This is probably the last full chapter. Don't worry though (I'm sure none of you are, but just in case), there's an epilogue in the works and it should be up by the middle of next week. Thanks for sticking it through!
They're in no way mine - I'm just not that lucky.
"Jack, what the hell is this?"
Jack looked up from the pile of papers on his desk. Aeda was holding a greenish-blue orb in her left hand. He smiled at the object. "Ah, that is a trouble maker. You have to be very careful not to drop it or it pings off the walls forever. Kind of like a six year old on a sugar high."
She looked at it and very carefully set it back in the box. They were slowly, but surely, clearing out his office. Technically, he still had three days left before the end of his tenure, but he wanted to get everything out and in boxes to make the move easier.
"When do you leave for DC?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Sometime next week. They set up an apartment for me. I'm going to keep the place in Minnesota, though. City life is just one of those things I'm not accustomed to."
He'd been given the position of liason between Homeworld Security and the SGC. The good news was that it allowed for him and Sam to actually pursue each other without the threat of discipline. The bad news was that it took him to DC while Sam went to Nevada. The thing that Aeda found odd was that neither one of them seemed at all worried.
Sam arrived at the door as Jack dropped a stack of papers into the recycle bin. She had civilian clothes on and a stack of boxes. "I've brought extras," she said.
"How's your office looking?" Jack asked as she set the boxes down beside his desk.
"Empty," she said with a frown.
"Well, you could always stay," he said and kissed her cheek. "I think Daniel's going to get a complex, what with you and me leaving now and Aeda abandoning him in a couple of weeks."
Aeda flushed as Sam's head shot up and the older woman looked at her in disbelief. "You're leaving?" she asked.
Jack looked at Sam, then at Aeda. "You didn't tell her?" he asked.
Aeda shook her head. "I only just told Daniel, before Christmas. I was kind of waiting for the right time." She frowned at him and he was again reminded of just how much she looked like her mother.
"Oops."
Sam looked at Aeda for a long second, then crossed the room to where the younger woman stood. She looked back at the general. "We're going for coffee. Want some?"
"Nope. I've had my fill of the turpentine for today. I'll hold down the fort."
Sam linked her arm with Aeda's and pulled the younger woman out of the office and down the hall, towards the mess. "What's going on?"
"The professor that asked for my sabbatical is retiring. As such, the department chair asked me to come back at the beginning of the spring term, which is in a month."
"And you're going?" Sam actually sounded surprised.
Aeda stopped in the hallway, forcing Sam to either dislodge her arm or stop with her. She did both. "Yes, I'm going. My life is in Cambridge, Sam. My job, my house, my favorite bookstore. They're all in Cambridge."
Sam frowned. "Nothing's keeping you here?" she asked and Aeda understood her meaning immediately.
"I'm broken, Sam. No one wants broken things for very long."
"Aeda, you know that's not how he thinks about you."
She nodded, looked at her watch through watery eyes. "I've got to get home and feed Bear. Tell Jack I'll talk to him later." She headed back towards the elevators.
"Aeda, wait!" Sam called after her, but Aeda ignored her.
She rushed onto the elevator and hit the up button. At the surface, the doors opened and she bolted from the claustrophobic enclosure. In her haste, she never saw Daniel until she collided with him, her nose bumping off his chest.
"Ow," she said and rubbed the appendage.
"Aeda, are you okay?" he asked.
She nodded. "Sorry about that. I wasn't looking where I was going."
"You're leaving? I thought we were going to go over the Hiranimus text tonight."
She took a couple of steps away from him, towards the parking lot. "I have to get home to Bear. I'll call you later, though. We can work on it at my place if you want."
She waved and then walked quickly towards her car. If he hadn't been watching, she would have ran.
The cabin was, perhaps, the main thing Aeda would miss. Or at least she was trying to convince herself of that. She loved the rustic comfort of it and the sunsets were unlike anything she'd seen in Cambridge, or most of the world for that matter. The back porch was the perfect place to take it all in, and on her final night in Colorado, that's just what she was doing.
Her father's old cardigan was wrapped around her and she had a pair of Tim's old wool socks on her feet. Bear sat with his head on the top step, snoring slightly. The cabin was practically empty, save a suitcase and some bedding. She'd pack them into the trailer in the morning.
Jack and Sam, both of who were in town for a couple of days, had come by to wish her luck, help her pack, and to say good-bye. She had promised them she'd come for a visit, maybe in the summer when the University was a little less hectic. Teal'c had been with them, and he had surprised her by leaving her with a strong hug and an eloquent farewell.
It should have surprised her that Daniel wasn't with them, but it didn't. They hadn't spoken or even seen each other since the night he'd come over to work on the Hiranimus text. What had started out as an insignificant argument about dinner had turned into an all out verbal war. Things had been said that couldn't really be taken back – she'd called him a coward and had thrown him out when he'd challenged her reasons for going back to Cambridge. In the end, he'd tried to kiss her, perhaps to keep the words from spilling out, and in her anger she'd slapped him. They'd stared at each other, stunned, and Daniel had left her to cry on the front porch in the dark.
She hadn't told anyone about that night and her excuse to Jack for not coming in was that she had to pack and get her things in order before she left because she was leaving a week earlier than she'd originally planned. She knew he suspected something was amiss, but she couldn't face that part of her, couldn't explain it to someone else. It was ugly and it was not something she wanted to show the world. She hadn't felt anger like that since Tim's death and it scared her.
She was considering this when Bear's head perked up, alert to an intruder she could neither hear nor see. He growled, barked once, and stood.
"Hello?" a familiar voice called out of the dark and Bear's protective stance receded. He bounded down the steps, his nub of a tail wagging, and rushed at the dark outline that advanced from the side of the cabin.
It took a minute for her eyes to adjust, but when they did she found herself staring at Daniel Jackson. She felt tears prick at her eyes and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep them at bay.
"Hi," she managed.
He came into the light and she saw the circles under his eyes, the tiredness that had settled onto his shoulders. She could also see the faint outline of a hand on his cheek and it broke her heart.
"Jack said you were leaving tomorrow."
She nodded. "I want to give myself enough time to settle back into things. I'm afraid of what my office is going to look like after six months of being gone."
He nodded. "Aeda, I…" He took a step closer, faltered.
"I didn't think I'd see you again," she said and her voice broke. He came closer, up the stairs, tried to reach for her, but she shrank from his touch. "No, don't touch me. Why would you want to? I hurt you, I physically hurt you. I don't know what happened that night, but it scared me. It still scares me." She clamped down on a sob. "You should hate me, Daniel, and I wouldn't blame you."
He looked at her and she saw the sadness in his face. "We were angry and sometimes we do things we don't mean when we're angry. And I don't hate you, Aeda. I think…" He stopped himself.
"What?" she asked.
"I've never met anyone like you. I've never been more challenged by a person. I've never felt more focused than when I'm working with you." He took her arms, pulled her up to her full height, and leaned in so that his forehead rested against hers. "I haven't loved anyone since Sha're, mostly because I haven't allowed myself to. You broke through that."
"I slapped you."
"Trust me, others have done worse, or haven't you heard the story about how I became a Go'uld sex slave?"
She couldn't help but laugh. He kissed her then, wiped away the tears that had pooled on her cheeks, and wrapped his arms around her. They stood that way for what seemed a long time.
"It's cold out here," Daniel said.
"There's a fire in the living room. And blankets."
He grinned. "Why, Ms. Harrison, are you trying to seduce me?"
"Is it working?" she asked, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"Actually, yes. Quite effectively."
This time, she grinned mischievously. "I can tell," she said.
In a cliché she would never forget, he swept her off her feet and carried her inside the cabin. He swung the door shut with his foot, leaving Bear on the porch. The Boxer whined once, decided it was a lost cause, and settled in for the night.
She quietly dressed with Bear standing sentinel at the front door. Daniel was asleep on the floor by the dying fire. The bedding belonged to Jack, so she wasn't worried about not taking it with her. She stuffed her rumpled pjs into the suitcase and zipped it up. She set the bad down near Bear, who looked up at her with something akin to sadness. She scratched his ears and he yawned.
"I know, buddy," she said softly.
She took the key from her key ring and set it on the island in the kitchen. She had comprised a note early on in the morning when she'd first awakened. It sat underneath the key and had a simple message written on it: "Boston is beautiful in the spring. Love, A." Below that was her phone number. She stared at it for a moment longer before finally leaving the kitchen.
Bear was still standing guard at the door. She glanced into the living room. He was still asleep, his hair sticking out in all sorts of directions. She smiled and picked up her bag.
"Come on, Bear," she said quietly and they went out the front door.
She threw the suitcase into the backseat and Bear jumped into the hatch. She took a minute to look at the cabin and the lake beyond it, then she got in the Range Rover and she and Bear said good-bye their short-lived Colorado life.