Disclaimer: SGA is owned by MGM, not me.
Be warned that this is a death fic but not an overly obvious one. Already got yelled at once for no warning so here is your proper warning.
All of these challenges have me intrigued. Thanks for the challenge, DaniWilder and Ladygris. 499 words.
What if Heaven Waited a While Longer?
Her eyes, weak and sunken, held his gaze in sadness. He couldn't stand to see that look. That's why he had to fix this, he just had to.
"You can't change the past." The gaze held strong even if her voice didn't.
"You can. I can – and I'm going to, even if it takes the rest of my life." She needed to believe him, he begged her to see his side. That he couldn't lose her, not yet.
She went on discouraging him from spending the remainder of his life to save hers but he wasn't listening to her words' meaning anymore. His life needed her in it.
Rodney's eyes only saw two things in the next few months. The first was Jennifer as she held on by the barest of threads. The flat white surface covered with quickly hashed-out formulas and equations was the other. Nothing else was allowed a second of his eyes' time anymore. Even Jeannie grew tired of never holding his attention though she was helping him every hour she could afford to leave Madison home with Kaleb. Rodney never spared her a glance as every second seemed to hold the answer to all of his efforts and taking that one second to look at something besides his work would cause him to miss the illusive answer.
Jennifer started getting worse, sleeping more and interacting with him less. He requested one of his old tablets to replace the white boards in his apartment and soon joined her in the SGC Infirmary. Rodney couldn't recall the number of times they had gone against Doctor Lam's wishes and curled up together on the narrow bed just to feel each other's presence all night again. He knew he had to savor those moments. There wouldn't be many of them left according to Doctor Parsons.
One of the nights in the middle of breaking another complication of his 83rd attempted set of equations, Jennifer whispered from where he thought she was sleeping on the bed beside him, "Promise me that you're not gonna waste the rest of your life chasing after something that's already gone, Rodney. Please promise me."
He immediately set the tablet down and took her left hand with his and cradled her cheek as it turned to him with a tear running down the side.
"I promise I won't chase after something that's already gone. You're still here, aren't you?" He sincerely joked so his voice didn't break.
"Rodney." Her gaze returned, softened.
"I can't, Jennifer. You're my life."
She gave no answer to that and let it go.
He couldn't stand that she knew it was coming, but she peacefully left him to his work after that, never passing her heartfelt opinion again. It wasn't until years later when he found the answer that relief finally touched the piece of his heart Jennifer still had a firm hold on. She would be safe in many different universes and that's all that mattered to him anymore.