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 1: The Calm
The mountains stretched as far as the eye could see and beyond, disappearing into a haze of blue no longer discernable as either earth or sky...
Jack O'Neill let the rented Explorer aim itself toward the distant blueness. Though it had been years since he had traveled here, Jack knew he could find the cabin by heart. He'd spent a lot of time there following his return from the distant planet Abydos...and his subsequent, though not unexpected, divorce. As soon as he'd settled the legal tangle inevitably resulting from shattered dreams, Jack had packed up his meager belongings, thrown them into storage and run at full speed to his uncle's cabin in Alberta.
After months of solitude, Jack had achieved what he'd have believed nearly impossible...peace. He had gone halfway across the galaxy through the newly deciphered Stargate...an ancient device of then unknown origins...expecting, even hoping, to die. His son had died not long before, a casualty of Jack's own carelessness with his handgun, and a large portion of Jack had died the same day. The part that remembered how to open his heart, to comfort his wife, to forgive himself...
Jack had found instead on those desert sands a reason to live...largely thanks to the man sleeping awkwardly beside him, Dr. Daniel Jackson.
Jack glanced from the mountain road to his exhausted companion with a sigh. His academic friend was huddled within a coat and a sweater, arms across his chest in subconscious defense mode, head resting against the glass. Sitting less than two feet away, Daniel seemed as distantly removed from Jack's presence as he had once been on Abydos.
'Back to square one?' Jack quashed the thought brutally as he wished for a cigarette, a habit he'd given up after Abydos, but something he still craved in times of extreme stress.
'And this sure as hell qualifies...'
Jack wasn't really sure how he had managed to convince Daniel to come along on this trip in the first place. Events of the past few months...hell, the past year...had put a strain on their friendship. Jack's own actions had nearly buried all hope of them recovering solid footing. Looking again at the too pale face and too sharp cheekbones, Jack realized Daniel had needed to get away more than any of them had fully realized.
Jack felt the queasiness in his own stomach resurface at the memory of the days-long fever resulting from his exposure to neutrino radiation on P7X377. Daniel had disappeared in the same wave of energy from the enigmatic crystal skull, disappeared for days until only a fluke and Daniel's flaky grandfather, Nicolas Ballard, had revealed the unbelievable truth... A truth Jack had nearly dismissed until he heard his friend's words coming out of the aforementioned flake's mouth...
'Jack, don't be an ass.'
Jack laughed silently at the many times he'd heard those words, in just that tone, from Daniel. Privately, Jack had no problem admitting on most occasions he deserved Daniel's half-moaning assessment. Thankfully, in this case, Jack's desire to believe Daniel was still alive and could be returned to them had overruled his generally overactive skepticism...and they'd gotten Daniel back.
Jack's mirth turned into a heavy sigh at the memory of just how close it had been, how once again...thankfully...Daniel had found his own way home. If it hadn't been for 'Nick,' as the old man preferred to be called, stubbornly refusing to reveal anything about the skull until they brought him to see it, Daniel might have been lost in that limbo state forever, roaming the halls of the SGC like some perpetually frustrated ghost. It was Daniel who found the words to convince Jack, General Hammond and the rest of them 'crazy Nick' was doing more than just communing with his hallucinations.
'Jack, don't be an ass...'
Jack knew he had fit that description all too often in the past months, had let himself fall back on old habits to cope with the increasingly fantastical and sometimes downright frightening things close association with the Stargate had brought with it.
The whole business with Maybourne had driven home to Jack the knowledge that...however overblown his dutiful performance was...at the heart of it all were some basic truths. He had let himself become complacent...to stop working at his friendships, to stop trying to see below the surface. Part of it he knew was his own anger at his inability to provide the simple belief and comfort Daniel had so desperately needed after Sha're's death. Jack knew all too well his words had fallen far short of the mark, knew his doubt had added hurt to Daniel's already far too full plate. Twice in the past year Jack had failed his friend. The first nearly resulting in Daniel being locked away forever, the second driving a wedge between them that Jack's hurtful...however unwilling....words had nearly cleaved in two. The friendship hadn't shattered like the metaphorical block of wood, but it had splintered on levels they were only now discovering, only now realized still bled.
The business with the Harseisis child had helped. Jack knew, all too well, he'd given in to Daniel's wishes on that mission...hadn't been ready or willing to deny Daniel anything within reason. Daniel had recognized the departure from Jack's normal operating status, cut the bull with all available speed, recognized Jack had offered the only white flag he had left, the one thing Daniel had always craved most and rarely gotten from Jack in any overt way...trust...and Daniel had thanked him for it. And it had been the right decision. The child was safe, his team was alive and a nice healthy chunk of Apophis' Jaffa were dead...
Jack did respect Daniel...he'd never known a more brilliant, more compassionate, more stubbornly loyal person. Daniel had worked hard to gain respect or, more properly, the way Daniel worked so hard had earned him the respect of nearly everyone he worked with. His caring nature had won him the loyalty of people from the lowest grade tech to General Hammond and the Secretary of Defense himself. Even the President had been known to send a kudo or two in the direction of SGC's resident civilian scientist/SG team member.
After the, hopefully, final battle with Hathor, Jack had let a lot of things go...everything they'd gone through together afterward. Daniel's near breakdown at Hammond's lake retreat, Hathor's time bomb...Jack had backed off emotionally. He'd seen it, recognized it and...with every new crisis...allowed it. Now he was paying for it. And so was Daniel...
Looking again toward the distant mountains, now crowned by grey sweeps of northern clouds, Jack sighed in deep frustration. The fact that Daniel was here with him was a step in the right direction, but he feared the journey ahead of them was a whole lot longer than the distance from Colorado to Alberta.