No. 14

Prompt: Stargate SG1, Jack/Daniel, trapped offworld on a birthday
http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/695111.html?thread=91515975#t91515975

"I'm really sorry," Jack said. "Sorry for mouthing off to the village elder or for shooting first and asking questions later?" Daniel crossed his arms over his chest, his shoulders practically up to his ears, but didn't move away from Jack's warmth. That was pretty good, because Jack knew that tone. That was him sleeping on the couch for a week.

"Sorry we're trapped here for your birthday, actually," Jack said gently. "I had plans, you know. Dinner. Museum exhibition. Me proving my knees aren't as old and creaky as I like to complain about." Usually oblique references to Daniel's favorite bedroom activities got him a brief smirk or at least an eyebrow raised in amusement, but Daniel hunched in on himself further.

"Oh. My birthday. I haven't celebrated my birthday since I was eight, unless you count getting emancipated at sixteen."

Eight. When his parents died.

Jack winced. This was Daniel's first birthday now that they were officially together, and he'd gone to great lengths to make sure it would be a good one. He'd had Teal'c distract Hammond so he could peek at Daniel's personnel file for the date, found out from Sam what his favorite restaurant was, and searched on the Internet for a museum exhibition Daniel was likely to enjoy.

"Oh. Sorry. I –"

"Just because I was in foster care doesn't mean my childhood was completely miserable," Daniel said. "My caseworkers always brought me some kind of baked treat, and one time my guardian ad litem took me out for dinner. But that was more to do with them than me. I don't really care about getting older."

"Birthdays aren't just about you getting older," Jack said. "They're about celebrating you and how far you've come. All the cool things you've done in the past year."

"I don't care about my birthday. I just want to go home and sleep."

Jack bit his lip, took a deep breath. "All right. Forget about the birthday. Let's work out a way to get home."

"Which we could have done in the time it took to psychoanalyze my dislike of birthdays," Daniel said. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Jack. I just – really don't care about my birthday. So, escape plans?"

Jack paused, listened. "I got nothing. But I think Carter's on her way." He surged to his feet, dragged Daniel with him.

"What makes you say that?" Daniel asked.

An explosion rocked their prison block.

"That," Jack said.

Their cell door swung open. Jack grabbed Daniel's hand, squeezed once. Then it was back to soldier mode.

"Let's go."

By the time they made it back to the gate, through post-mission medical checks and debriefing, all of Jack's fancy plans were completely shot. But he accepted the cheesecake Sam had made for Daniel, and he took Daniel home. For strictly non-birthday purposes, he proved that his knees were still pretty good by pushing Daniel down into his favorite chair and unzipping his pants with his teeth.

And when they got stuck off-world again on Jack's birthday, neither of them mentioned it, but Daniel did solicit another cheesecake from Sam when they were home safe once more.