The Room

By Joy

J/D | Mature | 30 kb | AU/FT
Summary: Daniel experiences a release of long-suppressed desires from an unusual source. Author Note: This is my first Fan Fiction story, written May '02. Despite my need to re-edit embarrassing old stories, I have mostly left this one alone so I could see how much I've improved. I'd like to think I have. That said, I had to make a few changes. I won't say what, but they fall under the category of "What the fuck was I thinking?"

A solid panel slid out from within the doorway frame and whooshed shut.  Daniel swung 'round, startled.  He frantically felt around the doorway's edges with his fingertips, trying to find some mechanism to open the door, but there was only a thin line in the stone surface.  He was now trapped inside the small, vacant room.

"Shit!  Jack!" he called out, but received no answer.  He keyed his radio.

"Jack?"  He received only static for his answer.  "Jack, come in, over," he tried again.  Nothing.  Jack was going to be pissed off at him again.  His eyes rolled upward in that 'infinite patience be damned' look that he'd acquired from Jack.  He cursed himself for wandering off into the labyrinth of underground rooms, preoccupied, fascinated by the ancient, perfectly preserved state of stonework.  He sighed hugely.  Jack wasn't going to be pissed.  He was going to kill him.  No wonder he'd turned prematurely grey.  "Trouble, thy name is Jackson."  Back during their first year together, Jack had used that phrase often.  Daniel's reply had usually been, "Bite me."

"Okay, don't panic.  Work on finding a way out," he mumbled, then exhaled a short, exasperated laugh.  "Work with what?" he asked himself, scanning the room with his eyes.  There didn't seem to be any markings or writings to give him something to work with.

He thought rapidly, as his genius brain was wont to do.  He pursed his lips in determination, an expression he knew irritated the crap out of his team-leader and friend.

Looking around this windowless room, it dawned on him that he should be encased in blackness, but the room held some sort of artificial luminescence, creating an even light source throughout.  He was suddenly reminded of the Ancient's room with the repository of knowledge portal, though that light source appeared to come from the high ceiling.  This room, on the other hand, gave no indication where the source came from. He inhaled through his nose.  There was fresh air.  Looking around again, he could not find where the fresh air came from.  The air itself was pure.  It held no odor of dust or any scent whatsoever.

0-2 on the scientific hypothesis method.  Just an "I don't know."

However daunting his situation appeared, he forced himself to take advantage of the light and go over every part of the surface he could see, feel, and reach.

As he searched, he chided himself once more for the feelings of fear.

"You've survived more than this, Daniel boy," said his inner voice, which had the habit of reminding him of Jack, simultaneously encouraging and annoying the crap out of him. "Yeah, so where are you, Jack, and why aren't you helping me out of this?" he snapped back at his inner voice as his hands sought out the surfaces of the room.  Another exasperated sigh and he dropped them to settle on his waist.  He looked down, his chin almost touching his chest as his mind scanned for ideas.  He leaned forward, letting his forehead rest against the wall while he absently focused his sight on the line between the wall and the floor.  His eyes suddenly narrowed and he frowned.  He found something.  Daniel didn't miss much, and he could have sworn that that hadn't been there before.  Had it?

On the floor, to the left of the door's thin outline, lay a symbol.  Two curving lines, overlapping each other.  They reminded him of hearts intertwining.  Squatting down, he looked at the door, then at the symbol.  If he somehow triggered the door shut when he entered the room, how could he get it to open back up?

His fingers brushed over the symbol.  It felt etched into the flooring.  He pushed on it.  Nothing.  Damn!

He frowned fixedly as his mind tried to decipher the meaning of the thing.  That symbol couldn't be of two hearts.  That was a unique Earth symbol, not found anywhere else.  So what else could it mean?  His fingers again brushed over the engraved shape.

The etching now felt warm.  He rubbed his fingertips on his pants, shook his hand, then tried again.  It was warm.  He placed his palm over it and the dark stone around it still felt cold.  If it was warming, it indicated a technological source of some kind.

Think, Daniel, think.  He thought about worst-case scenario first.  If he couldn't get out of this room, he'd die here.  That was worst-case.  Best-case?  The door would open as mysteriously as it had closed or he'd find himself a way out.

Still squatting next to the symbol, he tried his radio again.

"Jack, come in, over,"  and he waited.  A little popping in the static.  "Jack?  Are you reading me, over?"  He turned the gain up on the volume.  Nothing intelligble... just popping static.

He looked upward as he rose to his feet.  "Okay, whoever or whatever you are, I mean you no harm so would you please let me OUT OF HERE!"  Absurdly, Daniel felt better for shouting out his frustration.  He leaned against the wall again, his forehead on his crossed forearms.  If he hadn't kept his eyes open, staring at the floor, he'd have missed it.

Movement.

A small formation of what seemed like a whisper of smoke issued forth from the engraved lines of the symbol.  The size of it was hard to measure as it's body was translucent and constantly fluctuated.  It seemed to be about the size of his hand.  He stared transfixed as it hovered.  Okay, not smoke.  Smoke didn't hover in a room of fresh air.  This is more the quality of nebula gas.  He smiled and shook his head.  His thoughts sounded like he was channeling Sam.  He'd been hanging around her so long, his mind started to think like hers, just as he'd found himself sounding like Jack.  Scary.

The wispy entity began to move toward him, and he rapidly backed away.  It drifted just above the floor, moving slowly toward the direction of his retreating feet.  He felt his back hit the opposite wall, so he slid along the wall as he moved to another corner.  Keeping his eyes on the slow-moving lifeform, he hoped that this entity couldn't move faster than he could.

Blue?  Lavender?  White?  No, maybe..all three?  He shook his head, telling himself this wasn't the time to be analyzing the color of a tiny nebula, even if it was pretty... and alive.  Somehow, he felt it was alive.

Jack, where the hell are you?

Daniel keyed his radio again.  "Jack, come in..."  No answer yet, but he did get a little more static this time.  "Jack, do you read, over?"

"..aniel....an't hear...."

Jack's voice.  "Jack, can you hear me, over?"

"Daniel...where ar....."

"Jack!" Daniel yelled this time, sidling quickly to another corner when the entity came within a few feet of him.

The entity continued to follow him in the slow, methodical movement it assumed.  Daniel kept up his imitation of a pinball, sliding from corner to corner, keeping as discreet a distance as he could under the circumstances.

It now hovered in the middle of the room.  Whenever he decided to move toward another corner, it followed, keeping the same distance but getting no further away...and no nearer.

"Okay, Daniel, you're always trying to communicate with aliens, so why aren't you talking to this one?" he asked himself aloud. The nebula pulsed, it's colors glowing a brief second.  His brows went into his hairline.  Did it hear him?  Understand him?  Or was it incidental?

"Hello."

Pulse.

"My name is Daniel.  I mean you no harm."

Pulse.

"Do you understand me?"

Pulse.

He waited for a few minutes, during which he transferred to another corner when it began to move toward him again.  It hadn't pulsed at all during his silence.

"Do you mean me any harm?"

No Pulse.  In fact, it stopped moving again, hovering in the middle of the room.

"Are you responsible for closing the door?"

Pulse...then a long Pulse.

What did that mean?  No?  Yes?  I don't know?

"Did that mean you did not close the door?"

Nothing.

"Okay...I'll try again.  A short pulse means Yes?"

Pulse.

"Long pulse, no?"

A few seconds passed, then a short pulse.  Daniel nodded.  "Okay, so...will you let me out?"

No immediate answer, then...a long pulse.

Daniel's shoulder's sagged.  "Why not?  I've done you no harm...and if I did, I, I'm sorry, and I'll leave right away."

Long Pulse.

Daniel heard a popping noise from his radio and he quickly pressed the button.

"Jack, now would be a good time to hear me!"

"Daniel?"  Jack's voice was faint, but readable.

"Jack, I need some help."

"Yeah, no shit, Daniel!  What else is new.  Where the hell are you?"

"Um, I got sealed in a room in the maze of rooms down here," and he winced, waiting for the yelling to start through the radio.

But Jack didn't yell.  He sighed loudly into the mike, however.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud, Daniel."  Then a few seconds of silence as Daniel waited for the lecture.  "I'm off the main corridor and at a dead end.  On my right is a small open room, but nothing else.  Along the corridor behind me are small rooms and alcoves.  Now, going by that, where are you?"

By the description, Jack was on the other side of the door to the room he was now in. "Jack, face toward the dead end.  I'm on the other side of it.  A door slid outward from the wall and sealed me in.  Look for some sort of square outline or panel, or, or something."

"Okay, hang on..." Jack answered.

Daniel moved to the door and banged on it with his fist.  A very weak drumming noise echoed in the room.

"I just banged on the door.  Did you hear that?"

"No, do it again."

Jack couldn't hear anything.  He placed his hand on the door.

"Again," he asked.  Daniel complied, his fist beginning to feel sore at the weight he'd put behind the hits.

"I'm getting a vibration, Daniel, but no sound."

"Shit!" Daniel cursed suddenly and backed away from the door as the entity had been almost a foot away from him.  He hadn't been watching it.

"Daniel, bang on the door again."

"I can't right now."

Jack frowned with impatience.  "Why not?" he drawled.

"Um....I'm not in front of the door.  I'm not alone in the room, Jack.  I've got company."

Jack's eyes widened with alarm and instant concern.  "Who's in there with you?"

"Uh, it's not a who, it's a what.  I've just been trying to get it to let me out."

"What is it?"

"I don't know.  It's small, bluish, and looks like a miniature nebula."

Silence.

"A nebula?" Jack asked after a long pause.

"Yeah, about hand-sized.  It hovers just above the floor and follows me around the room.  I've been able to keep my distance but I took my eye off it when I was banging on the door and it damn near caught up with me.  I have no idea what it wants, by the way, so..."

Another long pause.

"Okay, I've checked the area around the door and I can't find anything.  I'm gonna need Carter for this and she and Teal'c are up top checking the perimeter.  I can't raise them on the radio down here so I have to go up on top."

This time it was Daniel's turn to pause.

"Are you coming back, Jack?" Daniel asked worriedly, moving to another corner.

Jack frowned in confusion.

"Of course I'm coming back, Daniel.  What kind of question is that?"

Daniel didn't answer, and Jack knew why.  Despite his internal oath to never leave anyone behind, he had left Daniel behind on a few occasions.  Even if they were solid reasons, he had still left him.  He sighed and held his breath, trying to think up what else to say.

Daniel was thinking the same thing and spoke first.  "Just...hurry back, okay?"

Jack felt himself breathe again.  "Not a problem.  Back in a few," he said, then was gone, tearing down the corridor and out of the underground chambers.

"So...now what?" Daniel asked the entity.  No answer.  It just followed him ceaselessly around the room.  "Well, at least you're keeping me from getting bored."

"Daniel? came Jack's voice out of no where, startling Daniel out of this thoughts.

"Still here, Jack," he answered.

"Carter and Teal'c won't be here for an hour or so.  Can you keep that thing away from you for that long?"

"I hope so.  So far, it's been moving very slowly so if it can't move any faster, I'll be able to keep away from it," he answered, keeping his eye on the little bugger.  "Providing it doesn't move any faster," he said to himself. Several minutes passed with no communication.  Daniel was getting tired and all he wanted to do was sit down.

"Aren't you getting tired of this little game of chase?" he asked the entity.

Long Pulse.

"Bastard," he mumbled.

"Daniel, how's it goin'?"

Daniel felt anger rising in him, and keyed the radio impatiently.  "Oh, I'm just fine, Jack.  How are you?  What's for lunch?" he answered in as sarcastic a tone as he could muster.  Daniel's sarcasm always grated on Jack because it usually came out of nowhere, unlike Jack's, which was pretty much routine.

"Sarcasm.  Don't be like that, Daniel.  I'm trying, and if you hadn't gotten it into your head to come down here by yourself..."

"Yadda..." Daniel answered, using the word that Jack so often used to cut him off.

"You're stealin' my line."

"Yeah, well, I'm tired of playing 'keep away from the alien' so please yell at me after we get home, okay?  All I wanna do right now is sit down and it's all I can seem to concentrate on," he said petulantly.

"I know, Daniel, I'm sorry.  Still working on it out here."

"Thanks."  Daniel let out a sigh, annoyed with himself for taking his frustration out on Jack.

"Welcome."  A brief pause as Daniel had made his way around the room for the umpteenth time, settling back against the door once more.  "Been learning anything from it?" Jack asked.

"No, I stopped talking to it."

"Oh."

Daniel could just hear it rolling off Jack's tongue:  Now he decides not to talk?

He leaned his head against the door and closed his eyes for a second.  For a second.  That's all it took.  A second.

The entity picked up it's pace, startling him out of his complacency, and he moved away as fast as he could.  But it now clung to the toe of his boot.  Daniel kicked out, trying to dislodge it, but it didn't work.

"Shit!" he keyed into the radio.  "I took my eye off it for a second and it's on me, on my boot."

"Dammit, Daniel.."

"Don't, Jack, just...don't..."

The entity seemed to stay motionless on his booted foot.  Then it began to float up his leg.  Daniel frantically reached down and tried to brush it away, but that only succeeded in getting it attached to his right hand.

"Fuck!" he screamed, "get off me, damn it!" and shook his hand violently.  No dice.  It stayed put.  "Jack?"

"Yeah, Daniel?"  Absurdly, he thought, Now, he calls me that?  Now?  After all this time of NOT being my friend anymore?

"I'm...I'm scared, Jack."

That statement unnerved Jack.  Daniel hardly ever got scared.  Of anything.  The last time Jack could remember was when he and the others were in that Babylonian ziggurat.  Not even being around the system lords scared Daniel as much as this thing was doing.  Jack surmised that this was because Daniel really had no idea what to expect.  The fact that Daniel admitted it to him, told Jack that he really was scared.

Jack placed a slightly shaky palm on the stone panel, as if trying to send Daniel some of his empathy.

"It's okay to be scared, Daniel.  It only strengthens.  Hang on, I'm tring to find something, anything.  I wish I had the C4 in my pack."

"With my luck, it wouldn't work anyway," Daniel replied, breathing faster, his heart racing, and he thought he sounded a little whiney.

"Don't be like that.  Remember what you told me on the sub?"

Now's not the time to be negative?  He sighed.

"You're right," Daniel answered, wincing a bit as he waited for the sarcastic reply.

"As always."  Yep, on cue.  Daniel could just see the smirk through the wall.

"Yadda," he responded.

Jack grinned, as proud as a parent seeing their child walk.  The kid was learning.  He cringed just then.  Kid?  He's a very strong, healthy, young man, for cryin out loud!  He leaned against the wall, running out of ideas to help Daniel.

Daniel finally stopped trying to shake it off and leaned his back against the door once more.  His shoulder was hurting like hell from the intense jerking motions.  However, he held his right arm out from his body and pressed his hand flat against the stone.  He could feel and hear the frightened pounding of his heart and the sweat created from his motions around the room began to bead up on his brow.  The bandana on his head served to keep the sweat in his hairline from getting into his eyes but his brow was getting damp.  He wiped it on the sleeve of his left arm.

"Please don't hurt me," he requested of it breathlessly.  It didn't pulse, but he was suddenly able to feel it on his skin.  It was giving off heat or causing his skin to warm, he didn't know which.  He laughed in a resigned way.  He didn't need anymore heat generated, thank you.  Then he thought he heard something.

A tiny little whisper of a voice.

.......need energy....no hurt.......

Could he hear it now because it touched him?

.......yes.......

"You heard my thoughts?"

.......yes.......

"You need energy?"

.......yes....no harm for you.......

"To me?  No harm to me?" he corrected.

.......yes....apology to you....need....survive.......

It then wrapped itself around his hand and wrist...then gave off a few long pulses.  The energy from the pulses zapped up his arm and throughout his body.  It created a hot electrical tingling inside him.

"Jesus!" he cried, and bit his lip.  His eyes then widened as he felt the skin of his body flush.  He raised a shaky hand to his throat, his cheeks.  "What are you doing?"

.......energy....making....energy.......

The entity seemed to glow, becoming opaque, it's colors brightening to near-white.  Another series of pulses were sent through his body, causing immediate flushes, but this time, Daniel felt the tingling only in his balls, causing his cock to harden quickly.

"Oh..my..god..stop that!  I can't!  I can't!" he gasped in a whisper, unprepared for the reactions in his body.  He didn't want this or ask for it.  He'd been able to stay celibate for as long as he did simply by refusing to acknowledge the desires of his body.  It was hard to do but he'd done it.  Teal'c's teaching methods for meditation had helped him immensely.  Those feelings and desires had to be controlled and squashed.  They had to be.  If he allowed himself to feel, then his mind would seek out the source of his desires...and that was not possible.  He loved his job, no matter how difficult it was.  And nothing would keep him from doing it.

Another surge went through him and he hissed inwardly as his cock now throbbed in earnest. "No, stop!" he shrieked at the alien, shaking his hand and trying to get it off once more.  "Stop!"  Another pulse went through him, making him lose his balance and fall against the wall.  He felt another and another, making his body jerk and shudder.  "Stop!" he screamed as he tried once more, in vain, to get the alien off of him.  He felt his body jolt with each pulse and every time he shook his arm, it seemed to release a pulse through him.  He felt the heat from the last pulse rapidly travel to his groin and he stopped moving, freezing himself in further shock and half-remembered desires.  "No..I can't," he gasped as the almost overpowering pleasure of those erotic, sensual reactions sparked his body back to life.  Back to a life he couldn't afford to feel.

He found his way back to the door, sagging against it, needing to feel as close to Jack, and comfort, as was possible.  He whimpered as another pulse shocked through him.  "Please stop this..."

.......no pain....nice for you....need too.......

"Nooo....I, I don't n-need this...I can't h-have this," he panted exhaustedly as several more electric surges passed through him.  He felt the long-suppressed heat rising through his balls and tensed, crying out.  "No!  Fuck!"  It struck him like lightning.  The energy pulses were going to bring him to orgasm and there was nothing he could do about it.

Naturally, Jack took this opportunity to talk to him.

"How you doin', Daniel?  Feel like talking or something to pass the time 'til Carter gets here?"

Jesus.  Jack's bored so he wants to talk.  Me, I'm close to reaching an orgasm caused by an alien.  How fucking weird is that?

Daniel spoke weakly into his radio mike.  "I..I c-can't t-talk r-r-right now, J-Jack."

"Daniel?" he asked, but Daniel didn't answer.  He couldn't keep the mike open as more pulses were sent through his body.  Daniel slid down the wall, whimpering.  He somehow managed to keep himself from coming...staving it off.  A mixture of relief and frustration battled in his mind.

"Daniel!  What's goin' on?..........Answer me damn it!"

Daniel managed to press the mike.  "I-I'm in the middle of b-being given s-shock treatments, Jack.  N-Now is n-not a g-good time.."

Then he screamed, "FUCK!" as a powerful pulse scorched through him and caught him off guard.  He couldn't control this one no matter how much he tried.  It cascaded over him like magma.  "JACK!" he screamed as it's intensity ripped through him.  The fingers of his free hand reached up to clutch in his own hair as his body went rigid, sliding the rest of the way to the floor.  He lost control as his hips jerked through the spasms, making him arch his back as he experienced the most powerful orgasm he'd ever had.  "Ja-ck.  Ja-ck," he whispered, hitching at every spasm.

.......am well now....thank you.......

The entity now glowed with a blinding light and left his hand.  It flew upward and disappeared through the ceiling.

Daniel barely heard the alien and didn't notice it leaving him.  Somewhere in the back of his mind he also heard Jack screaming at him through his radio.  He couldn't answer him if he tried.  He lay boneless on the floor as a post-orgasmic euphoria attempted to pull him from consciousness...and he let it pull him.

The door slid open as fast as it had slid shut.  Jack was in mid-howl when it did. "Daniel, godda--" and he looked down to see Daniel on the floor, apparently passed out.  "Daniel, shit.." and he knelt down, grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him from the room.  Outside of the room, Jack checked his pulse and made sure he had no broken bones.  He didn't notice the spreading wet stain over Daniel's crotch until he sat down and took his head in his lap.  Looking over his body, his eyes saw it and he froze.

"What the fuck?"  Daniel started to stir a bit, coming 'round.  "Daniel, talk to me.  What happened?"

"Jack?"

"Yes, Daniel, it's me.  What happened?"

Daniel heard him but couldn't make his mouth work.  Jack offered him a little bit of water but he couldn't make himself drink.  He wasn't ready for anything beyond laying like a corpse.  Jack was being way too pushy.  It didn't help that he was possessive and over-protective of his friends.  It did help that he was being that way toward Daniel again, finally.  It had seemed that last year he couldn't have given a shit if Daniel had lived or died. Now, he was being over-protective, but under the wrong circumstances.  Fuck.

"Jack?"

"Still here, Daniel.  You okay?"

Daniel opened his eyes and looked up.  He found himself laying in Jack's lap and looking into those concerned warm eyes.  Jack saw the look in Daniel's blue eyes and let out a small gasp as he recognized it.  It was that sated, post-coital look he'd seen on his partners.  It usually bore a dumbassed look.  On Daniel, it made him beautiful.  Daniel caught the look just as he remembered what happened to him.

"Jack?" he asked furrowing his brow.

Jack's features changed slightly, but not completely.  He didn't want to ask anything or know what happened just yet.  He only wanted one thing, however unprofessional a time and place it was.  He raised his knees but kept Daniel on his lap.  He leaned over, laid a hand against Daniel's cheek, and softly kissed him.

Daniel froze, hearing the pounding of his heart as it beat wildly once again.  He hesitantly returned the kiss, pressing his lips back against the soft ones caressing them.  It was a too-brief, not-quite-chaste, closed-mouth kiss.  But it was enough to send a waking desire through both men.  Another kiss, not quite as closed-mouth, followed; a message being sent by their lips that this was the moment that all the hurts of the past were over.  A breathless sigh escaped them both.

Jack drew away slowly, reluctantly, then without a word, helped Daniel to his feet.  He kept a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "So...for the third time, Daniel.  What happened?" he asked softly.

Daniel checked himself over, then looked into Jack's once-again friendly, and now loving, eyes. "I'll tell you in a little while, okay?  I'm still in a little bit of shock here."

A hesitant curve of a smile edged Jack's lips.  "From?"

Daniel smiled at him shyly.  "Nothing bad, Jack.  This was a pleasant surprise."

"There's a lot we need to discuss when we get home, Daniel," Jack said softly, his eyes caring and warm.  Then his tone changed the mood abruptly when he heard footsteps echoing down the hall.  "Including your unauthorized little jaunt into this place."  He glared back at Daniel and Daniel saw the affection lingering in his eyes.  And his hand still remained on his shoulder.  Once a protector, always a protector.

"You're such a sap," Daniel teased.

"Who knew?" Jack replied with his typical sarcastic grin.

"I did," Daniel said smugly.

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did."

"Not."

"Did."

"Not.  I don't show it."

"Sure, Jack, if you say so, but I knew anyway."

They turned to head toward their teammates.  "You seem to be fine, Daniel.  Are you?" Jack asked hopefully.

Daniel thought of his reply as they rejoined Carter and Teal'c, both of whom looked confused and worried.  He smiled at them, sending the silent signal that he was fine.  He then turned to Jack when they exited the structure, and leaned close to his ear.

"Yeah, Jack," he quietly replied, a shy, secretive smile spreading across his face.  "I am now."

~

End