Chevron Nine
by Part 9: Epilogue: "The Light of a Single Candle"
She isn't going to make it, Daniel Jackson realized as he cradled his unconscious wife in his arms. The thought made his heart ache unbearably. Sha'uri was fading fast, the poison making its way rapidly through her system. Daniel shook his head firmly; he was not going to give up hope.
His resolve was shattered when Sha'uri suddenly awoke with a cry of pain. “Dan-yel!” Her dark eyes snapped wide open, panicked.
Daniel tenderly stroked her cheek, a tear sliding down his face. "I'm here."
She desperately clutched his hand in both of hers. "I am afraid, my Dan-yel," she whispered. "Between my death on Abydos and rebirth in the sarcophagus, I remember... nothing! There was antiu - oblivion!" She stared into his eyes, and there was terror in her own. "I ceased to exist, Dan-yel!"
"You are not going to die. I won't let you die," Daniel told her as he hugged her close.
Sha'uri briefly closed her eyes. "There is nothing you can do." She reached up and pulled his face down to hers, and kissed him longingly. When they parted, she murmured, "Until we meet again, my Dan-yel."
"I will always love you, Sha'uri!"
The light left her eyes and she was gone.
The floodgates burst, and the tears flowed freely as Daniel bent his head over his wife's lifeless body. "Oh, my love, my life," he moaned. Looking up to the heavens, he begged, "God, if there is a God, don't take her from me again!" He stared once more into Sha'uri's face. "Please, no, no..."
Major Samantha Carter stared in amazement at the world in which the Stargate had deposited SG-1. They stood at the rocky peak of a barren mountain, about twenty yards from the gate of a palace made of black stone. Down the path behind the Stargate rode what looked like a royal entourage, bathed in light, completely ignoring the four newcomers.
Sam thought her heart would break when she heard Daniel's impassioned cry. Glancing around at the rest of SG-1 as the Stargate closed behind them, she saw that Doctor Janet Frasier had tears in her eyes, Teal'C was having trouble maintaining his composure, and even Colonel Jack O'Neill looked concerned. Sam knelt beside Jackson and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Is she...?"
Daniel didn't look up. "Yes. No." He sighed deeply, tremulously. "I don't know anymore. I mean, I lost her to Apophis, then I found her, then she was killed, but she was revived in a sarcophagus, and I found her on Etrar, and she disappeared through the Stargate, and ever since then I've been chasing an illusion, and now... what am I supposed to think? How am I supposed to survive this - this roller coaster ride? More than that, what's the point?!"
Sam felt a chill; she didn't know what to say. So instead, she took her friend in her arms and let him cry on her shoulder.
Returning to the SGC after Sha'uri's funeral, Daniel felt empty, hollow. Without a word, he headed for the locker room to change out of his Abydonian homespun and go home.
He didn't believe it. After all they'd had together, after the three years he'd spent searching for her...! She couldn't be dead. It just wasn't fair. Why did these things happen to good people?
A voice stopped him as he was about to leave. "Daniel Jackson."
Daniel turned to face his alien friend. "Hi, Teal'C," he said wearily. "What's up?"
"Colonel O'Neill wishes me to tell you that the Nile is not merely a river in Egypt." At Daniel's frown, he said, "I was told you would understand."
Daniel shook his head. "Of course the Nile is a river in Egypt. What else would it - oh." His voice went completely flat.
Teal'C raised an eyebrow.
"The Nile. Denial. It's a pun, an old joke. He's trying to say I'm in denial. Leave it to Jack to make a totally inappropriate comment." Daniel sighed, leaning back against the lockers and staring up at the ceiling. "And be right." He closed his eyes, and Sha'uri's last words echoed in his head: Until we meet again. "I just can’t shake the feeling that she's still out there somewhere, and all I have to do is reach out and take her in my arms..." He reached out to the empty air... and thought he heard a woman's anguished cry...
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Chevron Nine: Part 9: Epilogue: The Light of a Single Candle
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