Title: Heroes (2/10) Author: Karen Rating: R (for violence and some non-graphic sexual scenes. Whoo hoo!) Pairing: D/J Disclaimer: Not mine, not a one. Category: Angst, Romance, Light Humour.did I mention the angst? Spoilers: YES! Up to and including 'Heroes' and then we swerve merrily off into my own little world. Distribution: Ask and ye shall receive. If you want to. A/N: This is an episode 'fixer' or 'what if'. I haven't seen the ep or read a transcript, so it may be a little out of whack when the episode airs. In my head, everything is hunky-dory and certain events never happen. Period. Oh, and I'm working on the supposition that Cassie is a senior in high school. Dedications: This is completely and totally inspired by the wonderful D/J vids at www.gypsy-gateway.com, specifically 'Words He Doesn't Say' and 'I'll Be Good To You'. Wonderful, wonderful vids, thanks for the inspiration and all your kindness to a D/J newbie, Amy.

Part 2.

"Ok, please tell me Janet's definitely coming back today." Jack O' Neill spoke out of the corner of his mouth to Sam Carter as he watched Daniel de- branch an innocuous looking tree for firewood with a little more aggression than the Colonel thought was strictly necessary. "I don't think I can take much more of Lord of the Pissed, Carter."

Sam raised her eyebrows as Daniel hacked at an innocent branch hard enough to send Teal'c ducking for cover as splinters flew. "Yes, sir, she is." She bit her lip as the branch surrendered and Daniel started chopping furiously at the next branch up. "But I don't think it will help, she'd made up her mind, she won't be seeing him in a personal capacity anymore."

"Why, for cryin' out loud?" Jack turned to face his 2IC and glared. "What did he do, does he snore or somethin'? She's a goddamned doctor, she must be able to give him something for it!"

Sam flashed a brief smile at her commander's attempt at humour and shrugged. "I couldn't say." She narrowed her eyes in Daniel's direction and muttered enigmatically. "And neither could Janet."

"Won't more like." Jack eyed Sam's bland expression accusingly. "Y'know, Carter, I thought we had a good relationship, thought we were friends." He sighed mournfully. "Obviously I was mistaken."

"Obviously you were, sir." Unmoved by his blatant attempt to guilt her into telling her what she knew about Janet's reasons for dumping Daniel, Sam stifled a smile and went back to the scribbled notes she had been studying before she had been interrupted.

"Ca-aaarter!" Looking more like a pre-adolescent boy than a distinguished Colonel in the US Airforce, Jack stuck out his lower lip. "C'mon, spill already."

"Sir, it's not my place to say anything." Exasperated, Sam frowned up at her CO and flicked a glance at Daniel. "I'm sure Daniel wouldn't appreciate us discussing his former relationship like this either."

"Daniel would be over the goddamned moon at us discussing his relationship like this, Sam." Jack crouched down beside his favourite Major and fixed her with uncharacteristically serious brown eyes. "The reason being is he hasn't got a clue what he did that was so wrong and you seem to be the only one around here who does."

"Well if he'd have paid a bit more attention in to Janet in the first place, then maybe this wouldn't have happened!" Sam swore as she realised she'd let slip more than she intended. "I'm going to check the perimeter, sir."

"Denied, Major." Jack gave his best military glare and Sam sat resentfully back down on the rock she had been perched on. "Want to explain that last remark?"

"No, sir." Resisting the urge to cross her arms and indulge in a good, hard sulk, Sam settled for lifting her chin mutinously. "And if you insist on pressing this line of communication, you'll leave me with no choice but to inform General Hammond of your unfair abuse of your superior rank when we gate back to Earth."

Jack grinned wolfishly. "Go right ahead, I'll have you court-marshalled for." The grin faded slightly as he realised he had nothing to blackmail her with, but he recovered after a moment to finish triumphantly. "The absolute worst thing I can think of between now and when we hit the ramp in the gate room."

"Sir!" "Carter!"

"You know, I'm sick of everyone making out like Janet's the bad guy in all this." Sam threw up her hands in exasperated surrender. "She kept trying long after I'd have kicked his butt out."

Jack blinked at the fierce tone in Sam's voice; she was normally so tolerant of Daniel's little idiosyncrasies. "This is still Daniel we're talking about, right?"

"I honestly don't know anymore, Jack." Sam cast a quick look at Daniel and Teal'c, made sure they were still occupied in mutilating defenceless wood and lowered her voice. "Would the Daniel we know be with a woman for six months and never spend the night with her?" She rolled her eyes at Jack's puzzled look and clarified. "Never sleep in the same bed with her. They'd go out, have a great time, come home, have another good time and then Jan would wake up in the morning and he'd be gone. Every single time."

Looking sorry he'd ever asked, Jack shifted uneasily in his crouched position. "Er, too much information, Carter."

"And it was always at Janet's house, he never once asked her to go home with him." Warming to her theme after two weeks of Daniel making life miserable for everyone he came into contact with and Jack constantly bugging her for information, Sam relished finally deciding to defend her friend. "He never showed her any affection unless they were in an intimate situation and she always chased him to set up dates." Sam sniffed in outrage. "He's damn lucky he wasn't dating me, I'd have shot his ass for sure."

"Well, Sam, he's been through a lot these last few years."And that was as far as Jack got before his 2IC slapped a hand against his shoulder and knocked him on his ass.

"Don't even go there, Colonel." Sam's eyes flashed and Jack stared speechlessly up at the annoyed woman. "Daniel was the one that pursued Janet when he came back not the other way around. If he wasn't ready for a relationship and all it meant then he shouldn't have bothered." She made sure her firearm was in place and stood up. "Permission to check the perimeter NOW, sir?"

"Uh, permission granted, Major." Jack watched as she stomped off into the trees, thought about shouting after her to be careful and then found himself hoping she would run into a squad of Jaffas in her present mood. Bastard snakeheads wouldn't know what hit them and, if he was quick, he could grab the team's camcorder and tape the fun to bootleg around the SGC on their return. He glanced at Daniel and Teal'c as Sam disappeared and rolled his eyes when he saw neither of them had noticed Sam's abrupt exit, being still focused on mutilating the local flora. Way to keep lookout, guys.

**********************************

Daniel was, not unusually, the first one through the infirmary doors when they gated back to Earth but, in an almost unprecedented move, he wasn't bleeding or being wheeled in on a gurney unconscious. He scowled at a nervous looking nurse that smiled tentatively at him and snapped. "Doctor Frasier?"

"She's not here, Doctor Jackson." The nurse clutched the folded blankets she was holding like a shield and prayed to any god she could think of, false or otherwise, that he wouldn't start yelling at her like he'd done the previous week when she'd stitched up a wound on his hand after his last off-world jaunt and he thought the stitches were too big. The unfortunate nurse blinked worried eyes. "She's in a briefing with General Hammond at the moment, sir."

Daniel's scowl deepened. "What time is she expected to be free?"

"Um." The poor young woman looked pitifully relieved as the rest of SG1 arrived behind Daniel. "Colonel O' Neill, sir!"

"Danny, leave the kid alone." Jack glanced around the room, noted the lack of short redheads and waved the nurse away. "Just relax."

"I am relaxed." Daniel's teeth ground together audibly. "I didn't do anything."

"DanielJackson, you have seemed unusually tense these past few days." Teal'c cocked an eyebrow and moved over to his usual cot to await his post- mission check-up. "It is most puzzling."

Sam hopped up on the cot opposite the Jaffa and whispered fiercely. "Not helping, Teal'c." She eyed her friend as he allowed the slightest hint of a knowing smile to grace his lips and hissed in annoyance. "Stop it!"

"I do not understand, Major Carter, should we not be concerned for our friend?" Teal'c didn't bother to lower his voice and earned himself a fierce glare from both Daniel and Sam as Jack's lips twitched in a smirk behind them.

The tension in the room went up another notch as the sound of familiar heels clicking down the corridor outside the room sounded and then Janet Fraiser marched briskly into the room. "Hello, people." She glanced around with a professional smile, eyes not betraying a hint of any uneasiness at seeing Daniel standing in the middle of the room. "Sorry I wasn't here to meet you but I had an awful lot to catch up on with the General before I could start down here." She moved to the box on the wall to pull out a pair of latex gloves and snapped them on. "Any problems?"

Even Sam couldn't help her eyes swinging to Daniel's figure still standing in the middle of the room, staring at the doctor silently. Janet tutted, walked across to take Daniel's elbow in her hand and guide him across to the nearest cot. "I might have known. Ok, Daniel what have you done to yourself this time?" She kept a careful distance between them and her eyes away from his as she visually assessed him. "No blood, that's a good sign and you can still walk under your own steam. Where are you hurt?"

"I'm not hurt, why does everyone keep saying that?" Daniel bent his head and tried to catch her eye as she wrapped the pad to take his blood pressure around his arm. "I just need to talk to you."

Janet kept her own eyes on the rubber bulb in her hand as she began to squeeze it rhythmically and nodded. "Of course. Is it a medical problem?" She glanced up to see Daniel's confused shake of his head and then looked down at her readings again. "Then, no. I'm not available." Before Daniel could answer her, Janet stepped back and smiled at the rest of SG1. "Well, if there's no broken bones or internal bleeding to worry about then I'm going to leave you in the capable hands of the nurses to take care of the basics. I'll see you all soon."

Jack watched her march out of the room and two nurses edge cautiously back in before giving a shiver. "Is it suddenly very, very cold in here?" He moved as Daniel jumped off the cot he was on and slapped one hand on the younger man's chest as he started to go after Janet. "Not a good idea, kid, calm down."

"Get out of my way, Jack." All but snarling, Daniel was fast approaching meltdown at Janet's casual dismissal of him. "I'm going to talk to her."

"Not here, Daniel." Jack lowered his voice and ignored Sam's pointed stare as he whispered. "Not in front of everyone on base, Danny. She'll be at home tonight, you can catch her then."

Daniel glared at the doorway Janet had just left through and for a moment considered trying to shove Jack aside and follow her anyway, but common sense, and a healthy respect for Jack's hand to hand skills, stopped him. "Fine." He gave his friend a short nod and brushed Jack's hand away. "Tonight."

*********************************

Sam reached across to top up Janet's wine and then tilted the nearly empty bottle over her own glass. "So, good vacation?"

"Great." Curled up in a corner of Sam's deep sofa in sweats and with a towel wrapped around her damp hair, Janet smiled warmly at her friend. "Cassie had a blast seeing all the national monuments and stuff, and it was great to get away from alien invasions and stuff for a while."

Sam, her own hair standing up in careless wet clumps from her own shower, nodded. "I'll bet." She wriggled into a more comfortable position in her own chair and took a sip of wine. "I was kinda surprised when you and Cass decided to stay over here tonight though, thought you'd have a thousand and one things to catch up on at home."

Janet flushed under Sam's guileless eyes. "We did everything we needed to do last night when you guys were still off world. I just thought it would be nice to catch up and." She trailed off under Sam's knowing look and sighed in surrender. "Hide out here so I don't have to see Daniel tonight."

"Wuss." Nodding in satisfaction that she gotten the answer she wanted out of her friend, Sam glanced towards the stairs to make sure Cassie wasn't lurking before continuing softly. "So how have you been, really?"

"Confused, lonely, self-pitying." Janet stared into the bottom of her glass. "Your general, run of the mill break-up blues."

"Uh-huh." Sam paused for a moment and then figured the hell with it. "Did anyone say anything to you about Daniel on base today, about how he's been acting since you left?"

"No." Janet frowned uneasily. "Why would they?"

"Jan, I'm your friend, right?" Sam didn't wait for Janet's nod of agreement and swept on. "So I'm not going to lie to you about this. Daniel's been a nightmare while you were away. He's been rude, aggressive, blatantly disrespectful and uncaring of everyone he's come into contact with and, to put it in a nutshell, a complete pain in the ass. He was absolutely insane the first morning when he realised you were gone and, quite frankly, he's been acting like a man who got his heart broken in a big way."

Janet choked on a mouthful of wine and laughed bitterly. "Then I suggest you check whether Jack's been playing with his fossils and dropped one again, because I can promise you he's not that way over me." She tucked a stray tendril of hair back under her towel and met Sam's uncertain eyes. "Come on, Sam, you know what our supposed 'relationship' was like almost as well as I do. He never let me get close enough to him to have that much of effect when I finished it. There's only so long you can be with a man that's empty inside before you start feeling that way yourself. Obviously the ascension had more of an effect on him than any of us realised and, to be honest, you could almost feel Sha're's ghost in the room with us at times." Janet knocked back another swig of wine and shook her head decisively. "I'm through with Daniel Jackson, I deserve more than that."

"So why so worried about facing him?" Sam leant further forward in her chair and fixed her friend with serious blue eyes. "If you're so sure it's over, why are you here hiding rather than telling him all this?"

"Because it took everything I had to walk away from him in the first place and I seeing him today just brought all that back." Janet's quiet murmur was filled with despair and none of her usual strength. "I just needed another few hours before I have to deal with whatever he wanted to talk about. I couldn't deal with bolstering his bruised ego today."

"Daniel has an ego?" Sam laughed wryly. "Are you sure?"

"Oh yeah." Janet reached for the wine bottle again and sighed as she realised it was empty. "He has an ego, alright, but it's not my problem anymore. I finally got myself together enough to cut the ties and that's the way it's going to stay. From now on unless he's bleeding or unconscious, I'm staying the hell out of Daniel Jackson's life."

Sam nodded and rose to head for the kitchen and the next bottle of wine. "Fair enough, but you might want to ask yourself if he's planning on staying out of yours, Jan."

Janet stared after Sam for a moment and then tilted her chin, muttering mutinously. "He doesn't have a choice."

End Part 2.