Disclaimer: The usual stuff; I own nothing you recognise, and all that.
Feedback: Much appreciated, believe me
AN: For ease of clarification, the Daniel Jackson of the future will be referred to as 'Doctor Jackson', while the Daniel of the present will be referred to simply as 'Daniel'
Death, Love and Time
As Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell entered the main briefing room of the SGC, having been called back by General Landry for reasons that , he was surprised to find that only Daniel Jackson was absent; the archaeologist having been the one to arrange most of the important details for the current conference, Mitchell would have thought that he'd want to personally attend anything that could have an impact on its eventual outcome, but his seat was still empty.
"Ah, Colonel Mitchell; take a seat," General Landry said, indicating the chair to his immediate left as he looked inquiringly up at the new arrival. "I assume you haven't any idea why Doctor Jackson would call this meeting either?"
Mitchell shook his head. "Nope, not a clue; just got a call from you saying that Sam here had told you that Jackson wanted a meeting and came down as soon as I could," he replied, as he sat down in his chair before looking curiously over at Sam. "Don't suppose you've got any ideas what it's about, do you?"
Sam shook her head. "Some, but nothing I can be sure about; it's all been… well, rather hectic recently," she replied, as she looked apologetically at Landry. "I tried to get answers out of him at the time- I'm still a bit confused about what he actually has to do with what just happened, really-, but he just told me that I wouldn't believe him unless I saw it for myself and asked me to call this meeting."
"We wouldn't believe him?" Vala said, looking in surprise at Sam. "What could Daniel have to say to us that we wouldn't believe; that he ended up ascending again and was just waiting for the right opportunity to let us know about it?"
Before Sam could reply to that, the door opened and Daniel walked in, a slightly awkward expression on his face as he looked at his teammates.
"Sorry I'm late," smiling slightly sheepishly at them all. "He didn't want to be seen by anybody yet, so we had to take the long way around to get here."
"'He'?" Vala repeated, looking in confusion at Daniel. "What 'he' are you talking about; did you bring a friend in for a visit or-?"
Then a figure standing behind the door stepped into full view, and the entire room gasped in surprise at the sight before them. The figure may have thinner than the man they all knew, with greying hair, slightly stained clothes that looked like they hadn't been changed in a week, and glasses that seemed so loose on his face that they were about to fall off the end of his nose at any moment, but it was still clearly, unmistakeably, an older, slightly more withered version of Doctor Daniel Jackson, standing beside the Doctor Daniel Jackson they all knew, staring at Samantha Carter as the faint glimmer of tears shone in his eyes behind his glasses.
"Oh God…" the older Daniel whispered, as he slowly walked towards her, one hand reaching out as he approached. The extended hand was visibly shaking, a part of him unsure whether he really wanted to do this or would prefer to leave himself with uncertainty, but the rest of him clearly had to know that what he was seeing was real. Vala nearly opened her mouth as though she was about to say something, but Teal'c placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her, his glare all she needed to make it clear that this was an occasion where her best policy was to say nothing.
As his hand gently reached out to stroke Sam's chin with one finger, his touch so gentle that it was as though she was an ornament he was terrified would break, something in Doctor Jackson's body language finally snapped.
"You're alive…" he whispered, as he stared at her. "It's fifteen minutes later and you're alive… I did it… you're alive…"
Before Sam could process what she'd just heard, Doctor Jackson had bent down on his knees, wrapped his arms around her as she sat bemusedly in her chair, and was softly crying into her shoulder.
"I'm sorry…" he whispered, his voice only just audible over the tears that were now streaming from his eyes as he pressed his face into her shoulder. "I'm so… so sorry… I couldn't save you… I didn't know what to do… I couldn't help you… I just watched you die… I lost you…"
Awkwardly, unused to having to comfort a grieving future version of one of her closest friends- particularly when he was clearly grieving about her death; how do you cope with the news that you should have been dead a quarter of an hour ago?-, Sam raised her own arms to uncertainly hug Doctor Jackson herself.
"It's OK… Daniel," she said soothingly, as she raised one hand to softly stroke his hair as he cried into her shoulder. "It's OK… I'm here… I'm here…"
For a moment, the rest of SG-1 could only watch the unexpected sight before them, none of them willing to break the clearly emotional moment between Sam and Doctor Jackson, none of them entirely certain what they could say to a man who'd apparently come back in time to save one of their own, until Vala finally broke the silence.
"What?" she said, looking at the future Daniel with a slightly teasing smile on her face. "Don't we all get a hug too?"
For a moment, Doctor Jackson paused, his body suddenly becoming still as though he was thinking about something, and then he stood up and turned to look grimly at Vala.
"Ah, Vala; pleasure to see you again," he said, smiling slightly at her as he walked over to stand beside her, his tone and body language making it clear that he was about to do something he'd been wanting to do for a while, but was trying to act nonchalant about it. "Firstly, I would like to assure you that my next action is in no way motivated by what you did before I came back through the Stargate; I freely acknowledge that you'd been brainwashed and had no control over your actions when you led the Ori into the SGC itself."
Vala blinked in shock, the rest of the team only able to stare incredulously at the almost light-hearted manner in which Doctor Jackson had revealed such a crucial piece of information about the future.
Whenever they'd gone back in time in the past, they'd never dared to say anything for fear of changing their history; for Daniel to be so casual about the possible consequences of his words and actions…
Either he'd changed so much that he didn't care about what he might be doing to his version of history, or something so horrific had happened to his world by that point in time that he'd had no other option available to him if he wanted to save the world
"However," Doctor Jackson continued, staring resolutely at Vala, apparently oblivious to the reaction he'd caused, "this is motivated by my blaming you for your actions at a more removed time."
With that, he punched Vala once in the face, sending her flying from the chair she'd been sitting in and crashing to the ground.
"That was for hitting on me at the goddamned memorial service!" Doctor Jackson roared, pointing an accusing finger at Vala as she looked up at him in shock, cradling the bruise on her cheek. "I mean, god, do you have absolutely no respect for the dead? I get that you were drunk at the time, but that still doesn't excuse everything you did; you knew how much that whole experience had shaken me- you knew how it had affected me-, and you just didn't seem to care! God, what is wrong with you?"
Once again, there was a momentary silence in the briefing room from all the participants, Doctor Jackson glaring at Vala as the rest of SG-1 looked uncertainly amongst themselves, until Mitchell finally broke the silence.
"So," he said, looking over at Daniel, "I take it that this guy is who he appears to be; namely, an older you?"
"Uh… yeah," Daniel admitted, nodding slightly dazedly as his future self, as though only just registering where he was once again, turned around and sat down in a chair at the opposite end of the table from General Landry, leaving Vala to stagger to her feet herself; she didn't look particularly happy with what Doctor Jack.
"To be more precise," Daniel continued, ignoring Vala for the moment- he'd try and apologise to her for what his future self had done later, although if he had correctly guessed his future self's motives for the punch Daniel had to admit that he had little for her-, "he's me from about…"
He paused and glanced over at his future self for confirmation. "You said you were from about ten years in our future, right?"
"Precisely," Doctor Jackson said, nodding in confirmation as he glanced over at the rest of the team, a slight smile on his face as he studied them. "And I have to admit, it's good to see you all again; you definitely look far better than you did when I left."
"Uh… right," Mitchell said, nodding uncertainly at Doctor Jackson before he looked at the present version of his friend. "So… what's he actually doing back here?"
"Mitchell…" Doctor Jackson sighed, as he turned to look back at Sam, a slightly wistful expression on his face as he looked at her. "You're not stupid; after what I just said to Sam, can't you guess why I came back in the first place?"
Though she knew that it wasn't a very mature response, Sam felt a slight thrill at the knowledge that she was the reason that any version of Daniel would take so great a gambit as to travel back in time through the Stargate…
Then she realised the full implications of what he'd just said- she'd been more concerned about comforting him to fully realise what he needed comforting about in the first place-, and looked at him in shock.
"I… I died?" she said, looking somewhat dazedly at Doctor Jackson. "But…"
Doctor Jackson raised a hand to halt her.
"Before you say anything," he said, looking back at the astrophysicist, "I know that coming back her just for you was a stupid, selfish, irresponsible thing to do and that I shouldn't have done it. I was fully aware of that. That's why, for ten years, I did nothing about your death but try to cope with it, making my way through my life, trying to find some way to cope even as I knew I never could, doing whatever I could to try and make myself forget that I'd failed you when you needed me the most…"
He paused for a moment, looking at her as though to make sure she'd understood what he'd just said, and then sighed. "And then, I learned something that meant I had to come back and save you."
"What?" Landry asked, leaning forward to look critically at the future version of the head of his archaeology department. "What did you find out?"
"The Ori are still active," Doctor Jackson said simply.
Daniel blinked in shock.
"What?" he said, staring in confusion at his other self. "What do you mean, they're active?"
"What I mean is that they survived the activation of the Sangraal, for reasons I don't want to go into now- it's a long story and it's not relevant to the matter at hand-, but their powers were significantly diminished and their link to their followers was cut off," Doctor Jackson explained as he looked at his younger self. "I'm not sure how some Priors are still able to use their powers despite that problem, but that's not important right now; what is important is that I'm certain that whoever's behind all this is up to something at the conference, and I need to be there."
"Sorry; you need to be there?" Landry repeated, leaning forward to look critically at the older version of the head of his archaeology department. "Doctor Jackson, while I don't deny that you've done a great deal for us over the years, the last time I checked, I was the head of this organisation; you can hardly just come in here and expect to take over everything solely because you claim you're from the future."
For a moment, Doctor Jackson looked like he was going to object to Landry's statement, but then he stopped himself, smiling slightly apologetically at the general.
"You're right; sorry about that," he said, shaking his head with a slight smile on his face. "It's just… well, I've spent the last ten years or so being the one giving the orders in here; it's kind of hard to get out of the habit that fast."
Daniel's eyes widened.
"You- we- I- sorry, I have no idea how to phrase this- were in charge of the SGC back in your time?" he said, looking incredulously at his other self.
Doctor Jackson shrugged. "Well, they needed a non-military commander to calm things down after the Stargate program went public, and they felt that I was the best candidate; who was I to argue?" he said, shrugging casually at his younger self, a slight smile on his face at the memory. Only the slightly pained expression in his eyes showed that, as far as he'd been concerned, it had been far from a happy event; if he'd had to choose between being in charge of the SGC and having Sam back, Daniel was confident that the man would have taken Sam back in a heartbeat.
After a moment's awkward silence, with none of SG-1 or General Landry certain what to say to Doctor Jackson, the man in question shrugged casually and looked back at Landry. "Anyway, enough about my future; let's focus on this one, OK? General Landry, requesting permission to accompany you all to the conference?"
"Permission granted," Landry confirmed, nodding briefly back at Doctor Jackson before he indicated the man's overall appearance. "Just so long as you disguise yourself somehow; you've changed a lot, true, but at the moment you're still too obviously just an older Doctor Jackson."
"Already thought of that," Doctor Jackson replied, patting a pocket slightly as he looked at his predecessor. "Just give me a room where I can get ready and I'll be with you in… oh, an hour or so?"
"Perfect," Landry said, nodding back at Doctor Jackson. "I've got some business to straighten out with some of the IOA representatives before the conference; feel free to use my office if you want. So, unless there's anything else you want to tell us…?"
For a moment, Doctor Jackson stood in silent thought, and then shook his head.
"No," he said finally. "There's nothing else I can think of that has any significant impact on the situation."
"Very well," Landry said, looking around at the rest of SG-1. "You're all dismissed. Doctor Jackson- future Doctor Jackson-, feel free to use my office to get ready; the rest of you, be in the gateroom in an hour."
"Thanks," Doctor Jackson said, before he turned around and walked out of the briefing room, Landry close behind, leaving the five members of SG-1 to sit around the table and reflect on what had taken place.
Finally, Mitchell broke the silence once again.
"So," he said, looking over at Daniel, "you've met… you, huh? How's that feel?"
"Honestly?" Daniel asked, looking back at his friend before he sighed. "It's… well, 'weird' is an understatement; I'm not sure whether it's more or less weird that he's my future self rather than an alternateone."
"On the topic of alternate realities, will this Daniel Jackson suffer from entropic cascade failure?" Teal'c inquired, looking over at Sam.
After a moment's pause for reflection, Sam shook her head.
"No… I don't think he will, anyway," she explained as she looked at Daniel. "Essentially, the entropic cascade failure was caused by two different versions of fundamentally similar matter existing in the same place; in this case, however, it's two different versions of the same matter. It's rather like that incident with the black hole and our multiple other selves, really; the two of… well, you… are so much closer to being each other than my alternate self was to being me that the universe almost doesn't register the issue."
"Ah," Daniel said, nodding in understanding. "I… think I get what you mean…"
"So," Mitchell said, clasping his hands together and looking around at his team, "now that we've got that out of the way, who wants to be the one who talks to Doctor Jackson Senior about the full details of how and why he came back here? I think-"
"I'll do it," Sam said, standing up and looking over at Mitchell. "From what he said, he came back here for me mainly; I'd…"
She paused for a moment, glancing briefly over at Daniel as though uncertain how to phrase what she was about to say, before she turned to look back at Mitchell. "Well, I'd like to thank him."
Mitchell nodded.
"Sure, go ahead," he said, waving her on towards the door. "See you when we see you."
Nodding her thanks, Sam walked out of the briefing room and headed down the corridor towards Landry's office, her mind already racing as she tried not to look too much at Daniel as she left.
She acknowledged that she might have been reading too much into the actions of his future self, but judging by how the future Daniel had just reacted upon seeing her, she had a sneaking suspicion that her supposedly unrequited feelings for him weren't quite as unrequited as she'd always believed them to be; he'd been far too shaken to see her again than if he'd just seen a friend after losing them.
The question was, was she correct about the reasoning behind his actions, or was she just seeing what she wanted to see?