No More Tomorrows
by Jinx

Summary: Sometimes you can't put off tomorrow what needs to be said today.

Rated: PG

Warnings: Character death!

Jack sat on his couch nursing his third bottle of beer in a half an hour. Daniel was supposed to have come over for dinner at seven o'clock and had not shown up. It was now ten thirty. At eight, he had called the mountain to see if Daniel had left only to find out Daniel was still in his office working on the artifacts SG-7 had brought back from M6R-903. Jack called again at nine. Daniel had not left. The last time he called, only a half an hour ago, he was told that Daniel was still in his office translating the writings found on P3X-229 and did he want to talk to him. 'No, that's all right, airman,' was Jack's answer and he listened to the dial tone.

Sighing, Jack had slowly hung up the phone and made his way into his dining room. He blew out the candles, which had burned down to almost nothing, picked up both plates and put them back in the cupboard. He went back for the roast, tossing the entire contents into the sink. The wine was poured on top of the now cold roast, and the salad was dumped on top of that. The bread was next and the dessert followed. When Jack had finished, one side of the sink had a mountain of cold congealed food and the other side had a pile of dirty dishes.

He now was sitting in his favorite chair, almost empty bottle of beer in hand, staring at the flames that leapt up in the fireplace, eating the logs placed there a few hours earlier.

This was the fourth time that Daniel had stood him up. Each time Jack had called and found that Daniel was immersed in translations or artifacts. It was kind of nice to know that Daniel was consistent. At least Daniel wasn't out running around behind Jack's back with someone else. This something else was work, specifically Daniel's life work. Jack was taking a backseat to Daniel's rocks and writings. It was comforting in an upsetting kind of way. In all honesty, Jack should be used to this by now. Daniel had always been single-minded when it came to his job, his passion. Yeah, it was more of a passion than anything else. Too bad Jack wasn't his passion, too.

The first time this happened, Daniel came rushing in two hours late apologizing profusely for being late. He made up for it that night, though: Daniel helping Jack forget his tardiness in new and exciting ways. The second time, Daniel didn't come over until after midnight. He had crawled into bed with Jack begging Jack's forgiveness only to fall asleep soon afterwards lying on top of Jack in mid-kiss. The third time, he didn't come over at all. Jack should have known that after that night, any other attempts of getting Daniel over for dinner would be a washout. It was just something that Jack was going to have to accept: Daniel was pulling away from their relationship, leaving him slowly, and prolonging his pain.

Jack knew he should just tell Daniel that enough was enough, but that would require he and Daniel in the same room together alone and that was something that was never going to happen.

Jack shook his head and stood up. Time for another beer. Not that the alcohol was doing him any good. He was as sober now as he was when he first started to drink. You'd think that drinking three beers in 30 minutes would at least give me a buzz, Jack thought as he rummaged around in the refrigerator. Pulling out another beer, Jack wandered out the back door and made his way to his mini-observatory. Perhaps a few hours watching the stars would help clear his mind. He knew he needed to make a decision, but what that might mean, he didn't know.

***********

He passed Daniel in the corridor the next day on his way to the briefing room.

"Hey, Jack." Daniel fell into step next to Jack.

"Daniel," he replied tonelessly.

"Everything all right?"

"Yeah," another toneless reply.

"You have a good night?"

Jack stopped and looked over at his walking companion incredulously. Did Daniel actually mean what he said? Didn't he remember? Jack blinked several times before shaking his head and continuing his walk down the hall.

"Jack?" He heard Daniel calling after him but didn't stop. It was one thing to be absent minded, but this was ridiculous. Daniel caught up to him, looking at him with concern. "Jack, you okay?"

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell him, 'No, I'm not okay, damnit!', but Jack just shook his head. "Yeah, I'm fine."

The rest of the journey was silent as the two men made their way into the briefing room.

*********

Daniel sat across from Jack, a frown drawing his brows together. Something was wrong with Jack and he didn't know what it was. Jack was known for his silence when something was bothering him and this seemed to be no exception.

Daniel had hoped that now they were together, Jack would have opened up at least a little bit; enough to tell Daniel when something was upsetting him, but he guessed his was wrong. Jack was going to be Jack no matter what. He just wished he knew what had happened to put that look on his lover's face. When Daniel asked about last night, Jack had looked...

Daniel closed his eyes. Fuck! He was supposed to go to Jack's last night for dinner. They had planned last night for a week and Daniel had forgotten. Shit. No wonder Jack was upset. It wasn't the first time this had happened either. Daniel was just now recalling the last couple times that he had flaked on Jack, leaving him alone and spending the night in his office cataloguing artifacts and translating tablets. He dropped his chin to his chest wishing he had a third foot to kick himself with right now.

"Everything okay, Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel's head jerked up and he looked at General Hammond like a child caught sleeping in class.

"Sir?"

"I asked if everything was okay."

"Uh, yes sir. Sorry sir." Daniel flicked his eyes over to Jack but the other man was not even looking at him. Damn. Usually when he got in trouble by the general, he would catch Jack smiling at him, silently laughing that he got into trouble. But, there was none of that here and Daniel felt himself missing Jack's childish behavior.

"Okay then, you have a go. You will leave at 1430. Colonel, a word?"

Damn it! Daniel thought. He wanted to talk to Jack before they left and the general was detaining him. Just his luck.

********

1430 came quicker than he would have liked and Daniel found himself suited up and standing at the end of the ramp ready to depart to L3R-667. He never did get the chance to talk to Jack. Jack had been with the general for most of the morning while the rest of the team was preparing for the mission. The brief time he did see Jack, the other man told him that 'everything was just fine and wasn't it time for him to get ready to go?'

And now Daniel stood in the gate room ready to embark on their latest exploration and he knew that Jack was upset with him. Rightly so, he added to himself, shrugging the gear more comfortably on his shoulders.

When the wormhole opened, he followed the rest of the team up the ramp while silently vowing to talk to Jack when they returned.

*********

Dear god! How could things go wrong so fast?! One minute SG-1 was being enthusiastically greeted by the people of the village they had found only a few miles from the stargate, Daniel talking happily with the elder of the clan, and the next minute they were being surrounded by Jaffa emerging from behind the buildings: the happiness of the villagers being replaced by angry, hate-filled faces.

It was though everything happened in slow motion: Daniel watched as Jack whirled around, taking aim on the first Jaffa to appear. He fired his weapon only to be hit from behind by another Jaffa out of his eyesight. Teal'c gunned down the Jaffa who shot Jack but was hit in return by a Jaffa out of his eyesight. He watched in horror as first Jack then Teal'c fell to the ground. Sam, who was standing next to Daniel, raised her gun, but a staff weapon blast to the barrel ripped it out of her hands.

Next, they were both grabbed from behind, arms held tightly by the serpent guards. Daniel struggled against the grip holding him hostage. He could hear Sam next to him scream out, "Colonel!" She, too, was struggling against her captors. "Teal'c!" Again, the voice was Sam's.

Daniel could not tear his eyes away from Jack. He had fallen partially on his side and partially on his back, his head and arm bent against the wall behind him. Their eyes met briefly and Daniel's breath caught.

He would never forget that look as long as he lived.

He then watched in horror as Jack's arm slid across the wall and fell to the ground, brown eyes still opened yet now unfocused and blank.

"NOOOOOOO!" Daniel yelled, squirming against the hands holding him. Managing to break the grip, Daniel ran for Jack's side and fell to his knees. "Jack? No, Jack, please." He felt along Jack's neck, searching for the telltale sign of life. He found nothing. "Nooooo, Jack. Jack. Please. No," his voice a mere whisper now, disbelief catching in his throat.

He knelt on the hard ground barely aware when hands grabbed him and lead him away. He staggered wherever he was lead to, unconscious of where his captors were taking him or what they were planning on doing to him. Unconscious and uncaring.

He vaguely knew that someone else was with him, but who it was or why that other person was there had no meaning.

How quickly he had become a shell of his former-self. Daniel had been brought down by that staff blast just as surely as Jack had been.

As he was led away, one scene repeated itself over and over in his head. It would be the only thing he would ever see again as he now lived inside his tortured mind: his lover's dying eyes accusing him of betrayal.

For Daniel, it was too late: there would be no more tomorrows to repair the damage done today. And that would last forever.

Finis