I've Been Thinking... 1
I've Been Thinking...
by Sistine
URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/ass/sistine/thinking01.php
Summary: Jack has a few questions, and one is very important
"I've been thinking..."
"Oh boy," Daniel muttered, reaching for another book. Whenever Jack said that - which admittedly wasn't often - the ensuing conversation always gave Daniel a headache.
"I heard that." Jack perched himself on the edge of Daniel's desk. He had been avoiding doing paperwork by looking through some old mission reports, and he had come up with a few questions that bothered him. And since Daniel knew everything, Jack had naturally sought him out. Well, that and he hadn't annoyed Daniel for at least half a day. And he had a very important question to ask Daniel after the trivial stuff. "There's a couple of things that have been bothering me."
Daniel sighed and put his pen down. He could already feel his headache starting. "What are they?" He just knew he would regret asking but he did it anyway.
"Firstly, why do ninety percent of the races we meet on other planets speak English?" This was something which Jack had been aware of but had never really paid attention to. "Didn't the Goa'uld leave Earth before English became the dominant language?"
Despite the hard question, Daniel sat up a little straighter. Had Jack been paying attention to his lectures after all? "Yes, they did. Sam and I did some theorising back when the program started up that there might be a universal translator built into the gate system but that didn't pan out. For example, we sometimes gate to planets where the locals speak both English and their own native language, and if there was a translator in the Stargate, then we should hear the native language as English as well. And then there's the Goa'uld, who appear to use English as much as they use their own language, and I'm positive they don't carry around personal translators. Since they haven't visited Earth for thousands of years, it would be impossible for them to actually learn the language. So another theory is that there was a Goa'uld in England before the gate was buried, and he or she taught the other Goa'ulds how to speak it, and after the Goa'ulds left Earth, the language evolved in a similar fashion to ours. But that theory has a lot of flaws in it too."
Jack looked at Daniel in fascination. "Did you actually breathe at any point during that?" It seemed to him that it had all been one long sentence.
"Did you actually listen to a word of it?" Daniel countered. He knew Jack's facial expressions well and had seen the older man's brain go into cruising mode at the end of the second sentence.
"Yes. You don't know why everyone speaks English," Jack summed up the speech. He grinned at his linguist, who was glaring at him. "Moving onto the second question - where did the gate from Klorel's ship end up?"
"Excuse me?"
"We've seen Stargates survive re-entry to Earth and being hit by an asteroid. If it could survive those, why wouldn't it have survived being blown up by what are, in comparison, actually quite primitive explosives?"
"Um..." Daniel didn't know the answer to that.
"And you know how you said that you used Earth as a point of origin on that trip when you dialled the Alpha Site?" Jack picked up a fragile looking statue of a horse and examined it carefully, keeping it out of Daniel's reach.
"Yes." Daniel made another grab for the statue but missed so he sat back in his chair and tried not to get anxious about Jack playing with the artifact.
"Well, the symbol for Earth wouldn't have been on the DHD because not many planets use Earth as a point of reference in their address." Jack had been checking up on this after the question had occurred to him. "And since Abydos is the closest planet we've found to Earth, and it doesn't even have the symbol in its address, then why would a planet that's so far away from here? So what symbol did you press for the point of origin?"
"I - I don't remember," Daniel stated truthfully; he had been a little preoccupied at the time so the details were somewhat hazy. What had he used?
"You're a fountain of information today, Daniel." Jack put the statue down. Then he crossed his arms and looked directly at Daniel. "Do you know what I found when I was looking up some of those Egyptian fairytales of yours?"
Daniel shook his head; he didn't really want to know because he was sure it would lead to more questions he couldn't answer.
"The whole lot of them were sexually depraved. I mean, I read where Isis had sex - as a sparrow hawk - with Osiris after Osiris had died, while Her-ur looked on. How much more depraved can you get?" Jack knew some people got off on that but really... "And that is apparently depicted explicitly in Sokar's sanctuary in the temple of King Sety the first in Abydos. Have you seen it?"
"Actually, I have," Daniel admitted, not looking at Jack. He couldn't believe they were having this conversation. "The reliefs in that temple are renowned as being the most exquisite reliefs to have survived in Egyptian art." He had viewed them when he was studying for his second degree.
"Archaeological porn, if you ask me," Jack stated. "The old myths are full of this kind of stuff, and yet you think that you aren't in any danger from them that way." Whereas the rest of the team knew differently. Jack couldn't count how many grey hairs on his head were a direct result of worrying over safeguarding Daniel's virtue when they were amongst Goa'ulds.
"Jack, they're myths, not fact." Daniel never thought that he would say that to Jack. "Stories get exaggerated over the years, and every storyteller likes to make their stories interesting, and throughout history the best way has always been with sex."
"I notice you always leave the sex out of your stories." Jack grinned at Daniel again, enjoying the faint blush that spread across the linguist's face.
"There's a juvenile delinquent inside you, Jack, that would constantly make jokes about it, not to mention that the sex parts are never relevant to the mission." And although Daniel could discuss sexual themes throughout mythology with his colleagues, talking about them in front of General Hammond was an idea he shied away from.
"Daniel, I need to know whether a Goa'uld is likely to use you for his or her pleasure." Jack gritted his teeth when he remembered the one Goa'uld who had done just that. "You're my responsibility, after all."
'Responsibility' - the word resounded in Daniel's mind. Was that all he was to Jack? After all they had been through, was he just a responsibility? "Right. Well, considering the number of Goa'uld we've encountered and the number of times I've been their sex slave, I think the odds are pretty much on my side." He crossed his arms over his chest, stung that Jack thought of him as a responsibility. Daniel had thought he was much more than that.
Jack could see the hurt in Daniel's eyes and quickly ran his mind over what he had said that would have put that expression there. When he realised, he was quick to apologise. "Daniel, your safety is my responsibility off-world because I'm your team leader. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't look out for you." He watched Daniel become more closed-off. "But I don't do it just because you're on my team. I do it because you're the best friend I've ever had and I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
Daniel looked at Jack, surprised by the words. His heart was warmed by the affection and sincerity he could see in Jack's eyes. "Really?"
"Really." Daniel was a part of him now and the thought of losing him terrified Jack.
"Oh." He'd never had a friendship with anyone like he had with Jack. "Um, that's nice to know."
"I'd like to you think about that before you answer my next question." Jack took a deep breath. He was about to risk everything here, and if Daniel turned him down, well, Jack didn't know what he would do. "By losing you, I mean, you know, dying or getting kidnapped or trapped on another planet. If you say no, I'll understand."
"Say no to what?" Daniel was extremely curious now.
"Will you go out with me?" Jack asked in a low voice, aware that they were in a place where anyone could walk past and hear them.
"As in a date?" Daniel didn't want to misconstrue the question.
"Yes," Jack confirmed. "I... have feelings for you, and I was hoping that if you did too, then we could explore them together." He was putting his heart on the line with those words. "So... do you want to go out with me on a date?"
Daniel stared at Jack, unsure of what to say. He couldn't believe that he was sitting in his office listening to Jack asking him out on a date. That was the last thing he had ever expected Jack to ask him. "You want to go with me on a date?"
"That's what I just said."
"Why?"
"I told you that too," Jack replied with a hint of exasperation. Trust Daniel to make this difficult.
"But why me? Why now?" Daniel wanted to know. They had been friends for so long, although Jack had been starting to drift away recently. Was the reason for that because Jack had been trying to sort out his feelings?
"I don't know, and because I don't want to wait until it's too late to see if we could be... you know... together," Jack answered the questions in order.
Together. A couple. Daniel didn't think this was a short-term thing, otherwise Jack would be going about this with his usual lack of finesse. Jack seemed to be suggesting that they have a relationship, not just a roll in the hay every once in a while. Daniel had to admit to himself that he had occasionally wondered what Jack would be like as a lover but the fantasies had never gone very far; he hadn't wanted to mess up their friendship by wanting something he couldn't have. But Daniel couldn't say that he had actually thought about having a relationship with Jack. So now the question was, did he want to risk their friendship to find out? "Where were you planning on taking me?"
Jack shrugged. "I hadn't got that far in my planning," he admitted. He hadn't wanted to plan and then have Daniel turn him down. "But I'm thinking maybe a nice dinner and a movie." They were the places he used to take dates before he was married.
"What movie?"
"Daniel, yes or no."
"Um..." Daniel quickly weighed up the consequences. If it worked, he would have someone to go home to, someone to sleep with, and someone to completely share his life with. If it didn't work, they could likely tear the team apart, and Daniel could get his heart broken again. "Just a date, right?"
"Just a date," Jack confirmed. "After that, we'll just see what happens, okay."
"Okay," Daniel agreed. What was the harm in a date?
