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Notes: Once again, this is unbeta'd, so send your erroneous grammar and/or spelling jibes to me and me alone! :)
I know this is part 2.5; I'm writing part 2 of the Slices of Life bit as we speak, but I just wanted to get this written...err ... typed down while I had it in my head! This is what a week of studying organic chem with little to no SG-1 does to you.
Barefoot, wearing pajama bottoms and a grey t-shirt, Daniel padded into Jack's kitchen and with the ease of one familiar with his surroundings, opened up the corner cupboard and retrieved a bag of instant popcorn. Humming to himself, Daniel popped the bag into the microwave, hit the 'Popcorn' button and then headed for the fridge to wait out the 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
Daniel growled as he sifted through Jack's fridge. "Don't you have anything to drink in this place?" he called when all he found was beer and a God-knows-how-old jug of what looked like Tang fruit punch sitting in the back.
"Beer," Jack called from the living room. "Beer is drinkable."
"How about something that won't trash my liver?" Daniel sniped, and at Jack's negative grunt, sighed heavily and turned on the cold water at the sink. The microwave dinged merrily as Daniel rummaged for a large glass mug and grabbed an ice cube to drop in it, and then beeped a little more incessantly when Daniel filled the mug and didn't open the door.
"All right," he hissed at the appliance. "Give me two friggin' seconds here."
"Daniel ... are you talking to my microwave?" Jack's wary call floated up from the living room.
"Shut up," Daniel muttered as the mug filled and he finally retrieved the bag of popcorn.
"'Cause that's not really healthy, you know," his friend continued, oblivious to the death glares Daniel was sending to the half-wall separating the kitchen from the living room. The microwave chirped thrice more, and Daniel glowered at it before punching the 'Clear' button. "Maybe your meds are reacting badly with your brain chemistry; I could call the doc." Daniel rolled his eyes, but discovered that if his friend wasn't in visual range, he was actually a lot easier to ignore. He reached for another cupboard to find a bowl.
"Maybe you can call the bowl store and get some goddam bowls fit to hold popcorn!" Daniel retorted, feeling more than a little pissy as the microwave beeped yet again, weariness from the past week or so caught up with him and his side started to twinge uncomfortably. He snagged the biggest bowl he could find from the cupboard holding the glassware -- not even big enough to hold half the bag of popcorn -- and on a whim, snagged the rest of the bag to carry with him back down to where Jack was waiting, innocently sipping his beer.
"Find one?" Jack asked, reaching out and grabbing a handful of popcorn off the precariously-filled little bowl.
Daniel pulled the bowl out of reach and sat down gingerly on the couch. Jack noticed, and his levity disappeared for a moment. "You okay?" he asked sincerely. He, Carter and Teal'c hadn't exactly been handy during Daniel's recuping period after his appendix blew, and it was a bit of guilt that fueled Jack's insistent 'invitation' for Daniel to spend their few days of downtime at his place while the younger man got his bearings back.
"Yeah," Daniel huffed. "Almost time for my meds, 's'all." He groaned loudly then, dropping his head back to the cushions as the microwave beeped three times in rapid annoyance. "I got the damn popcorn!" he hissed as the microwave beeped after only a few moments of silence. "Can you do something about that?" he implored Jack.
"Oh, yeah, sure...it does that all the time," Jack said as he hoisted himself up and walked up to the kitchen. "Kinda just gets to be background noise after a while -- annoying as hell, but it gets easier to annoy the farther you are away from it."
Daniel blinked at this description of the kitchen appliance, sensing a bit of familiarity with it. He heard Jack unplug the persistent thing, and then his friend was back in the living room with another beer, sprawling all over the couch, one foot winding up perched on Daniel's left knee. The younger man eyed it dubiously.
"Hey." Jack's quiet call broke through his reverie. "You all right?"
"Uh-huh. Just thinking."
"Well ... ya know, I'm, uh ... I'm sorry we weren't around while you were sick. We'd rather have been home than ... stuck ... there."
Daniel looked up, blinking in surprise. "Oh ... well, that's okay. I mean, I'm glad you guys are home and you're all right and all that ... but I mean, I was thinking that if ... you know; worst-case scenario ..."
"We wouldn't leave you behind on purpose, Daniel," Jack swore seriously.
"Oh, I know. I was just gonna say, if you hadn't come back ... I think a part of you would always be with me."
Jack looked a little uncomfortable. "Uh - really? That's, uh ... wow ... why do you ..."
"Well, I know you have a will," Daniel said matter-of-factly, "and I have it on pretty good intel that I've been left a few things. And, that, knowing you ... you'd choose to be reincarnated as that damned microwave."
Fin