Daniel
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I dropped to the sand which stretched off into the distance and tried to catch my breath which was running marathons. It turned to Jack who had plonked himself beside me "I’d never do that, and you know it. But please, promise me that you’ll never run off again, okay?". Cuddling up beside me as the chilly wind whipped past us, he smiled and nodded eagerly "Yes puppa, I promise". I stood and stretched then pulled him up with me "Are you going to tell me why you ran away…again?". He looked to the sand but then back up, his ear length hair falling over his eyes "I…I want to be like you puppa". Chuckling, I pick him up and start to walk back towards the village "How does that involved running away?".
"Mumma was saying that I’d have my own adventures one day, but I want them now, so I ran away to find an adventure" he replied innocently as he played with my hair and tightened his legs around my waist, still clinging to my neck. "Jack, you can’t set out and find adventures, they find you" I looked to the side to where the sun was setting and sighed. Sometimes trouble came following along with adventure too. "But I want an adventure now puppa". I looked back to Jack and frowned, he was so like me sometimes I thought he was, actually, there didn’t seem to be much at all of Sha’uri in him. He had my hair, my eyes, my wits if I may say so myself, and definitely my impatience.
"Jack. Let them come to you, and I promise, an adventure will find you someday" I answered as I let him climb from my arms into Sha’uri’s. "Up the sand hills again?" I nodded, yep, just like the last three times. "He really needs to find a new spot to run away to, I’m sick of running up those hills" I looked back to Jack who was already falling asleep in Sha’uri’s arms. Sha’uri smiled up at me and turned to put Jack in his bed. I moved to her side as she pulled up his bed fur and kissed him softly on his head "Good night my little Dan-iel". I wrapped my arms around her waist and leant my head over her shoulder, staring down at my little boy, and added a little ‘Nighty night’ as he stirred slightly while sticking his thumb back into his mouth.
"Are you all right?" Sha’uri inquired softly as she turned her head to the side and frowned worriedly. I nodded and smiled back "Yeah, but I do have a bone to pick with you…" She smiled and dragged me over to the fire. "What is this bone that needs to be picked?" she smiled again and sat down to lean on the log. The whole village had moved out of the temple two months ago since the winter weather had died down and sand storms had ceased and were now sleeping under the stars or in the tents. But the next few days would be seeing the return of people to the temples as another series of storms were on it’s way. "Well, little Jack mentioned something about an adventure and a certain someone saying things about me and adventures…".
Sha’uri smiled and pulled me to lie my head on her lap, she started absent mindedly stroking my hair and I couldn’t help but sigh "My Dan-iel, Jack is so much like you, let him want to be like you". I didn’t quite get what she meant but I still nodded "He’s very adventurous, he has your wild spirit in him" I added. "Ahh," Sha’uri grinned down at me and carefully lay beside me "wild am I?" she rolled on top of me and softly kissed my forehead "Well, you’d better break my spirit". I kissed her softly on the lips and stroked her cheek "My Sha’uri, nothing could ever break your spirit" I grinned and then kissed her slightly harder "But I’ll give it a try…".
I was woken by a soft but joyous shout. Sitting up, and glancing to the side I spotted the source. "Skaara. Don’t get him excited so early" I fell back onto my back and stared at the tents roof. Sighing, I carefully pulled Sha’uri’s arm which was draped across my chest to my side. Skaara turned around from where he had been chasing the squealing Jack and waved "Good morning Dan-iel! Do not worry, I won’t get him too excited". Carefully, so not to wake Sha’uri, I stood and stretched "I remember last time you said that and it ended in Jack becoming a human sand ball". "Puppa!".
I caught the young boy in my arms and hugged him tightly back. "Good morning to you too!" I looked him down and glanced him over. Skaara had dressed him and obviously fed him too. I wiped some food from his chin and chuckled "Where are you going with Uncle Skaara today?". Jack glanced to Skaara, who nodded his approval "We’re going to the temple to look at the…the…". "Stargate" I helped out and he grinned back. "Yeah, we’re going to see the buried stargate" he then turned and ran out with me closely following. "Skaara! Make sure he keeps his hat on and not to tease the animals and-". "My Dan-iel, you worry to much, let him go" Sha’uri, who had snuck up behind me, draped her arms over my shoulders and planted a big kiss on my neck "Let them be". Nodding, I turned around and smiled "Yeah, you’re probably right".
She smiled back "I, as you should know, am always right" I couldn’t help but chuckle as she smiled even wider "Oh I know, you always seem to mention it a fair bit". "I do that because I can, and I’m just not naturally smart, gorgeous and completely charming like you" she added, giggling like a giddy school girl as I pushed back her hair that had fallen over her face. I looked up and shook my head in amazement. I just never really knew where she picked up some of her more ‘earth’ type words. She started to kiss me again and I finished the kiss then pulled away so we didn’t start something we couldn’t finish "We have to meet with your father, he said that he’d talk to the healer".
If I wasn’t so damn worried, I’d probably have been amazed but I had promised myself to never look at it like I did to an artefact. Never. "There is nothing you can do Teisa?" I turned to Sha’uri, who’s voice was strained, almost breaking. It was hard, that’s for sure. Knowing that your child could never really enjoy his childhood because he wouldn’t have one. "I’m sorry" was our only reply. I pulled Sha’uri into a hug and bit my lip, I had to say it. "I have to go back through the Stargate, back to Earth" Sha’uri stepped from my arms and stared at my face. "Why?! Do you not like it here my Dan-iel?" she sounded almost betrayed. I winced inwardly at her tone.
"No, you know I would never leave unless I had no other choice" I took hold of one of her hands and glanced to Kasuf "Earth may have something to help our son". Every one was quiet, knowing that if I went, I might not be able to return. "If it would help Jack…" I looked to Sha’uri who had spoken. "I don’t know what else to do, it may be our last chance" I gave her hand a squeeze and then turned to Kasuf "I request permission to leave and hopefully return with a cure". Kasuf looked at me for a minute and then finally nodded "I think this is the wisest thing to do, son" "Thank you" I drew in a deep breath, well, it looks like I was going ‘home’.
"Skaara, I need you instruct them to start unburying the ‘gate and I’ll ask Teaks to start on the thingy that has the symbols on it, I think it dials in to the ‘gate" I pointed towards the temple at Skaara’s nod "Thanks". Jack pulled at my hand again and I looked down "Yes?". "Can I stay with Skaara?" he looked up at me, his blue eyes wide. I sighed and shook my head and pulled him up, into my arms "No way! You have to go to bed". "But puppa! I want an adventure!" Damn! Not this thing again. "Um…" I looked up to Skaara who was nodding eagerly, sighing, I gave in "Oh all right! But only for an hour, then you head off to bed". "Yay!" I let his wriggling form crawl from my arms and run off towards the temple.
As I watched Skaara and Jack run off, I felt a shiver run through me, straight to the bones. Shrugging it off, I turned and headed back to my tent to pack. "Dan-iel! Dan-iel!". The urgency in the voice stirred me from my packing and I tore from my tent and looked around wildly. I had a feeling that little rumble wasn’t such a small earthquake after all. Skaara was tearing down the sand hills, waving his hands as he went. "What’s wrong Skaara?" Things always happened around here, not a day went by without something exciting but every time Skaara came back like this my chest tightened. Was Ra back from the dead? Did the Stargate open even though it was buried? "Dan-iel, it is Jack" my chest did a double knot then a triple. Jack?! What had he done? "Where is he?!" the second I got my answer, I was off, sand hills or no sand hills, it didn’t matter, all I could think about was my little son, my little Jack and what he’d gotten himself into to make Skaara so urgent.
Skaara, who had walked beside me the whole time, stepped forward and grasped my hand. A very weird gesture for the boy, unless it was Jack he was holding on to. He started to pull me through the gathered crowd and we finally broke free. "Jack!" I quickly stepped forward, past the village doctor and Kasuf to the fallen pillar. Falling to my knees, I stared in utter dismay at my little boy "Oh god no…". Multiple images flashed before my eyes: my parents telling me to stay back, then the snap, the shouts of astonishment, the sickening crunch and then the worst of them all, the silence. Jack slowly opened his eyes and smiled slightly "Puppa…". "Ja…Jack, god…" I pushed a strand of bloodied hair from his forehead and smiled bravely down at him, a lot braver than I felt.
"I…I hurt puppa" his eyes brimming with tears and his bottom lip was trembling slightly. Carefully, I pulled him up to nurse his in my arms as I leant back against the fallen pillar "I know, but don’t worry, everything will be all right". "Promise?" his eyes stared into my matching ones, searching. I nodded and gave his small, bloodied form a soft squeeze "Promise". He smiled a little more brightly but broke into a coughing fit. I held him to my chest as he shook from the coughs that raged through his body and then he sniffed slightly. "Shh…it’s going to be all right" I rocked him slightly, back and forward, back and forward and then looked up to the doctor who had placed a hand on my shoulder. I felt my own tears start to fall as she shook her head.
I looked back down, straight into Jack’s opened eyes "Hey, don’t worry, you’ll be fine" I whispered to him as he stared up at me intently, seeing straight through my words, my lies. "I love you puppa" his eyes squeezed shut but then he reopened them and smiled softly "Love you". I ran my fingers over his face as I’d done many times before "I love you too my little Jack, more than you could imagine". Jack smiled back and cuddled closer to me, gripping my cloth shirt in his tiny fists "Puppa?". "Yes?" a few of my tears fell off my face, onto the dusty ground, mingling in the dirt. "Is this an adventure?".
I paused, looking down at his soft but bloodied features, the face that stared back was haunting, too young to feel the pain it was "Yeah, this is an adventure…" I smiled slightly "…your adventure". His face lit up and he sighed again and his tears started to cease "Goodbye puppa". "No! Jack! Stay here, stay with me!" I clutched his form as he gasped slightly, tensed and the nothing… "NO!!" I pulled him up, pulling him into his last hug, letting my tears wash away the blood that stained his sandy hair. "Jack! Don’t leave me…come back, please…" I felt myself slipping further into hysteria, further into my own world and into my own mind of self hatred. I had down this, I had made this tiny body so lifeless. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no…" a hand was placed on my shoulder and I slowly looked up through my teary eyes. It was Skaara.
"Please Dan-iel, give him to me". I shied away, pulling myself back against the pillar even further. Skaara stepped forward and sternly but still carefully, pulled the still form from my arms. I was about to grab his when two sets of hands held me back and down. I reached out with my last ounce of energy "No…Jack". Kasuf gently but firmly pulled my frozen body up. I couldn’t see where I was, all I could see was my son, dead, and being taken away from me, again, the second time in one day. "No…" I was practically dragged from the temple. --- on one side, guiding me through the sand and Teisa, the village doctor on the other side.
When we reached the village I seemed to snap out of my shock. "Sha’uri, does she…". Kasuf sadly shook his head "No my son, she does not know". "Oh god…" I pulled my arms from the other two’s grasp and stepped forwards, towards out tent "Sha’uri?". She drew back the curtain and walked from the tent, shaking her head "Dear Dan-iel, you are late for dinner, again" she glanced to the side, to me, the doctor and then he father "Where is Jack?". She turned back to me and stepped further forward "Dan-iel?". I bit my lip, trying to stop the tears that were threatening but they came, spilling from my eyes. "Oh Sha’uri…".
"Oh no…" she covered her mouth with her hand and her own tears came. "I’m so sorry" a sob escaped my lips and I felt my head drop "I shouldn’t of let Skaara…I should have-". Stepping forwards, Sha’uri collected my shaking and sobbing form in her arms "Shh…". Her own tears joined mine and we both wept, letting it all out and as we did so, I thanked whatever god was out there for the time we had with out baby boy even as short as it was and for not making Sha’uri see him in the temple.
"Send this back through the ‘gate" I turned and started to light the fire. Skaara, sensing I didn’t want to talk, turned and quickly left. What would Jack want? Why not come through himself? What was so important he’d contact me about? I was broken from my thoughts when Sha’uri entered. "Dan-iel". I looked up and forced a smile "Sha’uri". She sat down beside and fed a stick onto my burning mound of other sticks "I wish to talk". "Oh, what about?" I had a bad feeling about this… "About…about the accident". "Oh…". "It was not your fault, I want you to know that" she was almost whispering but I could hear her a clearly as I could see. "I know, I just wish I could believe it" I was also muttering, I didn’t know why but when and if we talked about this subject we never talked at full volume, my guess was that it was out of respect.
Changing the subject, I stood "Jack O’neill sent me a message, I might be going back after all". Sha’uri’s head snapped up, a deep frown lining her features "What? You would leave?". "No, well, not with out you anyway" I forced a smile "Do you want to come?". She paused but then shook her head "I can not my husband. My father and brother are here and all of my own friends, as well as yours. I could not leave them".
I sighed. Some how I had know that would be her answer "Well, for O’neil to come back through it must be important" I turned, facing away from the women I loved "I’ll come back, I promise. Just give me some time". I needed time just as Sha’uri did. We both needed it. And I was quietly thanking Jack for coming back, at least I’d get some time away, some time to forget. I just guess I didn’t expect not to be able to see her for so long, if only I could turn back time…
