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nightspear) wrote2008-06-23 09:27 pm
Translations (13/19)
Title: Translations (Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen.
| Chapter1 | Chapter2 | Chapter3 | Chapter4 | Chapter5 |
| Chapter6 | Chapter7 | Chapter8 | Chapter9 | Chapter10 |
| Chapter11 | Chapter12 | Chapter13 |
XXXXX
Chapter 13: Christmas
XXXXX
25 December 1997; O'Neill residence, Earth, 0600 hrs
"What're you doing up so early?" Jack asked when he came down the stairs after noticing the guest room was empty. "You're supposed to sleep in when you're not stuck at the Mountain. That's the whole point of holidays and having time off." Daniel was facing away from him and didn't answer. "Daniel?"
"I didn't wake you up, did I?" Daniel asked distractedly.
Jack sighed in exasperation when he spotted Daniel sitting on the floor, looking out the window, dressed in new sweatpants and one of his usual T-shirts. He detoured to the living room and picked up a sweater that had been left on the sofa. "Put this on. You're gonna get pneumonia again."
Daniel turned his head finally and rolled his eyes. "Janet said you don't get sick by being cold, and I'm not cold, Jack. I'm better now."
He still tired a little more quickly than he should, but he was at least well enough to be annoyed when people fussed, and the coughing had stopped almost completely, so Jack relented, pulling a chair out from the kitchen table. As he dropped the sweater over the back of it, he grumbled, "Over a week in the infirmary, Daniel. I'm not calling you 'better' until Frasier says you're allowed to run around in the snow. And," he added, "you're...sitting on my floor."
"Yes, I am, Jack," Daniel agreed.
"It's dusty."
"It's okay."
"O...kay. Then is there a reason you're sitting on my dusty floor?"
"I was meditating."
"You were?" Jack said, frowning. "Do you meditate every day? I didn't know that; there's gotta bet a better place than my kitchen floor."
"I usually just join Teal'c in his room for kelno'reem," Daniel explained, his hands resting over his crossed legs, "but I'm not very good at focusing when I'm by myself, and all the white was helping." He gestured at the smooth blanket outside the window, where the sun still hadn't risen. He'd been particularly disappointed when Jack had refused to let him linger more than a few minutes in the snow. "And I don't meditate every day. Just when I'm...thinking."
"Does it help?" Jack asked.
"Does what help what?"
"The thinking thing. Does meditation help?"
"Not always," Daniel admitted. "But when I first got here, I used to get...uh, kind of upset a lot." Jack snorted. Daniel shot him a scowl. "Teal'c always used to tell me to meditate then. It still helps me...you know, calm down and everything."
"Uh-huh. So," Jack said, heading for the coffeemaker, "you were...'thinking,' huh. About what?"
"Just...not much, I suppose." There was a pause, and then, "Jack, when's the solstice?"
"The winter solstice?" Jack thought for a moment. "This year it was...three days ago, actually. Why?"
"Just... I missed it. I mean, it's not a big deal," Daniel said lightly as he rose to his feet and took a chair, though his face said otherwise. "It's not like I would have done anything different if I had known when it was." He looked down at his hands on the table. "It's not even the same day as the solstice on Abydos. I don't know why I thought of it."
"You celebrated the winter solstice on Abydos?"
"Always. For the rebirth of the sun."
Jack pushed the button to start the drip, then commented, "I would've expected the people of Abydos to...kinda steer clear of that one. Rebirth of the sun. Ra rising from the dead. You know?"
"Well, my father said that on Earth, the Egyptians actually commemorated the rebirth of Osiris, but I suppose on Abydos the tradition became celebration of Ra, for obvious reasons. Anyway, our solstice now celebrates the death of a false god and the rebirth of our true traditions." A fond grin spread over Daniel's face. "But Skaara says everyone just didn't want to give up the chance for a feast."
"Ah--that's good enough for me," Jack said approvingly. "I like Skaara more and more every time I hear about him."
Daniel's smile faltered, but he played along gamely. "He would h--he will be very excited when I tell him I've talked to you. That I learned to spar from the great Jack O'Neill." He peeked upward. "He'll want to meet you, when we find him," he said, making it sound like a question.
"Yeah," Jack said without a pause. "I'd like to meet him, too. When we find him and his sister." He turned, pouring a mug of coffee and another of milk. When he sat down, Daniel wrapped his hands around the cup, but didn't pick it up. "So, solstice was a big day on your calendar. Hey, that's right--your dad's journal even marked your birth by the solstice, didn't it?"
"Daniel Mshai Jackson, born one hundred days before Winter Solstice," Daniel said, as if reciting it from memory.
"What's 'Mshai' mean?" Jack asked, vaguely remembering that from the journal. "Is it Egyptian?"
"Mm-hm. They wanted to name me the way people on Earth do, at least in America, with the given names followed by the family name. My mother chose my first name, and my father gave me an Egyptian middle name."
"What does it mean?"
"'Daniel?' It means 'God is my judge.'"
Jack felt his eyebrows raise. "Good to know. But I meant your middle name--the one that's not English."
"My first name is Hebrew in origin, Jack."
Brat. "You know what I meant."
He flashed a quick smile. "'Mshai' means 'traveler.'"
"No kidding? It fits." He took a sip of his coffee, then said, "Well, traveler, if you're gonna be all multicultural, you might as well take advantage of celebrating Earth's version of a...uh, kinda-solstice festival while you're still here."
"While I'm still here," Daniel repeated, softly, pensively, before saying brightly, "I've always wondered about Christmas. I've heard about it, of course, but we didn't exactly celebrate it on Abydos." Daniel had been asking about the holiday recently, but however his parents had explained it, he had ended up with a very jumbled view of Christmas that seemed composed of many different practices all mashed together. "You really don't think they'll mind if--"
"No one will mind, and you're coming with me if I have to drag you. It's not even a conventional sort of Christmas thing--Carter says she doesn't have a tree or anything, and no one's had time to do presents, what with that planet we just went to with the people who worshipped those weird trees and--"
"Maybe they were celebrating Christmas," Daniel said, hiding a smile behind a sip of milk.
"Yeah," Jack scoffed, "a very angry Christmas, complete with poisonous trees, spears, and murderous mobs trying to decide whether or not to use us as Yule logs. The point is, we spent yesterday escaping some weird sacrificial ritual, and everyone's looking forward to something low-pressure, for once. It's just dinner with friends, and we all want you there."
"Are you sure? What if I do something wrong and..."
"I'm sure, and you won't, because there's nothing to get right or wrong. And I'm not letting you sit in your room all Christmas day studying Norse runes or whatever it is this time. You've done enough of that recently."
"That's only because no one would let me do anything else," he pointed out, "even after Janet said I was fine and let me leave the infirmary."
"Uh-huh. Falling asleep in the archaeology office the day you were released wasn't the best way to prove that, kid. Of course, if I had to stay in the archaeology office all day, I'd probably fall asleep, too, but..."
"Jack, that was once. Robert sleeps in his office all the time."
"Sometimes, at night, because he has no life and stays at work for fun," Jack said, rolling his eyes. "Daniel, just relax for a few days, for crying out loud. You can go back to training with Teal'c or bothering Carter about DHD glyphs after the holiday. But you'll have to work back up to speed," he warned. "If you end up sick again after staying with me for the week, Frasier'll kick my a...uh..."
"Mik'ta?" Daniel suggested, snickering a little.
Jack raised his eyebrows. "Does that mean what I think it means? Why do you even know that word in Goa'uld?"
"Learned it from Rya'c when Teal'c wasn't listening," Daniel said.
Shaking his head, he drained his coffee mug and asked, "What do you want for breakfast?"
XXXXX
25 December 1997; Carter residence, Earth, 1700 hrs
As Jack rang the doorbell, he passed an eye over Daniel, who was looking around at the lights strung up on the neighbors' houses.
It was a good thing they were just meeting Carter and Teal'c, who wouldn't give a crap about formalities, because the best clothes Daniel had were a pair of BDU trousers, a T-shirt, and one of Jack's sweaters that had shrunk in the wash, not to mention a borrowed coat from Jack's closet. Even with the couple of inches he'd shot up in the months since Abydos, he still stood more than half a head shorter than Jack, but the clothes fit well enough for the time being.
A presents exchange had been nixed partly because of the time crunch, and partly because he and Carter didn't know each other well enough yet to know what was appropriate between teammates, coworkers, and CO/2IC, while Teal'c still seemed a little shaky on the concept of normal presents in general. They'd decided to get together as a team and include Daniel, since none of them had available family to spend the holiday with, so they were keeping it casual to make sure no one felt any pressure to find last-minute gifts or do anything special.
Carter had admitted that she didn't usually do anything at all for Christmas on her own; Jack's only Christmas on his own in recent years was a mess of memories muddled with too much alcohol and not something he was eager to repeat. If they were going to show two off-worlders what it should be like, they might as well do something so simple that they couldn't possibly screw it up.
"Colonel, Daniel," Carter greeted when she opened the door. "Come in. I just picked up Teal'c, so we're all here now."
Sure enough, Teal'c was standing behind her, looking slightly less at ease than normal. Actually, Carter and Daniel did as well, standing and looking almost apprehensively around the room. They'd all spent time together off-duty, but not enough yet to feel completely comfortable in someone's home. "So," Jack said before it could become awkward, "can we just leave our coats over here, or..."
"Oh, of course, here, I'll take them," she said, hurriedly, looking grateful for something to do. "Um...make yourselves comfortable. Teal'c and I were just discussing the merits of testing the effects of--"
"Ah, Carter! You'd better not have been about to say 'naquadah' or anything with the word device in it. No talking shop on Christmas."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "We were not, in fact, speaking of a shop, O'Neill."
"Of course not," he muttered, then looked around the living room. What he could see of the house looked impeccably tidy, as he'd expected after seeing Carter's neat office space, but welcoming enough. "Nice place," he commented. "You must've had to move in pretty quick, what with the last-minute transfer from Washington."
"I'm used to moving on little notice," she answered, taking a self-conscious look around as well. "Air Force brat."
Jack had to smother a laugh as both Daniel and Teal'c looked confused and blinked in synchrony. "It means she grew up with a parent in the Air Force," he explained to them. "Probably had to move around a lot."
"Really?" Daniel asked. "So your parents know about the SGC?"
"Uh...well, no," Carter said, thrown slightly off-balance. "The Air Force is a big branch--the SGC's only part of it. My dad's a general, but he's not...involved with anything we do at Cheyenne."
Daniel seemed interested and opened his mouth to ask something else, but Jack nudged him and threw him a meaningful glance. Daniel looked back at him curiously but didn't press the issue--for all his curiosity, the kid was an alien on a foreign world and had gotten very good at reading people's reactions--and turned to Teal'c instead. "Do the Jaffa on Chulak have traditions that they celebrate?"
"Here, have a seat while you chat," Carter told them all. "I'll go get something to drink."
"Let me help you with that," Jack offered, escaping before he was pulled into a discussion of Jaffa holidays, most of which probably involved weapons at one point or another.
Once they were in the kitchen, she told him, sounding a little anxious and a little embarrassed, "I don't know what you're used to for the holidays, sir, but I didn't prepare anything fancy. I haven't had time for anything but some basic things straight from the supermarket. I hope no one minds."
"We lived off MREs and commissary food for the last week," he reminded her. "The last few months, practically. No one'll mind." He and Sara had usually made a big deal about Christmas, actually, but it had been mostly for Charlie's benefit. "In fact, I'd prefer something quiet. And Daniel was nervous as hell that he'd mess up some important tradition he didn't know about, so I know for a fact that he's glad it's not a big thing. Teal'c would probably be uncomfortable, too."
"I just feel bad--it's Daniel's only chance at Christmas and I don't even have a tree."
"Trust me, Carter, that's a good thing where he's concerned." When she raised her eyebrows, he explained, "Apparently, Daniel's still reading about Thor in his free time, and he found out that Christmas trees might have started with something that involved chopping down Thor's tree and renouncing him."
"Ouch." She took a few glasses from an overhead cabinet, grinning. "It was really good of you to bring him home with you for a few days, sir. I know you've brought him off base several times since he arrived."
"Teenagers should see the sun once in a while," Jack said. "And you invited us tonight."
"I'm kind of new to this, but I thought...well, family time and all. Daniel and Teal'c...I mean, some people don't have families, but they don't even have their...world. And it's so soon after Teal'c had to say good-bye to his wife and son again."
"Yeah." Jack shrugged. "Well, we've got SG-1 instead."
"SG-1 plus Daniel," she corrected, shrugging a 'why not?' "Did you know, Sergeant Harriman calls him our adopted kid brother?"
"I'm a little old to be his brother," he said wryly. "And did your kid brother used to run your mission briefings, Captain?"
"That's only happened once since Cimmeria--"
"Only once with SG-1," he clarified. "Two or three times with other teams."
"Really? I didn't know that."
"Yeah, Rothman drags him around to help sometimes. Anyway, speaking of families," he said casually, "why haven't we heard about General Carter before now?"
She opened the refrigerator. "We don't keep in close contact, sir," she said in a controlled tone. "He...obviously, he doesn't know about the Stargate, but when I can only tell him I'm working on something terribly exciting that has to do with deep-space telemetry..."
"You don't get to be a general by being an idiot." Jack knew what it was like--Sara had mostly learned to go along with the cover stories over the years, but there was only so much bull most people would swallow before starting to ask questions. Even Charlie had been curious.
Carter smiled ruefully. "I used to want to be an astronaut. My dad still...well, he doesn't understand why I'd be working for NORAD when I could be on a career path toward traveling through space, instead."
Jack snorted.
"Yeah, I know. Anyway..." She hesitated, then said, "Do you want me to bring out the beer, or should I stick with non-alcoholic tonight?"
He glanced into the other room, where Daniel was sitting on the sofa with his legs folded under him and listening intently while Teal'c explained something. "I wouldn't mind a beer. Teal'c doesn't drink, though, which is good, since I'm pretty sure Daniel will be happy to copy his Jaffa Master."
She chuckled and handed him two bottles with a "yes, sir," filling two glasses with water.
"By the way...ah, Sam," he said, "we're off duty. You can drop the 'sir' for tonight. Give those two an idea of how normal Earth people interact away from the base."
Her lips quirked in a smile. "Yes, si--right. Jack."
"And Sam...who the hell is Sergeant Harriman?"
"Walter Harriman? He's the one monitoring the control room's computers, most of the time. You know, the one who dials addresses and receives incoming teams."
He frowned. "I thought his name was Davis. Could've sworn I saw 'Davis' on his uniform."
She gave him a startled look. "Um. No, I don't think so."
"...really use a bashaak for that?" Daniel was saying when they returned, an expression of horrified fascination on his face.
"Indeed," Teal'c told him with a straight face.
"I thought the point was to resolve the dispute."
"If one party is rendered physically incapable, then there can no longer be any argument."
"Huh," Daniel said, his expression suspicious, as if he thought Teal'c might be pulling his leg. Jack wasn't convinced Teal'c ever did make jokes, but Daniel insisted that he did and that they were very funny if one knew the context. "Jack, did you know that--"
"Don't tell me," Jack said. "I don't think I wanna know." He waited for Carter to set down the glasses, then handed her a bottle. "Why don't we take some time to relax and finish these"--he held up his bottle--"and then let's go give the captain a hand with dinner."
"That's not necessary," she assured them. "I just need to toss a few things into the oven and we're set. It's not a big deal."
"Wait, Sam," Daniel said, unfolding his legs. "Is the oven...how does it work? The one at Jack's house doesn't look anything like how we used to do it on Abydos."
Jack took a sip of his beer. "Looks like you've got yourself a helper, Sam."
XXXXX
25 December 1997; Carter residence, Earth, 2100 hrs
"Are you and Sam Christian?" Daniel asked afterward. He was drying dishes that Jack washed, while Carter and Teal'c finished clearing the table.
"Why do you ask?" Jack replied.
"Isn't Christmas about the birth of the son of a...I mean, the Christian god?"
"Well, these days, a lot of non-Christian people celebrate it, too. Not everyone, but a lot of the country. It's like...a cultural thing now. Sort of depends on the person."
Daniel nodded thoughtfully. "You're not, then?"
Jack hesitated. "Uh...well," he finally said. "I was raised Catholic--that's a branch of the religion--and my wife and I used to take our son to church."
"That's...Charlie?" Daniel said.
He grimaced, converting the expression to a partial smile when Daniel peeked uncertainly at him. "Yeah. Charlie. Anyway... I'm still Catholic if you want to believe my dog tags, but I don't really practice anymore."
The 'why not?' he half-expected never came, for which he was grateful. Then Daniel gave him a brief but very serious look and wordlessly, not-quite-accidentally let his shoulder brush gently against Jack's arm as he reached for another dish. Sometimes, when they were away from work, he forgot how much Daniel had been through himself, and how well he understood certain things, despite his youth. After all, he'd grown up around people who probably knew as well as anyone the kinds of things that made a person reexamine his faith.
"I shouldn't have asked that," Daniel said apologetically, stacking the plates with more care than was strictly necessary. "Belief and...all of that, it's private. I was just curious and didn't think."
"Story of your life," Jack quipped. "It's okay; I asked you once before, too. And hey..." He waited until Daniel met his eyes. "Like I said, tonight wasn't exactly the biggest celebration, but--"
"It was perfect," Daniel interrupted, his eyes shining. When Jack looked more closely at him, he turned back to the counter and rubbed his towel vigorously against the last plate, saying, "Really, it was. I've never seen you all so...not worried about anything. And I'm really honored that you all let me spend tonight with you, especially...just...anyway. It was wonderful to be with you all."
"Christmas isn't a time for being alone," Jack said. He waited a few seconds, then put out a hand to stop Daniel's dishtowel and take away the plate, which was by now very dry.
Daniel didn't look up, but the strain in his voice was obvious. "I wish that..." He exhaled shakily and started again. "You've all been...so kind to me. I haven't had a Christmas before, but I know how significant it is to people here, and I c-can't..."
"Daniel, you don't have to--"
"I can't tell you how glad I am to be with you and Sam and Teal'c," he continued insistently. "I spend time with everyone on base sometimes, but it's nice to just...be together for once, with all of you at the same time. I'm not saying I don't wish my...that other people could be...but there's no one else in the world I w-would rather..." He stopped.
"Well, this world, anyway," Jack said lightly, even though that part wasn't a joke and wasn't funny. He cleared his throat and wrapped an arm around Daniel, who hesitated, then relaxed against him. "Yeah, kid. Know exactly how you feel. Me too."
A sound caught their attention, and Daniel pulled away, ducking his head and blinking at the back wall. "Hi, kids," Jack called brightly as they came in.
Carter's eyes flicked to where Daniel stood and Jack shifted slightly in front of him to give him time to compose himself. With an understanding nod, she joked, "All silverware accounted for, sir."
"It was a most satisfying meal," Teal'c added, bowing to them.
"Yes, it was," Daniel said, stepping from behind Jack. "Thank you."
"Glad you liked it." She smiled and absently reached out to straighten his hair.
"Hey," he complained, ducking her hand, though he was smiling, too. "Why do people keep doing that?"
"Because you need a haircut," she informed him, making a scissor shape with two fingers and nipping at his bangs before being brushed away again.
"You could go with Teal'c's look," Jack suggested, making Daniel scowl and Teal'c raise an eyebrow.
"Daniel Jackson does not yet have his first wife," he said seriously, making Daniel flush a deep red and Carter choke on a laugh.
"He'll work on it," Jack said, mussing Daniel's hair again and surreptitiously checking his temperature, the instinctive worry still lingering even though the illness was all but gone. He earned an embarrassed scowl for his efforts. "Actually," he added with a look at the clock, "Teal'c, you need a ride back to the base tonight?"
"I was going to drive Teal'c back," Carter told him. "I live closer than you do."
"Fine. In that case, we should probably get going before that snowstorm hits," he said, backing toward the door. "It's getting late."
"Well, here," she said, picking up a plastic container. "Leftovers, but if you'd like to take some with you..."
Accepting the Tupperware, he agreed, "It'll save us a meal tomorrow. Thanks, Carter." He paused, then added, "Seriously, Sam. Thanks for..." He gestured vaguely. "You know. I--we," he corrected, including Daniel, "had a great time."
"I, too, was pleased to be in the company of friends," Teal'c told them all.
"So was I. Merry Christmas, everyone," Carter said in answer.
Jack pulled their coats from where Sam had hung them. "You too."
Instead of taking his coat, Daniel took a hesitant step forward, then caught Sam in a hug. "Thank you, Sam," he whispered. She returned it readily and dropped a kiss on the side of his head. Blushing again, he extracted himself and gave Teal'c a shallow bow. "Merry Christmas, Teal'c."
Very solemnly, Teal'c bowed back. "And to you, Daniel Jackson."
"C'mon, kiddo," Jack said, unable to stop a smile at seeing him initiate an embrace for the first time he could remember. "Let's get going."
Daniel lingered outside the car with a hand on the door, looking back at Sam's house. Jack watched him from the other side of the car until he finally pulled his door open and climbed into the seat. Once Jack had the engine running, he asked, not taking his eyes from the road, "Daniel? You good?"
"It was...really good, Jack, being with all of you," he replied softly, wistfully. "I'll always remember that."
Jack felt a lurch around his gut. "Good," he said, the words coming out more abruptly than he'd intended. "I'm glad."
I'll always remember.
Because this wasn't permanent. Jack couldn't help thinking of the way Daniel had mentioned being confused about whether he should stay or go back to Abydos--the way he was starting to refer unthinkingly to the SGC as 'home' sometimes--and had to remind himself that it would be wrong and cruel to try to sway the decision toward Earth.
Sometimes he thought they could still visit him occasionally, like Teal'c did with his family in the Land of Light. But then he counted the number of Goa'uld who they knew had an interest in Abydos, and he knew they couldn't keep that 'gate open, not without endangering everyone on the planet. The safest thing for the Abydonian people to do would be to keep their 'gate closed for good. If Daniel went back, it would be to stay.
Their 'kid brother,' Harriman said. To Carter, maybe he was--a tagalong younger sibling with similar interests and intellectually close to some of the adult scientists at the SGC. Half of them no longer even thought anything of the sight of him in one of the labs, scribbling notes or discussing something with scientists who gave his words serious weight. And no matter how much Daniel rolled his eyes and said he wasn't trying to be a Jaffa, there was no doubt Teal'c was a teacher to him as well as the friend to whom he confided nightmares he wouldn't share with anyone else. As for Jack...
Jack didn't know what he was to Daniel, or vice versa. Maybe labels weren't important; Daniel always said while translating texts that one-word descriptions of things were often too simplistic. All Jack knew for certain was that he'd gladly keep Daniel in whatever way was possible, and that they'd be sorry to see him go.
"Jack?" Daniel said.
"Yeah?" A few seconds passed in silence. "What is it?"
"I just...wanted to say that it's...I know you still miss your family, too." Daniel was staring hard at the dashboard. "You've helped me a lot, with everything. I don't know if there's something I can do, but if there is, ever..."
For a while, he didn't answer, and Daniel didn't push him. Eventually, Jack dared, "My wife--Sara--she would've loved you, kid. And you would've liked Charlie. Would've been a good older"--brother--"...you know, friend to him. Wish you could've met."
There was a long silence. Jack suspected that Daniel understood; he understood more than a lot of people realized. Tentatively, the reply came, "I'd love to hear about them, if...if you want."
Jack reached over to Daniel's shoulder. "I'd like to tell you about them, too," he said roughly, surprised to realize it was true. "Tell you what. We've got a couple more days off. We'll take the rest of tonight for ourselves, and tomorrow...tomorrow I'll tell you what they were like."
Daniel looked down at his lap. "My parents talked of you often," he said, as if to reciprocate. "They always said a lot of good things about you."
There wasn't much he could say to that, so Jack gave Daniel's arm a final squeeze and then concentrated on driving. "Merry Christmas. I'll always remember, too."
From the next chapter ("The Other"):
"N--what?" It took him a second to remember he'd been thinking about Belus that morning, and he shook his head, "No, no, not the Oannes text. I mean, I found it because of that, kind of, because...it's a long story, not important. But listen, Jack: I really, really think a Goa'uld just got...let out. Released."
"Yeah?" Jack said, picking at something in his food. "Where?"
"In Mexico," Daniel said.
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Here's to letting you now that there's at least one person reading and enjoying this on lj.
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