What Waits, by Julie Fortune (PG-13/R)
Rec Category: Drama
Pairing: none
Categories: drama, Daniel Jackson, Samantha Carter, team, gen, angst, hurt/comfort, horror
Warnings: “gross stuff” (to quote Julie), major offscreen violence, language
Author on LJ: juliefortune
Author's Website: Julie Fortune's Fanfic for the Fearless
Link: What Waits
Why This Must Be Read: In this intense drama, Julie plunges us right into the thick of events, as the team recovers Daniel from a truly horrific situation. Slowly, eerily, we learn the backstory and the mystery of why Daniel acted as he did - and what was really behind it.
Written with an excellent Sam first-person POV, and with everyone in sterling character, this creepy story will have you reading it breathlessly until the end... And remembering it a long, long time.
I'd seen the bodies piled up in the village square. Hundreds of them, decomposing in the sun. Colonel O'Neill hadn't wanted us too close; disease, he'd warned, and he'd been right. But we'd been frantic to find Daniel, and we'd risked it anyway, relying on latex gloves and face masks and strong immune systems. God, I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep without dreaming about those piles of bodies, the terrible fear that the next distorted, bloated face I uncovered would be that of our friend ...
And then we'd heard our radios click. Three short clicks, three long, three short. SOS. We'd yelled his name, but he hadn't answered. Not in words.
It had taken us two hours to find the fetid little hole Daniel had been sealed inside. Another twenty minutes to dig the entrance clear.
And now he was rocking back and forth in my arms, clutching the blanket in white-knuckled fists. Staring at the hole we'd pulled him out of, where a horror I really couldn't imagine still lurked.
"But if all the rest of them are dead, why is he still alive?" I asked, and looked to Teal'c for an explanation. He turned, but didn't meet my eyes. Didn't look at anything, really; those dark eyes were staring off into some hell I didn't want to know.
"I believe they were propitiating their gods," he said softly. His gaze abruptly cut toward the hole. I didn't hear anything, saw less. "And I believe that they feared Daniel Jackson too much to kill him. Colonel O'Neill should not be allowed to go alone. It is dangerous."
He was right. If the filter mask failed, and O'Neill was overcome by the toxic fumes of decomposing bodies, he could die, and never make a sound.