Title: Little Barriers
Rating: T
F.Type: Vignette
Summary: Somehow it's only times like these when they realize what they have done to him... -Team-
One of my first fanfiction pieces, actually. And I think that, all this time later, it still rings true. That's just me, 'tho. -g-
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-Little Barriers-
Vignette
He hated putting down his weapons. She had always known it. Daniel and Teal'c too. After all, it was more than obvious in those kinds of situations that he'd rather send them some lethal kisses with his P90 than drop it.
Maybe it was because he felt vulnerable without it. Lord knew that she did. Especially when '29+ languages' geek was frantically trying to communicate that they were not, stressing the 'they' and 'not' because Jack was throwing some pretty nasty looks, dangerous.
Just… mostly harmless.
He had all these barriers up around him. Sarcasm. Anger. Pain. And slowly, one by one, they stripped him of them. Lured him into trusting him, into believing them. How could they not? What they had been through would have broken weaker souls. Hell, it almost broke them.
Then, one day, they had woken up and realized it. That somehow they had become a tangled, intricate family- a team in the truest sense of the word.
The kind of meaning where they just knew.
And after that… there really wasn't anything to say.
The four of them just called out, on those invisible, incredibly strong lines that twisted around their hearts and bodies like visible chains. Together they squared their shoulders and faced Death.
After all, what could it throw at them that they hadn't faced already?
It was in the little moments, like the one that had just passed, when she realized just how much Jack needed those tiny shields against the world. Just what they had done in taking them down.
"It's SIR!" He shouted, glaring at her. She choked on a snarl and ripped away, eyes never leaving his. Because, deep inside them, she could see the frantic struggle to hold onto something familiar- something safe.
"Yes sir." She couldn't stop the bitter sarcasm that filled the word, but it steadied him. Gave him a place to stand. And that made the pain inside of her worth it.
So in order to make up for it, to give him that desperately needed comfort, they draw away. Pull out their hooks which have sunken so far into him; drag the deadly friendship into the fire and let it burn.
And then they start all over again…
Because they cannot help it.
It is who they are.
It is what they must be.
fini