TITLE: Forever After the Day

AUTHOR: DramaLexy

SUMMARY: AU for S3x09 – Forever in a Day. What if Daniel's dreamworld had been real?

DISCLAIMER: If I owned this show…wow, would things have been different. But I don't, so don't sue.

DISTRIBUTION: Sure, just let me know where first so I can come visit.

Light. Blindingly bright light. Daniel instantly closed his eyes again against the onslaught, allowing only little slivers through. Where was he? What had happened? After a moment, he opened his eyes a little wider, blinking against the pain caused by the fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling. Bulbs he recognized – he was in the infirmary at the SGC.

As that thought cleared his mind, and his vision began to swim a little less, he realized there was someone beside him, holding his hand. "Dan'iel, you're awake," he person said, and he instantly recognized the voice. No one else could make his name sound quite like that. "He's awake," she added for someone else's benefit, and Daniel turned his head slightly to see Dr. Janet Frasier approaching the bed he was on as well. She used a penlight to check his eyes, making him wince.

"Hey, how do you feel?" she asked.

Daniel looked back to Sha're, tightening his grip on her fingers slightly to make sure she was really there. How was she there? The last thing he remembered…He wasn't sure what he remembered. "Confused," was the best answer he could come up with.

Janet smiled. "I bet. Can you tell me your name?"

He blinked, unable to tear his eyes away from his wife. "Daniel Jackson."

"And what's your birthday?"

"July 8th." THAT wasn't the part that he was confused about. "Sha're," he whispered, almost not daring to speak her name for fear she'd disappear. But she didn't.

"Yes, husband?" she replied with a smile, and he realized how much he'd missed that sight over the past two and a half years.

"You're alive."

"I am," she confirmed with a nod.

"As are most of our people," another voice interjected, and Daniel looked beyond his wife for the first time to see that they were surrounded by the other members of SG-1 and Kasuf. "Thanks be to you. Thanks be to all of you."

Daniel, however, was still missing pieces. "What happened?"

"I found you in the clutches of Amonet's ribbon device," Teal'c spoke up. "I had no recourse but to fire upon her."

"Then we took her straight to the Tok'ra," Sam added. "They had a captured sarcophagus and a way to remove the goa'uld."

Daniel looked up at Sha're as she gently brushed his hair back from his forehead. He didn't think he'd ever seen anything so beautiful. "Then I was dreaming before…" he murmured.

"What?" Jack asked him with a frown, but Daniel shook his head, eyes still locked on his wife.

"Nothing," he told his friend as she leaned over to kiss him. The others beat a hasty retreat, but Daniel hardly noticed. All he could see was Sha're. "There're so many things I want to say to you," he whispered. "I don't know where to begin."

She smiled. "We have time now, my Dan'iel."

"Are you okay?" he suddenly asked. "What did they have to do to you? How long have I been out?" he added as that thought dawned on him.

"Shhh," she whispered, laying a finger over his lips. "You slumbered for a few days, but I am fine. I am perfect now – now that I am here with you." Daniel shifted slightly on the bed, making room for her to lie down beside him. As he wrapped his arms around her, feeling the warm weight of her body against his, he finally relaxed for the first time in years.

Sha're was home.

TBC...