As if I'd kill Jack! He's got such a great attitude. Thanks to all the fantastic people who are reviewing. Please do keep it up?

Three days later, Jack was home. Frasier had wanted to keep him longer of course, but he had firmly declined that suggestion. He needed to be alone right now, and lying about in a bustling infirmary was not the same thing. Hammond had been to see him again, given him the old lecture about how it wasn't his fault, there was nothing he could have done, yadda yadda. Hadn't he given that same lecture many times? God, he'd given it to Carter just a few days ago.

And now she, Daniel and Teal'c were dead.

Dead, deceased, kicked the bucket, pushing up daisies, passed away, no longer with up, KIA, DEAD.

And here he was, on his roof watching the stars like nothing had happened.

So what was he to do now? Hammond said he would discuss it with him when he returned from medical leave in a couple of weeks. He could try the retirement thing again, see if he actually stayed retired this time. Or he could 'move on', go back, get a brand new team of bright eyed brats to lead and get them killed too.

Or there was the other option.

He looked at the gun sitting beside him. It wasn't loaded, not yet. But he'd be damned if he did what that alien-chick told him.

He wanted to spite her, to do what she had told him not to. To end this sorry existence once and for all and rejoin his team-mates. SG1 had survived alien viruses, goa'uld armies, and entire goddam planets trying to separate them. Even when Daniel died, he'd still kept showing up! So what the heck gave him the right to stay here when his team-mates were gone?

'Because,' said an oddly Daniel-like voice, "they didn't want you too."

"I'd let you do it!" he yelled out into the night. "I wouldn't make you stay here!"

But it was a lie. If this were the other way round, he'd be willing his friend to stick with it, live through it. "Dammit." He half-whispered into the still cool air. He didn't want to die. It wasn't like last time…he had a life here, he didn't want to blow it away.

But how could he go on when they died because of him?

He remembered what Carter said, 'I'm asking you to live with it'.

Teal'c said his death dishonoured them.

Daniel said he shouldn't die for them.

Die for them…

And here he was, contemplating killing himself. He truly was as dumb as a…never-mind.

His team had done the most incredible thing one person could do for another. They had died for him. Each of them had allowed their brilliant, sparkling lives to end to save his.

And he was considering throwing away their sacrifice?

Disgusted with himself now, he knocked the gun off the roof into his back garden. He really was a coward. Daniel, Carter, and Teal'c had given up everything for him, and he had been willing to ignore that incredible gesture because what? He was afraid?

'Well suck it up O'Neill, Heroes don't get to be afraid. You sure aren't one right now, but you had better spend every day of your goddammed life trying to be. You make every second count and you make sure no one ever forgets your team.'

He could make them a legend, in the SGC at least. If the Stargate Programme ever came out, he would make sure the whole world knew about them. Teal'c one of the bravest men he ever knew, who'd left everything dear to him to protect a planet he did not even know. Daniel, who always did the right thing, however hard it was, and could speak virtually any language on earth. And Carter, the prefect mix of soldier and scientist who was probably smarter than Einstein!

He'd keep his promise; He'd never forget them for a single day. And make sure no one else did too. That was a life worth living.

He heard a distant ringing, and climbed down the ladder. Realising it was the phone; he walked to the kitchen, and picked it up. "O'Neill." He said shortly, he'd asked not to be contacted while on leave.

It was the General, "Jack you should get down to base, there is something here you ought to see."