"Is that a promise, Daniel Jackson?"
"That's a promise." His voice nearly broke on the last word, the unspoken goodbye weighing heavily on his heart. How many goodbyes would it take before he could no longer bring himself to leave? It had been hard enough the first time, and it didn't seem to be getting easier, even without the dying part.
It wasn't that he wasn't happy with his choice. Being an ascended whatever-he-was was, as he had told Jack, very, very good. He couldn't interfere directly, but there was still so much he could do. After all, he would never have been able to help Teal'c without the powers that came with his current state. It was just a question of whether it was worth the necessary sacrifices.
He missed sitting in Teal'c's room watching all those candles flickering while the Jaffa meditated, completely comfortable with his presence. He missed Sam dropping by for a midnight coffee break when they were both working late and babbling excitedly about some technological breakthrough that made no sense to him. He even missed Jack coming by his office for the sole purpose of distracting him from some important translation. He missed being able to talk to his friends when it wasn't a matter of life and death.
Oh, it was worth it. If not, he would have long since said "Screw it" and done something to get himself kicked out of the ascended beings club, or maybe just decided to turn human again like Orlin had. He was going to stay this way, but, even knowing that this was the right choice...he hated saying goodbye.