A/N: An introspective look at the too-short marriage of Daniel and Sha're. I needed to clear my mind of the pain of it- and also, there just isn't enough written about these two.


She was a gift. Daniel Jackson was very certain he did not deserve her. Not at first, when she was ushered trembling into his tent, and not even later, when she lived with him in joyful affection as his wife. He did not deserve her, but he adored her. She drew him out of his self-absorption, eased his ascetic distaste for the human body's appetites and needs; she loved him, purely and simply. Daniel's lonely heart was captivated by her beauty of body and spirit.

She was a goddess. The irony was not lost on him. The woman he had worshiped for the past year was now inhabited by a genuine goddess. Sitting on the floor in his darkened quarters under Cheyenne Mountain, Daniel Jackson laughed mirthlessly. His hands clenched into fists in his lap. I will get her back. I will get her back. I will get her back if it means tearing apart the galaxy, the universe, time itself. In the end he would tear his own soul apart and be remade, still pure and good but no longer innocent. And he would fail.

She was a sacrifice. In the end, as in the beginning, the woman herself had to be put aside for the greater good. Her father had given her, not as Sha're the individual, but as Woman, as a peace offering to Daniel Jackson. Teal'c gave her, not Sha're the host but Amaunet the Goa'ould, death for the sake of that same man. Daniel only wished he could believe himself worthy of her life.

She was my wife, and I loved her.