Face-off, by Jennghis Khan (PG)
First time ever for me to rec Jack O'Neill! I hope you'll enjoy my selections for the month of March. :)
Rec Category: Jack O'Neill
Pairing: none
Categories: Jack O'Neill, gen, team, humor, Makepeace
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: surrealphantast
Author's Website: tagged fic links
Link: Face-off
Why This Must Be Read: When Jack gets just a little too carried away at his smugness at SG-1's "overwhelming coolness," he rashly agrees to a hockey match between his own team and Makepeace's Marines on SG-3. Then he discovers that Sam is a little too busy computing vectors with the hockey puck to pay any real attention to the game, Teal'c is having just a little too much fun smashing the puck into the stands and denting the seats, and Daniel… Well, Daniel is really good at tripping over his skates and sprawling on the ice.
We get Siler's guest spot as goalie, some ruthless manipulation of Daniel's ineptitude, and Jack's insane competitive streak that drives him inexorably onwards to the ultimate humiliation. There's humor and teamy goodness galore, and despite a rather smug Makepeace, SG-1's overwhelming coolness is readily apparent where it really counts… and everyone who reads this delightful story is going to cheer in agreement with Jack's final sentiment.
Unfortunately, the next four days of practice didn't make Jack feel any better. If you looked at Daniel wrong, it sent him into a flailing whirl until his skates slipped out from under him and he sprawled onto the ice with a groan. Jack repeatedly had to order Carter to just stop with the thinking and hit the damn puck. Teal'c apparently saw no need to do anything in a hurry, and skated casually around the ice holding his stick horizontally behind his back as if this whole thing were a Hallmark Christmas movie. Except for the times he hit the puck violently into the seats, leaving dents in the cheap, red metal. And Jack was pretty sure he was doing that on purpose just to add to Jack's pain.
His attempt to demonstrate 'checking' to Teal'c resulted in Jack basically bouncing off the Jaffa and doing a bit of flailing of his own before he slammed backwards into the boards and then took a header onto the ice. He laid there, flat on his back, and wondered if Colonel Makepeace would use his stolen mojo for good or for evil? Then Daniel tripped over Jack's legs and pulled a passing Sam down with him, both of them letting out a surprised yelp.
Teal'c skated a slow circle around all of them, corners of his mouth turned faintly upward in a smug smile.
Jack shoved his stick out and tripped him.