Sierra Hotel, by Charli Booker (PG-13)

[figs_sg1_rec]

Rec Category: Jack O'Neill

Pairing: none
Categories: Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, Jack and Daniel friendship, team, gen, humor, character study
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Website: Charli Booker at StargateFan
Link: Sierra Hotel

Why This Must Be Read: This fun story, told from Daniel's POV with self-deprecating humor, gives us a fascinating look at Jack's early days as the head of the SGC and his struggles to be "The Man."

Daniel wonders, a little, why no one else at the SGC still relates to General Jack O'Neill the way they did before his promotion. Then an odd quirk of Jack's rapidly mutates into a near obsession, leaving poor Daniel sputtering and Teal'c wondering exactly what a "lucky Troll doll" really is. Sam, unfortunately, is too busy laughing at the situation to help very much. It takes Jack and Daniel's close friendship, and some truly honest conversation, to resolve the problem and help Jack come to a true acceptance of his new position and responsibilities.

We get Jack spelling FUBAR with his Alphabits, and some cracks in his "me dumb soldier" facade, and Sam and Jack intimidating everyone else in a lethal hand of cards. Read this one to enjoy some great teamy goodness and a truly human Jack with all the foibles that we've come to know and love!

We were playing NERTS - a weird card game that I was pretty sure Jack’d had a hand in inventing. It was like multi-handed solitaire complete with body slamming, jabs to the face, under-the-table kicks to the groin, and at least one episode which involved Jack wrestling me to the floor and prying a three of spades out of my hand - although, admittedly, he later apologized . . sort of. On the Daniel Jackson Scale of Fear - one being peacefully awakening in your own bed and ten being not-so-peacefully awakening inside a sarcophagus - NERTS had a pucker factor of approximately eight point two.

I hated the game. I don’t think Teal’c much cared for it, either. But, Sam and Jack loved it . . . which should tell you something.

Supposedly, we played in teams of two, but if the SG units demonstrated teammanship like that exhibited while playing NERTS, my rotting corpse would have been left at the base of some exotic tree in a faraway galaxy many, many years ago. As usual, I was ‘paired’ with Sam. She hated teaming with me, mainly because, like now, I’d rather lose a game than a limb. The only thing worse than being paired with Sam was being paired with Jack. Poor Teal’c had given up all pretenses long ago. Now, he sat there, staring down at his handful of cards, and looking like he missed Apophis just a little.

Finished playing his own cards, Jack reached over and grabbed Teal’c’s.

"Sir, you can’t do that!"

Ignoring her, Jack started slapping down cards like his life depended on it, which considering the look on Sam’s face, maybe it did. The finish line in sight, Jack and Sam were both standing now, scrambling to be the first to play all their cards. Unfortunately, Sam had once again forgotten that she was one-half of a team. I sat there holding my fistful of unplayed cards, the fractured queen of hearts still clutched in my left hand.

"NERTS!" Jack yelled triumphantly.

"You cheated!"

"And yo-ou lo-st," Jack sing-songed.

Her upper lip trembling with suppressed rage, Sam did what she does best - she headed for the freezer. She yanked open the door, dug through a stack of frost-bitten pot pies, and pulled out a half gallon of Moose Tracks. Grabbing a can of Hershey’s syrup and four large spoons, she set the tub of ice cream in the middle of the table and tossed us each a utensil - Emily Post, eat your heart out.

Plopping down in her chair, Sam glared over at Jack, dug out a mountainous spoonful of ice cream, drizzled it with syrup, and shoved it in her mouth. "You know, that game doesn’t count. You can’t play your teammate’s cards," she opined around a mouthful of fudge and milk by-products.

"You’re just sore because you didn’t think of it first." Jack blew on his spoon, steaming it up. "And, because Teal’c was on my team."

He was probably right on both counts, and it was an indication of how little I cared that I didn’t even take offense. It didn’t matter who won. I was just happy to have survived. Maybe Teal’c and I should get consolation t-shirts declaring, ‘I played Jack and won Jack-squat.’

"Well, I want it on record that you forfeited by cheating."

"Oh, grow up, Carter. It’s just a game."

Laying my cards on the table, I studied the giver of such sage wisdom. Wonder what Thor would think if he could see Jack now - head tilted back slightly, hands held out to his sides, spoon hanging precariously from the end of his nose. Yessir, that’s our Golden Boy! Hero of Planet Earth; the Asgard’s favorite human; fearless leader of the SGC. Who would have guessed that the same man who could blow a friggin’ mothership to smithereens could also magically dangle a metal implement from the tip of his nose? Don’t answer that.