II
"Danny – shoes," Jack said with an audible sigh in his voice.
"Nu-huh, no shoes."
"Yes, shoes."
"No-o." Danny's bottom lip jutted out in disapproval and he crossed his arms, puffing out his chest in his effort of trying to make himself taller.
"Yes."
"Ja-ack."
"I remember these kind of conversations," Jack said with a scowl. "And don't give me that look."
"What look?"
"The one with the eyes..."
"Ja-ack, I always look with my eyes." Said eyes lost the penetrating stare and looked puzzled now.
"Whatever. It didn't work then, it won't work now."
"Worked, too."
"Nope, never did."
Masala held the pair of tiny boots out to the rugrat again. "They are really soft and comfortable. And," she bent down and continued in a stage whisper, "Jack has boots almost like these."
Danny peered at them, then down at Jack's bare feet. "He's not wearing them."
Crap.
"But I will," Jack gratefully followed Masala's lead. "It's going to be a long journey to... wherever it may take us. I'm going to wear my boots. I'm not fond of blisters and, believe me, neither are you."
"I like being barefoot," Danny explained. "I like feeling the ground I'm walking on." He wriggled his dirty toes. "Marble feels cold and smooth, wood is warm and rough, sand tickles."
Masala's mouth twitched and she quickly hid her smile behind her hand. "How about a pair of sandals?"
"Sure, why not," Jack said.
"I don't need shoes," Danny said at the same time.
"Yes, you do."
"Don't."
Hadis' daughter placed the boots on the ground next to Danny. Her long necklaces of colorful glass pearls jingled gently when she straightened up and shook out her flowing green dress. "Why don't you take a look at our sandals, Danny? Maybe you will like them better than the boots. I'll bring some."
"You probably won't have my size. You really don't have to look," Danny said, shaking his head in desperation.
Giving Jack an amused look, she slipped away to find more shoes for Danny to scowl at.
"Nice try, buddy," Jack said dryly and they continued to stare at each other for a moment in a silent battle of wills. Finally he went down on one knee to be on eye level with the most stubborn little man on this and other worlds.
Keeping his voice down so Masala couldn't hear them in the storage room, he said, "Look, kiddo, here's the deal. You want to rescue Teal'c, right?"
"Yes. Daniel said Sam is on her way to get him, but we need to help. We're a TEAM. No one gets left behind. Not. Ever. Your rule, Jack."
He tried not to wince visibly. His rule. The rule of any good leader. The team rule. The rule he had broken on at least one occasion where he'd had the choice to take the other road. Sometimes, out in the field, you had no choice if you wanted to get the rest of your people home. He knew that, he'd been there, done that, got the t-shirt. But when he'd turned his back on Daniel, locked him out and thrown away the key, he'd damaged the whole team in the long run.
It hadn't happened in the field. It might have started there, but even that probably wasn't true. What happened on that planet...
Blue paint on trembling fingertips, sparkling eyes of the same color, a daring, encouraging grin, an invitation to look and touch...
...had only been a moment in time, the disaster that had been waiting to happen for a while.
The whole fallout had hit them later. All of them.
But, dammit, he had wanted to protect the team, not destroy it. What else was there to do? He couldn't have done what Daniel wanted him to do. Couldn't have given in to it.
No, he thought bitterly, you tried to protect yourself. Your career. Your dignity. Your precious reputation. You could have found a way, a compromise. You're just trying to find excuses for being a dick. You've never been a stickler for rules if you don't believe they're good for something. He could feel those memories coming back again, and he couldn't deal with that now. Later. But not now.
Jack bit his lip and focused hard on the kid. Shoes. "Right. We need to be able to move fast to get there in time. So trust me when I say you're gonna need shoes."
Danny sighed and started rubbing his left foot against his right leg. "Really?"
"Really."
"And you're going to wear shoes too?"
"Promise."
Danny toed the pair of leather boots. "These are better than sandals, right?"
"Yeah, but I'll let you have sandals if it means you're going to wear them."
"I need socks," the kid said with another heavy sigh.
"They have cool ones with 'Ba'th Town' written on them," Jack coaxed.
"I want orange socks," Danny said. "I really love orange a LOT."
Jack held out his right hand. "You trying on those boots?"
"Okaaaay." They shook hands to seal the deal and Jack quickly surged to his feet and grabbed a pair of orange socks from a close by shelf. Then he watched as Danny plopped on his butt and pulled them on.
Looking at his feet, he asked, "Can't I just walk in my socks? They're pretty."
"They won't stay pretty if you walk in them."
"Oh! You're right."
"Thank you." Jack clapped himself mentally on the back for being able to reason so well with a four year old – without losing his cool.
Danny grabbed one of the boots and pulled it on, then announced. "Sorry, but it doesn't fit."
Crouching again, Jack tugged the left boot off Danny's right foot and placed it on the other one. He quickly donned boot number two and tied the laces of both before the little terror could get rid of them.
Finally defeated, Danny scrambled to his feet. Jack felt for his toes, found the boots to fit perfectly and instructed him to walk around a bit. Danny took a couple of hesitant steps.
"How do they feel?"
"Dunno. Not bad," he muttered, shuffling around some more. He acted as though he had millstones hanging on his feet.
"C'mon, give them a chance. They look great on you."
Danny gave him a doubtful look, but traipsed from one end of the shop to the other, circling around tables and shelves. When he returned he stopped in front of Jack. "They're kinda okay."
Thank you, Jack thought with relief, giving the kid a thumb's up.
Danny jumped up and down and his face brightened. "Hey, Jack! Look what I can do!" Like a kangaroo he hopped from the sock shelf to the shoe shelf and then to the t-shirt racks. "I can jump higher with shoes!"
"See, they are good for something," Jack said with a little grin. O'Neill – 1...
Danny stomped off like he was marching in a parade or like he was a baby elephant.
He was on his third round circling the shop when Masala returned empty handed. "I'm sorry, we don't have any... oh!" She raised her eyebrows at Jack. "How did you convince him to try them?"
Jack shrugged it off. "Kids. Sometimes you have to remind them who's in charge."
Masala smirked, then sobered and looked over at the small pile of purchases on the check out table. "It is true then. You are leaving."
"Yeah." He moved to the counter, picked up the jacket – Danny had chosen green, like his pants – and started fiddling with it. He would have preferred no good-byes or long explanations. But he'd realized over the last two days that he had more ties and responsibilities in Ba'th than he'd thought.
Masala joined him. She started scribbling prices on her notepad and doing the math on what he owed her. "I know it is none of my business..." she started, eyes fixed on her calculations.
No, it's not, he thought, but kept his mouth shut. What was he supposed to tell her? We're off to see the wizard? Something she wouldn't understand anyway. He wasn't going to tell her about Carter and Teal'c. It would only lead to more questions he couldn't answer. It was just going to complicate things even more.
"It just happens to be so unexpected," she continued after a moment.
"Been thinking about it for a while now," he offered by way of explanation.
"I see." She crossed out something on her pad. "I kind of... thought you'd settle down. Give Danny a real home."
He turned to look briefly at the munchkin who was standing in front of a wall mirror, staring at his new boots, deep in thought. To Masala he said, "I need to make a living good enough for that to happen. It requires more than a winter job to feed us."
"You could work on the peach farm of Viktor's parents," she suggested. "Dada told me he offered you a job there. I heard pickers get paid well. Food and housing are part of the job offer."
Grabbing that way out, he nodded. "I might."
"And will you be back next spring, buying a house?" Her almond-colored eyes settled on him now and the tentative blossoming of hope made him cringe.
He let go of the small jacket when she tugged at it to look at the price tag and write it down. Grabbing the bull by the horns – something he should have done weeks, if not months, ago – he cleared his throat.
"Masala, you're a great," he couldn't say 'girl' because that's not what she was, even though to him, she'd always be a girl, "you're a lovely woman and if I was twenty years younger, I'd be flattered." He raked his fingers nervously through his hair, noticing for the first time that it was way too long. Not how he should wear it.
She dropped the pen and her delicate hands gripped the edge of the old wooden counter hard. "Jack."
He shook his head, forestalling any reasoning she might come up with. "You should be with someone who deserves you. You and me just isn't right." He was trying to be gentle, but how do you sugar coat something that was going to hurt anyway?
"How can you know without having even tried?" She let go of the table and raised her trembling hands to her necklace, sliding blue, red, green and yellow pearls through her fingers. "I'm not a child. I am fit to marry and be with a man. And I could be a good mother to Danny. He needs a mother and he needs a home. My father would support..."
Oh, yeah. Just what he needed. Not. "Hadis is my friend. I'm not going to make him my father in law and let him," he made air quotations, "support me, us, whatever. You just have to get that idea outta your head. It's not going to happen."
Maybe she just didn't want to listen to gentle. And, frankly, he wasn't really good at being gentle if pushed into a corner.
Ask Daniel, he could tell you.
She stared at him, her eyes bright with hurt and growing anger. "Tell me, Jack O'Neill, are you running away because you can't stand the thought of commitment? Is that why you are leaving? So you won't have to be a man and build a family?"
He didn't know what to say to that. It served as a good reason for her to believe that's why he was leaving. He shrugged awkwardly. "Sorry. I guess I just don't have it in me."
Her nostrils flared as she let out an angry huff. "It seems I have made a poor error of judgment. But I can assure you, you don't need to flee because of me. I will not make a fool out of myself by lingering and mooning after you." After a breath she added. "Not any longer."...
You don't have to worry, Jack. I'm not going to follow you around like a lovesick puppy. Let's just pretend this conversation never happened. I can do that, no problem.
Jack tried to pull away from Daniel's voice hammering words back into the merciful empty spaces of missing memories. He didn't stand a chance. He could feel it coming like a tornado now; you could see it from far away and watch it grow and grow, leaving a path of destruction in its wake, until it reaches you.
But before he got hit by another flashback from his 'other life' with full force, a small burr attached itself to his leg and when he looked down, a pair of huge inquiring blue eyes gazed up at him.
Jack put a hand on Danny's head. "Are we taking the boots?"
Danny nodded. Then he asked, "Why are you and Masala fighting?"
"We aren't fighting. Do you want to keep the boots on?" Hadis' daughter asked with a forced smile.
Danny let go of Jack's leg and held out his arms to be picked up, but Jack shook his head. "In a minute. Let me pay first." A slip of paper was pushed into his view. He glanced at it and avoided eye contact when he pulled the money from his pocket and put it on the counter.
Masala stuffed everything he had bought into a paper bag, her movements stiff and robotic. Jack scooped Danny up as he turned away. His other hand snatched the paper bag and he left without looking back or waiting for his change.
That went well, he thought annoyed when they were out in the hustle and bustle of the street. He wanted to put Danny on Thor's back, but the boy wriggled and squirmed.
"Put me down, put me down, Jack."
"Why? What's up? We're going to meet Mikele at the barn." But he put Danny down anyway. Holding the little wriggle worm with one arm was a lost cause.
No sooner had the kid's feet touched the ground than he turned and run back into the shop before Jack could get a hold on him. "Hey! Get back here!"
"Gotta say goodbye to Masala!"
I'm not going in there again, Jack thought and leaned against the door frame. An elongated head cuffed his shoulder. Jack pushed back. "You stay outta this."
Thor's brow shoved against him once more, harder this time.
"I should have named you Bra'tac. You are nothing like those Asgard fellas. Except for the color, maybe," Jack grumbled. "Bra'tac, however, is pretty much like you."
Thor pulled his lips away from his huge, yellow teeth.
"Stop laughing at me." He tugged at one of those long ears, just hard enough to make Thor shake his head and back off a little. "The real Thor never laughed at me. Well, probably on the inside..."
Thor snorted.
Jack was going to miss him.
When he craned his neck to peer into the shop he was met with the sight of Masala crouching in front of Danny who had placed his hands on either side of her face as they gazed at each other.
Knowing about the star child's ability to pass on images through touching, Jack wasn't sure this was good. But whatever Danny was showing Masala, it was too late to intervene now. When he pulled his hands away the young woman embraced him and held him close for a moment, whispering something into his ear. Then she stood and wiped a hand over her eyes.
If she had sensed Jack watching them, she chose not to look his way as she rushed past the check-out table to the storage area.
Danny came over, frowning. "Grownups are so complicated. Was I complicated like that, Jack?"
He picked his star child up and planted him on Thor's back. "Sometimes."
"Then it's good I'm small now," Danny decided. "Things are easier."
Jack squinted up at him as he led Thor away from the shop. "They are?"
"Yep. And more fun."
You're probably right about that, Jack thought.
They walked past the well where the street musicians were holding an impromptu concert. An enchanting melody of flute, guitar and violin followed them and when they crossed the invisible border from the bazaar to the net of alleys that would eventually lead to the Lance, a sax joined in.
Danny swayed and hummed in tune with the music and Jack had to remind him to keep his hands on Thor's neck.
"Is Masala going to be okay?" he asked when the music became more distant.
"She'll be fine. She understands now," Danny said cryptically.
"Understands... what exactly? You didn't tell her where we going, didya?"
"No, that's classified, right?"
Jack bit back a laugh. He hadn't heard that one in quite a while. "Yeah, kinda. So... what'd you show her?"
Danny shrugged. "I told her why you can't marry her and all that fuss. Hey, Jack, is it time for lunch soon?"
Jack opened his mouth to interrogate Danny for more details – and snapped it shut again. He didn't want to know. By this time tomorrow they'd be gone and it was unlikely they would return to Ba'th. If all went well, they'd find the Stargate and go home.
Home.
Jack had a vague idea of what his home was like. A house, a backyard, a telescope on his roof. A fridge that was mostly empty except for beer and eggs (omelets) or steaks (BBQ). A fireplace he liked, a bed that was way too big for him, a guest room no one ever stayed in except for Daniel from time to time.
Home wasn't a place Jack looked forward going back to.
"...can't marry funny-hair-guy either, you know?" He caught the last part of Danny's prattling.
He felt his eyebrows climbing up. "What?"
"Daniel said you wouldn't marry funny-hair-guy, but I'm just saying so you won't get funny ideas."
"Funny ideas..." Jack parroted.
"Uh-huh. We've got to go on a mission. If you marry him we haveta drag him along and he'll just be in the way all the time," Danny explained sternly.
Jack kept his eyes fixed on the cobblestone alley ahead, trying not to laugh or sound freaked. Danny and Daniel had talked about him and Mohawk? And marriage arrangements? What the...? "You're absolutely right. Thank you for pointing that out, Danny. What would I do without you, eh?"
A second later Jack realized what that meant. Daniel knew about him and Mohawk. Meaning he probably had watched them out there at the ruins... Crap.
Danny said graciously. "I guess you could say goodbye to him if you have to."
"No, thanks. Actually, funny-hair-guy isn't interested in a second date."
"Oh." Then, after a pause. "I'm sorry."
Jack snorted. "No, you're not."
A giggle floated down from Thor's back. "No, I'm not." After another pause. "But I'm sorry for you if you really really liked him lots and lots."
"I liked him," Jack said with a shrug. "But probably not lots and lots."
"Jack?"
"Danny?"
"Do you like me lots and lots?"
Jack looked up at his star child and smiled. "Lots and lots and lots. But I hope you don't expect me to marry you."
That made Danny laugh and his mind went on another track, which was probably for the best. "The princess of Ba'th wants to marry me. She says we'll live in a palace by the sea with lots of spires and lots of servants and lotsa pretty dresses for her to wear."
"Sounds like a plan. Did you say yes?"
"Nooo. I can't marry her. We have to find Sam and Teal'c, remember?" He sighed. "Mania sure deserves a palace and dresses and servants, don't you think? She's just as pretty as Sha're was."
"Sha're didn't have a palace or servants," Jack reminded him. "But she was still happy on Abydos." As soon as the words had left his mouth he realized two things in a split second. He had used Daniel's and Sha're's story as a fairy tale for his tours at the ruins. And he remembered the real ending of that fairy tale now - and wanted to kick himself for opening his big mouth.
He raked his mind for something to lead Danny away from this conversation to other topics. "I'm going to give Thor to Mikele. The princess of Ba'th will keep her royal horse at least."
Danny beamed down at Jack. Either he didn't remember the whole story of Sha're and her death or he had decided not to go there. "YES! And if Mikele makes loads of money with your pottery stuff he can buy Mania a new dress!"
"And lollipops," Jack agreed.
"And Ranja can have lotsa cake. He's always hungry, you know?"
"I never noticed," Jack said dryly.
"And their mama can stop taking money from strange men," Danny said happily.
Jack didn't reply to that. He hoped Mikele and Jorge were going to have enough income to make a difference soon. But even with the help Hadis had offered them to build a real business – not the lazy from-hand-to-mouth thing Jack had been doing - it would take a while until Mikele's family made enough money to sustain themselves without their mother's extra work.
First, though, Mikele had to stop acting like a petulant brat and actually take what Jack was offering. Jack had expected him to jump at the opportunity to do pottery and make money with it. Instead his young friend had been mulish and sullen, just shrugged and scowled and neither declined or accepted Jack's proposition.
Jack had sealed the deal for him anyway.
They made a detour to buy Shawarma for lunch – grilled beef shavings from a spit, tomato and cucumber slices wrapped in bread – and reached the barn around noon. Jack placed Danny and their lunch bags on the bench and went to get a bucket of water for Thor.
"Don't feed him your lunch," he reminded the kid.
But Danny was already digging into his Shawarma, his mouth stuffed with bread and meat. "And don't eat mine, too," Jack hastened to say. How could a small child eat that much? Okay, there was Ranja, of course. But adult Daniel had always been a picky eater, as far as Jack recalled it. Or rather he'd mostly forgotten to eat, especially when he'd been engrossed in his work.
"Mppfff," Danny replied, shaking his head.
"And try not to choke on it." Shaking his head Jack placed the full bucket at Thor's feet, patted the mule's neck and went inside to look for Mikele who was supposed to get another lesson at the pottery wheel today.
However, instead of meeting the redheaded preteen he was almost run down by Jorge who stormed out of the storage room. They only avoided colliding because Jack sidestepped quickly enough.
"Whoa! Where's the fire!"
Gleaming dark eyes met his, making the guy look even more grim than usual. "The little rat, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to tear his heart out and roast it over a fire! I'm going to hang him by his feet and make him eat sand!"
Jorge tried to push past him, but Jack blocked his way. "What the hell happened?"
"What happened?! Oh, you are going to love this. Take a look!" Turning on the spot, the young man stomped back where he had come from and Jack followed suit.
At first he could only see Jorge's impressive back in the grubby shirt blocking the doorway. Then the guy stepped into the storage room and moved to the left, giving Jack a grand view on the mess.
He felt his jaw hitting the ground. "What the..."
Jorge kicked one of the larger pieces of what used to be a bowl. It trundled across the floor and hit another shard with a clicking sound. "He went mad. Started throwing stuff to the ground! I could hear it when I came in. Now he's hiding somewhere. Because he knows I'm going to tear each limb from him, slowly, and break every single bone in his scrawny body!"
Jack let his eyes skim over the damage. Two boards of the shelf were wiped clean, its contents scattered all over the floor, some of Danny's artful little animals among them.
He didn't get it.
He'd thought he knew the kid. Mikele wasn't an angel – you didn't grow up around here being innocent and wide eyed for long. But he wasn't a rowdy, had never been aggressive or mean. And yet – smashing Danny's animals was exactly that; mean.
Jack wasn't too worried about the loss of some pottery. The kids could make more and they had to work on stocking up for next summer anyway. It was the cruelty of destroying Danny's work that really got to him.
"Did he say anything?" he ground out after a moment of stunned silence.
"No! He just ran! We spent three days making all this! Three damn days, molding and firing and glazing! I'm going to..."
Jack clamped a hand around a bulky shoulder. The guy was almost as tall as him and he was prepared to be backhanded or punched, but Jorge just glared at him. "No one is tearing off limbs or killing anyone. You need to calm down."
He wasn't sure whether it was Jorge's anger he was trying to deflate or his own.
Jorge blew his long bangs away from his square face. "Are you saying it's okay what he did? Come on, O'Neill! The devil must gotten into him or something! He's gone completely mad!"
"He's just angry."
The small voice drew their attention away from the sight of destruction. Danny gazed at them with huge eyes. When he started to enter the room Jack let go of Jorge and quickly picked him up. The bug was wearing shoes now, but if he started digging through the shards he'd end up with cuts on his hands.
"He broke my animals," Danny said sadly, leaning his blond head against Jack's shoulder.
"Not all of them." He tried to forestall tears and pointed at another board. "There are some left, see? Camels and dolphins. And even a turtle." And he's going to replace every single one he broke. I'll make sure of that even if it's the last thing I do around here, he thought grimly.
Danny nodded and gave Jack a little smile. "It's not so bad then, is it?"
Jorge growled. "He smashed bowls and jugs, too. Hadis was going to buy most of this from us. It would have been our first income. Stupid idiot."
"It's not too late to make new ones for Hadis," Danny pointed out. "Right, Jack?"
"Right." He turned to Jorge. "Get a broom,"
His hot-headed young friend glared at him. "What?!"
"You heard me. Get a broom and start sweeping."
"No way! Mikele can clean up this mess – once I'm through with him. If he's still alive then!"
"You're the only one wearing shoes." When Danny started to pipe up he hastily added. "The only one wearing shoes and big enough to wield the broom."
"I can handle a broom," Danny said, poking a finger into Jack's chest.
"Danny, the broom is twice as big as you are," Jack said, giving Jorge a warning look. The last thing he needed was the kid running around in this mess and making it even worse or cutting himself after all.
The youngster rolled his eyes and shuffled out. Moments later he returned with the besom and started sweeping.
"The little shrimp is right, though. Mikele's mad. And you can't really blame him," Jorge grumbled after a moment where the clattering of broken clay was the only sound in the room.
"We have no choice," Danny said, still sad.
Jorge stopped sweeping and leaned heavily on the besom. He looked at Jack and shrugged. "I don't know about that. But I know one thing. I didn't have real work since last winter and helping the carrot-head with this new pottery business is a chance for me to earn real money. If the rat blew it with this... if Hadis decides he's not going to work with us or if you," his coal-colored eyes narrowed, "decide you're not going through with this after all now, I have to go back to the docks working my ass off for a hot meal every day. That's not what I want, but no one is going to give a useless, clumsy bum like me work that pays well." He spat on the ground to underline his words.
Danny tugged at Jack's shirt. "Is that true, Jack?" To Jorge he said – from the bottom of his little heart, "You're not clumsy and useless. No one is." Jack's shirt was tugged on harder. "Right, Jack?"
Jack nodded. When his shirt got dangerously close to being ripped apart by the persistent hand, he covered Danny's fingers with his and gently pulled them away. "I'm not going back on my word. And neither is Hadis."
Jorge stared at him. "You won't? Not even after what he did."
"Oh, he's going to hear about this. But no, not even after what he did." Jack had to leave either way. Whatever the kids did with their lives from here on, it was out of his hands. But at least he had tried to give them some perspective.
The deal was simple and served all parties. The boys were going to take over Jack's stock and equipment. Hadis would take Mikele as his apprentice and teach him everything he knew about pottery and how to run a business. Jorge was going to be paid for working the kiln and digging clay. Thor would get a permanent home with Hadis and he and the boys could share the mule for work.
Mikele was going to get paid enough to support his mama. Once the guys had their own income Hadis would get part of their profit, but Jack had made sure his friend ran a fair bargain. Until the pottery shop carried itself, Hadis had a cheap and eager laborer in Mikele who was smart and reliable. And he also got his own clay digger and someone who'd take over the long and time consuming process of firing.
At least that's the way Jack had wanted things to go. Now...
"You two know something I don't?" He looked from Danny to Jorge with raised eyebrows. "What could possibly have possessed him to do this? Enlighten me? Anyone?"
Jorge started sweeping again. "Well, O'Neill, if you don't know that then maybe he's right to be mad."
Danny pulled his hand out of Jack's, wrapped both arms around his neck and said, "It's not your fault. He'll understand. And your Shawarma's getting cold. I didn't eat it. But maybe Thor did."
"Oh, crap." Jack hurried out, almost expecting the mule to have eaten his lunch complete with the paper bag.
But Thor was dozing in the sun, his eyes half closed, and not giving a damn about the Shawarma in its soggy tomato juice dripping bag. Jack picked it up, sniffed it and peeled the paper off. It had gone cold and he found he had lost his appetite anyway.
He suddenly remembered take out pizza and Chinese. And phones. They had ordered pizza the evening Daniel had come to him to talk about what had happened on weed-planet...
...Blue paint on his fingertips and the contrast between soft skin and scruffy whiskers. Circles and lines. Flowers and kisses...
...Whoa. Flowers and kisses? Felt like something out of a romance novel.
He went back inside and put his lunch on the work counter to get it out of the sun. "There's a Shawarma here if you're hungry," he called out to Jorge. "It's cold though. I gotta go find Mikele. I'm taking Thor. We're faster that way."
The answer was a mutter of acknowledgment
He jiggled Danny a bit. "Wanna take another ride on the royal horse, buddy?"
"YES!"
It was amazing how easily this kid bounced back. Sad about his broken clay figures just a couple of minutes ago and back to excited and lively already.
I'm almost jealous here, Jack thought as he got Thor ready to leave.
They mounted and left the barn's courtyard.
"Where to?" Jack asked as Thor carried them down the backstreet.
Danny cocked his head. "Where does he like to be the most?"
Jack didn't have to think about that. "At the theater."
Mikele spent a lot of his free time at the ruins. He loved practicing with the ball when no one else was there and he liked sitting on the tiers, counting his money or watching the clouds and the ocean in the distance. And, of course, he was usually there when Jack guided tourists around the ruins.
When their schedules matched they sat there together, having lunch or dinner. Meaning Jack forked out the food and Mikele – and the twins who were often with him – dug in to fill their empty bellies.
They had done that a lot if he thought about it.
Jack liked kids and kids liked him. He knew it was like that in his other life, too. Things like that were coming back to him more easily now. It was like his 'real' past had started slotting itself back into order. He knew he'd always hit if off great with kids even after Charlie's death.
Skaara, who had probably been somewhere between Mikele and Jorge age-wise when they'd met, was the first person Jack had allowed to get close to him again after what had happened to Charlie. The boy had pummeled himself into his heart even before Daniel really tore down Jack's barricades so relentlessly.
It had been strangely painful and healing to spend time with the young Abydonian and to realize there was someone looking up to him again. It had been unsettling to feel that kind of responsibility again. He had lost his son because he'd failed the one small person that trusted him unconditionally. Skaara had reminded him of that every single moment. He had given Jack that same trust. And Jack had been about to betray that trust by blowing up the whole damn planet.
Daniel hadn't just saved Jack. He had saved a whole world – from Ra and Jack O'Neill's suicide mission. The Abydonians loved Daniel and treated him as one of their own. But when Skaara had smiled and saluted Jack or clicked that lighter, it was as if a little part of Charlie had returned. And Jack had taken home the memory of that brave young warrior and his people.
So, yeah, Jack liked kids. There was really not much difference between Earth kids and alien kids when it came down to it. When he'd come to Ba'th – however that had actually happened – he'd made a couple of friends and a couple of business choices, but hadn't been looking for any kind of commitment that went any further than 'I scratch your back, you scratch mine'. It was always helpful to know people and to establish some give-and-take relationship.
But he'd been bored when he hadn't been working or hanging out with Hadis and Viktor – who worked a hell of a lot more than Jack – and so he'd started to fool around with the boys and a ball and entertain himself, and them, with juggling and making up stupid stories for the little ones. Stuff like that. Most of the local brats seemed to like him, but for some reason Mikele and the twins stuck around more often and Jack had let them.
He should have known it was going to come back to bite him.
"He's mad at me," he voiced his thought process to Danny who was tousling Thor's mane.
"Yep," Danny said.
"Oh, for cryin' out loud," Jack growled, and then blinked when the kid actually giggled. "What?"
"You used to say that a LOT," Danny informed him.
"Yeah?"
"Uh-huh. And you used to say 'crap' a lot. Like; crap, Daniel, don't touch that, and; for cryin' out loud, Daniel, get out of there. And; Daniel, that's a load of crap. Or..."
"All right, all right, I get it," he groaned. Poking Danny's belly he added, "You used to get into trouble a lot. I remember that."
Danny stared up at Jack, a cheeky little smile playing on his lips. "Not me. That was Daniel. I'm just Danny. I never get into trouble."
"Of course you don't." He was going to remind the bug of that the next time he took off on his own.
They used a different road to circumvent the bazaar and made their way along the harbor to a small path leading into the hills and to the ruins. There was much less traffic here than on the main road and Jack knew the kids often took this way to get back to town.
"He should thank me," he continued their earlier conversation. "He'll get the best mule ever. He can build himself a business if he doesn't screw it up. He has very clever hands, you know, a good feeling for pottery. Instead he's being a brat. If he doesn't lose the attitude, Hadis won't put up with him for long."
"But he's just a kid," Danny said, sounding way too grownup for Jack's liking.
"He grew up around here, he knows what he's going to get is a once in a lifetime opportunity and he better take it." But Danny was right. Mikele was still just a kid, trying to survive and cope with a life that, on the outside, seemed like a jackpot. No school, not much supervision, a beach, the ocean, ruins to play in... but when you just scratched at the surface there was also hunger, poverty and, sometimes, abuse. Those kids had no advocates.
Jack had no means to change that, but he'd straighten things out with Mikele and make sure the boy didn't throw away his chance of a better life.
The theater, in its ancient immensity, lay deserted in the sunlight. There weren't any tourists around and no kids playing in the arena. A bird circled the cloudless blue sky above their heads, looking for prey. It was peaceful; something Jack always liked about the place when he'd been alone out here.
He freed Thor of his bridle and blanket and let him trot off to graze. Once he'd stashed everything away in his small shelter, he and Danny went to the arena. Shielding his eyes from the glaring sun with one hand, Jack searched the rows of seats. The kid started climbing the uneven stone steps, calling out for Mikele. When Jack didn't spot the redhead anywhere, he followed Danny.
As they reached the top Jack was almost sure the boy had taken off or was hiding somewhere. But when they made it halfway around the rotunda, Danny tugged at his hand and pointed to a lone figure sitting on the ground by a canopied section of tiers.
Mikele hugged something to his chest and Jack wasn't surprised to see it was the ball. He'd probably taken his anger out on it earlier and then tried to make a quick exit when he'd heard them coming. However, Jack knew Mikele would have found a way to disappear if he really didn't want to be found.
Jack stopped several feet away and held out his hands in the universal 'I come in peace yadda yadda' gesture. Or, in this case, more a 'I'm not going to beat the living daylights out of you with a stick' gesture.
"Don't run," he warned. "I came up here to talk. Just that. But I won't be a happy camper if I have to chase you halfway across these ruins and force you to listen to me."
Mikele squinted up against the sun and gave him a fleeting glance, then dropped his gaze to Danny. "I'm sorry about your animals."
Danny crossed the distance between them and sat down next to Mikele. "I know. You can make new ones."
Mikele shook his head. "I don't think so. I'm glad you're not mad, though." He bit his lip and bent forward, carefully putting the ball on the dusty ground. Then he stood and kicked it over to Jack. "It's yours. I guess you take it with you."
Jack stopped the ball with his foot, balanced it on his toes, kicked it up and caught it with one hand. "Actually, I was looking for someone to keep it for me." He threw it back and Mikele's hands shot out, his fingers gripping the round leather hard.
"I don't want to play anymore," the boy spat, hugging the ball to him again.
Jack shrugged. "Maybe the others want to keep playing."
Mikele pressed his lips into a thin white line. But he didn't let go of the ball. Finally he ground out, "You made Mania cry. When she heard you were leaving she cried." He wiped a dirty hand over his freckled face and even from where he stood Jack could see that Mikele's little sister hadn't been the only one who had cried.
He was so screwed. He should never have let them get so close to him. But then he never expected to be forced to leave just like that. He'd never thought he'd be anywhere else but... here.
"I'm sorry." What else could he possibly say? He looked at Danny who wasn't a big help in this. Jack's little sidekick had his head down, looking miserable. He said it again. "I'm sorry. But there's a reason we have to leave. I don't have much of a choice."
He walked over to them and Mikele darted backwards until his back hit the pillars of the stone canopy. "I don't care that you're leaving. My father left us and I didn't care. You can whip me because I broke your stupid pottery, but I don't care!"
He tried to break away to the left, but Jack was faster and took him by his shoulders. "Listen to me, Mikele. It's your pottery now. You can help to give the twins a better life. Maybe send them to school next year. This is your chance. You might not make it off the Lance until you're much older, but Hadis is a great guy. He's going to help you to make smart business choices and double your income. You can trust him."
"I trusted you," Mikele said, pulling up his nose. "To teach me everything. I hoped you'd make me your apprentice."
"I taught you the basics, Hadis is going to teach you everything else. He's far better at this than I am. Think about it – he was born and raised on the Lance like you. Now he has a shop and a real house, two fields and a vegetable patch," Jack let go of the boy's shoulders and took a step back. "C'mon. You have to make up your mind. I'm counting on you because you're the best man I can think off to take over from me."
"I broke everything," Mikele murmured. "How can you still want me to..."
"You didn't break everything," Jack said. "You'll come back down with me and start making new stuff. We were going to work on the wheel some more today anyway."
"Jorge's going to kill me."
"Yeah, well, he's a little..." Jack winced, "pissed, you could say. Both of you need to work on your temper and find a way to get along."
"He's a mule's ass. You said that," Mikele grumbled, but relaxed visibly.
"I know. But he's not such a bad guy all things considered. And he cleaned up your mess." Jack put a hand on his neck and gently but firmly pulled him away from the canopy. "Let's go. You've got work to do."
Mikele stopped after a couple of steps and, staring at his dirty feet, mumbled. "I thought you hate me now."
"Well, I expect you to make up for what you did. I wasn't happy when I saw the mess you made, but I'd never hate you, kid. And I'd be very glad if you didn't hate me for leaving."
Danny squeezed himself between them and took Mikele's hand. "Come on! Let's not be sad and angry. It's ballgame day and if we work real hard on new pottery, we can still go!"
Mikele glanced at Jack. "You coming too? To the game?"
To get more accusing glares and questions about why he was leaving town? Hell... "Yeah, sure."
Danny's other hand slipped into Jack's and in silence they started down the tiers. By the time they reached the arena the older boy had calmed down and even offered to catch the mule. He went to put the ball away and get the bridle.
"How do you do that?" Jack asked Danny as they waited.
"Do what?" Danny asked quietly.
"How do you..." He searched for the right words and finally came up with, "You touch people and they just... feel better? And that memory thing you did with me, like you're a satellite sending images?"
Danny, who was sitting on the ground playing with his shoelaces, looked up and frowned. "I dunno. Sometimes I feel like Daniel in my head." He tapped the top of his own head with one hand. "When I want to tell people something but don't know how, I touch them and they understand. And sometimes when someone is sad I want them to be better. But I didn't do anything like that to Mikele."
"You didn't?"
"Nope. He needed you to talk to him and you did." Danny went back to pulling and twisting his laces. "I know how to tie them," he mumbled. "I almost know how to do that."
Mikele returned with Thor in tow and handed the reins to Jack, but he shook his head. "He's partly yours now. You take him."
"You are really just giving him to us?" Mikele brushed a hand over the shaggy gray neck. "Why don't you take him with you?"
"We're going by train," Jack said. He had made up his mind about that pretty early in the planning stage of their journey.
"Oh!" Mikele's eyes grew big. "Really? I never took the train anywhere."
Jack bent down and tied Danny's laces. "It's the fastest way to get us where we need to be. We just need to sneak onto it without getting caught."
"Lots of tourists are leaving these days. You should get onto it okay," Mikele said thoughtfully.
"I hope they won't double security if it's really crowded," Jack muttered.
"Why do you have to leave?" Mikele asked, reluctant curiosity in his voice.
"I need to help a couple of friends. One of them is in trouble and he can't get out of it alone." That was it in a nutshell.
"Are they very good friends?"
Jack stood and felt Danny hugging his leg. Placing a hand on the blond head he said, "Yeah."
"They're family," Danny piped up.
Mikele nodded. Then he turned and eyed Thor. "Can I ride him? Will he let me? I know how to do it. I worked for a guy with horses two summers ago. He rented them out to tourists."
"Sure. You treat him well, he'll treat you well."
The boy nodded and mounted with the ease and grace of the young. "I'm always going to treat you well, Thor," he said, rubbing his fingers through the shaggy gray mane.
Jack put Danny in front of Mikele and a moment later they were on their way back to town.