Tittle: Rules and regulations
Author: KaraMeL
Email: Kristine_sci@hotmail.com
Summary: Regrettable things have unregrettable outcomes (continuation onto 'Shades of Grey')
Rating: Not even a PG
Disclaimer: This story belongs to MGM and all the other companies/cooperations that own Stargate. So, initially the characters don't belong to me. Darn.
Authors Special Note: I'm a pretty humourous person when it somes to ir, but I was recently told of a really horrible mistake I made, which I want to give a personal thank you to Sharyl... Thanx for pointing it out... ;-) For all those who missed the mistake... don't ask about it! Please!
 
 

Colonel Jack O’Neill shed his dusty uniform, his face frozen into a grimace of something beyond guilt. The vest and dark colors reminded him too much of the risks and broken friendships that he had shattered just to flush out a couple of low grade rebels.

Sure, he was getting commendation for saving the ties between the Asgard, Nox and Tolans, but he lost something even more precious. His friendship with Daniel, Sam and Teal’c.

Jack sighed, his eyes silently appraising the dirty clothing and the memories that followed. With a disgusted growl he tossed it into the contaminated bin.

The memories weren’t worth crap. They were the hammers that shattered his relationship with his team members.

Jack turned on the hot water, a brief expression of warmth touching his face as he stepped into the shower, which disappeared as soon as he drew the curtains.

Daniel Jackson blinked tiredly as the slides stopped their endless turning and finally jammed into a stop position. This wasn’t more than a distraction. He wasn’t ready to sleep, to eat, to anything.

The shock of it all was still seeping into his mind.

Jack wasn’t the bad guy, Makepeace was. It was ironic that that would be his name, since he was the mole in the hole for the operation that Maybourne had created.

How ironic.

Daniel blinked again, his eyes relishing the brief rest. Finally, Daniel put away the final slide and turned off the machine, lapsing the room into a silent darkness. Daniel grabbed his chair and scooted over to his desk where thirty translations lay unfinished. Work, and more work. The Tolan negotiations had set him back a week. This meant another two weeks of endless nights.

Thanks Jack; he said to himself bitterly

Daniel didn’t bother to turn on the lights and he put his head down on the desk, closing his eyes, letting the demons of his nightmares take over once more.

Jack stepped out of the shower, shivering as the cold hollowness of both his loss and the base struck his exposed skin.

Freezing.

Didn’t they ever turn up the heat in this place?

Jack frowned ever so slightly as he opened his locker, grabbing his civilian clothes and proceeding to put them on. Not even the familiar feeling of the watch on his hand made him feel better.

It had been a gift from the team on his birthday. He remembered that day. The snow was crisp; he was inside feeling sorry for himself because none of his friends had bothered to show up to wish him a happy birthday. He remembered watching the snow flutter to the ground on the cold Colorado day and how nice it felt to be inside.

Then the door had rang.

When he opened it, almost half the SGC had been standing outside. They had trooped in, making a huge mess and had stayed for a couple hours before retiring back to their respective homes. Only Sam, Daniel and Teal’c had stayed behind to help clean up.

They had a mini birthday party and presented him with different things. Daniel, an Egyptian pyramid puzzle. Sam gave him some sort of piece of machinery that was in a box… it was still unopened in his closet. And Teal’c had presented him with a kel’no’rem candle, promising to teach him how to do it properly since he liked it so much during the Machello incident.

Jack remembered that they gave him this present last. It was more out of pity than anything since his last watch was smashed on a mission where the inhabitants thought it was a weapon of some sort.

Jack smiled slightly, strapping the watch on and exiting the shower room.

If there was one thing he could do, it was to at least try and make things up with his friends.

Jack opened the shower doors heading purposely down the hall in search of his teammates.

The first teammate he came upon was Teal’c. He was in his room practicing some sort of Jaffa yoga. Jack grimaced and closed the door.

Sam had already gone home, her office was a mess of mechanical parts and pieces of a late UAV that had been de-whatever-tized after an incident with a native that didn’t like flying objects and had shot it. Jack remembered that mission. Boy was it fun to meet eight-foot people… with slingshots…

So, his last option was Daniel.

As he approached Daniel’s office, he began to sweat. Out of all the friendships he had jeopardized this had to be the worst. Telling Daniel that their friendship was not on solid foundations, and insulting all what they had worked so hard to build was the hardest thing in the world. He remembered Daniel’s parting words before he parted from the group after telling him that they drew straws to choose who was going to Jack’s house.

“There’s a fine line between friendship and duty Jack, you crossed it.”

Those words could deter him right now. Daniel had been so trusting, so innocent when he had first met the emotion-hardened Colonel, he had tried so hard to make himself know, important, to be the absolute best he could be. Jack was only focused on his goal in life, his mission, and his death. Daniel’s innocence was the catalyst that broke through the see-through barrier that had proven that even he was human after all what he had witnessed in his life.

Daniel was his friend; there was no doubt that their friendship would come before duty. Why had he come in the first place? Jack wouldn’t be treading on fragile territory if Daniel hadn’t come to his house. This was the problem with friendship, whenever something was wrong, friends would be there to make sure everything was all right, to comfort, to see if they could help.

No, Jack was wrong, he knew it. Friendship was all about that kind of stuff. Without friendship he’d be a sinking float with nothing to grab onto but air.

Daniel’s, Sam’s and Teal’c friendship meant the world to him. He doubted that he’d find a finer misfit team to command, or to befriend anywhere.

That’s why he had to work so hard to repair everything that he had broken.

By the time Jack had finished musing about all the points in his life that he had to remember, he was at Daniel’s door. The normal sized door suddenly seemed huge compared to all the rest.

No lights shone from underneath the door. Either Daniel had gone home and finally left for a vacation, or he was elsewhere. Jack shrugged, and opened the door. There was no harm in trying.

The door swung open Jack winced as it thumped against the nearby desk. Oops. He came in quietly and turned on a desk lamp. There, in the middle of ancient parchment and priceless artifacts lay Daniel, head turned away, buried in his arms fast asleep.

Jack smiled slightly. At least the space monkey was asleep.

Daniel tossed and turned, Jack split into two, his good and bad side. One smiled serenely, while the other advance like a tyrant on a war rampage. Daniel grimaced and backed away from the evil spirit, right into a dark pit that opened up and swallowed him up.

With a yelp, Daniel came to from the claws of his nightmare and looked straight into Jack’s eyes.

Daniel recoiled backwards, tipped his chair and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor, where he lay there for a minute, catching his breath and staring up at the ceiling. His fuzzy view of the wall was replaced by a worried looking Jack, who offered him his glasses and a hand.

As soon as Daniel caught his breath he peered up suspiciously at Jack and at the hand he offered before taking it and getting levered up.

“Yes?” Jack shrugged and grabbed a stool.

“So Daniel, when did you learn gymnastics?” Daniel brushed himself off and picked up the fallen chair from the floor, wincing as he surveyed the crumpled limb.

“Jack, don’t you have a car to chase somewhere?” Jack raised an eyebrow. Where the hell did he get that attitude? Recovering, he shrugged and surveyed the office in the weak light. Stacks of paper covered every corner of the office and bookshelves filled with artifacts and books filled the room.

“No, I have a Dr. Jackson. Don’t you have orders to take a vacation? I mean, Carter’s at home, Teal’c’s having some fun times in his quarters… and you? You’re sleeping here like you’ve never seen a bed.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes and picked up a paper that fluttered to the ground from his over piled desk.

“Since when did you start caring about my welfare Jack? Or even our friendship? Or are we even going to get into that now?”

For a moment, Jack saw red. Then, with an eerie smile he grabbed Daniel’s arm and proceeded to the door. Daniel fought for a second, getting his feet underneath him and wrenching his arm away from Jack. He stared defiantly at his Commanding officer, unblinking.

“There is nothing to talk about Jack, there is nothing, nada, zip, zippo. You made it quite clear to me in your house that you no longer valued our friendship, and that’s fine by me. While your going out the door, can you close it so I can do the work I missed because I was frantically assembling a speech to the Tolans because they were going to cut all ties from us.”

Jack eyed his friend as he sat down and replaced his glasses, rubbing his forehead. This wasn’t about work or what he said. This was about the little tiny threads that were holding Daniel from insanity… and they were going to snap any minute.

“Come on Daniel. I want to show you something.”

Daniel looked at him for a moment. Realizing for a minute that maybe Jack did have a point. Either that, or he was too fatigued to think properly. Wearily, Daniel got up and plodded towards the door, wincing as the harsh light from the outside halls hit his face.

As a minute of walking in silence passed, Jack turned to his friend. Daniel may not consider him one at the moment, but Jack did. There was a stagger almost in Daniel’s step, like fatigue or illness. Dark circles matched on both eyes and Jack could see that his skin was a pasty color. Pretty interesting when it was as sunny as this. Already most members of the SGC sported tans, or in the case of many of the nurses that had taken a vacation to Hawaii last week, sunburns. Jack was a hair away from starting to call Daniel the Archeologist Vampire. That was how bad he looked.

Finally, after another minute in the uncomfortable silence that the two had created, they came to the door which Jack had been searching for.

“Here we are my highness, step in.” Jack swept his hands into an open door and Daniel opened his eyes wide.

“You took my to the Gym? What kind of a joke is this? Why are we here?”

Jack smiled and pushed the surprised man to the gym locker room, watching Daniel’s expression as it switched from bewilderment to annoyance.

“All your questions and more will be answered as you put on these”

Jack tossed Daniel a pair of boxing gloves, shorts and a loose tank top. Daniel looked at them, the ever so present frown on his face growing deeper, marring the paled face.

”Great, you insult our friendship and then you insist on beating my up. Great surprise Jack. So, what else is on your agenda, giving my decaffeinated coffee? Stuffing me with your ‘famous’ chili? Maybe even dunking me into the unstable vortex as the Stargate opens? Swell.”

Jack ignored him, pulling on his own equipment.

“Trust me Daniel. When we get going you are going to thank me.”

Daniel eyed the small arena flagged by sweaty shirts and poles made of stacks of chairs. He looked at Jack and then down at his own, un-laced gloves.

“Gee, let me guess. We’re going to beat each other up to a little ball of mush… Daniel the piece of mush… that just doesn’t sound right. I’ll have to pass on this offer.”

Daniel turned around and started towards the door. Jack threw a light punch at his shoulder. Daniel froze and turned around, a fire that Jack rarely saw except in battle replacing the expression that he once had.

“What was that for?”

Jack raised an eyebrow. This was worth goading him on.

“Chicken.”

Daniel opened his eyes wide. His glasses that had began to slide down his nose finally dropped to the ground. Jack followed their descent.

“Am not”

Jack looked up. A slightly crazed expression replaced the fiery one and Jack smiled a little. This was going to work. He knew it.

“Are”

“Am not”

“Are”

“Not

“Are”

“Not”

“Ar…”

‘Whap!’ Suddenly Jack recoiled, holding his eye with his gloved hand. He blinked away the slowly forming tears in his aching eye and looked at Daniel who was frozen, a shocked expression dominating his face.

“Oh my god Jack, I’m so sorry. Do you want we to get some ice?”

Jack bent over and heard Daniel come closer. As soon as Jack saw the pair of feet in his lowered eyesight, he punched. A startled ‘oof’ replaced the silence in the gym. Jack looked up at Daniel who was holding his stomach.

“Oh, you are so going to get it.”

Daniel approached in almost a blind fury, and stuck at Jack’s head, Jack dodged the blow and stuck at Daniel’s feet, dropping him to the ground. Daniel jumped back up; spinning and planting a firm right hook under Jack’s chin that made him step back in shock. While he recovered, Daniel punched his cheek, sending Jack spinning into a nearby wall. As he slid down, Daniel approached again, ready to punch his lower back, this time, Jack was ready. He grabbed the hand in mid-strike and flipped Daniel over on his back. With himself unable to catch his breath, Daniel lay there, frantically trying to suck air into his oxygen-starved lungs. Jack came over and leant beside his friend.

“Are you okay Daniel?”

Daniel jumped up, breathing capability restored. He stuck Jack in the Stomach; Jack mirrored the move, and then placed a hit on Daniel’s left shoulder. Daniel spun and ended up throwing another punch at Jack’s Torso. Jack jumped back, entering the ring that had been intended for this purpose.

“Yea, so nice of you to ask.” Jack could already feel blood trickling down the side of his mouth from where Daniel hit his Jaw and then how he’d bit his lip. Daniel glared and barred his teeth, running at Jack. Jack raised his gloved and punched Daniel in the nose. Blood began to run from Daniel’s side as well. The two began to battle it out further. Jack was amazed at Daniel’s speed and agility, whereas Daniel was amazed Jack had kept up with him this long.

“I’m going to have to change my views on archeologists now Danny-boy. They can fight.”

Daniel smiled, blood caking his nose and mouth. Jack smiled sarcastically, aiming another punch at Daniel’s shoulder.

“And I’m going to have to change my views on old Army Colonels who have nothing better to do with their time but kill relationships.”

Jack brought back his arm and hit Daniel’s forehead. Finally exhausted, Daniel dropped gracelessly, closing his eyes and falling to the floor.

Jack felt his own vision dimming and slowly dropped to the floor beside his friend before closing his eyes and following Daniel to the land of the unconscious.

“Really Smart Colonel O’Neill. Wonderful. You outdo yourself sometimes.”

Jack awoke to the sarcastic voice of Dr. Janet Fraiser. Mentally he groaned. It felt as if he had wrestled with a lion… and lost. As he cracked open an eyelid, he winced as the glaring light from the overhead lights invaded his vision and jump-started a massive headache.

“Colonel. I suggest you try that once more, and I’ll permanently tie you to my infirmary beds. It’s one thing gallivanting across the universe, getting bopped on the head by some alien for who knows where… but fighting with Daniel? That’s something I expect from a child.”

O’Neill grimaced; rubbing a hand across his face, wincing as he found tender cuts and bruises. Ah, the miracles of modern medicine. He opened his eyes fully, glad to see that Dr. Fraiser had continued her rounds elsewhere. He turned his ear to his left, startled to see Daniel peering intently at him.

“Why hello my wonderful foe.” And when did you regain consciousness?”

Daniel shrugged, looking over at Fraiser then at the medical equipment. He was no longer in the gym outfit Jack had given him; he looked probably no better than Jack himself felt.

“I wasn’t unconscious. I was asleep.” Daniel finally admitted sheepishly.

“Really. Nice nap?”

“Yes, when I woke up, you were out cold beside me. I called the med teams and well, you’re awake now.”

“No kidding Sherlock.”

Daniel shifted uneasily. He had a wide bandage over his nose, there was a large bruise on his temple and Jack could see another few on the way over his cheek and jaw. They had gone at it like idiots over gold.

“So, Janet said you could go home. Actually, she wants me to take you home. She thinks you’re unstable after trying to beat me up. She actually wanted you to under go hypnosis just to make sure that your mind is in order, but I convinced her that you’re sleep deprived. She ordered twenty-four hours of complete bed rest for us, and also threatened that we will meet our dooms if we ever try ‘duking’ it out, as she said, again.”

“Doesn’t she just make you feel all warm inside?”

“I should Colonel,” Janet informed, shoving a bottle of pills into each of their hands, “The many times that you people come in here because of stupid accidents amaze me. I was ready to go on MY vacation when I hear that a blubbering idiot that decided to fight another idiot was coming in. You are lucky Dr. Jackson that you have all your nose pieces still intact, and Colonel, I wouldn’t have been surprised if all your teeth didn’t fall out at this moment. Now, get out of here, the both of you.”

Daniel made a placitating gesture, grabbed Jack’s arm and hightailed it out of there. Janet sighed and watched them run down the corridor. The pills that she had given them left on the bed the good Colonel had just vacated. Sometimes she wondered what she had done to deserve patients like them.

Daniel navigated the treacherous roads winding down from the mountain carefully, his eyes on the road, his glasses already slipping off the bridge of his nose.

“So, wasn’t that fun?”

Daniel gave him a withering look and then focused his attention on the road ahead. Jack looked past Daniel for a second and to the distant trees that lined the valley. Already, the sun was beginning to set on the horizon, creating beautiful colors to spread across the landscape.

“Fun? Beating each other up is fun? You have a sick sense of humor Jack… But yeah, it was satisfying. There aren’t a lot of things you can do in this world that are satisfying. But trust me, I’m ashamed of myself now. I really didn’t need to think beating up another person, especially my best friend fun.”

Jack’s heart fluttered. Best friend. That was a word that Jack wouldn’t have expected to come out of Daniel’s mouth for a long time coming.

“No, I think just letting go of your frustrations was a key part of this whole thing… Beating people up isn’t my strong point in human behavior. I mean, we were so strung up; we could have probably beaten up Teal’c. The poor guy wouldn’t have know what would’ve happened. Hey, take a left here Daniel.”

Daniel shrugged. If he was confused, he didn’t show it. Instead of enlightening him, Jack carried the conversation.

“Look, I know that you aren’t really happy with me for saying what I said, or even what I did. I used our relationship and so on. Trust me, if I have been allowed to say anything at all about this hokey-pokey stuff then I would’ve. Look, you knew about my son. I didn’t tell Carter, gee you know about all my personal problems. There are just some things that I owe to my country. Those are the things I have to repay.”

Daniel tilted his head slightly, thinking about the words that spilt from Jack’s mouth.

”You don’t owe anything to this country. There’s only one thing you do owe Jack, It’s your service. That wasn’t service Jack, that was sacrifice. I mean, what if Maybourne had know, what if instead of following you through the gate after punching in the symbols they had shot you? What if there had been one slip up, a piece of paper, a word, some sort of informant? You could have died. You could have left us with a traitor, me without a best friend, Sam without the CO that she trusts, Teal’c without the man that saved him from eternal slavery to a false god. What about that?”

Jack frowned. This was going to be a little harder than he thought.

“Look Daniel, you know that if it’s anything in this world I value more it’s my friendship and my life. Four years ago I would’ve blown myself sky high without you. There are a ton of things that I regret in my life, don’t let this be one of them.”

Daniel looked shocked for a moment, he mulled over the world, inspecting them in a stony silence. The dazzling lights from the sunset played over his pale figure. As he drove to an unknown origin.

“What do you mean? I never said regret it, I said think about what you could have lost Jack, what we could have lost. I’ve lost a lot of people in my lifetime. My parents, my childhood, foster parents, jobs, opportunities… You never really know what you have until you loose it Jack. That’s a really hard lesson in life. One, which in this line of work is a common place.”

“Daniel… do you know how many times I lost you? The time where we went to the half dark half light planet. You got taken away… I thought that they had used you for food. Then when we went to that planet with the mirror thing that you claim sent you to another planet…”

“Not claim Jack, did.”

Jack rolled his eyes, again, watching the landscape for a moment before continuing on his point.

“I though that you were gone. And on that Goa’uld mothership? A nice smoking hole in your shirt? I mean there was something else. Sitting up in that spacecraft waiting to be rescues thinking that you were in thousands of small tiny particles in space. And then Shyla? Gee, another one for the road expression had never ever applied to a sarcophagus. And then…”

“Alright, I get the point already.”

Daniel scowled, his glasses reflecting the light. Jack gestured to a side road and Daniel made a sharp curve, begging that his rusty old ford would hold. Jack winced as the sun glared through his window, and he turned his back so that he was facing Daniel.

“Yeah, do you now?”

Daniel shrugged and took his hand off the wheel to push his glasses up his nose. Jack watched him for a second and then turned back to the road.

“Okay stop around this bend.”

Daniel pulled the car to a stop as they approached the edge of a sloping drop. He took out the keys and followed Jack’s lead by stepping out of the car. He looked at the surrounding trees, admiring the heights they reached. Jack gave him a look and Daniel followed Jack down the hill.

“So, where exactly are we going?”

Jack shrugged, and Daniel chose to follow in silence. The air was crisp with the smell of summer; flowers closed their buds as the last rays of sun disappeared under the tree canopy. Already, the beginning of nighttime was showing on the eastern horizon. The forest was alight with the golden rays that had yet to fully disappear. Daniel could see the chattering chipmunks jump from tree to tree and some distant bird warble in the distance, a low, sad song echoing through the old growth forest. Jack finally stopped ahead of him, the forest ended alarmingly to a sheer drop down a huge cliff.

“Daniel, this is probably one of the best site seeing areas in Colorado. Look at that, you can see Springs from here. Even my house. This is the best spot to stargaze too.”

“Have you taken Sam up here?”

Jack turned to Daniel, a small smile spreading across his lips. Daniel wondered if he already knew the answer.

“For me to know, and you to find out. But Teal’c comes up here a lot. He said it makes him think of home.”

Daniel nodded. He had his own thoughts to sort out with Abydos. He always used to hold Sha’re’s belongings whenever he felt overwhelmed. Or even when his parents dies, he kept visiting the Museum after he was able to go alone and would lay flowers near the area where his parents had met their terrible ends. Everyone needed a place to be alone.

“I know what he means.”

Jack read between the lines, choosing not to dwell on the subject. Instead, Jack found a grassy spot on the ground and sat down, slowly leaning back, crossing his arms underneath his head. Daniel followed suit soon after, watching as the sky darkened and the final light from the sunset faded. Soon, starry spots began to twinkle.

“This is nice Jack. I always thought you army people focused on the objective, not the surroundings.”

Jack shifted beside him, staring at Daniel for a measure of time.

“Gee, that means a lot Daniel.”

Daniel smiled impishly and smiled as a shooting star rocketed across the sky. He pointed up as the atmosphere burned up the piece of space junk that ultimately created the illusion of a shooting star… Soon, the sky began to fill with thousands of streaks, all raining from the heavens like an ethereal beauty that ceased to exist. As quickly as it began, it ended and Daniel sat up, hoping to see more.

“Well Daniel, make a wish.”

“Hmmmmm?”

Jack looked at him, an overgrown piece grass that he had picked from somewhere in his mouth. He looked like some sort of a country farmer.

“Make a wish. Whoever sees a shooting star makes a wish. It’s an ancient tradition. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it… you must have lead a deprived childhood indeed.”

Daniel looked up at the sky and sat back again, closing his eyes. He remembered all the times Jack had risked his life to save himself and the world, all the people that had been touched by him. All the times Jack had been by his bedside in the infirmary, waiting for him to wake up. All the jokes and fun times.

Daniel opened his eyes and turned to the expectant Jack.

“My wish already came true Jack.”

Jack smiled and continued to watch the dark sky light up with thousands of stars, all which they would once explore someday.
 
 

KaraMeL