Puppy Love

by Belladonna

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asb/belladonna/puppylove.php
Summary: Jack rescues a puppy

Jack was filling up his truck at the gas station at the bottom of the mountain when he heard a noise. It was late, almost midnight and the area outside of the brightly lit gas station was pitch black. Hearing the sound again, he finished filling up his truck and took the reciept from the gas pump, sliding it into his wallet then headed towards the sound. There, by the dumpster was a box and he heard the sound again.

Jack peered into the box and shook his head. 'Oh shit.'

Inside the box were six or seven pups of indeterminate breed. They all looked dead, but then the one on the top opened it's tiny mouth and squealed. He scooped it up, shaking his head at the cruelty of people.

'Poor baby,' he crooned, cupping it's tiny shivering body in his hands. The pup was not more than 3 weeks old, way too young to be without it's mother. Jack trotted to the convenience store and pushed open the door, stepping inside of it's warmth.

The bored attendant looked up from his Penthouse, 'Whadya need,bud?'

'There was a box of puppies by the dumpster, the rest are dead. Do you know who put them there?' Jack's voice was stern, but the young man's reponse reassured him.

'No shit?' the kid dumped the magazine and came over to stare down at the puppy. 'I hate poeple sometimes. Here, let me get you a small box and some papertowels,' he scurried to the backroom and came back out with a beer box liberally lined with papertowels, plus what looked like a t-shirt. Seeing Jack's rasied eyebrow, the kid shrugged. 'I've got more.'

Jack hid a smile and settled the pup inside of the box, running a finger over it's tiny head. 'Tell you what, if you hear who did this? Call me...' he pulled out a business card and handed it to the kid, 'It's against the law to do this and I'd like to nail the sonofabitch.'

'You got it. I'm gonna kick their ass, too.'

This made Jack chuckle. 'Call me first, then we'll call the cops. Thanks for the box.'

'No problem,' the young man assured him warmly.

~*

Back at home Jack sterilized an eyedropper and pulled out a can of sweetened condensed milk. He opened it and poured out a bit, mixed it with a little water, then warmed it up. He scooped the blindly seeking pup and sat down, using the eyedropper and began feeding it.

By six in the morning an exhausted Jack was fairly hopeful that the pup was going to make it, but he called a vet he knew and left a message at her office. He gazed down at the sleeping pup and smiled. Hell, he was retired and needed a hobby, and he was damned lonely. God, he missed Daniel, for reasons that he wasn't sure he was comfortable examining.

~~

Daniel pulled into Jack's driveway and eagerly got out. He'd been off planet for a month and a half, the longest he'd gone with seeing Jack, well, since Abydos, and he had missed Jack more than he cared to examine. He picked up the grocery bag and the case of imported beer and ran up the steps, banging on the door with his foot, and almost dropping the bag of groceries when he heard a high pitch yapping.

'I hear it, hush,' Jack told the puppy fondly, scooping it up and opening the door. 'Danny! Hey, how are you? Come in!'

Daniel walked by, staring at the the tiny curly haired pup who was staring back. 'Jack, what is that?'

Jack smiled down at the pup and closed the door. 'Smiley's a dog, Daniel. You know, canine variety of mammal?'

'Har har, I mean, when did you get it?' he peered at the pup, 'Him or her?'

'Her. And I got her about three weeks ago, the only survivor of seven pups I found in a box that had been abandoned at a gas station,' he nuzzled her and she licked his nose.

Daniel handed Jack beer and held out a copule of fingers to the pup, who sniffed them and gave them a tiny lick. 'Some people cane be such jerks. She's cute, what is she?'

Jack eyed the pup. 'The vet said she looked like she was part poodle and part some kind of terrier. She'll stay small.'

The soft look in Jack's eyes made Daniel's heart thump. He'd had that look leveled at him more times than he could count over the years, and he missed it. 'I miss you,' he blurted, then turned red and took a long swallow of his beer.

Jack gazed at his friend and smiled. 'I miss you too, Dannyboy.'

~*

The men cooked and ate homemade hamburgers, talking about the latest mission that Daniel had been on, then retired to the backyard to watch Smiley gambol around in the grass that was almost taller than she was.

'Have you ever lost her?' Daniel asked curiously as he lost sight of the pup behind a clump of pansies.

Jack snorted. 'Scared me to death. She disappeared in the house and I tore it apart, calling her name until I moved a pair of my shoes, and discovered her curled up like an eskimo dog inside.'

'Are you sure she wasn't unconscious?' Daniel asked dryly, laughing at the look on Jack's face.

'Smiley, come over here and pee on Daniel,' Jack ordered, pointing at Daniel who was laughing like a loon.

Smiley pranced sideways towards the men, going over to Daniel and flopping down over his tennis shoe, panting happily.

'There, she likes me, and see? And my shoes aren't putting her to sleep.' Daniel teased.

Jack laughed and shook his head. 'I know where you're sleeping, Danny. You're gonna be sorry,' he sing-songed.

~*

It was later and Daniel walked out of the bathroom and squawked as he tripped over Smiley, and fell straight into Jack's arms. Both men froze, bare chest to bare chest, brown eyes staring into blue, and it suddenly became hard to breathe, and hard in other places.

'Jack?' Daniel whispered, his heart pounding so hard that his ears ached from the sound.

Jack swallowed hard and was about to pull back, when Daniel tightened his arms, the intent unmistakable. 'Danny?' Now he knew why he'd missed Daniel so much, and boy, wasn't that a kick in the ass?

Daniel was trembling, the sudden knowledge of why he wanted to see Jack, to be with him was intense, yet it all made a quirky kind of Jack and Daniel sense.

'Yip!'

Both men looked down and Smiley yipped again, then peed on the floor.

'Oh damn.' Jack sighed, resting his forehead on Daniel's shoulder.

Daniel snickered. 'Here, let me help you clean up after Smiley, then we can see what kind of trouble we can get in to.'

Jack's head popped up, and he pressed his lips to Daniel's in quick kiss, which turned into a deeper, more consuming kiss, which was abruptly cut off when Daniel jerked back and said, ''Oooh! She peed on my foot!'

Jack laughed and shook his head. 'There, she's proving that she loves you.'

Daniel wrinkled his nose, 'Puppy love I can handle, puppy pee? Not so much.'

And Smiley yipped again.