Daniel didn't say anything for awhile, didn't even bother to look at Jack. He sat there, staring at the pages of the book he was currently perusing with a hollowness to his features that seemed to magnify as time passed. Jack hadn't noticed the dark circles under his eyes until now nor had he realized how gaunt his friend truly looked. Perhaps he had somehow refused to see the truth, because, of all people, it was cruelly unfair for Daniel to feel like shit. He deserved much better.

"Jack, I appreciate your concern and all, but I really don't want to talk about it," he said simply.

Jack wasn't one to give up so easily. He sat down opposite Daniel and stared at him.

"What?"

"That's fine if you don't want to talk about it, but you are still going against my orders."

"I'm not a soldier, I'm an archaeologist."

"Yeah, but I have this thing with people working themselves to death. I already sent Carter home, and you know Jonas won't quit until you do."

"I'd really just like to be left alone so I can get this done, please."

Jack was through with being polite; he had more than his friend's well being to think of – as commander of his unit, there was a certain obligation he had to carrying out orders, and making sure his team did the same. He stood to his full height. "I'll ask you once more to take a break, after that I call in the MPs and they deal with you. We've got another mission in four days time, and I won't have one of my team members unfit to perform because of some obsessive need to crack a code." He wasn't expecting Daniel's furious and immediate rebuttal:

He stood, slamming his hands on the desk. "And what the hell am I supposed to do, Jack? You want me to take some time off? What do you suggest I do? Shall I go visit my dead wife's planet and reminisce about all the good times? You want me to go and pretend I have this life that I don't? What, tell me! What else have I got to do!"

Jack blinked in response, taken aback by the fury of words. Daniel stood in front of him, matching his hard stare point for point. And if only to block out the image of his friend's despair, Jack closed his eyes as he spoke. "Please, just go to bed and get a couple hours of sleep."

Daniel closed the text shut somewhat childishly and stalked out of the room.

. . . . . . .

Sleep came quickly. He hadn't realized how tired he was until he got to his room. A couple months had passed but he still hadn't bothered to find a place of his own outside the base and so, like Jonas and Teal'c, was a permanent resident of the Cheyenne Mountain facility. Daniel barely managed to get off his boots before his consciousness slipped away from him . . .

There's a chillness to the air that settles under your skin and causes goosebumps to appear about the most sensitive areas of your flesh. There's a silence that pervades everything like a sweet blackhole of sound. The silence is inviting but also foreboding; something is amiss.

Daniel walks along the crumbling stone path. He is naked but it doesn't seem to bother him. True, it's cold and somewhat damp out but there's a certain physical element to these aspects that doesn't appear altogether important at the moment. He follows himself through the forest trail, holding his elbow with one had idly as he walks. His naked form doesn't notice him, or is otherwise ignoring him. Daniel doesn't know but he doesn't want to antagonize himself so he keeps a distance back.

The trees are very lush and being hugged at the base by a thick mist. The mist is very stagnant, more corporeal than ethereal in essence. Even Daniel's feet are hard to see.

Suddenly a guttural groaning pierces the silence. It sounds unnatural, inhuman. Daniel runs. The path leads, twisting and turning, to a desert where grey sands whip about. The sands stretch on forever and the dark sky that meets them is just as bleak. The groaning continues, but Daniel no longer knows where to go. He treads across the dunes carefully, taking each step with thought.

As he reaches the summit of a dune, a structure comes into sight. He has seen it many times before.

The temple is as he remembers it. Fallen into slight disrepair over the millennia, the two obelisks still stand at the entrance, paces in front of the stairs that lead inside. He had fought against a god's army here. Abydos.

He walks to the threshold of the temple and cranes his head to take in the massive building. Two spheres of light, their radiance obscured by cloud cover, hang over the apex of the pyramid. Daniel peers inside, wondering what might be in there now. Only darkness looks back at him, but it seems to smile all the same.

"I don't think I should be dreaming this," he says to himself.

A small sandstorm whirls about his feet in reply. The air tastes like grit and salt.

The groaning, Daniel having become used to it unawares stops.

The coarse winds cease, and before him on the ground, the darkness paints a message. Seven symbols.

Seven symbols.

. . . . . . .

Daniel woke up with the realization that he had fallen asleep. He turned to the alarm clock on his nightstand and noted that half the day had passed. He didn't feel very rested save for his eyes, which weren't screaming for lack of moisture anymore.

"Well, now that I've complied with orders . . ." he muttered as he sat up and stretched.

A knock came at his door.

"Daniel?"

"Yes? Come in."

Sam opened the door cautiously, peeking her head in before she entered. She smiled when she saw him. "Feeling any better?"

Daniel yawned but shook his head. "No, not really."

"Well, you've been in here for almost two days now."

"What?" He checked his watch and was surprised to find that she was right. Twelve hours hadn't passed, thirty-six had. He blinked as the realization hit.

"What have you been doing in here?"

"Sleeping, and dreaming . . . I think."

Sam stuck her hands in her pocket and eyed her friend.

"What?"

"Nothing, I just came by to see if you wanted to grab something to eat."

"Just finishing the day, now?"

She nodded.

Daniel got up and stretched again. "Sure," he said as he reached for his boots and pulled them on.

"Great," Sam remarked. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to go to the sushi bar by myself." The two of them left.

No one noticed the notebook open on Daniel's bed with the seven symbols scrawled on one of its pages jaggedly.

A shorter chapter, but I'd like to keep the momentum going. He gets there next chap, I promise! Please review, and thanks for reading! – K.R.

Disclaimer: see chapter one