Coming Home
A random mission set after 'Homecoming'
Author note: Bare with me on this one. The Ancient story is made up and might not fit into the Ancient canon of the show. But it's a metaphor and doesn't really influence the flow. We're slowly getting to the most heartbreaking part of the entire Sam and Jack story, aka Grace. I'm trying to build up to the moment that changed it all. To do so and after rewatching the show, I felt like up to Grace, they are on such a lovely path of getting much closer. There are so many small looks and moments and big ones too, and I'm building onto those to break everyone's heart in Grace—so brace ;) This story is our of Daniel's perspective. I always wondered how he observed everything after coming back.
P3X-7J9 is undeniably paradisiacal. The temple and their campsite are nestled beside a clear-running stream, surrounded by green hills rolling up towards a ridgeline of a lush forest. The night sounds alien, and the stars above them look alien too. In some ways, it feels like a first for Daniel. In so many other ways sitting on a planet a galaxy away from home feels like the most ordinary thing to do. He's going through the pictures and notes he has taken exploring the temple during the day when he notices Teal'c look alert and stare towards the stream. It takes Daniel a couple of seconds before he hears the steps and murmur and then discovers his other two teammates stroll through the darkness towards the fireplace. They left to scan the area before the night, and Daniel is supposed to take the first watch. Daniel hears Jack chuckle softly and sees Sam smile brightly. They walk close together—not close enough to touch or to raise suspicions, yet closer than Daniel would walk next to Sam or Jack. It's not the first time since his return that Daniel notices how much closer Sam and Jack seem. The change is subtle. He's pretty sure they are not even aware, but something is different.
"It's looking clear," Jack says and plops down onto the log next to Daniel. Jack takes a sip from his canteen, pulls his hat off, and ruffles through his hair. "So, what have we got here?" He looks at Daniel, and the notes spread around him.
"Well, I'm pretty sure it's not the Lost City," Daniel says.
"I figured."
Daniel looks surprised.
"Common Daniel, if it were, you'd be non-stop talking. And since you're suspiciously quiet, you probably found something interesting for you but not for me," Jack says.
"Uh, and you let us stay here anyway?" Usually, if the first scan doesn't show anything valuable for the military, Jack aborts the mission and lets another team and archeologist explore the place in more detail.
"Senator Kinsey is in SGC, and the Colonel is avoiding him," Sam answers and looks teasingly at Jack.
"Carter," Jack rebukes her with feign outrage. Sam smiles at him and continues, "We're pre-election, and Kinsey is trying to use politics to get what he wants from the Stargate program. As the base's 2IC Colonel O'Neill is supposed to be at Kinsey's disposal when Hammond is busy."
"And no one wants that, do we?" Jack says and starts unlacing his boots. "So, you've got a good night story for us?"
"Uh, actually, yes." Daniel flips through his notes. "This place seems to be some sort of library. Maybe somewhere in all those documents, we can find a hint to where the Lost City is. But so far, it's stories. Almost like humankind's greatest stories. Homer's epics. Odyssey, Iliad, and so on."
"I appreciate Homer Simpson. But yellow men are not the greatest stories earth has to offer," Teal'c says stoically and causes Sam to giggle and Jack to look pleased.
"You are spending way too much time with Jack," Daniel says. "Homer is a Greek author who wrote poems about heroes in ancient Greece."
Teal'c bows his head slightly, and Jack smirks at Daniel.
"Anyways. We have to bring a team here to study all of it. It will take time, maybe within those epics, we can find valuable military information, but so far, it gives us a look into the lives of the Ancients. Like this story here. It tells the tale of two lovers."
Jack raises his eyebrows.
"It's a rather tragic story. Amalia and Joashu fall in love. But as it goes in all great love stories, their love is forbidden." At first, Daniel doesn't notice the change in the atmosphere, so he keeps telling the tale of Amalia and Joashu. "Amalia was a scientist and Joashu a soldier. The Ancients had strict rules about who you can marry to keep evolving their race, almost like an intellectual caste system. For one of her experiments, Amalia needed support, and that's when she met Joashu. The two fall in love even though they know their duty and rules won't allow it. So they deny themselves this love and keep working side by side. They sacrifice their love, and through this help, the Ancients escape their threatened galaxy and find ours. The sad part is that they stayed back because they thought that this was their only way to finally be together and then their planet gets destroyed by their very own people because they didn't want it to fall into the enemy's hand. They sacrificed their love for a better future they never got to have." When Daniel finishes his story, the cloud of excitement that has cloaked his head evaporates, and he notices that of all stories, this was probably the wrong one to tell.
Jack stiffens next to him; his eyes fall to his hands, where they come to rest for a brief second before they fly up again and directly find Sam's. It's the tiniest moment of forever when their eyes meet, and Daniel can almost see the connection they spin. A shared moment of acknowledgment, of sadness, of helplessness, and most heartbreakingly of forbidden love. Their bond only lasts for a millisecond but even changes Daniel forever. His heart is pounding in his chest as he watches heartache crawl onto Sam's face. She plucks her cheek in and starts to gnaw on it, while Jack raises his eyebrows before he closes his eyes and blows out a silent breath.
"Yeah, uh, that's just one of the stories," Daniel stammers, wishing nothing more but to ask Oma to turn back time for only five minutes.
"Very Shakespearean," Jack says, his eyes pinned to his boots.
They fall silent again. Helplessly Daniel looks to Teal'c, who shoots him an irritatingly annoyed look. And then Sam gets up and says, "I'm turning in. Goodnight, guys."
Jack nods without looking up, Teal'c and Daniel wish their goodnights as Sam disappears into one of the tents. The sounds of the planet become overwhelmingly loud. Daniel wonders if the animals are alarmed or if he perceives them more roaring because the silence coming from Jack is so deafening. Daniel curses himself. There had been similar moments to this: when he had tried to talk about Charlie—bad idea. When he remembered the time on the ice planet and had tried to figure out if he had seen Sam and Jack share affection or Jonah and Thera—horrible idea. There were some things they didn't talk about, which seemed to be one of the secrets why SG-1 worked so well together.
He knew it. He remembered all of it. It had taken a while, but he was sure his memories were back. They had come back like a tide. First in soft ripples, then—the more time he spent with Jack, Sam, Teal'c, in the SGC and his belongings—in monster waves that washed over him and left him to gasp for air. He remembered missions and conversations, feelings, and emotions. His childhood, school, university, his time in Egypt—those memories are back too but less vivid than his time with Sha'Re and then SG-1. It had only been five years of his life, and yet it's his most precious memory. If he had experienced and changed so much in five years, what happened to his team members in the year without him, he wonders.
"Nite, T. Daniel," Jack gets up and walks towards the second tent. The one without Sam, but the one with Daniel and Teal'c stuff. That's how they usually sleep. Sam and Jack in one. Daniel and Teal'c in the other. Because Daniel always takes the first watch, then wakes Teal'c, who wakes Jack, who wakes Sam. Not tonight, it seems. Daniel wants to say something, get his backpack out before Jack goes in, but he can't get himself to open his mouth. He's never been afraid of Jack. Not when he met him all scared and feral and ready to die. Not later when he made decisions like wiping out planets. Tonight though, Daniel is. He broke the team codex and probably something fragile between Sam and Jack. When he hears the zipper of the tent close, Daniel lets out a long breath and casts a look at Teal'c, who apparently has been watching him.
"So this hasn't changed," Daniel says—more a statement than a question and gets a classic Teal'c brow as a response. He knows he shouldn't be poking for it, but he needs to know what happened while he was ascended, so he decides to make a go for it.
"What happened while I was gone?" he asks, poking a stick into the fire.
"The Goa'Uld tried to destroy earth twice, but we prevented those measures. O'Neill became a Tok'Ra and got captured by Ba'al, the alliance was in great danger," Teal'c starts to list the events of the past year in chronological order.
"Yeah, I read the reports. I mean, the things that are not written in the reports?"
Teal'c stares blankly at him, and Daniel realizes that being able to read the jaffa's face again will take him longer than he had anticipated.
"Gossip in the SGC? Some things on missions that you 'left' out of the report. Stuff like this. Give me the juice," Daniel says.
"I do not leave things out of reports, DanielJackson. And we did not bring juice," Teal'c answers.
"Teal'c!" Daniel says, reproachfully.
Teal'c shoots him a glance that tells him not to go there. But he needs to know. Yes, it's private. Yes, they can't talk about it. But it has always influenced their team dynamics. Mainly because Daniel and Teal'c knew how to handle it. Sam and Jack might think no one has noticed how they feel for each other, but they are a quiet illusional when it comes to that.
To his surprise, Teal'c answers, "I believe MajorCarter was not pleased with how O'Neill and I handled your disappearance."
"Oh. Really?"
"O'Neill would not talk to her about it. She felt he was giving her 'good soldier crap.'"
Now it's Daniel's eyebrows that jump upwards. If he remembers right, Sam never questioned Jack's behavior. At least not verbally.
"They fought?"
"I don't believe it is our right to discuss the relationship between MajorCarter and O'Neill."
"Relationship, huh?" Daniel thinks of performing the 'I was ascended, I can't remember' number, but Teal'c sees right through it.
"You are well aware that military regulations don't allow for a relationship between MajorCarter and O'Neill."
"Yeah, we just witnessed that, didn't we?"
"Indeed."
"And yet, they seem closer."
"There were many times when we thought we had lost O'Neill too."
Daniel read the reports about how Jack agreed on taking the Tok'Ra after Sam talked to him. Daniel's pretty sure that Jack had done it because of Sam. Daniel devoured Jonas' diary with a detailed description of how Sam handled the disappearance of Jack when he was captured by Ba'al—not well. And then he got a first-hand report from Dr. Lee on how Major Carter had yelled at him for giving up on bringing Jack back when he vanished with Mayborne. Reading Jack's mission report on the events at Niirti's lab had been enough to understand how Jack must have felt being minutes away from losing Sam. Daniel had watched them in so many situations—how they cared for each other, how they worried about each other, how they always had each other's side—so he knows. It's far from being over. They fight a battle to control the feelings that rage like wildfires, and all they have is teacup to extinguish them while someone constantly drops a burning cigarette butt and ignites a new fire somewhere.
„I wish there was something we could do," Daniel sighs.
"We need to find the Lost City and destroy the Goa'Uld," Teal'c answers, and yeah, he's right. Maybe if this war is over, this great forbidden love story will have its happy end.
Love to read what you think.