Requiem For Daniel.
Disclaimer.
Stargate SG1 belongs to MGM and Gekko, not me. There is no payment for this. I do it for love.
A single apostrophe denotes spoken thought; there are only two lines of spoken word.
Setting.
It has been one hour since Daniel ascended.
Jack walks into the Mess Hall. He looks at the food arrayed under the hot lights, but he sees nothing. He moves over to the chiller that's as empty to his eyes as the hot food section. It doesn't even register that he has picked up a bowl of the hated green Jell-O.
Daniel was gone.
He wasn't dead, not in the true sense of the word. Ascending wasn't the same as dieing, but the result was the same.
Daniel was gone.
He looks down at the bowl on the table before him, but there is nothing to see. He realises that he didn't pick up a spoon and then wonders what he wants a spoon for. He stares at a bowl that he doesn't see.
'Of all the team, you were the biggest pain in my arse! You could never do as you were told, your intuition always landed us further in it and nobody would argue with me as much as you did. The missions where I didn't end up wanting to shoot you I could count on one hand. So why do I feel so much worse now than I did the last time we thought you were dead? Then we really thought you were gone, but it turned out you were with a Goddamn Merman for Christ sakes.'
He looks around the Mess Hall. There are groups of people all around him, sitting at tables eating food and drinking coffee. But he is alone. The sounds of talking, of knives and forks scraping on plates, do not enter his silent world.
'Are you here, now? Can you see me sitting in this void? After everything that's happened to me, everything that I've had to endure since we, since 'you', opened that damned Stargate,' he shakes his head at the table, 'all the extra scars I carry, why is this the worst? I haven't felt this bad since Charlie..! Oh God.'
He looks up at Sam sitting opposite and wonders how long she has been there. He sees her eyes are red. Fresh tears of grief are ready to lead the deluge. He knows he must. He is the leader, the commander, tall and strong in the eyes of those who must follow him.
Four words. Four words are all that come to his mind. Four words that make the most stupid question in history. He knows the answer, he sees it in her eyes, reflecting the haunted gaze of his own, as two mirrors reflect the same image add infinitum. But he is the leader, the commander, the tall and strong one.
"How you doing Carter?"
'Are you laughing now, Daniel? Did you hear me make an Ass of myself one more time? All for you, Danny Boy! One more in your corner.'
'Did you answer me Carter? Of course you did. Not answering would be the same as me not asking. It has to be done, it's a given.'
He looks at Sam, returns her sorrowful gaze that shows him the misery and emptiness of his own grieving soul.
"Wanna grab T and get outa here?"
'Seven words, it's a start. Sorry Danny Boy, that's one for me.'
The End.
I was feeling a little low when I wrote this and, strangely enough, feel a little better now. I would appreciate any reviews, good or bad. They are all taken on board.
Seffydude.