Stargate SG1: What Dreams May Come (20/21)

[brihana25]

All disclaimers, notes, warnings and summary are in the Master post: What Dreams May Come


Chapter Twenty

They were almost there.

Jack saw their bodies lying just ahead with Janet, her medical team, SG-2 and SG-3 surrounding them. Beside him, Daniel stumbled and fell to the ground. As Jack knelt down to help him back to his feet, he called out to Sam.

"Carter! Go! Tell Fraiser we're coming!"

With Jack's help, Daniel regained his footing and started running again. "Almost there, Daniel. Just a little bit further."

Daniel nodded as he ran, gasping for breath. He stumbled again; Jack's grip tightened around his upper arm and kept him from toppling over.

Jack felt a strong hand on his own arm and jerked his head around. "Do you require assistance with Daniel Jackson, O'Neill?"

Jack shook his head. "Nah, we're good. You go on ahead; tell Makepeace and Ferretti to stand ready."

Teal'c nodded wordlessly and, with one last glance at Daniel, sprinted ahead.

Sam bolted upright from the floor immediately after having re-entered her body. She felt a hand on her arm and spun to face the person kneeling beside her.

"Captain?"

"They're coming, Doc. They're right behind me."

Daniel lost his balance once more and even Jack's grasp couldn't keep him upright. He fell heavily to the floor, gasping and exhausted. He felt the palm of Jack's hand against his back as the man knelt beside him.

"Come on, Danny. Just a little more."

"I can't," Daniel managed to say between shuddering breaths. He closed his eyes in defeat. "You ... you go. I can't ... can't make it."

"Oh, yes you can," Jack responded. He wrapped his arms around the younger man's chest and hauled him to his feet. "You have to."

"Jack ..."

"No way in hell did we go through all this just to have you give up now!"

A roar swelled up behind them, and both men jerked their heads toward the sound.

"He's coming," Daniel whispered, his eyes wide with fear. "Oh, God, he got away from them."

Jack grabbed the back of Daniel's jacket in his fist and shoved the archeologist forward. "Don't just stand there! Run!"

They had only made it a few feet when a bright light flashed directly in front of them. The two men skidded to a halt, blinking to clear their eyes of temporary blindness. They stood frozen, watching as something began to take shape before them. Light turned to shadow, and shadow formed the outline of the monster that was Belos. As they stared at the rapidly-solidifying form, they heard Teal'c's voice calling from far away.

"O'Neill!"

"Daniel Jackson!"

"Teal'c?" Dr. Fraiser appeared at his side before Teal'c even realized he'd returned to his body, reaching out for his arm to check his pulse.

Teal'c pulled away easily and turned his attention to the Marines that stood along the wall. "Colonel Makepeace, you are to prepare to detonate the charges around the symbol that we indicated. Everyone must move away from the wall."

"Teal'c?" He turned his head toward the voice, acknowledging Sam with a brief nod while again shrugging his wrist from Fraiser's grasp. "Teal'c, where are they? What's happening to them?"

Teal'c turned toward her in surprise, taking note of the red-rimmed eyes and the frantic glances she threw around the room. "Captain Carter?"

"I can't ... I can't see them any more, Teal'c. I haven't been able to since I woke up. Can you?"

Teal'c looked directly at where he knew his two teammates to be, but he saw nothing. He pushed himself to his feet slowly and pulled his arm out of Fraiser's hands once more. His mouth fell open and he turned back to Sam.

"I cannot," he admitted.

"Teal'c, what are we going to do? We were supposed to stay together. We can't help them now!"

Teal'c nodded his head gravely. "O'Neill and Daniel Jackson are strong, Captain Carter. We must trust that they will help each other return."

A bright flash of light flooded the room, and everyone covered their eyes. A low, deep roar seemed to well up from the temple floor, rising in pitch and volume until the temple walls shook and dust rained down around the heads of those assembled in the room.

Teal'c grabbed his staff weapon and reached out with his left arm to push Dr. Fraiser behind him. Carter stood at the ready by his side, her own gun raised in anticipation.

"Teal'c, what is it? What's happening?"

"Belos is here."

Jack's eyes darted back and forth between Daniel's pale face and the hazy shape in front of them. He refused to believe that they had come so far, through so much, only to be stopped a few scant feet from success. And yet there they were, less than a yard from their bodies, with Belos blocking their path. Jack watched as the shadow wavered, rippling from the inside out, as the alien slowly retook shape ... retook shape? It couldn't be possible, could it?

"He's not solid yet."

Jack turned to Daniel, not surprised to hear him voicing his thoughts, but surprised by the smirk on his face, which Jack returned quickly. He squeezed Daniel's shoulder once, asking if they could actually do this while at the same time giving reassurance that they could. Daniel nodded, and closed his eyes. A heartbeat passed, and his eyes were open and focused on the goal that lay just behind the shadow.

A silent three-count later, Jack tucked his head to his chest and bolted forward, pulling Daniel with him by his jacket. The jolt of energy that raced through them burned like liquid fire racing through their veins. Stabbing pain seared into their heads, darkening their vision and weakening their limbs. Jack shoved Daniel ahead of him as hard as he could, trying to keep himself between the younger man and the bellowing alien. Both men were screaming in agony when they hit the floor.

Jack rolled to his back the second he hit the ground, and realized that they had made it. He was staring directly into the glowing eyes of an almost completely solid Belos-who now stood behind them. Jack cast a frantic glance back over his shoulder to where Daniel had fallen. The archeologist lay completely still, face down, less than six inches from his body.

"You will pay for this insolence!" Belos roared.

"Bite me, snakehead!" Jack hissed in response, throwing himself toward Daniel even as he spoke. He grabbed Daniel's arm and shoved his friend forward, taking only a second to watch the consciousness slam back into the lifeless body. Smiling to himself, satisfied that Daniel had made it back, Jack ducked his head and rolled frantically in the other direction.

The last thing he saw as his consciousness settled back into his own body was the floor of the temple exploding as a shockwave pounded into the area between him and Daniel, a space he himself had occupied only half a second before.

"Cover!" Jack lurched into consciousness and flung himself to his right, covering his head with his arms to protect it from the debris that erupted from the floor.

Teal'c fell to his knees and pulled Janet down with him, spinning to his left as they went down. He drew the doctor against his chest and wrapped his arms around her, his broad back serving to shield her from the flying rock. Sam threw herself to the ground at the same instant, draping her upper body across Daniel's chest and face to protect him from the onslaught. Makepeace, Ferretti, their men and the medics turned toward the walls and threw their arms up or pulled their jackets over their heads.

"O'Neill!" Makepeace called through the settling dust and debris. "Now?"

"No!" Jack yelled out, pushing himself to his feet. "Not until we know Daniel's back!" He stumbled to Daniel's side and fell to his knees, nodding quickly at the three people already assembled across from him. He studied Daniel's face for signs of waking-fluttering eyelids, hesitant attempts at breath, twitching muscles in his jaw-anything that would indicate that he'd returned to his body.

He didn't see anything.

"Doc?" he asked, barely controlling his panic as he looked up at her. "Anything?"

Janet looked up from the portable monitors and shook her head slowly. "Nothing yet, sir. I'm ..."

"You have failed, O'Neill!"

Jack pounded his fists against the stone floor when the voice echoed through the room, and he spun toward it.

"Damn you!" he growled. "He's back! I know he's back; I put him there myself!"

"Are you certain of this?" Belos' voice asked. A shadow across the room wavered and began to take shape. Strengthened by the nearness to the glyph that was the source of his power, Belos was able to project his consciousness into the physical plane.

Jack heard Janet gasp behind him as she got her first real look at an Unas.

"Positive!" Jack snapped back.

"Then why have you not ordered your men to detonate your crude explosives?" Belos continued. "If you are so certain of your victory, then why do you hesitate to destroy the device? Could it be that you fear doing so would trap him here forever? With me?"

Jack heard Teal'c's low growl behind him, and he sensed that Sam was rising to her feet, but he waved them both down when a thought occurred to him. He turned back toward Belos with a small smile on his face.

"One consciousness per body," he said. "If he weren't in there, then you would be. And you're not." Jack's smile grew wider when he saw the anger in Belos' eyes growing.

"Game's over, snakehead. You lose."

"Colonel!" Dr. Fraiser called from behind him. "Colonel, he's triggering the vent! He's trying to breathe on his own!"

Jack spun back around and for the second time in two minutes, he called out, "Cover!" When he was satisfied that everyone was as protected from the coming blast as they could be, he draped his upper body across Daniel's, looked up, and locked eyes with Robert Makepeace.

"Blow the damn thing!"

All hell broke loose.

Makepeace thumbed the detonator switch, and the C4 they had placed on the glyph exploded, taking with it a huge chunk of the wall. More shards of stone and dust rained down on the people huddled in the opposite corner. They scrambled for cover, and sounds of coughing filled the air as the last echoing of the blast faded from Jack's ears.

He heard Janet cursing loudly above him and he pushed himself up on his arms-he froze when he saw the blood that covered them. He looked down slowly and saw more blood on his chest. He jerked upright on his knees and searched himself for signs of injury. He realized almost immediately that he wasn't hurt. That was followed by a dreadful knowledge of where the blood had to have come from, and then he let himself hear what Fraiser was actually shouting.

"He's bleeding out!"

As if the sight of Daniel's previously bloodless gashes pouring blood down his face and bare chest weren't enough, Jack heard Belos' laughter echoing in the shattered remains of what had once been a peaceful sanctuary.

"No, O'Neill, you lose!"

"No!" Daniel's voice answered.

Jack spun toward the sound, which had come not from the floor in front of him, but from the other side of the room. The other Daniel stood there, on the opposite side of the destroyed wall, looking much worse than he had when Jack had last seen him. It was apparent that their last confrontation hadn't gone in his favor.

Nor had the explosion gone in theirs, Jack realized with a sinking heart. The wall was destroyed everywhere except underneath and behind the glyph, which was beginning to glow once more.

Belos laughed again. "Back for more, child?"

"Back for you," Daniel answered. "To send you back to hell!"

Daniel raised his hands toward the back of the glyph just as the beam began to emanate from it. The remaining energy clouds, which had been hovering around his head, sank into him, and Daniel stood straighter. From his fingertips came not lightning, but the energy that the clouds were feeding into him.

The beam froze in place, and began to sink back into itself. The energy from Daniel's hands surrounded what was left of the beam and pulled it back further, closer to the glyph.

Belos roared and ran toward him.

Daniel's eyes flashed with both hatred and determination, and the power that he commanded intensified. The walls and floor began to shake, and the glyph's glow began to fade.

Daniel looked up at the rapidly approaching Belos and smiled.

"I was never meant to be yours!" he cried triumphantly. "And I never will be again!"

The room was completely silent, as if time had frozen for the slightest fraction of a heartbeat.

Then the glyph imploded.

A great wind came from where the glyph had been, and a growing blackness spread across the room. It left the humans that were scattered about the room untouched and headed directly for Belos, who screamed in agony when it reached him.

The wind began to tear at him, the blackness began to pull, and Belos began to fall apart. To Jack, it looked as though the Goa'uld's very molecules were being shredded and dragged in a thousand different directions.

Belos screamed once more as the darkness erupted from his chest. Jack had to close his eyes against the blast, but they were closed only for a second.

When he opened them again, Belos was gone.

So was the other Daniel.

Jack didn't even have time to contemplate the meaning of those two things before he heard the frantic shouting behind him.

"No, Daniel, leave it! You still need that!"

"You've got to hold him still! Where are those damn pressure dressings? Someone hang that O-neg!"

"You must calm yourself, Daniel Jackson. You are seriously injured."

Jack turned back around and almost immediately regretted doing so. Daniel's face and chest were still pouring blood freely, despite Janet's best efforts at stopping them. His eyes were wide open and darting around the room in a panic. Teal'c was trying to hold him steady on the stretcher, but Daniel struggled to pull away from him. Sam was trying to protect the vent tube that ran down his throat, but Daniel kept knocking her hands away, apparently determined to take it out himself.

Jack grabbed for Daniel's flailing hand to help them keep him still, but one look at Daniel's eyes stopped him.

Daniel wanted-no, Daniel needed-to breathe on his own. He was dying, bleeding to death on the filthy floor of a temple they'd destroyed in a vain effort to save him, and Jack knew it. What was worse, Daniel knew it, too. Daniel didn't want the last breath he drew to be forced into his lungs by a machine. Just as before, the only person who could give him the death he wanted, the death he deserved, was Jack. But unlike before, Jack felt no hesitation when it came to acting on Daniel's wishes.

Jack grabbed Sam's hand, pulled it away from the tube, and motioned for Teal'c to let go his hold on Daniel's shoulders.

"Colonel!" Janet cried out.

"What are you doing?" Sam demanded.

"Let him do this," Jack answered softly. "Let him breathe."

Daniel wrapped his hand around the tube and pulled as hard as he could, but he couldn't dislodge it. Faced with two impossible choices, neither of which would affect the outcome at all, Jack did the only thing he could. He wrapped his free hand around Daniel's and helped him take the tube out.

"Colonel O'Neill!" Janet yelled again, in indignation. "What in the hell do you think you're doing!"

Jack looked down at the tube in his hand as Daniel's fingers loosened and his hand fell limply to the floor. This tube had kept Daniel's lungs working for two days, and for those two days, Jack had done everything in his power to keep it in place. When he saw it now, it was nothing more than a sign of their failure, and he threw it aside, disgusted by it.

They had failed.

Everything they'd done, everything they'd been through, everything that had happened ... and Daniel was still going to die. They hadn't saved him from anything; they'd simply delivered him from a painless death to an agonizing one. He was bleeding to death, his broken ribs and fractured sternum were compressing his heart and lungs, and he had two bullet holes in him. What the hell did it really matter if he wanted to breathe on his own for the last few minutes of his life?

Jack refused to answer the angry questions the doctor and his second-in-command were hurling at him, and he ignored the silent anger that Teal'c was radiating. He looked down at the floor, at the limp hand lying there, and he grabbed it. Jack hooked his thumb around Daniel's, wrapped his fingers around the outside of Daniel's hand, and squeezed it as hard as he dared. He forced himself to ignore how cold the skin already was.

"Thank ... you," Daniel gasped.

Jack forced himself to smile through the wetness forming in his eyes, but he didn't look away from the hand he held so tightly. "Any time," he answered. His attempt at calm and casual was foiled by his own shaking voice.

"No ... Jack ..."

Jack looked up, forcing himself to ignore the blood, making himself see only Daniel lying there, imagining him whole and healthy again.

"Thank you ... for every ... everything ..."

Jack refused to look away, no matter how much he wanted to. He refused to close his eyes, no matter how badly he longed not to watch what he knew was happening. He'd refused to abandon Daniel when everyone else thought he was dead-he'd be damned if he would abandon him now. That didn't mean he could trust himself to speak, so he didn't. He kept his eyes locked with Daniel's and only nodded his head.

"S ... Sam ..."

"Right here, Daniel," Sam answered quickly. Jack felt her take Daniel's other hand in hers and hold it against her chest. Jack stole only a quick glance across at her, but he saw the anger on her face fall away and be replaced by understanding. She knew now why Daniel had wanted that tube out so badly. If he couldn't breathe on his own, he couldn't talk.

If he couldn't talk, he couldn't tell them goodbye.

"Oh, Daniel!" Sam closed her eyes, pressed Daniel's hand against her lips, and kissed it softly. "I'm so sorry! We're so sorry!"

"No ..." Daniel whispered to her. He brushed his fingers across her cheek lightly, wiping her tears away. "Don't ... don't be. Saved ... saved me ..." he insisted.

"We saved you from nothing, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said. His large hand came to rest against the side of Daniel's face, and Daniel looked up into normally emotionless brown eyes that were filled with pain. "We failed you."

Daniel shook his head weakly. "Some things, Teal'c ... worse than ... death ..."

Janet remained on her knees at Daniel's side. The doctor in her was screaming at her to do something, to save him, but she knew there was nothing she could do. She wanted to touch him, to comfort him, to tell him her own goodbyes, but she knew that she would be intruding. She settled for letting her head fall back and staring up at the ceiling.

She was the only one who saw the bright white energy cloud that hovered directly above them. She tilted her head and wondered what it was, until she heard Daniel's weak voice again.

"C ... c ... cold ..."

Jack squeezed Daniel's hand harder in his and pressed it to his chest, tight against his heart, exactly as Sam was doing.

"Almost over now, Daniel," he said softly, neither noticing nor caring that tears were sliding down his face. "It'll all be okay soon."

"T ... tire ... ired ..."

"Close your eyes, Daniel," Sam urged, fighting back her sobs and failing miserably. "Just go to sleep."

"Let it come, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c whispered. "Be at peace."

Daniel's eyes drifted closed. Sam closed her eyes and turned away; Teal'c bowed his head. Jack refused to look away, vowing to keep his eyes on Daniel's face until the end.

Only Janet saw the white cloud lowering toward them; only Janet saw the long, gentle arms that waved beneath it; only Janet saw those arms reaching for Daniel's chest.

Everyone in the temple heard Daniel's gasped breath and saw his back arch up from the floor. To the rest of the occupants of the sanctuary, who had been standing in stunned silence, it looked as though Daniel Jackson's body had finally given up the fight, and his soul had gone from this life into the next.

To the members of SG-1, who felt his hands squeeze theirs tightly and who watched the wounds on his body slowly fade away into nothing, it was Daniel Jackson's triumphant return to the land of the living.

Jack, Sam and Teal'c stared at each other in shock, and then down at Daniel, whose eyes were opening again. Jack wiped at the blood on Daniel's chest with his hands frantically, almost afraid to let himself believe what he was seeing, and he glanced up to see Teal'c doing the same with his face. The blood parted to reveal only firm, unmarred flesh underneath. Teal'c and Jack looked up at each other and shared small, awe-filled smiles. Sam pulled the bandage away from his shoulder wound-it was gone too. Daniel lifted his head slightly and looked down at himself; he lifted his left hand to touch his chest in disbelief.

He didn't have a scratch on him.

Daniel's breathing was even and normal; his eyes were open and focused. There was no more pain in those eyes, or on that face.

Daniel was alive, and he was smiling.

"Hey, guys," he said.

The joy they felt almost overwhelmed them, and they all fell forward slightly, laughing and smiling and crying all at the same time. Daniel tried to push himself up and, just as before, found that he had three people very willing to help him do it. They sat there for a few moments, just smiling at each other.

It was Jack who finally asked the question all three of them had spinning in their brains.

"What just happened?"

"I think I ... just saved myself."

Jack turned away from his celebrating team and glanced up at the ceiling just in time to see the pure white energy cloud fade away into nothingness. "Thank you, Daniel," he whispered. "For everything."

"Jack?"

He turned back when he heard Daniel call his name softly.

"Jack, what are you doing?"

Jack smiled. "Just thanking a friend for ... keeping his promise."

"What promise was that, sir?" Sam asked.

Jack thought about it for a second and then answered honestly. "He promised to save us, Carter." He couldn't stop himself from grasping Daniel's arm tightly when he said, "He promised he'd save us all."

Teal'c and Sam smiled softly at each other, and Jack nodded his head at them.

Daniel smiled broadly and promptly passed out.