I Say Goodbye to You My Friend
In this world, when your time has come... you face all your fears...
Sam sighed so softly the breath barely escaped her lips. Standing at the door leading to Daniel's office, she wrapped her arms around herself tightly. Teal'c had gone his way, the colonel another, but she had been drawn to the one place Daniel still felt close. Daniel's office... where they had sat and talked so many times.
Gathering her emotions she pushed away from the door and took a cautious step forward. The lamp on the desk threw out just enough light for her to find her way to his work bench through the maze of packing crates. The place was a mess. Of course, Daniel wouldn't have seen it that way. He knew where everything was, even when, to the casual outsider, it resembled chaos.
Running her hand across the collection of eclectic objects on his desk, Sam tried to take in the intricate details of every item. A row of curious little statues stared up at her. Their upturned faces and hands almost begging her to pick them up and show them as much attention as Daniel probably had.
Sam knew exactly what they were. Given to Daniel by a Shaman on one of their last missions, they were a funerary item, and she wondered if it had been an omen.
In silence ever more... some day we all will die...
There was one item she couldn't bring herself to touch. Gathering her emotions, Sam reached out towards Daniel's mug, snapping her hand back at the last moment and holding it to her chest.
There was so much sentimentality locked up in this one little item. Closing her eyes she remembered the birthday party Jack threw for Daniel and how ridiculously pleased he was with the gift she'd bought him. It was a gift both given and received with love.
The same gift that held those memories suddenly upset her more than she could ever imagine. The coffee had been half drunk and left to sit for days, and had grown a layer of ugly mould across the surface. Snatching up the mug, she turned around, wincing as the slimy liquid slopped on her hand.
"Damn, damn, damn!"
Throwing the mug into the small basin near the rolling cabinet, she watched the contents spill and run away. Gone, like its master.
With a silent sob, she plucked the mug back and, rinsing it, held it close to her chest. A tear trickled down her cheek onto the cup and she grieved once more for the man who had loved her enough to use her gift everyday.
You face all your fears, you stand alone...
The day had been terrible and the sense of loss and grief she held in her heart threatened to tear her apart. Closing her eyes, holding on to the moment of his ascension in her mind, Sam said a silent farewell to Daniel.
The light bulb in Daniel's desk lamp flickered once and then died. With a soft sigh, the irony wasn't wasted on her.
Until we meet again... rest in peace...
The End
