Title: Grounded
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Pairing: None. Team gen - Jack & Daniel centric
Rating: G
Summary: Jack has some unique ideas about team building with a newly descended Daniel.
Note: Started for
starandrea's
puppy pile meme and finished for
fignewton/
sg_fignewton's
Gen Fic Day (
on LJ). Many, many thanks to
dee_natsuko78 and
stagnation13 for the beta. This ficlet it a million times better for your insights. All mistakes remain mine.
Grounded
Five seconds after tripping over, well, nothing, and landing on top of his favorite archeologist, it occurred to Colonel Jack O’Neill that he might be getting too old for this crap.
“O’Neill, do you believe Daniel Jackson to be in some kind of danger?” The laughter in Teal’c’s voice was blatant - insubordinate alien jerk. Jack was definitely getting too old for this.
“No, Teal’c, I do not believe Daniel Jackson to be in some kind of danger,” Jack replied with not nearly as much sarcasm as the situation warranted. “No more than usual, anyway. I’m starting a puppy pile.”
Carter was making a choked sound, half cough, half laughter, but Jack ignored her. At least she was attempting to be respectful, unlike some Jaffa he could name. Teal’c was giving him the eyebrow of indulgent doubt.
Never one to let a challenge pass, at least not from his so-called-subordinates, Jack explained, “It’s very important to team building and stuff. We don’t want the good doctor getting any ideas about getting all glowy and floating away again. Right, Daniel?” Jack asked, finally deigning to look at the man pinned beneath him.
Daniel, who had been lying eerily still, glared at him witheringly before finally beginning to struggle against the restraint of Jack’s body. Not a bad recovery time, Jack noted absently, even as he redistributed his weight to deny Daniel’s newly descended bulk the necessary leverage to buck him off. When Daniel paused his efforts and opened his mouth, Jack shifted his gaze quickly back to Teal’c. “See, he agrees - bonding ritual and all that jazz.”
Teal’c shrugged without moving anything below the neck and laid himself carefully on top of Jack. “Oof,” Jack complained as the solid wall of muscle collapsed - albeit gently - on his back. Teal’c must have been taking most of his weight on his hands, but the sheer mass of him was still impressive - and heavy. “Watch it, T, you’re no featherweight.” Jack caught Daniel rolling his eyes in his peripheral vision and decided to go for it. “Carter, climb on. That’s an order.”
With no hesitation that he could see, Carter flopped onto Teal’c back with a noise that he could have sworn was a giggle. Luckily for him - and Daniel he supposed - her added weight was negligible in the face of the solid mass of muscle currently bearing down on him in the form of Teal’c.
“You know, I think it’s against regs to order your 2IC into a puppy pile,” Daniel remarked dryly. He was no longer fighting to free himself from the combined burden of his team, and Jack was impressed to note only the slightest bit of strain in his voice.
“Oh, yeah,” Jack told him cheerfully, “I’m sure that’s not the only reg this breaks.”
Daniel gave a genuine bark of laughter. “True. On the off chance it’s not too late to stop this madness from spreading, I'd like to point out that this isn’t what the base shrink had in mind when she said I needed to feel grounded in my new body.”
“No?” Jack said, feigning surprise. “Well, we do things a little unconventionally here on SG-1.”
“Yes, I remember,” Daniel’s tone suggested annoyance, but his eyes were filled with mirth and his body was fully relaxed despite the extra burden on top of him. As Jack lay in the untidy heap of his team, he concentrated on the feel of them grounding him to this alien world and this bubble of time, grounding Daniel to it - to them - as well. Relishing in the steady beat of Daniel’s heart and the slightly strained in and out of the breathing beneath him, Jack decided that maybe he wasn’t too old for this after all.
“Yanno,” Jack mused aloud, “This was a great idea; we should make it a new SG-1 tradition.”
Three kinds of laughter followed his announcement - each unique but blending together into the sweet sound of home.
***
The complete list of my Stargate fiction can be found
here.