Apart

No one ever really understood what it meant to be in a foster home. Some seemed to think that they were too young to really understand that their parents were gone, and that placing them with another family would erase the memory of their real parents. It never did. Foster parents never loved you as much as they loved their own children, and foster siblings could be cruel and distant. No matter how long you stayed, you were never one of them. You were an outsider, a spy trying to infiltrate the ranks of the family unit, one to be kicked out once they tired of you.

Sometimes, he imagined he would have a family again one day. For a few minutes, he could pretend that his family would come for him and love him unconditionally. Reality was never far off, though. After awhile, he stopped pretending. It hurt less.

He had himself legally emancipated as soon as he could, and never looked back. Foster families had never given him anything but a place to live. It would be stupid of him to expect anything more during the last few years, so why bother sticking around?

He promised himself that he would never expect to have a family again. For a long time, he kept that promise.

Years later, Daniel Jackson sat at his desk and wondered when his team had stopped being just a team.