Colonel Jack O'Neill was going hunting, well, trapping to be more precise. SG-1 had successfully brought Daniel Jackson safely home from P3X-888 yesterday. The young man had been declared sound by Dr. Fraiser and then debriefed by General Hammond. Next, he'd been sent to see the shrink. Immediately afterwards, the shrink had phoned O'Neill. The psychiatrist had told Jack that he thought Daniel was suppressing his emotions after being abducted by the Unas and had strongly hinted that Jack should try to get Daniel to open up.
It was a new low, spying on his buddy for some shrink. Christ. Sometimes he really disliked following orders.
But, it was lunchtime and instead of being in the commissary, Daniel had apparently talked the cook into making him a sack lunch before he'd disappeared. Jack, curious and a little concerned, decided he should hunt him down. Collecting a big thermos of hot coffee (perfect bait for trapping wily archeologists) and two mugs, he headed up to the surface where he knew Daniel sometimes liked to go when he needed some air.
He found Daniel perched on his favorite wall, throwing his lunch, bit by bit, to a pair of raccoons waiting in the forest beneath him.
Daniel turned at Jack's approach. "Hey."
Jack jumped up and settled beside him. "Hey yourself." He poured them both a coffee and paused to consider what a perfect day it was, warm with a soft breeze that smelled of pine sap and the sky a shade of blue that you only saw on Earth. It was really a great place for Daniel to get away from it all. After a pause, and feeling a bit like a heel, he returned to his original task. "Penny for your thoughts."
Daniel threw another piece of bread crust to the raccoons. The larger one crept forward, keeping eye contact with Jack as it blindly searched the ground for the morsel with both its delicate paws.
"Thinking."
"Of?"
"Raccoons are smart."
"Tell me something I don't know. The little beggars got into my house once and opened every cupboard."
"They're just below monkeys on the intelligence scale."
"So?"
"I was just wondering, what if they had been the most intelligent life on Earth? Would they have been goa'ulded? Would there be overdressed raccoons marching through the Stargate wearing tiny little ribbon devices?"
Jack took a sip of coffee as he considered this new info. "The shrink's worried about you."
Daniel looked at Jack and frowned. "Why?"
"He thinks you're hiding from your problems."
Perplexed, Daniel stared at Jack, then turned back to the forest. He tossed another piece of bread at the raccoons and started to chuckle.
Jack smiled, relieved. "That's what I thought, too." After another sip of coffee, he nodded towards the raccoons. "Personally, I think they'd skip the fancy wardrobe and just have a tiara for every occasion."
© January 19, 2001 The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.