Author's Notes: Remember my prior warning... things are not as they seem...
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable 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 purposes 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. Not to be archived without permission of the author(s).
Part Two: Daniel
Sha'uri tells me again that Jack and Skaara are back from their hunt. She knows how wrapped up I can get in my work and has learned to be amazingly tolerant of my less attentive moods. After three years she should be...
I take her into my arms, enjoying the feel of her swollen stomach against mine. Our second child nudges me as I hold its mother close. I'm hoping for a girl this time, as spirited and darkly beautiful as Sha'uri.
I'm glad Jack decided to stay with us on Abydos. The kinship he's found here with these desert people is every bit as strong as my own. They look to him now as a leadership figure, just as they look to me for knowledge. We've both come to love and respect the people of Abydos for the joy and simple pleasure they find in every moment...thousands of years of slavery has taught them to appreciate every small moment of life. A talent neither Jack nor I had opportunity to learn on Earth.
As Sha'uri and I walk back towards the village, I can't help but swallow at the bittersweet feeling that this shouldn't be happening...I don't deserve this happiness. Sha'uri smiles at me in her understanding way. She knows me; she's the best part of me, how could she not know?
Jack smiles at me as we come into the communal area. I can see the hunt was extremely successful and congratulate him in the Abydonian language he's been working so hard to master. He responds correctly with just a trace of an accent and smiles even more broadly.
The young men take the bounty of the hunt outside for cleaning and we settle around the central fire pit with a cup of Skaara's special brew...well-watered of course. Jack tells us about the hunt and the discovery of a hidden room. Not so long ago I would have jumped at the chance to check something like this out, but now...it feels me with a mind numbing fear...
Jack looks at me strangely, brushing the long hair out of his eyes in a gesture which should seem familiar but, somehow, isn't. I feel a sudden chill and Jack looks at me in concern...a look I do know all too well. I can't shake the feeling that something is very wrong...I shouldn't be here...
I shouldn't be this happy...
I should be....
"Daniel?"
Jack's voice. Where am I? What happened?
I can't quite get enough focus to ask him, but he answers as if I had.
"It's okay, Daniel. You passed out."
I did? I don't remember....
I open my eyes and for a moment I see Jack in street clothes with short hair, still looking at me in that concerned way that seems more familiar, more comfortable, than the reality I should know so well...then the image is gone..and Jack is there in his d usty Abydonian robes, long hair framing his face...
I look at Sha'uri next to him and see her eyes glowing, dead to me....gone to a place where I can never find her...
I close my eyes again as the darkness threatens to return...
*This is real.*
*Here.*
*Now.*
*It has to be...*
Jack is rattling on about the room they found, describing curved golden walls covered in glyphs....
It sounds so...
"It's a map." I blurt it out before I'm even aware of thinking it. I open my eyes to meet Jack's narrowed ones. He feels it, too.
This is more than just an odd feeling of deja vu; something isn't right.
Worse than that...
Something isn't real...