Written By: Hikari Riku

Summary: Contrary to popular belief, being ascended does not make you all knowing. It doesn't help Daniel understand Jack any better either. Jack/Daniel

Pairing(s): Jack/Daniel

Authoress Note(s): The original idea was a little-okay a lot different, but this works too. Merry Christmas ficcy for Crystal-wa. HUGS! Hope you like this! Mutters Even if it has nothing to do with Christmas and you didn't ask for it. . .

Drown Your Inequities

"Hey, Jack." Daniel says, attempting to project his thoughts into Jack's head, rather than risk speaking them to him directly.

This is partially because, one: since ascension hasn't, as one might think, made him all-knowing, he isn't sure how, and two: he still wasn't clear on all the rules, but even talking to his best friend, even just for a moment, seems to him like it might be a big one.

So grudgingly he purses his lips and looks at the air force Colonel, standing on the familiar balcony, looking over the railing at the streets below with a bottle in his hands.

In another time, another place, this simplicity might not seem particularly unusual, but seeing as by Daniel's calculations it's roughly two thirty in the morning-and, not to mention practically raining ice- it, in fact, is unusual.

Especially because Jack lives in a cabin in the woods. A cabin, in the woods, which is not here, in the city, on the balcony of what is-or rather was-Daniel's apartment.

Yup. Definitely unusual.

With a confused look, Daniel leans against the wall, and frowns. "What are you doing up here?" He pauses, and rethinks that. "No, wait. Let me rephrase that. 'What are you doing here?"

If Jack can hear him, and for some reason Daniel thinks he can, he's good at pretending otherwise, as he empties the beer in his hands, and drops it over the ledge of the balcony.

As Jack whistles, and a flash of lightening streaks across the sky, accompanied by a loud bang-or perhaps it's the other way around-just for a moment, Daniel forgets his place in the world.

It's somewhere between the shout of: "Jack, what the hell are you thinking? You could hurt someone!" and the moment when his hands starts to phase through the Colonel's arm that he remembers it.

His annoyance at the other man deflates almost instantaneously as he steps back and looks at his hand. It looks just like it always has, there and perfect and entirely solid, at least, it seems that way to him and yet. . .

He reaches out again, slower this time, and hovers his hand over Jack's shoulder. He isn't touching him. Isn't trying, because he already knows he can't. Can't feel him, or even the heat coming off his body, even standing this close.

It's the first time since ascending two and a half months ago that Daniel really misses being human.

He sighs. "Why are you doing this Jack?" He asks, trying not to think about all the things he would like to be doing right now. All the things he could be doing, if only he were still "alive".

Naturally, he doesn't expect Jack to answer, as he reaches down and picks up the box of empty beer bottles and turns away, back towards the sliding glass door of the apartment.

But it's then that Jack surprises him, by stopping just as his fingers brush the handle. He gives a slight laugh. "I hope you don't mind." He says, "I know it's stupid, but. . ."

For a moment his voice trails off, and even though Daniel isn't looking at him, when Jack continues, he knows his eyes aren't quite so dry-if the slightly choked sound of his voice is anything to go by.

"Being here makes me feel. . .like maybe you're still here too." He says, the last part barely a whisper, and then all at once seems to compose himself.

Despite himself, Daniel smiles and gives Jack a reassuring look, even though he knows he can't see it and follows him inside the apartment-which is curiously the same as when he was living in it-when Jack suddenly yanks the door open and walks inside, shutting it roughly behind him.

Daniel winces then, as he drops the empty bottles down upon the counter by the phone and walks into the bathroom to change. He's out only a minute later, dressed in clothes that hardly seem fit to be sleep wear, still, he walks like a zombie to the bed and drops down on it with abandon.

Daniel resists the urge to complain about this, and instead takes a seat at the foot of his bed, looking at Jack, lying there staring at the ceiling as though it's the most interesting thing on the face of the planet.

He sighs. "I am still here, Jack." He says in response to the other man's previous statement, looking at him and desperately wishing he could see him. See how sincere he is as he struggles to apologize. "I, I'm sorry for all of this Jack. I'm sorry for disappearing on you guys when you needed me. I-"

He stops suddenly, abruptly unsure if he can even say it. Jack himself doesn't seem to know the problem Daniel is facing as he kicks his shoes off and turns on his side, taking a handful of blankets-Daniel's blankets-in his hands and burying his head in them.

He inhales deeply through his nose several times, and his knuckles turn a pale shade of white as he does this.

Habitually, Daniel looks down at his hands, threaded together in his lap, biting down on his lower lip hard before plunging on. "I'm sorry for disappearing on you when you needed me, Jack." He pauses briefly and stutters. "I, I, I-"

ACHOO!

He blinks and looks up at Jack with a confused expression. Jack who is sitting up abruptly and reaching for the Kleenex box, Daniel always keeps beside the bed. Daniel, as it is, is surprised there's anything in it as Jack pulls out a handful of tissues and sneezes into them again, and again.

"-I think you have a cold." He says, with a laugh as the Colonel bunches up the tissues and deposits them on the beside table. He sneezes again and then proceeds to curl up beneath the blankets, in a way that tells Daniel he's done this quite often recently.

With a sympathetic look, Daniel stands up and moves across the room, more floating rather than walking. He smiles. "You need to sleep." he says, although it's senseless because Daniel can already hear Jack's breathing start to even out as he makes it to the door and stops.

"I. . .love you." He says, before waving his hand gently aside. The light flickers out and giving Jack one last lingering look, he disappears.

------------------------

Lying on the bed in the darkness, Jack smiles sleepily into the pillow, inhaling Daniel's scent. "Love you too." He mumbles, before drifting into the first peaceful sleep he's had in almost three months.

End

Authoress Note(s): It occures to me that this is the first time I've ever really written a Jack/Daniel fic. Feels. . .weird, but it was definitely fun. Don't think I'll be attempting anymore in the near future though.