My Best Friend
Author: Jess
Rating: PG
Archive: Anywhere, just
let me know where it's going and keep my name on it.
Pairing: Sam/Daniel
Subjects: S/D friendship, hurt/comfort, smarm
Summary: Sam has PMS. Daniel makes it all
better.
Spoilers/Season: Stargate the Movie, Children of
the Gods, Emancipation, The Broca Divide, Brief Candle and a very small one for
Torment of Tantalus (blink and you'll miss it). Takes place in season
one, right after Thor's Hammer
Disclaimer: I am making no money off of
this. The characters do not belong to me, they
belong to Double Secret Productions, MGM and Gekko Film Corporation. This
fic is copyrighted March, 2004 and may not be used or altered without the
express permission of the author. The lyrics to "You're My Best
Friend" (c) John Deacon
Note: Thanks to BethV (aka BethTauri-chick) for
the beta!
******************************************************************************************************
Daniel's brow knitted in confusion as he noticed
Sam sitting at a table by herself in the commissary.
"What's wrong with Sam?" he asked as he
set his tray down on the table, at a seat across from Jack and Teal'c.
Jack shrugged nonchalantly.
"I dunno. I asked her to join us, but
she just ignored me and got her own table."
Daniel turned his head and looked intently at Sam,
who was staring down at her turkey-and-cheese sandwich, picking at it thoughtfully.
She had an almost sullen look upon her face.
"It is most unlike Captain Carter to refuse
the company of those whom she considers friends," Teal'c stated.
"She didn't refuse our company,"
Jack retorted. "More like 'acted as if we didn't exist.'"
"Well, she looks like she could use some
company," Daniel finally said as he turned his head back toward Jack and
Teal'c. "I'm going to invite her over here and-"
Before he could step away, Jack held up his hands.
"Daniel," he said firmly.
Daniel looked back at him questioningly.
"Don't."
"Why?" Daniel asked in his usual
bewildered tone.
Jack thought for a moment before replying.
"Carter will be fine," he said quietly.
Daniel raised his eyebrows.
"It's probably just some...female
thing," Jack continued awkwardly. "And in that case I'd advise
you to stay away from her, if you get my meaning?"
"'Female thing'?" Daniel repeated, eyebrows still raised.
Jack nodded grimly.
Daniel looked at him, wrinkled his brow and set
off for Sam's table.
Jack rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Foolish young man," he muttered.
Teal'c looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
******************************************************************************
Sam had nearly finished her sandwich when Daniel
timidly made his way up to her. She looked quite down, and Daniel
couldn't figure out why she'd be so depressed. Their last mission ended
well; the Unas had been defeated, and Thor's Hammer had been rendered useless,
allowing Teal'c to be freed from the labyrinth. If anything, Daniel
himself should have been depressed, as it would have offered an opportunity for
Sha're to be freed from the control of the goa'uld. He still held out
hope that it could be done, however.
Sam looked up as she heard the tentative shuffling
of feet in front of her.
"Hey. You okay?" Daniel asked, concern in his voice.
For a moment, Sam almost felt like pouring her
heart out to him...running up to him and crying on his shoulder. For Sam
it was that time of the month, and she was indeed experiencing that
"female thing" Jack was talking about. She was quite depressed,
even though deep down she knew there was no reason to be.
Instead, she took a deep breath and sighed.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, not
bothering to look up at him.
Daniel's brow knitted in confusion.
"Are you sure?"
Sam began to grow impatient.
"Yeah, I'm sure," she said curtly.
"Well, if you're sure...why don't you join
me, Jack and Teal'c over there?" he asked slowly, gesturing with his thumb
toward the table where Jack and Teal'c pretended to not be looking over in
their direction.
Sam stood up abruptly.
"No, that's okay, I'm finished now anyway."
She was about to leave when Daniel put his hand on
her shoulder to stop her.
"Well, you could watch us eat, then," he
prodded, giggling sheepishly.
Sam rolled her eyes.
"No, I have a lot of work to do."
Daniel's grin faded and he averted his eyes.
"Oh." he said quietly.
For a moment, pity flashed in Sam's eyes.
"Daniel, it's not you. I just...gotta
go," she blurted out, making a beeline for the door before her tears would
surface.
*****************************************
"You do not approve of what Daniel Jackson is
doing?"
Jack shrugged.
"I've been around women long enough to recognize
that female thing. He's digging his own grave."
"What is this...'female thing' you speak of,
O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.
Jack chuckled.
"Don't ask, big guy. Don't ask,"
he replied, patting Teal'c on the shoulder.
He stopped as he caught sight of Sam turning
abruptly away from Daniel and making her way out of the commissary.
Daniel's disappointed look said enough.
"I told him 'no', but does he ever listen to
me? I didn't think so," Jack said mockingly.
He giggled as Daniel dejectedly made his way back
to their table.
"Told ya so, Danny Boy," he smirked.
Daniel bristled.
"Don't call me that, Jack," he spat out.
"Ooo, don't tell me you've caught Carter's
female thing now!"
Daniel fixed him with a glare.
"Seriously though. You never objected to me calling you that
before," Jack continued once he had calmed down.
"I know you've been poking fun at me the
whole time. Excuse me if I want to help someone in need," he
muttered as he sat back down to his strawberry Jello.
"Aw gee, lighten up, Daniel," Jack
scoffed as he watched Daniel, forehead perpetually creased, stab his red Jello
with the tip of his spoon.
Daniel said nothing to Jack, but finally succeeded
in getting some of the red gelatin onto his spoon. As he closed his lips
around the spoon, he made a face. Strawberry Jello was okay, but was
definitely not as good as blue raspberry. Jack had triumphantly grabbed
the last dish, and out of spite for Daniel's misfortune, sat there and indulged
in every single bit of it.
"Ahh. Damn fine Jello, that blue raspberry," he
remarked once he had scraped the dish clean. Daniel wrinkled his nose and
managed a slight sneer at Jack, which only resulted in a chuckle from the older
man.
Now, Daniel rolled the strawberry Jello around in
his mouth, trying to make it taste like blue raspberry in his mind. He
failed to do so and swallowed uneasily. No, it sure didn't taste like
blue raspberry.
Daniel looked down at the dish, which was only
one-quarter empty. This stuff's awful, I'm going to see how Sam's doing,
Daniel thought to himself as he pushed the dish away, stood up and left the
room.
Jack watched him leave, a bewildered look upon his
face. He turned back around, only to see Teal'c staring at Daniel's
uneaten bowl of Jello.
"Well, I gotta go chat with
Upon seeing Jack leave, Teal'c turned back to the
Jello. A slight grin formed on his face before he moved the dish closer
to him and began devouring what was left of the red substance.
**************************************************************************************************************
Sam stared blankly at her computer. She
didn't really have anything to do, but it was just an excuse to get away from
her fellow SG-1 members. She tried to pass the time playing
FreeCell. I can't believe I'm sitting here playing a stupid game,
she thought to herself after a few minutes, and
minimized the game on her desktop. She turned her head and noticed the
latest issue of Astrophysics and Space Science sitting on the
table. She decided that reading would be a better way to pass the time,
reached for it and started thumbing through it. There was an interesting
article on planetary shift, but Sam could only get through the first two
paragraphs before her mind started wandering and replaying her actions in the
commissary.
She glanced back over at her desk and noticed the
small radio sitting there. Maybe listening to some music would make her
less apt to feeling preoccupied. She tuned it to one of the local rock
stations, and her brow creased intently as she heard Freddie Mercury's voice:
Ooo you make me live
Whenever this world is cruel to me
I got you to help me forgive
Ooo you make me live now honey
Ooo you make me live
You're the first one
When things turn out bad
You know I'll never be lonely
You're my only one
And I love the things
I really love the things that you do
You're my best friend
Sam's eyes had glazed over and she was aware that a
few tears had escaped out of the corners. She cleared her throat, walked
over to the radio and abruptly shut it off. She sat back down at the
computer, opened the FreeCell window back up and sniffled. Deep down she
couldn't believe the way she was acting. That song had never made her cry
before. Once again she began to question her actions in the
commissary. Why had she refused to join Jack and Teal'c? She had
entered the room and had noticed them out of the corner of her eye, sitting at
a table. She had decided to collect her lunch first, and decide whether
or not she wanted company later. After she got her lunch she had heard
Jack calling out to her, gesturing for her to join him and Teal'c. She
said nothing, but ignored them and found her own table a few rows behind
them. She just didn't feel like fraternizing with anyone, whether they
were her friends or some airman she hardly knew. That was excusable to
her.
However, she mentally kicked herself for not
obliging when Daniel offered their company to her. She wondered if he
somehow sensed she was in a bad way, and he wanted to cheer her up.
Daniel was such a sweet, caring person it was hard to turn him down. Out
of all the people she knew during her relatively short time at the SGC, he
seemed to be the most open, the one most likely to confide in. God, I
feel so stupid, she thought to herself.
"I'm a failure," she whimpered aloud
before putting her head down and crying silently.
****************************************************************************************************************************
Daniel had been standing outside Sam's open office
for some time. He didn't want it to seem like he was eavesdropping or
spying on her, but he was concerned after the way she had acted in the
commissary. He had witnessed her sitting absent-mindedly at her computer
and desperately trying not to cry, trying to preoccupy herself by reading an
article from her favorite journal, and getting misty-eyed over a Queen song. She definitely wasn't acting quite like
herself. Although he had only known her for about five months, she had
become more than a friend to him and he cared deeply for her. He agonized
over whether he should enter the room or give her some time to get over
whatever was bothering her.
Daniel groaned inwardly as his nose wrinkled like
a bunny rabbit and . . .
"ACHOOO!!!"
Sam stopped crying and whipped her head around in
the direction of the sneeze. Daniel's cheeks flamed and he gave her a
sheepish look.
"Ah, I wanted to talk to you," he began
awkwardly. "I guess you're too busy right now, though?"
Sam's face became hot as she realized she didn't
look quite as busy as she had let on in her excuse. She shrugged.
"Like I said in the commissary..." she
trailed off.
Daniel entered the room and glanced at her
computer.
"You're busy playing FreeCell?" he
asked, slight amusement in his voice.
Sam put her head down on her desk in defeat.
She raised her head slightly as she felt Daniel touch her shoulder softly.
"That's what you've been doing the whole
time?" he asked again.
Sam let out an annoyed sigh and turned to face him.
"Look, Daniel, whatever you came here for,
why don't you-"
"Actually I came here looking for something
to do," he interrupted.
Sam's brow wrinkled in confusion.
"I finished translating that tablet SG-7
brought back, so I'm at a bit of a breaking point right now. I have some
old material coming from the Pentagon, but it hasn't arrived yet, so..."
He shrugged.
"Well, if you're looking for something to do,
I'm afraid I can't help you," Sam shook her head.
Daniel looked at her thoughtfully before he turned
his glance toward the table and noticed the magazine lying there.
"Oh, um...is that the latest issue?"
Sam looked at him bewilderingly.
"Uh...yeah."
"Great, can I take a look?" he asked,
reaching for the magazine.
Sam furrowed her brow in confusion.
"Yeah, I guess so. Since when are you
interested in astrophysics, Daniel?" she smirked faintly.
Daniel looked up from the magazine.
"Since you offered that theory about why the
gate still works between Earth and
Embarrassed, Sam averted her eyes. Daniel
lifted her chin so that she could see his face.
"Look, I don't pretend I know much about
astrophysics, but I know when someone's in need of a friend," he offered.
He removed his hand from her face as he noticed
that his statement made her blush.
"How long had you been standing out
there?" she blurted out.
"Long enough," he answered softly.
Sam turned away from him and headed back toward
her desk, her cheeks flaming.
"Oh, God, I'm so embarrassed," her voice
wavered.
Daniel made his way up to her and turned her
around to face him.
"Sam. You have nothing to be
embarrassed about," he insisted, his eyes piercing hers.
She rolled her eyes and scoffed.
"Nothing to be embarrassed
about? I'm sitting there trying
to preoccupy myself and all I keep thinking about is what an idiot I am."
Daniel's brow creased.
"What?" he asked quietly.
"I'm a failure, Daniel. On Simarka, I
engineered Nya's escape so she could be finally be
happy and marry Abu, and what happens? That brute of a father catches her and
orders her stoned to death," she said bitterly.
Daniel was about to object, but he knew there was
more coming so he stood there patiently and let her continue.
"Then I let myself get infected with that
virus The Touched had. I...seduced the Colonel," Sam choked out the
last few words disgustedly.
"There was no way you could have prevented
that," Daniel said incredulously. "I mean...getting
infected. Teal'c was the only one who escaped it, for obvious reasons."
Sam shrugged.
"The Colonel was counting on me to find a
cure when he was infected with the nanovirus on
"But Sam, the point is that you did
find a cure. And as for what happened on Simarka, Nya was eventually
freed to marry Abu. It seems like you're dwelling on failures that were
temporary."
Sam looked at Daniel thoughtfully.
"I mean, look at me. When they first
recruited me to join the Stargate program, I was so convinced that I wasn't
going to find the seventh symbol. I might as well have given up, but I
persisted and I found it. Then when we were on
"Really? What happened?" Sam asked, suddenly interested.
"I don't really want to get into it,"
Daniel replied dreadfully, his cheeks becoming rosy. "But anyway,
the point is that I found a way to get them home. I never gave up.
I was almost convinced that I was a failure, but I persisted and...even earned a little respect," he smiled faintly.
"Lucky you," Sam said bitterly.
Daniel looked into her eyes again, furrowing his
brow.
"Sam, honestly, what's bothering you?"
Sam's eyes began to glisten with unshed tears.
"I can't talk to you about this," she
shook her head. "It's just something stupid that happens to me every
month..."
Daniel averted his eyes and nodded in
understanding.
"I'm sure Colonel O'Neill has made a few
jokes about it to you guys," she spat out.
Daniel searched her face.
"I honestly don't know," he said
quietly, shaking his head ever so slightly.
Sam grinned ruefully and nodded.
"No, really. If Jack made any jokes about that, I wouldn't
know. I mean, I hardly listen to half of what he says, which I'm sure you
know," he chuckled in spite of himself.
For once, Sam couldn't help grinning, and she
began to giggle softly.
Daniel grinned back.
"Damn it, Daniel. Here I am, feeling
sorry for myself and thinking I'm a failure, and you go and make me laugh,"
she said, giggling some more.
Daniel nodded and averted his eyes for a moment.
"Sam, you're not a failure. Don't ever
think that, okay?"
She reached out and gave him a big hug.
"Out of everyone here I think you're my best friend,"
she sniffled, still in his embrace.
"I'm glad I made you feel better," he
smiled as she stepped out of his embrace and looked at him.
Sam smiled broadly and nodded.
"Thank you," she said simply.
He nodded back.
"Anytime you need someone to talk to, you
know where to find me," he smiled.
She nodded and reached out to hug him again.
Daniel made his way toward the door.
"I, uh...think I'll see if that stuff from
the Pentagon has arrived yet," he said awkwardly.
"Have fun," she said playfully.
He turned around and grinned, giving her a
wink.
Sam giggled as he exited and made his way down the
corridor.
She sighed and sat herself back down at her
computer. Noticing the FreeCell game was still up on her desktop, she
clicked to close it out.
What the hell is this stupid thing doing up
here? she thought to herself while she shook her head and grinned.
With fervor, she opened up her web browser and
checked out one of her favorite websites, SpaceWeather.com. She smiled on
reading about new near-Earth asteroids that were discovered, geomagnetic storms
and other such items of interest.
Try as she might, she couldn't get rid of the huge
grin which formed on her face when she thought about Daniel and how he had
cheered her up.
@~ THE END ~@