Coming Home
Coming Home
by Dax
Summary: This is a missing scene for Season 7's, Fallen.
Janet first hears about Daniel's return.
Category: Missing Scene/Epilogue
Season: future Season
Pairing: Daniel/Janet
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author(s).
Archived on: 08/21/03
Janet Frasier paused at her door and began her daily search for her house key. She always felt ridiculous when she did this search. It wasn't like she didn't just have the keys in her hand. But in the time it took for her to walk the few yards between her car and the door, she always forgot and slipped the keys back into her pocket.
Finally locating the keys in the depths of her overcoat, she successfully pulled out the key chain and slipped her key into the lock. The lock turned smoothly and it took but a second to open the door and step inside.
Glancing around as she entered, she saw the many subtle signs that Cassie had tornadoed through. A book sack on the chair by the kitchen table, the light in the hall carelessly left on. Presumably she was off with her friends. Or perhaps, Janet thought hopefully, studying for her finals at the library.
Just the thought made Janet smile to herself. While Cassie was far from being a wild teen, she never applied herself as much as Janet would like. She supposed she shared that feeling with myriad other parents, and took a small comfort in the thought. Crossing through the living room to the kitchen, Janet absentmindedly opened the refrigerator. Catching herself before she habitually began pulling out the ingredients for dinner, she closed the door and turned around to glance at the clock.
Silently noting the time, she began to wonder how she should occupy the next few hours before it was actually time to cook dinner. Not having any immediate flashes of brilliance, she wondered if her coming home early had been such a good idea.
It had seemed like a fine idea when she first made it. She had no patients to take care of, she was finally caught up with the piles of paperwork on her desk that normally seemed to multiply like rabbits, and there were no teams due back until SG1's return the next afternoon.
Looking around once more but finding nothing that needed to be cleaned, polished, or dusted, the bi-weekly maid that her erratic schedule had finally convinced her to invest in made sure of that, she crossed over to the couch and picked up the remote in favor of some nice, mind numbing channel surfing.
After making a thorough run through of all the channels and failing to find anything to occupy her interest for a few hours, she let her gaze start to wonder around the room again. Finding nothing changed from the last perusal, her gaze traveled down the hall, which was clearly visible from her vantage point on the couch. Quickly scanning past the closed doors to her and Cassie's rooms, she let her eyes rest on the third door in the hall. The door that led to what they called the guestroom, but was really more of a catchall room. Anything that wouldn't fit in another room of the house ended up there. A sewing machine stood on a table in the corner, dust several layers thick collecting on top and the matching chair nearly buried under a pile of clothes that needed mending. An old television was sitting on a bureau across from the bed, the turn style knobs reflecting its age. In the closet were clothes that had once been in either Janet or Cassie's, but had been moved in there when newer items crowded them out. Affection for the items kept them from being added to the boxes stacked in the corner, the ones that contained junk waiting to be taken to the Salvation Army.
There was one box, though, that was separated from the rest. It was about a medium sized box, nothing particularly special about it that could indicate why it was segregated. It sat at the foot of the bed, lid tightly shut and a layer of dust rivaling that of the sewing machine's covering it.
Staring at the box, which she could just see through the room's open door, Janet couldn't help remembering the day, over a year ago, when she had brought that box home. She hadn't opened it since then, had not done anything with it except take it into the guest room and place it carefully on the bed.
She remembered packing the box up. She and the three remaining members of SG1 had gone together. Silently sorting through all of Daniel's possessions. Several boxes were donated to charity. The clothing, plates, silverware. All the simple, everyday items. Most of the rest had been placed in a storage center down town. They had made sure the center was in good condition before entrusting the boxes to it, not wanting any of the valuable contents to be damaged. But there were four boxes far too valuable to be put in storage.
It wasn't that the boxes' contents were particularly priceless, they were just far too valuable to the four people packing up the apartment to risk anything happening to them. As if by an unspoken agreement they had each taken one of the boxes with them. Making an unspoken pact to keep its contents safe if...when... the owner returned.
The maid she employed stayed out of that room at Janet's request. She had wanted to save that task of cleaning it for herself, but her plans to organize and redecorate it had been constantly postponed, and the dust had been silently piling while waiting for her to fulfill them.
Feeling all the more melancholic for her trip down memory lane, Janet quickly turned her gaze back to the TV. She made another pass through the channels, but found nothing more interesting this time around. She checked the clock again. Cassie wouldn't be home for at least another hour and a half. She always relished the time with her friends, away from the teen-age hassles of parents and school.
Quickly making the decision she hadn't even known she was contemplating, Janet quickly stood up and switched off the television. She tossed the remote back down on the couch and started down the hall towards the guest room only to be interrupted half way there by the familiar tones of a ringing phone. Sighing at the interruption, she considered ignoring it, but another ring made her realize that it was not the house phone causing the noise, but her cell phone. Her work cell phone.
Letting out another sigh she quickly turned back around and walked to where she had left her bag. She picked it up and dug out her cell phone, managing to answer it before it rang for the third time.
"Hello?" she responded. Expecting to hear the soft tones of her head nurse in response, she was surprised to instead hear the deep lumber of General Hammond.
"Ah, Dr. Frasier. I'm glad I caught you."
She briefly wondered why the General thought she would be unreachable on her cell phone, but quickly forgot her questions at his next statement.
"SG-1 has found something on their mission to the Ancient's planet, and I wanted to inform you myself."
Bracing herself for the worst: news of the team members coming in contact with another plague or pestilence that endangered their lives, Earth, and her afternoon off, she was completely unprepared for his next statement.
"Dr. Jackson was on the planet; SG1 are returning with him shortly, and they will brief us upon arrival."
It seemed as if her heart had stopped beating. Her breath caught in her throat, and she barely registered the rest of what the General was saying.
"Apparently he's been on the planet several weeks now..."
Dr. Jackson....Daniel.....returning....
Her mind finally snapped back into action in time to hear Hammond say, "...no memory of who he..."
She interrupted the General before he could finish his sentence.
"I'll be right there, sir," then she hung up. Her mind was rushing around so much she didn't even consider the possible implications of hanging up on her superior officer, instead she just grabbed her keys from where she had left them on the table and headed out the door.
Pausing with one foot outside, she quickly turned around and walked back inside. Without a moment's hesitation she marched down the hall and through the open door to the guest room. She quickly walked over the box sitting on the bed and started opening it.
Struggling with the packing tape for a moment, she finally succeeded. Slowly, she opened the top and stared at the contents. Things that had been unseen for over a year, but which meant the world to her. Not just for what they were, but for whom they represented.
Finding what she was searching for right on top, the safest place to keep them from breaking, she picked up the case and took out the pair of glasses inside. She paused for a moment to just stare at them; noting the slight roughness on the earpieces where they had been held between teeth, and the slightly uneven set of the nosepieces.
Snapping out of her reverie, she slipped them back in their case and set off back down the hall and out the door. As she stepped through the door again she closed it with a hard thump behind her. Not even pausing in her hurry to check if it was locked, she proceeded to her car at a quick pace and with a lighter heart than she'd had for a year.
Daniel was coming home.
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