Slash fic: A loving committed relationship between two people who just happen to be men.

Title: The Best of all Possible Worlds

Author: Debi C

Feedback: dcole6@satx.rr.com

Rating: NC-17 (5 jalapenos)

Pairing: Jack/Daniel

Category: Challenge, PWP

Date: July 23, 2002

Status: Finished

Series: None

Season/Spoilers: Children of the Gods, Cold Lazarus, There But For The Grace of God, The Gamekeeper, The Crystal Skull

Archive: Alpha Gate. Area 52. TheBoy, The Cartouche, Majel's plan b/The Meaning of Life Stuff. Anyone else please ask.

Synopsis: To the challenge: "A little less conversation, a little more action." Jack and Daniel discuss meaning of life stuff and time. Then comes the action.

Notes: Friday Night Fic Challenge #6 for the_Alpha_Gate

Warnings: This is my first full sex slash no holds barred attempt. I did it cause I've never done one before. It may be really really bad, really really corny, or really really hot. I don't know. Forgive me for I tried, and may have failed miserably.

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/ Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I do not own the characters and indeed am only playing with them for a little while. I am not making any money from this and I'm still paying for everything I own so there's very little point in suing me. No copyright infringement whatsoever is intended. The story is for entertainment purposes only. At least I hope it's entertaining. The original characters, situations and story are mine. Please check with me first if you want to archive or link to this story.

Time In A Bottle

by Jim Croce

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then
Again I would spend them with you

(CHORUS)
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that'd never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory of how
They were answered by you

The Best of all Possible Worlds

by Debi C

Jack and Daniel were standing on the balcony of Daniel's downtown apartment. Jack was behind his young lover loosely clasping the slighter man to his chest, his hands absentmindedly stroking under the soft terrycloth robe. Daniel leaned back against the firm chest, comfortable with the intimate contact. He arched his neck, laying the back of his head on Jack's shoulder and nuzzled the strong jaw line with his cheekbone.

"Penny for them?"

"For what?" Jack's deep voice vibrated through his chest to send a shiver through Daniel.

"Your thoughts." He replied softly, reaching to nip gently at the earlobe.

"You may not like them, Danny." The honest reply came. "I was thinking of something that happened a long time ago."

Curious, Daniel slid around in the cradle of the embracing arms that held him. He tilted his head slightly to look directly into the deep dark eyes of his beloved. "Like what?"

Jack shifted his stance slightly to accommodate him and allowed his hands to trace the indentation of the spine where it dipped into the hard bumps of the bony column. He then hugged the other man tightly to him. "I love you."

"I know," Daniel blessed him with a quirky smile. "But that wasn't what you were thinking about, was it?"

"Sometimes you're too smart for your own good, Professor."

Daniel nodded amicably. "No truer words were spoken, so what were you thinking?"

Jack sighed. "Okay, you asked for it. Don't be disappointed when you hear the answer." He released Daniel, moved beside him and leaned on the balcony's railing.

Daniel obediently stepped behind Jack and laid his hands on the broad shoulders. "Jack, never mind, you don't have to say anything. It's none of my business."

"No, Danny. There's where you're wrong, but..."

"I may not like it." He nodded. "Okay, we'll just say I asked for it."

Jack shifted his weight a bit farther forward, cocking a hip and bending a knee. His hands clasped to themselves in front of him and his head bent down to almost touch his thumbs. Daniel nervously tightened his grip on his significant other.

"I was thinking about time." He replied softly. "There was a song in the early seventies called Time In A Bottle by a folksinger, Jim Croce. I was thinking of it...how time has altered our lives." Jack sighed. "Have you ever thought...what it would be like if you could go back and change one thing in your life? How different everything would be?"

"Certainly." Daniel answered him with the same honestly. "But what point in time would you change, would I change, to alter what we have here, and would it actually change anything?"

"That's it. That's what I was thinking about, all of the what-ifs in the world." He looked at Daniel. "I know that you've always wondered about Sha'uri. What if I hadn't asked you to take us up to the map room on Abydos? Could we have stopped Apophis from taking her and Skarra?"

Daniel nodded. "I have...but then, what if I had never opened the gate in the first place?" He shrugged. "I don't know the answers, but I do know that this now is how it's supposed to be...how I want it to be."

"Well, you do know from that alternate universe, that Kathryn and Carter would have opened the gate anyway," Jack tilted his head to one side, watching the expressions flow across his lover's mobile facial features. "Or even someone else, but it would have been opened sooner or later."

"Yes, but then, what would the cost have been?"

"The world, Daniel. The whole world was gone...to the Goulds. Teal'c and his Jaffa would have taken it, because I blew up Chulak."

"No, Jack." Daniel stopped him firmly, squeezing down on the shoulder he was touching. "You didn't blow up Chulak. General O'Neill did."

"Mox Nix! No difference, Daniel."

"Yes, lots of difference. We're still here." Daniel reached up and stroked the older man's face, feeling the beard just coming as a five o'clock shadow. "Together." At Jack's odd look he frowned. "What now? Oh, I see."

"No you don't. You don't see." Jack shook his head. "What if...God, where would we be if I hadn't brought my gun home eight years ago? What if Charlie...?"

Daniel looked at him sharply. "Don't go there, Love. That place is too painful for you to be."

"But the question is still there." Jack went on stubbornly. "If he hadn't...done what he did, where would I be?"

"You'd still be married to Sara, with a teenager in high school. You'd probably be a General and have never heard about the Stargate project until the Jaffa had come through the wormhole or had landed a Mothership on top of Cheyenne Mountain. Then, it would be too late," Daniel shrugged his shoulders. "And we'd all be dead."

"So you don't think...?"

"I don't know." Daniel looked sideways at the man beside him. "Go farther back with this, Jack." At his lover's quizzical expression, he continued. "What if, thirty years ago, the equipment had been checked out properly and the ropes had held? What if the Jacksons, Archaeology's answer to the Curie family, hadn't been killed?" At Jack's curious look, Daniel smiled. "It would have been Melbourne or Clare who had been called in to translate the cover stone...not their rather odd son."

"Who wouldn't have been odd, having been raised by loving and intelligent parents." Jack finished for him. "Who would now be at the top of his scientific and intellectual game and probably called in by his parents to assist in a Top Secret project by the US Government."

"No, I was odd even then." Daniel smiled a fond smile. "Even my mother made comments about my resemblance to my Grandfather Nicholas. My flights of fancy, as she so euphemistically referred to them."

"She meant looks, Love or maybe his stubbornness. You weren't talking to giant aliens yet, I don't think." He shook his head. "But then I hadn't started to talk to little grays ones or large brown ones either for that matter."

"Or the ones with glowing eyes." Daniel nodded. "But Earth still wouldn't have been safe. Hathor was still in South America in a sarcophagus, Seth would have still been in Washington state preparing his cult followers for whatever he was trying to accomplish, and Apophis still would have come through the gate in Cheyenne Mountain. I don't think it would have mattered who opened the gate or when it had been opened."

"Unless we went back and tried to stop Professor Langford from finding the cover stone in Giza in the thirties."

"Somebody would have found it though." Daniel shrugged. "It was too easy to locate, to shallow not to unearth, too great a discovery to leave alone...especially if they didn't know what it was."

"And without the Jackson boy..."

"Or the O'Neill Colonel..."

"Or the Carter scientist..."

"Or the alien who turned against his god..."

"Or the General who put us all together..."

"Earth would either be a Goa'uld stronghold..."

"Or a lifeless rock."

"So, you see my love," Daniel continued "We are living in the best of all possible worlds."

"Who said that?"

The philosopher Leibnitz in the seventeenth century, I think." The younger man answered. "Since God is benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient, he logically would create the best of all possible worlds. Hence, everything that happens in the universe is part of this greater plan, and must be for the best. He stated that God wants us to have the best possible world because he wants us to succeed. So whatever has happened in the past to shape our existence was meant to be because we're the best that we can be."

"Sounds like an Army commercial."

"You watch too much TV."

"So, Professor Jackson...let me get this straight. Everything that's happened to us, the worst days of our lives, had to happen so that we can have today...so that we can have the best our lives, hell our world... today."

"Well, according to Leibnitz ...yes. Optimism was attractive to a lot of people because it answered a profound philosophical question that mankind had been grappling with since the beginning of faith: if God is omnipotent and benevolent, then why is there so much evil in the world?" Daniel shrugged. "Optimism provides an easy way out: God has made everything for the best, and even though we experience personal misfortune, God is still helping the greater good via that misfortune.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

Daniel looked at him in confusion. "Waiting for?"

"Danny love, if this is the best of all possible worlds, then I'm wasting time not doing the best of all possible things."

"Which would be?"

"Making love to you till we both can't walk, talk, or think straight."

"So, a little less conversation?" Daniel turned to face his lover.

"And a little more action." O'Neill wrapped his arms around the younger man and playfully drug him through the sliding glass door and into the living room behind the drapes. Once inside, he stripped the tee shirt over his head and pulled off his jeans and socks.

Daniel stood watching passively, hands in his pockets, admiring the lean strength of the man approaching him. Jack grasped the terrycloth robe and freed Daniel's shoulders, at the same time restraining his arms in the crushed down sleeves. He griped the firm biceps and bit down on the sloping collarbone, changing from a nip to a suckle. The younger man leaned his head back and groaned softly. Excited by the response, O'Neill shifted his mouth to cover Daniel's lips, stripping off the interfering robe and pulling him tightly against him. He felt their erections make contact and the sparks begin to form behind his eyelids. He slid one hand down to cup Daniel's manhood and his own hard cock and began to stroke them together. Their tongues dueled for dominance as the two slowly slid down to the closest piece of furniture, the leather couch, Daniel on the bottom, his arms still enmeshed in the sleeves of the clinging robe, sank down into the firm cushions. Jack crawled on top, straddling the younger man and rubbing himself over the smooth stomach, in front of the hard penis that lay against and behind him.

"Do you have anything here in reach?" Jack whispered to his partner's lips.

Daniel shook his head, unable to move anything else. "Bedroom."

"Poor planning, Professor." Jack whispered. "Stay here." He dismounted reluctantly and headed for the kitchen, returning almost immediately with a clear plastic bottle filled with a golden liquid. Jack swung back across his lover's lap and untwisted the cap.

Daniel looked up at him in amusement. "Olive oil?"

"Baby, believe me...it works just as good." Jack poured a slight handful and began to apply it liberally to Daniel's bourgeoning erection, who hissed and arched up into the firm, stroking hand. "Easy, lover boy." Jack grinned down wolfishly at his partner. "I've got plans for this, and it doesn't include any premature activity."

Daniel met his eyes and nodded, trying to regulate his breathing. "Jack..."

Jack nodded and released the talented hands from their confinement of the now limiting robe. He poured a little of the slick liquid into Daniel's palm. The long, skillful fingers explored his ass, found the opening they were searching for and eased in, stretching the muscles, preparing him. Once more, he slid up Daniel's belly, using the slick oil to glide gently into position, and then he eased himself down pushing his sphincter opening against the crown of Daniel's penis. The entry was slow and easy, controlled by the man on top. Daniel closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to contain the overwhelming need to surge upwards, to take what was being given so freely. "Open your eyes, Danny,...see me..." the commanding voice purred. "Look at me. See what you've got...take what you want...I won't break....I promise."

The eyes opened to half slits, "Jack..." a whispered promise, a benediction, and a sworn oath. "Jack,... please, I can't...wait." The beautiful face flushed, the perfect mouth opened and the beloved voice sang out in wordless praise.

The older man slid himself forward until his knees touched the back of the couch, raising himself forward then back down to rest upon the needful lap, Daniel's hardness filling him, the younger man surging up, demanding, bursting with his passion. He did it again with power, and again with strength. His strong, lethal hands reached to the back of his lover's skull and the fingers intertwined in the cap of light colored hair, his firm, chiseled lips took the full ones and delivered the message home, you'remineyou'remineyou'remine.

After, when the young man lay boneless in his hands, Jack smiled down at him. "My turn, Danny, my love."

Daniel opened his eyes to look at the needing, wanting man in front of him. He nodded, and shifted position. As Jack slid off his lap, Daniel raised his weight off the seat of the couch and turned to kneel supporting himself on the back, leaning across its top. The older man used the oil again, liberally applying it to his own deprived organ and then massaging the slickness into his young lover's crease and opening with strong sure fingers, timing it so that when Daniel was in position, they were of like mind for the next step. A brief moment of preparation later, Jack slid easily into the tight opening, pushing his partner deep into the cushions. Daniel leaned back, helping his lover find the good angle and position.

"Oh, God,...Danny, so tight, so close, so hotsosofuckinggood." And Jack let it go...the fear, the sadness, the worry into the exultation of the act of taking what was given, forcing against no resistance, grasping what was already his. He reached down and took hold of his lover's slim hips as a purchase to find his strength and release his power.

Danny inclined himself forward and opened himself to the passionate ferocity of his chosen mate. "Fuck me Jack, fuck me, take it, take what you want, take what you need, fuckmetakemeloveme! There!" For several seconds he was exposed to the violence of the act of love that came from loving a man of power, straining, pushing, pounding, and hurting, loving it and the man behind him more than his own pain as he was pummeled into the leather.

Jack lay against his lover for a few precious seconds of peace, then withdrew and collapsed bonelessly against the firmness of the couch. Daniel slid back down to lay beside him and reached for his love, pulling him securely into the haven of his arms and kissing the silver head. There, wrapped in each other's warmth, they rested for awhile.

Then, a soft voice whispered into his chest a gentle hand stroking the red mark on his shoulder in regret. "Danny, are you okay? I'm sorry I got so rough. Did I hurt you? I kinda lost it there at the end." Jack admitted guiltily, looking up at his partner.

Daniel gazed down at the man he loved more than he could say and stroked gently down the chest to the flat belly. He'd be sore and stiff, but they'd both been ready for a serious bout of loving. "No, Jack. I'm fine. You were great."

The brown eyes shifted from concern to acceptance to satisfaction. "The best of all possible worlds, Danny boy."

"The best, Jack." Daniel whispered. "The very best."

the end.