stargateficrec | Unspoken by Penknife (R)

Show: SG1
Rec Category: Jack/Daniel
Characters: Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson
Pairing: Jack/Daniel
Het/Slash/Gen: Slash
Warning: canon character death and spoilers for episode "Heroes"
Author on LJ: penknife
Author's Website: AO3
Link: Unspoken

Why this must be read:

*whimper* Oh the twinges of pain.... This fic will tear your heart out, flambee it, chew on it a bit, then give it back to ya. We follow Jack and Daniel through the events of Heroes as their relationship falls apart around their ears. The pressure of Jack's situation as a military man and Daniel's needs in a relationship shove them to the breaking point, then beyond. Penknife gives us a very agonizing, yet bittersweet, look at one path Jack and Daniel's relationship could take. Enjoy the dark. Enjoy the pain. As it's very well written in Penknife's capable hands.

Story Summary: There's only so far that either of them can bend before they break.

They can't afford to spend every night together, and when they do spend the night, they both have to sleep. Daniel used to pull all-nighters in graduate school without giving it a thought, getting by on coffee and good intentions, but he's getting old enough that he feels it every time, and he knows it's even harder for Jack, although he'd never admit it. It's eternally frustrating to have to surrender time that he wants to spend touching or talking to what their physical bodies require.

He's learned not to say that to Jack, though, because it always makes him hold on too tightly, either literally, his hands tightening on Daniel's wrists, or with a look that says don't leave even though he won't say the words. Daniel wants to say that he is hardly the first person in all of the history of human thought to observe that human bodies are sometimes hard to live with, and that making the observation doesn't mean he's planning to leave his behind again anytime soon, unless the alternative is once again a slow and lingering death.

He tries not to say that, either, because they don't have enough time to want to waste it arguing, and it's hard enough not to lately. It's the pressure cooker, he thinks. Too many feelings packed into too few hours. If they had more time to talk, if they had more time for any of this--

They will, he tells himself. One of these days they will.

He really wants to believe it.