Author: lord_spyridon
Title: Z is for Zwitterion
Status: Complete
Pairing(s): N/A
Additional Categories: Drabble, One-shot,
Genre: N/A
Season/Episode/Book: Takes place around Season 3
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Mild Language
Spoilers: N/A
Summary: Lou Ferretti reflects on serving at the SGC and a pair in particular. Musing about it, he agrees he's been hanging out with the geek squad too long.
Series/Sequels: N/A
Author's Note: Written for sg_fignewton's Alphabet Soup 2012 over on LJ. I picked the letter Z! Haven't written SG1 fic in years so it too a little while to get the SG1 muse going. For updates on any fic, please visit my writing journal on my LJ. Links in the profile.
Z is for Zwitterion
Major Louis Ferretti leaned back against the large marble wall behind him, keeping an eye out for trouble while the other kept track of the crew of archeologists digging away. The younger generation of doctors and the very few graduate students were removing as much dirt as they could as the stone sarcophagus was slowly revealed from the ground. Reports said that the site was of Aztec construction with a little of Olmec culture influencing certain structures. At what was suspected to be the town center, a large, grand statue of a feathered serpent coiled and wreathed, its beak, snout, whatever, pointing toward the rising sun in the morning. One of the older archeologists was leading that excavation but Ferretti was keeping watch over the second site, located at what was believed to be a mausoleum or cemetery of some sort.
He grinned as one of the graduates stumbled, dumping a pile of dirt onto his companion's backside. It was inevitable that it was going to happen as the crew dug their way further into the ground.
"Damn it, Josh, watch where you're going." His female friend yelled as she tried to keep the dirt from going down further her pants.
"Sorry." Josh looked like he wanted to disappear, preferably to some place where she wouldn't catch him.
The head of the leading archeologist rose at the commotion, his blue eyes dancing merrily as he took stock of his graduate student brushing away the dirt. "Jennifer, you want to take a break and go to the lake to wash that off. Plus you don't know what's in the soil and I don't think Janet would appreciate it if you brought something back to the SGC." Daniel Jackson stated calmly, eyebrow rising as the graduate student continued to curse.
"You're so lucky I don't kill you know and put your body in the grave we're digging." Jennifer stiffly said as she tried to walk carefully away. "Eww, this is so disgusting."
Robert Rothman, one of Daniel's geeky friends who worked at the SGC, snorted, carefully scrapping away at the side panel he was working on. "Before you do anything else, Clarence, you might want to pack the dirt leading up from the sarcophagus to make a nice pathway. You wouldn't want to fall down on some artifact and crush it. Just make sure you dump the dirt where it won't fall back in."
"Yeah, sure." Josh Clarence blushed, going to work on the pathway, the tips of his ears red.
Ferretti grinned as he looked back toward the tree line, thinking about how some of his buddies from the service wouldn't believe him now. When he had been younger and more arrogant, he had been derisive of anything that had to do with science. As a rookie, he had whined when he was given the duty to watch over scientists in foreign countries that had hostile forces. He had never understood why the geeks would risk the lives of men and women for shards of old things and decaying bodies in looted tombs. The view hadn't changed when he had arrived at the NORAD four years previous with a new mission in hand; to explore and analyze an alien landscape for hostile aliens.
When he had first met one Dr. Daniel Jackson, he had immediately labeled the man a dweeb and he had been right. The doc had been the one to open his mouth and get them stuck on a foreign planet light years from earth with no way to get home. Kawalsky had humiliated the doctor in front of the entire squad and Ferretti had done nothing to stop his friend.
Over the course of the next couple of days, however, Ferretti had to admit at the end that the doctor had impressed him. Exactly how many people would give up their life for a colonel that hated him and was suicidal on top of that? Hearing that the doctor had died giving up his own life for the colonel had given Ferretti and Kawalsky the slap they needed. Seeing Daniel and the colonel plotting with the natives to take back their freedom was a sight. And there was the kissing.
But nothing compared to the bond that had formed between Daniel and the colonel.
Ferretti had heard of bonds being formed in the battlefield and was witnessing one forming between these two different men.
Now three years later, that bond was a point of confusion to most of the SGC who hadn't seen the two men work in tandem to find out a way to save the Earth from annihilation along with the other two members of their team. Many times, older officers and newbies would comment how two seemingly different men could have a friendship that was as deep and strong as the one Daniel and the colonel have. Ferretti had trouble those first few months, his answers just consisting of shrugs and small smiles, unable to explain the friendship.
It wasn't until Ferretti had met the other resident genius to actually come up with a way to describe it.
Samantha Carter, a captain at the time, had told him the bond between them was like the bonds in a zwitterion.
Confused, Ferretti had asked her what she had meant.
She had explained it to him and when he finally got it, he had to agree with her that the zwitterion seemed to fit his friends perfectly well.
In her words, a zwitterion was a neutral compound that had positive and negative regions that canceled each other out, giving the compound its neutral charge.
Ferretti definitely saw Daniel as the positive region of the friendship since the man always firmly believed in the best of people even if they were odd and hostile looking. Even if the native people had a dagger to his throat, the first thing that Daniel believed that it was a cultural misunderstanding and would immediately try to figure out what it was that went FUBAR. It would never cross Daniel's mind that the hostile people were in fact hostile because they wanted to carve them for a ritual sacrifice or that they just like killing newcomers. Considering at those moments that Daniel usually had no clue about the language, it was an astonishing feat once he did figure it out. Though, it did give the colonel grey hairs and sent other military officers on edge. Then, there was the saving people thing Daniel had plus the weird little thing about women falling in love with him. Ferretti guessed it was that people were drawn to Daniel because of the goodness in the world that he seemed to represent, the innocence resonating in how he spoke of the wonders of the stargate. It also had the effect of drawing the ones who wanted to stamp out of him. Thank god, Teal'c and a couple of the other officer had taken it upon themselves that Daniel didn't get jumped from the younger soldiers who thought geeks shouldn't be on the front lines.
Then there was the colonel.
Jack didn't mean to be the pessimistic one to Daniel's optimism but the hard life of a Black Ops colonel rarely allowed innocence to live long in the service. Usually, it just got you and your teammates killed faster. Colonel O'Neill made damn sure that any hostile threat that was in their vicinity, especially Daniel's, was quickly dealt with. Then, there were times where the Colonel and Daniel went at it. The first few times, Ferretti believed that the Colonel had slipped back into the personality before the Abydos mission and that he had to step in before he shot the doc dead. He was shocked when the two men slugged it off and went to O'Malley's for a bite to eat when they had been at each other's throats two minutes before.
It had taken a while for Ferretti to understand that it was just part of their solid but somewhat volatile friendship, which made for some amusing incidents like when the Colonel had been juggling a few of Daniel's rock- artifacts, Ferretti reminded himself- in his office while Daniel looked on in concern for the priceless objects. Then there was that time where Daniel started cursing the Colonel out for switching the coffee to decaf that one time on Janet's orders. Ferretti had never known that it was in him to go all potty sailor mouth on the flyboy.
Yup, just like a zwitterion with its hydrogen atom being switched between the carboxyl and amino group; one end taking, the other giving.
Of course, the exchange between the two men depended on the environment and the circumstances. If Daniel needed it, Jack would give him the support, watching his friend's back as they played diplomats. He also made sure the doc ate when they were on base, making sure he didn't skip meals while submerged in his research. Other times, the exchange went in the opposite direction; Daniel would make sure the Colonel had all the information on the enemy they were fighting, guided the colonel on the moral path, or play soldier. When it came down to it, Daniel was a pretty good shot, on par with most of the career officers at the SGC.
"Okay, folks, dinner time!" The colonel announced as he walked into the ruins, Teal'c by his side. "Let's go, people." Ferretti assumed it was about time since the pale blue sun was beginning to set in what they had labeled the east.
"Jack, five more minutes. We're almost done here."
Tilting his cap back, the colonel checked his watch. "You said thattwenty minutes ago when I asked you the first, second, and third time. The food is warm and ready to be consumed."
"But-"
"Ah, I think you shouldn't forget that it's not only you are the only ones here." The colonel pointed to his direction. "Ferretti has been kind enough to watch you guys toil away at dead people. I'm sure he's hungry too."
Daniel looked like he wanted to argue but eventually caved in. "Give us some time to cover the sites up." The colonel nodded and Daniel went back to ordering his small troupe in protecting the sites they opened up.
"I didn't think they would stop anytime soon." Ferretti said to the two SG-1 members. "They're just happy scrapping away at the dirt."
"Bunch of rocks and dust particles," Jack grumbled, pulling his cap down over his eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if I should just get Daniel a sandbox."
"Apartment complex wouldn't allow it." The archeologists were beginning to pull tarps over the exposed areas, spiking them down to prevent them from flying away. The wind patterns on this planet were unpredictable at times.
"What is a sandbox, O'Neill?"
"Oh, it's just a large wooden box filled with sand. Kids play in it and build things out of the sand. Do you guys have anything similar?"
"No, we do not."
"We should take him to the park. I don't think Janine would mind taking the kids out for a picnic." Ferretti said.
"Carter and Harris found tracks about half an hour south of here. We might not be alone on this planet." The colonel announced, eyeing the forest on the other side of the ruins, covering the mountainside. His finger was lying straight alongside the trigger.
"Human?"
"Looks like it."
"We're done." Daniel came up to them, the rest of the group heading toward base camp. "Thanks, Ferretti. It gave us enough time to find some really fascinating things we wouldn't have found otherwise."
"You can tell us once we're sitting by the fire." The colonel said, waving them all forward like a mother duck herding her little ducklings. "You know how Carter gets if the food goes cold." The older man began to herd the archeologist toward base camp.
"Jack, I'm a grown man. I've been on dozens of digs around the world."
"I'm surprised you've made it this far. Knowing you, Daniel, you could have died in sand traps in Egypt or fallen into one of those water holes in Mexico."
"Actually, colonel, I think they're called cenotes." Ferretti corrected, knowing immediately what geographical landmark the colonel was referring to. He had heard Daniel talk about them to know that the indigenous people of Mexico had used them as sites for sacrificial offerings. "Me and Janine have been discussing about maybe going cave diving . . . ." Ferretti trailed off as he noticed that Daniel and the colonel were looking at him, one with disbelief and the other with amusement. "What?"
"Nothing, Ferretti." The colonel replied going back to herding the archeologist along, muttering under his breath.
Yeah, maybe he was hanging out with the geeks too long and he needed to go hang out with the other officers at the shooting range. But being friends with Daniel wasn't bad. it just life way more interesting and exciting.
He just hoped that he just didn't jinx the excavation. Knowing SG-1's luck, some Goa'uld would stumble upon them and chase them back through the stargate. Ferretti sighed, rolling his eyes skyward.
Just for once, let the mission go as planned, God, if it isn't too much trouble.