"Without Regrets: Noon at the Lake"
Sam and Teal'c had taken the truck into town a few hours earlier to get supplies for the next couple of days, so that left Daniel alone at the cabin. Alone, save for the Air Force brigadier general who sat brooding at the end of the dock. Sam and Jack's goodbye had been brief and to the point, but that didn't worry Daniel. Neither of the pair was overly "touchy feely" anyway, and he didn't honestly think that the change in the official status of their relationship would really affect that. After all, they were what they were, and their love for one another had been born from that understanding. Nevertheless, Jack's taciturn mood since emerging from the master bedroom earlier that morning struck Daniel as rather odd. Even if Daniel had barged in on them, an image he was still trying to wipe from his mind's eye. In any even, he knew that Jack O'Neill was a very private man when it came to sharing his emotions, but Daniel figured that the man would be showing at least some degree of happiness about finally having what he had longed for over so many years. After Sam and Teal'c left for town, however, Jack took his fishing rod and headed for the lake without a word. When in a good mood, Jack O'Neill was as pleasant, fun loving, and wisecracking a guy as you'd ever meet. Out of uniform, few people would ever guess that he was a general in the Air Force, let alone a black ops trained hero who had saved the world more times than Daniel could count anymore. But when O'Neill brooded ... well, the people who were closest to him knew to leave the man alone. And so Daniel had done, at least for a while. While Jack "fished" (Daniel used the term loosely since he figured fishing entailed the hook actually going into the water), Daniel kept busy in the cabin doing the breakfast dishes, folding up his blankets from the couch, and tidying up in general. Once or twice he peeked out the kitchen window, but Jack hadn't moved. Only the rhythmic tapping of his fingers on the fishing rod in his hand testified to the fact that the man was alive at all. Two hours later, when Jack still hadn't moved, Daniel figured that enough was enough. The sun was approaching its zenith as Daniel Jackson pulled the mesh-bottomed chair closer to the edge of the short dock. Holding out one of the cold beers he had grabbed from the fridge, Daniel settled himself down next to his friend. "Little early for you isn't it?" Jack asked, eyeing the sweating bottle suspiciously for a moment before accepting the offering and taking a swig. "Yeah, well, I figure it's vacation," Daniel answered, letting his gaze wander to the lake. Jack nodded an agreement, but said nothing further. Daniel felt the silence hang between them for some time before he felt compelled to speak. "So ..." he said hesitantly, pushing up his glasses. "So," Jack responded. Well, at least he's talking ... kinda. Daniel tried again. "So ... you and Sam, huh?" "Me and Sam," Jack confirmed without a nod, taking another draw on his beer. "Well, that's, ummm, surprising," Daniel replied, nodding to himself. "What's so damn surprising about it!" demanded Jack, turning his head sharply to glare at his friend. "Okay, okay! Maybe surprising isn't the right word," Daniel agreed, struggling to find what word did fit the situation. "It just that ... well, what I mean to say is ..." He sighed with frustration that he couldn't find the right words and decided to take a different approach. "What changed, Jack? I mean, you and Sam have been dancing around your love for each other for at least the last four or five years -" "Longer," Jack mumbled. "At least for me." He turned back toward the lake. He loved this place. It was quite and private. So removed from the hectic drama that life had become ever since going through the Stargate for the second time. Here he could think. Here he could be himself. Here anything was possible. It was what would happen when Sam and he went back there that worried him. Daniel waited patiently. He knew the man, and Jack O'Neill wasn't overly good with words when they really counted. Not that the man didn't have the words, he just didn't know how to put the feelings into the right words. All too often, the results came across as flippant or insensitive. "You know I could give a fuck about what the regs say about it," Jack said at last, setting down his beer, flipping his fishing rod back, and finally casting a line into the water. "Hell, I've broken enough regulations in the last eight years alone to earn me a dozen courts martials if Hammond had ever decided to do anything about 'em." "But breaking these regs affected more than just you," Daniel said thoughtfully, completing Jack's train of thought. Jack nodded his agreement, methodically reeling in the fishing line. "No way was I gonna risk Carter's career. Or her reputation." Jack's answer was emphatic. "So, I always just left things well enough alone ..." "And then she met Pete." Daniel watched Jack's spine stiffen in response. "And ... we know how that ended," he continued, letting that part of the topic drop quickly. "I wasn't going to risk losing her a second time." Several more moments of silence passed between the men. Jack cast his line again, and Daniel's thoughts drifted to Sha're. Losing her to the goa'uld had been agony. Seeing her vitality suppressed by Amonet, knowing what cruelties the symbiont forced her to inflict, had pushed Daniel almost to his breaking point. Her death still haunted him, but the years had allowed Daniel to see that, in the end, her death was the only release Sha're could ever have known. The only way she would ever have been free. Their love continued to inspire and drive him, and while her loss wounded him irrevocably, Daniel couldn't begin to imagine the pain Jack and Sam had suffered over the years. Always together, but always apart. Feeling everything, but able to say nothing. It was all just so very wrong. "And Sam?" he asked, pushing the memories away. "Something Jacob said to her before he died," Jack said, eyes thoughtful as he remembered his old friend. "Oh?" "He told her not to let rules stand in the way of her being happy." Daniel smiled. He wasn't surprised. Jacob's love for his daughter had always been clear for everyone to see. "He wanted to let her know that it was all right." Jack's tone had turned introspective, and he pointed at his chest. "That we were all right." For the first time all morning, Daniel watched a smile, one of absolute delight, spread across his friend's face. There it was. The joy. The tide had finally turned. "So where do you go from here," Daniel asked. His friends would face serious consequences if their relationship was discovered once they got home. But neither Jack nor Sam was the type to hide from the facts. It wasn't going to be easy. "Haven't got a damn clue," Jack chuckled, reeling his line in a final time before setting the rod on the dock next to him. "S'pose we'll give Hammond a ring when we get back and go from there. He'll give us a fair shake first and call the MPs second. Til then, we've decided not to worry about it. Just gonna enjoy our time here and figure things out when we get back to the Springs." "You want Teal'c and me to head back and give you two -" "No," Jack said without a second thought. For him, the matter was settled. Daniel and Teal'c were family as far as Jack was concerned, and they all belonged together. A sentiment he knew that Sam shared. "Yeah, but -" Jack rolled his eyes and wondered when Daniel would ever learn to shut up when he was still ahead. "No buts, Daniel," Jack insisted, pointing his finger at the younger man. "Now this doesn't mean that I won't kill you myself the next time you barge into my bedroom while Sam and I are -" "Hey! Like I planned that!" Daniel raised his hands up in defense of his earlier actions. "You think I needed to see your naked ass sticking up in the air? Or Sam's bare..." "Sam's bare what, Daniel?!" Jack found himself wondering if he would actually have to get out of his chair to strangle the archeologist with fishing line. "Ummm, nothing," Daniel said, swallowing back his next words. Better that he keep that particular image to himself. And oh, what an image it was. "Just keep the door locked next time, would ya?" he insisted. "Oh, yeah! Like that would stop you?" Jack laughed outright. Locked doors only peaked Daniel's curiosity, and each member of SG-1 had more than their share of scars from the things Daniel had let out of locked rooms in the last eight years. "Would too!" Daniel asserted. "Would not!" Jack insisted. "Would too!" "Not!" "Too!" "Not!" "Too!" "Oh for crying out loud, Daniel! It would not!" . . . . . . . "Would too!"
Story Notes: Without Regrets 03: Author Note: Again, feedback is so very important to beginning (and established) writers. Please let me know what you think.
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