[for daniel] there are times when I catch in the silence the sigh of a faraway song

[fallen_ancient]

[dated late afternoon 7/17]The sounds of the river, cool despite the day's heat, masked those of human passage. Voices carried above the pleasant trickle and burble, but heavier sounds, weighty ones like the tread of feet passed unnoticed

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[theunascended]

Daniel wasn't entirely sure what to do with Morgan. She wasn't team. Wasn't a part of the SGC. He didn't even know her. But he felt responsible for her, nonetheless. He just wasn't always sure what to do about it. Like now. He'd gone for a walk, just by himself, just for the hell of it, and he'd come across her floating in the water.

"Okay down there?" he asked, not sure if he wanted to bother her, but knowing that he had to say something.

[theunascended]

"Morgan, it's nothing against you personally, but..." They'd had issues with people who'd been Ascended. And she knew that, so he didn't think he needed to voice the sentiment. "That's difficult for me to get past. Even Oma." Even Oma had her flaws. Even she'd made monumental mistakes. And paid for them.

He sighed.

"And maybe that you know me and I don't remember that at all. I'm always uneasy about that missing year."

[fallen_ancient]

"It is difficult not to take it personally," she admitted, though with nothing of accusation, only confession, in her tone. "When it is no exaggeration to say that my life spun out as it did because of the qualities I admired in you

[theunascended]

"No. You're right. I just had to leave two friends dying in a slave pit. And I just had to let an entire planet die. An entire planet of friends and family. People I'd planned on spending the rest of my life with. And I couldn't even bring with me the knowledge that Anubis was Ascended. And those are only the things I know about because of the other people at the SGC."

Daniel ran his hand through his hair and sighed.

"I'm not saying it's your fault. I just need some time."

About beginning again, he wasn't sure they could. As far as he was concerned, they were at the beginning.

[fallen_ancient]

"Daniel," Morgan answered softly, wanting to tell him that he could not have changed those things, because he lacked the strength yet to do it. Instead she said, "When you were able, you left again to help. I say that not for me, but perhaps to ease your conscience." That he had been forced to leave because he would not stop trying to help was immaterial.

"I will not promise to be invisible." Her lips curved into a pained and painful smile. "I no longer possess that talent. Nor can I remain completely disentangled from your life. But except where I cannot do otherwise, I will try not to burden you with my presence."

[theunascended]

"That's not what I meant, Morgan. I need time to adjust, not you gone completely. How is that going to solve anything?" Daniel shook his head. "It has nothing to do with who you are, Morgan, but of what you were. They're my own issues, but I'm going to get past them." He wasn't entirely sure of that, but he didn't let any of the uncertainty show. Instead, he gave her a small smile.

[fallen_ancient]

Morgan dipped her chin in acknowledgment and assent. "I shall do my best not to make what I was--" What she someday hoped to be again. "--an issue between us."

[theunascended]

Daniel nodded back, relieved that she understood. "I don't think it will be. But...well, Jack always said that when people from my future showed up, I'd have problems to work through." And, as usual, he was right.