Title: What the Thunder Said
Rating: PG-13
Summary: And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down…what *does*
one do when caught out in a storm?
Category: Daniel & Janet, Sam and Jack implied, harmless fluff
Spoilers: Blink'n'miss reference to RoP.
Status: Complete
Disclaimer: "All publicly recognisable characters and places are the
property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret productions. This
piece
of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes
and no
infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously
unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted
to the
author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is
coincidental and
not intended by the author."
Author's Notes: You know, I really have to start concentrating on the
texts on my English Lit. course, instead of looking at random lines
and thinking "You know what'd make a really great title for a fic…?"
I'll bet T.S Eliot never expected this when he wrote `The Waste
Land.' ;)
Feedback: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
Copyright (c) Nike Johnston, June 2004
The rain battered mercilessly against the windowpane, droplets
dashing furiously across the glass, obscuring the world outside from
view. Overhead, the first flickerings of lighting darted furtively
across the steely sky, sending shards of electric light skittering
over the faces of five figures sitting huddled together in the
darkness, while the lethargic grumbling of distant thunder broke the
silence briefly before melting away into the incessant howling of the
wind. Rising quietly from her position on the floor, one of the
figures padded barefoot over to the window and gazed morosely out
into the swirling depths.
"I wonder where it came from," Sam sighed, setting her half-empty
wine glass down on the mantelpiece. "It was so nice this morning."
"That in itself should have been the first sign of trouble," Jack
grouched from his position in an armchair. "Since when have
circumstances ever cooperated with our plans for the day?"
"You think the weather has a grudge against us?" Daniel asked as he
nibbled on the handful of chips he had appropriated from the bowl in
the middle of the coffee table.
"I think the *world* has a grudge against us," Jack complained
grumpily. "The first day we all get off in - what? Two? Three
months? – and we don't even get a decent day for a barbecue.
Figures." His vehement speech was punctuated by another flash of
lightning from outside. Sam counted under her breath, until they
heard the thunder growl over the wind again.
"…eight. Must be getting closer."
"That's a *very* scientific method you've got there, Doctor," Jack
said, a smile finally cracking the frown he'd been wearing for at
least the past hour. Sam shrugged, her back still to them, and
finished off her wine in a single swallow. "You're supposed to be
able to tell how far away the lightning is by how long the thunder
takes to follow," O'Neill explained to Teal'c, who had witnessed the
exchange with some curiosity.
"I see."
Daniel heaved a sigh. "I'm hungry."
"Too bad," O'Neill announced, his irritable mood returning as quickly
as it had left. "All we've got is the food for the barbecue." He
waved a hand, indicating the darkened interior of his living
room "And power's out, so we can't cook anything."
Daniel pouted, though in the deepening gloom the gesture was lost on
his friend. "Well," he conceded, "at least we've still got the beer!"
As if to prove this statement to the rest of the room, he waggled his
bottle back and forward through the air, until its momentum was
halted abruptly by the woman sitting next to him on the couch.
"Maybe we should go easy on the beer," Janet suggested, removing the
bottle from the archaeologist's hands and setting it down on the
floor beside her. "Before you do someone some damage."
"I haven't had that much," he said petulantly
"And I haven't had any," she replied. "Some of us are supposed to be
driving home. Although, unless that storm lets up…" She let the
sentence trail off, leaning over to peer past the tall figure of the
major silhouetted against the glass. As if on cue, another streak of
lightning cut through the clouds. The answering call wasn't long in
following.
"Seven," Teal'c intoned solemnly. Janet smiled to herself and sipped
from her own glass of soda.
It had all started off so well, too, she mused idly. SG-1, after
being on active duty for far too long as usual, had been granted some
down time two days ago at her insistence. As a reward for her
concern - and probably just to get her out of his hair for at least a
day - General Hammond had told her to take some time off herself, to
spend relaxing and recuperating before she was flung unceremoniously
back into the frenzy of activity that was her life in the SGC
infirmary.
In light of the fact they all suddenly found themselves expelled from
the mountain together, and no one had any pressing plans to be
getting on with, Colonel O'Neill had suggested getting together at
his house late this afternoon for a barbecue, a few rounds of poker
and (she nudged Daniel's beer bottle lazily with her foot) a few
*more* rounds of drinks. Discerning that her sixteen year old
daughter would rather spend her weekend with her boyfriend (she
scowled unconsciously - she was yet to properly meet the
elusive `Dominic') than her mother, Janet had cheerfully accepted
everything but the beer, even going so far as to pick up some of the
light nibbles and things that Daniel was making such easy work of
beside her. When the morning had dawned, humid but bright, she had
seen to the last of her errands and headed over here in the car,
looking forward to spending the day with her friends. Arriving, she
had tossed her jacket onto the couch along with everyone else's and
had helped Sam and the colonel organise the snack food and the
drinks, before heading into the living area, kicking off her shoes
and curling up on the couch to play some cards and wait until the
urge to eat overcame even Teal'c's compulsive gambling streak.
Upon which the sky had promptly clouded over, the electricity had cut
out, and the heavens had opened.
Which left her here, a few hours, waiting helplessly until the storm
raging outside blew itself out and she could take to the road safely
again. The colonel, never a man for being cooped up, had gotten more
and more exasperated as time wore on, Daniel was onto at least his
fifth beer and had munched his way through most of the chips. Teal'c,
occupying the room's second armchair, was characteristically
unperturbed by the situation, while Sam had spent her time flitting
between her seat on the floor at Janet's feet and standing gazing
dejectedly out of the window. The doctor herself was quite content
where she was and, cosying deeper into the colonel's couch, prepared
to sit the miserable weather out with the rest of them. Above them,
the thunder rolled.
"Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata."
"What?" O'Neill snapped irritably.
"Oh…it's Sanskrit," Daniel murmured absently. "From the Bridda…
Brihrad…" He scrunched up his features, concentrating hard. " The
*Brihada*ranyaka-Upanishad. It means `Give. Sympathise. Control.' A
message from the `divine voice of thunder.'" Reaching deftly around
Janet's legs, he rescued his beer from the floor and took a
swig. "Actually, it's interesting," he continued. "A lot of cultures
and religions throughout history have believed that God or …gods
communicated through a voice of thunder. That the thunder was some
sort of heavenly message. Hinduism, Christianity…Even Thor was a
thunder god in Norse mythology, he…"
"*Thor* is a little grey alien with a bad sense of timing and, I
suspect, very limited weather control," growled Jack. His dealings
with the Asgard had been of somewhat limited success in recent times.
"Yes, but in Norse mythology…" Jackson made to continue, undeterred.
"Daniel? Don't even." The voice came from Carter, who finally turned
away from the window and, refilling her wineglass en route, came back
to settle on the floor by Fraiser.
"I was just saying," he muttered. Janet felt sorry for him, and
leaned over to pat his arm lightly in a gesture of quiet camaraderie.
He smiled appreciatively, and scowled at the rest of his team, who
were quite unaffected.
"Just ignore them," she said consolingly. Daniel nodded, and swiftly
drained the last of his beer.
"I'm gonna get another," he announced, narrowly avoiding tumbling
over Sam as he got up and tripping his way up the stairs to the
kitchen. Janet heard the fridge door open, and the noise of several
bottles clinking together as he fumbled for a new beer. Pulling her
feet up onto the couch, she settled back. It was going to be a long
wait.
*~*~*
The storm had eased to a drizzle as Janet drove carefully through the
rain-slicked streets of Colorado Springs, headlights and windshield
wipers on overtime as she kept the way ahead clear. The man beside
her was humming cheerfully, as he had been since they left Colonel
O'Neill's house a while ago, and if Janet was going to be perfectly
honest, it was starting to get a little irritating.
At the first break in the weather, she had jumped to offer everyone a
ride home. O'Neill had become increasingly frustrated as they all got
under one another's feet, and, since the electricity was still
showing no indications of coming back on any time soon, everyone was
pretty hungry and pretty grouchy by the time the rain began to
slacken off outside. Sam had declined the lift, volunteering to stay
behind and help clear up the wreckage of beer and wine bottles they
had left around the house in their wake, stating firmly that she
would make her own way home. Which had left Janet and Teal'c to
bundle a very merry Daniel into the car and get going.
She had dropped the grateful Jaffa off at the base first, and was now
heading in the direction of the archaeologist's house, half an eye on
the thunderclouds that were threatening to roll back in. The humming
stopped abruptly, but Janet's short-lived relief failed as the first
off-key bars of a vaguely familiar song issued through the car.
"Lah la la….Lahla la la la…I just can't get you out of my head-"
That did it.
"Daniel, *no*. No Kylie Minogue, for God's sake."
He stopped bopping his head from side to side to peer blearily at
her. "Sorry."
Janet sighed and gripped the steering wheel tighter. "Never mind,"
she answered, only half-apologetically. The rest of the journey to
his house passed in silence, with only the occasional hum or whistle
of some obscure song emanating from her right.
As she drew into Daniel's street, Janet noted with a grimace that the
wind and rain were starting to pick up again, fat drops pummelling
her windscreen as a telltale electric glow flickered up ahead.
"Damn. Looks like the storm's moving back in."
Wrinkling his nose as his glasses slid down, Daniel squinted out of
the window. "Yup." Janet surreptitiously locked the centralised
window controls, just in case.
In the short time it took them to drive down the street, the rain
became a downpour, beating down on the pavement and running in rivers
down the kerbs and gutters. Parking outside Daniel's house, Janet
winced, realising resignedly that she was going to have to brave the
elements just to make sure the tipsy scientist got inside. Clutching
her flimsy jacket around her, she nudged Daniel.
"You ready? We're gonna have to make a run for it." Daniel blinked,
screwing up his face as he heard the first grumbles of thunder
crawling back over the skies.
"Can't we wait here?" he whined.
Janet sighed. "It took hours for the rain to ease off before. You
really want to sit in my car until tomorrow?"
"No."
"Ready then?" Janet released the door locks.
"Ready."
In almost perfect synch, the doctors flung open the car doors and
hurtled themselves out into the driving torrent of rain battering the
world around them. It took barely a few seconds before Janet was
soaked through, the freezing water saturating her light, summery
clothes and drenching her hair, turning it a darker shade of brown.
Racing towards the house, she reached the front door first, hardly
surprising given Daniel's present state, although from the looks of
things the dose of bitter cold was sobering him up nicely. The porch
offered barely any protection: the wind was forcing the rain in their
direction, but it was better than nothing. Jackson eventually came to
a halt beside her, fumbling in his jacket pocket for the front door
keys.
"Hurry up!" Janet exclaimed, head bent, trying to curl up as much as
possible against the raging weather. A panicked expression was slowly
working its way across Daniel's face.
"Uh…"
Janet stared at him, wide eyed, as water collected on her bangs and
ran streaming down her hair and face. "Oh, *what*?"
"My keys…" Daniel shouted as the wind began to wail around the
corners of his house. Janet's eyes narrowed menacingly as a nasty
suspicion formed in her mind.
"Daniel…" she warned. He cringed apologetically, turning out his
pockets then throwing up his hands in defeat. She couldn't even see
his eyes behind the rain-splattered surface of his glasses.
"They must have fallen out of my jacket at Jack's house!"
Janet shrieked furiously, the sound all but drowned out beneath the
gale. "Are you *serious*?!"
"I just grabbed my jacket when we were leaving…I didn't notice…They
have to be on the couch!"
Janet threw up her hands in frustration. There was very little point
trying to huddle out of the rain now…there was no part of her body
that wasn't already wet through. "Spares?"
"Nope. I don't like leaving any keys outside, just in case." Janet
glowered at Daniel as he wrestled his cell phone out of his jacket
and began frantically punching numbers into the keypad.
"I'll call Jack's cell, main lines are down, see if he's found them.
We can go back over…" he explained hastily.
Janet folded her arms, turning her face away from the stinging
raindrops borne on the wind. There was little point even in making a
break for the car now, she realised. The rain was slicing down from
the sky in an almost solid sheet of water, and even the slight
shelter of the porch was preferable to stepping out in that. Not that
she could possibly get any wetter, she admitted. Come tomorrow, she
just *knew* she was going to be laid up with the cold. So much for a
few days relaxation. She'd have been better off staying at the base.
In her nice, warm, wonderfully *underground* infirmary.
"No answer!"
"Sam?"
"Nope."
"Dammit!" They must both have them switched off, she reasoned. The
only alternative left was to get to her own home. "We'll just have to
get back in the car then! *I* have my keys, at least…" It only took
her a few minutes to realise that Daniel wasn't listening to her. He
was eyeing the door thoughtfully, taking a few steps back. By the
time she fully comprehended what he was planning to do, she only had
time to shout the briefest of warnings,
"Daniel! I don't think that's a good -"
Daniel hit the door full force with his shoulder, and she heard the
wood splinter sickeningly. It swung violently inward, rebounding off
the wall, and sending him tumbling into the hallway where he
collapsed almost instantly onto his knees, reflectively clutching at
his arm. Janet flinched empathetically, deciding that maybe he hadn't
been quite as fully in possession of his faculties as she'd thought
he was, though she'd be willing to bet he was emphatically sober now.
"Ow."
Pushing what was left of the door closed behind her as she followed
him less dramatically into the hall, picking up his glasses from the
floor. She shook her head. "Well, *that* was a *really* stupid thing
to do."
"Yeah, I think I'm realising that."
Dripping her way over to him, Janet crouched down beside the prone
figure of the linguist and prodded none too gently at his damaged
shoulder.
"*Ow!*
"It's fine," she announced, tugging at his sopping shirt a little to
get a better look and placing a cold hand on his skin. "It's gonna
bruise like hell, and I'd try not to move it too strenuously for the
next little while, but you haven't done any serious damage." She
patted his shoulder lightly. "Which is more than I can say for your
front door," she joked, looking back around at the broken lock. When
she turned to face Daniel again, she found him regarding her
strangely.
Suddenly she was very aware of just how close their bodies were,
Daniel kneeling on the floor, the exposed skin of his shoulder
warming under her fingers, her other hand resting unconsciously on
his knee as she used him to keep herself balanced in her current
position. His face, now barely an inch away. Janet froze, unable to
break the gaze his brilliant blue eyes held her locked within, her
breath catching in her throat as sensations unfamiliar to her flooded
her body, his proximity thrilling her in ways it never had before,
the growing awareness that she was affecting him the same way. She
shivered, the cold permeating her body, as droplets of water slid
slowly down her face. Tentatively, he reached up to brush a damp lock
of hair out of her eyes, his hand coming to rest on her cold cheek.
White light flickered briefly outside the door.
The reciprocal roll of the thunder finally shocked them apart.
Startled by the noise, Janet shot into a standing position, flustered
beyond coherent speech. "I, uh…I'd better…your shoulder should be
fine, I…um…I should…go…" She thrust his glasses at him and
whirled `round, intending to escape from the house.
"Janet…Wait," Daniel caught her sleeve as he rose unsteadily to his
feet. Fraiser halted uncertainly, torn between following her first
instincts to leave, and waiting to see what the man behind her had to
say. Satisfied that she wasn't going to run off just yet, Daniel
released her, glancing downwards to regard the puddles of water that
had formed on the linoleum floor of his hall. "You don't want to go
back out in that. You should at least get dried off…" He trailed off
awkwardly, not quite able to look at her. Janet realised belatedly
that even under her jacket the water had caused the fabric of her
clothes to cling to her, her tangled hair hanging loosely over her
shoulders, her cheeks flushed and breathing erratic from the moment
that had just passed between them. Wrapping her jacket around her in
embarrassment, she tucked her hair behind her ears and cleared her
throat nervously.
"I suppose…"
"I can lend you something," he murmured, indicating that she follow
him along the hall, and leading her into his bedroom. It only took a
minute for him to pull out a large, comfortable sweater and some
sweatpants that Janet knew were going to drown her small frame.
Thanking him, she let him steer her towards the bathroom.
"I'm just gonna go find a flashlight or something." Daniel mumbled,
turning around and leaving her in the darkened room. Sighing, Janet
closed the bathroom door behind her, thankful that her eyes were
adjusting to the gloom, and began to peel off her wet clothes.
Nearby, she could hear Daniel bumping into most of the furniture as
he travelled clumsily around the house. She frowned as she grabbed a
huge, fluffy towel from over the stone-cold radiator. What had
happened just now in the hall bothered her. She and Daniel had been
friends for a long time now, and she had never reacted to him the way
she had when he had touched her…
She felt another shudder wrack her body at the memory, and telling
herself sternly that it was probably the onset of pneumonia brought
about by the time she had spent out in the rain and standing around
half-dressed in Dr. Jackson's bathroom, she wrapped the towel
securely around her body and continued the vain attempt to get dry.
*~*~*
It was well and truly dark by the time Janet got around to feeling
her way carefully back down the hallway. Dressed in Daniel's
oversized clothes (which, she had noted, smelled reassuringly of his
after-shave, then cursed her wandering mind) she made her way towards
the living room. Stopping in the doorway she smiled at the scene in
front of her. Daniel, too, had dried off and changed. He was sitting
cross-legged and barefoot on the sofa, suffused by the soft glow of
the candles strategically placed around the room, dressed in another
pair of casual sweats and an open shirt he had thrown on. His hair
still glistened slightly from the rain. Catching sight of her, he
shrugged apologetically.
"Couldn't find any flashlights."
"Oh."
In the silence, she could hear the soft drumming of a rain shower
outside, marking the end of the torrent that had raged over the town
all evening. She sighed.
"Storm's going."
"Yeah."
"I should, too."
He was watching her intently now, but she didn't turn away. Now that
she was warmer, more relaxed, it was somehow easier to accept his
attention. Earlier, in the hallway, she had been cold, agitated,
shaken. In the darkness, broken only by the candlelight, she met his
eyes again, and this time recognised what she saw there. "You don't
have to."
"Daniel…"
He gestured to the window with his head. "It's still raining."
She smiled softly. "How's the shoulder?" He laughed self-
deprecatingly.
"Bruised. Maybe a little less beer next time."
Janet echoed his laugh, closing her eyes. Distantly, she thought she
could make out the faint grumblings of the thunder as it moved on,
following the path of the pale dancing lightening. When she opened
her eyes again, he had moved to stand in front of her, hovering
inches away.
"What did it say?" she murmured quietly. He tilted his head confused,
his brow wrinkled.
"The thunder," she expanded, smiling. "I thought you said it was
a `divine voice.' What did it say?"
He laughed, and she could see him blushing slightly even in the
golden hue from the candles, as he remembered his inebriated
ramblings from an almost-barbecue that suddenly seemed as far away as
the retreating storm. He gazed deeply, darkly at her as the sound
died away, taking a step towards her, his voice low and husky.
"Stay."
This time, when his fingers brushed her face, she didn't pull away.
When he lowered his lips tenderly to hers, she responded in kind,
stroking his still-wet hair lightly as his arms wrapped around her,
standing on tiptoe to return his kiss with the same ardour he
bestowed on her. While he pulled his own sweater over her head, hands
tangling in the damp tresses of her hair, she let him lead her surely
to the couch, his shirt tumbling over his arms to the floor. As he
lowered he gently down, his limbs entwining with hers, whispering
soft entreaties in her ears, outside the thunder growled one last
time over the skies and faded past the horizon, leaving only the
patter of the rain to lull them, finally, into sleep.
****
Finis
****
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