(no subject)
Title: Down Here Among the Wreckage
Author: Annerb
Summary: Five years ago, SG-1 broke in half. Two years ago, Earth lost. Today, there is one last chance to fix things. But sometimes the pieces just don’t fit back together again.
Warnings: Mature for language, violence, torture, non-con, adult themes, and some temporal meandering.
Categorization: AU, H/C, darkfic, tragedy, and apocafic for flavor. Team, Sam/Jack.
A/N: Special thanks to holdouttrout for the beta.
Part One-History
Part Two-Prodigal
Prologue
Chapter 1: What Once Was Lost
Chapter 2: Omega
Chapter 3: Compatriots
Chapter 4: A Song For Our Fathers
Chapter 5: Down So Long
Chapter 6: Patchwork
epilogue
Daniel cautiously pushes open the door to Rodney’s lab, sticking only his head inside. One can never be too cautious around Rodney. Not necessarily because of the propensity of experiments blowing up, but that Rodney himself is rather combustible from time to time.
Seeing that Rodney is doing nothing more than staring at a wall, Daniel risks stepping into the room. “Hey,” he says.
Rodney’s eyes peel reluctantly away from the quilt tacked up in front of him, the newest piece from Sam duct-taped haphazardly into the bottom corner. He doesn’t manage much more than a grunt in greeting before his eyes snap back.
“Still driving you insane?” Daniel asks.
“I’m almost convinced it’s complete gibberish,” Rodney grumbles, his head tilting to the side as if that might somehow help. “If not for the fact that I think it might just be brilliant.”
Daniel isn’t sure which possibility has Rodney more disgruntled. The fine line between gibberish and genius is one they’ve been flirting with for a long damn time. “Sam hasn’t said anything more about it?”
Rodney shakes his head. “Considering she made it, she does a pretty good job of pretending it doesn’t exist.” He jabs a finger in the direction of the lab. “She’s still looking over my work on the drone weapon.”
Daniel paces to the window and looks down onto the space below. Rodney likes to be able to see what his ‘minions,’ as he calls them, are doing at any given moment. He claims it’s for safety, the lab workers apparently less likely to blow up Earth’s last secure outpost with their idiocy if Rodney can keep one eye on them at all times.
At one end of the lab, Sam sits at a large table with schematics spread around her like a fan, littered with erasers and pencils and crumpled up wads of paper. It should be comforting, the sight of Sam in motion, hard at work at the things that had once been the very compass point of her identity. Somehow it isn’t. Maybe because even Daniel can’t ignore the way she doesn’t quite fit the space around her anymore, the way the pencil is stiff and clumsy in her fingers.
He hasn’t seen much of her since the day she returned. She seems to have disappeared into a routine optimized to see as few people as possible. Her waking hours she spends here in Rodney’s lab as he peppers her with every idea he’s had in the last five years as if he’s been starved for an intellectual equal, or is maybe just looking for reassurance.
Her nights Daniel is pretty sure she spends in Teal’c’s quarters, just like back at the SGC so many years before. He tries not to be jealous of the obvious connection there, the fact that she feels comfortable with Teal’c in a way she doesn’t with any of the rest of them. Teal’c also seems more relaxed in her presence than he has in a long time and it’s hard to stay angry at something so obviously vital to them both.
Daniel gets the feeling this isn’t permanent anyway, like she’s floating through this space, fulfilling some sort of quota, proving something to herself, but with every intention of disappearing again if they all somehow survive this.
Behind Daniel, Rodney lets out a frustrated sigh and steps up next to him. Rubbing at his forehead, his eyebrows draw together in concern. “She won’t even use a calculator for some reason.”
Daniel wants to point out that it’s probably a small miracle they’ve got her using a pencil. Part of him is still waiting for her to pull out a needle and thread.
There’s a knock on the door, and they both turn to see Jack step into the office.
Rodney gives Jack a wary nod and scuttles back to his desk, no doubt realizing he should pull everything together for their imminent meeting.
Jack is happy to ignore Rodney as usual. He crosses over to stand next to Daniel. “You going to be ready to leave in the morning?”
Daniel nods. This will be their second meeting with Vala Mal Doran to see if she ran off with their down payment or is actually going to deliver on her end of the bargain. He thinks bringing Cam and Teal’c as backup wouldn’t be a bad idea if not for the suspicion that Teal’c and Jack in that small of a space together could be epically bad. Or not. You can never tell with those two, these days more than ever.
After all, Jack hadn’t taken off after Sam’s arrival like he would have predicted. Sure, Jack sticks mostly to the hangars, rarely appearing for meals, but he’s still here. Sometimes Daniel catches him huddled over plans and maps with Reynolds. They remind Daniel a bit of Rodney and Sam in those moments, the way Reynolds bounces all his plans off Jack as if looking for reassurance. Or maybe just someone smart and ballsy enough to point out his mistakes. Only this isn’t Jack’s fight to lead. Not anymore.
They’d all do well to remember that.
“What happens after?” Daniel asks.
Jack looks at him in confusion. “After?”
“Yeah,” Daniel says, crossing his arms over his chest. “You said you’d help us get some weapons.”
“And now I have,” Jack says, his voice going flat as he finally catches on.
In light of Jack’s history, Daniel doesn’t think it’s so unreasonable to want to know if he’s going to take off on them again. People leave. It’s in their very nature.
“So you’re done,” Daniel says, challenging him to admit it. Needing, for some reason, to actually hear the words.
Jack shifts. “There’s still Netan.”
That really isn’t an answer. It’s an evasion. “Right,” Daniel says, turning away. He may just prefer Rodney’s fractured frustration to going another round with Jack O’Neill the brick wall.
But then Jack surprises him yet again. “I’m in for the long haul, Daniel,” he says quietly with the tone of a man well and truly trapped, but resigned to it.
Daniel looks back at him, but Jack’s turned to the window now, his eyes glued to something down in the lab. Or rather someone.
Before Daniel can process this latest curve ball from Jack, the office door opens again.
“Okay, McKay,” Reynolds says, stepping into the office with Teal’c and Cam right behind. “Get us all caught up.”
The men grab seats while Rodney starts in on their weekly update. The talk of plans and weapons and invasions and probabilities of success wash over Daniel, his attention instead caught on watching the people crammed into the office.
None of it is right. Jack is too deliberate, as if every word or action has been thought through ten times. Teal’c is listless, quiet, almost detached. Anxiety is a base state for Rodney, but it’s the concern clouding his expression every time he looks at one of them, the awareness that everything is off that isn’t right. Rodney isn’t supposed to be that self-aware.
Reynolds is hesitating, and Sam has one foot out the door.
As for Daniel…he doesn’t know what he is anymore.
All he can feel is a strange tightness building in his belly, something that takes him long moments to identify as he sits there with them, the entire team past and present. It’s not the familiar, dependable anger, but something much, much worse.
It’s hope.
Next: Part Three
Author: Annerb
Summary: Five years ago, SG-1 broke in half. Two years ago, Earth lost. Today, there is one last chance to fix things. But sometimes the pieces just don’t fit back together again.
Warnings: Mature for language, violence, torture, non-con, adult themes, and some temporal meandering.
Categorization: AU, H/C, darkfic, tragedy, and apocafic for flavor. Team, Sam/Jack.
A/N: Special thanks to holdouttrout for the beta.
Part One-History
Part Two-Prodigal
Prologue
Chapter 1: What Once Was Lost
Chapter 2: Omega
Chapter 3: Compatriots
Chapter 4: A Song For Our Fathers
Chapter 5: Down So Long
Chapter 6: Patchwork
epilogue
Daniel cautiously pushes open the door to Rodney’s lab, sticking only his head inside. One can never be too cautious around Rodney. Not necessarily because of the propensity of experiments blowing up, but that Rodney himself is rather combustible from time to time.
Seeing that Rodney is doing nothing more than staring at a wall, Daniel risks stepping into the room. “Hey,” he says.
Rodney’s eyes peel reluctantly away from the quilt tacked up in front of him, the newest piece from Sam duct-taped haphazardly into the bottom corner. He doesn’t manage much more than a grunt in greeting before his eyes snap back.
“Still driving you insane?” Daniel asks.
“I’m almost convinced it’s complete gibberish,” Rodney grumbles, his head tilting to the side as if that might somehow help. “If not for the fact that I think it might just be brilliant.”
Daniel isn’t sure which possibility has Rodney more disgruntled. The fine line between gibberish and genius is one they’ve been flirting with for a long damn time. “Sam hasn’t said anything more about it?”
Rodney shakes his head. “Considering she made it, she does a pretty good job of pretending it doesn’t exist.” He jabs a finger in the direction of the lab. “She’s still looking over my work on the drone weapon.”
Daniel paces to the window and looks down onto the space below. Rodney likes to be able to see what his ‘minions,’ as he calls them, are doing at any given moment. He claims it’s for safety, the lab workers apparently less likely to blow up Earth’s last secure outpost with their idiocy if Rodney can keep one eye on them at all times.
At one end of the lab, Sam sits at a large table with schematics spread around her like a fan, littered with erasers and pencils and crumpled up wads of paper. It should be comforting, the sight of Sam in motion, hard at work at the things that had once been the very compass point of her identity. Somehow it isn’t. Maybe because even Daniel can’t ignore the way she doesn’t quite fit the space around her anymore, the way the pencil is stiff and clumsy in her fingers.
He hasn’t seen much of her since the day she returned. She seems to have disappeared into a routine optimized to see as few people as possible. Her waking hours she spends here in Rodney’s lab as he peppers her with every idea he’s had in the last five years as if he’s been starved for an intellectual equal, or is maybe just looking for reassurance.
Her nights Daniel is pretty sure she spends in Teal’c’s quarters, just like back at the SGC so many years before. He tries not to be jealous of the obvious connection there, the fact that she feels comfortable with Teal’c in a way she doesn’t with any of the rest of them. Teal’c also seems more relaxed in her presence than he has in a long time and it’s hard to stay angry at something so obviously vital to them both.
Daniel gets the feeling this isn’t permanent anyway, like she’s floating through this space, fulfilling some sort of quota, proving something to herself, but with every intention of disappearing again if they all somehow survive this.
Behind Daniel, Rodney lets out a frustrated sigh and steps up next to him. Rubbing at his forehead, his eyebrows draw together in concern. “She won’t even use a calculator for some reason.”
Daniel wants to point out that it’s probably a small miracle they’ve got her using a pencil. Part of him is still waiting for her to pull out a needle and thread.
There’s a knock on the door, and they both turn to see Jack step into the office.
Rodney gives Jack a wary nod and scuttles back to his desk, no doubt realizing he should pull everything together for their imminent meeting.
Jack is happy to ignore Rodney as usual. He crosses over to stand next to Daniel. “You going to be ready to leave in the morning?”
Daniel nods. This will be their second meeting with Vala Mal Doran to see if she ran off with their down payment or is actually going to deliver on her end of the bargain. He thinks bringing Cam and Teal’c as backup wouldn’t be a bad idea if not for the suspicion that Teal’c and Jack in that small of a space together could be epically bad. Or not. You can never tell with those two, these days more than ever.
After all, Jack hadn’t taken off after Sam’s arrival like he would have predicted. Sure, Jack sticks mostly to the hangars, rarely appearing for meals, but he’s still here. Sometimes Daniel catches him huddled over plans and maps with Reynolds. They remind Daniel a bit of Rodney and Sam in those moments, the way Reynolds bounces all his plans off Jack as if looking for reassurance. Or maybe just someone smart and ballsy enough to point out his mistakes. Only this isn’t Jack’s fight to lead. Not anymore.
They’d all do well to remember that.
“What happens after?” Daniel asks.
Jack looks at him in confusion. “After?”
“Yeah,” Daniel says, crossing his arms over his chest. “You said you’d help us get some weapons.”
“And now I have,” Jack says, his voice going flat as he finally catches on.
In light of Jack’s history, Daniel doesn’t think it’s so unreasonable to want to know if he’s going to take off on them again. People leave. It’s in their very nature.
“So you’re done,” Daniel says, challenging him to admit it. Needing, for some reason, to actually hear the words.
Jack shifts. “There’s still Netan.”
That really isn’t an answer. It’s an evasion. “Right,” Daniel says, turning away. He may just prefer Rodney’s fractured frustration to going another round with Jack O’Neill the brick wall.
But then Jack surprises him yet again. “I’m in for the long haul, Daniel,” he says quietly with the tone of a man well and truly trapped, but resigned to it.
Daniel looks back at him, but Jack’s turned to the window now, his eyes glued to something down in the lab. Or rather someone.
Before Daniel can process this latest curve ball from Jack, the office door opens again.
“Okay, McKay,” Reynolds says, stepping into the office with Teal’c and Cam right behind. “Get us all caught up.”
The men grab seats while Rodney starts in on their weekly update. The talk of plans and weapons and invasions and probabilities of success wash over Daniel, his attention instead caught on watching the people crammed into the office.
None of it is right. Jack is too deliberate, as if every word or action has been thought through ten times. Teal’c is listless, quiet, almost detached. Anxiety is a base state for Rodney, but it’s the concern clouding his expression every time he looks at one of them, the awareness that everything is off that isn’t right. Rodney isn’t supposed to be that self-aware.
Reynolds is hesitating, and Sam has one foot out the door.
As for Daniel…he doesn’t know what he is anymore.
All he can feel is a strange tightness building in his belly, something that takes him long moments to identify as he sits there with them, the entire team past and present. It’s not the familiar, dependable anger, but something much, much worse.
It’s hope.
Next: Part Three