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In no way, shape or form is the information within these pages true to the subject matter at hand or insinuating that certain situations go on within the military. As stated in my disclaimers, these stories are works of fiction and are products of my warped imagination only. Nothing more, nothing less. Absolutely no money was earned nor distributed.
"I...I've never seen anything like it," he said already tuning everything out around him. He had to touch it. He had to be sure that what he was looking at wasn't some kind of illusion or a dream. He slowly reached out a hand and began to gently touch the surface. Being careful not to cause any more damage than what it sustained over the years. After he realized that what he was looking at was indeed real, he slowly allowed the world around him to come back to life. "....but the outer track is like the cartouch in the center," he heard a voice say. "It's got writing unlike we've ever seen before." "Those aren't hierglyphics," he said calmly. Slowly bringing up languages that he thought it might be. As he studied it, he slowly made his way over to a lone blackboard. "Well, the translation is wrong. Must've used...." Danny slowly began to mummble to himself and erase the earlier translation. Quickly shutting out the voice of someone trying to get his attention. Satisfied with what he changed, he turned around and asked, "Well, so, why is the military so interested in five thousand year old Egyptian tablets?"
"My report says ten thousand," a stern voice cut in. Daniel whipped his head around at the voice. He watched, unperturbed, as a tall man with the famous short military crop hair cut enter the room and quickly disregarded him. He began to voice his thoughts to Dr. Barbara Shore. While conversing, he quickly tried to push for more information. "Excuse me, this information has become classified," the man said. Daniel looked at him strangely as he watched Catherine follow Colonel 'whats his name' out. He turned around and finished conversing with the Doctors. He was more than ready to get to work. He silently thanked Laura of the coffee shop for talking some sense into him, for what he saw hanging in front of him, was indeed worth more than his worries.
"You look funny," Skaara laughed out pointing at Daniel's face. "Yeah, well, you don't look any better," he panted out as the first of a tirade of sneezes hit him. He tried desperately to dust the sand away from his face and hands as he sneezed in steady successions. He reached under his robes and searched for the hankerchief Sha're had made for him out of his military shirt he wore when he first arrived. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally found it, and quickly put it to his nose as another explosive sneeze ripped through him. He heard laughter and looked down to where Skaara was laying on the ground holding his stomach. "Dan-iel," he said laughing some more. "Dan-iel," he gasped out again pointing to the hankerchief.
Daniel removed his hankerchief and looked down at it. He stiffled a curse as he realised that it was covered in sand. He rolled his itchy watery eyes and began the succession of sneezes again. He was starting to get frustrated. He was mad that he couldn't stop sneezing long enough to catch his breath and the fact that Skaara was rolling and laughing on the ground wasn't making things any better. With an explosive sneeze that landed Skaara with some extra stuff on his face, he began to chuckle to himself. He sneezed and laughed as Skaara jumped to his feet and desperately tried to wipe his face with a look of disgust. He watched as Skaara finally stopped his relentless efforts at cleaning himself off and joined him in one final laugh. "Maybe we need a bath," Daniel suggested as his sneezing came in longer intervals. "Yes," Skaara agreed, "A long long bat-h." Skaara smiled at him as he reached out a hand to help his brother-in-law to his feet.
Daniel smiled and excepted the offer. He was beginning to relax some more as his sneezing began to stop completely, when he found himself face down in the sand again. He groaned, and shook his head as he immediately began to sneeze again. He became even more agitated as he heard Skaara laughter ringing about. He rolled his eyes and sat up. Sighing heavily, he looked down where his foot was and cursed at the small stone that had jumped in front of his right foot somehow. "What the," he said as he noticed some writings on it. He slowly climbed to his knees and crawled over to it to get a better look. He gently dusted away some more sand and nearly knocked Skaara out when he jumped to his feet. He turned around and sneezed out a sorry as he grabbed onto Skaara's arms. "What is it Dan-iel?" Skaara asked a little worriedly at the crazed look his brother-in-law had in his eyes. "Skaara," Daniel sneezed out excitedly in his Abydonian tongue. "Go get your friends."
Skaara felt his nerves flare up. He had never seen Daniel act so strangely. He turned and looked down at the stone as Daniel bent back down to dig at it. "What is it?" he asked again a little worried. "I don't know yet," Daniel responded absently. "It might be some more information about your ancestors." Skaara's face lit up, "Where we come from...yes?" "Yes," Daniel sneezed out. "Now go." Skaara nodded his head and quickly ran to get some help. Well, as quickly as it took for him to take a quick bath and grab some clean robes for him and his brother-in-law.
One particular night, after he and Skaara had there umpteenth talk over the lighter Jack had given the boy. Daniel found himself laying awake wondering how Jack was getting along. He was wondering if he and Sarah had worked things out and if he was coping better with his son's, Charlie, death. He also wondered, how long it will be before Jack would have to tell the truth about what happened here. 'That would be something to see,' he thought to himself as Sha're moved slightly in his arms. 'Just how would Jack explain that to his superiors.' He chuckled slightly to himself as he thought about how the military hated to be lied to. Especially when it involved the chain of command. As he thought, he found himself thinking of the hundreds of stories Sean used to tell him of his days in the Air Force. How he was able to get out of tight situations by talking his way out of them. Or, how his friends would get chewed out for some of the crazy things they did. He found himself laughing as he thought of one particular story.
"Sean? Mary?" he called out louder and louder as the room he was in began to grow darker and darker. Soon, he found himself standing in complete darkness with a small beam of white light coming in from above. Terrified out his mind, he looked up and felt his world crash as he saw Ben standing over him with red beedy eyes and sharp wolf like teeth. He was laughing at him as he reached down and grabbed Danny by his hair. "NO," Danny yelled out as he felt a searing pain rip through his body. "Please Ben," he cried out as he felt another pain shoot through. "DJ," Ben said in a voice that sounded a lot like Ra's. "You took Sean away from me. It's all your fault their dead. You killed them. You killed them. It's all your fault. You worthless piece of shit," he said as he flung Danny into a wall. Watching amusingly as he slumped down to the ground with trickles of blood coming out of his mouth. Danny shook violently. He was dazed and in a great deal of pain. He tried to push himself up on unsteady arms just as Ben foot contacted with his ribs. "Ahhhhhhh," Danny cried out collapsing back to the floor.
"You DJ," Ben hissed at him. "You have to pay for what you did. You have to pay for killing my brother," Ben said as he began to punch on Danny. Danny covered his head as best he could and pulled his body in a fetal position. He was screaming at the top of his lungs for Ben to stop and that he was sorry and that it was an accident. He felt Ben dig his nails in his left shoulder and yelled out in pure terror as he saw Ben smiling evily as he drew back with his heart beating in his hands. "NOOOOOOOO............." Daniel jumped to his feet swinging his arms wildly. He was desperately trying to fight off the hands that were on him. He contacted with something and felt relieved when he heard a small grunt. He stumbled back until he came back to back with a wall and slowly slid down into a sitting position. Slowly, his Abydonian home came into view. He blinked his eyes and nearly jumped out of his skin as he realized that it was Sha're that he had hit. He climbed to his hands and knees and quickly crawled over to her. "Oh God," he said nervously. "I'm so sorry. God, I'm so sorry," he said checking her to see if he had done any more damage then hitting her in the stomach.
"Dan-iel?" she asked quietly, looking shockingly at him as she began to cry. It was at that moment, that Daniel knew he had to tell her what happened. There was no way he could lie to her after this. He had unknowingly done the one thing that he swore that he would never do. He had abused someone. Though, it wasn't what many people considered abuse by the circumstances. He was dreaming after all. But the fact alone that he had raised his hand to strike out was enough for him. He slowly lowered his head in Sha're's lap and cried like he's never cried before. He cried for Sha're, Sean, Mary, his fear of Ben, and what Ben had made him, in his eyes, become. He cried for the rest of the night, hanging on to Sha're like his world would end if he let go. When the rays of the first sun began to show through their small home, he began to tell his wife about Benjamin Stuart.
Daniel let a sigh escape his lips, "Sha're?" he said with exasperation. He threw the stone down to the ground and stumbled back over to her, slumping down to sit on the ground. He watched as she sat down next to him smiling warmingly at him. "Oh my Dan-iel," she said giving him a passionate kiss. She softly began to laugh again as she pulled away from him. "That's not funny Sha're," Daniel said trying his best to keep a serious face. "Forgive me my Dan-iel," Sha're said immediately ending her laughter. They sat staring at each other for a few seconds before they both burst out into laughter again. What seemed like an eternity later, they both were slightly startled by a loud crashing sound and someone grunting and cursing in Abydonian. They quickly jumped to their feet and made their way over to the caves entrance.
There, on the ground, was three of Skaara's friends tangled up in a twisted heap of mess with something metal underneath them. Skaara was standing behind them laughing when he looked up to see Sha're and Daniel laughing as well. "Dan-iel," he said, carefully stepping over his friends who were cursing at each other and trying to unhook there robes from the metal thing. "Another has come through," he said pointing to, what Daniel saw as a MALP. "Well," Daniel said stooping down to get a better look at it. "I guess you have another cooking pot Sha're." Skaara smiled as he reached under his robes, "And this." Daniel stood up and took the box of tissue from his hands. "Well Jack," he said smilingly to himself. "You lasted a whole year, much longer than I thought." "It is from O'Ne-il...Yes?" Skaara asked brightly. Daniel nodded his head, "No one but Jack would send me something like this." Sha're stepped closer to Daniel and put her arms around him. "I will go wit you my Dan-iel," she said sincerely. "What?" "When you go back to Eart. I will go wit you."?
Daniel stared at his wife like she had groan another head. "I'm not going back there Sha're," he said reassuringly. "I belong here, with you and Skaara and Kasuf. This is my home now. On Abydos with you," he said bending down to kiss her passionately. Skaara smiled and turned away, scooting his nosey friends back out of the cave so that his sister and brother-in-law could have some privacy. "Dan-iel," Sha're said some time later. "Why contact you now?" "I don't know," he said truthfully. "But if Jack had to tell them the truth, something must have happened." He grabbed his wife's hand. "Come," he said pulling her behind him. "We'll meet with the elders and see what we can do."
"My God Daniel," Jack said spitting out his drink. "Moonshine? Daniel, what have you been teaching these kids." Daniel just smiled at him. He made a mental note to see how his friend was doing once they got some time alone together. He noticed, that Jack seemed a little more relaxed. He also noticed, that Jack didn't have that suicidal look in his eyes anymore. As if he heard his thoughts, "You look good," Jack said sincerely. Daniel smiled, "So do you," right before Sha're stuffed some food in his mouth. He heard someone ask a question and joined in, "Yes, why have you come back here?" Daniel felt his nerves flare up as he listened to Jack explain what happened at the SGC base. He was worried for the people of Abydos. Sure the Gate was gaurded, but they could come in ships. He felt his walls instantly going back up. The fear of losing everything to Ra, or who ever this other guy was pretending to be Ra, made him want to send Jack and his team back to Earth and rebury the Gate. He could easily pretend that they never had this conversation and was ready to do just that when his conscience took over. He knew deep down that he couldn't do that. He knew, that he had to do what he could to help them out. So, he decided that after the storm let up, he was going to take them to the cave he'd literally stumbled upon.
"You're coming back with us." Daniel whipped his head around, "No....I'm not going back," he said hysterically. "I've got to stay here. I've got to find Sha're." "And you know that your only chance of finding her is if you go back," Jack said trying to get through to his friend. Daniel felt claustophic all of a sudden. He slowly turned around and felt his heart sink as he looked at the damage, the dead bodies, and realized that Jack was right. If he were to find his wife and brother-in-law, he had to go. With his mind made up, he shakingly made his way to the center of the room and called everyone over to him. He felt his heart jump in his throat as he began to tell them that he had to go and to bury the Gate afterwards. He told them as he cried to put a huge cover stone over it like he showed them so that nothing could ever come through it again. "But you came through Dan-iel," a boy said sadly.
Daniel looked at him and wanted nothing more than to wake up from this nightmare. He desperately wanted things to go back to the way they were. He berated himself for even going to the elders when he got Jack's message. He should have ignored it and went about his day. But no, he had to be stupid and let everything bad happen that could possibly happen. As if he was standing beside him, Daniel could hear Ben's painful words. 'It's your fault DJ. It's all your fault.' "One year," he blurted out. "I'll try to bring Sha're and her brother back in one year. If I don't return," he began to choke out. "If I don't return, you must seal the Gate forever," he said as tears fell unshamelessly. "Tell Sha're's father, one year." He stood and fought to keep standing on his weekening knees as everyone crowded around him and mourned their loss and saying farewell. If took the last of his strength to pull away from them and prepare to go back with Jack. As the Gate opened and everyone began to make their way through, he stopped short of entering and comtemplated if he should just wait till they all were through and not go. He turned around and looked at the people that he had come to know as a family behind him. He quickly studied their faces one by one and silently committed them to memory. With one last shuddering breath, he turned away. 'I vowed to protect you Sha're.' he thought. 'And no matter what happens, I will honor that vow until my dieing day.' With that, he stepped through.
