A Private Little World

SG1 stumbled through the stargate and onto the ramp, barely standing and managing that only by leaning on each other for support and strength. The battered, exhausted, sore and mud-covered team made a shocking contrast to the alert group of people who had gone through the gate three days earlier on a routine reconnaissance of a new planet. The soldiers standing guard in the room half-raised their weapons, as if unsure that they *were* one of their teams, or perhaps worried that whatever trouble reduced SG1 to this state wasn't far behind.

"At ease," Hammond barked, rushing into the gate room, Dr. Fraiser a few steps behind.

"Thanks, sir," Jack mumbled, head hanging down so far he could have been talking to the floor.

"Colonel O'Neill, what in the hell happened? We've been trying for two days to open the gate to PX7 447, and it's simply not been happening."

"Some sort of automated sentry," Carter told him wearily answering for Jack at his nudge, eyes closed and forehead resting on O'Neill's upper arm. "PX7 447 is incredibly geologically unstable. Apparently when the ground disturbances are localized too near that gate, it buttons itself up, using something not unlike the iris on our gate, and stays that way until things calm down."

Looking at the filthy people, making eye contact with Fraiser as she gingerly probed an open wound on Teal'c's shoulder, Hammond asked, "How unstable is unstable?"

"Oh, tremors, rockslides, mud slides, eruptions, earthquakes, ash falls," Jack said, using a pale version of his usual off-hand way of dismissing trouble. "That kind of unstable."

Dr. Fraiser moved to where Daniel Jackson was hanging onto Teal'c with both hands dug into the remains of the Jaffa's uniform. There was blood mixed with the mud covering his face, and his eyes were so glazed behind his glasses that Hammond didn't know for sure that the linguist knew he was back home. The doctor tried to find his injury, but Daniel flinched away, almost falling as he did.

"People, I think a full report can wait until you've had a chance to rest," Hammond said, not unkindly, seeing that. "Go wash and let Dr. Fraiser tend your wounds."

"Best idea I heard all day," Jack muttered, but he gave a half salute in acknowledgement and shuffled toward the door, towing Carter with him. Teal'c draped an arm over Daniel and urged him into motion, being careful to let Dr. Fraiser help the younger man stay upright.

In the end it was easier for the team to commandeer one of the locker rooms for themselves, letting Janet help them as they washed the many layers of mud away. At first they didn't bother to undress, but simply stood under the hot water, letting it take off the top of the dirt off without any help from them.

"I've been dreaming about this for two days," Sam moaned blissfully, scrubbing at her short blonde hair to pry it from her skull. She winced as the movement aggravated the long scrape covering her left arm.

"Amen," Jack said reverently, dragging off a sodden jacket and letting it fall to the floor. He and Teal'c did the same for Daniel, who was standing directly under the shower head, face turned up, almost letting himself drown from the fall of water. "Come on, Daniel. We need to have Fraiser look at those ribs and that gash on your head."

The smaller man gurgled something indistinct, but obediently steered himself so that the doctor could examine his chest with *careful fingers. "What happened?" she asked shortly, noting that the bruising was multi-layered, indicating that he had been hurt repeatedly in that area.

"The first quake caught us off guard and dumped us down a hill." Daniel told her quietly. "Somehow I wound up on the bottom of the pile. Jack has very bony elbows."

"I heard that."

"Your knees aren't that well padded, either," Daniel said over his shoulder, a ghost of a smile showing for the first time.

"Hey, I apologized didn't I?" Jack grumped.

"I do not think that DanielJackson was referring to the first tremor," Teal'c put in, "but rather the one that nearly buried us all in the mudslide." Unselfconsciously he took off the remains of his shirts and braced himself on the wall to remove his boots.

"Oh," Jack said weakly, peeling off his T-shirt and showing off his own collection of scrapes and bruises.

"Yeah, 'oh'," Daniel confirmed.

"Yeah, well, I didn't hear you stumbling over yourself with I'm sorry's when you pushed me into that sink hole," Jack shot back.

"That was me, sir," Sam said, setting her boots to one side, but tossing the socks toward the trash. "Daniel was the one who knocked you over the boulder when we were stumbling in the ash fall." She stopped, swayed a bit, and then caught herself on the wall. "I think."

Eyes bouncing from member to member to member of SG1, Janet smiled relief evident. Obviously no one was seriously hurt, and only a little worse for wear for their latest adventure. Taking a blanket from the stack she'd had an nurse bring in, she held it up for Sam, shielding her from the others while she wrestled off the half-fragmented pants she wore.

"We'll get you into the infirmary first," Janet said calmly, "and give the others a chance to finish up in here." She pinned O'Neill with a sharp look. "You'll join us as soon as you're clean?"

Jack grimaced, but nodded his agreement. No matter how much he wanted a hot meal and his bed, procedure was procedure. He wouldn't be leaving the complex until Fraiser was satisfied that he *was* Jack O'Neill, and not something... more. Shuddering at the thought of the Ga'ould, he grabbed two bars of soap, tossing one at Teal'c.

"Wanna come home with me, tonight?" he offered casually. "I know that you don't really care one way or the other where you sleep, but my spare bedroom has to beat your cot all to hell. We can heat up some chili and have a few brews before we crash."

Teal'c accepted with an incline of his head, and said, "It would be pleasant and restful. Thank you, O'Neill."

"Daniel, you want to stop over, too?" Jack asked, not really paying attention to his friend.

Crossed forearms leaning on the shower wall, head down on them, Daniel mumbled, half-seriously, "Why, want to see if you can jab one of those bony limbs of yours someplace where I'm *not* bruised?"

"Actually, I thought Teal'c and I could tag team you," Jack shot back, but he went over to gently touch the wound on his teammate's head. "Besides Fraiser might not want you to be on your own, just in case."

"It's been a couple of days already, Jack," the younger man protested, his voice muffled by the water and the tiles so close to his face. "All I want is my nice, big feather bed and to sleep until I wake up on my own, not dragged out of it by that fog-horn snore of yours."

"Hey, it's not that bad!" Jack swept some of the water from his face, and looked hard at Daniel, concerned about him for no reason he could put his finger on. The linguist did seem exhausted, more so than the rest of SG1. He hadn't even finished undressing yet, let alone soaped up. "Need some hand getting your boots off?" he asked quietly.

"Thanks," Daniel said honestly. "I'm afraid that if I bend over, my head will explode."

"I concur with DanielJackson," Teal'c said, coming up from the other side. He closed one huge hand around the upper arm of the sagging man, holding him steady while his commander knelt and tugged at the laces. "The sound you produce is not conducive to a restful night."

"Yeah, then why are *you* coming over?" Jack tugged off the first boot, amazed at the amount of mud that slopped out with it. "Jesus, we could make a whole new planet, we're carrying around so much muck," he mumbled to himself.

"I have long since learned to sleep through what I must," the Jaffa intoned solemnly.

Too solemnly, and Jack darted a glance upwards in time to see the teasing light in the ebony eyes. "Useful trait," he shot back dryly "You'll have to try to teach it to me sometime so I can sleep through *your* nightly serenade."

Shutting off the water, Daniel wiggled his now free toes, sighing in relief. "Be better if we could teach you not to snore," he mumbled so indistinctly, O'Neill had trouble understanding the words.

Abandoning his teasing, he straightened, grabbed a towel, and roughly dried the younger man off, leaving the tatters of his pants for the time being. "You'll do. We'd better get you to Fraiser before you fall asleep standing up."

"...kay..." Daniel had his eyes closed and was weaving in place, convincing Jack that if it hadn't been for Teal'c powerful grip, Jackson would have fallen down and gone to sleep right where he was.

Thinking that he would arrange for Daniel to be checked out first and taken home by an airman, Jack hustled his team out of the shower.

**** end1

Jack would have liked to have said that he was out as soon as his head hit the pillow, but the truth of the matter was he didn't even remember getting home, let alone getting to his bed. As it was, when the shrill ringing of the phone finally dragged him awake to slap the thing off the nightstand, he found himself fully dressed, face-down on his own bed. He stared stupidly for a second at his mattress, then Sam's voice, thin and electronic, snapped his awareness to attention. Fumbling, he picked up the receiver and growled, "Yeah?"

"Colonel?" Carter asked uncertainly.

"Sam, unless the Ga'ould are invading the complex right this second, I *am* not getting up. Now, is whatever you wanted to talk to me about *that* important?"

"Daniel is in trouble."

Without thinking, Jack sat up, spinning to put his feet on the floor and holding in a groan as stiff muscles protested. "What's wrong?"

Even over the distance of the phone line, she sounded worried and scared something Jack hadn't heard from his junior officer very often. "I'm not sure. He just called, but all he said was my name a couple of times, and he sounded, well, odd. Then the line fell dead, and now there's no answer."

"He sounded.... odd," O'Neill said flatly, wondering if Sam had been hurt worse on PX7 447 than he'd thought.

"Look, I know how that sounds, but I fell sleep in the chair when I sat down to take off my shoes, so if I'm concerned enough to get dressed again, wake you, and take this kind of guff, maybe you ought to take me at face value!" Her voice bordered between angry and respectful, staying that way, Jack though muzzily, because of their friendship and not his rank.

"Okay, okay, Sam," he placated, accepting her argument. "What do you want me to do?"

"You're a lot closer than I am; I'll meet you there. Then if this turns out to be nothing you can chew me out in person." Most of her temper was back under control, and Jack smiled to himself.

"Naw. You'll just owe me one." She laughed, and he told her, "On my way."

Hanging up, he creakily put himself into motion, rubbing at his eyes in a vain attempt to feel more alert. Opening his bedroom door he walked through it and straight into Teal'c. Jumping back two feet, almost back into his bedroom, he shouted. "Jesus! Teal'c! Next time don't *sneak*!"

"My apologies, O'Neill. I overheard you speaking and from the tone of the conversation believed that there was some difficulty."

With a mock punch to his arm, Jack forgave his friend. "Sam was telling me that Daniel is in some kinda trouble. She wants me to go check him out." As he talked he headed for his front door, scooping up not only his keyring, but the one that held keys given to him from the other members of his team. "This won't take both of us; why don't you go back to bed?" Jack eyed the bandage on the big Jaffa's arm, then added. "Even you need to rest to heal."

"Daniel is my friend as well, O'Neill. I would prefer to accompany you."

Not really expecting any other answer, Jack simply snatched his heavy winter coat off the hook, and said, "Hurry up and dress; I'll warm the jeep. Daniel, you had better need major surgery or something, dragging me out like this..."

A few minutes later, staring at the ice rink that used to be his drive away, he amended, "I take that back, Daniel; you'd better be dying."

"O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, coming up behind him, the single word standing in for a great many questions.

"Never mind," Jack waved a hand irritably at his teammate. "Just, never mind. Now we know why the phone fell dead on Sam; my guess is the freezing rain took down the lines."

They got in his Jeep and cautiously headed for their friend's apartment, the weather and road conditions making the trip tedious and treacherous. Grateful, for once, for Teal'c's natural reticence, O'Neill pushed away his fatigue and more fear than he wanted to admit to, and concentrated on driving.

Less than half a mile from Daniel's place, another car slid through an intersection in front of them, the faces of its occupants white with terror at the uncontrolled skid. Jack did all that he could, but he still clipped the rear bumper, sending both vehicles into spins.

They plunged into one of the huge snow banks created earlier in the week by the plows, the ice covering it cracking almost merrily at the double impact. With a soldier's reflexes and training, Jack was out of his seat and slipping toward the other people, Teal'c close by his side, almost before both cars had stopped moving. A quick glance told him that everyone inside the old sedan was unhurt - scared out of his or her minds, but unhurt.

Stepping back a few feet, O'Neill surveyed the situation, then met Teal'c's eyes. "It'll take some doing, but I can get my Jeep out, I think. I'll stay here and get these people on their way, or wait until help comes for them. You go to Daniel's; it's not far. If he needs an ambulance, call Hammond first so he can arrange for it to go straight to the base."

With a nod Teal'c took the offered key ring and moved away gracefully, dealing with the slippery road with a surety that made Jack wonder, not for the first time, the kinds of things you could learn if you had decades at your prime, instead of a few paltry years.

**** end 2

After over a year of living on this planet, Teal'c no longer felt threatened simply by walking its streets. It was an attitude, he understood after a long, carefully worded conversation with Dr. Jackson that could cause him to come to harm. As of yet, he didn't fully understand why, and frustrated, the other man had made him promise not to travel alone except in an emergency. Absently he wondered if DanielJackson would consider this an emergency, but, for the most part, Teal'c focused on keeping his footsteps sure and swift.

Already concerned about the delay in reaching the linguist's quarters, and at having to leave Colonel O'Neill behind, his anxiety increased when he saw no lights in the dwelling, and no sign of Major Carter. Dealing with the unfamiliar keys as best he could, he let himself in when repeated knocks and calling woke the neighbors, but apparently did not disturb Daniel. Once inside, he turned on the lights and was not surprised to see a trail of clothing leading toward the bathroom.

A partial smile gracing his full lips despite the situation, he followed the path, calling yet again as he did. He hesitated at the partially opened door to the dark room, then went in at the sound of a soft snorting breath. Diffused as it was by the snow and ice, there was enough light from a high upper window for Teal'c to see his friend curled up in a protective ball in one corner of the spacious room, wearing only a loosely tied robe.

He hurried over to kneel by Daniel, one hand finding the smaller man's shoulder instinctively. At the contact, the other man sat up hastily and swirled away from Teal'c, backing himself into a corner to escape the touch. They blinked at each other in surprise, then Daniel smiled widely and just as fast as he ran away, he threw himself at the big Jaffa, winding his arms around the sturdy neck.

"Teal'c!" he said happily, and covered the other man's lips with his own in a searing, demanding kiss, pressing his aroused body close.

Startled, Teal'c caught his teammate at the waist to hold him steady and endured the caress, not sure how to react to the sudden intimate contact. Confusion at his teammate's actions warred with the concerns that had brought him to Daniel's home, causing him to freeze into immobility, if only for a second. His hesitation was his undoing; clever hands burrowed under his shirts to gently stroke his nipples, bringing them up instantly to pebbled hardness. Teal'c tried to pull back his head to protest, but then the same light attention was paid to the opening of his larval womb, making him shudder helplessly in pleasure.

Not even Dray'ac had been comfortable with touching him there, despite the fact it was easily one of the most sensitive, sensual places on his body. He had found, as a rule, that only other Jaffar truly understood the necessity of giving that part of themselves erotic fondling. But Daniel zeroed in on his need as if he'd spoken it aloud, and a cry struggled to escape from Teal'c, parting his lips in the effort.

As if it were an invitation, Daniel slipped his tongue into the Jaffa's mouth, exploring it eagerly, winding lovingly over and around its counterpart. The sweetness of it struck Teal'c as powerfully as the sexuality, and he hesitantly, almost unwillingly joined in the play. Apparently content to have gotten a voluntary response from him, Daniel pulled away after a few breathless moments, hands still petting restlessly, and murmured, "I claim Honor Rights, Teal'c. Let me repay you my debt of life to you with my body."

Groaning inwardly, wondering how his friend had learned of the custom, Teal'c denied softly, "You have lost no honor in my eyes, Daniel. You have always stood by my side as a fellow warrior, fighting to defend me even as I fought for you." Unbidden his hands automatically cuddled the smaller form closer, lingering worry over the call that had brought him to the linguist's home motivating a fast pat down to check for new injuries.

"Even when I shunned my wife, ashamed of her infidelity and the plain evidence of it? Furious at who she'd laid with, though it was no fault of her own?" Daniel asked sadly, hiding his face against the broad chest in front of him, fingers absently kneading the muscles of the huge man's neck.

"You would have done what was right; I truly believe that." Without meaning to, Teal'c smoothed the back of tussled head, letting his fingers comb through the silky strands.

"Do you?" Daniel whispered. "I wonder, myself. If you hadn't kicked me in the butt, made me see *Sha're* and not the Ga'ould within..." He nuzzled at the base of Teal's throat, his lips feathering over the tendon standing out there. "I owe you for her existence as my wife, for the well-being of the child she had. For my own self-respect because I would have hated myself I had let her suffer through her labor alone, thinking herself unloved.

"Please Teal'c? Let me repay you this way. I'm so very hungry, and this does no dishonor to either of us."

From the nearly nude body pressed against him, Teal'c felt a wash of heat and scent, both nearly as heady as the passionate pleading assaulting his ears, all of it sweeping away the last of his reservations. Never before in his austere life had he been privileged to have a lover so willing and needful, and it was a lure he could not resist. A tingly, wet line traced its way toward his lips, and he accepted the kiss from Daniel, this time taking control of it to ravish his new lover.

Daniel fumbled at the waistband of the big man's pants, then successfully undid it and the zip, freeing the sizeable erection from its confines. Moaning into the hot mouth so open and available to him, Teal'c thrust once into the hands wrapped around his shaft, then reached to take Daniel's erection in hand, shivering a little at the twinned sensation of holding and being held.

Almost immediately Daniel began pumping into the loose tunnel, forcing his head away from the luxury of Teal'c's lips to be able to fight for the air he needed. "Good," he said gutturally. "Soooooooo... Ah!" Shaking fingers tugged at the Jaffa's wrist. "Love it, but need more. Please? Please, please, please."

"Yes," Teal'c said simply, already craving the tightness he knew waited for him. "We need..."

"Here," Daniel interrupted, reaching over and past his lover to snag a bottle of conditioner from a shelf. "It'll do. Hurry?"

All he could do was groan in hunger and try to devour the softness offered, dueling with the lively tongue in imitation of the act they both wanted. Together they got the top off the bottle, and Teal'c coated two fingers, never releasing Daniel from either their kiss or the powerful hold crushing the slim body to his chest. Brushing aside the loose robe, the Jaffa palmed a smooth cheek, then dipped into the shadowed cleft to find the hidden pucker. They cried out together when a large finger swept over it, then froze in place when a third voice echoed their sound.

*** end 3

"OH, my God!" Jack moaned, and both Daniel and Teal'c turned their heads in time to see their Colonel sinking to the floor in the doorway, face white and fists knotted into his thighs.

Their tableau held for a slow, cold minute, then Jack unconsciously licked his lips. Before Teal'c could react to that, or to the very obvious bulge their commander was sporting, Daniel gave him a reassuring pat, and scooted over to where O'Neill sat. As he had with Teal'c, the linguist wrapped his arms around Jack and kissed him solidly, a happy murmur coming from the back of his throat as he did.

To Teal'c's experienced eye, O'Neill was as shocked as he had been by Daniel's unexpected sexual behavior. Just as obviously, he was not pleased by it. The muscles on the Colonel's arms and fists bunched, jumping dangerously, and he glared at Daniel, nearly crossed eyed because of the proximity. Before he could act, Teal'c sprang across the small distance and captured both of Jack's hands in his own, holding them tightly.

The soldier's glare was directed at him, and Teal'c said firmly, "This is his home, which you entered uninvited, however excellent your motives. You watched us, un-announced, long enough to become affected by our actions. You may not approve of Daniel's behavior, but you have no cause for harming him."

Apparently oblivious to the words, Daniel kept up his enthusiastic assault on Jack's lips, taking advantage of the other man's attempt to speak to deepen the contact. That drew the Colonel's eyes back to what was happening to him, and a few alarmingly long minutes later Teal'c felt Jack's battle readiness flow away, saw his eyes drift shut, and heard a tiny moan from far inside his chest.

It was quite possibly the most erotic thing he'd ever experienced, and his own member, partially softened by the conflict between his friends, re-filled with blood, beginning to ache slightly in need. He reached down to alleviate some of that, and bumped against Daniel's hip as he did.

Reluctantly the linguist pulled away from devouring Jack's mouth, and sighed, "Yes, Teal'c. Yes, please." He went to his knees, lifting his hips and started to work on baring O'Neill's chest, licking and nipping at the lightly furred skin as it was revealed. He made the man under him groan, and one hand came up to cup the back of Daniel's head as he laved.

O'Neill's eyes met Teal'c's, and the Jaffa shuddered at the heat in them. "Yes," the Colonel agreed. "Finish what you started." With his free hand Jack swept away the back of Daniel's robe, revealing the up-raised bottom. There was a trace of liquid - the lubricant they'd started to apply - trailing over one cheek, pointing the way, and Teal'c helplessly covered the pale flesh with his own dusky hands and pried the muscled globes apart.

At the sight of the dark pucker, he began to shake and groped for more fluid to open the waiting passage. Clumsily he poured some over his fingers, then pressed one digit against the portal to Daniel's body, feeling it give reluctantly. With only the barest tip inside he hesitated; the opening was very hot, and very tight. Too tight, and he made himself wait. "DanielJackson," he murmured when he had gained a measure of control. "Have you done this before?"

The mumbled answered Teal'c was given was neither a confirmation nor a denial, and it was Jack who urged the smaller man away from his single-minded pursuit of a well-tasted O'Neill. "Daniel," he said insistently, holding the bewildered face between his hands. "Exactly how much experience do you have with this sort of thing?"

Even in the gloomy room Daniel's blush stood out clearly, and he had to clear his throat several times before he was able to admit. "None. But I've always wanted to," he rushed on. "I've, I've... ah, messed around with myself enough to know I like it. And I don't want to stop. Don't stop?" The last was said in such a sweetly pleading voice that both Jack and Teal'c began to stroke the quivering body, Jack tugging him up to claim another kiss and Teal'c dropping smaller ones on his back and shoulders.

Impatiently Daniel reared back enough to rub his backside over the Jaffa's hard-on, making his lover grab at his hips to hold him in place. It didn't stop the smaller man from squirming enticingly and Teal'c relented, sending a finger to probe at the little opening again. Daniel fed Jack a wild cry at the intrusion and met the next thrust with one of his own.

Tearing his lips away, Jack panted, "Jesus, that looks so... is it good, Daniel? It what Teal'c's doing to you good?" In some unknown language Daniel answered, but said nothing more since he had discovered the top of O'Neill's zipper and was undoing it, licking at the cock underneath it before it was even free. "I'll take that as a yes," the soldier breathed.

"At times," Teal'c answered, "You talk too much, O'Neill." He leaned over Daniel, still pumping a large finger in and out carefully, and claimed Jack's mouth, avidly eating his breathless whimper.

The Colonel only permitted it for a second, then pulled away. "I want to see you open him," he said thickly. His eyes were nearly insane with lust, and the Jaffa realized that this was what had captured his teammate. Jack was a voyeur who wanted to *watch* as much as he wanted to *do* the act of mating.

A bolt of need told Teal'c that he had no objections whatsoever to being watched by his friend. Feeling as virile as a youth and more comely, Teal'c smiled seductively and told his lover, "You do not ask as nicely as Daniel; see, even now he begs very prettily for what he wants." And Daniel was, in fact, rumbling deep in his chest in frustration, trying to impale himself on the two fingers the Jaffa was shallowly teasing the hungry ring of muscle with. He no doubt would have been complaining verbally, but he had the head of Jack's cock in his mouth, sucking inexpertly but very enthusiastically.

His words called Jack's attention to the sight of the younger man's actions, and he involuntarily bucked, sending his hard-on further down Daniel's throat. At the same time Teal'c drove both fingers into the quivering channel he'd been teasing, and the combined feel of being used at both ends made Daniel scream. That shredded what little control Teal'c had; mindlessly he set about stretching the guardian ring, taking care in the task not to hurt his young lover more than necessary. When the body under him was writhing in need, he set the swollen head of his manhood at the entrance, then paused long enough to look at Jack and see that the soldier was fixated on that small place even as he plunged over and over into Daniel's mouth.

"Wait for us," Teal'c ordered huskily, not surprised when Jack nodded slowly, eyes never moving. Very aware of the burning gaze on him, he cautiously breached Daniel's body, holding the slender hips still to control how deep the first stroke went.

Daniel couldn't quit kill the pained moan the entry caused, but didn't draw away; instead he tried to spread his thighs wider, encouraging Teal'c that way to keep moving. Bit by bit the dark rod crept into the clinging channel, the three of them moaning and whimpering through every scrap of progress, until Teal'c was all the way in.

His finish was sizzling at the base of his spine, pulling his testes tight to his body, but Teal'c refused to surrender to it. Head thrown back, great chest heaving, he held back, waiting for Daniel to let him know that it was time for more.

It was Jack who told him, "For God's sake, Teal'c, move! Now! Daniel's so far past words he couldn't ask if his life depended on it!"

Indeed the man under him was shaking uncontrollably, almost vibrating, though his head was still moving spasmodically on Jack's cock. Gingerly Teal'c pulled back out a few inches, then slid back in and that was all his over-taxed systems could take. With an inarticulate shout, he plundered the clinging tunnel, all of his mind, all of his desire, focused on the miraculous feel of it around his shaft. Pumping with all his strength, he gave himself to Daniel, feeling Jack's stare on him, on where he vanished into the trim body, feeling the hot eyes like another layer of tightness on his manhood.

It was too good to be denied long, but he would not leave Daniel unsatisfied. He reached under to grasp the smaller man's cock, having time to do no more than that before the first rush of cream, the first spasm of ecstasy, enfolded him. A flow of fluid over his hand, and a muffled shout told him his lover was with him, adding to his pleasure in some indescribable way. A louder, clearer shout of "TEAL'C" from Jack was the last thing he heard for a long, luxurious time.

****end 4

It took longer for his mind to clear than he was accustomed to, and he could only attribute it to the power of the release Daniel had given him. Prying open his eyes, he instinctively sought out his lover's face, wanting to be sure he'd done no harm. The younger man was sound asleep, head cradled on one of Jack's thighs, a trace of semen staining one corner of his mouth. Jack was panting, trying to recover from his own orgasm, and Teal'c thought privately that he had never seen the Colonel look so bemused. Or relaxed.

Smiling, Teal'c reached over and brushed a palm over the soldier's jawline. "O'Neill?"

"Want to tell me," Jack huffed, "why I feel the need to check if the top of my head in place?"

"It is there," Teal'c said seriously, knowing that he would be on the receiving end of one of O'Neill's exasperated looks for the comment.

To his surprise, the other man chuckled, and kissed the hand caressing him. "Thanks. For stopping me from doing something stupid, I mean. I don't know why I started to over-react like that. It's not as though I haven't taken advantage of a willing mouth regardless of gender a time or two in my life. Not that I'm gay or anything, but you know how it can be when you're away from home for a long time." Between them Daniel shivered, and Jack pulled the robe over the bare form, then shrugged out of his coat and draped it over the sleeping man.

"It would be advisable to remove ourselves to a more comfortable location," Teal'c said, pulling out of the limp form cautiously. "And you are welcome, O'Neill. Perhaps it was because you did not respect those you used in the past and did not wish to tarnish Daniel with the same shame." Taking off his own coat, he stood and hung it on the hook on the back of the bathroom door. With the Colonel's help, he scooped their friend into his arms, keeping the twinge of pain from his injury from showing on his face.

"Watch that arm," Jack murmured, anyway. He led the way to the bedroom, turning down the covers so that Teal'c could lay Daniel down.

Doing so, Teal'c started to strip, pausing mid-action at the expression on his friend's face. "O'Neill?"

"You're gonna sleep with him?" Jack blurted.

He looked back and forth between Daniel and Jack, confused at why the question was even being asked. "It would be unadvisable to try to travel again this evening. I am weary, and this bed is large enough to accommodate me. It would also be ... discourteous.... to allow Daniel to awaken alone. Am I breaking a Tahree custom for male consorts?"

"Ah, no, not when you put it like that." Jack admitted. "Guess I'm still trying to get a handle on what happened. I rushed in here half-expecting to find Daniel's eyes glowing 'cause of Sam's call. She reached me on my cell-phone, by the way; couldn't even get out of her driveway. Soon as we get Sleeping Beauty settled here, I'll let her know Daniel is all right; hopefully there's enough charge left. Why'd he call her, anyway?"

Teal'c stopped where he stood, mind suddenly churning furiously. "I... do not know. He was asleep when I entered, unresponsive until I touched him." Jack nodded, no doubt remembering the state of exhaustion Daniel had been in when he'd left the base, driving himself home at his own insistence. In detail the Jaffa called up the first moment of awakening for the scientist, their first kiss and the rampant state Daniel had been in. He added slowly, "I must have disturbed him from an erotic dream. It may be that when he first woke he believed I was part of the dream and responded accordingly."

"Laid a lip-lock on you, huh? Our Daniel is one hell of a kisser, I can say that for sure." Jack grinned broadly, compelling Teal'c to answer with a small smile of his own.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, the big man finished undressing, watching the Colonel fidget nervously. "It is late," he said gently. "And the couch would be very uncomfortable given your injuries. There is more than enough room for you here, and I believe it would be reassuring to Daniel to find you with him when he wakes."

Sighing, abruptly looking gray with fatigue, Jack scrubbed at his head. "Yeah, well, you're right, I'm not going anywhere tonight, and I have to admit that feather bed of Daniel's looks tempting." Hesitating a moment longer, he looked out the window at the snow that had followed the freezing rain, then started to peel off clothes. "Oh, what the hell. Left side or right, Teal'c?"

****end 5

It was as much his grumbling stomach as the dim light in the bedroom that told Jack they had slept for more than eight hours. A quick glance at the clock, as well as the lumpy, foggy feeling in his head confirmed it: a *lot* longer than eight hours. Not wanting to leave the toasty warmth of Daniel's featherbed or wake up the aches lurking in wait for his first attempt to move, he let himself drift, trying to ignore his belly.

He'd almost made it back to sleep when the mattress dipped slightly as one of the other occupants shifted positions. Without thinking Jack rolled, too, both to keep the covers over his shoulder and to see who else was awake. The sight that greeted his eyes killed the appetite in his gut - and stirred the other kind into fierce readiness.

At some point Teal'c had changed places entirely, and was now literally in the middle of the bed, with his legs spread wide and his feet propped on the wall over the head board. Daniel was sprawled on his stomach between the Jaffa's thighs, still wearing his robe, both hands wrapped around the steel pole the huge man claimed as a dick. The linguist had the head of it in his mouth and was sucking energetically, Teal'c guiding him with tender pushes from fingers buried in the sandy hair.

The action was so close to him that Jack could feel the heat radiating off the pair, smell the musk of arousal from both of them. "Jesus," he whispered.

Daniel looked up at him through his lashes, a bright glitter of humor and amusement lighting his eyes. Releasing Teal'c with an obscene slurp, he smiled. "Good morning. Sleep well?"

"Like a rock." Jack waved a hand in the general direction of the lovers and said sardonically, "Let me guess. My snoring woke you up and since you were up anyway, you decided you might as well be *up* anyway."

"Something like that." From the foot of the bed there was a wordless, rumbled protest, then Teal'c exerted careful pressure on Daniel's head to remind him what he was supposed to be doing. "Want to join us?" he murmured just before he gave into the coaxing and opened his mouth again. The Jaffa thrust gingerly, but the younger man dealt with it expertly, reminding Jack what a fast learner Daniel was.

And how he'd been taught that particular skill. Licking at his lips, Jack debated on whether to obey his first impulse and crawl onto Daniel's back to fuck him raw, or to use common sense to get the hell out of there before he dug himself further into the gray area of screwing men under his command. About the time he nearly yanked himself back away from what he *wanted* in favor of what he *should*, Daniel burrowed under his robe for his own erection, arm moving in time to Teal'c now continuos strokes.

That was more than O'Neill could stand, and he sat up, untangling himself from the blankets. For a moment he couldn't decide what he wanted. Teal'c's eyes were rolled into the back of his head, his back bowed up off the bed as he tried to force more of himself down Daniel's throat. The thought of offering up his own rapidly swelling cock to the ripe lips of the Jaffa was tempting, but he didn't know if he'd be able to get Teal'c attention right at the second. Of course, he could always go with his original plan and bury himself in Daniel's tight little ass. But last night had been the first time for that particular activity for his teammate; he'd be too sore to take any pleasure from it today.

Unintentionally his hand crept down to own hard-on, casually stroking it. A small sigh escaped at the lovely friction, and both Daniel and Teal'c opened their eyes to look at him. The effect of the combined lusty stares scorched over Jack's nerves, and he began to pump himself in earnest. "Hey, guys," he said, only half-facetiously, "Got a place for this thing? Or do I havta..."

With unexpected speed his lovers uncoiled and pounced on him, tumbling around the bed, taking their turn at kissing him senseless and licking at his nipples, his navel, his dick. He was dizzy with want, pooled bonelessly under their traveling mouths, when he heard a hushed whisper from Teal'c to Daniel. The linguist asked, "You're sure?", and Jack leaned up on his elbows in time to see the great head dip once, gracefully.

"I would be honored, DanielJackson."

"What are you two plotting down there?" Jack asked suspiciously.

Grinning, Daniel answered, "Teal'c told me what your kink is. Be right back." He scooted off the bed and ran down the hall, leaving O'Neill to the other mans's care.

"My kink..." Jack started, confused, but his big lover poured himself over him, pinning him to the bed and taking his mouth for another long, drugging kiss.

Dimly he heard Daniel come back, and the bed bounced a time or two as he rejoined them in their love play. How exactly, Jack could neither see nor hear, but whatever it was, Teal'c loved it. Deep chesty groans began bubbling around their joined lips, and the Jaffa began rocking into him, cocks darting into each other in heated competition. For a second the size and weight of the other man bothered Jack, but his trust of Teal'c went deep. He set aside the vague misgiving and concentrated on how fucking wonderful it felt and answered each thrust with one of his own.

Then Teal'c lifted off of him, giving a last pat and lick in parting, and rearranged himself so that he was on all fours, perched over Jack so that his knees were on either side of the soldier's shoulders. It gave him a bird's eye view of a part of the Jaffa's body he hadn't expected to see from this angle, but before he could think to ask, a pair of slim, white thighs straddled his head as well.

Jutting from the folds of that damned ratty robe, Daniel's erection seemed enormous, and the ruby cap was damp with want. Reflectively Jack moistened his suddenly dry lips; were they going to...?

With a quiet reassuring murmur to the bigger man, Daniel slipped a finger into his body, and Jack could see every delicate fold of the pucker expand as it took the gentle intrusion. Moaning at the sight, he hardly noticed when Teal'c gave his cock a tender lick. It took three or four more before Jack associated the movement of the hand over his face with the mouth on him; the knowledge made him shove up powerfully, shouting in pleasure.

To match his action, Daniel put another finger in Teal'c, pumping in and out briskly. The vibration of a full-chested groan from the Jaffa trembled through Jack's dick, and he shouted again, beginning to fuck almost violently. As if that were the cue Daniel had been waiting for, he replaced fingers with cock, wasting no time in possessing his lover with a single stroke.

When Daniel snaked a hand around an sturdy hip to help Teal'c along, the soldier added his own assistance, sucking and biting at random at the action going on so close to him. Surrounded by the feel, smell, taste, sounds, and sight - oh, good god, especially the sight - of sex, Jack willingly dove into a sensual maelstrom that surpassed anything that had ever happened to him before in his life. Every sensation, every bit of sensory information all blended together, concentrated into the hard inches of his cock, then consumed him, leaving behind a limp body, the echoes of three different screams, and a puddle of come that he didn't even feel being mopped up by one of his lovers.

***end 6

The next time he pried an eye open, he was half-buried under a mound of blankets, and the gray light of the room told him that he'd slept several more hours than he would have thought possible. Groggily, stomach complaining *very* loudly this time, he turned his head to see Daniel curled up on the opposite side of the bed, but no sign of Teal'c. He heard distant movements, and, guessing that his friend had gotten hungry as well, sat up gingerly, not wanting to disturb the sleeping man.

After a quick visit to the bath, and a quicker wash up in the chilly room, he went into the kitchen, hiding a smile at the sight that greeted him there. Sitting at the table, eating cereal out of a large mixing bowl, Teal'c was reading one of the books that Sam and Daniel were using to teach him written English. Expression intent, he would chew energetically until he stumbled over a word, then his jaw would slow down until he puzzled it out.

He looked like the world's biggest eight-year-old, doing his homework before running to catch the bus.

"You are amused?" Teal'c asked, unexpectedly.

"A little, yeah," Jack admitted, not surprised the warrior had been aware of him all along. "Though I can't really understand why, myself. Something to do with the way you've adapted to us."

"Perhaps you should speak with DanielJackson concerning the matter. His ability to perceive what is hidden in human behavior is remarkable." Teal'c set aside his book, but kept eating his breakfast.

Going to the cabinet, O'Neill got out the necessities to have his own cereal, taking his time to frame his next statement. Teal'c's observation was the perfect opening for what he knew he had to say. "Perhaps you should, too," he started casually, sitting down with his bowl and reaching for the milk. "If you're going to continue to have an affair with him, there are some things you need to be told."

At the upraised eyebrow, Jack gathered his nerve, and went on. "Teal'c I don't know what Jaffar attitude on male to male sex is..." He deliberately paused because he wanted to learn before finishing the statement.

"It is nothing to remark upon, although it is often considered the behavior of a young man," the other man supplied helpfully.

"Here on Earth, you can get killed just for being suspected of it," Jack said bluntly. "In this part of it, gays - guys who make love with guys - are gaining some safety, but not damned much of it. They're habitually harassed, discriminated against and abused, with very little support from local authorities or sometimes even their own damned families."

Looking more serious than he had ever seen him, Teal'c put down his spoon. "We are in danger?"

"Not right now, not here in our own private world that the snow storm outside made for us. But I could lose my rank, even be discharged, if the wrong person found out about what's happened here. I have no doubt they'd toss Daniel off of SG1 without hesitation. You... you're more valuable to them because of what your experience with the Ga'ould, but things could get very unpleasant." Just talking about what could happen to his friends was making him ache, and he pushed around the cereal with a disinterested spoon-tip, losing his appetite to the conversation.

"Then you advise that we discontinue our activities." Teal's voice was very low, and pain was peeking out in it, despite his apparent effort to conceal it.

Giving up the pretense at eating, Jack said flatly, "Yeah. To be truthful, I'm surprised you and Daniel even started. I know how devoted he is to Sha're, and you're married, too. Or doesn't it count when it's the husband that, uh..." Belatedly Jack remembered how hurt Teal'c had been by his wife's infidelity, but the Jaffa seemed to have made peace with that.

Calmly he said, "Daniel clamed Honor Rights. A custom on Chulak that allows warriors to repay life debts to one another in extreme circumstances. It does not challenge Dray'ac's position as my wife, and would be no more to her than any fondness I might feel for a sibling. And you are my commanding officer; it is within your rights and never to be questioned on her part."

"Wonder what Sha're would think of it?" Jack muttered absently, not wanting to consider the stab of jealousy talking about wives was giving him. Then too, there was something not right, something he'd felt skittering along the edge of his mind - whenever not seriously preoccupied or sleeping - since he'd arrived at Daniel's apartment the night before.

"If Abydos follows the usual Ga'ould slave pattern, it is strictly forbidden because it reduces the potential number of slaves and hosts and with the word of the 'gods' to enforce it's evilness. Even knowing that the System Lords are false, it is very likely the cultural prohibition will not be easily overcome." Giving the impression it was more from necessity than from want, Teal'c picked up his spoon and started eating again.

Taking a few unwanted bites himself, Jack chewed thoughtfully. "Daniel would have to know that," he said at last. "It simply doesn't make sense to me that he'd dismiss his wife, the customs he'd lived with in her culture so easily. Unless he were totally gay instead of bi, and in that case, why marry her at all? All he had to do was come back through the gate with me."

"Odd indeed. Perhaps we should ask Daniel directly?" Teal'c stood up, taking his dishes with him.

"You mean right now?" Jack asked, startled. "He was sound asleep when I left; why wake him?"

"The storm shows no sign of abating, O'Neill, and the power to this unit has ceased. We must begin to make provisions for warmth and other necessities, and I am not familiar enough with Daniel's home to be able accomplish these tasks without his direction. Since we must disturb his rest for that purpose, it is sensible to deal with all matters before us," Teal'c said practically. Quickly he rinsed off the bowl and spoon and headed for Daniel's bedroom.

"Point," Jack conceded. Hurriedly he finished off his food, and was standing to go to the sink when he heard Teal'c call him. There was more urgency in the usually stoic voice than he'd heard before, and he knocked down his chair to run down the hall.

**** end 7

Teal'c was sitting beside a sleeping Daniel, carefully peeling aside the folds of the robe to show off his naked body. About to speak - not sure what he was going to say - Jack cut off his first word before it was more than a shape on his lips. Daniel's bruised body wasn't as naked as it should have been.

Beginning on the left hip and curling down over the thigh and up the slender waist was what at first looked to be a tattoo of a simple black line, delicately etched. Then the younger man shifted position slightly, and a glimmer of light reflected off the line, as if it were wet ink. "What the..." Jack muttered, starting forward.

One of the Jaffa's fingertips traced over the end of one curlicue. "It is not 'on' him, O'Neill," he said reflectively. "It is 'in' him. It does not seem to cause him discomfort, nor is he fevered."

From his perspective at the foot of the bed, Jack could see where a pool of the same substance had gathered on the inside crease of Daniel's thigh, right next to his testicles. "How the hell did we miss this!" He climbed onto the bed from the bottom, tentatively following the path the black line made up the strong leg. "It's slippery and cool - almost like glass. Doesn't move with the skin, either. You're right, 'in' not 'on.'"

"Feels kinda nice, guys," a sleepy voice told them. "Didn't know either of you were into mendali."

"Men what i?" Jack asked, rubbing his palm over a thicker portion of the decoration on the hip.

"Never mind. I take it you're not responsible for that?" Daniel tapped a shiny trail near his navel.

"Nooo way." Jack told him hastily.

"I discovered the alteration when I came in to wake you," Teal'c added. "It does not pain you?"

Waking up completely, Daniel scooted up to sit against the headboard, angling his leg as he did to peer myopically. "No, not at all. If you hadn't pointed it out to me, I wouldn't have noticed, as a matter of fact." He plucked at the same thread he'd touched earlier, shrugging disinterestedly when it produced no noticeable results for him. "Must be like a fungus or something. Seems pretty harmless."

"I'd feel better about if Fraiser was the one making that decision," O'Neill muttered. Bending to look at the growth very carefully, he decided that it looked like all the whorls originated at the puddle near the thigh. Absently he pushed up on the back of Daniel's thigh, holding it up and away so that he could see the crease better. In his peripheral vision he could see one of Teal'c's huge hands anchor the other thigh, spreading it wide to make room for Jack's investigations.

Like an inkblot that had been used for a source of scribbles, all of the filigree trailing over Daniel did begin where he thought it did, though Jack had no idea what use the information was. There were several tiny tendrils reaching back toward the buttocks, and, the soldier noticed, feeling definitely sickened, very near the anus.

Afraid that the growth had invaded internally, O'Neill cautiously penetrated the hot pucker with a blunt fingertip, concentrating on trying to feel for more of the glassy slickness. He found nothing, and, swallowing hard in relief, he probed at the edge to see if he could determine where that tendril ended. It was impossible to tell by touch; this part of Daniel was too tender and naturally moist.

Surprisingly so, he thought distractedly. Of course, it hadn't been that long since Teal'c had filled it to the brim with seed. Jack could smell the lingering aroma of sex and vanilla from the hair conditioner they'd been using as lube. Absently he inserted a second finger, prying at the hole, marveling at how soft the internal tissues were, and how they quivered at his attention. Distantly he heard a soft moan. Damn, Daniel really loved getting it in the ass; amazing he had only lost his virginity last night.

His hard-on thrummed impatiently at the zipper holding it, and Jack reached down to free it, adding a third finger to the flexing ring as he did. There was another moan; deeper and chestier. Teal'c then, and O'Neill glanced up to see what was arousing the Jaffa.

He nearly came then and there at the sight of the big man sitting beside Daniel on the bed, one arm around his shoulders to support his smaller lover, the other hooked under a knee to help keep it close to Daniel's chest. Jack, himself had the other pushed up and over, leaving their companion spread wantonly, vulnerable to anything the soldier wanted to do to him. Kissing the Teal'c voraciously, Daniel had both hands occupied with the Jaffa's sizeable shaft, working the foreskin over the head expertly as he jerked him off.

As he watched, Daniel broke away, almost visibly dredging his tongue out of Teal'c throat, and scrunched down to take the cock in his mouth. There wasn't much the Jaffa could do to reciprocate, and he tossed his head, eyes closed, crying out inarticulately at the pleasure he was receiving.

Spurred by that, Jack straightened, grunted, "Lube, need lube, and fumbled at the night-stand until he found the bottle. Nearly dropping it because of the amount smeared on the outside from previous eagerness, he spilled a puddle on his palm and hastily coated himself. Taking only a minute to rub more into his lover, he took himself in hand and guided the head of his cock in, torn between watching it sink into the welcoming opening and watching Daniel suck Teal'c off.

In no hurry to come now that he had what he needed, he alternated between both, dimly glad that his companions were being as leisurely as he. Almost instantly he matched rhythm with them, shoving into Daniel as the younger man made Teal'c's shaft disappear. It was good, so good, like fucking and getting sucked at the same time, and he encouraged his lovers with filthy words and slow thrusts, building in strength and force until all of them were moving with the power of his fucking.

Much as he wanted to go on with it forever, he couldn't deny his body and eventually his finish gained too much momentum for him to control. He emptied into Daniel, roaring like an animal and still trying to get as deep into him as he could. Mind blanking out, he dropped on top of the quaking body, feeling Teal'c try to help him not crush their lover.

**** end 8

"Wake up... come on Teal'c, wake up! Now!" The authority in the voice cut through the pleasant haze of sleep, and the Jaffa's eyes snapped open, taking a very necessary moment to adapt to the dimness of the room. O'Neill was huddled up against him, noticeably shuddering, nose barely sticking out of the comforter surrounding them.

"I am awake," he said, automatically wrapping both arms around the shivering body.

"Good. Now, get up. We have to start a fire before we freeze to death here," the soldier snapped, not bothering to hide his agitation.

Bracing himself, though not letting it show, Teal'c shoved aside the blankets and got to his feet, reaching for the clothes scattered nearby. O'Neill was correct; the room was at a decidedly inhospitable temperature. Dressing rapidly, he reached to wake Daniel, then stopped mid-motion. The younger man was sleeping on *top* of the blankets, sprawled childishly, and plainly very comfortable despite the cold, cold air. Just as plainly the black filigree had grown significantly; it was now almost to the calf and curling upwards over most of the belly and waist.

At a tug from his commander, Teal'c left the room quickly, eyes on his teammate until the last moment. He headed for the fireplace in the living room, aware that the other man was following closely behind, almost blocking the hallway. Between the two of them it only took minutes to get a blaze going, and O'Neill left to take care of personal matters in the bathroom. He came out, waving in the general direction of the facilities. "You'd better do what you can while you can," he said. "With the heat off in the building the water pipes might freeze."

Nodding his head in agreement, mystified by his commander's shortness, Teal'c did as suggested, coming back out to find Jack methodically, precisely making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the kitchen counter. Jabbing the knife into the jar with more force than was strictly necessary, he finished one, took a huge bite, then offered one to Teal'c.

His stomach answered for him with a growl that would have been embarrassing if his friend's had not been complaining as loudly. The sandwich vanished in quick chomps, and the Jaffa reached for another from the stack on the table. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The civility forced and automatic as it was, seemed to break the restrained silence O'Neill had wrapped himself in. "When we're done, we need to look through the place, find blankets, sleeping bags, whatever. The white stuff is *still* coming down hard and heavy out there; I think we're in for the long haul." Hungrily the other man attacked another sandwich himself, free hand keeping up the task of constructing them.

"Then we will need to conserve our food and fuel supply, as we discussed earlier," Teal'c answered, relieved that Jack was talking. Looking over the small pile of wood at one side of the fireplace, he added, "We do not have a great deal of the latter."

"Around here getting snowbound is nothing new; good chance there's a larger supply in storage somewhere. We'll check it out later; should check on the neighbors too, make sure they're okay and don't need anything we can help them with. One of them might have a radio, too, so we can get an idea of how long this is going to last. Maybe even have a charged cell so we can call Hammond." With a last swipe over the bread, Jack started closing the jars, eyes on the task and not on the other man.

"Are there sufficient provisions?" Teal'c asked, reaching into the refrigerator for the orange juice and noting the device was nearly barren.

"Yeah - all the traveling Daniel's done taught him to keep a good supply of non-perishables around. Could get monotonous, but it'll keep us for a few days. Probably should finish up what we can in the freezer, though. Not much besides more orange juice and bread." He took another enormous bite, chewing mechanically. Swallowing hard, he went on, "If the pipes do freeze, water could be a problem. What say I go scope out the neighbors while you fill pots and pans? We can do snow melt if we have to, but I'd just as soon not have to."

Nodding, Teal'c poured a glass of juice for his friend and offered it, refilling his own. "I will awaken Daniel to inform him of our plans."

There was a heavy silence, then O'Neill said slowly, "I don't think you should. In fact, I don't think you should go near him, Teal'c. Something is going on here, something that I don't think we can afford to let side track us right now."

"O'Neill," he started in evident surprise, despite his control.

"Look, listen to me on this, will ya?" the other man said intently. "I know honeymoon behavior, and this ain't it. Three times in 24 hours, okay, that's not so surprising with new lovers, but this is more than that. It's more like, like..." O’Neill stuttered to a stop, not able to express his thought in a single word. After a moment he tried again. "It's *too* intense. When you're with someone you're suppose to be wrapped up in them, but to the point that you ignore obvious danger? We shouldn't be dealing with this blizzard now, and you know it. We should have *already* done it, like we discussed. Not be shacking up with someone who's got an injury or a parasite or whatever the hell those lines on him are.

"And that's not all. I know we're all tired from PX7 447, but aside from fucking like rabbits, which took an hour and a half at the most, and snatching a quick bite, we've done nothing but sleep. Deeply. Hell, I think that if it hadn't gotten so damned cold that even that blast furnace of a body of yours couldn't keep me warm, I think we'd still be asleep."

Remember how hard it had been for him to simply open his eyes, the Jaffa nodded once, reluctantly. At this sign of agreement, much of the tension in his teammate faded, and Jack took a moment to drink deeply. Setting aside his empty glass, he added unhappily. "One more thing, Teal'c."

His hesitation was nearly painful, but he finally blurted. "Do you really think Daniel is acting like himself? Shouldn't he be just a little more concerned about becoming a canvas for some kind of alien doodle? And, earlier, the way he offered himself up, like a whore who'd been doing it for years instead of a near virgin. In fact, he's been way too easy from the start. This is the man who got tricked into getting laid because he didn't know how to avoid upsetting his host at a party!"

Angry, deliberately ignoring the truth in his commander's words, Teal'c said coldly. "You are condemning Daniel for your own failings. He surrendered himself to us out of trust and faith, and you devalue his gift by associating it with the sordid narrow-mindedness of this culture. You call him whore even as you use his favors freely, blaming him for *your* pointless shame and lack of control."

Drawing himself up to his full height, staring as imperiously as only a Prime could, Teal'c finished harshly. "Daniel deserves better than this, O'Neill. And you are capable of precisely that or I have chosen the wrong man to befriend."

Astonished, Jack gaped at him, open-mouthed, then suddenly closed it with an audible snap. "I think," he ground out furiously, "that I had better go check on the neighbors now. Before *either* of us says more."

Before Teal'c could respond he stomped away, slamming the door shut behind him. Struggling not to stalk after Jack and finish their argument, he turned resolutely to tidying up the kitchen. Putting out a new carton of juice to thaw, he quickly cleaned, and then went looking through cupboards for bedding.

In short order he had a pallet in front of the fire, making it large enough for the three of them with some misgivings. In one corner of his mind, he agreed with his commander; their physical relationship was too absorbing, too distracting, even for new lovers. Despite that, he would not abandon the young linguist to the cold and his ailment.

Mindful of the possibility of water becoming unavailable, he decided to fill the bathtub as well as the pots O'Neill suggested. It took somewhat longer than he had anticipated, and he was shivering by the time he finished. Willingly he returned to the kitchen, coming to an abrupt halt by the entrance to the living room.

*****end 9

Jack was there, embedded in Daniel's arms as they stood back to chest, and the smaller man was gently nibbling on the ear closest to his mouth. The soldier had his head thrown back to make it easier for his lover and was panting softly, mouth open for his breathy inhalations. He was undeniably aroused; his pants were painfully tented and a damp spot was appearing over the covered head of his dick.

For a moment Teal'c's anger renewed; after all that O'Neill had said earlier to be doing this was unconscionable. Then Jack peeled up his eyelids and the desperate denial mixed with the lust there was too real for the Jaffa to disbelieve. On impulse he strode forward, calling to Daniel softly.

Their young friend made no sign of hearing him, and instead one questing hand began undoing buttons on Jack's shirt. "DanielJackson," Teal'c repeated, halting the undressing by capturing that hand, "Now is not the time for this. We must make preparations to endure the storm."

His answer was an inarticulate sound from both of his lovers, and O'Neill's eyes slid shut again as Daniel cupped him intimately with his free hand. The body under Teal'c's hand vibrated with a hoarse groan, and his own began to respond regardless of his wishes. Deftly the zip on Jack's pants was drawn down, freeing his manhood to Daniel's caress. A single drop of pre-cum slithered down over the cap, and the younger man caught it with a thumb, smoothing it into the satiny flesh. Against his will Teal'c licked his lips, remembering very clearly how flavorful O'Neill was there.

With a start, he pulled himself away, admonishing himself internally. "Daniel," he said carefully, reaching to touch the bright hair to gain his attention. "You must stop."

Jackson turned his head to press a kiss into the callused palm, tongue teasing the pad at the base of the thumb. Fingers flying over the closings, he bared Jack from chin to navel, then pulled away the clothing. "We're safe here, Teal'c," he murmured, barely loud enough to be heard. "And I'm so hungry, so very, very hungry."

With a little nudge, he brought the two warriors chest to chest with each other, and the Jaffa instinctively wrapped his arms around Jack to steady him. Just as automatically he lowered his head to the lips raised up for him and claimed the trembling lips. Once he tasted, he was lost and knew this time that he *was* lost, but could not stop himself from ravishing Jack's mouth, delving in deeply and rhythmically.

His own clothes vanished under Daniel's determined attack, as did the rest of Jack's, and the feel of the springy hair on his own smooth skin sent him to his knees. Licking as he went, he saw and heard Daniel begin to do the same behind O'Neill, and a moment before he sampled the moisture on the head of the straining shaft, Jack cried out in ecstasy.

"My god, my god, my god," Jack moaned. "Never had that done to me before. Never would... god, god, eat me, Daniel! Eat me!" He thrust forward hard, filling Teal'c's mouth.

Taking the rod into himself willingly, the Jaffa let the soldier use him, wanting only to add to the pleasure Jack was receiving. A few strokes later he drank down his lover's offering then caught him as he wilted bonelessly. Daniel never stopped rimming the older man, never stopped plundering the tight pucker.

Teal'c went to his back, taking Jack with him and spreading his legs widely to let the Colonel find a place for the erection he never lost. Daniel clumsily reached under the man between them to quickly lube the Jaffa's opening, then helped Jack slide home.

Filled with that one stroke, Teal'c cried out gutturally in his own language, then brought his knees to his chest and held them there, to be taken as deeply as possible. Over his lover's back he could see Daniel intently staring at what he was doing to Jack, and he tightened his passage to distract the frantically pumping man from whatever discomfort he might feel from being stretched.

Daniel mumbled a warning to them both, then the weight on Teal'c increased as the younger man entered Jack. Relatively motionless, he let Jack work Daniel's cock into himself as he drove first into Teal'c, then back onto the waiting shaft. They moved together smoothly, as if they had always known they could be together in just this way.

One of them would come close to climax, and all would stop for as long as it took for the urge to pass. Then they would begin anew, bringing themselves back to the brink time and time again until even Teal'c's great strength could not suffice to hold off their finish. By then they were pounding into each other with full force, leaving behind new bruises and scratches as they grappled to get in farther, hang on tighter, open wider.

Their finish was silent; a stiffening of spines and clenching fists, breath halted for the brief eternity it took to empty their seed.

***** end 10

The weight on him was reassuring, important, and Jack was happy to have it, bladder be damned. But Mother Nature could be a bitch when she had to, and O'Neill squirmed out from under Teal'c to hurriedly pad down the hall to the bathroom. Cussing at the cold prickling harshly at his naked skin, he did what he needed to as quickly as possible, then raced back for the fire and sleeping bags, making a quick detour to the kitchen on the way.

One blanket draped over him, Teal'c was stirring up the embers, pointedly not looking at Daniel who was crumpled loosely on the top of the bedding farthest away from the flames. A quick glance told Jack why; the artwork scrawled over the linguist's body now covered most of his abdomen and left leg, and was spreading over the left arm as well. A few exploratory threads were making their way toward the right leg and arm, promising that it would only be a matter of time before those limbs, too, were decorated.

"I was in error, O'Neill," Teal'c said gravely, eyes on his task. "Even with all your concerns and warnings foremost in my mind, I could not resist Daniel's overtures."

"I wasn't exactly a tower of fortitude myself," Jack said wryly, sitting on the hearth beside him. He took a deep drink of juice then offered the carton to Teal'c. "Came up behind me when I wasn't looking, and after he put his hands me, I couldn't have moved away if my life depended on it."

Still not looking at him, Teal'c drank, then handed the container back. "I, too, could not seem to deny his touch. Perhaps that is significant?"

"Yeah, maybe." Jack did some avoiding of his own, playing with the edge of the carton before taking another swig. "You were right, too," he admitted suddenly, trying to sound off-hand about it anyway. "It does bother me that Daniel is acting like he is, even knowing that it's not his fault." That earned him a look from the Jaffa, hooded though it was. He gave the juice back to him and waited while Teal'c drank.

The other man took his time, nearly finishing off the rest of the liquid before returning it to O'Neill. "I have overheard comments from other soldiers assigned to the SGC," he finally said thoughtfully. "Until now I did not understand the content; I still do not understand the beliefs behind them. Do the Tahree really kill because of this sexual preference?"

Thinking of a young man named Mathew Shephard, Jack answered sadly, "Yeah. Sucks, but it's a fact."

An eyebrow went up at that, but all Teal'c said was, "I see."

They sat companionably for a few more minutes, finishing off their juice and stoking the fire. "There's a supply of wood down in the basement," Jack said, double-checking what was left in the bin next to them. "And one of the neighbors had a charged cell phone. Hammond will be sending a snow cat here as soon as the blizzard lets up enough to do it safely. In the meantime, we don't have many options here as to what to do next. I'm open to suggestions."

Surprisingly Teal'c promptly volunteered, "I believe we should awaken DanielJackson."

"Teal'c!"

"At the moment he is the only potential source of insight into his condition. And, since he has either slept or been otherwise occupied since we arrived, we have not had the opportunity to discuss it with him." Teal'c's tone was bland, as if he expected Jack to disagree.

In fact, it was a good point, and the Colonel accepted it by asking, "Maybe we should tuck baby in? That way we can wake him without worrying about our virtue."

"Tuck baby in?"

Grinning, but not explaining, Jack pulled on his clothes, waiting for Teal'c to do the same. Then he crept over to where Daniel lay, peeling off one of the covers from the tumbled heap around him, and stealthily began to cocoon him in it. Seeing his intent, the Jaffa aided him, and in short order they had the linguist snug and secure. Sitting on trailing ends of the fabric, O'Neill carefully nudged Daniel with his foot until the younger man muttered and started fighting the blanket.

"Easy, Daniel, easy," Jack soothed, withholding a calming hand with major effort. He made a motion at Teal'c to stay back, and asked with his eyes to be hauled away if he got too close.

"Jack? Wha..." Daniel turned his head, blinking sleepily, then smiled. "G'morning."

At that moment O'Neill admitted to himself that it hadn't just been the fungus or whatever that made him so susceptible to his lover's advances; it was Daniel himself. "Very early morning, Dr. Jackson," he said mock-cheerily. "How do you feel?"

"Like a butterfly," Daniel murmured. He struggled with the blankets, grimacing a bit. "Think you could give me a hand here?"

"Ahh... actually, I don't think we will, just yet. I want you to listen to me for a sec, first. Okay?"

Subsiding, Daniel stared at him uncertainly, but said quickly enough, "Sure. I'm a captive audience."

"Ha! Jackson, ha ha," O'Neill snorted in spite of himself. He sobered, shot a fast glance at Teal'c then jumped in with both feet. "Seriously, Danny, how *are* you feeling? It's important."

To his immense relief, the younger man's eyes became very intent, his expression thoughtful as he considered the question. It was the first time since they'd arrived at the apartment that the linguist had seemed like himself. "Besides the obvious," Daniel said finally, wiggling to call attention to his rampant state, "Sleepy. Which is kind of odd since that's about all I've done since I got home. Maybe a little dreamy, disconnected. You know, like when you've taken painkillers. Other than that, fine. I take it that mendali thing is still growing on me."

He met Jack's gaze forthrightly, expecting the truth, and the officer gave it to him as gently as he could. "Yeah, got most of your front and some of your back by now. Help's on the way, but it could be a while before it gets here because of the storm."

"Storm?"

"Big one. Got over two feet of the white stuff and it's still coming down in blizzard conditions." Jack told him, a bit of worry edging his words.

Looking puzzled, Daniel repeated, "Two feet? Jack, what day is it?"

Trading an equally puzzled look with Teal'c, the Colonel answered, "We came back from PX7 447 two days ago."

"Two days!" Daniel began fighting the blanket again, apparently trying to sit up, and without thinking Jack reached to help. A strong tug on the back of his belt made him stop, and he sat on his heels instead.

"Stop it, Daniel, stop it!" he ordered, relieved when the younger man did as he was told, though still visibly upset. "Like you mentioned, you've been sleeping *a lot*; some lost time makes sense."

"Two days worth!" Daniel repeated. "It doesn't seem like two days; it only seems like..." He trailed off, focusing inwardly and thinking furiously. "Like a night, maybe."

"A very busy, busy night," Jack couldn't help but say to himself. There was a soft wuff of amusement from behind him, but he didn't turn to look at the Jaffa, knowing that the other man would be doing his stone face.

Picking up on it, Daniel smiled, distracted for the moment. "The best kind of busy. And since we're snowed in anyway, maybe we could be busy some more?" He lifted his hips suggestively, outlining his need in the fabric securing him.

"I don't think so," Jack said carefully, not sure how to bring up how easily his friend, how easily they *all* were being diverted by Daniel's libido.

That made the younger man stop, and he asked anxiously, "Are you worried about becoming infected by me?"

With a shiver of revulsion, Jack denied hastily, "No, no. Not at all." It made *him* stop and think, and he added, "In fact, I hadn't even considered the possibility. Now that's weird."

"Indeed," Teal'c murmured. "But surely if we were susceptible, we would have shown symptoms as significant as Daniel's by now?"

"Makes sense - we had to be exposed to it when he was," the Colonel agreed. "Considering that we've been in the same places, doing the same thing for well over a week now. Except for the short time between leaving SGC, going home, and us arriving here. Anything unusual happen during then, Daniel?"

Sighing, the bound man pulled at his covering from the inside, trying to get comfortable. Focused on their conversation again, he slowly said, "No, not that I can think of. I remember thinking I should take a shower cause I was carrying around more of PX7 447 than I wanted. Drinking about a gallon of cold water." He paused, restlessly scrabbling at the blanket.

"Do you remember why you called Carter?" Jack asked.

"I called Sam?"

"Yeah, you did, but didn't talk to her." Jack gave him a fast run down on what happened that evening, filling in Teal'c as well on what he did after the Jaffa left him behind. "Road crew came along about ten minutes after he took off, took me about another ten to navigate to your place, door was open, you know it from there."

Looking over O'Neill's shoulder at Teal'c, Daniel asked, apparently confused, "So you knew he was coming behind you? Then why did we, uh, I mean..." A touch of red colored his cheeks, and he was acting so much like the Daniel that he knew so well, that Jack reached out to reassure him, only to have Teal'c pull him up short.

The linguist noticed this time, and eyed the distance the two warriors were keeping from him. "There's something you haven't mentioned yet," he stated positively. "I'm not going to like it, am I?"

"I'm not sure at all how you're going to take it," Jack told him honestly. "Keep in mind that neither Teal'c nor I have *any* problem with *you,* Daniel. Okay?"

"Tell me already!" For all his verbal impatience, the linguist was motionless, bracing himself for Jack's news.

Not knowing any other way to say it, Jack opted for blunt. "Danny is it normal for you to stay like that," and he waved in the general direction of the hard-on trying to force its way into the open, "24 hours a day? Or to be so obsessive about getting laid?"

"Uh... no, course not." There was more than a little red in the other man's face now, and he couldn't meet either O'Neill's or Teal'c's gaze. "I mean, well, ah... you know this, us, I mean... it's new to me, and..." He stopped dead, eyes going wide and color fading rapidly. "I asked you about being infected. I didn't ask if you were being effected." He put emphasis on the first syllable made it clear that there was a distinct difference intended.

"Let's just say it's pretty easy for you to have your wicked way with either of us," Jack told him dryly.

"Are you telling me that it wasn't consensual?" he asked woodenly.

"I didn't say that!" O'Neill protested.

"DanielJackson, you and I spoke of the matter extensively before the fact," Teal'c added strongly. "You know that I mated with you willingly."

"Would you have, if I had asked at any other time?"

Jack couldn't hide his answer to that, much as he might have wanted to. From the stiffness radiating behind him, he gathered that Teal'c couldn't, either, and for the first time it occurred to him to wonder how Daniel was going to handle this particular aspect of his condition. He didn't have long to wait. The linguist rolled within the blanket so that he was faced away from his friends, practically huddled into the nearest wall.

"You said help was coming later?" he asked, voice muffled by the wall.

"Yeah," Jack said hesitantly.

"I'm really sleepy, here. Probably the best thing for me to do is to doze until then."

"Daniel, I don't know..." Jack began.

"Not much else to do," he was told shortly by Daniel's remote voice.

"You could eat?" Jack offered, feeling ridiculous but not knowing what else he could say.

There was a pause, then Daniel admitted. "No, the thought of food makes me queasy. Sleep is a better idea. Would you rather I go back to my bedroom?"

"Too cold for that," the officer said quickly, not sure he wanted him out of sight. "Though it hasn't seemed to bother you so far."

"Used to it, I guess. Abydos is cold at night, like most deserts." Sounding very disinterested and truly drowsy, the younger man fidgeted a few times, then fell silent.

***end 11

With nothing else to say that wouldn't be beating a dead horse or make his friend feel worse, Jack nodded to Teal'c, and the two of them retreated to the kitchen to make breakfast. They worked with ease around each other, mostly in silence. The Jaffa had never been one for small talk, and for the life of him, he couldn't drag anything coherent out of the mess inside his head. Preoccupied with the immediacy of the situation, he hadn't had either opportunity or inclination to think about the long-term consequences of their behavior. Now he couldn’t seem to do anything else.

Trapped by the storm and their decision against further intimacy, there was nothing left to do but hurry up and wait, in the tradition of the military everywhere. Teal’c dealt with it in his customary way. With breakfast completed and the few chores they had taken care of, he made a pad for himself and knelt in meditation, close enough to the fire to stay warm.

Jack dealt with it by aimlessly banging around the room, looking at Daniel’s artifacts and possessions without ever seeing them, uselessly poking at the fire, and picking up books to flip through the pages. Over and over he came to rest at the window over looking the street, blindly staring out into the snow-filled grayness.

It was nearly lunchtime before he stopped fighting with himself and went to sit in front of the Jaffa. Putting a hand on the big man's forearm to call him from his internal labyrinth, Jack waited patiently - for him - trying to formulate the question he had for his friend. The ebony eyes opened, expectant and alert, and Jack blurted his question before he could reconsider. "What Daniel asked? About if you would have? You didn't answer." He shot a concerned glance at where the linguist lay, but the deep, even chest movements convinced him that the other man was asleep.

"Not with words, but I believe he understood my response," Teal'c replied calmly.

"No, then? What about that warrior code thing you were telling me about?" Jack asked, honestly curious.

"If Daniel had spoken to me of Honor Debt under other circumstances, I would have been able to persuade him that no such obligation existed between us. He has never done anything to that would make him appear less in my eyes."

"Huh? Appear less? Maybe you should explain this whole idea to me, here?" Making himself comfortable, Jack leaned an elbow on his knee and tried to concentrate on the Jaffa's words and not the lushness of the lips speaking them.

"It is a custom among the Jaffar that allows a mistake or error to be corrected without any damage to the honor of the warrior involved." Teal'c began. "In one instance that I am aware of, a young man unfamiliar with zat guns discharged his weapon into a companion. No harm was done, but it was a shameful miscalculation, showing him as careless and unthinking. It would have been enough to remove him from the Jaffar if his unintended target had not agreed to accept Honor Debt. His submission to the will of the injured party balanced the consequences of his action."

"I see," Jack said doubtfully. "I think. Okay, here's another one. If Daniel had simply made a pass at you, what would you have done?"

"We are both married," Teal'c said gravely, "And I believe that both of us are sworn to our wives heart and mind." He paused, looking over to where Daniel lay and added quietly, "But I am uncertain as to whether I would have been able to resist temptation if he had been willing to foreswear his own vows."

"So you'd noticed him." He tried to be casual with the question, but the other man was too perceptive to not to understand the importance of it.

"Do you not agree he is beautiful, O'Neill?" Teal'c replied, eyebrow up. "Dray'ac is my wife; not my eyesight."

He couldn't help the snort of amusement that shot out of him, and it turned into a full-blown laugh at the expression on the warrior's face at the sound of it. "Sorry. We'd say, I'm married; not blind."

Head tilted to one side, a wisp of a smile touched Teal'c's lips. "As strange as I often find your people, it is good to know that there are some commonalties." His humor only lasted a moment, and he turned the question back on O'Neill. "Had you ever been 'not blind' where Daniel is concerned?"

"There's another expression," Jack muttered, casting a quick look to make sure the subject of the conversation was out of it. "I'm only human. Generally we use it to excuse a whole galaxy of shortcomings, but in this case it's the simple truth. Yeah, I noticed. And if it had honestly been to simply scratch an itch or relieve some frustration, I might have said yes, under my command or not. But I don't think Daniel does casual, and I'm not sure I can do serious with a guy."

The big man nodded as if he had expected such a pronouncement, and Jack realized unhappily that he had proven himself very predictable on that score. There didn't seem to be any more that needed to be said on the subject, and he got to his feet to return to his haunt by the window. He hadn't quite reached his quasi-refuge when Teal'c softly said. "I have also been 'not blind' where you are concerned, O'Neill."

That stopped him cold, and he kept his back to his friend for as long as it took for him to process the truth of that for himself. "Would you have?" he had to know, finally.

"If you had asked, yes. I would not have approached you, both because you are my commander and because it had not occurred to me that you would be interested." Somehow the Jaffa's words sounded more formal and stilted than usual, and Jack winced, knowing it was because of him, because of the attitude and baggage he admitted to carrying around, yet Teal'c was confessing to him anyway.

It made him force out his own confession, though he had never felt more like a fool in his life. "Know why I caved in so easily that first time?" he said roughly. "Yeah, partly because I like to watch, but mostly because I was watching *you*, watching you do what I wanted and didn't dare, like I've done in my fantasies a million times. The two of you fit together so fantastically in so many ways, and since you were off limits to me, putting you with each other made sense in perverted kind of way. Damnit, Teal'c you have to know how incredibly good-looking you are, how appealing that bod of yours is. Don't play modest." His voice rose in irritation on the last two sentences, as irrational as he knew it was to make his friend the target of his own frustration with himself.

"It is not modesty; it is uncertainty as to how I am perceived."

There was something shy about that statement, and Jack finally relented and returned to his previous seat, some of his anger fading. "Guess I have no idea of what standards of beauty there are on Chulak. For all I know the things that make you so beautiful to me would be cause for a paper bag over your head among your own people." At the quizzical look, he added wry, "Later, I'll explain it later."

Nodding his agreement of that, Teal'c told him, "In my culture you are considered very handsome, O'Neill. In addition, we believe age seasons one, and that an older partner is more considerate and skilled, which adds to your appeal."

"Maybe I should think about retiring on Chulak," Jack grinned, interrupting.

"You would always be welcome in my home," Teal'c said firmly. "And before you divert our conversation entirely, I also have entertained myself on lonely nights with thoughts of you - and our Daniel."

"Damn," Jack swore, throat closing up. There was no way he could let that revelation slide by, and before he knew it, he was wrapping his arms around Teal'c, hugging him as tightly as he could. "Damn," he repeated, hiding his face on the wide shoulder, relishing the scent and heat from it.

Teal'c gave back as good as he got, adding to the equation by leaning over until they were laying on the pallet, tangling his legs and feet with Jack's. They held it until muscle wouldn't put up with the strain any longer, then held it a heartbeat or few longer. Even when they had to relent, they stayed beside each other, snuggling both for warmth and companionship. //This,// Jack thought before nodding off, // is something I could get very used to.//

**** 12

He couldn't have been asleep very long when he woke, and for a split second he lay there, battle ready and surreptitiously surveying the dimly lit room, looking for the danger that had summoned him. But all there was to be seen was the tawny glow of the fire, Teal'c's solid mass beside him, and Daniel moving wraith-like through the kitchen. //Musta banged a pot or slammed a cabinet door,// he thought sleepily. He watched the younger man finish off a tall glass of water, admiring the long fingers holding the container and the obvious enjoyment he took from the fluid sliding down his throat.

That made him think of *other* wonderful things sliding down that gifted throat, and he cut off a groan of arousal before it could grow. Daniel put the glass down and slipped toward the window, apparently trying not to disturb his roommates, taking up the station that Jack had claimed for himself earlier. The uncertain light from outside caught on the fine etchings on Jackson's body, making them sparkle like spider webs adorned with dew.

There was almost no place on him that did not have its share of decoration, but he seemed as oblivious to them as he had from the start, not even glancing at the one on the hand he raised to lay flat on the glass. The sight of them made Jack shudder; pretty or not, he'd be a lot happier if he knew the end result of Daniel wearing them.

"Am I that disgusting?" the younger man asked unexpectedly.

Belatedly Jack realized that the room was dark enough that the window could serve as a mirror and that the linguist must have seen his reaction. "Not you," he said hastily. "Your meni whatsis - artwork."

"Mendali," Daniel corrected, nearly smiling. He held up an arm, inspecting it, pinching at one of the threads contemplatively. "This would be the envy of the best tattoo artist on the planet. Never believe me if I told him it was natural."

"Natural!"

"For whatever world it came from, yes, natural," he insisted, rubbing a thumb over a black line. Losing interest in it, he dropped his arm and glided toward Jack, kneeling at the edge of the sleeping bag. "Like the way I feel about you and Teal'c. It is natural for me, Jack, regardless of what Christianity might have told you, regardless of what you might have learned growing up in this country. I've lived in enough places, learned from enough cultures, to be able to be clear in my own mind about that. There's no way I can convince you, I know. But I can't stand you thinking of me as sick or damned."

"No! Never, I swear!" Jack told him vehemently, throwing out a hand to catch one of Daniel's. "Look, the problem is with me, not you. I told you that!"

Rubbing his thumb over the back of Jack's hand, the younger man studied the knuckles and veins as if to read their future there, instead of on the palm. "You don't have to lie to me, Jack. I promise none of this will make a difference to how I work with you on the team. You don't have to worry about that."

"For God's sake, what do I have to do to convince you!?" the soldier nearly shouted, quieting immediately when he felt his sleeping companion stir behind him, moving closer as if in reassurance.

Leaning so close that Jack could feel the heat of his breath on his cheek, Daniel met his eyes unflinchingly. "Kiss me. Not because I'm asking or because you think I'm compelling you, but because you know there's nothing wrong with it. Nothing passionate or complicated, just a simple brush of lips over lips."

There was a rumble of disapproval from Teal'c, but neither of the other two men looked away from each other. They kept staring, each trying to find the other through layers of confusion, doubt and worry. At last, with a pat to the powerful hand that had closed over his waist from behind, Jack did as asked and closed the small gap between him and Daniel.

Thinking of his very first kiss, wanting to summon the innocence that had been in it, the soldier let his mouth barely touch the one waiting for him. Soft, warm, moist - all common feelings, all well known - but in this one case combining to make a sensation so unique, so Daniel, that Jack thought he could identify his lover in the dark by this one thing alone. Without thinking he caught the bottom lip between his own, massaging it gently, coaxing it to full heat and tenderness.

Moaning quietly, Daniel edged forward, bringing their mouths into firmer contact and encouraging Jack to taste what he was touching. With the tiniest of sweeps along the very edge, he did just that, and the taste was sweetly provocative. He couldn't help but deepen the kiss, using their linked hands to urge his lover closer.

They had only a moment before an insistent pull from Teal'c made him break away, lifting his head to meet Daniel's lust-colored eyes. Much as he wanted to do otherwise, much as he was unwilling to do otherwise, he murmured, "No." and scooted farther back into Teal'c sheltering mass.

"Please," Daniel breathed.

"No." Louder and firmer, it hurt Jack to say that one word.

"Why? It's better than good between us, and I *ache* Jack, ache so badly." Daniel looked positively forlorn, and despite himself, Jack wavered. Glancing down at the juncture of the smaller man's thighs, he regarded the weeping dick with desire well mixed with concern. It did look painful; in fact it looked positively agonizing, and he reached for it, only to be jerked up short by Teal'c.

"DanielJackson," the big man spoke for the first time since waking, "Do you truly doubt that we care for you?"

Attention jerked away from their commander, Daniel blinked, the stuttered, "N..n.. no, of course not!"

"Will you not trust our judgement then? You know we have no wish to see you suffer." Jack had never heard the Jaffa speak more gently, and he hoped against hope that their companion would *listen* to him.

Standing and backing away, fists clenched at his side, Daniel shook his head once, lust clearing from his face. "My god, my god," he mumbled. "I'm all but forcing myself on you. You both don't want to, you've made that crystal clear to me, and I *still* can't stop needing... having to..."

Without warning he spun on his heel and ran for his bedroom, slamming the door shut. Taking a deep breath, Jack fought off the need to chase after him, not sure it was a good idea when he was raring to go himself. A tug on his elbow sent him to his back, and Teal'c brushed a concerned fingertip over his features, letting the touch speak for him.

"I'm okay," he said. "But if we could bottle whatever it is that's causing this, we'd make Viagra obsolete."

Ignoring the last comment, Teal'c told him, "It was very difficult for me as well, O'Neill. And I was not in contact with him. I believe the effect may be gaining potency."

"Great! Just great!" He threw an arm over his face, mind racing. "And he's getting, uh, more determined, too. I honestly don't know if that last come-on started out that way or not."

"In any event, there is little that can be done except to avoid Daniel's company," the Jaffa reminded him unnecessarily.

"Hard to do in the circumstances." Peeking out from under his forearm, he added with half-hearted enthusiasm, "At least it's stopped snowing."

There wasn't much to be said to that, and they settled back into the bedding and into waiting. It was eerily quiet, Jack realized after a while. No traffic, few people in the building, the whole city hunkered down into survival mode - most of the sounds of modern man were temporarily extinguished by the weight of the snow. Beyond the snap and hiss of the fire, the soft respiration of himself and Teal'c, the apartment was equally quiet.

Would have been peaceful under other circumstances, he decided. Idly, feeling more relaxed, he started identifying the few sounds that did penetrate: a creak from the roof as it shifted under its burden, a sharp crack from outside as a tree branch nearby failed to bear up under the same, a soft hissing that for the life of him he couldn't figure out.

It stirred his interest enough that he sat up, turning his head this way and that, trying to locate its exact location.

Alerted by his pose, Teal'c listened as well, and murmured, "It is coming from Daniel's room."

They both sat there in indecision for a split second, then scrambled to their feet and ran for the bedroom. Hesitating at the door, Jack put his ear to it and waited, wanting to have an idea of what was happening on the other side before crashing through. This close the noise was clearly that of fabric tearing, and he and Teal'c exchanged a puzzled glanced before he tapped at the wood.

"Daniel. You okay in there?" It was a dumb question, but the best he could do at the minute.

"Go away, Jack, Teal'c," Daniel said tiredly. "You should stay by the fire anyway."

True it was cold enough here for him to see his breath, but that meant the linguist had to be freezing, too. "I'm going to open the door," he called back, instead. "We need to be making some plans for making it until help gets here, and you haven't eaten at all today."

Without giving Daniel a chance to argue, Jack opened the door and stumbled back in surprise at what he saw. The younger man was sitting in the middle of a stripped down bed, still naked, his cock jutting out demandingly from his crotch. His top sheet had been reduced to long thin strips of fabric that he was rapidly braiding together, making a rope from the pieces.

"Danny..." Jack started worriedly.

"I can't trust myself," he said flatly, head bent over his task. "This need to fuck, to get fucked, or sucked or *anything* is eating me alive."

Wincing at the obscene words that he'd been using himself for what they'd been doing, Jack argued, "There are two of us; I don't think you need to go to extremes here, Dr. Jackson."

"Hasn't made a difference up until now." Finishing one rope, he tested it with a hard yank, put it aside and began another.

"So you're going to tie yourself to the bed. How exactly are you planning on managing that?" Jack had intended to be condescending, hoping to annoy his friend into looking at him so he wouldn't feel as though he was talking to a stranger.

"Make the knots tight enough that they'll have to be cut off." Daniel sounded disinterested.

"That would be unwise. If there were an emergency requiring speed..." Teal'c began.

"Then you and Jack put on your running shoes and go." Fingers twirling deftly through the cloth, Daniel added another strand. "Chances are I'd be a terminal distraction, anyway."

"Put those ropes on too tight and the knots won't be the only things that have to be cut off," Jack said grimly, cutting across their conversation. "Fingers need blood flow, remember?"

Suddenly Daniel lifted his head and met Jack's eyes squarely, "I'd rather have them cut off than use them to rape you, and that's exactly what is going to happen at the rate I'm going," he hissed fiercely. "I can't hold back much longer, and short of shooting me there's nothing you can do to keep me from dragging you to the ground and using that tight ass of yours til it bleeds! Back off, Jack! Now!"

Stunned, Jack literally backed up, then he and Teal'c said almost in unison. "You would *not* hurt us, Daniel." A huge hand came to rest on his shoulder, and Jack covered it with his. For a moment he considered relenting, considered crawling into bed and doing his damndest to satisfy the tormented man.

The only thing that held him back was that he wanted to make love with Daniel, not be screwed by the thing using that lovely body, and that revelation shook him to his core.

Beside him, Teal'c murmured, "If I were certain that it would not simply increase the source of the difficulty...."

"Yeah, me too," Jack told him as softly. To Daniel he instructed, "Wrap it around your wrist three or four times; it'll hold as securely but won't cut off the blood flow as much."

The straight line of the linguist's shoulders eased marginally, and more of their friend and teammate shone out of the tense features. "Thanks." Finishing another rope, he semi-smiled as he put it aside, and teased, "Sounds like you know what you're talking about - is there another kink of yours I should know about?"

Powerful images of Daniel tied and helpless beneath him assailed the soldier, and he sucked in a scalding breath. Somehow he managed to quip, "Now that would be telling. Want all the mystery in our relationship gone at once?" Before the younger man could give a come-back, he added, "We won't be far, okay, Danny?"

"I know, Jack. I know."

On that the Colonel calmly, firmly closed the door, turned and nearly collapsed onto Teal'c, shaking violently. The Jaffa held him up, absently rubbing up and down the middle of his back, whispering, "Daniel, Daniel," as if it were the missing man he comforted.

**** 13

They went back to waiting, automatically going about the business of staying alive and miserably watching for signs of distress from the bedroom. There would be occasional thumps and sounds of footstep as Daniel paced restlessly, half-understood curses and once pained cries that stabbed into both of them.

All Jack could think of was how soon would help come. How soon would this private world that had once been so satisfying and wonderful and was now so hideous and agonizing be shattered back into a normal life?

Slowly signs of life from outside the apartment began to penetrate as well. Voices filtered into the early evening air, as did the rumble of engines from snow blowers, scrapes from shovels, and the occasional shout of joy from children 'helping' their parents dig out. The first snow plow came by, tearing up the pristine landscape with man's usual messiness, and bare minutes after it did, the outside door to the building thumped open.

Exchanging hopeful glances, Jack went to the door in anticipation of a knock, leaving Teal'c to build up the fire for company. Throwing it open a split second after the crack of knuckles on wood, he grinned delightedly at the surprised woman on the other side. "Carter!"

On impulse he threw his arms around her, snow-splattered coat and all, "I have never been so glad to see someone. How'd you get here?" Letting go of the bemused woman, he ushered her inside, helping her by holding her gloves and hat as she undid her coat zipper.

"Janet Fraiser called me on my cell and told me that Daniel was ill," she huffed, a bit breathless from her welcome and the climb up the stairs. "They're on their way now, but it'll take time for the snow cats to get here. Since I have to be in quarantine, too, I thought I might as well meet her here. Hitched a ride on the outside of a snowplow when it came by my place. Want to fill me in on the details, sir? Hi, Teal'c"

"Major Carter," Teal'c replied warmly. "It is good to see you."

She smiled, finishing with her coat, and looked around for the missing member of their team. "Where's Daniel?"

"In his bedroom. What did Fraiser tell you exactly?" Jack led the way down the hallway toward the linguist, stopping in front of the door.

"That he had some sort of parasitical infestation on his skin, but didn't seem to be in danger," she said.

"Yeah, well, that's a fact but it doesn't really prepare you for the sight of it, and since, frankly, I don't have any idea how to do it, either, I'm just going to let you see for yourself. One thing, stay *here*," and he pointed at the floor in front of them, "unless I tell you it's okay to go in. Got it?"

He spoke as her commander, and she answered the same way, though she was obviously confused. "Yes, sir."

Cracking open the door, he peeked in, hoping that Daniel had at least thrown a blanket over his nakedness to spare both him and Carter some embarrassment later. He swore; he forgotten how late it was, and the bedroom was pitch black. "Hang on. Got some lanterns in the kitchen, I think. Teal'c give me a hand."

As soon as they were out of earshot, the Jaffa asked, "What are you going to tell Major Carter about our activities here?"

"Not a damned thing," Jack answered absently, tossing a flashlight they'd left on the counter to his friend. "Hold that while I look for the lantern. It'll give better light."

Adding, "What she doesn't know, she can't tell if she's asked, and other people can't hurt her for," he started opening cabinet doors.

He caught a brief glimpse of some emotion on Teal'c's face, but it was covered by his usual impassive expression so quickly Jack couldn't be sure what it was. Not wanting to keep Sam waiting, and frankly, more than somewhat overwhelmed by the intensity of the last few days, he let it go.

"Explanations for his current state will be needed. I do not think it is appropriate to mislead her." The flashlight moved to highlight a shelf. "There."

"Got it." Jack took down the light and switched it on briefly to make sure it worked, turning his head to keep from being blinded by it. "Sam's smart; she'll draw her own conclusions," he said shortly. "And I trust her with that."

"I see," Teal'c said very quietly.

Jack shot another look at him, but his teammate was as inscrutable as ever. Dismissing the momentary pang of concern for his friend, he went back down the hallway, pulling up short at the empty spot where he left Carter.

As flash of brightness drew him into the bedroom, and by the light of a small emergency lantern Sam had in her hand, he could clearly see both occupants.

She was sitting on the edge of the bare mattress, her free hand cupping the side of Daniel's face as he lay stomach down on the bed. There was no part of his body now that was free of the mendali; even the soles of his feet had graceful lines curling over them. Both soothing and compelling, the pattern of the filigree drew the attention to the beauty of the body wearing it, drawing the eye over the pure curve of a shoulder blade, the luscious swell of the hip.

To Jack it looked as though it were cradling the perfect ass, the tendrils dipping into the cleft as if to hold it open for him. With one knee drawn up, the shadow between the parted legs beckoned, and Jack had the incendiary vision of burying himself in the pucker hidden there, filling it as Daniel pumped into Sam's hot pussy, both of them servicing Teal'c with their mouths as he pounded.

Dizzy, gasping for breath, he took a half step forward, aware and yet unaware of the huge man moving with him, eyes on his goal. A flicker of movement yanked his attention up; Sam was leaning down, lids half down, moistening her lips in preparation for a kiss. One of Daniel's hands strained in its bond to reach for her breast, and an unexpected, inexplicable bolt of jealousy blasted through Jack to break the erotic spell.

Moving on pure instinct, he dove for Sam, sweeping her up into his arms and spinning away from the bed in nearly the same motion. Charging back across the room like a line backer, he rammed a shoulder into Teal'c, who was standing staring dazedly at the siren waiting for him. The blow knocked him back out of the bedroom, and, recovering nearly instantly, the Jaffa slammed the door shut as they went through.

Seconds later, they were all crumpled on the floor next to the opposite floor, Sam still half in Jack's lap and Teal'c holding them both upright. "My God!" she murmured, shaking her head as if to clear it. "I was going to... Daniel..." Swallowing dryly, she ran a hand through her short blonde hair, fighting to make sense of what just happened.

Jack could only hide his face on his lover's chest and hope that he didn't bust into bawling. Teal'c laid his cheek against the top of his head, offering what comfort he could, but the soldier could feel an erection thrumming into his hip. His own was nearly as hard, and he stealthily shifted to keep Sam from being gouged with it.

She noticed his move, of course, and her gaze on him was nearly tangible in its intensity. All she said, though, was, "Dr. Fraiser is going to have to examine *all* of us, completely and very thoroughly."

"I know," Jack answered tiredly. "One problem at a time. How is anybody going to examine Daniel if you can't get close to him and keep a clear head?"

"The compulsion is also becoming much more powerful, as well," Teal'c added thoughtfully. "Before now, physical contact was required."

Phrasing her question very cautiously, Sam asked, "It coincided with the appearance of the infestation?"

"Maybe before." Trying to regain his composure, Jack nudged at her and she stood, leaning on the wall for a second for balance. "We first saw it, what, a day and a half ago?" He looked at Teal'c for confirmation, received it with an incline of the dark head. "There were, ah, indications of the sexual compulsion the night he called you, Sam. It's possible he knew something was wrong and that's *why* he called. Might have been the last clear-minded thing he's done since getting home."

Creakily he got to his own feet, relieved that his hard-on was fading, at least. Teal'c stood as well, and they all went into the living room, building up the fire to use it for heating up some soup and making coffee. All the while Sam was deep in thought, going through the motions of helping on auto-pilot.

When the food was gone, she sat crossed-legged next to the fire, cradling a cup between her hands. "Maybe pheromones," she said finally. "Increasing sexual attractiveness to ensure more hosts. But there's no sign of infection on either of you?"

Jack shook his head and asked, "Pheromones?"

"Specialized hormones that our sweat glands release into the air. In nature they help individuals identify others of their kind, of their group, fertility and sexual availability of the opposite sex. Ever meet a woman and had instant chemistry with her? Pheromones."

"You mean Daniel *smells* sexy?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Not exactly," Sam started.

Before she could finish, Teal'c interrupted. "In the beginning, it required physical contact in order for the effects to be felt."

"Not even sure about it, at first, the effects were so subtle, " Jack felt he had to add.

"Okay," Sam said, adding that in to the rest of what she knew. "Maybe you two had better start at the top."

**** end 14

Hiding a grimace at her choice of words, Jack did just that, Teal'c adding clarifications as necessary, both of them discretely skating over the possibility of the sexual activity. Before they'd finished, the distinctive rumble of the SGC snow cats could be heard, and they finished their explanations hurriedly as they pulled on coats and prepped the apartment for Daniel's absence.

"Okay, kids," Jack said in mock cheeriness, standing in front of the bedroom door. "How are we going to handle getting Daniel freed and dressed?"

"We don't," Sam snagged a blanket from the neatly folded stack. "Dr. Fraiser is bringing a quarantine bag, especially designed for transporting potentially contagious and unconscious patients. It's got o2, heaters, monitors, radio - everything to keep him comfortable and isolated until we can get him to quarantine facilities. All we need to do is get this over him so we can eliminate any visual cues we might be responding to, then move *fast* when Janet gets up here."

Catching on, Jack took a corner of the blanket, holding it high in front of the door, motioning to Teal'c to grab the other. They held it high, like a curtain, and moved into the bedroom literally hiding behind it. Head averted, they dropped it onto Daniel, then ran back out swiftly as they could.

Sure momentum would carry him past the door, Jack snuck a peek - and sighed in relief. The younger man was asleep, and apparently they hadn't disturbed him with their kamikaze rush to cover him. "First step accomplished. Second, Dr. Carter?"

"We get into quarantine suits and go back in. They have self contained air units, too, and we shouldn't be affected by the pheromones, if that's an agent working here." She'd hardly finished speaking when there was a loud thump at the front door. "The gloves will prevent any actual physical contact, eliminating that vector."

Janet was on the other side with two orderlies, standing back a good distance, wearing a gas mask and other protective gear. Nodding her understanding, Sam dragged the suits and bag inside with Teal'c's help. They rigged out, checked the o2 tanks and radios, and then hesitated on the threshold to the bedroom.

"Teal'c, you be anchor again," Jack ordered. "Just in case there's something going on here that goes past what we've tried to block. We even look like we're getting ready to get out of this stuff, and you do what you have to break up the party."

"Understood, O'Neill. I will observe not only from a distance, but by the reflection in the bedroom mirror."

"Good idea." Sam nodded decisively.

With a deep breath of canned air that he unconsciously held, Jack went in, moving as briskly as the suit would allow. For all their precautions, in the end moving Daniel was anticlimactic. He slept through being freed and stuffed into the bag, rousing only slightly when the orderlies and Teal'c loaded him onto a stretcher. Jack studiously kept his eyes averted as much as possible through it all, and found that, while he was aroused, it wasn't overwhelming him.

Telling one of the cat drivers to get out and let him drive, it wasn't likely that he was going to be running off now, was it, Jack and Teal'c took position in behind the bigger cat with Janet, Sam and Daniel, the other two vehicles following behind. If Hammond gave him a hard time about commandeering it, well, he'd say something about one less that would have to be destroyed if it turned out that their quarantine efforts didn't work.

What mattered was not having to deal with anybody else, because right at this second, Jack O'Neill was pretty damned close to the end of his rope. With half an ear he listened to Janet and Sam on the suit radio trade information, and Teal'c, God bless him, put up with his surly withdrawal without so much as a sideways glance.

Of course, the Jaffa didn't seem to be in a very talkative mood either, even for him. He was getting his first up-close and personal look at how things would have to be if he had an affair with him or Daniel, Jack knew. No touches that could be seen as more than casual. No words of concern or support that went beyond good buddy status. No give-away facial expressions. Just restraint, control, *hiding* and for the first time in his life, Jack himself was having trouble accepting that as a given, an unavoidable fact of life.

It sucked, for crying out loud, sucked royally, and he couldn't even share that tasty bit of self-revelation because of the damned open mikes on the suit. All he could do was clumsily capture a massive thigh, and give it a hard squeeze, trying to put a fraction of his feelings into the gesture.

Turning awkwardly because of his confinement, Teal'c stared at him, as blandly non-expressive as ever, then melted, showing Jack he understood. Relieved, he gave a final pat, and concentrated on steering the cat on the tricky surface of the road.

"Isn't that right, Colonel?" Sam asked over the radio, yanking him out of his introspection a few minutes later.

"Could you repeat? There's some static on this end," Jack improvised, though there was in truth background noise coming through her broadcast.

"We noticed. I've been trying to pinpoint the problem. Maybe you could take over answering any questions Dr. Fraiser has?"

"Sure. What do you need to know, Doc?"

"Where did the infestation first appear?" Janet asked, sounded somewhat distracted, as if already deep into her diagnosis.

"Couldn't say for sure," Jack answered carefully. "First time I saw it, it was over his left hip and thigh, and when we investigated, the largest concentration was on the inside crease of his groin."

"Did Dr. Jackson call it to your attention? Perhaps he noticed where it began." Static nearly blurred out her last word, but Jack understood.

"No, as a matter of fact, I called it to his." Now how was he going to explain about seeing Daniel naked? "I think clothes might have started bothering him or something; for the most part he stopped wearing them the same time that fungus thing showed up."

"I thought Major Carter said you'd lost power?" Fraiser commented curiously.

"They had."

"We did."

He and Sam chuckled, then he went on. "Yeah, it got pretty cold, if that's what you're asking about. Guess clothes must have *really* bothered him."

"Did he get goose bumps, or shiver?"

"Say again? You're breaking up?" Jack thought he understood her, but wanted to think.

"Did he have any physical reaction to the cold?" Fraiser repeated patiently.

"No, he did not." Teal'c answered helpfully. "In fact, he seemed quite impervious to the low temperatures of his dwelling."

"I see." She added with some exasperation, "Sam, can't you stop that static!?"

Her answer was an indistinct mutter, and a dull clatter.

"Colonel, didn't you think that was odd?" Janet said, apparently trying to ignore Sam's efforts.

"You could say that," a sleepy voice answered unexpectedly. "I think his words were something to the effect of stop auditioning for the polar bear club and get dressed, Jackson."

"Daniel!" they all chorused in varying degrees of surprise and happiness.

"Hi. Somebody wanna tell me where the hell I am? Besides in what looks like a high tech body bag?" There was a rustle and thump as Daniel punctuated his statement by poking at his surroundings.

"Hey, that was my knee!"

"Sorry, Sam."

"Children," Jack interrupted, smiling widely. "Play nice. We're on our way back to the SGC, Daniel. The storm stopped a while ago, and with some luck we'll be there in a few hours. Then Dr. Fraiser can unzip you out of that quarantine sack."

"Damn," the linguist swore softly. "I lost more time?"

"Lost time, Dr. Jackson?" Janet butted in.

"Yes," he admitted reluctantly, but knowing better than to fight her for information. "Feels like what some college friends of mine described being stoned on pot is like. Seconds last for hours and hours, but they don't add up even to minutes. How long have I been back from our last mission?"

"It is late on the third day since we returned from PX7 447," Teal'c informed him.

Stunned silence met his reply, and Jack fumbled for a smart-assed remark, but Dr. Fraiser spoke first. "Daniel, can you tell me when and where the infestation began? If we know the original site, we might be able to determine its growth rate and when you might have become infected. It'll give us an idea of how long the other members of your team have to stay in isolation."

"Not it, they," he answered, sounding very sleepy again. "It's not a single thing; it's many."

This time he was the one met with absolute quiet. Then Janet ventured, "How do you know?"

"I can hear them talking now. Guess they needed to reach a critical mass or something. It’s like listening to a big party through glass doors. Many conversations in many voices, all changing and interchanging as they mingle..." Daniel's voice softened, becoming lower and dreamier. "Don't understand them, of course. But I can hear them."

There was a snap as his radio was turned off from the outside, and Fraiser demanded, "Colonel, did he exhibit dementia previously?"

"What?! No!" Jack blurted. "Maybe he's delirious?" he added, hopefully, though there had never been any sign of fever before.

"Wait a minute," Sam inserted. "You guys notice anything?"

Obligingly they all sat still, with the ongoing rumble of the snow cats underlining their silence. "'What, so, you fixed that damned static finally," Jack snapped.

"No, I didn't." There was another click of a switch being hit, and Carter asked, "Daniel, what does their conversation sound *like?*"

"ummmmm, dunno. white noise?" And their radios were filled with it as he spoke.

"Could be the unit on the containment bag," Dr. Fraiser offered uncertainly.

"Hang on." Sam started doing things, and the rest of them tried not to 'bump' her elbow as she worked. The static went away again as Daniel's radio was disconnected, then with a few soft exclamations, she hooked up a new one. Which immediately hit their ears with static.

"Great, just great," Jack muttered into the astonishment of his teammates. "You'd think once, just once, when an alien wants to talk with us they'd just pick up the damned phone and call!"

***** 15

"Dr. Fraiser, what can you tell us about Dr. Jackson's condition?" General Hammond asked formally, opening the de-briefing session hours later.

Head in his palm, elbow propped on the table top, Jack blearily tried to focus on Janet as she stood at the side of the room, projection screen hanging beside her. He and the rest of his team, sans Daniel, were on one side of the long table, dressed comfortably in regulation coveralls, having been cleared by Dr. Fraiser as having no signs of contamination.

"After a very thorough exam," she began.

"Doc, my *mother* never saw some of the places you looked at," Jack said dryly.

She shot him a look of irritation, but went on smoothly, "and questioning of SG1, I've come to the conclusion that Dr. Jackson's infection was made possible by an unique set of circumstances that fortunately, the other members of his team weren't subjected to. For starters, It is very likely that the growth had already begun when he first returned from his last mission."

"What?!"

The glare she gave Jack this time was meant to be quelling and, by force of will, he shut his mouth and waited for her to explain. "If you'll recall, Daniel was exhibiting signs of extreme fatigue during his last examination. Unlike the other members of the team, he didn't finish undressing and showering because of how tired he was, and he actually fell asleep in the middle of his check up. At the time I attributed it to the natural consequences of dealing with the pain of cracked ribs for three days."

Grimacing, Jack berated his young friend inwardly. He'd know the linguist was in hurt, but he'd never complained, and O'Neill hadn't guessed how bad it was. Mentally he saw Daniel's pale face as they'd stood in the shower, remembered that he'd been the only one still wearing pants as they'd stumbled toward the infirmary.

"Though he underwent a standard exam along with the rest of SG1, he still had a fair amount of PX7 447's highly silicate soil encrusted on his body."

"And the first signs of it were under that?" Hammond asked.

"Not exactly," Janet said, reluctantly, cueing an airman to lower the lights to the conference room. A click brought the first slide up, and it showed a body covered with the scrollwork of the mendali, the head discretely hidden from the camera. "What you're seeing here," and she used a laser pointer to trace out one of the broader lines, "is the residue of the inactive parasite."

At the collective gasp from the room, she called up another picture, this one a x-ray. Along with the solid bone of a hip and leg, there was a faint shadow of something else, something that wasn't very easy to make out. Without a word Dr. Fraiser put up another x-ray, this one computer enhanced. "The black lines are like an iceberg. The part you see is only a small portion of the entire thing."

The enhanced slide had a ghostly pattern of growth wrapped around the bone, seemingly following the natural flow of the muscles that covered it. A click brought up another slide, this one a composite of all the enhanced x-rays, showing a complete human skeleton, with two-thirds of it encompassed by the alien life form.

"What I think happened, and Major Carter supports my theory, is that all of SG1 was exposed to the spores or seeds of the mendali, but only Dr. Jackson had the appropriate environmental conditions necessary for it to grow. His relatively more severe injuries had the effect of gearing up his metabolism, raising his basal temperature by a degree or so. Not much, but apparently that allowed the first germination, any outwards signs of which were probably hidden by the dirt layered on him.

"Even then, we think that if he had washed away all of the silicated grime, it might have died quickly due to lack of building materials and the scrubbing action of the shower. He did not, and when he was released to return to his home, he made the entire trip in the January weather in an unheated car, again keeping his own temperature warm in relationship to the external one."

"Been telling him for weeks to get that heater fixed," Jack muttered unhappily.

She ignored the comment and went on. "Once home, we think he started to clean up, but succumbed to fatigue, and fell asleep on the cold bathroom floor. At that point, the mendali had had all the ingredients necessary for it to establish itself securely."

"You are saying that low temperatures are required for the well-being of the growth," Teal'c asked flatly, hiding his sorrow under it, Jack knew.

"Yes, but it wouldn't have done you any good to know that once it was established," Sam put in quickly. "We've already tried, but if we warm him up more than a few degrees, he goes into arrest. It shuts down his neurological system."

"Well, maybe we could deliberately stop his heart for a few minutes," Jack suggested. "You docs can safely do that, right? Warm him up big time, kill the thing, shock his heart back into beating."

"Only one problem with that, sir," Carter said uneasily. "It might not kill the Mendali, only turn it off. You see, it's not an organic life form."

"Not organic?" General Hammond put in. "As in not animal or plant, but mineral?"

"Exactly," Janet agreed. "That is why the crusting of the sand on his body was needed. You see, it's a silicon-based life. Instead of growing in a cellular way from material ingested or sunlight fueling a chemical reaction, the way plants and animals do, it literally constructs itself from the raw materials on hand ,*sand*, using thermal conductivity to fuel the process."

"Huh?" Jack blurted, trying to make sense of what she had said.

"Think computer chips, sir," Sam told him, leaning forward intently. "Running on electricity generated from the difference in temperature from the *outside* of Daniel's body and the *inside* of it. That's what the dark, glassy lines are for. To absorb the cold. The colder it was outside and the warmer Daniel was inside, once it had gotten large enough to regulate its own intake, the more power it had to construct more of itself."

//And one good way to really warm up the ole' insides,// Jack thought to himself, suddenly weary to the bone. //Is to fuck. Good design there, Mendali.//

"So Dr. Jackson is being turned into some kind of robot," Hammond interjected in surprise.

"No, not at all," Fraiser denied. "The alien is exerting influence on his body - he has no appetite to speak of, for instance, which makes sense because that would disrupt the heat flow of his body as he digested. It may also have tapped into the electro-chemical processes of his body to help fuel its own. That could explain why he's experiencing sensory time disruption. Electrical interference so to speak. But essentially it is functioning independently of him. Like a coral reef building on the remains of a sunken ship. The ship provides coral with a structure to use, is a source of a few necessary elements, but it doesn't really interact with the carcass of the ship itself."

"Nice visual there," Jack muttered. "So what do we do to get rid of it? Scrape it off like barnacles?"

Carter and Fraiser exchanged an uneasy look, then the doctor spoke. "It is so pervasive, removal is not an option. And indications are from the samples I've removed, that if we do not shut all of it down more or less at the same time, it will simply go dormant until the environmental conditions improve."

"Electrical shock. Overload its power systems." Teal'c offered.

"That's a possibility and tests are being run as we speak," Carter told them. "If not, we will find a way to fight it. In the meantime, maybe we should just try to talk to them."

"Isn't that Daniel's line?" Jack asked her softly.

The question won him a wisp of a smile, and she went on, "You may or may not remember that radios were originally built from quartz crystals because of their pizo-electric properties. We think that the Mendali 'speaks' using the same principal, based on the static we pick up from the receiver in the quarantine room. Dr. Jackson is insisting that it is language - when he's awake, which is only briefly - and not simple animal noises."

The lights came back up, and Carter turned toward General Hammond. "With your permission, sir, I'd like to explore that possibility while assisting Dr. Fraiser with understanding Daniel's condition better."

"Then you *do* have treatment in mind," he said with some relief.

"Yes, yes, of course," Janet swiftly promised him - and the rest of the SG1 team. Muscles that he hadn't realized were completely knotted eased enough to call his attention to them, and Jack took a deep breath that he hoped didn't sound as shaky to everybody else as it did to him. "If nothing else, it is entirely possible that once the Mendali has run its natural life span, it may die and leave Daniel relatively unscathed, there has been that little interference and damage."

"I for one am not willing to trust the benevolence of an unknown entity," Teal'c all but growled.

"Me neither," Janet agreed hastily. "I simply wanted to point out the likelihood of a positive outcome."

Looking around, Jack saw that he wasn't the only one feeling better, and he sat back in his chair. "If you've got this thing pegged," he started, "then when are visiting hours? I'd like to see for myself that he's okay before I crash for a while." That wasn't too personal, he argued with himself. Not beyond what any commander would do for one of his people. In fact, Hammond didn't seem surprised he asked.

"Well, Dr. Jackson is still in isolation. If you can deal with the background racket, I don't see why any of you can't drop by whenever and talk with him over the radio."

Jack sat straight up. "Whoa! I thought you said that you had a handle on the situation."

"I do," she shot back firmly. "But we can't possibly anticipation changes or new developments. He stays in isolation and you," with that she nodded at the whole team, "will be re-examined periodically, just to make sure."

Before he could protest again, Hammond cut in. "Wise precautions, I sure, Dr. Fraiser. In the meantime, is there anything else? No? Dismissed." As they stood to file out, he said aside to her, "Let me know when he's awake, will you? I'd like to drop in myself."

"Will do, sir," she replied, following Sam out. "Colonel, before you sleep, would you mind answering a few more questions for me in the infirmary?" she asked quietly.

**** end 16

Gathering Teal'c with a glance, Jack said, "No problem. Can't think of anything you don't already know, though."

She gave him an odd look, and guiltily Jack finally noticed there was one thing about Daniel's condition that had *not* been covered in the briefing. By sheer force of will, he kept his face as blank as Teal'c's. "As I mentioned," she said as she led the way to her lab, "the Mendali is exerting some influence on Daniel's physiology. We maintain a baseline chemistry profile on all stargate Teams, for analytical comparison for situations precisely like these."

"Good idea," Jack said approvingly, though more for something to say than anything else. "Yours?"

"It's been useful a time or two," she admitted. "In this case, there have been several significant adjustments to Dr. Jackson's personal biochemistry. For what purpose we have no idea; I'm hoping you might be able to provide me with some insight."

By this time they were in her office, and she shut the door, crossed to her desk, hitting a switch on the side of it as she sat. "We're private now. No surveillance at all. Should have heard command scream when I insisted it was a necessity for a doctor, even one in the Air Force."

"Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to like any of the questions you're going to ask?" Jack said rhetorically. "Out with it, Doc."

Leaning back in her chair, she fiddled with her stethoscope for a moment, then said bluntly. "When Sam told me about the sexual effect Daniel was having on people around him, I thought maybe she was exaggerating how attractive the tattoo pattern was or that the growth was lowering his inhibitions to make him more sexually available." She sat up straight, tapping the top of her desk with a finger. "But I've had two orderlies refuse to go near him again, and all I had to do was look at the front of their pants to figure out why. Two very *straight* orderlies. And I don't want to talk about what he's doing to the female staff."

"Oh, God," Jack mumbled, rubbing at his face. Behind him he heard a barely suppressed sigh from Teal'c.

"We can't pinpoint what's causing it, though at Sam's advice we've eliminated several venues. All we've managed to do is keep it from being overwhelming," she went on. "She's already told me as much as she knows, which is only that she nearly fell under its influence, that you told her that it began very subtly, and at first it was only present when he was touched." Hesitating, she got up and sat on the side of her desk, pointedly not looking at either of them. "When I examined Daniel in detail, it was obvious to me that he had been... sexually active. Very active. Homosexually active."

"I made love with him many times over the course of our confinement in his apartment," Teal'c said mildly. "And rather obsessively. That is how Colonel O'Neill was able to determine that something more was amiss that the pattern appearing on Daniel's skin."

Swallowing down bile, Jack stood by helplessly while Teal'c verbally stepped in front of him, shielding him from any speculation that he had bedded Daniel, too, though Janet had to *know* from his own examination that he was hardly innocent. Though the big Jaffa never lied once, he managed to answer all of Fraiser's questions to her satisfaction, painting a clear picture of the linguist's behavior over the past three days all the while leaving the impression that the Colonel was nothing more than a worried by-stander.

By the time Teal'c was through, Jack had never hated himself more. In essence he had denied with his silence everything that he had done during those same days, good or bad. No making Daniel laugh with delight, no Teal'c laying aside his emotional armament and being *himself*, no gentle, understanding touches. This wasn't being discrete; it was being dishonest and blatantly unfair to his lovers. He started to speak up, but Teal'c stopped him with the simple expedient of raising an eyebrow at him while Fraiser's back was turned.

When she finished with the Jaffa, she leaned back on the edge of her desk and smiled at him. "Thank you for your honesty. I promise this won't go any further than my private notes unless absolutely necessary, and then no more than I have to."

"I thank you for your confidentiality," Teal'c said formally, answering her smile with a small one of his own. "As does Daniel, I am sure."

"One thing - are you planning on continuing this relationship after we've resolved the issue on hand? Strictly asking as your Doctor, Teal'c. The are aspects of this life style on Earth that you may not be aware of." Fraiser tried to sound deferential, not wanting to insult someone she respected, Jack thought.

"So I have been told," the Jaffa told her warmly, "And again I thank you for your concern. Daniel and I have not had the opportunity to discuss it. May I speak to you on a later date?"

"Yes, of course," she answered immediately, with evident relief. Looking around distractedly, she started, "Well, I better be getting back to work..."

"Before you throw us out, Janet," Jack requested, head down and not looking at her directly. "Would you mind if I take advantage of the privacy to have a word with Teal'c?"

"No, of course not, Colonel." Despite her agreement, she sounded reluctant, and she took her time exiting, double-checking with Teal'c that it all right with him.

Before Jack could speak, the huge Jaffa flowed across the room, taking him in his arms in a way that brooked no argument from the Colonel. Not that he wanted to give any; he had his head back and lips parted as soon as he understood his lover's intent. As passionate as the kiss was, and as needed, it wasn't inflammatory, and Jack reveled in the slow, sweet rise of desire.

When he was finally, unwillingly, released, he stepped back, breathing hard and grinning foolishly. "Thanks. I needed that."

"As did I." Teal'c brushed a knuckle over his cheek in an uncharacteristic display of affection. "Denying your... involvement was as unpleasant for me as it was for you, O'Neill."

Leaning into the touch, Jack admitted, "Thought I was going to puke." He peeled up an eyelid he didn't remember dropping, and poked the other man in the chest. "And if it becomes necessary, you don't hesitate to tell Janet everything. Hear me? We'll deal with the fallout."

Looking very pleased, Teal'c nodded, then gestured to the door. He ushered Jack through it, unobtrusively keeping his hand in the small of the soldier's back as long as he could. With a final thanks to Dr. Fraiser they went to the isolation unit to visit Daniel.

They stood on the other side of the glass, looking into the tiny, dim room beyond uncertainly. A chill could be felt through it, and not much could be seen but the lump of Daniel's body under a concealing sheet. Hesitantly, Jack switched on the two way, wincing at the rush of static from it. Underlying it was a soft murmur; Daniel talking to himself too quietly to be understood.

"You know, Dr. Jackson," Jack said finally, "If you wanted some time off all you had to do was ask."

"Probably should have. I can think of much better vacations spots than this," Daniel shot back.

"Sounding pretty good there, Danny boy," Jack said sincerely, glad to hear how clear minded he seemed.

"Have to admit I've done better in my life." He rolled in his bed, showing the two men a wan, tired face that had several delicate lines tracing over the cheeks and around the eyes.

"Damn," O'Neill couldn't help but mutter.

"It's okay, Jack, really. No pain, nothing unpleasant now at all except a terminal case of priaprismatic constipation," Daniel told him firmly.

"Pria what?" the soldier asked in honest confusion, disconcerted by the obvious proof of how far the Mendali had progressed.

"Blue balls," Teal'c volunteered unexpectedly, and the words were so surprising from him, that both Jack and Daniel broke into laughter.

It eased the strangeness of the circumstances, and Jack finally gasped, "I do *not* want to know where you learned that particular Earth expression."

Rocking back on his heels, looking very pleased with himself, Teal'c said, "I have used it appropriately then. Good."

That set off a few delayed chuckles, and Jack leaned on the frame of the glass so he could see both of his friends at once. "Well, it could be worse," he said, half a grin on his face.

"Yeah, it could be you. We'd have to do something to protect the virtue of the local goat population," Daniel joked.

"And the sheep," Jack shot back gravely.

Teal'c ping-ponged a look between them, then sighed with long suffering patience. To their delight, he said, "I had thought you had given up that particular vice, O'Neill."

Daniel gave a hoot of laughter, and swung his hand at the Jaffa, laying it palm first on the glass separating him. "That's it, Teal'c. Keep in him in line."

Unobtrusively, using his body to mask the action, the big man laid his own palm over the same spot on the glass. "I shall. And you shall do as Dr. Fraiser tells you so that you may make a complete recovery. You know that you can trust her to do her best, as *I* trust her, yes, Daniel?"

His expression went very serious, and he flicked a glance at Jack, making the Colonel realize that Teal'c had also positioned himself so that he stood slightly in front of him, as if guarding. "*I* do trust Janet," the linguist murmured, put the exact same emphasis on the word as the Jaffa had. "Only wish I could be more helpful in my case. Most of the past few days are a blur to me; I haven't been able to tell her much of anything." His lips pinched shut firmly, and Jack had no trouble reading between the lines of their conversation.

Teal'c was warning the younger man that he had told Fraiser about being his lover, and that he had left Jack's participation out of the confidence. Daniel was confirming that he understood, and he had no intention of mentioning their commander either. The Jaffa gave that single incline that he used for a nod of agreement, and for a minute O'Neill was torn between pure fury and pure self-hatred.

Before either could take precedence, Daniel rapped on the glass to get his attention. "If Dr. Fraiser were here she'd be telling both of you go get some rest. You need it, and it's hard for me to stay alert long, anyway."

Biting hard on any thing else that he wanted to say, Jack told him casually, "Thinking of heading that way right after I left. You sure you don't need anything, Danny?"

The linguist forced a partial smile to his face. "Not right now, anyway. I promise I'll shout if I think of something."

It was a gentle dismissal, and Jack pried himself away from the glass, feeling more like plastering his nose up against it like a kid. "Have a good night then, or what's left of it."

"You too." Daniel already sounded half-asleep, and Jack dropped his chin to his chest rather than watch his teammate roll away from them.

"Sleep well, DanielJackson," Teal'c said formally.

"Night." It was a mumble, and under the ever-present static was the beginning of a snore.

The two of them walked back towards Jack's on-base quarters, both silent and deep in thought. At the door, Teal'c gave a formal good night with his words, but let his eyes and smile said the same thing much more warmly. With a clumsy thump on the shoulder that hid a tiny squeeze of affection, Jack went in, stopping just on the other side of the threshold to eye the one-man bunk unhappily, thinking of a big feather bed and tumbled pile of bedding in front of a fire.

**** end 17

Wake up. Colonel O'Neill, wake up."

Groaning, O'Neill rolled toward the sound of Sam's voice, levering up his heavy eyelids with an effort. "Carter, what..."

"The Mendali started speaking in English," she told him shortly.

Flashing onto Daniel mumbling quietly to himself, Jack sat straight up, grabbing at his neck a second later. "Ow, ow, ow! That sneaky son of a bitch." He rotated his head slowly trying to loosen his sore muscles. "He's been teaching it English all along."

"That's not all," Sam said worriedly. "He was right. It is a they, not an it. Plural not singular."

Levering himself off the cot to pull on his shirt, Jack asked. "They? How the devil do you know that?"

"Because we've been able to grow some of them in the laboratory under an electron microscope, sir," she briefed. Turning her back to give him a modicum of privacy, she kept talking. "It's complicated to explain, but to make a long story short, you can see them specializing to perform necessary tasks and *changing that specialty if the need arises.*" Fully dressed, he joined her at the door, leading the way back to the isolation lab. "We chalked it up to the adaptability of the basic 'programming' until one changed itself for no apparent reason and move to a spot where it would be useful. Like it chose to do something different. Also, we used a computer to clean up the signal; more than one was found. They link and relink and fall silent, link again."

"People mingling at a party, having conversations," Jack paraphrased Daniel.

"Yes. Their life processes are much faster than ours. We had to slow the recording down considerably, and we had begun to make some progress on deciphering their language when it suddenly starting using ours."

"Let me guess. Daniel wasn't surprised at all." Jack looked at her from the corner of his eye in time to see her nod, wry smile on her face.

"I'll have to remember to ask him how it did it when he's feeling better," she said.

They came to a stop in front of the isolation room, standing to one side as Hammond let Daniel introduce him. "I'm actually getting used to talking to people that I can't see or figure out how they're talking," Jack whispered, making Sam drop her head to hide her amusement.

**Others. So many others.** A multitude of voices blended together into the resemblance of one, and for a second Jack wondered why they didn't pick a spokes ... thing. **Knew others could be outside. Not supposed to be there yet.**

"There aren't supposed to be other people besides your host?" Daniel tried for clarification.

**Host is not supposed to be people.** The Mendali voice dragged marginally, as if they were speaking with exaggerated care and slowness. **Nursery not supposed to have people.**

"I think they're referring to PX7 447 as their nursery." Daniel supplied for the others.

"How could it not have people?" Jack said indignantly. "It has a Stargate!"

"I think it - they - are implying," Sam said thoughtfully, "that PX7 447 is supposed to be only for them; their place to be born and grow to early adult. The Gate is probably so they can leave and join others of their kind when they're mature. Think about it, sir. The planet is far too unstable for normal life, but it's perfect for a mineral based life form. Volcanic vents and lava flow coupled with the cold climate provide a thermal electric power source for the less evolved species, and in turn those provide food for better developed ones in a food chain as natural as the sunlight-based one used here on Earth."

"So this Mendali latched onto Dr. Jackson by accident," General Hammond said, "and came through the gate on him instead of growing up where they should."

**Yeeessss,** the many tongues of the Mendali hissed in agreement. **This Daniel was a good host, a kind host for us. Soon we will be ready to unite and travel to meet our others.**

"Excellent," Hammond said enthusiastically. "Is there anything we can do to help? While I'm sure Dr. Jackson hasn't minded providing you with a home base while you matured, I'm sure he'd like to return to his duties."

**Not supposed to be people,** Mendali said sadly, very sadly.

"Because your host doesn't survive your growth?" Sam asked sharply.

Going ramrod straight even as his neck tightened again in pain, Jack thought distantly, //Leave it to Carter to get to the root of the matter.//

**Growth, yes. Union, no.** They said, and there was another emotion underlying the sadness as though the many parts of the creature were in disagreement about how they felt.

"So you're going to kill a person to be born," he snapped, not caring if he upset or angered parts of it. Maybe he could get through to the majority and cause some kind of civil war.

**Should not have been any people in Nursery,** they insisted.

"But there were," Teal'c said softly. "Did not your progenitors make allowances for this possibility? As long as the gate is present, others may use it; it is only reasonable for your ancestors to have prepared for the chance, however unlikely from their prospective."

The Mendali fell silent, not even creating their usual white sound for a moment, then there was a roar of it as if they all spoke at once. Within a heartbeat it blended into one voice, and for the first time it was a single thing speaking. **We confer; when we are all together, we know far more than when we are ourselves."

"Computer chips," Sam muttered, but everyone ignored her.

Though there was no apparent pause for them, the Mendali spoke as if it expected them to have been waiting. **There is a way, but we do not know if this Daniel is strong enough to survive it. Nor are we sure we are strong enough to accomplish the task as we are now. To attempt would endanger both this Daniel and ourselves. We do not know if this is a rightness for us. Teachings like this, shaded with other lives and beliefs, wait for us when reach Home. We are uncertain what is best.** As it spoke, the oneness disintegrated, filling the background with indistinct babble again.

"Mendali," Jack spoke unexpectedly, even to himself. "Can you, uh, go away for a minute and let us speak to Daniel alone? Not understand us so that we can be private."

**You wish union with Daniel?** they asked in obvious confusion.

"Something like that. Tune out, shut down, whatever for about 10 minutes?" he suggested.

**You prepare!** Mendali announced in obvious delight - and misunderstanding.

"If that's what it takes for you to be quiet, yeah, we prepare. Okay?" Jack said, ignoring warning looks from the others. They all seemed frustrated with him, or maybe it was with the situation. Only Daniel was unperturbed; in fact he was trying to hide a smile.

**We rest.** And just like that the static faded off to indistinct murmurings again.

"I don't suppose you're going to tell me what they think we're doing out here," he asked the linguist sarcastically.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Daniel returned, smile not so hidden.

"On second thought. No." Half turning so he could see everyone, Jack announced to the room at large, "Does anybody besides me have a problem with the Mendali making all the decisions? Just because they're smart, just because latching onto Daniel was an accident, doesn't mean they have the right to tell us what is or isn't going to happen."

"Jack, I think I might have trouble with you deciding to kill a baby to save my life," Daniel answered very gently to all of them. "It's a collective yes, and yes, it's already had literally millions of individuals be born and die since I brought them to Earth. But all that time they've been building toward something real and attainable, which is a heck of a lot more than humans can say.

"And they're pretty nice people. Do you know they revere their deceased?" He traced one of the black lines artfully spiraling around his wrist. "Those bodies are the interface between their daily existence, and the reality of the moment that their collective will free itself from the host to leave Nursery and start the next stage of life for them. And they revere the host. That's why no pain, why a deliberate distortion of the passage of time. So it doesn't suffer. So *I* don't. Even the uh," he stuttered to a stop, sending shy glances at Hammond and Fraiser, before chugging on, "other side effect is to make sure that the host procreates, spending its waking moments in pleasure."

"Learned a lot from them real quick," Jack said shortly. "How much of it can you trust?"

Shrugging, the younger man answered, "Do you have any idea of how many of them speaking in unison it takes for me to hear them clearly? Is it really possible for them *all* to lie at the same time and so convincingly? And the evidence is pretty strong that they've been honest with me. No reason not to, from their point of view."

"While they're in you, they're vulnerable to what we might do to kill them, that's why," the soldier shot back immediately.

"They literally know me inside and out, and have had hundreds of generations to study my biological weaknesses and strengths. In the amount of time you could mount an attack on them, they will have a lifetime to come up with a counter. And, in essence, all they really have to do is threaten my life if you mess with theirs. But they've never so much as hinted at that. Besides, what do I have to lose by taking a chance to save my life if they're willing to do the same?"

"We could find a resolution ourselves, son," Hammond said carefully. "Maybe even one that could be harmless to the Mendali. Can it hurt to wait?"

"They may not have time," Fraiser put in reflectively. "They spoke of Union, of going through the gate to a homeworld. If they need to, well, free themselves of their host in order to complete this phase of their life-cycle, I think they might be ready very soon, if not now. So far our tests show that they're more or less free floating between layers of tissue. If they're going to connect all parts of themselves into a cohesive unit, there's more than enough already. Not that I've figured out what they're going to use for energy once they're moved off the host," she finished in mild annoyance.

"Great. A deadline," Jack muttered.

"What difference does that make?" Daniel said reasonably. "I'd rather get it over with anyway. Unless somebody can come up with something more concrete than maybes and research, I'm going to at least listen to whatever plan they have in mind."

"It's your call, Dr. Jackson," General Hammond acknowledged tiredly. "But don't shut out whatever suggestions Carter and Fraiser might come up with. Cooperation seems to be a way of life for the Mendali; it can't hurt to follow their example."

"I won't, sir, I promise," Daniel said, eyelids bobbing up and down. "Damn, I'm nodding off again. Be here when I wake up?" he asked nobody in particular, but Jack knew it was directed at him and Teal'c.

"One of us will be close by," Jack said simply. "Sleep."

His answer was a dreamy mumble.

**** end 18

"I didn't even know we had one of these on the base," Jack said, standing in the middle of the padded cell and looking around it uneasily.

"Had it put in a little while ago," Dr. Fraiser told him absently, fingers on a sleeping Daniel's wrist and eyes on her watch. "There's been a time or two I wished I'd had one handy, so I decided to requisition one." She glanced up at him through her lashes, amusement dancing in her eyes.

"There's a req. I would have loved to have read!" he joked, crossing over to sprawl on the floor next to them.

"I do not understand why you keep your damaged people in enclosures of this kind," Teal’c said with some puzzlement, prodding at the fabric of a wall. "It does aid in their healing, nor is it conducive to comfort."

"We keep our insane in places like this, like that time we did with Daniel," Sam told him, checking the security camera behind the steel mesh as she did. "if we can’t stop them from violent behavior. This way they can't harm anyone, including themselves. It's sort of a temporary refuge for them until medication can be found to calm them, or until they can calm themselves."

His answer was an eloquent rise of an eyebrow, then he too crossed to where Daniel lay, kneeling gracefully on the other side from where Jack was.

"So why does the Mendali going to need a padded room to free themselves from Daniel," Jack asked flatly, back to the wall and leaning on one elbow."

Sam and Janet exchanged an uneasy look, then the doctor answered, "It was my suggestion; maximum comfort, safety and privacy. The only camera feeds into *my* office; no place else unless I redirect it. No one can come in or go out without going through the infirmary, past me and the guards posted on the other side of my office door. If something goes wrong with the separation, anything I might need is right at hand. And if I'm understanding what's going to happen, Daniel and the Mendali are going to need a large area to work in."

"Care to share with us what *is* going to happen?" the Colonel wanted to know, using a tone barely short of angry.

Another look between Sam and Janet, and this time Sam took up the explanations. "Normally the Mendali would, ah," and she bobbed her head a bit uncertainly, fumbling for words, "slide free of their host, severing the connections holding the animal together."

"It slices them to bits," Jack stated bluntly.

"Not to put too fine a point on it," she said with some exasperation, "but yes. It normally happens very quickly, microseconds by our measure, and is messy, but not painful because of both the speed and a powerful surge of stimulation to the pleasure center immediately prior."

"Very merciful," Teal'c observed, and let the glare from his commander bounce off his impassivity.

"More than what we often do in slaughtering our meat animals," Janet defended. "Don't put yourself above the Mendali because you get your sustenance from a grocery store; the end result is the same. Animals and things *die* so you can live; its a fact of life no matter what planet you live on."

"Hey, hey," the Colonel placated, frustration unabated. "I'm not criticizing their eating habits; I'm bitching because a member of my team got mistaken for lunch. Could we just file it under general, all-purpose military griping and get on with what we need to do?"

Hardly mollified, Sam took up where Janet had left off. "According to the Mendali, it is possible for them to leave slowly, even by our standards, repairing the damage behind them as they go. They would literally be slicing flesh on the leading edge, knitting it back together on the trailing, and because of their size and the relative time available, wouldn't even leave a scar in their wake."

"They indicated there was some danger involved in this process," Teal'c reminded them unnecessarily.

"Yeah, what's the catch, Carter?" Jack agreed.

"Energy," Sam told them flatly. "Having enough of it to move in extreme slow motion, which requires far more than a burst of speed does. They have reserves, of course, but the success depends on how much of a reserve *Daniel* has. He has to be able to provide not only for the Mendali, but for the repairs to himself, all the while sustaining his own life."

"You have a plan for this," the officer stated instead of asked.

"Yes and no." Sam came to sit with them, curling her legs under her and looking as serious and Jack had ever seen her. "We've given him injections of vitamin supplements, fed him a high-glucose solution intravenously, found the optimum temperature for keeping him comfortable while allowing the Mendali to flourish. That's as much as we can do *for* Daniel to help; the rest has to be the result of his natural biological functions."

"We both know he's a stubborn guy," Jack told her. "If all it takes is will power, there's no problem."

"What it's going to take is an accelerated heartrate, moving the blood through the body as fast as possible while using as little of the resources in it as possible. Which means nothing aerobic, like running, to get the heart pumping. The only other way to accomplish that is by emotional reaction: either frightening him, which is nearly impossible to sustain since the body simply shuts down if it is goes on too long, or by exciting him, which a human can maintain for long periods."

"As in sexual excitement," Jack said, suddenly calm.

"Well we can't exactly put him on a roller coaster to keep his heart pumping like mad. Sir." Sam looked ready to fight, and the soldier quickly put her at her ease.

"Figured that out part out for myself a while ago. That the extra heat generated by sex would work really well for the Mendali," he went on. "I take it you're thinking one of us should do the honors?" He didn't look at Teal'c; he knew he had the undivided attention of the Jaffa.

Apparently caught flat-footed, arguments lined up and ready to go, Sam had to struggle to change direction, and finally swallowed hard. "Uh, more like two of us. They think the most efficient way would be for them to remain stationary and for 'this daniel' to be pulled away from them. That would allow for maximum conservation of energy. The idea is once they're clear of Daniel's tissues, we'll help them through the stargate to their homeworld where they're sure they'll have help as soon as they arrive. Sort of like doing a c-section then putting baby in the incubator."

Jack hardly heard anything past 'two of us.' Caught as unprepared as Sam had been moments earlier, he'd been balancing painfully between surrendering completely and running like hell in the opposite direction. Now here was Sam telling him that he essentially had no choice; he was going to have to make love Daniel to save his life.

The conversation went on without him, though he picked up key words along the way while he fought to straighten out his head.

"I fail to see why two will be needed. I will have the strength to do what is necessary." Teal'c sounded mildly offended, but only Jack knew it was at an implied insult at his prowess, not at the idea of sharing Daniel.

"Once the separation starts," Sam told him earnestly, convincingly, "you can't stop, but you're going to have to keep Daniel's heartrate up. Do you honestly think you can pull him away *and* not let his level of arousal drop? Are you sure enough to bet his and the Mendali's life on it? Because we're all in agreement that this is the critical point. If either of you become distracted too much by the removal, it will fail and both will die. He *has* to stay turned on."

From a million miles away O'Neill heard himself ask softly, "Are you volunteering to be the second person, Sam?"

"I would in an instant," she said immediately. "But I'm not strong enough to pull hard enough, and I can't risk having sex. Right now there would be long reaching consequences, and there's no way to guarantee contraception."

Janet, who had been quietly monitoring her patient and letting the team work the problem out for themselves, put in unobtrusively, "If there were another doctor that you would trust, I would, too, Colonel. And is there really anybody outside of SG1 that *you* would trust this much, let alone that Daniel would?"

Of all of them, only Teal'c didn't seem to be ready to try persuade him to do what he wanted to do, anyhow, so it was to the Jaffa that he perversely looked for an excuse not to give in. Bad idea; the big man was serenely waiting for Jack to make the right choice, not just for himself, but for all three of them.

And still he couldn't give in, couldn't say yes. All things aside - understanding and support from his friends and team mates, the strange circumstances surrounding them, Teal'c's and Daniel's unwavering loyalty - he couldn't make himself do what amounted to publicly announcing the most hidden part of his personal life.

He stood, pacing the perimeter of the small cell, periodically punching into the soft padding, mind whirling as he fought to organized his thoughts, get it all in perspective. There *was* a life at stake here, and hesitating was making him look like he'd rather let Daniel die than be thought of as a faggot.

He came to a dead stop, nose literally in a corner. Was *that* it; had that particular poison seeped into him so sneakily, so completely, that the deepest parts of him actually bought into that shit? Was some of the disgust he felt really digest at himself because he thought he was being weak or whatever to care for another man? A few days ago he promised with the sweetest kiss he'd ever known that he didn't think his lover was sick or damned. It hadn't occurred to him then that he was thinking it about himself.

In sudden decision, he strolled back to the small gathering in the opposite corner, an impish grin lighting up his face. "Just how long do they want this to last, any way? I have to tell you my personal best *isn't* shabby."

The look of surprised relief on the women's face was great, but then Sam grinned in sheer wicked glee. "You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that, sir. The Mendali say it will take at least an hour."

"An hour!" he couldn't help shouting.

"At least," she shot back smugly.

He threw himself back down, close enough to Daniel to brush against his backside as he sat. Immediately he felt a surge of heat in his body. "An hour?" he repeated more speculatively. "Oookay. We can do that."

Teal'c looked at him, head slightly titled to one side. "Only an hour?"

**** end 19

Arranging the little lean-to of blankets to his satisfaction, Jack fidgeted with the edge of one of them, not ready quite yet to start what he'd so cockily agreed to not long ago. Teal'c was already laying beside Daniel, back to the wall, hugging the sleeping man close to his chest and nuzzling curiously at the perfect shell of one pink ear. It was a beautiful thing to see, he admitted to himself, and he regretted for a minute demanding that they be concealed from the camera until the Mendali were ready to move so he could have a picture of it. Janet and Sam had agreed nearly instantly, but insisted that the sound stay on so that one of the men could call for help if it became necessary.

Their unseen audience was missing a sight, he thought mildly regretful. The play of dark and fair, shadow and light, muscled strength and wiry slimness, was fascinating and provocatively beautiful. The neutral backdrop of the padded fabric only served to highlight the long, elegant lines of the two men as they nestled together, subtly shifting until they fit together smoothly. Teal'c brushed a stray strand of hair away from Daniel's face, causing the smaller man to turn his head toward the motion, chasing after the fleeting touch all unaware.

"God," Jack murmured, and couldn't play the voyeur a moment later. Ready, eager, and without the help of the Mendali to urge him along since they'd stopped that particular side-effect at Daniel's request, he slid in on the other side of the linguist, creating his own fit to his lovers.

Absurdly feeling as if they'd been waiting for exactly that, he dropped a kiss onto the rough fingers stroking Daniel's brow, and whispered, "Hang on. There's something I've been dying to do." Without another word, Jack tenderly touched his lips to a closed eyelid, hardly more than a butterfly's weight behind it. It quivered, sending delicious tickles all through him that gathered power as they accumulated in his middle. Sighing, he forced himself to over to the other lid, giving it the same tender kiss, though it was harder to keep it that way with the fire in his gut growing so fast.

He felt a flutter, and lifted his head just in time to see Daniel's incredible eyes open, still filled with dreams and honesty. This was what he'd hoped to catch: a peek into the young man's mind and heart at this moment of vulnerability. The glimpse of pure, unfiltered Daniel was breathtaking, and he claimed the soft lips to steal the air back, not giving his lover a chance to cover his morning innocence with the normal shields and defenses needed for daily life.

He heard a soft sound of approval from Teal'c, then broke off his caress and nudged the partially ravished mouth toward him for the Jaffa to take his turn. For himself he picked a hollow of a collarbone to dip into, ignoring the odd flavor and texture of the Mendali to savor Daniel's. When the lithe body began to tense with passion, he reluctantly left off and whispered, "The hardest part about making this work, Danny, is going to be letting yourself accept being in the middle. To give yourself permission to let us love you without trying to reciprocate. You're not being selfish or inconsiderate; if anything, you're doing me and Teal'c a wonderful favor by letting us do the work. Trust me, trust us. Relax and let go. We won't let you down."

"I.. I don't..." Daniel murmured, hands flitting everywhere and nowhere.

"Let us give you this gift, Daniel," Teal'c velvet rich voice purred. "I swear to you, it is a joy to be allowed to do so." He didn't wait for a reply; he covered the love-swollen mouth with his own again, only to release it a moment later for Jack's hungry lips to take.

Shuddering, Daniel abruptly went limp, melting over their bodies gratefully. "I like it sweet and slow like this," he confessed a moment later, when Jack had moved onto other places to taste. "No hurry, no .. ahhh.. anxious rush."

"Really?" Jack argued for fun's sake, nipping the rim of an ear again to see if were he or Teal'c that caused that tiny pleasured cry. "You didn't seem to object to hard, deep pounding a few days ago.

"Ohhhh... no complaints, no complaints, but like this too." Daniel mumbled. "There, Teal'c please?"

"Like so?" The Jaffa fastened onto a bit of neck, worrying it with his teeth, and one fine-fingered hand locked onto the back of O'Neill's head, pulling it back toward the ear it had been tormenting.

"Yeah," Daniel mumbled, beginning to breathe faster. "Both at the same time just like...GOD!"

After that words were pretty much abandoned for noises: whimpers, moans, groans, sighs that matched and/or contrasted, blending together as inevitably as their bodies did. Leisurely Teal'c and Jack petted and tongued Daniel's writhing body, sometimes licking or bumping into each other as they did. No problem; it was a tasty side dish from the main course and an erotic reminder of past feasts. Bit by bit it all blurred together so it didn't matter who was touching or tasting or feeling. All that mattered was the moment, and in that moment the Mendali, the camera, the witnesses did not exist.

"Jack," Daniel finally managed to say more or less coherently. "It's time. They're ready."

"Wha.." Jack grunted, pouncing on a thick finger to suck on it.

"It's time," Daniel repeated distractedly, rocking into a hot mouth, obviously parroting someone else's words.

Shocked back into reality, Jack jerked away, panting hard, and wrestled some control into place. "Time. Yeah." Eyes screwed shut, he deliberately put his palm flat on the puddle of living glass on Daniel's hip, letting the cold slipperiness calm the frenetic clamoring of his nerves. "What do I do?" he grumbled.

"Teal'c needs... needs to e...enter me," Daniel said brokenly, "all the way in, but barely moving. Only enough to make, make, make me want more. Brace my hips in place. You cup the back of my head and, and - oh, god, that's good! - pull me down and toward you, like you're, uh... oh! coaxing me into going down on you."

"Coaxing - slow and steady, then?" Jack asked, distantly surprised at how analytical he was sounding.

"As steady as you can manage. And Jack..." For a split second Daniel was all there, clear minded and determined. "There might be some blood. You've had enough experience with injuries in the battlefield to know how much is too much. Don't hesitate to yell for Janet okay?"

"Done. Ready?"

With a dry gulp, Daniel told him, "Yes."

Though seemingly oblivious to their exchange to that point, at his timid agreement, Teal'c slithered up behind Daniel, turning them both to their sides in a spooning hug. Making sure that the smaller man was watching, he slipped two fingers into Jack's mouth, pumping them gently in imitation of making love and soaking them in the process.

Though they had better lube in place thanks to Fraiser, the symbolism behind using this intimate wetness was enough to let them return to the semblance of privacy, and Jack urged up a slender leg to give Teal'c access to the deeper recesses of their lover's body.

Daniel took the cautious invader with a deep sigh, not fighting it at all. Just to be sure, Jack targeted a tight nub, thumbing it in time to the flex of muscle in Teal'c's arm. When the cock drilling into his stomach began thrumming to the same beat, Jack guided the smaller man's hips back, palming the ass cheeks open.

In his own tongue Teal'c growled something, then put his hands over Jack's to hold both him and Daniel in place. The devilment in him made the solider want to push them all over the edge, but the alien chill on his skin let him hold that impulse off, if only barely.

When he felt the subtle, rhythmic give of bone and flesh that told him his lovers had begun, Jack did as he'd been told, slipping his hands out from under Teal'c's to delicately frame Daniel's skull instead. Imagining he was tilting down a fragile pane of glass, he pulled with the barest of pressures, letting the pads of his fingers spread the force widely over Daniel's entire head. There was some resistance, enough to make him think of pulling scotch tape off plastic, but very gradually the linguist bent forward from the waist, leaving behind an oddly sketched parody of a human torso.

Peeling away the makeshift tent, but only the topmost portion so Janet and Sam could see what was happening, Jack kept up the pressure, not commenting at the sharp copper smell in the air or the sudden dampness on his fingertips. The Mendali collapsed somewhat without the support of Daniel's substance, but the glossy black of the top layer spread almost instantly to meet itself, but not before the soldier caught a glimpse of incredibly bright light in the interior. "Whoa," he muttered. "Danny, you doing all right here?"

"Other than the fact I might die of frustration," the younger man grumbled, then he sighed, arching his back to encourage Teal'c's thrusts. "Gonna get worse, too. Time for a switch."

"Switch? Yeah, I can see where that's needed." And it was plain to Jack that their Jaffa was going to have to pull out and move around if they were going to free Daniel's legs. Without thinking, he raised his knees, locking them onto the sides of the blood and sweat slicked body on him, offering up his opening to the involuntary jerks of his lover's cock.

Seeing that, Teal'c deftly maneuvered so that, as he pulled out of the smaller man, Jack was taking the linguist into himself, assuming the task of keeping them all on the edge of coming. Holding in a scream of pleasure as the thick rod slid balls deep into him in one shove, Jack had only a moment to catch Teal'c's eye as the warrior cautiously rolled free of them, going to his knees, then scrambling behind the Colonel.

Then it was all he could do to handle the steady, shallow fucking Daniel was giving him, not letting either of them finish though whimpers of pure lust were continuously spilling from both of them. Distantly he felt Teal'c handling them, molding their forms around one another, pushing and pulling with careful intent. Slowly Daniel's leg shifted so that his knees were snug into Jack's backside, and the both of them were compacted into a scarcely moving ball.

There was one hard tug, and Daniel shouted, clinging hard enough to Jack to leave new bruises behind. Prying open his eyes, the Colonel looked over the sleek back to see that the Mendali was free of his lover, laying in a loose fetal curl only inches away. Before he could react, Teal'c dropped a cover over the three of them, and they all stilled, breathing harshly.

In a rushed scurry Sam and Janet came in, scooping up the alien by using one of the blankets as a make-shift as a stretcher. Sam whispered, "Camera's off," then the door clicked shut.

As if waiting for that signal, O'Neill went flat to his back, taking Daniel with him, feet flat and spread as widely as he could to allow for frantic, punishing pumping. The weight on him increased, and the cock using his wildly spasming ass drove in deeper as Teal'c possessed Daniel's body, roaring as he penetrated the tight pucker.

"Good, so good," Jack groaned, hands skating every where over his lovers, pleasure building undeniably to the breaking point.

When it finally let go, all he could manage was a tiny gasp, then he fell apart, the come ripping out of him with tidal force. It made him tighten around Daniel's shaft, gripping it in a velvet hot glove that was beyond the linguist's ability to endure. Like Jack, all that he could do was suck in a lung full of air, quaking uncontrollably as he emptied into the devouring tunnel. Teal'c finished along with him, tumbling headlong into orgasm with a long, low moan that reverberated in all of them.

Daniel collapsed, pulling painfully away from his impalement on Teal'c's cock, and Jack fumbled him to one side as the Jaffa fell onto the other. Layered between them, he panted, having trouble finding air even without their much-wanted weight on him. To his surprise the younger man clumsily patted and stroked both of them, wordlessly murmuring sated noises.

"Daniel," Teal'c rumbled, "The Mendali are gone?" He swiped through the mix of moisture, clearing skin that was unmarred, smooth, and he closed his eyes in relief.

"Yeah, yeah," Daniel mumbled. "Can't believe I'm awake, though. How could anybody be this exhausted and be *awake?*"

Doing his own investigation, Jack halted, fingers trembling, on the skin over his lover's hip. "Uh, guys..."

Peering down himself at the delicate scroll over his left hip, Daniel smiled, thumping the other two gently. "Skin only, like a tattoo. When I was talking to them I told them how beautiful I found their interface. I think it's a parting gift from them to 'their daniel'."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that," Jack said thoughtfully, rubbing his face on Teal'c's chest. "Their Daniel?"

"Ahhh, it's verbal confusion," he admitted, his cheeks pinking. "At first they thought all humans were 'daniels' because they think in plural not individual. By the time I got it through to them that *I* was Daniel, and everybody was 'human,' they'd gotten into the habit of calling me as 'this daniel.'"

"As long as they do not think of you as 'our' Daniel. That is not their privilege," Teal'c intoned, surprisingly.

"And it's yours?" the linguist asked, studiously checking out Jack's collarbone.

"Yes," Jack said flatly, Teal'c solemnly echoing him.

"Oh."

Teal'c put a knuckle under Daniel's chin, lifting the younger man's head so that Jack could kiss him. The soldier only meant to affirm their words, to convince their lover with this most basic of intimacies that he was wanted and cared for. But Daniel returned it with interest, squirming into him, even as Teal'c found the soft place behind his ear with his lips. To his astonishment he felt a twinge of serious sexual interest, and, just before a large hand circled his growing erection, he wondered what other gifts the Mendali might have left behind.

finis