Helloooo, folks! My next offerering. My eternal thats to Judith, Cheryl and Emma...best beat buddies a girl could have!! Tar! Hope you like, and please, please, tell me what you think. Im desperate now! hugs natxx
"Daniel! Get your boney archaeologists ass out here NOW!"
After much debate about Daniel's behavior and an awful lot of shouting, the teen had stormed off to his room and slammed the door. Jack's patience was about spent. He absently wondered whether Charlie would have been this much trouble, had he made it to seventeen.
'Nope' Jack shook his head, 'he'd have never had made it to seventeen if he'd been like this'.
Jack stood outside Daniel's room, arms crossed and chewing the inside of his mouth. It was currently Jacks only way of controlling his frayed temper. Out of respect for Daniel's privacy, Jack never entered his room unless he knocked, but if the kid didn't open up soon, that rule was going straight out the window!
"Daniel! God help me, if I have to come in there and get you, you'll wish you'd stayed on Abydos!" Yep, the kid was pushing it this time.
Tipping his head and listening to the door, Jack was poised to enter, his hand hovering over the doorknob. Only the sound of papers rustling could be heard until the unmistakable sound of Daniel's distant voice filtered through the closed door.
"Don't you think that I wish I had stayed there, Jack!" that bit was definitely shouted. Straining his hearing, Jack definitely caught the next little rant, obviously not meant for his ears, "Jesus, Jack, you can be such a bastard."
The quietly delivered insult was enough to convince Jack to enter the room uninvited. Daniel, obviously not expecting Jack's entrance, looked up, shocked from his violent emptying of his bag over the bed.
Jack stood poised, hands on hips in the doorway and glared. Daniel stood stock still, bag still in hand, slightly leaning over the bed and blinking at Jack over the top of his glasses.
"I heard that, Daniel." Jack said coolly.
"What?"
"Don't play the dumb act with me, Daniel. You know damn well what you said and neither comment was exactly flattering." Jack crossed his arms and drew breath, fighting for inner calm.
Drawing his self up to his full height, and feeling completely justified, Daniel idly pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and squinted at Jack.
"What is your problem, Jack? I just wanna be left alone. We've had our 'discussion,'" Daniel indicated in the air with his fingers and emphasized with a mocking tone.
The attitude oozing from the young man before him, grated on Jacks already rapidly dwindling temper. Yes, they'd talked, or more accurately, shouted. Daniel hadn't really accepted he'd done anything wrong, he'd merely argued his viewpoint failing to see Jack's concern for the team and more importantly, Daniel.
The kid had a death wish!
Walking slowly into the room and fixing Daniel with a stare, Jack pointed at him, the trail of words having stopped on seeing Jack's raised eyebrows and expectant stare.
"Sit down, Daniel," Jacks calmer, more neutral tone, covered the annoyance he felt.
Daniel glared back at Jack and started to object, but Jack managed to stop that with a firm, no-nonsense look.
Daniel flopped dramatically onto the bed, and huffed.
'There's my teenager,' Jack mused as he sat next to his ward.
"Okay, Danny. I can see we're not gonna see eye to eye with this whole, 'you following orders off world' thing. Not at the moment. You think you're right and I know I'm right."
Feeling the movement of Daniel next to him as his head jolted upward, Jack turned and eyed the boy. Sensing a further disgruntled moan, Jack raised a finger.
"Don't, Daniel, just don't. What I'm saying is that the discussion is over for tonight, we'll continue it in the morning, when we're both in a better frame of mind." Jack rose to his feet and turned to take in the dumb struck look of the teen, his mouth still half open, ready to deliver a retort.
"And before you dig yourself in any bigger hole, you're grounded."
Jack walked to the door and turned, he swore he could hear Daniel nearly hyperventilating with shock. Well, with any luck, that will have got his attention, Jack thought.
"B-but… you can't do, th-that, Jack!" Daniel blurted out to Jack's retreating back.
Jack turned pointedly on his heel; he hadn't the time or the energy for any more ranting now. He just wanted to go to bed. He grasped the doorframe and pinned Daniel with an exasperated and near fatal look.
"Yes, Daniel. I think you'll find I can. This is how the whole 'me being your guardians' gonna pan out, if you carry on behaving like this. I'm well aware there's a thirty three year old man trapped in there, but your behavior and attitude is that of a snotty, obnoxious teenager and I for one am not willing to put up with it."
The look on Daniel's face was priceless, 'maybe the kid was getting the picture already,' Jack nearly smiled. Daniel was certainly speechless, and that didn't happen very often. With that in mind, Jack decided to make the rules clear, before he left for his bed.
"You stay in here, until the morning and go to bed. If I hear you wandering about tonight, there'll be trouble. We'll talk over breakfast in the morning. Oh and if you were wondering, I'll sleep on the time factor involved here, but at the minute, I'm thinking at least two weeks. No phone, no tv, no outings, no nothing, apart from work, got me?"
Jack finished with a look that brooked no disagreement.
Daniel, surprisingly, didn't speak. He nodded, looking way too sorry for himself and flopped back onto the bed.
With that, Jack pulled the door closed, firmly.
Sighing deeply, Jack wandered tiredly to his room. He'd closed up downstairs when they'd got in, having had every intention of being in bed by now.
Why in god's name does this kid have to make everything so damn difficult and yeah, maybe he was being a bit over bearing, but he needed Daniel to understand his point of view, his concerns and worries. He knew Daniel, the teen, was going to struggle with that, so resorting to basic discipline was maybe the way to go. Jack shrugged his shoulders and scrubbed his hands through his hair. Flopping onto the bed he started to peel of his socks and trousers throwing them in the laundry hamper.
"Well," he muttered to himself, "If I have to resort to time out to make my point, I damn well will!"
"Daniel, breakfast!" Jack hollered from the foot of the stairs.
Jack had woken early. He'd had a reasonable night's sleep, exhaustion having finally claimed him in the early hours. Having gotten up and changed, feeling a whole lot calmer than he had the night before, Jack decided to cook a good breakfast. He'd made sure that he had a good strong cup of coffee first, ready for the next round with his charge.
He heard the slapping of bare feet on the wooden floor approaching the kitchen.
Without speaking, Daniel sat in the chair at the kitchen table.
Jack bought in freshly cooked bacon and eggs and placed them before the teen. It never ceased to amaze Jack how wildly gangly and skinny this younger Daniel was. Not quite being his full 6 foot that he would be when fully grown, but only a few inches shorter. There was certainly no meat or muscle on the kid to talk about, but the face was the same, hair a little blonder, but essentially the same.
Daniel still didn't speak, and tucked in to his breakfast. Jack sat opposite him, noticing Daniel avoiding eye contact.
'Great,' thought Jack, 'he's still sulking.'
Jack let Daniel finish eating and then placed a glass of fresh juice before him, taking a seat opposite Daniel, forcing him to make eye contact.
"Daniel, we need to sort this out. I need you to listen to me off world. Well, as a matter of fact, you need to listen to me most of the time, but we need to straighten this current disagreement out now."
Daniel's eyebrows rose over the top of the glass. He'd never been used to restrictions. Maybe a few that had been forced upon him after this shrinking business on Abydos, but nothing like this.
"I understand about you being annoyed on the planet, Jack." Daniel nearly whispered at the table.
Hours of thinking about his actions had made him realize that maybe, he was being reckless. If the truth be known, he was more annoyed with Jack treating him like a kid.
"Okay," nodded, Jack "So you admit you should have followed orders?" he ventured.
"Yes, I should have listened, although I was only doing my job…" a whine crept into his voice as lifted his head giving his best wide eyed innocent look.
Jack frowned; he wasn't ready to get into this discussion again.
"Look," Jack sighed. "I get that too, but you have to listen to me, even if you think I'm wrong. Everything that I say is for a reason, usually for you or the team."
"I'm sorry, Jack." Daniel muttered. Jack was barely able to make out the apology.
An acceptance of the situation had been more difficult and feeling that the reasoning could be thrashed out at a different time was what had drawn Daniel into making the apology that he'd made. He new Jack cared and worried. He just wasn't used to it.
Jack smiled and pushed the chair noisily away from the table, quickly grasping his coffee cup as he moved away. Making his way around the table, Jack placed his hand on Daniel's boney shoulder.
"Okay, Danny. We'll leave it at that for now. You gonna get dressed?" Jack wandered to his leather armchair where he snatched his newspaper from the table and kicked back with his coffee to catch up with the goings on 'earth side'.
He heard Daniel wander towards the stairs, "I'er... thought I'd make my way down to the library this morning, Jack. Get a little R and R."
Hearing the first few stairs creak and having heard Daniel's nervous declaration, Jack dropped his newspaper and stared at Daniel who was scooting up the stairs.
"Er, Dannyboy?" Jack called after him.
Daniel turned on the stair, casting wide blue eyes at Jack.
"Grounded, remember?" Jack's face took on an expectant look.
"Aww, no, Jack! I thought you were kidding." Daniel hated the whine in his voice.
"Do I look like I'm kidding, Danny?" Jack gestured towards himself with the newspaper.
Jack saw Daniel's shoulders visibly fall as he went to turn back and finish climbing the stairs.
"Daniel, when you smart mouth me in this house, get used to it!" he found himself raising his voice to a departing figure. Seconds later the door slammed.
"Oh great!" Jack hissed, finding his inability to fight the good fight overwhelming. He decided to let Daniel stew while he finished his newspaper.