DISCLAIMER: All characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.
It was hard to fathom that a person could have so many tears inside them.
Jack honestly couldn't remember the last time he had cried. Maybe when he was ten? It certainly had not been any time within recent memory.
He hadn't shed a tear for Charlie. Not one.
No tiny salt offerings were sprinkled on the shattered altar of his marriage.
He had come to believe that he no longer knew how.
He was wrong.
What was more, he was more than making up for lost time.
The tears poured from him as it seemed as if he was going to weep for every thing in his life that had ever hurt him. Every droplet that he had kept locked up inside, imprisoned, unable to expiate his sorrow through their release lined patiently up in the queue for their turn to go out down the pipe. Jack felt himself crying a literal river, his sob-racked, heaving body held fast and supported in an iron grip that he knew would not let him get swept away in what was shaping up to be almost a force of nature. Jack cried his way steadily through a very, very long list of woe.
However, when he found himself crying over the new bike that Tommy Nelson had taken for a joyride without his permission and rode into the river when he was 11, Jack figured he had gone back far enough. It was time to start trying to get a hold of himself already.
It wasn't all that hard. He felt good. Clearer and lighter than he had felt in years. What had Danny said to him - wash it all clean? Oh, he had done that, all right. Maybe things weren't completely all better, but they certainly were much better. Much, much better.
Danny?
All through his stormy release, he had been aware of Daniel's faithful, unflagging embrace. Now, as he came back to himself literally a new man, he was aware that he was not the only one who had shed tears in this place, in the dark. Daniel had been with him, within. Had seen everything he had seen, felt everything he had gone through. Being who he was, why should he be surprised that Daniel Jackson would be moved to tears himself in the face of a friend's pain.
Daniel was hunched forward, his face buried in Jack's shoulder, his own body shaking with the sobs that were barely audible through the muffling of the material of Jack's jacket. Poor kid. He had been through just about enough. Time to give back a little of the comfort he had already been given an abundance of.
"Danny, " Jack said gently. "It's okay, my friend."
No response. No cessation of the sobs. If at first you don't succeed...
"Danny!" He tried again. "Have a heart, you're soaking the material!"
A little bit of an acknowledging squeeze, but still not enough.
Jack sighed. He knew that he had this serious mental problem. It was this little demon inside him, it just up and out and said the damndest things at the most inappropriate times. He had tried working on it, but he could just never get it to heel. He could feel the little bugger getting ready to cut loose yet again and knew there wasn't a damned thing he could do to stop it.
Very likely he was going to hate himself in the morning, presuming he lived to see it, but sometimes ya just gotta. gotta.
He leaned back until his lips were very close to Daniel's ear and with a wicked grin the darkness concealed breathed throatily
"Kiss me!"
Daniel froze in mid-blub.
"Gowan!" Jack continued to tease, "You know you want to!"
Daniel made a sound that was hard to identify due to the its muffled quality, but Jack could have sworn it was more a giggle than a sob.
There was a further moment of silence, and then Daniel made another sound that was most definitely an exhaled burst of laughter.
"Jack! I am shocked you would even suggest such a thing!" Daniel responded in a tone that carried as much indignation as one could pull off talking into a jacket. " You KNOW I'm a married man!" Then he started to laugh into Jack's shoulder almost as helplessly as he had been weeping into it.
"I really, really hate you, Jack O'Neill"; Daniel gasped between the gusts of convulsive laughter.
"No ya don't, no ya don't," Jack soothed
"No, I don't"
"That's my boy," Jack said fondly as he reached back a hand to pat Daniel affectionately on the side of his head.
Almost the same instant as Jack realized what he had just done Daniel grabbed his hand, squeezing it, his head shooting up with the shock of his similar realization.
"Jack!" Daniel bellowed into his ear, overcome with joy and excitement. "Jack! Omigod, Jack!"
His heart pounding, Jack found himself similarly impressed with his accomplishment, but he opted to try and remain a little more cool about it.
"Hey, look what I can do!"
Something that felt like a snap inside, a nauseating swirling of vertigo, his arms wrapped around the one that Daniel held him with for some sort of anchor as the world spun around in circles several times and then dazzling, completely blinding light all around.
Behind him, he heard Daniel cry out in similar ocular distress as their eyes, too long deprived of any sort of light were brutally assaulted by the unexpected change from really, really dark, to really, really bright.
Jack screwed his eyes shut in an effort to protect them. "Daniel!" He hollered, not quite knowing why he was yelling; Daniel was right behind him. "You okay?"
Daniel made an unintelligible noise before replying. "Ah, aside from being blinded, I'm actually quite fine, Jack, thanks for asking." His head dropped back down onto Jack's shoulder and he mumbled something further, but Jack couldn't make it out. Even so, he had a sneaking suspicion it sounded something like. "Oh good, what next?"
I hear ya, Danny.
Jack was pretty sure they weren't actually blind; the unexpected switch from dark to light had just temporarily scrambled the equipment. If they just stayed cool and gave it a moment their eyes would adjust.
He hoped.
However, there really wasn't a lot for it but to wait and see. If you pardoned the expression. Either way, they would know for sure, fairly soon.
"Can't see, Jack." Daniel wasn't panicking, exactly, but he wasn't happy either.
Well, that settled it. Once they got out of here he was going to take the kid out on the biggest bender of his young life. If Jack had his way there wouldn't be enough coffee in Brazil to sober Daniel up for the next week. Hell, he'd more than earned a little oblivion. Whether he knew that fact or not.
"Sit tight, Daniel, it'll come back in a minute."
"There you go again, always telling me what to do."
"Well, it's a dirty job but someone has to do it. Long as we are waiting, I think I should see if any other part of me has decided to report back for duty. Hey, it'll pass the time."
It didn't take Jack long to discover that he could move his arms and turn his upper body a little, but that was it. Never mind, he would take whatever he could get. It didn't make any more sense than being paralyzed with sensation, but then not a lot of what had gone in here had been logical or explainable by the reality laws that he was used to conforming to.
What had just happened to them had also not been lost on Jack. The return of the light was one indication, but the smell of the room they were now in was another one. They were no longer where they had been. That must mean they had passed the test. But he hadn't heard the voice telling them they had done so. And they still had one test left to go. Jack did not take the absence of the announcer as a good sign. There was something different about this last trial. The break in the pattern and every instinct in his body screamed confirmation of his suspicion.
God, he hated surprises.
Experimentally, Jack gingerly cracked an eyelid open.
Better. Still all fuzzy, but at least he was seeing something.
From the sounds that Daniel was making it sounded as if he was making a similar happy discovery.
"Ah, that's better," he murmured. "Now my vision is only normal-blurry. Now, what did I do with my glasses."
Obviously Daniel was recovering faster than he was. Show-off. Also obviously, from the strange awed sound that was now coming out of his throat, he was seeing something a lot more interesting that he was.
Which could have been pretty much anything.
Almost the second the sound left him Daniel was scrambling to his feet, still supporting Jack in his efforts to rise. Before Jack could protest or complain Daniel had gently laid him on his side. Jack cursed his still obscured vision. All he could see was a blur as Daniel moved quickly from behind him and then took up a position directly in front of him.
Suddenly, his vision was clear. They were back, back in the room where this whole party had started. Just beyond where Daniel was standing was the stone stairway, and the Stargate.
The Gate! For crying out loud Danny, do something smart for once in your young life, take to your heels and get the hell out of here while you can. Don't look back- just go!
Something was wrong. Oh shit, Ohshitshitshit.
Pain, blinding pain in his chest, bands of steel crushing the life and breath out of him arms on fire everything going black oh shit danny I think I've just run out of time..sorry.i won't be able to take you on that tear.
Startled by the strangled sound of pain that tore from Jack, Daniel whirled to see his friend lying on the floor, his body convulsing in agony, arms clutched tight to his body, his face grey, contorted and streaming with sweat.
No! Not this! Not now! We're so close, Jack! We're almost there!
He had seen this before. He knew what this was. Also knew there was absolutely nothing he could do. Not here.
The gate was right behind him. Maybe if he could get Jack back home in time than Dr Frasier could save him.
* Jack, that heart you claim you don't have sure picked a fine time to quit on you. Well, not if I can help it! *
Daniel knew he didn't have a moment to waste. Jack was in massive cardiac arrest, and from the look of him Daniel knew he had to get him to medical aid in less than five minute. He ran to Jack and started to try to pick him up.
Whoa. that's better. Chest was hurting like a bitch there, but it's all gone now.
Jack O'Neill was one confused camper. One second he had been lying on the floor wondering when the wiggler was going to explode out of his chest and the next he was..
- on the ceiling, apparently. How - interesting. Imagine finding out he could fly this late in life. Well, he was always into trying new things.
Where was Danny? Oh, there he was, down there! Hey Danny! Lookit! I'm a balloon! Danny! Danny, I can see your house from here! Danny! You deaf or something! I'm talking to you!
Oh, hold the phone just a minute. Something was here was really wacked. Daniel wasn't alone. He was with someone, bending over them, trying to pick them up, that look on his face that meant that something was very wrong.
What's wrong, Danny?
Full of concern for his friend, Jack willed himself to go down closer to him. Still not understanding what he was seeing, he watched Daniel trying to pick up a man who was jerking, and convulsing.
Didn't look good for the poor sap, whoever he was. Jack had seen a lot of death in his time, and that guy's face had the Grim Reaper's stamp all over it. You've got a good heart, Danny, but you're wasting your time. This guy's ticket is punched and he is checking out.
Jack found himself unaccountably fascinated by the man's face. It looked so.familiar some how. Like someone he should know if he could only remember.
Jack, you knob! That's you!
So it is. Well what do you know about that?
Damn, I'm good looking..
Waitaminute.If that's me down there, then who's up here?
It was getting harder and harder to think, almost as if there was something fogging up his brain. Like a film or a curtain gradually being drawn between him and what he was seeing. He tried to stay close to Daniel, looking first at his anguished face and then at the clay-coloured one of the man lying limp and lifeless in Daniel's arms, the same face that he used to see looking back at him in the mirror every morning. Knew he shouldn't be able to see himself like this, knew there was a reason, but the more he tried to reach for it, the more it just. floated away.
Daniel pulled himself to his feet, the man with Jack's face in his arms; he turned and began to sprint toward the DHD. As he moved farther away from Jack, the feeling of 'falling asleep' distressingly increased. Suddenly thrown into a state of panic by feeling as if he was losing himself the farther Daniel moved away from him, Jack hastened to make himself follow on Daniel's heels.
He hovered there, huddling in next to Daniel's shoulder. Daniel didn't seem to know that he was there, but that was okay, he was rather busy at the moment. He was feeling much better, now that he had stuck himself to the kid. Looks as if he is going to try and get us home. Ewwww. Wonder what going through the gate is going to feel like..
Didn't matter. Wherever Daniel was going, he was going too.
Daniel had stopped. He was right beside the DHD, but he wasn't looking at it. Wasn't dialing, wasn't doing anything but holding sack 'o jack and staring..
There was something standing on the first step of the stone stairwell.
Jack felt himself swallowing convulsively even though he knew he didn't have a throat anymore. Old habits die hard. What in the name of everything that was holy and the three stooges in particular was THAT thing?
It was as if an ancient Egyptian statue had suddenly come to life and was hulking over top of his best friend looking really tall, really black, and really, really scary.
It must have been ten feet tall if it was an inch and twice as broad-shouldered as Teal'c. If such a thing was possible. There was something slightly "wrong" about the way its limbs were shaped. He couldn't quite get his mind around it. The weren't quite human and yet they looked like arms and hands. And the head.
Neck was way too long, skull too big, long sharp pointy dog ears, deep, deep eyes set in black, beetling brows and what could only be called a snout, all black like the darkest night, even the long, high-necked robe it was wearing with some silver piping on the collar and what looked like some kind of emblem that looked like a set of scales on his chest.
Creepy.
"We are the Anpu." Jack jumped at the sound of the profound, unearthly voice he had heard on two previous occasions. Only this time, the voice seemed to be coming from Dog-Face.
Daniel wasn't letting this guy push him around.
"Let me pass," he demanded in a very low, very dangerous voice.
Atta boy, Daniel! You show this guy who's boss! We've got tracks to make.
The towering alien presence looked down on Daniel with unreadable eyes, saying nothing.
"I said, let me pass," Daniel reasserted with more vehemence. "I have to get my friend home and I am in no mood for any more of your games."
"Your desire for haste is illogical. Your friend is dead."
That was it! That was what he had been trying to remember! Why it wasn't possible to be in two places at the same time and what it meant if you were.
He was.dead.
Well, for crying out loud if that wasn't just the last thing he needed!
Perfect!
The instant his consciousness acknowledged the truth about his current condition, the shock snapped the tenuous hold he was maintaining to Daniel. A second's uncertainty was all it took
Something that he could neither see nor resist seemed to seize him and slowly, relentless, began to pull him back and away from Daniel. It was like being sucked down in the jaws of a merciless whirlpool, being swirled around and around and away and there was nothing he could do to stop himself or prevent himself from being pulled away from Daniel.
Daniel..