Memories of the Heart by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. A mission goes horribly wrong while Sam's life is changed forever. Spoilers: All seasons, including 10 to the end.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.
Memories of the Heart
Chapter 11
A.N. Hi. If you are enjoying the story, be kind and let me know. Thanks.
Sam left the office feeling very happy. She went straight to Daniel's office and started working on his things. People from Daniel's department would come in the following days and take care of transforming it, but she needed to collect all of Daniel's belongings first. That task changed her mood in seconds. Every object she touched brought a memory of Daniel and the pain grew by the minute. Around midday, she closed the door, sat at his desk, and cried.
When she finally calmed down, she went back to work, but everything seemed different. She walked around the round, putting objects on boxes, replacing books on the shelves, packaging delicate artifacts, and mostly concentrating on keeping herself breathing. She kept thinking that if she did not pay attention, she would stop breathing at all and she would join Daniel wherever he was.
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Daniel ripped a piece of the cloth that served him as a shirt these days. Then, he carefully re-bandaged his arm. There was a gash that was still bleeding and a group of smaller injuries that he did not want to get infected. Soon, the old woman would return and apply her herbal remedies in all his wounds, but he had to survive until then.
By now, he had learned the pattern that all the events followed in this new world. First, there would be a battle where all the warriors would face a new enemy every week. After the battle was finished, they would get some days inside a solitary cell to regain strength and recover from their injuries. Many would not survive this period. By the end of the week, the old lady would use her medicine to accelerate the healing so that the survivors would be ready for the next battle. Every three weeks, the lucky ones, those who did not die in battle or because of the wounds received, would be taken to a lab where all sorts of experiments would be performed.
Daniel knew that most of that time he would be unconscious. It had happened twice and he only had vague memories of the laboratory while he lay down in a slab and all kinds of wires were connected to his body. It had made him long for the I.C.U. of the S.G.C. Infirmary.
A new cycle was ending and, once again, he had survived the battle and his injuries. For a couple of minutes before combat began, he had thought about letting the enemy kill him and end it all right there, but as soon as the fighting had started, his survival instinct had kicked in. Now, he was in pain, but somehow that was not what affected him the most. He had learned how to manage that.
What really worried him was that he could not sense any of his friends anymore. For almost a month, every time he had focused his mind on one of the persons he had left behind in Astrada, he had been able to feel them in some way. He had even felt other members of the S.G.C. Now, he could not reach anyone.
He had thought that if he strengthened the link, he would be able to communicate with them, but, after weeks of nothing, he was losing hope. They probably were not looking for him anymore.
He lay down on the floor and tried to think of something positive. The first image that came to his mind was Sam, with her long hair tied in the back of her head and the new uniform she had tried on before going to Atlantis. At least she was all right. Or he would convince himself of that to keep on breathing.
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The rest of the week was mostly the same for Sam −one constant effort to avoid the darkest depression− and the fact that his friends from SG-1 were out on a mission did not help. Until Friday morning, when the twelve kilogram box got to her door.
She carefully opened the top of the box and followed the procedure to check that she had been delivered the right materials. After she was satisfied that all the numbers were the right ones, she re-taped the lid. Later that afternoon, she received the storage unit. She was ready to go back to Atlantis. She had until Sunday to get all the other items she was taking for her people, but she was ready.
That night she dreamt of blonde little babies with blue eyes and glasses…