By
Shadowed Rainbow
This particular piece involves something that turns my stomach... gay bashing. It is based on an incident that happened a bouple of years ago to a young man who didn't deserve to be beaten and left to die. The title is from the song Scarecrow by Melissa Etheridge. I don't own these characters and pray to the Ancients that this never happens again. This piece also contains hints of graphic violence and a slash (m/m) relationship. If this is not your cup of tea, then I suggest you end your reading here!!
HIs hands shook, making the words on the paper before him waver and blur. Or was it the tears he held tightly in check that made the words blur? He didn't know for certain. He tried to speak but the words stuck in his dry throat, refusing to be spoken, refusing to put into reality the pain he felt. He was cold inside and out. Taking a deep breath, he looked at the faces turned to him. He could do this, he had to do this. He owed it to him to make this last moment the best he possibly could. He cleared his throat and found the words he had lost.
"I don't need to tell you why we are here. None of us needs that reminder. We have come together to say our final farewell to the one person who has made the past eight years more memorable and incredible than any of us thought possible. His tenacity, his intelligence, and his..." He choked on the words for a moment but they would not be denied. "his love of adventure were what pulled us through many tough times. I have lost count of how many times he save my life and saved all our lives, with never a thought for his own. He was a complex man, one who gave his friendship sparingly. But to those of us who he called friend, that friendship was forever. For those he served with, his loyalty was never in question. He could be counted on to bring you home no matter what." The tears closed his throat once more. He paused to look out over the assembled crowd. The sun on the grass seemed overly bright and harsh. Clouds and rain would have better served his mood this day. "Many times, when hope was thought to be lost, he would find hope for us. I speak for most of us, when I say that he truly was the heart of SG-1. In fact I can safely say that he was the heart of the SGC. It will not be the same without him."
He paused again, attention caught by a slight breeze that ruffled his hair and played in the trees around them. As he listened he could almost hear his lover's voice in the rustle of the leaves. "To have him taken from us in the brutal, senseless act is almost more than the soul can bear." He had to pause once again to gather his thoughts. This was the most difficult thing he had ever done. Saying goodbye shouldn't hurt this badly.
Visons of his lover as he had last seen him warred with his control. The sight of his beaten bloody body slumped against a tree, his beautiful silver hair matted with blood. The overwhelming terror that they were too late, the feel of Teal'c's strong arms holding him back. Preventing him from following his love to where ever his spirit had fled. The sound of the sheriff's voice, the snide intonations and asides about their orientation, the unspoken agreement among the officers that maybe what had happened was his fault. That he had gotten no more than a pervert deserved. Tears ran unchecked down his face now, his grief and anger mirrored by those faces of their friends and colleagues.
"We will never know exactly what happened that afternoon, Never know the why or who took him from us. Our questions will remain unanswered. His death was an act of cowardice and prejudice that we will never understand. An act perpetrated by men who feared something that they couldn't understand. Feared it enough that they felt it necessary to destroy it. To destroy him. In their anger and intolerance, they took the heart and soul of my world and destroyed it." He looked at the flag draped coffin in front of him, for a long moment. "We will miss you. More than you could ever know. I love you Jack O'Neill." Daniel pulled a crisp salute, the only one he had ever given Jack in his life. Tears still streaming down his face, he made his way to the side of the grave. He trailed his fingers once more over the stars and stripes, wishing that he could turn back time. Go with Jack to the cabin, instead of staying to finish that damn translation. Then perhaps Jack would still be alive. He wouldn't have been alone, wouldn't have been caught unaware by his attackers. he still couldn't understand how his lover had been taken. He could only guess, they must have waited until Jack was at his most relaxed and struck then. Otherwise they would never have succeeded, Jack was too highly trained and skilled. They had beaten and left him to die at the lake's edge... too far for him to crawl on shattered legs and too isolated for his cries for help to be heard by anyone passing. He had died slowly, from blood loss and exposure.
Daniel waited until all the mourners had left. Waited until the dull thunk of dirt on the casket called him back to this reality. Only the distant figures of Sam and Teal'c remained. He held the folded flag tightly to his chest as he walked away from the grave. A few feet from it, his knees began to buckle, but the memory of Jack's voice pulled him to his feet and gave him the strength to walk to the waiting cars. He didn' t look out the window for a last glipse, didn't respond to Sam's soft query. The only movement was the soft glide of his fingers as they traced the stars on the flag. The flag that Jack fought so hard to protect. The flag that flew proudly over the nation that he had loved. The nation that had hated him for what he was, the one that had made it possible for him to die in this fashion. All because he had dared to love.... Daniel. Daniel choked back a sob and pushed the button to roll down his window.
They were crossing the bridge over the river now. Without a moments thought, Daniel tossed the bloody flag out the window,