Through a tight mouth, Daniel said, with an almost gleeful tone, "You recall the night you stole him from my place?" The brown eyes screwed shut tightly against the words. "I missed him so much, Jack. He probably would have done better to have brought you back to my place instead of going back to his. *We* could have.." "We?" Jack's head snapped to look at Daniel. The coy anthropologist shrugged as he inched a little closer. "If I'd known how you felt.. Jack.." The voice was soft and sensuous. Jack frowned and looked from the pink lips, that were swiped quickly with a slick tongue, then back up into the blue eyes. "You telling me..?" Daniel arched his brow and he was so close now that his breath puffed across Jack's lips. "*If* I'd known..." He said, looking deeply into the colonel's eyes. Jack swallowed hard then swung around when the kitchen door opened suddenly. Daniel, who was quite obviously leaning in to the colonel, merely twisted his head to look at the angry, cimmerian eyes of the man in the doorway. Philip looked from Jack to Daniel then back to Jack once more. Pressing the door open wider, he entered the room. "Jack?" Jack's stomach lurched again as his head throbbed. "Oh, god!" He wasn't sure what made him feel sicker, hearing all that from Daniel or being discovered almost kissing him, should it have all been a lie. "What's going on in here?" Phil's voice was strangely calm as he glanced at Daniel. "We've just been talking," Daniel said, straightening up. "About?" "The truth!" Daniel's eyes were cold once more as he looked at Philip. The younger man's eyes flared angrily as he swung around to look at Jack. The colonel's stomach plummeted. The truth was, finally, in the angry eyes. Before Phil could plead his case, Jack held his hand up to silence him. In a weak voice, he asked, "You don't have HIV?" Oddly, a part of him hoped that that part was, at least, true now. The dark eyes closed tight, the corners wrinkling quickly. Opening wide once more, he stared at Jack. "Yes, I have HIV." He took a step closer and instinctually Jack stepped back, slamming up against the kitchen cupboard behind him, his head shaking as the young man encroached on him. "But you haven't been abstinent..." He definitely felt trapped as Phil stepped even closer, a look on his face, while benevolent, wasn't one Jack had seen before. He wanted to wake up, this had to be a dream. A very *bad* dream! "No." Philip finally answered him as he stood, toe-to-toe with Jack now. Wetting his lips quickly he said, with a strange smile, "There's just something about you damn Military men.." Shooting a look at Daniel over his shoulder he gave the anthropologist a wink. Daniel smiled, then looked at Jack. "Back off!" Jack said, ducking out of the corner and standing on the opposite side of the room, staring that the two men he really didn't know! The fact that Philip had confirmed Daniel's allegations meant that it wasn't a parasite affecting Daniel. Jack scrubbed his hand down his face, hissing as he realized that this was really happening. That everything he thought he knew about last week, was a lie and that he had been making love to a man he didn't know at all. Phil swung around, his hands held wide as he said, almost flippantly, "Jack, come on!" Jutting his hand towards Daniel he went on to say, "I mean, look at him, for crying out loud! He's gorgeous!" Daniel swallowed, his chin lifted slightly as he gave a grateful smile to the librarian for the vote of confidence, then he tilted his face and looked across at Jack. "How was I meant to resist? Even you were in love with him when we met!" He sighed as he lowered his face and put his hands on his hips while he shifted his footing. Lifting his face once more, he stared at Jack. "I know I should have taken you back to his place that night, so that you two could talk about how you felt, and .. well .. things might be different right now.. but.. I.." He shook his head and looked briefly at Daniel then at Jack. "I was attracted to you more than normal." Finding his voice finally, Jack quipped. "Well, thanks!" Daniel noted the harsh tone. "Jack..." The colonel held his hand up, warding them both off. "This-is-not-happening.." Suddenly Philip gritted his teeth and slapped Jack - hard - across the face. Daniel caught his breath loudly, awaiting for Jack's reaction to that. But the stunned and amazed man was merely staring, as anger, betrayal, humiliation boiled within him. Jack didn't think he was capable of hitting anyone if it wasn't in the line of duty, but right now, he felt his hand involuntarily flex into a tight fist by his thigh. As he stared at the face he knew so intimately - his lips must have brushed every inch of those delicate features in the course of the past week, yet now it was contorted into a face he didn't know - he felt that he just *might* be able to this time.... "Did that feel real enough for you?" Philip asked, adding insult to injury. Jack felt his whole body shake with rage. He wasn't sure whether he reacted to that or not, but the next thing he knew Teal'c had burst into the kitchen and had him back against a cupboard, his arms pinned to his side. Daniel had stepped forward, coming up to the side of Philip now as they watched Teal'c hold Jack back. "What is the matter, O'Neill?" The large Jaffa asked his distraught friend. Jack took a moment then looked at him, glad to see someone he actually recognized! "Teal'c! Thank God!" He reached up and patted the thick upper arm of his friend as he slowly stepped back and released him. "I began to get concerned when the others didn't return," he explained his presence in the room. Looking around to Daniel he asked, "What has happened?" "Nothing!" Daniel said quickly, shooting a glance at Jack. The colonel shook his head. "No way!" He said, wagging his finger at the anthropologist. "No, you're not ruining my life and getting away with it!" "Jack!" Daniel seemed to plead with him but the officer didn't care at that moment. "What does he mean?" Teal'c turned to his lover. Daniel sighed then said, "I just told Jack that Phil and I had sex.. a few times..." "This week?" The Jaffa asked, his shoulders straightening back slightly. "No!" The two of them said at the same time. The large head tilted in question. "What appears to be the problem? You were not with him at the time, were you?' He asked Philip, who shook his head. Teal'c turned to Jack, unable to see the problem. "Oh, forcryingoutloud! What they're not telling you is that Simmons was there at the same time!" Jack said exasperatedly. Teal'c frowned and turned slowly to look at Daniel again. The anthropologist's face was flushed and his eyes wide. Jack seemed to take some comfort in the fact that Teal'c was nearly as surprised by that revelation as he had been. At least someone was acting in character! With his back to Jack now, Teal'c took a step closer to Daniel. There was something in the way Teal'c held himself that made Jack fear for Daniel. Quickly he moved to put himself between the imposing Jaffa and the whiteface anthropologist. "You have participated in Hel'Ke'Nakt?" Came the low, deep question. Daniel blinked rapidly. "More like Hel'Ke'Teem.......actually," he responded, with a nervous little shrug, then a quick swipe of his lips. "Someone wanna tell me what the hell all this 'hell' stuff means?" Jack asked, amazed. "Hel'Ke'Nakt is the joining of three partners," Daniel said, when Jack turned to look at him. "But Hel'Ke'Teem is the sharing of one person between two partners," Philip said. Jack turned to look at him. "How the hell do you know?" With a shrug, the librarian said, "Educated guess, and," he looked at Daniel then at Jack, "I was there, remember? If Daniel was describing what we did then that would have to be the answer.." Jack held his hand up, unprepared to hear any more. He turned to Teal'c, at least hoping that the Jaffa was going to have some kind of 'problem' with that revelation, but as he watched the way the two men stared lovingly at each other right now, the colonel didn't think so. "You're alright with this?" Jack blurted out as Teal'c touched his hand down Daniel's cheek. "I am!" Teal'c said, not taking his eyes from Daniel. The blond man smiled as he kissed the large, pink palm pressed against his face. "Oh, for crying.." Jack murmured under his breath as he watched the two of them. "So, will someone mind telling me why 'I'm' having so much trouble with this then?" Jack asked. "Maybe it's because you have never tried it.." Philip said from behind him. Jack spun on the spot and stared at him. "You have *got* to be kidding!" "I, myself, have participated in Hel'Ke'Teem," Teal'c confessed to his blue-eyed lover. "Yeah?" Daniel asked, as casually as if Teal'c had just told him that he played baseball on Chulak. "Shared, or sharer?" Philip asked, interested. Jack twisted his head to look at him, then, for some reason, looked at Teal'c as he also awaited the answer. The large, dark man seemed to grow taller as he looked at Philip. His shoulders lifted as his chest expanded. "I will not be shared!" He declared, most definitely. Philip nodded casually, unperturbed by the ruffled man. "Neither will I," he said coolly. "I will," Daniel piped up with the offer as he looked from Philip to Teal'c. "Ah, excuse me!?" Jack said when the two other men seemed to give that some thought. The Librarian looked at the uptight officer. Going onto his toes, he put his lips next to Jack's ear and whispered, "Come on, Jack! I know you still want Danny! Here's your chance!" The Colonel scampered away from him quickly, turning to look at him when he was a safe distance away. "I do not know you," he said then looked at Daniel and Teal'c. "Any of you!" Pushing his hand through his hair, he stomped to the living room wondering if he'd fallen into some kind of alternate universe on a mission that week, or if it was possible that 'he' might have been affected by an alien being, which warped his sense of 'normality'. He sat motionless on his sofa for a long, long time. His face was buried in his hands and his shoulders were hunched over. Finally he looked up and around him. This was his house. Everything about it was the same as it had been last week. He got up and went to the mantel, lifting one of the displayed medal into his hand, reading the inscription. Nothing there implied that this was an alternate universe. Desperately he bit his lips together as he slammed the frame back down again. Scrubbing his hand through his hair once more he tried to understand what was happening. It couldn't be a dream because he could still feel the sting of the slap across his face. Rubbing his hand over the tender spot, he felt the hot skin and knew it would look inflamed. For a little guy, Philip packed some punch! "Jack?" For a few seconds Jack closed his eyes and hoped, that when he turned around, the owner of that voice was going to be the person he always knew he was. "Jack?" The soft voice was closer now, and the officer could feel the body by his side. Opening his eyes he looked straight into Daniel's blue gaze. "Are you alright?" The anthropologist asked. "That depends," Jack said softly, looking around quickly then back at Daniel. "On?" Daniel tilted his head. He was certainly reacting like the man Jack knew now. The look in his eyes was caring and curious, not a hint of the strangeness from the kitchen. Jack looked around again then at Daniel, almost unable to bring himself to tell him. Wetting his lips, the younger man looked down. "I'm sorry," he said gently. Jack frowned. "For?" Daniel looked up and Jack saw 'why' in his eyes. His heart plummeted again. "Oh, please! Don't.. tell...me.." The officer shook his head, unable to hear anymore. "My timing was .. bad.." He shrugged. Jack covered his mouth with his hand as he looked away, staring at the medals in front of him. Catching his breath he said in a tight voice, "Why are you sorry? For showing me that the man I thought I was in love with .. was someone I didn't_even_ know?" Daniel lowered his face as he listened to the dejection in his friend's voice. "Jack, please. Philip does love you. I can see it in the way he touches you, looks at you..." He pleaded passionately. Cold, distant eyes turned to look at him, silencing him immediately, then Jack said, "I was referring to you, actually." To Be Continued...