Spoilers: Early to mid 9'ish
Spoilers: None
Word Count: 792
Category: Daniel/Cameron friendship
Archive: Please ask.
A/N: I actually wrote this quite a while ago, but somehow never archived it here. Keep in mind that the story is set sometime mid season 9.
Summary: Daniel finally figures out why Cam's been such a pain in the ass.
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Daniel leaned against the doorframe, watching Mitchell read through a report. The other man seemed unaware of his audience as he cursed under his breath and reached for a pencil. It wasn't until after he'd made several notes that he noticed Daniel's presence.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey." Daniel walked to the desk, peering down at the scattered papers. "Last week's mission?"
Mitchell nodded. "Landry wants it."
Daniel looked from the document to Cam. "That may be because Sam and I turned ours in yesterday."
"Yeah, well, I wanted to check it over one more time before handing it in."
Daniel nodded, thinking back over the weeks since Mitchell had brought SG-1 back together. Images flashed through his mind; times when Mitchell, in his eagerness to prove himself to the rest of the team, had either pissed somebody off, or nearly gotten them all killed, or both. So far, they'd been lucky, but how long could it last? He watched Cam make yet another correction, and something clicked in his mind. Suddenly, some of Cam's annoying behavior began to make sense.
He straightened, leaning one hip casually against the corner of the desk. "You don't have to do this, you know."
Cam looked up from his computer, surprised. "I don't?"
"I don't mean the report. You still have to do that."
"Oh," Cam looked momentarily disappointed. "What then?"
"You don't have to try so hard all the time."
Mitchell dropped his hands from the keyboard and turned to stare at Daniel. "What are you talking about?"
Okay, the man was looking at him like he'd lost his mind, and maybe he had. Eight years of the Stargate program could have that effect. Still, crazy or not, something had to be done about Mitchell before SG-1's reputation for surviving the unsurvivable got irrevocably tarnished.
"Look, I know this stuff can be a little intimidating," Daniel said. "You've read the mission reports, and you've probably heard a fair number of overblown stories. Somehow the whole SG-1 thing's gotten to be this big..." He searched for the right words, came up short, and waved an impatient hand. "It's just all out of proportion. Teal'c, Sam, and I... We aren't anything special."
Mitchell blinked, shook his head, and grinned. "How many times have you saved the planet? I've forgotten."
Daniel blew out a sigh of frustration. "That's just luck. Think of us as the planet's luckiest group of misfits, and you'll be a little closer to the truth. The point is, none of us are perfect. We've all made mistakes, and some of them were huge."
"So?"
"So nobody expects you to be perfect, either."
"Wrong."
"Excuse me?"
"I expect it of myself."
The words sent a frisson of unease down Daniel's spine. Perfection didn't exist, and in trying to be perfect, Cameron tended to endanger the entire team.
"Humanity wins wars," he said quietly, "not perfection. You don't have to be right all the time."
Mitchell considered that. "Mistakes cost lives," he said.
Daniel nodded. "Sometimes."
"Then remind me again why I shouldn't try so hard."
"The reason SG-1 managed to come out of so many messes with our skulls intact wasn't because we were 'just that good.' It was because we were a strong team. Each one of us had a specialty, a niche, and the rest of us recognized those niches and trusted in them. That's what's kept us alive - not perfection."
"So you're saying I don't trust the team."
"No. I'm saying that you don't trust yourself." Daniel looked pointedly at the marked up report.
Cam sighed. "Anybody ever tell you you're too perceptive for your own good?"
Daniel's eyes sparkled with humor. "Usually I just get told to shut-up and back off."
Cam shook his head, reaching for the heavily edited document. He crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash, then hit the print button on his computer. "Lunch?" he suggested, turning off his monitor.
"Sounds good."
"Think Sam's hungry?"
Daniel laughed. "I'm sure she is, but she won't realize it until we drag her away from her latest pet project."
Cam picked up the pages from the printer, stapled them together, and tucked them into a manila folder. He headed for the door.
"I'd bet with a bit of teamwork we can drag her away," he said, grinning.
"We'd better take Teal'c," Daniel said. "Three of us against one of her should just about even the odds."
"Only if they have Jello in the commissary," Cam answered. "We need bait."
The door clicked shut behind them, and the two men set out for Sam's lab, determination in their stride. They'd drop off the report, pick up Teal'c and descend on her en masse. Sam wouldn't have a chance.
The End