Author's Notes: Well. here we are campers, the end of the line. Been a really great trip. I would once again like to say thanks to Judy for all her help, by way of a little homage contained within to one of her previous efforts.
I'm a sucker for a happy ending...
Thanks for coming along with me, thanks for all your kind comments, and see you again real soon.
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.
Two weeks later...
Ah, another day, another computer-generated designation.
Jack stepped out of the Stargate and into the huge mountain cavern that contained it. A vaulting rocky ceiling studded with massive hanging stalactites (or was that stalagmites, he could never keep those two straight) spanned the impressive expanse before him. Jack barely had time to contemplate the aesthetics of their new location when Daniel came bounding out of the gate beside him, an arrow winging from the bow, intent on reaching the cave markings in the shortest possible period of time.
Daniel was pretty excited about this one. From the telemetry they had received from the UAV there wasn't much here that would have been of interest to the R&D types. No evidence of unusual minerals or emissions or salvageable technology. No strategic advances to be gained here, nothing to use against the Goa'uld. Just a big cave with writing on the walls.
Therefore an automatic write-off, move down the list.
However, when Daniel had seen the images the MALP had sent back, he had almost had several small kittens in quick succession. He immediately had started babbling excitedly about the Anasazi, saying that the markings were identical to those found here on earth and then he proceeded to give forth with one of his involved lectures about the subject of vanished cultures and mysteriously disappearing tribes and this was very possibly an opportunity to discover the answer to a mystery that had puzzled anthropologists for - oh well, a long time.
Jack didn't know anything about any of that, but he was very happy to see Daniel excited about something again. So, he'd backed the kid, added his two cents to Daniel's request to have P2R - ah, whatever the heck the rest of it was - put on the slate as SG-1's next mission.
Least he could do for him, all things considered.
Two weeks had gone by since they had returned from the hall of Ma'at. It had been a very strange two weeks for the both of them. Jack put the doctor's mind at ease about his antics in the gateroom, (method to his "madness", he'd finally made Daniel smile), had bluffed his way through the de-briefing, supplying as many details as he could without sounding as if he really WAS crazy and kinda skipping over the part where he was dead. He had put as much down in his "official" report as he dared, but even the more "mundane " details of the mission seemed increasingly unreal to him. Not so much that he couldn't believe it had happened; it had so MUCH happened that he had a hard time remembering who he had been before it had happened.
The Jack O'Neill who had been so screwed up inside that he had actually contemplated hurting - practically the best person in the whole world - was dead and gone. Whereever he had been left when the Anpu had returned him to the land of the living, it was definitely good riddance to bad rubbish. Jack found he didn't miss that man one little bit.
He was different now. He didn't care who knew it. His 'grandstanding in the gateroom' had not simply been for Daniel's benefit; it was his way of making a statement to all and assembled, all at once.
This is what it is from now on, so you'd better get used to it.
They were. At first he would get a lot of covert, long hard looks, feel eyes upon him as he passed, but privately he was of the opinion that people were starting to like him better this way. Even Sam and Teal'c seemed to getting used to the new, improved, 'born-again' Colonel Jack O'Neill. Mind you, he wasn't quite sure why Carter would have to look away from him and find something to do whenever Teal'c would turn to her and say the word "Kemasabe."
Yup, he had done a pretty thorough job of cleaning his own house since getting back. Not that he had stopped there, however. His former behavior toward a certain outcast archaeologist had not cast Daniel in a very good light with the "community" of the SCG.
Don't mince words, Jack, you blackballed the kid. Painted a big, fat bullseye in the middle of his back and all but set him up on the target line of the firing range and said, "go for it!
Well, he hadn't wasted much time setting that particular injustice to rights. It wasn't very long that an entirely new message about Daniel Jackson went out on the wire.
Daniel was under his personal protection, and anybody messed with him, talked about him, made fun of him or generally did not treat him with dignity and respect would have to answer to him about it.
It was gratifying to see how much 'pull' he really DID have around this place. Daniel was initially quite overwhelmed by the sudden reversal of his fortunes. It was plain to see that he really did not know how to cope with all his new "friends". But Jack had every confidence that he'd learn.
And Daniel? He'd been pretty quiet, for the most part. There was still some slight shadow living in his eyes, something he still would not talk about, even after being subjected to some of Jack's best diversionary tactics. That's why Jack had talked the General into letting the team take Daniel out for a drive. As soon as he had seen that old, familiar spark in his friend's eyes, he had known it was the right thing to do.
Jack found himself thinking about that other thing. That term the Anpu had used to refer to them. The question Daniel had asked them upon leaving.
Jack had no head for languages. He knew the word for 'beer' in about three of them - what else did you need to know? That was why he had been so surprised to discover that that strange word was stuck in his head.
Ka'elish-na. Weird. Wasn't like him to remember something like that. But there it was. And it kept bugging him so much he finally asked Daniel what it meant.
Daniel had looked at him really funny, mumbled something unintelligible and - booked. Jack ordinarily would have pressed the point, but he chalked up the strange look in his eyes to Daniel not wanting to be reminded of what had happened so soon, so Jack had just chewed himself out for being a bit insensitive for bringing it up in the first place and on a long shot had gone to find Teal'c.
Teal'c response to Jack's request for illumination had given him some serious food for thought. Teal'c had been unsure if he was correct, but he said that the term appeared to be related to the Goa'uld word for soul. Kalesh. He went into a further dissertation about suffixes and diminutives and modifiers to the point that Jack had wanted to say to him if he had wanted a lecture he would have asked Daniel.
But then he remembered he had asked Daniel.
Anyway, the bottom line was near as he could tell, Teal'c thought that the word might mean 'Twin Soul'. Or 'one soul twinned'. Or split. Or divided. He had a couple other interpretations to offer, but Jack pretty much had the gist of it by then.
Jack didn't know if he should put any stock in it or not, but it sure cleared up a little something about the response Daniel had gotten to his question.
If that is what the Anpu really thought he and Daniel were it would also have explained why even though two of them had gone in, as far as the Anpu were concerned, only one was tested.
For crying out loud O'Neill, it's a little late in life to be going metaphysical. Carter would have a fit if she got wind of this.
First one to make a 'better half' joke gets it RIGHT between the eyes..
Well, be that as it may, even though there were some days when he didn't know up from down, since that day in the dark there were more than a couple of things that he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Something had happened to him that day. He had gone in twisted, angry, bitter and sick inside, and he had come out clean. None of that would have happened if it had not been for Daniel...
Daniel?
Crap! Where the hell was Daniel anyway? Take a 30-second break to contemplate the meaning of life and 'poof"'he's gone again.
"Leg irons.," Jack thought grimly as he began to sprint toward the side chamber where he last saw Daniel headed, "maybe leg irons would slow him down a little bit."
Sam and Teal'c fell in behind him as the Jackson rescue brigade swung into action yet again.
"O'Neill, have you considered the possibility of affixing some sort of restraining device to DanielJackson?"
"Or possibly a bell?" Sam added. "It would make him easier to find."
They trotted around another bend. There he was, backing down the tunnel looking up, peering through the viewfinder of the camcorder as he used the zoom lens to bring in the markings close to the ceiling. He continued to back away from them, completely engrossed in what he was seeing in the viewer.
So much so that he failed to see that the cave floor was about to run out behind him.
Sam cried out his name as Jack, who was in the lead, put on a burst of speed.
Daniel started, looked up at them, took a step back and found him self precariously balanced on the edge of the ledge. He teetered there, perfectly balanced, for what seemed like an agonizing eternity as Jack swiftly closed the distance between them.
He's going to make it, he's going to make it - he's not going to make it.
Just when it seemed Jack's outstretched hand was going to connect with Daniel's web belt the archaeologist tumbled over backwards and plummeted out of sight. Jack's hand closed on empty air.
Sam and Teal'c slammed to a halt, looked at each other and started to count.
1. 2.3.4..5.
Just before they got to '6' the sound of a muffled thump wafted up from the depths into which Daniel had disappeared. Immediately followed by a small, sheepish "Whups."
Jack was lying prone on cave floor, hanging over the edge, yelling down at the man below.
"Dammit, Daniel, that DOES it! I'm getting you a LEASH!"
"I fell down, Jack,"
"Well, at least he can talk," Sam said to Teal'c.
"That is a good sign," The Jaffa agreed.
"No shit!" Jack bellowed back down at him. "Okay, how bad is it this time?"
"Ah, actually, I think I'm okay. The pack broke my fall. "You think they'll be angry with me in Supply if I tell them that I've broken another cam corder?"
"Only it it's true, Daniel."
Sam and Teal'c exchanged glances yet again.
"Well, it sounds as if we can stand down on the medical alert," Sam observed wryly.
"We are going to need some rope." Teal'c stated.
She sighed. "Well, do you want to dial, or shall I?"
Just another typical day in the life of SG-1. Sam smiled to herself as she and Teal'c walked back towards the Stargate, the echoing sounds of distant squabbling music to her ears.
"Well Jack, I understand you're a little mad with me, but yelling isn't going to help. It's not like I do this stuff on purpose.."