A Quiet Christmas
By Ami
Author's Notes: This was
betad by Alex, Chairchick, and Bobby. All remaining mistakes are mine.
"Oh, Danny, I'm
ho-oo..." Jack trailed off as he came through the front door of what he
*thought* was his house, but had, sometime in the last five days, been
transformed into a Christmas village.
Daniel had had a
particularly nasty cold, so Fraiser had vetoed him going back with the rest of
team to study the technology on P2X-425. Daniel had stayed at his house since
they wanted to spend their first Christmas together *together*, and it seemed
that while Jack and the rest of SG-1 were off-world, his little Spacemonkey had
apparently been busy.
"Danny, what the
hell?" Jack murmured. "I thought you were supposed to be
resting!" he called out.
Daniel padded through
the kitchen archway, which was decorated with red velvet and gold bows, strings
of white lights, and real evergreen boughs, and wrapped his arms around his
lover. "Hey, Jack, I'm glad you're back. And I did rest, my cold just got
better two days ago."
"So you spent those
two days buying up all the Christmas decorations in Colorado Springs and
putting them up in here?" Jack exclaimed.
Daniel blushed.
"Well, I guess I did go a little overboard. It's just...I never had a real
Christmas before. You couldn't get an evergreen in Egypt, there were none on
Abydos, and when I was in school, I was too busy to get a Christmas tree."
Jack softened. "Aw,
Danny, it's okay. I kinda like it, it's just a bit much. Maybe if we spread the
stuff out a little it wouldn't be so overwhelming."
Daniel perked up as he
saw that Jack wasn't really upset. "That should be easy; I didn't put the
tree up yet, I actually wanted to wait until you were home before we bought it,
'cause I wanted to decorate it with you."
Jack smiled. "Well,
let me get my stuff put up, take a little nap, and we'll go out, buy us a tree,
and pick up some takeout on the way back. I know the Boy Scouts always have
some good ones left over, because they're a little pricey. But it's for a good
cause." There was a certain tone to the Colonel's voice that Daniel knew
was important.
"Ja-ack? You
wouldn't happened to have *been* a Boy Scout, would you?" the linguist
teased his lover.
Now it was Jack's turn
to blush. "Hey, I'll have you know I was an Eagle Scout, best of the
best," he defended himself.
Daniel smirked.
"Eagles, Air Force pilot, I think I see a trend here. Anyway, you go put your
stuff up and lie down for a while, and when it's time to go get dinner, I'll
wake you. In the meantime," he said, taking Jack by the arm and steering
him down the hallway to their bedroom, "I'll rearrange some of the
decorations."
"All right,"
Jack agreed, yawning as he opened the door.
"Sleep tight,
Jack," Daniel said, closing the bedroom door behind his lover. He headed
off down the hall, wondering what he could move around. He decided to start
with the lights -- he'd used them all up on the walls, and unless he took some
down, there would be none for the tree.
Three hours later, Jack
blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked blearily at the clock. *4:44,* he
thought. *I should be ready to go by five, and we can pick up the tree before
they close at six, and then swing by the Chinese place on the way back.*
Plan made, Jack climbed
out of bed and stretched, wincing as he heard his back pop. "I'm gettin'
old," he complained. Then he grinned. "But not too old to nail Danny
to the mattress."
He dressed quickly,
grabbed his wallet, and headed out to the living room, finding Danny placing
some fir branches on the mantle.
"Hey, Danny,"
he purred, sneaking a kiss onto Daniel's turned cheek. "Ready to go get
our tree?"
Daniel smiled.
"Sure, Jack." He threw his arm out to the side, gesturing to the
evergreen-adorned mantle. "What do you think?"
Jack grinned. "Very
nice, Spacemonkey." He glanced around the living room. "And you did a
real nice job in here, rearranging stuff. But where did all the lights go? I
kinda liked them."
Daniel blushed.
"Ah, well, I used all the lights I bought for the tree on the walls, so I
took them all down. There'll probably be a strand or two left after we get
through with the tree, and I thought I'd put them up in the bedroom, but I
didn't want to disturb you, so I decided to wait."
Jack grinned slowly.
"Well, let's go get the tree and dinner and hurry back. I've never made
love by Christmas lights before; should be fun." He waggled his eyebrows.
Daniel returned his
lover's smile.
"Whoa, back up a
bit, Danny." The Colonel maneuvered the Douglas Fir up, seeing the bottom
of the skirt brush the floor.
"You want me to
lift my end higher, Jack?" Daniel grunted.
"Yeah, see if you
can raise it another seven or eight inches."
"Okay," Daniel
ground out, shifting his grip on the thick trunk to raise it higher. "Ah!
Got it."
The two men shuffled
forward, finally wedging the bottom branches through the doorway.
Daniel sighed in relief,
dropping the trunk of the tree on the floor and kicking the door shut.
"Man! I thought we'd never get inside with that thing. We should have paid
the extra ten bucks to get it delivered."
"Nah, the
thirty-five we paid for the tree itself is enough to help the boys buy new
uniforms." Jack propped the tree up against the wall, flexing his fingers
to get the cramps out.
Daniel shook his head,
laughing. "I'm trying to picture you in a Boy Scout uniform, and I gotta
tell you, Jack, you look *silly*."
Jack scowled at his
lover. "Yeah, well, it was a long time ago, a *really* long time ago. Now,
Spacemonkey, you wanna help me decorate this monstrosity or not?"
Fifteen minutes later
the tree was set up in its stand and boxes of ornaments surrounded them, as
well as the strings of lights Daniel had taken down that afternoon.
Jack turned to his
lover. "Ready to get decorating?"
Daniel gave a sharp nod.
"Ready."
Less than an hour later
the tree was bedecked and bejeweled with ornaments in a blue and silver motif.
Aside from the requisite balls (in four different sizes) there were brushed
silver stars and a set of Egyptian hieroglyph characters, plus blue spun glass
spirals and other shapes. Topped by a silver star that Jack had put blue light
bulbs in, replacing the white ones, it was a very pretty tree.
Daniel sat back on his
heels, admiring his and Jack's very first joint Christmas tree. "It's
beautiful," he breathed.
"Yeah," Jack
agreed, his eyes on his lover. "Beautiful."
Leaning against Jack,
Daniel sighed. "Yeah," he said softly.
Two hours later the
detritus of empty ornament boxes and wrappings had been cleared away. The
Chinese food had been heated and devoured, and the Colonel and his
archaeologist were cuddled on the couch in front of a roaring fire, drinking
spiced apple cider.
"This is
nice," Jack murmured into Daniel's hair.
"Mm-hmm,"
Daniel mumbled in agreement, half-sleep.
Jack sighed in
contentment, snuggling his lover closer to his chest. Removing Daniel's
glasses, which were sliding down his nose, he placed them on the end table.
Settling deeper into the couch, he was content just to revel in the closeness.
Outside their cozy nest,
snow was swirling down to the ground. But inside they were warm, and, for the
moment, safe. Jack intended to enjoy every moment of it.
Somewhere battles were
being fought and wars were being waged. Somewhere cities tumbled, lives ended,
planets quaked and heavens trembled...but that night, in at least one small
corner of it, all was right with the universe.