Author: MegTDJ
Category: Angst/drama; action/adventure; hurt/comfort; romance
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Daniel/Janet
Spoilers: Rite of Passage. Set in late season 5/early season 6, but Meridian doesn't happen in this universe.
Summary: It was Christmas in the trenches where the frost so bitter hung.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1, its universe and its characters are not mine. The story itself is, however, so please don't archive without my permission.
Author's notes: I started this fic in December 2003, as a response to that year's Christmas challenge (issued by Ness), but I got sick and couldn't finish it. Better late than never, right? The challenge was:
no deaths (ie, both characters are alive);
a kiss (between Daniel/Janet, obviously); and
the story summary is lyrics from a Christmas song (the song and/or lyrics do not have
to feature IN the story itself - just in the summary).
The Christmas song I used is, obviously, Christmas in the Trenches, by John McCutcheon.
Please bear in mind that I'm not a medical expert, so if there are any medical impossibilities in this or any other of my stories... well, I don't really care, heh. I usually do a bit of research before writing anything that has medical jargon in it, but I slacked off with this one. My bad. :P
Also, you should know that this fic is set in late season 5, in a world in which Meridian never happened.
Christmas in the Trenches - Part 1
It occurred to Jack as he was running for his life from yet another pack of angry Jaffa that he might be getting just a little too old for this.
The sound of staff blasts and gunfire was almost deafening, and he knew that he could be shot down by enemy fire at any moment. His jacket had already been singed a couple of times by near misses. Every few steps, he took a quick glance to either side to make sure his teammates were all still running with him. He hated being in situations like this.
He still hadn't figured out how the damn Jaffa had managed to sneak up on them like that. SG-1 had been on this planet for two days, and hadn't found a sign of recent visitors anywhere. Daniel had done his archaeologist thing on the ancient ruins they'd found, and then they'd started back for the gate. The first shot had come out of nowhere, and since then they'd been running like hell to get back to the gate before they were completely cut off.
"Break for the tree line!" he shouted. He turned to lay cover fire as his team made a run for the trees, feeling a great sense of satisfaction when two of the enemy soldiers went down. Then he ran as fast as he could into the forest, hoping that the trees would provide them with the protection they needed while they made their escape.
For a while, it seemed to be working. They didn't lose the Jaffa, but their clunky armour did slow them down when it came to running around trees and jumping over roots and foliage. He figured that if his team could keep up this pace, they'd beat the remaining Jaffa to the gate and be home free.
What he hadn't counted on was another battalion of warriors appearing in front of them.
Again, the first sign of their approach was a staff blast that narrowly missed Jack's head. Teal'c quickly returned fire, but Jack didn't stop or slow down to fire so much as a bullet. He knew they were close to the gate now, so any delay could mean the difference between reaching their destination in tact or being surrounded by the enemy and never getting there at all.
Just as he thought they were going to make it, he heard a cry and a thud coming from behind him. He looked back in time to see a couple of the Jaffa closing in on him, aiming their staffs straight at his chest. As he ducked out of the way, his eyes also caught sight of Daniel, lying facedown on the ground.
'He just tripped,' Jack told himself as he took cover behind a tree. 'He tripped and now he's playing dead while he waits for me to take out those damn Jaffa.'
With that thought in mind, Jack didn't waste another second. He peeked out from behind his tree, and before the Jaffa could take aim and fire, his P90 let go with a volley of fire that hit its intended targets with skilled accuracy.
Once they went down, Jack leaped out from his cover and made his way over to Daniel.
"Sir!" he heard Carter yell.
"Head for the gate!" Jack commanded her. "I'll be right behind you!"
He didn't even waste time making sure she did as he instructed, turning his back on her to give his full attention to Daniel. "Damn," he muttered when he saw the smoke rising from his friend's jacket. He hadn't tripped after all. "Daniel?"
Daniel didn't move a muscle. In fact, Jack couldn't even tell whether he was breathing.
Jack anxiously checked his friend's pulse, and to his relief Daniel's heart was still beating steady and strong. 'Not dead, just unconscious,' he thought in an effort to get rid of the feeling of dread that had settled over him.
It didn't work. The sound of more Jaffa running his way made it clear how urgent his situation had become. He had to somehow get Daniel out of there, but there was no way he was going to make it to the gate carrying him.
He looked around and assessed his surroundings in one second flat. There were some thick bushes to his right that would do for temporary cover, he decided. Careful not to touch the injury on Daniel's left side, he picked him up off the ground just enough that he could drag him out of sight. He laid the unconscious man face down on the ground and crouched down beside him just in time, as the Jaffa passed his position on their way to the gate.
No sooner had the Jaffa left his sight than Jack's radio crackled and the sound of Carter's frantic voice met his ears.
"Sir, we've been cut off from the gate. There are at least a dozen Jaffa guarding it, and I don't know how many more scouting the area."
"Have they found the MALP?"
"No, Sir, it's still in the bushes where we left it."
"Alright, fall back and stay out of sight," Jack instructed. "Keep an eye on their movements, and at the first opportunity, dial the gate and try to get a message through to Hammond. We're gonna need reinforcements... and a medical team."
"Sir?"
"Daniel's been hit," he said, the words causing a sour taste to settle in his mouth. "It looks pretty bad. First opportunity, Major."
"Understood, Sir. Carter out."
A muffled sound coming from the man beside him grabbed Jack's full attention in the blink of an eye. "Daniel?" he said, leaning closer to him to see if he was waking up.
"Jack?" Only one of Daniel's eyes was visible, and Jack saw it crack open and try to focus on his face. It was only then that Jack noticed his glasses were gone.
"Yeah, just hold still," Jack said, taking a moment to glance around to see if they were still safely hidden away. "You're injured."
Daniel let out a soft moan. "I've been shot, haven't I?" he asked, his slurred words making Jack worry about a concussion.
"Looks that way," Jack replied. He tried to keep his tone light so he didn't scare the guy, but it was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. He hadn't taken a close look yet, but he could tell that the wound was bad. Very bad.
Daniel raised his head a little to look around. "We're hiding?" he asked.
"Yeah, so keep your head down."
"Sorry." Daniel dropped his head back down onto the ground, and for a second Jack thought he'd passed out again.
He decided to take that opportunity to see what he could do for Daniel's wound, but before he could get anywhere near it, Daniel's head snapped up again.
"We still hiding?" he asked blearily.
Jack winced. "Yeah," he said. "Here, let me check on that wound."
Daniel blinked heavily and looked around again. "You sure we're safe here?" he asked.
"No," Jack replied in all honesty. "It's the best we can do for now. You don't exactly seem capable of walking off to anyplace safer."
"What about that little dugout I found in the side of the cliff yesterday?"
Jack shook his head in disbelief. Daniel was never one to listen to reason, though, so why did this comment come as a surprise? With a sigh, he swallowed any sarcastic retort that might have come out and asked, "What about it?"
"Any port in a storm..."
"I told you, Daniel, you're not fit to be moved. If I..."
His lecture was brought to an end when he heard the sound of approaching Jaffa footsteps. Both men went deathly silent as they crouched down low to the ground and waited for the soldiers to pass by. Jack sucked in a breath and held it as one of the Jaffa brushed past the bushes that were serving as their cover. He was so close that Jack could smell the guy's body odour.
"You're right," Jack whispered once the Jaffa had moved out of earshot. "We're not safe here."
"I'll be fine," Daniel said, groaning as he tried to sit up.
Jack cursed under his breath and gave him a hand. To his great annoyance, Daniel didn't stop at sitting up - he started trying to stand. "Dammit, Daniel, go slow," he snapped.
Daniel swayed a little once he was on his feet, clutching his left side and wincing as his face drained of all colour. He pulled his hand away and looked down at the blood that now covered it. "Crap."
"Looks more like blood to me," Jack quipped. He took Daniel's right arm and draped it around his shoulders, then wrapped his arm around Daniel's back. "You sure you're up for this?" he asked. "You know I'd offer to carry you, but my back..."
"Let's just get this over with," Daniel said. He already sounded out of breath, and his face was starting to turn a very unnatural shade of grey.
Thankfully, the cliff face Daniel had mentioned wasn't far away. They'd discovered soon after coming to this world that the Stargate was nestled in the bottom of a gorge surrounded on every side by cliffs of varying heights. Daniel had, of course, found some kind of writing etched into the side of one of them, and had spent a large part of the previous day studying it and trying to figure out what it all meant. He never managed it, and Jack secretly felt it was probably just graffiti - this planet's version of "Bob was here," or something along those lines.
Daniel had literally stumbled upon the "dugout," as he called it - a small hollow in the side of the cliff that looked like it was at one time used as someone's winter home. He'd slid right down into it, as it had been dug down a few feet below ground level. He was right - it would provide the perfect cover for them now. Not only was it completely hidden until you got up close, but it was also one hundred percent defensible - there was only one way in or out.
Daniel slumped heavily against Jack's side as he limped along, and every now and then a shudder would wrack his body so hard that Jack could feel it. His injuries must have hurt like hell, but he never made a sound. That in itself worried Jack.
"Remember where it was?" Jack asked as they approached the cliff wall.
"Go left," Daniel said, his voice sounding tight and pained.
Jack steered them left, and moments later he saw the narrow opening. At the same time, he heard the unmistakable sound of approaching Jaffa.
Without saying a word, he lowered Daniel down into the trench and hopped in after him. They both pressed themselves against the edge and kept their heads down as the Jaffa walked right past their position.
Jack could hear them talking, but he didn't have a clue what they were saying. The only word he understood was, "Kree." When they had marched off again and he and Daniel could relax, he asked, "What did they say? And no, I don't mean word-for-word. Just give me the general gist."
"The gist... they haven't found us yet," Daniel replied. "Guess we're safe here for now."
"Good. That'll give me a chance to take a look at you." Jack went to look at Daniel's wound, but Daniel flinched away from him.
"Jack, I'm fine."
"Daniel, a staff blast in the back is never 'fine.'"
"Actually, it's more in my side, and I'm pretty sure it's not even bleeding anymore."
"It still needs medical attention, and you know it."
Daniel sighed and rolled his eyes, but he didn't stop Jack from examining the wound this time.
After peeling his jacket and shirt away from the wound, Jack got his first good look at the mess that Daniel's side had become. He gritted his teeth against the sudden wave of nausea that passed through him, and with the meagre supplies he found in the med kit he managed to patch his friend up to some extent. He wasn't able to do much, though. Daniel had been right - it wasn't bleeding anymore. It looked as though the blast had cauterized itself... at least on the outside. Jack had had internal bleeding often enough to know what it looked like at a glance. He wasn't an expert on these things, but even he could tell that Daniel needed a doctor if he was going to make it through this.
Once he'd done all he could do for that injury, he rolled Daniel over onto his back and said, "Okay, now what about your head?"
Daniel winced at having to lie on such a tender spot, but he didn't complain. "What about it?" he asked.
As much as Jack was trying to make his friend more comfortable, Daniel's obstinacy was starting to make him want to throttle the guy instead. "Daniel, you were unconscious for a full minute," he said. "For a second there, I thought you were dead! You must have hit your head when you fell, so where does it hurt?"
Daniel stared at him in surprise for a second, and then raised a limp hand to feel around his forehead.
"Here, let me," Jack said, pulling Daniel's hand away to get a better look. He soon saw an egg-shaped lump just past Daniel's hairline. "Found it," he said. "There's a lump, so that's a good sign. You've probably got a concussion, though."
Daniel winced again and started panting as Jack removed his hands from his head and sat back on his heels.
"What's wrong?" Jack asked in concern.
"Got any pain killers in that kit?"
Jack grabbed the kit and rummaged through it, kicking himself for not giving him the meds without being asked. Daniel actually asking for pain meds was not a good sign.
Once the meds were found and administered, Daniel finally laid his head back and relaxed. "Can I ask you something?" he said.
"Sure. Shoot."
"If you thought I was dead, why did you get yourself stranded out here just to come back for me?"
Jack couldn't believe his ears. How many times had he said that no one gets left behind? Why did Daniel still not trust that? He was about to lay into him about it when he remembered the conversation they'd had four years earlier on Klorel's ship. Jack had left him behind then because he'd been dying, and taking him out of there would have slowed the rest of them down.
Those had been completely different circumstances, though, and Daniel knew it. Still, he'd just been shot and concussed, so Jack was willing to cut him some slack. With a serious face, he replied, "Because I've learned from experience that just because Daniel Jackson may look dead, it doesn't mean he is."
Daniel snorted and then winced at the pain it caused.
"Besides," Jack added, "Fraiser would kill me if I didn't bring you back in one piece."
Daniel's face fell at this comment. He turned away from Jack as much as he could and looked down at the ground. "Please don't talk about that," he said quietly.
Jack did a double take. Not talk about Fraiser? Something must be very wrong. Daniel had been talking non-stop about her for months, ever since Cassie's illness when they had, as Daniel put it, "taken their friendship to the next level." Still, the look on his face and the lifelessness in his posture told Jack not to push it.
The silence hung heavy over them for a short time as Jack took a good look around at their temporary shelter. There was a small pit on one end that looked like it had once been used as a fireplace, and a little hole had been cut into the ceiling above it to release the smoke. The thought of that made Jack nervous for a second, until he realized that the hole was much too small for a Jaffa to fit through. The fact that there was well thought out ventilation in this little dugout puzzled him, though.
"What is this place, anyway?" he mused aloud. "Doesn't look exactly... you know..."
"Natural?" Daniel offered.
"Yeah."
"No, my guess is it was man-made... or something made... probably decades ago, maybe longer, to protect whoever it was against the winter or predators or... something."
"That what you got from the graffiti?"
Daniel shot him a very unamused look. "Common sense, Jack. I put two and two together."
Jack chose to ignore the attitude. "Looks like the front door's the only way in or out," he said. "The only other opening is in the... well, 'ceiling', for lack of a better word. There's some kind of ventilation shaft or something up there, but it looks too tiny for a person to fit through it. So, even if the Jaffa somehow find us in here, as long as we can hold them off from getting through the main entrance, I think we're safe enough until our reinforcements arrive."
"You're so sure they will?"
Jack raised his eyebrows. "You're so sure they won't?"
"I couldn't help but notice there hasn't been much radio chatter going on lately."
"Because Carter knows we're hiding out and doesn't want to reveal our position to the enemy," Jack reasoned. "Optimism, Daniel, optimism."
Daniel nodded, but didn't look convinced. "Right. I guess more miraculous things have happened on Christmas Eve."
Jack blinked. He'd forgotten what day it was in all of the stress of the past hour. Now that he knew, he didn't find it so odd that Daniel hadn't wanted to talk about Fraiser. They'd probably had plans for the holiday that weren't going to happen now.
He was stumped as to how to respond to Daniel's comment, so he just let it hang in the air. More uncomfortable silence was the result. Jack's favourite form of torture. After a minute or so of it, he cleared his throat and asked, "Pain killers kicking in?"
"Yeah," Daniel said, his eyes staring blankly off into space. "Starting to feel kinda... floaty."
"Sweet. Enjoy it while it lasts."
Daniel nodded and closed his eyes.
Jack watched him anxiously, knowing that at any moment he could... No, he refused to allow himself to even think that thought. Talking... he had to keep him talking.
"Well, this is not how I figured I'd be spending Christmas this year," he said, trying to sound casual.
"Tell me about it," Daniel said, though he didn't open his eyes and his words were more slurred than ever. "I can't get that song 'Christmas in the Trenches' out of my head. You know that song?"
"Yeah," Jack said suspiciously. "You're not gonna start singing it, are you?"
The corners of Daniel's mouth twitched. "No, course not," he said. A second later, he let out a quiet laugh that sounded a bit too much like a giggle for Jack's liking.
"What's so funny?"
"Sorry," Daniel said, opening his eyes and looking over at Jack with a sheepish expression on his face. "I just had a vision pop into my mind of all the Jaffa coming out and sharing cigarettes and pictures of the wife and kids with us, like the Germans did." He giggled again at this thought.
"Boy, you really must have taken a whack to the head, Daniel."
"Hey, it could happen," Daniel said weakly. He closed his eyes again, a faint smile lingering on his face.
"You're delirious."
The smile slowly faded as Daniel seemed to be drifting off to sleep. "Hopefully," he muttered. "Cause then I'd wake up and find I just imagined all this."
"That's some imagination you've got there, in that case," Jack said, "cause I'm seeing it all, too."
Daniel huffed a laugh, but his forehead was furrowed with pain and his breathing was getting shallow and uneven. "This would have been my first Christmas wi..." His voice trailed off mid-sentence as he winced and gripped his side.
"With Fraiser," Jack finished for him.
"Yeah." He was quiet for a moment, but then said hesitantly, "I... was going to... propose to her tonight, you know."
Jack's eyebrows just about hit the ceiling before he could recover from the surprise of this announcement. Thankfully, Daniel's eyes were still closed. "On Christmas Eve?" he said in a dry yet teasing tone. "How very romantic of you."
"It was supposed to be, yeah."
Jack could see that Daniel was starting to get depressed, so he shrugged nonchalantly. "So you can propose on Christmas Day," he said. "Or hey, New Year's Eve - even better."
"Yeah, I guess so," Daniel said with a sigh. "I'd just give anything to be there and not here right now." He made a frustrated motion with his hand as he spoke, opening his eyes and casting a disgusted look around their current accommodations.
"I think that pretty much goes without saying."
"I bet she and Cassie are at home as we speak," Daniel went on, "trimming the tree, setting out all the presents, baking gingerbread cookies... waiting for me to get there so we can have dinner. Only I'm not coming," he added wistfully.
"You might get there yet."
Daniel gave him a wry look. "Right, Jack. Yep, just as soon as one of those Jaffa starts singing Stille Nacht, we'll make a break for the gate. I just hope you're up to carrying me, 'cause I sure ain't walkin' outta here."
"Daniel..."
"No, no, you're right, Jack. Aaaaaany second now..." He tilted his head to one side as though he were listening for something.
"Will you shut up already, for cryin' out loud?" Jack muttered. As much as he wanted to keep Daniel talking, the present conversation was really wearing his patience thin.
Daniel grunted and gritted his teeth, and while at first Jack thought it was out of anger, he soon realized it was pain.
'If rescue's coming, now would be a very good time for it to arrive,' he thought. Aloud he simply said, "Hang in there, Daniel."
He was right... more miraculous things had happened on Christmas Eve. They'd get out of this. No problem.