'Father of the Man', Jack/Daniel, rated R

[sid]

Adult themes, ~3,100 words, Season 4-ish.

I was abundantly blessed with betas for this story, and I want to thank them for the kind donation of their time and sharp eyes and thinky thoughts: magnavox_23, catspaw_sgjd,  princessofgand tejas.  It's a much better story thanks to all of you! 

Special mention to jd_junkie, who didn't get the chance to play - this time!

FATHER OF THE MAN


“Dr. Jackson. We were just about to start without you.”

 

“I’m sorry, sir.”  Daniel apologized to General Hammond and the room at large as he slid into the seat on Jack’s right. “My last meeting ran late.”

 

“Quite all right. Before we begin, have you met the newest members of SG-8?”

 

Daniel scanned the occupants of the briefing room. “Well, I know Major Faraday, of course. Congratulations on the promotion, by the way.”

 

Faraday grinned and bobbed his head.

 

Jack caught Daniel’s eye. “And this is Captain Dennison, aka ‘New Guy’.” He scooted his chair back a few inches to allow the men on either side of him a clear view of each other.

 

Daniel stuck his hand out. “Hi, nice to ….” The rest of the sentence strangled in his throat as Dennison shook his hand briefly.

 

“Hello, Daniel.”

 

‘Hello, Daniel’?

 

Daniel swallowed audibly. “Tom,” he said, and from where Jack was sitting (ringside) he both looked and sounded stunned.

 

“You two know each other, then?” Hammond asked.

 

Daniel licked his lips and stared at Hammond with the deer-in-the-headlights look that Jack had come to associate with a frantic brain that was running in too many directions.

 

“Yes, sir,” Dennison answered. “Dr. Jackson and I went to the same school when we were kids.” Huh. The answer was smooth enough, but the hand that had shaken Daniel’s was being wiped on a trouser leg. Sweaty palms?

 

Turning his attention back to Daniel, Jack found him frowning at a blank page of his notebook and nodding his head. Jack could hear him breathing through his nose; short, quick gusts of air.

 

Okay. What the fuck?

 

Hammond got the briefing started, and Jack split the focus of his attention into three (unequal) parts.

 

~~

 

Jack’s footsteps were brisk as he headed for Daniel’s office. Thankfully the post-briefing meeting with Hammond had only lasted a couple of minutes, because Jack had been on edge since he’d seen Dennison leave the room behind Daniel. He didn’t like the idea of the two of them alone.

 

Apparently Daniel felt the same way, because during a short break while Hammond was making a phone call, Dennison had followed Daniel over to the table in the corner where the pot of coffee stood and tried to strike up a conversation. Daniel had kept his head down. He’d said something to Dennison as he moved past to walk back to his seat, but he never looked at him. Dennison had watched him go and Jack had tried to decipher the expression on the man’s face, but he’d caught Jack’s eye on him and turned away.

 

Something was very wrong between the two of them, and Jack intended to find out exactly what that something was.

 

“… you’d better figure it out fast.” Dennison came out of Daniel’s doorway and nearly ran into Jack. “Sorry. Colonel.”

 

“Better watch your step, Captain.”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

Jack nodded dismissively and Dennison stepped around him and headed down the corridor. Jack moved to the doorway and saw Daniel at his desk, head in hands. A glance to the side showed Dennison looking back at him over his shoulder. Dennison turned away quickly. That was your one and only warning.

 

“Daniel.” Jack walked into the room.

 

Daniel raised his head. 

 

Jack came to a halt in front of the desk and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Anything I should know about?”

 

“I… what?”

 

“Before I take my team on a joint mission with SG-8, is there anything you think I should know?”

 

Daniel looked confused.

 

“Don’t play stupid with me,” Jack said flatly.

 

Daniel pressed his lips together. “That’s more your game, isn’t it?”

 

Jack took his hands out of his pockets and planted them on Daniel’s desk, leaning over. “Dennison. What’s the problem? Spill.”

 

Daniel leaned back in his chair, raising his eyebrows. “When has intimidation ever worked on me?”

 

Good point. Jack straightened up. “If you know something against the man, anything that would indicate he’d be a bad choice to have watching your back in the field, I need to hear it from you and I need to hear it now.”

 

Daniel sighed. “Jack, I haven’t seen Tom Dennison since I was ten years old. I know absolutely nothing about what kind of man he is. Although I’d think that the fact he was admitted into the illustrious ranks of the SGC would probably be a pretty solid indicator of how the Air Force tends to regard him, wouldn’t you?”

 

“So, you don’t have a single negative word to say about him, is that it?”

 

“No, I don’t.”

 

“And back then?”

 

“When I was ten?”

 

“When you were ten.”

 

“I didn’t have a single negative thing to say about him then, either.”

 

“But you weren’t exactly happy to see him at the briefing today, were you?”

 

Daniel flinched and then looked away. “I was surprised.”

 

“Right,” Jack snapped. “That would be why you turned white as a sheet.”

 

Daniel’s mouth took on a sullen set that Jack knew signaled the end of this round of questioning. “I’ve got a lot of work to do, Jack.”

 

Jack got in one last parting shot. “I’m not overly fond of surprises myself, Daniel. Just bear that in mind.”

 

~~

 

Metaphors mixed in Jack’s head as he sat down at his desk and fired up the computer. The mountain and Mohammed and the horse’s mouth drying up. He’d skimmed Dennison’s file when he was transferred in, only really interested in his military record, but maybe it was time for a closer look and some cross-checking. First off, though, he could at least verify the story about them knowing each other from school. Daniel seemed to have confirmed it, but might as well get that established and work from there as a base. Jack entered his authorization code and pulled up the online file.

 

Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School. Jack got out his key and unlocked his desk drawer, pulling out his hard copy of Daniel’s personnel file. He flipped to the section he wanted and ran his finger down the page. RFK. Same city, state, street address.

 

Different years.

 

Daniel was only there one year; Dennison six. No overlap. Dennison was nearly four years older.

 

He’d said that they went to the same school. He never said they went to school together. And Daniel had just nodded his head.

 

Jack automatically checked to see if their academic careers coincided at any other point since Daniel had skipped grades and could have overtaken the age gap, all the while shouting down the little voice that was telling him Daniel had lied. Daniel hadn’t lied. Daniel had gone along with a statement that was factual but misleading. Daniel hadn’t bothered to correct the impression that was being given.

 

Because? Because, presumably, Daniel preferred that to the truth. To the truth being known. Because the sight of Tom Dennison still made him go pale with shock after all these years.

 

Jack tried to untangle his thoughts. How did ten-year-old Daniel know an older boy? Neighborhood kid? That made sense. More sense than the two of them meeting on a playground or at the Y, since ten-year-old Daniel had undoubtedly been as bookish as his grownup counterpart today. Just the kind of kid to get bullied. Neighborhood bully? 

 

But Daniel hadn’t had a bad word to say about Dennison, then or now. Unless Daniel really was lying. And if he was, which of them was he protecting?

 

A thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy and a ten-year-old. Jack winced. He knew what he’d be thinking if the ten-year-old was a girl, and he really didn’t want to look under that particular rock, but it looked like he was going to have to. 

 

Jack realized that he had his head in his hands, the same way he’d found Daniel earlier, and he didn’t think that boded particularly well. Nothing for it but to rip off the band-aid and see what was festering underneath the rock, and yes, the mixed metaphors were back. And he was developing a splitting headache. 

 

Sex. Jack swallowed dryly. He didn’t think Daniel would cover up for somebody who had sexually assaulted him. Daniel was covering something up, yeah, but he’d sounded relatively sincere when he’d denied having anything bad to say about Dennison. And he wouldn’t do it to protect himself, would he? Be afraid of being perceived differently if the truth were known? It was the kind of secret you might keep from a best friend, but hopefully Daniel would know that it could never make any difference to this particular best friend?

 

Sex. Not coerced, then. Consensual, to the extent that a very bright ten-year-old on his way to becoming an anthropologist would be capable of consent. Or a seduction, although it was hard to picture a fourteen-year-old with the necessary skills to pull that off. At any rate, a secret sexual liaison that Daniel had thought was buried in the dim past only to find it shaking his hand in a brightly lit briefing room.

 

Who wouldn’t turn pale? It would explain that, and the half-lie about the school, and Daniel’s reluctance to talk. If he could be sure that was all it was, Jack could let the whole thing drop.

 

But Dennison had come out of Daniel’s office saying that Daniel needed to figure something out, fast. Threat? Pressure? A military man, just posted to a plum assignment, reacting to a potentially dangerous situation? It wasn’t old home week, that much was for sure. And so Jack couldn’t just let it go.

 

~~

 

Jack strode into Daniel’s office, pulled a chair around behind the desk, sat down and scooted close enough to Daniel that the chair arms bumped. “So. Dennison.”

 

Daniel gaped. “Are we back at that again?”

 

“He threaten you?”

 

Daniel went still. “What?”

 

“When he left here before, he was saying that you needed to figure something out, fast. I’m assuming there was an implied ‘or else’ in that statement.”

 

Daniel scratched his head. “Figure out… oh!” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Jack. No, that wasn’t a threat.”

 

“Convince me.”

 

“Jack.”

 

“I’m willing to be convinced. Convince me.”

 

“Yes, all right. Okay. He was saying… ‘if you can’t work with me you need to figure it out, fast.’”

 

Jack frowned as the picture he’d been building up in his mind shimmered and began to fade.

 

Daniel chuckled. “And, yes, that’s the truth.” His eyes were warm and knowing as he astutely brushed aside Jack’s thin veneer of professional concern, exposing the underlying mother hen.

 

Jack felt himself blushing a little. “Yeah, okay.”

 

“And, uh, after some thought, my answer was ‘yes, I can work with you’, and I’ve already called him and told him so.”

 

That was quick. “No reservations?”

 

“Like I said before, I’m not aware of a single negative thing about him.”

 

Jack drummed his fingers on Daniel’s desk. “You don’t know him from school.”

 

Daniel narrowed his eyes. “Been doing your homework?”

 

Jack shrugged. “Enough to know that you didn’t meet him in school.”

 

“We went to the same church.” Still with the glare.

 

“Did I ask?” Jack protested weakly. 

 

Daniel rolled his eyes.

 

Jack backed his chair away and played with his lip. Daniel watched him warily. “Okay,” Jack said, finally. “Okay, I’m officially letting this go.”

 

Daniel nodded silently.

 

Jack stood up. “Unofficially? You can talk to me about anything you want, any time you want.”

 

Daniel seemed to be having trouble meeting Jack’s eyes.

 

“Got that?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Okay.”

 

~~

 

The joint mission with SG-8 went smoothly, and seventeen hours spent together in the field seemed to wear away some of the mutual wall of careful politeness between Daniel and Captain Dennison. By the time the debrief was over, Jack was more than satisfied with Daniel’s decision and his own, not to mention the Air Force’s decision to bring Dennison into the Stargate program.

 

Daniel turning up on his doorstep that evening wasn’t unexpected or unusual, and Jack welcomed him as he might after any mission. But later on, when Daniel said, “I’m going to tell you what happened when I was ten,” he caught Jack completely off guard and the tone of his voice made Jack’s toes curl.

 

“I’m not going to like this, am I?”

 

“No, you’re not.”

 

Jack bit his tongue. “‘kay, I’m listening.”

 

“When I was ten, I was fostered out to the Dennisons.”

 

“The …?”

 

“Tom’s parents.”

 

Jack couldn’t help himself. “So much for meeting him at church, huh?”

 

“Does it matter?” Daniel’s voice cracked.

 

Nothing could have been more effective at silencing Jack.

 

“I was fostered out to the Dennisons, and for months everything was fine, it was really good.” Daniel paused and Jack’s stomach twisted. “Then one night Mr. Dennison came into my room and molested me.”

 

“Daniel.” Jack’s eyes closed and his fists clenched.

 

“Please, don’t interrupt, Jack. It’s… anyway. He didn’t hurt me; there was no penetration and he didn’t try to make me do anything to him. He just… pushed my pajamas out of the way and fondled me, kissed me, rubbed himself against me until he came.”

 

Jack kept still and silent only with the greatest of effort.

 

“I probably would have let him get away with it; I really think that I might have. I don’t know. It was… it was a nice house, and Tom didn’t seem to mind playing big brother, and I really liked my teacher and I’d made friends with a couple of boys at school. And Mrs. Dennison smelled good.” Daniel sniffed.

 

Jack rolled up onto his elbow and looked down at his friend. The soft glow of the bedside lamp showed him Daniel’s face, still slightly flushed in the aftermath of orgasm, eyes tightly closed, beads of sweat drying at the hairline.

 

“I might have let him get away with it. Maybe even if he’d come back. I don’t know. But he couldn’t leave it alone.” Daniel’s eyes opened, but they were looking at something far away. “He told me it was all a secret, and that I couldn’t tell anyone, ever. A very special, dangerous secret. He was warning me to keep my mouth shut, or else, basically.” Daniel focused on Jack’s face and smiled crookedly. “I never have responded well to threats.”

 

Jack managed something like a smile as he compulsively reached out and brushed a lock of hair off Daniel’s forehead.

 

“I got up the next day, showered and got dressed, ate my breakfast and went to school. Just like any other day. I went to my teacher and asked her to go to the principal’s office with me. They called my caseworker.”

 

Jack was rhythmically stroking his hair, and Daniel was justifiably looking a little bewildered, but Jack couldn’t stop himself. Tenderness had never been a part of this quasi-relationship they’d stumbled into. It had all (on the surface) been friendship and fun: someone to celebrate the victories with or someone warm and sweaty and alive to bury yourself in until the horrors receded. Straightforward fucking or desperate grappling. The fact that they sometimes slept together afterwards had less to do with intimacy than it had to do with the fact that they were accustomed to sharing a tent offworld and found it easy and natural.

 

They’d been more than friends and less than what Jack wanted, but then it had always seemed to him that Daniel had essentially buried his heart with his beloved Sha’re, and so he’d made the effort to keep his deeper feelings private. But a man would have to be made out of stone….

 

Daniel was blinking up at Jack. “I was taken out of the home and later on there was a trial. He went to jail; I always knew that much. Actually prison; I’m not sure I knew the difference back then anyway.” His voice trailed off as he stared at Jack as though he didn’t quite recognize him. His hand came up and touched Jack’s wrist before falling away.

 

Jack cleared his throat. “Counseling?”

 

“Yes, I had counseling. What happened was scary and really confusing, and yeah, more than a little bit traumatic. But it was all a very long time ago. Seeing Tom again just suddenly dragged it all out into the open. He’d already heard my name, obviously, and was half-way prepared for me to turn out to be the same Daniel Jackson, so it was a bigger shock for me, but overall this has to have been a lot more painful to deal with for him. I’d already made my peace, Jack.”

 

Jack nodded, accepting the offered reassurance. He stared down at Daniel, his hand buried in his soft hair, trying to picture him as a boy of ten. “How does it go?”

 

Daniel still looked bemused. “What?”

 

“It’s something that’s always made me wonder. The way you don’t let anybody push you around. Not System Lords, not entire armies of Jaffa. Not the NID, not political asswipes like Kinsey. They push, you push right back.” Jack curled a lock of Daniel’s hair around his finger. “What’s the line? ‘The child is father to the man’?”

 

Daniel flushed a little. “Poetry, Jack? You’re reciting poetry to me? In bed?” He licked his lips and Jack’s eyes were drawn there, and then to Daniel’s throat as he swallowed.

 

Jack, not quite sure if he was throwing caution to the winds, resumed caressing Daniel’s hair. “You don’t like it?”

 

“It’s almost romantic,” Daniel said quietly. His gaze locked with Jack’s.

 

“Hey.” Jack lifted his brows. “I do romantic.”

 

Daniel was smiling shyly as he slowly rolled over onto his side. “Me, too.”

 

Jack waited a few seconds until he’d caught his breath, then leaned over to flick off the lamp. “We’ll get a book.” He slid down behind Daniel and pulled him into his arms. “I’ll read it to you.” His voice shook.

 

Daniel exhaled, loud and slow, three times. “I’d like that.”

 

Jack shuffled his body in closer and held on tight. He could feel Daniel, burden released, relaxing into him, respiration slowing. He closed his eyes and tried to synchronize his breathing to Daniel’s.

 

“If I fall ‘sleep you gonna lie here freakin’ out?” Daniel slurred.

 

“What’s to freak out?” Jack answered softly. “Like you said, it was a long time ago.”

 

He could feel Daniel’s heartbeat under his hand, feel his chest rising and falling. Feel him gradually going boneless and heavy in his arms.

 

He thought about a brave young boy who wouldn’t let himself be intimidated and a grown man who apparently wasn’t as intimidated by the prospect of new love as Jack had led himself to believe.

 

He thought about what that could mean for the future.

 

He dreamed his way into sleep.

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~

The child is father of the man: William Wordsworth: from “My heart leaps up when I behold”

Comments

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

i love the changes you made.

my favorite part is the way jack thinks his way through the evidence, and i love the way you have him push his desk chair close.... signaling/foreshadowing without giving away your reveal.

just a lovely chinese puzzle of a fic. beautiful!

thank you so much, and thanks for the chance to beta.

i think it's very plausible: how tough daniel was and is. and i love the paragraph of back story about their relationship, too. you give good exposition! it's something i still struggle with. thanks again.

[sid]

I'm glad the changes work for you!

I'm quite fond of puzzles - does it show? LOL

I think Daniel being a tough kid is plausible, too. Yearning for a stable home but smart enough to cut his losses.

*smooshes you*

[seanchaidh.livejournal.com]

I like! You took what other authors would have turned into a sodden bad-angst fest, and had Daniel coming out on top with his personality intact. Groovy. :)

[sid]

Thank you! *beams* Yes, this trope has seen its share of bitter tears and angst-wallowing. I was happy to make it about Daniel's strength of character, instead. :-)

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

This was so sad in some ways but it gave Jack the chance to be there for Daniel and to learn more about what makes him the Daniel we know, and that's always good. Love the dynamic between them here; two stubborn men who care so much about each other.

[sid]

Very stubborn! But they've got a great give-and-take and lots of heart. And the sadness is already in the past, and the future's looking bright!

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Owie and lovely! Of course Jack is tender. Of course! It's too bad that it had to be the memory of a trauma to take them to the next step, but yay for romance anyway!

[sid]

Jack is a big fluffy marshmallow! *squishes him*

And romance was just lurking around, waiting for the right opportunity. \o/

[lyraeinne.livejournal.com]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've such a convincing and well drawn Jack and Daniel. The sexual abuse was handled beautifully, and I loved seeing a strong, controlled Daniel who still hasn't lost his vulnerability. And the cuddling at the end just melted me. Gorgeous work. :-D

[sid]

Thank you very much - lovely words! :-)

Two strong men who can show vulnerability and cuddle up close. It's just beautiful. *sigh*

[lokei.livejournal.com]

That's one of my favorite Wordsworth poems. Nice choice!

I have a dozen good things to say and they've almost all been said already *scans queue again* Hmmm...well, at the risk of being repetitious, I adore Daniel's relatively patient acceptance of Jack's inescapable mother-henning, and Jack+poetry makes me grin and melt every time.

[sid]

I can't take any credit for 'choosing' Wordsworth. :-) Jack came up with the phrase, and I had to Google it to find the source. I actually thought it was probably from the Bible. It's a absolutely lovely little poem, though.

Relatively patient, indeed! As we can see, Daniel isn't a man who needs a whole lot of protecting, so it's really very sweet of him to bear with Jack as much as he does. They're each showing their love, there, but the other never saw it.

[msbeata.livejournal.com]

That's really well done. I love the Jack and Daniel interaction and growing relationship.

[sid]

It's just not enough for them to be best friends and have hawt sex. They're in love, dammit! Sometimes they just need to see the light. :-)

Thank you!

[jd-junkie.livejournal.com]

Not pouting now. *g*
I really like this for lots of reasons, and, OMFG, you've hit my Jack+Daniel+poetry+bed button!! (Probably just as well I didn't beta this because I'd have been reduced to squeeing, flailing and otherwise making a show of myself over this section).
Love protective but not over-domineering Jack; coping-but- vulnerable-only-to-Jack Daniel.
Oh, and *die Dennison, die, not Capt Dennison, obviously*
Oh yes. Much to love. :-)
*hugs*

[sid]

Hey, my ending was influenced a TON by your poetry-in-bed fic. I honestly thought Jack's quote was probably from the Bible, and when it turned out to be Wordsworth... :-)

*hugs you back, OMG!*

So glad you and your buttons enjoyed.

[starting-gate.livejournal.com]

Way to take an old cliché and make it better: strong Daniel and cool-headed Jack, rationally and maturely dealing with an Issue. Plus it was a great mystery, nice build-up and pacing, and with a different-than-expected ending.

(That sounds so reviewer-ish. How ‘bout, well done! *high five* ;-)

[sid]

This bunny is so old that it's possible it wasn't even a cliche when I first thought of it. LOL

But I'm glad that the way I chose to play it out registers as something fresh with readers, rather than the same-old weepy!Daniel we've all seen before (and, yes, often enjoyed, because we're evol that way.)

Hmm. My bookshelves are full of detective stories, romance novels and sci-fi. I suppose that explains everything! *high fives ya back*

[writinginct.livejournal.com]

Really nicely done!! An interesting little step forward in their relationship.

And one has to wonder that if the father molested Daniel - was Tom also a victim?

[sid]

I've wondered about Tom as well. He'd hit puberty, and that could have sent his father looking for a new victim. *nods* And as a corollary, you'd then have to wonder if he knew or suspected what Daniel was facing. But possibly his father wasn't quite warped enough to be sexually attracted to his own flesh and blood. Anyway, I'm glad that Tom's life seems to be in good working order, whatever father-related trauma he's had to deal with.

Thanks for reading! :-)