SG1 Fic: Speechless
I'm going to try to get all my stargate_las entries posted as actual stories to be read by others outside the contest, and I'm going to re-date most of them so each is closer to the date its challenge ended and then do a roundup post, but for now, here's the most recent, which really surprised me when it won.
Story Title: Speechless
Author: cyren_2132
Character/Relationships: Daniel/Sha're, Jack, Daniel
Summary: A couple dozen languages still can't supply Daniel with the right words to explain himself to Jack.
Rating: PG
Notes: First, big thanks to the LAS voters who essentially served as a bunch of betas for this fic. Based mostly on their comments, I've edited this slightly for grammar and style and, amazingly, a little bit of tightening (amazing, since I spent the whole time I was writing it lamenting the 1000-word limit. Also, I wasn't sure what category of fic this best fits with, so I'm open to suggestions.
Jack watched Daniel lean back into the couch, his hand lightly cradling a beer bottle. It had been an interesting day. Jack knew the date Daniel's wife Sha're had died, but until now -- barely one year after her death -- he hadn't known that her birthday had been mere weeks later.
Daniel had said he wanted to spend the day celebrating her life, not mourning her passing, and it was with that in mind that SG-1 -- Daniel, Jack, Carter and Teal'c -- had gathered for an evening of food and friendship. Teal'c had been reluctant at first, and Jack couldn't blame him. After all, if he'd been the one to kill the object of celebration, Jack knew he wouldn't feel particularly welcome.
It was a measure of the man that Daniel had insisted.
"You saved me," he said when Teal'c balked. "It hurt, but you saved me. And in all reality, you probably saved her, too."
That day Daniel cooked traditional Abydonian food -- well, as traditional as you could get with Earth ingredients -- and told so many stories about Sha're, Skaara, Kasuf and the rest of his adopted people that Jack kept expecting him to accidentally repeat one. But he never did, and each new tale lit up his face more than the one that had come before it.
But night had fallen now. Teal'c and Carter had left, there were no new stories to tell and a sense of melancholy was beginning to fill the void. Jack sat down next to him.
"Great party," he said. Daniel nodded, but said nothing.
Jack sat there for a few moments before turning his attention to the empty bottles and plates littering the room. He had just reached for the first dish when Daniel spoke.
"I really loved her, you know. More than anything."
"Yeah, I know."
"And she loved me, too. She didn't care that-" He stopped, seemed to recompose his thoughts and tried again. "Even when she knew I wasn't 100 percent ... honest. I thought for sure she'd leave me, and I'd be stuck on that planet alone."
"What?" Jack said. "I know I've been drinking tonight but ... what?"
Daniel leaned forward and bowed his head before cocking it slightly to look at him. Jack noticed an almost imperceptible shake to his fingers. Finally, Daniel took a breath as if to speak, but whatever words he was going to say died in his throat.
"This is insane," he said instead. "I should go."
"Oh, no no no," Jack said as he placed a firm hand on Daniel's shoulder. "I know I'm not Mr. Talks-a-Lot, but you always have been, so give it. Spill. Talk."
Daniel coughed as he took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes and the bridge of his nose. "All right," he finally said. He beckoned for Jack to move closer. "Come here."
"You do know that there's no one else here, right?
"Jack," Daniel said in that exasperated tone of his.
"All right, okay," he said as he leaned closer.
When Jack could feel Daniel's breath on his neck, he waited for him to speak, to whisper something in his ear that by the light of day would seem wholly inconsequential but in the fog of the evening felt like anything but.
Words never came. Instead, Daniel turned his head slightly and pressed his lips to Jack's cheek. His eyelashes tickled Jack's skin as eyes closed and Jack felt a gentle warmth as Daniel rested a hand on the opposite side of his neck.
It was perhaps the most chaste and yet most intimate kiss Jack had received in a long time ... and he froze.
The tension in the room was palpable, and before Jack could even process what had happened, let alone form thoughts about it, Daniel was pulling away and putting his glasses back on as he muttered an awkward apology and goodbye before crossing the room and disappearing out the front door.
Jack sat, unmoving. The room seemed to disappear as thoughts whizzed through his brain, trying to make sense of the last few minutes and the years that had come before them. Finally, his focus returned and his eyes settled on on Daniel's car keys, gleaming on the coffee table. He picked them up and walked out the door.
Daniel was sitting on the steps, his back to Jack.
"I forgot my keys," he said.
Jack sat down next to him.
"You know, Daniel," he finally said, "I don't really care if you're ... you know ... or in-between or whatever. But the thing is, I'm not ... I can't be-"
"Jack, don't be ridiculous," Daniel said. "I don't know what the hell I was thinking in there. I know that you and I are so not the same. But I just..." Daniel paused again.
"When I came back from Abydos," he continued, "after Apophis had taken Sha're, you were quite literally my only friend in the world. And I was just thinking awhile back, when you and Teal'c were trapped in that glider..."
Jack remembered it well -- the first time Earth had tried to repurpose a Goa'uld death glider had left the two of them near death halfway across the solar system. It was only through the combined effort of Carter, her father and Daniel that they had survived.
"I realized then that I had been lying to you," Daniel said. "And with the work that we do ... anything can happen at any second, and I just ... wanted you to know who I am. I didn't want our friendship to be tainted with a lie. But I didn't know how to say it."
They lapsed into silence again. It was Jack who spoke first.
"Just so you know," he said, "What I'm hearing is that I'm so amazing I left a guy who speaks 27 languages speechless." Jack grinned and nudged him with his shoulder as Daniel burst into laughter.
"Let's go inside," Jack said. "It's freezing out here."
Story Title: Speechless
Author: cyren_2132
Character/Relationships: Daniel/Sha're, Jack, Daniel
Summary: A couple dozen languages still can't supply Daniel with the right words to explain himself to Jack.
Rating: PG
Notes: First, big thanks to the LAS voters who essentially served as a bunch of betas for this fic. Based mostly on their comments, I've edited this slightly for grammar and style and, amazingly, a little bit of tightening (amazing, since I spent the whole time I was writing it lamenting the 1000-word limit. Also, I wasn't sure what category of fic this best fits with, so I'm open to suggestions.
Jack watched Daniel lean back into the couch, his hand lightly cradling a beer bottle. It had been an interesting day. Jack knew the date Daniel's wife Sha're had died, but until now -- barely one year after her death -- he hadn't known that her birthday had been mere weeks later.
Daniel had said he wanted to spend the day celebrating her life, not mourning her passing, and it was with that in mind that SG-1 -- Daniel, Jack, Carter and Teal'c -- had gathered for an evening of food and friendship. Teal'c had been reluctant at first, and Jack couldn't blame him. After all, if he'd been the one to kill the object of celebration, Jack knew he wouldn't feel particularly welcome.
It was a measure of the man that Daniel had insisted.
"You saved me," he said when Teal'c balked. "It hurt, but you saved me. And in all reality, you probably saved her, too."
That day Daniel cooked traditional Abydonian food -- well, as traditional as you could get with Earth ingredients -- and told so many stories about Sha're, Skaara, Kasuf and the rest of his adopted people that Jack kept expecting him to accidentally repeat one. But he never did, and each new tale lit up his face more than the one that had come before it.
But night had fallen now. Teal'c and Carter had left, there were no new stories to tell and a sense of melancholy was beginning to fill the void. Jack sat down next to him.
"Great party," he said. Daniel nodded, but said nothing.
Jack sat there for a few moments before turning his attention to the empty bottles and plates littering the room. He had just reached for the first dish when Daniel spoke.
"I really loved her, you know. More than anything."
"Yeah, I know."
"And she loved me, too. She didn't care that-" He stopped, seemed to recompose his thoughts and tried again. "Even when she knew I wasn't 100 percent ... honest. I thought for sure she'd leave me, and I'd be stuck on that planet alone."
"What?" Jack said. "I know I've been drinking tonight but ... what?"
Daniel leaned forward and bowed his head before cocking it slightly to look at him. Jack noticed an almost imperceptible shake to his fingers. Finally, Daniel took a breath as if to speak, but whatever words he was going to say died in his throat.
"This is insane," he said instead. "I should go."
"Oh, no no no," Jack said as he placed a firm hand on Daniel's shoulder. "I know I'm not Mr. Talks-a-Lot, but you always have been, so give it. Spill. Talk."
Daniel coughed as he took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes and the bridge of his nose. "All right," he finally said. He beckoned for Jack to move closer. "Come here."
"You do know that there's no one else here, right?
"Jack," Daniel said in that exasperated tone of his.
"All right, okay," he said as he leaned closer.
When Jack could feel Daniel's breath on his neck, he waited for him to speak, to whisper something in his ear that by the light of day would seem wholly inconsequential but in the fog of the evening felt like anything but.
Words never came. Instead, Daniel turned his head slightly and pressed his lips to Jack's cheek. His eyelashes tickled Jack's skin as eyes closed and Jack felt a gentle warmth as Daniel rested a hand on the opposite side of his neck.
It was perhaps the most chaste and yet most intimate kiss Jack had received in a long time ... and he froze.
The tension in the room was palpable, and before Jack could even process what had happened, let alone form thoughts about it, Daniel was pulling away and putting his glasses back on as he muttered an awkward apology and goodbye before crossing the room and disappearing out the front door.
Jack sat, unmoving. The room seemed to disappear as thoughts whizzed through his brain, trying to make sense of the last few minutes and the years that had come before them. Finally, his focus returned and his eyes settled on on Daniel's car keys, gleaming on the coffee table. He picked them up and walked out the door.
Daniel was sitting on the steps, his back to Jack.
"I forgot my keys," he said.
Jack sat down next to him.
"You know, Daniel," he finally said, "I don't really care if you're ... you know ... or in-between or whatever. But the thing is, I'm not ... I can't be-"
"Jack, don't be ridiculous," Daniel said. "I don't know what the hell I was thinking in there. I know that you and I are so not the same. But I just..." Daniel paused again.
"When I came back from Abydos," he continued, "after Apophis had taken Sha're, you were quite literally my only friend in the world. And I was just thinking awhile back, when you and Teal'c were trapped in that glider..."
Jack remembered it well -- the first time Earth had tried to repurpose a Goa'uld death glider had left the two of them near death halfway across the solar system. It was only through the combined effort of Carter, her father and Daniel that they had survived.
"I realized then that I had been lying to you," Daniel said. "And with the work that we do ... anything can happen at any second, and I just ... wanted you to know who I am. I didn't want our friendship to be tainted with a lie. But I didn't know how to say it."
They lapsed into silence again. It was Jack who spoke first.
"Just so you know," he said, "What I'm hearing is that I'm so amazing I left a guy who speaks 27 languages speechless." Jack grinned and nudged him with his shoulder as Daniel burst into laughter.
"Let's go inside," Jack said. "It's freezing out here."