Bill and Ted Overlook the Universe, by Tallulah Rasa (PG)

[figs_sg1_rec]

Rec Category: Jack and Daniel friendship

Pairing: none

Categories: Jack and Daniel friendship, Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, gen, episode related, character study

Warnings: none

Author on LJ: unknown

Author's Website: To Explore the Universe and Eat Pie

Link: Bill and Ted Overlook the Universe

 

Why This Must Be Read: I shamelessly fangirl Tallulah Rasa for her impeccable presentation of Jack and Daniel's friendship, with all its quirks and awkward pauses and unspoken understandings. In Bill and Ted Overlook the Universe, she gives us the two of them in the aftermath of Double Jeopardy, when Jack is still unsettled by meeting the robots and knowing that robot Daniel has died, and Daniel is still unsettled by the events of Scorched Earth and not quite knowing if he's still on the right path anymore.

 

I love how Tallulah Rasa takes us full circle, from the two of them thinking and speaking at cross-purposes to the two of them flawlessly reading each other's minds. There's alternating POVs and great introspection and just enough angst and humor to balance the scale. But most of all, there's a thoughtful, satisfying character piece that perfectly characterizes Jack and Daniel in all their contradictory glory.


"It's a little one," he says, as though that will excuse something.

"The little ones can hurt the most," Jack says.

Daniel blinks and settles awkwardly on the soft grass.  That sounded almost like Jack meant something else.  Daniel fumbles with his bootlace, clumsy with the pressure to move quickly.  The Jack he knows doesn't speak in subtext.  This Jack, however, is difficult to read, and difficult to understand.  Like the languages of his childhood, Daniel learned to speak Jack easily.  He hadn't even noticed he was fluent, until one day Jack wasn't one of his languages anymore.  He misses it. The things that come the easiest are always the hardest to lose.

He finally gets his laces unknotted, pulls off his boot, and shakes it.  A jagged piece of shining black falls out, the size of a pea.  Daniel brushes the bottom of his sock and feels the sharp grit clinging there.

"Little," Jack says, and Daniel doesn't know if he should have been able to walk another few kilometers without complaining, or if he should be amazed his foot is still in one piece.  There is no phrasebook for Jack, no English/ Jack dictionary.  Daniel searches Jack's face for clues, but isn't sure he understands what he sees there. Putting his boot back on is the only thing he's completely sure of at the moment, and even that seems fraught with complications.

He wishes, again, that he had been on Juna and seen the other Jack, the one who remembered Abydos but had never known the Gadmeer.  It would have been like a reunion with an old friend, he thinks.  He feels a sudden wave of longing and wonders how he can be homesick for a place he's never been.

"Daniel?" Jack says, motioning to the path, to the Stargate.  He seems to be several subway stops beyond tired.  Daniel has seen that look before, too.

"It's time to go," Jack says, and for the first time in a long while Daniel knows exactly what he means.