More Than We Are: Quartering Sea - Part 3 ADULT
More Than We Are: Part 3- Quartering Sea
By Jennghis Kahn
**
Disclaimer- Yeah, don't own nor profit.
Pairing: Sam/Jack/Daniel
Rating- This is where the NC-17 begins, and it probably won't go away.
Summary- "It doesn't matter what we do… It will all be wiped away when we fix things."
Thanks to Courser and Havocthecat for the beta work. ::Smooches::
Special thanks to Courser for the conversations that helped me re-center myself on Daniel and the progression of, um, other things. ;)
***
***
Chicago was everything and nothing like Jack remembered it. The Windy City wasn't particularly windy unless you were walking close to Lake Michigan or it was the heart of winter. A January snowstorm could blow ice and cutting snow inside your coat and freeze your clothes and the snot in your nose. The late summer was just starting its fade to fall now though, and it was a warm, sunny day with high, white clouds and a cool breeze following him as he walked purposefully down East 57th street in the university district.
They'd been here one day and he already wanted to go home. It would have been a perfect day to troll out to the shallows and throw in for some pan fish. He could have brought Carter along, and Daniel if they could have dragged him. Although… He had second thoughts as he imagined the bickering and the crossed lines and someone with a fishhook through their finger. It made him smile in a grim sort of way.
He bumped shoulders with a kid carrying a backpack. The kid gave him a hostile glance and continued on without a word.
"Excuse me," Jack muttered sarcastically. He really missed his boat.
He could see his destination just ahead. A huge stone building, several stories tall in the shape of a square with one side missing. It was one of the libraries belonging to the university. It was named after… Joe somebody. Jack hadn't been into libraries much when he'd lived here as a kid. Not that he was into them much now, but… There were actually more libraries, but this was the one Daniel needed. Something about special collections and manuscripts and translating. To be honest, Jack had tuned him out once he'd started getting into the specifics.
The geeks were really taking this stargate thing seriously. When Daniel had insisted that he needed to make a trip to Chicago to do some research and gather more materials, Jack had actually snorted as if it were a joke. That had obviously been the wrong thing to do as Daniel had then pinned him with a cold glare.
"You're going to go all the way to Chicago just to read some books?" Jack had tried to point out the insanity in his plan.
"Yes." Daniel had not been swayed.
Jack had shaken his head and given a laugh and looked to Sam for support. And Sam had had a rather incredulous expression upon her face, but it had been directed at him, not Daniel.
"You don't have to come along, Jack." Daniel had promised, and Jack had proceeded to watch him and Sam plan the trip.
In the end, he'd gone. He wasn't sure why except that he'd felt a little uneasy about them going away. At first, he'd looked forward to the time alone. No geeky banter, no overwrought explanations, no nonsense about aliens and timelines. He could have beer and go fishing and watch TV and everything would feel like it had before they took over his life.
Except, as the trip grew closer, he'd grown more sullen. He'd felt a thin trickle of foreboding that just wouldn't go away. And then one night, with a few too many beers in him, he'd asked before he could stop himself, "Are you coming back?"
"Of course," Sam had answered, looking surprised. Daniel had raised his eyebrows at him. Jack had shrugged and cut himself off for the rest of the evening.
The next day, he bought a ticket on their flight.
He wasn't sure exactly what drew him to the two of them, and, even more puzzling, what drew them to him. Sure, the tape was a compelling piece of evidence that something was out of whack and needed to be fixed, and they made a team that apparently did amazing things. There was something more though. Something infinitely more personal. Something that drew his gut up tight and sometimes threatened to swell and drown him.
He walked into the library and showed his visitors pass from the university. Daniel still had friends here, despite his blacklisting from the archeological community.
Jack wandered through the rooms of bookshelves. The heavy smell of paper and books and something acrid he couldn't identify clung to everything. Libraries always reminded him of churches. There was a sort of somber deference to being in one that made you whisper and want to fade into the background. He'd only lasted two hours this morning before really needing to get the hell out of here and take a walk. His heavy sighs and incessant tapping of fingers upon the table had had the other two quickly agreeing that he should take a time-out.
He took a wrong turn or two before finding the staircase and then the floor and the room where his geeks were holed up. As he walked in, he could see them at their table, hidden behind stacks of books, just the tops of their heads visible. He sighed silently.
He stood in front of their table for a few moments, but neither of them noticed, so he gave a few rapid raps with his knuckles on the hard cover of a particularly big book at the top of one stack. Their heads jerked up, startled. Carter's surprise turned to a smile, Daniel's turned to irritation.
"Jack…" Daniel whispered reproachfully and reached up to move the book away from him. "This book is over a hundred years old."
Jack eyed it. "Then it's survived worse than me," he retorted. Daniel rolled his eyes. Sam pressed her lips together, suppressing another smile.
"How's it going?" Jack asked, looking at the array of books on their table. Daniel had a notebook open in front of him and the two pages showing were heavy with penciled notes. No pens allowed.
"All right. It's time consuming though."
Jack didn't doubt it. The library would only let them look at the really valuable stuff a few books at a time. He and Sam had basically spent the morning bringing Daniel the books he asked for and then returning them to the staff. Well, until Jack grew too bored. Sam seemed a lot more interested in helping, and there was a notebook in front of her as well; her neat, even printing laid-out precisely on the pages.
Daniel sighed. "I've managed to reconstruct many of my notes about the Demotic script, but that's only a fraction of what I need."
"We're having copies made of some of the more important sources," Sam said. She looked tired.
"Fine," Jack stated, and then he motioned at them. "Put it all away for now. It's lunch time."
"Jack!" Daniel immediately began his protests, and Jack held a hand up.
"Daniel. Lunch."
"I'm not hungry. We've got so much more to do."
"I don't care." Jack glanced toward Sam. "You both spent all day here yesterday and nearly half the day today. You can come back tomorrow."
"I could eat something," Sam urged quietly, touching Daniel's hand. He looked at her then nodded.
"All right."
**
Jack got them a cab instead of finding a nearby restaurant. He ignored Daniel's renewed protests about eating quickly so they could get back to work. Sam was looking at him speculatively as they got on the nearby parkway.
"Where are we going?" She asked with the hint of a smile. She knew he was up to something.
He put on his best expression of innocence, pleased by her curiosity. She had a real sense of adventure sometimes. "I told you… to get some lunch."
She narrowed her eyes at him but didn't comment. He held her gaze with a sly smile.
"You could have left me there by myself." Daniel sat slouched on the other side of her, arms crossed over his chest, as he stared sullenly out the window. "We're going to lose most of the afternoon by the time we get back."
"And I told you," Jack looked pointedly at Daniel. "We're not going back."
Daniel's head whipped around. He'd barely opened his mouth when Jack cut him off. "Daniel, it won't kill you to be more than 10 feet from a book for the afternoon."
Daniel definitely wanted to argue, but Sam grinned at him and then pressed a kiss to his jaw. Jack could practically see the man melt beneath her lips.
"He's right. It won't kill you," She said quietly against his cheek.
"It might," Daniel murmured grumpily, eerily reminiscent of Jack's own words just a couple short months ago.
**
"Baseball?" Daniel stood on the sidewalk and looked at Jack as if he'd lost his mind. Jack realized he still loved that expression on him. "You brought us to watch baseball?"
Jack put on a smile. "Don't everyone thank me at once now."
"Cool," Sam blurted, grinning ear to ear. She stifled it a bit when Daniel turned his gaze on her. "Well, I've never been to an actual game before," she explained.
"Carter, you never fail to surprise me." Jack watched her grin and felt a ridiculous urge to throw his arm around her and go all soft and fawning.
"I thought we were going to lunch?" Daniel took her hand, and Jack took a moment to run his eyes down the picture they made together. So damn idealistic and guileless.
Jack blinked at him. "We are. We're here."
Daniel quirked one corner of his mouth skeptically. "Here?"
"They have food here, Daniel. The best kind of food. Ball park food!"
"Mmm." Daniel gave a very sarcastic smile.
Jack clapped a hand between his shoulder blades and then gripped the muscle between his shoulder and his neck, propelling him forward. "C'mon, Einstein. This whole trip is just about to become worth the effort. You just don't visit Chicago in the summer without going to a Cubs game."
Daniel gave him a wry look but seemed accepting and let Jack push him forward. He tightened his grip on Sam's hand, bringing her along beside them.
**
"Do you have any idea what these hotdogs are made of?" Daniel was studying his food with intensity. He looked fascinated.
Jack glared at him. "Oh, for… I swear to god, Daniel, if you actually TELL me, I'll… "
"Guys, I think this is where our seats are." Sam spoke through a mouthful of nacho chips and pointed up to a sign that indicated seat numbers.
"Forget it, Carter. It's a nice day, there's low attendance, and I hate crowds." He led them up to the highest tier of seats. There was one lowly usher sitting on a folding chair in the main aisle. He barely glanced at them as they walked out into view of the field.
"Wow." Sam stopped in surprise to sweep her eyes across the huge expanse of the stadium.
Jack grinned at her and then took her elbow to pull her after them as he and Daniel made their way to an isolated area of seats. He was overly pleased with her enthusiasm and was thinking that this might have actually been a good idea. Daniel was still being the occasional snot and very Daniel-like but had otherwise settled down and seemed to be resigned to an afternoon of fun, whether he liked it or not.
When Daniel stood aside to let Jack into the row of seats first, Jack balked. "Oh, no. I'm sitting between you two. You're not going to sit here and discuss aliens and stargates the entire time."
Daniel pursed his lips and blinked at him. "Do we need a hall pass to go the bathroom too?"
Sam snorted. Jack shot her a sideways glance and then shrugged at Daniel. "Not if you can be good."
Their eyes caught and held, Daniel's brows arching with a hint of humor. Jack's gut tightened up again. He'd thought he'd grown used to Daniel's stubbornness and seeming sheer desire to challenge everything Jack said, but sometimes it still took him by surprise. It made him want to simultaneously cuff the archeologist upside the head and tuck him under an arm and draw him close.
Daniel slid into a seat, and Jack sat beside him. He reached for one of Sam's nachos as soon as she settled on the other side of him. She eyed him but allowed it and didn't say anything.
He settled back to enjoy the game.
**
"No, really," Sam said, turning in her seat to face them. "Math is integral to baseball. If you can measure the velocity of the ball being hit in both the horizontal and vertical directions, you can calculate the distance it will travel and the time it will spend in the air." She used her hand to indicate a baseball traveling in an arc. Jack stared at her silently.
"What if it's windy?" Daniel asked. He was munching happily on a box of popcorn. Jack slid a glare his way for encouraging her.
Sam gave a small shrug. "Well, yeah. Wind is drag on the ball. You'd have to take into account the less than ideal conditions in which the ball was hit. The wind and drag, gravity, the spot on the bat where the ball was hit."
"Fascinating," Jack said flatly. Sam didn't seem to notice.
"You know, really, home run kings aren't made by muscle. The key to hitting the ball a long distance is actually bat speed, not hulking strength."
"Carter!" Jack exclaimed, finally reaching his limit.
She jerked her gaze to him, surprised. "What?"
"You're ruining baseball for me!"
She quirked an eyebrow. "Oh. Sorry." She didn't sound sorry at all.
"Just relax. Enjoy." Jack slid down in his seat and stared at the field. Daniel munched happily beside him, spilling more than he got in his mouth.
Truthfully, Jack had been having a hard time concentrating on the game before Sam started up with the physics. He couldn't figure it out. He loved sports. He loved baseball. Daniel had settled down and seemed to be enjoying himself. Sam had shown a remarkable interest and picked up on the rules quickly. He had a beer. He should be enjoying himself immensely.
Instead, he stared at the pitcher and wondered briefly if the player had always been a southpaw. For some odd reason, he'd always thought the man pitched right-handed. Maybe he's ambidextrous.
Except, that wasn't what he felt like he remembered. He remembered the man being right-handed. Now he was left.
The game and the crowd were receding around him. He listened to Daniel crunching and tried to put things in perspective. It wasn't working. Suddenly, he was remembering all sorts of things that had seemed 'off' in his life. Not in a overtly noticeable sort of way, but in a way that had made him hesitate for the briefest of moments before he had shrugged and just moved on.
His head hurt.
"This is all wrong," he said softly.
"What?" Daniel glanced at him and swallowed his popcorn.
"This-" Jack motioned toward the field. "Is all wrong."
Sam frowned. "They're winning. It seems alright to me."
Jack sat up. "Not this!" He said, pointing at the field. "This!" He waved his hands in the air, indicating everything.
There was silence on both sides of him. They were both staring at him.
"Carter?" Jack leaned forward and rested his elbows wearily on his knees.
"Yes?" Her voice was soft. Worried.
"What happens with this alternate timeline stuff? Can we… feel things that are wrong?"
Sam hesitated. Jack glanced up in time to see her looking at Daniel over his head. He had the feeling that they'd been waiting for this. For him.
"Jack, are you feeling okay?" Daniel put a hand on his shoulder.
"No." Jack looked at Sam again. "Is there only one timeline that can be correct? Can we feel that things are… not right?"
Sam took a deep breath. "Well, I'm not sure."
Great.
She offered him a faint smile. "It's possible. All of the science that we're dealing with here is highly theoretical. There are just no solid facts to base anything on."
"I've always felt like things were wrong," Daniel said.
Jack glanced at him, held his gaze briefly, then stared down at his hands, fingers interlocked between his knees. "This is all wrong."
He felt Sam's hand on his back. "I've felt it too. It's just… been so much better the past few months. Ever since… "
"We all met." Jack finished it for her.
"Yes."
"God, that's so cliché." Jack gave a sharp laugh.
"We're trying to fix it, Jack." Daniel squeezed his shoulder warmly. Jack didn't answer.
He settled his chin in his hands and stared at the playing field. Sam and Daniel began talking across his back, but they didn't remove their hands from him. It felt good and comforting and… right. He felt that tightness in his gut twisting painfully.
**
They left the game early. Jack couldn't sit still and think about it anymore. They got in a cab and went back to their hotel. Jack was silent the entire way, staring out the window. He tried to remember if Sara had felt wrong. Or Charlie. They hadn't. It was just the little things. Small details that had hardly made a difference but had somehow added up to make him feel like he was hung out to dry, twisting in the wind. He'd only noticed it now because of its absence, or near absence, once the geeks had entered his life.
The entire idea was tilting his world off its axis, one small degree at a time.
When they reached the hotel, he went for another walk, not even asking if the other two wanted to join him. They didn't invite themselves either. He knew they were worried, but ever since he'd met them, they'd displayed an amazing sense of knowing when he needed to be alone. They'd been more accepting of this whole timeline debacle from the start. They'd had each other to talk to while they dealt with it. He was playing catch-up.
He walked for hours.
**
They had dinner at the hotel's restaurant. Overpriced beer and sticky pasta. Jack buried his in Parmesan cheese and salt. He bought a six-pack of the over-priced beer from the lounge, and they took it up to the room Sam and Daniel shared. They sat on the balcony in the darkness, looking out on Lake Michigan, while Daniel told them what the plan was for the next day.
"It's a private collection and not well-known. One of my old professors has a stake in it, and I think he'll let me in. You can't come with me though."
"Be careful what you tell him," Sam warned.
Jack drank most of the beer while the other two talked softly. The hotel was out of the city. It was cheaper on the outskirts. He had his pension from the Air Force, and Sam had a savings account built on years of employment in the government sector, but she was quickly running through her money. Daniel had had nothing.
The cool breeze rolling off the lake felt good, and, if he closed his eyes, the sound of the waves and the haze of the beer almost made it seem like they were sitting back on the pier at home. He wondered what the relationships were like between the three of them in the correct timeline. Whether they were simple and strong and well defined like any good military unit should be; or whether they were convoluted and hard and exhausting. Like now.
"It doesn't matter what we do… " He heard Daniel whispering to Sam. "It will all be wiped away when we fix things."
Jack closed his eyes.
**
Sam fell asleep in her chair. In the cool of the night, she'd pulled her legs up under her, rested her head on the side of the chair and fallen asleep. Jack watched her from 4 feet away. Her ever-thoughtful expression was replaced by something more comfortable. He felt a twinge of something in his mind. Like he was looking at someone else. She confused him. There was an underlying strength to her that made the sheepishness she carried around perplexing. She was caught up in what she thought she should be, instead of what she could be.
He listened to her soft breath and remembered how she'd looked when he'd caught her and Daniel in bed that night after the tavern. Pale, slim back with more muscle tone than you'd suspect from the way she hid her body in shapeless clothes. Their relationship had seemed to quietly intimate. The graphic intensity of the sex had startled him. The memory of her moans made his mouth run dry. He took a swig of beer and glanced over at Daniel. He was slouched low in his own chair, doing the same thing Jack was… watching Sam sleep. They'd run out of conversation a few long minutes ago. Without Sam, the talk had died.
It was an easy silence though. Jack liked that about Daniel. He could just exist in a silence without trying to fill it with something. Oh, he could run off good at the mouth when he wanted to alright, but he was comfortable not talking when Jack didn't want to talk. Most of the time.
They'd never really talked about that night, he and Daniel. The next morning, he'd woken up after Sam had already left for work. Daniel had been off that day and was making coffee in the kitchen, swearing softly under his breath when he spilled coffee grounds all over the floor. Jack hadn't been sure what to expect from Daniel, and there'd been one awkward moment where they'd stared at each other, remembering the same thing. Maybe more than one thing.
There'd been silence, and Jack saw an opening and took it. "I've got a tour this afternoon. Taking some folks fishing. Want to earn a few extra bucks and help me out?"
Daniel had looked surprised at first and then almost pleased. Jack had been glad he'd asked. He'd been even gladder when Daniel proved to be a natural in customer service. He put people at ease. They found his stories about fishing salmon with the Coeur d'Alene in Idaho fascinating and charming. All Jack had to do was keep the boat running and keep his grumpy self out of the way. He got twice the normal tip that day.
After that, Daniel came along for most of his booked tours. The few there were. He felt a quiet satisfaction from watching Daniel learn how to work the boat. Not that Daniel didn't do a lot of muttering beneath his breath while he learned. They had plenty of opportunities to take careful jabs at each other while working; Jack alternating between quiet instruction and acrid impatience, Daniel responding with sarcasm and a stubborn insistence on doing it himself. It sometimes made Jack smile behind his back.
Then there was that other thing.
The thing that made Jack stare a little too long when Daniel was surprised by a following sea and soaked to the bone. The thing that made him pull up short and catch his breath when the waves got under them and Daniel swung by, a little too close, one hand grabbing Jack's arm or gripping his shoulder to keep them from colliding. There'd been more than a few times Daniel had stood and stretched, shoulders bunched and flexed beneath his shirt after securing the mooring lines, and then had turned too quickly and caught Jack watching him. Too many times. Daniel never said anything. He'd just held Jack's gaze with those clear blue eyes and then gone back to work, leaving Jack with his heart pounding in his chest and his mind trying to concentrate on anything except the one thing filling it.
He was as attracted to Daniel as he was to Sam. And the knowledge didn't make him feel surprised as much as resigned. It wasn't that he couldn't see himself attracted to another man, but it wasn't something that felt familiar to him. Still, there'd been times…
Living in an Air Force barracks with 20 other guys didn't allow for much privacy. And sometimes it felt good to know you were getting off at the same time someone else was. Especially when you were a thousand miles from home and lonely and you'd just been through hell together.
The last few years he'd been letting his heart rest. Sarah and Charlie had exhausted him. And just when he felt like maybe the scars were holding up alright, the two of them walked into his life. And he was old enough to know exactly what he was feeling right now.
Fate was a real bitch sometimes.
"Jack?" Daniel was watching him now. Sam was still sleeping soundly in her chair.
Jack glanced at him without a word and set his empty beer bottle on the floor beside his chair.
Daniel took this as permission to proceed. "Do you want to talk about… this?"
Jack looked up to see him make a circular motion with his hand indicating the three of them. He didn't need to ask what 'this' was. It was pretty fucking obvious what 'this' was, and, no, he didn't want to talk about it, for God's sake. "No," he answered quickly.
"Jack, it's going to take awhile before we can find the stargate. Maybe a long while. Until then… "
"Daniel." Jack pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
"I don't want to lose Sam," Daniel said quickly. "Or you," he added after a beat. Sometimes when he had something to say, neither Jack nor God himself could stop him. Jack was pretty sure he'd find that irritating in any timeline.
Jack leaned forward, elbows on knees, and looked at Daniel. They stared at each other for a long moment. "You're not," Jack finally answered. Then he nodded at Sam tiredly. "Put her to bed, Romeo. She can't sleep like that all night."
Daniel gazed at him a bit longer and then looked away and nodded. He stood and waited while Jack gathered up his empties and set them inside the door to the room. When Jack turned around, Daniel pushed him against the balcony railing and kissed him.
Jack had never kissed another man before and he was paralyzed at first, struck both with an impulsive need to jerk away and with the urge to open his mouth and move his lips. Daniel was warm and solid, and his thigh was pressing in between Jack's legs and against Jack's cock, which had suddenly gone rigid in about 3 seconds flat. He lifted his hands to Daniel's head, not sure if he was going to push the man away or pull him closer. Daniel pulled his mouth away though and watched Jack speculatively. He ran a thumb over his bottom lip as his eyes met Jack's.
"What the hell are you doing?" Jack demanded. His voice sounded strained and hoarse.
Daniel met his glare with steady eyes. "Giving you the chance to know for sure."
"What?"
But Daniel just shook his head. He turned to Sam and brushed a strand of hair from her eyes, as Jack stood, frozen, against the railing. Sam woke under his touch and smiled sleepily up at him. Jack watched Daniel's mouth turn up at the corners as he whispered something to her. She let him help her up, and they moved toward the sliding doors of their room. Daniel gave him one last fleeting look before sliding the door shut behind them.
Jack stayed out on the balcony until long after midnight. Then he drank the last beer and went to bed. He dreamed about blue eyes and soft lips and had no idea which one of them it had been when he woke up the next morning.
**
"Wow, this is fascinating!"
Jack winced. "Carter, this is disgusting. I'm never going to be able to eat lunch now."
Sam glanced at him doubtfully and flipped another panel over. They were in a small, warm, stark room that just made the display worse in Jack's opinion. Along one wall were dozens of display panels on hinges. Within each one, pressed between glass, was a cross-section of a real human body. From head to toe, they ran the length of the wall. Some soul who'd dedicated their body to science after their death had been frozen and then cut into slices with a band saw. The glass panels were beaded with moisture inside, the glass itself scratched and half-milky.
Sam was right. It was fascinating, but it also made his throat clench and his stomach lurch.
The Museum of Science and Industry had seemed like a good idea at the time to Jack. They couldn't go with Daniel today, thank God, and the Cubs had ended their stay at home and were off. That left him and Sam to find their own entertainment for the day and do the tourist thing.
"Don't you ever wonder what you look like on the inside?" Sam raised an eyebrow at him.
He leaned in the doorway and narrowed his eyes. "I saw enough of that in Iraq. I don't need to put a name to all of it."
Her expression softened immediately. "I'm sorry."
"Don't," he demanded quietly. She walked toward him, and, on impulse, he took her hand and tugged. "C'mon. Let's get out of here for a while. I need some air."
He didn't let go of her hand while they found their way to the exit. She didn't try to pull it away. They walked slowly down to the lake and found a spot away from all the school fieldtrips having lunch on the shore. It was windy and cloudy and cool, and it wiped the odd scent of the museum from their clothes. Jack had thought it smelled like paste and the library and unwashed kids all at once. He pulled her down beside him on a bench and stretched his legs out in front of him. He stifled a groan.
Sam leaned forward, elbows on her thighs, and watched the boats in the distance. Jack watched the way her hair clung to her nape in the wind.
"So, are we the same people as the ones on the tape, or are we different?"
She looked back at him. "We're the same."
He nodded.
"And… we're different."
He stared at her.
She bit her lower lip and tried to explain. "It's us. We're just… "
"Different?" He offered with only a light edge of sarcasm.
She flashed him a bit of a long-suffering glare. He almost smiled at that. She'd held out much longer than Daniel had before finally giving him that look.
"We're the same," she said with finality. "We just took different paths after the timeline was broken."
"So… we already died once in this-" he waved a finger between the two of them, "-timeline."
"No, not really." Sam looked up thoughtfully. "You see, technically we don't even go back to the past until later. If we don't do it again, then that timeline ceases to exist and this one just goes on." She looked at him. "But they're really not separate. Understand?"
"No," he answered emphatically.
She smiled. "That's okay. Sometimes it runs around in my head for so long that I don't think I understand it either."
"That's reassuring," Jack replied uneasily.
Sam ducked her head and grinned. "I'll hold up my end. Promise."
He studied her seriously. "Carter, you really think this is going to work?"
She seemed surprised. "Of course. I mean, it's all theory, but it should work."
"And if it doesn't?"
She hesitated.
He hooked one of her fingers with his own. "Hey, this is just me and you here. I know Daniel refuses to think about it, but what about you?"
She was staring at their fingers, hooked around each other. "Honestly?"
"Honestly."
"I don't… " She licked her lips. "I wouldn't be crushed or anything. I'd feel bad that we messed it up to begin with, but… "
"You'd be okay."
"Yes." She glanced up at him. "I think so." She eyed him. "But we really need to do this, Jack. We need to keep trying until, for some reason, we're unable to do it anymore."
Jack shrugged. "Yeah, yeah. I know. We will."
She let go of his finger and slid her hand into his.
**
For dinner that night, he took them to his favorite steak place. He'd been a little surprised it still existed. It used to sit on a road of industrial plants and car lots. Now, thanks to urban renewal, it sat amid a long stretch of restaurants and clubs. It was still good though. He had a steak that came with everything traditional: baked potato, salad, bread and sautéed onions and mushrooms. He made them all order good, strong, dark beer along with it. For the first time in days, his mood lifted.
It started to rain while they finished their second round of after-dinner drinks. They were seated next to the window that looked out over the street. Two men and a woman had dived for cover under the awning of the steak place. Jack watched them as they laughed and huddled together out of the rain. Seconds later, his beer was forgotten as the woman kissed first one of the men then the other. Long, open-mouthed, wet kisses. When he glanced surreptitiously from the corner of his eye, he saw Sam and Daniel also staring wide-eyed at the trio, who were gone from the window a second later, making a break for a club across the street.
Jack turned back to his beer and silence fell over the table. It had just started to get awkward when Sam spoke up.
"Huh. Lucky girl."
Daniel blinked at her. Jack grinned and almost snorted his beer out his nose. Leave it to Carter.
"Polyamory," Daniel said absently.
"What?"
Daniel glanced at both of them and hesitated. "Um, polyamory. The act of having more than one relationship at a time."
"Like Mormons?" Jack took a swallow of his beer.
Daniel shook his head. "No. Mormons are polygamous, which means multiple marriages. And it only pertains to men having wives. The women don't get the same right." He squinted at the window. "Actually, very few Mormons practice polygamy anymore anyway, but that's not the point…"
"The point is?" Sam was chewing on her lower lip.
"Um. I was just… theorizing."
"Why?" Jack drew the word out. That tightness in his gut was back.
"Well…" Daniel's mouth tugged up at the corners, embarrassed. "When I was living here and going to school, my roommate's best friend was polyamorous. He dated a lot of different people at the same time." He shrugged. "Everyone he dated knew about it. He was pretty forthright. I think that's the important thing in that sort of… relationship. That everyone knows and approves."
"Threesomes?" Jack lifted an eyebrow and pretended a million different images hadn't just washed through his mind concerning him and two geeky scientists.
"Well, not for him," Daniel replied. He traced his finger around the rim of his glass. "Certainly people could have more than two people in one relationship, but he didn't. He dated a few different… people, but he kept them all separate."
Sam was staring at him, fascinated. "How popular is that?"
Daniel met her eyes. Jack watched something pass between them before Daniel pursed his lips and shrugged once more. "Don't know. I never asked."
They fell silent again. Jack felt that tightness well up inside him and stick. This time it didn't go away.
**
The ride back to the hotel in the cab was somewhat surreal to him. They all had a couple of beers worth of haze in their minds. Dark beer was good for that. Daniel was telling archeology jokes that neither Jack nor Sam understood, but they smiled anyway because Daniel just thought they were so damn funny.
They settled in on the balcony again to gaze at the lake and talk about the next day and Daniel's findings. Jack couldn't concentrate. He felt restless and a little belligerent. His world was tilting, and he wasn't sure how to stop it. It had been tilting slowly in degrees ever since he'd looked up to find them waiting on the pier next to his boat. It had taken a decided lurch to the left last night when Daniel had pushed him back against the railing of the balcony and slid his tongue into Jack's mouth. He felt off-balance and a little out of control. He didn't like it.
When Daniel offered to go downstairs to the lounge and get more of the hideously expensive beer, Jack had jumped up and given him his wallet. When he was gone, and Jack was leaning against the railing with Sam, both of them staring down at the ground below, he found the desire to shove back at his rapidly tilting life.
"Daniel kissed me last night."
"He told me," Sam replied quietly.
Jack had been prepared for her to take it calmly, maybe even without surprise, but… he hadn't expected that. "He told you?"
"Mmhmm." She took a deep breath of the cold wind coming off the lake. It smelled like rain and wet forest, and it was something Jack found comforting. She looked at him. "Daniel's a little more… " She took a moment to think, "-open-minded than you or I, Jack."
He stared at her. She stared back.
He found himself leaning over and suddenly kissing her. She didn't pull away. Her lips were hesitant beneath his and then her arms were circling his neck, pulling him closer, mouth opening against his, and he just couldn't walk away. He was backing her up against the far railing, hands sliding over her waist and pulling her hips close against his. And her tongue was in his mouth, and damn it had been so long.
He could taste the beer in her mouth, and she made a small, desperate sound that had his heart racing. He had his hands under the hem of her T-shirt, running over smooth, soft skin, his dick already so hard for her that he was considering just lifting her against the top rail… when he heard a cough behind them.
He pulled back to see Sam's gaze fixed over his shoulder, her expression unreadable, and he turned to meet Daniel's eyes.
"I, uh… " Jack wasn't sure what to say, didn't really feel capable of forming words when his hard-on hadn't lost anything and Sam's hands were still tickling circles on his nape. Daniel walked toward them, blue eyes glancing from him to Sam. Jack stared at his mouth.
"It's okay, um… " Daniel actually tried to smile, but Jack thought he looked a little hurt when he glanced at Sam, and Sam reached out to him, her body drawing away from Jack's. Jack suddenly felt desperate. His heart was pounding and his breath wouldn't slow down, and before he even realized what he wanted to do, he also reached out. He grabbed Daniel's head. Daniel blinked at him, but didn't seem as surprised as Jack felt when Jack drew him forward and pressed their mouths together.
It felt different and bigger and rougher than it had with Sam, and Jack felt that sharp ache down low in his belly that came with the anticipation of sex. Daniel tasted different, smelled different, moved differently against him, but it was still good. So damn good.
He kept an arm around Sam, afraid she'd pull away, but she didn't. And when he and Daniel broke off the kiss, he watched them stare at each other. It was awkward for one tension-filled moment before Daniel was leaning in and kissing Sam, her free hand coming up to slide into his hair, her other still resting on Jack's chest.
"So… " Jack said, trying to get this straight in his mind. "We're sharing?"
"Yes." Both Sam and Daniel answered at the same time, and Jack wanted to find it hilarious and point out the quandary of who was sharing who, but then Daniel's mouth was on his again, and Sam's hands were sliding under his shirt and bringing up the gooseflesh on his back.
He let the tilt become a full-on freefall.
**
The bed was barely big enough for two, much less three, but Jack shoved it up against the wall, securing one side. He felt more frantic that he was acting, but the physics of three people were more intricate than for two, and he had no idea how any of this was supposed to go. He didn't think Sam or Daniel did either. Fingers fumbled with clothing, and noses and chins bumped awkwardly. He concentrated on kissing whomever was free and getting their clothes off. He was hard with anticipation, even before his hands were sliding over Sam's breasts, thumbs finding nipple, or he felt the wiry hair on Daniel's legs dragging against his.
He pressed his mouth against Sam's neck, teeth and tongue tasting, inhaling the close, warm scent of her. He felt her hands, tentative against his hips, sliding down and in and then wrapping around his cock and moving with a languid pace. He groaned, and Daniel pushed them both onto the bed.
He was past disbelief and thinking and second thoughts, all the way into simply experiencing. He kissed Daniel as he slid over the top of Jack to get to Sam, smooth cock dragging over his hip and leaving a cool, wet trail. He kissed Sam as Daniel worked down her body, a familiar routine to their actions. Daniel went down on her, and she moaned into Jack's mouth. He pulled back to let her breathe, fingers grazing over hard nipple. He was caught by the sight of Daniel's head between her thighs, his blue eyes glancing up at them occasionally, heavy-lidded and intense.
Fuck.
He kissed Sam again, and when their tongues met, she shuddered beneath him and came, her hand going to Daniel's head, holding him tightly while she arched up. The answering groan from Daniel in response to her climax had Jack burying his face in Sam's neck and trying to think about baseball scores and fishing and anything that would keep him from coming in a rush. Instead, all he could think about was that watching the two of them together was by far the hottest thing he had ever seen. And it felt like a part of him had just opened up that had never been exposed before.
Sam pushed him onto his back. He opened his eyes to find her smiling faintly at him, a sated glint to her eyes that had him holding his breath. Her fingernails dragged over his belly, her mouth following, and then Daniel's mouth was on his, and Jack could taste Sam in every wet exchange. He really couldn't help the groan that spilled out of him. Nor the sharp inhalation that followed when he felt Sam's tongue rasp over the slick head of his cock.
It was only the strangeness of the situation that kept him from coming. He felt Daniel move away, felt Sam's mouth close over him and her fingers slide up his thigh. He opened his eyes, wanting to see that graphic picture of her sucking his cock. He saw her, felt the sharp stab of arousal it brought, but he also saw Daniel, watching them, looking oddly appreciative and turned-on and so very not geeky. Ohh, fuckfuckfuck.
"Sam…" Jack practically croaked her name, his fingers tightening in her hair. She drew her mouth up and off of him, and then turned and Daniel was there, and Jack watched them fuse their mouths together, knew Daniel tasted him in Sam's mouth.
When Daniel's mouth moved over his thigh, Jack stilled. When his mouth slid over the head of Jack's cock, Jack gritted his teeth, closed his eyes and slid fingers into Daniel's long hair. Jesus...
Daniel fumbled a bit, mouth obviously unused to giving head, and Jack so didn't care. It had been way too long and it was way too good and he was lost. He tightened his grip on Daniel's hair out of habit. Daniel pulled back, wrapped a fist around the head of Jack's cock and, a few short pulls later, Jack was digging his heels into the mattress and coming, breaths hard and hoarse in the silence of the room.
**
He relaxed heavily into the mattress as he came down. Sam's lips pressed against his jaw and he reached half-heartedly for her, only to have her move away. He watched through heavy-lidded eyes as she buried slim fingers in Daniel's hair, their mouths sliding together. Daniel put her on her back, lifted his hips when she trailed a hand down his side, and then thrust into her hand as her fingers wrapped around him, squeezing tight.
There was something gratifying and consoling about watching them this way, with his own body still feeling the lazy fatigue of release and his breath not yet slow and normal.
Daniel's back arched when he slid into her. Sam's thighs rested on his hips and she moved against him, with him and… god…
Jack listened to them panting, then groaning, and then coming. It was comforting and exciting and so fucking arousing that he closed his eyes.
The mattress moved and then Daniel's damp shoulder was against his. Jack could smell his sweat and the scent of sex. Sam's hand slid lightly over his chest.
He felt disoriented and strangely complacent. He listened to Daniel's breathing begin to slow and deepen into sleep, and heard Sam's amused huff of breath as she reached across Jack to stroke the mussed hair from Daniel's closed lids. Her breath was cool on Jack's shoulder. He fell asleep.
**
He stood at the sliding glass door to the balcony just before dawn. When he'd woken, groggy and starting to ache just a bit from the intensity of the sex and the logistics of three people sleeping in a bed for two, the room had been stifling and stale; the back of his neck damp with sweat.
He cracked the door open, standing naked in the night breeze as it rushed in around him. It smelled humid with the tang of the lake, but it was cool and refreshing. Behind him on the bed, Daniel snored softly, sheet tangled around his waist and legs. He'd eventually stolen all of it in the night. Sam slept curled up and uncovered on the other side. Jack watched them with a troubled expression.
He was pretty sure they should never do this again.
He was pretty sure he really wanted to though.
Daniel's words to Sam from the night before kept coming back to him
"It doesn't matter what we do… it'll all be wiped away when we fix things."
The words were reassuring and yet still twisted a knife in his gut. He had no idea what he should do about all of this. He watched as Sam shivered, the breeze finally filling the room and brushing over the bed. She opened her eyes in the blue-cast light of dawn and looked right at him. He said nothing. She watched him for a while, and he felt as if she were reading him like one of Daniel's books.
"It's alright, Jack," she finally said, voice soft and deep with sleep, trying to sound reassuring. She pushed herself over next to Daniel and wrestled the sheet out from under him and untangled it from his legs. She cast Jack one more sleepy glance before settling down next to Daniel, curving into his side and drawing the sheet up over them. She left a Jack-sized portion of it free on the other side of her.
Jack hesitated for just a moment, giving the encroaching dawn over the lake one more look, then he went back and slid into bed beside her. He was pretty sure they should never do this again, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Or to stop. He couldn't bring himself to feel wrong.
Not when he felt 'right' for the first time in so damn long.
TBC-
By Jennghis Kahn
**
Disclaimer- Yeah, don't own nor profit.
Pairing: Sam/Jack/Daniel
Rating- This is where the NC-17 begins, and it probably won't go away.
Summary- "It doesn't matter what we do… It will all be wiped away when we fix things."
Thanks to Courser and Havocthecat for the beta work. ::Smooches::
Special thanks to Courser for the conversations that helped me re-center myself on Daniel and the progression of, um, other things. ;)
***
***
Chicago was everything and nothing like Jack remembered it. The Windy City wasn't particularly windy unless you were walking close to Lake Michigan or it was the heart of winter. A January snowstorm could blow ice and cutting snow inside your coat and freeze your clothes and the snot in your nose. The late summer was just starting its fade to fall now though, and it was a warm, sunny day with high, white clouds and a cool breeze following him as he walked purposefully down East 57th street in the university district.
They'd been here one day and he already wanted to go home. It would have been a perfect day to troll out to the shallows and throw in for some pan fish. He could have brought Carter along, and Daniel if they could have dragged him. Although… He had second thoughts as he imagined the bickering and the crossed lines and someone with a fishhook through their finger. It made him smile in a grim sort of way.
He bumped shoulders with a kid carrying a backpack. The kid gave him a hostile glance and continued on without a word.
"Excuse me," Jack muttered sarcastically. He really missed his boat.
He could see his destination just ahead. A huge stone building, several stories tall in the shape of a square with one side missing. It was one of the libraries belonging to the university. It was named after… Joe somebody. Jack hadn't been into libraries much when he'd lived here as a kid. Not that he was into them much now, but… There were actually more libraries, but this was the one Daniel needed. Something about special collections and manuscripts and translating. To be honest, Jack had tuned him out once he'd started getting into the specifics.
The geeks were really taking this stargate thing seriously. When Daniel had insisted that he needed to make a trip to Chicago to do some research and gather more materials, Jack had actually snorted as if it were a joke. That had obviously been the wrong thing to do as Daniel had then pinned him with a cold glare.
"You're going to go all the way to Chicago just to read some books?" Jack had tried to point out the insanity in his plan.
"Yes." Daniel had not been swayed.
Jack had shaken his head and given a laugh and looked to Sam for support. And Sam had had a rather incredulous expression upon her face, but it had been directed at him, not Daniel.
"You don't have to come along, Jack." Daniel had promised, and Jack had proceeded to watch him and Sam plan the trip.
In the end, he'd gone. He wasn't sure why except that he'd felt a little uneasy about them going away. At first, he'd looked forward to the time alone. No geeky banter, no overwrought explanations, no nonsense about aliens and timelines. He could have beer and go fishing and watch TV and everything would feel like it had before they took over his life.
Except, as the trip grew closer, he'd grown more sullen. He'd felt a thin trickle of foreboding that just wouldn't go away. And then one night, with a few too many beers in him, he'd asked before he could stop himself, "Are you coming back?"
"Of course," Sam had answered, looking surprised. Daniel had raised his eyebrows at him. Jack had shrugged and cut himself off for the rest of the evening.
The next day, he bought a ticket on their flight.
He wasn't sure exactly what drew him to the two of them, and, even more puzzling, what drew them to him. Sure, the tape was a compelling piece of evidence that something was out of whack and needed to be fixed, and they made a team that apparently did amazing things. There was something more though. Something infinitely more personal. Something that drew his gut up tight and sometimes threatened to swell and drown him.
He walked into the library and showed his visitors pass from the university. Daniel still had friends here, despite his blacklisting from the archeological community.
Jack wandered through the rooms of bookshelves. The heavy smell of paper and books and something acrid he couldn't identify clung to everything. Libraries always reminded him of churches. There was a sort of somber deference to being in one that made you whisper and want to fade into the background. He'd only lasted two hours this morning before really needing to get the hell out of here and take a walk. His heavy sighs and incessant tapping of fingers upon the table had had the other two quickly agreeing that he should take a time-out.
He took a wrong turn or two before finding the staircase and then the floor and the room where his geeks were holed up. As he walked in, he could see them at their table, hidden behind stacks of books, just the tops of their heads visible. He sighed silently.
He stood in front of their table for a few moments, but neither of them noticed, so he gave a few rapid raps with his knuckles on the hard cover of a particularly big book at the top of one stack. Their heads jerked up, startled. Carter's surprise turned to a smile, Daniel's turned to irritation.
"Jack…" Daniel whispered reproachfully and reached up to move the book away from him. "This book is over a hundred years old."
Jack eyed it. "Then it's survived worse than me," he retorted. Daniel rolled his eyes. Sam pressed her lips together, suppressing another smile.
"How's it going?" Jack asked, looking at the array of books on their table. Daniel had a notebook open in front of him and the two pages showing were heavy with penciled notes. No pens allowed.
"All right. It's time consuming though."
Jack didn't doubt it. The library would only let them look at the really valuable stuff a few books at a time. He and Sam had basically spent the morning bringing Daniel the books he asked for and then returning them to the staff. Well, until Jack grew too bored. Sam seemed a lot more interested in helping, and there was a notebook in front of her as well; her neat, even printing laid-out precisely on the pages.
Daniel sighed. "I've managed to reconstruct many of my notes about the Demotic script, but that's only a fraction of what I need."
"We're having copies made of some of the more important sources," Sam said. She looked tired.
"Fine," Jack stated, and then he motioned at them. "Put it all away for now. It's lunch time."
"Jack!" Daniel immediately began his protests, and Jack held a hand up.
"Daniel. Lunch."
"I'm not hungry. We've got so much more to do."
"I don't care." Jack glanced toward Sam. "You both spent all day here yesterday and nearly half the day today. You can come back tomorrow."
"I could eat something," Sam urged quietly, touching Daniel's hand. He looked at her then nodded.
"All right."
**
Jack got them a cab instead of finding a nearby restaurant. He ignored Daniel's renewed protests about eating quickly so they could get back to work. Sam was looking at him speculatively as they got on the nearby parkway.
"Where are we going?" She asked with the hint of a smile. She knew he was up to something.
He put on his best expression of innocence, pleased by her curiosity. She had a real sense of adventure sometimes. "I told you… to get some lunch."
She narrowed her eyes at him but didn't comment. He held her gaze with a sly smile.
"You could have left me there by myself." Daniel sat slouched on the other side of her, arms crossed over his chest, as he stared sullenly out the window. "We're going to lose most of the afternoon by the time we get back."
"And I told you," Jack looked pointedly at Daniel. "We're not going back."
Daniel's head whipped around. He'd barely opened his mouth when Jack cut him off. "Daniel, it won't kill you to be more than 10 feet from a book for the afternoon."
Daniel definitely wanted to argue, but Sam grinned at him and then pressed a kiss to his jaw. Jack could practically see the man melt beneath her lips.
"He's right. It won't kill you," She said quietly against his cheek.
"It might," Daniel murmured grumpily, eerily reminiscent of Jack's own words just a couple short months ago.
**
"Baseball?" Daniel stood on the sidewalk and looked at Jack as if he'd lost his mind. Jack realized he still loved that expression on him. "You brought us to watch baseball?"
Jack put on a smile. "Don't everyone thank me at once now."
"Cool," Sam blurted, grinning ear to ear. She stifled it a bit when Daniel turned his gaze on her. "Well, I've never been to an actual game before," she explained.
"Carter, you never fail to surprise me." Jack watched her grin and felt a ridiculous urge to throw his arm around her and go all soft and fawning.
"I thought we were going to lunch?" Daniel took her hand, and Jack took a moment to run his eyes down the picture they made together. So damn idealistic and guileless.
Jack blinked at him. "We are. We're here."
Daniel quirked one corner of his mouth skeptically. "Here?"
"They have food here, Daniel. The best kind of food. Ball park food!"
"Mmm." Daniel gave a very sarcastic smile.
Jack clapped a hand between his shoulder blades and then gripped the muscle between his shoulder and his neck, propelling him forward. "C'mon, Einstein. This whole trip is just about to become worth the effort. You just don't visit Chicago in the summer without going to a Cubs game."
Daniel gave him a wry look but seemed accepting and let Jack push him forward. He tightened his grip on Sam's hand, bringing her along beside them.
**
"Do you have any idea what these hotdogs are made of?" Daniel was studying his food with intensity. He looked fascinated.
Jack glared at him. "Oh, for… I swear to god, Daniel, if you actually TELL me, I'll… "
"Guys, I think this is where our seats are." Sam spoke through a mouthful of nacho chips and pointed up to a sign that indicated seat numbers.
"Forget it, Carter. It's a nice day, there's low attendance, and I hate crowds." He led them up to the highest tier of seats. There was one lowly usher sitting on a folding chair in the main aisle. He barely glanced at them as they walked out into view of the field.
"Wow." Sam stopped in surprise to sweep her eyes across the huge expanse of the stadium.
Jack grinned at her and then took her elbow to pull her after them as he and Daniel made their way to an isolated area of seats. He was overly pleased with her enthusiasm and was thinking that this might have actually been a good idea. Daniel was still being the occasional snot and very Daniel-like but had otherwise settled down and seemed to be resigned to an afternoon of fun, whether he liked it or not.
When Daniel stood aside to let Jack into the row of seats first, Jack balked. "Oh, no. I'm sitting between you two. You're not going to sit here and discuss aliens and stargates the entire time."
Daniel pursed his lips and blinked at him. "Do we need a hall pass to go the bathroom too?"
Sam snorted. Jack shot her a sideways glance and then shrugged at Daniel. "Not if you can be good."
Their eyes caught and held, Daniel's brows arching with a hint of humor. Jack's gut tightened up again. He'd thought he'd grown used to Daniel's stubbornness and seeming sheer desire to challenge everything Jack said, but sometimes it still took him by surprise. It made him want to simultaneously cuff the archeologist upside the head and tuck him under an arm and draw him close.
Daniel slid into a seat, and Jack sat beside him. He reached for one of Sam's nachos as soon as she settled on the other side of him. She eyed him but allowed it and didn't say anything.
He settled back to enjoy the game.
**
"No, really," Sam said, turning in her seat to face them. "Math is integral to baseball. If you can measure the velocity of the ball being hit in both the horizontal and vertical directions, you can calculate the distance it will travel and the time it will spend in the air." She used her hand to indicate a baseball traveling in an arc. Jack stared at her silently.
"What if it's windy?" Daniel asked. He was munching happily on a box of popcorn. Jack slid a glare his way for encouraging her.
Sam gave a small shrug. "Well, yeah. Wind is drag on the ball. You'd have to take into account the less than ideal conditions in which the ball was hit. The wind and drag, gravity, the spot on the bat where the ball was hit."
"Fascinating," Jack said flatly. Sam didn't seem to notice.
"You know, really, home run kings aren't made by muscle. The key to hitting the ball a long distance is actually bat speed, not hulking strength."
"Carter!" Jack exclaimed, finally reaching his limit.
She jerked her gaze to him, surprised. "What?"
"You're ruining baseball for me!"
She quirked an eyebrow. "Oh. Sorry." She didn't sound sorry at all.
"Just relax. Enjoy." Jack slid down in his seat and stared at the field. Daniel munched happily beside him, spilling more than he got in his mouth.
Truthfully, Jack had been having a hard time concentrating on the game before Sam started up with the physics. He couldn't figure it out. He loved sports. He loved baseball. Daniel had settled down and seemed to be enjoying himself. Sam had shown a remarkable interest and picked up on the rules quickly. He had a beer. He should be enjoying himself immensely.
Instead, he stared at the pitcher and wondered briefly if the player had always been a southpaw. For some odd reason, he'd always thought the man pitched right-handed. Maybe he's ambidextrous.
Except, that wasn't what he felt like he remembered. He remembered the man being right-handed. Now he was left.
The game and the crowd were receding around him. He listened to Daniel crunching and tried to put things in perspective. It wasn't working. Suddenly, he was remembering all sorts of things that had seemed 'off' in his life. Not in a overtly noticeable sort of way, but in a way that had made him hesitate for the briefest of moments before he had shrugged and just moved on.
His head hurt.
"This is all wrong," he said softly.
"What?" Daniel glanced at him and swallowed his popcorn.
"This-" Jack motioned toward the field. "Is all wrong."
Sam frowned. "They're winning. It seems alright to me."
Jack sat up. "Not this!" He said, pointing at the field. "This!" He waved his hands in the air, indicating everything.
There was silence on both sides of him. They were both staring at him.
"Carter?" Jack leaned forward and rested his elbows wearily on his knees.
"Yes?" Her voice was soft. Worried.
"What happens with this alternate timeline stuff? Can we… feel things that are wrong?"
Sam hesitated. Jack glanced up in time to see her looking at Daniel over his head. He had the feeling that they'd been waiting for this. For him.
"Jack, are you feeling okay?" Daniel put a hand on his shoulder.
"No." Jack looked at Sam again. "Is there only one timeline that can be correct? Can we feel that things are… not right?"
Sam took a deep breath. "Well, I'm not sure."
Great.
She offered him a faint smile. "It's possible. All of the science that we're dealing with here is highly theoretical. There are just no solid facts to base anything on."
"I've always felt like things were wrong," Daniel said.
Jack glanced at him, held his gaze briefly, then stared down at his hands, fingers interlocked between his knees. "This is all wrong."
He felt Sam's hand on his back. "I've felt it too. It's just… been so much better the past few months. Ever since… "
"We all met." Jack finished it for her.
"Yes."
"God, that's so cliché." Jack gave a sharp laugh.
"We're trying to fix it, Jack." Daniel squeezed his shoulder warmly. Jack didn't answer.
He settled his chin in his hands and stared at the playing field. Sam and Daniel began talking across his back, but they didn't remove their hands from him. It felt good and comforting and… right. He felt that tightness in his gut twisting painfully.
**
They left the game early. Jack couldn't sit still and think about it anymore. They got in a cab and went back to their hotel. Jack was silent the entire way, staring out the window. He tried to remember if Sara had felt wrong. Or Charlie. They hadn't. It was just the little things. Small details that had hardly made a difference but had somehow added up to make him feel like he was hung out to dry, twisting in the wind. He'd only noticed it now because of its absence, or near absence, once the geeks had entered his life.
The entire idea was tilting his world off its axis, one small degree at a time.
When they reached the hotel, he went for another walk, not even asking if the other two wanted to join him. They didn't invite themselves either. He knew they were worried, but ever since he'd met them, they'd displayed an amazing sense of knowing when he needed to be alone. They'd been more accepting of this whole timeline debacle from the start. They'd had each other to talk to while they dealt with it. He was playing catch-up.
He walked for hours.
**
They had dinner at the hotel's restaurant. Overpriced beer and sticky pasta. Jack buried his in Parmesan cheese and salt. He bought a six-pack of the over-priced beer from the lounge, and they took it up to the room Sam and Daniel shared. They sat on the balcony in the darkness, looking out on Lake Michigan, while Daniel told them what the plan was for the next day.
"It's a private collection and not well-known. One of my old professors has a stake in it, and I think he'll let me in. You can't come with me though."
"Be careful what you tell him," Sam warned.
Jack drank most of the beer while the other two talked softly. The hotel was out of the city. It was cheaper on the outskirts. He had his pension from the Air Force, and Sam had a savings account built on years of employment in the government sector, but she was quickly running through her money. Daniel had had nothing.
The cool breeze rolling off the lake felt good, and, if he closed his eyes, the sound of the waves and the haze of the beer almost made it seem like they were sitting back on the pier at home. He wondered what the relationships were like between the three of them in the correct timeline. Whether they were simple and strong and well defined like any good military unit should be; or whether they were convoluted and hard and exhausting. Like now.
"It doesn't matter what we do… " He heard Daniel whispering to Sam. "It will all be wiped away when we fix things."
Jack closed his eyes.
**
Sam fell asleep in her chair. In the cool of the night, she'd pulled her legs up under her, rested her head on the side of the chair and fallen asleep. Jack watched her from 4 feet away. Her ever-thoughtful expression was replaced by something more comfortable. He felt a twinge of something in his mind. Like he was looking at someone else. She confused him. There was an underlying strength to her that made the sheepishness she carried around perplexing. She was caught up in what she thought she should be, instead of what she could be.
He listened to her soft breath and remembered how she'd looked when he'd caught her and Daniel in bed that night after the tavern. Pale, slim back with more muscle tone than you'd suspect from the way she hid her body in shapeless clothes. Their relationship had seemed to quietly intimate. The graphic intensity of the sex had startled him. The memory of her moans made his mouth run dry. He took a swig of beer and glanced over at Daniel. He was slouched low in his own chair, doing the same thing Jack was… watching Sam sleep. They'd run out of conversation a few long minutes ago. Without Sam, the talk had died.
It was an easy silence though. Jack liked that about Daniel. He could just exist in a silence without trying to fill it with something. Oh, he could run off good at the mouth when he wanted to alright, but he was comfortable not talking when Jack didn't want to talk. Most of the time.
They'd never really talked about that night, he and Daniel. The next morning, he'd woken up after Sam had already left for work. Daniel had been off that day and was making coffee in the kitchen, swearing softly under his breath when he spilled coffee grounds all over the floor. Jack hadn't been sure what to expect from Daniel, and there'd been one awkward moment where they'd stared at each other, remembering the same thing. Maybe more than one thing.
There'd been silence, and Jack saw an opening and took it. "I've got a tour this afternoon. Taking some folks fishing. Want to earn a few extra bucks and help me out?"
Daniel had looked surprised at first and then almost pleased. Jack had been glad he'd asked. He'd been even gladder when Daniel proved to be a natural in customer service. He put people at ease. They found his stories about fishing salmon with the Coeur d'Alene in Idaho fascinating and charming. All Jack had to do was keep the boat running and keep his grumpy self out of the way. He got twice the normal tip that day.
After that, Daniel came along for most of his booked tours. The few there were. He felt a quiet satisfaction from watching Daniel learn how to work the boat. Not that Daniel didn't do a lot of muttering beneath his breath while he learned. They had plenty of opportunities to take careful jabs at each other while working; Jack alternating between quiet instruction and acrid impatience, Daniel responding with sarcasm and a stubborn insistence on doing it himself. It sometimes made Jack smile behind his back.
Then there was that other thing.
The thing that made Jack stare a little too long when Daniel was surprised by a following sea and soaked to the bone. The thing that made him pull up short and catch his breath when the waves got under them and Daniel swung by, a little too close, one hand grabbing Jack's arm or gripping his shoulder to keep them from colliding. There'd been more than a few times Daniel had stood and stretched, shoulders bunched and flexed beneath his shirt after securing the mooring lines, and then had turned too quickly and caught Jack watching him. Too many times. Daniel never said anything. He'd just held Jack's gaze with those clear blue eyes and then gone back to work, leaving Jack with his heart pounding in his chest and his mind trying to concentrate on anything except the one thing filling it.
He was as attracted to Daniel as he was to Sam. And the knowledge didn't make him feel surprised as much as resigned. It wasn't that he couldn't see himself attracted to another man, but it wasn't something that felt familiar to him. Still, there'd been times…
Living in an Air Force barracks with 20 other guys didn't allow for much privacy. And sometimes it felt good to know you were getting off at the same time someone else was. Especially when you were a thousand miles from home and lonely and you'd just been through hell together.
The last few years he'd been letting his heart rest. Sarah and Charlie had exhausted him. And just when he felt like maybe the scars were holding up alright, the two of them walked into his life. And he was old enough to know exactly what he was feeling right now.
Fate was a real bitch sometimes.
"Jack?" Daniel was watching him now. Sam was still sleeping soundly in her chair.
Jack glanced at him without a word and set his empty beer bottle on the floor beside his chair.
Daniel took this as permission to proceed. "Do you want to talk about… this?"
Jack looked up to see him make a circular motion with his hand indicating the three of them. He didn't need to ask what 'this' was. It was pretty fucking obvious what 'this' was, and, no, he didn't want to talk about it, for God's sake. "No," he answered quickly.
"Jack, it's going to take awhile before we can find the stargate. Maybe a long while. Until then… "
"Daniel." Jack pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
"I don't want to lose Sam," Daniel said quickly. "Or you," he added after a beat. Sometimes when he had something to say, neither Jack nor God himself could stop him. Jack was pretty sure he'd find that irritating in any timeline.
Jack leaned forward, elbows on knees, and looked at Daniel. They stared at each other for a long moment. "You're not," Jack finally answered. Then he nodded at Sam tiredly. "Put her to bed, Romeo. She can't sleep like that all night."
Daniel gazed at him a bit longer and then looked away and nodded. He stood and waited while Jack gathered up his empties and set them inside the door to the room. When Jack turned around, Daniel pushed him against the balcony railing and kissed him.
Jack had never kissed another man before and he was paralyzed at first, struck both with an impulsive need to jerk away and with the urge to open his mouth and move his lips. Daniel was warm and solid, and his thigh was pressing in between Jack's legs and against Jack's cock, which had suddenly gone rigid in about 3 seconds flat. He lifted his hands to Daniel's head, not sure if he was going to push the man away or pull him closer. Daniel pulled his mouth away though and watched Jack speculatively. He ran a thumb over his bottom lip as his eyes met Jack's.
"What the hell are you doing?" Jack demanded. His voice sounded strained and hoarse.
Daniel met his glare with steady eyes. "Giving you the chance to know for sure."
"What?"
But Daniel just shook his head. He turned to Sam and brushed a strand of hair from her eyes, as Jack stood, frozen, against the railing. Sam woke under his touch and smiled sleepily up at him. Jack watched Daniel's mouth turn up at the corners as he whispered something to her. She let him help her up, and they moved toward the sliding doors of their room. Daniel gave him one last fleeting look before sliding the door shut behind them.
Jack stayed out on the balcony until long after midnight. Then he drank the last beer and went to bed. He dreamed about blue eyes and soft lips and had no idea which one of them it had been when he woke up the next morning.
**
"Wow, this is fascinating!"
Jack winced. "Carter, this is disgusting. I'm never going to be able to eat lunch now."
Sam glanced at him doubtfully and flipped another panel over. They were in a small, warm, stark room that just made the display worse in Jack's opinion. Along one wall were dozens of display panels on hinges. Within each one, pressed between glass, was a cross-section of a real human body. From head to toe, they ran the length of the wall. Some soul who'd dedicated their body to science after their death had been frozen and then cut into slices with a band saw. The glass panels were beaded with moisture inside, the glass itself scratched and half-milky.
Sam was right. It was fascinating, but it also made his throat clench and his stomach lurch.
The Museum of Science and Industry had seemed like a good idea at the time to Jack. They couldn't go with Daniel today, thank God, and the Cubs had ended their stay at home and were off. That left him and Sam to find their own entertainment for the day and do the tourist thing.
"Don't you ever wonder what you look like on the inside?" Sam raised an eyebrow at him.
He leaned in the doorway and narrowed his eyes. "I saw enough of that in Iraq. I don't need to put a name to all of it."
Her expression softened immediately. "I'm sorry."
"Don't," he demanded quietly. She walked toward him, and, on impulse, he took her hand and tugged. "C'mon. Let's get out of here for a while. I need some air."
He didn't let go of her hand while they found their way to the exit. She didn't try to pull it away. They walked slowly down to the lake and found a spot away from all the school fieldtrips having lunch on the shore. It was windy and cloudy and cool, and it wiped the odd scent of the museum from their clothes. Jack had thought it smelled like paste and the library and unwashed kids all at once. He pulled her down beside him on a bench and stretched his legs out in front of him. He stifled a groan.
Sam leaned forward, elbows on her thighs, and watched the boats in the distance. Jack watched the way her hair clung to her nape in the wind.
"So, are we the same people as the ones on the tape, or are we different?"
She looked back at him. "We're the same."
He nodded.
"And… we're different."
He stared at her.
She bit her lower lip and tried to explain. "It's us. We're just… "
"Different?" He offered with only a light edge of sarcasm.
She flashed him a bit of a long-suffering glare. He almost smiled at that. She'd held out much longer than Daniel had before finally giving him that look.
"We're the same," she said with finality. "We just took different paths after the timeline was broken."
"So… we already died once in this-" he waved a finger between the two of them, "-timeline."
"No, not really." Sam looked up thoughtfully. "You see, technically we don't even go back to the past until later. If we don't do it again, then that timeline ceases to exist and this one just goes on." She looked at him. "But they're really not separate. Understand?"
"No," he answered emphatically.
She smiled. "That's okay. Sometimes it runs around in my head for so long that I don't think I understand it either."
"That's reassuring," Jack replied uneasily.
Sam ducked her head and grinned. "I'll hold up my end. Promise."
He studied her seriously. "Carter, you really think this is going to work?"
She seemed surprised. "Of course. I mean, it's all theory, but it should work."
"And if it doesn't?"
She hesitated.
He hooked one of her fingers with his own. "Hey, this is just me and you here. I know Daniel refuses to think about it, but what about you?"
She was staring at their fingers, hooked around each other. "Honestly?"
"Honestly."
"I don't… " She licked her lips. "I wouldn't be crushed or anything. I'd feel bad that we messed it up to begin with, but… "
"You'd be okay."
"Yes." She glanced up at him. "I think so." She eyed him. "But we really need to do this, Jack. We need to keep trying until, for some reason, we're unable to do it anymore."
Jack shrugged. "Yeah, yeah. I know. We will."
She let go of his finger and slid her hand into his.
**
For dinner that night, he took them to his favorite steak place. He'd been a little surprised it still existed. It used to sit on a road of industrial plants and car lots. Now, thanks to urban renewal, it sat amid a long stretch of restaurants and clubs. It was still good though. He had a steak that came with everything traditional: baked potato, salad, bread and sautéed onions and mushrooms. He made them all order good, strong, dark beer along with it. For the first time in days, his mood lifted.
It started to rain while they finished their second round of after-dinner drinks. They were seated next to the window that looked out over the street. Two men and a woman had dived for cover under the awning of the steak place. Jack watched them as they laughed and huddled together out of the rain. Seconds later, his beer was forgotten as the woman kissed first one of the men then the other. Long, open-mouthed, wet kisses. When he glanced surreptitiously from the corner of his eye, he saw Sam and Daniel also staring wide-eyed at the trio, who were gone from the window a second later, making a break for a club across the street.
Jack turned back to his beer and silence fell over the table. It had just started to get awkward when Sam spoke up.
"Huh. Lucky girl."
Daniel blinked at her. Jack grinned and almost snorted his beer out his nose. Leave it to Carter.
"Polyamory," Daniel said absently.
"What?"
Daniel glanced at both of them and hesitated. "Um, polyamory. The act of having more than one relationship at a time."
"Like Mormons?" Jack took a swallow of his beer.
Daniel shook his head. "No. Mormons are polygamous, which means multiple marriages. And it only pertains to men having wives. The women don't get the same right." He squinted at the window. "Actually, very few Mormons practice polygamy anymore anyway, but that's not the point…"
"The point is?" Sam was chewing on her lower lip.
"Um. I was just… theorizing."
"Why?" Jack drew the word out. That tightness in his gut was back.
"Well…" Daniel's mouth tugged up at the corners, embarrassed. "When I was living here and going to school, my roommate's best friend was polyamorous. He dated a lot of different people at the same time." He shrugged. "Everyone he dated knew about it. He was pretty forthright. I think that's the important thing in that sort of… relationship. That everyone knows and approves."
"Threesomes?" Jack lifted an eyebrow and pretended a million different images hadn't just washed through his mind concerning him and two geeky scientists.
"Well, not for him," Daniel replied. He traced his finger around the rim of his glass. "Certainly people could have more than two people in one relationship, but he didn't. He dated a few different… people, but he kept them all separate."
Sam was staring at him, fascinated. "How popular is that?"
Daniel met her eyes. Jack watched something pass between them before Daniel pursed his lips and shrugged once more. "Don't know. I never asked."
They fell silent again. Jack felt that tightness well up inside him and stick. This time it didn't go away.
**
The ride back to the hotel in the cab was somewhat surreal to him. They all had a couple of beers worth of haze in their minds. Dark beer was good for that. Daniel was telling archeology jokes that neither Jack nor Sam understood, but they smiled anyway because Daniel just thought they were so damn funny.
They settled in on the balcony again to gaze at the lake and talk about the next day and Daniel's findings. Jack couldn't concentrate. He felt restless and a little belligerent. His world was tilting, and he wasn't sure how to stop it. It had been tilting slowly in degrees ever since he'd looked up to find them waiting on the pier next to his boat. It had taken a decided lurch to the left last night when Daniel had pushed him back against the railing of the balcony and slid his tongue into Jack's mouth. He felt off-balance and a little out of control. He didn't like it.
When Daniel offered to go downstairs to the lounge and get more of the hideously expensive beer, Jack had jumped up and given him his wallet. When he was gone, and Jack was leaning against the railing with Sam, both of them staring down at the ground below, he found the desire to shove back at his rapidly tilting life.
"Daniel kissed me last night."
"He told me," Sam replied quietly.
Jack had been prepared for her to take it calmly, maybe even without surprise, but… he hadn't expected that. "He told you?"
"Mmhmm." She took a deep breath of the cold wind coming off the lake. It smelled like rain and wet forest, and it was something Jack found comforting. She looked at him. "Daniel's a little more… " She took a moment to think, "-open-minded than you or I, Jack."
He stared at her. She stared back.
He found himself leaning over and suddenly kissing her. She didn't pull away. Her lips were hesitant beneath his and then her arms were circling his neck, pulling him closer, mouth opening against his, and he just couldn't walk away. He was backing her up against the far railing, hands sliding over her waist and pulling her hips close against his. And her tongue was in his mouth, and damn it had been so long.
He could taste the beer in her mouth, and she made a small, desperate sound that had his heart racing. He had his hands under the hem of her T-shirt, running over smooth, soft skin, his dick already so hard for her that he was considering just lifting her against the top rail… when he heard a cough behind them.
He pulled back to see Sam's gaze fixed over his shoulder, her expression unreadable, and he turned to meet Daniel's eyes.
"I, uh… " Jack wasn't sure what to say, didn't really feel capable of forming words when his hard-on hadn't lost anything and Sam's hands were still tickling circles on his nape. Daniel walked toward them, blue eyes glancing from him to Sam. Jack stared at his mouth.
"It's okay, um… " Daniel actually tried to smile, but Jack thought he looked a little hurt when he glanced at Sam, and Sam reached out to him, her body drawing away from Jack's. Jack suddenly felt desperate. His heart was pounding and his breath wouldn't slow down, and before he even realized what he wanted to do, he also reached out. He grabbed Daniel's head. Daniel blinked at him, but didn't seem as surprised as Jack felt when Jack drew him forward and pressed their mouths together.
It felt different and bigger and rougher than it had with Sam, and Jack felt that sharp ache down low in his belly that came with the anticipation of sex. Daniel tasted different, smelled different, moved differently against him, but it was still good. So damn good.
He kept an arm around Sam, afraid she'd pull away, but she didn't. And when he and Daniel broke off the kiss, he watched them stare at each other. It was awkward for one tension-filled moment before Daniel was leaning in and kissing Sam, her free hand coming up to slide into his hair, her other still resting on Jack's chest.
"So… " Jack said, trying to get this straight in his mind. "We're sharing?"
"Yes." Both Sam and Daniel answered at the same time, and Jack wanted to find it hilarious and point out the quandary of who was sharing who, but then Daniel's mouth was on his again, and Sam's hands were sliding under his shirt and bringing up the gooseflesh on his back.
He let the tilt become a full-on freefall.
**
The bed was barely big enough for two, much less three, but Jack shoved it up against the wall, securing one side. He felt more frantic that he was acting, but the physics of three people were more intricate than for two, and he had no idea how any of this was supposed to go. He didn't think Sam or Daniel did either. Fingers fumbled with clothing, and noses and chins bumped awkwardly. He concentrated on kissing whomever was free and getting their clothes off. He was hard with anticipation, even before his hands were sliding over Sam's breasts, thumbs finding nipple, or he felt the wiry hair on Daniel's legs dragging against his.
He pressed his mouth against Sam's neck, teeth and tongue tasting, inhaling the close, warm scent of her. He felt her hands, tentative against his hips, sliding down and in and then wrapping around his cock and moving with a languid pace. He groaned, and Daniel pushed them both onto the bed.
He was past disbelief and thinking and second thoughts, all the way into simply experiencing. He kissed Daniel as he slid over the top of Jack to get to Sam, smooth cock dragging over his hip and leaving a cool, wet trail. He kissed Sam as Daniel worked down her body, a familiar routine to their actions. Daniel went down on her, and she moaned into Jack's mouth. He pulled back to let her breathe, fingers grazing over hard nipple. He was caught by the sight of Daniel's head between her thighs, his blue eyes glancing up at them occasionally, heavy-lidded and intense.
Fuck.
He kissed Sam again, and when their tongues met, she shuddered beneath him and came, her hand going to Daniel's head, holding him tightly while she arched up. The answering groan from Daniel in response to her climax had Jack burying his face in Sam's neck and trying to think about baseball scores and fishing and anything that would keep him from coming in a rush. Instead, all he could think about was that watching the two of them together was by far the hottest thing he had ever seen. And it felt like a part of him had just opened up that had never been exposed before.
Sam pushed him onto his back. He opened his eyes to find her smiling faintly at him, a sated glint to her eyes that had him holding his breath. Her fingernails dragged over his belly, her mouth following, and then Daniel's mouth was on his, and Jack could taste Sam in every wet exchange. He really couldn't help the groan that spilled out of him. Nor the sharp inhalation that followed when he felt Sam's tongue rasp over the slick head of his cock.
It was only the strangeness of the situation that kept him from coming. He felt Daniel move away, felt Sam's mouth close over him and her fingers slide up his thigh. He opened his eyes, wanting to see that graphic picture of her sucking his cock. He saw her, felt the sharp stab of arousal it brought, but he also saw Daniel, watching them, looking oddly appreciative and turned-on and so very not geeky. Ohh, fuckfuckfuck.
"Sam…" Jack practically croaked her name, his fingers tightening in her hair. She drew her mouth up and off of him, and then turned and Daniel was there, and Jack watched them fuse their mouths together, knew Daniel tasted him in Sam's mouth.
When Daniel's mouth moved over his thigh, Jack stilled. When his mouth slid over the head of Jack's cock, Jack gritted his teeth, closed his eyes and slid fingers into Daniel's long hair. Jesus...
Daniel fumbled a bit, mouth obviously unused to giving head, and Jack so didn't care. It had been way too long and it was way too good and he was lost. He tightened his grip on Daniel's hair out of habit. Daniel pulled back, wrapped a fist around the head of Jack's cock and, a few short pulls later, Jack was digging his heels into the mattress and coming, breaths hard and hoarse in the silence of the room.
**
He relaxed heavily into the mattress as he came down. Sam's lips pressed against his jaw and he reached half-heartedly for her, only to have her move away. He watched through heavy-lidded eyes as she buried slim fingers in Daniel's hair, their mouths sliding together. Daniel put her on her back, lifted his hips when she trailed a hand down his side, and then thrust into her hand as her fingers wrapped around him, squeezing tight.
There was something gratifying and consoling about watching them this way, with his own body still feeling the lazy fatigue of release and his breath not yet slow and normal.
Daniel's back arched when he slid into her. Sam's thighs rested on his hips and she moved against him, with him and… god…
Jack listened to them panting, then groaning, and then coming. It was comforting and exciting and so fucking arousing that he closed his eyes.
The mattress moved and then Daniel's damp shoulder was against his. Jack could smell his sweat and the scent of sex. Sam's hand slid lightly over his chest.
He felt disoriented and strangely complacent. He listened to Daniel's breathing begin to slow and deepen into sleep, and heard Sam's amused huff of breath as she reached across Jack to stroke the mussed hair from Daniel's closed lids. Her breath was cool on Jack's shoulder. He fell asleep.
**
He stood at the sliding glass door to the balcony just before dawn. When he'd woken, groggy and starting to ache just a bit from the intensity of the sex and the logistics of three people sleeping in a bed for two, the room had been stifling and stale; the back of his neck damp with sweat.
He cracked the door open, standing naked in the night breeze as it rushed in around him. It smelled humid with the tang of the lake, but it was cool and refreshing. Behind him on the bed, Daniel snored softly, sheet tangled around his waist and legs. He'd eventually stolen all of it in the night. Sam slept curled up and uncovered on the other side. Jack watched them with a troubled expression.
He was pretty sure they should never do this again.
He was pretty sure he really wanted to though.
Daniel's words to Sam from the night before kept coming back to him
"It doesn't matter what we do… it'll all be wiped away when we fix things."
The words were reassuring and yet still twisted a knife in his gut. He had no idea what he should do about all of this. He watched as Sam shivered, the breeze finally filling the room and brushing over the bed. She opened her eyes in the blue-cast light of dawn and looked right at him. He said nothing. She watched him for a while, and he felt as if she were reading him like one of Daniel's books.
"It's alright, Jack," she finally said, voice soft and deep with sleep, trying to sound reassuring. She pushed herself over next to Daniel and wrestled the sheet out from under him and untangled it from his legs. She cast Jack one more sleepy glance before settling down next to Daniel, curving into his side and drawing the sheet up over them. She left a Jack-sized portion of it free on the other side of her.
Jack hesitated for just a moment, giving the encroaching dawn over the lake one more look, then he went back and slid into bed beside her. He was pretty sure they should never do this again, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Or to stop. He couldn't bring himself to feel wrong.
Not when he felt 'right' for the first time in so damn long.
TBC-