A short little addition… I'll post the next bit very soon.
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I begin the long trek to Colonel O'Neill's place. He's my last hope. I figure I need to get to that planet and I need Major Carter to work out how the alien device works so I can get home. O'Neill will know how to find Carter. I haven't been able to find out where she's stationed. I assume this means she's somewhere classified. I begin to feel that perhaps I should have stayed at the SGC after all. I would have access to more information and if the Goa'uld aren't evil here then perhaps Kinsey isn't either. I choke at the very notion.
It's more than likely that I've started to crack. I don't feel well. I've pretty much been walking or running since I woke up in this damned place. I realise that I've barely slept, or eaten or even rested in those 96 hours. I just keep walking, ignoring my body's complaints. Ignoring the growing tension in my mind that could so very easily turn into something much more unbecoming like outright panic.
I've finally made it to O'Neill's house. It looks exactly like it did the last time I was here. For Daniel's wake. It had been a nice party. People were sad but it wasn't like the other time they'd held a wake for Daniel when O'Neill had smashed Hammond's car window. That time Daniel hadn't actually been dead though. Everyone always joked about how many times Daniel had died or been presumed dead. Until he actually did. No-one was laughing now. I think most people were comforted, however, by the fact that hadn't just died but has also ascended. Made it easier to deal with, knowing he was out there somewhere. Almost like he was the SGC's own personal guardian angel.
I'd been to Colonel O'Neill's house a few times before the wake too. It was there at the various SG team barbeques that O'Neill regularly held that I got to know Daniel better. That what I felt for him turned into more than a vague attraction. It was here in this house that I realised that I'd fallen in love with the man.
Shoving such feelings down, I knocked on the door. There was no answer so I made my way around to the back as was standard procedure at O'Neill's place. I have no clue why he didn't get a bell when half the time he couldn't hear people knocking from the front.
I make my way onto his back porch, trying not to remember the conversations I'd had with Daniel out here. Suddenly, there is a flurry of activity at the screen door. I stare as a puff of white fur throws itself at the door until it opens and then bounces out in ecstatic escape. The puppy is the ultimate epitome of cute. Cute enough to be a lethal weapon. One used to melt people's brains. It is tiny and has floppy ears. It runs up to me in the manner of a fluffy ping-pong ball, yapping excitedly. I pick it up without even thinking.
A man's voice from inside. "Goddamn! I turn my back for five seconds..." and he emerges to search for the snippet of warmth I hold in my hands. "There you are! Thanks for grabbing him. I think he's destined to be named Houdini."
I stare. The man is clothed in jeans that fit him like a glove. His blue t-shirt hugs in all the right places as well. His hair is longer than I remember. The glasses are the same. Everything else is the same. It's him. He's still talking. Rambling like he has a habit of doing. "I'm looking after his mother and the rest of the litter for one of my clients. I don't think she'd be very happy to come home to one less..."
"Daniel." I don't even mean to interrupt him but the word just slips out.