Chapter 1.
Author's Notes:
Given the relationships I've mentioned in passing, I had to place this in Series 8 of Stargate SG-1. This means, for the purpose of this story, Heroes will have to be ignored. Just consider this an AU story and don't worry too much about continuity.
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A good friend is someone we can count on, as well as being so much more. A friend is someone with whom we can relax and just hang out, have fun and share our innermost thoughts - deep dark secrets, lofty and noble goals, or our hopes, joys, and fears. A good friend allows you a safe space to share your deepest thoughts and needs - without worry of being judged, criticised or made to feel silly for feeling the way you do. Friends cheer each other on, laugh and cry together, and just plain commiserate and listen to each other. That's why friends are friends.
-- Bettie and Jennifer Leigh Youngs.
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Light flickered gently in the corner of the room, a computer's screensaver pulsing gently as ancient Egyptian figures occasionally marched across the screen. The room was quiet with the timeless peace of a much-loved, well-used library; the only sounds being the soft scratching of a busy pen and the occasional rustle of paper as a page was turned. In the background, a clock ticked; a reassuring beat that accentuated the sensation of the room as a haven, a retreat from the chaos of the world outside the door.
Daniel Jackson sneezed.
"Dammit!" he mumbled, fumbling around for a tissue. He looked up at the time and sighed - that was the eleventh sneeze in five minutes. The book he was reading was old; the mustiness of age clinging to each page and the scent of dust was hanging heavy in the air, even though there was no visible sign of any. It was as if age had embedded the dust into the book's very structure and to remove it would be to remove its very soul.
Which, while a rather romantic notion, was nothing more than a frustrating annoyance to an allergy-riddled archaeologist. He dug around in his drawer for his anti-histamine tablets and finally pulled out the blister pack, an empty blister pack.
He stared at it in dismay then physically looked inside his drawer, as if he could somehow locate any tablets that had escaped his searching fingers.
No such luck.
He put his pen down and rose. "Well," he sighed to the book. "Looks like a trip to the infirmary for me. I hope you're happy."
The book, being a book, didn't seem to care but Daniel glared at it anyway.
It wasn't that he objected to visiting any of the infirmary staff. He got on with most of them. They were nice people and he was one of their favourite patients - always co-operative with their demands and rarely aggressive in temperament - so his visits were always welcome. However, today, in light of an emergency medical situation with two SG teams, Daniel had been giving the infirmary a wide berth. They didn't need people getting in their way and General O'Neill was good enough at lurking for the entire base.
When he arrived, he cautiously poked his head around the doorway but everything looked calm. Patients were either asleep or behaving themselves, nurses were doing their duties with quiet efficiency, and the crisis looked like it was over.
He smiled at a nurse who had spotted him and was rewarded with a faint blush and an answering smile. "Any sign of the Doc, or is she still busy?" he asked.
There were several doctors at the SGC, all of them had the right to be referred to as "the Doc" but only one ever was. It should have caused confusion, it should have raised questions along the lines of "Um... which doc?" but it never did. The Doc was Janet Fraiser, and everyone knew it.
"No, she's in her office. Go right ahead," the nurse gestured in the direction of the CMO's office.
"Thanks," he threw her a grin, which provoked another blush and a smile, and headed off to the office. He really didn't know why women blushed so much whenever he talked to them. Jack teased him endlessly about it and even Teal'c seemed to regard his plight with amusement, probably because he found it annoying. Sam and Janet didn't blush whenever he spoke to them and neither did Cassandra. He couldn't even remember a time when either Sha'uri or Sarah had. Surely if any women had ever had a right to blush when he smiled at them, it would have been those two?
He paused, suddenly experiencing a small flutter in the pit of his stomach as that part of him that was pure male ego panicked. Hold on, it demanded indignantly. So why didn't they?
Face it, Jackson, he told himself wryly. You just don't understand women.
He grinned at himself, feeling a little rueful and knocked the door. What man does? "Hey," he said cheerfully as Janet looked up from her work - a little warily, he thought. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
She relaxed as soon as she realised who it was and gestured to a seat. "Daniel," she said warmly. "Take a seat."
He did as ordered and settled himself comfortably against her desk. "I thought for a moment knocking the door was the wrong thing to do."
Janet grinned sheepishly. "I was expecting the General," she admitted.
He laughed. "Yeah, I know that feeling," he sobered up slightly, studying her features. She had a very animated face normally, with bright brown eyes that reflected at least three different shades depending on her moods. Sometimes, he would swear blind that there were golden flecks in her eyes. At other times, they seemed tinted with shades of red or even green. At the moment, however, they were incredibly dark, a rich chocolate that made all other colours invisible and veiled her emotions from his probing gaze. "How's Philips?"
She rubbed her forehead with the hand that still held her pen. "Stable," she said non-committally. "We'll see how that goes."
He nodded at the response. She looked tired and wan but he didn't bother stating the obvious. Instead, he decided to settle for encouragement. "You have a good staff here, I'm sure he'll make it."
She sighed at the quiet confidence in his tone and dropped her pen on the desk. Leaning back in her seat, she stretched, arching against the back of her chair. She clapped a hand over her mouth as a sudden yawn escaped her and cleared her throat softly, embarrassed.
He grinned at her reaction, which just made her blush and glare at him. "Right, that does it," he declared, pushing himself to his feet. "On your feet."
She looked startled. "Why?"
"Because you're tired and I'm frustrated, so we're going to go in search of my magical cure-all, guaranteed to chase away the blues. And the yawns."
She raised both her eyebrows at him, amused. "This magical cure-all," she mused. "It wouldn't happen to be caffeine-based, would it?"
He flapped his hands at her, gesturing emphatically for her to get out of her chair. "Up, up! Come on," his tone was firm but his grin eloquently answered her question.
Janet rose and then pulled herself up to appear as tall as possible. She didn't make much headway against his greater height but she gave it a determined try anyway. "As a doctor, I really can't condone substance abuse by any of the base personnel, Daniel. That includes you."
His eyes glowed with laughter and he grabbed her hand in both of his to still the finger she was wagging at him. "How about medicinal use? As a doctor, you can control my intake, after all."
"Doctor Jackson," she responded tartly. " No-one on this planet can control your caffeine intake."
"Yeah, but admit it - you have fun trying," he quipped back.
She laughed at the impish expression on his face then squeezed his hands gently and pulled her fingers free of his grip. "Alright, alright, coffee it is," she threw him a stern frown. "One coffee, Daniel."
He nodded in agreement. "Anything you say, Doctor Fraiser," he agreed, shooing her out through the door. She shook her head and let him. His nod may have been an attempt at reassurance but his tone definitely was not.
There had been a time in her life when she had become cut off from everything and everyone in her life, when she had almost let depression overwhelm her and forgotten how to live. Although that had been a dark time she had no desire to repeat, it had taught her a lesson she valued so much that she was, on some level, grateful for her past experiences.
The lesson she had learned was how to recognise, and accept, true friendship into her life. She had a few friends outside the military in Colorado Springs, all of whom she valued, and who were incredibly supportive of Cassandra when work kept Janet at the base, or even off-world, for days at a time. Within the base itself, she, like almost everyone else there, considered the SGC to be a close family unit - while she was closer to some than to others, everyone could be counted as a friend.
She had bonded quickly with Sam, their discovery and adoption of Cassandra, and the Hathor incident, cementing their relationship into unbreakable stone. However, her closest male friend was undoubtedly Daniel, who had a sixth sense for knowing exactly what she needed and when she needed it. Unlike her relationship with Sam, she couldn't think of any one incident that had helped cement her relationship with Daniel, although there were definitely several occasions that had helped reveal the sheer strength of what was normally perceived to be a very understated friendship. She didn't know if he considered her to be his closest female friend, or whether that honour went to Sam, but she didn't consider it important enough to ask. Certainly, there was no competition between herself and Sam for his time or attention. His friendship was a secure constant in her life, something that she had never needed to question and couldn't envisage ever needing to question.
She had, quite simply, never met any man like Daniel and she knew she was incredibly lucky to have him as a friend. After all, if there was one thing his ascension had taught her, it was to never take a friendship for granted. She had a feeling it had taught him the same lesson but she had never felt the need to ask if that perception was true.
It was, however, the reason why she was now indulging his playful disruption of her work. She needed the break, he knew that and, by the sounds of it, he needed it as well. She blinked, surprised as they arrived at the mess without warning and glanced over her shoulder, bemused. She had been so deep in thought she hadn't paid attention to the journey from the infirmary... or to her company. She looked at Daniel, intending to apologise for her distraction and found him watching her in barely concealed amusement. "Oh, shut up and get me a coffee," she mumbled instead.
This time, he didn't even bother biting back his grin. "Yeah sure, ya betcha," he replied, sauntering off while she chose a table. As she sat down, she couldn't help reflecting on the fact that the General's catchphrase had become annoyingly ingrained in SGC conversation. Even she found herself using it on occasions, much to her horror.
Although there were plenty of people around, it also wasn't particularly full, so it didn't take Daniel long to return with the coffee. Her eyes drifted shut as he sat down and she took a few deep breaths, savouring the strong scent as her mind slowly unwound from the infirmary's earlier frenetic activity. When she opened them again, she found him watching her with an intent, focused gaze.
As close as they both were, she still couldn't interpret every single one of his expressions. There were a few that she had never been able to put a context to and, as a result, what they represented remained a mystery to her. It wasn't the first time she'd seen this look on his face and it always made her intensely aware of how incredibly blue his eyes really were. She wondered if she had any expressions that he couldn't puzzle out, it would be only fair for such mystery to be shared, after all.
He seemed to realise they were staring at each other because his eyes suddenly began to twinkle gently. "Janet, I thought we were concerned about my caffeine addiction?"
"Speaking of which," she leaned forward. "What brought you to the infirmary in the first place?"
"Speaking of which?" he looked thoroughly baffled. "How'd we get from caffeine addictions to my arrival in the infirmary?"
She smiled at his confusion. "Seriously, Daniel."
He shrugged ruefully. "Okay, well, if we're being serious, then," he also leaned forward slightly but she didn't feel crowded by their proximity. Their friendship was so old, so established, and so comfortable, that she'd stopped caring about personal space a long time ago. "I'm out of allergy meds," he said sheepishly. "I can't do my work if I'm sneezing every time I open an old book."
"I can see how that might be a problem," she responded, a smile threatening to escape the corners of her lips. "The SGC can't afford to have its most talented archaeologist become allergic to his own job."
"Oh," he said tartly, clearly not amused by that idea. "Oh, that's funny, Janet. Really."
She laughed. "Alright, Daniel, we'll swing by the infirmary when we're done here and get you sorted out."
"I appreciate it," he said a little dryly.
His hands were resting on the table, loosely encircling the base of his mug. She reached over and tapped the hand nearest to her with a finger, a gesture of mild admonishment. "Hey, no sulking allowed. That's my department."
"It is?" His eyebrows shot up and his gaze focused on her face, studying her intently as if trying to spot something he had earlier missed. "Why?"
She sighed. "Oh, I had a phone call yesterday from Dominic's parents."
"Not bad, I hope?" He had leaned into the conversation again and she watched in amusement as the steam from the coffee clouded his glasses.
"Depends on your point of view," she chuckled slightly as he pulled off his glasses to clean them and gestured for her to keep talking. "They wanted to check that it was okay for Cassie to spend the weekend around there."
"That's not a problem, is it? She's done it before?"
"Well, it depends on what plans Dominic's parents have for Saturday, as to whether it's bad or not."
He squinted at her then pushed his glasses back onto his nose, blinking as his focus changed. "Saturday?"
"Yeah, they're going out for a meal. I think Dominic is planning to take Cassie out anyway - everyone else seems to be. But..." she trailed off then shrugged wryly. "They're 18, they've been dating for over two years. I'm probably the world's last Victorian mother or something but I don't like the idea of them having the house to themselves. On Saturday, of all days."
He glanced upwards in confusion, as if seeking inspiration from the ceiling. Apparently, he didn't find any, because when he returned his attention to the doctor's face his puzzlement was unabated. "Um... Janet, what's so special about Saturday?"
Janet gazed at him for a moment, as if trying to decide whether he was teasing her or not but his confusion looked genuine. She began to smile. "It's Valentine's Day, Daniel."
"Really?" He stared at her. "Wow." He paused, considering it for a few moments then his eyes widened in shock. "Good grief, it's February already? Where'd Christmas go?!"
Janet burst out laughing. "Well, I guess I don't need to ask if you've made plans for the weekend."
He grinned at that. "I knew Sam and Pete were going to be busy this weekend but I didn't realise why."
"Yeah, and Sam told me that Teal'c's decided to take advantage of everyone's distraction to visit Ishta," Janet said wryly. "So I guess that means even a Jaffa can get laid on Valentine's Day."
Daniel chuckled faintly at that. "What were you planning on doing?"
"Oh, the usual. Bottle of wine, popcorn, films. Or maybe a good book. I haven't quite decided," she grinned suddenly. "Having the house to myself is almost decadence in its own right."
"That I can believe," he agreed in amusement, being well aware of the running battles that often occurred between Janet and Cassandra. Daniel didn't consider Cassandra to be a particularly untidy teenager but over the years, he had noticed that Janet appeared to have what he could only describe as a permanently active nesting instinct. "Maybe we should team up," he suggested, taking a long swig of his coffee.
"What? On Saturday?"
"Yeah. If all I'm going to do is work, and all you're going to do is watch TV... well... why not?"
She thought about that. There wasn't any major objection she could think of, and she had to admit the idea of company was a lot more appealing than the idea of spending the evening alone. She grinned at him. "Okay, sounds good. Now... what on earth do we actually do?"
"God, I have no idea," he admitted ruefully. "Nothing involving semi-naked women wrestling in jello, or science fiction films, and I'll be happy."
Janet laughed. "Yeah, don't worry, the General and Teal'c won't be planning this one." Her eyes twinkled impishly. "Although I have it on good authority that you, Doctor Jackson, don't usually object to the semi-naked jello-wrestling women."
Daniel turned a faint shade of pink and cleared his throat. "Okay, so... anyway," he said, changing the subject quite firmly. "We could go out somewhere, if you want?"
She wrinkled her nose at that suggestion. "Not sure there's much point. It'll be a busy night with real couples. There won't really be anything catering to us single and bored types."
In obvious amusement, he watched her nose scrunch up. "Ah, so. Really, you want to lounge around the house, getting drunk and being mean about Valentine's Day?"
"Before you get started, Daniel, just remember that I could drink you under the table," she pointed out indignantly.
"Nonsense," he said dismissively, causing her to laugh at him in disbelief. "Okay, fine. How about we just lounge around your house being mean about Valentine's Day and forget about getting drunk?"
Janet was still laughing but she nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me. How about you pop round at... oh, I don't know. Five?"
"Sure, sounds good," he smiled then drained the last of his coffee and squeezed her hand, which was still resting lightly over his. "Well, Doctor Fraiser. Ready to find a cure for sneezing yet?"
Janet finished the last of her coffee and rose. "Don't push your luck, Doctor Jackson," she warned him with a grin.
"Well," he said wryly, also rising. "Since my entire career apparently rests in your talented hands, I wouldn't dream of it."
She shook her head ruefully and led the way out of the infirmary. The coffee break had been short, and it had been nonsensical, but it had done a better job of refreshing her than 8 hours of sleep could have done. Yes, she reflected silently, friends like Daniel Jackson are definitely a resource I can't afford to lose.