This takes place at the beginning of season 4 while Daniel is still recovering from his surgery, so just after Small Victories and just before The Other Side. Daniel and my OC, Jillian, start to actively pursue a relationship some time after The Devil You Know and consummate it just after Urgo, probably while Jack is missing on Edora. The existence of Jillian in my stories makes this an AU, though I will try to stay as close to canon as possible. I just hate that Daniel is so alone, so I had to fix that. Jillian is based on the person Osiris pretended to be in Chimera, the person Daniel's subconscious created as an 'ideal mate.' But she's also my alter ego – created as an answer to the fact that Daniel Jackson has my 'dream job.'

A review I received on another story asked me for a warning about Sam/Jack UST. I have since discovered that UST means Unresolved Sexual Tension.

Umm, I see Sam and Jack as an Unrequited Love and I don't mix up love and sex, though that is pretty common in American culture. However, out of respect, I'll restate – in my stories, especially until I finish watching the series and see how this goes, Sam and Jack are UL, not UST. In other words, they love each other without being able to explore or acknowledge that; they do not lust after each other. There's a big difference between "I care about her more than I should" and "I want to get in her pants", and I only ever heard Jack claim one of those things. I hope that makes sense.

Their unrequited love is actually a very important back story to this entire tale; as is the fact that Daniel and Jillian have done every except admit they love each other, even though they do.

The story is long, but as Chaka told Daniel, "it takes as long as it takes." I go where the Muse takes me.

Also, the scene at the waterfall with Daniel and Jillian was written and edited out. It was written for my own personal enjoyment, not because it actually advanced the plot. If anyone wants to read it, I'll post it as a separate story. The harsh words that Jack and Daniel have just before leaving to go to the Temple was also never written, but I know what happened. ;-)

Disclaimer: Everyone and everything recognizable as Stargate SG1 belongs to the creators and not to me. I just take their toys down off the shelf and play with them for a while.

Crown of Stone

Daniel woke to the first rays of sunlight that filtered through the ivory linen of the tent, tangled in sheets and pillows. He managed to roll over fast enough to cover a sneeze with his elbow, shielding it from his sleeping companion. He dropped carelessly back on the pillows and opened his eyes, bringing the tent into focus – or at least as much focus as he could manage.

He and a team of archaeologists had been living on P3X-2016 for three months, absorbing the local culture and crawling like ants over enormous ruins thousands of years old. Among other things, they were searching for the reason Liaro seemed to be completely off the radar of the Goa'uld.

But the pollens on P3X-2016 – a planet known locally as Liaro – seemed to have a personal vendetta against him.

Woken by his sudden movement, the woman beside him stirred. She looked up, leaf-green eyes blinking. She brushed tousled chestnut hair away from her face.

"Allergy medication wearing off?" she asked in a voice still muzzy with sleep.

"Yeah," he agreed, wiping both hands over watering eyes," and I'm out. It was on the list of supplies Jack is supposed to bring when they get back today."

He moved onto his side and gathered her into his arms. Dr. Jillian Anne North – PhD in archaeology, ancient religions and LLC (Language, Literacy and Culture) with an emphasis on ancient history, Dr. Jan to her colleagues and students – rolled over and curled up with him.

Jillian was a member of SG-8 when they needed a linguist or expert in ancient cultures, particularly anything from Babylon to Persia to Arabia. She had been invited to join the SGC at his insistence, after he had read her dissertation. Something with the title Analyzing The Writing of Gods: The Evolution of Divine Classifiers in the Old Kingdom was bound to get his attention. He had been unable to put it down, and had eventually read it twice. Her knowledge of ancient Arabia and pre-Islamic gods was the reason she was on this dig site. The discovery of a handful of artifacts a year ago had been the reason he had started working closely with Jillian in the first place. He had been aware of her before that. No one could be in the same place with Jillian for even a short time and not become aware of her. He had even collaborated on several small projects and reports with her since the founding of the Stargate program.

Brilliant, beautiful, patient, the source of a slender bright ray of hope and laughter in his life, Jillian had become his lover over a year ago. She had shared this tent and this nest of pillows and soft linens for the last month.

As her long legs brushed against his she tilted her head and smiled in a sleepy, wicked way.

"I see the sun isn't the only thing that is up."

Daniel felt the heat rise up his neck and into his face. He had never known anyone as uninhibited as Jillian North. Of course that might have been because he would never have pursued a woman as beautiful or talented or confident as she was; not in the past at least.

She was shocking and exhilarating, kind and gentle. After figuring out that her passion and the depth of her free spirit were only for him, he was learning to keep up with her.

His long fingers pressed the small of her back to bring her closer.

"Well," he said, slowly, "It IS morning and I did wake up with a beautiful woman in my bed. The combination is … deadly."

She laughed, just as he turned his head to sneeze violently into the pillows. Sniffing and gasping for breath he said, ruefully.

"Well that isn't very romantic is it?"

"It doesn't matter," she said, nuzzling his shoulder, "Once you've called a woman beautiful, you're good for the day."

He wiped his eyes on the back of his arm. She rested her forehead on his chest and lightly kissed him just over his pounding heart. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her as if to absorb her into his soul. Jillian had brought physical and emotional fulfillment back into his life. But there was also a spiritual quality he hadn't quite named or figured out- one that had nothing to do with the number of times he had heard her breathlessly say, "oh, God."

At the moment, he doubted he could manage to kiss her without sneezing again.

"Really?" he asked, ignoring the surge of blood her tender ministries caused, "How is that working for Karufu? He sings your praises very day and he's still trying to buy you from me."

Jillian smiled a little at the image of the eager little man who was so smitten with her that he had been trying to buy her from Daniel since the moment they arrived.

She snuggled against the warm length of him, all muscle and naked skin, and sighed. For the moment, it was perfect.

"So what is my going price now?" she wondered out loud.

Daniel turned onto his back and closed his eyes so the blurry room wouldn't make him dizzy.

"Umm, let's see. Yesterday it was up to a small herd of goats, a few camels, two very lovely horses he assures me are proven race champions and a tent roughly ….oh the size of my condo back home."

Another horrific sneeze almost caught him off guard and he barely turned his head in time. Gods, the rest of SG-1 couldn't get here fast enough with his medication. They were returning with the heir to the Clan, who had gone through the Gate with them for a life-saving operation. Maia was vital to the continued peace and prosperity of her people, but at the moment, Daniel just wanted his allergy medication.

When he looked at her again, sympathy and a fair bit of amusement danced in her green eyes.

"I'm glad you find this funny," he said.

A shout from somewhere outside interrupted her reply.

"Daniel!"

Daniel groaned, "Jack," he muttered, "Think of the Devil…"

Jillian watched him fling back the covers, scattering jewel-toned pillows, and striding naked across the short distance between the bed and the woven trunk that held his clothes. Tall, broad shoulders, ridiculously smooth skin stretched over rippling muscles, long waist and slender hips… Exquisite from the back, from the front…..Gods he was delicious and damn Jack's timing anyway.

"DANIEL!"

"In here!" Daniel yelled, hastily pulling on a pair of beige linen pants.

He glanced at the bed and found that Jillian had only burrowed under the sheets and disappeared.

"Jillian? It's not like they don't all know about us." He was confused for a moment because Jillian wasn't exactly shy.

She peeked out briefly. "Knowing about us and being caught in bed are two different things."

Daniel slipped his glasses on and focused on her. Chestnut hair, tousled from sleep and passion, tumbled carelessly around bare shoulders. The part of him which had begun to focus on the immediate task of getting dressed was immediately derailed by the effect of seeing her there- the long lines of her lovely body tangled in the rumpled covers of her bed, waiting for him to come back to her. She was dishevelment and desire. Heat surged again and he swallowed hard.

"Okay, maybe you're right," he said, deliberately looking away.

She dove back under the covers just as Jack burst through the tent flap still yelling,

"DANIEL!"

"I'm right here!" Daniel said, annoyance tempered by grudging affection vivid on his face as he attempted to tie the drawstring on his pants tighter.

"Oh, there you are," Jack said, in a casual tone that made Daniel want to choke him. "Been looking for you."

"Where else would I be at dawn, Jack, except in bed?" He bent over to pull a tunic out of the trunk, deliberately not looking at his supposed 'CO.'

Jack tossed his head in the general direction of the outside. "Crawling around the ruins out there digging up old stuff with strange writing? You love old stuff with strange writing. You could find Waldo in under a minute as long as he was old and had strange writing."

Daniel straightened with a groan and looked at the tent wall in front of him without seeing it for a moment.

"That was going to wait until after breakfast today. We've been waiting for Maia. There's a ceremony in case you forgot," he paused, and shook his head, "I'm glad you're back. Her grandfather is not doing well."

Jack was silent. He did not handle death well. Finally he said, without much hope, "I guess there is nothing we can do?"

"No." The word was a long, sorrowful sigh. He looked down at the tunic and bunched it together in his fists. A fine tremor ran across his broad shoulders and down his back, "It's just his age. Everything is failing. When he dies, Maia will be the last of that line until she produces an heir. Even with her arranged marriage with the head of the other Clan, things will be unstable until then."

Daniel pulled the blue tunic over his head and tugged it into place before turning back to give Jack his full attention. Shock froze him in place and then he shouted,

"What the hell happened to you?"

The horror in his voice brought Jillian upright in bed, hastily grasping the sheets in her fist and holding them under her chin. Military trained, Jack whirled into a defensive stance and then instantly relaxed when he saw her.

"Morning, Jillian," he said.

"Jack," she breathed his name with equal horror.

An angry, painful redness marched up Jack's neck from his shoulder, swollen up into the line of his jaw and disappearing beneath the edge of his collar. Whatever wound he had suffered, it was clearly, massively infected.

Jack remained unruffled, ignoring the question and the concern as if that could make it vanish.

"Nice to see the Janiel is still going strong after all these weeks," he remarked.

"Jack," Daniel said, again, in the voice of a man whose patience was being sorely tried. Then he paused, momentarily taken in by Jack's attempted deflection. "Wait …. The Janiel?"

Jack nodded, mild and innocent as a lamb, "Yeah. Daniel, Dr. Jan. The Janiel."

Daniel rubbed his forehead as if a headache was coming on. "Okay, we'll get back to that," he said, desperately needing to reorder his world and bring back some logic and sense, "What happened to your neck?"

Jack looked down and then sideways. He was saved from answering when the tent flap burst open to admit Teal'c. Jillian drew the sheet up higher.

"Colonel O'Neill was bitten by a poisonous carnivorous plant on P3X-990," he stated bluntly, "Good Morning, Daniel Jackson," he paused and nodded politely at Jillian, "Good morning, Dr. North."

Daniel blinked like an owl, mouth opened. "You were….you were bitten by a…a plant?"

"Yep," Jack nodded," Big sucker too."

"Are you going to be all right? What are you doing here?" Jillian asked.

"Colonel O'Neill is here against the wishes of Dr. Frasier," Teal'c's voice was oddly disapproving considering how toneless it was.

"I'm fine," Jack said, dismissively. When Daniel and Jillian continued to stare at him in horror he said, "Look, we went back to 990 to ask them for some of that medicine stuff for Maia. She was having a hard time recovering from the surgery and Doc Frasier thought it would help. While we were there one of the kids escaped and took off into the understory and we went after him." He paused and shrugged, with that careless nonchalance that often made Daniel want to strangle him, "Got the kid back and he's safe, but I had a run in with a mean-tempered plant. No big deal."

Jillian looked up at Daniel. He knew Jack better than she did. She watched as Daniel closed his mouth finally, a muscle twitching in his jaw as it tightened. He swallowed, looked away a moment before looking back at Jack.

And then Carter joined them. She at least had the grace to look embarrassed when she took in the situation, her fair skin blushing light pink. Too disciplined to back down she said,

"Respectfully, sir, it IS a big deal. You have to have an injection of the medicine the Malu prepared for you every 12 hours or you'll die."

"Jack!" Daniel burst out, raking his fingers over the top of his head in a gesture of infinite frustration.

"Every 11 hours and 39 minutes, by earth reckoning" Teal'c intoned. Jack frowned at him and Teal'c fixed him with a brief, brutal glance before focusing inward again.

A sea-green ocean of misery swam in Samantha's eyes, betraying her feelings under the military calm.

The tableau was broken when Daniel was seized by a fit of sneezing that doubled him over. When he finally stopped Jack said, calmly, "Bless you. Look, it's just a delivery mission and we stay for the ceremony making Maia the official heir to the throne and then we go home. We've got the injections with us and we've got your allergy meds. Come on, you can't tell me you aren't glad to have those!"

"You could have tossed those through the Gate, Jack. They didn't need to be hand delivered."

"I'm on medical leave," Jack said as if offering a child a candy bar to stop a temper tantrum, "That puts SG-1 on stand down, and that should make you happy. You can stay here until I get cleared."

"The Air Force pays my salary, Jack. It doesn't order me around," Daniel pointed out.

Familiar with Daniel's abrupt mood changes, no one was surprised when he suddenly straightened and seemed to shake himself awake. There was only so much chaos the scientist could handle; only so much information he could process and he was actually not a very patient man. He speared them with a look that should have melted his glasses and said, "Okay, out! All of you. It's too early for this. You're like..like…like a pack of unruly St. Bernards."

"What is a St. Bernard?" Teal'c asked.

"Out!" Daniel ordered

Samantha ducked out like the tent was on fire. Teal'c marched out with great dignity, so controlled he barely stirred the sand. Jack started to go but then turned, reached into a pocket and said, "Here."

He underhanded a bottle of pills across the space between them and Daniel deftly snagged it out of the air. Without looking he knew it was his allergy meds.

Jack was almost out of the tent before he looked back in, "Oh, and Daniel?" He nodded towards Jillian. His eyes danced with mischief, "Hold out for a couple of more horses. She's worth every one of 'em."

Jillian burst out laughing and Daniel shouted, "OUT!"