Ooops! Was busy with school, but I'm not going to that blasted math and science school anymore starting tommorrow, so chapters will come faster! beside, coming to the end now so my brain's running rampant wanting to finish it. Yay! So anyway, thank you all for your patiente, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review so I know you want me to finish the story! Let me know what you like! Thanks!

Chapter 35

Sha're broke into quiet tears as the commissary doors swung shut behind Danny, and Daniel pulled her into his arms.

"Sir?" Sam asked, her eyes on the still swinging doors.

Jack sighed heavily. "I'll go after him. Don't wait for us."

"Yes sir," she nodded quietly. She wanted to comfort her friend herself, but she knew that, right now, Danny probably needed Jack more.

O'Neill emerged into the corridor and looked around, but there was no sign of Jackson. Not knowing where else to look, he headed toward his friend's office.

The office was dark, with the only light being that which spilled in from the brightly lit corridor, though that was plenty for him to tell that Danny wasn't in immediate sight. Then Jack heard something shift off to his right, and there was the archaeologist, huddled against the wall just inside the door, his legs pulled up with his arms wrapped around them and his face buried in his knees. His glasses were on the ground beside him, and O'Neill had to sidestep to avoid them.

Silently Jack moved into the office and sat down on the floor in front of him.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Go away, Jack," Danny sighed miserably, without looking up.

O'Neill crossed his arms. "Aww come, Danny. You don't really want to be left in here all alone, do you?"

That brought a pause from the younger man. Finally he whispered a quiet, "No."

"I made an idiot out of myself, Jack," he moaned a moment later, his arms tightening around his legs.

"It was a flashback, Daniel, a panic attack. Nobody blames you for that. You couldn't help it."

"But that doesn't change the fact that I had everyone in the commissary looking at us--at me. I hurt Sha're, Jack. I could see she was upset…"

"We were all upset, Danny. We're just worried about you."

Danny gulped and lifted his head at last, wiping at it with his sleeve, though Jack saw the tear stains on his face before he could erase the evidence of his crying. He glanced briefly up at O'Neill, but then looked away.

"Danny…I've done the whole torture thing before, remember?" Jack continued slowly, and a bit hesitantly. "I know what those are like…"

Jackson looked at him again, and held his gaze this time. After another moment he sighed. "What do I do?" he asked quietly.

"Come with me," Jack said simply, standing. "You did drive today, so I'll take you home if you want, or you can hang at my place tonight."

"Okay," he agreed weakly, and took the hand O'Neill offered to help him up.

"Okay to what? You want to go home or crash in my guest room?

Daniel gave a wry smile. "I don't care. I just need to get out of here."

"My place it is, then," Jack smiled in return, patting his friend's back and steering him out the door.

Jack had stopped by the commissary to let the others know where they were going while Danny waited out in the corridor, and then they had headed for the surface and were on their way.

Instead of Jack's house, however, O'Neill pulled into a parking lot in the middle of Colorado Springs.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Danny asked, looking cluelessly out the window at the McDonalds sign that was lighted in the relative darkness of late evening.

"Food, Danny-boy. You didn't eat any of yours. You haven't had anything since lunch."

"Oh, so now you're taking 'Care and Keeping of an Archaeologist' classes, are you?"

Jack's eyes rolled. "Come on, Danny. It's food, there isn't anybody else you know here, and most important of all--no utensils."

Jackson's amused grin faded to a soft, thankful smile. "Oh…good idea," he admitted.

"Let's go; I'm hungry too. I'll buy."

"Fine," Danny shrugged, pushing open the passenger side door of Jack's truck and stepping out onto the pavement.

When was the last time he'd had fast food? He didn't even have time for that these days. He lived off power bars, chocolate, and coffee in his office, supplemented by whatever he could get in the commissary and what simple foods he could drop by the store and pick up on the way home…when he went home. His apartment looked more like a museum than a home with all the artifacts scattered all over the shelves and walls.

"Coming?" Jack asked, his hand dropping onto Danny's shoulder.

The archaeologist jumped, wincing; he had seen his friend come up.

O'Neill's eyebrows went up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine. You just startled me," he sighed.

"Not hurting? You were making me worry about you again in the gym earlier."

Danny smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that. No, I feel okay--a lot better than I did this morning, earlier, anyway."

"Good," the colonel smiled, patting Jackson's shoulder as they started toward the restaurant. "So you won't be doing any collapsing in public. That could get hard to explain without giving away classified information."

Jackson's eyes rolled. "Whatever, Jack."

"Danny?"

Jackson looked up at O'Neill's voice. One of his elbows was on the table in front of him, one cheek resting in that hand, and with his other hand he'd been lazily finishing his French fries.

"What?"

"What's up?"

"'Up', Jack?"

"I know that look, Danny; whatcha thinkin' about?" O'Neill asked, then took a swig from his soft drink.

Danny sighed and shoved another ketchup-dipper fry in his mouth. Once he'd chewed and swallowed it he shrugged and answered.

"Just…wondering about tomorrow."

"What about tomorrow?

Jackson hesitated. "They're going to leave," he said finally, and then added softly, "She's going to leave.

"Ah…" Jack nodded. "This bothers you?

"Well…sort of; and then we have to go back to P5R-322."

"There's that."

The two men fell into a slightly uncomfortable silence, until Danny spoke up again. "What are we going to do about Sha're, Jack--my Sha're?"

Jack's mouth opened to say something, but he closed it again and breathed out, taking another moment before answering.

"We'll do what we can, Daniel," the colonel said quietly. "I know you want her back, but this time that's not what it's about. If an opportunity presents itself, we'll do everything we can to get her out of there, but I can't promise anything. If it's bring her or risk all of us being killed, you know what my decision will have to be. You're the one who made me leave you behind for that reason--twice." Jack resisted the urge to wince at either memory, of leaving Daniel on Apophis's ship to die two years before, or of leaving him behind on P5R-322.

Danny looked away. "I know," he said, and then went back to finishing off his French fries. He hadn't really needed to ask. He had known that would be O'Neill's answer, but somehow it made it a little easier to get it out in the open, even though they had to keep their voices down in the public spot. Not that there was a crown, but when it came to secrets such as the Stargate program, one couldn't be too careful.

After another few moments of silence, O'Neill slapped one hand lightly on the table and stood. "Well, I'm in the mood for ice cream. You in?" he asked, pointing a thumb over his shoulder toward the counter at the front of the restaurant.

A smile returned to Danny's face and he shrugged. "As long as there's chocolate involved."

"You got it, buddy," Jack smiled, and then bustled off toward the cashiers.

The first thing Jack did once inside the house was turn on the television and flop down onto the couch, remote in hand.

"Jack, what are you doing?"

O'Neill looked up as he pulled his shoes off. "It's TV, Daniel--you know, sports, news, cheesy movies, science fiction shows that never get it right…" he gestured vaguely. Jackson snickered. "Don't just stand there; sit down. Maybe there's some hockey on."

"I think I'll pass. I'm kinda tired," Danny admitted.

Jack shrugged. "Okay. You know where the gust room is."

"Right," Danny nodded, starting to turn.

"Sure you don't wanna watch some TV before bed? It's only eight o'clock."

"Exactly, and I'm exhausted. Really, Jack, after the night I had last night and everything today…" He trailed off and O'Neill nodded in understanding.

"Yeah. Okay. Good night," he said, genuinely, though he still seemed a bit disappointed that his friend didn't feel like hanging with him a bit longer. He'd been hoping to cheer Jackson up some more. Oh well. That could be done tomorrow, he supposed. It would be needed a lot more tomorrow, though there was the possibility it wouldn't be needed at all, if fate was especially kind…but unfortunately that wasn't often the case for SG-1.

"Good night," Danny said in return, and started down the hallway. But before he could get out of sight he stopped and turned back to toward the living room again. "Oh, and Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Then Jackson was gone, at the back of the house before O'Neill could turn to look at him again, and jack smiled to himself. No, Danny, thank you--for coming back to us again.

Daniel knocked quietly on Sha're's door. After they had eaten, she had retreated from the group into her room, and hadn't come out since. They had all been growing a bit worried about her, and hr had volunteered to check on her. As if he wouldn't have.

When a sound of acknowledgement came to him through the door, he slowly turned the handle and pushed it open. Sha're was sitting on the edge of the bed, her back to him. Quietly he walked to the foot of the bed, only a couple of feet from her.

"Hey," he announced himself. "I…came to see how you were doing. I know you got pretty shaken up at dinner, and I'm sorry."

She shook her head, but she still didn't look up at him. Her eyes were focused on her clenched hands in her lap. "It is not your fault, Dan'iel, and not his either. It's mine…" her breath caught in her throat, and she twisted her face even farther away from his line of sight.

Daniel's head started to shake automatically, and he took a step around the foot corner of the bed sank down onto it beside her. "No…no no no, Sha're, it's not your fault"

She wrapped her arms around herself. "But he was afraid of me because of what I did…" she shuddered.

"-What Amaunet did," he corrected her. "You had no control over that. It wasn't your fault." He smiled gently. "We've been through this."

Sha're sighed and nodded, and then leaned into him. Daniel hugged her and pulled her in, holding on.

"So I guess tomorrow's it," he said sadly, and Sha're nodded against his chest.

"We won't see each other again, will we?" she whispered.

"Probably not," he agreed. Tears sprung to his eyes at the thought, but he blinked them back.

"Dan'iel, I have been thinking…" she trailed off, and his arms tightened around her.

"I know," Daniel said. "I have too. And not that I don't wish we could stay together, but…that can't work--either way. Our futures need us where we are. It just wouldn't be right."

She pushed away and looked at him. "But what about right for us?"

"Sha're…" he started, silently pleading with her not to make thing difficult.

Even after years apart she still knew that look in his eyes and sighed heavily, looking away. "I know, I know," she relented. "But I only wish…"

"Me too."

A few depressing moments of silence followed, until finally Daniel leaned and kissed her cheek. "I should be going," he said, standing. He started toward the door. "It's getting late, and-"

"Dan'iel, wait-"

He stopped when Sha're caught his hand, in a fashion reminiscent of the night before. He turned to her again.

"Dan'iel, please, just stay a little longer," she pleaded. Or a lot longer. Hold me, just stay with me, tell me everything will be all right. "Please."

Daniel swallowed, standing beside her with his hand in hers, saw the expression in her eyes, and couldn't say no. He didn't want to leave. He wanted to be near her for as long as he could before they parted again…for good.

So Daniel sat back down, folded his arms around Sha're again, and kissed his wife.