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).
Chapter 6: Daniel
Why couldn't they have listened to me?
Why didn't they believe me and act when we still had a chance to stop this?
Why...
We're sitting here watching an eerily familiar sight. At least, it's familiar to me.
Apophis' ship is slowly settling onto Cheyenne mountain.
Jack looks at me and his eyes echo the same question that tears at my soul...
Why?
I know he regrets it now...but regrets won't buy us anymore time. In a few short minutes the SGC and Earth, as we knew it, will no longer exist...
They tried to get Sam and me to go through to the Alpha site, but we both know our place is here. I knew we would fail....just as we failed before....but I couldn't go. We've been a team for over a year now; we've fought together...and died together, actu ally. We've been through too much together not to want to see this through to the bitter end.
All we can do now is wait.
When the Jaffa finally break through, the failsafe device will explode...hopefully taking most of them with us....
Jack looks at me again. I can see he wants to say something...anything...to heal this breach between us before...
What can he say?
I wish I'd believed you, Daniel? I wish I'd believed in you? I wish that I'd had the faith in you that you always had in me?
What good will it do now?
He didn't have faith in me, he didn't believe me, didn't take the chance that I could be right, stood by and watched as the gate was sealed and two months later stood by and watched as the dual blips on the NASA radar got close enough to recognize as pyramid ships.
Too late Jack realized I'd been right. And now it's too late to do anything about it.
A wedge was driven between us then that will never have a chance to go away. I was never able to bring myself to trust him as much as I had before, as I had from the very beginning. Jack's lack of faith when it really mattered told me that he didn't respect me; he may have believed the facts I was able to recite...but man to man, when it really counted....he couldn't believe me when I so desperately needed him to...needed all of them to....
And now it's too late.
Earth is dying...and soon we will, too.
And even now Jack can't admit that he was wrong, because that would mean admitting that I was right. His stubborn pride will remain in place until this mountain blows sky high...and I'll never know if he even cares that I forgive him...
I look over at him, sitting there stoically watching the security cameras track the Jaffa's incursion into the mountain. It's Shak'el leading the attack this time, not Teal'c, but the results will be the same. At least we didn't bomb Chul'ak...at least no more innocents had to die as a result of a simple lack of faith.
*I thought we were friends, Jack...Why couldn't you trust me?*
As the countdown reaches one minute and relentlessly continues downward, I see a single tear coursing down from the corner of Jack's dark eyes. He looks straight at me now and a shadow of the friend I knew two months ago looks back at me...
But now it's too late...