First Day: An SPD-SG1 crossover story
Title: First Day
Rating: PG13
Summary: Obvious from the title really. :)
Dr. Elizabeth ‘Z’ Delgado felt like banging her head off her desk and it wasn’t even ten o’clock in the morning yet. She just knew that today was going to be one of those days. To start with, her alarm clock had somehow failed to go off, which had left her sprinting through her shower, slamming the door to her apartment, grabbing breakfast from Subway and hightailing it into the Mountain, thanking her lucky stars that they weren’t due to go off world today. She barely made it to the briefing about the previous day’s events on time and the only thing that improved her temper slightly was the fact that Captain ‘I have a stick up my ass’ Tate was later than she was, a highly unusual event.
He stalked into the room and sat down with every bit of dignity he could muster. Jack followed him in, wearing the same blue uniform Tate was wearing and not looking much happier than his new husband was. Jack took the seat next to Sky, but they steadfastly avoided looking at each other and she wondered what had gone so wrong already that that was the case. Last she’d seen, Sky was starting to accept the fact that he was essentially married now. As the captain didn’t say anything however, simply glowering at the wall instead, her curiosity had to remain unsatisfied.
***
“Delgado, do you have a minute?”
Z looked up from the ton of paperwork on her desk and stared at the tall figure standing in the lab’s doorway. Did it look like she had a minute? “Not really. What do you want?”
“First of all, can you please try to explain the concept of the locker room to Jack? He doesn’t get it and he won’t go in there if there’s other people inside and secondly, I know it’s short notice, but can you put together a brief on the Hcetwen for me?”
Z stared at him in disbelief, did he have any idea what he was asking? “Sure, what else? The blood of my firstborn?”
Tate shot her one of his scowls. “That’s it. Can I get that brief as soon as possible please? Thanks.” Not even waiting for a reply, he left the door to go god knows where. Resisting the urge to go after her team leader and give him a piece of her mind for dumping this on her when she had her own work to do, she forced herself to remain in her seat and concentrate on the tablet she was supposed to be translating. Doctor Jackson wanted it finished as soon as possible and right now she was more inclined to finish that before putting together a Hcetwen brief.
She frowned to herself. Why would Tate want that?
***
Three hours, one blinding headache, multiple interruptions and ten stiff fingers later, Z sat back from the laptop screen and rolled her neck on her shoulders. She needed a break. And Coffee. She needed coffee. The phone on the wall rang shrilly and she jumped before making her way over. “Delgado.”
“Dr, can you come to the training room, please?”
She groaned as Tate’s voice came over the line. Now what?
“Why?”
“Just get down here and you’ll find out,” Sky snapped before the line went dead and she groaned again. So much for her break.
Arriving at the training room her team had staked out as ‘theirs’, it was to find an irritated-looking Tate and an equally unhappy looking Jack, both of them in training gear, Sky’s dogtags back around his neck. “Well, I’m here. What’s so important you had to drag me out the lab?” She deliberately didn’t mention she’d been about to go on a break.
“Can you please explain to him the concept of self-defence?” Sky asked, voice tight with frustration. “He’s not co-operating.”
“It’s not part of his culture, Sky,” she said pointedly.
“I know that,” he replied, just as snarkily. “But he needs to know this.”
She studied him carefully, something about his more tightly wound than usual posture breaking through her irritation. “Why is this so important to you?” she asked and for a moment she didn’t think she’d get an answer, her team leader’s expression tightening further.
“Because if there’s trouble I can take care of myself, but Jack’s never had to fight.” Sky’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “He needs to know how to defend himself.”
He really cares about him. The realisation hit her like a thunderbolt and a number of other things started to fall into place, like why Sky wanted the Hcetwen brief. It could just be Sky seeing Jack as his responsibility, but it seemed like more than that. He really wants this to work. And not because of the treaty either. In the less than twenty four hours they’d been married, it seemed that Sky had gotten inextricably involved with the other man and she was at a loss to understand how that had happened. Still, it showed a more human side to her team leader and far be it from her to discourage that, so she moved across the room and began the attempt to persuade Jack to take these lessons. There was a beautiful sense of irony to the fact it took an alien to get Sky to act like a human being instead of the perfect soldier mask he usually wore. Almost like something out of Ancient Greek satires.
She knew why Sky was worried - the military wasn’t exactly welcoming of homosexuality and that extended even here, to the SGC. Until now, she would have placed Sky squarely in the same group with all the other small minded people who couldn’t appreciate that attraction and love came in all varieties, his hard-headed and sometimes narrow-minded approach to things seeming to be a surefire pointer in that direction, but apparently she’d been wrong and she felt the tiniest bit guilty about underestimating him like that. As she left, Jack reluctantly seeing her point and even more reluctantly agreeing to the training, she was surprised by the soft ‘thanks’ that reached her ears as she walked past her team leader and she thought that maybe she’d get that brief done a bit quicker than she’d originally planned.
***
Dinner that evening was taken on base and she was left with babysitting duty, both Tate and Drew involved with some military thing and Bridge was in one of the science labs, completely oblivious to the outside world. As Jack was, for the time being at least, the responsibility of the entire team, that left her to keep him out of trouble. Truth be told though, she wasn’t too upset about that. Jack was better company than most of the guys she knew, despite being from another planet (literally) and it gave her an opportunity to both get to know him better and learn more about his people, always a bonus.
***
“How was the lesson?”
Jack looked across the table at the dark-haired woman and smiled slightly. “It was alright.” It had been more than alright, if he was honest with himself. While he and his pair-bonded hadn’t exactly got off to a good start this morning, not helped by the fact that he couldn’t leave this building or go anywhere by himself, his day had remarkably improved once he’d understood the purpose behind his pair-bonded’s attempt to attack him. The woman’s explanation had made a lot of sense and he’d been ridiculously pleased that his husband was that concerned. Despite the uneasy start to their new relationship, this was a good indicator that maybe this would work after all. And he wasn’t complaining about being that close to the other man either.
The woman, ‘Zee’ smiled a little, no doubt guessing the direction of his thoughts. “No complaints then?”
He shook his head, smile still on his face. “No.”
“So… what do you think of him? I mean, you are kind of stuck with each other.”
Jack paused, trying to decide how best to answer that. He liked this woman, most of the time anyway, but she and Sky didn’t seem to be very friendly and he was unsure of how anything he said would be used. In the end he settled for a smile and didn’t say anything. Silence couldn’t really be misconstrued, it was a clear indicator that he didn’t want to talk about anything so personal. “You don’t seem to like him very much,” he said eventually and it was her turn to pause.
“It’s not so much him as what he represents,” she said finally. “Although on a personal level we don’t always see eye-to-eye on things, no.”
Jack raised an eyebrow, encouraging her to continue. The more he could learn about this planet the better. “What does he represent?”
She gave him a half-smile. “Military. People who carry weapons,” she clarified at his blank look.
“You carry them,” he said. How was that different?
“Because I have to, especially when I go off world. I’d be a liability to the team if I didn’t.” She sighed and her forehead wrinkled as she tried to explain herself. “The military is a large group of people whose responsibility is to protect their country, their tribe, and I don’t have a problem with that, it’s more how they go about it.” Her mother had been a child of the sixties and very anti-military, an ethos she had ingrained in her daughter. It was a way of thinking that hadn’t disappeared with her joining the SGC either, but it had been outweighed by the opportunity to visit other planets and learn about cultures more diverse than she’d ever imagined.
Jack frowned, the former part of her statement holding his attention more. “I’m keeping you from going off world, aren’t I?”
Zee frowned. “I don’t follow.”
“You can’t go through the Chappa’ai with me along because I’d be a liability.”
Zee sat back in her chair. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she said thoughtfully. “We weren’t supposed to go off world today anyway, so it never occurred to me.” She sat forward, her hands resting on the table. “I know that you and Sky are pair-bonded now and everything, which means you can’t be separated for at least five years, but how is that defined? I mean, you clearly don’t have to spend every waking minute with each other, so what defines separation?”
Jack sat back in his seat. “I don’t know. It’s not like this has happened before.”
Dark eyebrows shot up. “You’re the first person to marry an off-worlder?”
He shook his head. “No, but it is rare, and the few that do are usually involved in trade with other tribes, other worlds. There’s little room for separation in either respect, marrying within the tribe or into another, no matter where that tribe comes from. That or they’re rebelling and are usually expelled from the tribe. This,” he gestured round the room, “is very different. I don’t how it works here.”
“Okay, well, think of off world missions as journeys. Does that count as separation, if Sky goes and you don’t?” Jack nodded and Zee frowned. “That might cause problems.”
Jack sighed inwardly, now there was a surprise. Everything about his being here was causing problems, not least for him and his pair-bonded. Back home, he’d always known growing up that one day he would be married, probably to secure the future of the tribe and it had never bothered him. He just hadn’t expected to marry an off-worlder, especially one so different, one that left him so off-balance. It didn’t help that his body was more than interested, especially when he and Sky were as close as they had been this morning and anything physical was out of the question, neither of them ready for that quite yet.
The night before had been awkward. His pair-bonded had seemed to determined to give up his bed for the night and he was just as determined that Sky shouldn’t. In the end they’d compromised, sharing the bed but sleeping as far apart as the narrow frame would let them. When morning came round however, it seemed that all their efforts had been in vain, as they woke up wrapped round each other, with all the inevitable reactions. The uncomfortable atmosphere wasn’t helped by the repetition of the previous evening in the bathing room and it had taken a while for them to start communicating again, not that that was easy anyway. On the plus side though, he thought he’d learned a few more less than savoury expressions and that amused him more than it probably should. He wondered if he should drop them into conversations at random, just to see what reaction he’d get, then decided against it. For the moment at least.
His distraction was interrupted by the quiet sigh from the woman sitting opposite him. “I suppose we’ll just have to wait until we hear something from General Hammond.” Jack frowned at the unfamiliar word, then decided it was most likely a title of some kind for the bald Elder that seemed to be in charge of this place and he nodded. As with his tribe, all major decisions had to be made by the Chieftain and his being here would no doubt mean the Elder would have a lot of decisions to make. He just hoped that at some point he got to leave this depressing building with all its people staring at him.
***
Z noticed Jack’s unease, the way he shifted uncomfortably and steadfastly wouldn’t look at anyone but her. She glanced across the room and stared down the marines studying Jack warily and she nodded in satisfaction as they looked away. She was known for having a sharp tongue and she wasn’t afraid to use it.
“Don’t let them get to you,” she said softly. “Once they get used to you being here, they’ll back off.” Jack gave her a tight smile, but didn’t say anything. “Do you want to go somewhere else? Somewhere there’s not so many people?”
Jack gave her a grateful look. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
***
Jack sank onto the bed in Sky’s room, massaging his temples, glad that the day was over. As far as first days went this one could have been a lot worse, he supposed. He hadn’t seen much of Sky after their morning ‘tray-ning’ and he wasn’t sure if that meant his pair-bonded was avoiding him, not a good sign, or if he had truly been busy. Or a combination of the two. At least the day had been productive though, despite the absence of his pair-bonded. Dr. Zee had started teaching him the basics of her language, working in the oral tradition as he was more familiar with that - and he thought he’d made a decent amount of progress for his first lesson although he wasn’t naïve enough to think this would be *easy*.
With all the information parading round inside his head, it was no wonder it felt like it was about to split apart, and that wasn’t even considering the culture clash simply being here resulted in, causing his head to throb even more as the reality of his situation sank in. He wouldn’t be going home for a very long time and he swallowed hard against the sudden surge of homesickness that welled up in his chest, making his eyes and throat burn. It was at that moment naturally that Sky walked in, standing awkwardly just inside the door.
Jack gave him a hesitant smile, or at least as much of a smile as he could manage right now and Sky responded with a half-smile and then frowned, his eyes narrowing and Jack wondered what was wrong. How could things go wrong that fast? He stared as Sky walked over to the small table and pulled a box out of one of the drawers. He poked at it a couple of times, then handed over two tiny, circular things and Jack stared at them in confusion. What were they? Sky handed him a cup of water and mimed eating, then tapped Jack’s head gently. Oh. They were for his head? Would they make it stop feeling like his skull had been hit with a hammer? Staring at the white things for another moment, he cautiously put them in his mouth and took the cup of water. Choking slightly, the small circle things still went down and oh. Sky was rubbing his shoulders gently. That felt nice.
The gentle touch stopped and he tried not to feel too disappointed. Despite early indicators that Sky was coming round to the situation, he still didn’t seem very… open. He was one of the most reserved people Jack had ever met, particularly since his own people were very open about they felt at any given moment, and it would take work learning to read him, especially considering they weren’t exactly brilliant at communicating. Oh, they were doing okay so far, and apart from this morning there hadn’t been anything they hadn’t been able to get across *somehow*, but he wished they could communicate better, it would make everything else so much easier.
Jack sighed softly. He knew this wasn’t something Sky had wanted, not that he had either, but they were both going to have to live with it and their communication would need to improve drastically. There was so much he didn’t know about his pair-bonded. He bit his lip as a horrible thought occurred to him. Had Sky had a lover before this? They hadn’t thought to ask before the ceremony and if there was someone else… He sighed again and shifted uneasily on the bed. The others hadn’t said anything about Sky being promised to someone else, and the only image in the room was that of Sky and his father. Did that mean there wasn’t anyone else or just that Sky didn’t have those pictures on display?
But Sky didn’t seem like the kind of person who would let himself be kissed by someone else if he already had a lover, nor sleep in the same bed with someone who wasn’t that lover. Sky’s behaviour so far didn’t indicate there was someone he was involved with but… he stood abruptly, determined to shake off his thoughts. If Sky had been involved with someone he’d find out soon enough and until then he’d continue as if the possibility had never occurred to him.
Sky tugged gently on his wrist, pulling him back down on the bed. His pair-bonded’s expression was confused and despite his decision a moment ago, Jack’s resolve disappeared. He had to know. It was important. He ignored the flare of what was most definitely not jealousy and turned so he and Sky were facing each other. Hesitating a moment, he then gestured between the two of them and waited until Sky nodded, confused expression not wavering. He took a quick, bracing breath and placed a finger on Sky’s chest before pulling it back and twirling it slightly in question.
Sky frowned and Jack repeated the gesture insistently until the other man’s expression cleared. Much to his relief Sky shook his head. So, no complications there at least. Good.
As they quickly got ready for bed, repeating the arrangement of the previous night, Jack let himself lean a little into Sky this time and after a brief moment of tensing up, Sky relaxed. Smiling to himself, Jack closed his eyes and waited for sleep to come. This might be something neither of them had wanted, but so far… it was going okay.
Rating: PG13
Summary: Obvious from the title really. :)
Dr. Elizabeth ‘Z’ Delgado felt like banging her head off her desk and it wasn’t even ten o’clock in the morning yet. She just knew that today was going to be one of those days. To start with, her alarm clock had somehow failed to go off, which had left her sprinting through her shower, slamming the door to her apartment, grabbing breakfast from Subway and hightailing it into the Mountain, thanking her lucky stars that they weren’t due to go off world today. She barely made it to the briefing about the previous day’s events on time and the only thing that improved her temper slightly was the fact that Captain ‘I have a stick up my ass’ Tate was later than she was, a highly unusual event.
He stalked into the room and sat down with every bit of dignity he could muster. Jack followed him in, wearing the same blue uniform Tate was wearing and not looking much happier than his new husband was. Jack took the seat next to Sky, but they steadfastly avoided looking at each other and she wondered what had gone so wrong already that that was the case. Last she’d seen, Sky was starting to accept the fact that he was essentially married now. As the captain didn’t say anything however, simply glowering at the wall instead, her curiosity had to remain unsatisfied.
***
“Delgado, do you have a minute?”
Z looked up from the ton of paperwork on her desk and stared at the tall figure standing in the lab’s doorway. Did it look like she had a minute? “Not really. What do you want?”
“First of all, can you please try to explain the concept of the locker room to Jack? He doesn’t get it and he won’t go in there if there’s other people inside and secondly, I know it’s short notice, but can you put together a brief on the Hcetwen for me?”
Z stared at him in disbelief, did he have any idea what he was asking? “Sure, what else? The blood of my firstborn?”
Tate shot her one of his scowls. “That’s it. Can I get that brief as soon as possible please? Thanks.” Not even waiting for a reply, he left the door to go god knows where. Resisting the urge to go after her team leader and give him a piece of her mind for dumping this on her when she had her own work to do, she forced herself to remain in her seat and concentrate on the tablet she was supposed to be translating. Doctor Jackson wanted it finished as soon as possible and right now she was more inclined to finish that before putting together a Hcetwen brief.
She frowned to herself. Why would Tate want that?
***
Three hours, one blinding headache, multiple interruptions and ten stiff fingers later, Z sat back from the laptop screen and rolled her neck on her shoulders. She needed a break. And Coffee. She needed coffee. The phone on the wall rang shrilly and she jumped before making her way over. “Delgado.”
“Dr, can you come to the training room, please?”
She groaned as Tate’s voice came over the line. Now what?
“Why?”
“Just get down here and you’ll find out,” Sky snapped before the line went dead and she groaned again. So much for her break.
Arriving at the training room her team had staked out as ‘theirs’, it was to find an irritated-looking Tate and an equally unhappy looking Jack, both of them in training gear, Sky’s dogtags back around his neck. “Well, I’m here. What’s so important you had to drag me out the lab?” She deliberately didn’t mention she’d been about to go on a break.
“Can you please explain to him the concept of self-defence?” Sky asked, voice tight with frustration. “He’s not co-operating.”
“It’s not part of his culture, Sky,” she said pointedly.
“I know that,” he replied, just as snarkily. “But he needs to know this.”
She studied him carefully, something about his more tightly wound than usual posture breaking through her irritation. “Why is this so important to you?” she asked and for a moment she didn’t think she’d get an answer, her team leader’s expression tightening further.
“Because if there’s trouble I can take care of myself, but Jack’s never had to fight.” Sky’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “He needs to know how to defend himself.”
He really cares about him. The realisation hit her like a thunderbolt and a number of other things started to fall into place, like why Sky wanted the Hcetwen brief. It could just be Sky seeing Jack as his responsibility, but it seemed like more than that. He really wants this to work. And not because of the treaty either. In the less than twenty four hours they’d been married, it seemed that Sky had gotten inextricably involved with the other man and she was at a loss to understand how that had happened. Still, it showed a more human side to her team leader and far be it from her to discourage that, so she moved across the room and began the attempt to persuade Jack to take these lessons. There was a beautiful sense of irony to the fact it took an alien to get Sky to act like a human being instead of the perfect soldier mask he usually wore. Almost like something out of Ancient Greek satires.
She knew why Sky was worried - the military wasn’t exactly welcoming of homosexuality and that extended even here, to the SGC. Until now, she would have placed Sky squarely in the same group with all the other small minded people who couldn’t appreciate that attraction and love came in all varieties, his hard-headed and sometimes narrow-minded approach to things seeming to be a surefire pointer in that direction, but apparently she’d been wrong and she felt the tiniest bit guilty about underestimating him like that. As she left, Jack reluctantly seeing her point and even more reluctantly agreeing to the training, she was surprised by the soft ‘thanks’ that reached her ears as she walked past her team leader and she thought that maybe she’d get that brief done a bit quicker than she’d originally planned.
***
Dinner that evening was taken on base and she was left with babysitting duty, both Tate and Drew involved with some military thing and Bridge was in one of the science labs, completely oblivious to the outside world. As Jack was, for the time being at least, the responsibility of the entire team, that left her to keep him out of trouble. Truth be told though, she wasn’t too upset about that. Jack was better company than most of the guys she knew, despite being from another planet (literally) and it gave her an opportunity to both get to know him better and learn more about his people, always a bonus.
***
“How was the lesson?”
Jack looked across the table at the dark-haired woman and smiled slightly. “It was alright.” It had been more than alright, if he was honest with himself. While he and his pair-bonded hadn’t exactly got off to a good start this morning, not helped by the fact that he couldn’t leave this building or go anywhere by himself, his day had remarkably improved once he’d understood the purpose behind his pair-bonded’s attempt to attack him. The woman’s explanation had made a lot of sense and he’d been ridiculously pleased that his husband was that concerned. Despite the uneasy start to their new relationship, this was a good indicator that maybe this would work after all. And he wasn’t complaining about being that close to the other man either.
The woman, ‘Zee’ smiled a little, no doubt guessing the direction of his thoughts. “No complaints then?”
He shook his head, smile still on his face. “No.”
“So… what do you think of him? I mean, you are kind of stuck with each other.”
Jack paused, trying to decide how best to answer that. He liked this woman, most of the time anyway, but she and Sky didn’t seem to be very friendly and he was unsure of how anything he said would be used. In the end he settled for a smile and didn’t say anything. Silence couldn’t really be misconstrued, it was a clear indicator that he didn’t want to talk about anything so personal. “You don’t seem to like him very much,” he said eventually and it was her turn to pause.
“It’s not so much him as what he represents,” she said finally. “Although on a personal level we don’t always see eye-to-eye on things, no.”
Jack raised an eyebrow, encouraging her to continue. The more he could learn about this planet the better. “What does he represent?”
She gave him a half-smile. “Military. People who carry weapons,” she clarified at his blank look.
“You carry them,” he said. How was that different?
“Because I have to, especially when I go off world. I’d be a liability to the team if I didn’t.” She sighed and her forehead wrinkled as she tried to explain herself. “The military is a large group of people whose responsibility is to protect their country, their tribe, and I don’t have a problem with that, it’s more how they go about it.” Her mother had been a child of the sixties and very anti-military, an ethos she had ingrained in her daughter. It was a way of thinking that hadn’t disappeared with her joining the SGC either, but it had been outweighed by the opportunity to visit other planets and learn about cultures more diverse than she’d ever imagined.
Jack frowned, the former part of her statement holding his attention more. “I’m keeping you from going off world, aren’t I?”
Zee frowned. “I don’t follow.”
“You can’t go through the Chappa’ai with me along because I’d be a liability.”
Zee sat back in her chair. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she said thoughtfully. “We weren’t supposed to go off world today anyway, so it never occurred to me.” She sat forward, her hands resting on the table. “I know that you and Sky are pair-bonded now and everything, which means you can’t be separated for at least five years, but how is that defined? I mean, you clearly don’t have to spend every waking minute with each other, so what defines separation?”
Jack sat back in his seat. “I don’t know. It’s not like this has happened before.”
Dark eyebrows shot up. “You’re the first person to marry an off-worlder?”
He shook his head. “No, but it is rare, and the few that do are usually involved in trade with other tribes, other worlds. There’s little room for separation in either respect, marrying within the tribe or into another, no matter where that tribe comes from. That or they’re rebelling and are usually expelled from the tribe. This,” he gestured round the room, “is very different. I don’t how it works here.”
“Okay, well, think of off world missions as journeys. Does that count as separation, if Sky goes and you don’t?” Jack nodded and Zee frowned. “That might cause problems.”
Jack sighed inwardly, now there was a surprise. Everything about his being here was causing problems, not least for him and his pair-bonded. Back home, he’d always known growing up that one day he would be married, probably to secure the future of the tribe and it had never bothered him. He just hadn’t expected to marry an off-worlder, especially one so different, one that left him so off-balance. It didn’t help that his body was more than interested, especially when he and Sky were as close as they had been this morning and anything physical was out of the question, neither of them ready for that quite yet.
The night before had been awkward. His pair-bonded had seemed to determined to give up his bed for the night and he was just as determined that Sky shouldn’t. In the end they’d compromised, sharing the bed but sleeping as far apart as the narrow frame would let them. When morning came round however, it seemed that all their efforts had been in vain, as they woke up wrapped round each other, with all the inevitable reactions. The uncomfortable atmosphere wasn’t helped by the repetition of the previous evening in the bathing room and it had taken a while for them to start communicating again, not that that was easy anyway. On the plus side though, he thought he’d learned a few more less than savoury expressions and that amused him more than it probably should. He wondered if he should drop them into conversations at random, just to see what reaction he’d get, then decided against it. For the moment at least.
His distraction was interrupted by the quiet sigh from the woman sitting opposite him. “I suppose we’ll just have to wait until we hear something from General Hammond.” Jack frowned at the unfamiliar word, then decided it was most likely a title of some kind for the bald Elder that seemed to be in charge of this place and he nodded. As with his tribe, all major decisions had to be made by the Chieftain and his being here would no doubt mean the Elder would have a lot of decisions to make. He just hoped that at some point he got to leave this depressing building with all its people staring at him.
***
Z noticed Jack’s unease, the way he shifted uncomfortably and steadfastly wouldn’t look at anyone but her. She glanced across the room and stared down the marines studying Jack warily and she nodded in satisfaction as they looked away. She was known for having a sharp tongue and she wasn’t afraid to use it.
“Don’t let them get to you,” she said softly. “Once they get used to you being here, they’ll back off.” Jack gave her a tight smile, but didn’t say anything. “Do you want to go somewhere else? Somewhere there’s not so many people?”
Jack gave her a grateful look. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
***
Jack sank onto the bed in Sky’s room, massaging his temples, glad that the day was over. As far as first days went this one could have been a lot worse, he supposed. He hadn’t seen much of Sky after their morning ‘tray-ning’ and he wasn’t sure if that meant his pair-bonded was avoiding him, not a good sign, or if he had truly been busy. Or a combination of the two. At least the day had been productive though, despite the absence of his pair-bonded. Dr. Zee had started teaching him the basics of her language, working in the oral tradition as he was more familiar with that - and he thought he’d made a decent amount of progress for his first lesson although he wasn’t naïve enough to think this would be *easy*.
With all the information parading round inside his head, it was no wonder it felt like it was about to split apart, and that wasn’t even considering the culture clash simply being here resulted in, causing his head to throb even more as the reality of his situation sank in. He wouldn’t be going home for a very long time and he swallowed hard against the sudden surge of homesickness that welled up in his chest, making his eyes and throat burn. It was at that moment naturally that Sky walked in, standing awkwardly just inside the door.
Jack gave him a hesitant smile, or at least as much of a smile as he could manage right now and Sky responded with a half-smile and then frowned, his eyes narrowing and Jack wondered what was wrong. How could things go wrong that fast? He stared as Sky walked over to the small table and pulled a box out of one of the drawers. He poked at it a couple of times, then handed over two tiny, circular things and Jack stared at them in confusion. What were they? Sky handed him a cup of water and mimed eating, then tapped Jack’s head gently. Oh. They were for his head? Would they make it stop feeling like his skull had been hit with a hammer? Staring at the white things for another moment, he cautiously put them in his mouth and took the cup of water. Choking slightly, the small circle things still went down and oh. Sky was rubbing his shoulders gently. That felt nice.
The gentle touch stopped and he tried not to feel too disappointed. Despite early indicators that Sky was coming round to the situation, he still didn’t seem very… open. He was one of the most reserved people Jack had ever met, particularly since his own people were very open about they felt at any given moment, and it would take work learning to read him, especially considering they weren’t exactly brilliant at communicating. Oh, they were doing okay so far, and apart from this morning there hadn’t been anything they hadn’t been able to get across *somehow*, but he wished they could communicate better, it would make everything else so much easier.
Jack sighed softly. He knew this wasn’t something Sky had wanted, not that he had either, but they were both going to have to live with it and their communication would need to improve drastically. There was so much he didn’t know about his pair-bonded. He bit his lip as a horrible thought occurred to him. Had Sky had a lover before this? They hadn’t thought to ask before the ceremony and if there was someone else… He sighed again and shifted uneasily on the bed. The others hadn’t said anything about Sky being promised to someone else, and the only image in the room was that of Sky and his father. Did that mean there wasn’t anyone else or just that Sky didn’t have those pictures on display?
But Sky didn’t seem like the kind of person who would let himself be kissed by someone else if he already had a lover, nor sleep in the same bed with someone who wasn’t that lover. Sky’s behaviour so far didn’t indicate there was someone he was involved with but… he stood abruptly, determined to shake off his thoughts. If Sky had been involved with someone he’d find out soon enough and until then he’d continue as if the possibility had never occurred to him.
Sky tugged gently on his wrist, pulling him back down on the bed. His pair-bonded’s expression was confused and despite his decision a moment ago, Jack’s resolve disappeared. He had to know. It was important. He ignored the flare of what was most definitely not jealousy and turned so he and Sky were facing each other. Hesitating a moment, he then gestured between the two of them and waited until Sky nodded, confused expression not wavering. He took a quick, bracing breath and placed a finger on Sky’s chest before pulling it back and twirling it slightly in question.
Sky frowned and Jack repeated the gesture insistently until the other man’s expression cleared. Much to his relief Sky shook his head. So, no complications there at least. Good.
As they quickly got ready for bed, repeating the arrangement of the previous night, Jack let himself lean a little into Sky this time and after a brief moment of tensing up, Sky relaxed. Smiling to himself, Jack closed his eyes and waited for sleep to come. This might be something neither of them had wanted, but so far… it was going okay.