“That was a dumb thing you did back there,” Jack hissed as soon as the doors closed behind his captors. “What the hell were you thinking, Daniel?”
Daniel said nothing, only shifted the pistol from his right hand to his left.
“I am going to kick your ass from here to Colorado Springs,” Jack snapped. “You could have been killed. You had no way of knowing—“
“That they’d like me?” Daniel drawled. “That they’d, they’d make me their leader?”
“Well,” Jack admitted. “That, and—“
“That they’d bring you to me as an offering, to appease their new ruler?” Daniel’s voice dropped to a dangerously low growl. “Or that you’d look so good on your knees?”
Jack stared in open-mouthed shock down the barrel of Daniel’s Beretta.
Daniel leaned down, putting his mouth next to Jack’s ear. “They’re watching,” he whispered. “The gun is for you, Jack. I have to… make a show. For them.”
Jack watched as Daniel stood, walked back across the chamber and removed the silken robes. “So, what?” Jack asked, peering around the room as though casually taking in his surroundings. He was looking for a camera, a two-way mirror, any kind of surveillance device. “I’m just supposed to come to your bed like a good little whore?”
Daniel looked toward a vase containing exotic flowers. Possibly distant relatives of earth orchids, he thought, but for now they were home to a highly advanced device that was recording every move they made. “If you know what’s good for you,” he replied, narrowing his eyes.
Jack followed Daniel’s gaze to the flowers; he nodded almost imperceptibly before getting to his feet, hands on his hips in defiance. “And if I don’t?”
“I’ll take you by force.” A glint of metal reminded Jack that this wasn’t just a little role-playing at home; this was for real, and he had to get the gun from Daniel, take out the surveillance device and make it look good, for both their sakes. “Is that the way you want this to go?”
Jack was losing any inspiration he might have had to keep up the defiant act. Daniel with a gun was hot as hell on a bad day. Naked, in a position of power over him, with that same gun trained on him… well, the tent in Jack’s BDUs stood in silent testament to how he felt about that. He just prayed Carter and Teal’c, wherever they were, weren’t watching. Swallowing hard, he crossed his arms and hoped that was a suitable answer.
“Very well, then,” Daniel purred, advancing on him. It was a calculated struggle, almost like a dance between partners who knew one another’s bodies and movements as well as their own. In that much, appearances were not deceiving. Within moments, the vase was shattered – along with the device – and Jack, now armed, was pulling Daniel along behind him down a corridor, Daniel struggling back into that damned silk robe.
“Excellent choreography, sir,” Carter said as they freed her from her cell. “Two thumbs up.”
Teal’c said nothing until they were back on the cargo ship, at which point he eyed Daniel’s robes at length, glanced at Jack’s uniform, and raised an eyebrow, commenting, “It is clear that these garments were made to conceal a multitude of sins, O’Neill. Those which Daniel Jackson has been afforded could not conceal even his virtue.” The faintest hint of a smile curved his lips.
Daniel wouldn’t look at any of them for the rest of the trip. Especially Jacob, who just kept giving Jack dirty looks and double- and triple-checking to be sure his little girl was okay while piloting them through hyperspace.
At the Tok’ra base, Daniel was given clean clothes, though he wasn’t quite sure how a die-hard military guy like Jacob had gotten used to leggings and tunics.
“Feeling okay?” Jack asked, the moment he had a chance to get away from Freya. She was a nice girl and all, but… well, first of all there was Danny. And besides that, hello? Snake!
Daniel rubbed his arms as though warming himself. “I’ll live.”
“Cold?” Jack didn’t wait for an answer before pulling him into his arms. “You’re shaking.”
“Huh?” Daniel looked down at his hand, frowning at it. “No. I mean, it’s a little breezy, without actual pants, but I’m not – Jack, things could have gotten very bad back there. As it is, we didn’t manage to get any of the intel we were after, and I… you…”
“Hey,” Jack said firmly. “No. You did real good. If you hadn’t played along, you could have ended up dead, and then they wouldn’t have bothered keeping the rest of us around for your entertainment.”
“But I almost had to rape you,” Daniel whispered. “With everyone watching, Jack!”
Carter cleared her throat. “Sir? We’re gearing up to ‘gate home now.”
“Thanks, Carter,” Jack said, giving Daniel a squeeze. “We’ll be right there.” He watched as she left, and then sighed. “After debriefing and a nice, hot shower, you’re coming over to my place,” he said softly. “And if you really think I wasn’t willing, Danny, I suggest you bring that gun along, and I’ll show you how willing I can be.”
~*~
Daniel was unsure of himself as he stood at Jack’s door, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and trying to decide whether to knock or not. The Beretta was an unsettling weight in the pocket of his jacket, a constant reminder of how far south the mission had nearly gone and how close he’d come to hurting the one person he loved as much as he’d loved his wife.
Jack peered through the peephole for the third time since hearing Daniel pull up. Eventually the pizza guy would show up, and Daniel would have to fish or cut bait. Jack decided not to give him the opportunity to turn tail, and opened the door. “Daniel,” he said softly.
“Jack,” Daniel replied, almost surprised. “Uh, I was just going to—“
“I know,” Jack interrupted. “But how about instead you come in and warm up. You’re shaking again.”
They both knew Daniel wasn’t shaking from the cold; it was a gray day, but only the damp air warranted his wearing a jacket. He let Jack lead him into the house and set him up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of hot tea; the pizza delivery guy came and left, and they ate their supper in silence.
Jack took a long pull of his cold beer and waited for Daniel to crack.
“I brought it,” Daniel said after a while, so softly that Jack thought for a moment he’d imagined it. “I don’t know why. I mean, it’s silly, really. I know that you – and I know that I… that we…”
“It’s not silly,” Jack said, with a sense of finality that could shut even Daniel up. “Get it out.”
Daniel hesitated. “I don’t think I can—“
“Get it out,” Jack said, low and quiet, and Daniel shuddered at the forceful tone. “Or go upstairs.”
Neither of them was surprised when Daniel left a half-eaten slice of pizza to head for the stairway. Jack took the Beretta from Daniel’s jacket, unloaded it, and followed him to the bedroom.
Daniel knew the score. ‘Go upstairs’ was code for ‘get your naked ass in my bed, now.’ He said it to Jack as often as he heard it from him, and he was determined to make up for the almost-indiscretion on P6X-838 in any way Jack would allow him to. If he’d hurt Jack, it would have hurt both of them, and if it had been caught on tape, it could have destroyed all of them. He waited, head bowed, for Jack to enter the room.
“Don’t do that,” was the first thing Jack said when he walked in. “This isn’t – I’m not going to… damn it, Daniel. Look at me.”
Daniel reluctantly did as he was told. His mouth fell open slightly when he saw the gun, held loosely in Jack’s grasp. “Jack, please. Don’t make me – I can’t.”
“Stand up,” Jack ground out between clenched teeth. “Come here.”
Daniel stood from the bed and walked to the doorway, where Jack was. Jack grabbed his hand and pressed it to his own groin. Daniel’s eyes widened, and he looked at Jack, questioning. Jack’s hand moved to cup Daniel, which only served to confuse him more. “Jack—“
Jack cut him off with a searing kiss and backed him toward the bed. Daniel fell gracelessly into a sprawled heap, and before he could protest, Jack was on him. Over him, around him, inside him. His tongue invaded Daniel’s mouth while one hand caressed his chest with the cool metal of his pistol and the other felt around under the pillow for lubrication. Daniel was overwhelmed, yet somehow it was him that helped Jack’s questing hand find purchase on the small bottle.
Panting, pulling and pushing at each other’s bodies while the metal warmed from its contact with Daniel’s almost fevered flesh, the concepts of dominant and submissive were lost to them. They were just two people, two men who loved and wanted each other.
“Take it back.”
“What?” Daniel was close to his climax, so close that he wanted to curse Jack for distracting him.
“Take it back,” Jack repeated, holding the pistol out of Daniel’s reach.
Daniel growled, frustrated. “Give it to me,” he demanded. Jack complied, with a small smile, and before either of them could catch their breath, Daniel was coming, bringing Jack along for the ride close behind him.
As they lay gasping, clutching each other, the pistol clattered to the floor. “Do you get it?” Jack asked, stroking Daniel’s face.
“I think so,” Daniel frowned. “The gun never mattered?”
“Close enough,” Jack shrugged, grinning. “The gun was window dressing. I will always, always want you, Danny, and being in some ceremonial bedroom on some foreign planet isn’t going to change that, just because I’m supposed to be your, what, inauguration present?”
“My first concubine, actually,” Daniel said shyly.
“Okay, concu—wait, first? As in, there were gonna be more after me?” Jack looked affronted. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
Daniel’s lips twitched. “Well, you would have been in charge of the others, if there had been,” he offered, and Jack scowled.
“Oh, good, my own command,” Jack muttered, ruffling Daniel’s hair affectionately. “We good?”
“Yeah,” Daniel smiled, and for the first time Jack felt sure it was going to be okay. “So next time some whacked-out aliens make me their king and deliver you to my bed, I should…?”
“Do exactly what you did, Danny,” Jack said, returning the smile. “You did good.”