| "I knew that slimy sonovabitch was lying!" Griff burst out angrily,
then shot a guilty glance at Kegan and Brenna. "Begging your
pardon, ma'am," he apologised generically.
Brenna, slumped on Daniel's right, nursing her arm, never lifted her
head, while Kegan, sitting stiffly on his left, was startled by the
consideration but covered quickly with an awkward nod.
"I knew not even you would be stupid enough to take your team out on
the glacier, Sir!" Griff assured Jack earnestly.
"Thank you," Jack acknowledged meekly, touched by this glowing
tribute. "I take it SG-3 are a go, then?"
Griff looked hopefully at the general in a let me at 'em kind of way
and Hammond gave him a go, ordering him to take his team to 500 when
the plant on 118 was clear. He wanted to maintain a strong
military presence through the difficult early days, all of them
concerned about what was effectively turning a prison population
loose. Hammond and the other officers appreciated how the
individual could become institutionalised. It was a situation in
which they had almost greater empathy than Daniel.
Frowning, Kegan watched Griff leave the briefing room, then turned
impatiently to Hammond. "What's happening here?" she barked
aggressively.
"We're preparing to evacuate your people from the world they currently
inhabit to another which we hope will be a home for you," the general
explained patiently.
"A world like this one?" Kegan demanded.
"Better," Jack promised, leaning in to tap a finger on the table in
emphasis. "Where you're going, it has sun all year long."
"It occurs to me that we should take Kegan and Brenna to see P2B-500
for themselves, General, rather than up to the surface here," Daniel
suggested.
Jack couldn't help but think with the women parked either side of him,
Daniel was a rose between two thorns.
"Is Brenna fit to travel, Doctor?" Hammond asked Fraiser.
"Absolutely," Fraiser nodded, glancing up from her medical files. "Her
wound is clean, the fracture stable. She'll have to keep the arm
immobilised for some time, but I see no reason why she can't join her
people at once."
"Why must you bring this up again?" Brenna asked Daniel, looking up
tremulously, visibly upset.
"You think you can run from this?" Kegan snarled incredulously, craning
out past Daniel so she could glare at Brenna. "After all you've
done?"
"I think she was hoping, yes," Jack muttered, looking at the woman's
white face.
"You can't escape your responsibility, Brenna," Daniel insisted with
gentle sternness. "I shouldn't need to tell you why."
"I'll tell you why!" Kegan interjected angrily. "It's my honour
to serve!" she spat. "To serve you!"
"Kegan's right," Daniel said at once. "The workers are stamped
with a personality which responds specifically to you, Brenna.
You know this. It's a means of ensuring you maintained control of
them at all times. That trust was forced on Kegan and the others,
and as much as they may resent it - and you - now, it still exists."
Kegan sat back in her chair, her fingers knotting. "Mad as I got
at you," she fired at Daniel, "I wanted to keep you safe. Keep
you part of it, keep you with me." She was
furious and more than that, even Jack could see she was hurting.
"Why'd you think I was so down on Therra?"
"Because she was earning from Brenna the attention that you - all of us
craved. It was how we were programmed to feel," Daniel
burst out passionately, bitterly resentful, Carlin still close to the
surface for him.
Brenna flinched, folding in, making herself seem even smaller.
"We need you," Kegan told her caustically. "Whether we want you
or not. We - we need."
"I have to agree with Daniel," Jack butted in. "Brenna, you're
the only one who can lead these people. The only one with the
education, the experience to guide them as they rebuild. You have
the skills required. It was what you trained for and I can tell
you that you're good at it."
"You told me that you accepted the sacrifices necessary to save your
people, that the welfare of the workers came to mean just as much to
you," Daniel reminded her approvingly. "You feel guilt for the
part you played in their enslavement. What better way is there
for you to expiate that guilt than in helping them to survive as a
people? To help them adjust to living in freedom and to govern
themselves? If Kegan and the others can work with you,
not for you?" he invited her, his soft voice warm with hope and
expectation.
Jack would kill her if she let Daniel down.
"I have come to believe these workers can accomplish anything," Brenna
said softly. "I'm proud of them if not of myself."
"Everyone will listen to you, whether they want to or not," Kegan bit
out.
"The memories of some workers will begin to return to them, the longer
they are away from the plant," Brenna noted. "For others, that
life is truly all they know."
"Do you know which is which?" Kegan asked painfully.
"Does it matter so much?" Brenna looked around at her for the first
time. "I no longer know who I am, only that I am not who I was
meant to be."
"In your case," Jack noted. "That’s a good thing." The
others worried him. If there really were criminals among them,
and not just Calder's idea of malcontents? There was potential
for this to go badly wrong.
Daniel tossed him a faintly reproving look.
"If I am needed?" Brenna hesitated.
"You are!" Kegan fired up again.
"Then I do not feel I have a choice but to offer my service to the
workers in return for their time of service to me," Brenna decided,
anything but confidently.
"It's for the best, I think," Daniel murmured encouragingly.
"I want to see this place," Kegan asked the general. "I want to
go there, so I can look the other workers in the eye and tell them it's
real."
"Yes," Brenna backed Kegan up, her voice steadying. "Tell us more
about this world and the help you plan to give us."
"It's a tropical world," Daniel supplied. "Lush and
fertile. Larger than any greenhouse either of you could imagine
and the sky feels as if it goes on forever."
"Sunny. Did I mention the sun?" Jack asked rhetorically.
"And the beaches? The beaches go on for miles."
"The Stargate is in a temple surrounded by a village deserted long ago,
on the whim of Bastet, who once ruled there. It's surrounded by
terraced fields where with work, you can farm crops, and there are
fresh fruits on plantations nearby."
"You'll also have to learn to hunt and fish for meat," Jack added.
"I don't know how to do these things," Brenna objected. "There
was no need for them in the city. How can I teach what I don't
know?"
Recognising his cue, Jack smiled warmly at the general. Hammond
did not smile back.
"The members of SG teams 3, 4, 5 and 11 can teach you and your people
everything you'll need to know," he quashed Jack's hopes ruthlessly.
"General!"
"Colonel?"
No one felt Jack's pain.
"We'll also provide you with medical supplies and assess your people's
medical needs," Fraiser announced perkily, smirking at Jack.
"Our medical technicians are very skilled in the treatment of injuries
and dangerous sickness is rare," Brenna replied seriously. "The
workers are healthy and strong, but we'll accept your medicines
gladly. You must know that we have a number of injured. May
these be moved last? I would keep them comfortable as long as
possible and have them come to a place ready to take them."
"Agreed!" Fraiser said crisply. "You'd better give me a run-down
of the patients we can expect so my team will be prepared. It's
possible we have treatments or surgical techniques you don't."
"I will be glad of any help you can give," Brenna thanked her
gratefully.
"I'll have Major Carter ensure that happens, Dr. Fraiser," the general
noted.
"There'll be a lot of work to do, in order to make the village
habitable," Daniel warned. "You can expect to have to live in our
temporary facility in the environs of the temple, maybe for the first
few months."
"The conditions cannot be worse than we are used to," Brenna said
ironically. "May we see this world, General Hammond?"
"Colonel? Dr. Jackson?"
"Our pleasure," Jack said crisply. This would actually get him
two minutes alone with Daniel while they geared up.
"Dr. Fraiser, prepare SG-4 to process in the arrivals and aggressively
induct them into the requisite health and hygiene routines they will
need to follow to keep the camp clear of disease. Address any
immediate training issues Brenna's medical technicians may have.
Also, ensure that any threats in the surrounding locale - poisonous or
harmful plants, berried, fruits - are identified."
"Yes, Sir," Fraiser acknowledged smartly.
"Colonel O'Neill, co-ordinate setting up the refugee centre with SG
teams 5 and 11, and when they come through, SG-3," the general
ordered. "That's all the manpower we have available."
Jack nodded. This was about what he'd expected. He was
wryly aware that for all the billions poured into the SGC coffers,
there was a limit on what they could do.
"The base will need power, Colonel," Hammond warned. "As soon as
the situation on 118 is stable, I want Major Carter on 500. SG-5
will take a naquadah generator through with them."
"Sir."
"Brenna and Kegan, would you join me in the control room?" Hammond
stood invitingly. "I can show you the world you'll be going to."
Jack walked out with Daniel and Fraiser.
"Just to inform you that I'm scheduling counselling sessions for you
and your team, Colonel," Fraiser told him calmly as they walked onto
the elevator.
"We'd be better off with a weekend of paint-balling," Jack countered
flatly, slapping this down hard.
"Counselling is not an option, Colonel, it's an order."
"Should be fun," Jack announced, with a lightning reversal of
position. "Teal'c still wants revenge against MacKenzie for what
he did to Daniel." He was pleased to see this gave Fraiser her
famous poker up the butt look, until he saw Daniel was wearing a
similar expression. He didn't say anything then, didn't say
anything at all until they were safely in the gear-up room, where the
first thing he did was take hold of both Daniel's shoulders and look
searchingly at him. "You are not fine!" he said
accusingly.
"Just so you know, Fraiser examined me," Daniel spit out rapidly.
"She's aware that I, um, had intercourse. Semen," he said
unnecessarily. "And."
Jack felt a little sick and achingly sorry Daniel had been exposed in
such an undignified way. "And?"
"Bruising. Minor lacerations."
"I hurt you!" Jack was stricken.
"The sex was consensual. I had to tell her that. I
should not need to tell you!" Daniel flared. "Don't you start
treating me like some kind of victim."
"That's not what I meant," Jack said gently, rubbing Daniel's
shoulders. "Can't I be sorry I was so rough with you? I
never - Jonah - never even considered it was your first
time. He - I was so convinced we were together."
"We are."
"Not that way! We're friends, Daniel. We made a choice
about what we wanted our friendship to be. We make love
together. I'm not using you as some kind of fuck-buddy!"
Startled, Daniel shifted under his hands. "You've never said that
before," he told Jack, breathless with uncertainty. "Make love."
"Sometimes I'm slow." Thanking god the cameras were in the
hallways, Jack kissed his friend tenderly on the mouth. "We have
a lot to talk about and no time to talk for now. Just," he broke
off, hugging Daniel tightly to him. "Stay with me. Give me
a chance, here."
"We're still friends, Jack," Daniel promised, holding Jack tightly too.
Yeah. They had a lot to talk about, alright. Jonah's
consuming passion for Carlin, Jack felt for Daniel now. What he'd
shared with his lover, he wanted again. Wanted it
desperately. Jack wasn't certain Daniel knew what he wanted at
this point, except maybe a chance to sit down and think. He
seemed deeply shocked and distressed by it all and he didn't need to
say he was humiliated, that Janet's well-meaning interference had left
him feeling horribly vulnerable. Jack could see he was and was
bitterly sorry for it.
He changed into cammos, leaving off the heavy jacket and sticking with
his vest, Daniel doing the same. They both remembered the heat on
Hawaii Five-0. Jack tried not to intrude on Daniel's reverie, but
as they went out, he stopped him, fussed over tightening a strap for
him and smiled. He had the pleasure of seeing some of the strain
ease from the downcast blue eyes.
They went from the gear-up room down to the armoury, checked out their
weapons, then walked along to the gateroom. Daniel was aware Jack
was watching him closely, but didn't get sarcastic about it.
"Surf's up!" Jack called out as he trotted up the stairs into the
control room. The joke went right over Brenna and Kegan's heads
and Jack was conscious of nothing more noble than a desire to put this
to bed. He was sick of the sight of them and was glad to be
handing them off to Fraiser and her med team while he took care of
everything else. Right now, he cared a helluva lot more about
Daniel and the way Kegan was eyeing up Jack's lover in his cammos was
setting Jack's teeth on edge.
"Colonel," the general acknowledged his inimitable presence.
"The workers are expecting Kegan to report back in person to them,
Sir," Jack reported. "That was our deal. They voiced some
understandable concerns about trading down."
Hammond nodded, thinking this over. "Major Griff and Teal'c
appear to have established an unexpected rapport with the section
leaders who are taking responsibility for the others."
"Sir?" Jack straightened up from his customary slouch by the console,
curious.
"Ably seconded by Griff, Teal'c is recalling - in lavish detail - some
of the more exotic executions of Jaffa legend," Hammond said sleekly,
his eyes twinkling. "Right where Administrator Calder can hear
him."
"Cool!" Jack hoped the general wasn't going to be a drag about
the Geneva Convention, stuff like that, not when Teal'c was on a roll.
"Apparently, when Griff got there, there was a debate going on whether
to hang Calder in his own plant, hand him over to the people of the
city, or bring him along as labour," the general went on mildly.
"Teal'c is supporting the workers through their earliest hours of
self-determination."
"Better and better!"
"Major Carter has also expressed her desire to continue to assist with
the evacuation from 118. She feels her technical expertise is
required in stripping the plant for now."
Somehow, this did not shock Jack. He didn't blame Carter for
wanting to get away from him for a while.
"I'd like you two gentlemen to report back here ASAP after setting up
operations on 500, help me to determine how best to proceed," the
general ordered. "We're all aware this is a huge undertaking, and
setting up the camp is only the beginning of our commitment. SG
teams 4, 5 and 11 are planet side with Dr. Fraiser, awaiting your
orders, Jack."
"Yes, Sir."
"Colonel, you have a go."
Jack nodded and led the way down to the gateroom, Brenna walking alone
while Kegan brought up the rear with Daniel. At the top of the
ramp, Jack saw Daniel gently take the arm of each woman, and then he
went through, turning to wait until Daniel was safely there behind him.
The open-sided red brick temple was mellow with tumbling plants and
vines, sunlight slanting down between the columns to strike sharp
diagonals across the cracked tiled floor. Jack had been in
hundreds of temples but he found himself appreciating this one, backing
up slowly, watching his lover's serene face as Kegan and Brenna, enmity
forgotten, touched flowers with shaking fingers, buried their faces in
the blooms.
These were the first flowers the women had ever seen, but their
expressions weren't all that different from Daniel's. His empathy
was both a wonderful and terrible thing.
Daniel glanced up questioningly and Jack nodded permission, let him
go. It always took a conscious effort but in the end he could do
it. For Daniel, he had to.
Kegan's shuddering gasp as the sun hit her brought a smile to Daniel's
face. She arched up, drew her hands down from her hair to her
throat as if the sunlight were water. Within moments, she was
unzipping the jumpsuit, letting it fall down to tie the sleeves around
her waist, holding her bare arms out to watch the sun play over her
skin.
"This is for us?" she whispered thickly. "This is ours?"
"I promise."
Brenna too held out her hand, fingers spread wide, turning it this way
and that, her eyes wide and wondering. "I've seen the sun
before," she gasped, "but this heat!" She too lifted her face,
her eyes closing as the sun beat down on her.
"It's like this all year round," Daniel said.
"To never be cold," Brenna marvelled.
"Made your bones ache," Kegan sighed, far away.
"Let's walk." Daniel led the way, moving slowly for Brenna's
sake. Even the grass was a wonder to them, Kegan dropping to her
knees to spread out her hands in it, rub her face in the
softness. She and Brenna both leaned close against the trees,
tracing the roughness of bark and sniffing smooth shining leaves, not
listening at all to Daniel's careful explanations, moving in and out of
patches of sunlight and shade, learning the difference.
"What's that sound?" Brenna asked, her eyes closed, her cheek against
bark. "Not quite like the machines, not all the time. A - a
boom and a whisper at the same time," she struggled, trying to explain
the alien sound.
"It's the ocean. A vast body of water, as far as the eye can
see. This way." Brenna followed while Kegan dropped to her
ass in the grass and took off her boots, walking with a reverence
Daniel hadn't expected to see.
She laughed when her feet sank into the virgin white sand, arching her
foot as the grains trickled between her toes, then stooped to pour a
handful into Brenna's palm. They stood close together, sand
falling from Brenna's hand to Kegan's, then lifted to fall into
Brenna's hand again.
Then Brenna saw the glint of blue and they looked up, stumbling out
from under the canopy of trees to gape in awe at the azure sky,
shimmering with heat.
Daniel waited patiently, wanting the moment they followed the blue down
to the horizon and saw the ocean. Kegan saw it first, and then
she ran, pelted through the sand to fall to her knees at the water's
edge, screaming out as waves lapped over her thighs.
Brenna was incredulous, tearful, leaning heavily on Daniel as he helped
her down to the water. Kegan unlaced Brenna's boots, helped her
to step clear, then waded out into the clear blue-green water with her,
up to her knees, her arms tight round Brenna's waist, steadying her as
they walked.
Saying nothing to break the moment, he trailed them, smiling as they
soaked this world in through their skin, the ocean and the sky, not
able to wholly comprehend how magical it was for them, how vast.
Even space was commonplace to him now and there were times when empathy
failed.
They walked until Brenna could walk no more, helped her to sit in the
sand where she could trail her feet in the water and play with the
shells Daniel had helped them collect along the shore, and then Kegan
was looking at him. She moved restlessly away and he followed.
"Carlin was never real," she said, crossing her arms over her chest,
her black T-shirt soaked now. Her eyes were hungry. "He was
never you."
"A part of me," Daniel offered, deciding this was true. The part
which knew Jack and reached out to him. "The part that was your
friend."
Kegan looked pained. "You were always looking for more, always
pushing. I tried so hard to hold you back, keep you with
me. I never could." Her voice broke, as it had once
before. "I love you," she said bravely, tilting up her chin.
Daniel lowered his face to hers and when she didn't flinch, kissed her
softly. She sobbed, her fingers coming up to brush tenderly
through his hair as she often did. He put his arms around her,
held her close to him.
"I made you choose, knowing I would lose. Hoping…" She
buried her face in his chest. "You belonged with them."
"Kegan, friends aren't easy for me. Not as Daniel or as Carlin,"
Daniel admitted honestly. "Still, you were my friend."
"This place is more than I could dream of, more than I could
know. It's everything. I feel so small," she sighed.
"You'll make this world fit, Kegan," Daniel promised her, knowing it
was true. "It's what you always try to do."
She looked up blindly. "I wish I fit with you."
"Kegan gated back to 118 eight hours ago, Sir," Jack reported.
"Barefoot, soaked to her chin, and carrying an armful of shells and
flowers. The first section of workers gated through thirty-two
minutes after that. Teal'c and Griff are sending through a fresh
batch every twenty minutes. We want them off 118, fast."
"Any trouble?" Hammond enquired. "The displacement has to be
traumatic."
"The workers are completely in awe, Sir," Daniel spoke up, dreamy-eyed
and reflective. "I can't adequately describe their reverence for
the natural world."
"You should see those guys," Jack added. "Some of them make the
Incredible Hulk look small and perky and the minute they're through the
gate and Fraiser's needle is out their ass, they're off hugging trees
and getting lei'd. It's trippy."
"What about their relationship with Brenna?"
"Strained but communicating," Daniel quickly summed up. "The workers do
turn to her and they do listen, whether they want to or not.
Brenna seems to care about them and in time, I think she'll win them
over. Kegan is smart and pragmatic, with the other section
leaders and worker representatives, she'll make sure everyone gets that
they need Brenna, and she's given up as much as the rest of them."
"I stationed her in the command post in the temple for the time being,
Sir," Jack noted. "Just until the mood settles and everyone
realises they're in for the long haul. Together."
"Brenna is very efficient," Daniel added. "And she's smart.
She is a good choice to lead."
"What he said. As fast as the supplies arrive, they're assigned
to a section and dealt with. Every new batch of workers coming
through is pitching their own tent while SG-11 are training up the
section leaders to dig latrines, sink wells, tote that barge, lift that
bale," Jack said lightly.
"They've continuing on with the routines and organisational structures
they're used to, General. Their choice. It's imposing an
order they're comfortable with." Daniel looked a little
depressed. "The memory stamping ensures that they're disciplined."
"I've never seen a refugee camp go up faster." Personally, Jack
figured it was more than just discipline driving the workers. It
was the knowledge they were now working for themselves, making their
own choices for the first time, that was giving them the edge.
"Our guys are strictly facilitating and the section leaders are eager
to learn."
"They're very grateful for our help, Sir." Daniel smiled
wryly. "Even if we did overturn everything they thought they
knew, including who they were."
"SG-3 are stripping all the useful tools and equipment out of the plant
and those are going through the gate with the workers," Jack went
on. "Fraiser's team and Brenna's medics have an Infirmary tent
set up, food supplies are inventoried and the catering is covered by
the same section as on 118. Carter and SG-5 have that handy-dandy
naquadah generator set up and they're working on lighting, electrics
and refrigeration right now, Sir. The irony is, if these people
hadn't lived this way their whole lives, they'd be in poor shape on
500."
"I agree with Jack. I have every confidence that they'll adjust
and succeed and they'll owe a large part of that success to Brenna,"
Daniel said approvingly.
"Excellent work, Colonel, Dr. Jackson," Hammond praised them. He
smiled warmly. "I have to admit that for a while there, we were
worried."
"For a while there, we were worried too," Jack confessed.
"Jack's still worried," Daniel announced innocently. "He has a
talk with Dr. MacKenzie looming in his near future and someone is bound
to let slip he kept dreaming about mining naked."
"Permission to kick Daniel's ass, Sir?" Jack begged.
"Welcome home, gentlemen," Hammond grinned. "Permission to gate
out to P2B-500, Colonel."
"It's not the same," Jack mourned.
"Go to your Mary Steenburgen place, Jack," Daniel advised him kindly as
they trotted down the steps to the control room. "Think thongs."
Sgt. Davis glanced up at Daniel, dying to comment, caught Jack's eye
and went to his dialling place instead. Hawaii Five-0 appeared to
be right where they left it, so he and Daniel ambled down into the
gateroom.
"Ask me what I did to you one time loop," Jack gently dared Daniel as
they strolled up the ramp. "Go on. Ask me."
"Here?" Daniel looked down at ramp involuntarily,
horrified.
"On camera."
"You didn't!"
"Think thongs," Jack advised him with vast satisfaction, propelling him
neatly into the wormhole as he sputtered.
When they emerged the other side, it was dusk, and Carter was waiting,
in uniform, armed and slightly cleaner than when they'd last seen her.
"The last workers gated through, half an hour ago, Sir," she
reported. "They're processing in. Teal'c and SG-3 are out
directing several teams of workers in setting up a perimeter fence for
the camp. The naquadah generator is online. We have
refrigeration, cooking facilities and essential lighting. By 1800
tomorrow, every tent will have individual lighting. Clean water
supplies have been established at key locations throughout the camp, as
well as latrines. Progress has been better than expected and
morale among the workers is good."
"Good work, Major," Jack praised.
"We're serving lasagne for dinner," she added with a hint of a smile.
She didn't get the chicken joke at all.
"If you'll excuse me, Sir?" she asked politely. "I need to go run
through some things with Brenna."
"Play nice," Jack ordered. He made a move and was stopped by a
warm hand taking his elbow. He turned at once, concerned.
"Daniel?"
"Is Sam pissed at me for some reason?" Daniel asked him, perplexed and
a little bit hurt. "She just talked over me as if I wasn't even
there. I don't think she's said a word to me since she learned
she wasn't Therra. I, er, I thought I was imagining it," he added
deprecatingly.
Jack was taken aback. It took him a minute to realise Daniel was
right. Carter hadn't acknowledged his presence at all. He
knew what was going on, but he was angered and disappointed Carter was
acting out at Daniel and not at him. He was the one who deserved
it, if anyone did. No way in hell was it Daniel's fault Jack had
gone lusting after him. He didn't even know he had what Carter
apparently wanted.
Whatever else he was wrong about, Jack knew he could not tell Daniel
that Carter had seen the two of them fucking. He couldn't do
it. Daniel would be crushed. He was an intensely private
man and a lot of his dignity had been stripped away from him already by
Fraiser's cross-examination.
"I don't care if she's pissed or not," Jack said icily. "She will
behave towards you in an appropriately professional manner."
"Hypocrite," Daniel snorted.
"Oh, like that's news," Jack sneered, grinning, keeping it light.
"I want to look around, Daniel, see everything is okay. Then I
suppose I'd better check in at the command post and find out where they
parked our asses for the night. We can grab some naked bulb-lit
dinner, if they left us any, and then you and I can have that long,
excruciatingly intimate talk you sooo don't want to have with me."
"I can hardly wait," Daniel retorted sarcastically. He looked
nervous, though.
Jack found it strange and disorienting to walk through the camp, some
of the faces he saw knowing him as Jonah, reacting to him that way,
others as O'Neill, and none of them really knowing him at all.
The only one who did was the man at his side, trailing him patiently,
and without argument for once. It worried Jack a little, to have
Daniel so passive.
There was order and chaos everywhere he looked, neat clusters of large
tents, though the people inside them were sitting or lying on the
floor, their personal space consisting of nothing more than the
sleeping bag they were provided with. There wasn't much traffic
at all between the tents, except for his own people, checking, just as
he was, as night fell. He decided to roster patrols, two by two,
throughout the night.
"They don't know what freedom is," Daniel observed almost sadly,
watching as the workers clustered, gazing up at the stars, few of them
venturing outside the confines of their tents and those who did sitting
right outside. "It isn't real to them. All they know are
rules and permissions."
"Brenna is smart, Daniel, and more than that, she feels responsible,"
Jack answered him straight-forwardly, not wanting to tire him with any
of his bull. "She feels she owes these people something and the
truth is, she does. She'll get the section leaders onside and
then it will filter down. Brenna understands a society can't
function without order and that's something the workers don't know
yet. Over time, the rules will change. But not yet.
They have too much to learn."
"Was I wrong to pressure Brenna into taking this on?"
"From the workers' point of view? No. From hers? I
don't care. She came good in the end, but for years, maybe, she
did it Calder's way."
"You know, when you talk to me like this? When you talk."
Daniel sounded shaken, his faced shadowed and difficult beneath the
sparse lights overhead. "There's a small, frightened voice inside
of me asking who the hell are you, and what have you done with the real
Jack O'Neill?"
"Good recovery," Jack told him admiringly. "I thought you were getting
mushy on me there." Satisfied with what had been accomplished in
the camp, as much as his people possibly could, he headed back towards
the command post, picking up the pace, wanting to face whatever
headaches Carter and the others would bring to him, get it over
with.
At times like these he felt guilty, knowing Daniel was the only one of
them who had nothing specific to do. The familiar rhythms of a
military base would wash over Jack and the others, leaving Daniel
feeling like a fifth wheel and not their fourth, as if any body on the
team would do. Jack knew it, but they'd never talked about it, or
what he could do. Other missions, though, only Daniel would
do. When it tired him, when superfluousness got too much, Daniel
chose to leave his team behind, take on missions which needed
specifically his expertise. It had been happening more
recently. Jack never wanted to let him go and at least now he had
to be honest with himself why.
He was a USAF colonel, the ranking officer, in command of this camp,
about to relay his orders to his officers, one snippy little power
monger and a Jaffa, all of whom actually would more or less rush off to
do his bidding and pander to his whims. Every single other person
here had to do what Jack said, while Jack, the cynical, hard-assed guy
in charge, the alleged alpha, the literal apex, would probably, if he
didn’t think it would get them all killed, do what the nice
archaeologist said.
It would have been very nice to actually feel like he was in control of
anything.
What was he thinking?
Wasn't he suspicious at all?
It was embarrassing.
This was absolutely Daniel's fault for making him nuts about
him and Jack was blaming him.
"Might as well have it tattooed on my butt," he complained bitterly.
Colonel Jack O'Neill, card-carrying member of Archaeologist's Anonymous.
Archaeologist, very definitely singular.
"Hellooo, campers," Jack drawled as he ambled into the command tent to
find his officers in various states of collapse. There was a
vague grunt of recognition, a general shift of limp bodies preparing to
creak to their feet. Jack waved a forgiving hand and grinned at
the pathetic slump. He looked around and saw Brenna, a slim shape
tucked into a precious SGC bunk.
"I sedated her," Fraiser reported. "She was in a lot of pain and
exhausted."
Jack nodded understandingly. "You all did a helluva job
today. Outstanding!"
"For what it's worth, Colonel, I think we did the right thing," the
taciturn Griff piped up.
"I agree." Carter stretched stiffly in her chair, gratefully
taking a mug of coffee from Fraiser. "Although the work!"
She grimaced. "We knew what we were getting ourselves into," she
acknowledged ironically. "It's not as if we haven't had to do
this before."
"It never seems to get easier," Fraiser mused.
"Survival is not easy at all," Teal'c observed philosophically, for
him. "The workers have known nothing else. My own people
are enslaved but our lives are more than this."
"Are they?" Daniel stepped out from behind Jack, his arms crossing
comfortably around himself. "Aren't the controls imposed by the
Goa'uld simply subtler? That symbiote you carry? The symbol
you wear? The rules you lived by, obedience and willing service
demanded of you? Calder stole these people's memories, but
Apophis tried to steal your souls."
After a moment, Teal'c bowed his head to Daniel, his face relaxing into
a smile as he gracefully conceded the point. "I have much empathy
for Kegan and the others."
Daniel was nodding. "I do too."
"Me three," Fraiser waved a lazy hand.
"Carter?" She looked up alertly at Jack. "You know a lot of
these people, particularly the section leaders. A little while
back you talked of morale being good. What's your assessment?"
"There are subversive elements but they're known to the other workers,"
she said thoughtfully, her brow wrinkling. "My concern is that in
the plant, they had no option but to fit in as best they could.
Here on 500, they can just walk away."
"Or worse," Daniel interjected. "Agitate. There are some
you literally wouldn't turn your back on and -"
"You have experience with that," Carter interrupted. "Make a
list."
She couldn't have made her meaning more clear. Teal'c's face went
deadly, the others straightened up, staring at Daniel, who didn't know
what to do and couldn't look at anyone, enduring their sympathy.
Interestingly, it was Fraiser who reacted strongest, turning right
around to flay Carter with a look. Jack's 2iC was startled and
then dismayed.
"Of the people Brenna needs to pay close attention to," Carter amended,
aware herself she was covering too late.
"As do I," Teal'c said stonily.
Get in line, Jack wanted to say, glaring at the back of the
most stubborn! He gritted his teeth. Why didn't Daniel tell
him these things?
And why was Jonah there for Therra and not Carlin?
"Every closed society," Daniel spoke up, unwontedly cold, "is subject
to those tensions. Including the military."
Carter stiffened up, glaring.
"That will do, Major," Jack slapped her down hard, really angry
with her insensitivity, the camaraderie of a few minutes ago
evaporating into a speculative silence Daniel found hard to face
down. "I want guards at each intersection and perimeter patrols
throughout the night," Jack ordered curtly. "Tell the guards to
try to look as if they're there to help, especially if they're
SG-3," he added. Griff took this as a compliment. "It's a
fine balance between protecting ourselves and still looking as if we're
offering a level of trust. Two by two, female personnel paired at
all times with male, and even on stand down, to remain armed and
alert. Fraiser, Carter, make sure the women are covered."
"Sir," Fraiser nodded sharply.
"Let's not kid ourselves this is the Disney 'and they all lived happy
ever after' crap," Jack reminded them forcefully. "Most of the
people out there in the camp deserve our help and support. There
are a handful of individuals."
"Who will die."
"Thank you for that, Teal'c, as always, very helpful," Jack snapped.
"I'll be rushing that list right to you," Daniel told Teal'c
witheringly, looking daggers. "You can put the genius who used
the temple boundary stelae as fence posts at the top of it."
Griff snorted violently and tried unavailingly to turn it into a cough.
Teal'c's chin came up. Jack thought he saw him swallow. At
times like this, he adored Daniel Jackson. Most times.
Just like that, the good times rolled. Everyone was amused by
Teal'c's discomfiture, the slick ambush and the Wrath Of Jackson,
Carter's gaffe forgotten.
"How long do you reckon we'll be here until the General cuts these
people loose, Colonel?" Griff asked.
"Knowing our schedule?" Jack shrugged. "Not nearly long enough."
"It never is," Fraiser sighed.
"This is strictly for the time being, so let's make the most of
it. Don't do anything for the workers. Show them how to do
it themselves. Make sure they get that they're on their own
here. We're not along for the ride. We're a front-line
operation. Explorer units," Jack reminded them
unnecessarily. "We're lucky the general is feeling misty-eyed and
generous over the prodigals' return as it is."
"He was quite pleased to see Daniel," Fraiser agreed sweetly, her eyes
innocent.
"What if the workers attempt to leave the camp, O'Neill?" Teal'c
enquired.
"Start with the latrines are thatta way, move on to politely explain
they're better off where they are, and if they really want out, let
them go."
Carter's eyebrows went up. "Not our problem," she recognised
ruefully.
"Precisely." Jack looked around, satisfied they were all reading
from the same page. "Dismissed." He beamed at them.
"Now, who am I thanking for pitching my executive en suite tent?"
"I believe Major Carter selected a location close by the latrines,
O'Neill."
"I didn't actually pitch the tent, though." Carter flashed a grin.
"I get no respect," Jack bitched, eliciting zero sympathy.
"Oooh, time to hit the hay, I think," Fraiser said at once, prudently
jumping to her feet and making for the exit.
Carter jumped with her. "G'night, Sir." She dipped her head
and sidled past him, the two of them laughing wickedly together when
they got outside.
She still wasn't talking to Daniel and like Daniel, Jack didn't quite
know what to do except hope she got the hell over her weirdness soon,
before he had to talk to her. It was just occurring to him that
hypocrisy was a double-edged sword. He had no more of the moral
high ground than Carter did, considerably less so. For the first
time also, he wondered if she saw an act of love or sodomy?
Jack did the only thing he could for Daniel, which was to take him off
to beg a plate of scraps each from the commissary tent and get a
smirking marine from SG-3 to show them to his home from home, which was
blessed with both a latrine and a sea view. Jack walked in,
gratefully dropped the flap behind them, and hugged the crap out of
Daniel, cradling him close and hard, until Daniel melted into him,
buried his face in Jack's throat, and hugged him back.
At that moment, he didn't care if the world knew Jack O'Neill was in
love with Daniel Jackson.
"This is the part where I annoy you until you spill your guts," Jack
pointed out helpfully.
"Very smooth segue," Daniel praised him gushingly. "Colour me
confiding."
"I'm good."
"We're surrounded by hundreds of people, oh great one. Don't you
think we should maintain the faintest semblance of heterosexuality?"
"We're hugging. Straight guys hug."
"They don't nuzzle." Daniel looked up consideringly. "Or
pout." He wriggled a bit.
Jack did not wish to let go.
"That better be your sidearm I can feel," Daniel threatened darkly,
wriggling just a little more.
"It occurs to me I've never tried to seduce you into risky off-world
sex," Jack mourned a truly terrible oversight on his part.
"Illicit tent sex is hot. Especially if your folks are parked
just one tent over."
"Maybe your parents were thinking the exact same thing about number one
son?" Daniel said suggestively.
"What? What? That's!" Jack held him away as
if he would bite, theatrically gaping. "Mom?
That's. Ewww!"
Jack was very good, Daniel thought fondly, as they disposed of sundry
weapons, radios, vests and boots, made themselves at home, sputtering
his ludicrously camped up indignation the whole time.
"When you've worked out what to say here, you know, just let rip," he
lightly informed Daniel as he dropped with a bounce on his bunk, the
last bounce he had in him.
Admitting to his exhaustion, Daniel sat with care on his own, hitching
back so his butt rested against the tent wall and he could hug his
knees and sit with some comfort at least. They sat for a while,
shaking off the day, the responsibilities they had. Smiled, easy
with the silence, looking a little, and then a little more.
Reading faces, moods. Assessing. They were good at this, at
leaving behind their work and coming together. They worked at it,
as they worked at their friendship, and they got better.
The lamp light was low, the tent small though not intimate. The
bunks were close together, most of the space taken up with a table,
chairs, laptop, weapons locker. Notice board and map.
Mundane military accoutrements.
He and Jack were close together, the way they needed to be, sitting
opposite, Jack's legs comfortably balanced across the narrow gap, his
feet braced either side of Daniel's. He wore his listening face,
his eyes velvet soft.
"It occurs to me," Daniel said quietly, his voice barely carrying in
the dark. "That the people we were in the plant, in essence, were
ourselves. Carlin was a different focus, that was all. He
wasn't weighed down by the emotional baggage, the memories I carried,
but still, I was myself."
"Therra is Carter, complete and unabridged," Jack muttered, worrying at
the blanket. "Take Carter out of the Air Force, out of the chain
of command, and what you have is - "
"Therra." Daniel would be thinking through his responses to
Therra for a long time to come, something he felt Sam would be doing
too. She wasn't comfortable with him at present and this
disappointed him very much. He thought they were better friends
than this and resented being made to see they maybe weren't.
"Carter with the brakes off."
Daniel recalled how Jack had been with Sam when they were in the plant
and realised he was not the only one to have some issues in his
relationship with her. Jack was her C.O. and he had to deal with
being patronised.
Recognising Therra in Sam had made it impossible for Daniel to ignore
the part of him which was Carlin. Being with Jack, having the
gift of his time and attention, the way they grew together as friends,
he hadn't experienced the rawness, the depth of his longing for
Jack. Hadn't had the confidence, perhaps, to let himself see that
or want more than he was given. He didn't know, not everything
was clear to him.
"The personality stamping never succeeded in our case, Jack. Our
physiology was just different enough. Even our memories couldn't
be buried so deep they wouldn't surface in our dreams."
"I was Jonah. Jonah was me. Part of me. I," Jack said
haltingly, "need to apologise for that. I feel I should. At
least, now, I should. But at the time, Daniel? At the
time." He hesitated again. This was difficult for
him. "I loved it."
"You loved me," Daniel said courageously, taking the risk and wanting
Jack, feeling he could fly apart.
Jack's foot shifted, toes stroking over his.
"Yes," Jack breathed. "I'm in love with you, Daniel." He
didn't seem to find this hard to say.
Daniel felt as if his skin were scalding, loose and unreal, yet too
small. He realised he was shivering. "I love you too."
"I don't think we were ever going to see it." Jack sounded almost
amused. They knew each other so well. "If we hadn't started
sleeping together?"
"If that hadn't opened us up emotionally? A little?"
"We're supposed to be different, you know," Jack chided him, his foot
stroking lazy rhythm. "The universal cliché.
Opposites attract."
"We're the same. We always meet, always find our way.
Together."
"Kind of meant to be this way. That's what Jonah knew."
"Carlin knew it too."
"Sooo?"
"So?"
"You love me and I love you."
"Has anything changed?" Daniel really didn't know. In all
his time trailing the camp in Jack's wake, he hadn't thought this far,
only that he had had to speak. Had to be honest with Jack.
"Everything."
"And nothing." They had been friends for a long time, and friends
who had sex, the way they meant it, when no one was used, when they
both gave to the other what they could, friends who had sex was just
another name for lovers.
"Yeah."
"We can still do our jobs."
"Tell me about it. Right before we shipped out for 118, I almost
killed you," Jack snapped, still sore over the whole mission.
"Didn't we discuss this?" Daniel countered gently.
"No. We never discussed you leaving me behind."
"I didn't think you were wrong to try to save the Enkarans, Jack.
I accepted that was what you would do, as best you could, before I
beamed up to the ship to try to communicate with Lotan. I didn't
disagree with your need to save them," Daniel said matter of
factly. "I wanted to save them. I had just as much
invested in them as a people, as individuals, as you. But I
wanted to save the Gad-Meer too. They were real to me, I guess,
in a way they weren't to you."
"Daniel," Jack objected forcefully.
Daniel held up a hand. "No, let me speak!"
Jack subsided, poking Daniel resentfully with his foot, childishly
acting out his anger.
"I don't blame you for what you did, Jack. I just - I had to take
a different path. You'd closed your mind, you needed options - I
gave that to you and to the Enkarans, and ultimately to Lotan. I
fulfilled my true function on the team, I communicated, nothing
more. I didn't want to die, even though I accepted the
risks. I didn't argue with what you did, what you chose, any more
than Teal'c argued with what I did or the choice I made."
"I could've killed you!"
"Yes, but that's personal," Daniel smiled, patiently. "And you
accepted that, and activated the bomb. You didn't let personal
get in the way of doing your job, any more than I let it get in the way
of doing mine. It's strange that this was one of your strongest
arguments for us getting together, that we could do this, that there
would be no favouritism, no harm to Sam or Teal'c, and then when you
have proof, it upsets you more than anything has."
Daniel almost wished this unsaid, realising a little too late about
what could and was upsetting Jack. Like his acting out, his
crassness, the sometimes grating humour, the little-boy enthusiasm, the
dumb-ass act he pulled, it was a defence mechanism, a deflection
of Jack's, because his rage was real, his feelings were deep, and Jack
could be dark inside.
"I know you!" Daniel said quickly, sorry. "I know you,
Jack. I need you," he added gruffly.
"Yeah, well, you're the pain in my ass too," Jack drawled, some give in
his voice.
"If I had failed with Lotan, the Enkarans would have been wiped out,
and the Gad-Meer destroyed by the cost of their rebirth," Daniel
promised him sincerely. "You didn't know them, Jack. Not
even Lotan did. He was designed to communicate with the Enkarans
and fundamentally, that blinded him to who the Gad-Meer were."
Something Daniel had had to compensate for, painfully slow to realise
how much of a problem it was. "Lotan couldn’t find a way into
their culture. I had all the clues but it took me some time,
almost too much time, to put it all together and force him to consider
other options too."
"Freeze-dried aliens." Jack sighed. "Only you."
"They had a beautiful civilisation," Daniel rebutted
energetically. "Choosing to end their existence as they knew it
rather than compromise their beliefs and fight. To reclaim that
existence because of an act of mass murder - it would have killed them
as surely as the Enkarans. That was what Lotan finally realised,
why he stopped the ship."
"That's what you hit him over the head with."
"We discussed."
"If you'd failed?"
"You were all the Enkarans had."
"And you were the only one sticking up for the space monkeys."
"The - what?"
"Didn't you see them? The Gad-Meer. That's what they
were. Add sulphur, shake, and serve. One instant giant
alien space monkey."
"We really need to address your-"
"I'm pissed off that you're okay with this," Jack interrupted loudly,
trying to head off a tangential lecture.
"You're pissed off that you're not," Daniel contradicted.
"You know me," Jack tossed out lightly, but with something of an edge.
"And I love you."
"No one else does."
Daniel hadn't expected this, straightening up in surprise. He'd
seen how much Jack loved and was loved, he'd seen Sara, and the
facsimile of Charlie, he knew something of Jack's pain and Sara's loss,
great enough to reach a crystalline energy being which had no basis for
understanding human emotion, driving it across the galaxy to heal Jack
in the only way it thought it could.
"No one else really sees me. I was just thinking that,
tonight. You're the only one who knows me."
There was some truth to this. Daniel was aware he was the only
one who seemed to sneak under Jack's formidable defences, be invited
into his home and his life. The only one granted the right to
question, to call Jack back when he went too far.
"Even what you want to hide. Maybe one day you'll tell me why you
let me in."
"Maybe," Jack brushed this off, uncomfortably, for now. "I know
you too." Then he knew Daniel would ask him again, one day.
"You romanticise," he retorted, settling for now.
"Look who's talking!" Jack hooted, very amused.
"But you don't question, it doesn't shock you when I - "
"No," Jack interrupted firmly, knowing where he was going with
this. "You’re human, Daniel, flesh and blood, you screw up big
time, just like the rest of us, and you're not the Saint of Sweet
people expect you to be. Even you go dark side."
"Maybe that's why we love each other," Daniel pondered. "We don't
expect each other to conform to expectation. We give each other
room and know enough to just go with it on the bad days."
"Call each other on our crap. Keep it honest."
"I meant what I said. I'm glad I found you."
"Just so long as you remember I found you first, I was the one with the
smarts to get you into bed, and after all the bad things Jonah let me
in on wanting to do to you, I'm just glad you're stuck with me."
"I, er. I." Oh, dear. That was eloquent.
"I know, Daniel. Believe me, you don't need to say a word," Jack
assured him wholeheartedly. "I know. I was waaay over the
line and accelerating."
"Jack? Shut up," Daniel ordered, indignation helping his powers
of communication tremendously. He and Jack had already had this
argument! "Janet did the same damned thing to me, assuming that
because for once, nothing distracted me from what my body needs,
because I let go and wanted sex rough, because I, god forbid, enjoyed
it, I'm somehow damaged. I hate this myth of the victim which
somehow dogs my every - what? What is that excruciating
look on your face?"
"This is me, debating whether to tell you something which may get me
killed. By you, possibly almost immediately."
"I'll kill you if you don't spit it out."
"You're adorable," Jack obediently spat, with a wary eye on Daniel's
face. "I, we, all of us, even the power monger, we adore
you. And you keep dying on us. They feel guilty,
responsible. Overprotective. Me, I blame you. You may
be adorable but you're also the most stubborn, sarcastic -"
"I get the point!" Adorable? Daniel had no response to
this. He couldn't even recall the dictionary definition.
"Don't stop me now, I'm on a roll." It seemed to have gone to
Jack's head, not being executed on the spot.
"We have good sex." Warm and satisfying, about tenderness and
closeness. Daniel was more certain in his needs than he had been,
more certain in his sexuality. Carlin's desperate intensity
wasn't more than Daniel had with Jack, just another expression.
Daniel felt he could be as open in his pleasure with Jack as Carlin was
with Jonah but didn't quite know how to say it and not feel dumb.
"As Jack and Daniel."
"We make love," Jack corrected him vehemently, letting him know
this was important. The qualification meant something to
Jack. And then Jack was smiling, devilish, insinuating his
foot between Daniel's, stretching out, massaging Daniel's crotch with
his toes. "We could make love now."
"With all these people around us?" Daniel felt a treacherous curl of
heat.
"If anything kicks off in camp, they'll radio or we'll hear it.
I'm not expecting anything will," Jack replied steadily, rubbing,
rubbing with his toes. "The guards and patrols are as much as
reassurance as a precaution."
"Inappropriate, irresponsible," Daniel argued with a tremor.
"Illicit. Hot."
"Jack."
"I'm in love with you. I want you." Jack's eyes were
dangerous, intense. "I'm a USAF colonel. Special Ops
trained. I'm in command here, I scare them all, you know I
do. The thought of me going down on you right here, right now,
doesn't turn you on at all?"
Daniel's breath whooshed out of him and Jack was moving, pulling down
his legs from the bed and shoving them wide apart. Jack on his
knees between them, staring into his eyes, unzipping, freeing, taking
Daniel in his hand and then his mouth. Hot, sweet mouth,
rapturously riding Daniel's penis up and down. Daniel bent
gracefully, shivering, kissing Jack's nape, reaching down to rub his
back. Jack, his Jack, loving him, demanding everything he had,
pushing; knowing, needing, trusting, he'd push back. Loving him.
Jack, pushing Daniel back sprawling to lean on his elbows, to arch his
throat, teeth clenching on a soft, unending moan, his hands in silver
hair. Jack's arms curling beneath him, curving over his hips,
pulling him closer, lifting him, having to be closer, swallowing him
deep, needing him there. Riding his penis, sucking him hard,
grating with his teeth. Taking all of him in, worshipping mouth
riding him hard and wanting.
Jack, on his knees for Daniel, and Daniel was his.
George paused, obliquely out of sight, listening to the quiet gossip at
the nurse's station, drawn by mention of two specific names he knew and
the avid excitement tugging at him.
"Oh, they are sooo doing it!"
There was giggling, low-toned, eager and sighing with amused, approving
envy.
"They're both gorgeous. Can you imagine the sex? Can
you imagine how hot? O'Neill is an animal, everyone knows
that."
"And Daniel is just so - so," the first voice stuttered.
"Sooo," a dreamy voice sighed with voluptuous pleasure.
"Exactly!"
"Fanning self," the third moaned, milking her reaction for her friends.
"You guys are appalling," the fourth piped up, snorting with
exasperated amusement as her pen scratched on a chart. "There's
nothing going on there." She shook her head disgustedly.
"The colonel doesn't haunt the Ikea website because he likes the furniture."
There were laughing sneers and groans at this dampening comment.
"There should be something going on there!" one declared.
"For our sake," the others mourned the injustice. "The
graveyard shift's a killer."
The fourth just shook her head again, grinning pityingly.
George gave it a ten count before stepping out, nodding calmly as they
straightened up. They were used to his occasional walks around
the base, checking, just checking before he left. He knew the
fourth, the fond, exasperated dampener.
She was the nurse with Dr. Jackson and Fraiser, the nurse who took away
the swabs. The semen.
No one else was close by at that time, no one else knew. Fraiser
had never said the name, Dr. Jackson never would. Still, George
knew.
He thought about the latest reprimand to grace Jack O'Neill's
file. His raging response to O'Neill's wilfully blind
interpretation of his order to find another option regarding the
Enkarans. Jack had limped off to the mission on P3R-118
with what little was left of his ass in a sling, crystal clear he'd
escaped court-martial for gross insubordination and possibly attempted
murder by the skin of his teeth, that George could take him down and
would if he so chose. That the only reason he wasn't choosing
this now was because their boy stubbornly insisted Jack was right,
asserting this first in front of his subdued team and then again in
George's office.
These two men knew what they were doing and George relied on that, even
when it was not what he would do, when it horrified or amused or
enraged him. He was proud of them. O'Neill and Dr. Jackson
were opposite sides of the same coin, more alike than either could
admit, each as prone to break the rules and think outside the box, yet
somehow finding a necessary balance in that.
By all that George knew, by all he'd been trained to believe and act in
accordance to, SG-1 was wrong. They all cared too much, they
broke every rule. They worked. He learned to trust
that, over time, to go with his instincts and not always his training,
to let himself be the man he was and not merely the officer he was
expected to be. The old dog still had new tricks.
He'd tacitly accepted O'Neill's crossing the line into personal
relationships on SG-1's first mission out, imposing only Carter on the
team, approving Dr. Jackson and then Teal'c at Jack's word.
He'd watched and been swayed by the way Jack and Daniel grew together,
like two halves of one old soul, each of them what the other lacked,
not an easy fit, he knew, but not a one which could be broken, not even
by them.
How could he fault Jack for favouritism now? The proof of how far
the colonel would go was there in a file on George's desk. Jack's
record. Those damned, distasteful things he'd done and the
fallout throughout his career and ultimately in his life. SG-1
needed Jack O'Neill and Jack needed Daniel, the only man, the only one
who could reach Jack, who could stop him.
George needed them both, as they were, as only they could be.
Friends, brothers.
Lovers.
To take either one away would destroy the team. This, he
knew. They were needed too much. The regulations legislated
generally for breaches of the rules, designed to protect the integrity
of a command. They could not and were never intended to address
the specifics of individual or circumstance. Hence, commander's
discretion.
George chose to exercise it now.
There was no fear of rumours leaking out, morale undermined or
authority questioned. Dr. Jackson questioned every day, made them
all work for his respect, his approval. They were all the better
for that, for knowing him. O'Neill would always go as far as he
had to, and he would always pay the cost. He would always need
Jackson.
Fraiser had made her choice, and now the nurse. Their choice was
to protect.
He had good people. He had the best. They learned, never
repeated their mistakes, they exercised judgement and discretion, and
they grew.
Personal loyalty was George's choice too, but he had a wider
responsibility of protection, owed it equally to every man and woman
under his command. He would watch over the two of them for now,
and if O'Neill crossed a line Jackson couldn't call him back from, then
George would act.
Both men commanded his trust, his respect and his affection, and
whatever else he chose to deny, George Hammond knew Jack O'Neill had
been in love with Daniel Jackson almost from the moment the two of them
met. Together, they made this place happen.
FINIS
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