Work Text:
Daniel sighed. Sam was giving him a headache. As soon as they’d gated home from P4X-639, she’d dragged him to his office, demanded all of his translated notes and started babbling on about things he really didn’t understand. Subspace fields, ionisation...magnets? He hadn’t even had time to get changed, and neither had she; she’d just handed her weapons to the SFs and started hypothesising before they’d even left Sub-Level 28. It was good to see her so enthusiastic about something again, she’d been kind of depressed since Martouf’s death, but it gave him a headache.
He managed to escape and made his way to the locker room, but stopped dead in his tracks when he entered the room.
Jack was already there, still in his field gear, staring at the door of his open locker. Daniel followed Jack’s line of sight and felt a stab of sympathy in his stomach when he saw what Jack was looking at. He’d seen the picture before, but never displayed almost publicly like that. He approached slowly, not even sure if Jack was aware he was there. He shrugged off his vest and gently set it on the bench.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine what Jack had been feeling lately, his uncharacteristic outburst on the planet, the revelation of something so personal, giving testament to his frustration.
“Jack?” he ventured softly, “Are you OK?”
Jack broke his gaze away from the photograph but didn’t meet Daniel’s eyes. “I’ve been hiding him away,” he said, his voice quiet.
“Jack...” Daniel started, but he was cut off as Jack finally made eye contact with him, the frown on his face telling Daniel he really didn’t want to be placated. Not today.
“No. I have. His photographs are in a tin in the bottom of my locker and the few things I have of his are shoved in a box in the back of my closet.” He shook his head. “It’s not right. It’s like he never existed.”
“I’m sure people understand.” Daniel said, his eyes drifting back to the two identical grins, the two pairs of deep brown eyes shining with laughter.
“I’m sure they do, but this,” Jack turned back to the picture, tapping his knuckles on it lightly, “Is how I should be remembering him. Not lying in my arms with a gaping hole in his chest.”
Daniel winced, “Jesus Jack!”
Jack’s eyes flew back to him, a pained expression on his face, “Exactly.” Jack pulled his jacket off his shoulders and threw it into his locker with a little more force than was necessary and released a long drawn-out sigh. “Wanna go get a beer?”
“Sure,” Daniel answered without hesitation. He had a feeling it might be a more than one beer night.