Title: Heroes (1/10)
Author: Karen
Rating: R (for violence and some non-graphic sexual scenes. Whoo hoo!)
Pairing: D/J
Disclaimer: Not mine, not a one.
Category: Angst, Romance, Light Humour.did I mention the angst?
Spoilers: YES! Up to and including 'Heroes' and then we swerve merrily off
into my own little world.
Distribution: Ask and ye shall receive. If you want to.
A/N: This is an episode 'fixer' or 'what if'. I haven't seen the ep or read
a transcript, so it may be a little out of whack when the episode airs. In
my head, everything is hunky-dory and certain events never happen. Period.
Oh, and I'm working on the supposition that Cassie is a senior in high
school.
Dedications: This is completely and totally inspired by the wonderful D/J
vids at www.gypsy-gateway.com, specifically 'Words He Doesn't Say' and
'I'll Be Good To You'. Wonderful, wonderful vids, thanks for the
inspiration and all your kindness to a D/J newbie, Amy.
Part 1.
"Bye, Daniel." Janet stood up and picked up her evening bag from the floor. "I'll see you at work." Daniel watched speechlessly as his lover walked away from him across the crowded restaurant and out into the night. He shook his head to clear it of the mist that flooded his mind and tried to understand what had just happened. He'd picked Janet up from her house on the dot of eight, for once not arriving late and hurriedly smoothing his hair down as he hurried up to her door, they'd come out and enjoyed a pleasant meal in their favourite restaurant and then Janet had very calmly informed him that she was finishing their relationship but, hey, here was a fifty to cover her half of the check.
Daniel jumped as their waiter appeared at his side. "Another drink, sir?"
"Wh.what?" Daniel blinked and then shook his head. "Oh, no thank you, just the check, please." His eyes drifted back to the door, almost expecting to see Janet standing there wearing a big grin and laughing at the effect her joke had had on him. He frowned, she wasn't there, that wasn't good. He felt his heart begin to pound as he realised she really had just told him they were through and walked out on him. "Oh God. Janet."
*************************
Continuing his run of uncharacteristic punctuality, Daniel arrived at the SGC a full hour before he was officially on duty, determined to find Janet and demand an explanation for what had happened the night before. The minute he'd paid the bill at the restaurant he'd jumped in his car and sped to her house, only to find it all in darkness and no matter how much he'd knocked on the door and rang the bell neither Janet or Cassie answered. Feeling sicker by the minute, he'd sat outside her house in his car until the sun had come up and only then realised that Janet's car was missing from the drive way. Swearing foully, and in a manner most unlike the SGC's favourite archaeologist, Daniel had driven to his house and jumped into the shower and then lay on his bed staring at the ceiling until his bedside clock had read 0700 and he could reasonably head out the door to Cheyenne Mountain.
He reached the infirmary already in a foul mood, which wasn't helped when he came face to face with an unknown man in a white lab coat. "Who the hell are you?" Aware that his usual skills as a diplomat were sadly lacking; Daniel just couldn't bring himself to care. "Where's Janet?" His fists clenched as the strange man stared at him in bewilderment and he clarified. "Doctor Fraiser."
"Oh, she's on leave. I'm Doctor Gregor, I'm." The unfortunate Doctor Gregor was treated to yet another impressive stream of curses as Daniel turned on his heel and stormed out of the Infirmary. "Completely irrelevant, apparently." He shook his head, he'd been warned about taking a post here, but would he listen? Oh no, he had to shoot for the stars and go for the glory. Schmuck.
**************************************
"Teal'c!" Daniel burst though the door of the Jaffa's room without knocking and slapped on the overhead lights, destroying the peaceful glow of the candles dotted about the room. "Have you seen Janet?"
Teal'c opened his eyes and looked up at his friend from where he was seated cross-legged on the floor, choosing not to mention Daniel's rude entrance. "I have not. Is there a problem, DanielJackson?"
"I can't find her and there's some guy in the infirmary that says she's gone on leave and he's her replacement." Unaware of the look of panic on his face, Daniel paced up and down. "She's not at home and she's not here."
"That is correct." Resigned to the fact that his morning meditation was effectively ended, Teal'c unfolded his legs and rose to his full imposing height. "Doctor Fraiser has indeed left on vacation with Cassandra, were you not aware of this?"
"No!" Daniel's fists clenched impotently at his sides as he stared at the Jaffa. "She didn't say anything. Where is she?"
"That I do not know." Teal'c raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Why would she not tell you of her plans?"
Daniel shook his head as he paced up and down and tried to think. The obvious answer was that she had known in advance that she would be breaking up with him and had planned to be comprehensively MIA when it came to dealing with the immediate aftermath. He felt his stomach lurch as he realised her cool dismissal of him last night had not been a spur of the moment urge, but a carefully planned decision. He stopped dead as another thought occurred to him, if Teal'c knew that Janet was going away then she'd almost certainly have told her best friend. "I'll see you later, Teal'c."
Without looking back, Daniel exited the room as quickly as he'd entered and left his friend looking after him. The Jaffa waited for a while to see if Daniel might be back, but when a few minutes passed without any sign of the harried doctor he crossed to his door and closed it quietly. He looked at the panel for a moment before reaching out and thoughtfully engaging the lock, muttering to himself. "Tau'ri's."
*********************************
When Major Samantha Carter entered her lab forty minutes later, it was to find an angry archaeologist flying high on several cups of incredibly strong coffee that he'd mainlined while waiting for her to arrive. "Good morning, Daniel."
"Sam." Daniel slammed his mug down on her desk and climbed off his stool, ignoring her greeting. "Do you know where Janet is?"
Sam turned to place her leather jacket on its hanger and hid her face from Daniel's sight. "On vacation." She took a breath and turned back. "Is there anything else I can do for you? I really have a lot of work to catch up on."
"Where on vacation?" Daniel tried to control his hands that didn't seem to be able to stop shaking no matter what he did. "When is she coming home?"
"Two weeks. She and Cass are going on a road trip." Sam frowned uneasily at Daniel's rigid face. "Are you alright, Daniel?"
"Did you know what she was planning?" Daniel could feel the blood pounding in his ears, as he demanded. "Do you know what she did to me last night?"
Sam considered lying, but in the end reluctantly nodded. "Yes. She's been talking about it for a while now." She took a step forward as Daniel flinched. "Daniel, she didn't do this to hurt you."
"She hasn't hurt me!" Daniel's shouted denial made them both jump and he forced himself to lower his voice as he continued. "She hasn't hurt me. It just came as a.shock."
"Ok." Sam nodded and then smiled gently. "Then you're ok with this? I mean, you understand why she did it." For the first time in their long and eventful acquaintance, Sam actually felt a stab of fear as she looked into Daniel's normally calm blue eyes. The man that stood before her was vibrating with fury and hurt and, if Major Samantha Carter was any judge, she was looking at someone who was hanging onto his sanity by his fingernails. "Daniel, maybe you should go home, you look." She jumped aside as he stormed past her and out of the office and finished weakly. "Like you're going to do something really stupid." Sam reached for the phone on her desk and dialled hastily. "Can you page Colonel O'Neil, please? It's Major Carter and I need to speak to him urgently."
*************************************
Jack finally found Daniel pacing restlessly outside General Hammond's office after searching the all the usual corners the younger man liked to hole up in when he was in a snit. It had taken Sam three tries at explaining the situation before Jack had grasped what was going on, and after his usual bitter complaint about missing the memo, he had set out from his office on yet another mission to save Daniel from himself. "Hey, Danny." Jack sauntered towards his stressed friend with a wide grin. "How's it going, buddy?"
"Did you know she was going as well?" Daniel, not fooled for a second by Jack's broad smile, glared bitterly at his best friend. "Did you know what she was going to do?"
Jack held up his hands. "No way, pal, you know no one ever tells me anything around here." He jerked a thumb at Hammond's office. "He's not here, flew up for a two day conference at the Pentagon."
"Then you need to get me a way to contact Janet." Daniel brushed past Jack and started back towards his office.
Jack stood staring at the spot where his friend had been and then wheeled around. "Ah, Daniel."
"Jack, I know she has one. There's no way she would be given leave without having some way of getting hold of her in case of an off-world situation. Now either you help me find it or I go and look through your files myself." Daniel didn't look back as he brushed past two airmen and rounded a corner. "Come on."
"Daniel!" Jack broke into a jog. "Will you just hold on a damn minute?" He snagged Daniel's arm and jerked him to a stop. "Listen to me! Janet is on officially sanctioned leave, not MIA, and I don't think you being pissy about being dumped by your main squeeze is enough of a reason for me to break regulations and several national security codes just so you can plead for her to take your ass back."
"I am not pissy. And I'm not going to plead." Daniel shook his arm free and just stopped himself from pouting like a child. "I just want an explanation."
"She didn't give you one?" Jack looked confused and then glared at a passing marine. "Get lost, airman." He waited until the young man had scuttled off and then lowered his voice. "She didn't tell you why?"
"I." Daniel closed his eyes as he tried to remember and scrubbed the back of his hand over his mouth wearily. "I don't remember. We'd just had this great meal, she said we needed to talk, I got this bad feeling and then." He opened his eyes and stared at Jack in bewilderment. "It was like she was talking in a language I didn't know and that almost never happens. I could see her mouth moving but I couldn't hear the words, do you know what I mean?"
"Uh, yeah, you have been at some of Sam's more involved briefings, right?" Jack raised an eyebrow in query. "So she dumped you and you have no idea why?"
"None." Daniel shook his head in confusion. "I thought things were going well. I mean, ok, things were a bit strange what with me being dead for so long, but it's always difficult when you start seeing someone new."
"Huh." Jack stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels thoughtfully. "Weird."
"And now she's disappeared and I can't ask her what the hell is going on." Daniel started to look angry again. "Sam says she's been planning this for a while and I didn't have a clue. Even Teal'c knew!"
"Teal'c, knew?" Jack's mouth fell open in outrage. "Hey, how come the alien found out before I did?" He caught the look on Daniel's face and shifted uneasily. "I mean, the alien knew you were getting dumped before you did? That sucks."
"Thanks, Jack, that really helps." Daniel leaned in exhaustion against the wall behind him and the anger faded as quickly as it arrived. "Why didn't she just talk to me? It didn't have to end up like this."
Jack tried for a diplomatic tone in his voice as he said thoughtfully. "Danny, you're not always so easy to talk to." He held up his hands defensively as Daniel glared at him. "Hey, I think you're great, but you can be a little.distant at times. Maybe she tried."
"I think I would have noticed if Janet had tried to talk to me about something like this, Jack. I'm a bit spacey, not an idiot." Daniel paused as he remembered that he'd just confessed to not having a clue as to what Janet had actually said when she'd broken up with him and Jack gave him a pointed look. "Oh, hell, maybe she did."
"Look, Daniel, there's nothing you can do until she gets back." Jack took Daniel's arm and led him in the direction of the commissary. "Let's get some coffee and then maybe you should take the day off and catch up on some sleep, you don't look so good. We're not due off-world till Friday anyway."
Daniel stumbled over his shoelaces that had come untied during the course of his rampage around the SGC looking for the elusive Doctor Frasier. "Yeah, maybe." He followed Jack blindly down the corridors, indifferent to the personnel bustling past them and still focused on the missing Janet. "I don't understand what happened."
Jack glanced at his friend and sighed. "I know, Daniel, I know." He squeezed Daniel's arm reassuringly. "But she's back in a couple of weeks, you can talk to her then."
"Yeah." Daniel nodded and felt his guts twist at the thought of having to wait two weeks to see Janet again. "Yeah, I can ask her then."
End Part 1.
Part 1.
"Bye, Daniel." Janet stood up and picked up her evening bag from the floor. "I'll see you at work." Daniel watched speechlessly as his lover walked away from him across the crowded restaurant and out into the night. He shook his head to clear it of the mist that flooded his mind and tried to understand what had just happened. He'd picked Janet up from her house on the dot of eight, for once not arriving late and hurriedly smoothing his hair down as he hurried up to her door, they'd come out and enjoyed a pleasant meal in their favourite restaurant and then Janet had very calmly informed him that she was finishing their relationship but, hey, here was a fifty to cover her half of the check.
Daniel jumped as their waiter appeared at his side. "Another drink, sir?"
"Wh.what?" Daniel blinked and then shook his head. "Oh, no thank you, just the check, please." His eyes drifted back to the door, almost expecting to see Janet standing there wearing a big grin and laughing at the effect her joke had had on him. He frowned, she wasn't there, that wasn't good. He felt his heart begin to pound as he realised she really had just told him they were through and walked out on him. "Oh God. Janet."
*************************
Continuing his run of uncharacteristic punctuality, Daniel arrived at the SGC a full hour before he was officially on duty, determined to find Janet and demand an explanation for what had happened the night before. The minute he'd paid the bill at the restaurant he'd jumped in his car and sped to her house, only to find it all in darkness and no matter how much he'd knocked on the door and rang the bell neither Janet or Cassie answered. Feeling sicker by the minute, he'd sat outside her house in his car until the sun had come up and only then realised that Janet's car was missing from the drive way. Swearing foully, and in a manner most unlike the SGC's favourite archaeologist, Daniel had driven to his house and jumped into the shower and then lay on his bed staring at the ceiling until his bedside clock had read 0700 and he could reasonably head out the door to Cheyenne Mountain.
He reached the infirmary already in a foul mood, which wasn't helped when he came face to face with an unknown man in a white lab coat. "Who the hell are you?" Aware that his usual skills as a diplomat were sadly lacking; Daniel just couldn't bring himself to care. "Where's Janet?" His fists clenched as the strange man stared at him in bewilderment and he clarified. "Doctor Fraiser."
"Oh, she's on leave. I'm Doctor Gregor, I'm." The unfortunate Doctor Gregor was treated to yet another impressive stream of curses as Daniel turned on his heel and stormed out of the Infirmary. "Completely irrelevant, apparently." He shook his head, he'd been warned about taking a post here, but would he listen? Oh no, he had to shoot for the stars and go for the glory. Schmuck.
**************************************
"Teal'c!" Daniel burst though the door of the Jaffa's room without knocking and slapped on the overhead lights, destroying the peaceful glow of the candles dotted about the room. "Have you seen Janet?"
Teal'c opened his eyes and looked up at his friend from where he was seated cross-legged on the floor, choosing not to mention Daniel's rude entrance. "I have not. Is there a problem, DanielJackson?"
"I can't find her and there's some guy in the infirmary that says she's gone on leave and he's her replacement." Unaware of the look of panic on his face, Daniel paced up and down. "She's not at home and she's not here."
"That is correct." Resigned to the fact that his morning meditation was effectively ended, Teal'c unfolded his legs and rose to his full imposing height. "Doctor Fraiser has indeed left on vacation with Cassandra, were you not aware of this?"
"No!" Daniel's fists clenched impotently at his sides as he stared at the Jaffa. "She didn't say anything. Where is she?"
"That I do not know." Teal'c raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Why would she not tell you of her plans?"
Daniel shook his head as he paced up and down and tried to think. The obvious answer was that she had known in advance that she would be breaking up with him and had planned to be comprehensively MIA when it came to dealing with the immediate aftermath. He felt his stomach lurch as he realised her cool dismissal of him last night had not been a spur of the moment urge, but a carefully planned decision. He stopped dead as another thought occurred to him, if Teal'c knew that Janet was going away then she'd almost certainly have told her best friend. "I'll see you later, Teal'c."
Without looking back, Daniel exited the room as quickly as he'd entered and left his friend looking after him. The Jaffa waited for a while to see if Daniel might be back, but when a few minutes passed without any sign of the harried doctor he crossed to his door and closed it quietly. He looked at the panel for a moment before reaching out and thoughtfully engaging the lock, muttering to himself. "Tau'ri's."
*********************************
When Major Samantha Carter entered her lab forty minutes later, it was to find an angry archaeologist flying high on several cups of incredibly strong coffee that he'd mainlined while waiting for her to arrive. "Good morning, Daniel."
"Sam." Daniel slammed his mug down on her desk and climbed off his stool, ignoring her greeting. "Do you know where Janet is?"
Sam turned to place her leather jacket on its hanger and hid her face from Daniel's sight. "On vacation." She took a breath and turned back. "Is there anything else I can do for you? I really have a lot of work to catch up on."
"Where on vacation?" Daniel tried to control his hands that didn't seem to be able to stop shaking no matter what he did. "When is she coming home?"
"Two weeks. She and Cass are going on a road trip." Sam frowned uneasily at Daniel's rigid face. "Are you alright, Daniel?"
"Did you know what she was planning?" Daniel could feel the blood pounding in his ears, as he demanded. "Do you know what she did to me last night?"
Sam considered lying, but in the end reluctantly nodded. "Yes. She's been talking about it for a while now." She took a step forward as Daniel flinched. "Daniel, she didn't do this to hurt you."
"She hasn't hurt me!" Daniel's shouted denial made them both jump and he forced himself to lower his voice as he continued. "She hasn't hurt me. It just came as a.shock."
"Ok." Sam nodded and then smiled gently. "Then you're ok with this? I mean, you understand why she did it." For the first time in their long and eventful acquaintance, Sam actually felt a stab of fear as she looked into Daniel's normally calm blue eyes. The man that stood before her was vibrating with fury and hurt and, if Major Samantha Carter was any judge, she was looking at someone who was hanging onto his sanity by his fingernails. "Daniel, maybe you should go home, you look." She jumped aside as he stormed past her and out of the office and finished weakly. "Like you're going to do something really stupid." Sam reached for the phone on her desk and dialled hastily. "Can you page Colonel O'Neil, please? It's Major Carter and I need to speak to him urgently."
*************************************
Jack finally found Daniel pacing restlessly outside General Hammond's office after searching the all the usual corners the younger man liked to hole up in when he was in a snit. It had taken Sam three tries at explaining the situation before Jack had grasped what was going on, and after his usual bitter complaint about missing the memo, he had set out from his office on yet another mission to save Daniel from himself. "Hey, Danny." Jack sauntered towards his stressed friend with a wide grin. "How's it going, buddy?"
"Did you know she was going as well?" Daniel, not fooled for a second by Jack's broad smile, glared bitterly at his best friend. "Did you know what she was going to do?"
Jack held up his hands. "No way, pal, you know no one ever tells me anything around here." He jerked a thumb at Hammond's office. "He's not here, flew up for a two day conference at the Pentagon."
"Then you need to get me a way to contact Janet." Daniel brushed past Jack and started back towards his office.
Jack stood staring at the spot where his friend had been and then wheeled around. "Ah, Daniel."
"Jack, I know she has one. There's no way she would be given leave without having some way of getting hold of her in case of an off-world situation. Now either you help me find it or I go and look through your files myself." Daniel didn't look back as he brushed past two airmen and rounded a corner. "Come on."
"Daniel!" Jack broke into a jog. "Will you just hold on a damn minute?" He snagged Daniel's arm and jerked him to a stop. "Listen to me! Janet is on officially sanctioned leave, not MIA, and I don't think you being pissy about being dumped by your main squeeze is enough of a reason for me to break regulations and several national security codes just so you can plead for her to take your ass back."
"I am not pissy. And I'm not going to plead." Daniel shook his arm free and just stopped himself from pouting like a child. "I just want an explanation."
"She didn't give you one?" Jack looked confused and then glared at a passing marine. "Get lost, airman." He waited until the young man had scuttled off and then lowered his voice. "She didn't tell you why?"
"I." Daniel closed his eyes as he tried to remember and scrubbed the back of his hand over his mouth wearily. "I don't remember. We'd just had this great meal, she said we needed to talk, I got this bad feeling and then." He opened his eyes and stared at Jack in bewilderment. "It was like she was talking in a language I didn't know and that almost never happens. I could see her mouth moving but I couldn't hear the words, do you know what I mean?"
"Uh, yeah, you have been at some of Sam's more involved briefings, right?" Jack raised an eyebrow in query. "So she dumped you and you have no idea why?"
"None." Daniel shook his head in confusion. "I thought things were going well. I mean, ok, things were a bit strange what with me being dead for so long, but it's always difficult when you start seeing someone new."
"Huh." Jack stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels thoughtfully. "Weird."
"And now she's disappeared and I can't ask her what the hell is going on." Daniel started to look angry again. "Sam says she's been planning this for a while and I didn't have a clue. Even Teal'c knew!"
"Teal'c, knew?" Jack's mouth fell open in outrage. "Hey, how come the alien found out before I did?" He caught the look on Daniel's face and shifted uneasily. "I mean, the alien knew you were getting dumped before you did? That sucks."
"Thanks, Jack, that really helps." Daniel leaned in exhaustion against the wall behind him and the anger faded as quickly as it arrived. "Why didn't she just talk to me? It didn't have to end up like this."
Jack tried for a diplomatic tone in his voice as he said thoughtfully. "Danny, you're not always so easy to talk to." He held up his hands defensively as Daniel glared at him. "Hey, I think you're great, but you can be a little.distant at times. Maybe she tried."
"I think I would have noticed if Janet had tried to talk to me about something like this, Jack. I'm a bit spacey, not an idiot." Daniel paused as he remembered that he'd just confessed to not having a clue as to what Janet had actually said when she'd broken up with him and Jack gave him a pointed look. "Oh, hell, maybe she did."
"Look, Daniel, there's nothing you can do until she gets back." Jack took Daniel's arm and led him in the direction of the commissary. "Let's get some coffee and then maybe you should take the day off and catch up on some sleep, you don't look so good. We're not due off-world till Friday anyway."
Daniel stumbled over his shoelaces that had come untied during the course of his rampage around the SGC looking for the elusive Doctor Frasier. "Yeah, maybe." He followed Jack blindly down the corridors, indifferent to the personnel bustling past them and still focused on the missing Janet. "I don't understand what happened."
Jack glanced at his friend and sighed. "I know, Daniel, I know." He squeezed Daniel's arm reassuringly. "But she's back in a couple of weeks, you can talk to her then."
"Yeah." Daniel nodded and felt his guts twist at the thought of having to wait two weeks to see Janet again. "Yeah, I can ask her then."
End Part 1.