"Daniel!"

The word edged in on the outer recesses of Daniel's brain and he pulled his attention away from the translation of a wall he'd been working on. Jack's voice had the tone that went without saying that he'd called his name out several times before.

"Hmm?" Daniel asked, glancing over his shoulder and to the side as he saw Jack standing there, the kid shadowing him as usual.

It was day eleven of their somewhat self-imposed exile there and four days since he had been allowed back to Earth for a brief foray to collect a few items that nobody else could locate in his office despite what he swore were very exact instructions. It wasn't at all an attempt to grab some fishing gear Jack had requested, just so Jack could find something new to complain about. He'd stepped through the Gate and beelined down the ramp and to his office, barely realizing that everyone at the SGC was keeping their distance with just a few mumbled greetings. They all skirted around him like they expected him to turn into a grenade that was about to go off at any time, likely fueled by the now-exaggerated reports of his shouting match with General Hammond a few days prior. He didn't mind. Social distancing was A-Okay in his book, especially right now.

Even his own staff, the few of them that were there, turned tail and skipped out to another hallway or nearby supply closet to avoid falling prey to any potential outbursts of his wrath. Dr. Daniel Jackson was typically a soft-spoken man, known throughout the base for his pacifist ways as much as for his brilliance, but his rare tantrums were things of legend. Everyone knew full well that the reasoning behind them was sound. He didn't expect more from anyone else than he was capable of giving, but the truth of it was simply that no one else could keep up. He could, with little more than a raise of his eyebrows or a blink of his sky blue eyes or a slight tilt of his head, cut someone to the core and make them feel worthless in comparison. If he could do it, they could. It wasn't ego that drove him to those beliefs, it was that he assumed that if he was capable of something, they should be as well. If anything, it was lack of true ego in himself that fueled it.

He was oblivious to that as he was to the fact that everyone darted out of his way when he tore through the base, raided his office for books, notes and the fishing stuff someone had placed there and took off back through the gate before withdrawal could really sink its claws deep within him.

Armed with several key texts he didn't have previously, the translations went far smoother and faster and he was rapidly running out of things to translate and document about the palace that they were trapped inside.

Days prior they'd marked the outer limits of the distance they could go without detrimental effects and the strip of beach just outside that fell within those boundaries was where Jack and Loran could most often be found.

"I asked if you wanted to come along," Jack continued, oblivious to the fact that Daniel had less than half his attention on the conversation. "I'm teaching the kid about baseball."

"Don't be afraid of the ball you have to keep your eyes on!" Loran chimed in merrily.

Daniel set down the notebook he'd been scribbling notes into and looked over the rim of his glasses. "Baseball?"

"American pastime. World Series. Three strikes you're out. As in take me out to, cracker jacks and all that," Jack clarified. "Come on. We're gonna play a little, or at least I'm gonna teach him to hit the ball with a bat and catch and all that. Even you must know something about it or didn't you ever play in school?"

With a slight sigh, Daniel felt the notebook fully leave the grasp of his fingertips. "Not really," he admitted. "I mean I was never much in gym class and I moved schools enough for a while that I managed to avoid a good portion of it all."

The motion was so quick and so subtle that Jack wouldn't have even noticed it if he hadn't been Jack and this hadn't been Daniel. "Then it's about time you learned," Jack pointed out, watching the flash of sadness in Daniel turn to a faint hint of the same hopeful brightness that Loran was starting to show. The twitch at the edge of his mouth gave it away.

Part of Daniel wanted to refuse. Even with weeks to work on it, the sheer amount of translating to be done in the palace was extensive. There would never be enough time. So maybe this once it wouldn't matter if he didn't try to tip the scales toward More Translated instead of Less Translated. And maybe for just a flash, Daniel was a little bit jealous and he didn't know what of.

"Alright. Let me mark where I'm leaving off. And I might not have a lot of experience with the game, but I do happen to remember I can hit the ball more often than not. At least, if I'm not playing without my glasses."

Things started to click back into place for him as he used the china marker to note right on the wall where he left off.

Jack watched Daniel's back as he marked up the wall as if it was the most important task ever undertaken. To Daniel it might be and that was what so many people misunderstood. They saw the grizzled washed up soldier putting up with an arrogant man, standoffish in the way of overly academicized geniuses and wondering just how the good colonel could put up with him. The truth was more prickly than that. Jack fit into a void that Daniel had and vice versa. It was too maudlin to unpack the details of it all when he didn't have time to examine each piece from every angle and figure out how it fit in the grey overlap between friendship and teamwork. But for them and their dysfunctional family the team had made, it worked and that was the only thing that mattered. And sometimes, that familial dysfunction required him to teach Daniel how to throw a baseball.

"Don't overdo it, you're on second watch tonight," Jack reminded as he steered Loran to the doorway to go find the baseball the SGC had sent in the last care package.

Daniel made a slight grunt in response and Jack wasn't close enough to hear the tones and levels in it to decipher what it meant, so he decided to take it as a grumble of protest mixed with an equal level of amusement.

"So Loran, let me tell you about the Cubs and the White Sox," Daniel heard Jack say as they walked away.