Disclaimer: As much as I would love it, Stargate SG-1 does not belong to me.
This is my first Stargate SG-1 fan fiction that I wrote a few years back and finally completed translating it since I had written it in my mother language first. I wrote it for school were we had to create a "happiness folder" where we had to put in things that had to do with happiness and luck. We also had to write something ourselves and since I was and still are really bad at writing poems, I decided to write a fan fiction. :)
I hope you enjoy it, I know that I enjoyed writing it back then. ^_^
It was the 7th July and Daniel Jackson was sitting in really low spirit in his office and was trying to focus on some findings, which SG-4 had brought back. Finally he gave up and leaned back in his chair. The deciphering of the hieroglyphs was not a problem but Daniel wasn't in the best mood and it got worse when he thought of what day tomorrow would be.
Tomorrow was his birthday but also the date when his parents died.
If Sha're would be still alive maybe then he would have someone that would cheer him up – but without her or the family he no longer had, painful memories would win. That was exactly the reason why he taken tomorrow off.
Daniel sighed and looked at his watch and realised that is was only 1300 hours, which meant that he still had most of the day ahead of him. He stood up and left his bureau.
He walked down the hall – past a few soldiers – and towards the cafeteria. There he took a plate with food and sat down at a table.
Jack came into the cafeteria and saw Daniel at once. Something didn't seem right when he saw Daniel sitting there with slumped shoulders in front of his food and shoving it from one place on the plate to another.
Jack stood in the queue and got himself something to eat while his eyes stayed the whole time on the archaeologist.
When he got his food – if you could call it that – he walked straight towards Daniel's table.
Daniel was so deep in thought that he didn't realise that someone was coming towards him till the person sat down at his table.
Only when the person had sat down did Daniel register the stinging gaze that someone was giving him. He looked up from his squished food and looked right into the face of Jack.
Daniel knew that look on Jack's face only to good – everyone who didn't know him would think that Jack would just looked at him like that to annoy him but Daniel knew Jack good enough and saw in Jack's eyes the unspoken concern.
Daniel tried a smile and said: "Hey Jack. What's up?"
His smile didn't seem to fool Jack and he asked without hesitation: "What is wrong, Daniel?"
Jack gave him this stare. God, how he hated this stare!" When Jack looked at him like that he instantly got nervous since he knew that he couldn't lie to him.
Still he said: "Nothing. Everything is fine. I'm just a bit exhausted."
Well the statement wasn't a complete lie – he did feel exhausted and a bit empty inside…
He could see that Jack didn't completely believe him but to his relief he didn't continue to ask and said instead: "General Hammond told me that you took tomorrow a day free."
Daniel just nodded in agreement but preferred not to say anything and instead continued to eat his food.
Jack leaned back and watched him for a while as Daniel was shoving his food from one corner of his plate to another.
Finally he asked: "And? What have you planned for tomorrow?"
Daniel didn't seem to have heard him so deep in thought he was which was why Jack repeated his question.
This time he seemed to have heard it but hesitated at first with his answer and finally he said: "Well I haven't really planned anything, I just…"
"You just what?"
"…Not so important."
'I don't believe that. So it's time for plan B.' Jack thought.
"Well if that is the case then the two of us could do something. Coincidentally I too have tomorrow free."
"Jack I…"
"No 'but'. You said that you have nothing planned so we will do something together!"
Before Daniel could protest two people joined them at the table. Jack saw them first. "Teal'c, Carter!"
"O'Neill, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c inclined his head.
Sam smiled at them. "Sir, Daniel."
Sam and Teal'c sat down next to them and Sam tried to tell Jack about some kind of discovery that she had made during some experiment.
Jack tried not to insult her by doing as if he would listen to her but in reality he did not.
Teal'c didn't say anything instead ate his food in peace.
Without some kind of warning Daniel stood up whereby he startled the others. He murmured something like: "I have to go. I have some things to do." And left the cafeteria without another word.
The rest of the SG-1 team couldn't do anything but look puzzled after him.
Sam finally asked: "Sir what has gotten into him? He seemed pretty down…"
"Carter do you know what day tomorrow is?"
"Tomorrow is the , sir. But I don't understand what… Oh!"
"Yes 'Oh!'. Tomorrow is Daniel's birthday."
Now a confused Teal'c took part in the conversation. "I don't understand O'Neill. If tomorrow is Daniel Jackson's birthday, why shouldn't he be happy about it?"
"You know Teal'c normally I would agree with you but I have read some things in Daniel's file which leads me to doubt that he would feel joy at his birthday."
"And what would that be O'Neill?"
"…Tomorrow is not just his birthday but also the day his parents died."
Teal'c didn't know what to say to that and said after a bit of thinking: "Couldn't we try to cheer him up?"
Now a wide grin spread over Jack's face and he said: "I was thinking the exact same thing Teal'c. We're going to do it like this…"
The following day, Daniel was woken up through loud knocking on his front door and had to drag himself out of his bed. Who would – on his free day – want to talk to him?
When he opened the door he saw who it was: Jack.
"Jack? What are you doing here?"
"A good morning to you too Daniel! Can I come in?"
Daniel was still too tired – and hadn't gotten his morning coffee yet – to get out of Jack why he was here and so he just stepped aside to let him in.
They went into the kitchen where Daniel's first action was it to make coffee.
After Daniel had drunk two cups of coffee, he was finally awake and tried again to learn what Jack wanted from him.
"So Jack, what are you doing here?"
"Isn't that obvious? I'm here to pick you up! We had agreed that we would do something together today!"
"As far as I remembered you decided that by yourself."
Jack grinned at him. "It boils down to the same thing!"
Daniel gave up and sighed. When Jack O'Neill had taken something into his head, then there was as good as no chance to talk him out of it.
"Alright, alright. I'm gonna change and then we can do something. But under one condition!"
"Which would be…?"
"I wanted to go somewhere and I'm not going to skip that."
"Okay, no problem for me."
Daniel stood up and went into the bathroom. After he had finished, they ate breakfast in a café since Jack had insisted on it.
Afterwards Daniel bought a big flower bouquet and they went to the graveyard there he laid the flowers down on a grave where the words 'Here lie Claire and Melburn Jackson' were engraved. They stood a few minutes in silence in front of the grave and then left it silently.
To change the mood Jack dragged Daniel into a shopping centre and there into some shops. Normally Jack wasn't the type for shopping but the shops they went into were no normal shops. They were most of all shops that had something to do with fishing…
But they also went into some bookshops where Jack bought the newest addition of National Geographic and Daniel looked through some books. He finally looked like his darker thoughts were forgotten for the moment and beginning to enjoy Jack's company.
They also went in a cinema film 'The Mummy' and quarrelled about the popcorn since Jack always stole some of Daniel's.
When they left the cinema it was already late and Jack suggested that the go to Daniel's where they could play a few rounds of chess.
In front of Daniel's house, Daniel stopped in front of the door and turned back to Jack, who asked: "What? What is it?"
"Thanks Jack."
"What for?"
"For spending your free day with me and… for getting me out of my miserable thoughts."
"No problem Danny. It's what friends are for and besides, the day was fun."
They finally stepped into the house and Jack had just closed the door behind him when Daniel already reached the living room. When Daniel opened the door to the living room, the light went on, on it's own and he was greeted by a loud "Happy Birthday Daniel!"
Daniel couldn't believe his eyes: everyone he knew from the Stargate Centre were standing in his living room – how did they all even fit in there? – and Sam and Teal'c approached him.
Suddenly he felt a slap on the back and realised that Jack was now standing behind him.
"Happy Birthday Daniel." Jack said.
Sam hugged him and gave him her best wishes to his birthday as did Teal'c but he didn't hug Daniel instead he shook his hand.
After SG-1 had congratulated him, the other guests did too and even General Hammond and Dr Fraiser were under the guest.
Daniel got presents, which he was coaxed into opening immediately and most of them were books about extinct civilisations – some of them were really old.
When the onslaught had settled down and everyone had gotten something from the buffet – Daniel could for the first time get over the shock the surprise had given him.
Daniel, Jack, Sam and Teal' went outside and talked there.
"And you did all that just for me?"
"Jep" Jack replied "What kind of birthday would it have been without a party with friends and family?"
Before Daniel could remind Jack that he hadn't any family members left, Teal'c interrupted him: "Daniel Jackson. I know you think you don't have a family anymore but that is not correct. We too are your family. We my not be connected through blood but through friendship."
Daniel as well as Sam and Jack were surprised by Teal'c's little speech but Jack recovered first and slapped Teal'c on the back and Sam nodded in agreement to Teal'c's words.
Meanwhile Daniel's eyes watered but he didn't want to cry – it would only be something Jack would use to tease him later – instead he let out a slightly strangled "Thanks Teal'c."
Suddenly Sam was holding something right under Daniel's nose.
"What's that?"
"Our present from us for you!" She answered smiling.
A present? Hadn't it been enough for them to give him the best birthday he had ever had?
Slowly he opened the present and what he saw stole him slightly his breath.
It was a photo album with pictures of the SG-1 team and the whole SGC crew. There were also some pictures from there free time that they had spent together, for example from the day where Teal'c had eaten his first donut and many more with beautiful memories connected to them.
He couldn't hold back his tears any more and let them run down his face.
"Thanks guys. This is the best birthday ever. I'm glad to be able to count you to my friends… my family."
And he really did. He had finally realised how lucky he was to have these three (and the rest of the SGC crew) as his friends and family.
Of course he would never forget his other family but now he knew that even though he had lost one family, he had gained another…