Setting Up House series, by Redbyrd (PG-13)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Daniel Jackson

Pairing: none

Categories: Daniel Jackson, Samantha Carter, Jack O’Neill, Teal’c, gen, episode related, Jack and Daniel friendship

Warnings: none

Author on LJ: redbyrd_sgfic

Author's Website: Redbyrd's Stargate Fanfiction

Links: You Can't Go Home Again, The Enemy of My Enemy, Whatever it Takes

 

Why This Must Be Read: Redbyrd has a marvelous talent for filling in the blanks, whether it’s with an outside view of an episode, reconciling canon contradictions, or making sense of the relatively senseless. In the Setting Up House series, Redbyrd tackles the drastic shift in the SGC as it goes from shut-down mode at the beginning of COTG to full operation in a handful of episodes - along with Daniel Jackson, newly ressurrected from his supposed death on Abydos.

 

The three stories, each complete in itself, cover events from the moment Daniel staggers back through the Gate in COTG until the end of the mission at The Enemy Within, when the team went to PX-575. Along the way, we get glimpses into some fascinating in-between scenes and backstory: Daniel’s transition from robes to BDUs, his arguments with Hammond to convince him to go to Chulak, the confrontation with Teal’c about Sha’re, Kawalsky’s funeral, some Sam and Daniel bonding, the beginning of Jack's training program for Daniel, and much more. There’s very little on-screen time here, but Redbyrd weaves her own scenes so seamlessly with the dialogue we know that you’ll be hard put to recognize where one begins and the other ends!

 

Technically, Setting Up House is still a WIP, although each section reads smoothly as a stand-alone. By the time you’ve finished reading all three parts, you’ll be joining me in nagging Redbyrd to write more of this wonderful series!

Daniel shut the first shuttable door he'd touched in over a year. He adjusted the water temperature in the shower, then stripped down. He saw motion out of the corner of his eye, and turned his head sharply before he realized that it was a mirror. Something else he hadn't seen in over a year.

He looked at his own reflection, feeling like he was staring at a stranger, though he couldn't see any enormous differences. Straight hair, still fair. Not as light as it had been when he lived in California- on Abydos the hot sun forced you to keep your head covered most of the time. More muscle in the shoulders- well everywhere really. He hadn't been in bad shape when he'd left, but a year in a primitive environment had forced him to do more hard physical work than even an archeologist was accustomed to. He didn't seem any older or more experienced to look at him. He felt like all the thing he'd seen and done should be somehow etched across his skin, the distance between the two planets he'd lived on visible in his eyes. He shivered and got under the shower. Colorado was too damned chilly to stand around like Narcissus, entranced by your own reflection.

Daniel stood under the hot water for close to half an hour, reveling in feeling warm. Either the Abydonian robes weren't quite up to the cool temperature of the underground base, or he was just not acclimated to the the American idea of room temperature right now. When he emerged, he found that the coveralls they'd given him were overly large, but everything else fit tolerably well. He pulled his journal out of the deep pocket in his robes and stuffed it inside the coveralls. The robe and sandals he gathered up, along with the knife and small tools he normally carried in his pockets.

Nimzicki had vanished, and no one seemed to know who Daniel was or where he was supposed to go, if anywhere. He couldn't even leave this floor of the complex- he didn't have a keycard for the elevator. He found an out-of-the-way place to leave his Abydonian clothes until he could figure out how to get laundry done. He fingered the neatly mended sleeve that Sha're had fixed after he had caught it on a rock, then laid the robe gently down. He would find her. He would.

He walked back down a hall that he was pretty sure led in the direction of the stargate, his aimless steps slowing until he finally stopped and leaned against a wall. He was tired. He should find if there was somewhere he could sleep, or something. In a minute. He wasn't sure how long he stood there, his mind blank when he heard a soft step behind him.

"Hey."