Author's Notes: Thanks to all who have been so encouraging throughout... Brenda, I'll say it one more time... it's been a pleasure *grin*
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author. Not to be archived without permission of the author(s).
Jack leaned back in his chair, stretching broadly until he felt the twinge in his aching shoulders. He was glad to be back on Earth, even if all he'd seen so far was the Gateroom, a couple of hallways and the inside of the infirmary...
They'd walked through the Stargate together...he and Daniel...holding on to each other for support. It was appropriate, Jack thought; the entire mission had required them to support each other in ways they never had before. Jack had felt Daniel's knees give way as they'd stepped into the event horizon and had tightened his hold on his friend.
His friend....
'Yeah,' Jack thought, 'that's what he is...'
It wasn't an easy admission for Jack to make, even to himself. He'd never felt like he needed much in the way of friendship. The life he'd led had never lent itself well to forming long-term relationships. There was never enough time, always one more mission....
Then along had come Daniel. Geeky, true...but so damn likeable...in an irritating sort of way...
Daniel...
Jack turned to watch his friend, sleeping once again in the infirmary, an all too familiar sight. Doc had sewed Daniel up, stuck him back together again...said something about acute lymphangitis, dehydration...and a lot of other -itis's and -ation's that Jack had no desire to learn the meanings of. The bottom line was that with treatment and rest...Daniel was going to be fine.
Jack remembered the tingle in his head, back in Nirrti's bedroom...a, by then, familiar carrier wave that had told him that Daniel was awake, waiting for Jack to make a move...
He'd always known that the kid had more guts than luck...
Those little flashes of Daniel were fading rapidly now that the venom was working its way out of Daniel's system. Jack was glad of that...as enlightening as it had been taking a tour through Daniel's psyche, it wasn't a trip that Jack cared to repeat any time in the near future...
Jack hoped he wouldn't completely forget everything, but a lot of it he prayed that he would...and soon. There was a lot more to Daniel than Jack had ever really given him credit for. Some of it he had known on that deep, instinctive level that he usually relied on to measure the worth of a person; the part of him that had responded to the man so unlike himself. Some of what Jack had learned about Daniel, he'd already guessed at on those few occasions that he allowed himself to become reflective...times like this in fact...waiting to see if the famous Jackson luck was going to hold out one more time...
Other things Jack had learned had rocked him to the core...things that still made him feel like an eavesdropper...
"Me, too..."
It was Daniel's voice, raw with exhaustion.
Jack started to make a rude joke when he realized that he hadn't been speaking aloud.
''Oh, shit...''
Daniel laughed, "Don't worry, Jack...it's going away." Daniel looked away slightly. "It's just easier to 'hear' you because..."
"I know...we had more practice..." Jack shook his head, reaffirming the decision he had made nearly a week ago...it didn't really matter.
Daniel shifted, wincing in pain at the pull on his stitches. Jack could tell from the way his friend was looking everywhere but at him that Daniel was trying to find words that wouldn't come easy to either of them. Words like 'thank you'....
Daniel looked up at him then, nodding solemn agreement to the unstated thought...
Jack laughed softly, shaking his head.
Daniel looked at him curiously. "What?'
"Just thinking..." Jack was being purposely coy.
"What?"
"We need to get Feretti into a card game before this stuff goes away..."
"Jack..."
They laughed together at the lame joke, needing to laugh, to feel the normalcy slip back into place. Jack knew they'd be a long time getting over all that had happened to them, all that had passed between them...but they would make it. The walls might slip back into place...it was only right that they should; but they'd learned the hard way how to trust each other, to read each other to the point of knowing what the other was thinking...Nothing had happened to change that and Jack hoped it never would.
Jack felt the little tickle that was Daniel in his mind again.
'Me, too, Jack. Me, too...'