'Customary', Sha're/Daniel/Jack, rated R, for the Gateverse OT3+ ficathon
Written for these prompts: Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill/Sha're: an untraditional happy ending; what if Jack had stayed on Abydos after the movie?
2,120 words, rated R for nudity and innuendo.
Notes: I've gone with the series spellings for names, but the reader should feel free to picture whichever set of actors they choose. One thing is definitely movie-verse: the Abydonians don't speak English.
Thank you to
princessofgeeks for her encouragement and petting and beta reading. *smooches*
CUSTOMARY
Jack stands tall, returning the salute from Ferretti, who has paused in front of the shimmer of blue that leads to the planet Jack formerly called home. Ferretti steps through, the puddle rippling around him, and it’s Kawalsky’s turn now, his face solemn as he salutes Jack. When his arm drops, he gives Jack a last nod - a promise. Then with a final grin and a general wave, he’s gone.
The event horizon closes. Jack exhales. Jackson’s hand clasps his shoulder.
They’ll report that Jack stayed behind to detonate the nuke. That was his assignment. Nobody should question it. Nobody who counts, anyway.
”Go see Sara,” Jack had told Kawalsky, quietly, privately. “Tell her the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” He could leave her (if she hadn’t already left him first), but he couldn’t leave her to face another death alone.
“She’s gonna have questions, Jack. How the hell am I supposed to answer them?”
Jack shook his head. “Don’t even try. Just tell her it’s all Aunt Mary’s umbrella.”
Kawalsky’s face said, ‘What the fuck?’
“She’ll know. It’s something her mom used to say when something was a complete load of bullshit. ‘My Aunt Mary’s umbrella.’”
“Geez.” Kawalsky’s face crinkled as he chuckled.
“Just tell her that.” Jack took a deep breath. “Tell her to let it go. Tell her she won’t be seeing me again. Tell her… I hope….”
Kawalsky laid a hand on Jack’s arm. “I know. I’ll tell her.” His eyes were compassionate, and Jack had to turn away before he choked.
~~~~
Jack’s always been good at languages, but he’d never expected to have to be this good. Daniel holds formal classes and countless, ceaseless informal ones. He’d think Daniel was in his element, but Jack realizes there are about ninety-two other things Daniel would like to be doing at any given moment, what with this whole spiffy new/ancient culture to explore; he also realizes that the classes are mostly for his benefit.
Sha’re helps Jack, too, teaching him words or sending someone running for Daniel when communication fails. Jack is family now, part of Kasuf’s household. He didn’t ask for that, or expect it, but Daniel told him it was customary (how could anything under these bizarre circumstances be customary) and that Jack couldn’t possibly refuse.
He hadn’t refused. He’d barely resisted. “So where do I fit into all this?” he asked Daniel. “Are you my cousin now, or what?”
Daniel told him he’d let him know when he figured it out.
Daniel’s helpful that way, Jack’s learning.
~~~~
Sha’re’s blooming, and Daniel’s blossoming like this desert existence is supplying him with more life-sustaining water than he’s had in years.
Jack hears them sometimes in the night and aches for Sara. He doesn’t get homesick, much. Charlie’s always with him, but the heartbreak sometimes seems far away now. He has work, he has purpose, he can help these people, help Daniel. Build and re-build. Most nights he’s exhausted, most nights he sleeps well.
Sara is in his dreams on the nights he doesn’t.
Daniel comes into his dreams, and comes to him in his dreams more and more as time passes. Some mornings Jack has trouble looking him in the eye.
He fails to realize that some mornings Daniel’s having a similar problem.
But when Sha’re starts giving him sideways glances and shy smiles while her cheeks flush dusky red, he can’t help noticing.
After all, the rumors of his death, etc., etc.
He wakes before dawn one day, warm and sticky, gasping, his mind filled with the dream image of Sha’re guiding him toward her mouth while staring up at him….
Okay. Maybe it’s time to pack his tent, so to speak, and move to some other part of the village. Jack lies there and pictures how the conversation would go if he were to even suggest it. Kasuf would absolutely forbid it, Skaara would look confused and hurt, Daniel would be outraged on Kasuf’s behalf and pissed off on his own - although he’d undoubtedly be even more outraged and pissed off if he knew the real reason - and Sha’re….
Jack rolls over and bites his wrist. One stupid dream. Not worth breaking up a family over. Not worth losing the simple pleasure of having a woman look at him with affection and warmth and maybe appreciation. She doesn’t mean anything by it - she can’t. She would never hurt Daniel. She loves him. Anybody can see that.
Jack would never hurt him, either. Hopefully nobody can see that.
~~~~
“Good Son.”
Jack keeps eating.
“Good Son.”
Jack glances at Kasuf. Kasuf is looking at him.
Confused, Jack looks at Daniel. Daniel is staring down at his food, mouth open, tongue pressing down against his lower lip.
“Sha’re has prepared a kana fruit for you.”
Jack looks at Kasuf again, cautiously, and wonders if he might not have spent too much time in the hot sun today, because something’s not making sense here. And then he sees Sha’re, kneeling just behind and to the left of her father, holding a cloth covered dish. A peeled and quartered kana fruit nestles in the cloth.
Kasuf is smiling, nodding. “You accept?” He’s already twisting to his side, and Sha’re is stretching forward, putting the dish into her father’s hands.
Jack shoots a panicked look in Daniel’s direction. Daniel bites his lip, releases it, licks it. Doesn’t look up. Is turning an interesting shade of red beneath his tan.
Holy….
Kasuf is beaming, the other men sharing the evening meal are buzzing and humming like bees in a hive, Sha’re is raising her gaze but stops shy of meeting Jack’s. She may be looking at his mouth, actually, which is very dry. Very. A nice kana fruit might be just the thing to help with that.
Besides, Jack is getting the feeling that this is another of those things that he can’t possibly refuse.
“Thank you,” he says. He reaches out and his Good Father places Sha’re’s offering into his hands.
~~~~
Later that night Daniel, who’s managed to avoid him since dinner, brings a jug of heated, scented water and a small stack of cloths to Jack’s little partitioned corner of Kasuf’s compound.
“Hello,” Jack says mildly, not rising from the small crate stamped USAF that he uses as a chair.
‘Hello,” Daniel responds cautiously.
“So, not cousins?”
“Ah, no.”
“Co-husbands? Wanna tell me how this works?”
Daniel blinks nervously. “Can I explain while I wash you?”
Jack is struck speechless.
Daniel kneels before Jack and shakes out a clean cloth, dips it into the water.
“One of those customary things?” Jack asks weakly.
“Uh-huh.” Daniel frowns down intently at the cloth he’s wringing out.
“Daniel.”
Daniel squints up at him. “I’d like to do this for Sha’re, but I told her you might not let me.”
“Shit.” What do you say to that? Jack stands and disrobes.
Daniel takes a deep breath and begins to wash Jack’s left leg. “I want you to know first of all that I’m completely okay with this.”
“The washing?”
“Hmm. Sure. But I mean, about Sha’re.”
“Our wife.”
“Exactly. Everybody’s very happy. Sha’re, Kasuf, Skaara.” Daniel rinses the cloth and clears his throat. “Me.” He starts on the right leg.
Jack touches Daniel’s hair softly. Daniel freezes for a second, then relaxes and continues. “Everyone wants you to be happy.” He wets a fresh cloth and begins to wash Jack’s genitals.
“I think I’m going to be,” Jack says, noting how breathless he sounds. Daniel is washing him carefully, tenderly, reverently. “Is this a religious ritual?”
Daniel looks up, startled. “The washing? I suppose. It may be more of a social contract type of thing, but the two things tend to get intertwined over the years. Like wedding customs back home. Some things are part of the actual religious ceremony, but things like bridesmaids marching up the aisle and ushers seating the mothers are all part of the ritual. This may have started as just a requirement that the bridegroom be clean and developed into a welcoming gesture.” He leans back and pushes up his glasses. “Would you turn around?”
Jack turns, relieved that he hasn’t embarrassed them both by trying to poke Daniel in the eye. “You gonna be there tonight?”
“Yes.” Daniel parts Jack’s buttocks and wipes firmly with the rinsed cloth. “I’m expected to be in the bed. Sha’re will prefer it, at least for tonight. I’ll… I’ll certainly try to give you private opportunities whenever I can.”
“Likewise,” Jack hastens to say.
The second cloth hits the rug, and Daniel starts on the back of Jack’s legs with a clean one. “Sha’re wanted me to be very sure to tell you…” Daniel pauses to inhale and to dip the cloth again, “that she will be very happy to give us time alone whenever we’d like.”
“Ah,” Jack replies, inadequately, when it appears he’s expected to respond. Although another part of him has already responded, and he absolutely would be poking Daniel in the eye if he were facing the other direction.
Daniel stands, and Jack feels the warm cloth wiping the back of his neck, washing behind his ears. “It’s customary,” Daniel murmurs. Jack can hear a tremor in his voice.
“Everyone’s happy about it,” Jack says, deliberately not making it a question, but knowing that Daniel will give him his answer.
“Yes.” Daniel wipes Jack’s shoulders and down his back, using long, broad strokes of the cloth. He drops the cloth and bends to pick up another.
Jack turns to face him, showing him his own happiness.
Daniel’s tongue appears between his lips. He’s smiling as he washes Jack’s chest and belly. He rinses the cloth and Jack raises his arms so Daniel can wash beneath them. That cloth gets discarded, and the final cloth, with the last of the water, washes Jack’s face and neck as Jack watches Daniel through heavy-lidded eyes.
While Jack puts on clean robes, Daniel puts the used cloths into the basin and puts it outside for one of the women to pick up in the morning. Then he takes Jack’s face between his hands and kisses him soberly and chastely before taking his hand, squeezing it hard, and leading Jack to their marriage bed, where Sha’re waits for them.
~~~~
It’s nearly a year later when their first child is born - a beautiful girl. According to custom, Sha’re chooses her name: Nafretiri (Beautiful Creation). They think she’s probably Daniel’s; they tried to keep to a schedule based around Sha’re’s cycle, but they’d all agreed from the beginning that fundamentally it didn’t matter. And when Jack holds their newborn daughter in his arms for the first time, he knows that to be the absolute truth. Blood alone doesn’t make a family; love does.
The four of them are family, united forever. Five, six, with the in-laws. It’ll be seven if, when, they’re next blessed with a child, and eight one day when Skaara gets a little older and chooses a wife. After that, who knows?
One week later, at the conclusion of the baby’s naming ceremony, Jack learns that his arithmetic was off by one.
“Is this customary?” he asks his husband, tears streaming down his face.
“No, this is something special,” Daniel answers, sniffing and pushing up his glasses.
“It was Father’s idea,” Sha’re says, wiping at Jack’s tears with the palm of her hand. “Because you make me so happy, my husband.”
“This is… this is why you’ve been asking me all those questions about him.”
“Yes, my husband.”
Jack hugs Sha’re to him, hard, burying his face in her neck for long seconds. When he lifts his head, Kasuf is standing there with patience and love in his eyes. “This is acceptable to you, Good Son?”
Jack manages to choke out his response. “Yes, Good Father.”
And so a second ceremony begins, the one whereby Kasuf adopts Jack’s son posthumously into his family, welcoming his spirit into the household, inviting Charlie to be as one with them, promising to love him and honor his memory forever.
At a nod from Kasuf, Sha’re steps forward, holding the baby, and pledges that her daughter will hear and know all the stories her father O’Neill has to share, and will be taught to love Charlie faithfully with all her heart and for all of her life, even as Sha’re has already learned to do, and will continue faithfully to do.
Then Sha’re holds Nafretiri up and introduces her to her eternal brother.
Daniel is the only thing holding Jack up.
Charlie will always be with him, and Jack’s broken heart has finally healed.
Please reply at Dreamwidth. OpenID and anonymous comments are both enabled. http://sid.dreamwidth.org/184847.html
2,120 words, rated R for nudity and innuendo.
Notes: I've gone with the series spellings for names, but the reader should feel free to picture whichever set of actors they choose. One thing is definitely movie-verse: the Abydonians don't speak English.
Thank you to
princessofgeeks for her encouragement and petting and beta reading. *smooches*
CUSTOMARY
Jack stands tall, returning the salute from Ferretti, who has paused in front of the shimmer of blue that leads to the planet Jack formerly called home. Ferretti steps through, the puddle rippling around him, and it’s Kawalsky’s turn now, his face solemn as he salutes Jack. When his arm drops, he gives Jack a last nod - a promise. Then with a final grin and a general wave, he’s gone.
The event horizon closes. Jack exhales. Jackson’s hand clasps his shoulder.
They’ll report that Jack stayed behind to detonate the nuke. That was his assignment. Nobody should question it. Nobody who counts, anyway.
”Go see Sara,” Jack had told Kawalsky, quietly, privately. “Tell her the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” He could leave her (if she hadn’t already left him first), but he couldn’t leave her to face another death alone.
“She’s gonna have questions, Jack. How the hell am I supposed to answer them?”
Jack shook his head. “Don’t even try. Just tell her it’s all Aunt Mary’s umbrella.”
Kawalsky’s face said, ‘What the fuck?’
“She’ll know. It’s something her mom used to say when something was a complete load of bullshit. ‘My Aunt Mary’s umbrella.’”
“Geez.” Kawalsky’s face crinkled as he chuckled.
“Just tell her that.” Jack took a deep breath. “Tell her to let it go. Tell her she won’t be seeing me again. Tell her… I hope….”
Kawalsky laid a hand on Jack’s arm. “I know. I’ll tell her.” His eyes were compassionate, and Jack had to turn away before he choked.
~~~~
Jack’s always been good at languages, but he’d never expected to have to be this good. Daniel holds formal classes and countless, ceaseless informal ones. He’d think Daniel was in his element, but Jack realizes there are about ninety-two other things Daniel would like to be doing at any given moment, what with this whole spiffy new/ancient culture to explore; he also realizes that the classes are mostly for his benefit.
Sha’re helps Jack, too, teaching him words or sending someone running for Daniel when communication fails. Jack is family now, part of Kasuf’s household. He didn’t ask for that, or expect it, but Daniel told him it was customary (how could anything under these bizarre circumstances be customary) and that Jack couldn’t possibly refuse.
He hadn’t refused. He’d barely resisted. “So where do I fit into all this?” he asked Daniel. “Are you my cousin now, or what?”
Daniel told him he’d let him know when he figured it out.
Daniel’s helpful that way, Jack’s learning.
~~~~
Sha’re’s blooming, and Daniel’s blossoming like this desert existence is supplying him with more life-sustaining water than he’s had in years.
Jack hears them sometimes in the night and aches for Sara. He doesn’t get homesick, much. Charlie’s always with him, but the heartbreak sometimes seems far away now. He has work, he has purpose, he can help these people, help Daniel. Build and re-build. Most nights he’s exhausted, most nights he sleeps well.
Sara is in his dreams on the nights he doesn’t.
Daniel comes into his dreams, and comes to him in his dreams more and more as time passes. Some mornings Jack has trouble looking him in the eye.
He fails to realize that some mornings Daniel’s having a similar problem.
But when Sha’re starts giving him sideways glances and shy smiles while her cheeks flush dusky red, he can’t help noticing.
After all, the rumors of his death, etc., etc.
He wakes before dawn one day, warm and sticky, gasping, his mind filled with the dream image of Sha’re guiding him toward her mouth while staring up at him….
Okay. Maybe it’s time to pack his tent, so to speak, and move to some other part of the village. Jack lies there and pictures how the conversation would go if he were to even suggest it. Kasuf would absolutely forbid it, Skaara would look confused and hurt, Daniel would be outraged on Kasuf’s behalf and pissed off on his own - although he’d undoubtedly be even more outraged and pissed off if he knew the real reason - and Sha’re….
Jack rolls over and bites his wrist. One stupid dream. Not worth breaking up a family over. Not worth losing the simple pleasure of having a woman look at him with affection and warmth and maybe appreciation. She doesn’t mean anything by it - she can’t. She would never hurt Daniel. She loves him. Anybody can see that.
Jack would never hurt him, either. Hopefully nobody can see that.
~~~~
“Good Son.”
Jack keeps eating.
“Good Son.”
Jack glances at Kasuf. Kasuf is looking at him.
Confused, Jack looks at Daniel. Daniel is staring down at his food, mouth open, tongue pressing down against his lower lip.
“Sha’re has prepared a kana fruit for you.”
Jack looks at Kasuf again, cautiously, and wonders if he might not have spent too much time in the hot sun today, because something’s not making sense here. And then he sees Sha’re, kneeling just behind and to the left of her father, holding a cloth covered dish. A peeled and quartered kana fruit nestles in the cloth.
Kasuf is smiling, nodding. “You accept?” He’s already twisting to his side, and Sha’re is stretching forward, putting the dish into her father’s hands.
Jack shoots a panicked look in Daniel’s direction. Daniel bites his lip, releases it, licks it. Doesn’t look up. Is turning an interesting shade of red beneath his tan.
Holy….
Kasuf is beaming, the other men sharing the evening meal are buzzing and humming like bees in a hive, Sha’re is raising her gaze but stops shy of meeting Jack’s. She may be looking at his mouth, actually, which is very dry. Very. A nice kana fruit might be just the thing to help with that.
Besides, Jack is getting the feeling that this is another of those things that he can’t possibly refuse.
“Thank you,” he says. He reaches out and his Good Father places Sha’re’s offering into his hands.
~~~~
Later that night Daniel, who’s managed to avoid him since dinner, brings a jug of heated, scented water and a small stack of cloths to Jack’s little partitioned corner of Kasuf’s compound.
“Hello,” Jack says mildly, not rising from the small crate stamped USAF that he uses as a chair.
‘Hello,” Daniel responds cautiously.
“So, not cousins?”
“Ah, no.”
“Co-husbands? Wanna tell me how this works?”
Daniel blinks nervously. “Can I explain while I wash you?”
Jack is struck speechless.
Daniel kneels before Jack and shakes out a clean cloth, dips it into the water.
“One of those customary things?” Jack asks weakly.
“Uh-huh.” Daniel frowns down intently at the cloth he’s wringing out.
“Daniel.”
Daniel squints up at him. “I’d like to do this for Sha’re, but I told her you might not let me.”
“Shit.” What do you say to that? Jack stands and disrobes.
Daniel takes a deep breath and begins to wash Jack’s left leg. “I want you to know first of all that I’m completely okay with this.”
“The washing?”
“Hmm. Sure. But I mean, about Sha’re.”
“Our wife.”
“Exactly. Everybody’s very happy. Sha’re, Kasuf, Skaara.” Daniel rinses the cloth and clears his throat. “Me.” He starts on the right leg.
Jack touches Daniel’s hair softly. Daniel freezes for a second, then relaxes and continues. “Everyone wants you to be happy.” He wets a fresh cloth and begins to wash Jack’s genitals.
“I think I’m going to be,” Jack says, noting how breathless he sounds. Daniel is washing him carefully, tenderly, reverently. “Is this a religious ritual?”
Daniel looks up, startled. “The washing? I suppose. It may be more of a social contract type of thing, but the two things tend to get intertwined over the years. Like wedding customs back home. Some things are part of the actual religious ceremony, but things like bridesmaids marching up the aisle and ushers seating the mothers are all part of the ritual. This may have started as just a requirement that the bridegroom be clean and developed into a welcoming gesture.” He leans back and pushes up his glasses. “Would you turn around?”
Jack turns, relieved that he hasn’t embarrassed them both by trying to poke Daniel in the eye. “You gonna be there tonight?”
“Yes.” Daniel parts Jack’s buttocks and wipes firmly with the rinsed cloth. “I’m expected to be in the bed. Sha’re will prefer it, at least for tonight. I’ll… I’ll certainly try to give you private opportunities whenever I can.”
“Likewise,” Jack hastens to say.
The second cloth hits the rug, and Daniel starts on the back of Jack’s legs with a clean one. “Sha’re wanted me to be very sure to tell you…” Daniel pauses to inhale and to dip the cloth again, “that she will be very happy to give us time alone whenever we’d like.”
“Ah,” Jack replies, inadequately, when it appears he’s expected to respond. Although another part of him has already responded, and he absolutely would be poking Daniel in the eye if he were facing the other direction.
Daniel stands, and Jack feels the warm cloth wiping the back of his neck, washing behind his ears. “It’s customary,” Daniel murmurs. Jack can hear a tremor in his voice.
“Everyone’s happy about it,” Jack says, deliberately not making it a question, but knowing that Daniel will give him his answer.
“Yes.” Daniel wipes Jack’s shoulders and down his back, using long, broad strokes of the cloth. He drops the cloth and bends to pick up another.
Jack turns to face him, showing him his own happiness.
Daniel’s tongue appears between his lips. He’s smiling as he washes Jack’s chest and belly. He rinses the cloth and Jack raises his arms so Daniel can wash beneath them. That cloth gets discarded, and the final cloth, with the last of the water, washes Jack’s face and neck as Jack watches Daniel through heavy-lidded eyes.
While Jack puts on clean robes, Daniel puts the used cloths into the basin and puts it outside for one of the women to pick up in the morning. Then he takes Jack’s face between his hands and kisses him soberly and chastely before taking his hand, squeezing it hard, and leading Jack to their marriage bed, where Sha’re waits for them.
~~~~
It’s nearly a year later when their first child is born - a beautiful girl. According to custom, Sha’re chooses her name: Nafretiri (Beautiful Creation). They think she’s probably Daniel’s; they tried to keep to a schedule based around Sha’re’s cycle, but they’d all agreed from the beginning that fundamentally it didn’t matter. And when Jack holds their newborn daughter in his arms for the first time, he knows that to be the absolute truth. Blood alone doesn’t make a family; love does.
The four of them are family, united forever. Five, six, with the in-laws. It’ll be seven if, when, they’re next blessed with a child, and eight one day when Skaara gets a little older and chooses a wife. After that, who knows?
One week later, at the conclusion of the baby’s naming ceremony, Jack learns that his arithmetic was off by one.
“Is this customary?” he asks his husband, tears streaming down his face.
“No, this is something special,” Daniel answers, sniffing and pushing up his glasses.
“It was Father’s idea,” Sha’re says, wiping at Jack’s tears with the palm of her hand. “Because you make me so happy, my husband.”
“This is… this is why you’ve been asking me all those questions about him.”
“Yes, my husband.”
Jack hugs Sha’re to him, hard, burying his face in her neck for long seconds. When he lifts his head, Kasuf is standing there with patience and love in his eyes. “This is acceptable to you, Good Son?”
Jack manages to choke out his response. “Yes, Good Father.”
And so a second ceremony begins, the one whereby Kasuf adopts Jack’s son posthumously into his family, welcoming his spirit into the household, inviting Charlie to be as one with them, promising to love him and honor his memory forever.
At a nod from Kasuf, Sha’re steps forward, holding the baby, and pledges that her daughter will hear and know all the stories her father O’Neill has to share, and will be taught to love Charlie faithfully with all her heart and for all of her life, even as Sha’re has already learned to do, and will continue faithfully to do.
Then Sha’re holds Nafretiri up and introduces her to her eternal brother.
Daniel is the only thing holding Jack up.
Charlie will always be with him, and Jack’s broken heart has finally healed.
Please reply at Dreamwidth. OpenID and anonymous comments are both enabled. http://sid.dreamwidth.org/184847.html