"Danny!"
The voice teased at the edge of his consciousness and he rolled over on the battered sofa, slitting his eyes to look around the semi darkened room.
"Daniel!" The all too familiar voice settled in his mind.
"Oh, Mel, let the child be!"
"Mom?" Daniel sat up. "Dad?" Rubbing his eyes, blinking several times, he stared at the shadowy figures who stood near his fish tank. "Ahh, I think I'll wake up now," he murmured to himself as he reached for his glasses and settled them into place. With a self depreciating laugh at his momentarily straying mind, he glanced toward the tank again, his breath hitching in his throat.
The two figures were still standing there, staring at him. His mother had a quizzical expression, his father one of exasperation.
Daniel shook his head, climbing shakily to his feet. "Ahh, you're not real. You're not there. I'm gonna wake up any minute..."
"Don't be silly sweetie. Of course we're here," his mother chided softly.
Daniel shook his head again as he held up his hands defensively. "Ah, nooo, you're not. You're dead. Crushed beneath the cover stone in the Museum of Art...."
"Of course we were, Danny."
"Then, why are you here?" He waved a hand around his apartment. "Am I...dead?"
His father snorted. "Don't be silly, Daniel! Of course you're not dead. Your mother and I just came by to talk to you."
"Ahh...Talk to me?" Daniel looked around the familiar apartment wondering if he had lost his mind. This couldn't be happening, yet there they stood, as young and as well...alive as they had before their fatal accident. He pushed his glasses futher up on his nose and tilted his head to one side. "About what?"
"Well, son, this attitude you have towards Christmas," his father began. "It's not healthy, you know."
Daniel gave a short laugh of disbelief. "You want to talk about...Christmas? You're dead!"
"That doesn't mean we still don't look out for you sweetie," his mother soothed. "And your father is right. Your attitude is all wrong."
"Well, maybe the fact you died a week before the holiday had something to do with it," Daniel pointed out. "It's hard to accept a joyous holiday when you're suddenly an orphan and the subsequent foster home didn't really help."
"We know that, sweetie, and we're sorry, but don't you think it's time you put all that behind you and get a new outlook?"
Daniel looked uncertain. "What do you mean?"
"We know you've had a hard time with things happening like they did, and well...Christmas has just been another day to you. That was fine before, but don't you think now that you have friends, it wouldn't hurt to be a little happy would it?"
"What friends are those?" He questioned suspiciously, staring intently at the two figures.
"Why Jack, Sam and Teal'c...Catherine and the general. All the people at the SGC."
His blue eyes flared wider. "How do you know about them?"
His father shook his head. "You think we don't know anything, son? We've kept a close watch on you. We know what you do and why. We're proud of you."
Daniel shook his head once more. "I wanna wake up now," he muttered closing his eyes.
"Do you really think things would have been better if you'd not unlocked the Stargate?" His mother asked softly. "How can you even begin to believe it was all a mistake?"
His eyes flew open as he stared at her and stammered, "How ...how do you know that?"
She nodded toward his journal lying open on the coffee table. "You wrote it down in there, along with your loneliness at not having Sha'uri with you at this time of year. You wrote you regretted all the pain and suffering you caused by decoding the symbols on the cover stone."
"You eavesdrop on my writing?" He asked incredulously. "How could you read that! It's private and...and classified top secret!"
"Get a grip, Danny! Who are we gonna tell?" His father logically pointed out.
"This isn't real." He turned away. "This is not happening. You're not here. You're dead! You can't be here!"
"For a scientist, you really are slow sometimes," his father muttered lowly, turning to his wife. "He must take after your side of the family."
"Oh nooo dear, it's your side. Remember your Uncle Albert..."
"Shut up!" Daniel clutched his head. "This is not real. This is not real," he chanted softly, trying to retain a grip on his fleeing sanity.
"Oh hogwash, Danny! You think it was so wrong to open the gate, perhaps you'd like to see otherwise."
He dropped his hands away from his face and stared at the two figures. "How?"
"We can show you how wrong you are." His mother explained with a shrug as if it were the simplest of feats.
"How?" He reiterated.
"We're ghosts, we can do anything, can't we Claire?"
She nodded and reached out. "Here sweetie, take my hand."
Daniel hesitated, looking about the room, as if someone was suddenly going to jump out and yell 'Smile! You're on Candid Camera!' Then with a mocking little laugh, he shoved his glasses firmly into place and reached out his hand.
His apartment vanished in the blink of an eye and he found himself in a dingy small office. From a calender on the wall he saw the date was the year before and from the stacks of files it appeared to be a government office of some kind. He frowned then looked closer as he saw someone approaching.
The young woman was carrying a stack of files, which nearly hid her face, muttering under her breath. "Sure, let Carter do it. She's got nothing better to do."
"Sam?" He whispered in disbelief as she dumped the files on a desk and slumped in the chair. "If I'd known this was going to be my job here, I'd have stayed with NASA. But noooo, I had to try and figure out that stupid stone thing. Look where it got me. In the basement, stuffing files." She laughed coldly. "So much for the great military career of Sam Carter."
"Sam, where are we?"
She gave no sign of hearing him as he stepped closer to the desk.
"She can't see or hear you Daniel." His mother pointed out. "And here is the Pentagon. Without the Stargate Project, Samantha was stuck here. NASA wanted younger astronauts and she didn't make the cut."
"But she's a top astrophysicist!"
"The Stargate was considered a waste of tax payer's money and all those connected with it were black listed. The Senate subcommitee refused to finance it and she lost all the time and work she'd done on it."
He turned troubled eyes back to the young woman slouched dejectedly over the desk. "But she figured it out,...didn't she?"
"No, Daniel. She didn't. There was no Stargate Project at Cheyenne Mountain."
"Then..."
"Samantha's just another underrated, unwanted rung in the government ladder." She stared at him. "Do you still think you shouldn't have opened the gate, son?"
Daniel licked his lips and took a moment before he spoke. "I...I.."
"Perhaps you need to see more. Come." She took his hand and the dingy office dissolved, to be replaced by a stone room, empty and hollow, but for one figure.
"Teal'c?" Daniel called out his Jaffa friend's name but there was no indication the large man heard.
"He can't hear you either, Danny. Do you know where this is?" His father asked softly.
Daniel's eyes roamed around the room. "It's the prison cell on Chulak, isn't it?" His father nodded. "Why is Teal'c here alone? Where is everyone else?"
"You didn't open the gate Daniel. No one else is here."
As if to prove his mother wrong, the metal cell doors opened and another figure entered, flanked by Jaffa. Daniel's breath caught as he recognized Apophis. He held his breath as the Goa'uld approached Teal'c who stood head bowed in supplication.
Apophis' voice was bitter. "You dare think you could oppose me Teal'c? I, who made you First Prime? Did I not give you everything, position, wealth, all that you desired...And you throw it in my face and for what?"
Teal'c raised his head, his dark eyes flashing. "I would die free," he uttered softly, straightening to stand tall and proud. "I would die rather than watch the pain and suffering you and your kind inflict on others."
"You dare challenge me? Your God?" Apophis roared in rage, raising his hand to strike the Jaffa heavily across the face.
Teal'c stood motionless staring into space. "I die free," he repeated.
"You fool! You die alone!" Grabbing the staff weapon from one of his guards, Apophis charged the weapon and as Daniel screamed in horrified disbelief, he fired. Teal'c went down, and as he lay unmoving, Apophis ripped the Goa'uld larvae from its pouch. "You die alone," he repeated, turning his back and leaving the Jaffa's dead body where it lay.
Letting out a strangled sob, Daniel turned to his parents. "I..I..don't...understand...Why show me this?"
"If you hadn't opened the gate, you and Jack wouldn't have come to Chulak. Teal'c would have resisted the Goa'uld alone and he would have died alone...just as you witnessed."
"But..." Daniel protested.
"No Daniel. He had no one else to aid him. All abandoned him and he chose to die...rather than remain a slave." His father stated. "You and Jack gave him new hope and new meaning. Without you there, he had no other alternative."
"But he didn't have to die..." Daniel began.
"It was his choice." His mother looked at him with soft eyes. "Do you still regret opening the gate?" She asked gently.
He looked down at his feet, still unable to answer.
"Perhaps you need to see more," his father preessed, reaching to take his hand.
