fic- "In Another Life: Beginnings" Stargate Part 8
Title: In Another Life: Beginnings
Author: CJ aka WritinginCT
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Pairing: Jack/Daniel, Jack/Daniel/OFC
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: AU, Slavery, Slash, Threesome, disturbing imagery, non-con
Categories: AU, Hurt/Comfort, Drama, Romance
Feedback: Love it? Hate it?
Disclaimer: I don’t own the recognizable characters I’m just inspired by them. Hopefully they’ve had fun playing in my sandbox.
Summary: In a world where you are either military or a slave to the military, Jack O'Neill hates slavery and yet winds up with two. And though he gives them his protection, they steal his heart in return.
---------------
---------------
A/N: his is an AU fic I've had in my head for a while. I actually wrote the middle of this epic a while back and I just started the beginning to tie it all together. First part of fic is Jack/Daniel and does contain some Daniel/OMC offscreen non-con/abuse. Later chapters will be Jack/Daniel/OFC as they take in another abused slave.
It's a weird AU and I'm trying not to make these early chapters an information dump.
---------------
Daniel eventually got into a groove with his social responsibilities, well sort of a groove anyway. It came after what was his and Jack's first real relationship hiccup.
A mission to a dank, rainy planet had spawned a deep, hacking chest cold in Daniel and landed him in bed for three days. He was sick, and cranky. And as he shuffled out to the refrigerator to get some juice he saw the calendar taped to the front of it that contained all of their social engagements, and he groaned seeing a birthday dinner party for some Colonel's pledged concubine listed that they were supposed to attend that evening. He hadn't picked out a gift or a card, and had forgotten to order the tray of Italian pastries that they were going to bring.
He groaned and leaned back against the counter, just staring at the damnable calendar with distaste. He finally slid down the cabinet and sat back against it, still staring at the calendar. It wasn't the first time he had missed some important social activity. He just wasn't good at it. But it made Jack look bad, and that Daniel couldn't stand. He did wish that every once and a while Jack would at least take a passing interest in these things, and maybe every now and again go pick out the damn gift himself, but Jack just took it all in stride that Daniel handled it all and never offered to help or even commented that he thought Daniel was doing things okay.
He pulled his knees up close and dropped his stuffy head on them. In the three months since Jack took command they seemed to be taking care of everybody but each other. And with Daniel still going off world and Jack staying Earth-side their time together seemed almost non-existent, and as he thought about the calendar he realized that every weekend and every free night they had was booked. They just had no time alone, no time to reconnect emotional and physically. And there was a distance between them that had never been there before, and it terrified Daniel. He felt like he was losing Jack a little at a time and he didn't know what to do.
Jack got home from the mountain to a quiet house. He head the muffled sound of Daniel coughing in the kitchen and headed there. He saw Daniel sitting on the floor with his face in his knees and chided gently, “I don't think Fraiser's gonna count this as bed rest.”
Daniel lifted his head and Jack could see that his eyes were red-rimmed, and not just from his cold. He could also see Daniel struggling with words again, which normally meant something really important was going on in that head of his and that Jack needed to pay attention. He sat down next to Daniel on the floor and waited, knowing Daniel would eventually spit it out.
“I screwed up again.”
“Since the planet is still in one piece I sincerely doubt that”
“Jack.”
“No, seriously. I'm sure I would have gotten at least a memo about an intergalactic screw up. So anything else should be easy to fix. What is it? Late fees on the library books again? Used the last of the toilet paper? Drank the last of the beer? What?”
Daniel shook his head gently, and gestured towards the calendar, “No. That. I forgot about the party tonight. I didn't get the gift or the pastries. And I honestly don't feel well enough to go run out and do it now. Or even go to the damn party, actually.”
Jack threw his arm around Daniel and pulled him in close, he could feel Daniel's fever coursing through his body. Daniel wasn't going anywhere but back to bed, but Jack sensed that there was a bigger issue at play here and he wanted to resolve it. “Daniel, you've been sick as a dog for days, you didn't forget, you just had other things on your mind like not coughing up a lung.”
Daniel let himself melt into Jack a little, and said, “I'm not good at all this stuff, Jack.”
“What stuff?”
“All that.” he gestured again to the calendar.
“What are you talking about? You are great at all that stuff. You make it look so easy I can't stand it sometimes. But we have become very popular, huh? Never a dull moment.”
Daniel was taken aback at Jack's offhand compliment, he didn't think Jack had even noticed, let a lone been impressed. A little flicker of warmth spread through Daniel's chest at the thought. And it was in that moment that Daniel realized that Jack couldn't or didn't always put into words the things that he felt, and maybe, just maybe Jack was feeling some of the same things Daniel was, so he gave Jack an opening, “Never a quiet moment.”
“Yeah, that too.”
Daniel whispered softly, “I miss you.”
And there it was, Jack thought, what was really bothering Daniel. He squeezed Daniel to him a little harder, “We haven't had a whole lot of time to ourselves lately, have we?”
Daniel didn't say anything but shook his head.
Jack took a deep breath and let it out, “I miss you too. It's lonely around here when you're off world. House is empty.”
“So what do we do?”
“Well, for starters I think that we need to look at that calendar and do some pruning. Folks will just have to get over it. And maybe we need to put ourselves on that calendar. Plan some stuff just the two of us.”
They spoke honestly for quite a while, and sorted some things out, when finally an extended bout of coughing made Jack say, “C'mon. You need drugs and a bed.” The fact that Daniel didn't argue let Jack know just how miserable he felt.
He got Daniel situated in bed and went back out into the kitchen, he picked up the phone and called the Colonel that was expecting them and gave him his regrets. Then he called a number that he hadn't used in a while, not since Daniel had taken over handling the whole gift thing so much better than he ever had, it was a florist in town run by a buddy of his. And after ordering his standard green plant with a big bow to be delivered to the party in their stead he went and curled up around Daniel and held him tightly.
---------------
That night, Arlis groggily answered his phone, it was the middle of the night and he had only been asleep for an hour or so having spent most of the evening entertaining himself with his slave.
It was the Colonel from Denver on the phone, asking him for a favor. Turns out that he acquired a slave, that while not officially off the grid, was sort of lost in the shuffle and he needed a place to stash her for a while until the interest about her died down. The Colonel agreed that Arlis could play with her as much as he wanted, but he just couldn't take her virginity, at least until she was completely lost in the system, however the Colonel did chuckle evilly and remind Arlis that she had another hole and a mouth he could use. Arlis quickly agreed, his Daniel had become far too complacent and docile, and a fresh piece of ass would be fun to break in. He quickly agreed and before he could even ask, the Colonel informed him that, yes, in fact she had blue eyes.
---------------
After that night things were better, Daniel still stressed over the social activities, but now he and Jack talked about them, and a lot of invitations were turned down and the gift procurement duties were divvied up between them. Daniel also started turning down extra off world missions. They fell back into the comfortable pattern of taking care of each other equally and their relationship was stronger for it.
A couple of months later they had gone out for a casual evening, just the two of them. There had been a free string quartet concert on the town green that they had enjoyed and followed it up by a late dinner at a favorite restaurant. They had both been riding a little buzz of arousal all night brought on by the innocent touches and proximity of each other and both men knew that it would be an incredible night in bed when they got home.
But that thought would have to be put on hold as they were surprised to see a strange car in their driveway. Jack did not hesitate to slip the gun out of his ankle holster and as they stealthily approached the house they were even more surprised to see a huge young man sporting a military hair cut sitting on their front step with a person wrapped in a blanket on his lap being cradled in his arms. As soon as he saw them he exclaimed, “Oh, thank god. General you have to help me.”
It took Jack a moment to recognize the man, he was relatively new to the base, a Marine Sergeant assigned to base security. “Sergeant Brooks?”
“Yes, Sir. Please you have to help her, Sir, I didn't know what else to do. Please, Sir.”
Daniel had edged closer and he could see that it was a woman wrapped in that blanket. There were bruises distorting her features, and her her hair was filthy and limp. She was unconscious, and her stillness concerned Daniel.
Jack attempted to calm Brooks and said in his command voice, “Brooks! Just tell me what happened.”
The Marine training in Brooks responded immediately to that tone and he said, “I stole her from him, Sir. He hurt her so badly. It wasn't right. And he wanted me to hurt her too, but I couldn't, Sir, it's just not right. So I snuck her out of there. But I didn't know where else to go, so I came here.”
Daniel gently placed his hand on her throat to check for a pulse and found one that was weak and thready and he said, “Jack, she needs a doctor.”
“Let's get in the house, I'll get Fraiser over here.” He didn't have to tell Daniel that he wanted more information out of Brooks before they went anywhere, including the base. Jack was not one to walk into things blindly.
The huge Marine stood and effortlessly carried the woman into the house and placed her ever so gently on the couch. Jack had his cell phone to his ear as they walked inside and Fraiser was soon on her way. Daniel went to unwrap the dirty blanket from around the woman when Brooks stopped him and said, “Uh, she doesn't have any clothes on.”
Daniel nodded and didn't unwrap her but did push it away from her face. He was shocked when she opened her eyes for a moment and it only took a second for a spark of recognition to flare in her blue eyes that mirrored his own and she croaked out, “Daniel,” before falling unconscious again.
---------------
Jack had been standing behind Daniel and asked, “You know her, Daniel?”
Daniel shook his head as he regarded the woman, “I've never seen her before. I have no idea.”
Jack turned to Brooks who was standing nervously nearby, “Okay. What exactly happened? Don't leave anything out.”
The moment that Jack heard, “Well, Sir, when I transferred in I met this guy down in the motor pool...” he knew instinctively that Arlis was involved. And sure enough he was, Jack didn't interrupt Brooks though, he just let him tell the story.
“So he's been talking about his new big screen t.v. he bought and all the channels he gets with the new satellite dish so I figured that's what he meant when he asked me if I wanted to come over and play with his new toy. I swear to god, Sir, that's what I thought he meant, I would never have gone out there otherwise.”
Jack had always been able to tell when someone was lying to him, and Brooks was not, the pure revulsion over what he had seen at Arlis' house was pouring out of him. And he took a huge risk in stealing another man's slave. Not that any judicial panel would convict him after one look at the battered and gaunt looking woman currently on Jack's couch, but it was still a big risk.
Jack decided to take a leaf out of Hammond's book in dealing with the young man, and reached over and placed a grounding hand on Brooks' shoulder and said, “I believe you, son, now I need to know what happened when you went out there.”
Brooks looked down at the floor, struggling for words, but he finally replied, “His house was... weird, Sir, he ah... had all these metal eye bolts and hooks installed all over the place. When I got there he must have been flipping through a porn magazine, cause he left it on the coffee table. But it wasn't regular porn, Sir, it was some sick shit, if you'll pardon my language. And when he caught me looking at it on the table he asked me if I was into that, and that it was okay if I was, because he knew lots of guys that liked to play like that. I didn't know what to say, Sir, and I was trying to think of a way to get hell out of there. So then he tells me that I need to lighten up and that I should go spend some time with his toy.”
Jack and Daniel listened in horror as Brooks described Arlis leading him to a bedroom down the hallway where strapped face down to the bed and gagged was the woman. Arlis told him that he could do anything he wanted to her except take her virginity. There apparently were all kinds of sex toys and whips and floggers on a shelf. Brooks could tell that she had been sodomized and beaten brutally, and repeatedly. And she looked half starved and barely conscious.
“I didn't know what else to do, Sir. I managed to pop the lock off the window and I wrapped her in that blanket and got her the hell out of there. He's got to know by now that she's missing. I know it's wrong to take another man's slave, Sir, but what he did to her, it's not right. And there's a special place in hell reserved for him for doing it. And I'll take whatever punishment they give me for taking her, but please just keep her safe, Sir.”
“Relax, son. You did the right thing. No one is going to hurt her any more. Now the bathroom's down the hall, and there's soda in the fridge. Why don't you go take a couple minutes, get a soda, pull yourself together, and wait for me in the kitchen.”
There was relief in the big man's eyes, both that he wasn't in trouble but more importantly that Jack believed him. “Yes, Sir.”
As soon as Brooks went down the hall, Jack scrubbed his face roughly with his hands and said quietly to Daniel, “I knew I should have shot that son of a bitch.”
“Normally I would disagree with you, but I'm a little biased in this case. He really is deranged, and dangerous.” Daniel was absently stroking her hair, hoping that is was at least a little soothing to the unconscious woman.
Jack flipped open his phone and called Kawalsky, “Charlie, I need you guys.” He sent Kawalsky, Teal'c, and a contingent of SF's to go and bring Arlis in and drop him in a holding cell, emphasis on drop. His next call was to the on base Slave Oversight Officer, he needed one of them to go with Kawalsky to document the evidence of abuse. While he was on the phone, Jack was unlocking the gun safe in the closet and removed two weapons. He handed one of them to Daniel and slipped the other in the back of his pants. Without a word said, Daniel knew that Jack expected Arlis to show up at the house and that Daniel was to shoot to kill if necessary.
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and Jack answered it with his gun in hand. It was Fraiser. Jack let out the breath he was holding and let her in along with the female nurse she had the forethought to pickup on the way, then secured the door.
In short order Janet had shooed the men out of the room so she could examine the woman, and they found themselves in the kitchen with Brooks. Daniel went through the motions of making coffee, knowing it was going to be a long night. His mind was a jumble of emotions, guilt front and center of them all. He couldn't help but wonder if Arlis had hurt this poor woman because he could no longer hurt Daniel. But it had been almost two years since Arlis had had any contact with Daniel outside of the hateful looks from the motor pool booth.
Janet's nurse came to get Jack a little while later leaving Brooks and Daniel in the kitchen. Daniel wasn't quite prepared when Brooks asked, “Mr. O'Neill may I ask you a question?”
Daniel had almost forgotten that if someone didn't know his own last name that it was appropriate for them to use the surname of his pledged officer, he was so well known at the SGC that he never heard himself referred to that way. “Please, call me Daniel. And sure, on the question, I'll answer it if I can.”
The young man hesitated a moment but forced himself to ask, “Why would Captain Arlis want to hurt that poor girl? I mean, he's not a bad looking guy, I can't imagine that he has a hard time attracting women. I just don't get it.”
“This isn't the first run in we've had with him. And ah, I really don't know. But General O'Neill summed it up to me a long time ago pretty well I think when he said that there was just something hardwired wrong in Arlis.”
Brooks nodded in agreement. Then he asked, “How long have you and the General been pledged?”
The corners of Daniel's mouth quirked up, just like they did every single time someone asked him that, the idea that he and Jack were pledged a source of joy for him still, “Almost two years, he claimed me six months before that.”
“A little late, but congratulations.”
It was said honestly and from the heart. And it made Daniel wonder about something, “Thanks. So what about you? Pledged? Any kids?”
A grin similar to the one that had just been on Daniel's face now crossed Brooks', “Not yet, but maybe soon. There's a girl, June's her name, she's assigned over at the hospital, she's a nurse's aide, helps out with patients. Met her when I got reassigned to the mountain.”
Daniel wished the young man well, and the men went back to their own introspection as they sipped their coffee.
---------------
Jack meanwhile was seeing red in the living room as Janet filled him in on her initial findings.
“She appears to be in her late twenties, no pledge cuff or id tags, and no scars or other identifying marks. She's definitely dehydrated and borderline emaciated. Probably hasn't had a healthy amount of food in a month. She has been beaten severely, and I can't guarantee without x-rays but I don't feel any broken bones.”
Jack saw her take a deep breath before continuing, and knew what was coming, Janet had given him reports in the past about slaves that had been sexually assaulted. “She was most certainly sodomized, whether anatomically or with other objects I can't tell you, but there was evidence of repeated anal trauma. No severe tearing that requires any sort of stitching, just a topical antibiotic creme should heal the minor abrasions, and time will heal the internal bruising. There was no semen present for DNA testing, Sir, I'm sorry. Her mouth is raw from whatever he was gagging her with, and there damage to the inside of her lips from her teeth. But nothing needing stitches, we'll just need to keep an eye out for infection, but the human mouth heals quickly.”
Jack hated to ask the next question because it seemed so irrelevant in the grand scheme, the law may have seen a difference in a female slave being raped vaginally versus anally but Jack didn't, it was one of those ridiculous loopholes in the law. A virgin male slave that was sodomized was deflowered, a virgin female slave that was sodomized was sexually assaulted, but if she were penetrated vaginally she was deflowered. In Jack's opinion the woman had been raped and tortured by any other name. But he needed to know, “Virginity?”
Janet gulped but answered, knowing the weight of the question, “Intact, Sir.”
He nodded, the wheels in his mind spinning at light speed. He needed Arlis alone in a room with no cameras. Five minutes is all it would take.
Janet continued, “I would like to get her to the infirmary, Sir. We gave her a bag of fluids already but she really needs more, and I gave her a sedative to keep her out for a while and a heavy dose of antibiotics to help her body fight off any infection. We'll get her cleaned up too, while she's out so she doesn't have to wake up like that.”
“Did she tell you her name?”
“No, Sir, I'm sorry. She opened her eyes for a while, but didn't say anything. It's not surprising given the trauma she's experienced. Honestly, Sir, she's going to have a long emotional recovery from this. We'll have to make sure she's given some good counseling.”
Jack scrubbed his face, “Yeah. Once I find out who the hell she is, and where the hell Arlis got her. One thing at a time.”
---------------
Janet called the base and had them send an ambulance down so they could transport her back to the mountain. Jack went back into the kitchen and Brooks scrambled to his feet, “At ease, Brooks.”
Daniel asked Jack, “How is she?”
“Not as bad as it could be, but bad enough. Fraiser's taking her back to the mountain as soon as the ambulance gets here. I've got to head in too, and you're coming with me, you're not staying here alone until Arlis is in custody.”
Daniel agreed with a nod, and Jack turned his attention to Brooks, “Sergeant, do you have a personal weapon with you?”
“Yes, Sir. I have my sidearm in my car.”
“Good. You just found yourself on bodyguard duty. I want you to go with Fraiser in the ambulance. If there is any trouble between here and there with Arlis or any of his little friends, you are hereby ordered to shoot to kill. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Sir.”
---------------
On the drive to the mountain Jack cell phone rang, it was Kawalsky with bad news, “Sorry, General, he's not here. Looks like he packed in a hurry and bailed.”
Jack closed the phone and a moment later he made Daniel jump when he fiercely yelled, “DAMNIT!”
Daniel asked quietly, “They don't have Arlis, do they?”
Jack didn't answer right away and they were soon pulling into Jack's parking spot. Jack turned the truck off and turned to Daniel, “I need you to do something for me without arguing. Can you do that?”
Hearing the worry in Jack's voice, he knew it was important, “What, Jack?”
“Until we find Arlis, I don't want you going anywhere alone outside the mountain. If I can't be with you, take Teal'c, or Kawalsky, or Sam. And I want you to be armed, don't go anywhere without a gun. I'll take care of the authorization.”
Daniel knew that Jack wasn't putting that restriction on Daniel without just cause and although he didn't like the idea of carrying a gun, he saw the sense in it. Before he could reply Jack pulled Daniel into a tight embrace and Daniel could feel the tension in Jack's body, tension that was voiced as Jack hoarsely whispered, “He hurt her, Daniel, like no one should ever be hurt. I don't think I could stand it if he hurt you too. Be careful. Please be careful.”
Daniel squeezed back tightly and said, “I will, Jack. I promise.”
They sat there for a long unbroken moment, simply soaking in each other's strength and support before finally heading into the mountain to organize a manhunt for Arlis.
---------------
tbc...
---------------
Additional chapters of In Another Life