It was the 468th game of chess they had played since Daniel had left. What made it unusual was that it was the first they had started since they had dropped everything to fly to Antarctica.
He had learned many things since he had ascended but nothing had surprised him more than these late night silent conversations between his two best friends. He was not surprised that they were equally matched at chess – he knew enough about Jack O'Neill to know that the tactics and strategy of chess would seem like child's play to the real life game he played every day. He had always known of the attraction between them, never truly understanding how they could live within the boundaries they had set themselves. Daniel was most surprised at how many nights they would sit together, sometimes not talking for hours.
He knew them well enough to deduce that the silence was not usual. He had spent enough nights with them off world to know that their usual routine was to talk. He hadn't realised that the routine continued when they were on Earth as well. Daniel had been watching over Sam one night not long after his ascension, slightly in awe of the grief he had caused in her, powerless to help. Jack had casually entered the lab and settled in and started to talk about nothing in particular and Daniel was hurt for Sam that O'Neill seemed to be ignoring her distress. She tried to turn the conversation to their absent friend but every time O'Neill would shut her down. Daniel wasn't puzzled by the way that Jack refused to talk about what had happened – he never expected that – but he didn't understand why Sam continued to try. Eventually she gave up and pulled out the chessboard and silently laid out the pieces like a challenge.
She gazed at her opponent steadily and said neutrally, "New Rules" and he replied with "Okay".
That was all they said and every game proceeded in silence except for the ones they played over the phone, where they limited themselves to calling their moves. Some games were tense and dramatic, some reckless and daring, some whimsical. Daniel couldn't believe that they could put so much emotion into a simple chess game. There were nights they played a quick game then went their separate ways, others where they played again and again until the night was gone.
Then Jack had gone to the Tok'ra to be cured only to end up back in the SGC infirmary weeks later recovering from Ba'al's torture. Daniel had helped as much as he could and now he found himself hovering anxiously unseen hoping that his friends could somehow get over the conversational brick wall they had built. At first it hadn't been an insurmountable wall – they could still talk about other stuff, but now it seemed they couldn't talk about anything until they could talk about him. Until this night, a few weeks after Jack's release from the infirmary, they hadn't even met to play chess.
He had turned up at her house with a case of beer and a chess set. They set up the board in companionable silence and Daniel's attention sharpened as he realised that Jack wasn't concentrating on his game. Sam realised too and soon abandoned all pretence of playing and sat back on the couch looking at O'Neill, willing him to look at her. Daniel found himself fascinated by the small smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth and he suddenly understood Jack's obsession with his "grin catalogue"
Jack picked up a piece and his hand hovered aimlessly over the board. Eventually he tossed the piece in the air and caught it. He sat back into his chair and turned the bishop over in his fingers, studying it intensely as he said softly:
"I miss him. I don't want to talk about him because even though I know he's gone to a better place or plane or whatever, I would rather he was here, and I feel selfish just thinking that. Then I get angry with him for wanting to leave us and I feel bad because you're so sad about him going and all I can feel is anger. And then I feel like he's really here with us, we just can't see him – so we shouldn't really be missing him 'cos his not gone. Then I just get creeped out by the thought of him being here watching everything we do. So I don't know what to say to help you, because I can have all of those thoughts at once and I'm so confused about it myself I can't see how I can possibly help you." He finally looked up at her. "I wanted to help but all I could do was be here and I even screwed that up the last few weeks". He scrubbed his hand tiredly across his face. " Ah hell, Carter, I need us to go back to the way we were. I need something to be normal"
If Daniel had still had a physical body he knew he'd have a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes. As it was his metaphysical jaw dropped as he heard Sam say:
"So ask me to go fishing with you"
Jack's head snapped up, the hungry look on his face quickly replaced by a flash of humour. "Wanna go fishing?"
"Sounds great sir, but you know me – lots of fun stuff to do in the lab. I'm afraid I'll have to take a rain check on the fishing trip".
Daniel didn't even try to understand the smile they gave each other but he sensed the tension in the room evaporate and he knew that things were right again. He left them, creating the small breeze that ruffled Jack's hair and felt rather than saw the smile that flittered across his friend's face as Jack settled down to listen to Carter's story about being loose in a small town full of Goa'uld with Jonas and Teal'c.
But wait, there's more..