River of Stars Ch 6 bit – chaplain

A/N: Oof. And double oof. Well, someone had to say it…

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Shading his eyes, Hakkai peered through the fog. “Ah. The interesting part.”

Stopping with the rest, Sam stared up at the so-called foothills. If there was a goat-track leading up, the goats had been taking ninja stealth lessons.

“Monasteries are usually near people,” Daniel complained. “Why isn’t there a road?”

“They’re not here to minister to the people,” Hakkai stated. “They’re a center for training and meditative arts. Usually, the only people who visit are from other temples. They’re really not enthusiastic about dealing with those… not fully dedicated to the faith.”

“Which means they’ll be oh, so happy to see us,” the colonel said dryly. “You want to go up this in the rain?”

“What, you want to camp out here a few days, while the next band of assassins tracks us down?” Gojyo snorted. “Believe me, His Holiness over there isn’t going to get any less snarly until this dries out. I’ll take my chances with the rocks.”

“Die.”

“See what I mean?” Gojyo patted Goku on the head. “Come on, kid. Let’s go break a trail.”

“Not a kid!” Goku said hotly. Raced past them all, only to skid to a stop near Sanzo. “It’ll be okay.”

“Hmph.” But the blond’s hand rested on Goku’s cloaked head a moment, rain beading on silver.

Goku grinned, gold eyes lit like sunlight, and dashed off.

“Seems like a good kid,” the colonel observed.

Violet narrowed, eyed him – and Sanzo deliberately turned his back.

Hey! Indignation blazed along with Sam’s itches. You don’t get to-

“Um, Jack?” Oddly, Daniel sounded no little annoyed himself. “Do you go to PTA meetings like that?”

“Do I what?” the colonel asked blankly.

“Or do you just talk to other parents in the Mountain like that?” From the set of Daniel’s jaw, he didn’t want to say this, but he’d decided it needed to be said. “Because if you do, I think I need to write a report to the general about a good, anthropological reason people with families keep asking for transfers out of the SGC.”

O’Neill rolled his eyes. “Of course they want transfers. We nearly got the whole Mountain sucked down a black hole once. Who wants their kids near that?”

Daniel sighed. With the slight upward push of glasses that meant, Jack, those ears are not just for holding your sunglasses up.

“Fine, fine – what’d I say?”

“It’s not what you say,” the archaeologist said deliberately, “it’s how you say it. Which is probably why Teal’c hasn’t called you on this before; he’s a parent, but Tau’ri aren’t Jaffa, so he didn’t get all of what you just implied.”

Teal’c put a brow up at that, but remained silent.

“Jack, what you say is ‘nice kid’. What you imply – tone, posture, the whole nine yards – is, ‘either he’s a gang-banger in a really good disguise, or he really is a nice kid… and that’s just too bad, because you don’t deserve him, you’re going to get him killed, and it’s such a shame it won’t be you‘.”

The colonel stood very, very still.

Oh god. Oh, this is going to be bad. “Daniel,” Sam managed, shocked.

“Don’t Daniel him, Major,” Sanzo said coldly. “He’s right.” The blond turned, just enough to rake violet ice down their spines. “You’re bleeding all over the world, and I’m sick of it. So since your friends can’t seem to tie off the artery, let me lend you a cauterizing iron.”