Pick up Pieces, by Random (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, angst, character study

Warnings: none

Author on LJ: randomfreshink

Author's Website:

Link: Pick Up Pieces

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Why This Must Be Read: I love how Random writes Jack and Daniel - with sharp, abrasive edges, yet wordless communication that's almost quantum level, sometimes. And in Pick Up Pieces, a missing scene from Need, Jack sees right through Daniel's compulsive habits to the core of what Daniel has to do to win the right to rejoin SG-1.

 

Daniel must pass an evaluation by MacKenzie before Hammond will allow him back on the team, but he's a little too used to using words as weapons for the sessions to do any good. And when Daniel gets a little too carried away with verbal fencing, it takes Jack to understand the underlying motives, call Daniel on it, and help him understand just what he has to do if he really wants things to return to nomral.

 

Courage and trust and faith in one another, and the ability to allocate and accept anger and blame in the right places: it's all here, it's all Jack and Daniel, and it's all good.

     He couldn't show anything but rational, very calm Dr. Jackson.  He'd been cleared to leave the infirmary, but not the base.  So he could move to quarters.  And he had a lot of ground to recover--well, all of it, actually.  The price to pay for what he'd done.  But he no longer had armed guards hovering, and people no longer tensed every time he moved too fast.  But he'd also started to keep his movements deliberate and slow to keep everyone calm.  Himself included.

     Taking a slow breath now, he finished the buttons and looked up, finally met Jack's stare.

     "It's okay.  I know."

     He also knew he'd damn well better behave.  He'd been careful so far.  Very careful.  So had everyone else.

     No one had mentioned the storeroom, or him trying to shoot Jack, or that he'd put an airman into the infirmary.  He'd apologized to the man, and the guy had made a joke about maybe Jackson wanting to go into special ops after all if he was that good at breaking bones.  And he'd tried to stumble through another one with Janet for throwing her across a room, but she'd insisted he'd been under the influence of the sarcophagus and couldn't be held responsible.

     But he could be.

     He held himself accountable, and now he was going to have to put on the best show of his life.  He knew the questions they must be having about him--there were the ones he'd be having in their place.  But he had to fix this.  Sha're and Skarra needed him out there, searching for them.

     So he needed to make this work.