AN: More angst and disturbing stuff coming your way - oh, and just a tiny little bit of humour to make the bad stuff go away... :) Thanks for your comments!

For a second he wanted to collapse into Daniel's arms sobbing like a frightened child but then he came to his senses. It seemed he had some self-respect left after all.

"For crying out loud!" He groaned as he realised his sheets and clothes were soaked in sweat.

"Why don't you grab a shower while I fix this?" Daniel pointed to the bed, all calm and reasonable - as if he hadn't just been woken in the middle of the night by the sound of his friend screaming.

"You don't have to…" John started.

"John." Daniel gave him that look.

"Daniel."

"John."

"Fine. Knock yourself out."

John had to admit that he felt a lot better once the shower had washed away most of the traces of the dream and he was back in a dry bed this time in boxer shorts and a t-shirt instead of the jeans and shirt he'd worn to school that day.

Daniel sat on the edge of the bed.

"They wouldn't let me go with her to the hospital." He told Daniel. "Even though she begged them. Heather, I mean."

"Heather Marlowe?" Daniel was always pretty good at remembering the names of the kids he spoke about.

"Yeah."

"Was she badly injured?" Daniel asked carefully – he still didn't know the specifics of what had happened in that room but he had gotten the general idea.

"They'll treat her for shock, I suppose. Check for… internal injuries. Do the whole rape kit business probably. Apart from a few bruises, she seemed to be okay at least physically." John sighed. "After I'd taken care of Frankston, all I could ask her was 'Are you okay?' and she said yes." John shook his head. "She said yes. I wanted to hold her but of course she didn't want to be touched. I asked her how long it had been going on."

"It wasn't the first time?" Daniel's eyes were wide.

"I'd noticed that she'd been quiet the past couple of weeks. She had told me it was female stuff. I assumed it meant that this month the surfing of the ol' crimson wave was a bit rougher than usual." John laughed, the sound dead and without mirth. "Three weeks, Daniel. Almost every day apparently. She told me that it started off with the occasional grope and escalated to… well… you know." John's voice trailed off.

"God…"

"By then, some kids had started filtering in to find out what all the ruckus had been about – the bastard kinda screamed loudly when I cracked his arm." John grinned evilly. "I made someone go get the principal and started chasing everyone out of the room. That's when I noticed Ally wrapping a jacket around Heather. They were both crying."

Daniel knew the girl John was talking about. Alyson had been John's closest friend since he'd arrived at the school. He was drawn to the tiny red-haired pixie because not only was she very mature and wise for her age but her voracious appetite for knowledge – particularly science and history – made him feel like she was a cross between Carter and Daniel. Helped with the feelings of homesickness. Plus she possessed a level of sarcasm that rivalled his own as well as a faintly amused, slightly patronising stare that was almost akin to a raised eyebrow from Teal'c.

He so loved to raise a hand to halt Ally's latest technobabble ravings with his usual 'uh-uh-uh!' or 'what?' The way she would suddenly stop speaking, mouth open in shock both warmed his soul and hurt so badly – like a papercut to the heart - because it was the exact same expression he knew so well from all the times he'd done the same to his way-too-smart friends from SG-1. God, he missed Carter so badly sometimes. Especially that brilliant mega-watt smile she would give him when he either said something surprisingly clever or monumentally silly. He missed the way her eyes would light up in an almost manic way when she was given some new doo-hickey to examine.

He wondered if Carter and Ally would get on. Carter liked smart people. Daniel certainly liked Ally – she was one of the very few people from his new life that John would allow people from his old life to meet. Plus Ally had confided to John after her first meeting with Daniel that she thought he was very nice, very smart but just a bit too girly for her tastes. John had laughed his ass off at that and had adored her even more from that moment on.

Tough, smart, funny… his little pixie-girl… and here she was, sobbing with teen queen, Heather, as if they'd always gotten along – which they hadn't at all. Not even after Heather had 'become slightly more human' as Ally put it. Ally did have moments of kind-heartedness – taking care of Heather with the jacket thing wasn't out of character for her. John wasn't so sure about the crying over someone else's pain part though. It unnerved him. It felt wrong.

"I couldn't understand why Ally was crying." John told Daniel. "She wouldn't look at me. Then she went over to Frankston and started kicking the shit out of him. I let her have at it for a while but then I remembered the principal was on her way so I pulled Ally away from him. I got her to admit that he'd been messing with her too."

"Oh, John… not Ally."

"Yeah. And she couldn't tell me. She let it go on and on and said nothing. I mean I get why but it sucks. I could have taken him down sooner. I should have taken him down sooner. I should have worked it out. I should have known."

"You have to stop beating yourself up about this, John. There was no way you could have known if none of the girls were ready to talk."

"Four more girls came forward after that. It was all so random. They were different ages, different looks. It was like no-one was safe." John rubbed his forehead furiously. "But they were supposed to be safe. I'd just about gotten all the drugs out of the school, for crying out loud. Those I've 'encouraged' no longer bring weapons. It's no longer considered cool to get rolling drunk – and if you don't want to drink no-one tries to make you. God, even the guys in the locker rooms were learning to speak of women respectfully – I mean who'd have thunk it?"

Daniel gave him a wry grin.

"I worked so hard, Daniel. Kept vigilant. I've been like Mary 'freaking' Poppins for that school. I thought I'd done enough. But it's never enough is it, Daniel? No matter how hard you try you can't prevent bad things happening to your kids."

"No, you can't. You just do the best you can." Daniel knew John wasn't just talking about the kids at his school. He was also thinking about his son, Charlie, and how he'd died.

"It's not enough. Just not enough, Daniel." John's voice was so heavy. "And don't you think it kills me every day to not be watching your back? Teal'c's? Carter's? Sure, O'Neill is there but it's not the same. If things go to hell, I'm not there for you. What if something happens to one of you? Who would even think to let me know?"

"I would, John. And if I wasn't… able to… then Teal'c would. If not us, then General Hammond would call you."

"Yeah… I just hate being out of the loop. Like I'm nobody now. Like I don't matter because I'm not the real one." Jack sighed. Daniel already knew all this – they'd discussed it often enough before – especially in the early days. "Sorry. I really do appreciate you letting me know what's goes on, Daniel. You know that. It just gets to me more some days than others."

"I know." Daniel looked at him seriously. "There's something I want you to know – I'm not sure if I've made it that clear before because you O'Neill's aren't very comfortable with the discussing of the feelings."

John grinned at that. Daniel smiled in return and continued.

"As you know it took me a while to get my head this whole deal. Took time to stop judging you by the age you look as well. I decided to treat it as though both you and Jack went through those experiences with me in the past. It doesn't matter to me that technically you weren't physically there. Our friendship has developed as a result of those shared experiences."

"Besides its way too confusing if we keep qualifying it in our conversations." John smirked.

"That too. Since you were cloned, however, yours and Jack's experiences have been very different. So I see you as two different people. Similar but different. Yet both sharing the same past with me. And the relationships I have with each of you has become different."

"I understand." John gave him a wry grin.

"No, I don't think you really do." Daniel told him. "What I'm trying to make clear is that you are real to me, John. Not some fake-Jack-O'Neill. Not Jack-lite as you sometimes refer to yourself. I don't come here because I feel sorry for the poor clone. You are my friend and I care about you. And in some ways, you and I are closer than he and I can ever be."

John tried not to show how much Daniel's words had affected him. He tried to joke it away. "Yeah, well. Jack can be a bit of an ass."

Daniel gave him a no-kidding look. "Jack has trouble letting people close – letting people know when he needs them. The whole military hard-ass act. Whereas you're moving past that… letting the walls down a little."

"Yeah, the whole teenage angst crap has turned me soft."

"Hardly." Daniel rolled his eyes. "You've just adapted to your surroundings, to your situation. Jack hasn't had to cope with what you've had to go through. Sure he's got his own dramas but…"

"High school is a whole different battlefield." John laughed. He deliberately put his hand on Daniel's arm. "Daniel… I'm not afraid to tell you that I need you…"

Daniel looked like he might cry for a moment – at least that's what John told himself with delight.

John grinned – the patented slightly manic O'Neill grin. "Yep! I need you to keep buying me beer!"

Hope it's okay... got a bit long in the end... but usually that's a good thing... more to come soon hopefully...