They all thought it best to leave the real, difficult questions until they were back at the SGC, and Hammond was there to hear it all as well.
So, when they were back to base, there was no avoiding it. This other Daniel would have to explain things, as hard as it was.
"So, Daniel-" Jack began, and both two instantly turned to look at him. The same bright eyes, the same raised eyebrows--just the hair was clearly different, although in a familiar way. That longer hair made the other Daniel look younger, but on the other hand, he had lines on his face that the real Daniel didn't have. There was something old in the way he looked at things--a surrender, a deep sadness that Jack had only seen in the real Daniel's eyes last week, after Sha're's death.
Calling them "real" and "other" really wasn't very polite. So, he'd need to come up with something else.
"What do they call you, anyway, in your universe?"
"Daniel. You always call me that. Sam did, too. General Hammond calls me Doctor Jackson. And Teal'c, I think Teal'c always said Daniel Jackson, for the short while he was around..."
"But that's not going to work. I can't call you both Daniel. How about... Danny?"
"Jack, please..." that voice, that tone was so familiar that if Jack hadn't seen which one was speaking, he'd had no way to tell them apart.
"All right. Jackson?"
"Sounds odd, but I guess it'll make things a bit easier."
"So, son," General Hammond started. "I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you to tell us what happened."
"Yeah... I know... Where do you want me to start?"
"At the beginning?" Jack suggested.
"I... I'd like to know how... How did you lose Sha're? Three years ago?" Daniel asked silently.
"It was the very first mission, soon after we lost Kawalsky... That happened here too, right?"
"Yeah, he's gone. Snake in the head and so on," Jack answered. If Jackson was anything like Daniel, he'd have felt just as bad about that, and he'd also know how bad Jack had felt about it. And he did leave it at that.
"So, we went through the gate--and straight into Apophis's arms. It was a planet where he had a small outpost, but we were unlucky enough to barge in just when he was there. Jack and Teal'c got away, Sam and I were captured... And she was there. Sha're. Of course, she wasn't there. It was Amaunet... She..." his voice faded into a heavy sigh.
"You know, just... Take your time, you don't have to tell this all to us, not right now, if you're..." Daniel said to his alternate. Looked like he was already starting to regret asking it.
"No, no, I'm fine, I'll have to do this sooner or later anyway, and it's been so long already... But it's still... She had me and Sam, and she wasn't the least bit interested about Sam, but she thought I was... amusing. And she..."
Jack really didn't like the sound of what he was trying to tell. He figured they'd all got the idea. Sounded like Amaunet had tortured him. How she'd done it was completely beside the point.
"It's all right, I think we've all got what you mean," Jack told him.
"Right, good, all right... So, you--I mean, Jack and Teal'c, returned with reinforcements. They came just at the right time, since Apophis had left and taken most of his guard with him, and they got in when she was... God, they were sure she'd kill me, but then Teal'c killed her."
"Oh," the real Daniel uttered, sounding shocked.
This was bad. Really bad. Why did it have to be Teal'c, in that universe too? As if things weren't difficult enough already.
"He told me that this was better for her. For Sha're. Better to die than to spend an eternity imprisoned in her own mind, watching herself do horrible things without anything she could do about it."
Yes, Teal'c had to admit that these were words he might well have chosen himself. It had been how he had thought at that time, years ago, when he had had no idea that much of the host could actually survive. Now, he had begun to believe that saving the host might be possible.
Teal'c could find no words of comfort to offer to either of the two Daniel Jacksons.
"I cannot apologize on his behalf, for I am not him. Still, I am sorry," he said.
"He apologized himself... And then..." Jackson paused hesitantly. "Then, only a month later, he died."
"What--how?" Daniel Jackson and Major Carter said simultaneously. It was what Teal'c thought as well.
"Teal'c died. On P3X-797. The Land of Light."
"We went there too, but... God, I'm so sorry. What happened?" Daniel asked.
"When everyone else was getting sick, we went back to the planet, and the Touched attacked us, and we fought back, but there were too many... And the next thing I remember, Jack and Sam came back with the cure and healed all the Touched, but Teal'c was already..."
Teal'c remembered the incident well. They had indeed returned to the planet, but when the Touched had assaulted them, Teal'c had been able to drive them away, shooting at them. They had captured Daniel, but Teal'c had escaped. No one had been seriously harmed. It was strange to hear that his other self had been unable to repel the attackers.
"So... What became of SG-1, then?" Colonel O'Neill asked.
"Louis took Teal'c's place. Major Ferretti. We got along all right."
There were definitely some major differences between this universe and the one this Jackson came from. Sam had been more than surprised at his reaction when he'd seen her and Teal'c, but it was beginning to make sense. To think that only a month after he had lost Sha're, he'd also lost Teal'c--and then, he hadn't told yet what had happened to her counterpart. She didn't want to ask that, but he must've guessed they all wanted to hear it.
"Sam... Sam died a year or so after that. Just when she'd survived being taken over by the Tok'ra Jolinar, she died in Hadante... Some of the other prisoners, they... God, it was so wrong! She died there, just moments before we got out, and we got out all because of her..."
Sam had been there as well, SG-1 had been there, imprisoned in Hadante. She had seen what the other prisoners were like. She could remember how they'd looked at her. She didn't want to think how her alternative had died.
"I'm... That's awful, Daniel," she uttered, reaching to take hold of Jackson's hand.
"And..." he started. It sounded like he was going to add another casualty to the long list. Sam was appalled to hear that.
"It happened just before I left... Janet... I never got to her funeral."
"Jeez--what happened to her?" Jack asked.
"That's... I'm... I wanted to tell this to Jack alone, because... I know he knows me, and he wouldn't... But the rest of you, I think you know me as well, so I can tell it to all of you. Janet... God, I found her, she was dying, someone had stabbed her... And they found us, and they thought I'd done it."
Daniel nearly fell off his chair. They blamed him for killing Janet? That was completely ridiculous. It made no sense.
"You've got to see... My universe isn't like yours. I've just been here for a short while, but I've seen trust, and friendship, and loyalty. Where I come from, it's not that simple. We've had too many conspiracies, and just... Too much grief, too many bad things happening..."
"And... That's why you're here? You're just... Running from them because they think you killed her?" Daniel said, thinking that it sounded hard to believe. On the other hand, the whole idea of a universe without Sam and Teal'c was difficult to believe.
"Yes... And not just that. They... Someone framed me, I'm sure of it. They accused me of several other murders as well, including people I'd never even heard of... But whatever was behind it, it was all the same, and they wouldn't believe me... I saw their evidence, and it was way too strong. They would've had me sentenced for life. So, I had no choice but to run."
"So that's who shot you? SGC guards? Your own people?" Jack asked, sounding astounded.
Jackson's hand went to his side, to that just recently stitched wound. "They did. You were the only one who would believe me, the only one who knew me well enough to know that I couldn't have done it all.. Jack helped me out. He got me out of my cell, and gave me a zat. I don't know what they've done to him if they've found out."
That was awful, but Daniel could believe it. They'd had their share of conspiracies already, that trouble with the NID, not to mention invisible aliens and Goa'ulds and so on. He didn't know where the NID conspiracy thing would lead. He was sure they'd face it again later, and it'd not be easy. But that someone had framed him as a serial killer--after he'd lost them all, Sha're, Teal'c, Sam, Janet. That was horrible. He didn't know how he--his other self--had been able to take it all.
He didn't know how he could take it all himself. Sha're was dead. Sha're was dead in that other universe as well. Teal'c had killed her in both universes. She was gone. Gone, forever. But he couldn't think about that now.
"So... How'd you get here? If you were on the run, how could you make your way to the mirror?" Sam asked.
"In my universe, it's in the SGC, not in Area 51. And it was the only way out I could think of. I think I killed a few guards on my way here... Zatted them twice... God, that really makes me a murderer, doesn't it? I never meant to do it... I didn't want to..." his counterpart shook his head, and buried his face in his hands.
"I really think this is enough for now," Daniel told them, his throat constricted.
"I agree, Doctor--Daniel," Hammond said, quickly switching from Jackson to Daniel to keep them from getting confused, but it was still confusing. "Doctor Fraiser said she'd like to keep an eye on him. If you would please escort him to the infirmary."
"Sure thing, sir," Jack answered for them all.
They stood up, Jackson looking like he could hardly stay on his feet. Jack and Teal'c offered their arms to him.
"I shot the guards and I really am a killer... They'll shoot me on sight," he uttered desperately. "I can't go back. I can never go home."