In the hazy dim of her self-induced dreamlike state, Aeda is aware of two very distinct things and neither gives her comfort.
There are hands supporting her, strong hands that do not feel at all familiar.
She has just seen a ghost of a man she was supposed to marry.
It is the awareness of the latter that truly discomforts her. She thinks back to the end of September, to when Cameron Mitchell arrived on her doorstep and refused to leave until he was absolutely certain that she was glued back together, a slightly cracked but solid version of herself. It took two weeks, but she did it. She even managed to find most of the pieces of her broken heart and she barely notices now when a beat will skip over an empty place.
Yes, in theory she was doing okay right up until a moment ago when Daniel waved at her and she realized no one else could see him.
Her eyes fly open and the scene is revealed in blinding fluorescent light. Greg is hovering above her, his hands supporting her from her prone position on the floor. There are a few students lingering and she realizes that many of them have left.
"I passed out, didn't I?" she asks and Greg nods sharply. "Sorry about that."
He helps her up and into a sitting position. She takes a deep breath and looks about at the worried faces. She smiles wanly and motions to Greg to help her stand. She makes it to her feet just as Karen Jefferson barrels through the classroom door, a brightly colored tornado that pushes students out of the way.
"What the hell happened?" she asks and Aeda fights the urge to roll her eyes.
"I passed out."
Karen stares at her and Aeda is suddenly terrified that the older professor's steely gaze can see right through her, can see the reason behind the incident. Finally, Karen blinks. "Come on. I'll take you home."
Aeda nods, thanks Greg, and follows Karen from the classroom. They walk to Aeda's office and when the door shuts behind them, Karen takes her friend's arm and they sit on Aeda's ancient sofa.
"What really happened?"
Aeda hesitates. Of everyone she knows at the university, Karen is the most open-minded, the most willing to accept the impossible. Perhaps it is this that Aeda relies upon as she relates her story.
"I saw Daniel in the lecture hall."
Karen's eyebrow rises. "As in the very sexy, very deceased Daniel?" Aeda nods. "Oh."
"I'm going nuts, Karen."
Karen shakes her head and smiles. "No, you're not."
"Then how do you explain it?"
The tone of Karen's smile shifts and Aeda sees sadness in the older woman's face. "You still love him, you still miss him, and maybe, if there truly is a greater power up there, you really did see him in the lecture hall."
Aeda frowns. "You don't believe in God, Karen."
"No, but I believe in you and that's what counts." She stands and pulls Aeda up with her. "Come on. Get your coat and your bag and I'll take you home."
As she stands at her porch door with a cup of coffee warming her hands and a mid-winter Nor'easter raging outside, Aeda reasons that it was all just a hallucination. She hasn't been sleeping well and there's every great possibility that the reason Daniel appeared in her classroom was because she wanted so badly to see him that she imagined him out of thin air. It's a long shot but as she sips her coffee and mulls it over, she begins to convince herself that it's the truth.
It is just past three in the afternoon when she settles onto the couch with Bear to watch a movie, something she rented over the weekend but never managed to watch. She falls asleep to the ramblings of Ralph Finnes and dreams of Daniel. They are standing side by side, watching the sun set over the lake in Colorado and he is holding her hand. He squeezes her fingers and she smiles, turns to look at him, but he is gone. She's alone and the sky is growing dim, the orange and red light washing over her as she stares at the empty space beside her.
She wakes to find Bear missing from the couch and she wonders if he found the movie just as boring as she did. She throws the mohair blanket off and sits up, rubs the sleep from her eyes. She has just regained her bearings when she hears a sharp bark from her bedroom and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in anticipation of…something.
"Bear?" she calls and is slightly surprised when he doesn't immediately appear. She takes a quick look at her watch and discovers that she has been asleep for over three hours and that it is well past the aging mutt's dinnertime. She stands and walks down the hallway to her bedroom, the door to which is closed partially. She pauses, hears a voice, and cautiously pushes the door open.
"Have you been a good dog?" Daniel asks as he scratches Bear's head and Bear's tail wags a hundred times per minute. The scene is so familiar it takes Aeda a full sixty seconds to realize that Daniel is dead and should not be making a fuss over her dog, nor should he necessarily be in her bedroom.
Daniel looks up from Bear and smiles at her. "Don't pass out on me, Aeda. Although, it is nice to know I still have the ability to make a woman swoon."
She is instantly furious. "You bastard," she says, her voice low and murderous.
Being dead has not dulled his sense of her moods and his smile fades. "I owe you an explanation, I know, but there wasn't time before and I couldn't get to you until now."
She takes a step towards him, is somewhat satisfied to see him take a small step backwards, away from her. "You went off and became a goddamn Ori. That requires an explanation, Daniel. It's more the dying afterwards that I'm seriously pissed off about – that deserves a PowerPoint presentation with color charts and graphs."
She is close to him, close enough to know that he smells just the way she remembers him smelling, and it takes all her resolve to stay distant from him, even if it is a few inches. She wants nothing more than to throw herself into his arms, to unbutton his shirt and feel his skin against hers.
She bits down on her lip to keep from rushing into him and as she stares at him she tastes copper in her mouth.
"You're bleeding," he says and reaches out with his thumb to wipe it from her lip.
His touch makes her head explode and she can feel the vibrations of it all along her spine.
"You can touch me," she says, a thousand different thoughts running through her mind. He nods. "You're not a ghost."
He shakes his head very slightly. "No, not a ghost. Something much different."
"Ascended," she says and he nods once more.
Even in this newly omniscient Ancient state, Daniel doesn't see it coming.
Aeda's glorious right hook, the one thing Jack O'Neill taught her that was of any value, connects with Daniel's ascended jaw and snaps his head back. They slump to the floor at the same time and she shakes her fist out, cursing every so softly under her breath. He holds his jaw.
"What was that for?" he asks, outraged.
"Dying and leaving me."
They stare at each other for a long moment and Aeda realizes that on the floor they are even closer than they were in their standing positions. She can feel his solidarity and it breaks her resolve. He's real and he's corporeal, and he's centimeters away from her.
She grabs him by the front of his shirt and pulls him to her, crushing his mouth with hers in a kiss that she has longed to give for six months. When finally they break apart, each breathing heavily, their foreheads touching, Daniel asks her the same question.
"And what was that for?"
She smiles for the first time since his arrival earlier in the day. "Coming back."
