Oh Danny boy
The pipes the pipes are calling
Lawson raised his bow, bringing it to position with nary a breath. The loxum was grazing in the distance. He knew his shot had to be exact. There were too many trees. One false move and the evening meal would be sparse indeed.
The loxum raised its head, ears alert. Lawson didn't hesitate. The arrow struck its target and the animal flailed, running off in its pain and fear. It wouldn't get far.
There was a loud whoop of triumph ten or so spans away and Gavrie seemed to emerge from the very trees themselves. Lawson wondered if that was because his eyesight was so bad or if Gavrie's concealment techniques were really that good.
Together, the two men followed the tracks of their prey and found the slain animal.
Gavrie patted him on the shoulder. "For a farmer you sure do have a way with the hunt, boy."
When Gavrie found Lawson, embarrassingly naked and alone on a deserted planet the Onfroy's used for hunting, he'd insisted Lawson must have been a farmer before as Lawson fumbled ridiculously with a bow and arrow. Seeing as how Lawson couldn't remember anything before waking up on that planet, he went along with it.
Lawson frowned down at the dead loxum.
"I still don't like it," he grumbled.
Gavrie just laughed, bending to retrieve their evening meal. "Help me with this, boy."
Grabbing the front legs, Lawson did as he was told and the two men made their way back to the gate.
It was a good twenty minutes to the ring and another ten to their village after that. Once, when Lawson had measured a distance that way, Gavrie frowned - confused. Lawson knew it as a measurement of time but that wasn't how things were done here. It gave Lawson hope that there was something of who he was still in him. Though, sometimes, when he would awake from nightmares he couldn't remember past the fear, Lawson wondered if he really wanted to know.
Adelie smiled warmly when she saw the two men returning, her soft blonde hair shining in the noon sun. She had always reminded him of someone. Every time her large blue eyes locked with his, Lawson felt it in his gut. It wasn't an attraction. He couldn't describe it, but it was just an intense feeling of knowing and of home.
Adelie had let it be known she wanted more than just friendship with him. But Lawson couldn't. He remembered a face - skin dark against his and thick wild hair his fingers could get lost in. Lawson could feel her name at the tip of his tongue. He loved her. He knew that. And he had to find her. For some reason, every time he thought that, pain would blossom in his chest. An ache that left him again unsure how much he really wanted to know about his past.
Adelie greeted her father, grasping his forearms in each hand. She did the same to Lawson.
"We have visitors in the village."
Gavrie raised his brows. "Visitors? We have nothing to offer outsiders now."
They'd just survived a culling. Gavrie told him that he'd surely been through many in his life, but Lawson only knew that it felt very new. Their buildings were still in disrepair, people doing their best to move on with the loss of loved ones.
Wraith. Bile rose up in Lawson's throat at the thought of them. Huge, hulking, monsters with no regard to the screams of people as they stole their very lives away. He'd tried to fight them. Tried to kill them. And had almost been killed if it were not for Gavrie.
Lawson glanced down at the dead loxum. In some ways, they weren't so different.
Adelie handed both men water skins. "They have come to offer us aid in rebuilding."
Gavrie's eyes narrowed. "What do they wish in return?"
"I have not heard. They have been bartering with Lengowa."
Gavrie groaned. "Lengowa? Ugh. Come, Lawson. We must go sort this out before that oshwart ruins everything."
"What about the loxum?"
Adelie waved them off. "I will begin preparing it. Go with Father."
Lawson followed behind Gavrie, noticing the newcomers easily by their strange attire. Lawson had been to many worlds to trade with Gavrie but he had yet to come across clothing like that.
Lengowa glanced over what appeared to be the leader of the newcomers shoulder, glowering at Gavrie. Cutting off the leader in his speech, Lengowa asked, "How was the hunt?"
Gavrie waved Lawson to his side. "Lawson downed a loxum. It is not enough for all but two parties have yet to return."
Lengowa frowned but Lawson did not notice it. The leader had turned to face the newcomers and was openly gaping at Lawson.
Opening his mouth once and then another time, he finally yelped, "Dr. Jackson?"
Lawson's brows furrowed. "My name is Lawson."
Gavrie nudged his arm. "Come, boy." He turned to the leader. "Do you know this man?"
The leader looked very confused. One of his men asked, "Major?"
Major shook his head and then answered, "Yes. I do. I'm just not so sure why Dr. Jackson doesn't seem to know me. Or ya know, how he got here would be good, too."
Gavrie gripped Lawson's arm, his voice low and almost a whisper. "Does nothing seem familiar about them?"
Lawson swept his gaze over each man. There was no recollection there. The weapon resting casually in each of their arms, however; that sparked a brief flash of recognition. He knew how to load and fire it without knowing how he knew.
So much for the farmer theory. What kind of man was he that he carried a weapon like that? Did he at one time carry it with such ease as those men?
"No," Lawson lied. He didn't want to know.
The leader stepped forward. "My name is Major Evan Lorne. You might not recognize me. We worked in the same place but never really together. You don't remember anything?"
There was a strange compassion in Major Evan Lorne's eyes. Lawson didn't want it.
"No. I don't."
Major Lorne nodded, more to himself than outright.
"Well," he began, "I guess it's a good idea to start with the basics. Unless the Asgard have been playing games again, your name is Doctor Daniel Jackson. You're an archaeologist and linguist and you come from a planet called Earth."
None of that meant anything to Lawson. He had no idea what an archaeologist or a linguist was and he'd never heard of a planet by that name before.
Lorne was speaking again. "We need to contact Colonel O'Neill."
Lawson wasn't sure why, but that made him wary. "Why?"
Surprisingly, Lorne smiled. "This'll be the first good
news he's had in a long time."
Lawson tensed even more. Gavrie spoke, his own unease apparent. "You are bringing more of your people?"
Lorne assessed them both with his eyes. "Just Colonel O'Neill if that's alright."
Lorne looked Lawson directly in the eye. "You and Colonel O'Neill were on a team together for five years. If you're going to recognize anyone, it will be him."
From glen to glen and down the mountain side
Another man in uniform marched into the village and promptly stuttered to a standstill on seeing Lawson.
He had graying hair, deep lines in his cheeks and between his brow, and dark brown eyes. The man seemed completely frozen.
His mouth fell open and he questioned, "Daniel?"
Nothing about him was familiar.
Lawson replied cautiously. "That's what they tell me."
"You don't recognize me at all."
It was a statement, not a question. Lawson answered it anyway. "No."
"I don't believe it."
Lorne, standing at the man's right, asked, "Colonel?"
The man kept staring at Lawson, making him uncomfortable. "I didn't believe you." The statement was directed at Lorne, which the man confirmed by turning his head to the Major. "How is this possible?"
"We know that ascended beings can take human form again if they choose to do so."
The Colonel waved a hand in Lawson's direction. "I don't think he would choose to have no memory."
Lorne appeared thoughtful. "Maybe it was a punishment."
Lawson didn't want to hear more. He walked away. He barely made in into his home before the Colonel joined him.
"Please leave me alone."
The man ignored him. "I'm Jack O'Neill. And, barring some freakish similarity, you are Dr. Daniel Jackson."
"This house is all I know. These people, they're all I know. Before I woke up in the forest, I don't remember anything. I've tried, I've tried to remember who I was before. Sometimes I think it's right there, floating in front of me, and all I have to do is reach out and grab it. I try...and it's gone."
O'Neill sat down across from him at the old wooden table. "You were a member of my team, SG-1. You're a friend of mine. Last year, you died."
It was highly possible these people were unstable of mind. "I'm dead?"
O'Neill didn't seem to think the conversation was odd. "Obviously not. You just sort of died. Actually, you...ascended to a higher plain of existence."
"Ascended?"
Grimacing, O'Neill drawled, "Yeah. All that stuff was really you and Carter's expertise. Anyway, obviously since then, you've retaken human form somehow. I..." O'Neill stopped and shook his head. "Actually, I can see how this might sound a bit unusual..."
"A bit?" Lawson couldn't help from sarcastically repeating. If it was even possible, then, "Why am I here?"
"Hey, why are any of us here? Honestly, I don't know, but you've gotta trust me. You are Daniel Jackson. Think of it this way: out of all the planets in the galaxy, why this one if not for us to find you?"
"So you're saying a higher power had a hand in putting me here?"
"I don't know. That was generally your department."
O'Neill looked around the dwelling. "How long have you been here?"
"Twenty-eight durns."
"Okaaay," the Colonel drawled. "That means nothing to me."
"Who's Carter?"
O'Neill froze, a reaction Lawson wasn't expecting. The man's body physically slumped after a moment and he looked down at his hands. "She was a member of our team - Major Samantha Carter. You called her Sam."
Lawson sounded it out. The name was no more familiar than Jim's. "What does she look like?"
O'Neill was obviously uncomfortable though Lawson wasn't sure why. A pained wince came over his face but O'Neill didn't shy away from the question. "Short blonde hair, tall, really blue eyes."
"She sounds beautiful."
O'Neill glanced up, looking for something in Lawson's face. Finally, he said, "Yeah. She was."
Lawson tilted his head. "Was?"
O'Neill's face didn't change. "She died."
"I'm sorry." The response was automatic, but sincere. It was obvious that her death affected this man greatly, even if he apparently didn't want anyone to know it. Lawson supposed if he remembered her, he would probably be affected as well. Especially if she was the one Adelie reminded him of.
O'Neill quickly tapped a beat on the table and leaned back. "I have something for you."
Lawson merely raised his brows in surprise.
The man pulled something out of one of his pockets - two panes of rounded glass with long pieces of metal attached. "These are yours."
Lawson took them, trying to figure out their purpose. "I thought you said I died some time ago."
"You did."
Lawson flicked his gaze back to O'Neill. "You kept something of mine?"
O'Neill frowned, pursing his lips. "Don't go making something out of it."
The grumpy reply made Lawson smile. He looked back at the ...um, he wasn't sure what it was. "What does it do?"
"Oh," O'Neill exclaimed. He'd evidently expected Lawson to just know. "They're glasses. They help you see stuff better."
He could use something to help his vision? Lawson brought the panes of glass to his eyes, noting that the metal slid over his ears gracefully. Everything snapped into focus.
"Wow. That's different."
"Do you recognize me now?"
Lawson looked back at O'Neill. "Has your hair always been that way?"
O'Neill frowned. "What way?"
"Nevermind."
The summer's gone and all the roses falling
It's you it's you must go and I must bide
Ronon speared his meat with a fork, taking a large bite.
"Your military units tend to stick to their own ranks for friends," he observed to Sheppard, looking around at the other groupings in the cafeteria.
John took a bite of his roll. "Yeah. That and their teammates."
"Why?"
John shrugged. "It's generally not seen as a good idea to spend too much time with ones superior officers and vise versa. He sends you into war zones and needs to be able to remain objective about it. A leader, not a friend."
Ronon looked at the food line. "So why do you spend so much time with him?"
John followed his gaze and spotted O'Neill walking down the line, as yet to actually put anything on his tray. "I don't spend that much time with him. And besides, he's got no one else."
Ronon gave him a look that showed he didn't get it. John explained. "O'Neill wasn't with the original expedition. He got here maybe two months before you did and that was only to save Atlantis from the wraith attack. I'm not saying losing Earth didn't effect the rest of us but we had each other. O'Neill lost everybody he'd ever really known."
"That why you hang out with me, too?"
John grinned. "Nope. I only spend time with you for your looks."
Ronon glared and without warning scooped up a handful of his mashed potatoes and threw them at John's face.
John's mouth hung open in surprise, blinking around clumps of potato. Regaining himself, John hastily wiped his face clean, griping, "Hey! That was uncalled for!"
Ronon just smirked smugly, biting out of the roll he stole from John's plate. "I could have just shot you."
John frowned, wiping down his face and lap with a napkin. "Damn. That's gonna be a bitch to clean."
Ronon gestured back to O'Neill. "So who's the new guy?"
John glanced at the line again. O'Neill was pointing things out to Dr. Jackson. "He was a part of the Colonel's team back on Earth."
"How'd he end up here?"
"You remember the people from the time dilation field and how they ascended?"
Ronon nodded. It was one of the most amazing things he'd ever seen.
"Dr. Jackson did that. There's all kinds of non-interference rules that ascended beings have to live by. Elizabeth thinks Jackson tried to stop whatever happened in the Milky Way and got punished for it."
Ronon looked on the man with O'Neill in a new light. He lived with the Ancestors. Although, if what Sheppard said was true about their rules, they willingly let billions of people die. Not quite the people he'd been raised to respect.
"He doesn't remember anything," Sheppard added.
Ronon looked back and saw that John was still watching the pair as they went to a table.
"It doesn't really help that he'd never been to Atlantis before. Nothing here is familiar, nothing to trigger his memory."
"Except O'Neill."
Sheppard almost grimaced but stopped himself. "Yeah. Except O'Neill."
Ronon noticed anyway and took a drink of his tea to hide a smile. Interesting.
The smile wiped instantly from his face when Ronon saw who had just entered the food line.
"Stop it."
Ronon glared at Sheppard who was giving his 'I'm serious. That's an order and you better damn well listen to it.' face.
"Leave it alone, Ronon."
Ronon clenched his teeth and stared at the abomination as it walked to a table. "This is stupid."
"Your opinions have been noted. Now drop it."
Ronon stared down at his plate, furious. 'Michael', as they called him, was nothing but trouble waiting to happen. Ronon knew it down in his bones.
But he would listen. He just hoped it didn't come back to haunt him for doing so.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
Lawson glanced down at his tray of half eaten food. Jack had just left, having to go attend to something with Elizabeth.
She had been nice, Lawson mused. She'd smiled radiantly at him when he and Colonel O'Neill stepped through the gate. Lawson hadn't noticed much more about her after that because wow! He'd never seen anything like this place before in his life. Or at least not that he remembered. But surely if he ever had, he would have remembered it.
"Atlantis," Lawson said aloud.
Jack quirked his head. "You remember something?"
Lawson shook his head and pointed at the staircase filled with script. "No. I read it."
Gawking, Jack griped, "Ancient you remember. My name you forget?"
Lawson shrugged unapologetic. He hadn't known it was called Ancient. He'd just seen it and read it.
Elizabeth's smile, if anything, only grew. "Dr. Jackson. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Lawson shook her outstretched hand. "Please. Call me Lawson."
She nodded easily enough. "Alright. Lawson."
The truth was Lawson wasn't hungry. He'd just followed Jack here because it seemed like the thing to do. He still didn't remember the man but things he would do or say, the way he walked - they were all starting to spark a sense of familiarity that Lawson hadn't experienced before.
There were two marines assigned to guard him. Jack told Lawson to look at them as tour guides, whatever that was.
"It's a big place. Don't want you to get lost."
Lawson just leveled him with a 'bullshit' look.
Jack caved. "You may not remember it," he expounded, "but you have a really bad habit of touching things before you know what they are. They're just gonna make sure you don't blow us all up."
"Have I done that before?"
"What?"
"Is that how I died?" And wasn't that just the weirdest thing ever to say. "Touching something and getting people hurt?"
Jack's face tightened. "No, Daniel. You died saving millions of lives." A sardonic smile spread across his face. "Though you did touch something you weren't supposed to to do it."
Millions of lives. How could he ever hope to live up to that? Though no one but Jack and Major Lorne seemed to actually know him here, everyone he'd met treated him with a great deal of regard. Well, except for that Dr. McKay fellow, but Lawson didn't think he held anyone in high regard.
Elizabeth told Lawson that he was the one who found this city - Atlantis.
So much responsibility Dr. Jackson had. Had he carried the world on his shoulders? How had he borne it? Everyone seemed to do that here. These Lanteans were actually trying to destroy the Wraith completely. It was a noble task, if not a monumental one.
Jack told him of Earth. What had happened to it - to their galaxy. Lawson wondered if he was responsible for it. He knew he wasn't capable of such a horrible thing but he didn't know Dr. Jackson. None of the Lanteans even considered it a possibility which he supposed was reassuring of his former character. But everyone kept saying that he must have been punished by the Ancestors - the Ancients as they called them.
Maybe he hadn't meant to do it - touched something he wasn't supposed to as Jack said he was prone to do. And then the Ancients had punished him for it. Though Lawson personally thought that wiping out his memory would have been a kindness on their part if he was responsible. He would never be able to live with himself if he had been the cause of such mass murder.
Lawson pulled away from his thoughts and noticed two other guards similar to his hovering near another man. Though this one wore the same garb as the other military men in the city. He was eating alone as well and Lawson decided he was curious enough to go introduce himself. Maybe they had known each other.
Setting his tray on the table, Lawson took a seat opposite the man. He seemed startled to have company.
"Hello. I'm Lawson."
The man was shell-shocked for a moment and then smiled in pleasant surprise. "Michael Kenmore. Um," he grimaced, "have we met before?"
Wasn't he supposed to be asking that question? "I thought you would know that more than me."
"You don't know what happened?" Michael's jaw ticked out to the side. "Huh. That's different."
Lawson could not be more confused. "What do you mean?"
"Everyone always stares at me." Michael glanced around. "Sort of like now. I figured everyone knew."
"Knew what?"
"I was captured by the Wraith. They did something to me. Doctor Beckett hasn't been able to figure out what yet, but I've lost my memory."
"What?"
Lawson felt his stomach drop out. What were the odds of two completely separate cases of complete amnesia?
Michael looked over him in concern. "Are you alright?"
"Um, no."
"I'm sorry. I've made you uncomfortable."
"No. No," Lawson was quick to deny. "You didn't. I just ...I don't have any memory beyond two seasons."
Michael's back straightened. "That's ...coincidental."
"Is it?"
Summary: How would Daniel have reacted if he had been present during the events in "Michael"?
Categories: Crossovers > General
Characters: Carson Beckett, Daniel Jackson, Elizabeth Weir, Jack O'Neill, John Sheppard, Major Lorne, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan
Genres: Angst, AU - Alternate Universe, Drama, Episode Related, Friendship, Hurt Comfort
Warnings: None
Chapters: 2 [Table of Contents]
Series: None
Word count: 6711; Completed: Yes
Characters: Carson Beckett, Daniel Jackson, Elizabeth Weir, Jack O'Neill, John Sheppard, Major Lorne, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan
Genres: Angst, AU - Alternate Universe, Drama, Episode Related, Friendship, Hurt Comfort
Warnings: None
Chapters: 2 [Table of Contents]
Series: None
Word count: 6711; Completed: Yes