Title: The Place Of The Beginning Of Time

Author: Caroline Corken

Fandom: Stargate SG-1

Pairing: Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill

Rating: NC-17

Status: New complete

Archive: Yes please for WWOMB. Anyone else who wants it, just let me know.

Series/Sequel: Forth in the Plausible Denial series.

Disclaimers: Stargate SG-1, Doctor Daniel Jackson and Colonel Jack O'Neill are © Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp.

Notes : Thanks as always to jenni for the wonderful beta and for putting up with my apostrophe issues and fixing them :) Probably best to consider this story an AU as things will be taking even more of a tangent later on in the series.

NC-17 rating due to future stories in this series.

Summary: Jack finally admits to Daniel that he loves him.

Warning: Death of a major character. But don't let that put you off.

The Place Of The Beginning Of Time
by Caroline Corken

Daniel was the first through the Stargate, hardly even noticing the chill it produced as his eyes fell on the view in front of him.

The MALP had come to rest not 10 metres from the object that had brought them to PX7-963, its light reflecting off the surface, casting hues of gold and amber around the dark chamber.

"Now *that* is something to write home about."

Daniel turned to find Jack standing beside him, just as the wormhole collapsed behind them.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Jack cast him a worried look, which Daniel interpreted immediately. "Well, alright, it's more than likely Goa'uld, but still."

"It is indeed most aesthetically pleasing."

Daniel grinned, causing Jack to smile back at him. "See? Even Teal'c thinks it's pretty."

Carter smiled at the easy banter of her team mates, and even she found she could appreciate the stark beauty of what stood before them all.

It was a sarcophagus, but more like the traditional kind than the Goa'uld variety. Yet it was unlike any other sarcophagus any of them had ever seen before. Not even Daniel had seen anything like it in style and extravagance. All four members of the team walked up a little closer to it.

"Wow. I wonder how much a thing like this'd be worth on the black market?"

Daniel turned round to Jack, utterly shocked at him even contemplating trying to sell something so beautiful, when he realised it was a joke. Aimed at him. The smile on Jack's face made that obvious.

"Funny."

Carter looked up from her readings, a surprised look on her face. "This is where we got the naquadah readings from."

"Really?" Daniel sounded surprised. "But it doesn't."He turned back to the sarcophagus, taking in the sight of the engraved carving of a woman gracing the front. "Maybe it's an earlier form of the Goa'uld sarcophagus? After all, technology develops, whether it's stolen or not. Palaeolithic to the Neolithic, progress has to be made." He turned to look at the rest of the team. "Even with the Goa'uld."

"Hold on a second here. You're telling me that we could have a Goa'uld inside that thing?" Jack turned a more wary gaze onto the sarcophagus, trying to assess the possible danger they where all in.

"I don't think so sir. Even with an inactive sarcophagus, a low level energy field is present. I'm not detecting anything like that." Carter looked up from her readings and stared at the sarcophagus again. "I think it's simply decretive. A plain old casket." She smiled at Daniel, not giving the linguist a chance to complain. "Alright, maybe not a 'plain' old casket." Daniel returned her smile.

"Daniel?"

"Yes Jack?"

Jack pointed at the sarcophagus with his rifle. "You wanna maybe tell us who could be inside this crate?"

"Oh. Right. Ok." Jack watched as Daniel stepped closer to it, admiring the way the stark bright light of their torches hit the polished metal of the sarcophagus and reflected back onto Daniel.

Reaching out carefully, Daniel ran his fingers over the small cartouche of hieroglyphs, almost as if it were brail. "If it's been fashioned out of naqquada I think we can safely assume that it has something to do with the Goa'uld. The question is why did they go to so much trouble?"

Jack watched as long fingers caressed the cold metal, and he fought hard against reacting in any way what so ever to what he was seeing. When he saw those fingers still however, he knew they where in trouble. Daniel might be able to translate ancient texts, but Jack was an expert on translating Daniel.

Daniel turned to look at his friends, surprise and a little shock on his face. "It's Sakhmet."

"Sack who now?"

Patent Daniel frown number 3; Jack awarded himself 10 points. "Sakhmet. She was an aspect of Hathor and."

Jack felt all his humour for the situation leave him. "Hathor? We're dealing with Hathor?"

Daniel shook his head. "No. She was an aspect of Hathor. Supposedly a part of her.personality I suppose. Ra."

"Ra? The dead as in we kicked his butt Ra?"

"Yes Jack, that Ra. The legend goes that Ra was annoyed at how humanity was treating him, showing him disrespect, mocking him, so he tore out his eye and threw it towards the earth. On its way it transformed into Sakhmet and she lost herself in a blood frenzy. She was going to wipe out all of mankind, but Ra stopped her; tricked her into getting drunk and he saved man from complete destruction."

Jack snorted. "Yes, well, the dead don't make great hosts and all."

Daniel swung his torch around the chamber, catching sight of further pictograms and other artefacts. "We could really learn a lot from this place. I'm thinking that Sakhmet may actually have been one of the Goa'uld that Hathor gave birth to while on Earth. It would explain why she comes down through history as an aspect of Hathor."

Jack nodded, feeling a shiver run down his spine. Suddenly he just wanted off this planet ASAP. He turned to his 2IC. "Carter, check this thing out and."

"Sir, as much as I hate the thought, with the equipment we have with us, I'm not going to be able to tell you as much as a detailed lab work up would. I recommend we either transport what we need here or take the sarcophagus back to Earth."

"I hate that thought too Carter. Especially if she was as bad as Daniel makes her out to be, and lets be honest here, when did we ever meet a nice Goa'uld?" He sighed. "Alright, contact General Hammond. Let him know we what we know and give him your suggestion."

Carter smiled. She wanted the sarcophagus back in her lab where she could work on it in peace rather than set up shop here. "Will do sir."

"Teal'c, you check out the." Jack stopped, realising that Daniel had done it to him yet again. Manfully ignoring the looks on the rest of his team, Jack turned on his walkie-talkie. "Daniel? Am I going to have to get one of those tethers and hook you to my wrist?"

"I'm.ante-chamber.amazing detail.Jack.worry...I'm fine."

"Damn it." He hated it when Daniel just walked off. He was an extremely talented archaeologist, but he also seemed to have a god given talent for getting into trouble. Something was distorting the radio frequency and Jack was getting that horrible twisting sensation in the pit of his stomach. The one that reminded him that being in love with one of your team mates wasn't such a great move; it made you more than just a little bit biased and it made you unfit for command. It just proved to him even more that he'd made the right decision in regards to keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself.

Worry got the better of him, and he promised himself that after this, he was never going to let his feelings get in the way of a mission again. "Ok kids, get this crate ready to ship back while I go drag Daniel back from, well, whatever it is he's getting up to." He turned to Teal'c. "When you're done, dial us up home big guy." He went to slap Teal'c on the arm but stopped himself just in time as he caught the implied look of impending doom from the Jaffa.

"Right."

Both Teal'c and Sam watched him head off to the next chamber muttering under his breath. Sam turned to Teal'c and smiled at him. Just another day on the job.

* * * * *

"It's SG-1's code sir."

Hammond nodded. "Open the iris."

The iris opened, revealing the shimmering event horizon on the other side. Within moments Jack came through, carrying Daniel in his arms. Seeing the blood stained clothes of both men, Sergeant Davis called immediately for the medical team.

Sam and Teal'c came through the gate next, Sam with a little blood on her hands. Both looked sick to the stomach.

The wormhole collapsed behind them, Jack coming to a halt on the ramp with Daniel in his arms. The medical team finally arrived and pounced on the two men at the bottom of the ramp. Jack however seemed more than a little reluctant to simply hand Daniel over.

Janet went to him, forcing the Colonel to look her in the eyes. Whatever she said went unheard in the observation room, but it seemed to have brought the Colonel back to his senses for he finally gave up a very still and very quiet Daniel Jackson from his arms, revealing a lot of the young man's blood staining the Colonel's clothing.

General Hammond watched with a growing sense of horror the scene below him. They had to place Daniel on his side because of the spike impaled through his chest and straight out his back. He swallowed the bile he felt rising in his throat.

Leaving the observation room, he was just in time to see Fraiser and her team go rushing past, the look on her face one he'd seen more than once or twice before. A lack of hope mingled with determination.

Coming into the gate room, he stopped SG-1 in their tracks just as they where heading out the door. "What the hell happened Colonel?"

Jack pulled his gaze up to the General. "I don't have time for this." He pushed his way past his commanding officer and headed for the infirmary.

Hammond turned to Carter, deciding that now wasn't the time to remind anyone of protocol. "Major?"

Carter sniffed, sheer force of will preventing her from breaking down in from of her CO. "Daniel went into a separate chamber to the one the Stargate was in sir. Teal'c found him like that. Jack. . .Colonel O'Neill had been talking to him only a minute or so before hand."

"I found DanielJackson unconscious and bleeding profusely. There was no further time to assess the situation."

Hammond nodded. "I see."

"Permission to go down to the infirmary sir?"

"Granted. Have someone down there check you all out."

"Yes sir."

He watched them head for the door at a brisk run. He hoped they weren't heading for bad news. He'd seen what had happened to the team dynamic when Daniel had been thought dead before. They where a tighter unit now. Maybe a little too fond of each other to be good for them, but it made them what they where; the best.

* * * * *

"God. God. This'll be fine, it will. It's happened before, it can happen again, it can."

Jack couldn't keep still. He knew somewhere in the small, dark *rational* part of his brain, the part that was sitting shivering in a corner somewhere, that he should really be staying well clear and letting Doctor Fraiser produce one of those miracles she so regularly pulled out of the bag. He knew this, and yet.

He couldn't keep still. Couldn't stay away.

General Hammond had asked him what had happened, and to be honest, Jack would like to know the answer to that question too. If only that whooshing and thumping noise in his head would just *stop* for one fucking minute, he'd have time to think and he'd be able to remember that one small detail that would save Daniel.

His brain seemed to be rebelling. It got as far as watching Daniel touch, no, *caress* that strange sarcophagus doohicky, then the panic came, and with it the strange whooshing noise.

*Whoosh*.

Daniel was touching the image on the wall, and talking about Hathor, or rather, some aspect of her. Sak something or other.

*Thump*.

Movement. He could remember some kind of movement. *Whoosh*. Did Daniel touch something, trigger something? If he could just fucking *think*.

Daniel hadn't screamed, he just kinda gave a startled *gasp* and then he was down, with that *thing* in him. In his chest.

Jack had no memory of the journey back to the Stargate carrying Daniel in his arms, none at all. His memories picked up again in the embarkation room with the shocking realisation of just how light Daniel was in his arms. That was just.wrong, Daniel was fit and able and strong dammit, this limp rag of a man wasn't the Daniel Jackson he'd come to know and, well that he'd come to know
and .get close to during the last 5 years. It was this disconnectedness that held him upright during the walk to the Infirmary. He knew if he stopped to actually *think* about what was happening, he'd turn into a Jack-shaped puddle on the floor.

Which brings him back to, oh god, here. Godgodgodnononothappening, that was not a flatline, it just WASN'T God. *DANIEL!!!* Jack had known panic in his life, known it intimately, he also knew how to recognise it in others, and right now he could see it the eyes of Doctor Janet Fraiser. He knew it was mirrored in his own eyes and could feel himself losing the battle to keep a lid on it. Fuck. It was over, all over and he neverevengotthechanceto.

BEEEEEP.

Jack felt the rage, the panic and gladly let it take him.

* * * * *

Sam pushed open the door to the infirmary to find Jack sitting on one of the beds, hands held together in his lap, looking down at the floor. Teal'c walked in behind her. "How is he sir?"

Jack looked up, tears on his face. "He's dead Sam."

Her hand automatically went up to her mouth, her eyes finally giving way to the tears that had been threatening for so long. "No. Oh no." She barely noticed as Teal'c put an arm around her shoulder.

"You are sure Jack?"

Jack turned to look at Teal'c, the use of his first name surprising him a little. "Janet just confirmed it. He ah.he died on the way down. The spike in his chest caused too much damage to his heart for them to revive him." He turned to look at the operating room door just as Janet came back out.

Despite herself, despite all her training and years of practice as a physician, despite knowing that this day would finally come, Janet Fraiser had allowed herself to become emotionally attached to the people under her care. A little hard not to really, when she considered the amount of times the people in front of her had saved this planet, her home and in turn, her family and her life.

Yet, it was her duty not to break down in front of her friends. They needed some semblance of control right now, something to lean on and she was damned if she was going to let them down. She'd do her crying when she went home.

"You can go in and see him if you want Colonel." It was said quietly, barely a whisper, Jack nodding as he slipped off the bed and walked to the door. Before he pushed it open, he realised that Sam and Teal'c were behind him and he stopped, turning to them. "I need to do this alone."

"Sir?"

"Sam. Please. I just.I need to do this alone, ok?"

She nodded. "Yes sir."

Taking a deep breath, Jack pushed open the door.

The first thing he noticed was the bloody spike that lay on the floor, his eyes not yet ready to look up and face what he knew to be true. That Daniel was dead and not coming back. Ever.

He walked over to the table, unable to help but see now the blood stained sheet that covered his friend's body. Realising he didn't have a choice any more, he looked up.

Daniel's glasses were gone, the thought running through Jack's head that Daniel hated not having his glasses on.

He stepped closer despite thinking that he couldn't go anywhere near him, some part of him on automatic to get him through this, leaning down and wiping a small speck of blood away from Daniel's lip that had gone unnoticed when they'd tidied him up.

But he knew what was underneath that sheet covering his friend's chest; the evidence of his mistake, of his lack of ability to take care of one of his own team.

He let his fingers trail over Daniels face. He was still warm. Not as warm as he should have been, but warm enough to remind Jack that this was the man he'd argued over coffee with this morning while trying not to find the perfect word to describe the colour of his eyes.

It was the final straw.

"Jesus Daniel, I am so sorry. I'm so very, very sorry."

He watched Daniel's face, some part of him still surprised that his friend could be so *still*; that he wasn't telling him he had nothing to be sorry for, that this wasn't Jack's fault.

But Daniel couldn't. Not this time. He was dead and it *was* his fault. It was all his fault.

"Why Daniel? Why did you have to run off? Couldn't you just have waited, huh?" He felt his anger rising. "Oh no! Doctor Jackson doesn't need anyone else's help. Dumb ol' Jack wouldn't be of help anyway, would he?"

He looked down at the closed eyes of his friend and felt all the guilt he'd been feeling hit him tenfold. He sighed, not realising the tears where streaming down his face. "I'm sorry I shouted at you Daniel. I shouldn't have done that. Not that you ever listened anyway." He stroked his cheek, already a little colder than before. "I'm sorry Daniel. I always suspected this would be a deathbed confession. I just never realised." He felt a lump in his throat, and swallowed it down.

And it was just then that something broke inside Colonel Jack O'Neill.

"I fell in love with you damn-it." He leant down, and just like he had done with his son at the USAF hospital morgue, he placed a soft, gentle kiss on Daniel's brow.

"Colonel?"

Jack took a deep breath. Not out of fear at having his little confession heard, he was past caring about anything as mundane as his career, but simply because he'd been holding it for so long. Turning, he saw General Hammond standing there, looking more than a little shocked.

Yet Jack could hardly seem to care. Turning back to Daniel, he again leaned close and whispered into his ear. "Wait for me Daniel." Then he stroked a finger again down his cheek, before turning and leaving the room, never once looking at Hammond and ignoring the worried looks Janet, Teal'c and Sam gave him.

He simply went to his office, dropped his own blood stained jacket on the floor and left the complex. He had plans to make. Daniel had once told him he'd seen enough of Western civilisations ideas of graveyards to know that a burial and a tombstone weren't for him and Jack knew he was executer of Daniels estate. He'd see to it that Daniel was taken back to Abydos and buried alongside Sha're, just as he had requested.

Then Jack would make his own plans.

The End.