More Than We Are, part 7 (now complete!)
So, here is the last chapter of Dorkverse. Finally. This series is now complete! I really hope I did you guys proud and you enjoy it.
This chapter is very adult with both m/m and m/m/f scenes.
More Than We Are
Part 7: With a Heart for Fate
By Jennghis Kahn
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Pairing: Sam/Jack/Daniel
Rating: VERY ADULT.
Warnings: Contains graphic het sex and m/m slash. Threesome. Spoilers for Moebius and Threads.
Category: AU/angst/humor/romance.
A/N: Title from a quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Extra Special Thanks: To Courser for the endless beta work on this series, and the numerous conversations we had about the Dorkverse team and writing sex and all those other things that helped me so much. *huge hugs *
Special Thanks: To those of you who were committed to this series and who urged me on or recced this series to others. It took me a lot longer than it should have to finish it, but you peeps kept reading and encouraging. Some of you were very consistent in this, and you know who you are. I’d list you all if I weren’t afraid of forgetting someone. I know each one of you though. Adoration is yours.
Extra note: This is the end of this series. I consider Dorkverse COMPLETE now! Eeeee! Does this mean I’ll never write another Dorkverse story? NO! It means the series is complete. I think there’s plenty of leeway for me to continue writing one-shots and missing scenes and mini-sequels as I see fit. I’ve put too much effort into this universe to just toss it aside now. *g *
**
**
A sunset on the water was a hundred times more spectacular than on land. Both sky and sea alike were burnished with streaks of gold and red and unearthly blues. It didn't sink past the horizon so much as melt into it and spread out in a puddle across the swaying surface of the water. A sunset on land was beautiful, but a sunset on water was exquisite.
And when it was one of the last sunsets you'd probably ever see, it became heart wrenching.
Had they not been about to throw themselves into the abyss of history and end the only reality they'd ever known, Jack would have been as close to deliriously happy as he could get. He didn't always believe in the power of fate that Sam and Daniel were always marveling over, but ever since President Kinsey had found the timeship and embarked on his holy crusade to "correct history", Jack had wondered if fate was, in fact, real and holding a grudge against him to boot.
He took a long swallow of beer from the bottle in his hand as he watched the sunset darkening to a deep, rich, brilliant red. The winds were calm, allowing the boat to rock gently in the mild waves. Beside him, Sam made an appreciative sound and sipped from a foam cup of white wine. Her fingers sifted intimately through Daniel's long hair as he sat on the rolled bulk of a sleeping bag on the floor between Jack's legs. They'd both been unusually quiet tonight. Not that he could blame them.
It was their last weekend before heading to Colorado Springs and the timeship and the end of the life they'd created.
He tightened the arm he had resting around Sam's shoulders and brought her in close, pressing a kiss to her temple. Daniel shifted between his knees and sighed. Jack watched as he set his beer bottle down on the deck and brought his knees up, circling them with his arms.
The darkness was settling quickly now, on both the day and themselves. Jack set his own bottle aside and reached down to grip Daniel's shoulder, pressing his thumb above the delicate point of bone at his nape and rubbing lightly. "It's alright, Daniel. Let's just enjoy these next two days, okay?"
Daniel nodded without glancing back.
Funny how their roles had changed. Since they'd met, it had been Daniel who had pressed for this action. He'd been so adamant that they needed to do the right thing and fix the timeline. He'd pushed and prodded when Jack had dug his heels in and resisted. Now... now that Jack was on board and nothing could change their plans, Daniel was morose and balking. And it was Jack who was urging him on and reassuring him. There was nothing they could do. Kinsey couldn't be allowed to tamper with time. It would destroy their world more completely than any alien threat.
"Look," Sam said, and Jack recognized the soothing tone in her voice. "There's a good chance that if we succeed, we'll just go on living these lives. I don't think we'll just suddenly cease to exist. We're changing the future not the past."
"I thought we were changing the past," Jack grumbled.
"Yeah." Daniel leaned his head back against Jack's thigh and peered sideways at Sam. "We're going back in time to fix the past so the future is put right."
Sam gave a little head shrug of affirmation, but then sighed heavily in frustration. Jack smiled a bit and saw Daniel's eyes take on a teasing glitter. They both knew how this was going to go, Sam had been through it with them a million times. They just enjoyed getting her worked up.
She eyed both of them. "Well, yes, we’re changing the past, but it will only affect everything from that specific point in history and forward. Not back. It can’t affect the actual act of our traveling back in time or whatever we do to fix it."
"But won't it then affect our own births and lives? So... it should make us different." Daniel always got caught up on that detail.
Sam looked sad. "No. Because we’ll already exist before the correction.” She tilted her head and looked confused for a moment. “I don't know," she said softly. "I just don't know. This is all theoretical."
Jack finished off his beer. The sun was completely buried beneath the horizon now and only the aftermath of color remained. He disengaged himself from the duo in order to turn on the nighttime running lights. His head swam a little as he stood and the boat rocked. He'd had a few more beers than he should have trying to forget about what they had to do. He just wanted to enjoy these last two days, and he wanted them to last as long as possible.
He made his way carefully into the small cabin, turned the lights on and took a quick trip to the tiny bathroom. He glanced at the narrow bed as he made his way out again. His mind seemed to be in flashback mode the past week. With every step and every word and everything he observed, some memory of this very short and happy life assailed him. This boat held many of them for him, good and bad. Alone, and with Sam and Daniel.
And that narrow bed held one of the best. Daniel grabbing up handfuls of the sheet, his broad back misted with sweat and tensing with Jack behind him. Jack felt breathless just thinking about it.
When he swung himself back out of the cabin and onto the small deck, Daniel had stolen his seat and Sam was pressed to his side. He had one arm wrapped around her waist, hand tucked beneath the hem of her shirt, fingers stroking the smooth skin there. She was relaxed against his chest, face turned into his neck with a small smile, one hand resting on his thigh, thumb moving in slow circles. Jack hesitated, watching them.
Sometimes it was hard to believe that this was his life now.
How had he managed it? Was he happy with their relationship in the other reality, or did he keep himself at a distance, pushing them away?
The occasional star was shining above now. Jack unrolled the sleeping bag onto the deck and unzipped it, spreading it open as much as he could. He kicked off his boots and flopped down on his back to stare up at night sky. This was his night. The past week they'd been taking turns deciding what to eat, what to do, what to watch and listen to. It lent a certain sadness to their actions because it felt as if they were preparing to die, but it also seemed to bring them closer together and things that might have been embarrassing before were willingly shared now. He didn't want to be without them for a minute. It was painful to share them with other people. Daniel had quit his job. Sam had taken a long vacation from hers. It hadn't seemed necessary for her to quit and send Del into a panic. If they succeeded in their mission, it wouldn't matter anyway. If they didn't... well, then they'd be dead or in prison, so...
Jack reached over and grabbed Daniel's abandoned bottle of beer, lifting it gingerly to his lips, trying to drink while reclined. He was only moderately successful as a rivulet ran down his cheek and into his ear. He wiped at it absently as he glanced up at Sam and Daniel. They were still pressed together as before, but both had their eyes closed. They weren't sleeping but just enjoying the warmth of each other in the cool night air, hands moving soothingly over each other.
A few nights ago, as they'd been piling into the bed, mouths and hands desperate for each other, they'd asked him what he wanted. It was something else they'd been taking turns with. He'd chosen something he didn't give in to very often. He'd chosen to watch. Watching them together was something he'd been attracted to since the moment they came back into his life after the Air Force scrapped the Stargate mission. He wasn't sure why he found it so compelling except that he found them both so utterly beautiful, and watching them together without him hurt just a little bit and made him ache in all sorts of ways. He knew exactly what each of them was feeling when the other touched them. Neither of them was sexually aggressive or even very aware of their own attraction, so watching them lose it together and bring each other to shuddering orgasm was intensely arousing. He was also pretty sure there was some sort of self-punishment in his voyeurism concerning them, but he preferred not to dwell on that too much.
He'd watched from a chair in the corner. Watched them strip and kiss and taste each other's skin in the subdued light of a single, small lamp. He'd said nothing to them; it wasn't about telling them what to do and having his own personal porno show. It was about burning every detail of their bodies and their souls into his brain. Hoping that somehow those details would bury themselves deeply into his mind and not be lost to the changing of times.
Whether they'd somehow guessed that or not, they'd taken things slowly, filling the quiet bedroom with the sounds of their breaths and their moans and the soft whisper slide of skin on skin. As they'd taken turns sliding down each other's bodies, mouths and tongues and fingers all deliberate and eager, he'd tilted his head back and rested it against the wall, trying to keep his own breathing low and even. His whole body had felt as tight as a bowstring, and he'd had to dig his fingernails into one bare thigh to keep from finishing himself off as he watched. He'd concentrated instead on the way they talked to each other in low-pitched, breathless tones; the slim, smooth line of Sam's bare back as she straddled Daniel's hips, head arched back in pleasure; the rough, intense expression on Daniel's face as he started to lose it and then caught himself, his hips following Sam's motions.
When they were finished and lying curled together, skin damp and breath slowing, he'd risen silently from the chair and crawled into the bed between them. They'd parted and welcomed him in. He hadn't doubted they would, but it had still been a relief to feel their affection as they’d kissed him and slid warm hands over his chest and neck. They’d pushed him onto his back, and he’d passively allowed them to do anything they wanted. He'd felt curiously devoted and submissive to them, and he'd realized just how much he trusted them both. It was something he hadn't felt in a long, long time.
They'd made short work of him. He’d been incredibly hard, and as Sam had licked her way down one side of his body and Daniel had gone down the other, the anticipation had made his cock jump sharply. Fingers had anchored him and then they'd both gone down on him at the same time. It wasn't something they did often; he couldn't take it for long, it was too intense. The idea and the sight were nearly hotter than the act, and when he watched their tongues tangle together with his cock between them... he was done.
They'd kissed deeply over the top of him as he'd rested, panting and motionless. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off them.
**
Jack finished off Daniel's beer and set the bottle aside. He stretched out on the sleeping bag with a groan, crossing his long legs at the ankles and locking his fingers together beneath his head. "Do you think they have The Simpsons in the other reality?" He asked. He shifted his hips a bit, letting the memory of that night slip out of his mind. It had made him half hard again just remembering.
"I don't know..." Daniel sounded dubious; his voice sounded almost sleepy. "That's kind of obscure, isn't it?"
Jack frowned. "I was hoping the other reality would have better taste in television and maybe it'd be a hit there instead of being cancelled after two seasons."
Sam set her empty cup aside and lifted herself out of Daniel's arms, stretching. "I just hope that Cop Rock still exists there. I mean, it has to, right? The highest rated show in television's history would have to be on in both realities."
Daniel nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Or CSI: Baghdad.”
Jack rolled his eyes. Once The Simpsons had been cancelled, he’d quit watching much television. He suddenly paused and looked at them, alarmed. "What if they don't have beer?"
Daniel gave him a wry glance. "They have beer, trust me."
"How do you know that, Einstein?" Jack was feeling a bit cranky now. Sam smiled a bit at him and slid a foot over his thigh. He grabbed it and slid it closer to his groin.
"Fermented drinks have existed in some form or another for thousands of years, Jack. Even the ancient Babylonians brewed beer. People drank ale instead of water because it was safer. There is very little chance that another version of our own reality would not have discovered beer."
"But there is a chance..."
Daniel stared at him with a sigh. "Yes. There's a chance. Of course there's a chance, but-"
"Ah!" Jack barked, raising a hand. "I'm right and you're wrong. There is a chance."
Daniel rolled his eyes skyward and muttered under his breath. "Oh, for crying out loud."
Sam snorted and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "It's our last weekend. Let him be right."
"Yes, Daniel. Let me be right. You know how happy it makes me."
"Fine." Daniel glared.
Sam laughed at him, and then she dug a toe into Jack's ribs.
"Hey!"
She stood and stretched again. Jack watched the way the flannel shirt she was wearing molded to the curve of her breasts. She glanced down at him, and picked her way around his limbs toward the cabin. "Bathroom," she said and disappeared through the doorway.
Jack took a long, deep breath and relaxed. The night was good and dark now, stars in the sky, the boat's running lights giving off a dull glow. He'd anchored in an isolated cove where the fishing was bad and the chances of seeing another boat were low. He knew all the bad spots. He wasn't really a people person.
The boat rocked a bit, and he heard the deck creak. Then Jack felt Daniel plant a knee on either side of his hips. He opened his eyes. Daniel sat lightly on his thighs and stared down at him.
"What are you doing?" Jack asked thickly.
Daniel shrugged. "This is your night. You wanted to spend it on the boat. Did you just want to... sleep?"
The look in Daniel's eyes sent all the blood in Jack's body straight to his dick. He slid his hands up to Daniel's hips and tugged, bringing the other man down on top of him. Jack ran his hands up his back and then over his shoulders and lightly over his nape. Daniel kissed him, tongue darting quickly into his mouth and then out again. Jack held his head and licked at his lower lip.
"So..." Daniel finally said, voice soft. "You don't want to just sleep?"
Jack smiled. "No. Actually, I was thinking this could be Sam's night."
Daniel looked surprised.
Jack ran his thumbs over Daniel's sideburns. "Tomorrow is our last night here, Daniel, and I want to do something... different. I don't want Sam to feel left out. So tonight I want to make sure she knows exactly what she means to us."
Daniel furrowed his brows. "Different? Why would Sam feel left out? What..." he suddenly stopped talking and stared at Jack. "Oh. Wait, do you mean... You want to..."
"Yeah.” Jack swallowed nervously. Daniel had been amazingly patient with him and had never pressed him on his reluctance to be the one who was fucked rather than the one doing the fucking, but... "I want you to know how it feels. I know it's something you want."
Daniel braced his arms on the sleeping bag on either side of Jack's head. He stared down with worried eyes. "Yeah," he admitted quietly. "I do, but I'd never want you to do something you feel uncomfortable doing, Jack. It's not something either of us is very used to."
"You do it for me."
"I do it because I like it. You don't want to be on the receiving end of things, and I'm fine with that."
"I want to know what it's like. I want to know what you feel." Jack pulled him down for a quick kiss. "I want you to know what I feel."
"I... are you sure? You can change your mind."
"I'm sure." Jack forced his voice and his eyes to appear steadier than he felt. "I want Sam there too. I want the last night to be...” He couldn't find a word for it. He just wanted them all there together with no barriers between them.
Daniel nodded. "Okay." His smiled a bit, and Jack saw the anticipation in his eyes. "Tonight is for Sam. Tomorrow is for all of us."
Jack nodded, relieved. Yes. This was what he wanted. He pulled Daniel back down and fused their mouths together. He was running his hands up under Daniel’s shirt, fingertips trailing through the soft patch of thin hair at the base of his spine when he heard a light laugh from above them. They broke off the kiss and glanced up.
Sam grinned down at them. "Is it my turn to watch?" she asked hopefully, throwing herself down onto the bench beside them and stretching out comfortably.
Daniel looked a little flustered. "Sam."
Jack shot her a mischievous glance and lurched sideways to suddenly grab her ankle. "Absolutely not! Not tonight." She squeaked a bit and tried to pull her foot from his grasp, but then Daniel was suddenly up and had her around the waist, hauling her down to the deck between them, and she laughed.
“There’s not enough room to do anything on this boat!”
“Wanna bet?” Daniel slid one thigh between her legs and settled his weight above her, arms flexing with effort.
Jack watched as Daniel kissed her. Sam laughed into his mouth for a moment, and then she stopped. Her hands slid up around his ribs to his shoulders, and she was pulling him down on top of her. He leaned back to pluck the glasses from her face and hand them to Jack, and then his own followed. Jack set both pairs aside.
The beer in his system had given Jack a pleasant buzz, and he ran long fingers over Daniel's nape as Daniel slid his mouth down Sam's chin and over her throat. She gave a happy hum and smiled faintly, closing her eyes. Jack watched her for a few moments before slipping his fingers beneath the hem of her shirt and pushing it up to reveal the pale, smooth skin of her side. He slid his palm slowly over her navel, squeezing it between her and Daniel. She sighed and opened blue eyes to stare at him. He leaned down to kiss her, crowding close against her side.
The slow rise and fall of the boat was lulling along with the sound of rolling water. Jack took a brief moment to pray he’d picked a cove private enough before he unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt and then pulled it over his head. The night breeze was cool, but not shockingly so.
Daniel was already working the buttons on Sam’s shirt, his mouth following his fingers as Sam bit her bottom lip, eyes closed, hands tangled in his hair. Jack gave her the moment while he slid out of his jeans. When Daniel sat up to take care of his own clothes, Jack took his place.
It’d had taken Sam awhile to get used to them coming at her together. She hadn’t been without sexual experience when they’d met, but this was somewhat out of the box for all of them. Having two men descend on her, no matter how much she’d trusted them, unnerved her the first few times. She’d told them it was overwhelming, which could be good or bad depending on how she, and they, felt at the time.
They could make her burst into flame in record time when they put their minds to it. There was something spectacularly satisfying in making Sam come, and both he and Daniel craved that feeling.
They held her between them on the deck of the boat, and Jack circled his tongue around her nipple while Daniel slid slowly down over her hips and between her legs. He looked up and met Jack’s gaze as he pressed his mouth and his tongue against her. She moaned, and Jack smiled. Daniel smiled back in a knowing fashion. Their hands slid around each other on Sam’s body. There was an odd connection between he and Daniel when they concentrated on Sam like this. A strange, unspoken link that came from knowing her, and each other, so well that they could read all the little cues and the body language, and somehow it all came together beautifully.
When Daniel slid back up beside them, Jack turned her on her side to face Daniel and slid into her from behind. Daniel held her hips with stroking fingers and he kissed her mouth and then her neck. Jack rocked against her with the swell of the water.
“Jack…” Sam was breathing hard and clutching at Daniel, and it sent a throb of want straight to Jack’s groin. He never got tired of hearing his name spoken in that way during sex from either of them.
He met Daniel’s eyes over her shoulder, eased out of Sam, and reached over to drag him in for a wet, deep kiss. Daniel exhaled hard into his mouth. Without a word, Jack pulled Sam towards him. He pulled her leg over his hip and watched her eyes as she panted against his mouth. Behind her, Daniel sucked slowly at her nape as he pushed slowly inside of her, taking Jack’s place. Sam loved the feeling of them alternating like this, and for them it was an exercise in edging, building tension until they were on the edge of coming and then stopping. Then starting again. Each time it took less and less to get them to that point.
They could usually outlast Sam in this fashion, but tonight seemed to be the exception.
Daniel came with her riding on top of him; the edging had already brought him close too many times. His hips surged upward and the groan wrenched from his throat carried across the water. Sam gave a soft laugh as he nearly unseated her and sent her sprawling onto the deck.
“Sam…” he gasped, body flexing as she rode with him to the end.
Jack impatiently let him finish before pulling Sam beneath him and thrusting deep.
She came with a cry, legs wrapped around his hips and head arched back as he pressed his forehead to her shoulder. He groaned into her skin as her tremors pulled him after her. Sparks exploded behind his eyelids.
He couldn’t move for a long time afterward. He managed to slide himself to the side so she could breathe, and he felt Daniel’s hands massage his shoulders. It was very good.
“I don’t think I want to be that Air Force officer in the other reality,” Sam suddenly said beside him. “I think I want to stay right here.”
He heard Daniel snort out a laugh, and then the sound of a kiss. Jack didn’t laugh. He heard the wistful quality to Sam’s voice, and the slight edge of sadness to her words, and he shared them.
He’d started to believe in fate when he met them. Some people were meant to be together. Somehow though, that always seemed to come with a price.
**
Jack tilted his head and squinted at the steaks sizzling on the grill. The coals shone orange behind white ash below the grating, and the light smoke drifting upwards smelled heavenly. Time to flip them? He slid his bottom jaw to the side and eyed the cooking meat. There were extras in the refrigerator, but he was determined to cook these perfectly the first time, regardless of Sam’s lack of faith in his grilling abilities. It was their last dinner at home after all. He flipped the steaks.
“Hey, those actually smell pretty good!” Daniel exclaimed as he came through the screen door and onto the back patio. He set an open bottle of beer on the table nearest the grill for Jack and then plopped down into a patio chair away from the drifting smoke.
Jack shot him a glare. “I don't burn things,” he said. At Daniel’s raised brows, he added, “Much, anymore.”
“Maybe you’re an awesome cook in the other reality.”
“And maybe you don’t dress like an elderly golfer on crack either.” Jack gave him a triumphant look.
Daniel frowned and glanced down at the orange and blue checked shirt he was wearing. “What’s wrong with the way I dress? Sam said it was colorful and that it brings out my eyes.”
“Sam finds it hilarious to dress you like an elderly golfer on crack because she knows it drives me nuts.”
“Well, Sam told me that-“
Their banter was interrupted as Sam stalked out onto the patio and glared at both of them. “What Sam is really wondering is who’s watching the steaks and when will dinner be ready?”
Jack held up his hands in a placating manner and snapped the metal tongs together a few times with a smile. “I’m watching them, I’m watching them.”
“He thinks I dress like an elderly golfer on crack.” Daniel totally told on him.
Sam’s eyes flew to Jack’s, and she quickly lifted a hand to her mouth, hiding the amused smile that suddenly sprang to her lips. Jack grinned at her. She glanced at Daniel and tried to casually pretend she was scratching her jaw. “Well, I’m sure he meant that in the… nicest possible way.”
She couldn’t help a smile, and Daniel shot her a wry stare. “Thanks, Sam,” he replied sarcastically.
She laughed then and leaned over to press a kiss to the top of his head. Daniel grabbed her around the waist and dragged her down onto his lap. She let out a surprised sound and almost elbowed him in the nose. Jack shook his head and glanced back at the steaks. Hmm. Flip again?
He didn’t flip them.
When he looked back, they’d rearranged themselves more comfortably and Sam was reaching for his bottle of beer. He swatted at her hand with the tongs. “Ahh! This might be the last beer I ever have.”
She ignored his attack and slipped her fingers around the neck of the bottle. “Well, then we should definitely be sharing it.” Jack frowned as she took a long swallow and then passed it to Daniel.
Daniel grinned at him as he tilted the bottle to his mouth and took several gulps. Jack sighed.
Daniel took pity on him. “It won’t be the last beer you ever have, Jack. The primary drink of ancient Egypt is beer.”
Jack took on an irritated tone. “So King Budweiser was a Pharaoh?”
Daniel stared at him for a moment before replying in an equally irritated and long-suffering voice, “Yes, Jack. There was a King Budweiser and he came from ancient Egypt where he brewed beer, invented football and bred huge horses in the desert.”
“Okay.” Sam rolled her eyes and attempted to struggle her way out of Daniel’s lap. “If this is how it’s going to be tonight, I’m digging the whiskey out of the pantry.”
Daniel held fast and wrestled her back down. “I’d prefer you didn’t,” he said, smiling softly, mouth next to her ear. “There’s no way we’re letting you pass out tonight.”
Sam actually blushed a bit, and she settled back down in his lap. Jack flipped the steaks and glanced at them curiously. Daniel had come a long way from the spaz he was when they’d first met. He’d never been a pushover exactly, although Sam had been able to push him where others hadn’t, but he hadn’t quite had that grasp of other people and how to handle them.
Well, he still didn’t, but he certainly had Sam’s number now, and probably Jack’s too, and he was quite comfortable in his role in this relationship. Jack realized with a start that he was actually quite eager for tonight. He was facing something that he found apprehensive, but he trusted Daniel, both of them really, and he was looking forward to it because they’d make sure he came through it just fine. More than fine. Screaming their names and begging for more probably.
“Is everything ready for tomorrow?” he asked, trying to change the direction of his mind as his dick took a little jump.
“Yeah.” Daniel sighed and slid a hand absently up and down Sam’s back. “Our regular clothes are packed in Sam’s bag, and we put the gear we need for Egypt in mine. I have books and some of Sam’s toolkits on top of everything so if they ask why we need to bring the bag on the timeship, we can show them something.”
“Charlie’s meeting us at the airport?” Sam asked. She leaned into Daniel.
Jack shook his head. “No. They’ll have one of the security officers meet us at the airport. We’ll call Charlie when we get in and he’ll meet us at the hotel. Once we sign the non-disclosure agreements, I think they’ll probably move us into the SGC until the test flight. That’ll most likely be down in Area 51 where they can test it in secret without an audience.”
Sam sighed nervously. “We’re really doing this, aren’t we? We’re really going to hijack a timeship from the Air Force and go back in time. Wow.”
“We’re the only ones who can do it,” Daniel said quietly. “We have to.”
**
They talked specifics over dinner. A final rehash before finally setting everything into motion.
"I copied most of the important translations into a pocket notebook I can carry with me. I packed four sets of the Egyptian linen robes and sandals. One extra for Charlie if he makes it onboard. They won't be a perfect disguise, but they should keep us from being the center of attention." Daniel repeated his part of the plan while Jack eyed the piece of steak on his fork. God, it was good. He'd never grilled anything so perfectly in his life. It tasted even better than it looked, and he sighed in bliss as he chewed and listened to Daniel talking. "Mostly, I'm in charge of keeping the top brass convinced that all three of us need to go on the first test run. I'm the only one who can translate the instructions and Sam is the only one familiar enough with the technology. Jack is the one with the Ancient's special gene."
Ancient genes. Who knew? You'd think a healthy dose of Ancient genes would make someone a better griller. Or fisherman even. No such luck. It just gave you the power to fly ships with your mind. Whoopty-fucking-do.
Okay, so that was pretty cool.
Luckily for them, the Air Force didn't have a readily available pool of pilots with the Ancient gene. Jack had called to tell them that if, by chance, they ever found the timeship, Sam and Daniel had figured out how to work it, and Jack had the special gene to fly it, according to the tape. He'd found it ridiculously easy to get them involved in the program again. Kinsey had been so eager to get the ship up and running that getting access to the SGC had been the easy part. Making sure that all of them were on the test flight, and then stealing the ship and going off on their own... that would be the difficult part.
"Sam?" Jack glanced at her as he set his fork down on an empty plate. “Tell me your part.”
She sipped at a glass of iced tea and took a deep breath. "I'm in charge of finding out what the SGC scientists already know about the ship. I have to talk to Dr....” She glanced at Daniel.
"Dr. Rodney McKay," Daniel stated.
"Dr. Rodney McKay." Sam nodded. "And then I make sure I'm the only one who can get the ship to work." She looked at Jack.
He leaned back in his chair. "And I help you make sure of that by selectively applying my super cool, advanced, Ancient gene and making the ship work whenever you tell me to."
Sam gave a little snort and a smile. Daniel rolled his eyes.
Jack ignored them. "Then we steal the ship, pop back to ancient Egypt where we know they have a stargate, jog through to this Chulak place, go forward again and pick Teal'c up. Then we go back again and see why the original stargate was never found." He frowned and glanced at them. "Maybe we should skip the Teal'c part. It seems awfully dangerous to mess with these aliens when all we really need to do to fix the timeline is check out the stargate in ancient Egypt."
Sam and Daniel glanced at each other.
"Yeah..." Sam said slowly. "True, but on the other hand, we know nothing about the Goa'uld or the Jaffa. Teal'c knows everything about them. Won't we have a much better chance of succeeding with Teal'c than without him?"
Jack held her gaze. "If he doesn't turn..."
"He deserves the chance to decide for himself," Daniel said.
"He already made the choice as far as I'm concerned," Jack said. "When the timeline changes, his life will be put right again, just like... ours."
They glanced at each other in silence.
"Our lives don’t feel wrong anymore... do they?" Sam asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"No," Jack replied softly.
Daniel reached out and covered her hand with his. "It's the first time my life has felt right."
"Teal'c deserves this too," she stated, winding her fingers with Daniel's.
Daniel glanced up at Jack. "She's right. Besides, even if everything goes right, and we set things back on course, we need to protect that course for as long as we might live afterwards. Leaving Teal'c where he is might jeopardize that."
Jack nodded and then scrubbed at his face with his hands. "Yeah. Okay. Let's hope he feels that same draw that we felt when we met."
"He will," Daniel stated with confidence. "He has to."
**
This was perhaps Jack's favorite thing in the world. Sitting out in the darkness on the patio, a good beer or a good whiskey hazing up his brain, while they all watched the stars. Sam was pressed warmly to one side, and Daniel was sitting hip to hip with him on the other, both of them with their feet, only in socks, propped up on the table in front of them. They’d only had the one beer for today. Jack held a plastic tumbler of ice and Irish whiskey, at least 4 fingers deep, and they were sharing it.
He was trying not to think about what was going to happen when they turned in for the night, but the anticipation was crackling along his skin and occasionally tugging at his groin, keeping him from relaxing completely.
"I always wanted to be an astronaut, but this was the closest I could ever get," Sam said from beside him. "In that other reality, we travel to different planets. That's so amazing."
"Yeah," Daniel agreed. His arm was resting along the back of the patio lounger behind Jack's shoulders, and Jack felt him slide his hand to touch Sam's hair on the other side. "Can you even imagine everything there is to learn out there?"
"We gave up a lot to get there," Jack said. He sniffled and took a sip of the whiskey, feeling it spread out warmly through his veins. They didn't answer him, but he knew they were thinking about it. "Is it worth it?"
"Yes," Daniel said almost immediately.
Sam nodded slowly a few beats later. "Yes."
Jack felt a tightness in his chest. "Even though we can't have this?"
Again they didn’t answer, but Sam buried her face in his shoulder, and Daniel rested his head on the back of the bench. He bent it close to Jack's and closed his eyes.
**
Jack watched them make-out in the dark kitchen as he locked the back door and snapped off the mudroom light. Daniel had Sam back against the wall, his hips pressed against hers, his hands holding hers lightly above her head. Jack could hear the soft, wet sounds of their kissing through the doorway.
He wasn't sure why he felt so nervous about this. Daniel had proved it was no big deal. Sam would be there. If it didn't feel good, he could stop. Except that if it felt good to Daniel, Jack wouldn't stop. He wanted Daniel to have this. Him. He knew it was the one thing Daniel still wanted. Jack had just spent too much time in his life ignoring all of these possibilities. There were some things he hadn't felt the need to experience. Not that Daniel hadn't opened up a myriad of new possibilities for him. He had, and Jack had moved into frontiers he'd never even thought about before.
Jack watched them for a moment more and then walked toward them. Daniel kissed him, then Sam. She gave his hand a squeeze before disappearing toward the bedroom. Jack pushed Daniel back against the same wall he'd had Sam against. Daniel stared at him through the dim shadows as Jack stepped up and pressed into him from knee to chest.
"You can still change your mind," Daniel whispered. His hands slid up under Jack's shirt onto his bare skin. Jack suppressed a shiver. He rocked his hips forward into Daniel's. Daniel gave a soft grunt.
"No way," Jack whispered back. He dragged his lips lightly across Daniel's and then stepped back, pulling Daniel with him.
Sam was already undressing when they walked into the bedroom. Jack could hear the whisper-thin brush of her clothing as she pulled them off in the dark. The scarce moonlight coming through the window blind over their bed cast a pale light across her form. Jack let out a long, slow breath.
Beside him, Daniel shed the blue and orange checked shirt, and Jack heard the metal clink of his belt buckle. Sam was suddenly in front of him, and he pulled her close. She kept him busy with teasing kisses and light fingertips that traced the skin just above the waistband of his jeans. He felt his own breathing starting to deepen. When she slid a hand down the front of his fly and squeezed his hardening cock inside his jeans, the anticipation flared a little and he huffed out a gasp against her neck.
He felt Daniel standing close behind him, and then his shirt was being lifted and tugged over his head. Four hands descended on his bare back and his chest, and fingers slid through the hair on his belly. Sam worked on his belt, and Daniel's mouth moved wetly across the back of his shoulder.
When Jack kicked the jeans away, Daniel's hands slid around his hips, over his belly and down the front of his boxers. Jack gritted his teeth against the groan rising in his chest as he felt Daniel, hard and ready, pressing against him from behind. Sam dragged his boxers down around Daniel's hands and let them drop to Jack's ankles. He shoved them off with one foot.
Daniel's hands were working his cock with familiar ease. Sam licked her way down his chest, running her tongue quickly over his nipples before sinking further. Jack did groan then, when she didn't stop but gently removed Daniel's hands from him and wrapped her own fingers around his dick. Daniel's quiet laugh rumbled against his back, and he slid his hands back up to Jack's chest while his teeth scraped over Jack's nape.
Jack exhaled sharply when Sam's warm tongue rasped over the head of his cock.
She was still a teaser, only taking him in for moments at a time and then letting him slip out so she could run her tongue down his length. With her mouth on his cock, and Daniel's mouth on his nape and hands running from Jack's chest down to the dark hair between his legs, Jack was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. It felt too damn good.
He took a deep breath, trying to control the want that was filling him so strongly. "How are we going to do this?" he asked hoarsely.
Daniel pressed his forehead against the back of Jack's head. "Whichever way you want to do it."
Jack licked his lips. "Not on my back. I'd feel like an idiot."
Daniel laughed again, pressing his lips to Jack's shoulder. "Fine, Jack."
Below, Sam started laughing softly. They both glanced down at her. She arched her eyebrows at them. "I'm just picturing Jack with his legs in the air."
"Well, stop it!" Jack ordered, unsettled.
She leaned her head against his thigh and muffled her laugh into his skin. Daniel snorted another laugh into Jack's shoulder. Jack swore softly.
"Can your knees take it on the floor?" Daniel asked. "You can kneel between me and Sam."
Jack considered this and then nodded wordlessly.
"Okay." Daniel stepped back, and Jack pulled Sam to her feet. She gave him a knowing smile before walking around the bed to the nightstand. Jack put one arm around Daniel's shoulders and kissed him. Daniel made a soft noise, and Jack slid his free hand down over Daniel's hip and between them to run a palm down the length of Daniel's cock. He was hard as stone.
Sam came back, and Jack pulled her into the circle. Daniel tangled a hand affectionately in her hair as she leaned in to kiss him. While they kissed, Jack saw her press something small into Daniel’s hand, and Daniel smiled against her lips. Jack knew it well enough. It was the same lube he’d used on both of them time and time again.
The nerves came back.
Sam took him by the hand and pulled him down on top of a sleeping bag she’d spread out on the floor next to the wall. It was the same one from the boat the night before, and the memory of that helped a lot. Jack took a deep breath and eased himself down onto his knees. He sat back on his heels and Sam knelt between his knees. Her hands ran warmly up his thighs, and her thumbs rubbed circles into the coarse hair there. Nice.
Daniel knelt down behind him, and pressed close. Jack felt out of his element. He liked to be the one in control, but he was giving himself over to these two and feeling more unprotected than he ever had. He trusted them, but it wasn’t easy. Apprehension prickled in his gut, and his throat was dry.
Daniel slid his arms around Jack’s chest, and Jack felt him hard and warm and a little wet against his lower back. Daniel’s chest moved slowly against Jack’s back and his breath puffed out against the side of Jack’s neck. Jack licked his dry lips.
There was a moment, where he almost hesitated, but then Sam gave him a soft smile, shadowed by the darkness, and then she was kissing him and her tongue was slipping slowly against his. Her hands were sliding everywhere. From his hair to his stomach to his thighs, and then her body would press in against his as she reached further and ran them over Daniel too.
Daniel’s erection was tight against his back, and his hands were stroking heavily through the hair on Jack’s chest. His mouth was soft and hot and wet against Jack’s nape and then his shoulders and then the skin between his shoulder blades. It was… incredible. The apprehension leaked slowly away and the discomfort evaporated. He was caught warmly between the two people he loved the most in the world, and he’d never felt so good.
When his breathing quickened, Sam lay off the deep kissing and moved her mouth to his jaw, his neck and then wetly along his collarbone. When he glanced down he could see the glint of gold in the hair on Daniel’s forearms as his hands stroked languorously over Sam’s breasts. Jack was starting to feel a little drunk even though he’d barely had any alcohol tonight.
Sam’s fingers explored over his hips and then her hands came in and captured his cock in a light grip. She practically massaged him. He exhaled a groan and leaned into her, bracing his hands low on the wall behind her. She traced the hollow of his throat with her tongue. Daniel’s hands slid off of him as he leaned back and worked with the lube. Finally, one of his hands returned to Jack’s chest. Daniel ran the fingers of the other, now cool and wet and slippery, down the cleft in Jack’s ass. Jack swallowed hard. The fingers eased carefully inside and stroked back and forth in a familiar pattern. Sam’s hand tightened around his cock. Jack closed his eyes and heard his own breathing, loud and fast in the quiet room. Jesus…
“Ready?” Daniel asked softly. His voice was unassuming and calm, but Jack could feel the slight tremor in his body.
He held Jack across the chest in an iron grip.
“Yes.” It was all Jack felt capable of saying at the moment. He focused on his breathing and rested his forehead on the wall above Sam’s shoulder so he could feel her breath on his neck. She slid her hands up to bury long fingers into his hair. She rubbed soothingly at his nape, and it sent little shocks of lust racing along his skin.
Daniel ran the smooth tip of his cock down Jack’s cleft, his fingers directing, finding the right spot. He hesitated and then pressed inward. Jack turned his face into Sam’s neck and forced himself to relax. Daniel didn’t press himself further though. With shaky breaths, he eased in and out slowly, going a little deeper each time. It felt… big and not always comfortable, but it didn’t hurt like Jack thought it might. His body began to loosen up, and when Daniel slid in deeper than he’d been before and his hoarse, shaky voice moaned, “Oh God… Jack…” nearly right into his ear, Jack felt a jolt of pleasure that drove the air from his lungs in one big huff and made his cock harden and just fucking ache.
“Okay?” Sam asked him in a whisper. Her nails were scratching against his scalp in a fantastic way, and he could hear the arousal in her voice.
“Hell yes.” He exhaled.
Daniel took the same care with him that he’d taken with Daniel on their first night. The thrusts were shallow and slow, and Jack began rocking back against him with the same slow rhythm. Daniel started groaning. Jack lifted his head and fused his mouth with Sam’s, and she dropped her hands back down to his ready erection.
It was too much, having Daniel inside of him while Sam kissed him and ran familiar fingers up and down his cock. He murmured first Daniel’s name and then Sam’s as she shortened her stroke, and then he was coming with a long groan, his body tightening almost unbearably. He felt Sam’s hand growing slick and hot.
Daniel jerked against his back, his hands sliding tightly around Jack’s stomach, and the rhythmic grunts that signaled his end filled the room. His whole body seemed to give a tremor as he panted into Jack’s shoulder. “God…”
Sam somehow held them both and didn’t even seem to care that they had her squashed against the wall. When Jack rolled his eyes up to glance at her face, she was smiling.
They rested against her for several minutes, breaths slowing. Jack shifted uncomfortably as his knees protested painfully. Daniel finally stood and helped them both up. Jack turned and embraced him, pressing a slow, open-mouthed kiss onto his lips. Daniel slid muscular arms around him and they stood that way for a while.
“How was it?” Jack asked quietly. He wanted to know.
“Amazing,” Daniel answered, voice muffled a bit by Jack’s shoulders. “You?”
“If we had more time… I wouldn’t say no again.”
“Jack…” Daniel’s arms tightened around him in emotion.
“It’s alright,” Jack said quietly. He pulled one arm away from Daniel to reach for Sam, and she buried herself tightly into their embrace.
**
Jack watched the clock on the nightstand flip over to 6:29. Thirty-one minutes left of their last night alone at home. Then the alarm would go off and they’d get silently up and dressed and off to the airport. At 11:00 they’d leave this state forever and their fate would have to unravel as it would.
The rising sun was starting to poke red tendrils through the slats of the window blind. It lent a rusted hue to Sam’s golden hair, and made Daniel’s skin looked burnished and surreal. They slept quietly on either side of him, and he listened to their breathing with a heavy heart.
The night had been spent dozing. He’d woken once to find Daniel kissing his way eagerly down Sam’s body, her breath already fast and tinged with the hint of moans. Jack had run his hand slowly and softly over her skin and watched while Daniel brought her to the edge and then pushed her over. It had always been one of his favorite mental images. Sam coming, hard and beautiful.
A few hours before dawn, he’d let Daniel fuck him again, but midway through, he’d turned on his side and pulled Sam against his chest. With Daniel sliding into him from behind, he’d managed to thrust into Sam from the same angle. It had been too awkward to keep up for long, but it didn’t matter. None of them had lasted long enough for it to become uncomfortable.
It seemed an appropriate end to their life here, but Jack was almost melancholy about it now. There could have been so much more to share if they could just be left alone to live as they wished.
He wondered if that other-reality self of his understood what was right in front of his eyes. He wondered if any of them did. Maybe it was only meant to happen here, in this reality, and it was his luck and his curse to be the Jack who got to live it.
They could have let it all lie. Ignored the timeline and taken what life they had before Kinsey fucked up history and the Goa’uld came to put an end to them. It was within their rights, wasn’t it? They weren’t heroes. Not like that other team on the tape.
When the alarm clicked on at 7 a.m., they got up without a word and did what they had to do.
**
One week later
“They’re firing on us!” Charlie shouted back over his shoulder as the alarms blared into the small cabin.
Jack focused his mind, forcing the ship to dip and twist and avoid the missiles.
“They’re only trying to disable us! Kinsey doesn’t want to destroy the ship!” Sam yelled back from the engine bay.
“Once he realizes we’re headed into space and he can’t regain it though…” Daniel turned troubled eyes toward Charlie.
“He’ll take us out,” Charlie confirmed, face grim. He glanced at Jack. “Jack, we need to get out of here right now.”
“Crazy bastard,” Jack muttered. “He’s lucky the Iraqi Air Force doesn’t shoot him down.”
“We’re lucky they don’t shoot us down,” Charlie countered.
Jack glanced back at Sam. “Is it ready?”
She nodded and slid into her seat in the cabin. “As much as it will ever be.”
Jack focused on the year three thousand B.C. For a moment, nothing happened, and then he heard the sound of an engine powering up. Red lights blinked at him from the time device in the engine bay, reflected off the main viewing window. There was a slight shimmer inside of the ship and the clouds outside seemed to blur for the briefest of seconds.
Then the alarms stopped and the fighter jets disappeared from the ship’s detection screens.
Jack looked around. “Did I do it?”
Daniel crowded up next to him and peered out the front window. Sam hunched up beside him. Jack flew lower, taking the ship down toward the landscape.
“Look at the structures,” Daniel said excitedly as a small village came into view. “Those are definitely not modern dwellings. We’re not quite in Egypt yet, but it’s the Middle East, and it’s ancient!”
Jack grinned at Charlie. “You may now praise my super cool, advanced, Ancient ship-flying genes.”
Charlie snorted. “What, you want me to stick my tongue down your throat? Forget it.”
Jack grinned happily.
The Nile welcomed them to Egypt as it wound sinuously through the valleys and the hills. Along its banks were green fields and simple yet vast villages and cities. Boats rowed along the surface and people filled the shores. Daniel watched it all with rapt eyes and soft sounds of utter disbelief. Sam and Jack glanced at each other with a smile.
They sobered as they approached the stargate an hour later. The pyramids rose majestically in the distance, their sides clean and straight and unbroken by time. There were strange ships littering the grounds, and as they drew closer they were noticed. In minutes there were several small, curved-moon-shaped ships starting to climb into the air.
“Let’s do it, Daniel,” Jack ordered as he flew in a wide arc around the gate trying to avoid the laser weapons of the Goa’uld fighters.
Daniel unfolded a piece of paper in his fingers and carefully and quickly pressed the symbols on the keyboard next to Jack’s console. They lit up one by one until he pressed the button in the center. With wonder, they watched the stone ring below as a blue wave whooshed out from the center and then settled back within the circle like the surface of a lake.
“Wow,” Sam whispered from behind him.
Jack circled the stargate again, getting ready to line the ship up for the flight through. His chest was tight. They’d passed the point of no return a long time ago. He glanced back at Sam and Daniel. “C’mere,” he said hoarsely.
They stepped up immediately, and he turned in his seat to pull them both into an embrace. One by one he kissed them on the mouth, hard. “I love you,” he said, soft but insistent, his eyes locking onto each of them in turn. They whispered it back to him and then turned to each other.
Jack shifted back into his seat and brought the ship down for the final run toward the gate. “Love you too, Charlie,” he said grimly.
Charlie shot him a wise-assed grin. “Don’t worry, Jack. You may not have them in that other reality, but you’ll always have me!”
Jack smiled, despite the sense of foreboding flooding his gut, and they slipped effortlessly through the stargate.
**
**
Epilogue:
“I can’t believe we didn’t do this years ago!”
Jack slid a glance toward Carter as she reeled in her line slowly. “Yes, well, let’s not dwell…”
She grinned at him. He heard Daniel and Teal’c coming up behind them on the shore, and Daniel walked down onto the pier with them. Jack heard the clink of bottles and the crisp snick of a bottle cap being twisted off. A bottle appeared over his shoulder, brown glass frosted with ice, condensation already beading on the surface.
He sighed in happiness. He had beer and there was fish in his lake and his team was right there with him. Everything they’d gone through over the years, and they were all still alive and whole and only a little worse for wear. And if the tape they’d found a few weeks ago about the broken timeline had said that his lake had no fish, well, he wasn’t going to protest. It was close enough for him.
He smiled and relaxed further into the lawn chair. Not that it seemed to make a difference to how many fish he caught. Sneaky bastards still wanted no part of his hook.
Carter, on the other hand, had caught three beautiful bass. He slid a jealous glance her way. Probably some sort of secret scientist thing. Math or something.
Movement caught the corner of his eye and he glanced over surreptitiously from behind his sunglasses. Daniel was standing behind Sam’s lawn chair, one hand holding a bottle of beer, the other resting on her shoulder, thumb stroking gently over her nape. He could see Sam’s eyes behind her own sunglasses. They were closed, and there was a faint smile on her lips.
Jack felt a jolt of surprise stab through his chest. Was that…? Were they…? No. No way. He’d know if something was happening between them. Wouldn’t he?
Sam’s fingers were absently toying with the handle on her fishing reel. Jack watched them moving nimbly, lazily. He’d imagined them moving in a similar fashion on his own body thousands of times. His gaze was drawn again to where Daniel’s hand was laying against the pale skin of her neck. Jack glanced up at him. Daniel took a swig of beer, and Jack watched his throat work as he swallowed, the corded muscle in his neck showing how strong Daniel had become over the years. He lowered the beer and met Jack’s gaze with a familiar smile.
Jack turned his head back to stare down at the water. There was a very different feeling racing through his blood. His heart was doing double-time in his chest and his mouth had run dry. New thoughts and feelings were tangling in his mind and creating images of naked skin and blue eyes and two gazes full of want.
A hand landed on his forearm. “Jack?”
He blinked, still not used to hearing his first name from her lips, and then he looked into Sam’s wide, blue eyes. Heady warmth filled him.
“You okay?” Daniel asked. He leaned over Sam a bit to get a good look at Jack.
Jack met his gaze and felt something thump in his chest. He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He smiled. “I’m good.”
~end~
*roll credits*
Even in the quietest moments
I wish I knew, what I had to do
And even though the sun is shining
Well, I feel the rain --- here it comes again, dear
And even when you showed me
My heart was out of tune
For there's a shadow of doubt that's not letting me find you too soon
The music that you gave me
The language of my soul
Oh Lord, I want to be with you
Won't you let me come in from the cold?
Don't you let the sun fade away...
Say that you won't be leaving my life
And even when the song is over
Where have I been --- was it just a dream?
And though your door is always open
Where do I begin --- may I please come in, dear?
(Even in the Quietest Moments - Supertramp)
*clings to Dorkverse*
This chapter is very adult with both m/m and m/m/f scenes.
More Than We Are
Part 7: With a Heart for Fate
By Jennghis Kahn
**
Pairing: Sam/Jack/Daniel
Rating: VERY ADULT.
Warnings: Contains graphic het sex and m/m slash. Threesome. Spoilers for Moebius and Threads.
Category: AU/angst/humor/romance.
A/N: Title from a quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Extra Special Thanks: To Courser for the endless beta work on this series, and the numerous conversations we had about the Dorkverse team and writing sex and all those other things that helped me so much. *huge hugs *
Special Thanks: To those of you who were committed to this series and who urged me on or recced this series to others. It took me a lot longer than it should have to finish it, but you peeps kept reading and encouraging. Some of you were very consistent in this, and you know who you are. I’d list you all if I weren’t afraid of forgetting someone. I know each one of you though. Adoration is yours.
Extra note: This is the end of this series. I consider Dorkverse COMPLETE now! Eeeee! Does this mean I’ll never write another Dorkverse story? NO! It means the series is complete. I think there’s plenty of leeway for me to continue writing one-shots and missing scenes and mini-sequels as I see fit. I’ve put too much effort into this universe to just toss it aside now. *g *
**
**
A sunset on the water was a hundred times more spectacular than on land. Both sky and sea alike were burnished with streaks of gold and red and unearthly blues. It didn't sink past the horizon so much as melt into it and spread out in a puddle across the swaying surface of the water. A sunset on land was beautiful, but a sunset on water was exquisite.
And when it was one of the last sunsets you'd probably ever see, it became heart wrenching.
Had they not been about to throw themselves into the abyss of history and end the only reality they'd ever known, Jack would have been as close to deliriously happy as he could get. He didn't always believe in the power of fate that Sam and Daniel were always marveling over, but ever since President Kinsey had found the timeship and embarked on his holy crusade to "correct history", Jack had wondered if fate was, in fact, real and holding a grudge against him to boot.
He took a long swallow of beer from the bottle in his hand as he watched the sunset darkening to a deep, rich, brilliant red. The winds were calm, allowing the boat to rock gently in the mild waves. Beside him, Sam made an appreciative sound and sipped from a foam cup of white wine. Her fingers sifted intimately through Daniel's long hair as he sat on the rolled bulk of a sleeping bag on the floor between Jack's legs. They'd both been unusually quiet tonight. Not that he could blame them.
It was their last weekend before heading to Colorado Springs and the timeship and the end of the life they'd created.
He tightened the arm he had resting around Sam's shoulders and brought her in close, pressing a kiss to her temple. Daniel shifted between his knees and sighed. Jack watched as he set his beer bottle down on the deck and brought his knees up, circling them with his arms.
The darkness was settling quickly now, on both the day and themselves. Jack set his own bottle aside and reached down to grip Daniel's shoulder, pressing his thumb above the delicate point of bone at his nape and rubbing lightly. "It's alright, Daniel. Let's just enjoy these next two days, okay?"
Daniel nodded without glancing back.
Funny how their roles had changed. Since they'd met, it had been Daniel who had pressed for this action. He'd been so adamant that they needed to do the right thing and fix the timeline. He'd pushed and prodded when Jack had dug his heels in and resisted. Now... now that Jack was on board and nothing could change their plans, Daniel was morose and balking. And it was Jack who was urging him on and reassuring him. There was nothing they could do. Kinsey couldn't be allowed to tamper with time. It would destroy their world more completely than any alien threat.
"Look," Sam said, and Jack recognized the soothing tone in her voice. "There's a good chance that if we succeed, we'll just go on living these lives. I don't think we'll just suddenly cease to exist. We're changing the future not the past."
"I thought we were changing the past," Jack grumbled.
"Yeah." Daniel leaned his head back against Jack's thigh and peered sideways at Sam. "We're going back in time to fix the past so the future is put right."
Sam gave a little head shrug of affirmation, but then sighed heavily in frustration. Jack smiled a bit and saw Daniel's eyes take on a teasing glitter. They both knew how this was going to go, Sam had been through it with them a million times. They just enjoyed getting her worked up.
She eyed both of them. "Well, yes, we’re changing the past, but it will only affect everything from that specific point in history and forward. Not back. It can’t affect the actual act of our traveling back in time or whatever we do to fix it."
"But won't it then affect our own births and lives? So... it should make us different." Daniel always got caught up on that detail.
Sam looked sad. "No. Because we’ll already exist before the correction.” She tilted her head and looked confused for a moment. “I don't know," she said softly. "I just don't know. This is all theoretical."
Jack finished off his beer. The sun was completely buried beneath the horizon now and only the aftermath of color remained. He disengaged himself from the duo in order to turn on the nighttime running lights. His head swam a little as he stood and the boat rocked. He'd had a few more beers than he should have trying to forget about what they had to do. He just wanted to enjoy these last two days, and he wanted them to last as long as possible.
He made his way carefully into the small cabin, turned the lights on and took a quick trip to the tiny bathroom. He glanced at the narrow bed as he made his way out again. His mind seemed to be in flashback mode the past week. With every step and every word and everything he observed, some memory of this very short and happy life assailed him. This boat held many of them for him, good and bad. Alone, and with Sam and Daniel.
And that narrow bed held one of the best. Daniel grabbing up handfuls of the sheet, his broad back misted with sweat and tensing with Jack behind him. Jack felt breathless just thinking about it.
When he swung himself back out of the cabin and onto the small deck, Daniel had stolen his seat and Sam was pressed to his side. He had one arm wrapped around her waist, hand tucked beneath the hem of her shirt, fingers stroking the smooth skin there. She was relaxed against his chest, face turned into his neck with a small smile, one hand resting on his thigh, thumb moving in slow circles. Jack hesitated, watching them.
Sometimes it was hard to believe that this was his life now.
How had he managed it? Was he happy with their relationship in the other reality, or did he keep himself at a distance, pushing them away?
The occasional star was shining above now. Jack unrolled the sleeping bag onto the deck and unzipped it, spreading it open as much as he could. He kicked off his boots and flopped down on his back to stare up at night sky. This was his night. The past week they'd been taking turns deciding what to eat, what to do, what to watch and listen to. It lent a certain sadness to their actions because it felt as if they were preparing to die, but it also seemed to bring them closer together and things that might have been embarrassing before were willingly shared now. He didn't want to be without them for a minute. It was painful to share them with other people. Daniel had quit his job. Sam had taken a long vacation from hers. It hadn't seemed necessary for her to quit and send Del into a panic. If they succeeded in their mission, it wouldn't matter anyway. If they didn't... well, then they'd be dead or in prison, so...
Jack reached over and grabbed Daniel's abandoned bottle of beer, lifting it gingerly to his lips, trying to drink while reclined. He was only moderately successful as a rivulet ran down his cheek and into his ear. He wiped at it absently as he glanced up at Sam and Daniel. They were still pressed together as before, but both had their eyes closed. They weren't sleeping but just enjoying the warmth of each other in the cool night air, hands moving soothingly over each other.
A few nights ago, as they'd been piling into the bed, mouths and hands desperate for each other, they'd asked him what he wanted. It was something else they'd been taking turns with. He'd chosen something he didn't give in to very often. He'd chosen to watch. Watching them together was something he'd been attracted to since the moment they came back into his life after the Air Force scrapped the Stargate mission. He wasn't sure why he found it so compelling except that he found them both so utterly beautiful, and watching them together without him hurt just a little bit and made him ache in all sorts of ways. He knew exactly what each of them was feeling when the other touched them. Neither of them was sexually aggressive or even very aware of their own attraction, so watching them lose it together and bring each other to shuddering orgasm was intensely arousing. He was also pretty sure there was some sort of self-punishment in his voyeurism concerning them, but he preferred not to dwell on that too much.
He'd watched from a chair in the corner. Watched them strip and kiss and taste each other's skin in the subdued light of a single, small lamp. He'd said nothing to them; it wasn't about telling them what to do and having his own personal porno show. It was about burning every detail of their bodies and their souls into his brain. Hoping that somehow those details would bury themselves deeply into his mind and not be lost to the changing of times.
Whether they'd somehow guessed that or not, they'd taken things slowly, filling the quiet bedroom with the sounds of their breaths and their moans and the soft whisper slide of skin on skin. As they'd taken turns sliding down each other's bodies, mouths and tongues and fingers all deliberate and eager, he'd tilted his head back and rested it against the wall, trying to keep his own breathing low and even. His whole body had felt as tight as a bowstring, and he'd had to dig his fingernails into one bare thigh to keep from finishing himself off as he watched. He'd concentrated instead on the way they talked to each other in low-pitched, breathless tones; the slim, smooth line of Sam's bare back as she straddled Daniel's hips, head arched back in pleasure; the rough, intense expression on Daniel's face as he started to lose it and then caught himself, his hips following Sam's motions.
When they were finished and lying curled together, skin damp and breath slowing, he'd risen silently from the chair and crawled into the bed between them. They'd parted and welcomed him in. He hadn't doubted they would, but it had still been a relief to feel their affection as they’d kissed him and slid warm hands over his chest and neck. They’d pushed him onto his back, and he’d passively allowed them to do anything they wanted. He'd felt curiously devoted and submissive to them, and he'd realized just how much he trusted them both. It was something he hadn't felt in a long, long time.
They'd made short work of him. He’d been incredibly hard, and as Sam had licked her way down one side of his body and Daniel had gone down the other, the anticipation had made his cock jump sharply. Fingers had anchored him and then they'd both gone down on him at the same time. It wasn't something they did often; he couldn't take it for long, it was too intense. The idea and the sight were nearly hotter than the act, and when he watched their tongues tangle together with his cock between them... he was done.
They'd kissed deeply over the top of him as he'd rested, panting and motionless. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off them.
**
Jack finished off Daniel's beer and set the bottle aside. He stretched out on the sleeping bag with a groan, crossing his long legs at the ankles and locking his fingers together beneath his head. "Do you think they have The Simpsons in the other reality?" He asked. He shifted his hips a bit, letting the memory of that night slip out of his mind. It had made him half hard again just remembering.
"I don't know..." Daniel sounded dubious; his voice sounded almost sleepy. "That's kind of obscure, isn't it?"
Jack frowned. "I was hoping the other reality would have better taste in television and maybe it'd be a hit there instead of being cancelled after two seasons."
Sam set her empty cup aside and lifted herself out of Daniel's arms, stretching. "I just hope that Cop Rock still exists there. I mean, it has to, right? The highest rated show in television's history would have to be on in both realities."
Daniel nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Or CSI: Baghdad.”
Jack rolled his eyes. Once The Simpsons had been cancelled, he’d quit watching much television. He suddenly paused and looked at them, alarmed. "What if they don't have beer?"
Daniel gave him a wry glance. "They have beer, trust me."
"How do you know that, Einstein?" Jack was feeling a bit cranky now. Sam smiled a bit at him and slid a foot over his thigh. He grabbed it and slid it closer to his groin.
"Fermented drinks have existed in some form or another for thousands of years, Jack. Even the ancient Babylonians brewed beer. People drank ale instead of water because it was safer. There is very little chance that another version of our own reality would not have discovered beer."
"But there is a chance..."
Daniel stared at him with a sigh. "Yes. There's a chance. Of course there's a chance, but-"
"Ah!" Jack barked, raising a hand. "I'm right and you're wrong. There is a chance."
Daniel rolled his eyes skyward and muttered under his breath. "Oh, for crying out loud."
Sam snorted and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "It's our last weekend. Let him be right."
"Yes, Daniel. Let me be right. You know how happy it makes me."
"Fine." Daniel glared.
Sam laughed at him, and then she dug a toe into Jack's ribs.
"Hey!"
She stood and stretched again. Jack watched the way the flannel shirt she was wearing molded to the curve of her breasts. She glanced down at him, and picked her way around his limbs toward the cabin. "Bathroom," she said and disappeared through the doorway.
Jack took a long, deep breath and relaxed. The night was good and dark now, stars in the sky, the boat's running lights giving off a dull glow. He'd anchored in an isolated cove where the fishing was bad and the chances of seeing another boat were low. He knew all the bad spots. He wasn't really a people person.
The boat rocked a bit, and he heard the deck creak. Then Jack felt Daniel plant a knee on either side of his hips. He opened his eyes. Daniel sat lightly on his thighs and stared down at him.
"What are you doing?" Jack asked thickly.
Daniel shrugged. "This is your night. You wanted to spend it on the boat. Did you just want to... sleep?"
The look in Daniel's eyes sent all the blood in Jack's body straight to his dick. He slid his hands up to Daniel's hips and tugged, bringing the other man down on top of him. Jack ran his hands up his back and then over his shoulders and lightly over his nape. Daniel kissed him, tongue darting quickly into his mouth and then out again. Jack held his head and licked at his lower lip.
"So..." Daniel finally said, voice soft. "You don't want to just sleep?"
Jack smiled. "No. Actually, I was thinking this could be Sam's night."
Daniel looked surprised.
Jack ran his thumbs over Daniel's sideburns. "Tomorrow is our last night here, Daniel, and I want to do something... different. I don't want Sam to feel left out. So tonight I want to make sure she knows exactly what she means to us."
Daniel furrowed his brows. "Different? Why would Sam feel left out? What..." he suddenly stopped talking and stared at Jack. "Oh. Wait, do you mean... You want to..."
"Yeah.” Jack swallowed nervously. Daniel had been amazingly patient with him and had never pressed him on his reluctance to be the one who was fucked rather than the one doing the fucking, but... "I want you to know how it feels. I know it's something you want."
Daniel braced his arms on the sleeping bag on either side of Jack's head. He stared down with worried eyes. "Yeah," he admitted quietly. "I do, but I'd never want you to do something you feel uncomfortable doing, Jack. It's not something either of us is very used to."
"You do it for me."
"I do it because I like it. You don't want to be on the receiving end of things, and I'm fine with that."
"I want to know what it's like. I want to know what you feel." Jack pulled him down for a quick kiss. "I want you to know what I feel."
"I... are you sure? You can change your mind."
"I'm sure." Jack forced his voice and his eyes to appear steadier than he felt. "I want Sam there too. I want the last night to be...” He couldn't find a word for it. He just wanted them all there together with no barriers between them.
Daniel nodded. "Okay." His smiled a bit, and Jack saw the anticipation in his eyes. "Tonight is for Sam. Tomorrow is for all of us."
Jack nodded, relieved. Yes. This was what he wanted. He pulled Daniel back down and fused their mouths together. He was running his hands up under Daniel’s shirt, fingertips trailing through the soft patch of thin hair at the base of his spine when he heard a light laugh from above them. They broke off the kiss and glanced up.
Sam grinned down at them. "Is it my turn to watch?" she asked hopefully, throwing herself down onto the bench beside them and stretching out comfortably.
Daniel looked a little flustered. "Sam."
Jack shot her a mischievous glance and lurched sideways to suddenly grab her ankle. "Absolutely not! Not tonight." She squeaked a bit and tried to pull her foot from his grasp, but then Daniel was suddenly up and had her around the waist, hauling her down to the deck between them, and she laughed.
“There’s not enough room to do anything on this boat!”
“Wanna bet?” Daniel slid one thigh between her legs and settled his weight above her, arms flexing with effort.
Jack watched as Daniel kissed her. Sam laughed into his mouth for a moment, and then she stopped. Her hands slid up around his ribs to his shoulders, and she was pulling him down on top of her. He leaned back to pluck the glasses from her face and hand them to Jack, and then his own followed. Jack set both pairs aside.
The beer in his system had given Jack a pleasant buzz, and he ran long fingers over Daniel's nape as Daniel slid his mouth down Sam's chin and over her throat. She gave a happy hum and smiled faintly, closing her eyes. Jack watched her for a few moments before slipping his fingers beneath the hem of her shirt and pushing it up to reveal the pale, smooth skin of her side. He slid his palm slowly over her navel, squeezing it between her and Daniel. She sighed and opened blue eyes to stare at him. He leaned down to kiss her, crowding close against her side.
The slow rise and fall of the boat was lulling along with the sound of rolling water. Jack took a brief moment to pray he’d picked a cove private enough before he unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt and then pulled it over his head. The night breeze was cool, but not shockingly so.
Daniel was already working the buttons on Sam’s shirt, his mouth following his fingers as Sam bit her bottom lip, eyes closed, hands tangled in his hair. Jack gave her the moment while he slid out of his jeans. When Daniel sat up to take care of his own clothes, Jack took his place.
It’d had taken Sam awhile to get used to them coming at her together. She hadn’t been without sexual experience when they’d met, but this was somewhat out of the box for all of them. Having two men descend on her, no matter how much she’d trusted them, unnerved her the first few times. She’d told them it was overwhelming, which could be good or bad depending on how she, and they, felt at the time.
They could make her burst into flame in record time when they put their minds to it. There was something spectacularly satisfying in making Sam come, and both he and Daniel craved that feeling.
They held her between them on the deck of the boat, and Jack circled his tongue around her nipple while Daniel slid slowly down over her hips and between her legs. He looked up and met Jack’s gaze as he pressed his mouth and his tongue against her. She moaned, and Jack smiled. Daniel smiled back in a knowing fashion. Their hands slid around each other on Sam’s body. There was an odd connection between he and Daniel when they concentrated on Sam like this. A strange, unspoken link that came from knowing her, and each other, so well that they could read all the little cues and the body language, and somehow it all came together beautifully.
When Daniel slid back up beside them, Jack turned her on her side to face Daniel and slid into her from behind. Daniel held her hips with stroking fingers and he kissed her mouth and then her neck. Jack rocked against her with the swell of the water.
“Jack…” Sam was breathing hard and clutching at Daniel, and it sent a throb of want straight to Jack’s groin. He never got tired of hearing his name spoken in that way during sex from either of them.
He met Daniel’s eyes over her shoulder, eased out of Sam, and reached over to drag him in for a wet, deep kiss. Daniel exhaled hard into his mouth. Without a word, Jack pulled Sam towards him. He pulled her leg over his hip and watched her eyes as she panted against his mouth. Behind her, Daniel sucked slowly at her nape as he pushed slowly inside of her, taking Jack’s place. Sam loved the feeling of them alternating like this, and for them it was an exercise in edging, building tension until they were on the edge of coming and then stopping. Then starting again. Each time it took less and less to get them to that point.
They could usually outlast Sam in this fashion, but tonight seemed to be the exception.
Daniel came with her riding on top of him; the edging had already brought him close too many times. His hips surged upward and the groan wrenched from his throat carried across the water. Sam gave a soft laugh as he nearly unseated her and sent her sprawling onto the deck.
“Sam…” he gasped, body flexing as she rode with him to the end.
Jack impatiently let him finish before pulling Sam beneath him and thrusting deep.
She came with a cry, legs wrapped around his hips and head arched back as he pressed his forehead to her shoulder. He groaned into her skin as her tremors pulled him after her. Sparks exploded behind his eyelids.
He couldn’t move for a long time afterward. He managed to slide himself to the side so she could breathe, and he felt Daniel’s hands massage his shoulders. It was very good.
“I don’t think I want to be that Air Force officer in the other reality,” Sam suddenly said beside him. “I think I want to stay right here.”
He heard Daniel snort out a laugh, and then the sound of a kiss. Jack didn’t laugh. He heard the wistful quality to Sam’s voice, and the slight edge of sadness to her words, and he shared them.
He’d started to believe in fate when he met them. Some people were meant to be together. Somehow though, that always seemed to come with a price.
**
Jack tilted his head and squinted at the steaks sizzling on the grill. The coals shone orange behind white ash below the grating, and the light smoke drifting upwards smelled heavenly. Time to flip them? He slid his bottom jaw to the side and eyed the cooking meat. There were extras in the refrigerator, but he was determined to cook these perfectly the first time, regardless of Sam’s lack of faith in his grilling abilities. It was their last dinner at home after all. He flipped the steaks.
“Hey, those actually smell pretty good!” Daniel exclaimed as he came through the screen door and onto the back patio. He set an open bottle of beer on the table nearest the grill for Jack and then plopped down into a patio chair away from the drifting smoke.
Jack shot him a glare. “I don't burn things,” he said. At Daniel’s raised brows, he added, “Much, anymore.”
“Maybe you’re an awesome cook in the other reality.”
“And maybe you don’t dress like an elderly golfer on crack either.” Jack gave him a triumphant look.
Daniel frowned and glanced down at the orange and blue checked shirt he was wearing. “What’s wrong with the way I dress? Sam said it was colorful and that it brings out my eyes.”
“Sam finds it hilarious to dress you like an elderly golfer on crack because she knows it drives me nuts.”
“Well, Sam told me that-“
Their banter was interrupted as Sam stalked out onto the patio and glared at both of them. “What Sam is really wondering is who’s watching the steaks and when will dinner be ready?”
Jack held up his hands in a placating manner and snapped the metal tongs together a few times with a smile. “I’m watching them, I’m watching them.”
“He thinks I dress like an elderly golfer on crack.” Daniel totally told on him.
Sam’s eyes flew to Jack’s, and she quickly lifted a hand to her mouth, hiding the amused smile that suddenly sprang to her lips. Jack grinned at her. She glanced at Daniel and tried to casually pretend she was scratching her jaw. “Well, I’m sure he meant that in the… nicest possible way.”
She couldn’t help a smile, and Daniel shot her a wry stare. “Thanks, Sam,” he replied sarcastically.
She laughed then and leaned over to press a kiss to the top of his head. Daniel grabbed her around the waist and dragged her down onto his lap. She let out a surprised sound and almost elbowed him in the nose. Jack shook his head and glanced back at the steaks. Hmm. Flip again?
He didn’t flip them.
When he looked back, they’d rearranged themselves more comfortably and Sam was reaching for his bottle of beer. He swatted at her hand with the tongs. “Ahh! This might be the last beer I ever have.”
She ignored his attack and slipped her fingers around the neck of the bottle. “Well, then we should definitely be sharing it.” Jack frowned as she took a long swallow and then passed it to Daniel.
Daniel grinned at him as he tilted the bottle to his mouth and took several gulps. Jack sighed.
Daniel took pity on him. “It won’t be the last beer you ever have, Jack. The primary drink of ancient Egypt is beer.”
Jack took on an irritated tone. “So King Budweiser was a Pharaoh?”
Daniel stared at him for a moment before replying in an equally irritated and long-suffering voice, “Yes, Jack. There was a King Budweiser and he came from ancient Egypt where he brewed beer, invented football and bred huge horses in the desert.”
“Okay.” Sam rolled her eyes and attempted to struggle her way out of Daniel’s lap. “If this is how it’s going to be tonight, I’m digging the whiskey out of the pantry.”
Daniel held fast and wrestled her back down. “I’d prefer you didn’t,” he said, smiling softly, mouth next to her ear. “There’s no way we’re letting you pass out tonight.”
Sam actually blushed a bit, and she settled back down in his lap. Jack flipped the steaks and glanced at them curiously. Daniel had come a long way from the spaz he was when they’d first met. He’d never been a pushover exactly, although Sam had been able to push him where others hadn’t, but he hadn’t quite had that grasp of other people and how to handle them.
Well, he still didn’t, but he certainly had Sam’s number now, and probably Jack’s too, and he was quite comfortable in his role in this relationship. Jack realized with a start that he was actually quite eager for tonight. He was facing something that he found apprehensive, but he trusted Daniel, both of them really, and he was looking forward to it because they’d make sure he came through it just fine. More than fine. Screaming their names and begging for more probably.
“Is everything ready for tomorrow?” he asked, trying to change the direction of his mind as his dick took a little jump.
“Yeah.” Daniel sighed and slid a hand absently up and down Sam’s back. “Our regular clothes are packed in Sam’s bag, and we put the gear we need for Egypt in mine. I have books and some of Sam’s toolkits on top of everything so if they ask why we need to bring the bag on the timeship, we can show them something.”
“Charlie’s meeting us at the airport?” Sam asked. She leaned into Daniel.
Jack shook his head. “No. They’ll have one of the security officers meet us at the airport. We’ll call Charlie when we get in and he’ll meet us at the hotel. Once we sign the non-disclosure agreements, I think they’ll probably move us into the SGC until the test flight. That’ll most likely be down in Area 51 where they can test it in secret without an audience.”
Sam sighed nervously. “We’re really doing this, aren’t we? We’re really going to hijack a timeship from the Air Force and go back in time. Wow.”
“We’re the only ones who can do it,” Daniel said quietly. “We have to.”
**
They talked specifics over dinner. A final rehash before finally setting everything into motion.
"I copied most of the important translations into a pocket notebook I can carry with me. I packed four sets of the Egyptian linen robes and sandals. One extra for Charlie if he makes it onboard. They won't be a perfect disguise, but they should keep us from being the center of attention." Daniel repeated his part of the plan while Jack eyed the piece of steak on his fork. God, it was good. He'd never grilled anything so perfectly in his life. It tasted even better than it looked, and he sighed in bliss as he chewed and listened to Daniel talking. "Mostly, I'm in charge of keeping the top brass convinced that all three of us need to go on the first test run. I'm the only one who can translate the instructions and Sam is the only one familiar enough with the technology. Jack is the one with the Ancient's special gene."
Ancient genes. Who knew? You'd think a healthy dose of Ancient genes would make someone a better griller. Or fisherman even. No such luck. It just gave you the power to fly ships with your mind. Whoopty-fucking-do.
Okay, so that was pretty cool.
Luckily for them, the Air Force didn't have a readily available pool of pilots with the Ancient gene. Jack had called to tell them that if, by chance, they ever found the timeship, Sam and Daniel had figured out how to work it, and Jack had the special gene to fly it, according to the tape. He'd found it ridiculously easy to get them involved in the program again. Kinsey had been so eager to get the ship up and running that getting access to the SGC had been the easy part. Making sure that all of them were on the test flight, and then stealing the ship and going off on their own... that would be the difficult part.
"Sam?" Jack glanced at her as he set his fork down on an empty plate. “Tell me your part.”
She sipped at a glass of iced tea and took a deep breath. "I'm in charge of finding out what the SGC scientists already know about the ship. I have to talk to Dr....” She glanced at Daniel.
"Dr. Rodney McKay," Daniel stated.
"Dr. Rodney McKay." Sam nodded. "And then I make sure I'm the only one who can get the ship to work." She looked at Jack.
He leaned back in his chair. "And I help you make sure of that by selectively applying my super cool, advanced, Ancient gene and making the ship work whenever you tell me to."
Sam gave a little snort and a smile. Daniel rolled his eyes.
Jack ignored them. "Then we steal the ship, pop back to ancient Egypt where we know they have a stargate, jog through to this Chulak place, go forward again and pick Teal'c up. Then we go back again and see why the original stargate was never found." He frowned and glanced at them. "Maybe we should skip the Teal'c part. It seems awfully dangerous to mess with these aliens when all we really need to do to fix the timeline is check out the stargate in ancient Egypt."
Sam and Daniel glanced at each other.
"Yeah..." Sam said slowly. "True, but on the other hand, we know nothing about the Goa'uld or the Jaffa. Teal'c knows everything about them. Won't we have a much better chance of succeeding with Teal'c than without him?"
Jack held her gaze. "If he doesn't turn..."
"He deserves the chance to decide for himself," Daniel said.
"He already made the choice as far as I'm concerned," Jack said. "When the timeline changes, his life will be put right again, just like... ours."
They glanced at each other in silence.
"Our lives don’t feel wrong anymore... do they?" Sam asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"No," Jack replied softly.
Daniel reached out and covered her hand with his. "It's the first time my life has felt right."
"Teal'c deserves this too," she stated, winding her fingers with Daniel's.
Daniel glanced up at Jack. "She's right. Besides, even if everything goes right, and we set things back on course, we need to protect that course for as long as we might live afterwards. Leaving Teal'c where he is might jeopardize that."
Jack nodded and then scrubbed at his face with his hands. "Yeah. Okay. Let's hope he feels that same draw that we felt when we met."
"He will," Daniel stated with confidence. "He has to."
**
This was perhaps Jack's favorite thing in the world. Sitting out in the darkness on the patio, a good beer or a good whiskey hazing up his brain, while they all watched the stars. Sam was pressed warmly to one side, and Daniel was sitting hip to hip with him on the other, both of them with their feet, only in socks, propped up on the table in front of them. They’d only had the one beer for today. Jack held a plastic tumbler of ice and Irish whiskey, at least 4 fingers deep, and they were sharing it.
He was trying not to think about what was going to happen when they turned in for the night, but the anticipation was crackling along his skin and occasionally tugging at his groin, keeping him from relaxing completely.
"I always wanted to be an astronaut, but this was the closest I could ever get," Sam said from beside him. "In that other reality, we travel to different planets. That's so amazing."
"Yeah," Daniel agreed. His arm was resting along the back of the patio lounger behind Jack's shoulders, and Jack felt him slide his hand to touch Sam's hair on the other side. "Can you even imagine everything there is to learn out there?"
"We gave up a lot to get there," Jack said. He sniffled and took a sip of the whiskey, feeling it spread out warmly through his veins. They didn't answer him, but he knew they were thinking about it. "Is it worth it?"
"Yes," Daniel said almost immediately.
Sam nodded slowly a few beats later. "Yes."
Jack felt a tightness in his chest. "Even though we can't have this?"
Again they didn’t answer, but Sam buried her face in his shoulder, and Daniel rested his head on the back of the bench. He bent it close to Jack's and closed his eyes.
**
Jack watched them make-out in the dark kitchen as he locked the back door and snapped off the mudroom light. Daniel had Sam back against the wall, his hips pressed against hers, his hands holding hers lightly above her head. Jack could hear the soft, wet sounds of their kissing through the doorway.
He wasn't sure why he felt so nervous about this. Daniel had proved it was no big deal. Sam would be there. If it didn't feel good, he could stop. Except that if it felt good to Daniel, Jack wouldn't stop. He wanted Daniel to have this. Him. He knew it was the one thing Daniel still wanted. Jack had just spent too much time in his life ignoring all of these possibilities. There were some things he hadn't felt the need to experience. Not that Daniel hadn't opened up a myriad of new possibilities for him. He had, and Jack had moved into frontiers he'd never even thought about before.
Jack watched them for a moment more and then walked toward them. Daniel kissed him, then Sam. She gave his hand a squeeze before disappearing toward the bedroom. Jack pushed Daniel back against the same wall he'd had Sam against. Daniel stared at him through the dim shadows as Jack stepped up and pressed into him from knee to chest.
"You can still change your mind," Daniel whispered. His hands slid up under Jack's shirt onto his bare skin. Jack suppressed a shiver. He rocked his hips forward into Daniel's. Daniel gave a soft grunt.
"No way," Jack whispered back. He dragged his lips lightly across Daniel's and then stepped back, pulling Daniel with him.
Sam was already undressing when they walked into the bedroom. Jack could hear the whisper-thin brush of her clothing as she pulled them off in the dark. The scarce moonlight coming through the window blind over their bed cast a pale light across her form. Jack let out a long, slow breath.
Beside him, Daniel shed the blue and orange checked shirt, and Jack heard the metal clink of his belt buckle. Sam was suddenly in front of him, and he pulled her close. She kept him busy with teasing kisses and light fingertips that traced the skin just above the waistband of his jeans. He felt his own breathing starting to deepen. When she slid a hand down the front of his fly and squeezed his hardening cock inside his jeans, the anticipation flared a little and he huffed out a gasp against her neck.
He felt Daniel standing close behind him, and then his shirt was being lifted and tugged over his head. Four hands descended on his bare back and his chest, and fingers slid through the hair on his belly. Sam worked on his belt, and Daniel's mouth moved wetly across the back of his shoulder.
When Jack kicked the jeans away, Daniel's hands slid around his hips, over his belly and down the front of his boxers. Jack gritted his teeth against the groan rising in his chest as he felt Daniel, hard and ready, pressing against him from behind. Sam dragged his boxers down around Daniel's hands and let them drop to Jack's ankles. He shoved them off with one foot.
Daniel's hands were working his cock with familiar ease. Sam licked her way down his chest, running her tongue quickly over his nipples before sinking further. Jack did groan then, when she didn't stop but gently removed Daniel's hands from him and wrapped her own fingers around his dick. Daniel's quiet laugh rumbled against his back, and he slid his hands back up to Jack's chest while his teeth scraped over Jack's nape.
Jack exhaled sharply when Sam's warm tongue rasped over the head of his cock.
She was still a teaser, only taking him in for moments at a time and then letting him slip out so she could run her tongue down his length. With her mouth on his cock, and Daniel's mouth on his nape and hands running from Jack's chest down to the dark hair between his legs, Jack was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. It felt too damn good.
He took a deep breath, trying to control the want that was filling him so strongly. "How are we going to do this?" he asked hoarsely.
Daniel pressed his forehead against the back of Jack's head. "Whichever way you want to do it."
Jack licked his lips. "Not on my back. I'd feel like an idiot."
Daniel laughed again, pressing his lips to Jack's shoulder. "Fine, Jack."
Below, Sam started laughing softly. They both glanced down at her. She arched her eyebrows at them. "I'm just picturing Jack with his legs in the air."
"Well, stop it!" Jack ordered, unsettled.
She leaned her head against his thigh and muffled her laugh into his skin. Daniel snorted another laugh into Jack's shoulder. Jack swore softly.
"Can your knees take it on the floor?" Daniel asked. "You can kneel between me and Sam."
Jack considered this and then nodded wordlessly.
"Okay." Daniel stepped back, and Jack pulled Sam to her feet. She gave him a knowing smile before walking around the bed to the nightstand. Jack put one arm around Daniel's shoulders and kissed him. Daniel made a soft noise, and Jack slid his free hand down over Daniel's hip and between them to run a palm down the length of Daniel's cock. He was hard as stone.
Sam came back, and Jack pulled her into the circle. Daniel tangled a hand affectionately in her hair as she leaned in to kiss him. While they kissed, Jack saw her press something small into Daniel’s hand, and Daniel smiled against her lips. Jack knew it well enough. It was the same lube he’d used on both of them time and time again.
The nerves came back.
Sam took him by the hand and pulled him down on top of a sleeping bag she’d spread out on the floor next to the wall. It was the same one from the boat the night before, and the memory of that helped a lot. Jack took a deep breath and eased himself down onto his knees. He sat back on his heels and Sam knelt between his knees. Her hands ran warmly up his thighs, and her thumbs rubbed circles into the coarse hair there. Nice.
Daniel knelt down behind him, and pressed close. Jack felt out of his element. He liked to be the one in control, but he was giving himself over to these two and feeling more unprotected than he ever had. He trusted them, but it wasn’t easy. Apprehension prickled in his gut, and his throat was dry.
Daniel slid his arms around Jack’s chest, and Jack felt him hard and warm and a little wet against his lower back. Daniel’s chest moved slowly against Jack’s back and his breath puffed out against the side of Jack’s neck. Jack licked his dry lips.
There was a moment, where he almost hesitated, but then Sam gave him a soft smile, shadowed by the darkness, and then she was kissing him and her tongue was slipping slowly against his. Her hands were sliding everywhere. From his hair to his stomach to his thighs, and then her body would press in against his as she reached further and ran them over Daniel too.
Daniel’s erection was tight against his back, and his hands were stroking heavily through the hair on Jack’s chest. His mouth was soft and hot and wet against Jack’s nape and then his shoulders and then the skin between his shoulder blades. It was… incredible. The apprehension leaked slowly away and the discomfort evaporated. He was caught warmly between the two people he loved the most in the world, and he’d never felt so good.
When his breathing quickened, Sam lay off the deep kissing and moved her mouth to his jaw, his neck and then wetly along his collarbone. When he glanced down he could see the glint of gold in the hair on Daniel’s forearms as his hands stroked languorously over Sam’s breasts. Jack was starting to feel a little drunk even though he’d barely had any alcohol tonight.
Sam’s fingers explored over his hips and then her hands came in and captured his cock in a light grip. She practically massaged him. He exhaled a groan and leaned into her, bracing his hands low on the wall behind her. She traced the hollow of his throat with her tongue. Daniel’s hands slid off of him as he leaned back and worked with the lube. Finally, one of his hands returned to Jack’s chest. Daniel ran the fingers of the other, now cool and wet and slippery, down the cleft in Jack’s ass. Jack swallowed hard. The fingers eased carefully inside and stroked back and forth in a familiar pattern. Sam’s hand tightened around his cock. Jack closed his eyes and heard his own breathing, loud and fast in the quiet room. Jesus…
“Ready?” Daniel asked softly. His voice was unassuming and calm, but Jack could feel the slight tremor in his body.
He held Jack across the chest in an iron grip.
“Yes.” It was all Jack felt capable of saying at the moment. He focused on his breathing and rested his forehead on the wall above Sam’s shoulder so he could feel her breath on his neck. She slid her hands up to bury long fingers into his hair. She rubbed soothingly at his nape, and it sent little shocks of lust racing along his skin.
Daniel ran the smooth tip of his cock down Jack’s cleft, his fingers directing, finding the right spot. He hesitated and then pressed inward. Jack turned his face into Sam’s neck and forced himself to relax. Daniel didn’t press himself further though. With shaky breaths, he eased in and out slowly, going a little deeper each time. It felt… big and not always comfortable, but it didn’t hurt like Jack thought it might. His body began to loosen up, and when Daniel slid in deeper than he’d been before and his hoarse, shaky voice moaned, “Oh God… Jack…” nearly right into his ear, Jack felt a jolt of pleasure that drove the air from his lungs in one big huff and made his cock harden and just fucking ache.
“Okay?” Sam asked him in a whisper. Her nails were scratching against his scalp in a fantastic way, and he could hear the arousal in her voice.
“Hell yes.” He exhaled.
Daniel took the same care with him that he’d taken with Daniel on their first night. The thrusts were shallow and slow, and Jack began rocking back against him with the same slow rhythm. Daniel started groaning. Jack lifted his head and fused his mouth with Sam’s, and she dropped her hands back down to his ready erection.
It was too much, having Daniel inside of him while Sam kissed him and ran familiar fingers up and down his cock. He murmured first Daniel’s name and then Sam’s as she shortened her stroke, and then he was coming with a long groan, his body tightening almost unbearably. He felt Sam’s hand growing slick and hot.
Daniel jerked against his back, his hands sliding tightly around Jack’s stomach, and the rhythmic grunts that signaled his end filled the room. His whole body seemed to give a tremor as he panted into Jack’s shoulder. “God…”
Sam somehow held them both and didn’t even seem to care that they had her squashed against the wall. When Jack rolled his eyes up to glance at her face, she was smiling.
They rested against her for several minutes, breaths slowing. Jack shifted uncomfortably as his knees protested painfully. Daniel finally stood and helped them both up. Jack turned and embraced him, pressing a slow, open-mouthed kiss onto his lips. Daniel slid muscular arms around him and they stood that way for a while.
“How was it?” Jack asked quietly. He wanted to know.
“Amazing,” Daniel answered, voice muffled a bit by Jack’s shoulders. “You?”
“If we had more time… I wouldn’t say no again.”
“Jack…” Daniel’s arms tightened around him in emotion.
“It’s alright,” Jack said quietly. He pulled one arm away from Daniel to reach for Sam, and she buried herself tightly into their embrace.
**
Jack watched the clock on the nightstand flip over to 6:29. Thirty-one minutes left of their last night alone at home. Then the alarm would go off and they’d get silently up and dressed and off to the airport. At 11:00 they’d leave this state forever and their fate would have to unravel as it would.
The rising sun was starting to poke red tendrils through the slats of the window blind. It lent a rusted hue to Sam’s golden hair, and made Daniel’s skin looked burnished and surreal. They slept quietly on either side of him, and he listened to their breathing with a heavy heart.
The night had been spent dozing. He’d woken once to find Daniel kissing his way eagerly down Sam’s body, her breath already fast and tinged with the hint of moans. Jack had run his hand slowly and softly over her skin and watched while Daniel brought her to the edge and then pushed her over. It had always been one of his favorite mental images. Sam coming, hard and beautiful.
A few hours before dawn, he’d let Daniel fuck him again, but midway through, he’d turned on his side and pulled Sam against his chest. With Daniel sliding into him from behind, he’d managed to thrust into Sam from the same angle. It had been too awkward to keep up for long, but it didn’t matter. None of them had lasted long enough for it to become uncomfortable.
It seemed an appropriate end to their life here, but Jack was almost melancholy about it now. There could have been so much more to share if they could just be left alone to live as they wished.
He wondered if that other-reality self of his understood what was right in front of his eyes. He wondered if any of them did. Maybe it was only meant to happen here, in this reality, and it was his luck and his curse to be the Jack who got to live it.
They could have let it all lie. Ignored the timeline and taken what life they had before Kinsey fucked up history and the Goa’uld came to put an end to them. It was within their rights, wasn’t it? They weren’t heroes. Not like that other team on the tape.
When the alarm clicked on at 7 a.m., they got up without a word and did what they had to do.
**
One week later
“They’re firing on us!” Charlie shouted back over his shoulder as the alarms blared into the small cabin.
Jack focused his mind, forcing the ship to dip and twist and avoid the missiles.
“They’re only trying to disable us! Kinsey doesn’t want to destroy the ship!” Sam yelled back from the engine bay.
“Once he realizes we’re headed into space and he can’t regain it though…” Daniel turned troubled eyes toward Charlie.
“He’ll take us out,” Charlie confirmed, face grim. He glanced at Jack. “Jack, we need to get out of here right now.”
“Crazy bastard,” Jack muttered. “He’s lucky the Iraqi Air Force doesn’t shoot him down.”
“We’re lucky they don’t shoot us down,” Charlie countered.
Jack glanced back at Sam. “Is it ready?”
She nodded and slid into her seat in the cabin. “As much as it will ever be.”
Jack focused on the year three thousand B.C. For a moment, nothing happened, and then he heard the sound of an engine powering up. Red lights blinked at him from the time device in the engine bay, reflected off the main viewing window. There was a slight shimmer inside of the ship and the clouds outside seemed to blur for the briefest of seconds.
Then the alarms stopped and the fighter jets disappeared from the ship’s detection screens.
Jack looked around. “Did I do it?”
Daniel crowded up next to him and peered out the front window. Sam hunched up beside him. Jack flew lower, taking the ship down toward the landscape.
“Look at the structures,” Daniel said excitedly as a small village came into view. “Those are definitely not modern dwellings. We’re not quite in Egypt yet, but it’s the Middle East, and it’s ancient!”
Jack grinned at Charlie. “You may now praise my super cool, advanced, Ancient ship-flying genes.”
Charlie snorted. “What, you want me to stick my tongue down your throat? Forget it.”
Jack grinned happily.
The Nile welcomed them to Egypt as it wound sinuously through the valleys and the hills. Along its banks were green fields and simple yet vast villages and cities. Boats rowed along the surface and people filled the shores. Daniel watched it all with rapt eyes and soft sounds of utter disbelief. Sam and Jack glanced at each other with a smile.
They sobered as they approached the stargate an hour later. The pyramids rose majestically in the distance, their sides clean and straight and unbroken by time. There were strange ships littering the grounds, and as they drew closer they were noticed. In minutes there were several small, curved-moon-shaped ships starting to climb into the air.
“Let’s do it, Daniel,” Jack ordered as he flew in a wide arc around the gate trying to avoid the laser weapons of the Goa’uld fighters.
Daniel unfolded a piece of paper in his fingers and carefully and quickly pressed the symbols on the keyboard next to Jack’s console. They lit up one by one until he pressed the button in the center. With wonder, they watched the stone ring below as a blue wave whooshed out from the center and then settled back within the circle like the surface of a lake.
“Wow,” Sam whispered from behind him.
Jack circled the stargate again, getting ready to line the ship up for the flight through. His chest was tight. They’d passed the point of no return a long time ago. He glanced back at Sam and Daniel. “C’mere,” he said hoarsely.
They stepped up immediately, and he turned in his seat to pull them both into an embrace. One by one he kissed them on the mouth, hard. “I love you,” he said, soft but insistent, his eyes locking onto each of them in turn. They whispered it back to him and then turned to each other.
Jack shifted back into his seat and brought the ship down for the final run toward the gate. “Love you too, Charlie,” he said grimly.
Charlie shot him a wise-assed grin. “Don’t worry, Jack. You may not have them in that other reality, but you’ll always have me!”
Jack smiled, despite the sense of foreboding flooding his gut, and they slipped effortlessly through the stargate.
**
**
Epilogue:
“I can’t believe we didn’t do this years ago!”
Jack slid a glance toward Carter as she reeled in her line slowly. “Yes, well, let’s not dwell…”
She grinned at him. He heard Daniel and Teal’c coming up behind them on the shore, and Daniel walked down onto the pier with them. Jack heard the clink of bottles and the crisp snick of a bottle cap being twisted off. A bottle appeared over his shoulder, brown glass frosted with ice, condensation already beading on the surface.
He sighed in happiness. He had beer and there was fish in his lake and his team was right there with him. Everything they’d gone through over the years, and they were all still alive and whole and only a little worse for wear. And if the tape they’d found a few weeks ago about the broken timeline had said that his lake had no fish, well, he wasn’t going to protest. It was close enough for him.
He smiled and relaxed further into the lawn chair. Not that it seemed to make a difference to how many fish he caught. Sneaky bastards still wanted no part of his hook.
Carter, on the other hand, had caught three beautiful bass. He slid a jealous glance her way. Probably some sort of secret scientist thing. Math or something.
Movement caught the corner of his eye and he glanced over surreptitiously from behind his sunglasses. Daniel was standing behind Sam’s lawn chair, one hand holding a bottle of beer, the other resting on her shoulder, thumb stroking gently over her nape. He could see Sam’s eyes behind her own sunglasses. They were closed, and there was a faint smile on her lips.
Jack felt a jolt of surprise stab through his chest. Was that…? Were they…? No. No way. He’d know if something was happening between them. Wouldn’t he?
Sam’s fingers were absently toying with the handle on her fishing reel. Jack watched them moving nimbly, lazily. He’d imagined them moving in a similar fashion on his own body thousands of times. His gaze was drawn again to where Daniel’s hand was laying against the pale skin of her neck. Jack glanced up at him. Daniel took a swig of beer, and Jack watched his throat work as he swallowed, the corded muscle in his neck showing how strong Daniel had become over the years. He lowered the beer and met Jack’s gaze with a familiar smile.
Jack turned his head back to stare down at the water. There was a very different feeling racing through his blood. His heart was doing double-time in his chest and his mouth had run dry. New thoughts and feelings were tangling in his mind and creating images of naked skin and blue eyes and two gazes full of want.
A hand landed on his forearm. “Jack?”
He blinked, still not used to hearing his first name from her lips, and then he looked into Sam’s wide, blue eyes. Heady warmth filled him.
“You okay?” Daniel asked. He leaned over Sam a bit to get a good look at Jack.
Jack met his gaze and felt something thump in his chest. He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He smiled. “I’m good.”
~end~
*roll credits*
Even in the quietest moments
I wish I knew, what I had to do
And even though the sun is shining
Well, I feel the rain --- here it comes again, dear
And even when you showed me
My heart was out of tune
For there's a shadow of doubt that's not letting me find you too soon
The music that you gave me
The language of my soul
Oh Lord, I want to be with you
Won't you let me come in from the cold?
Don't you let the sun fade away...
Say that you won't be leaving my life
And even when the song is over
Where have I been --- was it just a dream?
And though your door is always open
Where do I begin --- may I please come in, dear?
(Even in the Quietest Moments - Supertramp)
*clings to Dorkverse*