J/D Birthday fic for green_grrl!

[sid]

Some Season One pre-slash in honor of your important day!  Hope it's been great!  *smooches*

POLITE AWAKENING

It was the sound of the chair rolling across the floor that first filtered into Daniel’s consciousness, although he didn’t identify it until a hand clasped his shoulder and he fully woke. A sheet of paper clung to his face as he raised his head, and Daniel fumbled it away.

 

Jack was seated next to him, his hand still on Daniel’s shoulder. “You shouldn’t push yourself so hard,” he said.

 

And maybe Daniel had been dreaming about his mother; about the way she would say things to him, her voice filled with loving concern. Maybe he was still dreaming a little. He blinked his eyes, trying to focus. His glasses were on the desk, where he’d laid them around three o’clock this morning when he’d achieved that peculiar degree of eyestrain where he could see better without them, and the few hours of sleep he’d gotten since then had done nothing to correct the condition.

 

So it was with a strange and strained clarity that he looked at Jack and saw the warmth in his eyes and wondered at it. The man he had first met had been cold and closed off. The man who had taken Daniel home with him that first night back from Abydos had been a little more open; cautiously friendly. The man who led him in the field was alternately exasperated, amused, furious, appreciative.

 

This man looked at Daniel with affection. How long had that been going on, Daniel wondered foggily. Why hadn’t he noticed it before?

 

What did it mean?

 

Jack dropped his hand from Daniel’s shoulder to his knee and leaned a little closer, and Daniel remembered another dream and caught his breath.

 

“We’re going to find your wife, Daniel, even if you get a decent night’s sleep once in a while. Got that?”

 

“Oh.”  Daniel exhaled. He felt himself flushing as he looked down to where Jack’s thumb stroked his leg.

 

“In fact, I’m ordering you to start taking better care of yourself.” Jack squeezed Daniel’s knee before letting go.

 

“Okay,” Daniel said weakly.

 

“Starting with breakfast,” Jack said, standing up and moving his chair back around to the other side of the desk. “So go powder your nose.”

 

Daniel stood up and went to push up his glasses by force of habit, but of course they weren’t there and he started to feel like he really must be turning into a complete idiot. Jack didn’t see, fortunately, because he was busy curling his lip at the abandoned tuna sandwich from the vending machine that had briefly seemed like a good idea at one a.m., and whisking it into the trash can. And that just seemed like such a Jack thing for him to be doing that Daniel took comfort from it, and decided that the universe really was still in order and that probably all he needed….

 

“Boy, do you need caffeine,” Jack remarked. “Scoot!”

 

Daniel scooted.

 

Comments

[sid]

Thanks, Monkey dear! :-)