Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate: SG-1 or its characters. I'm not making money off of this. This is just for fun.
Past's 'Menace'
He sat in his office, twirling his glasses in his hands by the earpieces- tired, drained, anxious. He'd been sitting there for the past two hours, trying and failing to keep his mind off the day's events. He hadn't seen any of his friends since Jack had shot the android and ended all the chaos.
Reese.
The name ran through his head over and over, along with the image of the dead android on the floor of the 'Gate Room before him. Shot, but no blood on the floor, or his hands.
Dead.
Could something made of metal and wires be dead, or alive, to begin with?
Wasn't that Jack's argument? He asked himself. Yes, it was.
As if it were divine intervention, or sudden hell, a knocking came upon Daniel's office door. He ignored it as best he could but with the door open, the cold-shouldering ended quickly.
"Daniel…" the Colonel began but trailed off, not sure of what to say.
"It didn't have to end like this," he told him.
"You know that's not true," Jack replied, still standing hesitantly in the doorway.
"She was shutting them down," Daniel persisted, eyes turning upward toward the other man. "If you had just waited a few more seconds-"
He took a step in the room before saying, "A few more seconds, and the base woulda blown!"
Daniel's eyes dropped. He knew it was true, but he also knew all he needed were those few seconds.
"Mere seconds… they change everything, don't they?" he asked off-handedly, not directed toward anyone in particular. He went on to answer for himself, "They could be enough to change a life, or break it."
"Daniel!"
Jack's raised voice startled Daniel, causing him to abruptly look back up at Jack who was now closer to his desk. Jack hadn't meant to startle him, or raise his voice, but Daniel was quickly losing it.
"It's over, alright? It happened, and there's nothing you can do to change that!"
Daniel had always taken the blame, the guilt, for events that had happened- whether they were his fault or not.
He went to open his mouth to speak, but Jack cut him off saying, "Don't. It wasn't your fault, got that? The past is past, and nothing more."
He turned on heel and left Daniel's office, leaving him amongst relics of the literal past. Daniel opened one of his journals, the ones he wrote his observations in, and started a new entry.
Reese, he began writing.
Writing events down ensured they were pieces of the past. Pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle, never meant for any one man to put together fully.