SG-1 ficlet

[mickeym]

First SG-1 anything, ever. Gah. I have first-timer's nerves, here. Posting it alone, because this one got a little out of control :) I might have to (eventually) explore the before and after parts, because I'm kinda intrigued, now.

for visionshadows, and thank you so much honey, for the stories you've shared with me. I hope this works for you.




Fingers gripping his. Rocks, dust, a ledge, and those fingers slick with sweat, slipping and sliding by increments, and dammit, where were Teal'c and Carter? Daniel's eyes, wide and scared, staring up at him. His own voice, hoarse and tight, memories of too many other almosts. "Daniel, if you die, I will kill you!"

Jack startled himself out his doze, wondering why it was that people said really stupid things when they were afraid or—whatever. He sighed and shifted around in his chair and glared at his desk. Paperwork still present and accounted for, Sir.

That's the bad thing about other-world travel. The paperwork. Jack's never seen anything in his life – in the military or otherwise – that generates it quite like the Stargate project. Probably not even a war could produce this much paper.

Reports in triplicate. Triplicate reports in triplicate. Everything backed up somewhere, with a billion and a half forms to accompany each report – and every one of those done in triplicate, too. No wonder old-growth forests were disappearing by the hundreds of acres every day, he thought sourly, signing his name yet again. He was starting to understand why famous people developed a quirky signature that didn't resemble a signature. Lately his looked a lot like a couple of loops with a line or two through them.

He hadn't even gotten to Sam's or Daniel's, yet. Which was a killer, because it was already past when he should've been leaving for his two very rare days off, and those two had a tendency to cloak everything in several layers of assorted academia. Fine, for geeks and techno-geeks, but he didn't belong to either club.

One of these days he was going to develop a geek-to-Jack dictionary, just to make the reports easier to read.

Any day now.

Maybe when his brain stopped skittering off into nothingness at random memories, or just at the thought of Daniel in general.

And that right there was enough to make him really, really uncomfortable.

"Hey, you're still here." Daniel's head appeared around the edge of the door to Jack's office, with the rest of him following immediately after. The discomfort intensified, and abated, all at the same time. "Thought you had leave?"

"Yep. I do." Jack scowled at his desk before scribbling on a couple more forms. "But I have—paperwork." He blinked up. "I thought you were in the infirmary? You okay?"

"The joys of command, huh? And no, Janet cleared me. I'm fine." Daniel slouched into the chair opposite Jack's desk, and whoa, this was kind of—weird. Usually it was him on the other side of Daniel's desk. He didn't know Daniel even knew he had an office here.

"Something like that." Another scribble, another shuffle of paper, and when Jack looked over, Daniel was still slouched in the chair, kind of zoning on nothing. He blinked against the memory of a filthy, sweaty hand scrabbling for his, and the absolute relief – because it was just relief, nothing else, right, Airman? Right? – that coursed through him when he got a hold and pulled. "Um. Daniel?"

His eyes refocused, and Jack wondered if they'd always been that clear, that sharp. "Yeah?"

"Don't you—what're you doing here?"

"Oh, waiting for my leave to start." Daniel glanced at his watch, and Jack looked with him before jerking his eyes back to Daniel's face. Wow. It was really weird in here right now.

"You're taking leave?" Did they bring the wrong Daniel home or something?

"Yeah. Couple of days."

Jack abandoned the forms and leaned back in his chair. "Who are you and what'd you do with my Daniel?" And okay, did he mean to say that out loud? No, it just came out wrong. Really wrong, considering Daniel's left eyebrow had twitched up somewhere near his hairline. "Huh."

"So…what, I'm not allowed to take leave?"

"Well, yeah—" Pen. Forms. And don't look up, whatever happens. "You just don't. Usually. It's like I have to strong-arm you and Carter into R and R."

"And you take so much time yourself." Okay, he had to look up at that, and yeah, sure enough, Daniel had that prissy little smirk he got sometimes when he knew something Jack didn't – or thought he did.

"I take time. In fact," he tossed the rest of the reports into his inbox and pushed his chair back. He couldn't do this any more. Not right now. Not with—relief, or whatever it was, coursing hotly through him, still turning his bones to jelly. "I'm taking some, now."

"Yep." Daniel rose at the same time, and Jack blinked at—something? Nothing? It was hard to tell sometimes, what he saw in Daniel's eyes, when he had his glasses on. "Got plans?"

"Not really." Jack grabbed his field jacket; it was hard to remember sometimes, in the deep confines of the mountain, and while on other planets, that it was still only very, very early spring outside in Colorado Springs. "Uh. Do you?"

Daniel shrugged. "Not really. Maybe catch up on some stuff. Journals." He fell in to step with Jack, just kind of hanging beside him on the walk through the corridors, the long ride up one elevator, then another, and finally out into the crisp, biting evening air.

They paused on the curb beside the administrative building, and Jack studied the rows of cars gleaming in multicolored splendor in the fading sunlight – some POVs, some military vehicles, some government-owned, for the brass who needed to get here or there but didn't want a driver. His was out there. Daniel's was out there. Two different cars to take them in two different directions, and he realized kind of abruptly he didn't want to go in separate directions. Definitely not tonight, and preferably not—well.

"Jack?"

"Huh?" He turned and it was interesting to see Daniel backlit by the setting sun, like he had a halo made of purple and rose and shadow. Daniel's mouth was moving, and yeah, okay, he was talking. Jack kinda thought he might want to do. Other things. With that mouth.

And did the world just come to a screeching halt? No? Heh.

"Good to know some things remain a constant." Daniel rolled his eyes once and shook his head. "Can you give me a ride? My car's in for some work, and—"

"Yeah, sure." He swallowed and looked at Daniel. Closely. Looking for something, an indication. "Uh. Wanna—" he nudged his head in the general direction of off-base. "With me?"

The smile he got was brighter than the suns on Abydos and the discomfort in Jack's stomach turned to warmth that could rival those suns. He grinned back and stepped off the curb. The hardest part was over. Everything else from here on out—piece of cake.