Title: Descent
Authors: Shoshone
Category: friendship
Rating: PG
Spoilers: season 5 episode Meridian
Season: post season 5 episode Meridian
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters
are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double
Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment
purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is
intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the
authors. This story may not be posted anywhere without the consent of the
authors.
Even though it was the middle of the night, he went from being dead asleep to rolled out of his bed and crouching in a heartbeat.
Kneeling in the dark, his waking mind raced to catch up with his subconscious. His bare toes curled against the night chilled carpet as he sought to identify what had woken him. Wearing pajama bottoms and little else he searched the sounds of the night around him. Finally, faintly, something made a quiet scraping noise in one of the rooms below.
Reaching out Jack slowly pulled open the nightstand drawer. Dipping his hand in he pulled out his gun. Normally it would have been kept in a locked box on the top shelf deep in the recesses of the closet. Normally the gun would have been unloaded and the bullets kept somewhere safe. Normally.
But things hadn't been normal for a long time now. And it hadn't seemed to matter very much lately whether or not he kept the weapon tucked away. Whether or not he made it safe.
Not since there had stopped being anyone left to protect it from.
He padded down the hall, gun held low against his side. He leaned against the wall at the top of the staircase and listened for a moment before slipping past the corner. Automatically he walked along the inside edge, and skipped the second step from the bottom since it was the one that always squeaked.
At the foot of the stairs he could hear the clink of porcelain in the kitchen. He paused for a moment, hand instinctively tightening on the grip of the gun, one finger curling snugly against the trigger before he came around the corner ready to handle whoever had made the really stupid mistake of breaking into his house. He was ready to confront drugged out teens looking for quick cash or amateur cat burglars looking for dvd players to swipe. Heck, he was even ready for NID men with attitudes who were just looking for him. He'd had a really bad couple of weeks, capped off by a really bad couple of months, on top of a really bad year. So, bring 'em on. He was ready for it.
However, he was not ready for what he saw. Not even if someone had given him fifty guesses would he have dared to list Daniel sitting at his table calmly drinking coffee from one of Jack's own mugs as being around that corner.
Jack froze.
And yet there he sat.
Daniel looked up, took in the gun without blinking and quietly said, "Hello, Jack. Told you I'd be back again."
Without responding, Jack took a couple of cautious steps into the room.
"I hope you don't mind I borrowed some of your coffee while I was waiting."
"No," Jack responded slowly stepping up to the table careful like he was approaching a wild creature that might take flight at any moment. "That's okay. "
Reaching out, Jack swept the hand holding the gun forward expecting it to pass through Daniel and was surprised when it thunked solidly into the other man's shoulder.
"Ow!"
"Sorry." The apology came out automatically, even as he stared down at the hand holding the gun. It hadn't gone through. "It's just I didn't think..." It hadn't gone through! His head snapped up. "…you're real."
"Yes." Daniel agreed.
Jack backed up, his legs bumped into the opposite chair, and he sat down. He looked across the table. How? Why? Were questions both immediately chasing around in his head. He wanted to ask them. Would ask them at some point. But right at that moment he decided he honestly didn't care and reined the racing thoughts back in. It was enough that it was. And so he just sat there like a lump, gun dangling at his side, and studied the man across from him. Daniel. Who was very much alive. Alive and slurping down his coffee it would seem. Daniel smiled shyly at Jack's expression, ducking his head to drink from the mug with the King's logo on its side. He watched as Daniel swallowed. Only people who were real swallowed, right? This wasn't a crazy dream or hallucination, right? It really was true.
Daniel.
Back. Alive. Just like before.
Except…Jack frowned…thinner.
Was it possible to lose weight when you were dead…ascended? What had they been feeding him? Did you even eat when you were a glowy light being-person-thing? Did you feel hunger? Or any of that stuff? He watched as Daniel sucked down the last of the coffee, licking his lips to catch any stray drops obviously relishing the taste.
If you didn't feel hunger? Did you feel any of the other stuff? Thirst? Curiosity? Loneliness?…Fear?
"How long?" Jack blurted out the one question he couldn't ignore.
"How long?" Daniel echoed.
"How long can you stay?"
Daniel raised his eyebrows in surprise. "This is a little bit more than a social call, Jack."
"Damnit, Daniel. Don't mess with me here! How long?"
"I thought you understood...you always seemed to know...", Daniel's eyes were very blue as they widened in understanding and then softened. "Forever." He said earnestly holding out his hand. "If that's okay?"
"Forever." Jack whispered back. He coughed and had to clear his throat. He tried repeating it again, but it still rolled out of his mouth like it was some sort of strange foreign word he'd never heard of.
"Jack?"
He pulled it together, this time forcing his voice not to break. "Forever. Yeah, I…uh…I guess that'll do." He stared at Daniel across from him and nodded more firmly taking the offered hand. And if he squeezed it a little too tight, holding on to it a little too long, then nobody needed to know about it. That was just between him and Daniel. His best friend.
He held on harder.
"Yeah, that'll do just fine."