Category: Romance. Kind of established J/D.

Season/Episode: Any you like.

Summary: Daniel's loose lips cause trouble for SG-1's ships. Har.

Notes: Almost got written too fast for a soundtrack, though I did find myself humming Cyndi Thomson's 'What I Really Meant To Say' while I was working on it. There's a happy ending. I could claim I wrote it for Holly, my SG-1 pimp-daddy, but it was really for me.

Jack didn't whistle as he made his way toward the library, but it was only out of habit, the habit of keeping quiet when he wasn't on home turf. He felt like whistling, that was for sure.

He didn't want to tell anyone, but these assignments where no one shot at him or his team were pretty sweet. Nothing to do but wander around soaking up the local culture while Daniel played with the alien library, Carter looked at alien technology and Teal'c checked out alien combat capabilities.

Maybe he'd ask Hammond for another week.

Rounding one of the sets of shelves he caught sight of Daniel and stopped. That was a sight worth stopping for any day of the week, he figured. Daniel was just coming down off a ladder, not watching where he was going, already absorbed in a book he'd fetched off a high shelf.

Wearing BDUs, Daniel should have looked like he was about to blow something up. But, nose in a book, frowning as he flipped pages, Daniel looked like exactly what he was. A geek.

A really hot geek.

Jack didn't really have rules about offworld sex but the fact was there was never time or privacy. Every trip was like a campout with your best buddies. Jack knew exactly what every member of SG-1 had been wearing when they'd gone their separate ways this morning.

Only Daniel had given him the look that meant he knew Jack was checking him out. The look that meant, for pete's sake, wait till we get home.

Jack stood in the shadows just watching Daniel. He was half-waiting to see if Daniel would trip getting off the ladder or he if would bump into a table.

And he was half just enjoying secret looking.

So he stayed where he was when he heard the native kid, what was his name, something about dishes, come into the room through another door.

"Doctor Jackson! I was able to find those documents you asked for," the kid said, almost panting with eagerness as he brought a big flat box to the table.

"That's great, Drishon! That'll be a big help. Thanks."

Daniel's eyes flickered over the kid's face as he flashed a smile and Jack knew exactly why Drishon suddenly looked stricken by lightning. Yep, those smiles'll get ya, Jack thought to himself.

Daniel didn't seem to notice that Drishon was still standing there. He took the top off the box while the kid, who couldn't be more than twenty-two, stared at him with big brown eyes and a worshipful look that Jack had seen before.

"Ah, that's great! Just what I needed. None of the bound books have any charts, just lists of statistics. I'll have to bring my computer in here and..."

He finally seemed to notice that Drishon was hovering at his elbow. Hanks of the kid's blond hair fell into his eyes as he leaned around to look past Daniel's shoulders --

nice shoulders, Jack thought to himself --

at the box he'd brought.

"I'm so glad it's, it's what you were looking for, Doctor Jackson..." The kid's voice trailed off into silence, kind of as if he were choking, Jack thought, as Daniel turned those blue eyes back onto him.

Careful, Daniel, Jack thought to himself as he watched, half a smile coming and going at the corner of his mouth. The kid might just spontaneously combust if you actually look directly at him.

Which Daniel did. "You've been a great help, Drishon. I can't thank you enough."

Yep, there he goes, Jack thought, as the kid's mouth dropped open and he seemed to forget how to talk.

But to Jack's astonishment, instead of fading into the woodwork as any self-respecting crushmonkey ought to do, the kid stepped into Daniel, put a surprisingly large hand around the back of Daniel's neck, and kissed him.

Hey now! Jack thought and immediately he could see Daniel thinking the same thing, closely followed by What the hell?

But before Jack could say or do anything, he saw Daniel's hand coming up and locking around the kid's wrist.

And that seemed to soothe whatever combat alarms were going off in Jack's brain, so much so that it took another moment for Jack's consciousness to register that Daniel wasn't peeling the kid off or pushing him away.

No, Daniel was...

Shit. Daniel was kissing him back.

In a flash the image burned itself into Jack's brain. Daniel's dark head tilted, blocked behind the lighter one, Daniel's eyes closed, the muscles in his neck moving as his lips moved, the two mouths gently opening, tasting one another.

It only took a moment but it seemed to Jack like a year or two and the knifing, searing pain in his gut seemed out of place in a room where such a sweet kiss was going on.

But finally Daniel pulled back and looked with gently smiling eyes at Drishon. He released the younger man's hand, patted his face, even as his tongue involuntarily licked his lips.

Overcome with the success of his bold maneuver, Drishon seemed all out of steam. He was shaking and his eyes were even bigger. "I'm so sorry, Doctor Jackson, I didn't mean to --"

"All right, all right," and Jack had never heard Daniel sound so quietly soothing.

No, that wasn't true, Jack realized. Daniel just never sounded that way with him.

"Don't worry about it," Daniel told the young man who was trembling and nervous from kissing Daniel.

Don't WORRY about it?

Drishon looked like he had no idea what he'd just done but that it had been earthshattering.

It had been. It had shattered Jack's earth.

"Go on back to the archives, okay? I'll let you know if I need anything else," Daniel said gently, and the kid - the younger man - practically sprinted from the room.

Jack watched as Daniel rubbed a thumb against his lower lip thoughtfully, smiled to himself, and went back to his book.

And this time trying to be silent, Jack drifted back, away through the shelves and out of the building.

He had no urge to whistle.

~~~

"Hey, Daniel, find what you were looking for today?"

Daniel just barely took the time to look up as he came into the room still checking the pile of books in his arms he'd brought home to look at after dinner.

"Yes, actually," and he pushed his glasses up on his nose as he arranged the books on the table. "The statistics I found show definitively that the planet had a huge jump in population about a hundred years ago but the food production systems are keeping up, which means --"

"Found that out all by yourself, did you?"

Something about Jack's voice interrupted Daniel, made him look up.

Jack was sprawled on one of the sort-of-sofas the natives of PS2-294 had provided their common room with. They had four rooms leading off the common room but there were four sleeping bags on the floor - Jack insisted that the team not be separated while offworld. Not at night when they were vulnerable.

Jack was looking at Daniel.

"No," Daniel said experimentally, wondering what was going on. "You know the Librarian assigned an assistant to me, someone familiar with the holdings who could help me find what I was looking for."

"And did he? Help you, I mean?"

Daniel's eyes narrowed as he took in Jack's closed face, devoid of humor, dark eyes almost glittering as he looked at Daniel.

Huh, thought Daniel.

"Yes, he did. He found me a key to some of the statistics I've been looking at, and he kissed me, but you already knew about that, didn't you, Jack?"

"Yeah." Daniel noticed that what Jack was rubbing with his right hand was the grip of his Baretta. "I already knew about that."

"I see." Daniel rubbed his forehead. "Spying on me, Jack? That doesn't sound like you."

"Nope. Just wandered by at the inopportune moment." His lips thinned. "Or at least, at AN inopportune moment. I may have missed others."

"Sorry, there would have been just the one. So you saw Drishon kiss me, and that caused you to, what? Come back here and --" Daniel's eyes flicked to the weapon, "--compulsively clean your gun?"

Jack shrugged. "Just keeping my hands busy."

Something about the way Jack's hands flexed made Daniel wonder if perhaps Drishon didn't need a guard. "Did I miss something?"

"Like?"

"If I'm not mistaken, you look angry."

"Good call, Daniel. I am angry."

"Did I miss some moment where we had an agreement that if any of the natives tried to kiss me, I was supposed to shoot them?"

"No, no. Nothing so drastic." Jack's eyes dipped, then came back to fix on Daniel like dark lasers. "I was a might surprised to see the way you kissed him back."

Oh. Uh oh. "I see." Daniel stepped away from the table full of books. He didn't like something about the way Jack was sitting, about the way Jack was looking at him. In fact, it was starting to piss him off. "Planning to criticize my technique?"

"Nope," Jack said again. "After all, if I'd been planning to do that, I'd have had plenty of opportunities before today, right?"

True enough. "Want to explain why you're angry?"

Dark eyes flicked away. "I think it's clear enough."

"Well, I don't." Daniel folded his arms, braced his legs. "Right now you're making me feel kind of guilty over a very innocent kiss --"

"-- innocent kisses don't involve tongues --"

"-- one that I thoroughly enjoyed and which was, in fact, none of your business."

"None of my business."

"None." Daniel had no intention of backing down.

"So if my lover decides to have sex with someone else --"

"Hey, hey, hey hey hey. What sex is this?" Daniel's eyes were flashing some blue fire of their own now. "There's no sex. There was no sex, will be no sex. The poor boy practically scared himself to death just kissing me. I didn't want to upset him. It was flattering. He's just a sweet kid with a crush. Would you rather I'd have hauled off and hit him?"

Still looking balefully at Daniel from under his eyebrows. "Yeah, actually."

"Well, that's not really my style. Which you should be grateful for, since your courting technique consisted of - and correct me if I'm wrong here, I believe this is an exact quote - 'come on, Daniel, give it up, you sexy bastard'."

Jack had the grace to blush and finally, finally drop his eyes.

"That was different," he managed to mumble.

"I know it was. He got a kiss. You got, well, the whole enchilada. So to speak." Jack should have laughed, should have at least smiled, but he didn't, worrying Daniel more.

A change of tactics would work best here, Daniel thought.

"Hey," he said in a softer tone, dropping to one knee next to where Jack sat on the sofa-thing, so he could rest a hand on Jack's knee. "You mad at me or him?"

"Yes," said Jack through gritted teeth.

"So tell me why."

When Jack's eyes met Daniel's again he was frowning. "I don't really think I should have to explain it, Doctor Jackson. You have all those degrees. You figure it out."

He untangled his long legs and stepped over Daniel and was out the door before Daniel even had the chance to say anything else. Replaying the conversation in his head, Daniel couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going on. Nothing that had happened between him and Jack over the last couple of months had led him to believe that Jack was nursing a serious emotional involvement. At least, no more serious than the whole team had for one another. When you'd die for your friends, it wasn't that big a leap to having hot sex with them, was it?

Could a couple of encounters at Daniel's apartment even be called hot sex? Well, yes, Daniel had to admit to himself. Orgasms had been involved. Good orgasms. No way to avoid calling that sex.

But when had it become --

Wait a minute. "My lover," Jack had called him.

That was the first time Jack had said anything of that sort.

"I am?" a puzzled Daniel said out loud to the empty room.

~~~

"Teal'c, take point," Jack said under his breath, waving with a hand.

"Jack, it's dinner, not an assault," Daniel protested but fell in behind Sam.

Jack caught Sam's arm and pulled her next to him. "I meant to ask you, Carter, what you thought about..."

Daniel didn't hear the rest of the sentence, particularly because he was too busy noticing that Jack had just arranged them so that Teal'c and Jack were on the outside, with Teal'c and Daniel on the far side of the low table, while Carter and Jack sat down together.

Oh, don't do this, Daniel thought to himself.

Did Jack even know he was doing it? Daniel wondered as he watched Jack drop to the cushions, gracefully despite the bad knees, and lean his head closer to Carter to hear her reply.

Not that it mattered if he knew what he was doing or not, Daniel realized. Daniel loved Sam. They all loved Sam. But the sight of her golden head tilting towards Jack's brown-and-silver one made his stomach clench a little.

Not Sam, Daniel thought. Don't do this.

Because Sam was brilliant and sugar-sweet and loyal and Air Force, for God's sake, and she was one other thing Daniel was not - she was a girl.

I didn't ask you to come to my house and kiss me senseless, Daniel thought darkly to himself while he helped himself to food out of the communal platter the locals put on the table that separated him and Teal'c from Jack and Sam. I didn't ask you to lick my neck that way, or dig your fingers into my shoulders, or make me come so hard I almost forgot my name for a second. I believe, in fact, that I pointed out, while I could still talk, that I had work to do.

No, that was all your idea, Jack. Daniel watched while Jack pulled a piece of hot meat off the platter, burning his fingers a little, and dropped it on to Sam's plate. So don't try making me think that you've suddenly gotten over your experimental phase and have gone back to the straight and narrow.

But it wasn't just about going straight, Daniel reminded himself while he watched Sam trying to cover a smile at one of Jack's jokes. It's about going Samantha. And Daniel knew the appeal of that.

Did Jack even know, he wondered, about Daniel and Sam's semi-sort-of-something from a few years back?

Maybe, Daniel wondered with a sick feeling in his stomach and something that hurt in back of his eyes, maybe Jack had just been trying to make Sam jealous with those late-night visits to Daniel. They all knew about the longing looks their CO cast towards his second in command from time to time. It was impossible to miss, especially among a small group of smart, observant people who frequently spent every waking moment together for days at a time or longer. Maybe Daniel had been the side trip. Because Sam's eyes were meeting Daniel's now, and she looked a little uncomfortable, and more than a little uncertain as to what was going on.

Daniel knew that look. It was Sam's we-shouldn't-be-doing-this look.

He's seen it closely followed by Sam's I-don't-know-what-I-was-thinking look, which had been ultimately wrapped up by Sam's you-know-I-still-love-you, just-not-that-way look.

At the time, Daniel had been pretty sure he'd had the same look on his face. He and Sam were too much alike in some ways and not enough alike in others. He loved her. He'd die for her.

He didn't want to wake up every morning in her bed.

"Teal'c, you know why I became an archaeologist instead of an anthropologist?" Daniel said conversationally as he scooped some of the cooked vegetables from the platter with his right hand as tradition demanded he do.

"I do not." Teal'c was eating the vegetables himself, with great gusto. He must be hungry.

Daniel didn't feel as hungry as he had a little while ago.

"Because," said Daniel, "I realized that it's easier to understand people after they're dead."

He glanced across the table to where Jack had leaned his head forward over Sam's shoulder so that she could almost talk right into his ear.

It wasn't that loud in the room.

Maybe he just wanted her lips near his ear.

Daniel didn't want the lips.

He wanted the ear.

Just then Jack looked up - must have sensed Daniel looking at him, the way people do - and his eyes caught Daniel's.

Caught, as in trapped, as in held like within an iron vise.

Daniel finally managed to rip his eyes away.

Oh yeah, Jack knew what he was doing.

~~~

Sam had to forcibly prevent herself from rolling her eyes when Jack made a long arm and snagged her another one of the pastries from a tray that was going past.

"Colonel, you shouldn't," she told him as he dropped it on her plate.

"Oh go on, Carter, I won't tell anyone and you can dogtrot to the gate tomorrow and burn off the extra calories."

"That's not what I mean. Sir."

Jack almost winced at her tone. "Okay, okay. I'll lay off the pastry."

Sam looked back over the table to where Daniel was, by and large, failing to eat while Teal'c watched him fail to eat fairly closely. Teal'c's eyes reflected the torchlight as he looked up, caught Sam's gaze, and shook his head almost imperceptibly. Daniel just stared at his plate.

Jack, Sam thought to herself, addressing him in her head as she never dared address him out loud, how stupid do you think we are?

Jack was taking advantage of her, Sam suddenly thought, getting a little angry, taking advantage of the fact that he knew damn well that Sam was at her least articulate when it came to matters of the heart, that he knew damn well that Sam lusted after him with a completely non-regulation lust, and that he knew just as well that she was never going to act on that lust because he was not the one for her. They'd had that conversation, with their eyes, several times before.

He knew damn well that if this were a different reality, if they were both slightly different people, they'd cling to each other and never let each other go. But in this reality, with both of them being who they were, that wasn't the way it was going to play out.

And he knew damn well that he was hurting Daniel. Sam could see it. She could see Daniel's face, which seemed miserable to anyone who knew him well enough to read his expressions, and she could just feel the Colonel watching Daniel at least as closely as he was watching her. Which was way too close.

"Sir, has it ever struck you that the four of us are in a fairly odd relationship on this team?"

He didn't look as startled as she would have thought by the question. He must be thinking about the same things she was thinking about. That pissed her off more.

"It has, Major." He popped a piece of meat in his mouth, chewed thoughtfully before he said, "What are you thinking, in particular, is odd?"

"Think about it, sir. Who else has quite the relationship we have? Back at the SGC, we spent an awful lot of time working together. Out in the field, we're in combat situations as often as not, saving each other's lives more often than we can count, relying on each other in every kind of bizarre situation that normal people don't --"

"I get your drift, Carter. What's your point?"

"Out of the twelve possible combinations of pairs among the four of us --"

"I make it out to be twenty-four."

"No sir, that's permutations, not combinations." Her blue eyes narrowed as she stared at him. Was he trying to get her off track? She ran the math in her head. "In fact, I think you've misplaced a factor, sir, because I make it out to be six possible pairings, since order doesn't matter in sets of - "

"Never mind, Carter, I'm sure it's my mistake in math." His eyes twinkled at her over the rim of his cup as he took a sip of the sweet tea the natives served with food. "Bound to be my mistake."

"Sir." He held up a hand in surrender. He knew the "Stop screwing around with me, sir" tone of Carter's voice. "What I mean is, out of the possible pairing combinations, there's one and only one completely socially acceptable combination."

She could see him puzzling over it. Let him puzzle.

"I mean, this is really Daniel's area of expertise, not mine -"

The look Jack shot her told her she was right about one thing. Daniel was in some sort of trouble with Jack.

Or Jack was in big trouble with Daniel.

She went on anyway, "--but I think I read somewhere that pairbonding is a basic attribute of human society. Given that that's the case, it does seem to me that, as in so many other things, SG-1 has to make its own rules, don't you think?"

Now Jack looked at least as wary as anything else. Good, thought Carter. You try being nervous for a change.

"I have, from time to time, thought that, Carter," Jack admitted.

"Then don't you think," she said, and her voice got softer, as she laid a hand over one of his and leaned a little closer, "that if, by some miracle, some two of us actually managed to form some sort of functional -" he raised an eybrow at her, and she smiled, " -romantic attachment to one another, that it would be the height of stupidity to damage that relationship, however unusual, in a moment of, well, --" she wanted to say 'teenage high-school drama-queen-like behavior', but what she said was "-- faulty judgement?"

Jack sighed as he patted her hand. When he met her eyes again he looked more unguarded, more gentle than she was used to seeing him. It shook her a little. "I couldn't agree more, Major." But as he looked away he muttered, "Doesn't mean it's always easy to figure out what constitutes faulty judgement."

~~~

Daniel had to close his eyes for a second, but he could still see Jack's and Sam's heads close together, their hands overlapping, as they exchanged what seemed to be a conversation of some significance.

He felt cold.

"Why do these people always eat these communal meals outside?" Daniel muttered as he picked through the morsels of food Teal'c had put on his plate.

"It is extremely pleasant to eat underneath the stars, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, casting his gaze upward toward the deep velvet black sky studded and swirled with lights. "It would be a far more pleasant pastime on your own planet were it not for the excessive light that spills from your cities and diminishes one's enjoyment of the view of the sky."

"Well, that's true," Daniel had to admit, looking up and around. "Light pollution shouldn't be too bad around Cheyenne Mountain. Maybe we should try it sometime."

Teal'c quirked an eyebrow. "I believe the commissary staff would be most puzzled if we asked to take our meals up twenty-four floors and outside."

"Nah, they'd just be jealous." A small smile flickered across Daniel's face.

Teal'c was most pleased to see it. He did not require that Daniel be a cheerful dinner companion, but Daniel had been quite silent, which was unlike his usual behavior. And -

"You are not eating, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c admonished him.

"I'm not hungry, really."

"I believe you should be. Have you fallen ill?"

"Undoubtedly." Daniel snuck another look towards Jack and Sam. The torchlight glittered on the silver threads in Jack's hair, and shadowed the side of his neck where that hollow formed when he turned his head, the hollow Daniel liked to --

"Teal'c, I'm cold," Daniel announced. "You wouldn't mind if I shoved up next to you, would you?"

Teal'c shook his head no. Daniel moved his plate closer, his shoulder touching the Jaffa's chest, his thigh overlapping the larger, more muscular thigh as they sat as close together as two people sitting cross-legged could get. Daniel positioned himself so that Teal'c could do little with his arm except brace it on the ground, pressing along Daniel's back.

Daniel made a little noise of contentment and he did indeed look more comfortable.

When Teal'c looked across the table, he noticed Colonel O'Neill looking at him. Or, to be specific, at them.

It was not difficult to divine the nature of his thoughts.

Teal'c suppressed a smile.

"Daniel Jackson," and they were now sitting so close that his breath was warm against Daniel's ear. Daniel had to suppress a shudder. He had no intention of moving away. When things were bad, and Teal'c was near, his instinct was to move closer to Teal'c. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Teal'c would, if at all possible, take care of him. Things were bad. His instinct was kicking in.

"Do you know the proverb of the ntareh?" Teal'c went on.

"No, what's an ntareh?" Daniel managed to actually sound interested and his hand strayed back toward his food.

"On Chulak the ntareh is nearly extinct. It is a large animal, quite fierce when hunting but often somnolent, with very long claws and long teeth designed to capture prey. They are solitary, but they live in caves, and where the settlements of people press into the foothills, it is not uncommon for the people to build their dwellings fairly close to the den of an ntareh."

Daniel's blue eyes were upturned, listening to Teal'c as he ate. At one point he leaned over Teal'c knee to grab the last piece of melon from Teal'c's plate.

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you going to eat that?" Daniel said apologetically, even as the melon disappeared.

"I was not."

"Oh good. Anyway. Ntareh."

"Children must be trained to leave the ntareh alone. Because when the animal is confronted within its own den, it is usually quiescent. Often even when the ntareh encounters people within the countryside, it ignores them, preferring to go on about its business."

"Wild animals tend to behave much the same on our planet," Daniel observed, licking his fingers.

Teal'c paused until the finger-licking ritual was over. Then he continued.

"But children do not always know what the adults have learned, usually from experience. And so we must remind them, to keep them from hiding and playing in the caverns of the ntareh where they are often in more danger than they know."

Teal'c's eyes met his, and for a moment Daniel was transfixed with a flash of - something, what was that? literally like firelight - must be the torchlight reflecting off his retinas - but Daniel couldn't move as Teal'c's dark head ducked next to his and his breath was not just warm, it was hot against Daniel's ear.

"It is only children who must be reminded than even an ntareh that appears to be tame may, in fact, bite."

Daniel could feel his skin burning as the blush burst out over his cheeks and down his throat. "Oh."

The muscles in his legs and arms bunched as he prepared to move back an inch. Or two.

"You need not move if you are comfortable, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c observed politely.

But Daniel saw the grin lurking around his eyes.

"Oh, I'm good, thanks, very good, I'm fine..."

When Teal'c looked again across the table, he saw Jack O'Neill glaring at him, a glare that took in Daniel's blush, the closeness of their bodies, and the pleased smirk that Teal'c was fighting to keep off his face.

Teal'c raised an imperious eyebrow.

After all, O'Neill, he thought to himself as he raised his cup in silent salute, you are the one who arranged our seating in this fashion, are you not?

Jack raised an eyebrow back.

Teal'c wished that he could take his blood brother aside and explain to him that he, O'Neill, was nothing if not obvious, that the only Tau'ri Teal'c had ever met who was more obvious was Daniel Jackson, and that if there was tension between them they were both old enough to arrive at a mutual understanding without involving the rest of SG-1.

Major Carter, Teal'c noticed, looked both irritated and unhappy. Definitely without involving the rest of SG-1, Teal'c thought.

But O'Neill was a warrior. If what he understood best was battle, then Teal'c did not mind demonstrating to him that battle could be engaged. And lost.

That would perhaps cause him to re-evaluate his choices, Teal'c thought as he downed the rest of his tea.

~~~

Later that night Teal'c was not surprised to enter their sleeping room and find that O'Neill was not in the room that they shared. Daniel Jackson was there, wrapped in a sleeping bag, but he was not sleeping.

Major Carter also was not there.

"Where is Major Carter, Daniel Jackson?"

"Uh, I think she went out. A while ago."

"And Colonel O'Neill?"

"A... while ago too."

This was extremely foolish. Teal'c considered his sleeping bag. He did not require sleep nor kel no reem, but he had anticipated some time for rest. Instead, he turned to leave again.

"I will return."

"Hey, don't bother. I sleep better without all the snoring around, y'know?"

Teal'c didn't bother to observe that Daniel was not sleeping. He slipped out of the room.

~~~

He found Major Carter walking outside the perimeter of the building. The stars were extremely bright, and there was a moon as well, a large one. She was easy to spot.

"Are you well, Major Carter?" Teal'c asked in a low voice as he joined her where she was pacing in the courtyard.

"Yes, thanks, Teal'c, I'm fine." She flashed one of those brilliant smiles at him, and Teal'c immediately felt more awake.

"Is Colonel O'Neill not with you?"

"No, he's not!" When Teal'c looked surprised at her vehemence she frowned, shook her head. "Never mind, it's not you I'm mad at."

"Are you angry with Colonel O'Neill?" Teal'c inquired, thinking that perhaps it might be well for Colonel O'Neill if he made a hasty trip off-planet.

"No -- well, YES, but mostly I'm mad at me." At Teal'c's look she shrugged. "I know. It's silly. I'm silly."

"I have never known you to be silly, Major Carter." Except for that incident with the jello and the squirt gun upon which you swore me to secrecy, Teal'c thought.

Sam smiled at his kind lie but kept pacing, arms wrapped around herself.

Teal'c thought for a minute. "Are you troubled by the Colonel's behavior tonight, or by --" How could he say this? " -- or by his -- or by Daniel Jackson?"

"Yes. And no. Daniel's been known to - bother me too."

Teal'c remained silent. He was familiar with Samantha's tendency to become tongue-tied when emotional issues were at stake.

"Haven't you ever noticed, Teal'c, that Daniel's sort of - I mean, aliens tend to regard him as - " She was waving her hands helplessly, so Teal'c went to her assistance.

"Are you referring to the fact that Daniel Jackson is extremely attractive?"

"Yes, Teal'c, I guess that's what I was getting at."

"It is true."

"It is true. I mean, that's not the only reason I love Daniel, that's not the only reason I love you or the Colonel either --"

Teal'c was surprised at the way his heartbeat accelerated.

" -- in fact he called me on it, back when I was -- well, I was sort of tending to think of him in a romantic way..." It was easy to see her blush in the moonlight but Teal'c gallantly decided to ignore it. "--And part of it was because, well, he's Daniel, I mean he's funny and he's so smart, Teal'c, I mean jeez, you don't get to meet a genius every day --"

Indeed, thought Teal'c.

"-- but he's just, you know, sort of, uh, gorgeous. And then there's Colonel O'Neill, who's completely gorgeous in a really different kind of way, in that military kind of way that I guess I grew up around and never really got over..."

Teal'c inclined his head. "You have great love for them both."

"Well, yes. I do."

"As do I."

"Well. Uh... yeah."

She was blushing again and Teal'c fought to keep his smile suppressed. I know what you are thinking, Samantha, he thought to himself. You are so very young and so very innocent. You would be so very shocked to find out that the love I have for O'Neill and Daniel Jackson is not so very different from your own.

Instead, Teal'c said, "But the rules of your planet prevent you from declaring this love to them both."

She shook her head, walking a little faster.

"That's not it, Teal'c. I mean, yes, the rules of my planet prevent me from declaring this love for the Colonel. Unless one of us were to leave the service. Which neither of us will do. Though I think we'd find a way around that, if we had to."

"I have often thought the same."

"But we won't. Because we don't -- we just don't feel quite that way about each other. Not quite -- enough. But that's all right, that's long past, I'm just silly because --"

There was a long pause. "Because?"

"I can't talk about this to you," Sam nearly whispered. "I mean, this is embarrassing enough, and I'm just being silly..."

"Samantha," and Teal'c's voice now overflowed with tenderness that he allowed himself to show, "if you cannot discuss this with me, with whom will you ever discuss it?"

At that she looked up at him, so big and imposing, with the moonlight shining silver on his head, his cheekbones, his hands, but the glint in his dark eyes very warm. "You're right." And she smiled at him, one of her sunny smiles that made the night seem even that much brighter. "I feel like I'm being such a -- little girl. I'm like a kid who wants all the toys even when she's got nowhere to put them. I guess I - I always thought they'd be there for me, if I wanted them, you know?" At that she blushed furiously again but Teal'c only nodded. "That sounds so selfish I can't believe I even said it. But I did, sort of think that, I mean. And now they're -- well, if the Colonel gets his act together, anyway, I think they'll be sort of, well, together. And the only person I can even talk about this with is you, and you're just stuck listening to me, because you're--" At that she put out her hand and took one of his, half-laughing as she said, "--poor Teal'c, stuck with me!"

Teal'c realized immediately that Samantha was a good deal more agitated even than she allowed herself to show.

"It is indeed a little frightening," Teal'c told her, his voice low and more soothing than she had ever heard him sound before, "to think that the other members of SG-1 might care more for each other than they would care for us. But I do not think that will affect us. We have all gone beyond the point where we need worry about that, have we not? Are you not certain, as I am, that both Daniel Jackson and Colonel O'Neill would do anything in their power to assist us should the need arise?"

She nodded.

"Then perhaps it would be appropriate to mention," and here Teal'c had to clear his throat a little because he sounded a little hoarse, even to himself, "that if I am to spend perhaps a little more time than I have been used to spending with the single most beautiful, most intelligent woman of the Tau'ri, I will not consider myself a 'poor' anything, but will, in fact, consider myself to be fortunate beyond the lot of most men." And her eyes were so very large and she seemed so hypnotized by his voice that he could not resist stroking one golden curl with a finger, and tucking it behind her ear. "Indeed, fortunate beyond the dreams of a galaxy's worth of sentient beings."

"Oh. I -- Oh." Sam's jaw was hanging open. "I didn't think of it like that."

"I did."

And Teal'c tucked her hand in his arm as he continued to walk with her.

~~~

Back at SGC the tensions weren't so obvious. Their paths were so settled, their roles so clear, that there was almost no opportunity for friction.

And if Daniel's eyes tended to linger on Jack in staff meetings, well, that was nothing new.

And if Jack walked past Daniel's office a little more often than usual, he didn't go in, so there was nothing for any eyes to notice.

Except that two pairs of eyes did notice, one deep brown, one light blue.

And they kept their counsel to themselves.

~~~

Suited up for another mission, Jack's eyes flicked only one extra second over Daniel's pack, checking his weapons twice.

It was only natural. This was Daniel, after all.

I should be grateful, Jack thought to himself as he hoisted his P90, checked his pockets for the extra clips he liked to keep to hand. Commanding officers have lost their teams over a lot less. I don't even know what I was thinking. Was I thinking?

Daniel dropped to one knee to re-buckle the strap that cinched around his waist when he was wearing the pack, and the peculiar way he did it, as if gravity had no effect on him, made Jack swallow.

Oh yes, he thought to himself. That's what I was thinking.

Well, water over the bridge. He snapped his knife holster shut and slid on his sunglasses. He'd been damn lucky even to get so much of what he wanted and not blow everything that made this team a team.

When he glanced to his right he saw Teal'c looking at him.

It was hard to tell through the sunglasses but Teal'c was wearing a sort of a funny expression.

"Everyone ready?"

"Ready, sir," Carter sang out, stuffing the last of her instruments in a ready pocket and shouldering her pack.

Teal'c inclined his head and Daniel --

Oh. Daniel was looking at him.

Right at him.

So that when Daniel said, "Yeah, ready," it kind of pulled at his gut.

"Right," said Jack before he let himself stop and look into Daniel's eyes. What the hell was he looking like that for anyway? What was the big deal? Jack had made a mistake. Wasn't the first time, wouldn't be the last. "Let's mosey, kids."

And he took point, knowing the three of them would be right behind him.

~~~

Jack redefined his notion of a bad day when he was crawling through the underbrush with what felt like a busted elbow.

My definition's too narrow, he thought to himself, absently noting SG-3's location and circling to their right where they needed support against the pseudo-military types filing down the ridge. Here I'd been thinking it only involved Jaffa or Goa'uld. He'd forgotten how much plain old unfriendly natives could really ruin a guy's day.

And me without a postcard, Jack thought sourly as he surveyed his position, to send back to the General. "Dear General. We're screwed. Wish you were here."

There were two guys down, neither of whom looked like they were SG-1, but Jack didn't have time to find that as comforting as he wanted to. He wanted to ascertain that the route back to the gate, which was only half a klick away, was clear.

The busted elbow hurt like a sonovabitch and made all this harder than it needed to be.

Then Jack heard a snap and decided to redefine his idea of a bad day again.

Yep, there he was, one enemy bastard, not ten feet away and one of those nasty arrow-guns pointed straight at Jack. Where had the bastard come from? All this ferny undergrowth was playing hell with his spacial sense.

Maybe for the last time, Jack thought with some clarity as the guy took another step closer. There's always a last time.

Then Jack's eyes widened as the shadow of a gun in a hand slid around a tree trunk. Daniel's hand followed the shadow, slid around the tree trunk and shoved the barrel of his Barretta into the guy's neck.

"Matte," said Daniel in that very quiet voice of his that meant serious business. It even made the hairs on Jack's neck stand on end, and Daniel didn't have a gun pressed behind his ear. His voice was soft, like poison is soft. "Watashinomono."

"Masaka!" the guy choked out and spread his hands, unclenching his weapon. Daniel took it away from him.

"Te kudasai," Daniel said, and the guy put his hands down, crossing them behind his back. "Jack. Restraints?"

Jack managed to loop one around the guy's wrists and pull it tight one-handed. Daniel noticed. "Do something to your arm?" he asked as he took one and fastened the guy's ankles together.

"Feels like a compression fracture on the elbow."

Daniel nodded. "How far to the gate?" The immobilized soldier lying at his feet was completely forgotten.

"Maybe half a klick," said Jack, nodding in the direction.

"Dammit," said Daniel just as Jack was thinking it, because Jack, facing over Daniel's shoulder, saw SG-3 falling back.

"Let's run," said Daniel but Jack put out his good hand and stopped him. Just a second, there, big guy.

Thumbing his radio, Jack said, "Carter, you got any cover for us?"

"Yes sir. We've rigged the UVA with a gas cylinder. Should be able to confuse the issue for your pursuit, if you and SG-3 stick together."

"SG-3, if you copy, form up on my position."

Jack, holding the radio, didn't have a healthy arm free but Daniel waved in the direction of the team members he could see straggling toward him.

"Be ready to cover our exit, kids. We're on our way," Jack told the radio.

~~~

"It was my fault, sir," Daniel said steadily, making Jack's head whip around faster than it should have been able to on the painkillers Frasier had pumped into him.

Carter leaped to his defense first. "We can't always predict level of technology from our aerial surveys, Daniel. And we certainly can't predict the level of aggression the natives are going to display."

"Indeed. If they had been willing to negotiate, they could have proven to be most useful allies," Teal'c put in.

"But they weren't." Daniel's voice was flat, matter-of-fact. "Which I should have known. A society based on feudal Japan is of course going to display isolationist tendencies similar to that of feudal Japan."

"Daniel, you didn't know that."

Daniel turned to look Jack in the eye and that was the first time Jack saw the circles under his eyes.

"But I should have. In fact, that's my job, right? What's the point of a civilian consultant like me on the team if I don't provide that kind of information?"

"Hindsight, Dr. Jackson." General Hammond sighed. "You're far from the first person to discover how dearly we wish we could employ it before the shit hits the fan. That society had, what, eight hundred years to change? To find it exactly the way the Goa'uld left it was unlikely in the extreme. I'd like to finish the debriefing without worrying about assigning blame at this time."

~~~

Jack couldn't help dropping by Daniel's office before heading off base.

He was glad he had.

Daniel was surrounded by books and papers but he wasn't doing anything. He was staring off into space, a little frown between his brows, and that, Jack knew from long experience, was nothing good.

"Daniel, hey," Jack whistled. "Time to head home."

Daniel's eyes focused on Jack. "Do you ever think of packing it in, Jack?"

Air whooshing out of his lungs, Jack dropped into a chair. "Honestly? No. What else would I do?"

"I could do something else. Not many things. But I could do them. And when you publish a paper or teach a class or even dig things up out of the ground..." Daniel rubbed his thumb absently over the spine of a book in front of him, "... there's just no way to get people killed."

"Hey, hey, no one was killed. Pfister and Giuletti are both going to rib you about their new scars for a while and it'll be forgotten."

"I won't forget."

"You could at least try."

But Daniel still sat there, shaking his head.

"Jack," he said, and he sounded very quiet, not like he'd been quiet in the woods, but tired and quiet, "I'm so very, very tired of being wrong."

And his eyes narrowed as his gaze caught on Jack's and Daniel looked suddenly a lot older.

"Wrong about everything," he mumbled, more than half to himself, and looked away.

"Daniel, if you weren't wrong occasionally, we'd all have to shoot you, because there'd be no living with you." Keep it light, Jack, the colonel thought to himself even as those eyes bored into his, not letting him go.

Daniel licked his lips and Jack's eyes were drawn to that mouth, the dark pink open mouth that Jack still spent most of his nights dreaming about. It's no big deal, he told himself even as he felt his heartbeat speed up and his body temperature skyrocket. Just a mouth.

Daniel's mouth.

"Sometimes, Jack, I think..."

But for once Daniel didn't say what he thought. He sat there, staring at nothing while Jack stared at that beautiful mouth, unable to stop, unable to say something funny or even serious that would break this unbearable tension and fix whatever it was that he'd broken - that Daniel had broken - that the two of them had managed to break.

"Yeah, I guess I better go home," Daniel said hoarsely and was out the door before Jack could think of anything at all.

~~~

"Can I help you, sir?"

"Yes," Jack said, jumping guiltily but managing not to drop the book he held open one-handed. "I, uh, wanted to look something up but I can't use this dictionary."

"Understandable, sir," the lieutenant said as she looked at the spine. "Kanji can defeat anyone. Would a furigana dictionary help?"

"Uh, I'm trying to look something up in Japanese," Jack explained.

The lieutenant blinked at him. He realized he'd said something stupid but he didn't know what.

"Why don't you tell me what you need to translate, sir?" she asked him gently.

"Well, it's, uh..." Think, Jack, think. If you mess this one up, she can't help you. Jog your memory. "Ma-tay..."

"In what context, sir?"

"Um... talking to a man holding a weapon?"

"Wait."

There was a moment of silence.

"I'm waiting," said Jack.

"I mean, it means to wait, sir. A command. Wait."

"Right. And..." Think think think. "Watashi mo no."

"Er,... watashino mono?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"That means mine, sir. Something that's mine."

Jack nodded, put the useless dictionary down. "Yeah. That's what I thought."

~~~

Jack almost bumped into Teal'c in the hallway. He wasn't really looking where he was going.

"Do you have plans for your downtime, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, looking closely at the Tau'ri's face.

Something was ... getting to Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c thought the phrase was.

"Sort of. Not sure yet." Jack shook it off. "What about you, big guy?"

"I do indeed. Major Carter intends to teach me how to restore two-cylinder combustion engines to working order."

A two-cylinder -- "What, a bike?"

"A motorcycle. A vintage motorcycle, if I am not mistaken." Teal'c's smile was more than a little... Jack couldn't read it. What the hell was the guy grinning about? "And I am not mistaken."

"Don't we all see enough of each other on the job?" muttered Jack, rubbing his hair with his free hand.

"Time off duty gives us opportunities to pursue activities we would not otherwise be able to pursue," Teal'c pointed out, as if Jack didn't know that.

"Yeah yeah yeah..." Jack grimaced, then gave a twitch of his head as if giving in to something. "That's what I'm gonna do, too."

"I believe that would be wise."

Jack didn't even look at Teal'c again, but the Jaffa watched him go, with great satisfaction.

~~~

Daniel rubbed his eyes and dropped his glasses on the table. He should have subscribed to cable. He needed distraction. Books couldn't distract him. He needed visuals, something to fill his mind with bright pretty pictures in place of...

He still couldn't believe he hadn't screwed it up. He'd seen Jack approaching through the underbrush, convinced himself it was because Jack already knew about the scout, told himself Jack would never let anyone get the drop on him, and then his stomach had dropped through his feet when the scout had pointed that gun at Jack.

Nearly get two men killed; save one man's life. Did it balance out?

He needed a drink. That was it. He remembered something someone had said to him once about drinking alone -- that it was a bad sign -- but maybe it was time to start.

The doorbell rang.

He told himself, as he opened the door, that he wasn't expecting Jack. But of course he was. He expected him every minute of every hour of every day. He was more surprised when he turned around and Jack wasn't there.

Yep. Jack.

The older man stood with his weight on one foot, right hand in his pocket, left arm in a sling.

Daniel didn't say anything. Just looked at him.

Okay, thought Jack. I don't need to come in.

"The thing is," Jack said as if they'd just been talking five minutes ago, "I did it all wrong."

Daniel's mouth opened and his brow crinked up into that little puzzled frown but he didn't say anything.

So Jack said, "I think I gave you the impression that you were somehow... convenient."

Daniel's mouth closed.

Jack went on. "We both know you're nothing like convenient."

"What... am I supposed to be thinking about this?"

"What I should have said," Jack continued as if Daniel hadn't spoken, "was that I was, in fact, thinking of you as... well... mine... too."

Mine too, huh? thought Daniel. Resourceful bastard, wasn't he. Daniel knew damn well Jack didn't speak Japanese. Hadn't thought he'd blown his cover.

Not that there had been much cover.

Jack shifted his weight. Daniel was still looking at him with the puzzled eyes, the thinking eyes, the eyes that made Jack feel as if he were kind of like a lab rat.

I should let him off the hook, Daniel thought to himself. He's just feeling emotional over nearly getting shot. Grateful I saved his life. Surprised, maybe.

"Yeah, come in," said Daniel.

Jack started to automatically do as Daniel said, then paused. Daniel still didn't look happy. If all they were gonna do was beat a dead horse, Jack had no interest in that.

"You don't have to. I mean, hell, you look like you just swallowed a bottle of Drano, so since I said all I was gonna say, I'll just be on my way and let you... get back to whatever you were doing."

"Jack, come in."

Now Danny looked downright irritated. No thanks, thought Jack. "I can tell you're not so happy to see me," Jack muttered, eyes flicking back towards his truck, "so I won't keep you from --"

Daniel reached out and grabbed Jack's arm, pulled his hand out of his pocket, and placed it against his own neck.

Where Jack's fingers could feel Daniel's pulse racing.

"Oh," said Jack.

"I told you to come in," repeated Daniel levelly. He pulled Jack the rest of the way in and shut the door.

With the door closed, they stood looking at each other, Daniel with his arms folded across his chest, Jack with his hand back in his pocket, but fidgeting a little. The sling interfered with his fidgeting.

"Wanna sit down?" Daniel asked in a neutral tone.

"...Sure."

Jack sat in the chair, leaving Daniel the spot he could tell the man had been in when the door rang. There was the book where Daniel had put it down; there was the glass of water.

With a coaster.

Jack hated coasters.

What the hell was he doing?

"It's weird, isn't it."

Daniel sat on the couch, leaning his elbows on his knees. Guess he couldn't relax either.

Jack tried to pull his brain together. "What's weird?"

"That we should have ended up... well, here, I guess. Like this."

"Like how?"

Jack could feel his heart skip when Daniel's eyes met his. And Daniel smiled, a slow, certain smile Jack had never seen before. It was kinda scary.

It looked good on him.

"You know. Feeling like we feel."

Well, Jack couldn't argue with that. "Yeah."

"I never thought it would be... well... me."

Jack shrugged. "It's a funny old thing, life."

"Can I kiss you?"

Suddenly an image flashed into Jack's mind, of Daniel's open mouth, giving a sweet kiss to someone else...

"Look, Daniel. I want you to kiss me. And I don't want to be, uh, difficult. I'm just still a little..."

He trailed off. He could even feel the anger coming back, burning a little under his rib cage. He didn't want it.

Daniel was worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. "Right. Right. So I guess it's my turn to say what I should have said at the right time."

He stood and then he was looming over Jack. Very close. Way too close.

"What I should have said," Daniel said softly as he settled first one leg along the outside of Jack's lap, then the other, and sank down on to Jack's lap, "was that jealousy is, you know, a sign of insecurity."

Jack might have taken offense but Daniel's fingers were unbuttoning his shirt, from the bottom up, and when his stomach was bare Daniel's hands slid under the shirt, along the skin there, smooth and hairy at the same time, then up and along his chest, as if they couldn't wait to touch him, couldn't wait till the shirt was unbuttoned all the way.

Then Daniel went back to calmly unbuttoning.

"What I should have said," Daniel told him, his voice making Jack's skin prickle all over again but in a rather different way, "was something to remind you that after all, I only gave one kiss away. One kiss, and that's all that Drishon will ever get, ever."

"Poor kid," Jack said hoarsely as Daniel ran his long fingers through the hair on Jack's chest. Jack had to shift the arm in the sling to give him a little more room. Daniel seemed fascinated with chest hair, Jack remembered. Maybe because he didn't have any.

It was the unexpected contrasts, Jack realized, that made life interesting.

"Exactly my point. So what I should have asked you was," and Daniel leaned in, not moving the hurt arm, but close enough that Jack could feel the heat of his body, and Jack had to wind his hand in Daniel's hair just to hold on while Daniel managed to stretch and not touch the sling and kissed the spot right below Jack's ear that almost drove him insane, "how many kisses do you think you should get, since you're the one I..."

Jack could hear him swallow, feel him swallow. The hesitation made him want to wrap his Daniel up in something soft and be very, very gentle with him.

"...since you're the one I love," Daniel whispered.

And just like that, all the wrong things slid away.

Huh, thought Jack.

"I think... at least a hundred," Jack told him while his hand wandered down to Daniel's neck.

"A hundred." And now that Daniel had backed up a little those blue, blue eyes were looking at Jack with, finally, hallelujah, a smile back in them again, a smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. "You know, Jack, I might as well tell you that the only reason I kissed him back was this weakness for brown eyes I've just recently discovered."

"Really." Don't bother, Daniel. Can't you see that puddle at your feet? That's my heart. I trust you not to stomp on it. "Well, I guess with due recognition of a weakness you can't help, then I'd have to say... eighty."

"Eighty." Daniel shook his head, and the smile that kept coming and going on those incredible lips told Jack he was pushing his luck... and that he would get what he was pushing for.

Daniel ducked again, his lips skimming over Jack's which were already open, hungry for him. "You going to count?" he said before covering Jack's mouth with a kiss that was far from sweet, a kiss that was hungry and possessive and that almost took Jack's breath away.

"One..." Jack managed to rasp when Daniel's mouth set him free. For a moment.

END