Disclaimer:  no, they're not mine.  All copyright material used solely for personal entertainment purposes.  No infringement is intended.  Batteries not included.  Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.  Subject to change without notice.  Not suitable for children.  Keep in a cool, dry place.  For recreational use only.  Some assembly required.  Sanatised for your protection.  All models over 18.  Use in a well ventilated area.  Contents may vary from advertised.

Jack/Daniel, NC-17

The boys get drunk and wake up in a rather comprimising position, with no memory of the night before.  Luckily, there's a little videotape evidence to refresh their memory.
 
 
 

Sex, Lies, and Videotape
by Melissa
 
 

Monday, 1648 hours

"Well, I was only planning on taking the stone artifacts, sir.  See, the symbols on the copper based alloys we took aren't Egyptian in origin, but -"

"Daniel, as long as you clear it with Jack and Lieutenant Greene, you can take whatever you like.  Just make sure that camera's in good working order.  We need to account for every second those artifacts are off-base," Hammond said firmly.

"Yes, sir," Daniel said, with his usual good humour.  "I've got to admit, though, I'm glad you convinced Lieutenant Greene to cut it down to just one camera. He would've had a camera in every room in the house if he could have had it his way."

Hammond smiled.  "That's military training for you, Daniel; *thorough* is something of a buzzword in -"

Suddenly, the door burst open, and 6'3" of severely pissed off air force colonel stalked through the door.

"Jack," Daniel said mildly, raising an eyebrow.

 "With all due respect, sir - Daniel, what the fuck are you doing here?  We've been looking all over for you."  His eyes flicked back to Hammond.  "Uh, with all due respect, what the hell is going on?  Kowalski's just *informed* me that SG3 is taking over all our current missions.  Why -"

"Colonel!"  Hammond drew himself up to his full height.  "Captain Kowalski has requested more away mission hours for SG3 to make up for the deficit that was logged last month due to Lieutenant Simmons' injury.  SG1 has been temporarily stood down to give SG3 a chance in the field, and also to give you," he narrowed his eyes meaningfully, "and the rest of the team a chance to take some much-needed R&R.  If you checked your pigeonhole or your voicemail more than once a month, you would already have known that."  His tone left no doubt that Jack had stepped out of line.

Jack was silent for a moment.  "And may I ask when normal mission status will resume?"

"Two weeks from today.  In the meantime, all you have to worry about is the debriefing tomorrow at oh nine hundred hours, and the mission to ps426a scheduled for Thursday - all that's on your voicemail, too - but otherwise you may consider yourselves officially on leave."

Jack nodded thoughtfully.  "I see."  *And I don't much like it,* his expression added.

It was Hammond's turn to observe in silence.

"If there's nothing further, sir  -"

The General hid a smile.  Jack was nothing if not predictable.  "Dismissed."

Jack turned smartly on his heel and left.

Daniel sighed.  "I get the feeling he's taking this personally."

"Oh, I imagine he is," Hammond said, with a faint smile.  "Jack's certainly not unintelligent."

Daniel frowned.  "You mean - it is personal?"

The General rubbed his temple tiredly.  "In a sense.  I have to admit, I'm a little worried.  I think the time off would do him some good.  I'm certainly more concerned about his state of mind than about Kowalski's whinging about logging more active hours.  Arrogant little prick.  All he wants is to up his risks bonus, anyway.  He could care less about his team's active hours.  But something tells me Jack wouldn't appreciate me mentioning all that to him."

"No," Daniel agreed slowly.  "No, I guess not."  He looked at the door thoughtfully.  "Uh, if there's nothing else, I should probably go after him -"

"Go ahead.  But do me a favour, will you?  Don't tell Kowalski I called him an arrogant little prick."

"No, sir," Daniel agreed readily, a smile touching his lips.

"Good.  I want to save that particular pleasure for myself."
 

************************

Jack was sitting in a small bar, staring at his double scotch, and trying not to notice the curious stares of the other patrons.  On reflection, he probably should've stopped to change out of his uniform, but he'd been in such a hurry to get out of the SGC that changing into his civvies was about the last thing on his mind.

Damn Hammond, anyway.  This sudden involuntary vacation had less to do with Kowalski than with himself, he suspected.

Sure, he'd been a little tense, lately.  Had a few headaches - mental note:  next time, hit the drugstore before heading off to Janet.  Seemed like nothing was fucking sacred just recently, including patient-doctor confidentiality.  And he had been a bit edgy.  But it was nothing.  Not really.  Certainly not worth standing SG1 down for a whole fucking *fort*night.

He finished his drink and signaled morosely for another.

Five double scotches.  *Five*.  And still he felt stone-cold sober, and coldly resentful of Hammond's casual dismissal.

He was perfectly in control.  Perfectly.  And who would know that better than him?

"Jack?"

He frowned, somewhat blearily, but didn't turn around.  "Daniel?"

His friend came around the table and took the seat next to his.  "How you doing, Jack?"  He bit his lip.  "You're, uh, not really looking so good."

His sixth double scotch arrived.  Before he could lift it to his lips, Daniel neatly slipped it out of his fingers and downed it in three gulps, pulling a disgusted face as he finished.

"Help yourself," Jack said, dryly amused.

"I will, thanks," Daniel said calmly.  "I'm not leaving you here alone, and watching friends get drunk alone isn't exactly my favourite pastime."

Jack contemplated the empty glass.  "There's nothing wrong with me."  He looked up just in time to catch a fleeting look in Daniel's eyes that meant - what?

"No, of course not," Daniel agreed slowly.

Jack grimaced.  "But?"

Daniel looked down.  "You've been pretty, well, *tense* lately."

"So?" Jack asked tightly.  "Is that a crime?  Look at what it is we're doing -" he stopped for a moment, conscious of the other patrons, and made a studied effort to lower his voice, "it's hardly all rose-petals and chiffon, now is it?"

"You've been snapping at the slightest provocation.  You made Lieutenant Graye cry yesterday -"

Jack snorted.

"Well for God's sake, Jack, you yelled at the man for at least a quarter-hour.  And for what?  Something *you* forgot to do."  Daniel was still infuriatingly calm.  "You've been short with all of us, too; me, Sam, T'ealc.  We've all noticed.  And then you lost it on p873394."  Daniel fell silent.

Jack couldn't meet his eyes.  "That, that was -"

"Save it."  Daniel's voice was quiet but authoritative.  "It's over now.  No one got hurt, thank God, and we even came back with a few artifacts to show for our time.  And aside from tomorrow's debriefing and ps426a on Thursday, we have a whole two weeks off."

Jack shifted uncomfortably.

"So I suggest you relax.  Sleep in, if you can.  Have a few drinks.  See more of your friends.  Read some books, play loud music, do whatever the hell it is you do when you're not on base.  But most of all, deal with this.  Get it out in the open, and deal with it.  We need you, Jack."  Daniel's voice was low and intense, and Jack forced himself to meet the younger man's eyes.  "And that's all I have to say about that."

Jack blinked.  "It is?"

"Yeah."  Daniel smiled.  "So, got any plans for the next couple of weeks?"

Jack signaled for another drink.
 

************************

Tuesday, 0654 hours

Good, he felt so good, hadn't felt so good in *forever*, he was floating, the mild thumping in his head just a small distraction, he felt so good, touching her, feeling her warmth, God, he -

Whose warmth?

With some effort, Jack cranked open first one eye and then the other.  He blinked several times, his eyes taking time to adjust to the brightness in the room.  Blearily, he looked around.

He was in Daniel's room.  In his bed, in fact.  What's more, he was curled around Daniel.  Spooning.  He was *spooning* with Daniel.  With one arm under the anthropologist's body, and the other stroking -

Oh, Jesus.

Daniel was naked.  And thankfully, still deeply asleep.

A quick peak under the covers revealed that he was in a similar state of undress.

Shit.

Quick; rationalize.  Okay.  Right.  Just because two men are in bed together, naked, it doesn't mean anything happened.

Jack racked his brains.  Nope, nothing.  Nothing helpful, anyway.  The pub - ten minutes walk away from Daniel's place - was the last thing he remembered, and then - nothing.

No, it didn't mean anything happened . . . just that there's probably a more than fair chance it did.

Okay.  They were both pretty drunk.  Well, he assumed they were.  Could be they just tumbled into bed and fell asleep.  Could be that even if they *did* try something, their bodies weren't up to the job.

Oh, God, please . . .

He swallowed, hard, and raised himself up onto his elbow.

Christ, Daniel was beautiful.

Not that he'd ever tell him that.  No fucking way.  The anthropologist was already hard enough to live with as it was.  But, Jesus, how sweet he looked while he was sleeping.  And his body -

He swallowed again, suppressing a wave of desire.  How could he not have noticed this before?  His erection, always raring to go at this time in the morning, sprang to full attention.

With a muttered curse, he closed his eyes, thinking of Hammond, the G'oauld, dead kittens, m16's, the first law of thermodynamics - *anything* to will his unwanted erection away.

He heard a low moan.

Fuck.  He opened his eyes and found himself staring into cerulean blue.  Daniel.

Shit.

Daniel stared at Jack, an utterly bewildered expression on his face.

Oh well, so much for sneaking out before the kid woke up.

"Daniel," Jack tried hesitantly.

"Jack," Daniel said, just as carefully.

Jack hazarded a quick glance at Daniel's bedside clock.  7am.  Plenty of time before the SGC briefing.  Great.  He sighed.  "Any idea what happened last night?"

Daniel opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again.  Jack watched him come to the realisation that yes, they were both naked and in the same bed, and then proceed directly to a mental state most accurately described as, *oh my god, what the _fuck_ happened, what have I _done_?*

"I, I don't know," Daniel stuttered, his pale face paling even further.  "I mean, we were drinking, and that's it, I don't remember -"

Jack rubbed his aching head tiredly.  "Shit.  Look, Daniel, *you* don't remember, *I* don't remember, let's just go with *nothing happened.*  We were both probably too drunk to do anything anyway, and -"

"The door's open," Daniel said numbly, staring at his bedroom door, which was open onto the living room.

"Uh, yeah - ?" Jack said, puzzled.   God, Daniel was such a space cadet sometimes.

"It's open," Daniel repeated.  "And there's a security camera in there.  Facing *this* way!"

"A *camera*?" Jack asked incredulously.  "What the fuck is a security camera doing in an anthropologist's apartment for Christ's sake?  What, you think someone might try and steal your dust bunnies -?"

"The stone artifacts from ps68922," Daniel said, falling back onto the bed and closing his eyes.  "Remember?  I cleared it with you and Greene so I could bring them back here to try and decode some of those amalgamated symbols, and Greene said yeah, okay, if there are *cameras*, and I said fuck off, well, not exactly that, but more or less, and he said, well at least one then, wherever you're going to be working on them, and so he set it up, and -"

Jack groaned.  Now that he was looking, he could see the camera set up in the corner of the living room, facing directly into Daniel's bedroom.  Christ, Greene must be some kind of perve.  "So, if anything *did* happen," he said, trying to suppress the note of horror he heard creeping into his voice, "then everyone at the SGC knows."  He frowned.  "Which doesn't really seem fair, given that *we* have NO FUCKING *CLUE* -"  Daniel flinched, and Jack took a deep breath and counted to ten.

"It has a live feed to HQ," Daniel told him softly, "but it also records onto a series of local tapes, y'know, for a backup -"

Jack sat bolt upright.  "There's a copy?  Here?"

Daniel nodded wordlessly.

"So what the fuck are you waiting for, space monkey, a written invite?!"  Jack gave his friend a none too gentle shove.  "Get the fucking tape and let's find out what the hell happened."

Daniel reluctantly sat up and swung his feet over the edge of the bed.  Jack saw him glance sideways at his wardrobe for a moment - probably thinking about whether or not to grab a robe - and then head straight into the other room without bothering.  Fair enough, Jack thought, he'd seen Daniel naked a hundred times in the locker room, and whoever was monitoring the tape had probably already seen it all anyway.

He closed his eyes and lay back.  This could be the end of his career.  Not to mention Daniel's.  If the wrong person saw that tape -

"I've got it.  I think.  I mean, I think it's this one, but it might not be -"

Jack looked up at Daniel, who had just re-entered the room, tape in hand.  He closed the door behind him - a little late for that, Jack thought - and headed straight for the VCR that sat on a set of drawers at the foot of the bed.

Jack let his eyes wander just a little as Daniel busied himself with the tape.  Christ.  What he wouldn't give just to -

"Ready?"

Jack mentally poured a bucket of ice water over himself and nodded, unable to meet his friend's eyes.  "Yeah.  Play it."

Daniel swallowed.  "Uh, Jack -"

"Just play the damn tape, all right?" Jack snapped irritably.  For God's sakes, would Daniel ever stop talking things to death?  What the fuck was more important than finding out whether they did the horizontal mambo last night, or just fell into bed, drunk?  Drunk and naked.  Very naked.  Oh God -

Jack sighed.  "Look, I'm sorry, Daniel, just - just play the tape, okay?  Please?"

"Yeah," Daniel cleared his throat and hit the play button before settling back on the bed, pulling the top sheet over his lap.

The tape showed a slightly elevated view of Daniel's apartment, shrouded in darkness.  The digital clock at the bottom of the screen read 0135.  They watched the image for a few moments, and then Daniel moved back to the video, this time to fast forward.

When the clock reached 0249, the front door - barely in the camera's range - swung open, and Jack peered intently at the screen, barely able to make out which figure was Daniel and which was himself until Screen Daniel flicked on the lightswitch.

For the first time, Jack noticed that the film was in black and white, and that it was silent.

Screen Daniel and Screen Jack stared at each other.  Screen Daniel said something, and Screen Jack moved towards him, intent unmistakable.

Oh God, thought Jack.  Please, no.  I don't think I can take this -

Screen Jack was kissing Screen Daniel as though his life depended on it.  His hands came down to cup Screen Daniel's ass.

Daniel made a small sound, his hands unconsciously fisting the bedsheets.

Jack looked over at him, wanting to say something but coming up blank.  Reluctantly, he turned his eyes back to the screen.  As uncomfortable as it was, he had to see.  Had to know.

Daniel didn't seem to mind what Jack was doing in the slightest.  In fact, he was actively participating, moving his hands over Jack's body and tugging at the clothes in between their bodies.

Jack stopped what he was doing just long enough to pull his regulation SGC jacket off and aim it roughly in the direction of the nearest chair, where it was soon joined by his undershirt and Daniel's T-shirt.  Pushing the younger man against the wall, he bent down to place rough kisses on his neck and shoulder, moving down to suck firmly at a nipple.

Daniel reacted violently, thrusting towards Jack with helpless abandon.  Jack tightened his hold and moved further down still, kissing Daniel's stomach, and then running his tongue lightly over the crotch of his jeans, nuzzling the bulge he found there.

Daniel, eyes closed and head thrown back, bucked twice, hard, clearly struggling to control himself.  His mouth moved - a plea for release? - and Jack responded by opening the button fly of the younger man's jeans and pushing them roughly down together with his boxers.

"Turn it off."  It was Jack's Command Voice, the one guaranteed to get results under any circumstances.  A little husky, but recognizable.

Daniel didn't move.  His eyes were riveted on the scene unfolding in front of them; Screen Jack moving his head over Screen Daniel's crotch and Screen Daniel trembling, thrusting wildly, clearly out of control.

Jack gritted his teeth.  Fuck.  It wasn't *fair*; after everything he and Daniel had been through together, after they'd finally become friends, this had to happen.  And it was going to ruin everything.  Sex always did.  Which is why he'd always found *friends don't do friends* to be such a good motto.  It had kept things on a reasonably even keel, even when he had to work in close quarters with Sam - and God knew he was more than attracted to her.

But - *Daniel*.

Jack couldn't get over it.  He'd never thought of the sandy-haired anthropologist that way, *never*.  Judging from the shell-shocked expression on his face, Jack felt safe in assuming that Daniel hadn't considered the possibility, either.  And yet here they were, on screen, looking like players from your average b-grade porn.

Christ.

Screen Daniel was coming, body convulsing -

Jack had to look away.  It was too intimate, somehow, watching your best friend come, particularly when said best friend was sitting right beside you.  Jack skirted around the fact that he, himself, had been responsible for the orgasm in question.  He could only deal with so many issues at one time.

Years in the military had taught him the skill of instant prioritization - as well as evasive thinking and voluntary repression - and he found himself automatically assessing the damage to the relationship between them - could they still work together?  would they still be friends? - and forming a mental list of priorities.

And first on the list was to get that fucking tape turned *off*.

It was too much.  Too painfully intimate.  Too personal.  *Friends don't do friends.*  He took a deep breath and said again, "Turn the tape off."

Daniel tore his eyes away from the screen to stare wordlessly at Jack.

Jack sighed.  "Daniel.  Turn.  The.  Tape.  Off.  Now."  Christ.  If the anthropologist didn't move soon, Jack was going to have to reach around him and -

He cut the thought off ruthlessly.  The last thing either of them need right now was to be in close proximity to each other.  The situation was too volatile as it was.

Daniel finally moved, slowly, hitting the *stop* button on the VCR.  With obvious reluctance, he looked up to meet Jack's eyes.

Jack's mind was whirring.  Placate Daniel.  Salvage the friendship, if possible, the working relationship if not.  Destroy the tape.  Find the back up at the SGC and destroy that, too -

"Jack?"  Daniel looked so young, so unsure of himself.

Jack hesitated.

The sudden shrill sound of Jack's cell phone ringing in the other room cut into the silence.

With an apologetic shrug, Jack tossed the sheets aside and headed for the lounge, grabbing his boxers on the way.

He finally found the cell phone - buried under a pile of clothes - and hit the send key.  "O'Neill."
 

************************

Daniel absent mindedly fished through his wardrobe, half aware of the briefing at 0900, half focused on not thinking about anything at all.

Christ.  What the hell were they thinking?  How could they have - ?

He pulled on a pair of khaki pants and pulled a clean undershirt out of his bottom drawer, operating on auto-pilot.

Although he made it a point not to draw attention to the fact, he was bisexual.  The military, for all their recent enlightened 'tolerance' courses was still, deep down, the same one that instituted the policy of don't ask, don't tell.

If he was honest with himself, he had to admit he'd been looking at the colonel in a somewhat more than friendly light for a while now.  So last night was no shocker, at least not from that point of view.  But Jack - ?  Since when was Jack interested in men?  To be fair, he'd never asked the man, but *still*.

And what the *fuck* did it all mean?  What was going to happen to the two of them?  To their friendship?

Shit.

From the way Jack was acting, Daniel supposed that he just wanted to pretend the whole thing never happened.

If that was possible.

"Daniel?"

Daniel finished buttoning his shirt with suddenly clumsy fingers.  "Yeah?"

"Are you ready?"  Jack stood in the doorway, as unreadable as ever.

Daniel hesitated only a moment.  "Yeah, I'm ready."

Jack nodded.  "Let's go."

The tension in the air was almost palpable.  Daniel swallowed dryly.  "So - who was on the phone?"

Jack smiled dryly.  "Sam.  Just wanted to remind me about the briefing.  Seems a lot of people have been keeping an eye out for me."

Daniel started, but Jack was already heading out the door.

At the gate, Jack stopped suddenly, and turned to Daniel.  "We're going to need to destroy the SGC's copy of that tape."

Daniel nodded.  Given current policy, discovery of that tape would mean both their jobs.  And O'Neill's career.  No way was he going to let that happen.

"And Daniel - " Jack refused to meet his eyes.  "We don't talk about this again.  Ever."

Daniel nodded again, glad that Jack wasn't looking at him.  "Sure."
 

************************

"Which is probably due to the mineral content of the soil," Carter put in enthusiastically.  "Or possibly the gamma radiation causing a kind of red shift - "

"Or simple sensor failure," an elderly tech head added dourly.

Jack fidgeted.  Where the hell was Daniel?  He was almost half an hour late.

"Colonel, do you have any idea where Doctor Jackson might be?" Hammond asked with a raised eyebrow.

Shit.

"Uh, no, sir.  I don't.  That is, no, I don't know where Daniel is.  Sir."  There.  That was smooth.

Hammond nodded thoughtfully.  "Very well.  Continue, Major Carter."

"Yes sir," Carter said.  "As I was saying, if we account for the sensor data - "

"Sensor *artifacts*," the tech head put in.

"*Data*," Carter insisted.  "If we account for it, then it's possible that - "

The debriefing room door swung open and Daniel raced in.  "Sorry I'm late, General, everyone -"

"Run into traffic in Wonderland?" Jack asked, trying not to let the relief he felt show on his face.

Daniel shot him an odd look.  "Uh, no, I was just - "

"We were discussing the data gathered by the MIMP on pst338a, Doctor Jackson," Hammond informed him.  "Do you have anything to add?"

"Uh, no.  Sir." Daniel said.

"Good.  Debriefing over."  Hammond ignored the startled glances from Carter and the techie.  "I'll leave this *fascinating* problem in your capable hands, Major.  Keep me informed.  Dismissed."

Jack shrugged mentally.  Seemed the General was as eager to get out of there as he was.

As everyone filed out of the debriefing room, Jack raised an eyebrow at Daniel.

Daniel caught the look, and surreptitiously pulled back the flap to his shirt pocket.

Jack had to fight back laughter when he realised he was looking at the exposed videotape.  All of Daniel's pockets were bulging slightly, and Jack guessed he probably hadn't realised just how much tape was inside the average video cassette.

He nodded to Daniel.

Well.  At least that was over.

Now all they had to do was forget it ever happened.
 

************************

Thursday, 2234 hours

Daniel stood under the hot shower and let the water massage away the last of the dirt and the grime and the sand.  Damn stuff, got into everything.

He stole a look over at Jack who was studiously not looking at him.

He hadn't seen him since they'd left the SGC on Tuesday.  The mission - just a basic diplomatic nod to leaders on ps426a - had gone without a hitch.  Still, Daniel had been painfully aware of the fact that Jack spoke to him only when it was strictly necessary.  He was clearly very uncomfortable with what had happened.

Daniel rubbed his neck wearily.  He didn't know what to do.  What he could say to Jack to make him relax.

"Well, that was a barrel of laughs," Jack said dryly, still not looking at Daniel.  "Gotta love those diplomats, huh?"

Daniel blinked, surprised.  "Uh, yeah."  He turned off the shower, grabbed a towel, and put his glasses on.  "And that guy - Kanjutsi, I think his name is - I thought he was *never* going to stop talking."

Jack snorted.  "I'll say.  'The future of our potential for expansion and growth as a world is limited only by the partial nature of our visions shaped by the crises of the recent past.'  Christ."

Daniel smiled.  "Did you see his daughter?  The one he kept trying to sell everyone?"

Jack rolled his eyes.  "My god.  Does he not realise that no one's going to buy the milk when they can get the cow for free?"

Daniel forced back laughter.  "Jack!"

Jack shrugged.  "Well, I wasn't the one who - "

"What?" Daniel asked warily, trying to work out what Jack was staring at.

"You're hurt."

"What -?"

"Your shoulder.  Did Janet take a look at that?"  Jack asked, taking hold of Daniel's arm to inspect the wound.

"It's just a scratch," Daniel said.  "It's nothing."

Jack shook his head.  "It's deeper than you think," he said with a frown.  "I think - " he looked up, and met Daniel's eyes.

Daniel swallowed dryly.  He hadn't thought anything of their proximity at first; it was just Jack looking out for him, as always.  But all of a sudden the air between them seemed superheated, and Jack's hands on his bare skin felt almost unbearably hot.

Jack moved infestiminally closer.  "Daniel - "

Their mouths were scant inches apart, and Daniel could feel himself harden at the thought of Jack's mouth on his own.

Suddenly, the locker room doors burst open and Jack and Daniel jumped apart as though burned.

"Sir, sorry to disturb you, but the General wants to see yourself and the doctor straight away."

Jack nodded calmly.  "Thanks, lieutenant."

Daniel realised with sudden dismay that the hapless lieutenant was staring at his groin, and his not so subtle erection, barely covered by the thin cotton towel.

"Dismissed," Jack said, with slightly more force than was necessary.

The lieutenant turned on his heel and left.

"All right, space monkey," Jack said, his good humour clearly forced.  "Let's get dressed and see what the General wants."
 

************************

Daniel exchanged a worried look with Jack.  "Any idea what this is about?" he asked quietly, trying not to betray the nervousness he was feeling.

Jack shrugged.  "Nope."

"Do you think - "

"Daniel - "

"But what if - "

"Can it, Daniel," Jack said calmly.  "Just stay cool, and everything will be fine, all right?  It's not your fault that the tapes in your apartment spontaneously caught fire, or that tape 27-alpha mysteriously disappeared from the tech bay."

Daniel shot Jack an incredulous look.  "Jack - "

Jack shot him a look, and Daniel fell silent.  Jack obviously didn't want to hear it, which was a sure sign that he was worried.

Shit.

They stopped outside the General's office.  "You first," Daniel said, making little effort to hide the cynicism in his tone.  "I insist."

Jack took a deep breath and rapped sharply on the door.

"Come."

Jack squared his shoulders and opened the door.

General Hammond looked up.  "Gentlemen.  Sit down."

Daniel exchanged a quick glance with Jack as they sat.

"I expect you're wondering what this is all about," Hammond said, shuffling some of the papers on his desk.  "It seems that one of the tapes in the tech room has gone missing."

Daniel stared at the floor.  Busted.

"Which is extremely unfortunate, considering the fact that the local backups were burned to a crisp," Hammond continued.

"Sir - " Jack interrupted.

"Of course, luckily, there was a second back up."

Daniel froze.

Jack made an odd choking sound.  "A - a second back up?"

General Hammond nodded.  With a carefully blank face, he reached into a drawer and pulled out a small cassette.  "Isn't it unfortunate," he said, casually dropping it into the nearest wastepaper basket, "that the second back up was also *mislaid*."

Daniel looked up, incredulous.  "Sir - "

Jack beat him to it.  "Yes sir, very unfortunate.  Daniel and I will take personal responsibility for ensuring it never happens again.  Sir."

Hammond nodded, a faint twinkle in his eye.  "Very good, Colonel."  He smoothed the front of his uniform.  "Daniel, we have a saying; no harm, no foul.  *However*; you're both good men, and I'd hate to lose either of you.  Particularly to a harmless indiscretion.  Am I understood?"

Daniel nodded, dazed.

Hammond smiled, apparently satisfied.  "Dismissed."

Daniel rose and followed Jack to the door, still lost in disbelief.

"Don't ask, don't tell," Jack muttered as they left.  "Damn, I love the airforce."

Daniel swallowed hard.  "I thought for sure he'd say - "

"Say what?"  Jack asked.  "Did you seriously think he'd ruin both our careers over this?"

Daniel shrugged.  "I guess not, but - "

A lieutenant walked past and nodded to Jack, who returned the nod with a notable lack of enthusiasm.

Daniel lowered his voice.  "But I guess I thought maybe he couldn't protect us, you know, if - "

"Stop with the 'if's' already, space monkey," Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Daniel nodded.  "So - ?"

Jack stopped and turned to face him.  "So?"

Daniel glanced around them.  "So, where does that leave us?"

Jack stiffened.  "Right where we started from.  We've been through too much as a team to let one or two beers too many change anything."

Daniel nodded again.  It was nothing he hadn't expected.

"It never happened, Daniel," Jack said finally.  "Just remember that, and we'll be fine."

Daniel watched Jack walk down the corridor, making no move to follow him.

He'd expected Jack to tell him nothing was going on, but he hadn't expected the note of sadness in his voice as he'd done it.

He frowned speculatively at Jack's departing back.  He had a distinct feeling that it would be harder than Jack thought to let it go.  For both of them.

And maybe that was as it should be.
 
 

THE END

 
 
 
 
 
 

comments, questions, flames, and virtual chocolate can be sent by express post to conceits@ihug.co.nz