NO-ONE BUT YOU

By Allyson

A hand above the water

An angel reaching for the sky

Is it raining in heaven?

Do you want us to cry?

The wind crashed and the rain poured down in torrents. The rumble of thunder rolled through the darkened purple sky, vibrating the ground beneath their feet. As a flash of lightning briefly lit up the barren landscape, Colonel Jack O'Neill paused in his sprint to reach the Stargate to look back briefly at the sky. Rain soaked through his combats and trickled rivulets from the brim of his baseball cap, obscuring his vision. Teal'c ran passed him; staff at the ready, unheeded of the downpour that bothered his other teammates. O'Neill was distantly aware of Major Samantha Carter already dialing out at the DHD and heard the whoosh of the particle wave activating.

'Daniel's missing,' thought O'Neill, anxiety almost overcoming him until the painful memory of his friend's ascension hit him. Shaking his head to dispel the thought, O'Neill turned and ran for the Stargate.

"Sir, what's wrong?" asked Carter, concerned, as she saw O'Neill's expression.

O'Neill cursed himself for not schooling his expression better and shook his head again.

"Nothing, Carter," he replied. "Let's go home."

And everywhere the broken hearted

On every lonely avenue

And no-one could reach them

No-one but you.

O'Neill entered the infirmary after hitting the showers and found he was the last person to be examined. Perching on a bed, he waited until Doctor Janet Frasier was ready for him. A file sat on the table next to the bed caught O'Neill's eye. It was his own medical file but underneath he could just see the corner of another folder. Out of idle curiosity, he picked up the files; discarding his own on the bed next to him. Printed on the label was: JACKSON, DANIEL, DOCTOR. It was Daniel's medical chart and had obviously been left out mistakenly with O'Neill's. The Colonel stared down at the folder but could not will his hands to open the file and look at its contents. The sight of the radioactive burns that had scarred the archeologist was still fresh in O'Neill's mind and he had no inclination of relieving it.

He was about to replace both folders where he'd found them when a folded sheet of paper slipped out of Daniel's file and fluttered to the floor. Scooping it up, it turned out to be a list of the alphabet with its appropriate hieroglyphic picture crudely drawn next to it. The handwriting was recognizable as Daniel's.

"Colonel?" Frasier's sharp voice made O'Neill look up startled but he made no move to hide the paper. The Doctor had been ready to reprimand the Colonel against looking into private medical files when she noticed what he was holding and she softened. "I wondered where that had gone. Daniel had promised to teach Cassie how to read hieroglyphics and maybe even write her name in them. The last time Cassie had the flu, he wrote this out and it helped her take her mind off feeling ill. Of course it also meant that they both could write in code while she was here without anyone else knowing what they were up to."

"Really?"

"Yes, sir. I could always count on Daniel or Sam or Teal'c or you to look in on Cassie when she wasn't well. It helped in a lot of ways." Frasier smiled sadly as she took the alphabet from O'Neill and returned it to Daniel's folder. "Let's get on with your medical, sir."

One by one

Only the good die young

They're only flying too close to the sun

Life goes on . . . without you.

Storm clouds formed and brewed menacingly, hugging the ceiling, as O'Neill entered the briefing room and sat down at the table. Teal'c and Carter were already there having filled General Hammond with a brief summary on their disastrous mission. Hammond had a face of barely concealed thunder as he acknowledged O'Neill's presence. Though Teal'c as usual showed no expression, O'Neill didn't miss the pained and saddened glance that Carter gave him although otherwise she looked as defiant as ever.

"Care to explain, Colonel, why negotiations with a new, and possibly powerful, ally turned into such a needless fire fight?" Hammond demanded, cutting to the chase.

"Communication problem, sir," replied O'Neill, promptly. "The local . . . tribe mistook our appearance in their village as a sign of an invasion and tried to capture us. With all their extensive knowledge on weapons and defense they're backward in the trusting and forgiving department."

"Sir," added Carter, in the team's defense. "In all due respect, we had no reason to know that only enemy visitors have ever traveled through the Stargate and attacked that certain village. The people there reacted in the only way they knew how to."

"And instead of diplomatic negotiations you decided to use both guns and zats?" questioned Hammond, seriously.

"They gave us no other option," replied Teal'c, calmly. "Their language was one that we had never encountered before and had little opportunity to learn it."

"We did the best we could under the circumstances, sir," responded O'Neill, in a dangerously quiet tone. "Without Daniel's knowledge of languages and ability to become best friends with any alien he meets, we had to go about getting free the hard way. It wasn't my first choice, sir."

The empty chair next to Carter now seemed more ominous and mocking to the occupants in the room, causing the storm clouds to thicken.

Another tricky situation

I get to drowning in the blues

And I find myself thinking

Well, what would you do?

"I understand this is hard for you all," said General Hammond, breaking the mournful silence. "Doctor Jackson will be sorely missed by everyone on this base and Abydos. SG1 is effectively on stand down as of now until a replacement can be found for your team." Placing Carter's report in front him, he stood up and held up a restraining hand against any oncoming protests. "That's an order. Dismissed."

O'Neill glared at the table top for a few moments before abruptly standing up and following the General out of the office; leaving Teal'c and Carter behind.

Yes, it was such an operation

Forever paying every due

Hell, you made a sensation

You found a way through

O'Neill found himself stood on the threshold of Daniel's office with no memory of how he got there or why. Looking through the open door, he gazed slowly at the half-packed boxes and half-empty bookcases. Signs of the numerous aborted attempts to clear out the office by himself, Carter and Teal'c – still unfinished due to their individual reluctance to let go. Forcing his legs to work, he entered the room and started to empty another shelf of thick books, notepads and artifacts into a box.

Trying in vain not to reminisce every time he came across one of Daniel's reports on a planet he recognized or an artifact that had meant weeks of Daniel locking himself in his office until he had deciphered its origin or meaning, O'Neill tried to keep his mind on other things. Hockey. Didn't work. Fishing. Didn't work. Persuading Carter and Teal'c to go out for a beer later. Didn't work. Attacking his inbox to find all those missing memos he couldn't recall seeing. Didn't work.

Without realizing, O'Neill's hands had picked up a photograph that had been sticking out of a book with its edges bent. Looking down, he found it was a photo taken earlier that year in Daniel's office. The memory brought a smile to O'Neill's face. Both Carter and Doctor Frasier had decided to make a photo scrapbook of the entire Cheyenne complex for the General's birthday and everyone had signed their photos as a contribution. O'Neill realized that this must have been one of the photos that hadn't made it into the final present. Carter had come running into Daniel's office and taken a photograph before her other teammates realized what she was up to. At the center of the photo, Teal'c's look of surprise at the flash of the camera had made his eyes as wide as two poached eggs, dominating the frame. Over one shoulder could be seen O'Neill sitting with his feet up on the desk, scowling and obviously caught shouting Carter's name in annoyance. Over Teal'c's other shoulder, Daniel was bent over either a book or an artifact (unseen behind Teal'c's back) seeming oblivious to the events surrounding him. On closer inspection of the photograph, however, O'Neill could see that Daniel was smiling in amusement at Carter's antics. When that picture had been taken, O'Neill had assumed that Daniel had been paying no attention to Carter's camera until they'd had to literally drag him into a snapshot at Carter's persistence and eventually O'Neill ordering him to play nice. It was no longer coming as a surprise that O'Neill was learning new things about his friend. He just wished it had been sooner.

Tucking the photo into his back pocket, O'Neill continued packing away Daniel's possessions.

One by one

Only the good die young

They're only flying too close to the sun

We'll remember . . . forever.

He watched, invisible and silent, as O'Neill moved around the office carefully packing his life away. It saddened him to see the normally flippant Colonel so quiet and distant. A sad smile graced his features as he saw Carter enter the room in search for his friend; a tugging at his heart telling him how much he missed them both.

"Hey, Carter," greeted O'Neill, pausing in his search for another empty box.

"Sir," responded Carter, even as her gaze swept around the now empty bookcases before attempting a smile for her CO. "I was wondering if you wanted to come over to mine for pizza and maybe a video? Teal'c's coming over and maybe even Janet. We haven't really done anything together since . . . since Daniel . . . and well it was just a thought. You never did get to see Star Wars."

"Star Wars, huh?" replied O'Neill, after a moment's consideration. "Sweet."

Carter's smile was genuine as they left the office together.

He watched, still unseen, as his two best friends left the office, still listening as they talked on their way down the corridor. He didn't have long left but he couldn't leave until he knew his friends would be alright. Determined, he followed his friend's footsteps.

And now the party must be over

I guess we'll never understand

The sense of your leaving

Was it the way it was planned?

The evening had gone well. Pizza had been eaten, beer had been drank, laughter and chatter had ensued and Teal'c had insisted on watching Star Wars twice, rewinding back all fight scenes continually. O'Neill was feeling more relaxed in weeks and grateful to Carter's invitation to come. Looking around, he found both Carter and Frasier had fallen to sleep on opposite ends of the sofa while Teal'c had regained possession of the remote control and was studiously flicking through the channels to find something else to watch. Standing up, he draped the throw blanket from off his chair and over both ladies as they slept before heading towards the kitchen to make a mug of coffee.

On entering the kitchen, he had the eerie feeling he was being watched. Looking sharply around, he found he was alone and brushed the feeling off as an after effect of too much alcohol and not enough sleep. Fixing himself a strong coffee, he leant against the breakfast counter and tried to stifle a yawn.

It was then that he felt it. A soft breeze ruffling his hair before quickly disappearing. Looking up sharply, he felt a familiar presence in the room though no-one was there with him. He could hear the television still and knew that if it was one of the others they would have called out to him or shown their faces around the door.

"Daniel?" he murmured, unsure and wary.

Though he was sure it wasn't possible, O'Neill thought he caught a whispered, "Don't worry, Jack. Everything will be okay. Trust me," in Daniel's distinctive voice, before silence descended again. It felt like a small weight had been lifted off his shoulders and he knew it wasn't from the alcohol he'd been drinking that night. He smiled.

O'Neill raised his coffee mug in a toast to his missed friend. "Good luck, Daniel. Come home soon."

The same breeze ruffled his hair before dying away. O'Neill was at last alone in the kitchen.

And so we grace another table

And raise our glasses one more time

There's face at the window

And I ain't never, never saying goodbye.

One by one

Only the good die young

They're only flying too close to the sun

Crying for nothing

Crying for no-one

No-one but you.

THE END

A/N – Song – 'No-one But You' by Queen.

- Disclaimer – I do not own anything related to Stargate: SG1.