Particularity

Author's notes: this is slightly AU.

Rating: K+

Thanks: to quinceasmince, who helped me co-write this piece.

Feedback: all reviews are welcome, and I encourage you to be as constructively critical as you wish.

Disclaimer: all Stargate SG-1 characters belong to MGM. I have merely respectfully borrowed these characters for the purposes of exercising creativity. No profit was made in the process.

"Truth or dare, Daniel," Colonel Jack O'Neill announced.

Dr. Daniel Jackson glared at him, not wanting to participate. Jack chose the worst times to be annoying.

"Come on, Daniel, it's only a game."

"A game which I have no time to play." he reached for his computer keyboard again.

Jack grabbed it off him. "Hey. You and Carter have been working for the whole week. Give it a break, and let's play."

"Daniel, I think it's coming from the column that's" – Major Samantha Carter stopped short at seeing her CO.

"Morning, Major, you're just in time."

"For what, Sir?"

Jack grinned. "Truth or dare,"

Sam looked to Daniel, who shrugged. "I'm sorry, Sir, but I have a ton of research to do."

"It's called down-time, Major, and you're supposed to use it." Jack was exasperated. "One round, then we can all go back to our charming little lives."

Sam and Daniel exchanged wary glances.

Jack sat on Daniel's desk. "Now, Daniel, truth or dare?"

"Well, since," Daniel began cautiously, "the dare will probably involve total embarrassment, which I wouldn't want to be subjected to – I – I choose truth."

"Tell us about your first ever kiss," Jack smirked at Daniel's shake of the head, "on the lips. All the details."

"Uhu, Jack," Daniel paused, trying to look calm. "Do you really think" –

"You picked truth, Spacemonkey."

Daniel pushed his glasses against his nose-bridge. "Fine. I was in senior year, I was 16, it was just outside the library."

"The library?" Sam inquired.

"Yeah, the school library."

"Which school?"

"Mine."

Jack looked pained.

"Look, you didn't ask about the library, you asked bout the kiss." Daniel swallowed. "She was my age, and I remember she had the greatest complexion. She was so smart. Actually, she'd only come in the last two months, but I remember I always saw her at the library, and one day I just came out of the shadows and kissed her."

"Came out of the shadows?" Jack repeated sceptically.

"Well, I liked to look at her. I – I guess – I was observing her from afar."

Jack inclined his head. "How was the kiss?"

Daniel was thoughtful. "Not bad, actually. But, well, I think not on her part."

"So you liked kissing her," Jack insinuated.

"Uhu, it, was only just once, because then she told me she had a boyfriend."

"Ouch." Looking towards Sam, Jack had to blink. She seemed a bit out of it.

"Daniel, what was your high school?" Sam asked.

Jack cut in. "Ah! – next person."

"Sir" –

"You can do your 20-questions thing later."

Daniel glanced at Sam fleetingly before turning to Jack. "OK, then, Jack, truth or dare?"

Jack looked to Sam. "Truth."

"Right. Um ... okay, what was the worst thing you've said in the last five years?"

Jack looked dubious. "What kind of a question's that?"

"Just answer it, Sir."

"You're curious, Major. It's my side-arm I swear."

"What?" Daniel asked.

"That's the worst thing I've said since the Stargate."

"What possessed you to say that?" Daniel was all-ears.

"That's another question, Daniel."

Sam cleared her throat. "The Colonel said it when he and I were in Antarctica."

"Thank you, Major."

"That's alright, Sir."

"I believe you giggled, Major."

Daniel's eyes were widening, but, to Jack's relief, he didn't dwell further on the subject.

"Carter! Truth or dare?"

Sam didn't look impressed. "I'll choose dare, Sir."

"Nothing gross," Daniel immediately added.

"Carter, I dare you to explain space-time using words of no more than seven letters."

"Sir!"

"Sam, I'll help you."

"Thanks, Daniel." Sam seemed husky. "Okay, Sir, basically" –

"That was nine letters, Major."

"Sir?"

"Jack, that wasn't fair."

"Sir, what we know as volume: breadth, length and depth, has a 4th plane – time, and so the events and objects of any spatial region can be known as part of it."

Jack stood. "Great, just peachy. I'll see you kids later."

The Colonel left the room, and the two occupants sighed a relief.

"So, what was that column thing about, Sam?"

***

Daniel and Sam were heading to the Commissary. They had been translating and calculating the information found on their latest off-world mission for the last three hours. In fact, their whole week had been spent interpreting and analysing the information, and they expected the remainder of their down-time to be engaged in the same fashion.

Going to the cold-bar, they each filled their plates with assorted nutritional foods and then occupied a table.

"Earlier when you were asking about which high school I'd attended," Daniel began, "I was kind of wondering the same about you."

"Well I went to San Francisco College."

"And then?"

Sam's brows knotted.

"Did you go to a different high school after that?"

"... Yeah. I went to Detroit. For the last two months."

Daniel stopped chewing, clearly taken aback by the news. "I went to Detroit College."

Sam was surprised. "I never – how come I never knew you?"

"Maybe because I was a geek at 16," Daniel replied flatly.

"No, you still would have won all the language recognition. I was only there temporarily because of my father's posting."

"What name did you take?"

"Samantha,"

Daniel inclined for her to go on. "Carter,"

Sam paused, and then looked perplexed. "No, Samantha Elizabeth." she was shaking her head. "It can't be. I didn't add 'Carter' to my name until I was in the USAF."

Daniel was also becoming agitated. Very carefully, he asked, "Sam, did you have braces at 16?"

"Yes!" she was gushing. "You, you had long hair, these weird-looking, owl-rimmed glasses!"

"Sam with the freckles," Daniel was slowly realising.

"And your pimples," the truth was also dawning on Sam.

Suddenly they were stunned into silence. It was a warm silence; a thoughtful silence. Both were lost inside their calculating heads. There were too many emotions racing through their bodies. Too many things on which to reminisce. To ponder.

Sam's expression had been changing continuously in reflection of her thoughts. "You know, Daniel," she started quietly.

Daniel, who had been unconsciously staring at her, cleared his throat. "What is it?"

"I sort of – well, I lied."

"About what?"

"Back then, back at school…" she explained awkwardly. "I lied. I wasn't with anybody at the time."

Daniel blinked at her words. "Why? – I mean, why did you tell me that you did?"

"I was scared,"

"Scared of me?" an incredulous Daniel prompted.

"Scared because I was so young," Sam clarified, blushing and struggling to maintain intelligible speech. "I actually – Daniel, I enjoyed the kiss. And that terrified me, because I thought you were going to affect my grades."

When Daniel didn't respond, she continued apologetically, "You have to understand, Daniel, that at that age my only life goal was to get into NASA, and I made myself swear that I wouldn't let anything – anybody – distract me from my studies," she sighed, unable to stop herself from sounding defensive. "So I had to make something up,"

While she had been speaking, an unfamiliar feeling had ignited in Daniel. As he watched and listened on, he discovered that this feeling wasn't new. He seemed to remember it from somewhere. It was a feeling that he had experienced back when he was much younger. Back when he was still in foster care. Back when all he had known was a blond-haired prodigy at a school library.

"Sam?"

"Yes, Daniel?"

He hesitated, but her bright eyes and expectant, friendly face gave him a burst of courage. "Jack's right: we are on down-time,"

Sam nodded, feeling herself hanging on his every word.

"Did you want to – that is, would you like to talk more about things…over dinner, some time?"

She blushed. "To talk more about high school?"

"About anything you want,"

"I'd like that, Daniel," she readily accepted, much to her own surprise.

A different level of understanding had been reached between Daniel and Sam. Although they knew not what the future held, they privately acknowledged that the first bold step had been taken. They would go, uncertain of their fates, but comforted by this new promise of something more.