Someone Doesn't Know

Someone Doesn't Know
KLMatt

The mission to PX3-549 had been a purely investigative one. The Malp and UAV had shown no signs of any settlements near the gate but *had* revealed a partly buried building a couple of miles south, covered in the bright yellow sand of the desert land.

Daniel had wanted to look at it closer and had requested that he, Robert Rothman and a couple of other members of his archaeology crew be allowed to go off world and set up a dig site to discover what this meant.

General Hammond had agreed on the condition that SG1 and SG7, under the command of one Major Scott Datum, went with them.

During the briefing, a voice was heard to say "Oh for crying out loud, General!" as Colonel O'Neill made his opinion known but he had backed down at a look from his superior.

Once they had gotten to P3X-549, it hadn't taken them long to find and set up the site and soon they were discovering all kinds of interesting things. An Egyptian head-dress, a Gould healing device and several scorch marks on the ruins.

Standing up to ease the pain in his leg, Daniel spotted a flash off to his right. Wondering what it was, he set off to investigate. The closer he got, the clearer it became.

Lying, half covered by sand was a small metallic orb covered with strange writing. He bent down to pick it up and nearly had a heart attack as someone tackled him, knocking him into the sand.

Looking up he saw Jack.

"What the...?" he said angrily.

The small orb began to beep, a high pitched wail. Jack's eyes widened and he pushed Daniel away roughly.

There was a loud explosion and Daniel was thrown off his feet.

He saw Jack had been hurt having been closer to it than Daniel.

'This is all my fault' he thought before slipping into darkness.

Upon waking Daniel's head felt like it contained a brass band. Voices were talking quietly at the end of the bed and Daniel opened his eyes just a little bit. Sam and Dr. Fraiser were stood there and General Hammond striding across the Infirmary.

Daniel moaned softly as the voices started up and muttered "How am I supposed to sleep with all this noise?"

Sam spun round, with everyone else close to follow, smiled and said "Daniel!"

Teal'c had stood up from his guarding position by the bed and Daniel managed to smile at him. Taking note of the people around his bed, Daniel frowned and said, "Where's Jack?"

Teal'c stepped aside and Sam motioned.

Daniel slowly turned his head, not wanting to start up the band again and saw Jack in the bed next to him, hooked up to a monitor and with an IV drip in his arm.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We were hoping you could tell us son,” said the General.

"We were exploring the dig site when you and the Colonel both disappeared. Next thing we knew there was an explosion and we found you two like this" said Sam. "Can you remember?"

All the memories of the mission had come rushing back into Daniel's mind. 'Oh shit! It's all my fault. If Jack hadn't pushed me out of the way I'd be dead now but I think I've killed the one person I really love instead'. The thought steamrollered through his mind, surprising himself as he had never thought about it before but it made sense. Of course he loved Jack.

He panicked. "No!" he said shaking his head just a little too fast and passed out from the pain.

He woke up to a quiet and peaceful Infirmary. He could see Sam out of the corner of his eye sat between the two beds, slumped in the chair fast asleep.

Janet came to check on him when she saw his eyes open and sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the bed to Sam.

"Daniel" she said softly. "I understand that something bad happened on PX3-549 and you don't want to talk about it but you might be able to give me some information that will help Jack. Do you think you could tell me?"

Daniel, who had sat up in the bed, looked down at his bruised hands and said, "It was my fault Janet".

The doctor didn't comment so Daniel continued "I guess I wandered off again. I saw something flashing in the sunlight and just wanted to check it out. I didn't think.... I mean it didn't look dangerous. Jack's always saying I don't think about these things and he's right. He saved my life and got hurt. It's all my fault! How does he do it, Janet? How the hell does he put up with me? I'm always getting into trouble somehow, usually by being too trusting in people or just not thinking. If I were him I'd have kicked my sorry ass off the programme by now! I don't know why he keeps me around!" and with than a huge sob erupted from Daniel's mouth and tears slid down his face.

"Why?" he sobbed. "All I ever do is hurt him. He would be better off without me. They all would."

"Daniel?" said a sleepy voice on the other side of him that belonged to Sam. "Daniel, you're his best friend. He loves you and I think he'd rather die himself than see you suffer, see any of us suffer. You, me, Teal'c, we're the closest thing he's got to family. Okay, so you could start thinking before you do things but then you wouldn't be the Daniel we all know and love. The Colonel's strong, he'll get through this, just like he always does."

Daniel smiled modestly and looked back down at his hands. "I'm not that important. You guys would do just fine without me around. You don't really need a geeky, allergic Archaeologist slowing you down on missions".

Sam reached across and grabbed a hand. "Daniel, it's a bit different with Teal’c and me because we're both military but he relies on you to keep him sane". Sam stared at his face as if searching for something there. "Daniel, you do know how the Colonel feels about you, don't you?"

"Yeah, it's obvious he thinks I'm just a stupid, useless civilian who needs to be watched and mollycoddled".

Sam and Janet exchanged a look.

"You know Sam, I don't think he knows".

"You could be right there, Janet" Sam grinned.

"I win, you said there couldn't possibly be anyone on base who didn't know" smirked the Doctor.

"Know what?" asked Daniel, his interest piqued and hoping against hope that maybe Jack could have similar feelings to him. 'Oh god please let it be true!' he thought but then remembered the way Jack had been avoiding him these last few weeks and his heart shut down.

"Ah, that'd be telling and I'm no gossip. Best you ask the Colonel when he wakes" Janet said.

"What's going on?" Daniel frowned, his irritation evident.

"This man is supposed to be a genius but he just can't see it" Sam shook her head and then got up to leave. "I'll see you later Daniel".

Janet looked at Daniel and smiled. "Well Doctor Jackson, I'm gonna let you out of the Infirmary but don't leave the base. You'll have a headache for a while but a couple of these will sort that out". She handed him 2 small round pills.

"Can I sit with Jack for a while?" he asked, swallowing the pills quickly.

"Of course, I thought you might" Janet nodded, so Daniel dressed and sat by Jack's prone body. He took hold of Jack's strong hand, with the tanned skin and callused fingers and stroked it with the other hand.

"I'm really sorry Jack. I didn't mean to get you hurt again, well, I never mean to get you hurt but somehow it always seems to happen. I do something stupid, you swoop in to save me and end up getting injured. Please don't leave me Jack. Who'll save me then?"

Daniel looked down at his best friend, watching the handsome face and suddenly he felt very weak. He carefully laid his head on Jack's chest and slept.

As he did so he dreamt. Another Daniel and Jack were sat on the sofa at Daniel's place relaxing and watching hockey. They were sat very close together, legs touching and as Daniel watched the scene, the other him laid his head back onto Jack's arm.

The watching Daniel could see from Jack's face that he was very uncomfortable but he just reached for his beer and sighed.

Daniel could only take this as further proof that Jack didn't have those kind of feelings for him, that Jack could never love him like that for the simple reason that Daniel was male.

Then he woke up again.

Janet was stood over him shaking him gently.

"Daniel are you okay? What happened?" she asked.

"Just tired" Daniel murmured half asleep.

"Well why don't you hop up here?” the Doc said, patting his recently vacated bed. "I'll wake you if anything happens".

"OK" he said too weary to argue.

Daniel fell asleep immediately once again but this time all he could see in his dreams was a replay of Jack pushing him out of the way on PX3-549 and the explosion, over and over and over and over again.

He woke with a scream lodged in his throat, eyes wild, trying to calm himself down and figure out what was going on.

Fortunately, Janet was at the other end of the room and so he had a moment to regain his composure before she got to him.

"Feeling better now?" she asked. Daniel realised that she couldn't have noticed. He smiled as he relaxed and looked up at her with big blue eyes.

"I'm fine" he said.

Janet smiled at that, Daniel's usual response.

"I'm sure you are Dr. Jackson. You've been asleep for 12 hours. General Hammond's been asking after you. He wants us to debrief when you are ready".

"Okay" said Daniel "How's Jack?"

"Still the same but Duty Nurse Hawking will be here. She'll keep an eye on him and if anything changes she'll call me immediately. Don't worry Daniel, he'll be fine. The Colonel's a fighter" Janet assured him.

Daniel took one look over at Jack then followed Janet to the briefing room.

When everyone was seated, General Hammond said "Okay Dr. Jackson, what did the dig uncover?" and Daniel realised that he was going to have to do this alone.

He started to speak; not really paying much attention to his own words but no-one was reacting to them so he figured he was making some sense.

Meanwhile his head and heart pondered the question that he had been itching to find out since his chat with Sam and Janet. What was it that he didn't know but everyone else seemed to? He so wanted it to be that Jack had feelings for him but didn't want to get his own hopes up.

He sorted through the memories of all their missions and a few things jumped straight out at him. Jack's support after his unwilling joining with Hathor, the tenderness and compassion shown when he was suffering sarcophagus withdrawal, Jack's desperation to get Daniel back when Machello's device swapped their bodies and his seemingly never-ending patience when it came to a certain Archaeologist. All the pieces fitted together but what would they reveal?

"Dr. Jackson?" a voice interjected into his thoughts.

He looked up. Everyone was looking expectantly at him.

"Sorry?" he asked.

"I said 'Could you tell us what happened next, after you stopped digging?'" General Hammond repeated.

"Yes of course" said Daniel. "I stood up to relieve a pain in my leg and saw something glinting a short distance from our location. I went to take a closer look".

"What was it?" interrupted Major Carter.

"It was a small metallic orb about the size of a tennis ball. It had strange markings on it but I didn't get to see them clearly as Colonel O'Neill appeared to my left and forcibly removed me from the area of the orb. We tried to get further as the object started to beep but it exploded very quickly. Jack was closer to it so he got most of the blast".

"Thank you Dr. Jackson. Dr. Fraiser, what is the condition of the Colonel at this time?" asked the General.

There was a tap on the door and one of the airmen put his head round and said "General Hammond, Sir!" nodding to him. "Dr. Fraiser, Nurse Hawking is on the line. The Colonel's awake".

They all jumped up at this news and looked at the Doctor.

She sighed. "Wild horses wouldn't keep you lot away, would they? All right but you wait outside until I say you can come in".

They all agreed readily and the five of them practically ran to the Infirmary doors.

Waiting outside, Daniel became very nervous.

'Oh god!' he thought. 'What if Jack doesn't want to see me? I wouldn't be surprised if he blames me for this and never talks to me ever again but I can't lose him now. I need him to be there so that we can protect and take care of each other'.

Sam glanced over at Daniel. He was pale and shaking slightly. She felt bad for keeping things from him even if the Colonel would kill her if he ever found out it was she who had blabbed. She shook her head, then moved to Daniel's side, put a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear.

Her words relaxed him slightly. He might have even spoken aloud had Janet not chosen that moment to open the Infirmary doors and slide out.

"So, how is he?" asked the General.

"Slightly stressed Sir, but otherwise fine. You can go in and see him now if you want" Janet Fraiser smiled.


THE END