Gigi Sinclair

"That was, um, fast." Daniel blinked at his semen-spattered shirt, pants, shoes and carpet.

"Sorry," Jack winced apologetically. He had managed to pull down his pants and underwear before the crucial moment, meaning that his clothes had been saved. He couldn't say the same of Daniel's. "But you were the one who wouldn't let me near you the whole time we had the armbands." The elevator in Daniel's building was out of order, as well, meaning that Jack had to follow Daniel's sweetly swinging ass up many flights of stairs. Jack shook his head. No wonder he was a little…edgy.

"We were kind of busy." Daniel countered. "Besides, you put Siler in the hospital when you slapped him on the back. I think I was justified in asking for a little break." He reached past Jack to lock his front door. That done, Daniel went through to the bedroom. Jack followed, sheepishly holding up his pants with one hand. As they passed through the living room, Jack noticed one of Daniel's fish floating near the top of the tank. Not surprising, since they'd just come back from three days away. If you were a fish, that was a long time without food. If you were Jack, that was a long time without Daniel.

And when Jack had told Carter and Daniel he wanted big, red, juicy meat, he sure as hell wasn't talking about steak. There was more than one way to satisfy a protein craving.

Since they were, technically, in the middle of sex, Jack didn't mention the dead fish. Instead, he went into Daniel's bedroom, where Daniel was removing his shirt and examining the stains. "Sorry," Jack repeated. Daniel shrugged and tossed his clothes into the hamper. He lay on the bed and, taking off his relatively clean clothes, Jack joined him.

"Do you miss them?" He asked, as he settled in beside Daniel.

"The armbands?"

"No, 'The Golden Girls.' Yes, the armbands."

Jack did, and not for the reasons he would have expected. The strength and speed came in handy, but he'd felt seriously bad when Siler got hurt. If Jack had done that to Hammond or Fraiser, or if he'd ever managed to accidentally hurt Daniel or Carter, he would never have forgiven himself. Teal'c could deal with it. It wasn't like he hadn't clocked Jack enough times himself.

The attitude problems and constant hunger he could live without, too. The abilities Jack missed were the brainy ones. The speed- reading had been…well, fun. It was childish, but it had felt good to finally be better at something intellectual than Daniel was.

"No," Daniel replied, rolling over to press his still-insistent erection into Jack.

"Not at all?" Jack thought of Carter, and the thousand-page book she had written in two hours. He knew there were always a million projects Daniel wanted to work on, if only he could find the time. "Think of everything you could get done."

"Not like that." Daniel frowned, pulling off his glasses and pushing insistently into Jack. Pleasant as that felt, Jack wanted to discuss this first.

"Why?"

"Because doing it with the armbands wouldn't really be doing it at all. It would be cheating. Look, are you planning on helping me out, or what? Because in case you didn't notice, one of us didn't go off like a rocket as soon as we stepped in the door…"

"I'm talking here, Daniel. Heart to heart stuff. I thought you of all people would appreciate that."

Daniel didn't say anything. Instead, he took matters into his own hands, until Jack pried them away. Jack stroked gently for a few moments, and when Daniel looked happy again, continued: "Would you have wanted me to keep the powers?"

Daniel rolled his eyes, but answered. "No. I like having sex with you without fearing for my life. Or my genitals." He glanced down at Jack's hand. Obediently, Jack squeezed again.

"But I was smarter with the armband. We were more, you know." Jack felt himself flush, suddenly embarrassed. "Equal."

"We seem pretty equal to me," Daniel replied, and a moment later, he was right. At least when it came to the amount of semen streaking their upper bodies.

Later, when they'd cleaned up, dressed again, and were lying on the couch, Daniel said: "Remember my old electric typewriter?"

It had nothing to do with the sitcom they were half-watching, but Jack knew Daniel better than to be surprised at that. "Yeah. It was a piece of crap." Jack had used it once, and it had been enough to send him screaming back to the computer, which was at least fast and frustrating.

"It was difficult," Daniel agreed. "And noisy, and finicky."

"And every time you made a mistake, you had to press like eighteen different keys to correct it," Jack added. At least, that was what Daniel had showed him. Personally, when he'd made a mistake, Jack had just ripped out the paper and shoved in another one. Which was a minor production in itself.

"But remember when the server went down at the SGC? I was the only one who could get anything done." Daniel smiled. "It wasn't the easiest thing to work with, but it was reliable. And that's more important than being able to do all kinds of fancy tricks."

"Is this a metaphor, Daniel?"

Daniel smirked into his wineglass. "What do you think?"

"I'm wondering what happened to your electric typewriter."

"It's here now. I decided I needed it more at home than I did at work."

"Really." Jack raised an eyebrow in an attempt to hide the fact he was sincerely touched. "So you don't need reliability at work?"

"Of course. But if it's here, I can take good care of it. And I can keep everyone else from getting their hands on it and breaking the space bar."

"I told you, that wasn't me," Jack protested. "I thought I saw a spider, so Carter got this rolled up magazine, then Teal'c started in on the whole 'all creatures great and small' thing…"

"Jack." Daniel looked at him with That expression, the one that was equal parts "I'm the luckiest guy in the world" and "Which god did I piss off to deserve this?"

"Yeah?"

"Much as I'd like to hear that story again, I'm trying to remind you that I love you."

"Oh. Cool." Jack grinned and put an arm around him, trying not to make his relief too obvious. "Even without the bells and whistles?"

"Like I said." Daniel inched one hand into Jack's crotch, which, after several hours of recuperation and the extremely non- stimulating task of scooping the dead fish out of Daniel's tank, was starting to perk up again. "I'm more than happy with the basic package."

"Nothing basic about that package, Danny." Jack leered and leaned in for a kiss.

"No," Daniel agreed, disengaging himself to look down at the slowly growing erection. "I seem to have got the deluxe version."

"I prefer 'robusto.' Like cigars." Although if he remembered his cigar sizes, Jack thought proudly, he was really more of a "Double Corona."

"Unwanted Monica Lewinsky image, Jack."

Laughing, Jack unzipped his fly and guided Daniel's hand inside. "In that case, wanna supersize it?"