FICLET: The Walls of Jericho, Jack/Daniel. Fight.

The Walls Of Jericho
by Icarus




"Daniel..." Jack threw down a t-shirt in frustration and paced the disaster area of his office. It joined a number of wads of paper that had missed the basket. He'd been balling it up in his hands for most of their conversation -- Daniel somehow knew exactly which nerves to hit. "Don't ask, don't tell is a hell of a step forward!"

"I don't see how. It's just another example of the way the military lags behind modern societal norms."

Jack made a cutting gesture, "No." He spun around and pointed at Daniel, who lounged on the corner of Jack's desk as if perfectly, infuriatingly relaxed, crinkling a pile of unsigned forms under his ass. Though his shoulders were as tense as a bow. "You're just mad at me because I wouldn't approve your precious plan -"

"Jack, that's beside the point..."

"You are, and you're trying to piss me off and taking it out on the military deliberately, because you know --!"

"Jack..."

"Ah-Ack!" Jack's finger was up, cutting him off. "Because you know I hate that pointy-headed, eyeglass-wearing, pseudo-intellectual snooty-assed crap!"

"I also happen to be right." Daniel folded his arms around himself, and looked far too smug for someone scoring a mere intellectual point. This was personal. "It's a step backward as a matter of fact. A lot of soldiers have lost their careers over --"

"No!" Jack fist swung out in denial. "No, it's huge step forward because the military admits that we're here, admits that they want the soldiers they've got, who they've trained, who are valued AS IS. And they've promised to keep their damned noses out of the bedroom where they don't belong in the first..." Jack suddenly realized that Daniel was staring, mouth slightly open, the smug look gone. "...place. What're you looking at?"

Jack didn't feel quite ready to abandon the argument just yet, but all the fight seemed to have gone out of Daniel.

Daniel licked his lips, blinked a little. He said quietly, "You said 'we.'"

"No I didn't."

"Yes. You did."

"Did not."

"Did..."

"Didn't!"

"Did, too!"

Jack shook his head and changed tactics. "Now why would I say 'we'?"

"Jack... are you... are you gay?" Daniel asked, determined, with utter disbelief written across his face.

"You're changing the subject just because you were losing," Jack pointed out, placing a whole desk between the two of them.

"I was not los-- ooo that was good, nice try, but you, you're... you are?" Daniel's hand dropped to his side.

Forced into a lie, Jack growled, "Of course not!"

"You are." That look of dumbfounded shock still hadn't left Daniel's face. He stepped forward and Jack retreated a six inches. "Look, Jack, I'm on your side."

"What side? There isn't any sides! The military doesn't want the rep of being a bunch of candy-assed fruit flies and I don't blame them!" Jack exploded. "Reputation counts. Battles are won - and lost! - on reputation alone. The walls of Jericho didn't drop because of trumpets -- that's stupid. Those guys were scared of what they faced. Those Jews were total bad-asses." He leveled a glare to beat the point home. "No soldier would willingly give up that advantage."

He grabbed his jacket and stalked out of his office, forcing Daniel to shut up, out in the open. Of course he heard the footsteps skip a little as Daniel trailed behind him.

"Jack..."

He didn't look back but kept walking, shoulders set. He made for the most public place he could think of, anything to forestall the rest of this conversation. The commissary would do nicely. "The subject's closed, Daniel," he said in a flat voice, pulling on his jacket.

Not for the first time Jack was grateful their security cameras were visual only. Just what part of Don't Ask, Don't Tell didn't Daniel get? Oh yeah - the asking part.

Part II here.

How to avoid the cliches of SG-1 fanfic: a Theory

I was brewing a post (and lost it) about how the mono-focus on Don't Ask, Don't Tell in SG-1 fanfic obscures the reasons why the heck Jack and Daniel would ever hop into bed. All other emotional undercurrents are abandoned in favor of solving a logistical problem:

"Aliens Made Us Do It"
"Stranded On An Alien World"
"Jack and Daniel Sneak Around"
"Jack Angsting Over Being Attracted To Daniel"
"[fill in name here] Reacts To Finding Out About Jack/Daniel"
Etc.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell becomes this telephone pole that all fics get wrapped around. It creates the cliches.

It is a problem. You can't avoid it. But if a story is built around mere logistics, the result is superficial.

That's not to say there aren't a lot of damned good stories with exactly these themes. But the limits we're finding are the result of letting the policy determine - and doom - the plot.

Having lived in just such an ultra-structured and highly proscribed society, I can tell you that this kind of injunction isn't what drives people.

Don't view the Don't Ask, Don't Tell as a rule imposed by an outside force. What makes that rule so powerful? It's Jack's own committment to the military and what the military means to him that drives it. The good reasons he feels are behind that policy make it a force in his life. His reasoning will be different from the military's, because he will have owned that policy.

Jack's feelings about Don't Ask, Don't Tell will be in line with his feelings about the military as a whole. Thus, he's far more likely to go for it when things are ugly and corrupt than when he's on a hero upswing.

Then there's Daniel. Why is there an assumption that just being attracted to Jack is enough for him? Daniel is one hell of a complicated man, driven as much by his ethical beliefs as by his gonads. Why would he risk a friendship he obviously values for something potentially short-term? More than that -- would he believe that it's the right thing to do? For Jack? If cares about what's right for some obscure alien world, wouldn't he care even more if it's his friend's welfare at stake?

Here's a story (not the only example) that avoids the trap of being driven by the logistical concerns, and you can feel the power of it. What a difference that makes.

One Bare Hour by Dorothy Marley

It's NC-17, and she idealizes first time sex more than I would (though I've had first time encounters like that, this could only happen like this if Jack had done this before). But, assuming that, there's an emotional undercurrent driving this story that's a lot deeper than most SG-1 fanfic. I'd like to see more of that.

The key to avoiding the cliches is to dig deeper into the characters' motives. And to not let the logistics of Don't Ask, Don't Tell write your story.

There was something Peter DeLuise said about the Beneath The Surface episode, that the flaw in writing a story about characters losing their memory, is that the logistics of remembering forces the story into a predictable pattern.

He's right. The same goes for the Don't Ask, Don't Tell issue.

FICLET: The Walls of Jericho, Jack/Daniel. Partlet - 2

The Walls of Jericho - 2 (from part 1 here)
by Icarus



Jack waited Daniel out in the commissary. Various personnel gave them curious looks as the doors of the commissary opened and shut while Jack and Daniel glared at each other across a table, unmoving. Daniel had an infuriating 'knowing' look on his face, as if he knew anything at all. Jack swiped his mouth, hardened his jaw, and tried not to feel totally bare-assed naked.

He squirmed in the hard plastic seat, wondering if they made these things out of poured concrete when they built this bunker.

"I have an iron ass. I've sat through hundreds of hours of lecture," Daniel informed him with a casual gesture. "You can't win. So, you might as well talk. My office? Yours -?" His tone was almost gracious, annoyingly concerned.

Jack's smile tightened as he took a sip of his tea, eyes glimmering over the cup at Daniel, who calmly sipped his coffee. That was Daniel's second cup -- which should just about do it. He'd been in the field with Daniel often enough to exploit his weaknesses.

Sure enough, within a half hour Daniel began to shift uncomfortably. Though he stuck it out, clearing his throat as he shifted again. Obviously waiting for Jack to also budge -- for the same reason no doubt.

It was cruel to let the man suffer, so Jack tapped the edge of his cup. It made a little pinging sound.

"Ginger tea. It's a non-diuretic. In field tests you can't afford to stop and take a leak," Jack explained. He waved Daniel away victoriously, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Go along to the little boy's room. I'll be riiiight here when you get back."

The look Daniel gave as he stood said, like hell. Oh, he was so right.

~*~*~

Surprisingly, Daniel didn't push it after that.

He didn't show up at Jack's door that evening (which Jack had half-expected with no little dread), nor did he corner Jack in his office again. Daniel only nodded politely during the briefing for P5R-762 at 0930 the next morning, eyes dark and lingering a bit too long, but he didn't stare - for which Jack was infinitely grateful. He'd been through this before and didn't like being looked at like a specimen of an unknown species. He was Colonel Jack O'Neill, damn it, and no different from before. But Daniel seemed to handle it better than most, probably from working with all these aliens.

Jack did a routine threat assessment: Daniel had no few of his secrets already, and could be trusted with them. Would he confide in Carter? No. He knew better than that. Teal'c? Possibly. Yeah. A distinct possibility. Daniel needed to talk about 'things.' But Teal'c kept secrets like Fort Knox. Better than Daniel, actually.

Secure, Jack waited for casual conversation to resume so they could put that little slip behind them.

He really ought to have known better.


Part III here.