Title: Home Truths
Fandom: Stargate SG1
Characters: Sam-centric. Implied Jack/Daniel
Word Count: 579
Rating: PG
Summary: She didn't want to move anything, just in case, one day he would come back.
Notes: Set after Meridian. Angsty. Sad. Character Death.
She looked at his books. Sitting alone in his office, made her unsure of why she was really here and what the point of doing anything was. Everything always ended badly. Her eyes ran over his desk and around his messy office. She didn't want to move anything, just in case, one day he would come back. She knew it was a possibility. No body. No death. Her eyes fixated themselves on his glasses and then his journal. She ran her hand over the leather clad book and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
'Major.'
Carter looked up, 'Sir.'
Hammond slowly walked towards her. 'I just wanted to inform you that Colonel O'Neill has requested that SG-1 remain on active duty while we try to find a replacement for Doctor Jackson.'
'So what are we supposed to do? Keep working like nothing happened?'
'I understand how you feel.' Hammond said softly.
'With all due respect, Sir, I don't even understand how I feel. We didn't even have a memorial service.'
'We're not even really sure he's dead.'
Carter sighed, 'And that's the problem. What are we supposed to do, Sir? Wait and… and hope that he comes back or… or just move on.'
Hammond walked round Daniel's desk to face her.
'When I was in Vietnam, I saw my best friend shot down. I know he survived, I saw his 'chute open, radioed his position. But I never found out what happened to him. His body was never recovered; the Vietnamese never admitted they took him prisoner. For years, I kept thinking, that some day he's just going to walk through the door.'
'So what did you do?'
'I learned to live with it.'
The klaxons sounded and Hammond exited the office, Carter remained behind.
Sam picked up the leather bound journal again and hugged it to her chest. He'd been through so much in the last five years, he'd seen his wife taken from him, he'd been thrust into a military world, a world he had never liked, until then. Five years ago when he first met Colonel O'Neill, he knew he was in for a tough time. Gaining the respect of an Air Force Colonel was never going to be easy but Jack soon learned to trust him and he trusted him with his life. Although Jack never admitted it, Sam knew that he was grieving, perhaps more than anyone else.
Sam was the only person to act on her feelings and try to get everyone to talk about it but they all just shut themselves off from the world and grieved alone.
Daniel had had to learn to fight, to shoot, to kill. Everyone knew that he despised violence and that he'd rather negotiate than just pick up a gun and fire. Daniel did the talking and Jack did the shooting. They were perfect partners. Jack never told anyone of their relationship outside of the SGC but Sam had pretty much guessed by the way he was reacting. His eyes looked dead and he looked older. It wasn't until a few weeks later when he mumbled, 'A part of me died when he did. God Sam I wish he were here,' did Sam fully realised what Jack had lost. What they had all lost.
Aside from the new fourth team member, Jonas Quinn, everything remained the same. His office, left untouched. They soldiered on and learnt to live with the fact that Daniel was gone.
-FIN-