A/N: This is mostly raw. When I say raw, I mean it was written a long time ago with midnight (quite literally) inspiration. It has been minimally edited and is not up-to-date, apart from me typing it up today.. Moving on from that fact, and the fact that I don't own anything but my plots and OCs (you know the drill by now), this is the companion shot to 'Another Year'. Most likely, I'll write a third one. Or a rewrite. Or another series of one shots because this is a tale reserved for a full length piece of fanfiction.

Pulses of flame bombarded her. She was alone, throat tightening as predatory eyes grew closer. Thousands of glinting eyes surrounded by raw skin, convulsing limbs encircled her. Or was it just her eyes?

"No, stop." She didn't even recognise the voice; it was clouded by fear and regret and the harsh reality. "I... I swear, I can't do you any...any...harm."

Unintelligible whispers scraped across her eardrums and the swaying crowd parted. One, appearing to be important to the woman too weary to check its rank, stood blurry before her as blood streaked across her vision.

"I'll be the judge of that," they rasped. A steady raising of the arm - she only had time enough to meet their eye.

Then all was nothing.

She must have hallucinated his cry.

"Her body's slowly recovering, Doctor Jackson," his little errand boy had said last time he'd seen him - it was cruel to refer to him as so, and he knew it, but it wasn't too far from his job title.

When he first came in, I said I didn't need him, Daniel thought. Now he's a brick wall between me and Sam. A very convenient brick wall.

The archaeologist leaned forward on his elbows. There was a knock at the door, he called for them to enter and raised his eyebrows when he saw the aforementioned helper shuffle in. "You're early..." he began. Only to hurriedly add, "Not that that's a bad thing, I'm just surprised."

"I wanted to talk to you, if that's okay, Doct-" the young man ground to a halt when Daniel cut him off.

"Call me Daniel."

"If that's okay with you, Daniel," he amended. "With all due respect, I think you should go and see her. It's not your fault, what happened to her. Besides, the doctors say she's getting better."

"It wouldn't matter if she could run a marathon, what's done is done. Anyway, I'm busy here," Daniel insisted, glancing down at his hands.

"Busy? No offence, but you spend all your time in your lab or your office. And all you do there is eat, work and fall asleep at 'desk of the week'."

"You think I'm railroading myself into an introvert's life?" Daniel raised an eyebrow. The younger of the two nodded. "Then it's my life. let me railroad it where I want."

And the boy did - he left. And Daniel's guilt flooded his mind, so his legs carried him to the infirmary. Lingering by a curtain, his heart pounded at the misery in her once-strong blue eyes. He turned on his heel, running from the pain they unearthed.

He must have hallucinated them following him out the door.

One day bled into another, two seasons passed and the winter was harsh enough to 'keep' him in the base. Daniel opened his office door with the intention to collapse into the desk chair, when he realised someone already occupied his space. Small. Blonde. Gradually awakening while the door clicked shut behind him. Her breathing was shallow as she met his eyes, being the first to speak (in such a tender voice that he almost choked on the sound), "Sorry, I tried the lab but it was locked."

"If you were tired, why didn't you go back to the infirmary I never knew you'd been discharged in the first place."

"I wasn't. The beds there are fine, don't get me wrong, I just can't sleep."

"The people there could help you."

"They're not you. Whoever you is right now." His brow furrowed at that. "Don't you want me here? Because I'll go-"

"No! I mean, no, don't go. It's you that shouldn't want me."

Her expression softened as the pieces of news that had drifted through the infirmary fell into place, like a childish puzzle.

"Daniel, I wasn't completely cut off from the rumour mill. I know what's been going on, and now it makes sense... There wasn't one single thing you could've done to change that situation. I'm alive because you did your best. Maybe I won't be on active duty for a bit but, after all that, it's not really top priority for me."

"I don't just forget things, Sam. I don't forget how I feel."

"Nobody does, Daniel. But think of it this way: it's a lesson, not a mistake..." Trailing off, she yawned and her shoulders slumped.

"And maybe we should sleep on it too."

"Great idea. Come here, idiot."

They were sure they didn't hallucinate the end.

A/N: Despite being proud to some degree, I apologise for this not being up to standard. Feel free to leave your opinion in a review but flames are definitely not preferable. Or welcome, I suppose. Constructive criticism is good, but please bear in mind that I'm not asking for a mile-long review. If you're doing such a thing for a competition or challenge, notify me first. Please also be aware that this is going to be overhauled with everything else in my library when I reach the completion of my four projects, and go on hiatus.

I've also realised that this story's been added to a community, made for fics which the creator has an 'interest' in. ^_^ What do I say? Hello? Thank you?