Chapter 30. Affinity

Daniel sat at his kitchen bench, staring absently into the dark brown swirl of his coffee. His eyelids felt so heavy and scratched his eyeballs every time he blinked, and his pupils were unfocussed. With a world-weary sigh, he sat the coffee down and let his head fall, his forehead thudding against the bench painfully.

He didn't even have the energy to answer the doorbell when it rang.

After a few minutes of knocking, Daniel heard a key click in the lock and the door swung open on its own. Heavy, booted feet clomped down his hallway, uneven and erratic – two pairs, then. Daniel felt the men's presence at his shoulder, heard the disappointed sigh, but still didn't lift his head from the bench. "Well, don't you look like a bowl full of fun."

"Go away, Jack," Daniel mumbled into the bench, "I told you, I'm sick."

"Uh huh, sure you are."

Daniel finally lifted his head to glare his blood-shot eyes at the annoyingly upbeat Colonel.

"Daniel Jackson, we believe your sickness to be one of the heart."

Daniel sighed and shifted his glare to the Jaffa instead. It was always odd to see him in civilian clothing; his beanie pulled down over his gold mark. Daniel crossed his arms over the bench to pillow his head on them. "What do you want, Jack?" He grunted, but it was Teal'c who answered.

"Your blood pump has fractured, Daniel Jackson, we are here to repair it."

"Heartbroken, Teal'c, it's heartbroken. We talked about this in the car."

"I'm not!" Anger spiked through him, sharp and swift, and he slapped his palms down against the bench, spearing the Colonel with his scowl. "I told you, I just have a cold, and I don't want to spread it around the base. Now, will you leave me alone?" He stood with a huff, storming from the kitchen and into his living room and flopping onto the couch. Jack and Teal'c followed him.

Jack perched on the edge of his coffee table, sitting directly across from him, his hands clasped between his knees. "Look, Danny, I know it seems pointless, what with the engagement and all, but you shouldn't... I mean, maybe if you... Teal'c, help me out here?" Jack turned pleading eyes on the Jaffa.

Teal'c bowed his head, looking thoughtfully at Daniel for a moment. "I believe it is customary among the Tau'ri to formulate a dramatic expression of one's feelings, either through writing your confession in the sky with the chemical by-products of a plane's engine, or undertaking a physical pursuit in order to declare your love for her on the stroke of midnight, on the eve of the New Year."

Daniel could only stare, slack-jawed, at the Jaffa, then turned his dumbfounded expression on Jack. "What have you been letting him watch?!"

"Hey!" Jack waggled a finger at him. "When Harry Met Sally is a classic, I'll have you know."

Daniel groaned, sinking back into the couch and covering his face with his hands. "She's getting married, Jack." His words were muffled by his hands and he let them drop to his side, staring up at the ceiling. "There's no point."

"Maybe, if you just told her how you feel..."

"Oh yeah, like you did?" Daniel snapped. He knew it was a low blow, but he was past caring. Jack swallowed, pointedly ignoring the venom in his voice.

"That's not the same. Me and Carter... We never had what you have. It was barely a thought, and neither of us ever acted on it because neither of us could. And as soon as you came back from the realm of the undead, well... I don't think I was the one she was interested in anymore. And to be honest, I wasn't all that broken up about it." Jack shrugged, his head cocked to the side like he was assessing Daniel's reaction. Daniel leant forward to brace his elbows on his knees, his chin resting against his palm.

"Jack, just drop it. She's made her choice. We need to respect it."

Jack surged to his feet, his brows suddenly pinched in a scowl. "To hell with that! You can't just-"

"JACK! I SAID DROP IT!" Daniel shouted, rising to meet Jack's anger with his own. "It's done." He said more quietly, the fight leaving him as quickly as it had come. He turned away from the old Colonel and moved back into the kitchen, collecting the now lukewarm coffee from the bench and pouring it down the sink.

"C'mon Tee," He heard Jack say form the other room, "we said our bit. Let's get outta here."

"Are we abandoning you mission of matchmaking, O'Neill?"

"No, but shhh!"

Daniel only rolled his eyes. "I can hear you, you know!" There was the shuffling of footsteps retreating down the hall, and Jack's voice cried out, "Yeah, well, don't say I never do nothin' for ya!" The front door slammed, leaving Daniel blessedly alone to stew in silence.