Title: Tús gá Deireadh Author: Alanna Rating: PG-15-ish
Length: 16,620 words Category: Friendship, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, Angst Synopsis: SG-1 takes a regular, all-American camping trip…but of course, things can never go as they’re planned— where would be the fun in that? Season: Early Season 4 Spoilers: minor for Small Victories Warnings: The rating is just for some of the language, only…hey, they are adults, after all. It’s nothing too vulgar; just the usual Jack-ness. =p Disclaimer: I don't own 'em; wish I did, but I'm just borrowing for my own evil devices.
'Inter spem curamque, timores inter et iras omnen crede diem tibi diluxisse supremem: grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora.'
Chapter 1 Daniel Jackson knocked twice on Teal'c's door before opening it and stepping inside...only to stop dead and wish he hadn't answered the phone when it had rung only five minutes earlier. "This is the..."
"Problem you couldn't possibly handle on your own?"
Daniel glanced over his shoulder at Sam Carter's equally bemused tone as the heavy door to Teal'c's quarters closed quietly behind him, admitting the third member of SG-1--the fourth member of which was, conveniently, absent. "Got you too, huh?" Daniel presumed.
Sam stepped up to his side, hands on her hips, and zeroed in on Teal'c with a pointed look. Their Jaffa companion stood opposite Daniel and Sam at what Daniel assumed to be the Jaffa form of military parade rest, an innocent--as innocent as Teal'c could get, anyway--look on his face. "Indeed," he said pleasantly.
"Hm. Well, you see, I was thinking it would be something more like an artifact...or a translation. Not..." Daniel gestured vaguely at the pile between them. "Not the result of-of you...robbing Pikes Peak Scout Shop." Sam sniggered beside him, and Daniel flung his hands helplessly to the sides. "I don't know what you want me to do with this stuff, Teal'c."
Teal'c reached down and gingerly pulled a rolled-up sleeping bag from the haphazard pile. "O'Neill instructed me to invite yourself and MajorCarter to begin 'packing' efforts for a...'once in a lifetime opportunity'." He sounded distinctly bored...but that boredom abruptly switched to Teal'c's version of glee as he thrust the sleeping bag toward Daniel, who had no choice but to close his arms around it or let it fall.
His reason kicked in a little late. Why was letting it fall a bad thing? Daniel looked up from the pale green bag to Teal'c, then back to Sam. "Once in a lifetime..."
"Opportunity," Sam finished weakly. "Remember, Daniel," she said wearily, "we have downtime all next week."
Horrific understanding dawned on Daniel as he realized the implications of a week's worth of downtime. Last year their downtime had fallen during the semi-finals of the NHL playoffs, and Jack had dragged them to what seemed to be every arena in the continental United States to watch more hockey than Daniel could possibly have had the stomach for in his entire lifetime. "Quick," he panicked. "Call any hotel anywhere and make emergency reservations. Call every society and see if there are any conventions or meetings lined up. I'll go, I'll present, I'll take notes; I'll do something."
"Very funny. Hey, great, T--you got the good ones!" Daniel blinked as the sleeping bag vanished from his arms, and he turned to see Jack inspecting it with something bordering unpleasantly on delight. "HI thermal sleeping bags," he informed Daniel. "Perfect for those chilly outdoor nights under the stars. These are sweet," he admired.
"Okay Jack, how about you start at the beginning of this oh-so-confusing episode and explain what the hell we need 'HI thermal sleeping bags' for?" Daniel suggested invitingly.
Jack glanced at Teal'c. "Teal'c, you didn't tell 'em? Well, what the hell are you two doing here? You psychic or what?"
"No," Daniel said tonelessly, "Teal'c told me he had a problem only I--and then, only Sam, apparently--could help him with. He didn't tell us anything--otherwise, I'm beginning to suspect that I wouldn't have come. I may even have cleared out my closet and hidden in there until it was over."
Sam nodded her accord. "Sorry to disappoint, sir."
"No problem." Undeterred, Jack dug in his pocket and produced a brochure, which Daniel spread out for Sam to take a look at. "'Irish Canyon Campground'--Jack, this is about a hundred miles away! 'Adventurous tenters'...okay, just because we sleep in tents offworld doesn't mean I want to do it in the wilderness here--for fun."
Jack snatched the brochure back. "Don't exaggerate. It's only forty-five miles outside Maybell. And it's not like we're completely roughing it, Daniel...there is a pit toilet."
Jaw hanging slightly agape, Daniel turned to Sam. "Hear that? There's a pit toilet. No," he said loudly. "There's no way I'm spending an entire week of downtime at some backwater campground. There's a reason I like to sleep in my own bed when we get home from missions." "Well, General Hammond approved my idea as a good team-building exercise," Jack announced smugly. "It's not gonna be all fun and games, kids."
"Joy," Daniel muttered.
"Team-building, sir?" Sam asked. She had bristled slightly, but Daniel had to admit that maybe some sort of team building wasn't such a bad idea. Of course, the goodness of the idea didn’t extend to being dragged to some godforsaken campground, but Daniel had been feeling the strain the past few months; the strain of a family, albeit a dysfunctional one, pushing the limits with one anothers' patience. Jack on the other hand, didn’t seem concerned.
"Relax, Carter. Hammond just said that this little outing would be good for us; we've been just about non-stop for months now, and we need a little time to unwind; get back to some normal stuff."
"So we're going to go 'adventurous tenting' in the middle of nowhere, with no other people around for miles, so we can kill one another without public knowledge?" Daniel asked dryly.
"In the wilderness, no one can hear you scream," Teal'c deadpanned.
Jack ignored the Jaffa's inopportune flash of humour and crouched beside the pile of miscellaneous stuff, separating things into different piles. Daniel caught a glimpse of a white-cased first-aid kit, thermoses, flashlights, batteries, a compass, and various other odds and ends of which Jack seemed to be taking full stock. "We'll have to pick up some more gear before we go--good start though, T," he said approvingly. "I'll stop by the grocery store over the next couple of days and grab some grub, too. You'll all have to make lists, tell me what you want me to bring for you."
"How about some take-out menus that we can employ from the comfort of our own homes?" Daniel suggested.
"Relax, Daniel," Jack said cheerfully. "It’ll be fun!"
Watching his friend enthusiastically dig through the gear Teal'c had bought, Daniel and Sam exchanged wry glances, and Daniel had no doubt the same thing was running through their heads. 'Fun'...that was one word for it.
"Rise and shine, camper!" Jack's voice was way too upbeat for Daniel's taste, and he could detect a certain smugness--like Jack had just been waiting, sitting on the 'campers' thing until they had actually gone camping. In Jack's twisted, warped sense of humour and sense of...whatever-ness, calling them 'campers' probably never sounded right when he'd chirp it on base.
Daniel felt the fog of sleep lift a little more as, resignedly, he acknowledged the fact that he was more than likely bound for a similar fate if he could actually predict how Jack's mind worked. "Get away from me," he growled instead. He rolled over and shoved both arms under his pillow to hug it protectively closer. He would ignore--for now--the fact that Jack was in his apartment--his bedroom at...'Four in the morning? For the love of-- '...when Daniel kept his door resolutely locked.
"Tsk-tsk"--And Jack actually enunciated the 'tsk's, which irritated Daniel to no end--"that's no way to speak to your camp counsellor, Daniel."
"Take my counsel, Jack--get the hell away from me before you're eating this pillow."
"You tell him, Daniel." The weary voice, sounding further away than Jack's, surprised him, and Daniel lifted his head slightly to take in Sam, just inside his door with Teal'c at her side, using him as a lean-to. He gaped at Jack. "What; did you bring the entire SGC to my apartment?"
"Our two team-mates hardly constitute the entire SGC, Daniel. Don't be such a drama queen. Now get up," Jack yanked Daniel's pillow out from under him, "and get ready; the sun's gonna be up soon and I want to get on the road."
Burying an undisguised whine into his mattress, Daniel bore the indignity of Jack tearing the covers away from the bed, intending to make the demon who dragged him off on a camping trip at four o'clock in the morning work toward getting him up. "Daniel--what--what are you doing?"
He'd been rolled to his back, where Daniel let himself sink limply into the mattress. "Non-violent resistance," he said lethargically as Jack tugged at one of his arms. "See? I did learn something from all those stupid Simpsons episodes you make me watch."
"You sonuva--Teal'c give me a hand here, will ya?"
"I am otherwise occupied, O'Neill. I do not believe MajorCarter is capable of remaining upright."
"For cryin' out loud...fine, Daniel, we'll do it your way."
The mattress under him bounced slightly. Daniel didn't pay attention to whatever it was; he just dug his heels deeper into the mattress...but all his efforts were for naught, when the mattress abruptly upended itself, a force that felt suspiciously like two hands shoving at his back. "Wha--JACK!"
"There. You can't say I didn't warn you."
There was complete silence before and behind him, Daniel invisible on the floor, his overturned mattress on top of him, and Teal'c and Carter stunned statues by the door. Jack could barely suppress a grin; it seemed he'd killed two birds with one stone--Daniel was out of bed and doubtlessly awake, and Carter's eyes were dominating her face, the major no longer relying on Teal'c to keep her on her feet. "Sir--" she choked.
"I believe that was uncalled for, O'Neill."
"Ya think?" a disgruntled voice roared from under the mattress. The cumbersome thing bucked slightly as Daniel presumably rose to his hands and knees, and then was shoved unceremoniously off the glaring, pissed...bleeding archaeologist. "Ow."
Jack sighed, pointing at Daniel's forehead. Only the archaeologist..."For Christ's sake, Daniel, how the hell did you manage that?"
"Manage...oh. Yeah, Jack, see there's this new invention called an end table. Made of wood, normally, and usually with very pointy ends that, when one's body is at gravity's mercy, tend to hurt, i.e. break skin if you smash your face off it at fifty-odd miles per hour." Daniel groped for a Kleenex from said end table and pressed it against the scrape on his forehead, glowering at Jack and ignoring the fact that he was standing in the middle of his bedroom, which was in turn oddly enough occupied by his three team mates, in nothing more than a pair of boxers. Jack bit the inside of his cheek to stave off his mirth and waved Daniel toward his closet.
"You might want to put on some clothes, Daniel."
As the younger man became aware of his state of undress, a deep blush rose in his cheeks. He shuffled quickly for the first pair of pants and the first t-shirt he came across, a few expletives aimed Jack’s way for good measure. "If you think I'm just going to roll out of bed at four in the morning and start packing for a stupid camping trip..."
Jack grinned. "Not necessary," he said easily. He answered Daniel's questioning look with a modest shrug; the truth was, he, Carter and Teal'c--actually, more like he--had already thrown Daniel's things in a bag--a bag that now sat in the back of Jack's own truck. "C'mon; brush your teeth, comb your hair..." he motioned Teal'c and Carter out of the room. "Meet us in the living room in ten minutes. We're hittin' the road!"
"Striking the roadway does not seem to be a logical course of action, O'Neill."
"Teal'c..." Jack trailed off when he took in the look on Teal'c's face, and knew this was one of those times when Teal'c would make a great poker player; his expression didn't change, but the way Carter had minutely rolled her eyes gave him away.
"Sir, I'm not really looking forward to such a long trip, packed into your truck with all the gear..."
"Carter, that's part of the fun of camping! Long, long, long drive, good conversation, lots of highway games..."
"What are we; kids?" Daniel asked.
"Hey, anyone can play License Plates," Jack retorted, affronted. "Now c'mon, get dressed. We'll have to stop on the way out, pick up some more food. I want to make sure we get enough."
Jack pulled into the grocery store parking lot, well aware of the silent, simmering glares being directed his way from his companions. Driven not to let his team mates' reservations get to him, he pointedly kept himself from looking, instead thumping the steering wheel enthusiastically. "Okay! Who's coming in to help?"
"Not me," Carter said immediately.
"Nor am I." Teal'c's refusal was accompanied by the Jaffa's version of a sulk, his arms crossed over his chest in what he claimed helped him initiate Kel'no'reem but instead made him look like a pouting ten-year-old...an enormous, very muscular ten-year-old. There was no response from the other occupant of the vehicle, and Jack turned around curiously. Daniel was stretched across the back seat, his back against the door and one knee bent onto the seat next to Carter, who was bearing the lack of space with relatively good humour. "Daniel," Jack hissed. "That means you're up! Let's go!"
Faked or not, Daniel's snore was awfully convenient. Jack grinned, got out of the truck, and pulled open the door, letting Daniel drop backwards a few inches before catching him--those few inches plenty of distance for Daniel to be startled 'awake' and flail for any kind of handhold. He obviously kicked Carter as he attempted to save himself, because the major snarled something unintelligible and when Daniel extracted himself from the truck he was favouring his right leg. "Sorry, Sam," he said mulishly before rounding on Jack. "What the hell's your problem, anyway?"
"Hungry. Need food. You're going to help." Jack pointedly shut the door of the truck and motioned Daniel forward, the grumbling linguist calling Jack every name he could think of in all his forty thousand languages. "Save some of that pep for the campsite," Jack advised him. "We're gonna need our energy getting there and setting up."
=====
"Coffee."
"Hell yeah."
"Popcorn."
"Mm."
"Hershey's chocolate bars."
"Mm."
"Graham crackers."
"Mm."
"Marshmallows."
"Mm."
"Steaks--eight of them."
"Mm."
"Beer."
"Mm."
"Bacon."
"Mm."
"Uhh...lemmesee...Daniel, did you remember half the stuff I told you to put on the list?"
"Mm."
"Daniel...Daniel!"
"Oh. What?" Daniel turned around from where he'd passed Jack by about three paces in the aisle of the grocery store, glaring balefully at his companion from beneath heavy eyelids. "What do you want, Jack?"
"Did you put everything I told you to put on the list on the list?" Jack enunciated clearly and slowly, stalking towards the younger man as he continued to rake his eyes up and down the grocery list.
"Yes, Jack. You bellowed it quite clearly in my ear. I'm sure I got everything before my eardrums combusted."
"Well it seems a lot shorter than I thought it would be."
"I write small."
"Mm."
Daniel sighed and slumped against the shopping cart's hand bar, suppressing a monstrous yawn and a whine. "Jack, can we go now? Please?"
"No, we're not done yet. We still have tons of stuff to get."
"It's only six-thirty in the morning!"
"Daniel, I want to be on the road by 1000."
"Yes, and that's almost four hours away. Who knew grocery stores were even open this early? I could go back to bed and be up in plenty of time to make this damn trip."
"You stay up later than this working nearly every night of the week!"
"Yeah, but it's not like I'm out carousing the town looking for--for...for beer and...and marshmallows."
"Lots of people get their shopping done this early in the morning."
"While the sane members of the human race are still asleep. I'm waiting in the truck with Sam and Teal'c."
Jack gaped at the archaeologist as he abandoned the shopping cart and dragged his feet back down the aisle. "I don't think so!"
But Daniel was already out of sight, heading for the exit. "I do! You're on your own!"
===== =====
"Daniel, just get changed, will you?"
"There's no way I'm driving a hundred miles wearing that, Sam. Forget it."
"DanielJackson, you are making this much more difficult than--"
"Teal'c, those pants are pink!"
"They're fuchsia. Teal'c wears them fine."
"They're from the 60's! He hasn't even looked at them since--"
"They're retro."
"Hold it. Hold it!" Jack swung the driver's door open and poked his head in the truck, having been privy to his team mates' argument halfway across the parking lot. "What the hell is--Daniel, why are you not wearing any pants?"
Daniel glowered at him from the back seat, the look intensifying when he turned it on Carter, who gave Jack a one- shouldered sheepish shrug. "I was drifting off, sir, and didn't realize Daniel was coming back so soon..."
"You put your coffee on my seat!"
"If you had warned us you were coming back right at that very moment or, even better, looked before you sat down--"
"There has been an accident, O'Neill," Teal'c said unnecessarily.
Jack glanced between the three faces staring back at him--one the picture of innocence, one guilty amusement, and one..."Daniel, will you please take a breath before your head explodes?"
"You try being given pink pants to wear, Jack!"
"They're--"
"I don't care what damn hue of pink they are!" Daniel howled, cutting off Carter's loud, childish protest. "Jack, will you please dig my bag out of the back and get me a new pair of jeans? Since someone--" Carter again "--was too damn--"
"I'm not lazy; I'm just not getting out with my pyjama pants on in the middle of a parking lot!"
"Yeah, and the milling civilization that's outside really cares--"
"Like they'd care if you had black liquid-ass?"
Daniel gave up on Carter and turned back to Jack pleadingly. "Jack...?"
"Fine. Teal'c--pop the trunk."
"There is no trunk, O'Neill."
"Just gimme the damn keys, Teal'c, so I can open the back and get Peter Pants-less there his jeans."
Teal'c pulled the keys from the ignition and handed them off, and Jack wheeled the shopping cart around to the back of the truck. He lifted open the 'trunk' and seized Daniel's bag--Teal'c, paranoid of leaving his bag anywhere unattended after an unfortunate incidence involving the luggage of his and a 5'4, skinny waitress on a flight between Colorado and Washington, always chose to keep his own belongings with him when he travelled--hence the convenient pink pants. Jack grabbed the first pair of jeans he saw in Daniel's bag, hefted the bags of groceries into the back with the rest of the supplies, and slammed the top down.
Daniel gave a thankful bleat as Jack tossed the pants into the back seat, the younger man now using the pink pants as a retardant between his ass and the coffee-wet seat. Speaking of which--"Carter, you do know you're paying for that, right?" Jack asked calmly.
"Daniel's the one who--"
"It was your coffee!" Daniel retorted.
Sensing that the argument could once again escalate--and quickly--Jack laid into the horn, shocking his younger teammates into silence. "If it makes you two feel better, you can split the cost!" he announced. "Now, we're all going to go have a good time camping--Carter, stop putting your coffee under Daniel's ass. Daniel, put the damn jeans on before you catch cold, or something. Teal'c--"
He got a full-on Jaffa 'Who, me?'. "I have done nothing, O'Neill."
"Right. So kids, just sit back, relax, and enjoy--"
Jack's attempt at reassurance was cut off as an unalarming--albeit wearily--familiar white beam of light engulfed the foursome. As it faded, Jack found himself and his team mates--still inside his truck--deposited on a sterile-looking deck, a large...well, he supposed he could call it a windshield...looking out over a very familiar blue and green planet. Jack resignedly shut off the truck and stepped out. "Oh, crap."
"You can say that again." Daniel, looking mortified, was still only halfway into his pants, and hastily pulled them up the rest of the way before following his teammates' lead.
"Greetings O'Neill."
Jack whirled around, surprised and pleased despite his initial irritation. "Thor, buddy! How are things in the galaxies?"
"They are quite well, O'Neill." Deadpan as always, Thor--impressively, Daniel thought--didn't bat a bulbous eye at Jack's irreverence, instead turning his attention to his other 'visitors'. "Major Carter."
"Hi Thor."
"Doctor Jackson. I apologize for your state of undress."
Daniel felt a blush rise in his cheeks, and unconsciously smoothed down the front of his jeans. "Err...no problem, Thor."
"Teal'c."
Jack rolled his eyes as Teal'c returned Thor's greeting with a nod. "Uh--Thor? Pleasantries over with?"
"Yes O'Neill. I apologize."
"Don't worry Thor," Daniel piped up. "Jack's just being an ass." Under his breath--though perfectly audible to the one person who shouldn't (Jack assumed so, anyway) have been privy to his comment, he added, "As usual."
Jack pointedly ignored the jab. "What can we do for ya? I won't bother saying 'please be nothing because the team and I are about to take in a week of camping and all-around outdoors good times'...oh, sorry. Go ahead."
Thor blinked slowly at him. "It is in fact I who can render assistance to you and your team, O'Neill," he said. "I spoke with General Hammond," he elaborated, "and he informed me of your...enthusiasm to partake of this 'down time' you have been granted."
"That makes one of us," Daniel grumbled.
"In gratitude for your saving my people from the threat of the Replicators, I will bear you and your team to your destination, O'Neill."
Jack gaped at him. "Uh...thanks buddy, but see...part of the fun is the trip itself. You know...road trips. You folks must have...road trips? Or...star-trips?"
"It is, as you would say, a surprise, O'Neill," Thor assured him. "I have scanned your world extensively over the years, and have found a most pleasurable area for your activities."
"No, really Thor, that's not necessary--"
"I wish to do so, O'Neill. Enjoy yourselves."
"Wait, Thor--wait--"
One minute Jack was ready to tear the little Asgard's bulbous grey head off, and the next he was ready to tear the little Asgard's bulbous grey head off...but found himself instead in that same, dissipating beam of light, surrounded by his team and their camping gear, in the middle of forest. Lots of forest. Lots of forest with lots of trees and lots of... nothing else. Including his truck. "This had so better be a joke," Jack grumbled. "Thor!"
The only answer he got was the rustle of a crow taking flight from a nearby tree, startled by the volume and tone of his voice.
"Well, this is fun," Daniel announced dryly. "Any idea, first of all, where we are? Because I think we can assume that this is not your Irish Canyon Campground."
Jack felt the feeling of helplessness escalate as his team mates turned on him. "Sir, this had better be your idea of a joke," Carter warned. Teal'c had that look about him; the one that told Jack he was about an inch away from beginning to crack his knuckles, and Daniel...well, Daniel was just staring dumbly around at their surroundings. Jack held up his hands defensively.
"I swear, this wasn't my idea; we were going to go to Irish Canyon!" Well aware he was whining, well aware he was pleading...he didn't care--he had more life he wanted to live! "Thor and the General must have..."
"Thor and the General?" Carter repeated dubiously. "There's no way..."
"Although," Teal'c boomed rhetorically.
The four of them exchanged wondering, paranoid looks. "Do you think...?" Jack asked hesitantly.
"Sir, you said yourself that General Hammond approved your idea as a 'team-building' activity," Carter reminded him. Jack cursed himself for having brought up the camping trip idea with Hammond; now he had his own doubts that the General would have left well enough alone.
"But would he really expend time and resources trying to contact Thor just to beam us out to the middle of nowhere?" Daniel, the pissed-off voice of reason, asked. He rounded on Jack, eyes narrowed behind glass lenses. "You're always bragging about how close you and Thor are, Jack."
Affronted, Jack gaped at his friend. "Daniel, you don't honestly think I'd--"
"I wouldn't put it past you," Daniel cut him off flatly.
Sometimes, the faith his team had in him astounded him. "Well I didn't," Jack snapped. "I wanted to go to Irish Canyon."
Teal'c was apparently getting tired of the debate, because he abruptly turned and headed away from them. "Where're you going, Teal'c?" Jack called.
"We are getting nowhere, O'Neill. I am going to attempt to discern, if possible, where we are."
"I'll come with you." Jack had never seen Carter move so fast in her life.
"Fine," he called after them. "But if you get lost, I'm not coming after you." Carter absently waved over her shoulder, hurrying after Teal'c, and Jack glanced down at their bundle of gear. "I guess we should--hey!"
Daniel's shoulders slumped as he tried skirting Jack and heading off in the opposite direction. "Where do you think you're going?" Jack demanded.
His archaeologist reluctantly turned. "Going...to scout?" he suggested.
"Aaah, no. You and I, Daniel, are going to set up camp." To emphasize his point, Jack picked up one of the tents, still rolled and bundled in its case, and tossed it at Daniel. "Get started."
Daniel stared at it like some alien creature that had jumped into his arms. "You're kidding me. We're actually going to set up, when we don't even know where we are?"
Jack shrugged. "Doesn't look like we're getting out of here anytime soon, and I don't want to move too far away in case this is some kind of Thor/Hammond compilation and they can't find us when they decide to let us come back."
Daniel sighed heavily, and Jack watched as the younger man, understandably sullen but uncharacteristically silent and unanimated, shuffled back toward Jack and knelt, unzipping the tent's bag. "You all right? Besides the obvious ticked offedness at..." Jack amended his question, trying to rephrase but finally giving up when Daniel's icy glare didn't warm up any. "You just seem..."
Daniel concentrated on pulling the canvas tarp of the tent out, carefully laying it aside before reaching in for the folded-up framework. "I'm fine. Just, like you said, a little pissed that I'm out here when I'd much rather be...well, anywhere else."
Jack snorted. "Come on, Daniel, it's not like I'm killing you or anything." He gave the younger man a hand in spreading out the tent, straightening with a grunt. "You never complain about having to camp out offworld."
"Well no, but that's because it's a necessary evil."
"And you're telling me you never camped during one of your digs or something?" Jack challenged. Daniel glared at him and then, to Jack's surprise, dropped the edge of the tent and walked away. "Hey, wait!" Jack called. "Where the hell are you going?"
"Away."
Jack groaned. "For Christ's sake Daniel, grow up!"
His only answer was one very eloquent finger, held up over Daniel's shoulder. "Kids," Jack mumbled.
"Sam! Teal'c!" Daniel jogged out from the shelter of the thick forest and headed for his two teammates, who were staring blankly down a fast-moving river. Sam turned toward him with a preoccupied smile, and Teal'c gave him a nod.
"Hey Daniel," Sam called. She caught his arm as he leaned over the low bank to peer down at the river. "Careful; it's freezing cold, deep, and..." she gestured to their left, where the river abruptly swerved out of sight in a harsh series of rapids. Daniel prudently stepped back.
"Right."
"Did you and the Colonel finish setting up camp already?" she asked curiously, suppressing what Daniel knew was an amused smile. He gave her a weary, half-hearted glare.
"Jack can handle it. He's all for the outdoors, so he can do whatever he wants to do."
"Has something transpired between yourself and O'Neill, DanielJackson?" Teal'c asked.
Daniel shook his head. "No more than usual," he muttered. Sam grimaced sympathetically.
"I know what you mean; when we were trapped off-world after we gated off Thor's ship, the Colonel was very eager to share his expertise in the 'art' of..."
"'Roughing it'," Teal'c finished dryly. Sam laughed. Daniel uncomfortably smiled along with them. Sam obviously misread his look, because she pressed her shoulder against his sympathetically.
"Don't worry, Daniel. We'll get the colonel to give you a break." She chuckled mischievously. "We know you're not quite back into the swing of the whole outdoors thing since your appendix. Gotta get you whipped back in shape!" she teased.
Daniel summoned a somewhat lighter demeanour; they meant well, and it wasn't like there was any reason for them to suspect anything. "Right," he said dryly. "I'm in your debt."
=====
Daniel, Sam and Teal'c returned to their new campsite a few hours later to find Jack already deep into the task of cooking...something. "Wow sir, that smells great," Sam said, taking a deep sniff. "What is it?"
"Something for me," Jack said petulantly, "since none of you lifted a finger to help set up...this." He gestured broadly around the camp--a rather pathetic space that was hardly clearer than the front patch of grass in the courtyard outside Daniel's apartment building. As it was, one of the two tents was inside the clearing, and the other was in between two trees. "That one's yours and Teal'c's," he informed Sam smugly. "We get the one that's not a danger zone."
"'We'?" Daniel echoed. "Why do I have to share with you?"
"Because Teal'c snores, and Carter sings in her sleep."
"I do not, sir! Besides, Daniel talks to himself!"
"At least I can just kick him and make him stop--you just roll away and sing louder!"
Daniel rolled his eyes and headed for the tent. "Where're you going?" Jack asked.
"To sleep. I think this still qualifies as the eight hours the adult body requires of sleep, and I've been told days pass more quickly when you're sleeping."
Jack read the not-so-subtle meaning in Daniel's words. "Ha ha."
Perfectly straight-faced, Carter waved at him. "See you in a week, Daniel. We'll hook you up to a coffee drip when you wake up again." The tent zipped up as they watched, and a muffled voice greeted them. "Wonderful."
Daniel glared balefully at the overly cheerful Jack that just emerged singing from the tent. "Shut up, Jack."
"Oh will you get over it? You're here now--wherever 'here' is--"
"Oh, and that makes me feel so much better."
"My point is, we're all here now, so why don't we just enjoy the camping?" Jack smiled winningly. "Pleeaaase?"
Daniel's mouth twitched in what might have been a traitorous smile, but he hid it behind his giant carafe of coffee. "There's lots of hiking," Jack cajoled as a peace offering.
"With no marked trails."
"There's a waterfall."
"That's freezing cold and over one hundred feet high."
"There are...trees? Trees that might someday be paper that might make books that you might read?"
"Depending on whether or not we're even still on Earth."
"Well, Thor did say he had scanned our planet; I think we can assume we're still on Earth. If you're that desperate to get out of here, we can always go for a nice long walk in whatever direction you want while we guess our way to the nearest town."
Daniel pretended to mull that over. "That might not be such a bad idea. From the looks and feel of things--namely my plugged ears--we're upwards on a mountain, so it's safe to assume heading down would bring us..."
"Daniel. Give it up." Jack sat down across from him and futzed with the cookware, lifting the lid to peek inside. "Vienna sausages and eggs? My, aren't we gourmet, Doctor Jackson?"
"Thank Sam," Daniel muttered. "She's the one who woke me and told me to keep an eye on it."
"Ah. Where are Carter and Teal'c, anyway?"
Daniel scoffed. "What; I'm not stimulating enough company for you? They're gone to get more water--Sam tripped over the bucket this morning."
"Ahh, the grace that is Carter."
"Hm."
"So how long 'til breakfast is ready? Those sausages black enough yet?"
"Black--Jack!"
"No; breakfast, Daniel. No gambling allowed."
Daniel mourned over the overcooked sausages and eggs. "Only I could ruin sausages and eggs."
"Yeah, and I thought Carter was a bad cook." Jack stood and dragged more sausages from the cooler. "Here; dump those in the fire and burn 'em."
"Why don't we just throw them in the woods?" Daniel challenged. Jack gave him a look like he couldn't believe he could be quite that dense.
"You can do that, if you want to wake up with a bear breathing down your neck."
"If there are even bears around here."
"Just burn the damn sausages Daniel--you seem to be a pro at that. I'll cook more, and Carter'll be none the wiser."
Daniel sighed, dumped the burnt breakfast as instructed, and watched mutely as Jack reset the cookware. When he finished, the two just stared at it for a long minute. "Now what?" Daniel finally broke the silence.
Jack fished in his pocket and pulled out his prize. "Oh, I have a few ideas."
=====
"What are you two doing?" Carter and Teal'c stepped into their happy little camp carrying a bucket of river water apiece. Jack and Daniel barely looked up from their game.
"Playing darts," Daniel said absently. Jack jabbed him in the shoulder in an attempt to make him miss his shot--his shot being an unfolded paper clip thrown at a leaf hanging low from one of the maple-looking trees.
"I get a mulligan," Daniel announced, crawling across the short distance to retrieve the paperclip, which had missed its target per Jack's intentions.
"We're not playing golf, Daniel. This is darts."
"Actually, it's leaf-and-paperclip," Carter piped up, settling herself in to watch. "I think Daniel can add whatever rules he wants, sir."
"I concur," Teal'c chimed in. "It does not seem that you are playing fairly, O'Neill."
"Thank you Sam. Teal'c," Daniel said with more dignity than the Queen on her birthday. He squeezed one eye shut, tongue poking out slightly between his lips as he dramatically lined up his shot.
"Just throw the damn paperclip, Daniel."
As Daniel glared him down, Teal'c gave a quiet sniff. "I smell burning."
Wherever they were, the place had to have the worst track record for weather in the history of the planet. Daniel raised his eyes without raising his head, watching raindrops fall in a gentle but steady stream from the sky to the ground of the clearing, some of the drops getting sidetracked in the myriad of tree branches, sliding their way down leaves to drip, drip, drip in the bucket Teal'c had left out to collect water that would likely be cleaner than the river water. "And we won't have to boil it before we drink it," Jack had pointed out brightly.
Yippee.
The rain had started shortly after the re-cooked breakfast was finished, and the four companions had quickly covered the cookware and fire pit with the tarp Jack had insisted on packing, took their coffee and retreated inside Sam and Teal'c's tent between the trees--their tent was bigger, to accommodate Teal'c's size. While his teammates traded their war stories, Daniel had stretched out on his stomach, chin pillowed on crossed arms, to just watch the rain. He really didn't have any interest in reliving any bloodletting exploits.
"God, I wish I could just go home," he surprised himself by muttering out loud. Home was such a tantalizing thought--if it were raining at home, he could sit himself down in his study, an endless pot of non-instant coffee ready for his drinking pleasure, and go over translations, reports, or just read. He could take a hot shower, order in, turn the air conditioning on full-blast just to bury himself in a mountain of covers in bed. Daniel sighed. That'd be perfect.
He barely heard Jack's annoyed snarl, but ignored it, thinking it was just the older man disagreeing with Sam on yet another mission. "Oh, that's it." Daniel heard an empty coffee mug hit the padded floor of the tent, and a boot nudged him not too gently in the side. Surprised, Daniel rolled to his side to find Jack scowling down at him. "What?" he asked.
"Can't you stop bitching for two seconds?" Jack growled.
"Back off," Daniel muttered, and rolled his eyes for Jack to see before he rolled the rest of himself back to his stomach. "I can 'bitch' as much as I feel like."
"Go do it somewhere else!"
Without another word, Daniel pushed himself up and ducked out of the tent. "Daniel!" he heard Sam call wearily. "Come back."
"Yeah, I'll come back when someone decides to cool down," he replied, half under his breath--and was surprised when something pushed at him from behind, sending him off-balance a couple of steps.
"Colonel!" Sam shouted.
Righting himself, Daniel turned in time to catch another shove, Jack baiting him to retaliate; the other man's face was a mask of irritation. "Back off, Jack," Daniel warned again, trying his best to ignore the disconcerting fact that Jack's proximity was making him uneasy, or that the shoves to his shoulders were jarring him backwards with every blow. "You've been picking for a fight since we came out here, Daniel," Jack snarled. "I know damn well I'm not the only one sick of hearing you complain every two minutes about how you can't stand to be in our presence on what was only supposed to be a glorified team--"
Oh, bullshit. "Team!" Daniel shouted back. "That's a joke; team! Something you haven't given a damn about in months!"
It wasn't a subject Daniel had wanted to breach. He'd hoped that once things started getting back to normal, so too would the swing of things within SG-1. However, once the words started flowing, Daniel discovered he couldn't stop them. Everything he'd wanted to say, to shout at them, had been building up relentlessly since Jack and Teal'c had returned from ridding the Russian sub of the Replicators, since Jack, Teal'c and Sam had been beamed back from Thor's ship, heroes of the Earth, while Daniel stood in the background nursing his appendix, waiting for his own teammates--his own family--to notice him, to give him a little more than a passing glance. Something stirred in him, something guilty when Jack looked stricken, but Daniel shoved him back mightily. "I'm surprised you even invited me along at all, Jack!" he goaded. "Hasn't seemed to bother you much if I wasn't in the loop--SG-1 functions just fine as a three-person team, as far as you're concerned."
"Daniel," Sam cut in, she and Teal'c having followed the conflict from the tent, "don't do this. Don't say something you'll--"
"I'm not going to regret this, Sam," Daniel told her honestly. "I don't know what I missed on the little vacation offworld when Thor recruited you all to fight the Replicators," he said--sounding petulant, and he knew it, but he just had to get it off his chest, "but whatever it was, Jack, it wasn't my fault. There are some things in this world we can't control, and when body parts decide to spontaneously combust is one of them!"
"Shut up, Daniel!" Jack snapped, and despite himself, Daniel laughed. It was a sharp, sardonic sound, as vicious irony slapped him in the face.
"I was wondering when that'd make a comeback, Jack--you have to say it again; it may not have been clear enough for me the first time. Sure, you don't mean it; you might even apologize until the next time I dare to step out of line from Colonel O'Neill's command!" The air was suddenly and frighteningly punched from Daniel's lungs when Jack propelled him backwards, forcing Daniel back to collide painfully with a tree, the rough bark harsh against his back, protected only by his thin t-shirt, and his head thumped hard against it. "What, Jack?" he challenged, breathing hard. "You gonna hit me, or what? I know you've been dying to do it, so just take a shot! Go ahead--do it!"
For a tense moment, Daniel thought Jack was going to take him up on his offer...then Jack pulled him away from the tree and pushed him away, making Daniel stumble on the uneven ground before he unsteadily regained his balance. "Get out of here, Daniel," Jack ordered, voice tight. "Go for a walk or something and think about how stupid you sound."
Daniel felt his throat convulse with venomous anger, and he whirled on his heel, ignoring Sam's call to him to wait. "Fuck you, Jack," he muttered, "and the high horse you rode in on." With that, he turned and marched away into the woods, heedless of his direction.
=====
He wasn't acting like a child. He was a grown, thirty-four year old man, with adult thought processes and adult coping mechanisms. He chose his fights carefully, and when he found one worth fighting, he would fight it passionately, speaking his mind and voicing his opinions--loudly. Sometimes--rarely--even if it went against his character and against his better judgment, he did so physically.
Which is what his argument with Jack had been--the pushing thing had been rather juvenile on both their parts, and had been stupid, but the argument itself was justified. People had been telling Daniel his entire life that he was a man of convictions--Daniel had prided himself on being the type to stick to his guns no matter what. These particular guns happened to be his adopted family, and he'd be damned if he would simply let them slip through his fingers. Oh, no-- he'd had enough of that over the years, and he was damn sick of it. People treating him like the victim; poor Daniel who didn't have a friend in the world. He did have friends, and family--a family that, despite the occasional days when they drove him insane (particularly the 'older brother' figure), he loved to death.
He just...needed time to think, sometimes.
People also told Daniel that his thinking could get him killed one day...which was why he didn't slow down when his feet slipped slightly on the moss under his shoes...and it was also why he wasn't prepared to catch himself when he went down on his left side--hard.
---
"Sir, we have to go after him."
Jack wiped one hand down his face. "Why, Carter?" he snapped. "Just give him time to cool down--he'll come back when he's ready."
"I don't doubt that, sir, but he thinks he isn't even wanted on the team anymore. It might give him a sense of...I don't know; Teal'c, what's the word?"
"Faith in his friends," Teal'c said severely, staring Jack down. Jack cringed; the big man was, of course--and as usual--right, and there was no use denying it.
"Yeah," he muttered, "fine. Come on, let's go."
---
Daniel's breath left him in a rush as he hit the ground hard--but the shock of it left him more stunned than the wrenching creak his elbow and shoulder made as he landed in it, then crushed it under the rest of his body. Halfway through a cringe of pain and about an inch from swearing through the wave of agony that shot up and down his arm, he froze. "Holy...fucking buckets."
"O'Neill!"
Daniel heard Teal'c's roar over the rushing in his ears, but didn't respond to it, his eyes inexorably drawn to the nest. The nest of wriggling, moving, lots of...snakes. The fingers of his right hand unconsciously fisted the combination of soft, sweet-smelling green grass, foliage and soft soil beneath him, his uninjured elbow locking in a half-bent position, ready to lever himself to his feet but unable to summon the will to push himself backwards. He was only about a foot away from the mass, and all he could think was that, if these snakes were poisonous and even happened to breathe his way, he was done for.
"O'Neill, MajorCarter! Here!"
The sound of pounding footsteps from behind him and the muffled curses as his pursuers undoubtedly slipped on the same patches of moss he had sent a wave of relief crashing over Daniel; at least his friends would know what had happened to him, instead of just coming across his lifeless body. With a slightly hysterical chuckle, Daniel reviewed the 'comfort' provided by the image of his friends watching him be snake bit to death. "Jesus Christ, Daniel," he heard Jack complain loudly behind him. "What the hell...?"
"Don't...disturb them," Daniel hissed--hissing; maybe that could work. Could he summon up some Harry Potter-ish powers and talk to snakes; convince them not to kill him? "Keep back."
Of course Jack, Sam and Teal'c didn't listen; three shadows spread over Daniel and the snake nest--and every single wriggling reptile froze in place. Daniel's breath caught in his throat. "Get..." Oh God, they were all going to die...
"One, two, three." Jack sounded almost bored as he ticked off the countdown, and then Daniel felt two sets of hands seize the back of his t-shirt. He was hauled up and backward, his left arm reminding him of its difficulty. All Daniel's attention was focussed on the snake nest getting smaller, and getting more of a comfortable distance away. Daniel's breath left him in a relieved rush, and to his shock, Sam cautiously approached the nest.
"Be careful," he breathed, the knot in his stomach still taut, his head whirling with relief and residual anxiety. He was aware of Jack and Teal'c releasing his shirt, the two of them riveted to Sam as well.
Daniel cringed, expecting to see reptile bodies flying and jaws snapping any minute...
Sam laughed. What the hell?
"What the hell is funny, Carter?" Jack snapped.
"They're garter snakes, sir."
Daniel slumped. "They're..." the words died on his tongue, his heartbeat returning to its normal pace rather than its frantic tattoo. Garter snakes? "But..."
"Those are harmless, right?" Jack supplied.
"Right. In fact, I think these are maritime garter snakes."
"Maritime..." Jack trailed off, and as the significance of Sam's words sunk in, Daniel, Teal'c and Jack exchanged looks.
"So wouldn't that mean we're somewhere close to..." Daniel began.
Sam nodded. "Ocean. Somewhere."
Apparently, Jack's idea of 'significant' didn't match theirs. "Carter, how the hell do you know what kind of snakes they are?"
Sam blushed under his unexpected scrutiny. "My brother liked snakes when he was little and I read a few of his books," she said defensively. "So what?" "So...so..." Jack stuttered, then finally gave into a grin. "So you're Major Carter: Nature Girl, now?"
Sam rolled her eyes, then they widened as they landed on Daniel's shoulder. "God, Daniel, what did you do to yourself?"
"Huh? Oh..." As she mentioned it, his shoulder throbbed, and his stomach did a flip-flop. "I think it's dislocated...or something. Maybe I broke my collarbone--I fell on it hard."
"Well come on; let's get back to camp and I'll take a look--out of the rain and away from 'poisonous snakes'."
That sounded good to him. Daniel half-squawked a protest as Teal'c levered him to his feet. "I'm okay, Teal'c--I can walk. It's fine."
He was fine--for about three steps, when his guts gave another sickening lurch when he moved his arm even a little, and Teal'c caught him around the waist. "Indeed, DanielJackson," Teal'c said flatly. "I will simply assure you do not dislocate your other shoulder."
=====
"AH, SH--" Daniel bit down hard on the inside of his cheek as Teal'c, without warning, yanked hard on his left arm. The strength in whatever muscles that weren't already shaking with relief melted away, and he was pretty sure he would have fallen on his ass if he weren’t already there. As it was, black spots danced in front of his vision, and his shoulder popped back into place.
"Thanks, Teal'c," Sam said quietly. Daniel wasn't quite up to the 'grateful' level. "I think it's all right," she continued, and Daniel winced as she pressed rapidly bruising skin around his elbow and up near his collarbone. Sam gave his good shoulder an affectionate squeeze. "Sorry," she said softly, injecting more into the word than what would have went with just the shoulder injury. Daniel mustered a smile for her, though he knew his face was chalk-white and he was still shaking like a leaf.
"'Sokay."
Sam returned his smile fondly. "The shoulder should heal up fine," she assured him, and began binding it with an ace bandage and a sling from the first aid kit. "Just, for now, try to refrain from any exploring aside from the immediate, danger-free area, all right?"
This time Daniel's smile was less forced, Sam's gentle teasing something warm and familiar, something that he'd missed the past few months. "Yeah," he agreed. "I think I can live with that."
"Good." Sam gave him a kiss on the cheek, then pulled back, making a mock 'eew' face. "Nice. Grass stains." She laughed. "Get some sleep."
Jack grimaced. "It was a figure of speech, Teal'c." He gave the Jaffa another clip on the foot. "Now c'mon; let's go."
The Immovable Object Otherwise Known As Teal'c narrowed his visible eye at Jack. "Precisely what 'figure' could it have been, O'Neill?" he persisted.
"Yeah Colonel," Carter piped up from where she was poking at the fire. "Seems like there's only one way to take 'wake up', and that is as a means of getting someone to...wake up. From sleep."
"What is it with you people?" Jack groused. He stood up, ignoring the warning creak his knees gave him, with great dignity slung his fishing rod over one shoulder. "You can all be that way all you want. I'm goin' fishing. Anyone who wants to come with is more than welcome--but you can leave your semantics-mongering here with His Pissiness, Doctor Jackson."
"Daniel's already up, sir," Carter informed him absently. "He left a couple of hours ago."
"What? You gotta be kidding me." Jack stormed over to the tent and shoved the flap aside, revealing Daniel's rumpled sleeping bag, conspicuously empty. "Where the hell did he go?"
"I believe DanielJackson was in search of some...'peace and quiet'," Teal'c offered. Jack scoffed.
"What; he couldn't find that in camp?"
"Well with all due respect, sir..."
"It is not all that peaceful when you are more rambunctious than a herd of elephants, O'Neill."
"Sir, if you don't mind the observation, I think there are a few...issues...to work out," Carter said tentatively.
Jack sighed heavily, the anger and irritation evaporating as quickly as it had risen. "A lot of things have to be worked out, Carter," he agreed. "And I have the sinking feeling that it's going to be one of those days that makes my head hurt."
---
Jack trudged slowly along in the direction Teal'c and Carter had pointed him, his trajectory telling him subconsciously that Daniel was heading for the waterfall. It was the only place Jack could think of that Daniel would go for any kind of peace and quiet--the chill would keep the insane, blood-sucking mosquitoes that would come with sitting anywhere in the forest away--and Jack didn't think that Daniel, in his own pissed-off headspace, would be too smart and too responsible to try and navigate himself into any spot in the confusing forest far enough to keep his teammates away.
Picking his way through the underbrush, minding his step on moss that seemed perpetually slick, reading to skid feet out from beneath unsuspecting feet--thanks, Daniel, for that realization, Jack thought wryly--Jack made his way toward the waterfall, the dull sound of water hitting rock his guide.
As he'd suspected, Jack emerged at the very apex of the falls, and he shuffled close to the edge of the drop-off, his vision spinning momentarily as he took in the 3-D effect of water falling away to strike the bottom more than a hundred feet away.
And, sighing, Jack spotted his quarry.
"Daniel!" Jack cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, even though he could only see part of the other man's lowered head, more than halfway down the hundred-odd feet of waterfall. "Daniel!"
His friend didn't move, and Jack gave up, knowing he'd probably strain his vocal cords before Daniel would hear him over the roar of tons of falling litres of water. With another sigh, Jack leaned over and mentally picked out a path to take him down. It was slippery going and once or twice he almost lost his footing, but the abundance of thick tree trunks and branches zig-zagging over his blazed trail gave Jack several secure handholds, and he reached the bottom of the falls without incident. He picked his way around the pool towards the wide ledge, sitting about twenty- five feet from the ground, where Daniel was sitting still oblivious to Jack's presence. Huffing a sigh of frustration, Jack studied the rocky protrusions, most of them slick from the waterfall, trying to determine how Daniel had gotten himself up there. 'Whatever happened to that convenient 'discomfort' with heights?' he silently groused.
Daniel didn't move when Jack reached his position, nor did he move when Jack, with a semi-overdramatic hiss of pain on behalf of his knees, climbed up beside him and sat down. In fact, Daniel didn't do much of anything, save for making some weird patterns on the rock in front of him with flat stones that had each had a shape or symbol drawn on them in permanent marker--obviously purloined from the emergency kit. One-handed, the younger man flipped them each over so their symbols were hidden, mixed them about, and laid them out again, facedown. Jack nudged him with an elbow, nodding at Daniel's injured arm, cradled against his chest. "Hey," he said tentatively. "How's the..."
Finally he got some kind of acknowledgement, as Daniel looked down, wiggling the fingers of his left hand slightly. "Better. I think Sam was right about it...not being broken, that is."
Jack nodded, pursing his lips together. "Good. That's-that's good." The two sat in uncomfortable silence for a long moment before Jack drew in a deep breath. "Look, Daniel--"
"Jack--" Daniel began at the same time. He blinked in surprise, eyes widened slightly behind his glasses, and his gaze met Jack's briefly before falling away. "Go ahead."
"O-kay...Daniel, what happened before--it wasn't...I didn't mean to..."
"To what?" Daniel asked wearily. "To do what I feel like's been coming for months?" He chuckled half-heartedly. "I pissed you off, Jack, and we're finally in a place, a position, where you can do something about it without fear of retribution."
Jack shook his head in disbelief. "What?! Goddamn it, Daniel," he snapped, "don't you know an apology when you hear one?"
"Sorry Jack; it just seems a bit hazy," Daniel shot back. "My hearing must have been shot when you nearly smashed my head open on that tree."
Jack's mouth tightened and he pressed his fist tight against his thigh. "Okay," he said evenly, "I deserved that. I'm sorry, all right? I snapped, and I don't know why, but you didn't deserve nearly getting the shit beat out of you." Daniel only scoffed in reply, though Jack didn't know if it was meant as an insult to Jack's ability to actually beat the shit out of him, or at the whole apology. For a long minute Jack just watched him do...whatever it was he was doing with the rocks before he cleared his throat. "What're you doing, anyway?" he asked.
"Playing mah-jong. What does it look like?"
'Mah-whozits?' "No--" Jack grunted and inched over to the right so half his ass wasn't hanging off the rock, the closer proximity to the waterfall yielding more chilly mist on his face. "I mean what are you doing up here? I'm sure you could have picked another...less death-defying perch around here."
The ghost of a smile made the corners of Daniel's mouth twitch, but he didn't look up or move, except to turn over one of his makeshift 'tiles' and to wipe some of the collecting mist from his lenses. He'd obviously been sitting there for some time; the fringe of his hair was damp; little droplets of water shivering on the ends of the moisture-darkened hair, collecting and lethargically dripping to the stone shelf. "'People have to learn sometimes not only how much the heart, but how much the head, can bear'."
Jack blinked. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Maria Mitchell," Daniel said by way of explanation. "She may have been talking about something...different, but it about sums this up."
"Sums what up?" Part of Jack was seriously considering the idea that Daniel had gone off the deep end. Had he hit his head harder than he'd thought?
"Some people say good things come to those who stay the same," Daniel huffed impatiently. "This is what I do. This is what I always did, when I need to get away."
Jack didn't like the sounds of that. "Get away from what?" he asked carefully.
Daniel didn't look up. He did turn over two more rock-tiles with their black permanent marker shapes, compared them, and left them the way they were, already seeking out his next move. Jack watched mutely as he carefully considered which tile to go for next, and just as he was about to lose patience, Daniel said quietly, "You know."
"No, I don't. Will you quit that and look at me?" Jack snapped. Daniel's hand hovered momentarily above a corner tile, and the archaeologist slapped his palm to the stone and abruptly turned to face Jack head-on, eyes flashing in irritation behind his glasses.
"Okay Jack, go ahead. Say whatever it is you want to say. Ask whatever you want to ask. Go."
"What the hell is goin' on with you?"
"It's not just me, Jack," Daniel said wearily, his apparent anger evaporating as quickly as it had flared. "It's not just you, either; it's all of us."
"All of 'us'; us, as in, SG-1?"
Daniel gave him a withering stare. "What other 'us' would I be talking about, Jack?"
Bristling at what Jack perceived as a jab at SG-1's cohesiveness, he immediately went on the defensive. "What's wrong with SG-1?"
"Nothing." Daniel shook his head. "Nothing, if you want it to keep going the way it's been going lately."
'The way it's been going?' Jack didn't notice any difference in the team--sure, they didn't have as many team nights as they'd used to have, but with the Replicators making themselves known as an imminent threat to their galaxy, coupled with the Goa'uld, the SGC had been a tad busy. Daniel knew that just as well as the rest of them.
Daniel obviously saw his confusion, because he grinned mirthlessly. "Why am I even here, Jack?"
"Oh for cryin' out loud--don't be stupid, Daniel."
"No, I'm not asking for you to list my accolades. I really want to know--why am I here?"
"Because you're a member of SG-1." Jack didn't even try adjusting his tone from the condescending level.
"Well--" Whatever Daniel had been intending to say died with whatever conviction the younger man had had, and Jack grew immediately more wary.
"What, Daniel?"
"I'm putting in a request to Hammond." The words were one big jumble to Jack, and his brain took a few minutes to sort them out into their confusing order. He shook his head sharply.
"Like hell you are."
"I was going to put it in three days ago, but then you sprung this little surprise on us."
"Jesus," Jack cursed. "I already apologized; what the hell more do you want me to say? Or do?"
"Nothing," Daniel said loudly, then, a bit more quietly, "Something...I don't know. Nothing."
"Well give me a clue here, Daniel! I stand corrected: I don't know what I deserve or why I deserve it. I can look back and honestly say that I can't see a single damn thing I might have done or not have done that would piss you off so much!"
Daniel gave him a disbelieving stare, which made Jack automatically take stock of his memory and the validity of his declaration. "Well then, maybe I'm just not as good at making things as clear as you are," Daniel said tonelessly.
Oh, shit. This again. Not exactly his finest moment, which Jack was all too willing to admit, but did Daniel of all people have to be the one to make it keep coming back to bite him in the ass? When the hell had the other man become so adept at holding grudges, anyway? "Okay, I know why I deserve that," Jack said heavily, "but I already apologized for that--and no," he said when Daniel opened his mouth to speak, "it wasn't just because I needed you to get more information on what we were dealing with. I was sorry because I had my head up my ass and all I could see was what Alar and his people were offering us. Believe it or not, sometimes I don't see the whole 'big picture' thing like you do. I don't think that would make you want a transfer, though--I mean, come off it Daniel; I've said a lot worse to you over the years. Granted, not in such 'esteemed' company, but definitely worse. And you've given it right back to me. Don't go playing martyr with me."
Daniel sighed harshly. "Fine," he said. "You want to know what's been bothering me?"
"Yes!"
"I'm wallpaper."
"You're--" Jack shook his head again. "You're what?!"
"I'm..." Daniel groaned. "God, this sounds so stupid."
"I'll be the judge of that. Spill."
"The past few months I've begun to feel pretty...useless."
"Useless? On SG-1, you mean?"
Daniel looked down, embarrassed. "Yeah." "Get a grip, Daniel. Every member of SG-1 is there for their invaluable contributions, and you're no exception."
"Oh really? What about Euronda? What about the Replicators?"
"We already covered Euronda--I was the ass, it's been established you were right. As for the Replicators, you couldn't have done anything--you were a bit...under the weather. Remember?"
"Yeah, but you, Sam and Teal'c had your own little team-building camping trip, and you've been getting along all fine and dandy since then." There. It was out. Daniel forced himself to maintain eye contact with Jack, though he knew the embarrassed flush in his face was deepening. Jack's eyes were wide. "So is this some kind of pity trip?" The pathetically needy questions were out of Daniel's mouth before he could stop them. "Hammond needed his top team functioning normally, so he sent you to put together this little sojourn?"
Jack stared at him long and hard, before half-rising and beginning his descent from the stone shelf. "Come on," he ordered.
Startled, Daniel didn't move. "What?"
"Move it, Daniel. Get your ass off there and come with me."
He didn't know what made him follow. It must have been that same desperation that had made him trail a less grey Jack O'Neill out of Cheyenne Mountain and back to Jack's home, made him a houseguest of Jack's for weeks until the SGC could arrange an apartment for him. Whatever it was, it spurred him off his safe haven, and Daniel picked his way down the side of ledge, a few paces off the heels of the older man. "What are you..."
"We're just going to see what Carter and Teal'c think of this," Jack announced. Daniel's step faltered briefly, but, face flaming, he picked up again, falling into step beside Jack.
"Why? So they can...what?"
"So they can tell you themselves how they never shut up the whole time we were on that planet, worrying about you, worrying about how you were more than likely running yourself into the ground--this is what we do, Daniel. You're used to it by now, and there are always setbacks."
"Yeah, but it seems this time, this setback set only me back. The rest of you have all come to this new place, this new uber-level where you all have something to share that I'm not part of. All I had to show for this mission was a few nights' worth of nightmares about you and Teal'c getting eaten alive by Replicators and blown up by missiles, and Sam being blown up on some nameless Asgard ship in the middle of deep space."
"Look," Jack said, "I'm not going to give you shit for this because I know it's irritating and embarrassing as hell to put yourself out with something like this."
"My, thank you," Daniel muttered dryly.
"But look around you now, Daniel. We're all here, and I guess on some unselfish level, I'm doing what Carter and Teal'c want to do--and yes, part of the idea was to gel the team again, because quite frankly, you've been acting a bit more odd than usual--I know now you at least have a reason, and now we can start our own SG-1 therapy session."
Despite himself, Daniel chuckled. "How comforting."
Jack turned his head slightly to catch Daniel's eye. "That's the idea." They walked on a few paces, and then, with a slightly haughty expression, Jack looked back to him again. "And for the record, it wasn't a 'nameless Asgard ship'," he informed Daniel. "It was called 'The O'Neill'."
Jack tracked each of his teammates sitting around the fire, taking advantage of the dim light and their preoccupation to inconspicuously study them and to smile to himself. Their discussion that afternoon had been exactly what he had been hoping for when General Hammond had suggested making their week of downtime an impromptu team-building event. There was an ease about them that hadn't been there for...well, quite a while, Jack reflected. It hadn't even been noticed until they'd gotten it back. Now, as he watched, Carter was showing Teal'c how to put together the best s'more. Daniel, not to be outdone but refusing to acknowledge that he'd never built his own s'mores in his life, was keeping the corner of his eye on their progress and creating his own chocolate and marshmallow monstrosity, obliviously content ensconced in the mosquito netting-hat Jack had provided from his pack earlier that evening when Daniel's complaints about being eaten alive had become too much to bear.
Jack noted with self-satisfaction that Daniel had successfully been put in his place. Carter and Teal'c had met them back at camp when he and Daniel wandered in, and Carter had proceeded to give Daniel a very creative tongue- lashing about his thoughts regarding his place on the team. There had been a great deal of...well, okay, it was sap, plain and simple--mostly from Carter, who could get away with that stuff.
Not to say Jack and Teal'c couldn't get away with it, but they'd get away with it with more of a snarky aftershock, courtesy of Daniel himself, than Carter would.
Watching his friends now, Jack saw clearly they were on the road to recovery...and to facilitate the trip, he couldn't resist but interrupt Daniel's intense s'more-related concentration, and he tossed a marshmallow at his friend. Daniel's head popped up, a rare, wide and uncomplicated smile on his face. "What?"
Jack fished around at his feet for the box of graham crackers. "Make me one too, will ya?"
Daniel made a face. "What am I, your s'more slave?" He did, however, pull out two more crackers and added another marshmallow to the stick currently impaling his own.
"Let's tell ghost stories!" Carter suggested brightly. "Always an integral part of camping!" Daniel frowned, chocolate smeared on one corner of his mouth, and he licked more melted chocolate and marshmallow off his fingers.
"Isn't that a little juvenile?" he asked.
Carter obviously took offence to that, and Jack grinned as her jaw dropped comically. Daniel yelped as he was pelted with two rapid-fire marshmallows.
"No," Carter shot back flatly, "it's not."
Teal'c looked intrigued. "I would very much enjoy hearing these 'ghost stories', MajorCarter," he said. Daniel's frown deepened even more when Carter grinned and suggested they all tell one.
"What's up?" Jack asked, giving Daniel a nudge. He got a small, embarrassed smile in response, and Daniel shrugged.
"I don't exactly have a repertoire of ghost stories," he admitted.
"It doesn't matter," Carter reassured him quickly. "You must have some creepy stories, from some culture somewhere. Or you can just make one up?"
Jack nearly laughed out loud at the look on Daniel's face. "A storyteller, I am not," the archaeologist snorted.
"Then listen and be inspired." Jack grinned as his story came to him. "I've got one: since we're assuming we're near ocean, I think I have just the one."
Carter tucked in closer to the fire, the flames reflecting in eager eyes. "Go ahead sir; we're all ears."
Jack cleared his throat dramatically. "Okay, here we go: this story's about a pirate--" He glared as Daniel scoffed.
The younger man covered it with a cough. "Sorry Jack; go ahead."
"As I was saying...this story's about a pirate named Black Bartelmy." He adopted his best pirate-story-telling voice and launched. "Black Bartelmy was an ancient old seafarer, an evil, surly buccaneer who took his murderous ways so far as to kill his wife and his children."
"Nice guy," Daniel muttered. Sam threw another marshmallow at him.
"Black Bartelmy was a bit of a lone wolf, you see," Jack continued, "but even though he preferred to do things his own way, he set sail with a band of pirates as nasty as he, and they roamed the coast of the Atlantic, murdering, pillaging and laying waste to the countryside as they passed. By the time he approached Cape Forchu, Black Bartelmy had a ship loaded with treasure; five hundred chests, full of gold, jewels, goblets and mighty swords."
"This is far from frightening, O'Neill," Teal'c said disapprovingly. "This Black Bartelmy sounds no different than the Goa'uld."
"Teal'c..." Jack sighed, exasperated. "Just...listen, all right?"
"Go ahead, sir," Sam piped up again, loading another s'more. "I'm listening."
"Thank you, Carter."
"Suck-up," Daniel hissed.
Jack ignored him. "Okay, so Bartelmy and his gang pillaged, murdered and stole to their hearts' content--but one night, the sea took revenge on them. A thick Fundy fog lay over the bay as Bartelmy's ship approached, and the treacherous Fundy tide quickly took hold of the pirate's ship. The crashing, churning waters of the Roaring Bull, the dangerous ledge of rocks near Cape Forchu, took the pirate's ship and smashed its hull.
"But Captain Bartelmy spotted land to the starboard side of the ship. He and his best, most trusted mate, Ben the Hook--"
"How original."
"--had the crew load up the lifeboat with every treasure chest they could fit. But before they set sail, Black Bartelmy ordered his first mate to murder the other buccaneers so Bartelmy and Ben wouldn’t have to share the treasure. Old Hook crouched just out of sight in the lifeboat, and slit each man's throat with his hook as the seamen bent to place their burdens in the hold. Ben threw each body overboard into the swallowing waters below so that the next pirate wouldn't sense a trap when he came forward with his treasure."
"Ridiculous," Teal'c announced flatly. "No Goa'uld would be foolish enough to not take notice of disappearing servants. The blood alone would be testament to BentheHook's actions."
"Teal'c, these aren't Goa'uld!" Jack was beginning to lose patience. "Come on; it's just a story! Can't you just... suspend disbelief a little?" He glanced between Daniel and Carter. "You two should at least know what I'm talking about; we only do it everyday!"
Daniel looked abashed. "Sorry Jack. It's just...stories like this seem a bit silly when we know what people out there are actually capable of."
"Then pretend we have no idea what a Stargate is, and just pretend we're normal human beings with normal, boring lives who actually get scared by these kinds of stories. Okay??"
Daniel hitched one shoulder in a casual shrug. "Okay."
"Good. Where was I?"
"BentheHook was in the process of his improbable plan."
"Thank you, Teal'c. Anyway, when the treasure was loaded into the lifeboat, Bartelmy and Ben rowed into the calmer waters of the cape. They searched for a place to bury their treasure, and finally found a large cave. Inside, they piled each treasure chest and covered the entrance with rocks. As Ben rolled the last boulder into place, Bartelmy thrust a sword deep into his chest, and twisted it brutally. His evil laugh filled the night, and he watched his mate fall dead at his feet." Jack paused and waited for commentary from the peanut gallery, but was pleasantly surprised to not hear a word. Smugly, he continued. "Knowing that he had to leave this remote spot or starve to death, the Black Bartelmy walked along the edge of the water, searching for a town or a harbour where he might row the escape boat. But Black Bartelmy soon found himself mired in quicksand with no one to save him. Only the gulls heard his dying curses ringing over the cape as he sank down and down into the mire and was engulfed."
"Wait a minute," Daniel said loudly. "Quicksand in--never mind."
"One stormy night, soon after the pirate's death, the keeper of the local lighthouse saw a flare going up in the direction of the Roaring Bull. Thinking it was a ship in distress, the keeper called together a lifeboat crew and launched into the icy waters, heading for the Roaring Bull. But as they approached the vessel in distress, they saw an ancient galleon with tattered sails. Its decks were piled high with treasure chests, each spilling over with gold. Astride the deck was a solitary man in black. The pirate grinned wickedly down at them, gesturing grandly with his cutlass. As the breakers overwhelmed their boat, the last thing the keeper and the rescuers heard was the sound of Black Bartelmy's ghost, laughing.
"They say that the ghost of Black Bartelmy continues to haunt the Cape and the Roaring Bull to this day, and that any rescue crew summoned to save a vessel off the Roaring Bull should take every precaution, because the distressed vessel might not be what it seems." Jack sat back with a grin. "The end."
"That's not scary!"
Jack glanced in surprise at Daniel's vehement dismissal; the younger man blushed. "Uh...it's just some stupid cliché story," he pointed out, in a much quieter tone. "No one in his or her right mind would be scared by that."
"I find it disturbing that BlackBartelmy would murder one of his own men, whom he admitted to trust, in cold blood," Teal'c said. "He deserved the death he received in the quicksand."
Jack blinked. "Well he was a pirate, Teal'c," he pointed out. "It's not like he was Mr. Congeniality or anything."
"My turn!" Carter announced. Taken aback by her enthusiasm, the others merely nodded their assent--since it appeared to be in their best interests to do so. Carter grinned wickedly. "I have the perfect story. It's about a womanizing colonel--" Daniel snorted, and Jack smacked his arm "--who finally gets what's coming to him."
"Ah, a tale of retribution," Teal'c said, and settled in with satisfaction. Jack gaped at him.
"What; you'll sit through pseudo-romance gone amok, but not through a haunting pirate story?"
Teal'c merely cocked an eyebrow at him. "Obviously", as usual, went unspoken.
"Now," Carter began, "Colonel Buck wasn't what you'd call the most virtuous man in town, nosirree!"
"Carter, can you please stop talking like a geek in an old western?"
Carter frowned. "Colonel, you got to do your stupid pirate impression. This just adds a certain something to the story. We listened for you--"
"Yeah, coming on the end."
"--now listen to the rest of us, or we'll do something else." Carter cleared her throat. "He had an eye for the ladies, did Colonel Buck, and he would chase them 'til he got what he wanted. And when he got it--"
"If she says 'boy, howdy!', I'm out of here."
"Shut up, Jack!"
"When he got what he wanted, he'd drop them like a hot brick.
"Well, Colonel Buck had a pretty maid working for him. It wasn't long before he started noticing her and she, the poor girl, started looking back. One thing led to another, as you can probably guess, and one day Colonel Buck turned out his pretty maid, seeing as she was unmarried and in the family way.
"Well now, that pretty lass had a deformed baby boy, and she had a hard time making ends meet with a growing son. She began putting pressure on old Colonel Buck to take responsibility for the boy. Buck, of course, wouldn't have any of that. He started spreading the rumour around town that the girl was really a witch. The rumour spread and spread, and the townsfolk grew more and more frightened of the girl. One day they grabbed her and brought her before Colonel Buck. The asshole--"
"Kind of going overboard with 'getting into the story', aren't you Carter?"
"Fine. Colonel Buck condemned her to death for sorcery, and had her burned at the stake. The woman shouted a curse at the Colonel as she burned, swearing that he would always bear the mark of this injustice.
"Her poor young son was forced to watch his mother being burned as a witch. When one of his mother's legs fell from her burning body, he broke away from the crowd, ran forward to pick up the leg and fled. It was the only piece of his mother he had left to bury."
"Eeew."
"After Colonel Buck's death, a grand tombstone was erected in his honour. A few weeks later, a strange discolouration began to form on the stone, the colour taking on the image of a human leg. The reminder of the woman and her curse embarrassed and frightened the people of Bucksport, and they had the stone thrown out to sea. However, the stone washed ashore, with the image of the leg still branded on it. The town leaders then had the stone smashed to pieces, and they erected a new tombstone on Colonel Buck's grave. But the image of the leg reappeared there, as well, and couldn't be removed. It stays there to this day, as a reminder of a poor girl who was robbed of her innocence--"
Jack snorted.
"--her innocence and later her life, by the treacherous Colonel Buck."
Daniel sighed. Teal'c shifted. Jack...scoffed. "That was even less scary than mine, Carter!"
"That's...not possible, sir."
"Oh, it so is."
"It so isn't, Jack," Daniel piped in. Perfect--assault from both fronts. Jack quit while he was, in his on mind, anyway, ahead.
"Whatever. Hey, I think it's Teal'c's turn. Go ahead, big guy."
Teal'c was silent, eyes distant, as he carefully thought over his task. Jack leaned closer to Daniel. "This is gonna be good."
"Kel'ak was a warrior of high standing," Teal'c abruptly began, "in the service of Horus, in the days long past, when the great gods stood tall in their limitless power."
Jack looked blankly at Teal'c. "I was right," he said tonelessly. "This is a horror story."
"This story is true, O'Neill."
"Of course it is, Teal'c. My apologies--please, continue."
Teal'c inclined his head in acknowledgement. "Kel'ak was the Jaffa all others looked to for guidance, until one day he made an error that was irredeemable--he left the service of his god, abandoned his homeworld, on a foolish whim to begin a colony of his own. His symbiote, in retaliation, grew forth from his pouch and swallowed him whole."
Teal'c looked to each of his companions, who looked back expectantly. "The end," he said carefully.
Jack opened his mouth to protest, and Teal'c turned his full attention on him. "Did you enjoy it, O'Neill?" he challenged dangerously. Jack leaned back.
"Oh, sure, T--it was a, uh...a real nail-biter."
"Teal'c," Daniel said carefully, "I'm a bit confused--"
'Ah Daniel; you're a braver man than I.' Jack winced in preparation for Teal'c's infuriatingly innocent misunderstanding of Daniel's misunderstanding. "Yes, DanielJackson?"
Teal'c glanced at her severely. "I have never questioned it, MajorCarter. It is one of the first lessons of history a young Jaffa learns, to prevent them from abandoning their masters. I myself feared a similar fate when I left the service of Apophis."
Daniel relaxed slightly. "Well, you must know it's not true now, right? I mean, you've been out of Apophis' service for years, and nothing's happened."
There went the eyebrow again. "It has merely been four of your years, DanielJackson. There is still much time. When the day finally comes, I leave this life knowing I die in a cause much more worthy than that of the Goa'uld."
The looks on the faces of Daniel and Carter were priceless--for the first time, the pair of them was speechless. It was simply too much, and Jack snorted out his mirth. "Aah, you two are too easy. Do you have any idea how long he's been waiting to spring that on you?"
Daniel’s guppy expression bounced between Jack and Teal'c, a highly scandalized expression on his face. "Are you kidding me?" he demanded. "That was a joke?"
A slow, delighted grin spread across Carter's face, and she finally gave in and laughed. "That was...that was really good, Teal'c. You had us going there."
Teal'c smiled benevolently and bowed his head. "Thank you, MajorCarter. I am quite pleased with the result."
"You knew?" Daniel was still stunned; Jack highly suspected the younger man had been seeing stars and yet another chance to study the intricacies that was Jaffa life. Jack shrugged modestly.
Still chuckling, Carter gestured to Daniel. "Okay Daniel, your turn."
Thrown, Daniel tossed her a panicked look. "Oh, no--I can't..."
"Sure you can, Danny Boy." Jack waved broadly. "You have the floor."
"Come on Daniel," Carter said. "If Teal'c can do it, you can do it."
Teal'c looked faintly insulted.
"Okay...um..." Daniel drummed his fingers absently on his thigh. "There was a girl named...Regan..."
"'The Exorcist'," Jack said immediately. Daniel deflated.
"Oh." He shrugged sheepishly. "I remember seeing it in one of my foster homes just after it came out...it scared me to death, and I never wanted to hear it mentioned again."
Sam leaned forward eagerly. "Come on Daniel," she encouraged, "you must have some kind of story--haven't you ever come across anything in translations offworld that would be the equivalent of that culture's ghost stories?"
Daniel blushed in the firelight. "Uh, not really."
Carter, as usual, was relentless in her quest to be entertained, but Jack finally took pity on Daniel and came to the rescue. "Okay, Daniel gets off the hook for the time being. New game--gather 'round, people!"
"We're already here, Jack." Obviously relieved, Daniel topped off his coffee cup and scooted back to his place before the ground he was sitting on got cold. Jack rolled his eyes dramatically.
"It's for effect, Daniel. Don't ruin it. Now," he said, clapping his hands once, loudly, "time for a new game...Desert Island."
Sam groaned. "I hate this game," she muttered.
Teal'c looked puzzled. "I have not heard of this game, O'Neill. How does one play?"
Positively preening, Jack leaned forward as if his explanation would simply blow Teal'c away. "Well, T, Desert Island is a game where there are different categories--like movies, books and the sort--that, if you were given a choice of taking just five with you if you were stranded for life on a desert island, what would they be?"
"You know," Daniel said, Sahara-dry, "we could always just call the game 'Random Forest' and make it more lifelike."
"Don't be a smart-ass Daniel; you still owe us a ghost story. Go, Teal'c--five movies you'd bring with you."
Teal'c didn't say a word. "Uh...Teal'c?"
The Jaffa finally gave Jack a dark look. "I refuse to play this game, O'Neill."
Daniel and Jack exchanged confused glances. "Uh...why?" Daniel asked.
"It is unfair to force a choice between the brainchild of George Lucas, the 'Star Wars' trilogy, and the multitude of masterpieces from Gene Roddenberry's 'Star Trek' franchise."
"Ummm...okay." Jack looked to Carter and Daniel for help. "Then...not Desert Island. 'Who Would You Do?', anyone?"
A crash of thunder woke Daniel from a dead sleep. He remained frozen in place in his sleeping bag, becoming more and more aware of chill and wetness seeping into the bag from beneath it. With a breathless curse, Daniel sat up, looking toward Jack's side of the tent. The sleeping bag was tossed open, empty. "Jack?"
A rumble of thunder and a flickering flash of lightning that illuminated the interior of the tent was Daniel's only response. "Jack?" he called, louder. "Sam, Teal'c?"
Between rumbles of thunder, Daniel heard movement from the tent a few yards away. "Daniel?" Sam's muffled voice came to him. "What's up?"
"Sam, do you know where Jack is? " he called.
"I don't know,” Sam said sleepily. “He probably went for a walk or something."
"Is Teal'c in there?" Although they were on Earth—they assumed—something bothered Daniel about Jack just getting up and taking a walk in the middle of the night around a forest they knew nothing about without at least waking them to let them know he was going. In Sam and Teal’c’s tent, he could hear Sam sigh.
"Yeah, Daniel, he’s here."
So they hadn’t gone for some soldier/brothers-in-arms hike. An abrupt rainfall started, the drops falling fast and hard, their rhythm a staccato against the tents and the closed coolers outside. It came on surprisingly fast, with a fury that took no time at all to build up. Daniel had to raise his voice to be heard, still being drowned out by repeated peals of thunder. "We should go look for him," he yelled.
"If it's raining, he'll come back anyway," Sam shouted back.
Daniel ceded to her logic, but still couldn't help but worry when the flashes of lightning grew less staggered and less interspersed with thunder. The storm was right above them, and Daniel finally rose to his knees and shuffled to the front of the tent, unzipping it slightly to peer into the darkness. The rain formed its own curtain and, though the trees deflected some of it above them, hammering off leaves and rustling through evergreen branches, it fell in sheets over the campsite. Daniel reached for his flashlight and shone it out over the surroundings he could reach without letting water into the tent, and shouted Jack's name. Long minutes passed without any movement or sound from the forest, and Daniel grew more worried. "Sam," he called again.
"Yeah?" Sam sounded more awake this time; obviously she wasn't as nonchalant as she'd sounded earlier, and hadn't fallen back to sleep.
"I think we should go make sure he's all right."
There was muffled conversation from Sam and Teal'c's tent, and a moment later he saw the silhouette of figures moving inside, flashlights lit. "I agree, DanielJackson." Daniel aimed his light in the direction of their tent, where Teal'c emerged. Instinctively, Daniel cringed as another bolt of lightning illuminated the campground, a roar and crash of thunder right on its heels.
"Fantastic," he murmured, following his friends. "Walking around under old-growth forest in the middle of a thunderstorm. Things can't get any worse than this..."
---
Jack swore vehemently, not bothering to cover it up or lower his voice, since his words were lost in the storm anyway. In response to his swearing, his left leg throbbed mercilessly. The weather had been relatively clear up until the storm started out of the blue, and with the humidity outside and the cloying damp heat of two adults crammed into a tiny tent, he'd decided to take a little walk up along the river to see where it went. He'd gone a few klicks, he guessed, marking his trail with orange ties, when the faint rumbles of thunder caught his attention. He'd turned to head back, but he'd been heading up an incline, and a hollow beneath an upturned root had caused him to trip and fall. The rain had started minutes later, and as he'd hobbled his way back down, the mossy forest floor had become slick, and gravity had taken its course.
Jack had slipped, overbalanced in an attempt to keep from falling—but had fallen anyway. Now he was half-in, half- out of the river Carter was so fond of, clinging to a dying tree's roots, whose niche had been eroded over the years so the tree was hanging precariously out over the river. To add injury to insult, Jack was sure his left ankle was broken, or at least fractured. Something had pulled and creaked a little too loudly when he'd tripped over the root to simply be a sprain.
The roots Jack was clinging to began to steadily give, unable to hold his weight and the pressure of the water forcing him away, and with a resigned sigh and a deep breath, he didn't fight the pull of the river when the roots finally snapped and he was swept downstream.
‘Great; going for a nice swim in a thunderstorm. Can’t get much worse than this.’
It was a shorter swim than he'd thought it would be, as suddenly over the roar of thunder and the cacophony of rain, an unintelligible yell made its way through the noise, and Jack barely had time to look up before the shoulder of his shirt was seized in an iron grip. Jack gasped as the loss of forward movement forced his head under an eddy of rushing, cold water, but when he could breathe and focus again he turned his head to find the one-armed wonder, Daniel himself, leaning halfway out over the low riverbank, Jack's shirt clenched tight in his good hand. "Nice timing!" Jack spluttered.
Daniel offered him a tight smile and a shrug. "Are you all right?"
"Little damp."
"Right." Daniel shouted over his shoulder, the exact words lost in the storm and the water still rushing through Jack's ears, but he caught the names of Teal'c and Carter, and he was jerked upward as someone obviously caught hold of Daniel and started to pull.
'Hi-ho, hi-ho,' he sang to himself, half giddy with relief...relief that didn't last long, when Jack felt Daniel's grip on him slacken. Instinctively, Jack threw out his right arm and grabbed for Daniel's left, and was shocked by the cry of pain from Daniel when he found a handhold. His start made Jack let go as quickly as though he’d was burned, Daniel's grip loosened further in response, and the water began sweeping Jack away again. "Shit!" he shouted.
"Jack!" In the next flash of lightning Jack caught Daniel's lunge forward, felt the grip on his shirt re-establish, but then whatever tension was in the grip gave away as Daniel plunged headlong into the water behind him.
---
Jack must have temporarily forgotten about his shoulder, Daniel realized. Not that he blamed his friend; he'd want out of the river too, if he were in Jack’s position. Sam had leapt on Daniel's legs at his cry for help, and Teal'c had begun towing them. Daniel had been dragged over a rock--or something sharp, anyway--and he'd almost let go of Jack, causing the other man to latch onto Daniel's injured shoulder.
The pain that shot through his shoulder shocked Daniel even more than his helpless shout of pain had surprised Jack. His friend immediately let go, and the simultaneously loosened grips forced Jack further down the river.
"Jack!" Daniel desperately threw himself forward and groped desperately for Jack's shirt, only to overbalance and, as his hand closed around the saturated material, he was dragged forward. "Sam!"
His shout for his other teammate was as much a warning as a cry for help--if Sam tried to stop both him and Jack from being swept away, she'd probably fall in as well. Sure enough, he felt a scrabbling, futile grip at his feet, and then freezing, rushing water exploded around him.
---
'God damn it!' He and his team had to have the worst luck in the history of any team anywhere. They were like the SGC's answer to the Red Sox.
‘Hm.’ It was odd, the sports analogies that pop into one's head when they're facing imminent death at the 'hands' of a hundred-odd foot waterfall. Jack could still feel Daniel's grip on his shirt, his friend refusing to let up even though they were going in the same direction anyway. Jack fought to break the surface of the water, and briefly met Daniel's half- panicked, half-resigned gaze.
They weren't able to hear one another, so all Jack offered was a clumsy tousle of the younger man's hair and an amused shrug. 'If it was life, I guess we lived it.'
Which was why the abrupt sensation of cold metal under his chilled, soaking-wet body the next instant surprised the hell out of him.
"I apologize for the delay, O'Neill."
Heaving for a breath of air, Jack peered through dripping strands of hair for the source of the voice. "Thor?"
"It is I, O'Neill. I had thought you and your team were in control of the situation; however, DanielJackson and yourself were coming perilously close to the waterfall’s edge, and almost certain death." 'Daniel!' Jack relaxed immediately from his concern for his friend, as he became aware of one warm grip pressed against his shoulder, through his t- shirt. Daniel was half on his knees beside him, coughing up water and sucking in oxygen like it was going out of style, his right hand still anchored to Jack. "Hey Daniel, you can let go now...unless you're after a souvenir of our white water rafting session."
"Hu--huh?" Daniel's confused grunt was interspersed with a cough that brought up what Jack thought had to be half the contents of that river. The other man grimaced. "Ugh...sorry about that, Thor."
"There is no harm, Doctor Jackson. I apologize my choice of destination was not less to your tastes."
"So it was just your idea?" Carter asked indignantly. Jack smiled at her and Teal'c, the two of them none the worse for wear, but looking frazzled--each in their own, be it subtle or not, cases. Thor nodded slowly.
"This seemed to be the ideal destination for your 'camping'," Thor explained.
“I told you so,” Jack managed to proclaim around his chattering teeth. “I await my fruit baskets and handwritten apologies.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” Daniel stuttered back.
"I had thought it would be a gift for you and your team, O'Neill, to be given the opportunity to explore these surroundings,” Thor said sadly. “I had not counted on your...predilection for risking your lives."
"Well it's not like we did it on purpose, Thor." Jack gave a full-body shudder. "In the meantime, d'you think you can send us home--or at least, bring us some dry clothes? It's a bit nippy up here."
"Bring some shoes while you're at it," Daniel wheezed, then, aiming a glare at Carter, "because someone apparently found it necessary to relieve me of mine."
"So, kids." Jack heroically (and somewhat normally) walked back into the infirmary, having adamantly refused Fraiser's offer of a bedpan to facilitate easier bathroom-going with his bum ankle. "What have we learned?"
"We were supposed to learn something?" Daniel, in all his grumpy glory, asked from the bed next to Jack's, the archaeologist fully and happily ensconced in thick blankets, with even thicker socks on his feet.
From the chair at the foot of Daniel's bed, Carter was still wringing out her damp hair. "Well it was supposed to be a team-building experience," she pointed out.
Teal'c opened one eye, dubiously casting it around his companions. "I believe we very nearly dismantled our team, rather than building it," he observed.
"Yeah, well..." Jack grunted as he levered himself back onto his bed. "You know what they say, T: life-risking danger makes the hearts grow fonder."
"I do not believe anyone has ever said that before you yourself, O'Neill."
"Yeah they have; sure they have."
Daniel yawned. "I highly doubt that, Jack."
"All right folks." Janet Fraiser came clicking around the corner in all her CMO, high-heeled glory, looking ready to take on the world--or scrappy colonels, majors, archaeologists and Jaffa. "You should all get some rest, and," she pointed at Jack's bed, "get in bed, Colonel--if you catch pneumonia, I refuse to take responsibility."
"Napoleonic--"
"Power monger," everyone chorused--even Teal'c, much to Jack's surprise. Jack sulked.
"By the way...sorry we lost your camping gear, Jack," Daniel said as Jack got himself situated back in bed.
Jack snorted quietly. "No you're not."
"Hm. You're right--I'm not."
"I, for one, will mourn the loss of the HI thermal sleeping bags," Teal'c mused. "They were most..."
"Poofy?" Carter supplied. Teal'c gave her an appraising look and inclined his head slightly.
"Indeed."
Jack grunted a reply. "All I know is that everyone here is gonna be chipping in to help fill the sizable chunk taken out of my bank account."
The mellow infirmary air was distorted by two loud protests from Jack's human teammates, and a low, but even more intimidating, growl from their lone Jaffa. "What?" Jack yelped defensively. "If we still had the gear I'd be happy! Since we don't, that's like...wasting over two hundred bucks on a hunk of forest in the middle of--"
"Colonel O'Neill?"
SG-1's attentions were drawn to the door, where General Hammond stood with a stormy look on his face. "Colonel, would you care to explain to me why an entire campsite just appeared in my office?"
Jack cheered silently. 'Way to go, Thor old buddy!' "Uh--General, I guess Thor must have thought--"
"It's not Jack's fault, General," Daniel volunteered, much to Jack's surprise. "Thor was the one who sent us...away, and when he beamed us up from the river, he must have forgotten the gear. Since your office is never vacant, he must have known it would eventually be found if he left it there."
Jack shot Daniel a grateful look, one that the younger man acknowledged with a shrug. There it was--that sizzle-snap of connection popping back into place. The way it had been for so long in SG-1's little groove--unspoken commitment, loyalty, love and admiration--
"Well then Doctor Jackson, I'm sure yourself, Major Carter and Teal'c would be all too happy to help Colonel O'Neill remove it."
--and ultimate sacrifice for your friends, family and teammates. Jack grinned even at the prospect of clearing the General's office of hundreds of dollars of camping gear, as well as the groans and accusing stares of his teammates. Daniel saw his smile and returned it, the old glimmer of mischief behind the reserved exterior a welcome sight.
Worth it.
=====
The End
**Note: The title, ‘Tús gá Deireadh’, translates as ‘Beginning without an end’, a perfect sentiment for the friendship between SG-1
***The verse at the beginning of the story is from a song, and translates as ‘Amid the hope and worry, the fear and anger, believe that each day which breaks is your last: the unhoped for hour will be a welcome surprise.’
This story turned into quite the marathon piece, with a bit more depth than it was originally going to have…I thought the verse summed up Daniel’s conflict throughout the story pretty well. =)