SG-1 Fic: Please Hang Up And Try Again
sg_fignewton said there needed to be more fic about this Daniel Jackson guy. I aim to please.
Title: Please Hang Up And Try Again (five phone calls Daniel Jackson never got)
Author: abyssinia4077
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1
Characters: Daniel Jackson, Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter, Teal'c (and others)
Rating/Warning: PG-13 (language, off-screen violence)
Disclaimer: Stargate and its characters are owned by MGM and other people - none of whom are me. I just like their sandbox.
Word Count: 3643
Author's Note: Big thanks to Aurora_Novarum for the beta. Spoilers through "Moebius" and for season 10 cast.
Summary: Daniel got a lot of phone calls over the years. Here's five he didn't.
Hey, Daniel. I know you can't get this message and I feel silly leaving it but Colonel O'Neill refuses to talk about you and Teal'c is being Teal'c and General Hammond told me yesterday that I'd learn to live with not knowing where you are or…what. And I guess I just got too used to you being there for me to talk to. And…okay, maybe this wasn't my best idea.
**
Daniel was enjoying a rare, lazy Sunday. Descending had been easier the second time - he remembered everything and he'd fallen back to mortality in Jack's office rather than some planet SGC had never explored. It was easier, except when he had to write the report and when he knew Sam had read it and then they both knew how he had died this time.
But today it was bright and sunny and they were facing an SGC that almost didn't know what to do with itself with no more Goa'uld and no more Replicators and the thought that they might get to go back to doing actual exploration was enough for him to shake off the latest second chance life had granted. Plus he'd been to the grocery store and Sam was coming over for lunch to talk about Area 51 and Atlantis and everything that might be next.
He was halfway through the salad, pasta boiling on the stove, when Sam let herself in and, without words, grabbed the carrots by his elbow and dug his peeler from the drawer next to the sink. They were just sitting down when his phone rang. Expecting maybe Jack wanting to watch a game or Teal'c with some new movie he wanted to see, Daniel answered around his mouthful of spaghetti.
"I can't talk long," his own voice said from the earpiece. "Samantha would kill me if she knew I was making this call - something about risking the collapse of both realities. I had a hard enough time convincing her to come to this time at all."
"What is this?" Daniel asked into the phone. Covering the mouthpiece with his hand, he shared a glance with a bewildered-looking Sam and angled his head to send her to the other phone in his bedroom.
"You recognize my voice?"
"Well, yes, but…"
"I don't have time to go over the autobiography, but I promise you'll find it very familiar." Daniel recognized the exasperation his own voice reached whenever Jack was being a little too dense. "Don't go to Egypt."
"I wasn't planning to anytime soon."
"You will. Maybe. Don't go. The ZPM isn't worth it."
"Are you saying there's a ZPM in Egypt?" Daniel could feel his heart racing. With a ZPM they could power the chair, maybe reach Atlantis.
The man on the other end only offered an exasperated sigh. "Not your Egypt. And I'm not even sure how these timelines work - hopefully you won't have to go back." The voice stopped suddenly and Daniel could almost hear his own brain trying to decide what to say. "I can't let them die again."
"What, who?" If this was how Jack felt whenever he or Sam babbled at him, he was going to call him right now and apologize.
"It doesn't matter. Look, what I really need is tretonin. The Teal'c with me isn't going to last long. I need you to get as much as possible - leave it at Pioneer Square Park this afternoon."
"You're going to have to tell me more - give me more time," Daniel stammered as Sam stepped into the hallway, phone to her ear, some electronic device in her hand, and a wave that clearly meant he had to keep the other Daniel on the line.
"Time is the one thing I have too much of. But not here. Samantha is already too anxious to be out of here." He sounded tired. Much, much too tired. "This afternoon. Tretonin." The line clicked and Daniel was left staring at the handset until the operator's mechanical voice came on, advising him to hang up the phone and try again if he wanted to make a call.
Sam emerged from the hallway, eyes big and face pale. "I traced it back to your cell phone," she told him, only shaking her head when he fished the phone out of his own pants pocket. "What do we do?"
"We go get some tretonin," Daniel said, grabbing his keys and walking out his door, Sam a step behind him.
**
You're a real son of a bitch, you know that?
…
…
Just because you're all glowy doesn't mean you know what's best for people.
…
…
A real son of a bitch.
…
…
You don't have to wait for the Goa'uld to give you an excuse to let us know you're okay.
**
Daniel was halfway across Montana - miles and miles of road stretching beneath endless sky - when his cell rang. Quickly glancing to the passenger seat to assure the sound hadn't woken Jack, he grabbed the phone and flipped it open.
"It'll be easier if you just turn back now," Kinsey's voice came filled with static and enough arrogance to make the hairs on Daniel's neck bristle. "We're watching the borders - it's only a matter of time. Turn yourself in, tell us where Major Carter and the Jaffa went and I'll see that neither you nor Colonel O'Neill is harmed."
Sam had gotten through the 'gate with Teal'c, setting a virus in all of SGC's computers to ensure they wouldn't be followed. Daniel hadn't made it - turning back when he saw Jack go down and hearing the event horizon close right before all the computers fried.
"Sorry, Kinsey, don't take it personally if I don't believe you," Daniel said, watching his knuckles clench on the steering wheel.
"Be reasonable Doctor Jackson. Your faces are being displayed on every television in the country. You won't be able to run for long. I promise it'll be much easier if you just turn yourselves in."
Daniel checked the time of the call, trying to remember how long Sam had told him it took to trace a cell phone. His brain felt fuzzy and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth after too many cups of bad gas station coffee. The four hours of sleep in the dingy hotel in Wyoming were all he would get until Minnesota. It didn't help that Kinsey had enough time to spread their pictures that they couldn't risk entering gas stations for more coffee even in the middle of nowhere.
"You know, Kinsey, I've been to hell. I think you would fit right in," Daniel said through clenched teeth, watching out of the corner of his eye as Jack stirred, groaning slightly. He slammed the phone shut, shoving it into the cupholder and wishing he could just throw it out the window - but it was the only link he might still have to Janet and General Hammond and any others who might also be aiming the same direction he was.
Jack groaned again, eyes finally opening and face growing pale and Daniel pulled over, checking to see how much time had passed before digging in the backpack in the backseat for the percoset stashed in the bottom. The splint on Jack's arm held the bones in place, but only barely, and more than once Daniel had feared the bumpy road was going to send him back into shock.
As Jack swallowed the pills, swishing water in his mouth and spitting it out the open window, Daniel checked the map. Eight more hours and they should reach Jack's cabin. They could afford to wait a day, at most, for anyone else who might make it before they climbed into the tel'tak left cloaked in the trees behind the cabin, and prayed it could still fly. Daniel only hoped the presence of the ship was as secret as they thought.
"Was that Kinsey?" Jack asked through clenched teeth.
"Yeah. He said we should surrender," Daniel told him, turning back onto the road and hoping for Jack to stop wincing at the uneven road and go back to sleep. "Said he'd take good care of us."
There was no amusement in Jack's laughter.
**
Doctor Jackson. Uh, hi, this is Jonas Quinn. Sam said she sometimes calls your voice mail and I thought since I was using your office, you wouldn't mind. Oh, your fish are okay. I mean, one of them died, but I got a new one and Nyan feeds them when I'm off-world. It's been, it's been weird here but exciting and, you were right - the universe does make my world seem really small.
Teal'c's pretty awesome and Sam's been nice and I don’t think Colonel O'Neill likes me very much but Sam said I shouldn't worry about that.
Everyone misses you. I can see it in how they look at me.
I wish I could ask you how you did it all.
**
For the third time the script started swimming on the tablet and Daniel leaned back, rubbed his eyes, and contemplated a sixth cup of coffee.
"Morning." Jack poked his head in the door, eyes catching on the balled-up paper spilling off the desk and onto the floor and the empty coffee mugs lined up like toy soldiers. "When did you last go home, Daniel?"
"Um, a few days ago. I think. I can sleep here, you know," he muttered after he focused the swimming images in the doorway into a single person.
"Ah, but there is nothing like the comfort of one's own bed," Jack pointed out, ambling into the office and heading straight for the artifacts Daniel knew Jack knew made Daniel nervous to see in his hands. "Maybe you just need a change in scenery for the answer to the universe," Jack made a vague wave at the translation Daniel was battling," to come to you."
Daniel wasn't quite sure what happened, but for once the irresistible force seemed to have beaten the unmovable object because suddenly he was halfway to his house, translation notes shoved into a bag in the passenger seat and some opera cd Jack had given him coming out of his speakers.
After unlocking the door he dropped the bag on his couch and wandered into his kitchen, sniffing the orange juice in his fridge before pouring a glass. He paused to toe off his shoes under the framed diplomas in his hallway and stopped, glass halfway to his lips, eyes locked on the words - the schools, the honors, the degrees - all written in flowing script as though sacred.
He reached out, tracing a finger around the "D" in his name and remembering a time when it all seemed so impressive - all of academia opening before him, showering him with commendation and declaring him the next great mind - when those mysteries of long-dead civilizations seemed vitally important and he just knew he had the key to unlock them. A time when he could do anything. A time before he found himself lecturing to an empty room, before he walked out of academia and into the universe and never came back.
He almost dropped the orange juice when his phone rang - and almost didn't answer it since anyone from SGC would try his cell which almost guaranteed a telemarketer on the other end. But he picked up the receiver, offering a tired, "Hello?" to whomever was on the other line.
"Is this Doctor Daniel Jackson?" The man on the other end sounded young and eager.
"Um, yes."
"You worked with Dr. Jordan at Chicago?"
"Years ago. Why?" Dr. Jordan died and Sarah was still lost among the stars and Steven wanted nothing to do with him and, really, this was a scab Daniel did not need picked right now.
"Oh, thank god. You're a difficult man to track down," the voice fell into a certain cadence that brought Daniel back to brick walls and the smell of old books and stale coffee. "I'm working on my PhD over at Berkeley and we found something in Egypt last year and I remembered reading one of your papers as an undergrad so I tracked it down again. I think we've found evidence to support one of your theories."
"You, you have?" Daniel had proven his theories years ago, when they first found Abydos, and had grown so accustomed to them being true in his own head, to those he worked with every day, that he'd almost forgotten it wasn't common knowledge to the community at large.
"Oh, I think so," the man said and Daniel sat down on his couch and listened to him talk about hieroglyphics and carbon dating and discoveries beneath the sand and eight months later his name was on the author list of a paper that got highlighted on the cover of the American Journal of Archaeology.
**
I don't know if I can do this anymore Daniel. I'm so tired of losing people. It's been a month since Colonel O'Neill disappeared with Maybourne and…I'm sure you're out there learning how to save the universe, but we need you here too.
Can you just let us know you're okay?
Maybe find the colonel for us?
**
Daniel was held up with a badly sprained ankle but the mission was routine enough - even a planet they'd already been to - and the rest of the team (still four strong) went without him. He wasn't expecting them back for another two days so when his office phone rang he thought it would be the scientists at Area 51 telling him the analysis was finished on the Ancient artifact he'd sent over.
"Jackson," he answered the phone, idly flipping through the papers on his desk with his free hand.
"Uh, Dr. Jackson?" Walter's voice froze him, one hand clutching the phone too tight, the other letting forgotten papers fall to the floor. "SG-1 just 'gated in. You'd better get to the infirmary."
The phone swung where he dropped it on his way out the door, hobble-running down the blur of corridors, nearly bowling over three people who didn’t get away in time and looked at him with a little more sympathy than he wanted to see. Teal'c stood just inside the door, smelling of smoke and burned clothing and hair and the sharp metal-tang of blood. The minute Daniel stepped inside Teal'c latched onto his shoulder and Daniel winced as his grip dug into flesh.
The infirmary was a mass of movement and chaos. Five people worked furiously around one bed and he just managed to catch blonde hair matted with blood as they shifted, cutting off clothing, hunting for a usable vein, calling for adrenaline and, for a heart-stopping moment, a defibrillator. Someone - Mitchell - was shouting on the next bed - the same word over and over that Daniel thought might have been "sorry" but half his face was missing and none of the sounds were right.
In a daze he stepped forward, grabbed Mitchell's hand, told him it would be okay and saw the recognized lie in Mitchell's bloodshot eyes before Doctor Lam gently pushed him back. It wasn't until he was back next to Teal'c that he noticed the third bed, with the single clump of dark hair peeking from beneath the sheet.
"Vala Mal Doran did not make it," Teal'c said flatly. "It was an ambush. She pushed Colonel Carter out of the way, shouted warning to Colonel Mitchell, and could do no more." Teal'c's voice was filled equally with respect for Vala, fear for his team, and anger at what happened and when Daniel finally looked he saw only coldness in his eyes.
Looking back over the room Daniel felt everything tilt - his stomach drop down several floors and his vision try to grey-out. He stumbled out the door, scrabbling for the wall and squatting down, letting his head fall against his knees. He sat there for what felt like eternity, waiting until he no longer felt like he was about to explode at the seams, waving off any offers of help, because the doctors inside had actual patients to deal with. When he rose, his eyes found the phone two feet to his left.
"O'Neill." Jack answered on the third ring.
"Jack. Get here. Now." He somehow managed to force the words out. Jack didn't need to ask who it was.
"Daniel, what's going on? I've got meetings."
"Skip them. Now, Jack," Daniel insisted, slamming down the phone when a shout came from the infirmary. He ran in to find Teal'c collapsing - a slow, graceful fall - and watched numbly as nurses found the burns and broken ribs he'd somehow kept hidden.
By the time Jack arrived Mitchell had slipped into a coma from which he would never wake. The doctors around Sam's bed were whispering things like "brain damage" and "walk again" and Daniel sat with Teal'c in silent vigil over the broken pieces of their team.
A week later, after Mitchell and Vala were buried and Sam had started sitting up in bed and the doctors started making hopeful noises and Jack still hadn't left the Mountain, Teal'c walked into Daniel's office in Jaffa armor with his staff weapon in hand. It wasn't until that moment that Daniel realized he was expecting it.
It was much too easy to slip away through the wormhole, to acquire more weapons, and to hunt. If Sam and Jack never forgave them for the choice, for not saying good-bye, they would at least understand. And maybe, if Daniel and Teal'c made it back, they could ask forgiveness.
**
Hey Daniel. I don't know why, but Teal'c's been saying your name a lot. He's still feverish and I don't think he knows it but if you somehow did something, well, thank you. For him and Bra'tac. I don't know how they survived as long as they did. But we've got the tretonin working and I think they're going to make it. Not that it will be easy.
Cassie's working on finals - she says studying French isn't as much fun without you tutoring her. I still haven't been able to explain to her where you are - it would help if we knew I suppose.
Just don't be a stranger forever, okay?
**
It had been over two weeks since Daniel had managed eight continuous hours in his own bed, so it took four rings to rouse him enough to realize it was his phone. " 'lo?" he answered, rubbing his eyes. It took a moment for his body to wake enough to release the adrenaline that belonged to late-night phone calls.
"Daniel? It's Doctor Fraiser." Daniel shot straight up in bed despite her calm voice. Sam and Teal'c had still been working when he left the Mountain and all he could picture was exploding lab equipment.
"What's wrong?" he managed to stammer out.
"Oh, nothing, nothing, don't worry," she said quickly. "The Tok'ra dialed in earlier and they brought someone who wants to talk to you."
"Oh. Okay then," Daniel said, hearing shuffling and whispering as Janet passed the phone. It was odd that Janet was making this call and not Sgt. Harriman and since Jacob Carter would pick up the phone himself, he settled back down into his pillows, expecting to hear Martouf's voice and whatever was too important to wait until morning.
"Dan-yel?" The voice was soft and uncertain and hit him like a bullet.
He opened his mouth but in all his twenty-three languages there was not a single word he could think to utter, which was fine since he couldn't find any air in his lungs. If Jack saw him now, mouth gaping, heart racing, he'd say he looked like a fish out of water.
"Dan-yel?" her voice asked again and Daniel decided he had to be dreaming, almost hung up the phone. "Husband? Are you there?"
"Sha're?" The name finally came, unbidden, trembling, barely audible, from his lips, lest she disappear into oblivion like Eurydice when Orpheus dared not believe.
"Yes, my Dan-yel." Her voice was sweet and loving, and he could almost swear she was laughing at him. "I am to ask that you come to your Mountain."
Suddenly all his blood turned from solid ice to raging floodwater - every neuron in his brain firing at once, every muscle ready to make him super-human. "Sha're, oh, Sha're! Stay right there. I'll be there, I'll be there. Don't go anywhere." Vaguely he knew he was babbling but it didn't matter because he found his pants where he threw them last night, car keys still in the pocket, and right now he could fly.
"...Tok'ra found her…removed the symbiote." Daniel got the phone caught in a sleeve while trying to pull a shirt over his head and Janet's voice came in a jumble of words. "Need me to send a car?"
"No, I'm good Janet. Just…don't let her out of your sight, okay? I'll be right there." He dropped the phone, not caring if the receiver landed in its cradle, and ran outside, only realizing he had forgotten his shoes when the frost bit his toes. Running back into the house, he found his forgotten glasses next to his shoes, which helped him see the red lights he ran in the deserted three a.m. streets.
**
Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c told us today that they'd seen you. I've missed you too, Daniel. It hasn't been an easy year.
Why only them?
I…honestly…I'm not sure if I'm angry at you or at them or…
Oh. Hell.
I think I'm going to just clear your voice mail.
Title: Please Hang Up And Try Again (five phone calls Daniel Jackson never got)
Author: abyssinia4077
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1
Characters: Daniel Jackson, Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter, Teal'c (and others)
Rating/Warning: PG-13 (language, off-screen violence)
Disclaimer: Stargate and its characters are owned by MGM and other people - none of whom are me. I just like their sandbox.
Word Count: 3643
Author's Note: Big thanks to Aurora_Novarum for the beta. Spoilers through "Moebius" and for season 10 cast.
Summary: Daniel got a lot of phone calls over the years. Here's five he didn't.
Hey, Daniel. I know you can't get this message and I feel silly leaving it but Colonel O'Neill refuses to talk about you and Teal'c is being Teal'c and General Hammond told me yesterday that I'd learn to live with not knowing where you are or…what. And I guess I just got too used to you being there for me to talk to. And…okay, maybe this wasn't my best idea.
**
Daniel was enjoying a rare, lazy Sunday. Descending had been easier the second time - he remembered everything and he'd fallen back to mortality in Jack's office rather than some planet SGC had never explored. It was easier, except when he had to write the report and when he knew Sam had read it and then they both knew how he had died this time.
But today it was bright and sunny and they were facing an SGC that almost didn't know what to do with itself with no more Goa'uld and no more Replicators and the thought that they might get to go back to doing actual exploration was enough for him to shake off the latest second chance life had granted. Plus he'd been to the grocery store and Sam was coming over for lunch to talk about Area 51 and Atlantis and everything that might be next.
He was halfway through the salad, pasta boiling on the stove, when Sam let herself in and, without words, grabbed the carrots by his elbow and dug his peeler from the drawer next to the sink. They were just sitting down when his phone rang. Expecting maybe Jack wanting to watch a game or Teal'c with some new movie he wanted to see, Daniel answered around his mouthful of spaghetti.
"I can't talk long," his own voice said from the earpiece. "Samantha would kill me if she knew I was making this call - something about risking the collapse of both realities. I had a hard enough time convincing her to come to this time at all."
"What is this?" Daniel asked into the phone. Covering the mouthpiece with his hand, he shared a glance with a bewildered-looking Sam and angled his head to send her to the other phone in his bedroom.
"You recognize my voice?"
"Well, yes, but…"
"I don't have time to go over the autobiography, but I promise you'll find it very familiar." Daniel recognized the exasperation his own voice reached whenever Jack was being a little too dense. "Don't go to Egypt."
"I wasn't planning to anytime soon."
"You will. Maybe. Don't go. The ZPM isn't worth it."
"Are you saying there's a ZPM in Egypt?" Daniel could feel his heart racing. With a ZPM they could power the chair, maybe reach Atlantis.
The man on the other end only offered an exasperated sigh. "Not your Egypt. And I'm not even sure how these timelines work - hopefully you won't have to go back." The voice stopped suddenly and Daniel could almost hear his own brain trying to decide what to say. "I can't let them die again."
"What, who?" If this was how Jack felt whenever he or Sam babbled at him, he was going to call him right now and apologize.
"It doesn't matter. Look, what I really need is tretonin. The Teal'c with me isn't going to last long. I need you to get as much as possible - leave it at Pioneer Square Park this afternoon."
"You're going to have to tell me more - give me more time," Daniel stammered as Sam stepped into the hallway, phone to her ear, some electronic device in her hand, and a wave that clearly meant he had to keep the other Daniel on the line.
"Time is the one thing I have too much of. But not here. Samantha is already too anxious to be out of here." He sounded tired. Much, much too tired. "This afternoon. Tretonin." The line clicked and Daniel was left staring at the handset until the operator's mechanical voice came on, advising him to hang up the phone and try again if he wanted to make a call.
Sam emerged from the hallway, eyes big and face pale. "I traced it back to your cell phone," she told him, only shaking her head when he fished the phone out of his own pants pocket. "What do we do?"
"We go get some tretonin," Daniel said, grabbing his keys and walking out his door, Sam a step behind him.
**
You're a real son of a bitch, you know that?
…
…
Just because you're all glowy doesn't mean you know what's best for people.
…
…
A real son of a bitch.
…
…
You don't have to wait for the Goa'uld to give you an excuse to let us know you're okay.
**
Daniel was halfway across Montana - miles and miles of road stretching beneath endless sky - when his cell rang. Quickly glancing to the passenger seat to assure the sound hadn't woken Jack, he grabbed the phone and flipped it open.
"It'll be easier if you just turn back now," Kinsey's voice came filled with static and enough arrogance to make the hairs on Daniel's neck bristle. "We're watching the borders - it's only a matter of time. Turn yourself in, tell us where Major Carter and the Jaffa went and I'll see that neither you nor Colonel O'Neill is harmed."
Sam had gotten through the 'gate with Teal'c, setting a virus in all of SGC's computers to ensure they wouldn't be followed. Daniel hadn't made it - turning back when he saw Jack go down and hearing the event horizon close right before all the computers fried.
"Sorry, Kinsey, don't take it personally if I don't believe you," Daniel said, watching his knuckles clench on the steering wheel.
"Be reasonable Doctor Jackson. Your faces are being displayed on every television in the country. You won't be able to run for long. I promise it'll be much easier if you just turn yourselves in."
Daniel checked the time of the call, trying to remember how long Sam had told him it took to trace a cell phone. His brain felt fuzzy and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth after too many cups of bad gas station coffee. The four hours of sleep in the dingy hotel in Wyoming were all he would get until Minnesota. It didn't help that Kinsey had enough time to spread their pictures that they couldn't risk entering gas stations for more coffee even in the middle of nowhere.
"You know, Kinsey, I've been to hell. I think you would fit right in," Daniel said through clenched teeth, watching out of the corner of his eye as Jack stirred, groaning slightly. He slammed the phone shut, shoving it into the cupholder and wishing he could just throw it out the window - but it was the only link he might still have to Janet and General Hammond and any others who might also be aiming the same direction he was.
Jack groaned again, eyes finally opening and face growing pale and Daniel pulled over, checking to see how much time had passed before digging in the backpack in the backseat for the percoset stashed in the bottom. The splint on Jack's arm held the bones in place, but only barely, and more than once Daniel had feared the bumpy road was going to send him back into shock.
As Jack swallowed the pills, swishing water in his mouth and spitting it out the open window, Daniel checked the map. Eight more hours and they should reach Jack's cabin. They could afford to wait a day, at most, for anyone else who might make it before they climbed into the tel'tak left cloaked in the trees behind the cabin, and prayed it could still fly. Daniel only hoped the presence of the ship was as secret as they thought.
"Was that Kinsey?" Jack asked through clenched teeth.
"Yeah. He said we should surrender," Daniel told him, turning back onto the road and hoping for Jack to stop wincing at the uneven road and go back to sleep. "Said he'd take good care of us."
There was no amusement in Jack's laughter.
**
Doctor Jackson. Uh, hi, this is Jonas Quinn. Sam said she sometimes calls your voice mail and I thought since I was using your office, you wouldn't mind. Oh, your fish are okay. I mean, one of them died, but I got a new one and Nyan feeds them when I'm off-world. It's been, it's been weird here but exciting and, you were right - the universe does make my world seem really small.
Teal'c's pretty awesome and Sam's been nice and I don’t think Colonel O'Neill likes me very much but Sam said I shouldn't worry about that.
Everyone misses you. I can see it in how they look at me.
I wish I could ask you how you did it all.
**
For the third time the script started swimming on the tablet and Daniel leaned back, rubbed his eyes, and contemplated a sixth cup of coffee.
"Morning." Jack poked his head in the door, eyes catching on the balled-up paper spilling off the desk and onto the floor and the empty coffee mugs lined up like toy soldiers. "When did you last go home, Daniel?"
"Um, a few days ago. I think. I can sleep here, you know," he muttered after he focused the swimming images in the doorway into a single person.
"Ah, but there is nothing like the comfort of one's own bed," Jack pointed out, ambling into the office and heading straight for the artifacts Daniel knew Jack knew made Daniel nervous to see in his hands. "Maybe you just need a change in scenery for the answer to the universe," Jack made a vague wave at the translation Daniel was battling," to come to you."
Daniel wasn't quite sure what happened, but for once the irresistible force seemed to have beaten the unmovable object because suddenly he was halfway to his house, translation notes shoved into a bag in the passenger seat and some opera cd Jack had given him coming out of his speakers.
After unlocking the door he dropped the bag on his couch and wandered into his kitchen, sniffing the orange juice in his fridge before pouring a glass. He paused to toe off his shoes under the framed diplomas in his hallway and stopped, glass halfway to his lips, eyes locked on the words - the schools, the honors, the degrees - all written in flowing script as though sacred.
He reached out, tracing a finger around the "D" in his name and remembering a time when it all seemed so impressive - all of academia opening before him, showering him with commendation and declaring him the next great mind - when those mysteries of long-dead civilizations seemed vitally important and he just knew he had the key to unlock them. A time when he could do anything. A time before he found himself lecturing to an empty room, before he walked out of academia and into the universe and never came back.
He almost dropped the orange juice when his phone rang - and almost didn't answer it since anyone from SGC would try his cell which almost guaranteed a telemarketer on the other end. But he picked up the receiver, offering a tired, "Hello?" to whomever was on the other line.
"Is this Doctor Daniel Jackson?" The man on the other end sounded young and eager.
"Um, yes."
"You worked with Dr. Jordan at Chicago?"
"Years ago. Why?" Dr. Jordan died and Sarah was still lost among the stars and Steven wanted nothing to do with him and, really, this was a scab Daniel did not need picked right now.
"Oh, thank god. You're a difficult man to track down," the voice fell into a certain cadence that brought Daniel back to brick walls and the smell of old books and stale coffee. "I'm working on my PhD over at Berkeley and we found something in Egypt last year and I remembered reading one of your papers as an undergrad so I tracked it down again. I think we've found evidence to support one of your theories."
"You, you have?" Daniel had proven his theories years ago, when they first found Abydos, and had grown so accustomed to them being true in his own head, to those he worked with every day, that he'd almost forgotten it wasn't common knowledge to the community at large.
"Oh, I think so," the man said and Daniel sat down on his couch and listened to him talk about hieroglyphics and carbon dating and discoveries beneath the sand and eight months later his name was on the author list of a paper that got highlighted on the cover of the American Journal of Archaeology.
**
I don't know if I can do this anymore Daniel. I'm so tired of losing people. It's been a month since Colonel O'Neill disappeared with Maybourne and…I'm sure you're out there learning how to save the universe, but we need you here too.
Can you just let us know you're okay?
Maybe find the colonel for us?
**
Daniel was held up with a badly sprained ankle but the mission was routine enough - even a planet they'd already been to - and the rest of the team (still four strong) went without him. He wasn't expecting them back for another two days so when his office phone rang he thought it would be the scientists at Area 51 telling him the analysis was finished on the Ancient artifact he'd sent over.
"Jackson," he answered the phone, idly flipping through the papers on his desk with his free hand.
"Uh, Dr. Jackson?" Walter's voice froze him, one hand clutching the phone too tight, the other letting forgotten papers fall to the floor. "SG-1 just 'gated in. You'd better get to the infirmary."
The phone swung where he dropped it on his way out the door, hobble-running down the blur of corridors, nearly bowling over three people who didn’t get away in time and looked at him with a little more sympathy than he wanted to see. Teal'c stood just inside the door, smelling of smoke and burned clothing and hair and the sharp metal-tang of blood. The minute Daniel stepped inside Teal'c latched onto his shoulder and Daniel winced as his grip dug into flesh.
The infirmary was a mass of movement and chaos. Five people worked furiously around one bed and he just managed to catch blonde hair matted with blood as they shifted, cutting off clothing, hunting for a usable vein, calling for adrenaline and, for a heart-stopping moment, a defibrillator. Someone - Mitchell - was shouting on the next bed - the same word over and over that Daniel thought might have been "sorry" but half his face was missing and none of the sounds were right.
In a daze he stepped forward, grabbed Mitchell's hand, told him it would be okay and saw the recognized lie in Mitchell's bloodshot eyes before Doctor Lam gently pushed him back. It wasn't until he was back next to Teal'c that he noticed the third bed, with the single clump of dark hair peeking from beneath the sheet.
"Vala Mal Doran did not make it," Teal'c said flatly. "It was an ambush. She pushed Colonel Carter out of the way, shouted warning to Colonel Mitchell, and could do no more." Teal'c's voice was filled equally with respect for Vala, fear for his team, and anger at what happened and when Daniel finally looked he saw only coldness in his eyes.
Looking back over the room Daniel felt everything tilt - his stomach drop down several floors and his vision try to grey-out. He stumbled out the door, scrabbling for the wall and squatting down, letting his head fall against his knees. He sat there for what felt like eternity, waiting until he no longer felt like he was about to explode at the seams, waving off any offers of help, because the doctors inside had actual patients to deal with. When he rose, his eyes found the phone two feet to his left.
"O'Neill." Jack answered on the third ring.
"Jack. Get here. Now." He somehow managed to force the words out. Jack didn't need to ask who it was.
"Daniel, what's going on? I've got meetings."
"Skip them. Now, Jack," Daniel insisted, slamming down the phone when a shout came from the infirmary. He ran in to find Teal'c collapsing - a slow, graceful fall - and watched numbly as nurses found the burns and broken ribs he'd somehow kept hidden.
By the time Jack arrived Mitchell had slipped into a coma from which he would never wake. The doctors around Sam's bed were whispering things like "brain damage" and "walk again" and Daniel sat with Teal'c in silent vigil over the broken pieces of their team.
A week later, after Mitchell and Vala were buried and Sam had started sitting up in bed and the doctors started making hopeful noises and Jack still hadn't left the Mountain, Teal'c walked into Daniel's office in Jaffa armor with his staff weapon in hand. It wasn't until that moment that Daniel realized he was expecting it.
It was much too easy to slip away through the wormhole, to acquire more weapons, and to hunt. If Sam and Jack never forgave them for the choice, for not saying good-bye, they would at least understand. And maybe, if Daniel and Teal'c made it back, they could ask forgiveness.
**
Hey Daniel. I don't know why, but Teal'c's been saying your name a lot. He's still feverish and I don't think he knows it but if you somehow did something, well, thank you. For him and Bra'tac. I don't know how they survived as long as they did. But we've got the tretonin working and I think they're going to make it. Not that it will be easy.
Cassie's working on finals - she says studying French isn't as much fun without you tutoring her. I still haven't been able to explain to her where you are - it would help if we knew I suppose.
Just don't be a stranger forever, okay?
**
It had been over two weeks since Daniel had managed eight continuous hours in his own bed, so it took four rings to rouse him enough to realize it was his phone. " 'lo?" he answered, rubbing his eyes. It took a moment for his body to wake enough to release the adrenaline that belonged to late-night phone calls.
"Daniel? It's Doctor Fraiser." Daniel shot straight up in bed despite her calm voice. Sam and Teal'c had still been working when he left the Mountain and all he could picture was exploding lab equipment.
"What's wrong?" he managed to stammer out.
"Oh, nothing, nothing, don't worry," she said quickly. "The Tok'ra dialed in earlier and they brought someone who wants to talk to you."
"Oh. Okay then," Daniel said, hearing shuffling and whispering as Janet passed the phone. It was odd that Janet was making this call and not Sgt. Harriman and since Jacob Carter would pick up the phone himself, he settled back down into his pillows, expecting to hear Martouf's voice and whatever was too important to wait until morning.
"Dan-yel?" The voice was soft and uncertain and hit him like a bullet.
He opened his mouth but in all his twenty-three languages there was not a single word he could think to utter, which was fine since he couldn't find any air in his lungs. If Jack saw him now, mouth gaping, heart racing, he'd say he looked like a fish out of water.
"Dan-yel?" her voice asked again and Daniel decided he had to be dreaming, almost hung up the phone. "Husband? Are you there?"
"Sha're?" The name finally came, unbidden, trembling, barely audible, from his lips, lest she disappear into oblivion like Eurydice when Orpheus dared not believe.
"Yes, my Dan-yel." Her voice was sweet and loving, and he could almost swear she was laughing at him. "I am to ask that you come to your Mountain."
Suddenly all his blood turned from solid ice to raging floodwater - every neuron in his brain firing at once, every muscle ready to make him super-human. "Sha're, oh, Sha're! Stay right there. I'll be there, I'll be there. Don't go anywhere." Vaguely he knew he was babbling but it didn't matter because he found his pants where he threw them last night, car keys still in the pocket, and right now he could fly.
"...Tok'ra found her…removed the symbiote." Daniel got the phone caught in a sleeve while trying to pull a shirt over his head and Janet's voice came in a jumble of words. "Need me to send a car?"
"No, I'm good Janet. Just…don't let her out of your sight, okay? I'll be right there." He dropped the phone, not caring if the receiver landed in its cradle, and ran outside, only realizing he had forgotten his shoes when the frost bit his toes. Running back into the house, he found his forgotten glasses next to his shoes, which helped him see the red lights he ran in the deserted three a.m. streets.
**
Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c told us today that they'd seen you. I've missed you too, Daniel. It hasn't been an easy year.
Why only them?
I…honestly…I'm not sure if I'm angry at you or at them or…
Oh. Hell.
I think I'm going to just clear your voice mail.