Jack
stood at the door quietly watching Daniel work. The next mission was based on Daniel’s
findings, they couldn't even think about leaving until he'd finished his
translation. The entire
team had
been waiting for three days so far and Daniel didn’t know when he’d finish.
“It
could be ten minutes from now or it could be ten days from now! I have to get
back to work,” Daniel had told him earlier.
But
Jack couldn’t help waiting outside the office. Every time he got himself
working on something, he would find a way back here.
“Jack,
I can’t work if you’re hovering over me! I told you I’d call when I finished
this.”
“I’m
not here about the translation. It’s something else that’s bothering me.”
“What
is it then?” Daniel snapped.
“I
was wondering what happened to that cream sweater you had.”
Daniel
looked up. “What?”
“While
you were ascended, you came to see me while Ba’al was playing ‘torture the
former Tok’ra host’ with me. You were wearing a cream sweater. I was wondering
what happened to it.”
“Jack,
I never had a cream sweater! And why are you bringing this up now?”
“I’ve
been trying to figure this out. You could have shown up wearing anything in
your former closet, and you picked something that wasn’t really ‘you’ ”
“This
isn’t getting the translation done, Jack.”
“I
know, but humor me.”
“When
did I stop?” Daniel muttered.
“What?”
“Okay,
I’ll humor you. You saw me in a cream sweater.”
Jack
pulled over a chair and sat across the table from him.
“Why
a sweater? Why cream colored? You could have been wearing anything, but you
chose that!”
“I
don’t know. I have a feeling that you’ve got some ideas on the subject.”
“Was
there at one time a sweater that you wanted to have. You saw it at the store.
You were about to buy it, and you got paged to get back to the base or
something…”
“Or
a friend was impatient and dragged me off…” Daniel added.
“Maybe…and
when you finally got back to the store…”
“Without
the friend that dragged me off.”
Jack
glared at Daniel briefly. “And, when you got back to the store, it was gone.
Sold out. No more in stock. Limited edition.”
“I
get the picture, Jack.”
“You’ve
wanted that sweater ever since then, so when you finally get to do the wispy
light thing, you think, ‘why don’t I wear that sweater I wanted!’ “
“Did
you ever think that maybe there might be an ascended closet with clothes already approved by The Others? I was a
rookie, after all. Maybe I didn’t get a choice in what I could wear?”
Jack
suddenly looked deflated. “Oh. Yeah. I didn’t even think of that. You did say
that there were rules you had to follow.”
“Lots
of rules.”
“Yeah.
Well, sorry to have bothered you,” Jack said as he stood up and left the room.
Daniel
watched until Jack was out of sight and his footsteps had faded away.
“I
can’t even find that sweater on ebay!” he
said to himself and returned to work.
