has_2ls | for Daniel

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for Daniel

Jack had heard Daniel'd broken his wrist on the dino expedition and he wasn't surprised; the Daniel he'd known back home had a tendency to collect injuries like baseball cards and apparently not much had changed in the eight years Jack had missed. He hadn't had a real, good talk with him since New Years and since Carter'd shown up there were all sorts of issues that Jack kinda wanted to bury for a little while in lieu with hanging out with his best friend.

Problem was, said best friend was usually busy with something or other and Jack, oddly enough, felt bad about interrupting. But with he and Carter feeling all awkward about kiss number two it was about damn time Jack spent some time with someone who wasn't leggy and blonde and vaguely attracted to.

Besides, Daniel lived next door so even on his bad knee it wasn't a long trip to knock at Daniel's hut and beg for some time.

"Got a minute? Ran out of interest in watching the walls in my hut and figured we could go for a walk."

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"I need to beat the clothes box into giving me something decent," Jack said idly, watching Daniel as he puttered around. "It seems to like Carter a lot better than me. I get bar shirts every time I go and she gets Air Force sweats. I guess she sweet talks it."

Daniel came out with one shoe, holding it up triumphantly. "I think she's been talking to Jack," he replied. "He apparently knows all the ways to sweet talk the box. Not the bookshelf, though. I think that thing just had a vendetta against everyone."

"Yeah, she and Harkness went to go see that TARDIS thing," Jack said, frowning a little unconsciously. He'd never seen Carter that bubbly about spending an afternoon with him, that was for sure.

"Haven't tried the bookshelf. Been doing a lot of running and fishing. More fishing this week since my leg's been hurting, but you know how it is."

"Don't worry. He wouldn't dare try anything. He was warned...god. Years ago, I suppose. He will not be hitting on Sam. No, it was probably the TARDIS he was hitting on and he was just sharing the glee. I wouldn't worry too much about Jack."

Wait. He was worrying about Jack?

Daniel stopped in his exploration for his missing shoe and actually looked at Jack. "You're frowning."

"What? No, I'm not," Jack said, shaking his head. "Besides, what do I care if Carter goes traipsing off with Harkness for dates in that time travel box thing? Carter's a grown woman. She can do what she wants."

Except Jack still hadn't got over that irrational bit of jealousy where Carter was concerned. Stupid, maybe, but it was there.

"Right. Do I need to go into detail or should I just remind you how many alternate Sam's I met who were in relationships with you? I'm not sure whether or not it rivals the number of times I've died or not yet." Daniel raised a pointed eyebrow. "As for Jack, he's perfectly, dysfunctionally happy with Logan and I don't see that changing in the near future. So relax."

"Carter's pretty much informed me that's a no go," Jack said mildly. "Too distracting or something. She doesn't want to affect the timeline."

It actually bothered him a lot more than he let on, but no point in dumping on Daniel.

"Besides. I didn't come here to talk about Carter. Met your boyfriend the other week."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. You and Sam already had a conversation about your lack of a relationship?" And Sam had said no. Sam had said no. He leaned back against the wall and sighed. Of all the people to say no he would have suspected it would be from Jack. Not Sam.

"Well, I can relieve her doubts on that front. Whatever we do here doesn't seem to affect the timeline." He shot Jack an almost bitter smile. "Trust me on that. Rodney's been here several times."

Jack shrugged helplessly. "I'm pretty sure I'm dead, when and where I came from. We talked about it, we kissed, Carter thinks it's a bad idea. Hoping we can get over this awkward so I can have my running partner back, you know?"

Breezy way to put it, maybe, but Jack had never really been one to talk about his feelings. Except maybe with Carter, when it was relevant.

"Dead?" Daniel's lips thinned. "Mitchell and Vala haven't said anything about you being dead. And neither did Teal'c when he was here. In fact, the more I learned, the more it seemed everyone was all right." That was it. He was definitely going to have to talk to Sam and find out her side of this whole mess.

"I'm sorry, Jack. If it helps, I always thought that once you two got over the whole 'working together' part, you two would just fit." Turned out life wasn't just that easy.

"It was one hell of a kiss," Jack said quietly, finding interest in the wall of Daniel's hut. "Both of them, actually. That second one was especially nice. But hey, she's got a point. We've gotta work together if we get back home."

And that wouldn't work so well if they were in a relationship, even the beginnings of one. Regs got in the way.

"But maybe there's something to it. Maybe."

"Maybe?" Daniel sighed and rolled his eyes. "Jack, every different reality had something between you and Sam." He couldn't stand Jack moping, so he decided to have just a little bit of fun at Jack's expense. Maybe it would kick him out of moping long enough to...to...throw something, at least.

"At least expect that one world where you were dating me." He tried to keep a straight face. He was much better at it than he used to be.

Jack was jarred out of his thoughts regarding Carter pretty damn quickly at that one and looked at Daniel, trying to read him for any sign of joking. Damn. Straight face.

"You mean...together together? Like you and Patrick together?"

Daniel's lips twitched just a little. That was the only reaction he had to Jack's sudden confusion. "Exactly. Well, not just like. You and I don't tend to argue as much. Or at least not about the same things." He supposed he should feel bad about playing a joke on Jack. But he didn't.

"Huh," Jack said thoughtfully, mulling it over. Didn't appeal to him here, but if he had to be with a guy, Daniel made the most sense.

"Never expected that to come out of your mouth. Guess if it made our alternate versions happy, nothing wrong with it but I don't have designs in that direction."

Daniel just stared at Jack. That was it? No protestations? No arguments? No 'not a chance in hell'? He decided then and there that the joke had gone on far too long already and he wasn't thinking very hard about the repercussions of the joke. Jack taking them together in stride when he hadn't taken him and Sam married in stride was just a little too much food for thought.

"Jack? I was joking."

Jack was a little distracted and preoccupied, honestly, and he greeted Daniel with another eloquent "huh" when he admitted the joke.

"Sorry. Apparently you've gotten better at lying, Daniel."

"I was trying to get you to either kill me or laugh. Either way it would have distracted you." But apparently, Jack was too far hung up on Sam to have anything close to a normal reaction. "Give it time, Jack. She just got here. You just got here." Maybe not just, but in terms of how long Daniel had been here? Anything less than a year was 'just'.

"Carter can do what she wants," Jack said airily. "Lots of fish in the sea, you know? Harkness even says there's sharks. Gotta be one with my name on it out there."

"Oh, please. You and Sam have been circling around each other since the two of you met and it's only gotten worse since the years went on. She had a fiance, you know. He even knew about the Stargate program. She was even whistling she was so happy. But they broke up." He gave Jack a significant look. He'd never had any concrete evidence that it had been because of Jack, but he's always suspected.

Jack arched a brow. Teal'c had taught him well, it seemed. "She was probably in love with her new particle accelerator, Daniel. It's not like she'd break up with a perfectly good man for another man. Not Carter."

"For? No. Because of?" Daniel shrugged. "Jack, you two have been in love with each other for years. Anyone who knows you two at all can see that."

Jack shrugged slightly. "I love her, yeah. Nothing I can do about it though. She's not interested in screwing up both our lives with it and I can't say I blame her. She's got more self control than I do when it comes to that."

Daniel sighed. "You two are both...if I could, I'd lock you two together in a room and not let you out for days. That would settle something, at least."

"I don't think Sam'd forgive you for that," Jack pointed out. "Because I'd probably end up tearing her clothes off, not that you wanted that particular mental image."

Jack however, thought it was pretty nice.

"You know, I really don't think I want that image, no." He'd never exactly thought about Sam like that. Except for that one time after Oma had sent him back to the mortal plane and then it had been less explicit imagery and more wondering if maybe there had been something with this person.

That had been before he'd remembered about Jack and Sam.

"It's okay, you can just think about me instead," Jack teased, hinting back at Daniel's joke from earlier. "Sure that'll get your motor running. Really though, as far as Carter goes, it's in her court. She knows how I feel."

"You two are my best friends and I am not going there for either of you." Daniel's lips quirked. "Although, really, Sam has one up on you. She doesn't tune out when I'm talking at length on some kind of new discovery." He smiled a little more as Jack continued. "At least it's out there, now. I was beginning to wonder if you two were ever going to mention it or if it was going to continue to be the skeleton in the closet that everyone knew about but never admitted."

"Might as well admit to it. I've been out here three months, I'm pretty sure I died on Edora no matter what you guys say and...hell, Daniel. I love her. There's no Air Force out here breathing down my neck about it and I told her after she told me we had some kind of arrangement in her timeline to get together after I retired. I figured if future-me, alterna-me whatever had the balls to admit to it, I ought to."

Jack grinned a little. "You think maybe I can sign the cast? I promise not to put anything vulgar on there. Much."

"You did not die on Edora, Jack. Remember, I'm the only one who's died around here." Maybe it was better not to bring up the one time that Ba'al had Jack. It wasn't like he actually remembered being there. He'd just heard the stories after. And then he realized what Jack had said.

"Wait, wait, wait. Arrangement?" His eyebrows rose. "You two have been keeping things from me."

He held out his cast. Guy's mark was already there. "Don't worry. If anyone was going to do vulgar, it would have been Guy. Instead, he decided to go the smart-ass route."

"Man after my own heart," Jack mused, trying to find a blank spot to sign. "And I don't know anything about it, but Carter said that we'd talked about it in her timeline. Getting together after I retired and making a go of it, that is. Since I love her and it was out in the open, I figured it was okay to go ahead and pursue it out here, but like I said earlier, she's not interested."

More than that. More like it was complicated and Carter was dragging her feet because she wanted to get home, but that was Carter's business.

"Fine kettle of fish, isn't it?"

Daniel put his good hand on Jack's wrist, stopping him for a minute. "Hey. You'll figure it out, the two of you. I have faith in you." And he had half a mind to go track Sam down and have a word with her on Jack's behalf, not that he was going to tell Jack that. He liked having all of his limbs attached.

"Maybe. Or maybe I'll just find myself some other gorgeous, leggy blonde. There's a little British girl named Jane that's kinda cute. She's got a kid," Jack said, smirking a little. Of course, since Jane was probably young enough to be his daughter, she was off-limits except to flirt with and be friendly.

"Jane...Bennet?" Daniel shook his head. "Oh, Jack. Never change. Seriously. Never change."

"Yeah, Jane Bennet. She's cute. If you weren't already with someone, I'd send you her direction. Think she's kinda lonely," he said, laughing a little. "It'd do her some good."

"We met. A long time ago. She's friends with my ex." The only ex remaining on the island unless you counted Owen. And he didn't. "And if Patrick and I broke up..." The image of Vala passed through his mind and he went quiet.

"See? You've got options. I've got a whole lot of nothing," Jack said, grinning in spite of the flat tone. "So good for you."

"For now." Daniel did not expect at all that it was going to remain like that. Especially if he had anything to do with it.

"For now," Jack agreed. "Got nothing in front of me but time though, so we'll see. Doesn't have to happen today. Didn't for you, did it?"

Daniel laughed. "No. Not quite immediately. Although the first person I was interested in here I thought was a woman at first. The island's particular set of hijinks were in effect." Get the subject off of things that were making Jack brood.

"So, Daniel. Haven't been fishing with me yet," Jack said, laughing a little. "Think I can con you into it?"

Daniel groaned. "Oh, fishing, huh?" He sighed and threw up his hand. "How good I'll be, I don't know, but I can at least watch." He decided not to mention that he had been fishing with Jack. Once. Just in his future.

"Watching's fine. I just like the company," Jack admitted, smiling wide. "You're some of the better company I can get."

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