East Of The Rock

by Sage

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/ass/sage/eastrock.php
Summary: Jack and Daniel know all about surviving the hard places

It wasn't the worst cell Jack had ever been put in. It was open, painted some faint beige that diffused the sun in a soft way. The windows were high up and caught nice breezes every once and a while. There were no artificial lights (apparently a strange thing). Daniel had mentioned it right before he'd gotten stabbed by the Jaffa.

The sun was slanting like it was going to go down soon. Seemed like Earth that way.

The breeze was strong and little tufts of Daniel's hair blew back and forth in the wind. Best part though, the sound covered over Daniel's occasional wheezes and gasps. Jack was downwind, trying to avoid the tangy smell of blood like dirty copper pennies.

Still, he needed Daniel talking, if only to have a gauge on how bad things were getting. So Jack decided to ask the dumb questions, the ones that kept Daniel talking and explaining for hours. He asked for the low down on Shiva and the weird looking Jaffa.

Daniel obliged, bloody, dirty, and tired as he was. He just went right on explaining, calm as anything.

He could've been in a lecture hall, putting yuppie kids to sleep at some ivy-league college instead of on the floor of a Goa'uld holding cell on PX4-556 the way he sounded.

"Traditionally, Kali is viewed as the Shakti that allows Shiva to act. Which, probably means that that probably was either a liaison between Shiva and a more powerful Goa'uld, or they were partners of some kind."

"A sort of Goa'uld Bonny and Clyde?"

"You could say that. I probably wouldn't."

Daniel was still pressing his hands hard over the wound in his belly. Jack spared just one glance from the side of his eye at Daniel and went back to studying the underside of the bill of his hat.

He tried to remember when it was that Daniel had lost his boonie, probably somewhere in the ambush. Maybe when they tried to fall back to the 'gate. But somewhere between the DHD and Casa del Shiva, Daniel had lost his boonie.

Jack had no idea *why* he was even noticing it. Daniel had lost lots of boonies, guns, equipment, MALP's, hell, he even lost one of his own archaeologists once. But that wasn't really Daniel's fault, so Jack didn't hassle him too much about it.

"It's not getting any better is it?" asked Jack, lifting up the bill of his hat.

"No, and I think some of it's internal," Daniel answered, looking down but too afraid of pain to move his hands even a little. His pants and his shirt had slowly absorbed the blood, like water crept upwards in a napkin if you dipped the tip of it in water. But even they were saturated.

There was a little pool gathering around Daniel.

And Jack knew there was nothing he could do. Maybe, if they could bust out right now and provided Daniel could run, they might make it back in time before he went into shock. But the window of opportunity to do anything useful was closing.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, every second one less second left of Daniel.

So Jack stayed away, and he acted like it was nothing.

But Daniel was getting so much paler, and he kept *looking* at Jack. So Jack decided in the middle of his short crawl towards Daniel, that acting like it was nothing was just as futile as anything else.

"Carter and Teal'c got through the gate, they've probably got SG-3 half way here," said Jack, staring down at Daniel's hands.

"Jack," Daniel said, with his eyes squeezed shut, "They've got a sarcophagus, and I need to know that if they revive me too many time, that you'll do the right thing."

"The right thing?" Jack asked, slowly moving his hands towards the wound. He didn't move Daniel's hands. He leaned forward into a crouching position by Daniel.

"If it goes too far, then you've got to make sure it stops. Because I don't think Oma or the others would let me Ascend again. And if we don't get rescued, then - don't make me say it, Jack, don't play stupid."

"I don't understand. What? I kill you? Then they stick you in the sarcophagus again."

"Think of it like scuttling a ship Jack. Just make sure it's beyond what the sarcophagus can repair."

"With what?"

"They didn't take the knife in my boot."

"Why didn't you mention this sooner? We could've used it."

"No, Jack, we couldn't," Daniel said. He held up his bloody hands, showing his red palms to Jack. "It's all the way through. I don't think I can walk."

Jack nodded and Daniel's hands dropped down by his side. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

"Daniel?" Jack whispered. He leaned in very close. So close that he could feel Daniel's hair brush against his face. Soft little tufts against his lips and the scent of Daniel's sweat, Daniel's blood, Daniel's life in every breath. "Daniel, don't do this. *Don't*."

Daniel reached out and grabbed Jack's wrist and he sounded so *surprised* when he said, "I don't think I have a choice."

Jack heard Jaffa footsteps approaching. He dug with desperate, clumsy fingers into Daniel's boot and found the small switch blade. He stuffed it into a pocket and then took Daniel's glasses carefully off of his face and folded them neatly in his hand. He crab-walked back to the corner he'd been in and sat with his arms draped over his knees.

The Jaffa dragged Daniel away by his arms and there was a red, streaky trail curving out the door, into the corridor, and into oblivion.

Jack sat there for a long time staring at the glasses in his hands. He opened them up like a wire-framed flower and stared through the them, to see if they would make the world look any different.

****

The footsteps woke him up and Daniel was being held up by two large Jaffa. His feet dragged along the now brown trail that he'd left.

It made Jack wonder how long he'd slept and why Carter and Teal'c hadn't come charging in with the cavalry already.

They threw Daniel in so hard that when he landed on the floor, Jack heard something make a dull pop. Daniel screamed and then sobbed in hard breaths, face down on the floor. Jack hooked Daniel's glasses on the collar of his shirt and crouched down beside him.

Daniel could barely breathe as he rolled over.

"I can't move my arm," said Daniel, with his right arm laying dead beside him.

Jack's hand reached towards Daniel's shoulder, and Daniel shoved his arm away with a grim face, taking short hard breaths like maybe he could pant his way out of the agony.

"I need to look at it," Jack said, absently.

"They put me in that thing, Jack, they put me in there twice," he said staring up at the ceiling while he swallowed air in desperation and squeezed tears out of his eyes.

"I think it's dislocated," Jack told him, leaning back into a crouching position.

"What?" Daniel asked, looking up at Jack, blinking quickly.

"Your shoulder - I think it's dislocated," Jack repeated. Daniel just nodded. "I can try to pop it back into place here or we can wait until Carter and Teal'c and the big hairy Marines come bearing morphine and let ol' Doc Fraiser do it."

Daniel closed his eyes and breathed deep breaths while he laid there, trying to decide. Jack finally sat down to give his knees a rest and waited.

"Okay," Daniel said, carefully pulling himself up without moving his arm too much. "How do we do this."

"It's kind of like dancing," said Jack, standing up. Daniel awkwardly stood up and faced Jack. "Just put your good hand on my shoulder, okay? It hurts less than the actual dislocation itself."

Daniel nodded and did what he was told. He closed his eyes tight, turned his head away, and waited for the pain. Jack slowly turned his wrist and grabbed it. For a long time they both stood there and Jack waited, he watched carefully for the apprehension of pain to melt away in Daniel, until he was just confused enough to be relaxed.

When Daniel was turning his head, that's when Jack took him a bone crushing hug around his ribs and in one hard, fast yank heard the bones pop again.

Daniel screamed hard for one second and leaned against Jack, gripping with fingers that dug into his side more than hard enough to leave bruises. He laid his head on Jack's shoulder and against his skin, Daniel's little tears of pain felt cool.

Daniel said 'okay, okay, okay' over and over and just held on while his entire body shook against Jack's.

"Hey, it's over. See, hurts less than the actual dislocation itself," Jack said, wrapping his hand around the back of Daniel's neck.

"It doesn't matter, they'll do it all over again. Sam and Teal'c should have been here hours ago," Daniel told him, backing away.

"The 'Gate was heavily guarded. They're just delayed, but they wouldn't leave us behind, you *know* that. In the meantime, you and I have to hold on, okay?"

"For how long?" Daniel whispered, stepping back until he ran against the wall. He squeezed his eyes shut like he did when he was waiting for Jack to pop his shoulder into place.

"Just a little while longer. Carter and Teal'c are coming for us, and they're bringing a lot of heavily armed marines with them."

"You don't get it do you?" Daniel asked with a slow voice, like he was figuring something out even while he asked the question. "I don't have a little while longer in there, Jack. There's no immunity. It's just as bad as the first time, maybe worse. And so what, what if they do save us after I've been in there ten or twenty times. Remember what it was like last time, do you *really* want to see me like that again? God, Jack, *please*."

"No!" Jack shouted and pushed his hand into Daniel's chest. "I don't really care if I see you like that, because at least it will be *you* and you'll be *alive*. I know it hurts, but I know *you*, Daniel. And this is not bigger than you. So when they take you, you find all the happy places you've got and you fight."

"And what if they take you next time?"

"Then they take me. Because I know that I'll have you back here, and that will *make* it all right. Maybe it'll be another hour until they get here, maybe it'll be a month. But however many times they take you, I'll be here, Daniel. And if the sarcophagus makes you forget who you are, then I'll remind you. Because I *know* who you are."

Daniel just nodded and Jack put his hand to Daniel's face.

Daniel was still shaking so hard when the Jaffa took him away.

Jack fingered the glasses that were hooked on his collar and was careful not to touch the lenses. He fell asleep again and woke when they laid Daniel at the doorway and kicked him so he'd roll over.

They slammed the barred door of the cell closed. Jack waited until their footsteps were nearly out of the range of his hearing and walked over to Daniel.

"Baal did this to you last year, didn't he?" Daniel asked, opening his eyes and sitting up. "I remembered it when I was in the sarcophagus. Baal was doing this to you and when I came to you, I wouldn't help you. I tried to get you to Ascend. And you begged me to stop him. But I wouldn't. And you swore that if things were different that you'd fight all the others, that you'd destroy Baal, that you wouldn't let me go through it."

"For cryin' out loud," Jack muttered and then said in a louder voice, "It was different. You had rules to follow."

"I guess this is pay back for everything, for Abydos," Daniel murmured, like he wasn't really talking to anyone.

"Come on, Daniel. There was nothing you could do. You were east of the rock and west of the hard place."

"I remembered a lot of things while I was in there," Daniel told him. "I remembered the first time we met, before we went to Abydos. I actually hadn't remembered that for myself yet, but I did. And I remember that you were Colonel O'Neill, god you were such an asshole. And I decided that you hated me. But then you came back, and I stood there thinking 'oh here comes Colonel Asshole', and for just a moment you were. Then your face changed and you weren't. You were *Jack*."

"I didn't hate you," Jack said, sitting next to Daniel, looking down at him. "I just thought you needed a haircut."

Daniel smiled. "What? You didn't like the long hair. I've thought about growing it out again."

"Oh for cryin' out loud," Jack sighed though smiling a big smile. "It's bad enough I've gotta have a *nerd* on my team to offset my overwhelming coolness."

"I believe the proper term is *geek*, and you're just intimidated because I'm way, way smarter than you," Daniel mocked in return.

"Yeah, way smarter," Jack said, his smile getting as soft as his voice. He stared at Daniel for a moment. "Well, in case you forget, smart guy -"

And Jack kissed him. Pinned him against the wall and was on his knees in front of Daniel, with one hand pushing on the center of Daniel's chest and the other bracing his weight on the wall. He kissed Daniel until he felt satisfied.

Then he sat beside Daniel.

"Okay," Daniel said, licking his lips. "That's usually a no-no offworld, but I can make an exception."

"Well, I wanted to do it before I did this."

"Did what?"

Jack unfolded Daniel's glasses and slid them onto his face.

"Oh, thanks," Daniel said, blinking to adjust to the sudden clarity of vision.

"Consider it pay back for years of offsetting my overwhelming coolness."

"Your overwhelming cool-"

Jack held up a hand and they listened as the sound of gunfire and shouting got closer and closer.

"I believe that's our ride," Jack said.

They crouched on opposite sides of the door, and couldn't help grinning at each other. They waited and Jack poked his head out for just a second. He made a fist then held up one finger. Daniel nodded.

Daniel jumped the Jaffa, and Jack grabbed his staff weapon. Daniel let go and pushed the Jaffa away, giving Jack a clear shot.

Daniel leaned over the body of the Jaffa and Jack took the zat from his side. Jack was still smiling like a crazy person.

"I'll be the rock if you'll be the hard place," Jack said, tossing Daniel the zat gun.

- END -