Title: Eternal Gratitude
Author: MissAnnThropic
E-Mail: miss_annthropic@yahoo.com
Spoilers: Abyss, Fallen
Summary: Daniel's back at the SGC, and Jack has something to say to him.
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Stargate but my rabid fan behavior. Alas.

***

Colonel Jack O'Neill made his way quietly through the deep innards of the Cheyenne Mountain complex. It was late... or very early, depending on one's point of view.

Jack was the last out-and-out wandering member of SG-1 left on the base. Hammond and/or Fraiser had succeeded in time in running Sam off to go home and convincing both Jonas and Teal'c to turn in for the night. Which really meant Teal'c would be doing his Kel'nor'rem thing and Jonas would be doing... whatever the hell it was that guy did. Almost a year with the Kelownan on his team and Jack wasn't quite sure where the new guy stood. He only knew that Jonas never seemed to sleep on Earth and slept like a rock out on missions. To each his own.

Jack passed a number of enlisted men and airmen on his way through the hall, giving them an acknowledging nod... some of them even rating a flicker of a smile. Jack O'Neill was in a good mood. His best friend, lost to another plane of existence to escape death by radiation poisoning, was back. Daniel Jackson was home.

Immediately a crashing mood-killing reminder of the circumstances snuffed what would otherwise be one of the best days in a long time that Jack could remember. 'Remember'... key word there, the very problem they were having with Daniel.

Daniel didn't remember.

He was starting to recall snippets, small pieces, but compared to all that Daniel had known before they were insignificant scraps of a rich life. Daniel didn't remember being a member of SG-1, he didn't remember Sha're, he didn't remember his passions or hobbies.

He didn't remember Jack.

Jack tried not to be hurt, he knew it wasn't anything conscious Daniel did. Daniel didn't CHOOSE to forget, but it still stung. Jack, the crusty, emotionally inaccessible military colonel, had over the years let Daniel in. Daniel was the closest friend Jack had ever had. Jack remembered the camaraderie, the friendly bickering, the affection, the touchstone each provided the other, the crushing grief of watching Daniel waste away that he had to hide because tough military officers didn't fall apart over troublesome civilians, drinking himself into a blind stupor for four nights because if he didn't he'd lose his detached facade and let the world know that he'd lost a dear friend.

Daniel didn't even know Jack's name.

Jack slowly came to a halt at his destination, staring at the gray door before him. Daniel had been given a VIP room to stay in until they figured out what to do. To Jack the answer had seemed obvious. Jack without hesitation asked to take Daniel home with him, set him up the spare bedroom that Daniel had had master claim to for the past years, and sink into the relief that his friend was back.

Daniel, at the suggestion, had made a strange face and said he didn't want to inconvenience Jim.

Jack sighed to himself. 'Jim'... right.

Jack slowly opened the door and peeked into the room, eyes fixating on the bed. Daniel had not slept at all the night before, a nervous, restless soul wandering the halls, getting lost in corridors he used to be able to walk drugged and concussed. When he finally succumbed to his body's need for respite he holed up in the VIP room, the last any of his teammates had seen of him.

Jack slipped into the dim room, staring down at the figure occupying the bed. It was Daniel... by gods, false or real, it was actually Daniel. Jack kept expecting to find he'd been dreaming his friend's return, imagining Daniel's presence. Certainly wouldn't be the first time.

Thoughts funneled to that notion, Jack remembered why he had come slinking into Daniel's room when Fraiser would skin him if she found him there.

Jack quietly retrieved the chair at the opposite side of the room and carried it to Daniel's bedside, putting it down then lowering his weight on to it. Daniel didn't stir, his face a mask of unawareness. Even in sleep he seemed... confused. Hell, how confusing would it be to be so much more then suddenly be a puny human mortal again? Jack couldn't begin to imagine.

Jack leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and studied Daniel's face in the sparse light. Every line was right, from the corners of his mouth to the eyelashes against his cheeks, Daniel was like Jack remembered him... before the radiation. How could Oma and the others recreate a body so exact, so precise, when the original had been disintegrated into sores and soft tissue?

Jack shuddered at the thought and barricaded it behind a ton of mental defenses. He wasn't going to question this. Daniel was back, he was home, and Jack didn't care about the 'how's or 'why's.

He dare not stay long, Fraiser would have him hung if she caught him disturbing Daniel. He best say what he came to say and get out before anyone was the wiser.

"All right, Daniel," Jack said lowly, his voice a barely audible whisper that did nothing to awaken the archaeologist.

"I know you don't remember..." Jack paused, interlacing his fingers and wondering how to word his thoughts, "well, you don't remember, so you're not going to have any idea what I'm talking about but..." Jack frowned, pitch dropping lower as he locked his eyes on his thumbnails, "I want to... I feel like I need to say this."

Daniel continued sleeping, oblivious to his late-night visitor.

Jack became almost statuesque in his stillness as he said, "While you were gone, a member of the enlightened club, I got into a bad situation." Jack frowned, his expression harrowed. "Really bad. I didn't think I was going to make it... a lot of the time I didn't want to, just wanted to give up."

Jack pulled his eyes away from his own joined hands and rested his gaze on Daniel's face.

"You came to me. You stayed with me. I don't doubt for a minute that you saved me." Jack stopped for few seconds, studying the blissfully familiar, blissfully real, features of Daniel's sleeping form.

"I don't think I could have made it out of there with all my marbles if you hadn't done that. So I just wanted... I wanted to say thank you."

Daniel's slumbering figure gave no response to the late-hour confessor.

Jack remained seated in perfect quiet, perfect stillness, for what seemed like a long time, just watching Daniel. Every breath drawn that didn't cause pain was a salve on the last corporeal memories of Daniel that Jack had. Every relaxed line and muscle in the young man's body was an incredible gift that Jack would not take for granted. That Daniel was real, could be touched, could be held, could be protected, brought untold measures of peace to the colonel. How many people he'd lost that he'd cared about, Daniel the only one he got back. Jack was damned if he'd let his team get torn apart ever again.

Jack carefully rose and returned the chair to its original place in the room. Moving quietly to the door he stopped and stood a moment longer and watched Daniel.

Daniel would be all right, Jack would make sure of it. For everything he owed to Daniel, so many things he could never quantify even if he tried, Jack would help bring Daniel back to where he'd left off. A valued member of SG-1, a brilliant linguist, an honest man... a friend.

Jack wouldn't take no for an answer, even if he had to wrestle Daniel into becoming best buds with 'Jim' to accomplish it.



END