Sixty -five weeks...World's End - Chapter One
Sixty-five weeks.
That's what the user's page says on how long it's been since I've posted on this journal. That's over a year. It's been almost that long since I've read through the whole piece from beginning to end which I've done today. In reading it over again I had to smile. I really liked this universe. I'm going to pull up the notes for the next stage in this story and begin writing it again. I don't know if anyone will read it, but I'm going to put it out there anyway.
If you're still out there, I'd like to know what you thought of Parallel Universe and what questions you have about Jack and Dana going forward - if you have any going forward. You might not be interested after all this time so feel free to ignore this post or defriend with no hard feelings.
If you decide to stick around, I have a treat for you: 5 chapters of an altenate universe to this altenate universe that I wrote a few months back. It's a bit different than where I had planned for Jack and Dana to go but I thought, "Why not play with it a bit?" A couple of you have read it on the One O'Neil Yahoo site. I've tweeked it a bit bit not too much. I've opened it up so that it could go somewhere if I decided to pursue it or if there was enough interest in it.
Ok, too much talking. Here's the first chapter of Parallel Universe : World's End.
=========================================================
“Jaaaccckkk……Jack!”
The sound of his name floating on the breeze stopped him dead in his tracks. Was it her voice? It sounded like her voice. Before he could stop himself, he could feel the hope surging back and hated how it made him feel. Maybe this was it, the place where he would finally find her. He felt his heart betray him, set him up to be hurt again when he came face to face with the fact that it she was still lost to him. Maybe he only thought he heard her calling him. It wouldn’t be the first time.
He was exhausted having walked straight through the night. It was past mid-day now. His head was pounding and his knee was killing him. He had been to three other villages in the last week only to be sent on to the next one. He didn’t want to think about the long lonely journey back to this planet’s Stargate when he didn’t find her. He kept telling himself that this could be the one and if not this one, then the next one for sure. He didn’t even believe the lie anymore but it had stopped him from thinking of how long it had been and how big the universe really was. It stopped him from giving up on the only thing he still dared to want and that was to maybe one day die in her arms.
“Jonathon James O’Neill! I know you can hear me!”
He hadn’t been hallucinating - someone was calling his name, his full given name. But how could that be? The only person who ever did that in that tone of voice was his mother and he was light years from Earth where she had passed away too many years ago. He slowly continued walking in the direction he thought he heard the voice come from, as a familiar fear settled coldly into his heart. Maybe his last wish hadn’t been granted and he was already dead, or maybe this was that dream he kept having and it would heartbreaking end before he could make it to her. He fought against the lump rising in his throat as he picked up speed. He would know one way or another soon as he saw the path bend round the stream towards what looked to be a cluster of small farms in the distance. Ignoring the screaming pain in his knee, he pressed on.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
She shielded her eyes with her hand against the brightening sun as she moved determinedly towards the tree line at the edge of the field. He had been out all morning, grabbing only a couple of pieces of fruit and some bread before dawn to meet up with the others for some adventure they had dreamed up the night before. He met her protests with an apologetic promise to be home before the mid-day meal and a big bear hug that nearly lifted her off the ground before he raced out of the house. She tried not to smile as she thought of how strong he had become, the strength from hard work adding to the height he had acquired in the last year. It seemed that before her eyes he had grown from the sweet laughing little boy that had brought her so much joy and comfort in her exile, to the tall, handsome young man who walked with the confidence of years beyond his own. A natural leader, she thought proudly, so much like his father that it was heartbreaking to watch him.
It was because he was so much like his father that she worried so. He was the first to step forward, the first to volunteer whenever a call went out. Many times, when he was not too much younger than he was now, did she have to drag him protesting away from some group of older men setting out to do one dangerous thing or the other. It embarrassed him, she knew, but she couldn’t help herself as the fear that she could lose him too welled up in her chest. There were the tantrums and bitter arguments between them that threatened to fracture their relationship until his uncle pulled him aside and explained about her past life. It was during the retreat before his manhood ceremony that his uncle spoke to him about the man who was his father and about what she had endured in losing him. He had come home subdued with tears in his eyes and a heartfelt promise to be more obedient and mindful of her feelings and kept it - for the most part.
The same person had also pulled her aside and gently chastised her for holding on too tight. He was his father’s son, he had told her, and as such would be the man his father had been. It was in his blood, in his very soul to be the leader, to be the first to step up. To try to deny that would only bring them both much pain and sorrow. If she did not loosen her hold, he would break from it and the riff would be unbearable. To keep him, she had to let him go. With many tears and many sleepless nights she tried her best to give him the space he needed. They had slowly achieved a balance between them and their relationship as mother and son had grown and deepened into friendship.
She called him once again, using his full given name knowing that if he was within the sound of her voice, it would bring him back at a run. She rarely called him that preferring to reserve it for when she really meant business which she did now, an hour past the mid-day meal. There was work that needed to be done today if they were to join the group traveling south to the seaport at the end of the week. She waited a few minutes longer, and when there was no sign of him she turned in exasperation to head back to the house hoping against hope he’d doubled back to meet her there.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cautiously approaching the front of the house, Jack moved slowly forward, his senses on high alert. He knocked softly on the front door. Getting no answer, he pushed against the door and finding it unlocked, slipped inside and quickly shut the door behind him. He relaxed against it, letting out the breath he had been holding. He’d made it back before his mother, having circled through the grove behind her and beating it back to the house at high speed. He had lost track of time - again- and it wasn’t until he heard her calling for him did he realize how late he was. Pushing himself away from the door, he moved to quickly grab one of the sandwiches she made for him before heading out to finish the tasks she had given him the day before. He really wanted to go with her and his uncle on the upcoming trip to the seaport. If he worked fast he could maybe avoided a fuss when she saw he was trying hard to make up the time.
Jack shoved a piece a fruit into his pocket for later and moved to head out the back way when he saw his mother coming towards the house from that direction looking none too happy. He turned to head back out the front door and ran straight into his uncle who had just raised his hand to knock. As the older man straightened up from being almost knocked down, Jack could see he was also looking highly agitated. He must have been looking for him too. Jack opened his mouth to explain, plead and beg that he not be left behind but his uncle abruptly cut him off.
“Where’s your mother?” he asked his face grim. Jack had never seen his uncle is such a state. He realized suddenly that this wasn’t about him. Something had happened.
“She’s in the back,” Jack said. “Why? What’s going on - what’s wrong?’
“Wrong? Well - nothing, exactly wrong - just. Something’s…happened.” His uncle answered hesitantly. His blue eyes met Jack’s brown worried ones as he reached out to take the younger man gently by the shoulders. “I don’t have much time to explain but you’re going to have to be strong, Jack - really strong. It’s going to be - well, it’s going to be..." His voice trailed off as his eyes traveled over toward the road. It was then Jack saw there was someone standing just inside the gate.
“What’s going on?’ The young man asked his uncle suddenly afraid. “Who’s that?”
Before Jack could get his answer, his mother was behind him.
“Wait just one minute, young man, if you so much as move to leave - oh, hey Daniel…” She switched gears catching sight of the older man in the door. “What’s - what’s going on?” she asked seeing the strange looks on their faces as they turned towards her.
As his uncle released him to move into the house with his mother, Jack turned back towards the man who was now moving forward. Defiantly, Jack moved to stop him from coming any closer before he got some answers as to who he was and why he was there. He had only taken a few steps towards the man before he heard his mother cry out from inside the house. It was a piercing sound, something Jack had never heard before and it sent a chill through him. In the moment before he turned back to the house the man had moved close enough to Jack so that he was able to see the haunted, anguished look in his dark brown eyes. Their gazes held for a split second before the older man’s eyes moved past him to where his mother had appeared in the doorway, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief. He heard the man speak for the first time in a whisper so raw, so open, and so full of emotion that it took Jack a moment before he realized what he heard him say.
“Dana…”
Jack had never heard his mother’s name spoken with such longing, such hunger and it upset and angered him to hear this man speak it in that way. His first thought was to haul off and knock the man square on his ass but before thought gave way to action, his mother ran past him and into the man’s arms. He took a step back in bewilderment as his mother - his mother - began to return the man’s hungry kisses, crying and laughing at the same time.
“Jack, oh my God, Jack…Jack.”
She kept saying it over and over again in a way that a mother should never say her son’s name. Except, a stunned Jack realized, it wasn’t his name she was saying. Not taking his eyes off of the crying, kissing couple in front of him, Jack stumbled over to where his uncle stood in the doorway trying in vain to wipe away the tears filling his eyes.
“Is that…is he…” He couldn’t get the words out past the growing lump in his throat.
“Yes, that’s him.” Daniel Jackson nodded with a trembling smile, putting an arm around the bewildered young man’s shoulders. “That’s Jack O’Neill… your father.”
That's what the user's page says on how long it's been since I've posted on this journal. That's over a year. It's been almost that long since I've read through the whole piece from beginning to end which I've done today. In reading it over again I had to smile. I really liked this universe. I'm going to pull up the notes for the next stage in this story and begin writing it again. I don't know if anyone will read it, but I'm going to put it out there anyway.
If you're still out there, I'd like to know what you thought of Parallel Universe and what questions you have about Jack and Dana going forward - if you have any going forward. You might not be interested after all this time so feel free to ignore this post or defriend with no hard feelings.
If you decide to stick around, I have a treat for you: 5 chapters of an altenate universe to this altenate universe that I wrote a few months back. It's a bit different than where I had planned for Jack and Dana to go but I thought, "Why not play with it a bit?" A couple of you have read it on the One O'Neil Yahoo site. I've tweeked it a bit bit not too much. I've opened it up so that it could go somewhere if I decided to pursue it or if there was enough interest in it.
Ok, too much talking. Here's the first chapter of Parallel Universe : World's End.
=========================================================
“Jaaaccckkk……Jack!”
The sound of his name floating on the breeze stopped him dead in his tracks. Was it her voice? It sounded like her voice. Before he could stop himself, he could feel the hope surging back and hated how it made him feel. Maybe this was it, the place where he would finally find her. He felt his heart betray him, set him up to be hurt again when he came face to face with the fact that it she was still lost to him. Maybe he only thought he heard her calling him. It wouldn’t be the first time.
He was exhausted having walked straight through the night. It was past mid-day now. His head was pounding and his knee was killing him. He had been to three other villages in the last week only to be sent on to the next one. He didn’t want to think about the long lonely journey back to this planet’s Stargate when he didn’t find her. He kept telling himself that this could be the one and if not this one, then the next one for sure. He didn’t even believe the lie anymore but it had stopped him from thinking of how long it had been and how big the universe really was. It stopped him from giving up on the only thing he still dared to want and that was to maybe one day die in her arms.
“Jonathon James O’Neill! I know you can hear me!”
He hadn’t been hallucinating - someone was calling his name, his full given name. But how could that be? The only person who ever did that in that tone of voice was his mother and he was light years from Earth where she had passed away too many years ago. He slowly continued walking in the direction he thought he heard the voice come from, as a familiar fear settled coldly into his heart. Maybe his last wish hadn’t been granted and he was already dead, or maybe this was that dream he kept having and it would heartbreaking end before he could make it to her. He fought against the lump rising in his throat as he picked up speed. He would know one way or another soon as he saw the path bend round the stream towards what looked to be a cluster of small farms in the distance. Ignoring the screaming pain in his knee, he pressed on.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
She shielded her eyes with her hand against the brightening sun as she moved determinedly towards the tree line at the edge of the field. He had been out all morning, grabbing only a couple of pieces of fruit and some bread before dawn to meet up with the others for some adventure they had dreamed up the night before. He met her protests with an apologetic promise to be home before the mid-day meal and a big bear hug that nearly lifted her off the ground before he raced out of the house. She tried not to smile as she thought of how strong he had become, the strength from hard work adding to the height he had acquired in the last year. It seemed that before her eyes he had grown from the sweet laughing little boy that had brought her so much joy and comfort in her exile, to the tall, handsome young man who walked with the confidence of years beyond his own. A natural leader, she thought proudly, so much like his father that it was heartbreaking to watch him.
It was because he was so much like his father that she worried so. He was the first to step forward, the first to volunteer whenever a call went out. Many times, when he was not too much younger than he was now, did she have to drag him protesting away from some group of older men setting out to do one dangerous thing or the other. It embarrassed him, she knew, but she couldn’t help herself as the fear that she could lose him too welled up in her chest. There were the tantrums and bitter arguments between them that threatened to fracture their relationship until his uncle pulled him aside and explained about her past life. It was during the retreat before his manhood ceremony that his uncle spoke to him about the man who was his father and about what she had endured in losing him. He had come home subdued with tears in his eyes and a heartfelt promise to be more obedient and mindful of her feelings and kept it - for the most part.
The same person had also pulled her aside and gently chastised her for holding on too tight. He was his father’s son, he had told her, and as such would be the man his father had been. It was in his blood, in his very soul to be the leader, to be the first to step up. To try to deny that would only bring them both much pain and sorrow. If she did not loosen her hold, he would break from it and the riff would be unbearable. To keep him, she had to let him go. With many tears and many sleepless nights she tried her best to give him the space he needed. They had slowly achieved a balance between them and their relationship as mother and son had grown and deepened into friendship.
She called him once again, using his full given name knowing that if he was within the sound of her voice, it would bring him back at a run. She rarely called him that preferring to reserve it for when she really meant business which she did now, an hour past the mid-day meal. There was work that needed to be done today if they were to join the group traveling south to the seaport at the end of the week. She waited a few minutes longer, and when there was no sign of him she turned in exasperation to head back to the house hoping against hope he’d doubled back to meet her there.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cautiously approaching the front of the house, Jack moved slowly forward, his senses on high alert. He knocked softly on the front door. Getting no answer, he pushed against the door and finding it unlocked, slipped inside and quickly shut the door behind him. He relaxed against it, letting out the breath he had been holding. He’d made it back before his mother, having circled through the grove behind her and beating it back to the house at high speed. He had lost track of time - again- and it wasn’t until he heard her calling for him did he realize how late he was. Pushing himself away from the door, he moved to quickly grab one of the sandwiches she made for him before heading out to finish the tasks she had given him the day before. He really wanted to go with her and his uncle on the upcoming trip to the seaport. If he worked fast he could maybe avoided a fuss when she saw he was trying hard to make up the time.
Jack shoved a piece a fruit into his pocket for later and moved to head out the back way when he saw his mother coming towards the house from that direction looking none too happy. He turned to head back out the front door and ran straight into his uncle who had just raised his hand to knock. As the older man straightened up from being almost knocked down, Jack could see he was also looking highly agitated. He must have been looking for him too. Jack opened his mouth to explain, plead and beg that he not be left behind but his uncle abruptly cut him off.
“Where’s your mother?” he asked his face grim. Jack had never seen his uncle is such a state. He realized suddenly that this wasn’t about him. Something had happened.
“She’s in the back,” Jack said. “Why? What’s going on - what’s wrong?’
“Wrong? Well - nothing, exactly wrong - just. Something’s…happened.” His uncle answered hesitantly. His blue eyes met Jack’s brown worried ones as he reached out to take the younger man gently by the shoulders. “I don’t have much time to explain but you’re going to have to be strong, Jack - really strong. It’s going to be - well, it’s going to be..." His voice trailed off as his eyes traveled over toward the road. It was then Jack saw there was someone standing just inside the gate.
“What’s going on?’ The young man asked his uncle suddenly afraid. “Who’s that?”
Before Jack could get his answer, his mother was behind him.
“Wait just one minute, young man, if you so much as move to leave - oh, hey Daniel…” She switched gears catching sight of the older man in the door. “What’s - what’s going on?” she asked seeing the strange looks on their faces as they turned towards her.
As his uncle released him to move into the house with his mother, Jack turned back towards the man who was now moving forward. Defiantly, Jack moved to stop him from coming any closer before he got some answers as to who he was and why he was there. He had only taken a few steps towards the man before he heard his mother cry out from inside the house. It was a piercing sound, something Jack had never heard before and it sent a chill through him. In the moment before he turned back to the house the man had moved close enough to Jack so that he was able to see the haunted, anguished look in his dark brown eyes. Their gazes held for a split second before the older man’s eyes moved past him to where his mother had appeared in the doorway, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief. He heard the man speak for the first time in a whisper so raw, so open, and so full of emotion that it took Jack a moment before he realized what he heard him say.
“Dana…”
Jack had never heard his mother’s name spoken with such longing, such hunger and it upset and angered him to hear this man speak it in that way. His first thought was to haul off and knock the man square on his ass but before thought gave way to action, his mother ran past him and into the man’s arms. He took a step back in bewilderment as his mother - his mother - began to return the man’s hungry kisses, crying and laughing at the same time.
“Jack, oh my God, Jack…Jack.”
She kept saying it over and over again in a way that a mother should never say her son’s name. Except, a stunned Jack realized, it wasn’t his name she was saying. Not taking his eyes off of the crying, kissing couple in front of him, Jack stumbled over to where his uncle stood in the doorway trying in vain to wipe away the tears filling his eyes.
“Is that…is he…” He couldn’t get the words out past the growing lump in his throat.
“Yes, that’s him.” Daniel Jackson nodded with a trembling smile, putting an arm around the bewildered young man’s shoulders. “That’s Jack O’Neill… your father.”