Rising from the Ashes of Ascension

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: As much as I might wish, I do not own Stargate: SG1, Highlander: the Series, or any recognizable characters from either show. If I did, I wouldn't be working in the public schools system. However, any characters that are not from either show are mine and I will use and abuse them as I see fit. Everyone else will be returned eventually, for I am only borrowing for awhile, but they might end up a bit scuffed.

Warnings: Potty language, violence, and occasional sexual references

They made it through the briefing with little trouble. The whipping was mentioned to the General, but with a sublet shake of Daniel's head, the matter was largely ignored. The real trouble had been when they were undergoing their post-mission exam with Dr. Fraiser and her bunch of sadistic nurses.

The minute Brendan of SG-12 said that Daniel had been whipped by the blue-skinned aliens the nurses were practically fighting each other to examine the poor doctor. Thankfully Janet came to his rescue and shooed everyone, outside of SG-1 and Dr. Pierson, away.

"It's healed Janet," Daniel said quietly.

"Let me see," Janet said briskly, not trusting the Immortal's word (or she just wanted to get him half naked).

Daniel rolled his eyes and shucked his shirt, revealing the smooth, yet blood-stained skin across his back. "See, nothing to worry about."

"How bad was it?" she asked the others, giving them a steely look, that brooked no arguments. She wanted the truth.

"It was pretty bad. His skin was in shreds. He got hit in the head too," Jack said, looking troubled.

"Well, you healed up pretty well," Janet said, making a few notations on a chart in a file. "I'm going to say that you had a few lacerations and bruises, but nothing that requires any medical intervention beyond ice a few bandages."

"Thanks Janet," Daniel said and jumped off the exam table and pulled his filthy t-shirt back on.

"Daniel," the good doctor called out. "Just because you healed physically, that doesn't mean you're okay."

Daniel turned around to face her. "I know," he said with a dead sounding voice, "but it's something I have to work out. Besides, this wasn't the first time something like this has happened to me."

"I know Daniel. I remember what happened to you in South Dakota," she said, her warm brown eyes filled with concern.

Daniel laughed without any real humor. "That was child's play Janet and in the grand scheme of it all, so was today."

The doctor just gave him a look of worry, but didn't take it any further. She knew that her friend had countless lifetimes of experiences under his belt and she couldn't begin to understand how he managed to keep it together like he did (for the most part). She still worried though.

SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1

Brendan, Pierce, and Tracey all begged off. It was Wednesday night and that meant it was Halo night. Adam, who couldn't stand videogames, begged off and chose to spend the evening with the members of SG1.

After cleaning themselves up and finishing up some necessary tasks, they all headed over to Jack's home. Daniel road over with Adam, since his SUV, upon his death, had been given to Cassie. He didn't want to take it away from the girl; there were kinder ways to torture teenagers than take away their ticket to freedom. Besides, he finally remembered that beyond his salary and savings from his job with the SGC, he actually had more money than most small countries. It wasn't as if he couldn't afford to get a new car.

He promised himself that tomorrow, after he had finished shopping for his home and its furnishing, he'd find suitable transportation for Dr. Jackson.

"So," Methos started, keeping his eyes on the road, not wanting to wreck his Range Rover. "How are you doing?"

"Peachy," Danil sullenly replied, dropping any pretense that he was nice, normal, vanilla Dr. Daniel Jackson. While he wasn't feeling overly homicidal at the moment, he wasn't happy.

"I'm sure you are. Feel the need to find a couple of horses and go riding again?" the slightly older Immortal asked.

"Jack, Sam, and Teal'c would make interesting substitutions for War, Famine, and Pestilence," Danil snorted. "Somehow I can't see Teal'c actually eating someone."

"But you'd be there, following in our wake, taking out those that we missed," Methos said, his mind reaching back over the centuries. "We were unbelievably fucked up. So many things to regret."

Danil nodded his mind also on the past. "Yeah, we were, but it was a different time. People and things were different back then. Things were so much easier though. You did what you had to do to survive, showed the world that you were strong and you were not someone to take on. You protected yourself and yours at all costs."

"We tended to do more than that. It was a brutal time and we were beyond brutal. Be thankful that you weren't with us all the time we rode," Methos advised his friend. "If you had, you would have had a more memorable part in the Bible.

"Let me call my press agent and let him know how sad I am over that," he said; a bitter tone in his voice. "How in the hell did Oma ever decide that I was worth of Ascension? I was a monster," Daniel asked, not understanding what the Ancient saw in him that made him worthy in her eyes. His memory of that year with the Ascended was still a blank to him. He could remember pretty much everything from before the accident on Kelowna, but that one year was a complete mystery to him.

"That was a long time ago my friend. We changed, you changed."

"Not a whole lot apparently. I remember what I was like back in South Dakota. Hell, I wanted to fucking nuke that place with the overgrown Smurfs today," Danil said, scrubbing his face with this hands. "I only hit the guy, but once upon a time I would have staked him out in the sun over an anthill covered in sap after I burnt his village to the ground."

Methos shrugged. "Further proof that you've grown," he said. "Danil, are you hearing voices screaming at you for vengeance?"

"I did," he admitted.

"Did you give in to them? Did you let your darker nature take control?"

Danil shook his head in denial. "Of course not, you were there."

"See, there's further proof that you are a good person at heart and not the monster that you once were. You've just undergone some terrible times which has had a great impact on your life and outlook. Oma saw and knew what your past had been like, but she also saw what you had become since then. You hear the voices that scream for violence, the same as me, but you know how to ignore them and only let the darker side out when it is absolutely necessary. What happened on your vacation was not your fault. You got caught up in one of the most out there situations ever conceived, but it was not your fault," the Really Old Guy pontificated while stopped at a red light, waiting for it to turn green.

Danil digested that, looking out at the quiet, safe world that was outside of the vehicle, totally unsuspecting that two serial killers were driving through their neighborhood.

"So much has changed," he said quietly.

"It has my friend. Who would have thought three thousand years ago that we would get paid to fight a secret war against a bunch of aliens spread across the galaxy?" Methos asked, as he pulled into Jack's driveway.

"Gods! It makes you crazy sometimes to think about it. Our lives sound like some crazy, lame-ass, sci-fi show," Danil laughed.

"Like Wormhole X-treme? Their version of you was such a loser. Your character sounded like such a crying, whiney bitch at times. You should have sued them," Methos joined his oldest friend in his laughter. "I will say that it's good to have you back."

"The former psycho-me or just me in general?"

Methos replied with an eye roll.

Danil slid his eyes off to the left. "Are you saying that you missed me?"

Methos snorted. "In so far as having someone else in charge of three departments and putting up with Jack's crap, sure. How in the hell did you do it for five years without losing it is beyond me."

"Thanks buddy," Danil said, serious, knowing that the Old Man's sarcasm was a security blanket for him.

"Anytime," Methos added. "So let's lighten up a bit and let Dr. Jackson and Dr. Pierson have a nice night."

"Sure, but you realize that they're going to want a story or two. I might just have to tell them about the times you over did it in the vomitorium or that one incident with that Roman senator's daughter. You know the one that could have made a hooker in Tijuana look tame. Come to find out she really liked her farm animals," Danil laughed. He couldn't help him-self; it had been a priceless moment seeing the horrified look on his friend's face when he realized that his latest love interest had an affinity for the furrier side of life.

Methos paled. "If I hear the words donkey and show, with my name attached to it, come out of your mouth, I will kill you right where you stand and I don't care who sees it. Besides, just for the record, I never touched her after I saw what she did to that donkey," the immortal shuddered violently.

Danil only replied with more laughter.

SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1

The night had gone smoothly.

The five of them sat around in Jack's living room eating cheap Chinese take-out, drink beer, and watching The Road to Perdition, starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. It was nice to just relax with the others, Daniel decided. Sitting in Jack's living room, relaxed, not having to hold up a façade or wear a mask was nice. There he didn't have to be someone else's idea of what Dr. Daniel Jackson had to be. He could just let it all hang out around his friends and be himself.

More importantly, he didn't have to fake having a low tolerance for alcohol – though in all actuality, it was much lower than Methos' ability to hold his liquor. There were very few people left on this planet that were able to out-drink the Old Man, and Daniel knew that he was not one of them. The one time he tried, he ended up throwing up violently, dying of alcohol poisoning, coming back to life, and throwing up again.

"So, Danny-boy," Jack began, peeling the label to his bottle of Sam Adams, trying his best to sound casual. The movie was over and he wanted to be entertained further. The night was young and his curiosity was up.

"Yes Jack?" was Daniel's patient reply, knowing instinctively what his friend was dying to ask him, but refusing to give in that quickly. Make him beg for it, he thought to himself, grinning.

"How is the memory thing?" Jack pressed, pulling the paper sticker back further.

Daniel smirked just a tad. "Just about everything is back in place, except for my sabbatical among the Ancient. I even got a few things back that had been missing from before I died of radiation poisoning, weird how that worked out."

"You know, sharing stories with others had once been a time honored tradition with people that sat around a campfire," Jack pushed.

"I've heard that," Daniel agreed, an evil glint in his eye. "Too bad we aren't sitting around a campfire, but a Samsung thirty inch, widescreen, flat tube television. For some reason, the glow of a television just doesn't give the same ambience that a crackling fire can."

Jack groaned. "Come on Daniel! You must have a story or two in there somewhere!"

Daniel shrugged. "My life had been a continuous stretch of boredom, broken intermittently by moments of great terror. I am sure I've already told you guys the more exciting aspects of my life."

At this Sam elbowed him in the ribs since she was sitting on the couch between both Adam and Daniel. Umm, an Immortal and Sam sandwich, thought briefly, allowing her female side to notice that she was sitting on a couch between two incredibly handsome men. Oh ick, that's Daniel I'm thinking of. He's like my brother. You are very naughty Sam, shameful, but Adam isn't my brother-shaped friend and he is nice on the eyes. Down girl! Think about things like…string theory, quarks, and dialing programs, she berated herself, forcing herself to think about something, anything but the man she was sitting next to.

"Be nice Daniel and give the Colonel what he wants or we will never hear the end of it," Sam said, hoping that her face wasn't shiningly bright red from embarrassment

"It's late you know. I don't want to tire you guys out," Daniel said, openly messing with his friend. "Plus I am pretty tired myself. Dying and coming back to life, once again, takes a lot out of me."

"I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing," Teal'c said, his voice matching the serenity of his face.

"Wow, that was deep T," Jack commented, blinking a bit at his friend and teammate. "Where did you get that one?"

"Martha Stewart," he said simply. "Now DanielJackson, why don't you sever the feces and tell O'Neill a story about your life?"

Everyone at this point was staring at the Jaffa.

Jack was the first to find his voice. "You can quote Martha Stewart, the evil bitch queen of homemakers, the woman who makes the Goa'uld look like the Snuggles bear, perfectly, but manage to mangle saying cut the crap? Unbelievable."

Daniel also caught in surprise and mild shock, finally decided that he had screwed with Jack enough for the night. He looked over at Methos, who only shrugged. "Well, there was that one time in Russia, during the reign of Ivan IV Vasilyevich, aka Ivan Grozny, aka Ivan the Terrible."

A/N: Well, what do you think? Crap or not? Hit the shiny review button and let me know what you think.

Not much to say, but thank you to you the reader for taking the time to read my stuff. Also, thank you for putting my story on a list or dropping me a review. It is all very much appreciated. So in the meantime, if it so pleases you to do so, throw me a review or something; I am feeling a bit sad and insecure and reviews always makes me feel so much better…ha-ha! Seriously though, review please?