Title: Though a Candle Burns…
Chapter: 5 of?
Email: What if Daniel had managed to get Jack to ascend in Abyss?
Category: Angst/Romance
Rating: Teen
Pairing: S/J (C'mon people, you're really still reading this part?)
Season: 6
Spoilers: Meridian and Abyss are the obvious ones, spoilers through season 6.
Content Warnings: None.
Archive: My Site: Yes
SamandJack: Yes
Anywhere else: Yes
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Author's Note:
They rematerialised in a room at the SGC. Jack looked around himself, taking in his surroundings. "This is the women's locker room!"
Daniel rolled his eyes and Jack could've sworn Oma sighed.
Sam was sitting on the bench in her workout gear. She was crying.
Teal'c entered the room behind her. "MajorCarter."
"Teal'c, this is the women's locker room." Sam said, sniffing and wiping her eyes.
"It would appear that you are the only one in here," Teal'c said, looking around, "And you are fully clothed."
"Nice one, T." Jack muttered, unable to take his eyes from Sam's face.
Teal'c took a seat beside her on the bench.
"You miss O'Neill?"
"That obvious?" She asked, half-sarcastically.
Teal'c just looked at her.
"You guys must hate me, I'm being so selfish."
"We do not, and you are not." Teal'c said gently.
"This is so stupid." She said. "It's just, it feels like we just lost Daniel, and I don't know if I can…"
She began to cry again. Teal'c leaned towards her and pulled her into a hug.
Jack watched with Oma and Daniel as the tenuous allegiance of Tau'ri, Jaffa and Tok'ra at the alpha site disintegrated.
Teal'c was standing at the base of the ramp in the gateroom. Sam and Jonas were standing in front of him, flanked by what seemed to be half of the base personnel.
"Really wish you weren't leaving, Teal'c." Jonas said, shaking the larger man's hand.
Teal'c inclined his head. "I must, JonasQuinn."
Sam looked up at her friend. Jack was shocked at her appearance. She looked… gaunt.
There were dark circles under her eyes and her skin looked sallow. Her uniform was crumpled and she didn't seem to be standing straight.
"MajorCarter." Teal'c said softly.
"Teal'c."
"I shall miss you."
Sam looked at him sadly. "I'll miss you too, Teal'c."
"We will see one another soon." Teal'c assured her.
"I hope so." Sam said.
Teal'c pulled her into a hug.
"Thank you, Teal'c." Sam said, pulling back. "For everything."
"Thank you, Samantha." Teal'c said warmly.
She smiled at him, appreciating his use of her first name.
He stood back and inclined his head towards her.
He threw a salute to General Hammond and the assembled personnel, turned and headed up the ramp and through the event horizon.
As the wormhole disengaged and the gateroom began to empty Sam stared up at the Stargate. She looked utterly alone.
Jonas put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm okay, Jonas." She said, not unkindly, not looking around at him.
He opened his mouth to say something more, but closed it again and shook his head gently.
Sam stayed staring at the Stargate.
Jonas turned and quietly left the gateroom, passing Janet Fraiser on his way out.
"Sam?"
"Hi, Janet." Sam said, no real warmth in her tone.
"Must be strange." Janet remarked, looking at her friend out of the corner of her eye.
"What?"
"Being the last one." Janet said.
Sam remained silent.
"Last member of the original SG-1." Janet pressed. "First Daniel, then Jack-"
Sam broke in, "Stop it."
"Why?" Janet asked. "Sam, you have to move beyond this."
Sam spun to look at her friend. "Move beyond it? Janet, he was tortured again and again before Baal killed him, and it was my fault! How the hell am I supposed to move beyond that, Janet? Just carry on like it never happened? Like I never-"
"Never what?" Janet asked.
"Leave me alone." Sam said, pushing past her friend and out of the gateroom.
Janet was in General Hammond's office, standing almost at attention opposite her superior officer.
"You're telling me what, Doctor?" Hammond asked. He didn't sound pleased.
"I don't think Major Carter should be on active duty, sir. She isn't up to it." Janet was staring straight ahead, not meeting the General's eyes.
Hammond sighed. "I'm not going to pretend I don't understand what's going on here, Doctor. But we can't afford to take Major Carter off of active duty for the time being. In the last few weeks we've lost too many officers to allow for it." He looked downcast. "Cant you talk to her? You're her friend, perhaps it would help her to talk about it."
"I've tried, sir. She won't talk about it."
As the scene around them faded to nothingness, Jack was aware of Daniel glaring at him.
"What?" He snapped irritably.
"You can stop this." Daniel said. "You can make this better."
"I can't." Jack argued.
"Why not?" Oma asked.
"That's not fair. You guys're tag teaming me!"
"Why not?" Daniel and Oma asked in unison.
Jack glared at them. "I'll make it worse." He said, subsiding slightly.
"How is that even possible, Jack?" Daniel demanded.
Jack shrugged defensively. "Aw, c'mon, Daniel, you know me."
"That's not a reason, Jack. You can fix this. You're just being unbelievably selfish."
"I am not." Jack shot back.
"Why won't you go back, then?" Daniel asked.
Jack was silent.
"You were not meant to die, Jack." Oma said softly. "What is happening now is wrong."
"I'm not that important." Jack muttered.
"You are to Sam." Daniel said. "I couldn't see it so much when I was there, but… she needs you Jack. All those times you turned to her and asked her for another choice, it was equal parts saving the world and her need not to let you down that drove her to the solution. She will die without you there to prove herself to, Jack. Jonas and Colonel Reynolds too."
Jack remained silent.
"Not just them." Oma said. "The SGC will fall as a direct result of your death. Without the support of the Tau'ri, both the Tok'ra and the Jaffa will fail." She looked at Jack intently. "Your death has already begun a chain reaction that will rapidly spiral out of control. The Tau'ri will be enslaved by a Goa'uld once more, they will regress. This time there will be no rebellion; there will be no burial of the Stargate."
"What about the Asgaard? The protected planets treaty?" Jack asked, noting that Daniel was also looking quite shaken up by Oma's words.
Oma nodded sadly. "I will show you the Asgaard."
"Where are we?" Jack asked, looking around at the desolate landscape.
"A central Asgaard planet." Oma replied.
"I can't see the Asgaard livin' here." Jack said.
The planet was… dead. There was one structure, looming in the distance.
"They don't anymore, Jack." Daniel said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Jack asked.
"Look closer at the ground." Oma directed.
Jack knelt down to examine the ground beneath their feet. What he saw made him recoil in horror.
"Those're replicator blocks!"
Oma nodded. "You are correct."
"They took over here, Jack."
"But… they're the Asgaard!"
"This is not what caused the Asgaard to fall." Oma said sorrowfully.
Jack blinked. When his eyes opened again, he was inside what seemed to be the structure he had seen in the distance.
There were several humans in the large room.
"Who're they?" Jack asked, staring at them.
"They're replicators, Jack." Daniel said. "The Asgaard tried to trap them with some sort of time dilation device, to slow time down until they could solve the problem, but-"
"But the bugs figured it out." Jack said grimly.
Daniel nodded. "They turned it the other way. Time passes faster here now. They've evolved."
Jack tore his gaze away from the strange creatures in front of him and turned to look at Daniel and Oma.
"Don't look at me like that." He snapped.
"Like what?" Daniel asked.
"All holier-than-thou." Jack told him. "I could never have fixed this. Not in a million years. Maybe Carter-"
He broke off at the look Daniel sent him. "She can't Jack. The Asgaard never even got the chance to ask for her help, and Sam couldn't have saved them anyway."
"So what happened to the Asgaard?" Jack asked, turning to look at the super-evolved replicators again.
"They died, Jack." Daniel said.
"All of them?"
"Yes." Oma said. "The Asgaard were once great friends of the Ancients. It was a sad day when they were eradicated."
"Does the SGC know what happened?"
"They do." Oma confirmed.
"Take me there." Jack said.
"You're going back?"
"No, Daniel. I want to see… them."
