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 16: Storm Warning
Daniel knew time was running out, knew the darkness would soon catch up to them and bring with it the penetrating cold...
Tossing aside another piece of shingle, Daniel sighed and looked up through the hole in the roof. The sky was clearing, the persistent snow clouds finally giving way to pale blue. Daniel sighed again and stood back to look at his progress...there hadn't been much. He had been forced to work from the top of the stack down to avoid allowing the entire mess to collapse on Jack.
Jack had gone to sleep at some point...and Daniel was glad for it. The steady monotonous work had allowed him a lot of time to think.
He realized he had been closed off to nearly everyone and everything since Sha're's death. It had been easier...so very much easier...to slip back into old patterns of behavior established in childhood. The work, the research, the missions...all had worked together to keep him from coming to this very moment...a moment of 'truth'...
'Look, Jack, a cliché...'
The entire past year had been so full of things to be gotten through...too full because they hadn't had time to 'get over' them....some of them he wasn't sure could be gotten over...or should be. The thing with Hathor had rattled him as little else had.there was so much darkness attached to those memories. He'd come so close to losing it all then, so close to dying...or simply losing his mind. He still remembered everything...so clearly...remembered his body's unwilling betrayal, the fog he'd barely survived in until Sam had removed Hathor's little gift at Hammond's mountain cabin, the spiraling madness inspired by Machello's gift...how nearly he'd come to believe he truly was losing his hold on reality, then losing Sha're, Jack's lack of enthusiasm for an admittedly far-fetched notion...
And then Jack was gone...less than two months after losing Sha're...before Daniel had even gotten close to regaining his footing...his greatest source of support was gone. He'd been virtually alone, alone where it counted...where Jack usually was...with his ready wit, blunt words and bottomless capacity for caring. So many long nights alone...driving by Jack's dark house, sometimes stopping in the drive and getting as far as the door before realizing Jack wasn't at home...might never be home again..
A few weeks later Jack was back on Earth, but gone in a way Daniel would never have believed possible. So far gone from the man Daniel had thought he'd known it had caused him to doubt his sanity for the third time in a year. It was all just so wrong....and that belief was the only thing holding him to the reality he'd come to know...come to rely on.
Jack had lied to him...something he'd never done... without a blink, without a single outward sign for Daniel to hold hope against...
'And that's really the problem, isn't it? Not the perceived betrayal, not even the words he spoke...it was the fact that he lied to me and I couldn't even tell it was a lie...'
Strangely, the realization made Daniel feel better...he'd given a name to the persistent demon....now if only he could exorcise it...
Daniel smiled down at his sleeping friend, bending over to carefully tuck the blankets closer around him. It was growing colder already as the sun disappeared over the mountaintop.
Daniel straightened and looked down the hallway. He needed to do a little reconnaissance before it got too dark to see his way around the debris; they needed more supplies to get them through the long, cold night ahead...