Author's Notes: Okay, certain choices I have made with regards to character development are probably going to elicit a bit of argument. Be that as it may - I made my decision on the basis of a certain episode. "Solitudes" - and I refer you to it if you think there is a flaw in my logic.
Writing this brought back some not-so-pleasant memories of boot camp. Particularly one, really fun ten kilometer up hill 'forced march' (read - run) with full packs, weapons and web gear...
Unfortunately for you, this next bit is a flash back...
DISCLAIMER: All 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 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.
The very first instant Daniel set foot on P8V-201 he was seized with a terrible, inexplicable urge - to go home. It made no sense. On the other side of the universe he had been fine, entering the gate shaking his head over Jack's latest verbal faux pas and trying to figure out how best to speak to Sam in order to attempt to smooth things over just a little bit on Jack's behalf.
After which point it had been his original intention to take his friend aside and have had another little chat with him about some of the finer points of learning to communicate in terms that were even slightly less offensive to human beings in general and women in particular. Whether they were wearing Captain's bars or not.
But that was just so Jack. Not a malicious bone in his body but a mouth that worked faster than the speed of light even as impeded as it was by constantly having one or both feet in it. Jack was the undisputed master of the cut-to-the-bone unintentionally cruel backhanded compliment. His idea of flattery ran something along the lines of:
"Well honey, that sweater looks really great on you. Why, with the neck like that you can't even SEE your double chin. Ow! Why did you hit me? What did I say?"
Daniel knew that he was on very firm ground presuming to assume to be capable of advising Jack in this capacity. When he needed to, he never had any problem communicating with people, no matter their gender. Admittedly though, even though he could talk to his fellow human beings he didn't always understand why they did a lot of the things that they did. Many of the subtle nuances of human behavior and interaction escaped him yet, (he wondered if his inability to comprehend his own culture and society was one of the main reasons why he was so drawn to attempting to unravel the puzzle that defeated him in the present by searching in the past) but all of that aside, he could hear and be heard when it mattered. It probably came as a by-product of a life spent largely in observation mode coupled with the willingness to shut up and listen. However he had acquired the capacity, Daniel rarely found that he had any trouble talking to women. If you could just get past that 'us versus them' barrier that a lot of people seemed to throw up between them and the rest of the opposite polarity of the species and offered a person the opportunity to be heard and appreciated, it really wasn't all that hard.
Talking to Jack, though. At times, that was pretty hard.
He barely had time to stop himself from attempting to dive back into the event horizon in response to the strange desire - to go home. It was there inside him, full grown and compulsive and quite obliterating any intentions to do anything else but obey it, and he had no idea where it had come from.
"Okay, campers," Jack was addressing them. "We have a little bit of a trip ahead of us, so form up and let's get started on the double. The sooner we get there the sooner - we get there."
On the double. Oh dear. That was one of those amusing military euphemisms for excruciating torture.
Pointless excruciating torture, let's not forget that..
He had to object, just on principal. The day wouldn't be complete without it.
"Jack - "
"Just button your lip and move your ass, Daniel. This is the Military, not a democracy. Don't recall opening up the subject for debate. Carter, up front and set the pace. Let's see if you can keep up to her, Danny-boy."
They set out, the intrepid little band that was SG-1, jogging through the trees, Carter in the lead as indicated, Jack just slightly behind her, making like a tour guide with an attitude.
"...and directly to your left if you look out your windows you will see - more trees. Trees, trees, if you please. Come on Daniel, Move it! My Grandmother could run faster than you."
"Yeah, and if she was here you 'd probably make her," Daniel grumbled under his breath, or so he thought.
"I HEARD that," Jack shot back."Ya got enough energy left to mouth off I should make you drop and give me 25. Why, what a fabulous idea, what do you say, kids, let's stop and do push-ups! I'm sure we'll all find a way to thank Daniel later."
So they stopped and dropped and did what they had to do praying that the spirit of the drill sergeant that had temporarily possessed their Colonel's body would soon get tired and move on. Jack did ease up on them after that point, so for a great portion of the trip Daniel was able to drop back, plod doggedly after his team mates and become lost in wondering why he felt so distressed.
I'll be fine I just need to go home.
Sam lengthened her stride as the Colonel fell in at her side to continue the run. Feeling just a little self-conscious she picked up the pace just the slightest bit. She was now running slightly faster than was her comfortable pace, but she could do it for a fair bit before she had to pull it back some. She stole a sidelong glance at the Colonel to see if she could catch him watching her, which he was and she did. He leered at her quite shamelessly, took a deep breath and said, "God, just smell that air! We should do this more often, kids, ain't it great!"
It would appear that the Colonel was in an exceptionally good mood. That definitely portended interesting times ahead, particularly for the youngest member of their team...When the Colonel got 'playful' like this his enthusiasm usually manifested itself in a tendency to inflict minor practical jokes on the rest of them, but on no one more so than Daniel.
Sam shook her head and deliberately pulled ahead of the Colonel, just a little bit. Funny how life was. Who knew that she would find herself in a situation that a great many women would probably kill to be in. Here she was, on alien planet half way across the universe, the only woman on the entire orb, getting sweaty with three - count 'em three absolutely drop dead gorgeous men who were chasing after her, if not in the figurative sense of the word certainly literally.
The biggest irony of all? They considered her to be 'one of the boys'.
That was well and truly the only way they looked at her, all the way around.
How weird was that?
Sam had never really considered the 3 to 1 imbalance in the gender representation of SG-1 to be a problem. Nor had she ever had occasion to think that she could not trust any of her male team-members not to treat her with dignity and respect. Always as an equal. Given the kind of man that each was in their own right, it was practically impossible that it could be any other way.
She knew how people talked sometimes. Tried to imply that there was more going on between certain members of SG-1 than was let on to in the mission reports. The latest silly rumor that she had been made aware of had to do with speculations about a relationship between her and Teal'c.
Not even within the wildest dreams of any sort of probability. The Jaffa would probably have had amputated body parts before 'dishonoring' a fellow teammate. Which, given the restrictions of his personal code of conduct and his own personal obligations is exactly what he would consider it. Due to his own honor and the immutable way that code dictated the confines of his universe, Teal'c was severely limited in the way he could conduct his interpersonal relationships and still be who he was.
And Daniel? Well, that was even more unlikely. Dear, sweet, head-in-the-clouds Daniel was more like the little brother that you felt you had to look after no matter how annoying he got and that sweet puppy you got for your birthday all rolled up in one than a potential lover. Even if you could get past the slightly incestuous taste in your mouth that was left by even contemplating such a thing as an intimate involvement with Daniel you were then confronted with the inescapable truth that puppy dog in question was a one-woman man. A truly confirmed monogamist in both theory and practice. And if you didn't happen to be that woman he was holding out for you just might as well forget it. As a few 'poachers' who had tried hunting on Sha'uri's preserve had already found out. Daniel had had far more than his fair shares of offers to lead him into all kinds of temptation. So far, when he had been in his right mind and his own man, he had passed. She had seen nothing to lead her to believe that Daniel was going to be changing his resolve on this particular issue any time soon.
That left the Colonel, didn't it? No doubt there would at first seem to be more of a chance here then with either Daniel or Teal'c, in that he alone of the other two men had no other commitments than the military, but if you thought so, you would be wrong. It was true that she had caught him more than one or twice giving her an on-the-spot short order inspection, and she was more than sure he wasn't checking to see if seams and buttons were straight, collars were starched and shoes were shined. It wasn't that kind of an 'inspection'.
Sometimes he let her see it, meaning it to be a compliment. Which was the way she took it. It wasn't lust as much as it was -rendering proper respect for what he considered her to be. A beautiful woman. He was attempting to pay her an obvious and quite sincere compliment by showing her that he appreciated the view. On general principle alone, not that he expected that doing so would have any chance of leading them into a situation where they would be practicing any close order drill. That would never happen, or she did not know people and she did not know Colonel Jack O'Neill.
While it was true that she was a woman, as far as the Colonel was concerned, that fact was entirely secondary to the other more important fact that she was first and foremost a member of SG-1 and a soldier under his command. As long as that situation remained in effect, the Colonel would never allow himself the luxury of pursing a more intimate relationship with her. Nor would she expect or encourage it of him.
As long as she was subject to his command and he was responsible for her life, as well as the lives of the other members of SG-1, the Colonel could not afford to put either of them in a position where there was a possibility of their personal feelings compromising the safety of their other team members. As the commanding officer he could not allow anything to develop in his relationships with all of his subordinates that would cause a situation to arise wherein he would be tempted to favor one member of his command over another because of tender feelings. He could not be partisan with any of them and be the kind of leader he needed to be to all of them. The Colonel was too good an officer, too fine a soldier and too honorable a man to ever do that to anyone that he served with.
So no matter what anyone thought to the contrary, Sam knew full well that as long as she hung out with this particular group of boys she was only ever going to be considered by all of them as one of them.
Which was just fine by her.
Speaking of boys, it seemed as if the Colonel had noticed that Daniel was severely lagging behind them. He winked at Carter, pulled a wheelie and headed back to harass the also-ran far behind them.
The Colonel pulled in behind Daniel and started to verbally brow beat him, forcing him to run faster in an effort to get out of the range of the man who was breathing on his neck and bellowing in his ear.
"Daniel! Pick up the pace now!
Move it move it move it move it MOVE IT!"
The archaeologist hastily hotfooted it past her, Jack still on his heels yelling motivational phrases in his ear. As he passed her, Daniel turned an imploring face to her and mouthed "Help me!"
Sorry Daniel, I ain't getting in the middle of this one. You're on your own.
Huh! And the Colonel called THEM kids..
To the man who was presently standing in the huge room that reeked with death all of that now seemed like a distant dream. One he wished he could go back to rather than be in the waking confusion he now found him in. The feeling of deep panic and needing desperately to go home increased within Daniel almost exponentially upon setting foot in the Goa'uld complex. The smell of the air made him feel physically sick and he did not want to look into the holding pens and see what was left of what had been abandoned to perish in there.
What a terrible place this was! What were they doing here? What could they learn from what had been done here except how to hurt, maim torture, kill and destroy?
Daniel suddenly felt as if he was going to become violently ill. He knew that he had to get out of here, get some air or he was going to lose his lunch for sure.
No one seemed to notice as he slipped from the room and bolted down the corridor toward the remembered exit. Of course, it had been an entrance when they had passed through it the first time but all he cared was it was going to get him out of here and into the fresh air. Daniel clamped a hand over his mouth and ran like hell, glad that he didn't have an audience while doing it.
His body was convulsing with violent retching motions as he burst out of the building and threw himself up against the outer wall for support. Bracing himself against the wall he slowly slid down it, gulping huge draughts of air in an effort to stop the dry heaving. He allowed his body to continue to slide downward until he was sitting on the ground, his legs drawn up, his arms folded over his stomach.
Well, thank god the fresh air seemed to be helping. He had come very close, but he hadn't actually honked anything up.
Oh good grief, he had been hanging around Jack too long. He was starting to sound like him.
Daniel sat forward and let his head hang between his knees until the nausea and dizziness passed. He had been in a lot worse places than this in the past couple of years; he couldn't imagine what it was about this place that had affected him so profoundly. He certainly was not normally given to being unusually squeamish. Maybe it had been a side effect of the physical exertion he had just undergone to get here, but he dismissed that. All of Jack's posturing and complaining aside, what the team had just done had barely been enough for any of them to break into a sweat. No matter what Jack said, SG-1 didn't exactly sit around and eat bon-bons during their off duty hours.
It was when Daniel was finally feeling that it was safe to raise his head that he heard the first whispers. Like a tiny breath of a voice carried on the teeth of the wind. A ghost of an echo heard in someone else's dream.
hommmeeeee...
At first Daniel was sure he had imagined it. Still feeling a bit woozy from the air inside the complex. But it was there again, a little stronger this time. More of an indication of a direction as well.
.meee.hhoommeee.
He HAD heard that! It hadn't been his imagination. There was something in there. Something alive. Something in great pain.
His bodily distress completely forgotten, Daniel scrambled to his feet and ran back into the building, following the sound of the call for help.
"Jaaaaccckk!!! Help me, Jack! Jack! Jaaccckkkk! Take me hoommee!!!"
The screams were coming from the other side of the complex. Only stood to reason that Daniel would pick the farthest point away from help to get into a situation where he needed some. Jack was only dimly aware that Sam and Teal'c were behind him; spurred on by the obvious distress in Daniel's voice all Jack cared about was getting to him as quickly as possible.
He thundered down the corridor, through a set of double doors and into a room that looked as if it had been a secondary lab, much smaller than the one they had left, but nevertheless another area dedicated to conducting tests and experiments.
Peripherally and very quickly Jack noted that this room was in much better condition than the one they had left, almost as if it had been secured and sealed against all intruders. In fact, had it not been that the door had been left open, presumably when Daniel had gone in for whatever reason had possessed him to do so, odds were they would have passed right by it without even seeing it. In fact, they probably had already done so.
Which raised some interesting questions as to how Daniel not only knew it was here but knew how to get into it, but that could wait.
As well as could all the perfectly intact equipment in the room itself. Right now their main concern was helping Daniel, and he looked as if he sorely needed it.
Ah God - what the hell was that thing?
Jack fought back a wave of revulsion as he saw what had become of his friend.