Author's Notes: So, this is the last chapter! Hopefully, it wraps things up a bit. I hope you enjoyed my little story; I had fun writing it! I'll try to be better about heeding reviews next time. ;)
Jack sauntered up to his friend's bed, taking in the civilian clothes and the neatly piled stack of books and folders. "Daniel!" he greeted. "Whatcha doin?"
The archaeologist himself was also sat upon the bed, apparently undergoing a few more tests and checkups. Daniel rolled down his shirt sleeve as a nurse finished taking blood. "Thank you." He told her before turning his attention to Jack. "Janet just released me." Daniel hopped off the bed and gathered his things.
"No kidding." Happy though he was at Daniel finally being healthy and up and around again, Jack's smile faded. "Gonna go home, then?" he offered.
Daniel began to move toward the doors of the infirmary when Jack stepped in front of him. Furrowing his brow, he surveyed the colonel critically. "Yeah..." he answered suspiciously. "Sam brought these things for me a couple days ago" he held the books up a bit, "I was just gonna stop by my lab and drop all this stuff off first... maybe pick up a few other things. Why?"
Jack again stepped casually into Daniel's path as he madeanother attempt at leaving. "You sure you don't want to just head home?" He asked. "I could even give you a ride."
Daniel stared at his friend. "No." he replied warily. "No, thank you."
"Well, then," Jack was still running interference, although, thankfully, Daniel was no longer trying to get past him. "I'm glad that's settled. Let's go line up someone to take you home." He gestured to a phone on the wall. "Ol' Doc. Fraiser won't want you driving yourself home, will she?"
"I don't need a ride because I'm not going home yet, Jack." Taking advantage of Jack's movement toward the phone, Daniel once again tried to make his escape.
Once again, Jack jumped into Daniel's path, and held up his hands. "Daniel, are you sure –"
"Jack!" Daniel was finally beginning to lose patience. "As much as I appreciate everything everyone here has done for me, quite honestly, I'm sick of being in this infirmary. I'd really just like to leave this room, drop this stuff off and go home!"
"Right." Jack's hands went to his pockets and he rocked forward on his toes. "I should probably go with you."
"What's going on?" Daniel questioned.
"What?" Jack replied, feigning ignorance.
"This. What are we doing right now?"
"Nothing." Jack mustered up as much innocence as he possibly could.
"Fine." Daniel replied shortly and looked expectantly at his friend. "I'm leaving now."
Jack held out an arm. "No one's stopping you."
Daniel pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely." Jack's head bobbed.
---
Daniel stared around in wonder, standing in the doorway to his office. "What happened in here?" he asked Jack, still trying to take in the supreme mess that lay before him. Though he consistently kept his lab a bit jumbled, he distinctly remembered it had not looked like this the last time he'd left it.
Sam popped up and smiled sheepishly. "Hey, Daniel."
"Sam?" his brow furrowed. "Sorry. I didn't see you behind the..." he gestured vaguely, toward the various piles"...stack of books."
"I am glad that you are well, Daniel Jackson." Came another voice.
"Teal'c?!" Daniel asked incredulously as the jaffa also appeared. He was more than a little surprised that any stack of papers and folders and books could hide the bulk of Teal'c. "What is all this?"
Daniel looked to Jack, whose arms were crossed as he leaned against the doorframe. Jack refused to meet his eyes, instead staring at the ceiling. As Daniel turned his gaze to Sam, she fidgeted a bit.
"It's everything we gathered from the ruins." She answered. "We thought we could find information that would help you there. A team was brought in to translate it all... this is the pile that was finished." Sam pointed to the desk, where Daniel could see several neat piles.
Walking through the maze of materials, Daniel went to his desk and picked up a rubbing from the first pile. "This one's in gould –"
"Teal'c did that one." Jack offered, still leaning.
Daniel looked at the colonel for a moment before his gaze went back to the desktop. Tracing fingers over the thin paper and charcoal, he continued his assessment. "Uh, this is koinae Greek, ancient Hebrew, medieval Latin... and this one is..." he muttered in some other language, "...wrong." He looked back to Sam. "Who did this?"
"There was a team." She repeated.
Daniel surveyed the lab again for a moment. "Maybe..." he shuffled some papers around, looked to the bookshelf, looked to Sam who smiled encouragingly, "Maybe I'll just..." he attempted to find the journal from the last mission, stopped, sighed, and looked to Jack, who had a smug smile. "I think I'll take that ride home now, Jack."
Tossing his keys once in the air, Jack deftly caught them and walked away, calling back, "Carter! Teal'c! Don't forget the pizza!"
---
Jack leaned back on the couch and eyed one of the various artifacts on the table next to him warily. He looked at Daniel. "We should've gone to my place." He complained. "I feel like I'm gonna break something here; it's like a museum: I'm afraid to touch anything."
"Doesn't stop you from breaking things in my office." Daniel replied.
"Fair point."
"And how exactly would you know what the inside of a museum looks like, Jack?"
Jack narrowed his eyes and Daniel raised his eyebrows.
Sam leaned forward in her chair. "So, Daniel," she began, breaking the staring contest, "what's gonna go in your report?"
Daniel watched disapprovingly as Jack began flicking green peppers off of the remaining pizza slice that sat in the box on the coffee table. "I uh..." he continued to be preoccupied with Jack. "I don't know yet." Daniel frowned as Jack returned with a 'what'd I do?' expression.
"Have you learned the meaning of the ruins, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c prodded, attempting to get the archaeologist's attention back.
Daniel nodded, refocusing. "I think they were histories of individual people. The center pillar pulls it all together."
"Captain MacArthur never figured out what it said." Sam offered.
Daniel frowned. "It was some form of Ancient... probably developed by an offshoot of the original race, but just as advanced." He ignored Jack's yawn, "It was a poem – almost an incantation: 'A moment in time / the span of one breath / in the power of one choice / theopportunity to change a life'". He recited.
"You're saying this race had the power to change history? To go back in time?" Sam questioned.
Daniel's brow furrowed in thought. "No." he answered. "The woman, Fortuna, she offered me a chance to go back and relive things: to start over, so to speak." Jack's eyebrows were raised now, the pizza forgotten. "She showed me what the possibilities were and, uh... it was tempting, given what could change for the better." Daniel unintentionally looked to Jack, who suddenly seemed very far away. "I couldn't do it." Daniel told Sam finally. "But I guess that's obvious." He laughed a bit and leaned back, resting his head on the sofa cushions. "I think the other languages were other people who got the same opportunity; moments that they did return to. It doesn't make sense until you put the whole thing together." Daniel paused, reflecting. "I don't know anything more than that – the next thing I remember is waking up in the infirmary."
Sam stood and began clearing plates. As she walked toward the kitchen, she moved behind Daniel, laying a light kiss on his forehead. "We're glad you did."
---
Daniel stood in the doorway, watching Sam and Teal'c leave. Returning to the living room, he found Jack still sitting on the sofa, staring at the bottle of beer he held in his hands.
After several moments of silence, Jack finally spoke softly. "You did the right thing, Daniel." He met his friend's eyes. "You almost always do."
Daniel took a deep breath. "You wanna stay?" he asked.
Jack set the beer down on the coffee table. "Sure." He stood. "You still got my stuff in the spare room?"
"Always." Daniel replied simply.
Jack nodded a few times and shoved his hands in his pockets. "You wanna, you know... talk?" he asked awkwardly.
"No." Daniel answered quickly.
"No." Jack repeated just as quickly, overlapping Daniel's response. "Good." Another awkward pause. "Night, then."
Daniel nodded as Jack shuffled off toward the extra bedroom. "Night, Jack." He started off toward his own room before stopping and calling down the hallway, "Don't break anything!"