Happy Returns
by Play It Grand
Season 7
Born: 2/14/07
Related Episodes: The Curse, Meridian, Summit, Last Stand, Fallen
Idea: Sam and Daniel discuss Daniel's return, his slowly regaining his memories of past events, and haw happy Sam is to have him back verses her feelings when he was dying.
Author's note: I'm always musing on how it must have been for Sam to have Daniel back, as she was the most emotional of any of the team in "Meridian". There's also the fact that she was the only one that, up until Full Circle, had no idea what had become of Daniel for sure. I wanted to take this chance to allow Sam to re-bond with Daniel. While working on this I reread Sabine C. Bauer's SG-1 novel, Trial by Fire, and realized that my story could precede it perfectly if shaped to do so. Chronologically, my story comes right before the events of that novel, which I highly recommend!
I want to make it perfectly clear that this is NOT a Daniel and Sam shipping story!!! If that's what you're looking for, turn back now because you won't find it here!!! EEEWWW!
Special Thanks to: my friend Geneva who so kindly volunteered to beta read this short story for me.
I live for comments and constructive criticism!
Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Dr. Daniel Jackson sat in his office . . . his office . . . the thought felt strange as it passed through is mind. It didn't really make all that much sense, and yet somehow it felt right.
That is exactly how Daniel felt about being back. He sat at his desk, calmly looking around at all the books and artifacts that lined the shelves . . . his books, his artifacts, his shelves . . . and couldn't remember acquiring a single one of them. Yet somehow he knew that they belonged to him. . . . Well, everything except for the fish tank that was percolating steadily over in the corner, its colorful occupants eying him curiously.
Despite these strangely familiar surroundings, Daniel found the most comfort in the warm coffee mug he nursed in his hands. It was like holding the warm hand of an old friend, except the pressure to make conversation wasn't there. The coffee in that mug comforted him silently, incapable of even giving him the look that he had recently come to associate with being asked, "So . . . how are you doing?"
Daniel just sat quietly, allowing his mind to go blank and the intoxicating aroma of the espresso – with one cream and two sugars – to wash over him, lifting one passing memory over another up to his mind's eye.
Faces and places flowed by, like wafer thin Fall leaves carried by a purposeful breeze. Some he could identify: his team mates, people and places on the base. Others he sensed were strongly familiar to him, but it was as if the familiarity came from another life that was not his own. In the first days since he had returned "home", Daniel had read all the mission reports he could get his hands on, and through them he was at least able to identify the images he was seeing – he knew what they were and what had happened, but yet his own memories of them still seamed shrouded in a thin veil that he couldn't quite see through, try as he might.
But Daniel knew – not so much that he remembered but he just knew – that giving up was not an option. He allowed the images to absorb all his energy as he searched for the hole in the veil.