Sticks and Stones - Chapter 9 - by Emma Nisbet (grnfield)
It was decided that Daniel's memorial stone would be placed up on the mountain. It was generally agreed that Daniel had spent so much of his time at the base that it was a fitting place to commemorate the young genius. The archaeologist had no real ties to the Colorado Springs area other than Cheyenne Mountain and there would be fewer questions asked about the large stone sitting in a clearing in the woods, than there would have been in the Colorado Springs cemetery.
When the stone that Jack had arranged to be transported from 'Daniel's pyramid' arrived it was passed to Siler and a couple of his team. Between them they worked the stone and inscribed it with a fitting epitaph.
You touched the hearts and souls of all you met, gaining honour and respect along the way.
When it was completed the stone was positioned to sit for all time high up on the mountain looking out over the panorama of Colorado Springs.
A memorial service was held in the gate room, much like the on held for Daniel so many years before, however this time the wreath was not sent through the gate. It was taken by the three remaining members of SG-1 and placed next to the stone.
#
General Hammond put Jack, Sam and Teal'c on stand-down for another two weeks. Upon Dr. Fraiser's advisement he requested that the two human team-mates attend grief counselling sessions. These would be compulsory before either member would be allowed to return to active duty.
The General granted Teal'c's request to travel to the Land of Light to visit Ry'ac. George was relieved to find that Ishta would also be there to meet Teal'c and was convinced that between the two of them, Ry'ac and Ishta would help Teal'c through the grieving process. The Jaffa warrior agreed to return when the fourteen day stand-down period expired.
#
As Jack expected, he was once again given the thankless task of clearing Daniel's personal possessions from his locker and office. General Hammond also reminded Jack that as he was listed as Daniel's next of kin the Colonel would also be required to make arrangements for Daniel's house as he had done before. Jack grimaced at this and told his commanding officer that he would need more time before he tackled that job. He promised however, to go to the house and return any SGC documentation to the base and that he would also get Daniel's personal computer and laptop to Sam Carter for safe keeping. He told the General that he would then lock up the house and keep an eye on it until he was more prepared to tackle the mammoth task of packing away Daniel's life once again.
#
Teal'c returned to the SGC after twelve days off-world. Janet Fraiser checked him over in the infirmary and declared that he was as fit as ever. Teal'c admitted that he had spent a great deal of time in Kel'no'reem while he had been away. Ishta had been distressed when she heard of the loss of the "gentle Tau'ri warrior" and they had spent a lot of time either meditating quietly together, or talking, with Teal'c telling many stories of Daniel's great courage.
#
The fourteen day deadline came and went.
The grief counsellor agreed to clear Sam for gate travel but told the General, in no uncertain terms, that he would not be clearing Jack.
Jack O'Neill was withdrawing from them all – carefully building back those impenetrable barriers that only Daniel had ever managed to break down, several times before.
The General was afraid that as well as retreating further into himself, his 2IC was probably also retreating rather a long way into a whiskey bottle most evenings. Seeing as Jack was spending virtually no time at the mountain, there was no way for Hammond to verify his assumption. Unless Jack turned up at the mountain drunk then there was nothing that the General could do about it either.
The one piece of good news that Janet Fraiser could report about Jack was that his self-imposed semi-exile in his house had allowed his much battered body the recuperation time that it needed to repair itself.
#
By the end of the third week Janet reported to General Hammond that Jack was no longer using the stick and that physically he was at a stage where she could clear him for gate travel. She sighed heavily when she told the General that, mentally however, Jack was a whole different story.
The inability of Jack to lead his team meant that Hammond would have to make a difficult decision of what to do with Sam and Teal'c. He couldn't formulate a good enough reason to justify to the bookkeepers keeping them earthbound when they were fit and healthy.
Hammond made a conscious decision not to split the two team-mates up. The dynamics of SG-1 were such that the colleagues backed each other up like family, no matter what personal risk to themselves. The General was not going to break this support system further by splitting up the two remaining team members.
Looking through the various team dynamics spread throughout the SGC, Hammond remembered that Major Charles Donnelly from SG-2 had requested to be transferred to an earthbound position. The young man had recently married Charlene, one of the infirmary nurses, and she was afraid of her new husband getting injured in the field. Lou Ferretti had requested that Charles stay active on his team for a little longer while they arranged for a replacement team member.
'Yes,' thought the General. 'This will solve both problems.'
He summoned Lou Ferretti and proposed that he temporarily turn SG-2 into a five man team. Major Donnelly could be reassigned elsewhere in the SGC as he had previously requested, and Samantha Carter and Teal'c would become SG-2 team members until such time that SG-1 was in a state to be reformed.
Ferretti had no objections to running a five man team although he was more than a little upset that Jack had – for the moment – lost his command. Any of the other teams would have been more than happy to take in the two lost souls from SG-1 and Ferretti promised to 'look after' them well, so the arrangements were made.