, and the Athosian woman, Teyla--and they could really use all the help they could get.
“This could hardly have been the only way to obtain one,” Teyla said, running up beside him. She had no trouble keeping up with either him or Ford, Jack noted gratefully. She wasn’t military; it was always an iffy thing with the civilian types.
“I figured we had pretty good odds,” Jack finally told her, keeping his weapon pointed firmly ahead of him. “They’re not exactly expecting us.”
“You’re just happy they can’t eat you,” Ford told him, a grin on his face.
“That too,” Jack answered, and they turned a corner.
Bingo, Jack thought to himself as they arrived in a large room. Bingo, Jackpot, and a good ‘Yee-haw’ for good measure. “Mission accomplished,” he muttered to Ford and Teyla, and the three of them came to a quick stop.
Eloi stared back at them, or maybe it was a creepy little twin of his. Jack didn’t particularly care.
He started firing.
The thing went down pretty easily--the moron just stood there and took it. The things really were kinda stupid, Jack thought, but he continued to fire at it just in case.
Teyla, for her part, kept her gun trained on the monster. “Dr. McKay recommended using these, did he not?” she asked, and then began to fiddle in her pack one-handed for the metal shackles McKay had given them.
Jack confirmed her question, keeping up his fire.
“You think we can hold this guy?” Ford asked him.
“As long as his friends don’t come to the rescue,” Jack said grimly. He pointed at the Wraith. “And pick this up for me, will you? I’m going to go check on him, and I really don’t want him getting up.”
“You got it, sir,” Ford answered, and started firing his weapon in periodic shots.
It was the only sane way, Jack thought to himself, taking the manacles from Teyla. He wasn’t affected by the any of the Wraith’s feeding bullshit, so it made sense that he’d be the one to get near the damned ugly thing. Not that Jack would have let any of his team near it even if he didn’t have a nifty Wraith-allergen; that was his job.
The thing seemed pretty dead, though. Jack put the manacles on the creature.. He knew it’s ‘death’ was only an illusion--he’d seen one of them jump back up after a couple of minutes of being shot in the chest--so hopefully Beckett wouldn’t be too upset at him if it came back a bit damaged. In any case, he wasn’t carrying the thing around while it was conscious.
Even he wasn’t that stupid.
“Alright,” he said when the thing was securely tied, “let’s up and outta here.”
Holding Eloi between himself and Ford, they started their way back towards the way they came in.
A sudden explosion rocked them in their tracks.
Oh crap, Jack thought, and clicked on his radio.
------
Evening found Jack sitting in an alcove in the mess hall. He sat by himself, looking out one of the intricately designed windows--the day was almost over and the Atlantian sun was sinking beneath the waves. The view from the city, Jack admitted to himself, was pretty damned beautiful.
Jack reached for another mouthful of food, and refused to look up when a shadow suddenly fell over him.
“You know,” Daniel said, standing awkwardly before Jack, “you really don’t have to sit here alone.”
Jack glanced up at him, and then went back to his food with what he hoped looked like indifference. “I doubt all of them,” he said, pointing without looking up at a table that contained Sheppard, McKay, and a few others, “would agree with you, Dr. Jackson.”
“Well,” Daniel said, his voice adopting a stubborn tone, “they would be wrong.”
Daniel shuffled a bit more in place, seeming perfectly content to stand where he was for however long he deemed necessary. For a second Jack considered letting the man hang there, but after a moment Jack sighed, indicating the seat across from him.
“You can join me if you like,” Jack said, trying to seem reluctant.
Daniel smiled down at him, a quick flash of a grin, and settled next to him. For a long moment, he only sat there looking at Jack, but then he turned to stare out the window. A moment passed, and he looked back at Jack again, tapping his fingers on the table restlessly. Daniel met Jack’s eyes intently.
Jack felt his lips curve into a smile without his volition. Did the man have a twitching problem or something? What was up with all the tapping? Was it a nervous habit, or was he just doing it to get on Jack’s nerves?
Jack decided to ignore those questions in the hope of making conversation. “You’re already eaten?” he asked, noticing Daniel’s lack of a plate or any other type of food.
Daniel’s fingers stopped their tapping. Maybe it was just restlessness. “No,” Daniel said slowly, blinking across at him with something like surprise. “I…huh. I must have forgotten.”
“Well,” Jack said, not entirely shocked that Daniel had come to visit him while still hungry. He looked almost instinctively at his own plate. “Do you want some of mine? I’ve got carrots and peas, and I think this stuff might be beef…” he pointed at whatever it was.
“I, no, it’s okay…” Daniel trailed off, looking at him. Then, “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Go ahead,” Jack said, handing Daniel a spoon and pushing his own plate to the center of the table. He wondered, in the back of his mind, just what the hell he thought he was doing, feeding the other man from his own plate. Daniel always did something screwy to him, he thought, and looked up at Daniel uncertainly. “Um, unless you want me to get something for you? The stuff’s just over there…” he motioned towards the kitchen.
“No, no,” Daniel told him, looking over Jack’s plate with a quick press of his lips. “This is fine.”
“Oh,” Jack said, still a bit confused by whatever they were doing. “Okay.”
They ate in silence for the next few minutes, with Jack alternating between looking at Daniel and looking out the window. He felt Daniel doing the same.
Jack decided to try conversation again. “So…” He said the first thing that popped into his mind. “Have you gone offworld, yet?”
Daniel stared at him.
Jack kicked himself.
Nice one, he chastised himself harshly. Go and bring up a sore spot between them. Why wasn’t conversation this hard, he wondered, when the two of them were alone in the hallways together?
Jack decided he didn’t want the answer to that.
But Daniel wasn’t offended--instead, he was smiling slightly. “I went with one of the scientific teams off world,” he said, his eyes crinkling hopefully. “One of the worlds already explored by the first contact teams, I mean. Where I knew it was safe. It’s just a start, but…” he trailed off, shrugging.
“We need you out there,” Jack had told him.
Daniel’s eyes had been hard and a little frightened. “You know how I feel about that, Jack.”
Jack nodded. “A lot of guys,” he ventured, “wouldn’t have tried to get back in the saddle.”
“I have my motivation,” Daniel said, and continued to stare into Jack’s eyes.
“Thanks,” Jack replied, and his voice was soft. No use playing dumb, he thought. Not with Daniel.
They continued to stare at one another.
And stare some more.
Just what, Jack thought, the hell are we doing here?
This was stupid, stupid, stupid…
“Mind if I join you, sir?”
Jack looked up, startled, and felt Daniel do the same across from him. Lieutenant Ford stood above the both of them, his eyes questioning as they fell squarely on Jack. Jack wondered, for just a second, what the other man had seen, but then he looked at Daniel, who was nodding.
“Sure,” Jack finally answered, taking Daniel’s cue. “Why not?”
Ford grinned a little, and then sat down between them.
“Just had to say, sir,” Ford said, holding out the beer he had brought with him, apparently toasting Jack, “that I thought you were amazing out there. With the Wraiths and everything.”
Daniel blinked at Jack, and then turned to Ford. “The Wraiths?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Ford answered, looking at Daniel enthusiastically. He waved a hand in Jack’s direction. “This man here was a monster. He had us running around in the middle of the hive--I thought for sure I was a dead man.” He sat back, smiling, and thumped himself on the chest. “But here we are, thanks to him.”
A smile quirked on Daniel’s lips. “You’re a hero, Jack?” he asked softly, turning expectant eyes on the colonel.
For a moment, there was silence.
“You know better than that,” Jack finally said, his own voice just as soft. “But I appreciate the sentiment,” Jack continued briskly, turning back to Ford. “And I have to tell you--you were a hell of a soldier out there. I’d have you on my six any day.”
Ford’s took another sip of his beer. “I’ll hold you to that, sir,” he said, grinning.
Looking at the lieutenant, with his smiling face and innocent eyes, a sudden thought entered Jack’s mind: the kid really isn’t like Teal’c at all. They’re as different as it’s possible for two people to be. Night and day. The kid’s his own kind of man.
Jack felt himself relax a bit more.
“You got it, kid,” Jack finally said, smiling back. “I’ll look you up.”
Daniel smiled at them both.
Later, when dinner was over and Jack was walking Daniel back to his office--did the man ever stop working?--Daniel turned back to him.
“You know,” Daniel said, his lips quirking, “that he’s got a crush on you, right?”
“Ford?” Jack asked, then waved the thought aside. “Nah. He’s just--giddy. Hero worship, I’ve seen it before.”
Daniel nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe,” he conceded. A wicked gleam appeared in his eyes. “But he has been talking about you. Ever since you got back, really.”
Jack’s eyebrows raised. “I thought you didn’t know about the mission. About what happened.”
“Hmmm,” Daniel said. “Well, I lied.”
“You lied.”
“Uh huh.”
Jack looked down at Daniel, feeling his face twist wryly. “Well, aren’t you devious?” he said.
Daniel smiled back at him. “I am. I can be.”
Jack rolled his eyes.
Daniel’s face became serious. “You are a hero, though, you know,” he said, slowing his step to turn and look at Jack.
“Oh, god,” Jack groaned, rolling his eyes again. “Not you, too.”
“It’s not hero worship,” Daniel said stubbornly. “Or not all of it--I’m just telling you what I see.” He hit Jack lightly on the arm. “I’m usually right about stuff like this,” he said pointedly.
“I,” Jack told him firmly, “am not a hero.”
“You’d be surprised,” Daniel murmured, but then he changed the subject.
-----
When Jack went to sleep that night, the lights of the city still flashing across his face from the other occupants in the city, he hoped really hard that he wouldn’t dream about Daniel. Too much trouble, he thought to himself. They didn’t know what they were doing.
He needn’t have bothered.
When he closed his eyes, it was Baal who met him in his dreams.