The Upward Slopes In Our Lives 1
Colorado Catalyst
by Bethany
URL: http://www.stargateslash.com/asb/bethany7/colorado.php
Summary: Jack and Daniel, longterm friends in Denial, have become ski instructors! Vala is their friend, T is their boss, and Sam is the cold-hearted woman (like RepliSam) who tries to stop them from being together!
Info: Inspired by and mostly based upon the film Aspen Extreme, starring Paul Gross (Due South, Eastwick, and Men With Brooms) and Peter Berg (Billy from Chicago Hope)
I came to Colorado with Daniel, trying to believe in some kind of new start. I suppose it has been, but it's been something else I've totally screwed up, I know that much! He's out there with her, the woman they call The Replicator. Every year, she reels in some new guy, a brand new ski instructor to show off to her friends; someone knew, but just like all the others..! Every damn year, she does it apparently – She went straight for Daniel when we got here six months ago. I hoped she'd keep him for just a season, but he had to be the first one she's kept hold of just a little longer! Of course, he would be the one, wouldn't he? The man's so fuckin' Beautiful!
We've been best friends for years. He was a bartender once, who tried to stop me from killing myself with drink after my marriage broke up, 'cos I couldn't live a lie – Not that Daniel knows that's why it broke up! My son's own self destruct button was hit by my behaviour. Sadly, he takes after his Dad, but he has his own problems, and he won't let me have a thing to do with him because I broke his Mom's heart, and abandoned him. She blames me for it all, and I don't blame her. I don't even know where my son is in this world anymore!
So, anyway, now Daniel and I are employees of a very famous ski resort in my supposedly beloved Colorado, and not a lot has changed! No, sir, it has not! Daniel's still my best friend, so much so that he basically sold his body and soul to The Replicator woman to free me from some drink induced gambling debts... And, I'm sitting here with two bottles of whiskey on the table, and a two empty ones in the sink from last night!
****
"Jack! Jack Move your ass!!" She says.
"Huh?? What the fu'..?" I'm waking up.
"This is it! This is enough crap from you!!" Vala yells at me.
"Vala!" I shout back, as she tries to drag my feet off of what I laughingly call a sofa. "What in Hell are you doing??"
"I'm saving you!" She meets my eyes, which are cracked open by now.
"What?!" I ask as she hauls me off the sofa, and chucks me into the shower across from the 'living room'. "Shit, Vala!!!" She's turned water as cold as the powder out there on me!
"You and Daniel are my best friends! Fuck knows why, and God knows how I'm gonna do it, but I'll sort this mess out somehow... Including you!" She stares at me. "I care about you and Daniel..."
****
"I saw you out today..." Samantha Carter told her latest choice, Daniel. "You ran into Jack and that Vala woman, didn't you?"
"They ran into me..." Daniel looked up from his book. "Vala's helping Jack..."
"I wonder just how she's doing that??" Sam gripped Daniel's shoulders as she stood behind him.
"At least she's helping him! That's more than I did!!" Daniel turned in his seat, and faced Sam Carter.
"You've done enough..! He's only ever caused you trouble, Daniel. I'm sorry, but that's true!" She touched Daniel's chest.
Daniel turned away, got up from the table, and backed off. "All I've ever done so far is cause him more grief!!"
"Concentrate on yourself, for once, Daniel. You and me..." Sam put her arms around Daniel as she moved into his space.
Daniel did not embrace her, like he knew he was supposed to. He stepped back from her again. "I'll concentrate on myself, and what I want is to get away from you!!" Daniel told her with every ounce of his strength...
****
"Just how are you going to help me talk to Daniel..?" I asked Vala, as he sat drinking coffee at her place, "Announce it on your radio??" I pointed to the local radio station equipment Vala had set up over the other side of the room. She's the local radio's presenter and announcer.
"I'm gonna drive you over to the ski lodge, so you can talk to him..." Vala tells me.
"To make sure I go there instead of to the local bar??" I laughed.
"To make sure you go to the ski lodge and talk to him!" Vala says to me instructively.
I throw up his hands in surrender "Okay, okay!" I pause. "But he's probably not even there! He's probably with her!"
"I happen to know that he isn't! Saw the wicked witch today. She said you and I could have him! I don't want him!" Vala informs me honestly.
No, but I do! I thought just then, and I know she knows that, even if he never can!
"Daniel's staying at the ski lodge. I rang Murray, for the latest news from the lodge, and he just happened to tell me that Daniel moved in to another staff chalet this evening..." Vala grins at me.
"Someone else with him?" I had to ask.
"No. He's on his own, and I bet he'd move back in with you if you'd ask him! It's one thing you can talk with him about! Come on, let's get you over there!" Vala springs up from her armchair!
****
"Hi!" I simply said to Daniel as I stood on the doorstep to his new living quarters. 'Simply' was right! "Vala gave me a lift over here, not that I can't drive myself now!"
"Hi!" Daniel smiles at me, so I stepped into the chalet, and he shut the door behind me.
"I never said thank you... For rescuing my bacon, for everything you've done for me..." I try to meet those beautiful blue eyes.
"I never said thank you either, for saving my life during the Powder 8 practice run, and for agreeing to come to Colorado with me on a more permanent basis than our usual fishing trips..." Daniel just touched my arm.
"You needed me..." I reply.
"I still do!" He tells me, and then, he hugs me.
I can smell his wonderful skin; feel that soft part of his neck on the side of my face. Quickly, I kiss his neck, and then, freeze.
He looks at me, still holding me. He hasn't moved back, yet.
"It's okay..." He tells me. "More than okay!" And then, in less than the next second, he kisses me. He knows. Has he always? Why is he doing this? For me? For him? For both of us??
"Jack, I want this, too, if you still do??" He actually has to ask me!
"I do!" I breathe, just about!
"Do we need to tell Vala she can go home now??" Daniel grins at me, between the next moments of kissing.
"No. She drove off the minute she dropped me outside. She's a clever lady, that lady on the radio..! I state to Daniel.
"Yeah, I know!" He grins again. "Far smarter than you and I have been about this whole thing up until now!!"
"You mean, you have been, too?" I pause. "Y'know, for a while now..?"
"Didn't realise it 'til I asked you to be a ski instructor with me... I couldn't be without you! I can't be without you..." Daniel tells me.
At that moment, my heart flits. "After what I set off happening to Charlie, I never thought I deserved the happiness I left him and Sara for... Then, I met you, and I've never believed I deserve you!" I confess.
"I know, but you're wrong. You deserve happiness, and I've never been a saint either, but I'm gonna do my best to give you all this love I've just opened up, and the happiness I want to give you!" He is promising me.
"Thank you!" I hold him even closer to me, for a moment, then, relax, letting him have room to breathe at least. "Me you, too..."
"Agreed!" He smiles yet again, and moves in to kiss me.
"No more soppy talk!" I grin, and we begin our action with another hot, dry kiss that is anything but like, though every bit as beautiful as the snow around the exterior of the cabin. I think we'll call this one home now!
The End
