Work Text:
Sharing the Sun
He almost made it, almost escaped. His finger was on the elevator button when he heard it. His name, bellowed behind him, with a hurried admonition to wait up. Daniel sighed. His vacation started in, he eyed his watch, eight minutes. All he wanted to do was get away. What he did was make sure his expression was blank as he turned back.
“Jack. What’s up?”
“Where ya goin’?”
“Vacation. Going away.”
“Where?”
“Away. As in away from here. Far away. From here.” He articulated slowly, just in case Jack didn’t get it.
He got it alright; he just chose to ignore it. “Well, Egypt would certainly qualify as far away. And no big surprise, but why stop in New York? Any special reason?”
Daniel was dumbfounded. His voice, when he found it, was squeaky. “How…how do you know where I’m going?”
“I’m your commanding officer, Daniel. It’s my job to know where you are at all times.”
“Even when I’m on vacation?” The thought that Jack might know where he was at any given time was, to say the least, disconcerting. Scary might have been a better word. By this time, they were up top, in the cool, crisp early spring air.
“Especially so. Listen, you didn’t exactly endear yourself to Kinsey...”
“And I suppose you did?”
“...And I just think someone should keep an eye on you.”
“You don’t really think Kinsey would try anything?”
“Can you look me in the eye and honestly say you trust him?” Daniel couldn’t. “We just think it’s best if you don’t go traipsing all over the world by yourself.” Jack wisely didn’t add that Dr. Fraiser felt Daniel was more than a bit rocky after the thing with that damned gamekeeper and strongly suggested that he be monitored. Closely.
“So you’re going with me on my vacation?” Daniel had so wanted to do this himself. Now he would have to tell Jack where he was going and why. He would have preferred if no one knew.
“All the way.” Jack was leading the way to his truck.
“I suppose my luggage is already in your truck.” Daniel was defeated and he knew it. He silently crawled in and fastened his seat belt.
*
He didn’t speak to Jack again until they were safely aboard the plane and in the air. “I suppose you’d like an explanation.”
“Not really, I’ll just follow you around and hold the shovel or something.” Jack’s eyes narrowed when Daniel blanched. “Just a joke, Daniel. I’ve got Egypt figured out but why are we stopping in New York?”
Daniel sighed and pretended to be interested in the clouds. Finally, he got his courage up. “I am going to New York to pick up the ashes of my parents, whom I’ve had exhumed and cremated, and then I am taking them to Egypt. I’m taking them home.” The last words were barely whispered. When he got a better grip on his emotions, he glanced over to gauge Jack’s reaction.
“Shit, Daniel, why didn’t you tell me? I would have come with you.” As soon as Jack spoke, he wished the words unsaid. He knew why Daniel had told no one, not even him, what he was doing. Because he was used to being alone, doing things alone. He hadn’t quite gotten the knack of sharing.
“Looks like you are.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll give you as much space as you need; you know that, don’t you?”
Daniel didn’t know what to say, he just stared out the window again. It unnerved him how fast and how much he had come to rely on Jack and Sam and Teal’c. He, who had prided himself on being so self-reliant, had what amounted to a family. And it didn’t stop with SG-1. There was the general, who made it quite clear what he thought of Daniel. Janet and Cassie, who blithely drove a bulldozer over his feelings in a way no one had ever done.
“Listen, we’ve got a long night ahead of us. Get some rest.” Daniel took the pillow Jack handed him and fit it between his head and the window.
*
He had been working at the SGC for several months when he realized he could do this. The wanting to had been easy, being able to actually do it hard. It had scared Daniel to take this step. Frightened him so much that his stomach hurt for days before he got the courage to pick up the phone and request the exhumation, the cremation. So much paperwork to be done, getting declared their legal heir, giving him the right, at last, to decide.
He realized taking control was metaphorical, at best. Everyone had done, at the time, what they thought was in Daniel’s best interest, but no one asked him. No one took a shocked and frightened eight-year-old in their arms and asked him what he wanted.
Burying them in New York was Nick’s decision. Burying them at all was his choice. Daniel had known at the time that it wasn’t what his parents would have wanted.
But no one asked him.
*
“What now?” Jack finally asked.
“Someone from the funeral home is meeting me here, bringing me the....remains. I can keep them with me. I’ve already checked.”
Trust Daniel to have thought of all the details, Jack thought.
“Dr. Daniel Jackson?”
They both turned to face the stranger. “Yes, I’m Dr. Jackson.”
“Mr. Metcalfe. I just need to see some identification and get your signature.” Jack remained silent as the transaction was completed and Daniel was holding a plain metal box.
“Come on, Daniel, let’s get back on the plane.”
The attendants must have known what Daniel was bringing back, because they smiled sweetly and were extra attentive. Jack maneuvered Daniel into the seat before him, placing the box on the empty seat between them. “Rest, Daniel. I know you need it. I’ll keep an eye on them for you.”
Daniel turned an exhausted body away. “Thanks, Jack.”
*
Jack let Daniel drive the Jeep into the desert. He presumed Daniel knew where they were headed; he had just shrugged and said he’d known a spot they would have liked. When they stopped, Daniel got what he needed while Jack sprawled in the Jeep. “I’ll just sit here and wait for you, if that’s okay with you?”
He couldn’t see in the dark but he was pretty sure he heard Daniel sigh in relief. “Thanks, Jack. I...I won’t be long.”
“Take your time, kid, nice night to stargaze.”
*
Forty-five minutes. That was all Jack was willing to give him. If he wasn’t back in forty-five minutes, Jack was going in. He set his watch.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel emerged from the darkness. Jack pretended not to look too closely as he slid off the hood, but he was checking, just to make sure. “You good?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Okay, voice was a little nasal, head probably stopped up from crying. But that was a good thing, right? It meant Daniel had let go, at least a little. After that last mission, Jack had contemplated sneaking back through the gate and putting a bullet in the gamekeeper, just for the hell of it. He didn’t think it would help Daniel but he was pretty sure it’d make him feel better.
What he did instead was crawl in the passenger seat, shooting surreptitious glances Daniel’s way. He seemed alright, his face was puffy and red. Jack waited until they saw the lights of Cairo in the distance. “So, you know any good places to eat around here?”
Daniel laughed sharply. “I know a few places. You up for some local food?”
“Daniel, I didn’t fly halfway around the world to eat a hamburger. Lead on.”
*
He should have known it would be a small authentic eatery. It was well off the beaten tourist path, but he trusted Daniel. Somewhat. Still, Jack had a pistol in his pocket and a knife in his boot, just in case.
Daniel slipped into fluid Arabic at the doorway and was answered enthusiastically, evidently they weren’t used to American tourists speaking the tongue so well. They were led to a small table and their hands washed. Their server backed away, chattering a mile a minute. The quiet murmur of voices was shattered by a keening shout. Daniel rose to his feet, followed by Jack, his hand instinctively going to his pocket.
A man rushed from the kitchen. “They told me someone asked for me. He has, they said, the eyes of an angel. It is not possible, I only know one who has those eyes and he has long since gone. Come see, they tell me, see for yourself. And now I see.” His shaking hands filled themselves with Daniel’s face, his kiss a benediction on his forehead. “Praise Allah, the Malakh has at last come home.”
“Farim.” Daniel allowed himself to be engulfed in the man’s arms.
*
“He had a terrible crush on my mother,” Daniel commented wickedly.
“I did! It is true. Miss Claire was most beautiful,” he sighed over his latest glass of wine. Jack had lost count of how many bottles had come and gone through the meal. “And her Malakh,” Farim sighed dramatically. “People came to see the child with the angel eyes. He was most beautiful.”
Jack grinned at Daniel’s blush. “We have the same problem,” he confided with a wink. “People come from all over just to get a peek at him.”
“Jack!” If possible, he reddened even further.
“It is seen. He was always most beautiful, in spirit as well as form. He made his parents most happy.” Farim’s face sobered. “When we heard what had happened, Daniel, my mother, she cried for days. Go, she said, go to that awful place and get our angel. Bring him home. Alas, they would not let us, would tell us nothing of you. We had no way to find you.”
“I know, I’m sorry, Farim.”
His hand stroked Daniel’s hair. “There was nothing you could have done, Malakh. As there was nothing we could do. We offered our thanks to Allah that you were saved, our prayers that you be protected. This was all we could do, so it was done.”
“Your mother, Mina?”
“Dead these past five years, Daniel, but she never forgot you. Your name crossed her lips every night in prayer, your memory stayed in her heart always. Do not grieve for her, for she is with Allah now. Rejoice, as she would wish.”
Jack raised his glass. “To Mina.”
*
“Tired?” Jack glanced over at Daniel.
“Totally whacked out,” Daniel buzzed the window down to let the cool Colorado air waft over his sunburn. “Thanks, by the way.”
“For?”
“You know, just being there,” Daniel smiled briefly.
“Glad to do it, Daniel. So, next vacation, I get to pick the spot.”
“That’s only fair,” he murmured.
“I’m thinking someplace with fish.”
“They fish in the Nile.”
“Boats.”
“Did you notice the barges?”
“No pharaohs, living or dead.” A long pause. “That shut you up, did it?”
“I’m thinking.”
“I’d be shocked if you ever stopped. Just let it go, kid. We’ll stop and get some steaks and I’ll show you some real American cooking. No one knows we’re home so we can hide out at my house for a couple of days.”
“And do what?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Sounds like a plan.”