Possession, Part 7
Title: Possession, Part 7 (of 9?)
Author: muck-a-luck, posting in brainofck
Pairing: Daniel Jackson/Goa'uld/Jack O'Neill
Rating: NC-17
Summary: SG-1's luck finally runs out. The ultimate mission failure. A month of possession.
Content/warnings: None.
Spoilers: It's almost impossible to write canon without a few spoilers. Very minor.
Disclaimer: If anybody is planning a script like this for SG-1, I'm certainly not going to claim any rights to it. However, I'd be delighted to work in a co-writing/consulting/first-reader/advisory-type capacity, with my fee to be negotiated at that time. :D
Archive rights: Absolutely none. My journals only. muck_a_luck and brainofck
Blame: Blame on this one allllllllll goes to cocoajava for poking the Stargate part of my brain with a huge pointy stick.
For my loyal rugbytacklers, I have done a Stargate crash course located here.
Previous chapters available here.
Daniel opened the door.
It was Sam's friend, the technical translator. He groped in his mind for his real name. Torranach.
"How can I help you, Torranach?" he asked, walking back over to resume his seat in the large arm chair, where he had been enjoying some comfort reading - a tricky little piece of a saga he'd never attempted before. "Torranach. That's Celtic. Torran is thunder? Right? So your name means thunderous? Something like that?"
To Daniel's surprise the man laughed and nodded, then for some reason, blushed and looked guilty. He sat as far from Daniel as possible, at the opposite end of the couch.
"OK. What's so funny?" Daniel felt a smile twitching on his own lips at the man's reaction.
"I'm just surprised you know it's proper translation. I thought maybe you thought it meant 'Muffin'," Torranach replied, giving Daniel a sly look, though the blush still hadn't faded.
Now it was Daniel's turn to be embarrassed. He and Teal'c had taken to referring to Sam's helper as "Muffin" almost from the beginning. Sam was so smitten with him. She deserved it.
"How did you hear about that?!" he demanded, immediately suspecting one of the who-knew-how-many Jaffa that must have been watching them over the monitors day and night.
"Col. O'Neill did. He insists on calling me that. My Master said Col. O'Neill was snickering over it for hours after Teal'c first said it. He refuses to call me by any other name." Torranach shrugged and smiled.
"I don't think Col. O'Neill likes me very much, actually."
Daniel just stared at him. As the silence stretched, Torranach's smile faded.
"Dr. Jackson?"
"You talk to Jack often?" Daniel finally managed to ask.
"Yes. Every day. Don't you?"
There was another long silence and Daniel considered this new piece of information. He felt a strange sense of betrayal. He spent hours and hours with the goa'uld, but he hadn't seen Jack since that one night. Daniel had assumed that the goa'uld was just keeping Jack on a tight rein.
But maybe that wasn't the case.
Maybe the goa'uld was just keeping Daniel and Jack apart.
Or keeping Daniel for himself.
This new piece of information seemed to lead places Daniel didn't want to go. Places even worse than where he was now.
"Col. O'Neill seems to think that you and Teal'c are jealous of me," Torranach continued. "He says Major Carter is SG-1's girl, and no guy has a chance of meeting both your standards and Teal'c's. He says Sam's never going to get laid again, as long as she's on this team."
The pure Jack-ness of that comment got a snort out of Daniel, despite his other thoughts.
"I thought I was SG-1's girl," he muttered to himself. Torranach laughed.
"Besides, Jack's one to talk," said Daniel. "You're lucky the worst thing he's done to you is call you Muffin. Sam's love interests usually meet him when he's fully armed. Knives, grenades, ZAT, P90 and a sidearm, and God knows what else concealed in his field uniform. If you'd met Jack under normal circumstances, you'd have been in fear of your life, not just embarrassed by an annoying nickname."
"Is that really what you thought? That I was trying to woo Maj. Carter?"
"No. Sam was driving us crazy. She's been ogling you shamelessly for weeks. I can't believe you didn't know. In fact, I don't believe it. You had to have known?"
Torranach smiled to himself.
"That's what I thought," he said quietly. And to Daniel's complete surprise, the man blushed right up to the tips of his ears.
"Plus she talked about you constantly." Daniel affected a high, squeaky voice. "Torran said this, and Torran thought that, and did you know that Torran thinks... All very annoying. Teal'c started calling you Muffin just to bother her."
Daniel could not believe it. The man was simply glowing. His eyes were bright. He was clearly struggling to contain a broad, pleased grin. Talking to him for the first time, really, Daniel saw the appeal. Sweet. Self-deprecating. Apparently completely crushed on Sam. He had a certain charm.
"Well, a nickname is not necessarily an indication that Jack doesn't like you. He gives everybody names. He gave Teal'c's larval goa'uld a name. Any other reasons you feel that he doesn't like you?"
Torran's easy, if slightly flustered smile faded to something more serious. Maybe sad, even.
"Because of who I am. It's pretty clear that he despises me for it."
"For what? Being a linguist?" Daniel gave him what he hoped was an encouraging smile.
"No. For being my Master's chosen host."
Daniel blinked.
"That doesn't make any sense," Daniel said slowly. "His Lordship is using Jack as a host. And with a snake in his head, Jack's gonna be around a lot longer than you are, frankly."
"He had asked me to be his next host and I had agreed. But then he began to hear about Col. O'Neill and SG-1 and he became obsessed with the idea that he wanted Col. O'Neill's knowledge and talents to use against his enemies. So as you know, in the end he passed me over in favor of your commander."
"Well, yeah. I see you're point about Jack, then."
The very thought of it made Daniel's skin crawl.
But Torranach was clearly sad. In fact, he was obviously fighting back tears. Well, the poor guy. Just a few days ago his life's hopes, dreams and aspirations had all been shattered when his goa'uld went and infested another host. Daniel supposed it was a little like being left at the alter.
And in a weird way, it was creepy, but strangely touching. Here was this jilted host, bravely standing by his goa'uld, in spite of it all. He wondered if Sam knew that about her translator. He could see Sam going for that. Sorta. Maybe.
There was another long pause. Torranach's expression was so lost and sad that finally Daniel took pity on him.
"Sorry. You never said why you were here?" Daniel reminded him.
"Oh. Well, since Maj. Carter doesn’t need my services any longer, my master suggested I should come and see if there was anything I could do to help you."
"What? Why doesn't Sam need your services any longer?" Daniel asked, immediately suspicious.
Sam and Torranach had been practically inseparable during the ship's waking hours. She was determined to get as much out of this fiasco as she could, and she had been sending data back to the SGC as fast as she could extract it and turn it into something that could be transmitted back via M.A.L.P.
Torranach looked surprised.
"No one told you?" he asked incredulously.
"No one told me what?" Daniel growled. He was on his feet and across the room in a heartbeat. He took Torranach by the front of his tunic and yanked him to his feet, practically shaking him.
"What has he done to her? Why doesn't Sam need you?" Daniel snarled.
"I don't think he did anything to her," Torrananch responded remarkably calmly. "She and Teal'c left several hours ago. My master gave them a tel'tak and sent them to the nearest gateworld."
Suddenly Daniel couldn't breathe.
The goa'uld was avoiding him.
"Where is he?" Daniel finally asked his Jaffa, who looked uncomfortable.
"I have been instructed not to tell you where he is."
"Why?" Daniel wondered what the Jaffa would do if Daniel had to hit him.
Torranach intervened.
"Maybe I can find out."
Daniel sat by the oasis pool and looked out at the stars.
They'd left him.
Hammond's orders were that they were to take Jack with them. Jack was too big a security risk to leave behind.
But they had. They had left him and Jack. Alone.
He couldn't figure out why they would do that.
At first he had been angry. But the longer he thought about it, the more he felt like he was missing something.
"Hey," came a familiar voice from behind him.
The goa'uld.
"Muffin said you were looking for us," the voice said.
Daniel blinked and slowly looked around. He was black and sleek, still, but there was something in his posture - his face and eyes - that was not the goa'uld.
"Jack?"
"Yeah," said Jack quietly, sitting down next to him on the sandy embankment.
Daniel's heart skipped a beat. He had that sinking feeling in his stomach. He shut his eyes and tried to breathe deeply and calmly. He'd spent the last nearly three weeks in bed with this man. It was completely unreasonable to have this... sort of... first date feeling.
"So how are you?" he asked, conversationally.
"I've been better," said Jack. He sounded tired. And oddly reserved. First date, said an annoying little voice in the back of his head.
"What's going on, Jack? Yesterday morning, I found out that Sam and Teal'c left. And I haven't seen His Lordship since. Now you show up. What's up?"
"Honestly?" said Jack, looking at him sidelong. "I'm not really sure."
"How can you not be sure?!" Daniel nearly shouted.
Jack sighed. "The goa'uld and I don't always share. We seem to be able to keep things from each other, if we try hard enough. Anyway, he's a lot better at it than I am. He's been up to something for days, but I'm not sure what."
"But aren't you there? The whole time? I mean, you might not be able to tell what he's thinking, but didn't you see whatever happened?"
"Nope."
A panicky feeling was forming in the pit of Daniel's stomach. The possible ramifications of this were so frightening.
"Nope?" he asked weakly.
"Nope. He seems to be able to shut me off. You ever do that sensory deprivation thing? Those tanks? I did that once. It's a little bit like that. No sounds. Darkness. But not exactly like that. I have been able to taste. And smell. And feel. Like walking through a pitch black, quiet room."
He stopped a long moment while Daniel tried to get his breathing back under control.
"Or making love with your eyes closed."
Daniel swallowed hard. If Jack didn't know what had been going on all this time, Daniel wasn’t ready to have this conversation.
Business. The mission and business.
"So has he been able to get anything from you? To use in his..." Daniel gestured vaguely toward the view of the stars above them.
"Sorta. I haven't actively cooperated with him on anything. But I seem to know lots of... I dunno... stuff... about him. His history. From his behavior, I think he knows a lot of the same type of stuff about me. He never shuts me out when he's planning, so I think picks up more from my reactions to what he says and does and thinks."
"I've gotten better at keeping those kinds of thoughts private, but like I said, he's a lot better at this than I am."
"So, you don't know why Teal'c and Sam left?"
"Nope."
In a funny way, Daniel wanted to smile. It was good to have Jack back, no matter how frustrating that experience could be.
"Great. Well, I understand from Muffin that His Lordship has been letting you out to play with him."
Jack snorted.
"Yes, it's all very Tokra. They love me up on the pel'tak, let me tell you."
Daniel smiled to himself.
"I bet."
"How are you?"
"What?" Daniel asked.
"I want to know how you are," Jack repeated.
"Same as I've been since I got here," Daniel said, carefully uninformative. The sinking feeling was back.
"Yeah, well. Here's the thing. The deal seems to be that there are certain things I don't get to know. Or see. Or hear. Or anything. Until I cooperate. The whole team - you, Teal'c, Sam. Completely off limits."
"Jack..." Daniel couldn't think of what to say.
"I can put two and two together, Daniel," Jack said.
"Making love in the dark, Daniel," Jack pressed on. "It has been you, hasn't it? Every night. Every day."
"I know how you taste."
Daniel's heart was racing. He sat with his chin resting on his drawn up knees, staring out into the dark water of the pool.
"Daniel?"
Possession, Part 8
If you're interested, all my stories, in order, from one page. Also, my fiction recommendations.
Author: muck-a-luck, posting in brainofck
Pairing: Daniel Jackson/Goa'uld/Jack O'Neill
Rating: NC-17
Summary: SG-1's luck finally runs out. The ultimate mission failure. A month of possession.
Content/warnings: None.
Spoilers: It's almost impossible to write canon without a few spoilers. Very minor.
Disclaimer: If anybody is planning a script like this for SG-1, I'm certainly not going to claim any rights to it. However, I'd be delighted to work in a co-writing/consulting/first-reader/advisory-type capacity, with my fee to be negotiated at that time. :D
Archive rights: Absolutely none. My journals only. muck_a_luck and brainofck
Blame: Blame on this one allllllllll goes to cocoajava for poking the Stargate part of my brain with a huge pointy stick.
For my loyal rugbytacklers, I have done a Stargate crash course located here.
Previous chapters available here.
Daniel opened the door.
It was Sam's friend, the technical translator. He groped in his mind for his real name. Torranach.
"How can I help you, Torranach?" he asked, walking back over to resume his seat in the large arm chair, where he had been enjoying some comfort reading - a tricky little piece of a saga he'd never attempted before. "Torranach. That's Celtic. Torran is thunder? Right? So your name means thunderous? Something like that?"
To Daniel's surprise the man laughed and nodded, then for some reason, blushed and looked guilty. He sat as far from Daniel as possible, at the opposite end of the couch.
"OK. What's so funny?" Daniel felt a smile twitching on his own lips at the man's reaction.
"I'm just surprised you know it's proper translation. I thought maybe you thought it meant 'Muffin'," Torranach replied, giving Daniel a sly look, though the blush still hadn't faded.
Now it was Daniel's turn to be embarrassed. He and Teal'c had taken to referring to Sam's helper as "Muffin" almost from the beginning. Sam was so smitten with him. She deserved it.
"How did you hear about that?!" he demanded, immediately suspecting one of the who-knew-how-many Jaffa that must have been watching them over the monitors day and night.
"Col. O'Neill did. He insists on calling me that. My Master said Col. O'Neill was snickering over it for hours after Teal'c first said it. He refuses to call me by any other name." Torranach shrugged and smiled.
"I don't think Col. O'Neill likes me very much, actually."
Daniel just stared at him. As the silence stretched, Torranach's smile faded.
"Dr. Jackson?"
"You talk to Jack often?" Daniel finally managed to ask.
"Yes. Every day. Don't you?"
There was another long silence and Daniel considered this new piece of information. He felt a strange sense of betrayal. He spent hours and hours with the goa'uld, but he hadn't seen Jack since that one night. Daniel had assumed that the goa'uld was just keeping Jack on a tight rein.
But maybe that wasn't the case.
Maybe the goa'uld was just keeping Daniel and Jack apart.
Or keeping Daniel for himself.
This new piece of information seemed to lead places Daniel didn't want to go. Places even worse than where he was now.
"Col. O'Neill seems to think that you and Teal'c are jealous of me," Torranach continued. "He says Major Carter is SG-1's girl, and no guy has a chance of meeting both your standards and Teal'c's. He says Sam's never going to get laid again, as long as she's on this team."
The pure Jack-ness of that comment got a snort out of Daniel, despite his other thoughts.
"I thought I was SG-1's girl," he muttered to himself. Torranach laughed.
"Besides, Jack's one to talk," said Daniel. "You're lucky the worst thing he's done to you is call you Muffin. Sam's love interests usually meet him when he's fully armed. Knives, grenades, ZAT, P90 and a sidearm, and God knows what else concealed in his field uniform. If you'd met Jack under normal circumstances, you'd have been in fear of your life, not just embarrassed by an annoying nickname."
"Is that really what you thought? That I was trying to woo Maj. Carter?"
"No. Sam was driving us crazy. She's been ogling you shamelessly for weeks. I can't believe you didn't know. In fact, I don't believe it. You had to have known?"
Torranach smiled to himself.
"That's what I thought," he said quietly. And to Daniel's complete surprise, the man blushed right up to the tips of his ears.
"Plus she talked about you constantly." Daniel affected a high, squeaky voice. "Torran said this, and Torran thought that, and did you know that Torran thinks... All very annoying. Teal'c started calling you Muffin just to bother her."
Daniel could not believe it. The man was simply glowing. His eyes were bright. He was clearly struggling to contain a broad, pleased grin. Talking to him for the first time, really, Daniel saw the appeal. Sweet. Self-deprecating. Apparently completely crushed on Sam. He had a certain charm.
"Well, a nickname is not necessarily an indication that Jack doesn't like you. He gives everybody names. He gave Teal'c's larval goa'uld a name. Any other reasons you feel that he doesn't like you?"
Torran's easy, if slightly flustered smile faded to something more serious. Maybe sad, even.
"Because of who I am. It's pretty clear that he despises me for it."
"For what? Being a linguist?" Daniel gave him what he hoped was an encouraging smile.
"No. For being my Master's chosen host."
Daniel blinked.
"That doesn't make any sense," Daniel said slowly. "His Lordship is using Jack as a host. And with a snake in his head, Jack's gonna be around a lot longer than you are, frankly."
"He had asked me to be his next host and I had agreed. But then he began to hear about Col. O'Neill and SG-1 and he became obsessed with the idea that he wanted Col. O'Neill's knowledge and talents to use against his enemies. So as you know, in the end he passed me over in favor of your commander."
"Well, yeah. I see you're point about Jack, then."
The very thought of it made Daniel's skin crawl.
But Torranach was clearly sad. In fact, he was obviously fighting back tears. Well, the poor guy. Just a few days ago his life's hopes, dreams and aspirations had all been shattered when his goa'uld went and infested another host. Daniel supposed it was a little like being left at the alter.
And in a weird way, it was creepy, but strangely touching. Here was this jilted host, bravely standing by his goa'uld, in spite of it all. He wondered if Sam knew that about her translator. He could see Sam going for that. Sorta. Maybe.
There was another long pause. Torranach's expression was so lost and sad that finally Daniel took pity on him.
"Sorry. You never said why you were here?" Daniel reminded him.
"Oh. Well, since Maj. Carter doesn’t need my services any longer, my master suggested I should come and see if there was anything I could do to help you."
"What? Why doesn't Sam need your services any longer?" Daniel asked, immediately suspicious.
Sam and Torranach had been practically inseparable during the ship's waking hours. She was determined to get as much out of this fiasco as she could, and she had been sending data back to the SGC as fast as she could extract it and turn it into something that could be transmitted back via M.A.L.P.
Torranach looked surprised.
"No one told you?" he asked incredulously.
"No one told me what?" Daniel growled. He was on his feet and across the room in a heartbeat. He took Torranach by the front of his tunic and yanked him to his feet, practically shaking him.
"What has he done to her? Why doesn't Sam need you?" Daniel snarled.
"I don't think he did anything to her," Torrananch responded remarkably calmly. "She and Teal'c left several hours ago. My master gave them a tel'tak and sent them to the nearest gateworld."
Suddenly Daniel couldn't breathe.
The goa'uld was avoiding him.
"Where is he?" Daniel finally asked his Jaffa, who looked uncomfortable.
"I have been instructed not to tell you where he is."
"Why?" Daniel wondered what the Jaffa would do if Daniel had to hit him.
Torranach intervened.
"Maybe I can find out."
Daniel sat by the oasis pool and looked out at the stars.
They'd left him.
Hammond's orders were that they were to take Jack with them. Jack was too big a security risk to leave behind.
But they had. They had left him and Jack. Alone.
He couldn't figure out why they would do that.
At first he had been angry. But the longer he thought about it, the more he felt like he was missing something.
"Hey," came a familiar voice from behind him.
The goa'uld.
"Muffin said you were looking for us," the voice said.
Daniel blinked and slowly looked around. He was black and sleek, still, but there was something in his posture - his face and eyes - that was not the goa'uld.
"Jack?"
"Yeah," said Jack quietly, sitting down next to him on the sandy embankment.
Daniel's heart skipped a beat. He had that sinking feeling in his stomach. He shut his eyes and tried to breathe deeply and calmly. He'd spent the last nearly three weeks in bed with this man. It was completely unreasonable to have this... sort of... first date feeling.
"So how are you?" he asked, conversationally.
"I've been better," said Jack. He sounded tired. And oddly reserved. First date, said an annoying little voice in the back of his head.
"What's going on, Jack? Yesterday morning, I found out that Sam and Teal'c left. And I haven't seen His Lordship since. Now you show up. What's up?"
"Honestly?" said Jack, looking at him sidelong. "I'm not really sure."
"How can you not be sure?!" Daniel nearly shouted.
Jack sighed. "The goa'uld and I don't always share. We seem to be able to keep things from each other, if we try hard enough. Anyway, he's a lot better at it than I am. He's been up to something for days, but I'm not sure what."
"But aren't you there? The whole time? I mean, you might not be able to tell what he's thinking, but didn't you see whatever happened?"
"Nope."
A panicky feeling was forming in the pit of Daniel's stomach. The possible ramifications of this were so frightening.
"Nope?" he asked weakly.
"Nope. He seems to be able to shut me off. You ever do that sensory deprivation thing? Those tanks? I did that once. It's a little bit like that. No sounds. Darkness. But not exactly like that. I have been able to taste. And smell. And feel. Like walking through a pitch black, quiet room."
He stopped a long moment while Daniel tried to get his breathing back under control.
"Or making love with your eyes closed."
Daniel swallowed hard. If Jack didn't know what had been going on all this time, Daniel wasn’t ready to have this conversation.
Business. The mission and business.
"So has he been able to get anything from you? To use in his..." Daniel gestured vaguely toward the view of the stars above them.
"Sorta. I haven't actively cooperated with him on anything. But I seem to know lots of... I dunno... stuff... about him. His history. From his behavior, I think he knows a lot of the same type of stuff about me. He never shuts me out when he's planning, so I think picks up more from my reactions to what he says and does and thinks."
"I've gotten better at keeping those kinds of thoughts private, but like I said, he's a lot better at this than I am."
"So, you don't know why Teal'c and Sam left?"
"Nope."
In a funny way, Daniel wanted to smile. It was good to have Jack back, no matter how frustrating that experience could be.
"Great. Well, I understand from Muffin that His Lordship has been letting you out to play with him."
Jack snorted.
"Yes, it's all very Tokra. They love me up on the pel'tak, let me tell you."
Daniel smiled to himself.
"I bet."
"How are you?"
"What?" Daniel asked.
"I want to know how you are," Jack repeated.
"Same as I've been since I got here," Daniel said, carefully uninformative. The sinking feeling was back.
"Yeah, well. Here's the thing. The deal seems to be that there are certain things I don't get to know. Or see. Or hear. Or anything. Until I cooperate. The whole team - you, Teal'c, Sam. Completely off limits."
"Jack..." Daniel couldn't think of what to say.
"I can put two and two together, Daniel," Jack said.
"Making love in the dark, Daniel," Jack pressed on. "It has been you, hasn't it? Every night. Every day."
"I know how you taste."
Daniel's heart was racing. He sat with his chin resting on his drawn up knees, staring out into the dark water of the pool.
"Daniel?"
Possession, Part 8
If you're interested, all my stories, in order, from one page. Also, my fiction recommendations.