She entered Daniel's apartment and tossed her bag into the corner which he had deemed Cassie's long ago. She always loved it here, everything was so uniquely... Daniel. The old artifacts lying all over the place, the pens and journals stored in random places, the smell of worn leather and old books. She loved it, every last quirk. She looked at the couch and had an all to painful flashback.
He told her to sit down, he said that this would be a bit of a shock. She said that they had something to tell her. She said it was important.
She sat and looked between them, they shared an akward glance as they worked out how to tell her. They both looked so nervous that she just put them out of their misery, "You two are dating right?"
Their jaws had dropped and she just stared at them, her eyebrows raised expectingly, "What?... When?...How did you find out?" Daniel mumbled sheepishly.
"You two are about as subtle as a gun. Sheesh, took you long enough to tell me, I was getting worried you would never let me in on the 'secret',"Cassie said putting air quotes around the last word.
Her mom blushed and laced her fingers with Daniel's, "Well we were just waiting for the right moment," she said, smiling goofily at him.
He smiled back at her in a sort of love sick way before kissing her lightly.
"Ew, get a room," she screamed playfully tossing a pillow at them, which led to a full on pillow war.
An hour and quite a few unfortunate pillow casualties later the happy couple had surendered to the wrath of Cassie and they had celebrated her victory by taking her out for ice cream and then going to buy new pillows.
She blinked back more tears as Daniel shut the door behind them, she walked over to the couch, tracing the fabric's light pattern with her fingertips.
"What's for lunch?" she asked as she settled into the sofa, sinking back into the cushions, trying her hardest to think of anything but her mom and hold it together for just a little longer.
"Um... lunch... right, we need food," he said looking around helplessly. He found his way into the kitchen, a place he hardly ever used, "Hm... well we have pasta" she heard more cabinets being opened as he searched the small room, "and we have... pasta," he said.
"Pasta it is then," she said, she closed her eyes breathing in the smell of old books, reminding herself of other memories they all had in this place. This wouldn't be something she would forget easily, her mom wasn't a forgettable person, she was the best mom Cassie knew. Was. Cassie bit her lip as she pulled out other memories.
"JACK O'NEILL YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!" she heard her mom scream as Jack emptied the cooler of ice cold water onto her back.
He laughed meniacally as he ran and did a cannonball into the pool in their backyard where Daniel and Sam were giggling uncontrollably in the shallow end. Teal'c, meanwhile stood at the grill and smiled as he watched the scene play out in front of him.
"High Five!" Cassie called to him, crouching at the edge of the water and holding out her hand to him, he grabbed her arm and pulled her in, fully clothed, "JACK!" she screamed, splashing him.
"Mwhahaha, Jack O'Neill, Air Force Colonel, planet-saver, and evil mastermind," he said, swimming over to where Sam and Daniel were still shaking with laughter, gripping their sides. He stood taking a bow in the shallow water as Cassie glared, trying to plot her revenge.
"Don't worry Cass," her mom said in a very menacing tone of voice, from the edge of the pool,"I have some very large needles at my disposal for revenge."
Jack's gulp of fear could be heard all across the country.
***********
She sighed, they were at it again. Did they really think that she didn't notice? How he stood just a little too close to her, how he was always commenting on how pretty she looked, how when she entered the room she was all he could look at? For cryin' out loud, she would never figure out how these two came to have top security clearance.
She glanced at the clock, 2040 hours, she sighed, she would let them have their privacy. "Alright," she said convincingly, "I'm going to bed."
"Already? It's barely even nine!" Daniel said, she nearly rolled her eyes, these two were pretty dense.
"Guess I'm just tired," she said with a shrug.
"Night," she said, placing a kiss on the top of Daniel's head and then one on her mom's cheek.
She nearly laughed at their 'subtle' glances to check when she was gone, little did they know she could she everything from the staircase. As she headed up she saw Daniel nearly jump out of his chair to kiss her, 'Yeah,' she thought to herself, 'real subtle.'
***********
"Okay..." Cassie said as she was told to sit down. Everyone was there. And by everyone she meant SG-1 and Mom. "What's going on?" she asked suspiciously as she sat cautiously on the edge of her bed.
"Well, as you know you recently started dating that boy," her mom said.
"He has a name mom, and yeah... so?" she asked wondering why she was her and why everyone looked so uncomfortable.
"So there are some things that we should talk about now that you're growing up..." her mom said.
"Oh. My. God," Cassie said as she connected the dots, "This is the sex talk. You're ALL giving me the sex talk."
They all smiled sheepishly, and so began the most akward conversation of her life.
***********
He sighed as he poured the pasta into the boiling water. He hadn't meant to tell her like that, he didn't want to tell her at all, this wasn't exactly happy news, but he figured it was better she found out from him, from someone who gave a damn rather than some impersonal letter from the Air Force saying how she was an honorable officer and all that jazz.
He missed her. He missed her a lot. He had loved her, he really did and his heart ached in all the wrong places. He felt like he did right after he had lost Sha're. Why did the girl's he fell for have a tendency to die? It wasn't fair, and if it were up to him, he would lock himself away to keep himself, and whatever unfortunate girl his heart would belong to next safe. But it wasn't up to him, it was up to Jack, Sam, Teal'c and Cassie.
But he was being strong, as strong as he could be, for Cassie. He would be there for her, like no one was for him when his parents died, even if his heart was just as broken as hers. He jumped when suddenly he heard loud beeps and noticed the smoke rising from the pots.
She felt tears push past eyelids as she struggled not to cry, when she was startled from her thoughts by some loud beeps she recognized as a smoke alarm, "Daniel?" she called.
The kitchen had a foggy look to it and he was waving at the pot, "Sorry," he called back, "Everythings under control... for the most part... um... Lunch is ready!"
She nervously sat down at the table, at least she knew why her mom had never let Daniel near the kitchen.
She settled into the bed in Daniel's spare bedroom, "You sure you want to go to school tomorrow?" he asked her. They had spent the rest of the day sitting together on that couch, his arm around her and tissues strewn everywhere not really saying anything, just taking comfort in eachothers reassuring and comforting touch.
"Yeah,"she mumbled into the pillow, she had decided she would rather be with people and in school than be alone with her thoughts and memories.
"Alright," he said, she felt her bed dip as he sat on the edge, "I'll drop you off on the way to work. Sam said she'll pick you up and you can choose where to go from there," he said, trailing off.
"Okay, Night Daniel," she said turning her face out of the pillow and looking at him, at the familar crystal blue eyes.
"Night," he said, stiffling a yawn, bending down he kissed her forehead and then stood.
She closed her eyes, as she heard the door click shut, the image of her mother kept swimming in front of her eyes.
She didn't know how she was going to sleep tonight, let alone, if she was going to sleep tonight.
She couldn't stop seeing her everytime she closed her eyes.
Her mom brushing her hair after she showered.
Her mom reminding her not to forget her lunch as she pratcially ran out the door to catch her bus.
Her mom coming home on the verge of tears after they had...lost...Daniel.
Her mom in the park, holding hands with Daniel after he had come back and looking happier than she had in a long time.
Her mom... her mom.
It wasn't fair. Why her? Why not some stupid bad guy, or someone else...anyone else?
She felt tears push past her eyelids again and she felt that dreadful feeling seeping into her chest again. The feeling she had nearly 8 years ago when that disease had killed everyone she knew, her family, her friends...everyone. Alone, cold, scared, sad, everything bad mixed into one utterly hopeless feeling. She felt the cold, the aching cold spread through her and she shuddered. Her reality mixing with her nightmares, she screamed, unable to stop the yell or the tears.
She didn't hear the door open or see him run into the room, she only knew that she wasn't alone when she felt his rough touch on her arm and face. "Cassie!" he called frantically, his eyes finding hers. She stopped screaming but couldn't stop the sobs that ripped through her. He sat further onto the bed, holding her tight to him as she cried. "Shh, you're okay, I've got you," he whispered, her arms winding around his bare waist and her face buried against his chest, against the warmth of his skin. When she finally calmed and her breath stopped coming in ragged gasps she pulled away slightly. She looked up at him and saw the tracks of tears on his face, "Hey," he said, a watery smile on his face.
He hadn't been able to hold it together, hearing her sob like that, it broke him and so he cried too, hugging her tightly, needing her as much as she needed him. He had stopped before she did, pullingWhat did one say now? Did he say all that crap he'd heard when he lost his parents, 'They're in a better place now,' 'I'm sorry for your loss,' all that stuff? It was stupid, Janet's death was as much a loss to him as it was to her. He knew that if there was a heaven she'd be there now, but he had never believed it when those people had said it to him back then, so he didn't sugar coat it, he didn't try to make things better than they were, "She loved you, you know," he said saying the only thing that made sense, and she nodded into his chest. He didn't say anything else, she already knew everything he could have said and he was sure someone else would tell her those meaningless words of comfort at one point. So he had said the one thing he had wished he could have heard all those years ago?
After a while he said, "Come on," and he began getting up. She looked at him questioningly and he responded by pulling on her hand. She silently followed him to his room, her comforter curled around her shoulders, and they both settled into his bed. He turned out the lights and lay down and she curled up against him. They fell asleep like that, her head against his chest, his arm around her shoulders, like a young girl with her father after a nightmare.
Except this nightmare wasn't going to go go away, not by a long shot.
A/N: I'm planning on one more chapter, but I haven't started it yet so it may take a little longer than this one did.
Again, please PLEASE review =)