Gigi Sinclair

The first rule of language acquisition, Daniel well knew, was motivation. If you had some deep intrinsic reason to learn a language—if, for example, it was the only way you could communicate with someone important to you—then it would be much easier to pick up than if you were learning it for purely academic reasons. The rule even applied, to some extent, to professional linguists. It explained why Daniel had acquired a working knowledge of Abydonian in a few days, while he still hadn't figured out all the nuances of Hungarian.

Unfortunately, the rule didn't seem to apply in this case. Daniel desperately wanted to learn the Ancients' language, but as soon as he seemed to catch up with Jack's vocabulary, Jack came out with a completely new declension or turn of phrase, and Daniel had to start all over again. Jack wasn't making it easy, either. Unlike Sha're, who'd always been willing to scratch a picture in the dirt or use non-verbal communication (some of which was very communicative indeed, although it did little to help Daniel learn the Abydonian past perfect,) Jack got irritable and annoyed when Daniel didn't immediately grasp his meaning. In a way, Daniel was sympathetic. In the military, Jack's life hinged on making himself understood to as many people in as few words as possible. But being sympathetic didn't make it any less frustrating when Daniel couldn't understand what Jack was saying and Jack was doing nothing to help.

"Pannius. Pannius," Jack repeated, yet again, making a vague gesture with his hands and scowling at Daniel. "Pan-nius."

"You know, repeating it over and over really doesn't help," Daniel snapped, flicking through yet another Latin dictionary.

"Pannius," Jack repeated again, patting his stomach.

Daniel ran his finger down a page and stopped on a promising-looking word. "Pannus? A garment? Do you want a change of clothes?" Jack's fatigues looked fine to Daniel. Jack shook his head impatiently and repeated,

"Pannius," like it was obvious.

"I don't know, OK?" Daniel slammed the dictionary shut. "I have no clue what you're talking about. I'm sorry, I tried, I failed miserably." He turned around and made a show of staring at his bookshelves like he was looking for something, trying to calm himself down. Daniel heard Jack scratching a pen against a piece of paper, but deliberately didn't look. A moment later, Jack's hand squeezed Daniel's shoulder, and Daniel half-turned in time to get a scrap of paper thrust at him.

Jack had drawn a sandwich speared with an olive on a toothpick, what looked like a coffee mug, and a crude skeleton staring at both.

"You're hungry?"

Jack nodded exaggeratedly, and patted his stomach again. "Pannius."

"That's it?" Daniel was almost more irritated at finding out it was something so simple than he had been at not knowing what the word meant.

"Pannius," Jack repeated again, rolling his eyes and grabbing Daniel by the arm. "Almentum." Alimentium. Food. That, Daniel could understand.

"Why couldn't you have said that in the first place?"

Jack smirked. "Oblatato."

"Yeah, well," Daniel replied, as he let Jack steer him out of the office, "We have different ideas of fun."

***

"If Jack's staying, then I am, too." It seemed so obvious to Daniel, he was a little taken aback when General Hammond replied, sounding slightly amused,

"And why is that?"

Because Daniel was the only one who could understand Jack. Because, more importantly, he was the only one who knew what it was like to be surrounded by people who couldn't understand you. And because after everything Jack had done for him—letting him stay on Abydos, coming back to get him, taking him back to Jack's house when he had nowhere else to go, helping him look for Sha're—Daniel owed him something. He owed him a lot.

Fortunately, Hammond seemed to understand that. As soon as the briefing was over, Daniel took Jack back to his office, glaring at the airmen who had clearly heard about Jack and were not-so-discreetly gawking at him.

"Do you need anything?" Daniel asked, shutting the office door behind him. At Jack's insistence, they'd eaten a large lunch, but that had been a few hours ago. "Coffee? Water? Anything?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Nullus, Sartorio."

"I'm not your father," Daniel replied, which, as comebacks went, he had to admit was pretty weak.

Jack sighed. "Conscenta."

"Good," Daniel replied, lightly. "Then we both know." He sat at his desk and called up the picture of the runes on his computer. "Could you take another look at this, Jack? I'm not sure we've got it down yet."

Daniel felt Jack come up behind him. A moment later, Jack's hand landed on his shoulder and Jack's voice sounded particularly close when he said,

"Gratias, Daniel."

He sounded worried and stressed, and with good reason, Daniel thought. Daniel half-turned in his chair. "You're welcome." Really.

There was a pause, then Jack's hand squeezed. Daniel hesitated, then put his hand over Jack's. Jack smelled like generic shampoo and deodorant, nothing like the natural scents people on Earth strove to cover up and the Abydonians embraced, but Daniel still thought of Sha're and the way he had clung to her before she was ripped away from him.

"Poco pavifactus," Jack admitted gruffly, as he pulled his hand away.

Daniel was a little scared, too, but he gave Jack what he hoped was a reassuring smile and turned back to his screen.

***

Well, Daniel thought as Jack disappeared into the event horizon, if he had to go, that was the way Jack would have wanted to do it. With dignity, courage, and flummoxing the hell out of everyone he thought was smarter than he was. Daniel watched with a lump in his throat as "the traveller's" signal disappeared. Jack hadn't had a choice. He wasn't himself anymore, and if he hadn't followed his compulsion to go wherever he had gone, Daniel knew Jack would have died anyway. That didn't make it any easier to watch him go.

Daniel wasn't sure how long he'd been looking at the monitor when Sam said, "Daniel, why don't you go back to your office? I'll call you the second we know anything."

Daniel shook his head. "I'm staying here."

"Daniel…"

"Sam." Sam nodded and patted him on the shoulder before going back to her station.

He didn't know how much later it was, but it felt like a lifetime had passed before the Gate finally lit up and the SFs hustled into position, their weapons drawn. Daniel waited, his heart hammering, until a familiar figure strode casually down the ramp.

As soon as he saw it was Jack, Daniel was out of the observation booth and heading for the Gateroom. Daniel wanted to grab onto Jack, to prove to himself that Jack was really there, but he restrained himself. Instead, when Jack said, "I'm back," like he'd run out for a donut, Daniel asked,

"What happened?"

"Do you still possess the knowledge of the Ancients?" Teal'c chimed in, more specifically.

Jack shook his head. "Nope. Don't remember a thing." Daniel was trying to process this, to understand how all that knowledge had been suddenly removed from Jack's brain without seeming to affect his normal functioning, when Jack looked at him and said, "You know that meaning of life stuff?" Daniel nodded. "I think we're going to be all right."

They rushed Jack off to the infirmary almost immediately after. Daniel's instinct was to follow, but he reminded himself Jack didn't need him any more, he was perfectly capable of communicating on his own, and was in fact loudly arguing with Janet even as she dragged him down the hall. Instead, Daniel went over and hugged Sam, who was looking more than a little shell-shocked.

"You did a great job," he told her.

"Indeed," Teal'c echoed. "Colonel O'Neill owes you a great debt of gratitude, Captain Carter, as do we all."

Sam smiled and, not for the first time, Daniel wondered why he wasn't attracted to her. "Thanks, guys."

"Now, I want you all to go home and get some rest," Hammond ordered, once they had separated. "We'll debrief in the morning, 0800 sharp." That was going to be an interesting meeting, Daniel could tell.

Instead of going home, he went to his office. He still had the runes to work out, and he wanted to know if there was anything around that alien device that warned of what it would do, a sort of Beware of Mind-Altering Software sign or something. He was still going over his digital images an hour later, when Jack appeared in his doorway.

"What did Janet say?"

"There's nothing wrong with me. Well," Jack amended, "Nothing that wasn't there before. She couldn't even think of an excuse to stick a needle in my ass."

"There's a bonus." Daniel shifted awkwardly in his chair. Now that Jack was back to normal, Daniel felt almost embarrassed about the protectiveness he'd displayed towards him. "You should go home. We're debriefing in the morning."

"So I hear. What are you still doing here?"

Daniel shrugged. "Working."

"Hey." Daniel glanced up to see Jack standing beside his desk. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"I lied earlier," Jack continued, placing a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "I do remember a few things. Like standing on that ramp while you told me I might never come home. And I," Jack fixed his gaze on a point somewhere over Daniel's head. "I knew I had to go, but I felt bad about leaving you. I didn't want to be someone else who walked out of your life."

"You didn't have a choice," Daniel replied, trying not to be aware of the hand that, apparently of its own accord, was sliding from Daniel's shoulder up into his hair. Hoping his breathing wasn't as loud as it sounded inside his head, Daniel looked up at Jack, who had given up staring at the wall and was instead staring down at him. For a brief, insane moment, Daniel wondered if Jack was going to kiss him. Which was of course nonsense, because Jack was straight and Daniel was married.

But, his treacherous mind piped up, with every day that passed, the likelihood of Daniel finding his wife diminished, and now, apparently, Jack wasn't quite so straight as he seemed.

He was still there, anyway, so close Daniel could see the pulse in Jack's throat. Daniel pulled back, just a little, before he could change his mind. Jack removed his hand, but didn't break his gaze. "These little grey guys, the Asgard, told me we had great potential. You know, as a species."

"Really."

"But you'd know better than me. So do you, ah, do you think that's about right?"

Daniel let out a long breath and smiled up at Jack. "I think so." Great potential. Daniel could see that. He had, if he was honest, been seeing it since he'd first met Jack.

Jack smiled back. "Good. Hey, you want to grab a pizza or something?"

"Sure." The runes could wait until 0800, Daniel decided. It was only a few hours away, in any case.

"Great." Jack patted Daniel on the back, then stepped away so Daniel could stand up. "Just no Caesar salad, OK?"

"You sure?" Daniel followed Jack out of the room, laughing when Jack replied,

"Si, Daniel."