Title: Five ways Daniel got the nickname 'Sunshine'

Author: Rebecca Johnson [.com]

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Rating: G

Spoilers: none

Summary: title tells it all

Disclaimer: I don't own Daniel. It's sad, but true.

1. There weren't a lot of things Daniel remembered about his parents; he had been very young when they had died and, though he remembered that day very clearly, the little details that had made up their lives before that often eluded him. Occasionally, however, fragments would rise to the top of his memory, like shards of ancient pottery unearthed unexpectedly in a dig. He remembered his father's glasses, round and shiny. He remembered his mother's perfume, floral, but faint under her usual coating of dust. And he remembered a song, a song about sunshine, that they would sing together and, when he was lucky, to him.

2. As Daniel rolled over slowly, pressing himself against the warm body lying in the pallet next to him, a contented smile fell over his face before his eyes even opened. He felt Sha're's long fingers reach up and weave through his hair, now longer than he was used to, and begin to massage his scalp, stopping occasionally to play with the locks trapped gently between her fingers. She did this every morning, without fail. Continuing her morning ritual she leant in closer, wrapping his own arms around her, and whispered soft words into his ears. They were words that he had learned to translate as her words of love: Dan-el … my companion … my sunshine.

3. When the early morning campsite noises drifted into the tent, Daniel scrunched his eyes tight and burrowed deeper into his sleeping bag; maybe if he pretended he was still asleep they'd leave him alone for five more minutes… Unfortunately, as Daniel had learned, you couldn't work this closely with people for this long without learning their little noises, and he knew exactly what the outcome would be of the light footsteps coming in his direction.

The pillow was lifted quickly (and enthusiastically) away from his face and he was forced to look directly up into Sam's ever-cheery face. He groaned quickly and grabbed for his pillow even as the words he knew were coming fell from her lips: "Good morning, Sunshine! Up at at'em."

He hated that she was a morning person.

4. There was hardly a week that went by when Daniel and Jack didn't get into some kind of spat, in fact it was so common that they had stopped even really noticing, but today was different; today Daniel was just crabby. He had snapped at Teal'c, he was peevish with Sam and he had ranted non-stop at Jack … and Jack had had enough. Gathering all his finely honed fighting skills he turned to face his errant team-member, "You're a real ray of sunshine today, you know that? Knock it off."

And off he walked, leaving Daniel behind with the sinking feeling that he had just earned himself a new nickname.

5. Janet stopped briefly in her rounds, sighing as she looked around at the concrete walls of her infirmary. There were definite drawbacks to being stationed well beneath a mountain, the lack of fresh air and natural light being at the very top of her list. What she wouldn't give for a window.

Her mood lifted, however, when she got to the next bed, and saw the (surprisingly) lightly injured Daniel propped up in bed, giving her a slightly sheepish look as he hid what she was sure was contraband coffee under his blankets. She might not like to see him hurt, but she had to admit, she relished the life he bought to her day when he was. On days like this, he was all the sunshine she needed.