Short Stories 17

Nightmare

by BlueLotus

URL: http://www.stargateslash.com/asb/blotus/shorts17.php
Summary: Daniel has a nightmare and goes to see Jack
Info: Another SSD fic challenge entry. Thanks Marah for all your patience and help with all the beta's!

Daniel knocked twice more, this time a little harder, his knuckles rapping sharply against the hard wooden door. He glanced at his watch again and winced. Jack would be pissed, but Daniel had to see him.

The door opened to reveal a squinting, unkempt, grizzly colonel, wrapped in a blanket that dragged on the floor. Daniel gave him a small smile.

"Daniel," Jack growled, his voice rough with sleep. "Do you know what fucking time it is?"

"Yeah, I know it's early-"

"Early? I just went to bed, for crying out loud!"Jack interrupted before suddenly realising Daniel's state of dress. "Are you in your pyjama's?"

Daniel blinked, looked down at himself, and then blushed. He had rushed out of his apartment, not even thinking about what he was wearing. The late June night was warm, but he'd still grabbed a jacket which barely covered the soft blue cotton garments, clearly showing the little jet planes all over them - (an amusing gift from Jack).

"Get in here, Danny," Jack urged the young man, opening the door enough to usher him through.

"Thanks, Jack... Sorry it's so early," Daniel murmured, valiantly managing not to self combust from embarrassment.

"Uh huh, so you keep sayin', although at three in the fucking morning... It better be good, Danny... That's all I've gotta say!" Jack groused as he stomped into the kitchen, tripping over his blanket on the way.

"Um, loneliness?" Daniel tried with a hopeful smile. He didn't want to tell the Jack the real reason for his middle-of-the-night visit, nightmares were just stupid really, and now he'd seen Jack, he felt much better. Jack, however, stared at Daniel with his bloodshot sleepy eyes and snorted at him.

"Yeah right. Loneliness. You just saw me," he checked the wall clock, "four hours ago."

"Well, I missed you!"

"That's sweet!" Jack rolled his eyes and placed a mug of coffee in front of his archaeologist. He sat down at the table and waited.

Daniel let the heat of the mug warm his fingers. "I really am sorry, Jack," he said softly. "I didn't mean to get you up."

Shrugging, Jack and rested his chin on his palm. "So why did you? Nightmare?"

"Sort of," the young man hedged, wincing as the bad dream replayed in his head. It was so stupid.

"Wanna tell me about it?"

"No?" Daniel risked looking at Jack. Those warm brown eyes melted his resolve and he sighed. "Yeah. It's silly... just the usual crappy bad dream stuff... and I had to see you - see that you were okay," he mumbled into his coffee.

"A doozy, huh?" Jack agreed. He'd had his fair share of nightmares too. Reading between the lines of Daniel's revealed an all too familiar fear... Death, torture, pain, loss... any and all of the above...

"You could say that." An involuntary shiver ran the length of Daniel's spine and he blew out a shaky breath. "I dreamt you were dead."

Although cryptic and to the point, Jack still knew in those five words how bad Daniel's nightmare had been - bad enough to have him come back to call on him at 3am, only hours after he'd left! Jack nodded sympathetically.

"You wanna stay here, Danny?" Jack asked as he attempted to quell a yawn.

"Um, if... if you don't mind, Jack, I'd like that," Daniel smiled. He looked up and sucked in a breath.

"What?" Jack frowned, twisting around in his chair. All he could see was a couple of fireflies dancing in the moonlit summer's eve through his kitchen window.

Ah.

They did kind of look like Goa'uld eye's in the dark night. Jack looked back at Daniel who was chewing on his lip and frowning at himself for being spooked by a few insects.

"It's okay, Danny," Jack murmured. "Come on, let's go to bed."

Daniel watched as Jack hitched his blanket over his shoulders and secured the house again before ushering him to the guest room.

"Oh, wait, sorry Danny... Spare room's full of boxes," he explained at the doorway. "Better sleep in bed with me."

In bed with Jack? Forbidden lusty thoughts filled his head and he ruthlessly forced them all into his secret I'm-in-love-with-Jack box in the back of his mind. "Ah, I could sleep on the couch, Jack," he suggested, willing his traitorous manhood to behave itself. But Jack was having none of that.

"Nah, it'll be just like sleeping in a tent off world, nothing to it. Come on, Danny," Jack yawned and pulled Daniel into his bedroom and into his bed.

Within minutes Daniel had fallen into an exhausted sleep, closely followed by a very contented Jack, whose last thought was that he finally had Daniel in his bed...

Next: Watching