Set after the events of The Gamekeeper.
I found him where I knew I would, in his quarters, on his bed, staring at the wall. He was curled up into a little ball, and I could tell he'd been crying. His glasses were on the table across the room, and it looked like he'd gone into a fit and thrown some things around when he'd gotten in. I closed the door quietly behind me and crossed the room. "Hey, Danny boy, how ya feelin'?"
He raised his head to stare up at me for a minute before letting his head plop back on the pillow. I walked over to his bed and sat down behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Daniel, let me tell you a story."
He muttered incoherently and put his head on my knee. He looked like the eight-year-old boy whose part he'd played just a few hours ago. I couldn't see his face.
"Lemme set it up for you. All good stories set it up with the background first, y'know? It was a little over fifteen years ago. I was a captain working in and around East Germany. Y'know, back when there was still an East and a West. This was my dream job, working with this colonel, John Michaels. He was like a god to me, never worked a failed mission, always went above and beyond the call of duty. I loved him, just about as much as it was allowed by society at the time to for me to love a man." This was my excuse for a joke, I thought it was a good one considering our…situation, but it went over like a lead balloon. He slumped down further in my lap, and I started stroking his hair absent-mindedly. "He treated me like crap, but I always saw that as his right as my commander. This is where I met Kawalsky, you know."
"Mmmmmmmm…," was the only response I got after a long pause. A very long pause.
"It was me, Kawalsky, Michaels, this guy Turner, big one, kinda scary. We were on this mission, right? There was this house. Get in, get out with a Russian agent that'd turned for us. Keep in mind this is back when the Russians were the bad guys, not some creepy alien with a worm in his head. Anyway, simple mission. Did some satellite recon, nothing to raise a question mark on the old mission sheet. Lay down some gas, run in through the front, run out over some hedges in the back. Michaels took point after the gas was fired, mask and all. I look back on it now, and God did he look ridiculous. So the catch, did I mention the catch? No, of course not, that's the good part of the story. Catch is, there's a sniper on the roof overlooking the house we're getting in and out of, and the colonel has no clue, none of us did. That's a snipers job, y'know, not to get spotted. So, colonel runs in, and suddenly there's a few shots and he's fell over, bleeding out the back. I take out the sniper, run over to him, and the guy asks me to take care of his wife. Here it is umpteen years over, and some crazy guy on P7J-What the Hell Ever gets me thinking about it for the first time in years." He finally looked up at me. "I know you miss your folks, Danny boy, but it's gonna be okay." I patted his shoulder, and he sat up and looked at me. His eyes were still red rimmed, but he looked a little less sad, and, if anything, I can know I did that. I gave him a quick hug and turned to go.
"Hey, Jack?" I almost didn't hear the weak question.
"Yeah, buddy?"
"Don't go. Please?" His voice was sad, quiet, pleading. I sat back down, leaning against the wall his bed rested against. He settled back into my chest, his head just barely reaching my chin.
"How about another story?" He nodded weakly. "Okay, let me think. Oh! I have a good one, just a couple years old. I was just getting ready to retire when they call me back in. There was this mission, and this guy, this little nerdy guy with these huge glasses and tissues strapped to his fanny pack and—"
"Think I've heard this one."
"Right, that's right. Okay, how about this one? The brass was pulling me back into the service. I was retired and that was how I wanted it to stay, but this guy, Hammond, that was NOT what he wanted to hear. He basically takes his monkey boys and pulls me off my roof, back at the cabin. They bring me in and take me back to this planet, Abydos. There's this big long story, I like to call it the 'B plot' of this story. Less important, you get me? Anyway, I come back with this kid, you wouldn't believe how cute he is, just adorable. Can't be a day over 34, way too young for me, but he comes back to the cabin. And, get this, for a while, he actually helps forget. I mean, he's just this punk kid from god knows where, but the way he looks at me, you wouldn't believe. The eyes on this guy are so soulful, they'd just melt you. And he makes me forget. About everything. He kissed me. Can you believe that? This kid actually kissed a dinosaur like me, and he never really stopped." We just lay there for a while, just sat there in silence. It was beautiful. Then something even more beautiful happened.
He looked up at me and smiled. "I think I like that one better."
I tousled his hair. "Thought you might."