Sparrow, by Travelling One, (G)

[tejas.livejournal.com]

I'm tejas and I'll be driving the Stargate SG-1 teltac van for the month of May. We have so many terrific writers in this fandom, I can't wait to share my favorites. I'm primarily a slash and gen reader, but if I stumble on a het story I've forgotten, I'll include that, too. Hang onto the bulkhead, folks, here we go!

Fandom: STARGATE SG-1
Pairing: none
Length: 52kb
Author on LJ: travellingone
Author Website: http://www.travellingone.com/
Why this must be read:

"What if" are two of the fic writer's favorite words. travellingone combines that question with one of the basic, unwritten tenets of the SGC, leave no man behind, and the result is the quietly haunting Sparrow.

What if Sam never went through hypnosis during Fire and Water? What if they never broke Nem's conditioning? What if everyone believed Daniel really did burn to death in a volcanic vent?

What if Daniel was left behind, trapped alone in Nem's lab, for six years?

travellingone gives us a Daniel who has sunk into his imagination in order to survive and finds it difficult to reconcile the reality he's constructed for himself with the reality of finally being rescued. Her spare prose and quiet moments beautifully illustrate the pain and courage of a man who chose survival over suicide and does so without melodrama or histrionics.


"Daniel?"

Yes, Daniel. Who else would I be?

"Can you hear me? Daniel?"

Jack has that worried look on his face, the one he always got when I said I was going to study by the water. Don't speak to any water creatures, he'd always advise, and I would just laugh. Why was Jack in that weird getup, as if he was checking out a submerged shipwreck? What was he into these days? Who are those others with him, fish-men? You told me not to talk to strangers, Jack, then look at what you go and do.

"Let's get him out of here. We'll put my gear on him, I can swim to the surface without it."

"So can I, General O'Neill. He can use mine."

What? I've never made you a general, Jack. What's going on?

You seem awfully real today.

I said, you seem awfully real today.

But still they did not respond, and a frustrated Daniel said aloud, in a voice raspy and unused for a very long time, "You seem awfully real today."

And suddenly the three men stopped what they were doing and stared.

Comments

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Er, is there a link to the story?

[tejas.livejournal.com]

*headdesk*

There is now. :-)

Thank you. Maybe that's my one screw up for the month. :-)

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Don't worry - when I did my stint on crack_van I managed exactly the same trick with my first.

(And I better not speak too soon - I'm up again this month and what's the betting I do something similiar!)

[tejas.livejournal.com]

LOL!!!! I purposely set the title off in italics as a reminder to go back and pick up the url.

*sigh*

Then I managed to forget. :-) That's what comes of being so obsessed with getting all the rest of it right. It's like preparing this really complex casserole and then forgetting to turn on the oven. ;-)

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

It's like preparing this really complex casserole and then forgetting to turn on the oven. ;-)

... I've done that as well!!!

[tejas.livejournal.com]

Maddening, isn't it? ;-)