Perspective

by

Shoshone

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DISCLAIMER: Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

Perspective

Daniel slid down against the stone walls until his legs crumpled beneath him, and then he sat.

Sitting was good.

He could do sitting.

He sat even though he could hear Jack calling for him, thinking maybe he'd just rest there for a moment first before getting up to see what he wanted.

As it turned out, he didn't have to muster the energy to move after all as Jack chose that moment to come to him.

"Daniel, would you get the lead out already? I thought I told you to wrap things up in here." Jack skidded to a halt, just like Wiley Coyote coming to a cliff face. Daniel thought the expression on Jack's face was even sort of funny, until Jack said the bad word. Then after taking in the entire scene, he said a whole stream of bad words. Daniel thought about how often Jack must have gotten his mouth washed out with soap as a kid. If the way he could make swear words rhyme perfectly with Daniel's name was any indication, he'd be willing to bet it was pretty often.

The shards of the stela Daniel had dropped crunched under Jack's boots as the other man surged forward, dumping his pack and dropping to his knees.

Yes, sir. His mother must have used up a truck load of soap. Although, he would have to agree all the pointy clay pieces scattered all over the place was enough to make him feel like swearing too. And he would if he wasn't so tired.

Jack reached out and tapped his face. "Hey, now. No way. You're the one who brought all that crap that's lying around out there, and you're the one who's going to help us pack it." Jack grabbed his chin so that it made him look up. Oh, huh, guess his eyes'd been drifting closed.

"Stay with me here, Daniel." Jack was yelling. Yelling at Daniel. Yelling for the others. Why? Was he mad? What had he done to make him mad? Maybe he should...

…blinding pain ripped through him, and he caught Jack's wrist which was pressing against him. "Don't."

"Shut up, Daniel."

Obviously something had put Jack in a stinker of a bad mood. Not to mention that his hands were covered in red paint. Had he been painting? Daniel'd heard him comment about a fresh coat of paint and some curtains might make the old ruins look a little better, but still…when had he found time to smuggle paint onto the FRED? Not to mention he was the one who'd been trying to hurry things up. Hustling them along from the moment they stepped through the gate. Besides, he didn't think Jack painted. Except, come to think of it, finding out about him throwing clay pots while he and Teal'c had been caught in the time loop had been a bit of a surprise. Maybe there really was a secret painter hidden somewhere in Jack's depths begging to emerge. Daniel stared at the mess dripping down Jack's bony wrists. Well…maybe a finger painter at least.

Pain.

Jack was pushing at him again. Making it hard to breathe.

He scrabbled weakly at the hands. "H-Hurts."

"No, it doesn't." Jack's voice was ragged as he contradicted Daniel.

It seemed like everything Daniel did was getting on Jack's last nerve lately. Why was that? Whereas before there had been mock irritation and impatience, these days it seemed to be more…

"Jesus, what a mess."

…genuine.

Jack’s voice had been pretty scratchy. Was he getting a cold? Maybe that would explain why he was so tetchy. Jack always got irritable when he wasn't feeling well.

Daniel tried to reach up to see if Jack had a fever, but Jack just brushed his hand aside. He stared at it where it fell against his leg. It was shaking all by itself. The fingers twitching and jerking. And it felt weighted down. Heavy. He didn't remember this being a heavy gravity world. He thought that was P…he frowned…P28…45…uh…C? With an effort he reached up for Jack again, aiming for the skin just above the eyebrow's scar, only to wonder why the other man yanked his head aside with a barked, "Quit it."

He stared at the scar as Jack swore some more and tossed aside a wadded white handkerchief now tie-dyed in red. The cloth matched his angry words. Something Daniel hadn't been aware was hovering in the back of his mind, a vague feeling, seemed to take shape and become abruptly clear. Maybe that explained things. Maybe that was where things had been different. "Quit it." It sort of said it all didn’t it?

Quit pestering his foster brothers to play with him.

Quit pestering the teacher for more books.

Quit bothering the other research assistants with information that didn’t make any sense.

Quit asking questions on missions when all they wanted was to take home alien technology.

Quit it.

A head ducking away.

Just…quit it. It had taken a while but he had finally heard Jack’s message.

Not that Daniel should care. It had never been something that he had asked for. He wasn't a little kid. Even if he did sort of miss the hugs and stuff Jack used to hand out like they were free.

But still if Jack was sick…

"Janet should probably ha-have a l-look." He panted out. Shoot, it was hard to pull in a lungful. Maybe it was time to get a new set of antihistamines, these didn't seem to be working anymore to keep his lungs clear. He frowned. Then again maybe it had something to do with the 200 pound colonel he had sitting on his chest. For someone who didn't like Daniel touching him he was awfully heavy.

"Oh, yeah. Fraiser's going to have a field day with you."

Him? Jack had obviously misunderstood. "N-na me. You."

"Yeah, I’m sure she's going to have a few things to say to me too," Jack agreed and then shouted for Sam again. The yell startled Daniel out of his thoughts. There was so much more urgency in the way he hollered her name than in how he'd been calling Daniel's only just a few minutes ago. It was kind of…depressing. Depressing? No, no, that wasn't right. But for some reason, hearing Jack calling for Sam made his chest hurt worse. Or was that the 200 pounds of colonel? Felt more like 300 now. Either way, it was weird...yeah...that was it. Weird to hear Jack calling for Sam like he really, really wanted her to be there. Wanted her more than anyone to talk to. And what was he? Chopped liver? He sat there trying to breathe and think at the same time. Maybe the base gossip was true? Could Jack have a thing for Sam? Not that Sam wasn't great. She was terrific. One of the best people he'd ever had the privilege to know. But…

Then again he'd also heard the same rumors had linked Teal'c and Jack as a pair and also said that Fraiser was "hot for his bod". Which couldn't possibly be true. She was his doctor for crying out loud. Whoops, watch it there. He'd sounded almost like Jack for a second.

"Glad you think something about this is funny," Jack growled at him while digging one handed into his bag, trying to find something. He was scattering stuff all over the place. MRE's. Field kit. Flares. All dumped out. Just like a bear with a sore paw. Daniel felt his eyes drooping as he watched him yank out a white box with a red plus sign. Was that what he'd been looking for? He would've helped him if he wasn't so tired. Maybe if he just rested his eyes for a moment he would... Next thing he knew Jack had a fist in his collar, and he was being given a hard shake, making him jolt back into awareness. "Stay with me Daniel. C'mon now."

Daniel frowned up at him. "Why? Am I going somewhere?"

He was surprised at the warm contact of the calloused palm against his face. "No. No, you're not going anywhere." The hand clenching the front of his jacket gave him a second shake. "So stay awake."

Jack flipped open the latch on the white metal box one handed as he kept the other against Daniel. "Although, you're going to be minus two teammates if they don't hurry up and GET HERE!" Jack's third shout for Sam and Teal'c just about deafened him this time.

"Y-you're always yelling." Jack had always been vocal. His likes. His dislikes. Jack shared them all. And in the beginning he had shared them with Daniel. Always turning to him with an aside. Or nudging him with an elbow to draw his attention. Or dragging him out of the lab for food and to listen to his observations. But lately...

"Why don't you like me anymore?"

"What?"

Uh-oh. Had he said that out loud?

From Jack's expression he must have. "Why don't I… Are you crazy?" Jack demanded as he ripped open a second package of gauze with his teeth.

Daniel blinked, trying to clear his vision of the grey shadows that were drifting in. He re-opened them to see Jack's face inches from his own. He became aware, too aware of the moist breath brushing against his mouth, Daniel gazed bleakly into the amber depths. Why couldn't he shut it off, always wanting things he couldn't have? He'd wanted his parents back. He'd wanted Sha're back. He wanted…Was he crazy? "Yes, I think so." He whispered in reply. The ache in his chest hurt bad now, the throbbing growing worse, until he didn't think he could ignore it much longer.

Jack stared down at him suddenly not yelling anymore, in fact briefly suspending all motion. He frowned, and then opened his mouth to retort but snapped it closed when faintly Sam's voice carried to them from beyond the chamber growing louder as she entered. "Colonel? Daniel? We've finished loading the FRED up. We even managed to find room for those shabti figures with the carvings on them Daniel found. Teal'c used his jacket as padding and says he thinks Daniel's right about them being created for…oh…"

"What happened?" Daniel watched as she dropped both gear bags off her shoulders and rushed forward, Teal'c a step behind her. He stared owlishly at the fallen equipment. Everything kept ending up all over the floor. At this rate they were never going to get things packed up for home.

"O'Neill? Daniel Jackson? Who has done this?" Daniel tried to figure out who Teal'c was searching suspiciously into the shadowed alcoves for. Everyone was here and accounted for now, weren't they? He stared into the alcoves, but everything was all fuzzy.

"You know how SG-12 cleaned out the booby traps in this fortress of doom?" Jack said over his shoulder, thrusting the first aid kit toward Sam while keeping his other hand firmly clamped to Daniel's chest. "Well, guess what…they missed one."

"T-Teal'c?" Daniel panted as a dark shape loomed before him and then knelt at his side.

"Hello, Daniel Jackson."

"I've lost my glasses." Daniel blurted out, feeling he had to explain why he couldn't quite focus on his friend's face. It was doing odd things like he was seeing Teal'c through a blanket of heat warped air at the edge of the desert, sort of slowed down and distorted. He squeezed them shut then opened them again, trying to bring him back into focus. It was hot in the room, and he was so tired.

"No, they're right here." Sam told him gently and lifted them down from the top of his head to the bridge of his nose. Oh. He blinked. So that's where they'd gotten too.

"It looks as though the arrow has gone through the shoulder and is catching now on the wall's surface." Teal'c was talking over his head, literally. Daniel wasn't sure what arrow he was referring to. There'd been a whole bunch which had gone swishing past him earlier. Maybe he'd found one of them. You could tell a lot about an arrow's maker by looking at the fletching and the arrow head. There hadn't been many hints about the people who had built the temple they were in or where they had gone, an arrow certainly could give him some much needed clues.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Any idea on how we should snap it off."

Jack must have found it. Daniel tried to look, wondering what color its markings were, but Jack wouldn't let him see. Which was really rather annoying. He knew Jack wanted to hurry things up, but if he could just have one quick glimpse, it could really give him something to work with. Jack reached out and tapped his face stopping him. "Don't look." He ordered.

Daniel opened his mouth to object but Sam was urgently calling his name, "Daniel. Daniel over this way."

"Hold him steady O'Neill."

Teal'c bent close placing a hand on his shoulder gaining his attention, "I am sorry, Daniel Jackson."

He stared up into the darkly noble face. Huh? What was Teal'c sorry for? Had he broken some more of the stela pieces when he'd knelt down? He tried to see past the jumble of arms and legs to the ground. "For what..." White heat stabbed through Daniel's chest and immediately fireballed into something far greater as Teal'c reached behind him and broke something off with a sharp snap. He gasped trying to draw in air. But no air would go in. It had all caught fire. He reached out and grabbed at Jack who caught him back. The other man squeezing his hand tight.

Which was a good thing because it was at that moment the wall decided to no longer hold him up, and he went falling. The last thing he felt was strong hands grabbing hold of him, easing him forward.

Distantly he hoped Sam would catch his glasses.

Then he felt nothing much at all.

***

He thought he felt a hand holding his. Hard and calloused fingers pressing against his own. Reassuring in the dark. Then there was the interrupting rattle of a curtain on chains. The hand jerked away, and a hastily annoyed voice jumped in with, "It's been hours and he's still not waking up."

"As I've said before, his body needs time to rest and recuperate."

"I'm just looking for an estimate. Your best guess. Today, tomorrow, Friday, next week, next July?"

"Sir." There was high level of exasperation in the word. "He's not a tire, I can't just slap a patch on him and hope he won't leak air."

"Doc…"

The bed sheets against his skin were over starched and sharp with the scent of bleach. There was a bad taste in his mouth, flat and metallic. The familiar aftertaste of pain meds. The sort that you couldn't wash out with anything less than four or five cups of strong coffee. Somewhere monitors were beeping and a wheel on a cart squeaked as it was moved.

The infirmary.

He was in the infirmary.

And he could hear Jack.

Jack was growling again, or as close as one dared come to in a place where bad behavior wasn't the best of ideas with people who wielded sharp needles and cold stethoscopes and weren't afraid to use them on your next post mission exam. Still…he knew that tone.

"Something's wrong." Daniel whispered.

"What…hey, never mind, Doc. I think your patient just decided his own timetable."

He opened his eyes and stared into a set of brown ones fringed by thick lashes.

"Daniel do you remember what happened?" Dr. Fraiser asked him as she shone a far too bright light into his eyes, blinding him. No one ever seemed to grasp how hard it was to put your thoughts into focus from wherever they'd been off wandering while unconscious if the first thing you did upon awakening was blaze a search light into them.

He hunted through his memory, rewinding bits and pieces that were tumbling around in his head. He latched onto a fragment and repeated it, "SG-12 missed one?"

"Arrows all over the place." Jack agreed from somewhere beyond her shoulder.

Daniel frowned at Jack while Janet checked his pulse, listened to his lungs, and then popped the electronic thermometer into his mouth. He shifted experimentally. His shoulder felt like he'd been sleeping on it until it had gone numb. Like a thousand shots of Novocain had hit it. He couldn't even feel most of his arm. It was just this sort of vague distant thing. Still there was something wrong. Something else… He sucked on the plastic tubing and waited for the beep as he puzzled it out. Only half paying attention as Janet wrote down the numbers and then informed him he was on the mend with the usual run down about overnight observation and having to wear a sling for a few weeks and not being allowed to have caffeine until the meds had run their course. And although some portion of his mind was taking note on it, somehow saying all the right responses, he still kept searching his memory. There was something important there. Other than him being shot.

The memories were sharp and broken, like red clay pieces. They'd come out of the gate. Sam and he'd been discussing the latest carbon dating techniques which had just been published. There'd been a whole maze of rooms. Boxes of doll like figures. Funny little markings on a stone tablet. Jack calling his name. A blur of motion. Lots of things whistling a song around him. And…he'd dropped the stone…

Jack sat on one of the medlab stools beside the bed as Janet finished with her spiel and told them she'd be right back with an update to Daniel's chart. He worked on swiveling the chair experimentally back and forth while watching Daniel. "Yeah, lots and lots of arrows. Think Teal'c saved you one from the temple."

Black boots crunching across stone.

Jack had been there…and…they'd been talking… At least he thought they’d been talking.

"Are you crazy?"

"I think so…"

Daniel froze.

"…what a mess!"

He snuck a glance at Jack, arms draped across the chair's back, still swinging it back and forth saying something about Teal'c and Sam cluttering the place up so much that they'd gotten kicked out and packed off for the night.

"I think so…"

He ducked his head down wishing longingly for his lost length of bangs as he prodded at the memory like a sore tooth. What had come next? What? His brain felt thick and mushy. Hello, his name was Daniel Jackson and he'd been saying…

"Why don't you like me any more?"

"Why don’t I…?"

Inwardly Daniel flinched, then again maybe he should just go bury himself down the nearest deep dark pit now and save himself the embarrassment of remembering. Hello, his name was Daniel Jackson and he was apparently a babbling idiot.

He peeked over at Jack only to find that Jack wasn't talking any more. Wasn't even yelling. Daniel was too nervous to ask why. Maybe he could feign sleep. He tried to shift, to roll onto his side, and signal his weariness but his shoulder refused to cooperate. He ended up pretending not to watch Jack grab and fiddle around with a spare IV bag. He always did that. Why?

Daniel watched over the edge of his covers as Jack's hands tossed the saline bag left and right. Like a tennis ball, catching the florescent light as it hopped from Jack's left hand to his right. Left and right. Left and right. Daniel tensed when abruptly the IV bag stayed in Jack's right and heard him quietly clear his throat.

"You know. About what you said…whatever gave you the idea that I…that we…" Jack finally spoke up gesturing between the two of them.

Daniel felt a flush rising in his face. And since apparently deep dark pits were in short supply—he really should ask Janet to install some—he looked around for something else to focus his attention on. A crystal skull. A rock. Anything. Oh, look surgical IV tubing…wasn't that fascinating? "Yeah, um…about that. Delirious you know."

"Right."

"Lots of blood loss."

"Uh-huh. No doubt."

Jack jiggled the saline bag making it bubble upright and then down several times before tossing it back onto the tray. "Still. You do know…I mean…you don't think…" He made a disgusted sound and growled out. "I'm not always yelling at you." At Daniel's look he qualified. "Okay, well maybe I am. But it's not like it's at full volume or anything." He stared around the infirmary like he would spot Sam or Teal'c to back him up on this. "And I yell at the others too. I mean. It's not like I'm not an equal opportunity yeller. I spread it around." He made a face at how that had come out but gave Daniel a look that said he trusted him to know what he meant.

Daniel hurried to agree. Anything to make this conversation go away so he could go back and pretend it had never happened. Go back to where there was safer ground. "No. You're right. It was obviously just the…"

"…the blood loss." Jack said with him. "Riiight."

Jack stared down at the bed for a moment and then sighed and ran a hand across the back of his neck. "Look I'm the guy in charge, that means I'm gonna yell. You know that."

"I know." Daniel said, but Jack didn't seem to hear him.

"It's like it's in the rule book somewhere. Rule One: Guy in charge brings his team home safe. Rule Two: Guy in charge yells at anyone who does stupid things to mess with rule one."

"I know." And he did. Really. Jack only yelled because he cared. And he couldn't be expected to always be reaching out to Daniel like he had in the early days. When things were new and he'd been so…lost… with everything. It wasn't his fault that Daniel was all messed up inside because he wanted more of that, that he missed it now that he was able to stand on his own two feet just fine, he thought miserably. Not his fault at all.

"So it's not that… What?" Jack stopped. Seemed to want to start again. Then stopped. "Okay, then. I guess..." He frowned at Daniel. And Daniel got the impression that somehow there was a different conversation still running through Jack's head before he said abruptly. "Right. Okay. Fine then." But he still didn't look really happy even as he added. "Glad we got that straightened out."

"Five minutes and then I'm kicking you out." Janet was back.

"The guy just woke up." Jack protested.

"He's not the only one who needs rest Colonel. And a meal." She added in pointedly.

"And a bath."

"Who? What? Me?"

"Five minutes." Was all he got in response.

Jack glared at her back as she moved away to attend to her other duties. And it was then that Daniel noticed that the doctor was right. Jack did look…scruffier than normal. His face was lined with fatigue, a days growth of whiskers starting to darken his cheeks. His dark t-shirt and pants had the rumpled and dusty look of a long car trip. And Daniel started to wonder how late it really was? Hadn't Jack been saying something about Teal'c and Sam being shooed out for the night?

Jack turned back to Daniel and the glare fell away. "Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," Daniel whispered back.

"So we're…uh…"

Quit it.

Daniel swallowed, "Good. We're good."

"Okay." Jack shifted from one foot then another. "Then I guess I'm going to get out of here before Little Napoleon over there starts getting ideas or anything." He moved to go.

Daniel lay there, wondering if he'd been imagining that hand which had been squeezing his when he'd woken. The pain meds could do weird things to you. Make you hear and see stuff that wasn't there.

A thumb rubbing soothingly across his knuckles and squeezing his hand tight.

He wished he had the courage to ask Jack. He stared bleakly at the other man as he picked up his team jacket from the foot of the bed. Daniel wished he had the courage for a lot of things.

Jack shook the jacket out, but instead of pulling it on has Daniel expected, he paused, and fingered their team patch an odd expression on his face. Then he looked up, seeing Daniel watching him, Jack gave a half shrug with a tight smile. Jamming his arms through one sleeve and then another, he yanked the jacket on and turned away. But when he was almost to the exit he hesitated. His back to Daniel. Dr. Fraiser was across the room talking to an orderly. Distantly there were the sounds of others, but farther off, not in any of the beds close by, for the moment they were in a pool of curtains and quiet all their own. As if coming to a decision, Jack abruptly moved back to stand beside Daniel's bedside. He came close.

Very close.

Gently he reached out and brushed the hair back from Daniel's forehead with a hand. "Oh, and Daniel. As for all the yelling and stuff…I don't hate you…" Daniel blinked. He could feel the fingers glide across the skin. It was an odd sensation, one that rivaled the man who seemed to make yelling his default form of communication. Odd...but good.

Distracted, Daniel almost missed what Jack said next as he leaned down and murmured against Daniel's ear, "…and that's the problem."

And Daniel was left open mouthed as Jack stepped back. A brief glint of uncomfortable uncertainty in Jack's face faded to a twinkle of amusement at Daniel's expression. Seeing Janet heading their way, Jack beat a hasty retreat. But reaching the doorway, he paused long enough to look back his eyes silently promising, "We'll talk". He hesitated a moment longer, then jerked his chin once in acknowledgement before disappearing through the opening.

Daniel leaned back into the bed. Gingerly he raised his hand-ouch, okay, not a good move-and touched where Jack's fingers had brushed against him. He tilted his head towards the doorway thoughtfully.

No two thoughts seemed to want to connect to one another as he tried to think. Jack? He? …and that's why… His brain was frozen on the information and he decided to blame the meds.

Daniel wiggled his fingers, but the gauzy numbness of his shoulder seemed to be still spread all the way down to his hand. He sighed and settled his head more comfortably against the pillow, eyes drifting back to the door. Lethargy pulled at him, tugging him lower and lower.

Carefully, he snuggled deeper into the covers as it occurred to him Jack hadn't yelled this time and it felt nice. His good hand stole up to his forehead again.

Very nice.

He snuck another peek through half masted eyes at the infirmary's entrance staring at it until it grew fuzzy before finally letting himself be lured by the drugs to close his eyes, wondering even as he started to drift when Jack was going to return to "talk".

His eyes barely lifted open and then closed again, checking the still empty doorway.

It could prove to be very interesting. He settled deeper under the covers, yawning.

And in any case, at least he didn't think Jack would be yelling next time.

With that, Daniel fell asleep, not aware he was smiling softly to himself as he went.

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