The Other Side Of Me

by Mitch H

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asm/mitchh/othersid.php
Summary: Danny Jackson from another universe steps through a quantum mirror and finds himself without Jack at his side. Daniel Jackson of our universe sees how his life might have been if he'd made a different choice back on that first mission to Abydos, when he first met Jack O'Neill.

"Danny," O'Neill's voice was tinny as it echoed through the radio's little speaker. "Baby, you've got to move on, find them, and get yourself safe. Teal'c and Sam are pinned down too. They can't get through the portal, but I'll get them and we'll all get through from another point. We'll come for you."

"Jack! No! I can't--"

"You can, Danny. You have to. The SG-1 team there is nearby. Just, honey, just go. Look around. Find them. They'll help you. The Jack in that reality will--"

"He's not you--"

"Danny!" O'Neill's voice broke off. "He's not me, but we saw them earlier. The team is together. That's what you count on right now--" The crackle of the receiver faded.

Danny clutched it tightly, willing his lover's voice to come back to him. "Please," he whispered desperately. "I can't do this without you." Silence met his plea. A tear streaked down his face as he turned from the polished mirror's surface and saw the four startled strangers looking at him. His sun-bleached hair fell over his eyes as he ducked his head away from the disturbing sight of his own face looking back at him.

Suddenly the radio he clutched flared to life again. It was Sam's frantic voice. "Danny! Danny, don't forget to reset--"

"Sam!" he called into the mic. He got no answer but static. "Jack," he tried again. "I've found them. They're here. Don't worry about me. Jack?" Slowly he raised his head, the mic slipping from his fingers to dangle from its coiled cord attached to the shoulder of his flak jacket. Danny stared at the four strangers.

"Another mirror," Jack said with trepidation. "I thought there could only be one of those per reality." He stepped to the fore of his team.

"Actually, sir," Sam said as she took up a flanking position on her team leader's left, "we've only surmised there can be one per reality. The technology of the mirror--"

"Carter, are you going to say you already knew there could be more of these damned things around?" Jack asked, not taking his eyes off the longhaired, tanned version of Doctor Daniel Jackson.

"I've never met myself before," Daniel said with a wry smile. He gently shouldered his way between Sam and Jack and held his hand out to the blonder man.

Danny took a step back, seeming to shrink from the contact.

Daniel stopped instantly, seeing the newcomer's discomfort. "Are you okay? Are you injured?"

"We . . . we c--couldn't all get through before the goa'uld opened fire," Danny said. "Sorry. I just . . . I didn't expect to end up here by myself. Sorry." He wrapped his arms across his chest and hugged himself.

"Blast from the past," Jack muttered, taking in the longer hair and the self-hugging pose, a posture he hadn't seen in his Daniel in years.

"You're familiar with the transportation capabilities of the mirrors?" Sam asked the man who was hugging himself.

"Y--yes. We--We've traveled to several parallel universes using them," he answered softly. "Sam," he added. "You're a major, right? SG-1? Based in the Cheyenne Mountain complex?"

"Yes," she answered, stepping closer to him.

"Like my Sam. Th--that's good," he said, stuttering nervously. "Good. I--I--I have to go to a Tok'ra planet. PX7-991. There's a structure there, similar to this mirror. That's where J--J-- where my team will come to get me. I have to get there. Can you help me? Jack thought--" he broke off, dropping his gaze to the ground again.

"Your team, they'll meet you there?" she asked softly, drawn closer to him now. Sam reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Danny swayed toward her, seemingly melting into her touch. "I didn't expect to end up here without them. I--I've never gone through alone before. Not since that first accidental trip."

Seemingly instinctively, she brought both arms up and cupped his shoulders. She was startled when the blonder version of her friend laid his head on her shoulder. Sam glanced back at her teammates. "But it'll be a long journey to get you there. You'll phase shift before--"

"Oh, hell," Danny swore, straightening up and wiping at his eyes. "Sam will kick my ass--. Sorry. My Sam would." He fumbled at his jacket, opening it to reveal a large white collar around his neck. It seemed to be made of a flexible, plastic material. It had a pearlescent sheen and a slight glow. Danny ran his fingers along the front of it, as if searching for something. He pressed a recessed spot on the band.

Teal'c stepped closer, alerted by the unknown device. "Is this a weapon or some kind of self-defense device?" he asked, bringing his weapon up into a ready position.

"You haven't seen one before? No, Teal'c. Nothing like that," Danny said. "It's something we discovered shortly after our first trip through the mirror. I have to reset it here because," he paused to point to the shorthaired version of himself, "there's a me alive here. So I have to reset this now that I’m in this universe so I don't experience the phase shifting problems. The others will reset theirs when they come through too. Until we return to our own universe these keep us from doing the freaky dance," he said with a hint of a smile, his eyes flicking to Jack for a moment.

"A way to avoid the phase shifting!" Sam exclaimed excitedly. "I'd love to examine it--"

"Ma--maybe after my Sam gets here?" Danny said apologetically, his fingers protectively covering the collar.

"Oh. Of course," she quickly agreed. "That would probably be safer. Yes."

Daniel moved to Sam's side. "Like I was saying earlier, I've never met myself before," he repeated as he held his hand out again.

The blonder man shook it. "Yeah. I've really not had a chance to, either. Seems wherever I am, in the stargate program that is, Earth has managed to repel the goa'uld. We haven't traveled in those realities much yet."

"Why not?" Sam asked as her teammate and his double stepped apart.

"It's just worked out that way. We've been looking for a certain type of crystal. Something that will unlock a store of knowledge back in our reality. We thought we'd found it when the goa'uld ambushed us back there," he said, pointing over his shoulder. "I just . . . I wasn't supposed to get to the portal ahead of them. We were separated in the fighting . . . " Danny dropped his gaze to the ground.

"Well, you're fine now," Daniel said briskly. "You think they can get out of the situation they were in--"

"Of course they can." Danny looked up at him sharply. "They can get back to the Al-kesh easily enough; hop through from another mirror--"

"How will they find another mirror?" Sam asked.

"With this," Danny said, touching his collar. "It's a detection device as well. They'll get through to here on PX7-991 most likely. It’s the core that operates all mirrors. That planet is where these come from," he said, waving his hand at the mirror behind him.

"We haven't been to PX7-991," Sam said.

"Oh," Danny said, suddenly looking worried. "Ca--can you help me get there? My Jack-- My Colonel O'Neill said--"

"Yes," Jack assured him as he too moved up to the new arrival. "We can get you there. As long as you're sure they'll come through and get you, take you out of our reality."

Danny grinned shyly. "Sounds like you're eager to get rid of me."

"Well . . . I wouldn't . . . exactly say . . . eager," Jack said haltingly.

Danny chuckled. "Right. He would too. Colonel O'Neill would." He smiled softly and added, "My Jack."

"You sound kind of possessive when you say that," Daniel said, his eyebrows drawn together.

Danny cut his eyes to the other version of himself. "Not of your Jack, if that's what has you worried--"

"No. It doesn't worry me," Daniel answered quickly. "Of course no--."

"Because I know the difference, of course. Between you're reality and mine." He turned to Jack. "Then you'll help me?"

"Yeah."

"Sir," Sam interjected, "we could send a message to Dad, asking if he can get us some assistance on that planet. If it's a Tok'ra occupied world in our reality--"

"Okay," Jack said. "And we can gate from here to there?"

"Probably. Unless any dialing safety protocols are activated by the path from this point to that one."

"Let's find out."

"How far is the gate from here?" Danny asked. "We flew to this planet in the last reality. I don't know where the gate is on this planet."

"Pretty far," Jack said. "A couple day's hike."

As they hiked along Danny walked behind Sam and in front of Teal'c. Jack and Daniel were sharing point, in the front of their group.

"What can you tell me about the mirror technology?" Sam asked.

"Not much. But when she gets her, Major Carter would be glad to answer any questions you have. She's got to be a lot like you, very inquisitive I think," he said with a smile.

Sam glanced back, smiling at him. "Our Daniel's traveled through the mirror more than the rest of us. He was the one that found the mirror here."

"Daniel. You call him Daniel all the time, I've noticed. Pretty formal."

"You call your version of me, Major Carter," she countered.

"No. Just when talking about her to others."

"Oh," she said thoughtfully. "And I heard her call to you, to tell you to reset that device. She called you Danny."

"Yeah," he said. "Everyone does."

"Not just your Colonel O'Neill?"

"No," he said, now matching her thoughtfulness. "Doesn't he have many friends here? Your Danny?"

"Daniel has a lot of friends. But . . . " She shrugged.

"Differences. There are always differences." He smiled reassuringly. "But that's just how Jack introduced me to Sam, as Danny. It stuck. It fits."

They camped under a star-filled sky that night. Danny sat between Teal'c and Sam by the fire. He reached out and rubbed the big jaffa's arm. "You're very much like your brother."

"I have no brother," Teal'c replied solemnly.

"I mean the Teal'c from my reality. It's easier to think of alternate selves as brothers. Similar. You know what I mean, Sam?" he asked, turning to her, but with his hand still stroking the black-skinned man at his side.

"Brothers and sisters?" she asked, matching Danny's gentle smile.

"With the same genetic makeup," Daniel said from across the fire where he sat with Jack. "Similar backgrounds, but not exactly alike."

"Yes," Danny answered his double.

"Like the hair," Daniel said with a little chuckle. "Haven't you gotten tired of using a blow dryer yet?"

Danny laughed. "But my Jack likes it long."

Daniel shook his head. "I got tired of that about two years after Jack was sent to retrieve me from Abydos."

"Retrieve you? You went back and stayed there alone?"

"No. I didn't go back and-- I stayed . . . After we killed Ra, I was there for a year. How . . . How long did you get to stay?" Daniel asked hesitantly.

"We were there for maybe three more weeks after we destroyed Ra and his ship. We left--"

"You left?" Daniel asked sharply. "You left Sha'ure?"

"Left her?" Danny asked, surprised. "Of course. We didn't bring any Abydonians back with us. They wouldn't have had a very good life living as specimens--"

"But . . . You left her? She would have been an object of rejection--"

"Wait. Kasuf gave her to you in this reality?" Danny asked.

"Yes. Didn't he in your reality?"

"Yes, but of course I didn't KEEP her. She's a WOMAN. That would have been . . . Oh, my God. You stayed with her?" Danny asked, his gaze flicking between Daniel and Jack. "Did you . . . I mean-- Oh my God, you slept with her?"

"I . . . " Daniel balked at the question. "I . . . " He looked at Jack, his eyes opened a bit too wide. Daniel blanched and dropped his gaze to the fire "I stayed with her," he finally answered, avoiding the last question.

"Oh," Danny said softly. "I'm sorry. You must have felt you had to . . . Did Jack and you not . . . I mean hadn't the two of you . . . gotten together yet?"

"Whoa!" Jack exclaimed. "Uh. I'm not sure we need to . . . discuss this."

"What? Oh, God. You're not out?" he asked Danny. "I'm sorry. Did I just out you?"

"I'm not . . . " Daniel's voice faded as he glanced up at his double. "I'm not . . . "

"Are you going to tell me you're not gay--"

Jack interrupted again. "I don't think we need to be--"

"I'm sorry," Danny said. "I don't . . . I mean there are a LOT of similarities, I just didn't realize you two weren't . . . Does this mean you're still with your wife, Jack? Still doing the bi thing?"

"No. She left me." Then Jack snorted in irritation. "I mean . . . "

"When you came back with him she left you?"

"I didn't come back with him. I went to get him, but I didn't go to get him to bring him back to my place . . ."

"Oh. And you two aren't lovers?" he asked, his voice clearly ringing with disbelief.

Jack shook his head. "Yes. NO! I mean . . . "

Daniel shifted a few inches away from Jack. "We don't . . . That's not . . . "

Sam clamped a hand over her mouth, but her giggle burst forth anyway.

Teal'c shifted, turning toward Danny who had not let go of him during the discussion. "I believe Colonel O'Neill and Daniel Jackson wish this aspect of their relationship to remain unspoken among the team."

Danny looked up at the dark features and smiled. "Trust a jaffa to always be direct. Unspoken it is, then. I understand. But it must be a hell of a thing to keep hidden. It'd be impossible for me," he added with a grin for the dark man. "My Jack is rather passionate, and he never denies me anything." He leaned against the warrior and ran a hand over the broad pectoral muscles. "Especially a warrior's comfort. Kel shak, sle cha, Teal'c."

The jaffa raised one eyebrow high. Across the fire, Daniel Jackson gasped.

"I would be honored," Teal'c answered with a slight bow of his head, "to give comfort to you."

"You can't--" Daniel snapped, but cut off his own words.

Danny looked at his double, meeting shocked, blue eyes. "I haven't had sleep in what feels like days. I'm stressed out beyond thinking. I had to leave my lover under heavy fire. I’m all alone here and I can't stand it. I need . . . oh, fuck you, mikta," he swore under his breath.

Daniel's eyes widened even more as he watched the blond man turn and seemingly like a child, crawl into Teal'c's lap. "But . . . but . . . " Daniel sputtered.

With a quiet sigh, Danny snuggled. He turned sideways, his legs draped over Teal'c's broad thigh, his left shoulder pressed to Teal'c's chest. He laid his head on the solid shoulder of the big jaffa and closed his eyes. "Mmm. You're as big as my Teal'c is. Feels good. Safe. Cal mah."

"You are slighter than the Daniel Jackson of my reality," Teal'c said softly.

"Yeah?" Danny said, not bothering to open his eyes.

"Yes. Daniel Jackson and I work out regularly between missions. He has increased his muscle mass, here," Teal'c said as he ran a hand along Danny's shoulders, "and here," he added, trailing his touch down Danny's arms and chest.

"Oh."

"Loosen, Danny," Teal'c said. Sle cha," he added softly.

Across the campfire, Daniel Jackson stiffened. He closed his mouth then jerked to his feet and strode into the darkness of the line of trees ringing the campsite. Sam looked at his retreating back, then at her commanding officer. Jack darted his gaze from Danny's snuggled form, to Sam, to Daniel's stiff shoulders. With a jerk, he too scrambled to his feet and quickly paced after Daniel.

A few feet beyond the light of the campfire, Jack caught up with him. "Wait," he said as he laid a hand on Daniel's shoulder.

With a wrenching shrug, Daniel shook him off and kept walking.

Jack grabbed at him. "Danny--"

"I don't think you should be calling me that. Not right now," Daniel snapped as he whirled to face Jack. "Not while he's here."

"Okay," Jack said hastily. "Can we talk for a minute?"

"I don't have anything to say--"

"What he said, about us being lovers, I know it wasn't easy to hear," Jack said.

"No," Daniel shook his head. "That didn't bother me. But did you see how shocked he looked when I said I stayed on Abydos?"

"Yes," Jack said, drawing Daniel into a lose embrace. "I saw how hurt you looked too."

"Oh, Jack. I don't want to think of how different things would have been for me if I'd come back with you then. However, I couldn't leave. And . . ."

"And I didn't ask you to. Maybe his Jack did. Maybe Danny's Jack confessed that he was falling in love with him, told him the truth of how he felt. Maybe Danny had better options than I gave you."

"Please, Jack. Don't . . . I don't want that between us. Ever. The choice I made, to stay with Sha'ure, it was the right one for her and for me and . . . for you at the time. It was."

"Yeah, I know that in my head, baby. However, seeing him . . . He has the innocence I've seen you lose. He has--"

"Nothing. He has nothing I want or need, Jack. I don't need that innocence, that naiveté. He's a weak fool. Danny. Sam, even Teal'c, they call him Danny, like he's a little kid."

Jack drew back and peered into his lover's moonlit face. "Like I call you sometimes."

"Yeah, but when you do that, it's by choice, not by habit. It's like an endearment. Like saying baby or honey."

"Oh. His Jack called him honey. Did you hear that over his radio?" Jack asked

"God. Yeah, I did. They're out. At least to the team, they're out as lovers, aren't they?" Daniel asked, sounding more troubled.

"Yeah. So maybe he does have one thing we want, one thing maybe we need," Jack said slowly.

"Are you serious?" Daniel asked, his voice strained. He turned away, and wrapped his arms around himself, a posture he hadn't taken in so very long.

Jack reached out and gently turned Daniel to him. He pursed his lips, and then nodded. "I think so. Watching his ease with Sam and Teal'c, it really hit me. I'm denying you that. I'm making you keep a part of yourself secret. Like lying."

"I'm not like him," Daniel protested. "I don't need to crawl into someone's lap--"

"Maybe not, but I make you hide a part of yourself, and that keeps a barrier between you and the rest of the team, doesn't it?"

"Like Sam? You want her to know too?"

"Yes."

Daniel stared back toward the camp. "Sam laughed. She knows already, doesn't she?"

"Yeah. I think so. And Teal'c."

Daniel snorted. "Yeah. His answer made that pretty plain. So, what do we do now?"

"Go back to camp and . . . hold hands?" Jack proposed with a wry grin. "They already know. So I think it's time for us to knock down our side of the barrier."

Daniel laughed. He stepped from Jack's embrace, and then purposely took the man's hand. "Hands is a good way to start." Then he swallowed nervously and let his lover guide him back to the campfire.

When they returned Danny was cuddled securely in Teal'c's arms. Sam was standing nearby, alert, scanning the perimeter.

Daniel tugged, freeing his hand from Jack. The older man raised his eyebrows questioningly. Daniel shook his head and stepped around Jack to resume his former spot, sitting cross-legged on the ground by the fire.

Sinking to the ground, Jack let his thigh touch against Daniel's thigh.

"I've never told you," Daniel whispered, his gaze locked on the low flames.

"What?" Jack asked, his eyebrows drawn together as he stared intensely at Daniel.

"Well, part of why I got so . . . rattled by what he said," Daniel paused to point discretely at Danny who was snuggled in Teal'c's arms, "why I got so rattled . . . I never slept with her." He looked up at Jack.

Jack rolled his lips inward, nodding slowly. "It's okay, Daniel. You don't need to . . . Unless you want to tell me . . . "

Daniel shook his head and dropped his gaze back to the fire. "Doesn't mean we didn't get close a time or two, but . . . I never . . . " He shook his head, but said no more.

Jack shifted, bringing their thighs into firmer contact.

Teal'c spoke softly. "Danny, share my bedroll tonight. It is time to sleep."

"Mmm," the longhaired man mumbled a protest about having to move, but co-operated, and was guided by the big jaffa to his bedroll.

Daniel watched them go, watched Teal'c guide the willing, younger-looking version of himself to lie down in an intimate, sexual embrace. He watched, his eyes seemingly haunted by the sight.

"You want . . . " Jack stopped, glancing at Daniel, then at his own bedroll. He swallowed, and looked up at Carter, who was on first watch for the night.

Turning his head before taking his eyes off Teal'c and his sleeping companion, Daniel faced Jack. "Want?"

Jack shook his head. "Nothing. We should turn in. You've got the next watch."

**

It had been a hard struggle to get to the Tok'ra inhabited world where Danny insisted his team would come for him. Through the trek, Daniel had grown quieter and quieter, Sam more effusive. Teal'c had become positively mother-hennish with Danny, catering to him, and bedding him sexually each night across a campfire, regardless of who could see them.

Jack had seen the evolution of his team members, watched with quiet amazement. This stranger in their midst was Daniel, and yet not. There was an eerie sameness about him, yet he was disturbingly out of phase with the SG-1 team of this reality.

At their new encampment on PX6-991 Jack sat with Carter, idly toying with an open MRE. "He's so . . . " Jack let his voice trail off as he stared across the clearing.

"Sir?" Sam asked, and then followed her commanding officer's line of sight where he was studying Danny and Teal'c. The two sat cross-legged in the dirt playing a strategy game with stones and sticks. Danny had been laughing a lot during the game. Apparently, his laughter was infectious because Teal'c burst out into a belly laugh at that exact moment.

With a troubled expression screwing up his face, Jack turned and looked for Daniel. Several yards away Daniel also sat cross-legged in the dirt. His shoulders were hunched forward, his posture tense as he studied the etchings in the naquadah obelisk they'd come here to find. His boony hat was pulled down low on his brow, and his notebooks and several loose sheaves were scattered about him.

Danny had taught him the language within the two days they'd taken to travel from PX7-991's gate to this location, but Daniel insisted he wanted to translate the obelisk's writing for himself. He'd barely taken the time to eat, and no breaks at all, other than when Jack forced him away from the obelisk.

"He's so what?" Sam prompted.

"Danny. He's so . . . He doesn't have Daniel's sadness, does he?"

"I know what you mean. When I first met Daniel on Abydos he was like that," she said, pointing at Danny, whose head was thrown back in laughter, the sun glinting off his messy hair.

"Do you suppose it was losing Sha'ure?" Jack asked.

"I guess so. He loved her, didn’t he? And to lose someone you love that much, it makes a person sad."

"Yeah. Guess so," Jack said thoughtfully.

"Are you--"

Sam was interrupted by a crackling noise. Electric sparks shot out and danced up and down the sharp corners of the naquadah obelisk. Daniel jolted back from the sparking object, sprawling on his ass in the dirt.

Three figures stepped from the flat side of the obelisk, as if they were stepping through a doorway, not out of a flat, solid object.

The first figure through was an imposing jaffa, twin to the Teal'c of this reality. Close on his heels came the twins of O'Neill and Carter, in stride, weapons at the ready.

"Danny!" the new O'Neill exclaimed, delight strong in his voice. He sidestepped around the jaffa and pulled the sprawled archaeologist to his feet. Daniel was squeezed into a full body hug, then hoisted off his feet and twirled a full circle in the air. O'Neill plopped him back to his feet, then, with both hands, grabbed the sputtering archaeologist's face and very forcefully, kissed him.

Daniel's hands came up to O'Neill's wrists, trying to drag the grasp from him. O'Neill's kiss became more enthusiastic, with mouth open, bodies together, his groin grinding into the archaeologist's. Daniel sputtered and stammered into the mouth claiming him.

One of O'Neill's hands went around the back of Daniel's head, keeping the kiss firm, unyielding. He took charge of the man in his arms. His other hand went down Daniel's back to his rump, bringing their bodies more firmly together.

Daniel gasped around the tongue invading him. His struggles grew weak as his body was ravaged with a powerful, mind-blanking kiss. His sputtering protest dissolved haltingly into a groan of startling arousal.

The hand on Daniel's left ass cheek grasped firmer, the fingers spreading, kneading the round globe. O'Neill held the man, possessed him, and owned him.

"Well," Danny said as he approached the kissing duo, "I guess this means you missed me? And . . . you missed me, big fella. I'm over here."

"Wrong Danny, sir," the newly arrived Carter chimed in, her voice bright with amusement. She followed up her comment with a chuckle and a tap on her CO's shoulder.

"Wha. . . " O'Neill said irritably as he pulled his mouth from the man in his arms.

Daniel was held in a tight embrace, mouth still open, eyes firmly closed. He had his hands pushing against O'Neill's chest. He swayed slightly.

"Huh?" O'Neill said. "Wrong one?" He looked from Carter to the longhaired version of Doctor Jackson standing several feet away. Then he looked more closely at the man in his arms. He pulled the boony cap off. "Oh crap." He promptly let go of the man he'd just kissed so soundly.

Eyes still closed, Daniel promptly fell back down on his ass.

"Oh, crap!" O'Neill repeated as he scrambled to help the fallen man back up. "Sorry. Sorry. I should'a looked a little more closely before I leaped. Sorry." He made a few swiping moves at dusting Daniel's ass off. "Sorry."

"S'o-- okay," Daniel stuttered as he tried dance back and avoid the man's hands. "S'okay. Really." He got several steps away and tried to right his clothing.

O'Neill beamed a smile at Danny and strode in his direction. Danny ran to meet him, and was swept up into an exact copy of the embrace Daniel had been in moments earlier. O'Neill twirled him around in a full circle, kissed him soundly, and then twirled him around again.

"Baby, I missed you!" O'Neill exclaimed as he set the man on his feet.

"Me too you," Danny said enthusiastically, and then pecked a kiss on his lover's cheek. "God, I don't ever want to go through without you again!"

The Jack O'Neill of this reality stood there with his arms crossed. Sam looked at him, her eyebrows drawn together sternly.

"What?" he asked, bewildered by her nudging and her glare. Then he was completely baffled as she snorted at him, and then walked away. He watched her go to Daniel's side and stand protectively close to him.

"What?" he asked Teal'c who'd followed Danny in the direction of the new arrivals.

Teal'c merely lifted an eyebrow, looked piercingly at Jack, and then joined Sam at Daniel's side.

Jack snorted and followed.

"Jack O'Neill, I presume," the newly arrived O'Neill said with a wry smile as he greeted the version of himself in this reality.

Jack shook the offered hand. "Yeah. So, you always in the habit of laying one on any version of him you see?" he asked, thumbing at the man who held O'Neill's hand.

"Not exactly," O'Neill answered just as snidely. "I don't make it a habit of losing my boyfriend, so the situation has never arisen before. How about you?"

"No." Jack raised both his eyebrows and held his hands out as if to shrug. "Never really been a problem I've had to face."

Danny tugged O'Neill back into another embrace and the two men were kissing again, this time, open mouth to open mouth.

Jack shrugged and shook his head as he turned from them and looked at Daniel. The archaeologist seemed flustered and he seemed to be fending off Sam's and Teal'c's attention. Then he glanced up in Jack's direction and their eyes locked. Daniel's cheeks were two spots of red, stark in relief on his pale skin. His eyes were open a bit wider than usual too. Then Jack looked at Daniel's lips. They were red, abraded. Yes, they definitely had that just-been-kissed look, just been kissed all the way to oblivion and back again. Daniel looked woozy.

Maybe that's why Sam and Teal'c had gone over to him? To kind of prop him up? He watched as Daniel blew out a breath, and then clamped those red lips together, rolling them in until they were a mere red slash. But Jack knew they were still red, still swollen, and still sensitive, even out of sight. Was Daniel running his own tongue across them? Feeling the sensation of that ravaging kiss? That ravaging kiss that someone else had given him, not his own lover? Because Jack had never kissed Daniel that way. Not that possessive, forceful way.

The O'Neill who'd come through the obelisk had taken Daniel, had reached out and grabbed him, and taken him. He'd forced a kiss on him. Didn't ask, didn't request. No. He'd taken. He'd taken that kiss. The man had taken Daniel's mouth, his breath, him. Him. O'Neill had taken what he'd wanted, and given. He'd given Daniel something of himself too. Without asking. Without checking or leading up to the moment, or feeling Daniel out, finding out his mood, his . . . his . . . He'd taken charge of Daniel. Daniel's body. Daniel's mouth.

Troubled, Jack turned to stare at Danny, firmly in the arms of the O'Neill who'd just arrived in this universe. He was being ravaged, Danny was. Being ravaged by a man who was grinning, hugging, kissing, and loving him.

Jack darted a glance back at his Daniel. He loved Daniel. Loved him. But didn't ravage him. What they had was a kind of equal thing, a man-to-man kind of thing. Two equals. He never took Daniel that way. Never.

What they had was an equal kind of a thing. And secret. It was a secret thing; small, quiet, quashed, secret. Contained behind rigid boundaries, safely inside firm limits, their love was kept in control. Jack looked back at the two men embracing and kissing, and he frowned.

**

By the obelisk, Daniel watched his lover's face as a frown crept across it. Sam was saying something, touching his arm. Distractedly, Daniel shrugged off her touch and turned his back on everyone, staring at the obelisk again; the same form of naquadah he'd been staring at for hours. He knew the symbols now, knew the meaning of each, but the order baffled him as much now as it had when he'd first started studying the structure.

Behind him, Daniel could hear laughter. Eerily, it was his voice, and Jack's voice, exchanging words of love, kissing--yes, he could hear kissing--and Danny being greeted warmly by a different version of Sam and Teal'c. Brothers, he'd called them. Alternate selves from alternate realities.

Well, this definitely wasn't his reality. Not in any way. A weak, silly man like Danny, childlike, pampered obviously, protected, nurtured. Needy. Daniel hated being needy. It left a person vulnerable. He didn't like being vulnerable. He'd never in a million years crawl into Teal'c's lap! Never! Or lean on Sam that way. Or . . . or like . . . Danny was right now, with his lover. Never.

Jack would hate that. Jack would find it repulsive. Jack would . . . Jack wouldn't want that. Ever.

Daniel hunched his shoulders, adjusted his glasses, and then scooped up the hat that had been pulled off his head after the passionate kiss he'd received. After seating the hat back on his head he paused, his back still to the group, and put his fingertips to his lips.

Being engulfed in that hug, then kissed like that, it had been . . . awful. Awful. Yes. Definitely. Awful. And embarrassing. And . . . and not good at all. Not good. Bad. It had been bad. Embarrassing. Yes. Definitely not a good thing.

"--Daniel," Danny said again.

Startled out of his revere, Daniel whirled and came face to face with his double. He stood there, fingertips on his lips as Danny smiled at him. Daniel was unable to focus on what the longhaired version if himself was saying.

Over Danny's shoulder, he saw the two Carters were deep in conversation, undoubtedly about the mechanics of traveling between realities. Teal'c and his counterpart were ignoring each other. Jack, both Jacks, were conversing casually.

"--and leave within the hour," Danny finished. "Daniel?" he prompted, then after a moment, chuckled softly. "He's quite a kisser, isn't he? Our Jacks." Danny glanced over his shoulder for a moment then turned back to Daniel.

"What? Kisser?" Daniel asked, and then realized he was still stroking his own lips. He jerked his hand down to his side and cleared his throat.

"Sam says we have to go pretty soon. Something about our window of opportunity on the other side," Danny repeated, pointing at the obelisk's shiny surface. "Safety concern."

"Why?" Daniel asked. "Why, if you didn't stay with her, didn't fall in love with Sha'ure . . . when she was taken by Apophis, why then did you join the program?"

"Because," Danny said, "tel kol. I was needed. Who else on your Earth can do what you do? Pick up a language as fast, translate as fluently, as precisely? You opened the gate, didn't you? And deduced the address system, right?"

"Yeah, but Sam--"

"Sam. Yeah. Does your Sam do what mine does? Way too often she'll say, it can't be done. This can't be done, or that can't. I'm also here to ask why not, to say, let's try, or to just get her to look at a problem from a different direction. She needs me."

"But Teal'c--"

"Wouldn't be here if it weren't for me. Plain and simple. I got us to Chulak that first time. Did you?" Danny asked.

"Well . . . yeah."

"I think I simplified things a bit too much when I explained about the other realities and your-- my involvement in the stargate program. In the realities where we've successfully repelled the goa'uld, I'm in the program, but not just in it, from what I can tell, in each one, Jack and I are lovers."

"So, the truth is, you're in the program because you love him?" Daniel asked, directing his gaze past Danny to the two Jacks.

"Mmm. No. Because I'm needed. My involvement has been damned crucial at times. I'm sure yours has too."

"Yes," Daniel admitted slowly, but raised one eyebrow, clearly not accepting Danny's explanation.

"You look really sure of that, Doctor Jackson," Danny said with humor. "I've noticed. Don't think I haven't. I can read you like . . . I can read myself," he finished with a chuckle.

Daniel realized he was hiding nothing from this man. "You don't strike me as the take-action kind of guy." He took a small step back and crossed his arms.

"Yeah. I recognize that look. You think just because I show my affection, because my Jack can sweep me off my feet, because I have enough confidence in my masculinity to seek comfort in Teal'c's arms that I'm less of a man."

"No, I--"

"Yes," Danny said with a nod. "You do. But you're wrong. I have twice the guts you do, twice the nerve. I'm not the coward you are, Doctor Jackson. I'd never, ever have let Jack leave Abydos without me. I'd never have tucked my tail between my legs and slunk off to live in a tent with some woman I barely knew, accepted the gift of a woman because that's the only way I'd ever be able to live the closeted lie."

"It wasn't a lie for me. I loved her--"

"Maybe you did," Danny interrupted, and then softened his voice. "I apologize. There are always differences in realities. But, can you deny that you were in love with Jack when he left Abydos? Can you deny that you wanted to run after him, to reach out, to take a chance at real love?"

Daniel swallowed, and then dropped his gaze to the ground between him and his double. He couldn't speak.

"It was the hardest thing I've ever done, to open myself up that way. Look at him," Danny said, his voice still soft. "Mister macho military man. A colonel in Uncle Sam's air force, where do not tell is the policy of the day. And I had to find it within myself to tell that man I was not only gay, but that I had strong feelings for him. Him," he added with a heavy nod of his head.

"God," Daniel whispered, then looked at the two Jacks again. "I couldn't . . . "

As Danny stepped closer and laid a hand on his shoulder, Daniel struggled not to step away. He hugged himself tighter. "I couldn't. So Jack left. I stayed with her. It was easier."

"Yeah. For you, at the time, I guess it was. I'm sorry. I just needed you to know, I'm not a weak child. I'm a man."

"I'm sorry," Daniel whispered.

"It doesn’t make me weak to accept his love, the way I need it. It doesn't make the team weak either. Doesn't hurt the way we operate. When we step back through our gate to Cheyenne Mountain, it's hands off until we're home behind locked doors, where we're free to be who we are. And out here, we're free too. That's a lot of freedom," Danny said with a smile.

"I see that now." Daniel nodded.

As the alternate reality team stepped back through the quantum reflective surface of the naquadah obelisk Daniel glanced sideways and watched Jack let out a relieved sigh. Daniel stood rigid at his lover's side, listening to Sam talk excitedly about what she'd just learned from her counterpart. She was beaming a broad smile. Teal'c was stoic as usual.

"I didn't have the guts," Daniel whispered under Sam's excited chatter.

Jack's gaze snapped to him, and for a moment, Daniel had trouble meeting that intense stare. Then he swallowed and whispered again. "When we were on that first mission to Abydos, I didn't have the guts to tell you how I felt, that I was attracted to you."

"Daniel . . . " Jack shook his head.

"No, Jack," Daniel protested, speaking louder now.

Sam stopped explaining about the mechanics of the obelisk, but Daniel kept his attention focused on Jack.

"I didn't have the guts to risk myself that way. I didn't tell you that I was falling in love with you even then. And when Kasuf gave his daughter to me, I could have found a way out of it, found her another husband among the villagers. I didn't even ask her if she'd prefer someone else. I just took the easy way out. I didn't want to risk my heart with you."

"I would never have hurt you, Daniel." Jack shook his head.

"I . . . I guess I knew that. But I've never . . . even now I don’t open myself up to being hurt by you. I won't let that happen--"

"I didn’t ask you to come with me. I didn't give you the options Danny had from his Jack--"

"No. His Jack wasn't the one who . . . Danny did. He told Jack how he felt; he risked what I wouldn't. He's a stronger man than I am, Jack. He lets himself be vulnerable, seeks comfort when he needs it, reaches out for his lover when he needs . . . " Daniel rolled his lips inward. He wrinkled his brow and squinted his eyes at Jack. Then he reached out and took Jack's hand. In full view of Sam and Teal'c, he reached out and took Jack's hand.

Then he stepped closer, closer, until their bodies were touching. Then he wrapped his other hand around Jack's neck, parted his lips, and closed his eyes. He waited, poised on the edge of disaster.

Soft lips touched his open ones. Warm breath gusted across his teeth and into his mouth. Hands roamed up his body. Arms, strong and long, encircled him in a crushing embrace. Daniel sank heart and soul into the love he'd only dared to sample. He let go of all of his inhibitions, his defenses, and his fear of vulnerability with Jack O'Neill.

Daniel Jackson gave up his armor and surrendered himself to the man he loved. And in doing so, proved that he too was the strongest man in his universe.

The end