Okay, forget the last chapter-this one is 'defiantely' the longest so far! I think that'll make you readers happy. Yay! I hope you like this chapter, and please review, because there are some crucial points I would love to have opinions on. You'll probably know them when you see them, lol. Please review! Thanks to everyone ho has already, and please continue to do so!
Chapter 23
Sam saw the two Jacksons look at each other and, not for the first time, something seemed to pass between them--an understanding, and she could make out the grim line that his and his younger counterpart's mouths formed.
Carter gulped, afraid of what one of them was about to say, but before anymore words were spoken Danny's eyes shut again and he groaned. Seconds later, almost overlapping, Daniel's sudden, surprised cry of pain echoed after. Carter had been looking at Daniel at the time and…had the lights flickered?
"Daniel?" she said with concern.
"G-Great," he gasped. "I was afraid of-of this…"
"Daniel, what's wrong? Danny?" But Danny's eyes remained closed, and beside her, Daniel started to tremble. "Daniel, what's going on!" Sam asked urgently.
"Sam, it's…it's the timeline--it's….changing. I can feel it…Ah!" It happened again--what she thought had been the lights flickering, but this time with also with an almost unnoticeable flash of mixed colors, and she recognized it fro what it was--ECF, Entropy Cascade Failure. The lights hadn't flickered; Daniel had flickered. Sam gasped as she realized what it meant; Danny was dying, and Daniel's existence was failing. Or in other words, the way things were going now didn't make either Jackson's survival look good.
"No!" she cried in alarm, suddenly squeezing Danny's hand much tighter, prompting a whimper from the younger man. Under other circumstances the major would have apologized, but right now she wanted him as awake and aware as possible. "Danny, listen to me. You have to hold on, you hear me? For both of you, Danny, please!"
"He knows…" Daniel said quietly, looking away. It was then that Danny's eyes opened again.
"Sam, it's too…late," Danny gulped, tears gathering in his eyes again. "You…c-can't try to…take us with you…when Jack and Teal'c…get here--too risky…slow you…down. Just go…" and his eyes closed once more. So that was what one of them had been about to say. Carter frowned.
"Danny, no, we're not going to leave you behind. You know the colonel won't go for that."
"Sam, you don't…understand…" Daniel said. "There…there may be nothing…to leave behind…Not of me, anyway…" He trailed off and gasped as the world flickered around him again, seeming to make his point. But that didn't mean Sam was going to accept it. She was not going to let one of her best friends die, darnit. She started to say something else in protest, but before she could she was interrupted by the sound of multiple footsteps rounding the corner outside, and then of the door opening.
"Carter!" a familiar voice called. Sam looked up surprise to see Jack O'Neill squeezing through barely opened door before it had a chance to finish moving.
"Colonel!" she cried in surprise. "Colonel am I glad to see you! Daniel-"
But O'Neill had already seen what was wrong with Danny, and she could see the color drain from his face as he dropped to the ground beside the younger man.
"Aww, crap, Daniel…" Jack groaned as he knelt over his friend, looking over the wounds, all attention suddenly on his friend. She saw him visibly gulp when he realized how bad they were. "Carter, what happened?" he asked hoarsely.
"I-It's a long story, sir. I think we should just get them back them back to the SGC as quickly as possible…"
"Sam, no…" the older Jackson protested weakly from her shoulder.
Jack suddenly looked up at the voice, realizing for the first time that there was a third prisoner in the holding cell. "What? Carter, who's your…friend-yow!" O'Neill physically snapped backward, landing on his rear and staring in disbelief at the older version of Daniel Jackson. "Major, what the heck is going on here….?"
Somehow Daniel managed a showdown of a smile. "Nice to see you too, Jack."
Jack looked to Sam. "Don't tell me it's alternate universes again…"
She shook her. "No sir. This is Daniel…from the, uhm, from the future…"
O'Neill looked back at the older Daniel as he pushed himself back up onto his knees. "Right…Geez, nothing's ever simple anymore, is it?" But he quickly forgot his confusion and turned his attention back to Danny, who was now looking up at him.
"Jack…?"
"Yeah, I'm right here Danny-boy. Don't worry; we're gonna get all three of you outta here, okay?" And we'd better get a move on before those jaffa catch up to us…he added silently.
A sudden weak grip closed around O'Neill's wrist. "No Jack…just...take Sam and…and go," Danny gasped softly.
Jack stared at him. "Are you crazy? I am not leaving you behind-" He stopped when Danny's eyes clenched shut with a hiss of pain, and Daniel shouted as he began to flicker again, though it was the first this O'Neill had seen this. "Doc!" he shouted over his shoulder! Where are you! You'd better get in here-" He cut himself off again when Janet Fraiser caught up and followed him into the holding cell.
"I'm right here, colonel. Teal'c and SG-3 are at the corner watching for jaffa. We can hear them now, sir. We don't have much time….oh no…" Janet stopped in her track halfway into the cell when she saw Danny, but quickly composed herself and rushed to her new patient, pulling her pack off her back.
As Fraiser tried to check over all three prisoners at once, Carter told her what she'd told O'Neill when surprise registered on her face at seeing another Daniel. Thankfully the tremors had stopped again and Daniel was still solid, but now he was even more quiet than usual for some reason, and Sam couldn't help but remember the look on the older man's face the last time she'd mentioned the doctor. As he looked at Janet now, it was making a return appearance.
"Daniel?" she asked quietly.
"N-Nothing," he stammered, but then sucked in a sharp breath when Janet hit particularly sore spot in his ribs as she tried to feel him over in his upright position. He batted her hands away. "No!" he cried, and now there were tears in his eyes as well as Danny's. "All of…you, just…go! We're goners! You'll…never make it…to the gate if you…try to bring us…"
"Listen to us…J'ck…" Danny gasped. "Please…get out of here…"
"Out of the question," O'Neill answered hotly. "Doc, we can get them home, right…?"
Fraiser looked up at him, "Colonel, I…I hate to say this, but if we had gotten here sooner then they'd have a better chance, but now…" She shook her head. "I just don't know. He's lost so much blood, and if this is really his future self, then if Daniel doesn't make it…"
"I know!" O'Neill said in annoyance. "I'm not a scientist like carter, but I get the basic idea. Daniel doesn't survive, no Daniel in the future, and we lose both of them. I understand that, doctor, now how do we prevent it?"
"By leaving now sir," Carter said urgently, and it was then that they realized that the sound of approaching jaffa was growing louder.
"That's it; we're moving out," Jack agreed. Easily slipping an arm under Danny's shoulders as they were elevated in his position laying on Sam's knees, O'Neill started to pick him up when the young man released a startled cry of pain.
"Jack, don't-!" he choked. Grimacing as his friend's face contorted in agony, Jack gently set him back down. "What else do you want me to do, Daniel? We have to get you out of here."
"No. Go."
"No way-"
"Darnit, Jack!" the older Daniel gasped. "I…forgot that you used to…be even more stubborn! Just…just go before those jaffa…close in on you…and you can't!"
Jack looked back and forth between the two Jacksons, knowing that he didn't have time to. Part of his also knew that they were right, but he'd be darned if he'd admit it…
"Jack…pleas…GAH!" Daniel suddenly screamed, sending a chill down O'Neill's spine when his body started to flicker again--and this time it didn't look like it was going to stop.
"Daniel!" Janet yelped.
"No!" Sam cried as the older version of her friend began to fade away beside her.
"Jack! Get them…out of here! Don't…let anyone…else…get hurt!" Daniel gasped through the pain. "Sorry…" And he faded completely away, a swirl of colors blinking out with him. Jack lunged for him, but his hands hit nothing.
Sam grasped at the empty air beside her as tears welled up in her eyes. "Daniel!" she shouted.
O'Neill stared, dumbfounded, at the empty space where another version of his friend had been seconds before. Gulping past the lump that tried to begin forming in his throat, he slowly looked back down at Danny, fearing the worst, but the kid was still alive. Though even though he didn't know much about time-travel theory, astrophysics and such, he did know that if Jackson were close enough to death for his future self to have ceased to exist, there really wasn't anything he could do.
Danny was looking at him, still wide-eyed from seeing himself disappear. The younger man's arms were around his middle again, and Jack could see the pain on his face. He only wished he could wipe it away, fix all this…Daniel couldn't just die, darnit; they'd been through too much together! And in the back ground he could still hear the jaffa drawing ever closer. They had to get out of here now. And even though the colonel knew he didn't have much choice, he desperately didn't want to just leave Daniel behind.
Jackson must have seen what was going through his mind, because his expression softened, and then he spoke with a kindness that only someone like Daniel Jackson would have been able to show in his position.
"It's okay, Jack," he said weakly, his voice barely audible anymore. "Just…go."
"Daniel, I-"
"But promise…me something, Jack," Danny added before O'Neill could continue. The colonel nodded, gulping again. "Promise me…that you'll…find Sha're again…." Jack nodded again, still trying to find his voice, and Danny smiled as his eyes drifted shut "Thanks…" And for some reason O'Neill got the feeling that Jackson wasn't thanking him for just the promise, that he wasn't thanking him alone at all, but all of them, for everything…
"Don't worry; we'll find her, Daniel," Jack said quickly, trying to keep the young archaeologist with him a little longer. "She'll be free, okay? You'll have her back; we'll find her together, Danny…Danny? Daniel, come on!"
"Daniel, don't!" Sam yelped
But he had stopped breathing, and when Fraiser checked his pulse, it was gone as well. Hurriedly Sam scooted back, getting her knees out from under him, and she and Janet started CPR.
"Oh, no you don't," Janet breathed. "Come on, Daniel, come on…" But after another minute or two, their efforts had come to no avail.
"Doc, Carter…it's over," Jack whispered.
"Daniel, no," Sam whispered fiercely. She looked up at O'Neill, tears threatening to escape, as if to ask What do we do now?
"We…we have to go…"
"But colonel-" Fraiser protested.
"You heard him," Jack interrupted quietly. "If we try to take him with us we'll never make it out of here." Slowly he stood, obsessively gulping at the lump in his throat again. "Let's go."
But neither major nor doctor rose until they did it out of surprise when Teal'c suddenly burst into the room. "O'Neill, we must go! We have no more time!" The large man stopped in his tracks when he saw his unmoving friend on the ground at their feet.
"Daniel Jackson?" he asked hesitantly, looking to O'Neill.
Jack shook his head. "We were…" he stopped and cleared his throat, looking away." We were too late, Teal'c."
Teal'c's usually neutral expression turned to one of despair, and his gaze shifted to Sam. "I am sorry that we were not in time, Samantha Carter," he said quietly. "Perhaps if I had woken O'Neill more quickly this morning…"
"Aww, Teal'c, now's not the time to play the blame game!" Jack said angrily. "Stop it! Let's just move out, okay? We're not gonna be able to avoid those jaffa on the way back to the gate, are we?"
Teal'c shook his head. "No, we are not."
Jack sighed. "Thought so." Then he turned to Sam and Janet, who hadn't said a word. "Come on…campers-" He stopped, surprised, when he choked on the word. Daniel, always a happy camper, the civilian had been the inspiration to use that term with his team…Wow, he had to get out of this room now or he was going to lose it.
Carter nodded and gulped. "Y-yes sir," she said as Janet silently moved toward the door. Sam picked up her jacket from the bench beside her, and then knelt beside Daniel's body. Leaning down, she kissed his forehead before placing the jacket over his face.
"I'm sorry, Danny," she whispered. A single tear found its way from the corner of her eye, and O'Neill just caught site of it as she stood again before she wiped it away and started toward him, still sniffing.
Jack pulled out the gun he'd put in his belt earlier and handed it to her. "Here, I…I think he'd want you to have this…" he said quietly. "Besides, I don't have yours. It's with Jacob."
"M-My dad's here?" Carter started, surprised.
"Yeah, the Tok'ra helped us out some, but we split into two groups to find you. Your dad's with the other group. Though Makepeace has probably contacted them that we found you by now. They'll join us again soon."
"Oh…" Sam said, but now she was staring again at the Beretta in her hands, Daniel's preferred weapon. Not that the archaeologist had really preferred weapons at all, but he had to have one off-world, and this was the one he used. Sam blinked back tears. She couldn't dot his now. Now was not the time to get emotional. She knew that it might seem relatively quiet now, but they still had to fight their way out of here. They still had to get home. She could grieve later…
Jack briefly put a hand on his second in command's shoulder. "Come on, Carter, let's get going…"
Sam quickly ran a sleeve over her eyes again and nodded, "Yes sir."
The sound of a staff blast from down the corridor brought them all to full attention. "Let's move!" O'Neill shouted. The remaining members of SG-1 and Doctor Janet Fraiser bounded out of the holding cell and down to the corner where Makepeace and SG-3 were stationed.
"Sir, it's down the corridor!" Makepeace reported. "The Tok'ra contingent ran into trouble on the way back to us."
O'Neill and Carter glanced around the curve to see a minor battle raging.
"Dad!" Sam cried in alarm, spotting her father among the combatants.
"Calm down, Carter, we're going to help them," Jack confirmed.
"Where's Doctor Jackson?" Makepeace questioned.
Jack hesitated for a couple of seconds "Doctor Jackson's gone," he said quietly.
The commander of SG-3 frowned and nodded, and then O'Neill gave the signal to move in.
Déjà vu again, Daniel thought in amusement. To his surprise, instead of the image of jack, Sam, Janet, and his younger self becoming nothing as he faded from existence, for the second time in only a span of months he found himself stepping through the swinging glass door of a certain diner he had once been to. But this time there were no customers. His clothes had not changed; he still wore his black BDU's. His glasses were still missing too, though he could see perfectly fine. He supposed sight was different when one was dead…or was he?
He couldn't think of any other explanation. His injuries were gone, and the one being who might have brought him here was gone now, destroyed stopping Anubis, and even though this wasn't his time it simply couldn't be…
"Daniel."
Jackson froze when he head the familiar voice that came from behind him. Slowly he turned, and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he saw the softly glowing, red-haired woman behind him.
"Oma?" he said in surprise.
She smiled. "So you do know me."
"O-Of course I know, you, Oma, what's going on? I thought you were-"
Oma Desala held up a hand to stop him. "No. Do not tell me what has happened to me in the future. I should not know."
Suddenly Daniel understood--well, who she was, anyway. "Oh…you're not the Oma I know…"
She nodded. "You are correct. Though I supposed that since I have been charged with the care of your wife's child that our eventual meeting would be inevitable."
Daniel nodded in return. "Right…so…what am I doing here? Why did you take the chance that I wouldn't know you? Because if I didn't, you'd be giving away a lot right now that I'm sure the others like you wouldn't want me to know…"
"I know that, but you deserved to know what I brought you here to tell you."
"Uh…oh, well….Wait a minute, how could you have brought me here? I'm dead for cryin' out loud. I don't even exist for you to bring…"
"Let's say that I pulled you out of the normal flow of time and space before the change in the timeline could completely erase you."
Daniel eyebrows went up. "Ah. Uh, okay…your reason being…?"
"To tell you that it isn't over."
Daniel blinked. "What? What's that supposed to mean? I can't stay here forever, and once I leave I'll be dead…been there, done that."
Oma smiled softly again. "I'm afraid I cannot tell you exactly what I mean, but your journey is not yet over, Daniel Jackson. You will continue."
"Been there, heard that," Daniel muttered, and then spoke up. "Why can't you tell me? I need some kind of idea what's going on…"
"Just be patient, Daniel. I must leave you now, but you will soon know what I mean. Until then, you may wait here."
"But wait-!"
"Goodbye."
"Oma!"
But in the flash of light he'd become so accustomed to, she was gone.
Daniel sighed heavily and sank onto the nearest booth bench. When he spoke, his voice echoed in the empty diner--or rather, whatever odd dimension this was that looked like a diner to him.
"What now?"
Sam finally caught up to her father as the two factions of the extraction team neared the 'gate. Seeing where he and one of the other Tok'ra had taken cover behind one of the stacks of crates, she ducked behind it with them.
"Sam, there you are!" Jacob said with relief.
"Hi, Dad," Carter greeted him, before leaning around the corner of the crates to squeeze off a couple of shots at their pursuers. Then she turned back to him.
"Where's Daniel?"
Sam froze. When Jacob saw her face go pale he realized that something was wrong.
"Sam?"
The major swallowed hard and looked away. "Dad, he's…he's gone," she said softly.
Jacob stared at her as she fired another shot at the jaffa. When she sat again he spoke.
"Oh, Sam…I'm so sorry…" he said, gulping at the pain in his daughter's eyes.
"Dad, I'm all right," Sam quickly lied, though she was unable to keep her voice from trembling. "Let's just get out of here, okay?"
Jacob sighed and nodded slowly. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Jack O'Neill's voice interrupted him from closer to the 'gate.
"Teal'c, dial us out! Makepeace, send the iris code! Carters! Cover them from where you are!"
Father and daughter smiled at the "Carters" reference. Despite difficulties in their relationship before Jacob had become a Tok'ra, the two now thoroughly enjoyed being related--not to mention being a part of the biggest secret on the planet earth.
"Yes sir!" Sam shouted back. She rose a bit to fire toward the jaffa again, but then realized that the pistol was out of ammunition. Sighing in frustration, she shoved it into her belt and looked questioningly at her father.
"Oh!" Jacob said suddenly. "Right, I've got yours, I'm sorry." He his zat down momentarily to pull the P-90 off his belt and hand it to her, and then retrieved his own weapon from the ground and continued firing.
Sam took her gun, checked to make sure the Goa'uld hadn't taken the cartridge out when they'd taken it from her, and then started firing as well. Several jaffa had gone down before they'd gotten this far, so there were fewer of them now, but the fact that they were so close to escape meant that the remaining Goa'uld forces were doing everything they could to keep the Tau'ri team from getting back through the stargate.
The next few minutes were a blur as the firefight lobbed back and forth, until finally the gate opened, and Makepeace had signaled that the code was sent--it was safe to go through. Colonel O'Neill waved Janet Fraiser and SG-3 through first, and then the Tok'ra, until only Sam, Jacob, Teal'c and Jack remained.
"Okay, Jacob, get her out of here!" O'Neill ordered. "Teal'c and I have your six!"
And then Sam and her father were running toward the gate. She could still here shooting, and the colonel telling them to hurry, but then a staff blast shot by her so close she could feel it. It impacted the wall to her left, but a sudden pain in her arm made her look down to she that it had been shaved by the blast. The skin on her right forearm was charred and bloody, and it hurt terribly.
"Sam, you're hit!" Jacob cried in alarm.
He tried to get her through the gate immediately, but just in front of the event horizon, suddenly a flash of anger overtook her, and she turned and fired at the jaffa the shot had originated from, screaming, her weapon on automatic mode. The jaffa went down, but bullets were still impacting his body.
"Sam, that's enough!" Jacob said urgently. "Let's go!"
"Carter!" O'Neill yelled over the din.
"That'll teach you to leave my friends alone!" Sam shouted, and she would have continued shooting if Jacob hadn't twisted the gun from her hands and pulled her through the 'gate.
Jack watched them go, concerned, and then turned to Teal'c.
"Okay, T, let's blow this popsicle stand!" he called.
The larger man nodded and turned, firing once or twice behind him again before bounding through the shimmering blue surface of the open stargate. O'Neill followed right after him.
Less than a second later he stumbled through the earth 'gate onto the ramp.
"Close the iris!" he shouted up to control room. Walter responded immediately, and almost the before the words had left his mouth Jack heard it sliding shut behind him. He would have relaxed them, but that was when he spotted Samantha Carter at the end of the ramp.
Sam stepped of the metal grating to the floor, and there her legs gave out as she sank onto the end of the ramp. Jacob sat down beside her as Janet crouched in front of her to examine her arm.
"It's just superficial," Fraiser reported quietly. "Once it's cleaned and bandaged it should be fine in a few days."
Sam nodded weakly as her head lowered to Jacob's shoulder and his arm went around her shoulders. Jack sat down on the other side of her as General Hammond approached them.
"Carter…?" "Jacked asked. "You okay?"
Sam's eyes closed. "How could I be okay, sir? Daniel's gone…"
Jack grimaced and looked up at the general, who no longer needed the asked where the SGC's resident archaeologist was. Hammond sighed and spoke softly.
"De-brief in two hours, colonel," he said, and then quietly left them alone
"Come on, Sam, let's get you to them infirmary," Fraiser suggested gently.
Nodding silently, the major stood and allowed her father to lead her from the 'gate room, with an almost equally subdued Janet not far behind.
Soon Jack O'Neill was left alone, standing in front of the stargate. It had deactivated, the iris had opened again, and all was quiet. Grimly O'Neill looked toward the huge, inanimate gray ring. Usually the device was a good thing to have, but today it had spelled the end of his best friend. An image flashed unbidden through his mind of Daniel's bloodied, unmoving body. "Thanks", he'd said before his eyes had closed for the last time. Thanks for what? I let you die.
Tears pushed to get out at the corners of his eyes, and Jack blinked them back in frustration. After all we've been through, all the times you've come back…I never thought I'd see the day…
"Come on, Daniel," Jackwhispered. "Now would be a good time for you to pull one of those miracles out of your hat for us."