Archive of Our Own

Fic: Cameron Mitchell and the Unlikely Boyfriend (1/5)
Title: Cameron Mitchell and the Unlikely Boyfriend (1/5)
F/P: Stargate: SG-1 AU (Cameron/Daniel)
Rating: NC-17 (for later parts)
Disclaimer: not mine.
Summary: “So, I just need you to come to the party tonight and pretend to be my boyfriend.”
Beta: Thanks to kinneas, you helped me out so much, I really appreciate it!
A/N: Marriage of Convenience prompt for 10_romances

The late afternoon market was buzzing with activity. Color and light shouted from every direction the eye turned, while laughter and shouts blazed from one corner to echo against another, and the sweet scents of flowers and fruit tag-teamed to launch an assault of the senses. The square was roughly the size of a city block, fenced off with high walls made of adobe, but with openings on each side. Inside the market a person could find everything from food to crafts to entertainment.

In the middle of it all stood Cameron Mitchell, former officer of the USAF, holding up a cantaloupe to his nose, testing its ripeness. He rested his basket on his good hip, keeping it stable with one hand while he picked over the fruit with the other. He added the cantaloupe to his wrapped bread and bottle of milk, put the basket down and moved over to pick through the grape bunches.

There were grocery stores closer to where he lived, but he liked the market; it reminded him of the good memories of his time in the Middle East; it was the perfect place to spend an hour or two for the neighborhood families. People came from all over town to shop and see everything there was to see. It was usually crowded, but the locals could always tell who else was local - it was in the easy smile for the family children and the change always ready for the street entertainers.

Cameron wasn’t quite local, but neither was he an outsider to the market’s owners. The woman who ran the bakery was old enough to be his mother, but never let him out of her sight without some sort of food, a pinch on his butt, and the promise that one day he’d come around. He thought if he were ten years older, or she ten years younger, he’d take her up on that offer. He probably wouldn’t be getting a better one anymore.

Since his return to the ’States, he’d mostly gotten over reverse culture shock, but sometimes he still thought of the West Coast as a foreign country. It hadn’t helped him make many friends, except for those others who like him, were not very interested in city life.

“Daniel!” a voice shrieked from across several aisles.

Cameron turned at the high-pitched squeal that pierced the general noisiness of the square just in time for a man roughly his size and weight to crash into him head on. They went down to the ground in a tangle of limbs, and for Cameron a flash of pain. The ground was hard-packed gravel, and astonishingly enough did not feel wonderful digging into his back. He opened his mouth to start cursing, but found himself looking into a pair of the most amazing blue eyes.

“You know, usually I expect at least a first date before I let a guy get to second base with me,” Cameron drawled, reaching up with his hands and trying to ignore the shooting pain racing up and down his leg. It hurt now, and that meant it would hurt worse later.

“Oh, I’m, uh,” the man said, blinking down at Cameron as if to show off his eyelashes. Somehow he managed to be both pretty and masculine at the same time, his stubble shadowing the planes of his face while his lips pouted.

Cameron smiled despite himself, a lopsided grin at the other man’s stutter, “I think this is where you apologize and then get off me.”

“Right,” the other man scrambled up, nearly kneeing Cameron in a very unfortunate place while searching for his feet. He was very tan, well muscled and had a very absent-minded air around him. Cameron’s niece would have labeled him a “Himbo” on first sight. The man held a hand down to Cameron, “I’m very sorry.”

Taking his hand, Cameron pulled himself to his feet, using his good leg to take most of his weight. It threw the other man off-balance, but since it was his fault anyway, Cameron really didn't feel any sympathy. “Well, as fun as this has been, I think I’ll just move on before you decide to play some more tackle football,” Cameron said, trying very hard not to jostle his leg. He’d have to get Henri to call him a taxi to get home because there was no way he would make it walking.

“Oh, geeze, I’m so sorr-” the other man started, but was interrupted by another screech of his name, and leapt about a foot off the ground. “Oh, for crying out loud!”

“I take it your name is Daniel?” Cameron asked, lifting an eyebrow as the man dropped to the ground on his knees, searching frantically with his hands. “Lose something?”

The man found a pair of glasses, and shoved them on his face without bothering to wipe the lenses clean first. He looked back up at Cameron, “Yeah, I’m Daniel, and yes, I lost something – my manly dignity.”

Daniel’s face was scrunched up, and his hands fisted loosely on his thighs. His jeans were well worn, but looked designer, and his t-shirt hadn’t faded from a deep black. Cameron felt a cheap thrill race through his gut at the sight of the other man on his knees in front of him. It had been so long since he felt that for another man, that the surprise of it hit him like a ton of bricks.

“I don’t know what makes dignity so very manly,” Cameron teased distractedly, ready to turn and gather up his basket to move on. This had not been on his to-do list today.

Without warning, Daniel jumped up and toward him again, making Cameron reel back and step on his bad leg. He gasped and found himself with an armful of man, and another set of lips crushed painfully against his.

“Daniel!”

This time the voice was closer, right beside them, and sounded decidedly more irritated. Daniel broke off the kiss and turned his head, though he kept his hands clutching the front of Cameron’s jacket. “Oh, Vala,” he said faintly as if he hadn’t just been running from her. “I didn’t see you there.”

Cameron turned to look and saw a very beautiful, petite woman standing with her arms crossed, tapping her foot, and looking like she wanted to flay Daniel alive. Her dark hair was tied back into two pig-tails that looped back under the rubber bands. She didn’t look like anyone Cameron would care to cross, and his astonishment at Daniel ratcheted up another notch.

“Daniel? What is this?” she demanded, gesturing at Cameron before angrily dropping a fist to her hip.

“Vala, I was going to call,” Daniel said, finally letting go of Cameron and facing her, squaring his shoulders as if going to battle. “I just had to get settled again, and -”

She marched up to them, poking Daniel hard in the chest as she spoke, and shooting hateful glares at Cameron the entire time, “I can see how well you’ve ‘settled’!”

“Hey!” Cameron said, insulted as he finally understood what was going on and almost gave up the game by laughing out loud. Instead, he looped an arm around Daniel’s waist and pulled him in to brush against his body.

That was when Daniel understood the insult and echoed his “hey”, pushing his glasses up on his nose and then tried to find a good place to put his hands. Luckily for them, Vala just turned up her nose and flounced back the way she’d come.

Cameron waited until she was out of sight, before he detached himself from Daniel’s side and said, “I can tell who wore the pants in that relationship.”

“You and everybody else,” Daniel said wearily, slumping where he was standing looking like he’d just survived certain death, but wasn’t sure if it was a good thing. “Thanks again, and I’m sorry about kissing you.”

“Now that, is the one thing you don’t have to be sorry for,” Cameron said, finally reaching for his neglected basket, knowing he needed to get home and get some painkillers in his system. “But you’ll understand if I break up with you for boyfriend abuse.”

“What? Oh right,” Daniel said, blushing red from his neck up to his hairline. With the glasses on it was much harder to see his eyes, he looked much less approachable. “I’m really, really sorry about that.”

What happened next could only be described as a comedy of errors. Daniel stuck his hand out to shake but pulled back right as Cameron was going to grab it. He then tried to jab his hand back out but Cameron had already dropped his. Cameron laughed and Daniel looked at his hand like it was its fault they couldn’t quite meet.

“Obviously, we’re just not meant to be,” Cameron said smiling, enjoying this conversation much more than he thought he would. “We’ll always have our memories though.”

Daniel snorted and dropped his head, looking up at Cameron through his eyelashes, “Right. I’ve got to go.”

“I’d say don’t be a stranger, but I don’t think that I could take another meeting like this,” Cameron said waving a hand. “I hope your day turns out all right.”

“Oh it has,” Daniel said, then turned to leave in the opposite direction from Vala and headed off, immediately tripping over a couple of kids that darted past.

Cameron rolled his eyes and took his basket, heading off to find Henri so he could get home. This had definitely been one of the more surreal episodes of his life. And that was saying something for a man who’d been dead and brought back to life.

“Cameron!”

Cameron turned at the familiar voice, smiling before he even found Henri trying to swim through the crowd to get to him. He hated to miss one of his visits to the market, but after his run-in with Daniel the previous week, Cameron had had to take it easy at home, he’d missed talking to Henri and his other friends. “Hey!” he called in greeting, waving a hand over the heads of some children running past him

“Cameron, we missed you on Wednesday,” Henri said as he made it to Cameron’s side and clasped his arm in a friendly greeting. He spoke with an Eastern European accent that was now so muddled with western United States that Cameron was unable to place it.

He ducked his head a little, holding up his cane as if by answer, “Yeah, I’m sorry about that, Henri. Didn’t feel like getting out and about.”

“Ah,” Henri said, shaking his head. “There has been a man here looking for you.”

That didn’t happen to Cameron very often, not unless the man in question was wearing dress blues, and Henri would have mentioned that, “A man?”

“Yes, he’s been here everyday of the past four,” Henri said, leveling a humorous look at Cameron, his brown eyes dancing. “You can imagine how tongues are dancing.”

“I’ll bet,” Cameron closed his eyes shaking his head. Gossip might as well be the number one commodity in the market; it was valuable and highly sought after. “Has he shown up already today?”

“Not yet, but soon,” Henri nodded, stepping to the side and waving at somebody behind Cameron. “He always darts in from the south and races like a dervish through the aisles before harassing the stall-keeps about your whereabouts.”

“Man, I’m sorry, why didn’t you just get rid of him?” Cameron asked trying to think of who would be looking for him. Any of his service buddies would be able to find him easily, and his family would just call his grandma to find him.

“Because it is not everyday a handsome young man is determined to find you. It was a mystery we could not resist,” Henri smiled broadly at Cameron’s scowl and stepped away toward his tent, walking backwards. “But go; Tshaya is worrying over you.”

Cameron rolled his eyes, but did as he was bid, making his way first to the bakery area. Predictably, Tshaya immediately hauled him back to the private area and sat him down with a glass of sweet tea and a plate of fresh pastries.

“You’re too skinny, Camio!” she said, hands on her hips as she stood over him watching him eat. “And since you haven't been here for a week, you’ve missed out on seven days of news.

“S’okay,” Cameron said popping a berry tart in his mouth and talking with his mouth full. “I knew you’d be around to fill me in.”

Before she could begin, a small boy ran in and tugged on her skirts until she turned around to face him. “He’s here!” the boy shouted jumping up and down and running over to Cameron. “Mr. Mitch, that man’s here to see you!”

“Yeah?” Cameron asked, wiping his mouth and scooting his chair away from the table. “Guess it’s time we find out what all this fuss is about.”

The boy whooped and was off like a shot out the door, no doubt to tell one and all that the showdown was about to occur. Cameron followed at a more sedate pace, leaving his cane inside and taking it easy. He made it out just inside to see the man who’d run into him last week slump his shoulders at a negative answer from the vendor next door.

Daniel began walking slowly away, so Cameron called out to him, “I understand you’re looking for a man.”

“Yes, I-” Daniel turned around, his hands rising and then saw who he was talking to and his hands fell back to his sides. “Oh, that’s funny. Listen, I need your help.”

“Cut right to the chase, don’t you?” Cameron smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. He’d never met anyone like this guy before, so honest and slightly clueless. It was a pleasant change from staring at the blinking cursor over the blank page that was supposed to be the beginnings of his memoirs.

“Well, yes,” Daniel said, blinking behind his glasses, and then shaking his head as if to clear it and advanced on Cameron. “See, Vala is my ex-girlfriend.”

“You don’t say.”

At that Daniel blushed, lifting a hand to rub the bridge of his nose, “Obvious, huh?”

“’Bout as obvious as how henpecked you turned out to be,” Cameron teased. From what he’d seen Vala would have fit in fine with the other female Air Force officers he’d met: feminine and fearsome.

“Anyway,” Daniel glared, clearing his throat and resting his hands on his hips. Cameron noticed that said hips were slim, but tapered down to muscled thighs. “We’re also coworkers, and she’s been telling everyone about you.”

“I fail to see how I can help with that,” Cameron began, this whole conversation, hell this entire . . . whatever between him and Daniel was bordering on bizarre. Against all odds, Cameron was attracted to the man, but that didn’t have to mean anything. He was starting to suspect that Daniel was a little crazy.

“There’s a party tonight and they have a bet going on whether you’re real or not.”

Revising his thought to definitely crazy and knowing that they had just ventured into territory way past bizarre, Cameron wondered if maybe Daniel was an escaped mental patient. “Well, that’s quite a predicament,” he said slowly, drawling just a little bit more than necessary, trying to guess where this conversation was going.

Daniel nodded, smiled, and rushed on, “So, I just need you to come to the party tonight and pretend to be my boyfriend.”

Cameron wanted to laugh, couldn’t resist a rueful smile and hoped that someone out there had a camera to catch his expression, because he bet it was a doozy. He shook his head and said, “’Just’ huh?”

“I asked around, nobody thinks you’re seeing anyone,” Daniel said, making it clear to Cameron just why Henri and Tshaya were so eager to witness this meeting. “And you didn’t seem to mind last time.”

“You didn’t give me much of a chance last time,” Cameron reminded him thinking back to how Daniel had lunged at him to kiss. It wasn’t the worst kiss Cameron had ever had, but it sure hadn’t made the top ten. He looked back to Daniel, and saw how the other man’s face had fallen, felt something tighten in his chest and puffed out a sigh, “What’s in it for me?”

Looking up hopefully, Daniel asked rather tentatively, “The pleasure of helping another human being?” At Cameron’s eyebrow quirk, Daniel exploded, “Okay, I’m desperate! You can have whatever you want as long as I don’t have to see Vala following me around with her smug look and listen to her tell me – ‘I told you so’! all night.”

“Bad breakup?” Cameron asked, keeping his face carefully neutral.

“I had to leave the country,” Daniel said sadly, the tone of his voice conveying resignation, fear, and exhaustion all at once.

Cameron laughed so hard that Tshaya had to give him a few hearty slaps on the back and give him another glass of tea just so he could clear his throat. “Okay, okay, I’ll do it but you owe me. Big time.”

“Wonderful!” Daniel smiled and his whole face glowed, reminding Cameron of the flush of excitement he felt when they’d first met. “I just need to know one more thing.”

“What’s that?” Cameron asked.

The sheepdog expression was back as Daniel dropped his voice, and asked plaintively, “What’s your name?”

*******************************************

“Well, at least you clean up nice,” Cameron said as he stepped out of his apartment building to find Daniel waiting with a cab a suit, dark blue, and open at the collar. He rubbed his hand down his chest, following the motion with his eyes, “I feel a little under-dressed, maybe I should go change.”

He had on his best pair of jeans and a shiny black buttoned down shirt. He thought he looked all right, but it was nothing special, Daniel hadn’t told him that this was a suit occasion, just his coworkers hanging out with a couple of clients. He looked up to find Daniel staring at him with an intensely.

“It’s fine--I mean you’re fine,” Daniel babbled until he took a breath and closed his eyes. “Your clothes look good.”

“Thank you,” Cameron said stifling a smile and ducking his head. He couldn’t remember being so bemused before in his life, but Daniel seemed to bring it out of him. He picked up his cane and slipped by Daniel to slide on the seat to the other side of the cab.

Daniel sat beside him, leaning forward to give the driver the address. Cameron didn’t recognize the street, but he hadn’t really got out much since moving here from Texas. He’d been content enough in the solitude of his apartment. It had an elevator, and on the top floor he didn’t have to listen to people knocking around above or beside him. His twice weekly visits to market and his physical therapy appointments had been enough to keep him from feeling like a total shut-in.

“So, what’s up with the – ah -” Daniel asked, settling into the seat and gesturing to Cameron’s cane which he’d casually leaned between his legs. “you know?”

“Old football injury,” Cameron lied easily, though from Daniel’s raised eyebrow apparently not successfully. He wasn’t about to get into that story on a first date with a guy he just met. Shifting a little, Cameron managed to brush his shoulder across Daniel’s, causing the other man to jerk and look over in surprise.

Settling back down, Daniel even managed to sit back down enough that their arms pushed together from shoulder to elbow. “You weren’t using it before, were you?” he asked, pushing his glasses up with his other hand.

“Well, this guy ran into me about a week ago and I had a bit of a setback,” Cameron teased, watching Daniel out of the corner of his eye. “It might have been worth it though; I did get a kiss and a date out of it.”

“Oh yeah, sorry,” Daniel cleared his throat, scratching at the back of his neck. “Sorry about that.”

“Sure, but there had better be some good finger-food at this shindig,” Cameron replied with a smile. Talking with Daniel was easy and felt good. Even though he’d made several friends at the Market, he hadn’t felt so relaxed and himself for years. “So, what do you do anyway?”

Daniel perked up, his eyes alight as he turned to face Cameron, “Oh, I work in the research department, everything from original texts, and internet research to on-site perusal. Actually, I am the department, but I’m fluent in over twenty separate languages so I do all right.”

“Sounds exciting,” Cameron said enjoying seeing Daniel talking so animatedly about something that obviously mattered to him.

Daniel shrugged, squashing his excitement back down and lying just as badly as Cameron did, “Not really, it’s more frustrating to find all the sloppy research and translations online. Trying to fix all the bad information should be a full time job all on its own.”

They made small talk for the rest of the drive, or they tried to at least. Finding a common topic was a little harder than Cameron would have guessed at first. He started talking sports and only got a blank stare from Daniel. He had a sneaking suspicion that he shouldn’t try either religion or politics, so that only left the weather. They both agreed that it had been a lovely day.

The cab pulled up into an affluent neighborhood, the street full of shops, cafes and the odd bar and grille. As he got out of the cab, Cameron took one look at the building they stopped in front of and let out a low whistle. He waited until Daniel had paid the driver and then grabbed his elbow, “Give me your jacket.”

“What?” Daniel asked blinking widely, his lips pursed in confusion.

“Come on, this is much swankier than you lead me to believe and I’m wearing jeans. Give me your jacket,” Cameron said bending his fingers in a ‘gimme’ motion.

Daniel slipped his jacked off and handed it over. “Sure, okay. You can have it if you want it.”

“Thank you,” Cameron said and took the jacket pulling it over his shoulders, engulfed for a moment in Daniel’s sudden heat and smell. A pleasant spark zinged down to his groin as he tugged on the lapels to straighten the front. He looked over at Daniel and grinned, advancing on the other man. Daniel flinched and took a small step backwards before he realized what he was doing. Cocking his head to the side, Cameron lifted his hands to Daniel’s neck. He flipped the collar of Daniel’s shirt up, running his knuckles against the sensitive skin in the hollow of Daniel’s throat.

Daniel shivered, shuffling from foot to foot until he steeled himself to meet Cameron’s gaze. Tentatively, he brought his hands up to rest on Cameron’s hips, flicking his thumbs along the leather of Cameron’s belt.

“If you want to make this work, you’re going to have stop acting like we’re total strangers every time I come near you,” Cameron said still holding onto the ends of Daniel’s collar.

“I’ll work on it,” Daniel said, his eyes huge behind his glasses.

“See that you do,” Cameron said bending his head to brush their lips together. It was like electricity shivering up his spine and he longed to push forward into Daniel, but instead he pulled back. “See, that wasn’t so bad,” he grinned, unconsciously licking his lips, “I even brushed my teeth.”

Touching his lips, Daniel looked young and vulnerable even though his build and muscles were no longer hidden by the suit jacket. “So I noticed,” he said.

Cameron smiled and dropped his hand to wrap around Daniel’s waist, welcoming Daniel’s warm bulk pushing into his side. He took a step toward the front door and was pleased when Daniel followed without any hesitation.

Inside, the old hotel was more impressive than from the outside. A huge chandelier hung in the entryway illuminating a crowded lounge and bar area. The front desk had been converted into a snack line and a low stage set up to block off the main staircase housed a small jazz quartet. Everywhere Cameron looked he saw smiles and beautiful people mixing and mingling.

To his relief, there were another couple of men there wearing jeans, but he still felt better with Daniel’s jacket on. It reminded him of the girls back home who wore their boyfriends’ lettermen jackets, parading them around like the status symbols they were.

“Daniel! So glad you could finally make it,” a dry voice called out from behind them.

They turned as one, and Cameron saw an older man striding quickly toward them with a wide smile on his face. His hair was shot with gray, but there was a spring in his step and gleam behind his eyes that belied his apparent age. Cameron liked him immediately, and hoped that this would be one of Daniel’s coworkers that he could get along with.

“Jack,” Daniel said, sounding just as happy to see the other man, and for a moment Cameron wondered at the history between the two. “Looks like you’ve got things well in hand.”

Jack snorted, reaching out to take Daniel’s hand and clap him on the shoulder, “Sure, I just had to show up and do the talking. Vala did all the hard work.”

At the mention of Vala’s name both Cameron and Daniel stiffened, but Cameron flexed his fingers on Daniel’s side and cleared his throat, hoping that Daniel would get the hint. They really should have discussed a back story for their relationship, but it had completely slipped Cameron’s mind. He just hoped Daniel would be able to convincingly lie whenever they needed to.

“Oh, right!” Daniel said, stepping to the side and gesturing at Cameron. “Jack, this is Cameron Mitchell. Cameron, this is Jack O’Neill: my boss.”

“Nice to meet you,” Cameron said politely, holding out his hand for Jack to take.

“It’s nice to know you exist. We’ve heard so much about you from Vala,” Jack said back, smiling widely and pumping Cameron’s hand up and down. He paused, glancing at a blushing Daniel and adding, “Excessively.”

A blonde woman yelled at Jack from the other room, and he turned and waved at her, “I gotta go, the wife’s calling. You kids be good while I’m gone.”

Daniel kept his smile fixed firmly in place for another several seconds before letting his mask fall and sagging his shoulders. He turned around and pressed his face into Cameron’s shoulder, moaning, “This is never going to work.”

“Oh ye of little faith,” Cameron said wrapping his arms around Daniel’s shoulders and squeezing until the other man relaxed. It had been too long since he’d been able to hold another human being. He realized as a flash of warmth traveled his body that he could get used to this all too easy, and he would have to be much more careful. “I’m going to go check out the food,” he said after a moment. “Get me something to drink?”

Daniel nodded and slipped off between two people to make his way across the room. Cameron watched him for a minute before shaking his head and turning to the snack table. He knew it was a sad statement of his life that he was willing to go along with this charade for entertainment, and if he were honest – the chance to get his hands on Daniel’s body. That was one good thing about military retirement; he didn’t have to worry about the regs anymore.

He grabbed a small plate and started filling it from the snack trays. He picked over the cheese and fruit, but avoided anything that would drip on his clothes. There was a good selection, Cameron had been to enough officer parties that he knew what an excellent spread this was. He wondered again just what kind of business these people were into.

“Excuse me,” a woman said from behind him.

He shuffled to the side and looked over to find the woman at his elbow. She had short fly-away blonde hair and intense blue eyes. Her little black dress dipped low over her cleavage and stopped right above her knees. She was beautiful, and he’d bet dollars to donuts that underneath the makeup she was a tomboy at heart.

“I saw you with Daniel earlier,” she said in a pleasant voice, flashing him a friendly grin showing two perfect rows of teeth. “Are you his date?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cameron said, flashing his teeth back at her. He put his plate down on an unoccupied corner and held out his hand. “Cameron Mitchell.”

“Samantha Carter,” she replied squeezing his hand in a pleasant grip. “Call me Sam. It’s good to meet you; we haven’t had any new blood added to the mix in quite a while.”

Cameron was saved from having to find something to say to her by Daniel’s arrival with the drinks. He handed one over to Cameron and then caught Sam up in a one-armed hug.

“Hey, finally, you haven’t been in the office all week. I thought you were avoiding me,” Daniel teased, and Cameron noticed how warm Daniel’s voice was and how genuine his smile. “I missed you.”

“Likewise, and I think we just missed each other the last couple of days. I got back into town myself a couple days ago,” Sam said and then looked at Cameron. “But I hear you’ve been keeping yourself busy.”

“Oh, yeah,” Daniel turned excitedly to Cameron. “This is---”

“We’ve already met,” Sam cut in, tilting her head to look back and forth between the two men. “No one’s quite sure how you two met, though.”

Cameron lifted his eyebrow at Daniel and sipped at his drink, willing to let Daniel take the lead since they hadn’t decided on a cover story. The drink had enough alcohol in it that just a couple would make him comfortably tipsy. He was just lucky he’d been off his meds for a couple of days.

“On the internet,” Daniel blurted, shoving his hands in his front pockets and rocking back on his heels looking steadily at his feet.

“Daniel, you got on an internet personals site?” Sam asked, astonished, her voice rising and a smile curving across her lips.

“No! Wait, no,” Daniel yelped causing several of the people closest to them to turn and glare.

Cameron nudged them over to the side and away from the people waiting for the food table, and rescued Daniel, “I was doing some research, actually, and I noticed this belly-acher spamming the comment boards with all the ways the researcher was wrong.”

“Daniel!” Sam mockingly admonished. “What have we told you about bothering the Washington Fellowship webpage?”

In that moment, Daniel looked so much like the cat the got the cream and was trying valiantly to look innocent and failing badly that Cameron had to laugh. “Did you tell me it’s a good thing?” Daniel asked hopefully.

Sam laughed and slugged Daniel playfully in the shoulder. “You’re incorrigible.”

Cameron faded to the background, watching as Sam and Daniel began catching up. He hadn’t realized that Daniel had been out of contact for so long that he hadn’t even seen his coworkers. He almost felt like an intruder, but he put his hand on the small of Daniel’s back, and in his distraction Daniel didn’t notice. Cameron could rest it there, leaching the heat of Daniel’s body and relaxing.

He was looking off to the side when he heard a familiar-sounding laugh. Vala met his gaze from across the room, her slim arms crossed in front of her chest and wild mane of hair curling over her shoulders. Even with the distance, Cameron could see the irritation she clung to, and he couldn’t help gulping a bit, hoping never to be left alone with her.

Catching sight of Jack and the woman he’d gone to talk to wading through the crowd on their way over toward them, Cameron let out a soft sigh of relief. Cameron tugged on Daniel’s jacket to interrupt Daniel’s spiel and point them out.

“What do you---Sara!” Daniel said, interrupting himself and holding out both hands to be grasped by the woman. “How are you? How’s Charlie doing?”

When they got close enough, Jack handed Cameron a new drink and winked at him, jerking his head toward where Vala was now flirting with no less than three well dressed men. Cameron took it and raised it to Jack before he took a drink, finding a well made Jack and Coke.

“I’m good,” Sara said, tugging Daniel close to kiss him on either cheek. She was pretty and glowed under Jack’s hand like only a person in a happy long-term relationship glowed. “Charlie gave us a scare last week, but a few stitches and he was fine, though Jack needed a drink afterwards.”

“Hey!” Jack snapped, grinning and wrapping his arms around her shoulders. “There was a lot of blood!”

“But Charlie’s okay?” Daniel pressed, but relaxed at her nod. This time he pulled Cameron up, “Sarah, this in Cameron Mitchell.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Cameron smiled, watching as she smiled and pressed his hand. “It’s great to know that Daniel has such great people with him.”

“And we’re glad Daniel has moved on,” Sara said taking a furtive look over her shoulders and then leaned forward dropping her voice. “Now I love Vala to pieces, but Daniel needed someone softer.”

Cameron and Daniel both blushed red at that, but having met the woman in question, Cameron was forced to agree. He linked his fingers with Daniel’s pressing their palms together and making Daniel’s blush travel down his neck. For a moment, Cameron wanted nothing more than to nose his way down the tendons of Daniel’s neck, licking a hot trail from jaw to collar bone.

“You know what would be fun, Jack?” Sara asked drawing Cameron’s attention away from Daniel. “We should go out to the cabin this weekend. You’ve all been working so hard, a little R&R is just what the doctor ordered.”

“Now that is a good idea!” Jack said, smiling down and kissing the top of Sara’s head. “Teal’c was just saying that he wanted some time out of the city with Krista. What about it Sam? You and Marty in?”

Sam rolled her eyes, but the grin never left her face, “Jack, you know Martouf hates it when you call him that.”

“Which is why I never do it to his face anymore,” Jack replied, letting loose of Sara and latching onto Daniel, dragging him a step or two away from Cameron. “How about it Daniel? Want to bring Cameron up to the cabin and take him fishing.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Jack,” Daniel said, his eyebrows working overtime scrunching over his eyes before lifting up almost to his hair line again. “I’m sure Cameron’s busy.”

“Cam,” Jack said, turning to Cameron and focusing an intense gaze on Cameron, his dark eyes were piercing and for a moment, Cameron felt like he was on trial. “Are you too busy to spend a weekend letting Daniel’s friends get to know you?”

“Naw, I’m not too busy,” Cam said honestly feeling loose, but missing having Daniel pushed against his side. “Sounds like a good time.”

Jack just grinned, but behind him Cameron could see that Daniel’s expression had frozen in a demented smile.

**

“You’re so drunk,” Daniel said pulling Cameron out of the cab once they arrived at Cameron’s apartment building.

Cameron leaned heavily against Daniel’s back as the other man bent over to pay the cab driver. He couldn’t help curling his arm around Daniel’s waist, resting his head on Daniel’s shoulder and breathing in the other man’s scent. His mind was comfortably fuzzy and didn’t seem to be able to hold in two thoughts at once.

Daniel straightened, hooking his arm around Cameron and pulled him up to an almost upright position. Cameron had lost his cane sometime after meeting Teal’c but before Jack had got him to tell embarrassing high school stories. Now he had to use Daniel just to pull himself up the three short stairs in front.

“Am not drunk,” Cameron said wrapping his arm around the top of Daniel’s shoulder.

“Right,” Daniel drawled, reaching to open the front door and haul them both through. He hit the up button on the elevator and turned his head to Cameron. “That’s why you agreed to go out to Jack’s cabin.”

“Sounded like a good idea at the time,” Cameron murmured, turning his body into Daniel’s and pressing his face into Daniel’s exposed collar bone. He was so tired he could probably have just slumped against the wall and been asleep by the time he hit the floor.

Daniel snorted, shuffling them into the elevator, “We’ll see if you still think that in the morning when we have to get up at dawn to make it up there.”

Cameron just yawned and rested his head on Daniel’s shoulder; he’d take care of tomorrow later.

************************************************

Cameron didn’t bother opening his eyes because he knew that he would immediately wish he hadn’t, but luckily the curtains had been pulled down and the light was a dim annoyance on his eyelids. His head ached and felt large enough to accommodate an entire marching band playing Stars and Stripes Forever. He didn’t even like patriotic marches, they got stuck in his head for days, and they were absolutely not cool when hung over.

He didn’t even want to contemplate what his mouth felt and tasted like.

A quick flex told him he was spread out on his bed, which he knew didn’t actually sway like a ship at sea no matter what his head was currently telling him. He was on top of his blankets and bare to the waist where the band from his jeans had become twisted painfully cutting into his flesh from tossing during the night. A chilly breeze lifted the curtains, curling around his toes and up his body, raising goose bumps along his flesh.

His bladder decided for him that it would be less painful to get up and shuffle into the bathroom than it would be to lie there for another ten minutes. His head still felt like he was sloshing a gallon of water around between his ears, but he couldn’t remember drinking that much at the party. Maybe he had mixed himself up about his pain medication.

After washing his face, Cameron was able to brave the living room and was only slightly surprised to find Daniel sacked out on the couch. He smothered a chuckle over how ridiculous Daniel looked wearing his undershirt, boxers and dress socks. Daniel’s face was slack; it was probably the first time since they met that Cameron could look his fill without Daniel erupting through half a dozen different expressions in less than a minute. It was – nice.

Coffee. That’s what he needed if he was going to feel like a human being anytime today. He padded into the kitchen, his bare feet quiet on the tile flooring. He didn’t have that much in his kitchen; mostly he bought food for the week at the Market and his trips this week had been cut short. He always kept coffee, though. It helped when he actually sat down at his computer to start his book which he had done twenty-seven times so far and had a total word count of just over six hundred.

Making coffee was a comfortable ritual he preformed from choosing which brand to his first sip from the steaming mug, though today he deviated just long enough to fish out a bottle of water to sip at too. He took his time, trying to be careful so he wouldn’t wake Daniel up. It also gave him a chance to try to figure out what had happened last night. Sometime after meeting Sam, things got a bit blurry. At one point he remembered tugging Daniel down to sit on his lap so Cameron could kiss his jaw line.

There was a lot of talking and laughing, and he remembered keeping close to Daniel’s side and touching him as often as he could, but after that- everything was a blank. He didn’t remember getting home or getting in bed, he only hoped he hadn’t said or done anything too embarrassing. It must have been late if Daniel had decided to sleep over instead of just dumping Cameron out and going home.

He’d had a really nice time the previous night, Daniel’s friends were great, and the kind that Cameron had always wanted, but he had the sneaking suspicion that it was Daniel himself that led to Cameron enjoying himself so fully. He was smart yet curiously naïve about some things, funny but not offensive and nice without missing the opportunity for a perfect verbal jab. He was everything that Cameron wanted rolled up in a conveniently attractive package. Now if only he could get Daniel to see how perfect Cameron was for him.

Maybe if Cameron asked, then Daniel would go on a real date with him to somewhere nice, but with low stress. They could pick up a picnic lunch and head out of town maybe. Cameron wouldn’t mind the chance to get his hand under Daniel’s shirt once or twice, and if things went on from there, well, it had been a long dry spell for Cameron.

With a sixth sense, Daniel wandered in to the kitchen and headed straight for the counter like a coffee-seeking missile. Amused, Cameron pushed a mug into Daniel’s reach and watched as Daniel grabbed it without looking and poured as soon as there was enough in the pot to fill his cup. Obviously Cameron was dealing with a coffee-holic on a level far above his own.

After his second cup, Daniel turned to Cameron, his eyes still shut as he held to mug close to his face, breathing in the aroma, “So, we should have left an hour ago.”

“Huh?” Cameron asked finally getting his first cup of joe and sipping carefully at the hot liquid. Daniel’s hair was sticking up at odd angles from the back of his head, and Cameron’s hands itched to smooth it down, curling his fingers across the dip from head to neck.

Daniel opened his eyes, but only to roll them at Cameron, “Last night you very happily agreed for the both of us to a get-away out at Jack’s cabin with the gang.”

“I – what? And you went along with it?” Cameron asked surprised, he was pretty sure he was reading the signals right and knew Daniel liked him, but while a party was one thing a vacation was quite a different kettle of fish. Of course, this would give him more time to devote to making sure he’d be continuously seeing a lot more of Daniel Jackson.

“You didn’t give me much of a chance,” Daniel said dryly, rinsing his cup out and setting it upside down in the sink. His shirt pulled tight across his shoulders, and his boxers stretched low on his hips. If he weren’t so oblivious, Cameron would think that Daniel was being seductive on purpose. “Then you volunteered to go hunting with Jack, and now we’re stuck.”

Cameron couldn’t believe that he’d said that, no matter how drunk he’d been. He’d had a belly full of shooting things in his lifetime that he’d never choose to go on his own time. Or he thought that he would never want to, there must have been something else going on at the time even if he couldn’t remember it. “Hunting?” he asked doubtfully.

“Yeah, no one but Vala will go with him, and she talks so loud that she scares off all the game,” Daniel said as he started to poke around Cameron’s kitchen, opening drawers and cabinets to shift through the contents. “He was ecstatic when you said you’d go with him. In fact, he’s probably---"

The soft ring of a cell phone drifted into the kitchen, making Daniel roll his eyes again and padd out to the living room. Cameron followed, watching as Daniel rooted through the couch cushions until he fished out his phone, flipping it open and holding it to his ear.

“Hey, Jack,” Daniel said without looking at the display, slipping the phone up to press it to his ear with his shoulder. He looked around and found his folded up pants and shirt on the coffee table. “No, we just got up. Yes, we’re getting around. No! Jack!”

Daniel was again blushing hotly, and Cameron wondered what Jack was saying to him. There weren’t many men who blushed so often or as sweetly as Daniel did. Heat pooled low in Cameron’s belly as he watched Daniel bend with sinewy grace pulling his clothes on. He retreated back to his room, leaning his back on the closed door and thumbing down his fly.

“Cameron!” Daniel yelled through the door, causing Cameron to bite back a groan and push down heavily on his crotch. “Cameron, are you packing? Jack’s planning on five nights, and he says it’s going to be chilly the entire time.”

Sighing, Cameron pushed away from the door, calling, “Okay, I’ll be right out!”

“Good,” Daniel said, his voice getting farther away from the door. “Because we’ll still have to stop by my place before we can leave, and Jack’s expecting us before dinner.”

“Great,” Cameron muttered, finally figuring out that Jack wasn’t just the symbolic patriarchal figure of the group but that Cameron would probably actually have to ask Jack’s permission to court Daniel. Without letting on that he and Daniel hadn’t actually had sex yet. Piece of cake.

**

Driving with Daniel was a life-changing experience. Cameron was used to going speeds that defied convention, but usually it was because he was flying a government issued multimillion-dollar plane. Daniel did it because he thought the carpool lane was overcrowded. Cameron had his eyes focused on the dashboard and stopped even looking up as Daniel veered and changed speeds with a leaden foot.

What he wanted to do was cover his eyes and shriek like a girl when Daniel narrowly avoided raking the side of a church bus. Instead he listened as Daniel chatted on about this and that, encouraged by Cameron’s interest in the artifacts kept at Daniel’s house. Cameron really didn’t need to know anything more about Egyptian fertility rituals, but it kept Daniel from noticing his white knuckles.

It was fascinating, how much Daniel knew about ancient cultures and traditions and was able to relate them back to modern ideas. It reminded Cameron of the last humanities class he’d taken in college when he hadn’t needed the credit but the professor had been hot with a British accent. Cameron would have failed the class, except that the professor started tutoring him on weekends. He pulled a “B” in the class, and learned how to give blowjobs.

“And that was how I found the lock to fit the key,” Daniel finished, turning his head to grin proudly at Cameron, and swerved slightly off the road.

Cameron shook his head, half in exasperation and half in pure admiration. “You’ve got more balls than I’d know what to do with,” he said thinking back to his own time overseas and how the brass had told them never to stray off the beaten paths and never alone.

“It was nothing, really,” Daniel said honestly if not modestly. “Once I figured out how their market and currency varied, it was easy to manipulate it.”

They’d been driving on a dirt road for the last ten minutes and it had been twenty since Cameron had seen any sign of civilization at all. Finally Daniel slowed down and turned up a long winding driveway. After a last curve a large sprawling estate came into view. Cameron’s eyes widened, that was no mere ‘cabin’.

“That’s not a moon, that’s a space station,” Cameron muttered under his breath, but he saw Daniel’s smile widen in response. “All right, fess up. Just what kind of firm do you belong to that you get to travel the world outsmarting the local secret police and keeping a mansion as a retreat home?”

“Research and---” Daniel stuck out the tip of his tongue biting it between his teeth as he maneuvered the jeep past several already parked cars underneath an overhang.

“And?” Cameron prompted, seeing another building or two that had been hidden behind the two story house.

“Acquisition,” Daniel answered, putting the jeep in park and taking out the keys.

“’Acquisition’,” Cameron repeated, his mind clipping along at what Daniel was possibly trying to get at. Suddenly, in a flash, he had an insight, “Holy shit, you’re like Indiana Jones!” After a thought, he added, “But paid better.”

Daniel grinned and got out of the jeep, calling flippantly over his shoulder, “No, I don’t wear a hat.”

Cameron followed shaking his head; at least since the party the pain in his leg had become a dull ache and much more manageable. He bent it easily to swing out of the car and pick his bag up out of the back. Daniel was waiting on him to close the door, but Cameron couldn’t help pausing to run his fingers through Daniel’s hair. “It’s just as well, hat hair isn’t very sexy,” he said, tugging a little on a turf he caught between his fingers.

For a second he imagined himself curling his hand tighter and pinning Daniel to the back of the Jeep. He would tuck his nose under the curve of Daniel’s ear and suck on his neck hard enough to leave a bruise. His thigh would slide between Daniel’s legs and he’d start rocking their hips together until he couldn’t hold himself back and thrust up until they both came flying apart. Somewhere close by a door slammed, jolting Cameron out of his daydream and Daniel away from his hand.

“Finally! You guys missed the opening gambit of games. Sara and I cleaned up at charades,” Jack called out from the back of the carport, his voice easily carrying. “You’re going to have to be pretty spectacular to catch up now.”

“You did that on purpose!” Daniel accused, shooting Cameron one last confused look before turning to walk toward Jack. “You’re still upset because I beat your high score at Scattergories.”

Jack was close enough now that Cameron could see the easy grin and the way he sauntered across the grounds. He stopped in speaking distance, shoving his hands in his front pockets and rocking up on his toes. “Daniel, you wound me!” he said, jerking his hands up to clasp over his heart. “Thinking that I’d hold a grudge and ruthlessly use any advantage I can to finally put you in your place.” His grin got wider, before he carefully wiped his face and shook his head sadly. “It’s like you don’t know me at all.”

“Or I know you too well,” Daniel muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes. “So where did you put us?”

“Honeymoon suite,” Jack answered with a smirk.

Cameron decided by the purple color of Daniel’s face that now would be a good time to break into the conversation. “This is a nice place you got here. I kept looking around to see when the Budweiser Clydesdales were going to come prancing out,” he said teasing and placing a hand on the back of Daniel’s shoulders.

“It is paradise, but even we have our limits,” Jack replied, eyeing Cameron up and down, and apparently coming to some conclusion. “Well come on, we’ll get you settled in.”

**

“So,” Daniel said, shifting his feet on the hardwood floor and looking at everything but the bed that dominated the room. It was a large bed, but if Daniel was the kind to move around in his sleep, then there was no way they wouldn’t touch at least a little. “You can have the bed; I’ll just make a place on the floor.”

Inside, the house was tastefully and sparsely decorated with some of the rooms having a masculine or feminine feel, but most were pleasantly neutral. Their bedroom was decorated in blue, and had its own bathroom attached. Jack had left them with a smirk, mentioning to them that they probably had fifteen minutes before someone came after them, but that was all he could ‘almost’ promise.

“It’s big enough for both of us, and I promise to behave myself,” Cameron said, and though he was trying for casual, he might have been a little overeager to get Daniel to bed with him. “Besides, I wouldn’t put any bets on these people respecting a closed door,” he added dumping his bag on one side of the bed and thinking back to Vala giving them the eyeball as they walked through. “You’re all too close for that, and I get the feeling you’re like a little brother to them; bratty and fun to pick on.”

A pinched look came over Daniel’s face, and he sighed, “Hit the nail on the head with that one.” He rolled his eyes and then his shoulders, tossing his bag into the corner while carefully putting his laptop on the dresser. “But won’t they think it’s odd if they see us and we’re not …” Daniel raised his eyebrows in a gesture of significance.

Cameron winked, hoping that he could get Daniel to feel more at ease, “Not every guy likes to cuddle afterward, Daniel.”

“Oh yeah,” Daniel said slowly, but started unpacking his bag and putting away his clothing in the drawers. The line of his shoulders was still tight, but at least he wasn’t fighting anymore.

Once again, Cameron had to be content with the little bit of ground he’d gained, knowing that Daniel wouldn’t be giving much more. He still couldn’t figure out what Vala had done to make Daniel so gun shy when it came to relationships or letting Cameron close. Once he did though, he’d be able to fix it and finally get as close to Daniel as he wanted too.

**

Cameron shouldn’t have been surprised to find out that Jack ran his house with a military precision. Meal times proved to be a complicated schedule and bartering system among partners. Though they were assigned to make dinner every other day , breakfast and lunch proved to be either a do-it-yourself, or beg, borrow and steal from someone who did make it themselves.

He and Daniel were paired up with Sam and Martouf, who had a British accent while claiming Egyptian heritage, to make spaghetti and all the fixings. Cameron had gleaned from overheard conversations that Daniel and Jack weren’t allowed to cook together anymore after the Great Grease Fire of ’04. Sam and Daniel moved around each other with practiced ease and Martouf too found a niche chopping veggies and cheese for the salad. Cameron felt ungainly and in the way until Daniel smiled at him and nudged him over to the stove, putting him in charge of the sauce.

That, he knew how to do, and the kitchen was well stocked with herbs and spices. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Martouf bend Sam over in a low dip and kiss her senseless. The net time Daniel reached across him for the salt, Cameron leaned in and kissed the corner of his eye. Daniel looked back in surprise but leaned back in to return the peck as a closed mouth kiss against Cameron’s lips.

Turning back to his sauce, Cameron smiled, that peck wasn’t any sort of grand romantic gesture, but it was the first time Daniel had initiated anything. Cameron stirred the sauce waiting for it to begin bubbling in the middle. Whatever his motivation was for accepting Jack’s invitation, this vacation was doing wonders for his state of mind. He’d even been jotting down chapter notes for his book.

He tasted the sauce, sweet and tangy to perfection, a rich red with fleck of seasoning, and held out his spoon to Daniel. “Here, try this.”

“No thanks,” Daniel said, not looking over, but keeping his attention on the leftover dough he was shaping into buns for later meals.

A little disappointed at Daniel’s distraction, Cameron let the spoon fall back in the sauce and turned the heat down, “Okay.”

“Really?” Daniel asked, his head jerking up as he finally looked at Cameron. Cameron raised an eyebrow, for the moment completely confused by Daniel’s behavior until the other man continued. “I mean, you tell me to do something, I say ‘no’ and then you let it drop?”

Cameron’s eyebrows drew together as he answered, bemused, “Well, yeah.”

This time when Daniel lunged, Cameron laughed and caught him by the hips, letting Daniel grab his head to bring their lips together. This kiss was not the desperate crash of lips, but a smooth press, warm and solid. Daniel’s hands gentled on his cheeks, the pads of his fingers tracing lightly over Cameron’s temples until Cameron sighed into their kiss.

Daniel pulled back with his eyes still closed, but when he opened them, he broke into a chuckle. Cameron opened his mouth, but before he could ask Daniel dipped his fingers in the flour still left out on the counter, and swiped his fingers across Cameron’s face. He danced away before Cameron could retaliate, but not before Cameron fell just a little bit farther in love.

***************************************************

Waking up alone the third morning at Jack’s house wasn’t quite a surprise as it was just par the course since they had arrived. Cameron stretched, enjoying the feeling of lying in the center of the bed and not touching the edges but then winced pulling back at a twinge in his leg. The air from the window smelled heavy and wet; Cameron bet ten to one that a storm was on the way.

The sheet bunched around his waist and his sleeping pants had ridden up his calves. Wearing them had been a pain in the ass, but he’d slept in them since the first night when Daniel had achieved a new level of scarlet as Cameron stripped down to his boxers. Daniel took his clothes to the bathroom to change and Cameron had sighed, slipping on the pajama bottoms and suffered through the nights.

He pushed the sheet down and considered taking himself in hand but decided against it. He’d tried yesterday, slick fist sliding fast but just when things were getting good, he’d heard Vala yelling about tampons and that had killed any chance of getting off. Instead of trying today, he got up and walked to the window, where the view would have been spectacular looking over the lake if it hadn’t been for the dark rolling clouds overhead.

Something about the heavy air had made him sleep longer than usual so when he found his way to the kitchen, he had to content himself with milk and cereal. He felt better than he had for a long time; he hadn’t realized how much the noises of the city grated on his nerves. Notes pinned to the fridge told him that Jack and Sara had gone to a movie, Sam and Martouf were shopping and Daniel was out on a run.

Cameron sighed, thinking about it for all his attempts he hadn’t managed to get any alone time with Daniel yet. Different members of the group regularly disappeared together within the house, but Cameron hadn’t been privy to those meetings. Through the games, cooking and other activities, he and Daniel were always with people or in bed, and that was still just a little too intimate for Cameron’s taste. He just wanted to see if Daniel thought they could actually have a real relationship, or if this was all Cameron was going to get.

The wondering was starting to eat way at his gut, and he knew from experience that his hopes were far too high given the evidence he had. He just couldn’t help himself, these people made him feel alive in a way that he hadn’t felt since he lost his team. That pain still hurt, an ache on the level with the throb of his leg, but lately the thought that he could make a new family encroached on his solitude.

He took his bowl and wandered through the hallway, Teal’c, Krista, and Vala were sacked out in the living room watching a movie. After a few moments he recognized the opening sequence of Terminator 2, and spared a second to be glad that it wasn’t Old School again.

Krista smiled at him from her place sprawled across Tea’c’s chest on the couch. She looked even smaller that her natural petite stature when she was framed by Teal’c’s bulk. Cameron liked her, she had a sunny and bright personality that stood out against the dry and sarcastic humor of everyone else in their group. He’d seen them gentle their natural tendency to stomp all over the line of good taste and instead merely toe it for her.

”You arrive in good time, Cameron Mitchell,” Teal’c said inclining his head toward Cameron his deep voice carrying over the movie.

Cameron still couldn’t figure out where Teal’c came from originally, but Cameron found the odd turn of phrase quickly endearing. He was pretty sure Teal’c could pound him into the ground easier that Cameron could bury a tent peg. Teal’c was so gentle with everything he touched from Krista to home improvement tools that Cameron would probably trust the other man with his life.

“Yeah, pull up a chair,” Vala drawled from the recliner where she draped herself over both arms with a bowl of popcorn propped on her stomach. Her hair was in pigtails, the ends trailing down over her chest partially curling under the thin material of her tank top.

Sitting down on the empty loveseat, Cameron tried to watch the movie, but often found himself staring at the space in front of the television. Vala was high strung, swifter to change than the summer wind back home, and highly opinionated. He’d also found out that she was fiercely loyal, hardworking, and had a quirky sense of humor. She defied any box that Cameron tried to fit her in, and he only knew that she was completely wrong for Daniel. Though he didn’t know the whole story, he guessed they’d only gotten together by Vala’s browbeating.

He couldn’t reconcile that image with the peppy, pretty girl sitting across from him trying to throw popcorn up to catch in her mouth and missing by a mile. She wasn’t an evil, Daniel whipping monster, but she certainly didn’t go out of her way to make either Daniel or Cameron feel comfortable around her. She didn’t act heartbroken; didn’t act as if she cared at all. Sarah Connor appeared on the screen and Cameron spent a moment imagining a different Vala fighting impossible odds for her own freedom.

A peal of thunder startled him just as the Terminator was saving Sarah from the psyche ward. He quickly glanced out the window to see the wind beating the branches and stirring up leaves to pound against the windows. A moment later, the first fat drops fell to the ground, gaining momentum quickly until rain was falling in droning sheets. Lightening flashed across the sky that suddenly darkened, and the thunder boomed drowning out the television.

The rain continued unchecked for the next twenty minutes, adding its own momentum to the rising action of the movie. The lights flashed and then went out, leaving the room washed in the odd brown from the filtered light through the clouds. Vala booed, letting her head fall back so that her hair nearly brushed the floor. Cameron was about to get up when he heard the front door slam open and shut.

Daniel appeared in the entryway, soaking wet and shivering, his t-shirt and cotton shorts clinging to him and leaving nothing to the imagination. A puddle was forming at his feet, and he was leaving a trail of large drops of water that fell to the carpet every time he moved. His hair was plastered to his skull, and he looked like nothing so much as a waterlogged and miserable cat.

“It’s raining,” Daniel said, his teeth chattering until he clenched his jaws together and clasped his hands together. He kept his eyes downcast, his skin dark with cold.

“Indeed,” Teal’c replied, a smirk hidden in his voice if not on his face.

Vala was staring at Daniel’s crotch.

Rolling his eyes, Cameron heaved himself out of the chair, eager both to take care of Daniel and get him away from Vala. “Come on Rainman,” he said walking over to the hallway, “let’s get you warm and dried off.”

Cameron grabbed Daniel’s hand, threading their fingers together and tugged until Daniel followed him down the hallway. Jack kept the house warm, especially since it had been threatening rain all week, but Daniel’s hand was cold, the hair on his arms standing up with goosebumps. He’d been outside the entire time, running in the cold, he’d be lucky if he didn’t end up sick.

They walked in silence broken only by Daniel’s noisy breathing and shivering until Cameron gave up and pulled Daniel to him. His own clothes were quickly soaked, but enough of his warmth leeched over to Daniel and Cameron could tell the other man’s shivering lessened. It was awkward going, but it was just a little farther.

“Thanks,” Daniel stuttered as he reached his hands up to rub some circulation in his arms.

Cameron replied only with a grunt, waiting until they made it inside their room before he said, “Strip out of your clothes and we’ll get you dried off and in bed.”

Stalling out next to the bed, Daniel shivered even harder than before, his entire body taken over by violent shakes. Cameron turned Daniel around to face him, pulling up on the hem of Daniel’s shirt. He gathered the sodden, cold material up in his fingers, trying to keep it away from Daniel’s skin as he shifted it up. Getting it over Daniel’s head, Cameron had to smile at the wet spikes of hair that poked from his skull in every direction.

He dumped the shirt on the floor, and then carefully, without looking up at Daniel’s face, put his fingers under the band of Daniel’s shorts. He tugged shorts and underwear down together, carefully easing the material down past Daniel’s groin until he could drop it to the ground. Daniel’s skin was white and wrinkled from being soaked for so long, it was tantalizingly close, but Cameron pulled away and straightened up.

“Sit down,” Cameron said gently putting a hand to the center of Daniel’s chest and easing him back until Daniel tipped over to bounce on the bed. “You’re on your own with your socks and shoes. I’ll be right back with a towel.”

His leg was aching just enough to force him to favor it as he limped into the bathroom to grab the towel Daniel had used last night. When he walked back out to the bedroom, he found Daniel huddled in on himself, arms crossed over his waist and knees pressed tightly together. Something tugged in his heart comparing Daniel to Oliver Twist, the poor little orphan that nobody wanted.

Starting at the top, Cameron gently ruffled through Daniel’s hair with the towel. He ran it across Daniel’s shoulders and down his arms pausing a moment to spread out Daniel’s hands and rub some color back into them. Cameron sat on the bed and leaned around to swipe at the small of Daniel’s back and then down his legs. He hooked an arm against Daniel and pulled, “C’mon, upsy-daisy.”

When Daniel was standing, Cameron gave him the towel to dry off his more intimate areas and turned to Daniel’s appropriated drawers to find a clean pair of boxers. He should be given a sainthood for how much he wasn’t ogling Daniel’s naked body. Daniel just looked so very vulnerable with the shivers, Cameron felt a physical need to take care of the other man.

He held the boxers open low enough for Daniel to step into and waited. Daniel placed a now burning hand on Cameron’s shoulder and leaned to slip one leg and then the other through the shorts. Through the window, Cameron could see the sky darkening, promising the storm would get worse before it got better.

Cameron pulled down the still rumpled blankets and pushed Daniel back to sit on the sheet. “How about a midmorning nap?” he asked though he wasn’t actually going to give Daniel a choice. Daniel was exhausted from his run and the cold, making Cameron tired by osmosis.

“Sounds good,” Daniel murmured already falling back against the pillow, and curling up so that his back arched and his shoulders hunched. He looked as if any second he’d suck his thumb into his mouth and sigh in contentment.

Smiling, Cameron pulled the blanket up to cover Daniel’s shoulder and walked to the other side of the bed. He slipped his jeans off and pulled his shirt over his head, leaving him clad only in his preferred boxer-briefs. Daniel didn’t move as Cameron settled against his back, curling his knees to fit comfortably behind Daniel’s.

Daniel melted back, relaxing and resting some of his weight on Cameron’s chest. “Thanks,” he said, sleep rough voice barely audible over the pounding rain.

“S’what friends are for,” Cameron said giving into temptation and resting a hand over Daniel’s hip. He pushed his nose into the back of Daniel’s neck and sighed falling into sleep himself.

**

He woke up with Daniel pressed as tight as he could get against Cameron’s side with one arm thrown across his chest and calf over his shin. Daniel’s head curled over his shoulder, sharing a pillow and blowing soft puffs of breath against Cameron’s neck. His leg had subsided, but a new ache had taken up residence at his groin though it was slightly more pleasant.

Right then, Cameron decided that was what heaven was, except for up there his bladder probably wouldn’t betray him again. Slipping away from Daniel was harder than he would have thought as Daniel followed him all the way to the edge of the bed, migrating to keep close to Cameron’s warmth.

Cameron guessed they’d been asleep for a couple of hours and glanced at the neon numbers shining from the dresser. It was early afternoon but he wouldn’t have been able to tell from looking out the window where wind and water were still beating against the glass. The power or backup generators must have kicked in at some point because he could feel warm air circulating from the vents.

He left the door open using the light from the window to see by so he wouldn’t wake Daniel with a careless flash. A moment later he flushed the toilet, wincing at how loud it was and eased back through the door to find Daniel sitting up. His face was puffy, eyes still slitted in sleep, and hands falling slack between his knees.

“Hey,” Cameron said forcing his legs to keep going even though all he really wanted to do was wait until his heart settled down and he could make conversation like the nearly forty year old he was.

“Hey,” Daniel replied, or tried to before a yawn split across his face. He stood as Cameron came closer to the bed and weaved on his feet, reaching out a hand to Cameron’s waist to catch his balance.

Trying to save himself, Daniel knocked Cameron over and he had to twist to end up sitting on the bed with his legs splayed. Daniel stood in the vee of Cameron’s legs, bent over with his hands on Cameron’s shoulders and face inches from Cameron’s own. His eyes were shining without the shield of his glasses and clearer than the wide blue sky. Cameron straightened his spine, reaching up to brush his lips over Daniel’s before pulling back.

Cameron put his hands on the back of Daniel’s thighs to reel him closer between Cameron’s knees. Already he could see the telltale lift to the material over Daniel’s crotch, a slight gap in the slit of Daniel’s black boxers. He pushed his face there, rolling to the side so he could rest his cheek in the crease of Daniel’s groin while softly blowing across the opening.

Above him, Daniel grunted and clutched the back of Cameron’s neck, his fingers digging into the tendons. He still hadn’t said anything, but the soft sounds Daniel was making sent sparks straight to Cameron’s groin. It had been a long time since Cameron had given a blowjob, before his last deployment making the time frame just over a year. He missed it, the scent and the feeling of hard muscle under his tongue. It had been much longer since he had a steady partner, lonely nights wishing he hadn’t missed a chance at happiness.

He curled his hand around, petting down the outside of Daniel’s thigh and up the inside reaching to cup Daniel’s balls in the palm of his hand, rolling them with the thin cotton material. He moved his head down to mouth them, smiling at the tremor he felt go through Daniel’s body. Cameron exhaled softly letting his warm breath settle over Daniel, letting his tongue wet the cloth.

Again he pulled Daniel’s boxers off, but this time he paid much closer attention to the flesh he slowly revealed. A dark dusting of hair pointed him down from Daniel’s belly button, widening to frame Daniel’s half hard cock, a deep flush against the white skin from waist to mid thigh. Cameron let the boxers fall to the floor, running his hands over Daniel’s heated skin. He could probably spend on hour touching everything but Daniel’s cock, skating his fingers close but never close enough until one of them couldn’t take it anymore.

But not this time, he knew the first time shouldn’t be a tease.

Cameron twisted his head until his hair brushed Daniel’s stomach, and careful to keep his teeth covered with his lips, began mouthing up Daniel’s flesh until he reached the tip. Making a tight ring with his mouth, Cameron slipped his head down Daniel’s cock, not taking too much in, but concentrating on running his tongue along the underside paying careful attention to the head.

He’d never got the hang of deep throating and he blamed a popsicle incident when he was six, but most guys didn’t mind. Most guys couldn’t tell the difference, honestly. He hummed, tilting his head back and watching Daniel’s mouth fall open and his neck flex, highlighting the tendons and hollows of his throat. He was beautiful, the most wonderful thing Cameron had seen for months.

Daniel was arching his hips, pushing forward and easing back with a surprising gentleness and Cameron let him, only shifting his head a little to avoid his gag reflex. Daniel was fully hard now, a comfortable weight pushing down on Cameron’s tongue, filling his mouth with taste. Strong fingers combed over his scalp and through his hair before dropping down to trace his eyebrows and nose. Cameron shivered at the touch, closing his eyes and swallowing reflexively.

Here was everything he ever wanted and wouldn’t let himself have. The job came first, it always had, even before there was a job, but now, now he finally had the chance to fix what he’d done wrong. Cameron moaned, letting the sound vibrate down Daniel’s cock, and clutched Daniel’s hips hard enough that he could feel the bone beneath muscle. He snuck a hand down to his own groin, pushing his palm roughly down over the bulge between his legs.

It wouldn’t take much to get him over the edge; the first bitter taste of Daniel’s come sent him rocking into his hand and a moment later he was shooting off in his boxers still swallowing desperately around the cock in his mouth. He pulled off, gasping for breath and resting his forehead on Daniel’s belly, sharing the moisture from his temples with the sweat from Daniel’s skin.

Three loud bangs on the door startled them, making Daniel spring back and scramble for the bathroom. Cameron groaned and fell back on the bed, raising a hand to run over his hair and down over his face. His briefs were wet and sticky, too tight against his skin that still ached for touch.

“Come on you lovebirds!” Jack’s gravelly voice called through the door in a sing song. “We’re going out for Chinese! Thirty minutes, so finish up and get downstairs!”

Cameron sighed and let his arm flop back to the bed. From the bathroom he could hear the sound of water running and a few moments later the subtle difference of Daniel splashing the water on the shower door. Outside the rain had finally slackened to a settled beat though the lightening still flashed with startling regularity as it moved off into the distance.

Since Daniel was making use of the bathroom, Cameron sat up and stripped in the room, using his wasted underwear to mop himself up as best he could. It would be uncomfortable, but he’d probably be able to make it through dinner without sticking to anything. He’d just pulled on a new pair of jeans when another knock came on the door.

He pulled the door open to find Vala with her arm up ready to knock again. Her eyebrows were drawn together and her full lips set in a tight line that made her look both angry and determined. Cameron watched her eyes rake down his bare chest and he’d never felt so naked in his life. Her nostrils flared and she tossed her head, flinging her hair over her shoulder.

“Don’t talk, just listen,” she said, cutting off anything Cameron was going to say with an abortive hand gesture through the air. “I just wanted to say that I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life and Daniel has been on the receiving end of more than his fair share.”

She was looking past his shoulder, eyes an unbelievable mixture of hardness and vulnerability finally showing Cameron just why Daniel had gotten involved with her in the first place. Cameron shifted on his feet, crossing his arms over his chest and trying hard not to compare himself to her. There was no comparison.

“I didn’t like you,” Vala said, finally meeting Cameron’s eyes and cocking her head. “But I saw you today, how you looked at him. I still love him.” She dipped her head again, bringing her own arms up to mirror Cameron’s position. “I think I always will.”

Cameron’s heart dropped down to his knees and his throat dried up, but Vala bulldozed right past his misery.

“What I’m trying to say is that if you hurt him, I’ll personally make sure that you die a horribly painful and embarrassing death,” Vala poked him in the chest, hard with one perfectly manicured finger. She met his eyes one last time leaving him with no doubt that she meant what she said before flouncing down the hallway.

Stunned, Cameron belatedly let the door shift shut and turned back into the room. He snorted, shaking his head at the girl; Vala was a spitfire, no doubt about that. Somehow he felt better, lighter even with the threat of impending doom hanging over his head. Pulling a tee shirt over his head, Cameron wondered what he had done right to deserve a break like Daniel.

He was fully dressed when Daniel stepped out of the bathroom, just picking up his hoodie from the dresser to take downstairs with him. Daniel only had a towel wrapped around his slim hips; the water that dripped down his neck set a fire in Cameron’s lower stomach. Daniel stuttered to a stop, looking at Cameron like a deer caught in the flood lights. He flushed backing away toward the dresser and turning to put his back to Cameron.

Cameron couldn’t help but walk over and smooth his hands down the tense muscles of Daniel’s back. He pressed himself against Daniel and kissed a bare shoulder before he frowned as Daniel wound himself even tighter, curling away from Cameron.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” Cameron started, letting go and stepping back, wondering if he should begin with Vala, or his feelings. He was amazed that talking about emotions just barely beat out bringing up Vala’s tactic approval. “I just wanted to tell you that this past week has been -”

“Cameron, I’m straight,” Daniel blurted, turning around his hands were white knuckled over a grip in one of Cameron’s shirts. He blushed so furiously that his face was almost purple, and his eyes didn’t lift above a point somewhere to the left of Cameron’s shoulder.

Well, fuck. Cameron thought.

*****************************************

Dinner had been a disaster. The tension between Daniel and Cameron was tougher than the curried beef at the bottom of the buffet tub. They sat across from each other, jerking away at each accidental touch and trying desperately to make conversation with the people on either side of them. Jack glared at them until the food came and then his look turned speculative and finally troubled.

Cameron hadn’t managed to get much down; mostly he only pushed the food around his plate and tried to add what he could to the conversations Sam and Martouf were having. In the beginning Daniel had tried to talk to him, soft verbal tugging that Cameron brushed off with a louder conversation with someone else. He was hurt, confused, and despite all the sleep he’d had - exhausted.

No wonder he’d never been good at political games, he took people at face value. With him what people saw was what they got, just a regular guy trying to get through life. He’d known he was playing a game pretending to be Daniel’s significant other, but he’d never guessed that the stakes would be his heart. He’d been so stupid.

It was a great relief when Jack had picked up the check and he could escape outside in a mob with the others. He managed to score a spot in the back of the suburban between Krista and Teal’c and sat back listening to the others argue about who could eat the most crab rangoon. He sat back until he realized that once back to the house he would have to find a different sleeping arrangement because there was no way he was slipping back into bed with Daniel.

Thankfully, Jack had other ideas.

**

Cameron watched the porn with all the fascination of someone rubbernecking a car wreck. Somehow he doubted if the others cared whether Heather managed to escape from the clutches of the ironically named Sunny, just whether she managed to do it with her pants on. Jack’s version of ‘guys’ night out’ actually just included a trek out to the hunting lodge on the far side of the grounds, a lot of beer, and the worst porn Cameron had ever seen.

The credits rolled and Jack clicked it off settling back with a satisfied sigh. He looked over at Cameron, immediately sliding into a sheepish grin. “Sorry about that, Cam,” he said, not looking very apologetic at Cameron’s discomfort at all. “Next time we’ll get something with a guy or two in it.”

“And Sara just lets you watch this stuff?” Cameron asked, amazed again at the woman’s trust and character. Anyone who let Jack watch Lesbian Vampire Beach Bunnies from Outer Space had to have a few cards up her sleeves.

Teal’c burst into a deep belly laugh, his whole face scrunching together as he slumped further down in the couch. It was just a good thing his beer bottle was empty or he would have sloshed it everywhere. He must have had twice as much as the rest of them and it was finally beginning to show.

“Cameron,” Jack said with an exasperated air that was most likely a put on. “What do you think the girls are doing tonight?”

Like a deer in the headlights, Cameron got caught up wondering which would be more awkward – lesbian sex here or trying to watch gay porn with a bunch of women. He didn’t even like most porn, it was just stupid. No one had sex like that. He’d read an article about actors who went ‘gay for pay’ and got so mad he’d had to throw the magazine away.

Something of what he was thinking must have shown on his face because Martouf took pity on him. “Actually, they’re watching Lifetime movies,” he said putting his feet up on the low coffee table. “Sara and Sam save them up and watch them when the girls get together.”

For a moment, Cameron didn’t know which the more disturbing image was, the girls watching porn or bawling over the outrageous plotlines, “Oh. Jackson must be having a ball over there.”

“I believe he brought a film called Family Album last time that the women could not decide to laugh or cry over,” Teal’c added with an actual smirk splayed across his mouth.

“All right, kiddos,” Jack said standing and clapping his hands together in front of him. His tee shirt had the Greek letters Tau, Kappa, and Beta emblazoned on the front with a picture of a mug of beer and the caption ‘Tappa Kegga Beer!’. “I’m off for bed. Cameron, I’ll get you up at the butt-crack of dawn, and we’ll go bag dinner.”

“Great, can’t wait,” Cameron said, stifling his instinct to slump and sigh. Jack winked at him, clucking his tongue and waving a finger before disappearing down the hallway. Cameron turned to the other guys, “I’m going to make it out alive, right?”

Teal’c stood, placing his empty bottle back in the case and pulling out a new one. On his way back to his seat, he detoured to Cameron’s seat and put a hand on Cameron’s shoulder. “It has been a pleasure to know you.”

At this point, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing, Cameron thought as Teal’c hit the play button on the video again.

Once again, Martouf came to his rescue, “Mostly we figured that Jack and Vala went to the arcade when they went out because dinner always came back in plastic shrink wrap.”

Cameron let his head fall back on the seat rest.

**

In the morning, the woods were full of fog and mist, but thankfully not rain. The orange vest Cameron wore was beaded with moisture but his layers and windbreaker kept him warm and dry as he trailed after Jack. They’d been at it for an hour so far, circling in the woods until Cameron was completely turned around.

Jack hadn’t pressed when Cameron politely refused the rifle Jack tried to hand him. He was more than content to enjoy the early morning air and quiet to try to sort out his feelings. Somehow, things had seemed clearer after a good night’s sleep.

Daniel had used him. Badly.

He’d been set up and knocked down by the first pretty face he’d trusted since his whole life had crashed down around his ears. It shouldn’t have surprised him, he’d always been a sucker for blue eyes, and Daniel had needed him, not tried to baby him like the others had. Even his family had become stifling after he was released from the hospital, which was why he’d ended up so far from home.

He wish he’d never met Daniel, even the numbness he’d been living in before was better than the ache in his stomach now.

“If you brood any louder, there won’t be anything left in the woods but you,” Jack said breaking into Cameron’s thoughts.

Cameron jerked up, realizing that Jack had come to a stop and turned around to face back. “Sorry,” Cameron said, sighing and taking the last few steps to catch up. “I guess I’m not very good company, this morning.”

“I suppose that’s what happens when your pretend relationship goes up in smoke,” Jack drawled and then snorted at Cameron’s look of shock. “Oh, for crying out loud! I’ve known Daniel for ten years, like he could slip this past me. I just figured he had his reasons for trying to get you into bed.”

“Daniel’s straight,” Cameron said in a dead voice wishing he just would have left last night like he’d wanted to. Apparently their charade had never worked, all his pain was for nothing.

Jack doubled over in laughter, his braying guffaws echoing through the woods. When he finally straightened back up he had to wipe tears out of the corners of his eyes, but when he saw Cameron’s face immediately got himself under control, “Oh, you were serious. I don’t know who’s more confused, you or him.”

“What do you mean by that?” Cameron asked, trying to muster up his anger but just ending up confused by Jack’s quicksilver demeanor.

“You kids’ll figure out eventually,” Jack said, shaking his head. “He just needs a little time to analyze it to death. That’s the way he does things.”

“I don’t know,” Cameron started doubtfully, even if Daniel did decide to give him a chance, it still seemed like a risk too large to chance. If he was upset now, how would it feel the next time Daniel decided to shove him away.

Jack set his rifle on the ground, and cocked his hip. “I had Martouf hack into your records, Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, retired USAF. It seems you built a career of following your gut.”

Cameron narrowed his eyes, his voice getting low and tone dangerous, “Yeah, I found the hard way how that turned out.”

“I’m going to give you a revolutionary piece of advice,” Jack said, not at all impressed with Cameron’s attempt at intimidation. “Get over it. Whatever happened, you were cleared. Get over it and move on. Be happy.”

Fire and flames amid death and rot, a long drop and sudden impact. Yelling, crying and morbid laughter. Ash, dirt, and gun powder. Pain and then worse: nothing.

“You can tell Daniel,” Jack said, softly, his voice breaking through Cameron’s flashback with a tone surprisingly sympathetic. “He’s had his own tragedies, he’ll understand.”

Cameron wiped angrily at his face, and glared at Jack, but somehow felt better than before they’d started their talk. His voice was rough and he had to clear his throat before he finally managed to speak, “Are we going to hug and sing Kum Ba Ya, now?”

Jack laughed, clapping Cameron on the shoulder, “I like you, Cam. You fit right in.”

An explosion shattered their easy camaraderie and silence through the forest, startling the birds into taking flight and making Jack and Cameron whip their heads around. “What the - ,” Cameron started.

“It’s the house!” Jack yelled taking off at a run, ducking around a tree and out of Cameron’s line of sight.

Cursing, Cameron followed as fast as he could, but his days of an all out run were long over. Plus, it didn’t take long to lose his sense of direction and only another loud bang shifted him back to the right and the house. The explosions sounded like small, localized grenades, most likely flash-bangs from what Cameron remembered.

He broke the tree line behind the back store house, and jerked to a stop. Cameron’s chest burned with the need to pant for air, but he clamped down, unwilling to chance the noise. He knew he’d made the right decision when he saw a young black man skulking around the perimeter, wearing faded military fatigues and carrying a large weapon.

Wishing now that he’d taken the rifle that Jack had offered earlier, his fingers twitched for a trigger to wrap around. Lacking anything else, he picked up a sturdy tree branch and experimentally swung it accepting the weight with his shoulder. He’d never been on the caveman’s side of the argument before, but now was as good as any time to see if he could take on an astronaut. Or military guerilla, as the case may be.

He saw a flash go by on the extreme peripheral of his vision, and he turned his head just in time to see Jack duck behind the barn. By his route, Cameron knew he hadn’t seen the perimeter guard circle out to come up on Jack’s six. All at once, Cameron snapped into battle mode, shutting off all his aches and pains and narrowing his focus to only his objective.

Luckily the intruder was similarly focused and in the direction opposite from where Cameron was creeping up on him. It took time, too much time, but Cameron didn’t have the opportunity to think about what must be going on inside the house. With three long strides that he would pay for sooner rather than later, he was behind the man and brought the branch down hard on the back of his skull.

With a dull thud, the body fell to the ground, limp and motionless.

Cameron hissed, and hopped a short step on his good leg wishing like hell he had some of his pain meds on him. He leaned down and searched for a pulse, thankful when he found it strong in the kid’s neck. Up close, Cameron discovered that the intruder was probably only in his mid twenties.

From the house, he heard a crash and several muffled yells. Grabbing the kid’s fallen weapon, Cameron began the process of ducking from cover to cover until he made the back porch. He found the door busted open and glass strewn through the entryway. His heart leapt in his chest thinking about these people who had taken him in being in so much danger.

He lifted the weapon to his chest and ducked his head in the room. It was a mess, but clear so he shifted inside, walking carefully to not crunch the glass beneath his boots. He was about to survey the hallway when Teal’c flew past and skidded to a stop on his back. Teal’c rolled and came up on his knees just in time to catch a giant of a man with his hair streaming in dreadlocks behind him.

They were stuck together and pretty evenly matched, Cameron could see the muscles straining on either one, but neither was giving an inch. He stepped out into the hallway intending to give Teal’c a hand, but had to turn the other way at strident feminine screams.

In the living room, Vala had yet another man caught up in a headlock as she easily evaded his flailing limbs. Cameron watched astonished as the man let loose with another high pitched yell and tried in vain to throw Vala off. If he was military like the last two then Cameron was a monkey’s uncle.

Vala looked up and saw him, loosing her concentration for a moment and letting the man out of her grip. “Cameron!” she yelled even as he got in a lucky hit and took her to the ground. She swung out with a leg and the man was instantly on his back grimacing in pain. “The upstairs study! They have Daniel!”

For a moment he was torn, but Vala would clearly come out the victor here if left alone, but if any more came in then she’d be outnumbered. Cameron turned on his heel back to the hallway and started climbing the stairs. Toward the top, he slowed straining his senses to catch any sign of more people. The study that Jack and the group periodically disappeared into was just to his right and he could just make out the soft sounds of conversation.

“Come on Dr. Jackson, just give me the combination to the safe and no one has to get hurt. Well, hurt anymore,” a man said, his voice a deceptive calm against the chaos running through the house. “You could always come work for us, you know. I promise the benefits would be better.”

“Yeah, but the coworkers suck,” Daniel mouthed off and Cameron’s heart leapt again, threatening to beat out of his chest.

From the directions of the voices in the room, Cameron took the chance to peek around the corner. There was a tall man, dressed again in the uniform the others were wearing, pointing a strange curved weapon at the middle of Daniel’s chest. His hair turfed from his head in a multitude of cowlicks, but he looked to be about the same age as Cameron or Daniel. He was obviously the leader here.

“I don’t have much patience to begin with Dr. Jackson, and it’s running out pretty fast. If you don’t give me what I want, I’ll just take the safe with me. It’ll take longer, and I’ll be very irritated, I doubt you’ll like me much when I’m irritated.”

Daniel looked a little worse for wear, he’d lost his glasses and his lip was bleeding. His shirt was torn across one shoulder and he was barefoot. Cameron thought he was beautiful. “Actually, I don’t like you much right now, so I’m not feeling very motivated,” Daniel said crossing his arms over his chest.

The man put a hand to his forehead, rubbing his temples in clear exasperation, “Fine, I’ll do this the hard way.” He lifted the weapon and the top popped up, the buzz of electricity bringing it to life.

Cameron didn’t know what was going on, but in the second or so that he had to choose, he made his decision. With a yell, he charged the room and dived between Daniel and his attacker. Blue light erupted around him and he felt like a thousand pins and needles had prickled him all at once. Then he knew nothing.

**

When he came around, Cameron felt heavy as if every muscle in his body had simultaneously fallen asleep. He didn’t bother to open his eyes, just tried to take stock of himself and his surroundings. At least through the fog that currently held his body, he couldn’t feel how much he would hurt after the stupidity of his heroics.

He was laying on something, his upper back and head slightly elevated from the rest of him. As he was trying to figure out where he was, he felt a hand brush over his forehead and down his cheek. The hand continued to pet him, tracing different paths over his nose and lips and back to finger through his hair. It was soothing, and felt wonderful as Cameron slowly regained control of his body.

“I know you’re awake,” Daniel said softly from immediately above him, his tone amused and affectionate at once. “You might as well open your eyes so I can thank you properly.”

“So,” Cameron said, experimentally, his throat and voice slow to respond, “not dead then?”

He opened his eyes and saw Daniel look down on him, his head upside down. Cameron realized he was lying on the floor with his head in Daniel’s lap, one of Daniel’s hands pressing down on his chest and the other running over Cameron’s face.

Daniel smiled, and it was dazzling, “No, not dead. You distracted him long enough for Jack to come through the window and take him out. He didn’t get a second shot off, so you were just stunned.”

“‘Just stunned’,” Cameron repeated, still confused over what had hit him. He’d never heard of an energy weapon that could do that, he thought they were all just lasers.

Daniel smiled again, his eyes crinkling at the edges and leaned down, pressing a kiss to Cameron’s lips. It was an odd angle, but after what Cameron had been through, it felt so good. Daniel slipped his tongue into Cameron’s mouth teasing until Cameron pushed his tongue against it and into Daniel’s mouth. Kissing upside down was the hottest thing Cameron had ever done, and too soon Daniel pulled back.

“What were you thinking, diving in like that?” Daniel asked, shaking his head and smoothing both hands down from Cameron’s temples to throat. “You’re such an idiot.”

Cameron smiled back up, finally knowing that things were going to work out, “Well, Jack did say that I’d fit in just fine here.”

**

Before the police even showed up, Jack and Teal’c had all the attackers piled together with their hands zip tied behind their backs. There were five all together, and Cameron found out that Sam and Martouf had been keeping the woman and her two billy-club-esque sticks busy on the front yard.

The girly screamer shoved his shoulder hard into the leader, a scowl twisting his already slanted mouth. “This is all your fault!” he yelled, face turning more red than it was before.

The leader just glared and pushed back, erupting into a shoving war between the two that threatened to spill both of them over onto their backs. Dreadlocks growled and the woman muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.

Teal’c walked over and nudged both their feet until he had their attention, “Do not make me render you unconscious.”

“I don’t understand,” Cameron said, leaning against Daniel’s warm bulk until the paramedics could check him over. “Who are they?”

“They,” Jack said, emphasizing the word from the far side of the room where he was letting Sara hold a cloth to a cut on his head, “are the competition.”

“Looters,” Daniel supplied helpfully.

“Cowards,” Teal’c said scowling at the captives.

“Third rate conmen,” Vala said, still angrily examining her broken nail to see if she could fix it.

“My boss isn’t going to stand for this, O’Neill,” the leader said, addressing Jack with a flip of his head.

Jack stood up and walked over, placing his hands on his hips and leaning down to look in the other man’s eyes, “Yeah, well I can’t wait to see what she cooks up now that her premiere team is going to jail.”

“I can’t go to jail! I have a delicate digestion,” the screamer wailed, slumping back on the leader who just rolled his eyes and took the other man’s weight.

Vala looked up, “Why didn’t we gag them?”

Jack just smirked and sauntered over to Daniel and Cameron, clasping them both on the shoulder. “Good job you two,” he said, smiling broadly and winking at Cameron. “Cam, if you ever want a job, there’s more than enough work to go around here.”

He had a lot to think about and even more to talk about with Daniel before Cameron would feel ready to make any kind of decision. Daniel tightened the arm he had slung around Cameron’s waist making Cameron grin. Then again, maybe it wouldn't be a hard choice after all, he was known for thinking with his gut, “I’ll let you know.”

“You do that,” Jack laughed and ruffled a hand through Daniel’s hair before going back to check on the rest of his family.

Family, yeah, Cameron could get used to that.

*****************************************

Cameron slipped hurriedly back into bed, tucking his feet into a fold in the blanket cursing the cold hardwood floors. Winter had come in swiftly and promised to stick around for the duration, piling snow on top of snow. Christmas was in a couple of week, and Cameron was anticipating it like he hadn’t since he was a child.

“Hey,” Daniel said sleepily rolling over to tuck his head against Cameron’s shoulder, pressing a soft kiss to the skin he found there. “I gotta tell you something.”

“Oh yeah?” Cameron asked, not worried at all about what sort of revelation Daniel thought he had. Cameron had found out that a sleepy Daniel was a Daniel full of silly secrets. He shifted so he could press his chilled body into Daniel’s warmth. “What’s that?”

Daniel always let Cameron warm his cold feet against Daniel’s flesh, willingly sharing his heat whenever he could. It was one of the many reasons on Cameron’s internal list that he loved Daniel. He hadn’t said the words out loud yet, but it was only a matter of time and the fact that instead of fear that knowledge filled him with hope had made all the difference.

“You remember that first party?” Daniel asked, breaking into a yawn at the end and rubbing his stubbled cheek back and forth along Cameron’s collar bone. “The second time Jack came up to us and gave you that drink?”

Even though it wasn’t that unusual to find Daniel in his bed anymore, when the mailman brought an acceptance letter for Cameron’s manuscript from his first choice of publishing houses it seemed like the perfect excuse to stay in bed until at least mid afternoon. Business had slowed down, and Jack had told them all to catch up on anything that still needed attention and not to come into the office until after the New Year. He was hosting Christmas out at his cabin, and Cameron couldn’t wait for his second visit.

“Yeah,” Cameron said, the warmth of their cocoon and their previous exertions falling back on him heavily. It wouldn’t take long, and he’d be asleep.

“Well, Jack spiked it with a truth serum to find out if you were a spy,” Daniel said softly running his hand down Cameron’s chest to wrap around his hip.

Cameron’s eyes snapped open and his body tensed. He thought he’d just been drunk that night. His gut twisted as he thought about the stories he’d told that night and the gleam in Jack’s eye, and that was just what Cameron had been able to remember. He had no idea what he said later into the night.

“I’m going to kill him,” Cameron said heatedly his earlier peace shattered in thoughts of revenge. That underhanded, meddler was going to get what he had coming to him.

Daniel cuddled closer and slipped his knee over Cameron’s good leg, sighing, “Ok. Sounds good.”