Chapter 10: Coming Home
The helicopter proved too loud for conversation. Daniel and Sam found themselves sitting next to one another, Lucky squeezed between them. Their hands met often as they stroked the dog, both of them smiling in strained apology and looking away.
At the Mountain, the walk from the elevators to the Infirmary took over an hour, so many people had turned out to welcome him 'back.' Nyan was first, waiting as the doors slid open, a grin gracing the usually serious young man's face. Then came more of Daniel's Anth/Arch people, various SG team members, Siler and his crew, some control room personnel, and tons of SFs and Marines. Daniel was touched by the outpouring of joy to see him again coming from all quarters. And if most people greeted Lucky just as enthusiastically as himself, Daniel didn't mind.
In the Infirmary, Janet was so happy to have Daniel back the way he should be, she let Lucky inside to wait with the rest of SG-1.
"Hey, Doc," Jack called through the curtain. "Better check him for a case of the Intergalactic Clap."
"Jack, the Suss'risa didn't do anything like that!" Daniel protested. "I, uh, I don't think..."
"Daniel, you dog."
"It wasn't me!"
"Really, though, you have no idea what that Sissy was doing with your body."
"Thanks for the mental image, Jack."
"Anytime, buddy. Just lookin' out for ya."
The General had called for a debrief after the Infirmary checkup, and soon Hammond and SG-1 with Lucky were seated around the table.
"General, before we get into the details of my story," Daniel began before anyone could speak, "could you tell me exactly how the Suss'risa got here?"
"SG-9 had returned to Alutia to continue their investigation," Hammond answered. "When they arrived at the temple, however, the High Priest had a surprise for them."
"Me. Uh, well, you know what I mean."
"Score one for Dumbledore," Jack said grudgingly.
"It really wasn't his fault, Jack."
"The...spirit requested to be taken to you, so Major Kovachek returned straightaway," the General continued. "As communications were down between the SGC and Groom Lake," Hammond paused while Jack muttered what sounded suspiciously like an obscenity, "Teal'c and I escorted it to Nevada ourselves."
"But how can we be sure the thing is gone?" Jack asked. "It could be floating around anywhere and we wouldn't know. Hey, Lucky!" The dog's head shot up and he trotted around to Jack, tail wagging. "Look for the Sissy, boy!" Jack ordered waving his hand around in the air. "C'mon, look all around!" Lucky panted in incomprehension, then reared up onto Jack's lap and licked his chin.
"Thank you, Colonel," Hammond said dryly. "But I have a more scientific method. Sgt. Harriman informs me that while we were gone, a wormhole mysterious engaged without the benefit of dialing. The timing places it just a few minutes after you were restored, Dr. Jackson."
"The Suss'risa returning home," Daniel guessed.
"Yes, we believe so," the General confirmed. "And now, Doctor, if you could enlarge on your experience for the record."
Daniel gladly filled them in on the details he couldn't communicate before, his error in judgement that started the whole mess, the warrantless hostility of the evil Suss'risa for Sam, his efforts on Sam's behalf, the murder of Notch'taw, the Dark One's downfall.
When everyone's questions began to taper off, Daniel looked down and said, "I, uh, I'm really sorry for the scene I made when Simmons took me. I just-"
"No," Sam interrupted looking at him fiercely. "Don't you dare apologize for that."
"Um, okay..." He blinked at the closed-off expressions of his teammates. "Well, then at least let me apologize about that whole howling thing when Sam first left the base." He was glad to see the others relax into smiles at the memory and he continued, "It was hard for me to piece together what was going on because I only had snippets of conversations to go on, and suddenly Sam was gone and I was in the stockade and I guess I just…"
"Lost it?" Jack supplied.
"Um, yeah."
Sam's smile faded and she peered tentatively at the teammate who'd done so much for her. "Daniel, you guarded me against so many dangers-"
"Yeah, especially that cow," Jack remarked.
"That cow was as big as a mothership, Jack," Daniel countered.
"Thank you for saving my life, Daniel," Sam continued firmly, ignoring their repartee.
Daniel squirmed. "It's what anyone would've done-"
Sam wouldn't be swayed. "But you were the one who did it. Let me thank you."
"Okay," he finally said, peering at her almost shyly. "You're welcome, Sam."
"Just one last thing I still don't understand, Daniel," Jack said with a raised finger.
"What's that?"
"Why did you eat Carter's slippers?"
Daniel blushed, glaring at him in betrayal. As Jack had behaved during the whole debrief, Daniel should have known it wouldn't last. Unfortunately, Sam and Teal'c didn't come to his rescue, and even General Hammond looked at him in curiosity. "Um, well, it smelled good-" Everyone raised their brows at that, especially Sam, but no one challenged him, so he continued, "And-and I just-you know-and then I looked down and it was pretty much gone…" He trailed off.
"Okay," Jack finally said. "That explains the first slipper, what about the second?"
Amazingly, Daniel blushed harder.
o0.0o
After the debrief was over, SG-1 agreed to meet at Sam's house for dinner that night. And Daniel, once he got a jump from Siler for his long-disused car, drove home, alone.
He walked into his apartment, tossed his keys on the rack, closed the door behind him, alone. How long had it been since he'd been truly alone? Not just running to save someone, but to have time to himself. Time to think, time to... Well, to sit on his own couch for one thing.
So he sat on the couch.
He took a deep breath. Yes, this is what he needed. Time to sit. And think. To think about...stuff.
He looked around his home with new eyes, at his walls and shelf-space, crowded with artifacts and ancient art. None of personal. None of it holding any meaning to his life. This was more museum than home. Really not a 'home' at all, but simply an apartment, a place to eat and sleep, nothing more. It was as empty and silent as a tomb. A burial site waiting to be catalogued. What did this place and these objects say about the resident? That he worked hard. That he lived alone.
That he lived alone.
Daniel got up, grabbed his keys and left the quiet apartment behind.
o0.0o
When Sam and Lucky got home that evening, she wandered through her house, unable to shake the feeling that something was missing. Lucky seemed to feel it too. At first he charged eagerly through the house. But after his initial rush he slowed down, sniffing, searching, looking questioningly at her.
"Yeah, boy, I feel it too," she said, patting his head. She loved Lucky and she knew the dog loved her, but there was an element missing now, and they both knew it. He gave a little whine and she sighed. "It's just the two of us now, goofball."
She pulled a couple of his toys out and he cheered up. She went to work, getting the house in order for guests. At some point she heard the dog-door flap and took a peek out the back window. If she had any last doubts that Lucky was just a regular dog now, they were laid to rest when she saw what he was doing right in the center of her lawn. The Colonel had made a promise to help her keep her yard clean and she intended to hold him to it.
When Sam checked next, the dog had disappeared from view. She was about to go out back to track him down when she heard a commotion at the front door. Answering the knock, she found a leaping, licking Lucky joyfully attacking Daniel.
Holding up now-filthy glasses in one hand and a six-pack of his favorite microbrew beer in the other, Daniel edged forward into the house, giving Sam a rueful smile. "Um, I think we may want to block off a certain little hidden escape-hatch out in the backyard."
"The Colonel can help you while he's on doo-doo duty," Sam said with a grin.
Daniel raised a brow but couldn't reply as Lucky scored a direct hit on his mouth. "Ugh! Lucky, down! You're not a puppy!" To Sam, he asked, "Was I really this bad?"
Sam laughed. "No, you were worse."
Again a raised brow. "That's hard to believe..." He gave Lucky a stern glare. "Lucky, I know you know how to behave! Now sit!" The dog reluctantly obeyed, sitting politely though he still vibrated with pleasure. Handing off the beer to Sam and putting his glasses in a pocket, Daniel hunkered down, scratching Lucky under the chin. "Thank you, boy. I missed you too."
Sam watched, smiling, and the thought came: Yes, this is what's missing; this is what I need. And, god help her, she didn't fight it. Didn't even try to suppress the feeling of rightness that came with that thought.
Daniel gave the dog a thorough rubdown, laughing when Lucky rolled over for a belly rub. "Well, Jack will be happy about that..."
Lucky eventually calmed down, and Daniel came into the kitchen with Sam, curious to see the dog's food preparation from the other side. While Lucky watched, the two moved through the kitchen in concert, the familiarity of close friends, the easy exchange of longtime and like-minded comrades. After Lucky had been provided for, Daniel insisted they didn't need to order out for the team dinner, that he could whip up a killer batch of fried rice. Jack and Teal'c arrived as a big pot of rice went on the stove.
Sam immediately motioned Jack to join her in the backyard, thrusting an old plastic bag in his hands. "Remember your promise, sir?"
"What promise?"
She pointed at Lucky's 'gift' on the lawn.
"Aw, man. Daniel!" he called back into the house. When the archeologist came out, Jack asked, "Can you get Lucky to do his business where you did? Where did you do it, by the way?"
"Ah. Let's just say you won't need to fertilize the bushes anytime soon, Sam."
Sam laughed and sipped at the bottle of beer Daniel had brought out to her. "I thought dogs buried their droppings anyhow."
"No, that's bones, Carter," Jack said, tying off the now-filled bag and holding it at arm's length.
"That kicking thing they do is actually to broadcast the smell as far as possible," Daniel remarked. At Sam's stare of incomprehension, he explained, "To claim as big a territory as possible. I, uh, managed to suppress that instinct."
"Thank you."
When the rice finished, Teal'c whipped up his usual, and surprisingly good, Chulakan salad, and Daniel raided Sam's fridge for leftover veggies and chicken to round out the meal.
After they ate, they adjourned to the living room. With good food, good company, and a bottle of good beer, Daniel relaxed. He sat at one end of the couch, Sam beside him, Lucky on the floor lying across both their feet. They spoke of the earthquake on P1K-564, Sam making him describe at length what he had sensed, bemoaning the fact that she couldn't publish.
Jack wanted to know what it felt like to run so fast; he spent some time outlining his movie concept of Daniel as some kind of half-man, half-dog superhero, only subsiding when Daniel pointed out the prison-time he could expect for revealing classified information.
Teal'c was curious about the canine sense of smell and how it could be utilized in military applications.
"So," Sam said with a grin, "do we continue to take Lucky with us on missions?"
"Um, he might need a little extra training," Daniel warned.
"What? Teal'c and I already trained him," Jack said. He held up a finger to forestall an outburst from Daniel. "Even if it was you in there too, I'm sure the training stuck."
"Jack, I think I'm a little smarter than the average dog," Daniel said, then frowned and muttered, "At least I hope I am."
"Lucky's above average," Jack declared loyally. He scratched Lucky behind the ear. Tail thumping, the dog rolled over for a belly rub. "See!" Jack crowed. "Look what he can do without you holding him back!"
Daniel rolled his eyes as Sam grinned. Teal'c said, "I shall endeavor to ascertain the extent of training Lucky still retains. I believe that on certain missions, a well-trained canine would give SG-1 a distinct advantage."
Jack shrugged. "No argument here. Though I'm betting Hammond'll see it differently."
Daniel drained the last of his beer, letting his head flop back with a sigh. "I can't believe I ate a gopher," he stated solemnly.
Sam and Jack exchanged a grin, and when Teal'c inquired gravely, "Did the gopher taste like chicken, Daniel Jackson?" all three humans laughed while the Jaffa allowed himself a smile.
Jack stood up. "Okay, what's for dessert? Ice cream?"
"Sounds good, sir, but I don't have any left. When Janet and her Maenads descended they cleaned me out."
"Notice how I'm not even gonna ask what that means. All I know is I want my chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry."
"God, Jack, 'Neapolitan'?" Daniel groaned. "Newsflash, this is not 1955."
"Smartass. Keep it up and I won't get your Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey." Jack grabbed his coat and keys. "C'mon, T, gimme a hand."
"As you wish, O'Neill."
When they were alone, Sam offered Daniel some coffee. "Oh, god, yes, please! It's been so long!" When it was finished brewing, Sam brought a couple mugs out. She gave one to Daniel and curled up back on the couch again, listening to Daniel gulp and sigh with pleasure. Peering at him over the rim of her mug, Sam raised a brow. "Sooo, did you enjoy Janet's little soirée the other night?"
Daniel suddenly found the ceiling very interesting. "Um, anthropologically speaking, it was a very interesting example of subgroup bonding rituals-"
Sam laughed. "Once the girls start thinking about the timeline, they're not going to let you off so easily."
Daniel's smile was strained. "I did try to keep my voyeurism to a minimum."
"Yes, you did, and I thank you for not watching me change in the bedroom."
With a wince, Daniel said, "Yes, well, that wasn't the only bedroom activity I avoided. I made sure to give you and Jack plenty of alone time."
Sam looked up from her cup. "What?"
"And don't worry, I won't stay too long tonight. I'm sure you and Jack want to-that you two want-well, you know."
"I know what?" Sam asked, mystified.
"Now that I'm out of your way, you and Jack, well, you can be together again."
"Be together to do what?" It seemed obvious what he was implying, but Sam couldn't understand where this was coming from.
"To do what you would've been doing if I hadn't been underfoot the last two months," Daniel said with completely irritating reasonableness.
"Daniel, that doesn't even make any sense. We didn't know it was you, so what was supposedly stopping us from doing whatever it was we were supposedly doing?" Okay, that was irritating too, but he deserved it.
"Sam, you don't have to put on an act for me," he burst out. Jumping up, he began to pace, Lucky giving an annoyed snuff and moving to a quieter part of the room. "I know about what you guys said at the Zatarc testing."
Sam went cold, lurching to her feet. "How do you...? What did you hear?"
"Anise told me everything. Guess I can't count on any of my three teammates to tell me the truth."
"What? What truth? What did that-that parasitical space-strumpet tell you?"
Daniel's brows raised at that, but he answered with some heat, "She told me you and Jack confessed your love for one another, okay?"
Sam stared, speechless.
He stopped pacing and turned to face her. "And it's okay." He ran a calming hand through his hair and gave a stiff smile. "I'm okay with it, with you two. I'm a little insulted that you all felt I couldn't handle the truth, but I hope that I'm showing you right now how rational I can be."
If Sam was irritated before, Daniel's air of self-sacrificing nobleness put her right over the edge.
"No, you're showing me right now how big a moron you can be."
Now it was Daniel's turn to stare, speechless. Then he flushed, his brows lowering with anger. "Listen-"
"No, you listen! And don't you even think about acting like the wronged party here." She threw her hands up in frustration. "Really? Sacrificing yourself for Jack's and my happiness? This is exactly why I didn't want what we said to leave that room, because people would think it meant that we loved each other," she said, emphasizing the word derisively. "It doesn't mean that at all. All four of us care too much. Yes, the Colonel's an attractive man. Yes, we indulged in a little flirting. But there will never be anything between us beyond a deep mutual respect and the love of close teammates."
Daniel stood with his arms crossed, clearly unconvinced.
"Besides, he's never truly gotten over his ex-wife. And he knows I have strong feeling for someone else."
"Who!" Daniel shouted, then cleared his throat, continuing quieter, "I mean-I don't-it's not really any of my, uh, you know, my business..." Daniel adjusted his glasses, trying to appear unconcerned, then gave up the act with a huff of exasperation. "Who!"
Sam folded her arms. "Someone at the SCG," she stated.
"Graham Simmons?" he asked doubtfully.
"Someone I work closely with. Someone I care about greatly and who cares about me."
"Teal'c?"
Sam shook her head. "Someone I can talk to, professionally and personally."
"Um, Janet?"
Sam pursed her lips to stop a smile, unfolded her arms and began to advance on Daniel. "Someone who shares my interests, who understands me, who lets me babble until I'm sure he's been daydreaming then asks me something that shows he's been listening the whole time."
"Um..."
She came to halt right in front of him, so close she could feel the heat from his body. "Someone I would do anything for. Someone who risked everything for me, his life, his very existence, to keep me safe."
She pressed herself against him, bringing their faces only inches apart. "Someone I would die for. But I'd really rather live for."
"Um, me?" he whispered, afraid of the answer.
"I love you, Daniel."
"Sam, I…" Daniel cupped Sam's cheek. "I love you." He brought their lips together for a tender kiss.
Neither of them noticed Lucky rolling his eyes and giving them a doggy huff of exasperation before settling back down to his nap.
Equally they didn't notice Jack and Teal'c standing in the entryway, bags of melting ice cream forgotten as the two men exchanged a bemused glance.
Then Jack bounced on the balls of his feet and nudged Teal'c. "See? Told ya he was lucky."
-end-
[A/N: Thank you, all the faithful that've made it to the ending! Thanks for all the reviews and alerts; it's been a really fun experience!]