Title: "Maybe Because"
Rating: PG
Words: 322
Pairing: Jack/Sam, Jack/Daniel
Spoilers: "There but for the Grace of God"
Summary: As the doors close behind him, he wonders why he's doing it...
Notes: I was going to do it in first person, but the bunny with the screwdriver demanded third. And what the bunny with the screwdriver wants, the bunny with the screwdriver gets.

As the doors close behind him, he wonders why he's doing it. Giving his life for a man he doesn't know. A geek with long hair and round glasses. He thinks maybe he's doing it because it's the right thing to do. But that doesn't sit right.

Catherine told him the man had been a real prick. An arrogant S.O.B. But this man isn't arrogant-maybe a bit condescending, but not arrogant.

Daniel Jackson, his name. Part of SG-1, he said. Proof on the video, proof that he couldn't think about. Couldn't think about what this innocent had that he didn't.

And maybe that's why he was doing it. Because Jackson was innocent, and hopeful, and full of wonder and life. Because Jackson was everything he wasn't but wished he were. Because Jackson had a wife, and a life, and wasn't supposed to be stuck in a world he knew with people he knew while it crumbed around him.

Maybe he was doing it because Jackson's eyes were Stargate-blue, and because he looked so uncomfortable in Air Force issue fatigues, and maybe because he had the gall to ask for help.

And maybe also because his hair flopped in his eyes, and because Jackson knew more about him than even he did. And maybe because he liked Jackson, just a smidge.

Maybe he was dying because Jackson had a chance to fix things in his world. Maybe he was dying because every morning that he woke up with Carter-Sam-Carter in his arms it felt somehow off. Maybe he was dying because he had asked for a miracle and he'd gotten one.

As he swiped his card through the lock and stepped up to face his destiny, he thought that maybe, perhaps, possibly, he was dying because he loved Daniel.

And when the Jaffa Daniel called Teal'c aimed the energy cannon at him point-blank, he wondered if the other Jack knew what the hell he had.