Thank you, guest, for another lovely review. I very much appreciate your feedback. A note; the story is actually finished, it just takes me a while to post it all here :)
Chapter 21
A Busy Day
Daniel went to play in his obstacle course right after breakfast while Jack continued working on the raft.
He cut dovetail notches, about one foot and a half away from each end of the twelve foot logs. Later, he hauled the logs down to the shore and lined them next to each other, so the notches were all on the same height. He slid the smaller logs through the inverted notches to connect the long logs. That was where Daniel's ivy twine came in. Jack used the twine to tie the crosspieces in place.
"Jaaack, I want to climb the tree now!" Daniel was running towards him, waving his bandanna. "Maybe I can do that blindfolded, too!" He came to an abrupt halt in front of the raft, and his mouth formed a perfect "Oh".
"What do you think?" Jack waved at what he had accomplished.
"I didn' help you," Daniel mumbled, his shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry."
"Oh, but you did. You cut the ivy and found all the brushwood to cover the raft. And you had more important things to do while I was chopping and cutting," Jack said. "And of course, you came up with the whole idea in the first place."
Daniel cocked his head. "You didn' like most of my ideas when I was big," he said out of the blue.
Ouch.
"Hey, that's not true, and you know it," Jack said. "I gave in to more of your ideas than I probably would with anybody else's."
"But you didn' like it."
Jack opened his mouth, then closed it again and sat down on the soon-to-be raft. "Not always, no," he admitted quietly.
"Why?" Daniel asked, more curious than accusing.
"Sometimes I didn't think it'd work your way," Jack said, gazing at the distant mountains. "I was wrong about that a lot."
"An' then you were mad 'cuz I was right and you weren't."
"It's not that simple, Daniel." Jack sighed. But maybe there was a grain of truth in the kid's words.
Was he really that petty?
When was the last time he had acknowledged Daniel's contribution to the team, told him that he had done good and was the one who'd saved the day? When was the last time Jack had apologized for being a prick instead of going with Daniel's plan of action right away? When was the last time he had actually welcomed one of Daniel's suggestions without making some nasty remark about it first?
Certainly not since they had split up.
And before that? Jack's teasing and sarcasm might have been a little less sharp and his overprotective act a little less aggressive... but while he hadn't had a problem telling Carter or Teal'c they'd done a good job, he'd become reluctant in giving Daniel the same praise. He had done it in the beginning, and he wasn't exactly sure when or why he'd stopped.
Which was ironic since he'd certainly given Daniel much more space and slack than he'd allow Carter. If she would have thrown half of the crap at him Daniel did at times, he'd have dressed her down faster than she could've blinked.
Maybe that was part of the problem, Jack thought. Carter wasn't shy about expressing her opinion, which he appreciated, especially since she was way smarter than he was. And she was the techie gal, the know-how-miracle worker. But she knew her place and time. Daniel kept egging on Jack's way of thinking all the time, stomping down fences and forcing Jack to change his perspective and let his military training go to hell.
Daniel had questioned Jack's authority on more than one occasion. But aside from that, they had – at some point - pulled each other into a stubborn power play. Jack was as much at fault as Daniel in trying to force his own opinion on the other man. And Jack had tried to pull rank on Daniel just because he'd been pissed at him on several occasions while Daniel had refused to be ordered around or to take a step back.
They had lost sight of what really counted to the point that whenever one of them opened his mouth, the other got defensive right away.
And the whole team had suffered because of it.
"Jack?"
"What?" he asked absently.
"I didn' mean to make you sad again," Daniel whispered. "I promise not to remind you of before anymore."
"It isn't your fault," Jack assured him. "Don't worry about it. C'mon. Let's tackle that tree."
They reached the sturdy trees where Jack had tied the rope. He instructed Daniel to climb one tree and use the rope to reach the second tree. "Try the simplest method first," he said. "Check it out, get familiar with it."
Daniel clambered up the tree like a monkey and a moment later, hung upside down on the rope, hands and knees around it.
"How's this, Jack?"
"Very good. Take it slow until you know you can do it," Jack said, watching uneasily while the kid crept along the rope, approximately 15 feet above the ground.
When Daniel reached the other side, Jack held his breath as Daniel hung there, contemplating how to continue. After a moment the kid started to swing until he had enough speed to pull his body up and, in a whirl of arms and legs, managed to scramble from the rope to the tree.
Sitting in a crotch, he grinned down at Jack. "I'm here!"
"Nice," Jack exclaimed. "Can you manage going back?"
"Sure."
Daniel made his way back the same style. On his next try, using his arms only like he was hanging on a monkey bar, he got that one down pat as well. After a round of pleading with Jack, he got his wish and was blindfolded before climbing the tree.
Jack was confident now, trusting in his kid's strength. In return Daniel didn't try to walk on the rope or jump down from the tree.
When they were done with the exercise, Jack was sure Daniel COULD climb that tree and do tree-hopping at 20 feet above the ground, blindfolded and with his hands tied behind his back.
He wasn't going to suggest that, though.
He wasn't going to stop worrying about the tyke either.
But he had to admit that he felt a lot more confident about the whole mountain climbing thing.
###
After lunch Jack worked on two poles which would serve as steering poles while Daniel tried to teach his little puppy how to run zigzags in the obstacle course. Jack heard the child's laughter and Cupcake's high-pitched barks echoing through the woods. He smiled and thought how much he enjoyed the sound.
He'd miss this Daniel once he was big again.
But dammit, there were so many things Jack had to sort out with adult Daniel. He needed him back. He'd be happy to take the tyke in and be his dad if there was no way to fix him. But as long as there was a chance he wanted his annoying pain-in-the-neck friend back.
He didn't dare wish for more than friendship. But friendship, they could do.
Once the poles were ready, Jack untied his rope from the climbing trees and used it to tie the last logs together. He wondered if he should put the raft to water for a first test. To see if it floated. But while he'd be able to shove and push it into the lake, he wasn't sure how to get it out again without a rope to pull it up the shore. A sandy beach would have made it much easier. But there were only flat stones, and even though the embankment wasn't steep, it was still going to be a load of work to get the raft to the water, not to mention pulling it back up the shore.
They'd have to wait till morning to see if it worked.
If the raft sank, though, they were in trouble.
Scratching his neck, Jack wondered how to fix that heavy thing if it didn't float.
He groaned and decided to cross that bridge if he came to it.
Right now, a six-foot-tall archaeologist would come in pretty handy, Jack thought with a snort.
###
They picked more greens and shineberries later that afternoon, and Jack hunted down one of the geese-like birds. He cut the meat into fillets and put the legs aside for dinner. Daniel told him to squash the shineberries, cook them with some water and marinate the fillet pieces with it.
Jack tried that, and they discovered the red berries became jelly once they were cooked with water. Jack spread it over the fillet pieces as instructed and put the meat on a spit to roast for dinner.
It was delicious.
"That's the best dinner I've had in ages," he complimented Daniel, who was digging in after his usual thank-you prayer.
It had become a ritual they never skipped whenever they had meat, and Jack had gotten so used to it that he said the prayer along with Daniel by now.
That evening they were both in an odd mood. It seemed hotter than usual, and even the darkness hadn't brought coolness. Cupcake was restlessly running in and out of the cabin, and Daniel didn't want to sleep, even though he admitted he was tired.
"I just don' wanna," he repeated when Jack tried to coax him into lying down. "I'm hot an' thirsty."
Jack gave him water.
"My sleeping bag smells funny," Daniel stalled.
"It probably needs to be aired out," Jack said.
"Can we go swimming?"
"It's too dark. We won't see a thing."
"We have a flashlight."
"We can't go swimming with a flashlight. And we need to save batteries," Jack muttered, a little irritated. "Look, I'm hot and uncomfortable, too. But we have to leave early, so we should sleep."
"I think it'll rain soon." Daniel sighed.
"Yeah. Feels like a thunderstorm's coming up." Jack knew the feeling from home. The air seemed electric and the heat had become unbearable. He hoped it was going to happen tonight and would be over in the morning or around lunchtime. He really didn't want to end up in a storm while crossing the lake.
However, he didn't want to wait several more days for a storm to come and go, either.
"'m scared of the lightning," Daniel mumbled.
"I'm right here with you, bud."
They cuddled up together on the bedspread, and Daniel asked for another story. Jack had told him one an hour ago, so he said, "Try to sleep now."
"Can't."
"Can't or won't?"
Jack felt Daniel shrug against him.
Tightening his arms around the kid, he started to rock him a little, ignoring the sweat running down his spine. Body warmth was a gross thing when they were already so hot. "What's going on, Space monkey?"
"I don' wanna cross the mountains," Daniel whispered. "They're dark and high an' dangerous."
"We'll be together and beat them," Jack whispered back. "You and me."
"You and me," Daniel repeated.
"Yeahsureyabetcha."
"What if I have bad dreams 'bout them? I had one the other night."
"You did? Why didn't you wake me?"
Daniel shrugged again.
Jack thought for a minute, then said in a conspiratorial voice, "I have a secret spell against nightmares." He hadn't thought of it until now, but it had always worked for him when he'd been a kid. And for his son. So maybe it would do its magic for Daniel as well. "When Charlie was little, he used to have bad dreams about monsters and creepy shadows in his closet. We chased them away with the magic words my grandma always used when we had bad dreams. Jinxed 'em right out of our house."
"Was your grandma a witch?" Daniel asked with amazement.
"Well, she was a bit into myths and Celtic rites. But I don't know where this one came from. I remember her using it with me and my brother, and I used it to get rid of Charlie's nightmares."
"How?"
They sat up and across each other on the bedspread. Jack held out his hands to Daniel, who took them. He hoped he'd remember all the words. It had been years since he'd even thought about his grandma's nightmare spell.
"The Moon is my friend, who's listening to me, bringing the beauty into my dreams. The stars are here, forever to shine, bringing peace of mind. When I close my eyes, they won't be gone, keeping me safe till the dawn. Now you repeat it."
"Jack, you know a lot of stuff when you put your mind to it," Daniel said in awe, then repeated the nightmare spell in a very solemn voice.
"Lie down again and think of something nice to dream about," Jack said after they had repeated the verse twice.
They settled back to sleep, and Daniel snuggled in again. "Is it just for little kids? Or would it work for your nightmares too?"
"I haven't done it in a long time. Maybe it works for adults and little adults as well," Jack said softly.
A moment later they had fallen asleep.