Note - takes place end season 8. Trip to the cabin. Like no-one has ever written a fic about it before but I couldnt help it anyway.Sorry...

They'd all been at Jack's cabin for three days now. Jack and Sam arrived first and by the time the other guys arrived, a couple of days later, the place had acquired a settled domesticity that none of them could have envisaged even a year earlier.

When the other guys finally turned up, Jack had shown them to the small room they would be sharing. It contained a set of bunk beds and Jack assured them they were sturdy enough to take an adult's weight. 'Trust me, Sam and I both tested it out this morning and if it'll take the two of us then it'll take you, T.'

Teal'c had turned his head slowly towards Jack, adding an eyebrow lift to what had previously been a dubious gaze at their projected sleeping arrangements.

Jack had floundered. 'I mean … guys, come one … we only sat on it. You didn't think we'd …'

Daniel had found himself struggling to hide his amusement at Jack's discomfort before Sam pushed past, digging a sharp elbow in his ribs as she did so, with a bundle of bedding. 'Stop playing with him Teal'c, it's just not that funny anymore.'

For a moment it had looked as though Jack was going to object to her defending him but Teal'c had relented with only the smallest glimmer of regret and Jack had had to let it go too. 'As you wish, SamanthaCarter.' Turning back to the original subject of discussion, Teal'c had added. 'I believe, however, it would be wise if I were to utilise the lower sleeping accommodation, DanielJackson.'

Catapulted back to childhood, but telling himself he was doing it because he was happy to keep the peace, Daniel had readily agreed and taken his share of the bedding offered by Sam. In this way he discovered Sam had allocated him a Barney bed-cover and a Spiderman pillowcase. Checking Teal'c's bundle he was amused to find the slightly concerning combination of She-Ra bed-cover and a Thomas the Tank Engine pillowcase. He'd been about to explain that this was a tradition of Tauri children when something about the Jaffa's face made him aware that Teal'c might, in fact, be highly delighted by his choice of bedding. With a shake of his head, Daniel decided that telling the other man She-Ra was entirely fictional could probably wait.

But neither of them had questioned Sam's right to be sharing Jack's room. It seemed an issue of such small importance that it hadn't even warranted more than a passing acknowledgement between himself and Teal'c and both nights since their arrival Daniel had fallen asleep to the low, indistinct murmur of their voices through the wall. He'd found the sensation soothing on a barely conscious level and knew it was something he would never articulate to his friends. A comfort of his early childhood recaptured from such distance, and from the other side of such a divide of pain, that the original had been lost to him and the memory was now reinforced more by wish and dream than reality.

They weren't noisy but the cabin was really too small for secrets and Daniel knew when they were making love too. And, surprisingly, he found it didn't bother him in the least. He felt, strongly, that each had sacrificed enough and given of themselves enough and now it was only right and fitting they found a joy they so richly deserved in each other.

Even Teal'c's tretonin induced snoring was somehow transformed into something that signified safety. Another confirmation he was not alone. Not now and not in life.

He hadn't felt voyeuristic listening to Jack and Sam making love in the next room but something about watching the way they interacted now made him turn away on more than one occasion. He had always known they were both people with enormous compassion and the capacity to care deeply but he found himself surprised by the small ways in which each struggled to overcome years of repression and convey their new found love to the other. It was a story as old as love itself but Daniel was utterly disarmed to watch his friends, individuals whose working lives required them to objectify and depersonalise almost everything they encountered and whom circumstances had kept from expressing their affection for so long, responding to the smallest touch or gesture from the other.

He and Jack had been sitting on the deck of the cabin after a particularly leisurely meal one evening when Sam came back out to join them. As she passed behind Jack to take a seat on his right she ran one hand lightly over his hair, smoothing it's usual unruly disorder with a gentle gesture of pride and possession and Jack had looked up at her with such naked vulnerability that Daniel's own heart had skipped a beat; feeling deeply privileged to be witness to these unfamiliar emotions on his friend's face and struck once more by the rightness of these two people together.

Just as interesting was watching Sam on the few occasions Jack attempted to revert to irascible CO mode. As his 2IC she would have made her opinion known but left the final decision to him, following him into the fires of hell even if she disagreed with him vehemently. She might have given him grief before, during and possibly afterwards but she had still had absolute respect for his place in the chain of command. As his, and Daniel was struggling with exactly what role she now fell into in Jack's life, girlfriend seemed far too teenage, partner might be accurate but somehow evoked nothing of their soul deep passion as a couple, lover was the word that probably fit best but Jack wasn't using it and Daniel wouldn't be suggesting it. Food for linguistic thought on another day, he thought to himself.

Anyway, no longer his 2IC, Sam argued her point of view as coherently as ever but if Jack tried to unilaterally over-rule her she wouldn't have it. And if he pushed it she'd walk away, telling him they'd discuss it again when he'd had the chance to calm down. From Jack's reaction this was obviously a novel experience and Daniel had to suspect it wasn't the way he'd been expecting things to go down either. Regardless of Jack's expectations however, Daniel thought this probably gave more hope for the long term health of their relationship than if Sam had been prepared to allow herself to continue in any sort of subservient role. Although he also had to admit there had never been a great deal of subservience to Sam's 2IC role either.

Daniel knew he would be sorry to leave when the time came. This small interlude of normalcy signified the end of so many things yet, hopefully, the beginning of so many more. The change in Sam and Jack's relationship was a pretty big acknowledgement that things would never be going back to the way they were and Daniel found himself unable to regret that. Not when it was so plainly obvious how happy they were together. No better than anyone else could he know what the future held but he honestly hoped Jack and Sam would be facing their part in it together.

'Daniel?' Jack's voice called from the next room.

'Yeah?

'Stop thinking and just go to sleep, willya.'

Daniel smiled. Nice to know where he fit in the scheme of things.

'Yes, Dad.'

……………………………………………………………..

Author's Note – I wrote this story after reading CynicAlb's 'Mama Said' which is a brilliant Daniel centric fic. I thoroughly recommend it.

Just to explain the bedcovers – when I met my now husband he was a British Royal Marine Commando and the guys in his unit had this sort of competition thing going on with weird choices of duvet covers. They all lived on base so they had single beds and that bunch of big, tough Commandos were sleeping under covers that ranged all the way from Scrabble to My Little Pony. I've always thoughtit was a nice touch so I've incorporated it into my home-made backstory for Jack ...

Just to clarify too, She-Ra ('Princess of Power') is a cartoon character and for those too young to remember her, type She-Ra into Google and you'll find some images. I've always suspected she might have been part of the inspiration for Ishta.