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 18
A.N. Hi. If you are enjoying the story, please, be kind and let me know. Thanks.
Sam stood up. That was Daniel; she was sure. He had been there a second ago.
She walked toward the place where Daniel had stood and checked the space with her hand.
He had looked so real; it was hard to think he was not there anymore.
She went back to her desk and called Chuck. She asked him to open communications with Earth. She needed to talk to Teal'c, urgently.
The S.G.C. let her know that Teal'c was on a mission with SG-1, so she asked to talk to General O'Neill in Washington.
Walter Harriman seemed surprised, but arranged the communication without saying a word.
"Carter?" Jack's voice asked from the Milky Way.
"Yes, sir."
"Good to hear from you, Carter. What's going on? I hope you got my congratulations on the… event, right?"
"Yes, sir, I did, but this has nothing to do with that."
"Okay…" He replied feeling impatient.
"Sir, I just… I just saw Daniel, sir."
"What? You found him?"
"No, sir. He was here, right in front of me, standing in my office."
"Carter…" He said with clear skepticism.
"I'm serious, sir; he was here. He said my name… I looked up from my desk and there he was, looking at me."
"And?"
"And then he disappeared."
"Carter," he started.
"I'm not having hallucinations, sir. I saw him. He looked different. He had no glasses and he was wearing the sweater I gave him for Christmas like ten years ago, but it was him. It lasted so little…"
"A sweater?"
"Yes, it looked like the cream one I gave him, but that can't be right, because I have that sweater in my house in Colorado."
"Oy…"
"What?"
"Carter, that's what he was wearing when I saw him."
"You saw him?"
"Not now… After Kelowna, when he ascended."
"Oh."
She sounded so discouraged that he had to say something. "Hey, Carter, maybe he's not… you know," he tried.
"Dead, sir? Well, maybe he's not dead, but if he's ascended, that can't be good. Something very bad must have happened. Perhaps he was trying to tell us… In any case, it means he's gone. I doubt the Ancients will kick him out this time, after what we did for them with the Ori."
"I don't know, Carter."
"But it makes sense, sir. That must be the reason why we haven't found out anything else about him, why we never really found his body, either." She paused. "Teal'c and you said that he came to see you when you were in trouble and things around here couldn't be going worse-"
"It will get better, Carter."
"I don't know, sir." She changed her tone. "Anyway, sir, I have to go back to work. I just wanted to talk about this with you. You know Daniel better than anyone and you just gave me the answer I needed. I'll let you know if it happens again."
Jack reluctantly hung up the phone. He had been thinking that Daniel was dead for a while now, though he did not really want to acknowledge it in front of anyone else. Now he was certain that, at least, he was not among the humans anymore. He had ascended, again.
Sam sat back in her chair. He was gone. That was what she had to understand. All those dreams of having him back one day had to go away. He was not coming back.
Perhaps that was why she had felt him somehow so many times in the last month. Maybe he came to her when she was missing him too much.
Chuck announcing an unscheduled offworld activation interrupted her thoughts. Sam ran towards the control room.
"Receiving an I.D.C." Chuck said as she was approaching him. Then he looked surprised. "It's Colonel Sheppard!" he added.
Sam ordered him to lower the shield and, as she ran toward the gateroom with Rodney, she called Security to meet her there.
When John finally crossed the event-horizon he was surprised to see the marines aiming their weapons at him. "Whoa!"
"John!" Sam said.
"Colonel," he replied before looking around and adding, "It worked! It worked. Rodney, you're a genius."
"Okay," Rodney agreed with doubt in his tone.
"John, what happened?" Sam asked.
"How much time has gone by?" John wanted to know.
"You've been missing for twelve days."
"Twelve days, twelve days… Okay, she won't have had her baby yet." He looked at Sam and tried to explain. "Look, I know this sounds kind of weird, but we're on the clock."
"John, what are you talking about?"
"I know where Teyla is."
After checking John thoroughly and finding proof of the solar flare that had caused his trip to the future, Sam agreed to let his team go searching for Teyla.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
Daniel took a deep breath. It was lost; the connection was lost... but she had seen him. He had seen it in her face; she had seen him. Perhaps she even had heard him.
How? Was he really projecting himself somehow? What image did he send? He hoped she did not get to see his actual self. He had disheveled long hair; his body showed many scars and injuries not healed yet, and he was wearing a bizarre uniform. He really hoped she had not seen him like that.
He tried to remember and he recalled what Jack and Teal'c had said about his appearances while he was ascended. He had created an image of his body, a body he did not really have at that time. In fact, he had shown different images to them. Maybe now he had created an image, too, but, if he had, he had no idea of how.
If she had seen him as he really was, at least, he was clean. That was part of the ritual; before getting them locked in their cells, all the prisoners were allowed to bathe in the river close to the prison, probably to lower the risk of infection of their wounds after a battle.
He suddenly heard a loud noise. He had heard it before; it was what had interrupted his connection with Sam. He had heard it before that, too. Someone had died in the cell and they were coming to retrieve the body. He wondered for the umpteenth time how did the guards find out so soon when someone died. It took them only minutes to be there and take care of the problem. Were they monitoring him somehow? He only wished he knew at least that.