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You never know you are having an ordinary day until you are no longer having one.
For Jack and Daniel it had started out ordinary enough. Down time for the team on a Saturday, so steaks on the grill, veggies on the grill (Daniel was positive that Jack would grill a boot if he could), Sam and Teal'c due any time now.
Daniel had called Jack on the drive over.
"I'm on the way. You need me to pick anything up?"
"Daniel I'm wounded" Jack's voice had sounded anything but, "I've even got that coffee you like so much."
Laughing, Daniel replied, "See you in 15 then."
They'd hung up agreeably enough, though Daniel thought he heard Jack muttering something about snow and forgetful, before he'd hit end on his cell phone.
He'd arrived 20 minutes later. Damned red lights, if you hit one on the way to Jack's house you hit them all. He stepped out of his car then paused. It was like Mother Nature knew Jack was throwing a party and she decided to help decorate.
The sky was that impossible to describe shade of blue, not ocean blue, sky blue or even cerulean. Just blue, like the favorite pair of jeans that Jack liked to wear from time to time. Daniel shook his head, where in the hell had that thought come from? He turned his attention to the trees. Autumn golds with the hint of green now and again, russet browns here and then there were the reds. So many shades it was beyond description, except for the one tree in the front of Jack's house. Crimson. Daniel could give this color a name. Proudly it stood there with branches thrown high against the sky.
Reaching into his car, Daniel grabbed his jacket. Right now he wouldn't need it, for not only was Mother Nature generous with her colors she was being kind with the weather. Other than a slight breeze ruffling the treetops it was still warm outside. Jack had thrown some windows open and Daniel could hear the strains of classical music through them.
Later the party would end with the four of them bundled in jackets and standing around a fire that Jack would build outside. They would go from serious conversation to relaxed banter in a matter of moments. The fire would burn low, Sam and Teal'c would take their leave, and then Daniel would go inside to clean up. Jack would continue his vigil at the fireside until it had died down and then he'd make sure it was properly extinguished before he'd come indoors. Jack would share one last cup of coffee with Daniel and then Daniel would take his leave. Driving home with warm thoughts of Jack, Sam, and Teal'c. The bonds between them strengthened by the simple act of cooking out over at Jack's house.
Sometimes Jack would ask him to stay over. There was an odd catch to his voice, but Daniel always attributed that to the late hour and the amount of beer that Jack was known to drink.
Yes, as far as Daniel could tell it was just an ordinary day, and all else was forgotten as Jack called down to him, "Hurry up Daniel, the hockey game is on."
One hockey game later and there he sat in an empty house. It seemed Jack had forgotten a few things after all. Daniel had offered to run out, but Jack had insisted, "It's my house, my party, and I'll be the one to go to the store." All Daniel had to do was keep an eye on the grill and make sure it didn't get too hot too soon.
After flipping through the channels twice and finding nothing of interest, Daniel had turned the TV off and then gone out to check the grill. The flames were settling nicely and his stomach had given an excited rumble. Say what you would about Jack O'Neill, the man knew how to grill a steak.
Bored, Daniel wandered back inside. He went and grabbed another beer out of the refrigerator and then, lacking anything better to do, headed over to Jack's bookcase. Out of all the times he'd been here he couldn't recall ever looking at Jack's books before. Maybe it was because to him books were something special, intimate even. The books on a person's shelves sometimes told you more about them than if they had told you themselves. Feeling almost guilty he gave a quick glance out the window, but Jack's truck was nowhere to be seen.
A dictionary, a few Air Force history books, several Tom Clancy thrillers, but nothing worth pulling down and reading to kill a few minutes until Jack came back. And then he found one that did catch his eye.
"How To Become A Millionaire"
The binding was old, faded and looked as though it had seen its last printing back in the 1940's. Smiling to himself, he pulled it down off the shelf. It would be interesting to see what financial advice they had offered back then compared to today's market-savvy analysts. He couldn't imagine Jack objecting to him looking at this book.
Settling down on the couch, Daniel opened it up and found himself most surprised. The book was fake, the title so boring that no one would look at it twice. But when opened it was hollow inside and one's prized possessions could be safely hidden within.
But what Jack found so important to hide left Daniel astounded. These weren't the mementos from a long ago childhood, or even the reminders of the life he'd had with Sara and Charlie (Those things were still about Jack's house, if one knew where to look). No, these hidden treasures were the things that Jack held closest to his heart, and they were all about Daniel.
With a shaking hand, Daniel sifted through the items Jack had hidden there: a small, half-empty package of tissues (from that first trip to Abydos?), a half dozen or so rocks that Daniel had brought back from their numerous trips off-planet, which upon being further analyzed were nothing more than what they looked like, rocks. Daniel held them in his hand, trying to recall if anything else had happened that would make these rocks so special. Evidently it was only that they had belonged to him, and that had been reason enough for Jack.
There was the first bandanna Jack had ever given him. A smile tugged at Daniel's lips. He remembered being oddly pleased when Jack had handed it to him, gruffly saying something about protecting his head from the sun. He'd worn that bandanna until it was more thread than fabric. How it wound up here Daniel wasn't sure. One day he'd had it, the next day he hadn't. Wherever it had been, now it was here, inside this hollow book.
There were four photographs, three in color and one in black and white. The ones in color appeared to have been taken at some of the formal functions Jack and Daniel were required to attend during the year. In them Daniel appeared to be talking to some unrecognizable dignitary while Jack stood nearby with a smile Daniel couldn't quite decipher quirking his lips.
But the black and white photo... this one was obviously special to Jack. It was a small picture only 3x5, but by tilting it sideways in the light Daniel could see numerous fingerprints on it. In this one Daniel was looking off to his left and laughing at something only he could see. He was the only person in the photo and there were no distinguishing landmarks to give any sign of when or where the picture had been taken. Yet, like the other things in this book, here it was with no indication as to how it got there or what its true meaning was for Jack.
Daniel was putting these items back in the book when his hand brushed something smooth and cool. He pulled out a beer bottle cap, no, make that two bottle caps, one pressed into the other. He flipped them over, even going so far as sniffing them.
He looked at them again. It was the brand favored by Jack and, he found himself thinking of the first beer he and Jack had shared on his first night back on earth. It was to be the first of many firsts for Daniel. How to live a life without Sha're at his side. How to laugh through the pain of loss. But more importantly, how to keep breathing, how to keep putting one foot in front of the other when all he had wanted to do was lay down and die.
The one commonality through all these firsts had been Jack's presence by his side.
Daniel turned the beer caps over in his fingers. He remembered the first night he'd slept at Jack's house. He had expected that he would spend most of the night unable to sleep, afraid of what he might see when he closed his eyes. But sleep had come quickly and dreamlessly. He might have slept that way all the night through had he not been awakened in the middle of the night by a noise coming from Jack's room.
Somewhat fearful, he had slipped quietly down the hall. Jack had demons of his own, the blanket had been kicked to the floor and Jack was tangled up in the sheets. He tossed from side to side, mumbling words too faint for Daniel to catch.
Unsure of what to do (after all, he didn't know Jack that well) Daniel had been on the verge of returning to his own room when Jack had sat straight up in bed.
"NO!"
"Oh well…I…I wasn't…" Daniel stopped talking.
Jack's eyes had darted about the room, from the blanket on the floor, to the sheets on the bed, finally coming to rest on Daniel standing in the doorway.
He said nothing and after a moment Daniel left, returning a few minutes later with a glass of water. He set it on the nightstand without comment. He moved away to leave only to find himself stopped by Jack's hand on his forearm.
Daniel looked at Jack and Jack looked back at Daniel, yet still no words passed between them. Jack's breathing evened out and he let go of Daniel. This time Danial made it to the door before Jack spoke.
"Daniel."
He turned and looked back.
"Thanks."
He gave Jack a nod of understanding and he left the room.
After that, sometimes Daniel would wake Jack up in the throes of bad dreams or Jack would wake him up, but neither of them spoke of what happened during those dark hours, there had been no need. Each had understood where the other was coming from.
The slamming of a car door startled Daniel back to the present. Quickly he put all the items back inside the book's hidden compartment and shoved it back on the shelf. There had been a few other things he'd wanted to look at, but Jack had hidden it all for a reason and Daniel knew he wouldn't be going back to look again. If Jack had wanted him to know, he would have told him, simple as that.
"Colonel? Daniel?" Sam called out.
"In here, Sam."
Teal'c walked into the living room, "DanielJackson, what did O'Neill forget this time?"
Sam walked in. "I called him before we left and asked him if we needed to pick anything up."
Daniel waved one hand vaguely. "You know how Jack is..."
"I'd be very careful about finishing that statement if I were you, Daniel."
The three of them looked around to see Jack walking through the front door with bags in hand.
"What're you gonna do Jack, throw rocks at me?"
Jack stopped and gave Daniel an odd look. "No, I was thinking about pulling your pigtails."
Teal'c arched an eyebrow and turned to Sam. "DanielJackson has livestock?"
"Evidently he's branched out from undomesticated equines," came her laughing reply.
Jack grimaced, and Teal'c grunted as Daniel jumped up off the couch to help Jack carry the bags into the kitchen.
The rest of the night went just as Daniel had expected. All four of them ate until bursting and then with the sun setting low Jack built a fire. This time they introduced Teal'c to the joys of cooking marshmallows over an open flame. They stood there, the four of them talking stickily through warm melting goodness of the lesser trivialities of life; Sam of a part for her motorbike, she'd found on e-bay, Jack of a new star he'd seen the other night, Teal'c of his discovery of a TV show called Star Trek. Daniel listened to the easy banter between his friends, but said nothing of his latest find. A book filled with private memories just wasn't something fit to share with anyone. They were hidden and private for a reason.
The fire burned low, Sam and Teal'c left. Daniel went inside to clean up while Jack made sure the fire was properly extinguished.
Jack came inside. "Daniel, you staying the night?"
Daniel turned and looked at Jack. Once again he heard that undefined emotion in Jack's voice. He thought about the hollow space in that book. He thought about the hollow spaces between Jack and himself.
One word to close the distance between the spaces.
“Yes.”