DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author. Not to be archived without permission of the author(s).
Chapter 7: Snow Drift
Falling, falling...
Burning pain, cold, blood...
Daniel of the little duck-and-fade gesture, effectively denying Jack a glimpse into the hell undoubtedly residing in his eyes...
Daniel of the fatalistic acceptance...sitting in the center of a white room surrounded by his friends...but never so alone in his life...
Daniel's voice, calling his name...Daniel of the distant, not-quite-there stare...so far gone Jack feared never to bring him back...
Daniel...drifting further and further away...
Jack woke up in a rush, hand outstretched as if to capture the fleeting, fading image of his friend...
But Daniel was there, nearly lost amid the quilts on the other leg of the sectional sofa from where Jack lay...one hand visible and twitching in response to his own dreams...
'Better dreams than mine, I hope...'
Jack looked around the room, the high, vaulted ceilings casting shadows in the dim firelight guttering from the ancient stone hearth, glowing reflections from the tall windows wrapping the room in peaceful comfort.
Jack remembered the marrow-deep cold, could still feel it tugging at him, trying to pull him back into memories of other acquaintances, other times he'd been too intimately familiar with its power to seep away life...
'We made it, we're fine...'
Daniel's quilts shifted, a slight moaning breath emanating from somewhere within the depths. Jack sat up quickly...too quickly...and his vision greyed out as a wave of dizziness hit. The long exposure to the cold, the bump to his head, the fact that neither of them had eaten in over sixteen hours were all catching up...
Jack sat still a few more seconds, head in hands, letting his head clear before rising to his feet...and nearly falling again as his feet became tangled in his own blankets. Jack started to fling them away then realized he was completely naked underneath...
A further glance around the room from his upright perspective showed him their clothes draped over chairs around the big room, most of them still dripping...
'Oooo-kay. think I remember doing that. Don't remember starting the fire...exactly...but I guess I did. Damn, I'm good on auto-pilot....'
Jack grinned at his own joke, thankful to have something...anything...to be grinning about. He shuddered again with a chill having nothing to do with the air temperature...remembering cold miles and bleak hopes and falling...
Blowing air out slowly and drawing the blanket even tighter around himself, Jack moved to Daniel's side. The younger man slept on, brow creased by something known only to him, too-pale face tinged with the pink of windburn, glaring bruises from temple to cheek, a line of dried blood tracing a path from within his hair downward to his neck looking like some bizarre tribal marking...
'Yeah, Danny, another initiation into life around Jack O'Neill...'
Jack shook his head, refusing the dark thoughts any further license. Sighing deeply, he placed a gentle hand on Daniel's forehead...noting its coolness even after hours under the heavy quilts. It had been close. Too damn close. Again.
"Way of life for us lately, huh, Daniel?" Jack whispered before moving on to the bathroom.
The sink tap groaned slightly before sputtering warm water. Jack stared at his reflection in the mirror while his hands soaked in the warmth, easing the aching chill that seemed to have settled there. He also looked pale, grazing bruises drifting from left eyebrow to hairline...A fleeting joke Ferretti always made about Jack's left eyebrow being his designated target area crossed his mind. Jack laughed dully, realizing he didn't feel like laughing at all...he felt cheated and angry and alone...and he didn't like it at all. The conciliatory vacation he'd envisioned certainly hadn't started out well...and Jack couldn't help but wonder what cosmic power he had managed to piss off so badly. All he wanted was a little peace...a little time to put things right in his world...and in Daniel's...and in all the places where those two worlds converged.
Jack sighed again and splashed his face, scrubbing roughly at his cheeks and suppressing the desire to moan at his own self-indulgence.
'Get over it, O'Neill. Things got off to a rocky start....Deal. Tomorrow will be better, the next day better than that. Has to be. Sure as hell can't get much worse...'