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FINDING YOUR PATH…
by Bethany
Daniel Jackson sat at the Briefing Room table alone. He swivelled his chair, and sat looking out beyond the Briefing Room Stargate Map. He had no work in front of him, no reason in particular for sitting there, just the ice water he held in a tall glass as he leaned back into his chair, watching the world (s) go by… He was wearing his on-base issue blue overalls, and reached over for his glasses, which he had laid on the table…
Whattcha doin?” Jack O’Neill had entered the room, after walking by the door, seeing Daniel alone.
“Thinking…” Daniel replied, not taking his eyes from the netherworld point they were fixed on somewhere beyond the Perspex map.
“About what?” Jack asked pleasantly.
“Not a lot…” Daniel answered honestly.
“Anythin wrong?” Jack inquired patiently.
“No. I’m fine…” Daniel paused. “Honestly.”
“Good…” Jack said, standing again, walking around the table, and patting Daniel’s shoulder. “I’ll leave you to your… thinking.” Jack stated, and turned to leave.
“Jack?” Daniel threw in.
“Yep?” Jack returned, literally and figuratively.
“We should go back to Keb.” Daniel said simply.
Jack sat down again. He took a deep breathe, noticeably. “Why exactly?”
“Because there’s something more for us to find.” Daniel revealed certainly.
“Besides Sha’re’s baby and near death and destruction?” Jack said, little alarms going off in his head. “What could that be?”
“Oma DeSala came to me last night…” Daniel let it be known.
“Lucky you…” Jack teased dryly. “She’s not still tryin to persuade you to go with her, is she, Daniel… Is she???”
“No, but there’s something she wants to show me.” Daniel said distantly.
“Have you ever had a woman say that to you? It usually leads to trouble…” Jack seemed to remember. “Pretty much always.”
“Not this time, Jack.” Daniel stated.
“General,” Jack O’Neill began, “Daniel here says that Oma DeSala wants to… Show him something.”
“What kind of something, Dr. Jackson?” Hammond of Texas required more information.
“Are you sure you’ll be safe?” Bad memories made Major Samantha Carter shudder.
“She respects my decision to stay with you, Sam.” Daniel stated without embarrassment.
“Not just with Carter here, Danny me lad…” Jack interjected.
“I believe Major Carter was expressing a consideration of which we are all guilty.” Teal’c explained further.
“Thank you…” Daniel remarked. “But it really isn’t about that anymore.”
“It was?” Jack asked.
“Not after she realised Selmak could cure me…” Daniel continued.
“Dad was lucky there…” Carter added.
“We all were.” Dr. Janet Frasier set it down on the record.
“Dr. Jackson, what exactly did Oma DeSala tell you?” Hammond reminded them all. “I need to know.”
“We all do…” Jack O’Neill was right.
“It’s nothing huge.” Daniel recalled.
Everyone looked at him oddly.
“Why, then, are we to embark upon this mission, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c inquired reasonably.
“Oma said it was something of an Archaeological nature…” Daniel told them.
“Did Oma happen to say anything more?” O’Neill was just a little wary.
“She said that it was a book.” Daniel began, and then paused, as, looking at Jack, he realised the Colonel needed to let off verbal steam.
“Oh.” Jack said quickly, looking at everyone who waited for him collectively.
“She told me that she wants to entrust this book to me…” Daniel explained more.
“Nice.” Jack piped up. “A little mother and son moment.”
Daniel let the harmless remark slip by unchallenged. “She said that, as I came the closest in many, many years to understanding what it takes to become a member of her race, that I should be the one to keep the book safe…”
“To study it?” Samantha Carter asked.
“Yes.” Daniel revealed.
“Did she say what you might learn, son?” Major General George Hammond asked interestedly.
“She said it was more about understanding than learning…” Daniel reiterated.
“Because you have a mind open enough to digest whatever it is this book says?” Janet Frasier began to realise.
“I hope so…” Daniel answered without premium.
“Did your good friend, Oma, say anything about where we might find this book of hers?” Jack O’Neill asked of the Archaeologist on his team, as they each stepped through the gate onto the soil of Keb.
“She said that it was beneath the circle of sand where I sat with one of her monks.” Daniel told his colleague.
“I thought that was ash…” Jack stated. “Very informative in her little dream transmissions, isn’t she, this Oma DeSala?”
“Yes.” Daniel said genuinely, honestly, and simply.
“Shall we get going, sir?” Major Carter asked reasonably.
“It is a good job we are not here at nightfall.” Teal’c mentioned.
“Let’s hope we’re not.” Jack said. “I don’t want to play hide and seek with any of the Jaffa.”
“There aren’t any here today, don’t worry.” Daniel clarified.
“Did Oma tell you that?” Jack asked impatiently.
“Yes. She did, Jack…” Daniel looked him deep in the eyes, hoping to communicate his own certainty.
“And the bears went a-hunting…” Sam Carter smiled, and began to walk forward.
“As long as we’re the only bears…” Jack said, quietly for once.
“Now, think, Danny, did you remember to pack all your gear?” Jack asked, purposefully communicating the teasing sarcasm in his vocal thoughts.
“Yes, Uncle Jack…” Daniel stumped him.
Jack looked at him for a few moments. “Good, then we may begin!” Jack said, exaggeratedly.
Daniel hadn’t begun a dig in a long while… He stiffly lowered the pack from his back to the area of excavation, inside the beautifully decorated, and, thankfully, still standing building.
“Did Oma DeSala tell you how deep down this book is going to be?” Sam Carter asked, as she looked at the effort Daniel was already making.
“How deep can it be?” Jack asked, unsympathetically. “It’s only sand… or ash.”
“ I shall help you, Daniel Jackson.” Teal’c volunteered. “How may I be of assistance?”
“Grab this shovel.” Daniel handed Teal’c the implement. “I’ll do the finer work with this smaller trowel.”
“This is like gardening!” Sam Carter said, happily.
Daniel looked at her, almost horrified. Then, he softened. “Nearly.” He smiled brightly.
His smile was infectious. She felt like hugging her friend, but she didn’t. She just smiled with him. “Can I help, too?”
“If you’re very careful…” He said, stooping to begin his intricate work. “There are some dusting cloths in my pack. Be gentle.”
“I get to do the housework???” She frowned, but not without seeing the funny side.
Daniel looked up at her apologetically. “It’s not like dusters and polish. I’ll do all the hard work on that score when we get back home… There are some brushes, if you prefer.”
“And I’ll be over here, making the tea…” Jack O’Neill said, loudly enough for all in the room with him to hear.
“Why don’t you do that, Jack?” Daniel teased good-naturedly. Those of his friends helping him in the circle laughed.
“We found it, General!” Daniel called, like a little boy on Christmas morning greeting his beloved Grandfather or Uncle.
“I’m glad, son…” General Hammond stood at the bottom of the gateroom ramp. “Was your journey a safe one?” He asked, beaming at Dr. Jackson’s enthusiasm.
Daniel ran down the rest of length of the ramp.
Hammond was pleased to see this. They had all worried about Daniel perhaps even beyond what they should, during his recovery from severe radiation poisoning. A fellow doctor, of the Sciences, a member of the race who inhabited the planet which Dr. Daniel Jackson had saved, was not given the chance to recover. He died, because, it seemed, he did not have the fighting spirit humanity’s Daniel Jackson always exhibited.
“Yeah… Oh, yeah… Look! Isn’t this breathtaking?” Daniel Jackson clutched at an extremely dusty and ancient red and gold binded book, thick as two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
“Evidently, son…” George Hammond smiled warmly.
“Are you ready for the Briefing, General?” Jack O’Neill said, as he sauntered down the ramp, Teal’c and Carter behind him.
“Are you?” General Hammond beamed, and turned to walk from the room, beckoning the party of four under his command to follow in his footsteps.
“Had a good day, Danny boy?” O’Neill entered Dr. Jackson’s carefully lit office, long after the Briefing had concluded.
Daniel Jackson worked concentratedly, utterly silent.
Jack O’Neill poked him in the shoulder.
“Uhhh?…” Daniel responded, just.
Jack O’Neill rubbed Daniel’s shoulder, at the point where he had unceremoniously poked it moments before.
Daniel barely looked up, only for the briefest of seconds, but his look was one of sheer exhilaration, indulgence, and contentedness.
“I think I have my answer…” Jack said with genuine warmth. He looked down to the happiness unshackled in his friend’s bright eyes. He patted Daniel’s shoulder. “Night, Danny.” He smiled, turning and walking away, some of Daniel’s contentedness having rubbed off in his own relaxed stride. He stood in the doorway for a brief moment in time, yet it seemed just a little timeless. He smiled uninhibitedly as he watched, afar, his concentrated friend.
THE END…