Free Fall, by Eos (PG-13)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Jack and Daniel Friendship

Pairing: none
Category: Jack and Daniel friendship, gen, team, drama
Warning: none
Author on LJ: ducks_in_a_row
Author's Website: Eos

Link: Free Fall, parts 1 and 2

Why This Must Be Read: I just wandered across this story half an hour ago, giggled, and decided it would be criminal to just save it to my hard drive without reccing it first. Free Fall has a light, deft touch and just sings of what a good SG-1 episode ought to be like. I could easily picture this story taking place on the show and being a fan favorite, despite the splitting up of the team into pairs for most of the fic.

SG-1 gates to an intriguing planet - well, actually to the man-made satellite above the planet, where the inhabitants of the world retreated when their planet proved geologically unstable. Sam is gleeful about the engineering while Daniel makes the effort to look more deeply into the culture and government. When sudden disaster hits and only half of SG-1 make it back to Earth, it's up to Sam and Teal'c, together with SG-2 and -3, to find and rescue Jack and Daniel before it's too late.

Everyone is delightfully in character, and the Jack/Daniel banter is just perfect. Daniel refusing to die on Thursdays and Jack sneaking an extra leg onto his stick figure while playing Hangman... oh, just go and read it. It won't take too long, and hopefully, you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

"Y?"

"No."

"Damn it," Jack muttered. He added an arm to the little stick figure on the paper. "I should know better than to play Hangman with a linguist." He did know better, but they both needed the distraction. Hell, they just needed something to do.

"How are you doing?" Daniel asked.

"Three more body parts and I'm toast," Jack said. Daniel reached for his bandaged eyes, and Jack leaned over and knocked his hand away. "No rubbing."

"The bandage isn't going to help," Daniel said.

"It'll keep you from straining your eyes trying to see," Jack said. "G?"

"No," Daniel said. Jack scowled and added an extended middle finger to his stick figure. "And what difference does it make?"

"You don't want to end up blind, do you?"

"We're going to crash into a heavily volcanic planet in something like twenty-four hours. I'm not sure I necessarily want to see that," Daniel said.

"What happened to never dying on a Thursday?" Jack asked.

"I never said anything about never crashing on a Thursday."

"God, you're worse than Charlie," Jack muttered, batting at Daniel's hand again when it crept toward the gauze wrapped around his eyes.

"If he was anything like you, I can believe that," Daniel said.

"Sheesh, yeah--he was as stubborn as they come."

"So he did take after you?"

"Hell, he was at an age where he wanted to be me," Jack said ruefully.

"I can think of much worse people he could've wanted to emulate."

"Really?" Jack said skeptically. "Like who?"

"Maybourne springs to mind," Daniel said. "Kinsey. That cashier at the 7-11."

"The guy with no front teeth and a scary obsession with Elijah Wood?" Jack asked. Daniel nodded. "Gee, give a guy nightmares why don't you?"

"I'm just saying--Charlie could've chosen worse," Daniel said softly.

"Yeah. Thanks." Jack doodled aimlessly on the edge of the paper for a moment. "M?"

"No."

"You do know this word has to be in English, don't you?" Jack said.

"And you do know that your little stick man has to be human, don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've been keeping track, Jack. Just how many legs have you given him?"

"Three," Jack admitted reluctantly.

"So...obviously not an Asgard," Daniel said.