Title: Until Death Us Does Part

Author: Lia

Rating: T

Classification: Romance, angst

Pairing: Daniel/Janet, Jack/Sam, Cassandra/OC

Spoilers: Yes. Singularity, Into the Line of Fire, Rite of Passage, Heroes II

Summary: Reflections of a life and a love lost.

Disclaimers: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author´s Note: Thank you Pat for beta and all the help with this. You make me better. This first chapter is Daniel/Janet, but you Jack/Sam shippers, don´t give up on me just yet, there will be more of them, if you want that is. Feedback is much wanted and appreciated. Enjoy the story!

Daniel

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Still, after months, his sleep was filled with nightmares and he couldn´t find the rest his body and mind desperately craved. And he was tired, but still, he didn´t want to close his eyes. Each night he would sit on the couch in the darkness, leaning against the soft cushions and staring into the nothingness, the silence around him comforting, and yet at the same time he hated it. Once the house had been filled with her voice, and he missed it. He missed her.

He had lost those he loved before. The familiar pain of lost filled his heart once again and he hated the world for being unfair. Didn´t he deserve at least some happiness? He had found it with her, and she had been taken away cruelly, without a warning. Like the others whom he had loved.

Most of her things were packed away, but this was still the house he had spent so much time with her. Cassandra had moved away, having not been able to live alone in the house that reminded her every second of her mother who no longer was there. But he sat in the dark living room, night after night, thinking about her and what it could have been. And as the first rays of the morning sun slowly lit the room, he woke from his nightmare and returned to base. It was how he lived. Day after day.

He wasn´t sure when or how it had all started. He just knew that he had fallen in love with her, and she had loved him back with the same fiery passion.

Maybe it was one of those times he had been lying in the infirmary, again, wounded, and she had taken care of him. Jack of course would have never used the word 'taken care' if you would ask him; she only poked and probed and threatened with her big needles when it came to him.

But to Daniel, the gentle touch of her hands, comforting words leaving her lips as she assured him that everything would be fine again were enough. He trusted her, never doubting her words.

He took to spending more time at the infirmary without a medical reason. Leaning against the doorframe and simply watching her. She would feel his presence and a soft smile played on her lips before she lifted her eyes up to meet his. And he had loved those moments.

Sometimes she had strolled in to his office, bringing him a cup of coffee, using it as an excuse to get him away from his work every now and then. And he had loved it, how she took care of him. And as the time passed, she didn´t need the excuses to come and interrupt his work; he gladly pulled her into his arms when he had a chance.

Their first date actually hadn´t been a date. He had asked her out, to have a dinner with him, and she had said yes. He had known Cassie would be spending the night out at her friend´s when he had came to pick her up, but he really hadn´t planned to pull her into a passionate kiss when she had invited him in so she could get ready to leave.

But she had pushed the door closed, wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back as deeply, and they had ended up in her bedroom, the reservation all forgotten.

And in the next morning, he had woken up his arms around her, her naked body pressed against him. He had lay still, watching her as she slept for a moment before he felt her awaken. And he had loved her all over again, pleasing her over and over again before finally collapsing on her himself, tired, sated and happy.

He could almost feel her hands on him again, touching him, loving him the way only she knew he liked to be touched. Tears rolled down on his cheek, but he never noticed them.

That morning they had stayed in bed late, listening the light rain drumming against the window. Only hours later, the voice of Cassandra as she called her mother from the kitchen, informing her that she had come home, made him leap out from the bed and search for his clothes. And she fought against the smile as she watched him getting dressed.

She had wrapped a sheet around her body, leaning up against her elbows. And he had turned to glare at her, then leaned down to kiss her, still half dressed, shirt unbuttoned, short hair messy from the wild night. And she found it incredibly sexy. She whispered it to him, and he pulled back, smiling smugly, and she laughed softly before pulling him for another kiss.

The soft knock from the door made them pull apart and he knew there was no way out now. Cassie rolled her eyes as she saw them, but said nothing. But as she closed the door, he could see her grinning, and he felt better.

And he turned to look at the woman he had spent the most passionate night of his life with, and she was smiling, her eyes filled with love and he leaned to kiss her again. And only Cassie´s shout from the kitchen that breakfast was ready and that she wasn´t going to let them stay in bed all day made them pull apart, and she giggled against his lips. And god how he loved that sound.

After that day, he couldn´t get enough of her.

That made her work hard at times. He knew she hated every time they went into a mission. He never said goodbyes to her, just kissed her softly before leaving the infirmary and joining rest of the team to step through the gate.

After returning from their missions, most of the times unharmed, but sometimes bleeding and hurt, she breathed out a long sigh of relief.

He sat on the bed, the cut in his arm bleeding slightly. She tried not to look at him as she wiped away the blood and bandaged the wound. He let his undamaged arm sneak around her waist and pulled her close against his shirtless chest.

"Daniel." Her voice was filled with emotions, like it always was when she said his name out loud.

He nodded smiling, understanding and yet ignoring her. She glared at him and he grinned. She stood between his legs, his fingers finding away under her shirt, caressing the bare skin of her back softly. And she gave up and leaned down to touch his lips with her own.

A polite cough coming from behind the closed curtain made them pull apart, and he grinned again as she stepped away and straightened her shirt. And he was still grinning as she pulled the curtain aside to see what on earth Jack O´Neill could want. He wanted nothing, and shrugged at her frown, hands deep in his pockets, and then, he asked for Carter, who was still waiting for her own check-up.

It was Christmas when he proposed her. He had talked with Cassie first, as asking for her permission to marry her mother. The teenager had jumped from her seat and thrown her arms around the man she had loved like a father since the first day. He took that as a yes.

It was late already, the snow falling from the dark sky, the temperature dropping for the night, but they didn´t notice. They sat alone in front of the fire, his arm around her, her head resting against his shoulder.

He gave her the small velvet box, and she opened it with a trembling hands. His question was soft, his voice loving and she felt tears escaping from her eyes. And he smiled, lifting his hands on her face, wiping the falling tears away from his thumb. She nodded, laughed softly through her tears. Of course she would marry him.

He hugged her close, kissing her tear-stained face, before pulling away enough to slid the ring in her finger. Cassie ran into the room in her pajamas, flopping down on to the couch between to the two people he loved the most and turned to hug her mother and then Daniel.

"I waited and waited and almost fell asleep against the door. What took you so long?" She teased him, then rolled her eyes as the two adults shared a soft kiss.

Only months after that night, she had died in his arms in the middle of the battlefield, after saving the life of the man who lay wounded on the ground in front of them.

And now he was sitting at the house that once had been theirs, sitting alone, crying. They had talked about children, their future together, and now all that had taken away. He had nothing left.

When Cassie had softly asked him if it would be alright if she would stay with Sam for a while before leaving to college, he had been relieved, and he hated himself for that. But she reminded too much of the woman he had loved more than the life itself, and he knew he lacked the capacity to comfort her when she cried, he was too lost himself.

The sun was rising, and he barely realized that he hadn´t slept that night at all. He held the ring she had once wore between his fingers, the diamond catching the rays of the sun and sparkled in the light.

She had wanted to get married in the warm summer day. The day had been set, the white, simple dress was bought and now packed away, but he had seen it. Never on her, but hanging in her closet, ready for the day that now would never come.

He sighed, and stood up. He was already late from the morning meeting, and knew that there would be a familiar car soon parked in front of the house. Like it had been so many times before. Jack O´Neill would sit in his car, waiting for him until he was ready. And he closed the front door behind him, inhaling deep the warm morning air, and walked slowly to the waiting car.

This was the day that would have been their wedding day.

End