"Welcome back, SG-1, and congratulations." Announced General Hammond as the team arrived from off-world. "The naquadah you secured will prove to be a great help." Then he turned to Daniel Jackson, "And the alliance you created with the Midays will also prove to be a great help in the future, Dr. Jackson."

Jack cut in, "I've always said he has a way with people."

Daniel neither accepted nor rejected the complements. In fact, he hardly heard them at all. Hammond saw that he was distracted and gave Jack a worried look. Then he announced as he left, "Debriefing in fifteen minutes."

Daniel walked out of the gate room in a haze. Thinking something was up, Jack followed.

"Jack, it looked so much like Abydos…"

"I know. But you still helped out the mission." Jack tried to make him feel better.

"Yeah, sure I did. I'm surprised I did anything at all. My mind just kept drifting back to last month when…" He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

The debriefing only lasted twenty minutes. Daniel's report was surprisingly low-key considering the some of the artifacts he saw. The only time he seemed exited about anything during this meeting was when the Miday's language was brought up.

His eyes lit up as he explained, "It was actually based very closely off of the ancient Greek. I just had to make some minor adjustments, but it was relatively the same."

"I'm just glad it was that easy. If he hadn't been able to communicate with them, they would have continued thinking we were some sort of thieves." Sam added what Daniel wouldn't have said.

"Good work." Congratulated General Hammond. "Dismissed." Everyone walked out except General Hammond and Jack.

"Jack, I'm worried about Dr. Jackson. He hasn't been himself lately." General Hammond pointed out.

"You mean since Sha're…" Jack stopped as soon as he saw Daniel enter the room.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt." Daniel apologized.

"It's okay." General Hammond answered.

"Sir, I'm not feeling so good. I would like to request the rest of the day off." Daniel informed his superiors.

"Granted," Hammond responded, "Go home and get some rest."

After Daniel walked out of the room, Jack asked, "Should I go with him?"

"It'd probably be best." Hammond answered.

Jack jogged to catch up with Daniel. Much to his annoyance, Jack didn't go quite fast enough and missed the elevator ride Daniel was on. Impatiently, he waited till it came around again. Finally, he got to the ground floor. Immediately he started running towards the parking garage. Daniel wasn't there. Then he remembered that Daniel's car was in the shop. "Darn it Daniel, why are you so stubborn? You could have asked me for a ride." He thought as he turned around to catch up with his friend.

"Why did you follow me Jack?" Asked Daniel, half annoyed that his commander had followed him.

Jack ignored the question. "Come on Daniel, we're taking my car."

"But Sir…" Protested Daniel.

"That's an order!" Jack informed Daniel as he walked to block Daniel's passageway out of the base.

Without conversation, Jack led Daniel to his car. When they got in Jack said, "Daniel, I know how you feel. I mean, considering what happened to Charlie, I should say we're both in kind of the same boat. So, if you need to talk, I'm here."

"Jack, I'm fine. I don't need to talk about anything. I just need to be alone." As hard as he tried to not let anything show, his cracking voice told Jack as much as he needed to know.

"Darn it Daniel, stop blaming yourself. It's not your fault!" Jack exclaimed.

"Yes it was!" Daniel shouted back.

In all the years Jack had known him, this was only the second time he'd heard Daniel explode like that. The first time was because… Jack couldn't remember exactly why. He didn't know what to say, so they continued in silence.

When they arrived at Daniel's apartment building, Daniel got out and simply stated, "Tell the General I'm sorry I had to go. Thanks for the ride." He shut the door before Jack could respond.

Despite this, Jack said, "Anytime." Then, as he drove back to the base, he said under his breath, "We'd better hang on, this could get to be a bumpy ride."

It was starting to get dark as Daniel walked up to his apartment building. He had been with people all day long. Those were people who had no idea how he felt; people who had no idea what he was going through. He just needed time to be alone. He needed to deny how he felt and if he couldn't do that, he needed to push those feelings so far back that they wouldn't bother him anymore.

Daniel walked in and, instead of taking the elevator to the eighth floor, he headed for the stairs. Trying to deny how he felt was too hard, especially since he was alone, so when he reached the third flight of stairs, he sat on a step in the vacant stairwell and let himself cry. Had anyone been there, he couldn't have done that, especially if one of his team members, who had become his closest friends, were there. They had enough to worry about. He didn't need them to pity him.

Daniel finally made it to his apartment where he went to his balcony to get some fresh air. This cleared his head a little. He took out his wallet and found the picture that he held dear: the picture of his wife.

"Sha're, I can't deal with this any more. I'm sorry I didn't keep Shifu. He looked a lot like you. He's safe though, I wouldn't have it any other way." He looked out at the sun setting over the city buildings and, still talking to Sha're, he whispered, "I love you."

Because it was summer, Daniel stayed outside on his balcony all night. When he finally fell asleep, he held Sha're's picture close to his heart.

Thanks for reading this! This is my first story submitted, so please review and tell me where i can improve.