A Few Weeks Later
Daniel rocks his daughter, Mary, to sleep. He's done that often with Sha'uri's daughter, and he feels no end of guilt that he hasn't been like that with his other children. He walks into the room to see Farida holding hands with Walter. He blinks.
She jumps away from him, "I am so sorry, Daniel, I'm so sorry. Please don't let them prosecute me. I promise I will never let it happen again."
"Stop," he says, looking at Walter's face. "Do you love her?"
The poor man looks like he's going to pass out.
"Look, you're not in danger. I'm not going to punish her or you. I'm certainly not going to let them kill her. If you're in love, I'm going to sell her to you."
"Really?" Walter asks.
"You love each other?" Daniel asks.
"I do," Farida says, hanging her head, "But I love my kids more."
He walks over, and cups her face with his hand, "Did you ever know me? I'm not going to take your babies from you. I do want to see them sometimes. But I'd be fine writing them into the wedding settlement. Assuming, of course, you'd be fine raising another man's baby," he says.
Hasaid comes into the house with all of the children but Mary in tow, and Farida's oldest runs to Walter. Walter picks the boy up, and gives him a kiss on the cheek. "It would be my honor," he says to Daniel.
"What is going on?" Hasaid asks.
"Farida is getting married."
"She's already married," Hasaid points out.
"She's getting re-married to Walter," Daniel says.
"Why?" the jealous sister wife asks.
"Because she's in love," Daniel says.
"When does love come into this?" Hasaid asks bitterly.
"If you ever fall in love…" Daniel begins.
"She's just leaving her kids for Sha'uri and I to take care of?" Hasaid asks.
"She's taking the kids with her," Daniel says.
"Great, then I'm the only one that's left unloved," she says, leaving the house.
"It's her day to take care of the kids," Farida says, puzzled.
"You two bring me the paperwork. I'll watch the kids," Daniel says.
"We were going to talk about the Stargate," Walter points out.
"It will wait," Daniel says.
"You've never watched them all by yourself before," Farida says.
"They're my children," Daniel says.
"They're little. I'll just run a couple of them over to Sam and Janet," Farida offers.
"This is their last day together as a family. We're not separating them," Daniel says.
Farida looks at her husband, a man that she never quite loved, but one that she respected, one that she admired. "They'll have more days together. We'll make sure of it. We'll still be a family, just… a different one."
"Ok if I hug your wife?" he asks Walter.
"She's actually still your wife, so go ahead," he says with a laugh.
"I'm sorry, Farida, and I wish you the best," he says into her ear as he hugs her.
-0-0-0-
Hours later, Sha'uri returns home to see that all of the Jackson children, apart from her own daughter, who is too small, are climbing on her husband.
"Where is Hasaid?" Sha'uri asks, picking Mary off the floor where she is laying on her belly.
"I don't know."
"She just, what? Dropped off the kids and disappeared?" Sha'uri asks in alarm.
"She was mad," he explains.
"About?" Sha'uri says.
"I'm selling Farida," he says.
"You're selling her? Selling a person?" Sha'uri says in shock and dismay. Her husband is obviously not the man that she thought he was if he can talk so cavalierly about the selling of a person he's been sleeping with for years.
"Only because she wants to be sold. She fell in love with Walter. Walter!" Daniel says excitedly.
"So you're just assuming I'm going to raise some other woman's kids?" Sha'uri asks.
"She's taking them with her," he says.
Sha'uri looks like someone has just slapped her. "She's taking the kids? The ones I've held and fed and loved for the past three years."
"One of them was only born a year ago, so…" Daniel starts to joke before he realizes with horror that this is not a joking moment. "We're still going to see them," he rushes on.
"You're giving away family," she says.
"I'm giving my wife freedom to choose someone she loves," he says.
Sha'uri is starting to cry, "Our family is falling apart."
"I love you, Sha'uri, and you and I are never falling apart," he says, moving to hold her.
She picks Farida's babies off the ground, and goes to the couch to hold them. They start to fuss, and Daniel brings over some toys to keep them amused. He's about to sit down with them when Mary starts to cry. He stands up to take care of his baby daughter.
Hasaid returns to the house, and sees her son alone on the floor. She looks at Daniel, and says, "I have a child growing within me. You cannot kick me out."
"I don't have any intention to kick you out, Hasaid. You have a home with me as long as you want. You will only leave if you ask me to leave. You're really pregnant?" he asks.
She had intended to lie. To trap him with a baby. She'd pretend to lose it she didn't become pregnant soon enough to fool him. But he isn't happy. He's resigned. He'll take care of her child, but he doesn't want her to have any more. He'll stand by her. But he doesn't love her.
"I'm not pregnant," she says, grabbing her son off the floor. "And I want to leave."
Sha'uri starts to cry again, "We're falling apart."
"Hasaid, you don't have to go," Daniel says.
"I didn't choose you, Daniel. Not really, I was a child. I haven't been a good wife," Daniel starts to object, but she waves it away, "I've been a bitch, and I've done it on purpose. I've been angry, because this… isn't working. Do I have to marry someone else to leave? Because you are better than many," she says with sudden fear. Her husband has never beat her or starved her.
"No, we'll find a way for you to live by yourself if that's what you want."
"What about Justin? You're not going to take him with you, are you? You can't raise him as a single mom," Sha'uri says.
"Farida didn't have to give up her babies to leave, why should I have to give up my baby?" Hasaid asks, holding him closer to her heart.
"You can take your son with you, Hasaid."
-0-0-0-
Daniel is surprised when Sha'uri comes into his bedroom that night. She is shocked by his surprise.
"I know it's not my night, but I figured I was the last wife standing."
"C'mere," he says, holding out his hands to her. "You ok?" he asks her.
"I should be asking you the same question. You're losing two wives. All you have left is me," she says, sitting on the end of the bed.
"Oh, sweetie, you're enough. You are all that I ever wanted," he says, trying to rub her back.
She leans forward so he can't reach her anymore, "I wasn't enough."
"Sha'uri," he says, sitting up in an attempt to get her in his arms.
She stands up, and crosses her arms. "What if I never had Mary? Would you be letting all your kids go? What if she's it? What if I can't give you another baby? Are you going to buy another wife?"
"Sha'uri, no, I love you."
"When you bought another wife, it didn't feel like it," she says.
"I'm sorry. I screwed up when I married someone else. I knew that right after I married each of them. But I couldn't take it back without hurting them, at least until now. I loved you so much, and we were so happy. Somehow I thought that another wife would make me happier. And I could save her from some abusive man. And when Hasaid didn't work out, I thought having another one would balance things out. To be fair, Farida did. Neither of them was you. Neither of them made me happy."
She softens toward him, and takes one step toward him, although she was still staying out of his reach. "What about Mary?"
"I love kids. I would love to have more kids. But if you and I can't have kids, I don't want kids. I hate myself for this, but Mary is… different."
"So you wouldn't let her go?" Sah'uri accuses. Her sister wife leaving has shaken her faith in the stability of her family.
He takes a big breath, "If I thought the only way for you to be happy was for you to leave with her, I would let you do it. But it would destroy me, Sha'uri."
"I don't know if I would ever be enough for you in the bedroom."
"Sha'uri," Daniel's voice says scolding.
"What? You've had three people, Daniel! Night after night. I've only ever had one. Am I just not supposed to think about it? Because I do, Daniel! We all do. Am I not supposed to talk about it? Just play nice, and pretend it isn't an issue?" she cries.
"I'm sorry," he says.
She closes her eyes, "I might be able to forgive you. Let me tell you this though, if you ever sleep with another woman, my heart will be broken, forever."
He wraps her in his arms, "Honey, from this moment I am never going to betray your trust again. It's you and me, love, for the rest of our lives."
She pulls back, and searches his eyes for a while. "I love you far too much to ever say no to you."
"I'm going to try not to take advantage of that in the future," he says.
-0-0-0-
They get the gate to work. All the gates had gone cold and dead when the Goa'uld technology had stopped working. Now, one by one, they are awakened by the people of Earth.
Jack leads the first team through the gate. He is lighting a fire of rebellion. It spreads like flame on dry kindling through the galaxy.
All he has to say is "the gods can be slain, and here are the people slaying them".
The Gou'ald technology has gone cold and dead. Countless Goa'uld and Jaffa had died, marooned in space. Even on a planet, without their ships and weapons, they are like a turtle out of its shell.
The people of the Milky Way rose up, planet by planet, tribe by tribe, to slay their gods.
The sleeping Goa'uld, and the Jaffa deep in kal-no-reem, vanquished with sticks and rocks. Then the survivors awaken, and kill their human attackers.
The numbers of the Goa'uld shrink from millions to thousands. The humans become bolder, and attacks increase.
Their enemy's numbers shrink from thousands to hundreds.
The last of the Goa'uld are being hunted down and exterminated from the face of the galaxy.
-0-0-0-
Jack turns on the light of the underground bunker, and Daniel's jaw drops when he sees the number of books.
"I've never seen so many books in one place in my entire life!" Daniel explains.
"I've been fighting the Goa'uld so long that I forgot why I got started. Twenty years ago, it was this room. The wisdom of dead men that someone else had preserved."
"I don't even know where to begin. They want books to form a new government on, but I'm going to have to do a complete survey. This is going to take weeks or months."
"Grab anything that looks Greek or is by Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, George Washington, Elizabeth Caty Stanton, Winston Churchill, or Mohamed Gandhi."
"You know these books well," Daniel says.
"I risked my life for them, so I would hope so," Jack says with a smile, starting to gather the ancient books together.
-0-0-0-
In the council chamber, the wisdom of a thousand worlds is piled on the table. Some of them are ancient stones carved by people who are long dead. Some is scraped on papyrus or the skin of animals. Some are bound books. They are written in the languages of a million people groups.
The lawyers, and scholars, former Goa'uld officers, and philosophers gather together to bend over the books.
Humanity is rising from the dust to face her bright future.