TITLE: Jack and Daniels

AUTHOR: Lady Ra

E-MAIL ADDRESS: LadyRa11@yahoo.com

RATING: R

PAIRING: Jack/Daniel

SUMMARY: Jack touches something he shouldn't and goes on an unexpected journey

EPISODE SPOILERS: Quantum mirror eps, Hathor eps

DISCLAIMER: It all belongs to whoever the heck owns Stargate. And that's not me. Except when I go off my meds, then I'm sure they belong to me. Don't they?

DISTRIBUTION: This one's going in a zine. Mwahahaha

FEEDBACK: Absolutely. In fact I insist on it. No, I'm begging you for it. Damn, where are those drugs?

THANKS: Thanks to my vunderbar betas. This story required very speedy emergency beta work. So many, many thanks to Joolz, Morr and Susan.

Jack and Daniels

They were due to leave on a mission in ten minutes. Jack and Teal'c were ready and suited up, but Jack's two geeks were missing in action. "I'll go get them," he told Teal'c who nodded solemnly at him.

He strolled at a rapid pace to Carter's lab because that was the last place he'd seen them. Sure enough, there they were, almost in the exact same positions they'd been in earlier, which meant they weren't ready to leave for a mission in--he glanced at his watch--four minutes.

"Forget something?" he asked pleasantly enough.

Both Daniel and Carter looked up at him, startled. Then Carter's eyes widened and she looked at her watch. "Oh, jeez," she said. "Sorry, sir. Won't take me a minute to get ready."

Jack moved further into the room. "You still working on that quantum mirror thing?" SG-12 had found it on some planet and had brought it back. It sort of looked like a quantum mirror except it was smaller, and Carter said it wasn't one.

"Yes," Daniel said absently, apparently unconcerned that they were late for a mission, or too absorbed to have even caught on yet. Although, you'd think he'd have noticed something was up. It wasn't every day Jack showed up in the labs with his P90 loaded for bear.

Carter started shutting down computers. Daniel was pointing a gizmo at the mirror thing.

"What's that?" Jack asked.

"We think it's a remote control to the mirror," Carter said, shutting off one laptop and pressing keys on another.

"Does it work?"

"We don't know," Daniel said, finally joining the party. "It turned the device on, but it won't do anything else."

"Why not?" Jack asked, striding across the room to get a closer look, interested enough to momentarily forget his purpose for coming here.

Daniel demonstrated by clicking the blue button. The mirror shut off. He hit it again, and it turned back on.

"What's the other button do?"

"Nothing," Daniel said in frustration, pressing it.

"Maybe it just needs a master's touch," Jack said blithely. He was, after all, the king of the remote control. The small television Daniel owned didn't even count as a TV. He leaned over Daniel, practically draping himself along Daniel's back, and pressed the other button.

Jack lost all sense of his body. Everything began to move in slow motion and it seemed as if both Carter and the room began to grow smaller. He could still see Daniel, could still feel Daniel, but he was growing more and more insubstantial. Then Jack felt a painful wrench and he was falling and rolling and trying to get his bearings.

When Jack felt in control of his senses again, he noticed rich tapestry carpets under his hands and knees, and the smell of a wood fire and cooking meat. He also noticed that the gizmo he'd been touching hadn't come with him.

"Jack?"

"Daniel?" Jack would know that voice anywhere. He turned and there was Daniel. Or, more correctly, a Daniel. Not his Daniel. Because this Daniel was in home-spun robes and his hair was long, much longer than his Daniel ever wore his hair, past his shoulders. Daniel was sitting at a low table with Sha're and two small children.

Daniel's mouth was open. "Jack? What…how did you get here?" He glanced around as if expecting an invasion.

"I have no idea," Jack said, sitting up. "But I can tell you that I'm not your Jack."

"Not my…" Daniel blinked, his eyebrows dancing. "I don't understand."

"Are we on Abydos?"

Daniel nodded.

"Did you ever come back to Earth?" Jack asked.

Daniel shook his head.

"The gate still buried?"

Another nod.

"Good, leave it that way," Jack advised. "My Daniel unburied it, and let's just say that things didn't go well." Jack glanced at Sha're and then back to Daniel.

"I still don't understand," Daniel said worriedly. "You're not here for me, are you? Because I'm not going back with you."

Jack shook his head. "Nope," he said reassuringly, even if it hurt a little that there was a Daniel someplace that would choose to live a life without a Jack in it. "I don't know what happened." Well, he did know what happened. He touched something he obviously shouldn't have that for some reason worked for him when it hadn't worked for Daniel. How ironic was that? "I was with my Daniel and I touched something and blammo, here I am."

Sha're said something to Daniel in Abydonian.

Daniel flushed. "Yes, of course. Sha're is telling me that I'm being a poor host. Please, join us."

Jack scooted over to the table. "These yours?" he asked, pointing at the kids. Beautiful kids. Daniel's blue eyes, Sha're's darker skin.

Daniel nodded proudly. "Yes. This is our son," Daniel started but then hesitated.

"Does your son have a name?" Jack prompted.

Daniel looked uncomfortable. "I never thought I'd see you again."

Jack grinned. "You named him after me?"

"No," Daniel said. "I named him Charlie, in memory of, well, you know."

Jack nodded, feeling a sting of tears, absurdly touched by the gesture.

"His full name is Charles Skaara Kasuf Jackson."

"That's a mouthful," Jack said after clearing his throat. "Skaara still around?"

Daniel nodded. "I'll go get him in a moment." But Sha're got up and after speaking to Daniel moved to the heavy tapestry door and gracefully exited. "She's going to get him. He still speaks of you."

Cool, Jack thought. It was nice to know that there was a Skaara here that hadn't ever been Goa'ulded. "And this little one?" Jack said, gesturing at the little girl, half hiding behind Daniel, who was so damn cute she'd already stolen Jack's heart.

"That is Claire Sha're," Daniel said with a loving smile.

"You happy?" Jack asked.

"I am," Daniel said.

"You find that room with all the cartouches?"

Daniel nodded.

"Sort of want to make you unbury the gate and see what other planets are out there?" Jack asked.

Daniel grimaced. "A little."

"I meant what I said about unburying the gate. Don't do it unless you're in danger and need help. When my version of you unburied it, a Goa'uld named Apophis came through it and took Sha're and Skaara and turned them into Goa'uld."

Daniel looked appropriately horrified. He hugged his daughter close to his side and reached across the table to cup his son's face in his hand. "How is it possible that there are two of me?" he finally asked Jack. "Did you find some new application of the Stargate that crosses realities? We never did find out what would happen if you tried an eight or nine symbol address."

"It wasn't the Stargate. It's this thing called a quantum mirror. You found it, actually, and saved all our asses because of it." Jack felt in his left bottom vest pocket and pulled out an eye glass case. "Here." Daniel wasn't wearing his glasses and he was squinting. "I always carry an extra pair for my Daniel."

With a pathetically grateful look, Daniel snatched the case, opened it up and put them on. "Thank God," he said reverently. "Mine just broke two weeks ago. I was careless and--" he glanced wryly at his son. "I'll be more careful of these. I've been experimenting on grinding sand to make glass but I haven't been very successful."

"I have no doubt you'll figure it out," Jack said, meaning it. Right from the beginning, after he'd gotten over being constantly annoyed by the man, Daniel had never ceased to amaze him with what he could accomplish.

Daniel stared at Jack for a long moment. "I missed you. This was the right decision to make for me, but I was sad to think I'd never see you again."

"You probably won't," Jack said. "This was the only gate we knew how to dial until you found the Abydos map room. The program's probably folded by now." For all he knew, the Earth from this reality was already conquered by the Goa'uld, especially if they hadn't had Daniel to accidentally stumble into that other reality and discover the attack.

Then Sha're returned with Skaara and Jack stood to give him a hug. Skaara knew considerably more English than Sha're so he and Jack were able to chat for a while. In the back of his mind, Jack kept track of time. He had assumed that Daniel and Carter would figure out how to get him back but as the minutes passed and turned into an hour and then longer, Jack stopped feeling as confident.

"Jack? Can you hear me?"

Jack snapped his head up, staring at Daniel. "Did you hear that? That sounds like my Daniel."

Daniel shook his head.

"Jack?"

"Yeah, Daniel, I'm right here. Can you hear me?"

He waited for a response but heard nothing. Damn. But then Jack started feeling funny. He spoke to this Daniel. "I think I'm getting pulled back. Keep your family safe."

"I will," Daniel said with conviction.

Then, as before, Jack felt that disturbing sense of disconnection and the room began to recede. And, once again, he experienced a gut-wrenching jerk that felt as if the floor had dropped away, leaving him with nothing to hang onto.

*****

It took him longer to get his bearings this time. When he did it looked like he was back at the SGC. One of the VIP suites. Then he really took a look around and realized he might be at a SGC, but it wasn't his. And he might be looking at Daniel, but this one for sure wasn't his. For one thing, he had on a ribbon device.

Daniel smiled at him. "We did not hear you come in, beloved," he purred at Jack, his fingers caressing the soft velvet of the bed covering.

The voice sent shivers up and down Jack's back. It was Daniel's voice, but he'd never heard his friend like this: sultry, teasing, and pure one hundred percent Goa'uld. He followed the hand up past the arm enclosed in the finest white silk until he found Daniel's face with glowing eyes staring right back at him.

Jack was off his knees in a second, backing up quickly until he hit the wall. That was when he got a really good look at what was lying in the bed and his jaw dropped. "Jesus H. Christ."

It was Daniel in leather and silk. Tight black leather pants outlining every inch of him, and Jack meant every inch. His eyes sort of got tied up there at Daniel's crotch for a minute. Finally tearing his eyes away, he continued his visual journey. Black leather boots up to his calves, a silk shirt that revealed more than it covered, open to his navel, showcasing a very buff body underneath.

There were the usual Goa'uld accoutrements; Jack could identify some of them, and some were vaguely familiar, including the large jewel that was part of a leather belt that surrounded Daniel's waist. Not that he paid attention for long because the Daniel Goa'uld was running his hands down his own body, playing with a nipple with one hand, caressing a growing erection with the other. "Are not we beautiful?" the voice teased. "You are welcome to touch."

And Jack wanted to be welcome. Daniel was like a fucking wet-dream, a pirate swashbuckling fucking wet dream. And if it was actually Daniel lying there doing this, turning him on like this, he'd come in his pants without moving an inch closer to the bed.

But it wasn't. It was whatever fucking snakehead had crawled inside some Daniel Jackson in yet another reality and that thought was like the ultimate bucket of cold water.

"Who are you?" Jack snapped.

It seemed to have the same effect on the Goa'uld, who immediately sat up, the hand with the ribbon device aimed right at Jack. "Who are you?" he asked right back, eyes narrowed.

"I asked you first."

The Goa'uld got up and slowly made his way to where Jack was standing, studying him intently. "You are not our Jack. We would have realized it sooner if we had not been--" he held his ribboned hand against Jack's forehead as he licked Jack's face from his chin to his temple. "--so pleasurably distracted."

Jesus. "Your Jack?" he managed to choke out.

His thumb caressed Jack's forehead. "Your tattoo proclaiming you as our First Prime is missing." His other hand crept down Jack's body, running over his lips, his jaw, his nipples, until they reached his belly. "As is the symbiote making you our slave." The Goa'uld-Daniel grabbed Jack's balls and squeezed. "I wish to have our Jack back."

Jack let out a yowl and tried to back away but he was held tightly by that painful grip. "Trust me," he gasped out, "I'd be only too happy to give you back to your Jack and get the hell out of here."

The Goa'uld let go and, taking a step back, considered Jack. The glow was gone for the moment, and Daniel's blue eyes stared at him.

Jack hardened his heart even as he grabbed his balls in misery. It was a good reminder that this wasn't Daniel, not anymore. He also noticed with frustration that the Daniel-Goa'uld had relieved him of his rifle and Berretta while he'd had Jack's balls in a vise. Fucking great. He just had to hope the Goa'uld didn't notice the zat he had tucked into the back of his fatigues.

The Goa'uld paced around the room, his non-ribboned hand running along the walls, one eye steadily on Jack. "Explain what has happened. Why are you here?"

Jack never took well to orders from Goa'uld but he forced himself to answer. "For some reason, I'm going reality hopping. I'll be out of here before you know it, so just feel free to get back to whatever you were doing. You won't even know I'm here."

The eyes grew calculating again. "In your world, our chosen one is free? You are all free?" The Goa'uld did not look particularly pleased about that.

Despite the outer appearance of Daniel, something about this Goa'uld was sounding familiar. "Who are you?" Jack asked, needing to know who he was dealing with.

The Goa'uld smiled at Jack, a predatory sex-on-a-stick smile, and Jack swallowed hard. He took off for the door. No doubt there were Jaffa guards out there, and maybe even this reality's version of Jack O'Neill, but staying here was a bad idea. He needed to find a safe cubbyhole to hang out in until his time here was up.

The Daniel-Goa'uld moved across the room as fast as lightning and grasped Jack's neck in a stranglehold. He ran his other hand up the outside of Jack's thigh then stopped. "You do not remember us?" His eyes grew calculating. "Or perhaps you have been denied our presence in your reality."

Jack really wished a part of him didn't think this was erotic in a completely freaky and totally disturbing way.

The Goa'uld's hand on his thigh moved until his fingers covered Jack's groin. Jack tried to move away but the hand that had been strangling him, the one with the ribbon device, was now pressed against his forehead, reminding him to stay very still. "You are our favorite bedmate," the Daniel-Goa'uld taunted. "You find great pleasure in pleasing us."

"Who are you?" Jack managed to ask again.

"We are the mother of all Pharaohs. Queen of the gods."

Fuck. Jack would have pushed himself through the wall to get away from her if he could. "Hathor," he said scathingly. Any thoughts of this being a scary kinky turn-on faded instantly.

The Daniel-Goa'uld smiled at him. "Ah, then you do remember us. This pleases us."

The only thing that was keeping Jack from totally freaking out was that her little mind whammy breath shouldn't work on him. At least he hoped to God it wouldn't work on him. Aiming for smartass, Jack said, "You don't look much like a mother."

The Goa'uld pressed up against him. "Perhaps you require a demonstration." The hard jewel in the Goa'uld's belt was digging into Jack's stomach.

Suddenly Jack remembered. He'd been under her influence at the time, but he could remember having a hole in his stomach where his guts should be. Remembered what it felt like to have his body violated. He shoved at her, having no desire to repeat the experience.

He might as well have been pushing an elephant. She used her unribboned hand to tear his vest and shirt open. "We shall make you our beloved slave as well. You will bow to us and pleasure us."

Jack pushed her again, his heart beating frantically in his chest, trying to get his hand between the jewel and his stomach, willing to die before he'd let her touch him again that way. "Get the fuck away from me," he snarled.

She put her hand, Daniel's hand, over Jack's mouth and smiled. "Your passion has always pleased us." She worked her thumb in between his lips, even as the ribbon device began to heat up on Jack's forehead, warning him not to move. Jack could feel Daniel's cock hard against his groin.

Jack turned his head in revulsion, spitting her thumb out of his mouth. "Get away from me," he hissed. Taking his life in his hands he pushed harder, succeeding in gaining a few inches of freedom. "We won in my reality," he gloated. "You lost. And the last time we met, we won again and you died, you bitch," he spat out viciously.

Hathor leaned forward and blew on him.

Jack smiled victoriously at her when nothing happened. "And your whammy juice won't work on me anymore."

Her eyes narrowed, and then she smiled viciously with Daniel's lips and teeth and eyes. Jack saw the glow from the ribbon device and a searing pain shot into Jack's head.

Deciding he better do this now or it would be too late, he grappled for the zat. He was already seeing stars by the time he got it out. She noticed it too late and he was able to get a shot off before she could stop him. It was Daniel's body that stumbled, Daniel's confused eyes looking out at him.

Hathor, Jack reminded himself. This wasn't Daniel. This was Hathor. And Daniel would never want to live this way. He found the strength to shoot the Goa'uld again. She fell to the ground.

"Jack?" Daniel gasped out.

"Daniel?" Jack fell to his knees next to his friend.

Daniel's eyes were haunted, as pain-filled as Jack had ever seen them. He didn't want to know what Hathor had done using Daniel's body, making him an unwilling participant in her cruelty. "Finish it," Daniel pleaded. "Please. You promised me."

Fuck. It had been hard enough shooting Daniel when Jack knew Hathor was in control.

"Jack," Daniel begged. "Don't make me live like this any longer."

"I could take you to Cimmeria," Jack said. "We could get rid of Hathor."

Daniel shook his head. "You don't know what I've done." His eyes were bright with anguished tears.

"It wasn't you," Jack said fiercely.

"It was this body," Daniel said. "Let me go, please. Please," he begged, a tear rolling down his cheek. "Before she comes back."

Jack's teeth were gritted so hard, he was sure his teeth were cracking. "Fuck," he said, raising the zat. "Daniel," he said softly.

"Do it," Daniel implored. "She's taking control again."

Jack thanked every deity he could think of when Daniel's eyes glowed for a second because Jack could kill Hathor without a second's hesitation. He raised the zat, shooting one more time.

When Daniel's body didn't disappear, Jack figured one of the blasts must have worn off. Just as he shot him one more time with the zat, the door opened up and the Jack O'Neill of this reality walked in. He had his hand around Jack's neck and had him pressed back against the wall in a second. "Who the fuck are you?" he demanded.

Jack was too busy watching Daniel's body disappear, and thinking he might throw up, to answer. If there was any justice in the world he'd puke all over this asshole. He prodded O'Neill in the gut with the zat he was still holding, suggesting the man back off.

O'Neill was already gone, moving toward the spot on the floor where Daniel's body had just been. "What did you do?" he asked in a broken voice.

"I did what you should have done," Jack snapped out. "Why'd you let him stay a Goa'uld? He said you'd promised him. What the fuck happened?" Jack was furious. He hated this version of himself who had allowed Daniel to be consumed by a monster.

All the anger drained out of O'Neill and the look he shot Jack made his heart clench in his chest. Jack had seen his face in a thousand mirrors and after Charlie had died, he had become well-acquainted with what misery looked like. But that had nothing on the look on O'Neill's face. "It…it was complicated," was all O'Neill said.

"Not fucking good enough." And it wasn't. Jack didn't care how much of a living hell this O'Neill had been through. He had a gun. He could have taken care of things.

O'Neill sagged against the wall. "Who are you? I mean, I know who you are but how are you here? Why?"

"I have no idea," Jack said. "I touched something and voila, I'm on the Daniel Jackson magical mystery tour."

Falling to his knees, O'Neill touched the rug where Daniel had been lying. "I loved him."

"Daniel?" Jack asked.

O'Neill nodded.

"All the more reason to do what he asked," Jack said, not feeling particularly merciful.

"Nice to see I'm an asshole in every universe," O'Neill said. He dropped his face into his hands. "Shit."

Jack collected his pistol and rifle and felt immediately better. "Is there anyone left alive?"

"A few." O'Neill fished out some keys and threw them to Jack. "Go let them out."

"You go let them out," Jack countered.

O'Neill shook his head, touching the carpet again as if he could feel essence-of-Daniel in the carpet fibers. "I'm done." He gestured at the zat that was still in Jack's hands. "Take me out."

"No," Jack protested. Not that he didn't understand the urge to give up. He'd come pretty damn close to it after Charlie died.

"Just do it," O'Neill said. "Or I'll do it myself." He took out his pistol, put the barrel in his mouth.

"Fuck," Jack said. A gunshot would bring more Jaffa. "You sure? They could probably use some help here."

Taking the gun out, his eyes already dead, O'Neill said, "They won't want my help."

Jack couldn't even imagine what this O'Neill had done to put that look in his eyes, but it made Jack want to end his suffering. He lifted his zat and shot O'Neill three times.

Jack felt like crawling into a corner and bawling his eyes out, but as long as he was here, he'd do what he could to help. Zat in hand, he moved to the door. He didn't think there were any guards outside because they had to have heard O'Neill yell at him. Unless they were used to yelling and used to ignoring it.

He cracked open the door. No guards. He stepped out into the hallway. There were guards at either end of the corridor. He was glad he didn't know either one of them; Jack really didn't want to have to kill anyone else with a familiar face. He gestured them closer, hoping they didn't notice his lack of a tattoo, and as they approached he took them both out with his zat, taking turns shooting them three times each until their bodies vanished. "Gotta love a zat," Jack muttered, appreciating how handy it was to get rid of any evidence.

In less than five minutes he was at the armory loading up with more zats and rifles. Then he headed for the detention center. On the way he ran into two more Jaffa and made quick work of them.

He found the prisoners. There were fifteen of them, and none of them looked in the best of shape. In fact, several looked like they'd been badly tortured. Jack wondered if O'Neill had done that.

"Before you tackle me," Jack said, fumbling with the keys, "I'm a different Jack." He lifted his shirt and showed his unmarred stomach. "I'm just a plain old Jack O'Neill come from a different reality to rescue your asses." He saw Charlie Kawalsky and Ferretti, even Walter Davis. No women.

"Where's our O'Neill?" someone spat out. Whoever it was sounded as if they were looking forward to getting their hands around the asshole's neck.

"He's dead, so's the she-bitch," Jack informed them.

"They'll just use the sarcophagus," Davis said wearily.

Jack shook his head. "Three zat blasts. They ain't coming back." He got the door open and handed weapons to the able bodied. "I'm not sure how long I'll be hanging around, so don't count me in on any of your plans." He glanced at the men then at Kawalsky. "Hammond?"

"Dead."

"You got a Carter here?" Jack asked.

"All the women are dead. Hathor killed them all." Kawalsky shut up quickly, wincing, turning his head away, letting Jack know it hadn't been pretty.

"Jack? Sam, do you see him? He's right there, but I can't touch him. Damn it."

"Daniel?" Jack called, spinning around.

"I thought you said he was dead," Kawalsky said, his rifle up threateningly.

"My Daniel," Jack said. "Not your Daniel. I'm probably about to get yanked out of here," Jack warned his audience. He could feel all the unpleasant sensations he was starting to hate with a fiery passion take control of him. Then he remembered Daniel's voice, and O'Neill's eyes, and both their deaths on his hands, and Jack was willing to feel anything if it got him away from this reality.

*****

Each stop seemed to knock him on his ass longer. Jack had to focus on breathing so he wouldn't puke and the thought of standing made it worse. God, he wanted to get home. He wanted to see his Daniel, see his clear blue eyes, his untainted smile. That fucking bitch. Jack wished he could kill Hathor again. Stomach finally settling, he forced himself to look around.

He was in another SGC. He turned a corner and stopped when he saw the blasted walls and all the bodies. Dozens of them. SFs mostly, but then Jack started to see familiar faces. Carter, Hammond, Walter Davis.

Jack kept walking. He saw himself, practically cut in half by a staff blast. He kept walking. Paul Davis, Frank Osterman, an old teammate of Jack's that had gotten killed on his last mission in Iran.

More SFs. He headed down another hallway, his body going instinctively in search of Daniel. Jack could hear multiple staff weapons still being fired, but they were on the floor above him. There wasn't much Jack could do to stop what he assumed was a Goa'uld invasion. He wouldn't even have time to set the self-destruct sequence as he got so little advance warning when he was being yanked away.

He turned another corner and saw him. Jesus, it was like Apophis' ship all over again. Daniel had been blasted through his upper chest and he was sitting against a door jamb, gasping for breath. Jack ran to him, a quick assessment telling him that just like last time, there was nothing he could do.

"Jack," Daniel said, his hand attempting to reach him.

"Hey," Jack said, sick to death of watching Daniels die. He sat down as close to Daniel as he could, took his hand. "Shitty day," he offered.

"Really shitty," Daniel gasped. "I love you," he said, then bit back a groan.

"I love you, too," Jack said, feeling his eyes fill.

"You do?" Daniel asked weakly.

Jack wanted to punch the Jack from this reality. "Yeah, I do," he promised. "You and me, buddy." He leaned forward and kissed Daniel's forehead. "You and me."

"'kay," Daniel managed to get out along with one of his shy smiles. He squeezed Jack's hand and then, from one second to the next, died.

Two dead Daniels this close together was almost too much for Jack. He closed his eyes, feeling a couple tears leak out, biting his trembling lips so hard they hurt. He wanted off this merry-go-round now. Ordering himself to pull it together, he rubbed his eyes with the base of his hands and sniffed. Loudly.

Refusing to leave Daniel laying out in the hallway, Jack dragged him into the nearest supply room and shut the door behind them. He touched Daniel's hair, trailed his fingers down his cheek, took off his glasses and shut his eyes. He tucked the glasses into his vest pocket. Then Jack sat back to wait, keeping vigil over Daniel's dead body, hoping like hell the Jaffa didn't come back looking for people they missed.

A touch to his arm woke him up. Jack was immediately alert. He saw the dead Daniel, and he saw a ghost Daniel, an indistinct shimmering Daniel. "That you?" Jack asked.

"You can see me?" Daniel asked excitedly.

"Barely. You guys figure out a way to get me home, yet?"

"Each time you shift we get closer," Daniel said. "You need to stay longer so we can get a better lock on you."

Jack let out a mirthless laugh. "I don't really want to stay longer, if that's all right with you." He could hear the marching feet of Jaffa. "In fact, now would be a good time for me to be leaving."

Through the shimmering, Jack could just make out Daniel's worried gaze. "Are you in danger?"

"Oh, yeah," Jack said.

Daniel pulled back his arm and that was all she wrote. As the door burst open, Jack felt the wrenching pain and everything receded and grew dark.

*****

When Jack came to, he was wedged under a rock overhang, tucked neatly out of sight. How the fuck he'd gotten there was beyond him; he had no memory of crawling anywhere. Jack peeked out and didn't see anyone in either direction. If he had to guess he'd say he was underground. And, unfortunately, not underground at Cheyenne Mountain. He hadn't been crazy about his last two stops, but at least the location had given him a home field advantage.

Jack tried to focus, but his mind was filled with images of dead Daniels. One dead by his own hand, the other dying having no idea his own Jack was already dead, which, Jack reflected, was probably a good thing. At least that Daniel had been able to die thinking his Jack loved him.

The lone consolation was that he'd been able to help each of the last three Daniels in some way. That thought only served to remind Jack that Daniel seemed to be missing in action in this reality, which meant he was probably in trouble somewhere.

Jack got to his feet and did a fingers and toes check and then a weapons check, pleased to find everything where it was supposed to be. Jack looked left then right along the tunnels, needing to make a directional choice. He chose left, walked fifteen feet, then spun around and went right.

A few hundred yards down he heard someone laugh. It wasn't a pleasant laugh. It was the kind of laugh that meant someone was enjoying the hell out of themselves at someone else's expense.

Jack sprinted toward the source of the sound. Peeking his head around the corner, Jack's blood froze. Daniel was there being held down and stripped. The man who was laughing had his cock out and was stroking it to get it nice and hard.

There were five men in all, and it looked like they'd already been having some fun. Daniel's face was bruised, one eye swollen shut. His shirt was half torn off of him, and there were bruises on his chest and back. Three of them were working on stripping Daniel's pants off. The fifth man was undoing his pants, getting his cock out. "Can't wait your turn, Hayden?" first cock guy said.

"He can do me in his mouth," Hayden said.

Daniel kicked out viciously, catching one of the men right on the knee. He went down yelling. First cock guy said, "I'm thinking this one would bite it off, but don't let that stop you." He laughed meanly.

"Not if you hold a gun to his balls," Hayden said with an unpleasant chuckle. His cock was already hard enough to leak.

It had all taken less than ten seconds, but it had been more than enough time to convince Jack that these fuckers were dead meat. P90 primed, he walked into the clearing and, in ten more seconds, all five men were dead or wishing they were. Daniel was curled up in a ball, arms wrapped around his head as if that would protect him from flying bullets.

"Daniel?"

Daniel cracked open an incredulous eye from where he was lying. "Jack? Jesus, Jack? I couldn't find you anywhere. I thought you'd been taken, too."

Jack shook his head and checked the dead or mostly dead guys and disarmed them, kicking them when the mood struck. Assholes.

When he was done, he crouched down by Daniel. "You've looked better," he said. "Anything more serious than what I'm looking at?"

Shaking his head, Daniel attempted to stand and Jack helped him. Daniel pulled on his pants, which had still been holding on to one ankle. The tattered remains of his shirt were dropped distastefully to the ground. "Great entrance, by the way. Your timing was impeccable." He glanced around. "Where are Teal'c and McCullen?"

"No Carter?" Jack asked.

"Who?"

"Never mind." Jack noticed Daniel's very crushed glasses on the ground. "Oh, and hey, look." He pulled out the glasses he'd taken from the last reality and handed them to Daniel.

Daniel smiled gratefully. "I promise never to make fun of you for carrying a spare set for me again." He put them on, wincing as the rims hit his sore and swollen eye. "Ow."

Jack was starting to feel like the first intergalactic optometrist. He bet there was an entrepreneurial opportunity there for the right person.

Then Daniel was holding him and kissing him, and Jack stopped thinking for a minute, too caught up in the wonderfulness of Daniel's tongue in his mouth and his hands having all that naked skin to touch, to worry about a pesky thing like this not being his Daniel, and him not being this Daniel's Jack.

When Daniel let him up for air, Jack forced himself to take a step back and away. "Not that that wasn't…" Jack waved a hand at Daniel from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, "great, really, really great, but I probably need to tell you that I'm not your Jack."

"What?"

"Really," Jack said, trying very hard not to sound crazy. "For some wacky reason, well, I sort of touched the remote to this quantum mirror thing and here I am. Sort of an Outer Limits version of Daniel Jackson: This Could be Your Life."

"What?"

Usually Daniel wasn't this slow on the uptake. Of course, he had almost gotten raped. "I keep ending up wherever you are," Jack explained. "Apparently all your Jacks don't take particularly good care of you." Jack conveniently forgot all the times Daniel had been hurt on his watch. That was different.

Daniel peered at him for a long time. "I can see the differences now." Worried, he said, "And that means my Jack…"

"Needs rescuing," Jack finished for him. He was looking forward to pissing off the Jack of this reality by rescuing his ass. He'd hate that. "Do you…" he gestured at Daniel's naked chest, his really buff naked chest, "uh, do you want one of my shirts?"

Daniel looked down at himself and his pebbled nipples and goose bumped skin. "Yeah. Thanks."

Jacks stripped out of his vest and outer jacket. "Jacket or t-shirt?" he asked.

"Jacket," Daniel said, taking it.

Jack sighed but released it. He would have rather seen Daniel in one of his t-shirts. He put his vest back on and they headed off to the right again. "Where are we, anyway?"

"PX3 457," Daniel said glibly.

"Yeah, like those numbers ever mean anything to me," Jack said sourly. "I don't remember seeing anything like this before. I don't think we've been here."

"One of the Tok'ra underground gave us the address."

Jack gave him a look. "And you just used it? Have you guys learned nothing about the Tok'ra, like, you know, that they can't be trusted?"

"You were the one who insisted we go," Daniel said primly.

Crap. "Why?"

"There was supposed to be a big honkin' space gun here."

That explained it. "Was there?"

"I don't know. We got separated and then I ran into those morons," Daniel said with a jerked thumb over his shoulder.

"Those dead morons," Jack said smugly.

Daniel grinned briefly at him. "Thanks. Really. I wasn't looking forward to adding rape to my list of off-world experiences."

"No problem," Jack said grandly. "I'm assuming we're underground, right?"

Daniel nodded. "It's a huge subterranean cave system, part natural, part man-made."

"There don't seem to be many people here," Jack commented, after realizing that there really wasn't anyone, except the dead bozos. Not that Jack was complaining.

"No, no there don't," Daniel agreed. Then he stopped. "I have no idea where to look for Jack, for them," he confessed wearily.

Belatedly, Jack handed over his canteen. "Here."

Daniel reached for it and took a healthy swallow, then another.

Jack encouraged him to keep at it. Just because Daniel hadn't actually gotten raped, he'd still been attacked and between the fear and the adrenalin, it was no wonder he wasn't thinking too well. "Where did you get separated? Let's start there."

"We need to go back that way," Daniel said with a grimace. He handed the now near-empty canteen to Jack.

Jack handed him a powerbar. Jack O'Neill, optometrist and caterer to the galaxy. He could get himself a really cool logo. They turned around and headed back to where Jack had found Daniel. The bodies were still there, although in just the few minutes they'd been gone, it looked as if the bodies had been picked over. "Okay, so we know there're a few people around," Jack observed. Or animals. Or something in between.

Whoever it was must have scattered when they heard Jack and Daniel coming back. It reminded Jack of that prison planet they'd been on. Whatever was going on here on this planet, life wasn't too pretty.

Daniel was staring around, trying to get oriented. From this wider cavern, there were four tunnels leading away.

"I came in that one," Jack said, pointing at the second from the left. He walked to the farthest one and looked at the ground, using the light from his rifle to further illuminate the ground. "Not this one." He moved to the right.

Daniel joined him at the second from the right. Jack's light showed multiple footprints and marks of someone being dragged. "This one," Daniel said.

"Ya think?" Jack said sarcastically.

Daniel sneered at him and entered the tunnel.

"How did you get separated?" Jack asked. "You said you were already alone when those Neanderthals jumped you."

Brows furrowed, Daniel said, "I don't know. I was a few yards behind them because I stopped to look at something. The three of them were talking, and then suddenly they weren't. When I caught up to where they'd been they weren't there anymore."

Weird. "Show me," Jack said.

Daniel nodded, pressing forward. In about ten minutes, he slowed. "It should be around here," he said. "Or maybe--" he stopped, frustrated. "Damn it."

"Where was that thing you stopped to look at?" Knowing Daniel, he'd know exactly where that was, even if he had only a sketchy idea of where he'd lost his entire team.

"Back here," Daniel said definitively, heading that way.

Jack bit back a grin. Daniels were the same across the galaxy. He thought of Hathor-Daniel and stopped grinning.

"It's here," Daniel said, peering at something on the tunnel wall that looked just like every other tunnel wall they'd passed. Jack rolled his eyes. He'd have to take it on faith.

"Okay, where was the rest of the team?"

Daniel pointed back the way they'd come. He walked a few yards which took them around a bend. "I heard them talking clearly although I couldn't see them, so they'd gotten around this corner."

The area looked innocuous enough, and they'd already walked through it on their way to Daniel's whatever the hell he was excited about and nothing had happened. Jack stared at the ceiling but didn't see anything peculiar. He used the point of his rifle to scuff the dirt on the ground but he didn't see anything odd there, either.

Daniel was turning in slow circles, his hands in tight fists. "Damn it," he said. Then, as if all his energy fled at once, Daniel sagged against the wall. And disappeared.

"Whoa," Jack said. "Daniel?"

No answer.

Jack carefully approached the wall where Daniel had been standing. He prodded it with his rifle only to find his P90 seemed to go right through the wall. Then something grabbed at his rifle and yanked it, causing Jack to stumble through after it.

Daniel had the other end of his rifle. "I think it's a force field of some kind," Daniel said.

"And you don't think that maybe we were safer on the other side of it?" Jack said snidely. Not that there was any danger looming. It was yet another small cavern with nothing in it.

"You can't get back through and I wanted you with me," Daniel said, a trace of anxiety in his eyes.

Jack could understand that. He turned and could see the tunnel where they'd come from clear as day, as if he could take a step forward and be back where he'd been before Daniel had yanked him in here. But when he put out his hands they could only get so far. It was like he was being forced into being a mime.

He jerked his hands back then looked at the ground. Tracks. "So they all stopped to wait for you and one of them leaned against the wall and the others followed like lemmings?" Jack wouldn't have done that, not without at least making sure Daniel was with them. Especially if this Jack was kissing this Daniel.

"Or maybe it wasn't there," Daniel surmised. "Maybe the force field wasn't on so this looked like a way to go, and they just assumed I'd still be able to hear their voices. Once they figured it out, the force field was up so they couldn't get back to me."

Jack sighed heavily. "So, it's a trap, then. Lets you in, but won't let you out."

"Jack?" Daniel suddenly yelled out. "Can you hear me?"

Jack smacked him on the arm. "Way to be covert, Jackson. Before you go rushing in, maybe we should figure out how to get out, so we don't end up in the crab cage with the rest of your team," Jack suggested.

Looking sheepish, Daniel winced a smile. "Good idea." Daniel started prowling the walls.

Jack went the other way, looking for something that might be a switch of some kind. What he found was another wall that wasn't. "Hey," he called to Daniel.

Daniel joined him. "Think they went in there?"

"It's a good bet," Jack said. He scowled at the wall. He really wished there was a better choice than just walking deeper into the trap, but there was nothing in this room that was going to help. "You ready?"

Daniel nodded. Side by side they walked through the wall. They found themselves in an obviously manmade room. And again, looking back, it appeared as if there was open egress into the room they'd just left behind. Jack touched the seemingly open archway and hit something hard. "Crap."

They both started searching again, Jack touching the walls, Daniel looking at the floor and ceilings. Jack found another invisible opening and glared at it. "Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly," he muttered under his breath. "You find anything?" he asked Daniel, already knowing the answer.

"Nothing," Daniel said in a disgusted tone.

"Crap," Jack said again with feeling. "You think there's something at the end of all of this waiting to eat us?"

"Either that or it's long been abandoned."

"Which means we starve or end up eating each other," Jack said dolefully.

Daniel shot him a why-do-I-put-up-with-you look. "So, we go in?"

Jack nodded. "We go in."

Again, side by side they entered yet another manmade room. This one, though, had a control panel of some sort. There were, thankfully, no man-eating monsters to be found. Daniel moved to the panel, trying to figure it out.

"I don't suppose it's in English?" Jack asked hopefully, joining him.

Daniel shook his head. "No. I don't recognize it."

"Great."

"Although," Daniel started.

Jack waited for him to finish but when there were no further words, he saw that Daniel was deeply enmeshed in solving his new puzzle. Jack left him to it. He began a circuit around the room. Every few feet he found a not-wall.

It suddenly dawned on him that he'd been in this reality for a long time. "Daniel?" he called out.

"What?" Daniel said irritably.

"Not you," Jack said. "My Daniel."

"Is he here?" Daniel asked, spinning around.

"No, but it's past time for him to be yelling at me."

"Why don't I find that surprising," Daniel said drolly, going back to the control panel.

"Ha ha," Jack said, finding himself missing his Daniel and his team and his reality so strongly he ached with it. Pushing it aside, he kept moving around the room, and stuck the end of his rifle into the ninth not-wall he'd found, which was almost back by the entrance where they'd come in. Something grabbed the rifle.

"Shit," he said, yanking it back. "Something's in there."

Daniel moved next to him. "Jack," he called. "Is that you?"

Nothing.

"You have a paper and pencil?" he asked Jack.

Jack searched his vest, found a pen and one of those small spiral notebooks, something else he'd gotten in the habit of carrying around for Daniel. One of these days he was going to have to empty all the pockets of his vest and see what he was carrying for himself. He suspected not much.

Daniel quickly wrote a note and then first stuck the pencil in the barrel of Jack's rifle, much to Jack's dismay, and then spit the note on the pencil. He gestured for Jack to stick it through. Jack did so and he felt a tug on the rifle. He pulled it out to find the note gone.

After a minute, Jack put the rifle back through and felt a few jerks. When the rifle stopped moving, he pulled it back. Daniel ripped the note off and smiled. "It is them. And they can see us." Daniel waved at the not-wall, looking like an idiot.

"Do they know how we can get them out?" Jack asked.

"No, but Jack does want to know who the hell you are," Daniel said with a grin. He held the note up and that's exactly what it said: "Who the hell is he?"

Jack flipped off his unseen double, deciding he could stew for a bit.

Daniel, meanwhile, was back at the console. "Okay, I think I should push this button," he said.

"You think?" Jack said distrustfully.

Daniel nodded uncertainly. "Or maybe one of these." He pointed at a row of ugly puke-brown square blocks with a symbol on them. They looked like the blocks on that time device that had gotten Jack his own special version of Groundhog Day.

"I say go with the blue one," Jack said. "Blue's a good color." Jack couldn't believe there'd be anything good behind a color like puke-brown.

Daniel shot Jack a narrow-eyed glare. Jack was sure the other Jack was screaming through his invisible door not to trust him. Jack grinned maliciously in his direction. Serves the bastard right for letting Daniel out of his sight.

Jack moved to stand next to Daniel, giving the console a careful look. There were several more choices of buttons, all in different shades of puke-green. Either the designers of this trap were color blind or they had awful taste.

Sighing, Daniel studied the board some more. "Wait a minute," Daniel said. He flipped open the notebook and scribbled rough drawings of the symbols on the puke-brown blocks. Then he gave it to Jack. "Send this through."

Frowning, Jack stuck the pencil back in the barrel and spit the paper again. As he put it through, Daniel said, "Jack, um, my Jack, look around and see if any of these symbols are in the room you're in."

"Good thinking," Jack praised as he pushed the rifle through the not-wall. He left it there this time until he felt the paper and pencil being reloaded. When he withdrew the paper, one of the symbols was circled.

Daniel smiled, went back to the console and pushed that block.

The not-wall melted away revealing a small room. Teal'c, O'Neill, and a guy Jack didn't know tumbled out. Jack frowned at them. "Any particular reason you thought it was a good idea to go in there?"

The other Jack glowered at him, but it was Teal'c who answered, "We were attempting to get back to DanielJackson. This appeared to be heading in the correct direction."

Okay, Jack could buy that.

"And who the hell are you?" O'Neill snapped. "And why is Daniel wearing your shirt? And what the fuck happened to his face?"

"Jack? Stay still. I've almost got you."

Thank God, Jack thought with relief when he heard his Daniel's voice. "It's time for me to go on my merry way," he said to this reality's SG-1. "You'll have to save your own asses now." He had no doubt that Daniel would figure it out, as long as his Jack didn't lose him again. Just to be helpful, he said to O'Neill, "Just try not to lose Daniel again."

As O'Neill scowled at him, Jack could see a shimmer that slowly turned into a vague outline of Daniel. "Tell me you've figured this out," Jack begged. "I'm really ready to come home."

"I think so," his Daniel said.

"Who are you talking to?" O'Neill said irascibly.

The other Daniel came to him. "Thanks. Really."

"You're welcome," Jack said. "Don't wander off next time." He had to scold Daniel at least once or it just wouldn't feel right.

"What are you thanking him for?" O'Neill said, clearly unhappy at the attention his Daniel was paying to Jack.

But Jack didn't care. He felt his Daniel's hand on his arm, felt the dizziness, the sense of the room receding, the painful jerk and, as a new added attraction, his head felt like it was going to explode.

*****

"I don't know where he came from," Daniel was complaining. "I turned around and he was lying on the ground."

"Do you know him?" said a voice Jack didn't recognize.

"Yes," Daniel said in a dark voice. "He's Colonel Jack O'Neill and I already told him I didn't want to speak to him."

That didn't sound good. Jack opened his eyes and groaned when the light hit his eyes. Jesus, that shift had hurt. And so much for his Daniel having almost figured it out.

Thank God Daniels were constitutionally unable to turn their back on someone in pain. Daniel was hunkered down by him in a second. "Are you all right?"

Jack attempted to sit up and was helped the rest of the way by Daniel. "Can I let you know?"

"Do you want me to do anything? Should I call someone?" the person Jack didn't know asked.

Daniel waved the helper off. "No, I'll be all right. As soon as he's better, I'll send him packing."

"Nice," Jack complained as the other man left the tent.

"I already told you I didn't want anything to do with the military. You need to stop bothering me," Daniel defended himself.

Jack took a look around. He was back in a tent, but this one was constructed of industrial canvas versus eye-pleasing Abydos home-made fabrics. "Where are we?"

"In my tent."

"Yeah, I got that, but where is your tent?"

Daniel frowned at him.

"I'll explain why I'm asking in a minute, just answer the damn question." Jack was feeling grumpy.

"We're on the Giza plateau," Daniel said, sitting on the floor next to Jack. "Now explain."

"Can I have some water?" Jack asked.

Again, Daniel's finer nature took over. "Of course." He got up and opened a small generator powered refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of water. He sat down again and handed it to Jack. "Now talk."

Jack opened the bottle and drank half of it down. "You're making a mistake," Jack said.

"In what?" Daniel asked suspiciously.

Needing some more information, Jack asked, "Do you believe that the pyramids were built far earlier than the current records show?"

Daniel's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"

"You haven't gone public with it?"

"No. After the reception I received when I published my first article on the subject I've kept a low profile. I have no desire to be laughed out of my profession," Daniel said with a profound unhappiness.

"But you believe it?"

"Why are you asking me this?"

"What did O'Neill tell you? Did he tell you why he wants you?"

Daniel stared at him suspiciously as if Jack had just grown a pair of devil's horns. "Why are you talking about yourself in the third person?"

"Just answer the question."

"No, he didn't. He…you…just said you needed someone with my qualifications."

The O'Neill from this reality must have found Daniel's article. "Daniel," Jack said, deciding to go for broke. "They found an ancient alien artifact on the Giza plateau in the 1920s. It was found by a Dr. Langford. It's a device that creates a wormhole that lets you travel to other planets. You were right. About everything. The pyramids are much older than anyone thinks and there are aliens. Most of the Egyptian gods were aliens."

Daniel's eyes were so wide it almost made Jack laugh. "What? Are you on drugs? And I never said there were aliens."

"I know," Jack said. "You said something about cross-fertilization, languages showing up where they shouldn't be. To be perfectly honest I never really paid much attention. But the point is, they need you. You've saved my ass so many times I can't even remember them all."

"Me?" Daniel asked, still confused, but unable to hide the light of excitement Jack's words were generating.

"Well, not you, you. My Daniel Jackson. Along with the Stargate," Jack continued, "we've also discovered these quantum mirror things that let you travel to alternate realities. I'm not the Jack O'Neill from this reality."

The suspicion was back. "Am I just supposed to believe this?"

"You figured out how to get the Stargate working. The symbols around the Stargate are star constellations." He grabbed Daniel's arm. "You've been all over the galaxy, Daniel. You've met Thor and Loki, Ra and Hathor." Jack grimaced. "Ra and Hathor were bad news, by the way. All the Egyptian gods we've met are bad news. They're really these parasitic alien snake things that burrow into a human and take them over. But Thor's great. Major ally."

"You sound insane," Daniel said.

"I know, but I'm not. Go find your O'Neill. Agree to work with him. He needs you. Earth needs you."

"Jack?"

That was his Daniel. "You better get it right this time, Daniel. The last shift damn near killed me."

"Who are you talking to?" Daniel asked, his eyes searching the tent.

"My version of you. He's been looking for me ever since I started this Alice in Wonderland tour. Oh, and hey, if you end up on a planet called Abydos, watch out for the chief's daughter. She'll be given to you in marriage because Kasuf, he's the chief, will think you're single. Make sure he knows you're taken."

"But I'm not," Daniel said, bewildered.

"You will be. If your Jack is anything like me, he'll be in love with you so fast he won't know if he's coming or going. Just kiss him when you meet him and put the old fart out of his misery."

Daniel's mouth fell open. "Kiss you?"

"Well, not me, but your Jack O'Neill."

"Are you crazy?"

"Trust me on this," Jack said. He knew there were two realities where he was paired with Carter, but as far as Jack was concerned, that was only because there hadn't been a Daniel around.

Jack felt his Daniel's touch on his arm. He hoped like hell it worked this time.

"Is this for real?" Daniel asked. "Do you actually expect me to believe you?"

"Go find out for yourself," Jack said. "Go find O'Neill and lay everything I've just told you on him. See what he says."

"And then kiss him?" Daniel asked incredulously.

"Well, maybe not that fast, but keep it in mind. And watch out for Sha're." Daniel may have loved Sha're, but Jack knew Daniel loved him a hell of a lot more. He told him so on a regular basis.

"Can I come home now?" Jack plaintively asked the love of his life.

Daniel grew more substantial this time. Jack could actually see the blue of his eyes. In fact, he got substantial enough that the other Daniel saw him and he let out a gasp. "Oh, my God," he said.

"Daniel, meet Daniel."

"Hello," they both said at the same time.

"This Daniel doesn't work for the Stargate program," Jack told his Daniel. "He keeps turning Jack O'Neill down."

His Daniel gave the other Daniel a pitying sort of look. "Stop that. You don't know what you're missing." His next look was toward Jack and full of love. "You ready to come home?"

"More than ready," Jack said. Way more than ready. Beyond ready.

"Promise not to touch anything when you get back?" Daniel teased.

"As long as that doesn't include you," Jack said.

Daniel grinned, wrapping his arms around Jack and pulling him close. Over Jack's shoulder he said to the other Daniel, "Call him. Really. He'll be the great love of your life."

Jack turned to see the pole-axed expression on this Daniel's face.

Then his Daniel called out. "Sam, go."

Jack felt the wrenching pain again but he could also feel Daniel surrounding him. He closed his eyes and focused only on the feel of Daniel.

"You can open your eyes now," Daniel said kindly.

Jack cracked open one eye. He saw Carter smiling at them both. "I'm home?"

"You're home, sir," she said. "Welcome back."

Reluctantly, Jack let go of Daniel. "That was some ride," he said.

"Was that the first Daniel you found?" Daniel asked.

"No, every reality I ended up in I ran across a Daniel Jackson." Jack stared at the quantum mirror thing, eying it suspiciously.

"You ended up with me each time?" Daniel asked, confirming what Jack had asked.

"Yeah," Jack said.

"Hmm," Daniel said.

"What?" Jack prompted.

"I wonder if it's some sort of, I don't know, some sort of recreation?"

Jack snorted. "I'll pass, thanks. I'd rather watch hockey."

"Think about it," Daniel said. "Our lives are dangerous and alternate realities could be equally as dangerous. But, imagine, if you were a normal person living a normal life, and you could have the opportunity to find out what other versions of you were doing with their lives--"

"But I was the one who saw your lives, Daniel, not you," Jack interrupted. "You only saw the last one, and that was just at the very end."

"Yeah," Daniel said with a frown. "Although, it obviously takes two people to make the mirror work so it must be significant."

Whatever. "Until we get around some normal people living normal lives, I think that thing should be locked up." He ignored the indignant look on Carter's face. "How long have I been gone?" Daniel looked a little rough around the edges and he hadn't shaved, so Jack was guessing it had been a while.

"Almost twenty-four hours," Carter said.

Jack's eyebrows rose. "It only felt like a few hours to me." The shifting part must have taken a lot longer than he thought.

Teal'c was suddenly standing in the doorway. "It is good to have you back, JackO'Neill," he said gravely.

"Thanks, Teal'c," Jack said. "It's good to be back." He yawned. "Guess I better go see the general if I ever want to get out of here. I'm ready for a good night's sleep." He glanced at Daniel, hoping the quick look made it clear he expected Daniel in his bed tonight. Or for him to be in Daniel's bed. He was easy either way. When it came to Daniel, Jack was always easy.

Daniel ducked his head, grinning. Good. Message received.

"I'm thinking it was a good thing this happened," Daniel said, as they all started to stroll towards Hammond's office.

"How so?" Jack asked with a frown.

"We missed going on that mission to Kelowna," Daniel said. "And now, for some reason we can't dial the gate anymore. We're not sure what happened, but it must have been fairly catastrophic to shut down the gate."

Carter nodded. "The Tok'ra are going to check it out next time they're in the neighborhood."

If something bad happened on Kelowna, Jack was very glad they hadn't been involved. He yawned again and started walking faster. He only wanted to tell this story once and then get the hell out of Dodge.

*****

Hours later, after he and Daniel had made love, and he'd told Daniel all the stuff he'd left out of the debriefing, Daniel started to laugh. "Optometrist to the stars, Jack?"

"Hey, it's a catchy title. I could make a fortune keeping all the Daniel Jacksons in glasses."

"Maybe, but I'm not willing to share you with any other Daniel Jacksons," Daniel said with conviction.

"It was only one kiss," Jack protested. "And he kissed me. I barely kissed him back at all."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I'm sure. And it doesn't matter, it was still one kiss too many. It might take you years to make it up to me."

"Promises, promises," Jack said, nuzzling Daniel's neck.

"That is a promise," Daniel said seriously. "Years and years. And years."

The conversation had switched from kisses to them being together forever and Jack was okay with that. "I'll take that promise and raise you a few more years."

Daniel smiled and looked truly relaxed for the first time since he'd gotten Jack back, other than immediately after he'd come his brains out.

Jack looked at him curiously. "Did you think I'd found a better Daniel Jackson out there?"

"Did you?"

Jack shook his head. "They all paled in comparison to the original. I definitely got the cream of the crop as far as Daniel Jacksons are concerned."

This time Daniel beamed at him. "Thank you for taking such good care of them all, though. Especially for killing the me that Hathor Goa'ulded. I know that couldn't have been easy."

"Watching you die two realities in a row sucked big time," Jack admitted. "But then I totally saved your ass in the next reality so that was good."

"It sounds like you saved my ass in every universe," Daniel said lovingly.

"Yeah, I was going with that, but then I thought it was a bit of an ego stretch," Jack said. He stretched. "You think that last Daniel will call his Jack?"

"He'd be a fool not to," Daniel said staunchly.

"I've heard I can be hard to deal with sometimes," Jack said with mock honesty.

"I've heard that about you," Daniel said. "But you can still be my optometrist anytime."

"Is this some kinky fantasy you have, Daniel? You're the poor blind guy, and I'm the suave good-looking optometrist."

"Now see, that might be a bit of an ego stretch," Daniel said with a snicker.

"What? You don't think I'm good-looking?" Jack said with an outraged scoff.

"I think you're gorgeous. I was talking about the suave part."

Only slightly mollified, Jack leered at Daniel. "I think we should try it sometime. I can restore your eyesight and you can be so grateful that you have to worship my body to repay me."

"Do I have to call you an optometrist? It's kind of a mouthful. Come to me my hunky optometrist. Give it to me my stallion optometrist. I can think of much better things to do with my mouth." Daniel proceeded to demonstrate, moving down Jack's body and taking his cock in his mouth.

Jack let out a groan. "You can call me anything you want."

"How about Jack?" Daniel asked between sucks.

"Jack's great. Jack and Daniel. Those names are great. They go good together," Jack gasped as his toes began to curl.

"So we can forgo the kinky optometrist fantasy?"

"Anything," Jack promised. "Just don't stop."

"Then no more kissing strange Daniel Jacksons," Daniel scolded right before drawing Jack's balls into his mouth.

Jack was done with all those other Daniel Jacksons. "Even if he's an optometrist?" Jack couldn't resist asking. He let out an enraged "ouch" when Daniel nibbled a little too hard on his balls. "Fine, fine, no kissing strange Daniel Jacksons. Sheesh."

Daniel kissed his balls better.

Oh yeah, Jack thought, as Daniel sucked him down again. One Daniel, this Daniel, was all he'd ever need.

The End.

April 23, 2006

Revised May 19, 2007

If you loved the story, please let me know: ladyra11@yahoo.com

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