All publicly recognisable characters and places are the property of MGM,
World Gekko Corp and Double Secret Productions. This piece of fan fiction was
created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on
copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and
places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real
persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
*****************
I
was recently contacted by a young writer by the name of Lorelai Gerret, who is
very bravely writing in her second language. Lorelai has shown the number one
criteria needed by writers, a burning desire to write, and so I’m thrilled to
put this story on my site. It’s a sequel to my story Truth and Dare – written quite
some time ago in answer to a now long-forgotten challenge to write about Daniel’s
school days. I hope you enjoy. If you do, please let Lorelai know.
*****************
Truth or dare – all over again
By
Lorelai Gerret
Daniel Jackson unlocked the door to his apartment. He has
just been gone away on a 5 days mission to P3X-757, and although it was very
challenging, all he could think of right now was getting to bed and having a
long sleep. He entered his apartment, and took a look at his plants. All well,
thank god for neighbors. If only they’d paint the place as well…
He entered his kitchen and took his pile of mail from the
counter. Most of it was bills, except for a letter from his grandfather, and
one white envelope without a sender’s address. He opened it.
Dear Mr. Daniel Jackson,
15 years have gone by, and the class of ’86 meets again.
You are invited to the class of ’86 college reunion, taking
place at “Plaza hotel”, L.A.
Sunday, 02/25/2001 on 8:00 P.M
We look forward to seeing you, and please feel free to bring
a friend or partner
Reunion committee,
UCLA.
Daniel hung the letter on the fridge, and took a deep
breath. So much time had passed; did he want to see all those people again? The
people who mocked him, who played with his heart... he knew what it meant-
seeing her again. Images from the past flashed before his eyes. So much had
changed, he changed. He finally decided not to go. “I can’t handle it again,”
he whispered.
*****************************************
Samantha Carter entered Daniel’s office the next morning.
“Hey Daniel,” she greeted.
“Good morning, Sam,” he smiled. “How are you?”
“Good, good. Listen, I was wondering if you need any help
painting your apartment?” she said.
“Well... I could use a hand, but I don’t want you to
bother.”
“No bother,” she laughed, “I just love to paint. Ask Janet
what a great job we both did on her place. Of course... we both ended up with
more paint on our face than on the walls,” she laughed.
“I believe you.”
“So... do you want me to help?”
“I don’t know...”
“Come on- you helped me paint my house...”
“Emm... Sure. Why not,”
“Great,” she smiled, “I’ll be over on Sunday”.
On Sunday, Sam and Daniel started working on his apartment.
They painted the living room, and after a little paint fight they moved to
Daniel’s spare room which was a total mess.
“God...” said Sam. “How long haven’t you cleaned here?”
“Oh. Not long... 4-5 years.”
Sam laughed, “Men will always be men. Come on- let’s clean
it up!”
After a couple of hours, most of the stuff that was thrown
around the room was packed in boxes. Both of them were exhausted. Sam sat down.
“See? It looks a little better,” she said.
Daniel smiled. “What am I sitting on?” asked Sam and took
out a pile of papers. She looked at them. They were pictures. She was holding a
picture of a man, which she recognized as a very young Daniel. “Hey, how old
are you in this picture?” she asked and handed him the picture.
“Oh, I think twenty or twenty one...”
“And who’s that?” she handed him a picture of younger him
and a young woman hugging. Daniel paled. Sam noticed his embarrassment.
“I’m sorry... I shouldn’t have touched those probably,” she
said.
“No... It’s OK. It’s just someone I knew at college,” he
said.
“Daniel, you know that you can tell me anything, right? If
you want to talk...”
Daniel didn’t answer. He just stared at the picture and the
images swam before his eyes again. After a few minutes of silence, he finally
raised his eyes from the picture and looked at Sam.
“My girlfriend at college,” he said and handed her the
picture again.
“Let me guess -“she said. “She’s the reason you don’t want
to go to the reunion.”
Daniel smiled, “Is it that obvious?”
“Why don’t you go, Daniel?”
“How can I go, Sam? I’ll have to see these people again, I
wasn’t the most popular student, you know...”
“So what? Look at you now!”
“What?! Most of those people are probably successful and
have great families, and I- I can’t even tell them what I do, I have a dead
wife, to them I’m just the same loser I was back then.”
“Daniel! You’re not a loser! Who cares what these people
think?! All that matters is that you ARE successful, you do amazing things
every day. And you do have a family- me, Colonel O’Neill and Teal’c. We’re your
best friends, and we’ll be there for you more then anybody.”
“She was my first love, Sam,” he whispered after a brief
silence.
“I know,” whispered Sam back, and went over to hug him.
“Sam?” said Daniel while hugging her. “Yeah?” she answered.
“Will you go with me?”
“Of course I will.”
They released the hug. “Just one more thing...,” laughed
Sam, “I’m not pretending to be your girlfriend!”
A day before the reunion Daniel picked Sam up with his car
and they headed off to Los Angeles. Daniel was very nervous throughout the
drive. So nervous that he had to pull over and let Sam drive the rest of the
way because his hands were sweaty and kept sliding away from the wheel.
“Relax Daniel, everything will be fine,” said Sam.
“Easy for you to say... you don’t have to face the people
who made your college life miserable,”
“Let me tell you a little story. When I was in college,
there was a really cute guy on my campus. All the girls adored him, but you
know what? He wanted me. It seemed very strange that out of all people he would
pick me, but I went along with it. It turned out that he used me to get his
grades up. As soon as the semester was over he dumped me in front of the whole
class.”
“Gees... this should leave a mark for life,” said Daniel.
“I was devastated, but as you can see- I survived.”
“Yeah, sure. You didn’t have to meet him again...”
“Wait, let me finish!”
“Sorry, go on.”
“So, two years ago I ran into him when I was in New York.”
“And...”
“He was unemployed, and his wife just left him. Now, I can’t
tell you it felt good, but...”
“It felt nice,” Daniel finished. Sam laughed. “You bet! so
you see- Who knows? You can walk in there and find out that all these people
are pathetic losers. All that matters is- you have a wonderful exciting job,
and good friends that care about you.”
“I can also walk in there and find out they all own high-
tech companies...”
“You can always lie...”
“Yeah, sure. I can say: ‘Hi remember me? Daniel Jackson. I’m
married with three kids, and I own 2 high-tech companies’”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Sam, “3 companies are better...”
Daniel walked out of the bathroom wearing his tux. He heard
a knock on the door and went over to open it and let Sam enter. “Sam, you look
great” he said.
She was wearing a long black dress, with high heels. “I
don’t think I’ve seen you in a dress more than once or twice”
“Well, take a picture, because that’s not gonna happen again
any time soon” she laughed, “You’re ready to go?”
“No... But do I have a choice?”
“Come on... if you feel uncomfortable just fake a heart
attack and we’ll be out in a couple of seconds”.
“I knew I can count on you to make up a brilliant getaway
plan”
“Let’s go”. They drove up to the hotel where the party took
place. A lovely woman welcomed them in the entrance.
“Name, Please?”
“Daniel Jackson”
She searched the papers. “Here it is” she said, and checked
next to his name. She handed him a name tag. Daniel led Sam into the hall,
while putting on the name tag. He looked around. So many people were gathered
on the dance floor and near the tables. Talking, laughing, dancing... but he
didn’t recognize anyone.
“Let’s get something to drink” offered Sam, and they headed
towards the tables. Two people stopped their way. “Daniel Jackson?! I can’t
believe it!” said the woman, “it’s been so long!”. Daniel forced a smile and
looked at her name tag which read ‘Sarah Anderson’. “Sarah, wow. It has been a
long time...”
She smiled. “Come on, sit with us!” she led them to a table.
“My husband Rick,” she introduced the man next to her, “this is Daniel Jackson,
and...” she implied to Sam. “Sam” she handed her hand. “Oh... very nice to meet
you, Sam.” They shook hands.
“so, what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a Doctor for Archaeology, anthropology, and
linguistics”, said Daniel.
“Doctor? Wow! I always knew you would make it” said Sarah, “you
must be proud,“ she added towards Sam.
“yeah, I’m a very lucky woman,” she winked at Daniel and
took his hand.
“listen Daniel, I feel kind of bad for giving you such a
hard time in college back then, you know- with ke....” before she finished the
sentence Daniel got into her words, “don’t worry about it,” he said, “it was
ages ago. I don’t think about it anymore.”
“I’m glad” said Sarah, “now, if you will excuse us, we’re
going to dance for a while. It was great seeing you two!” she said, and pulled
her husband to the dance floor.
“who was that?” asked Rick when they were alone.
“you wouldn’t believe what a geek he was back then,”
answered Sarah, “but look at him now- good career, gorgeous woman, funny how
life turns out...ha?”
Eventually, Daniel and Sam did have a pretty good time. He
met so many people who said they were impressed with what he achieved. He was
glad, he even agreed to dance with Sam. “See?” she whispered in his ear, “they
liked you and you didn’t even have to give away any government secrets.” The
end of the night was approaching, and Daniel hadn’t run into Kelly yet. A man
approached Sam and Daniel. “May I borrow your lovely wife for this dance?” he
asked Daniel.
Daniel laughed. So far everybody assumed that Sam was his
wife, and they didn’t bother to mention she wasn’t. Daniel had a pretty good feeling
Sarah Anderson had something to do with it. “Sure, if she wants,” he answered
finally. Sam went to dance with the guy, and Daniel told her he was going out
for some air. She waved him, and he walked outside, smiling on the way to some
people who recognized him. He set on a bench near the hotel. It was a cool
night, and the breeze from the ocean near by made him feel good.
“Daniel Jackson... who knew....” he heard a voice behind
him. He stood up and turned around. He recognized her immediately. “You haven’t
changed,” she smiled. She hasn’t changed a lot either. The same blond hair, the
same face, the same blue eyes that somehow looked softer, and a dark red dress
that revealed she was five or six months pregnant. “Kelly...” he whispered. She
came closer.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” she asked after a short
silence.
“Ok,” he answered, and they started walking silently,
neither of them knows how to start. Finally, Kelly broke the silence. “So,
how’s life?” she asked with a smile.
Daniel took a deep breath. “Fine...”
“Your wife looks very nice.”
“Oh, she’s not my wife, she’s just a friend. A very good
friend”.
“So you never got married?”
“I did. She died a few years ago.”
“I see...” she said with sorrow, “so what do you do for a
living?”
“I’m a doctor of archaeology.”
“Doctor Jackson... I like the sound of that... so you went
along with archaeology, ha?”
“Yeah, just like my parents. How about you?”
“Well, I’m a lawyer now, I’m married to a great man, and I
have two 8 year old twins at home.”
“Twins...” he said.
“Amazing kids. Eddy and Jessica, And I have another son on
the way...” she patted her stomach.
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks...” they stopped to look at the ocean. Daniel stared
at the dark horizon and once again took a deep breath. Kelly looked at him.
“So... can we get to the reason we’re both here?” she asked. Daniel turned to
face her, waiting for her to speak. She sighed. “Look, Daniel. It’s been haunting
me for the past 15 years...”
“It shouldn’t have.”
“No, please. Let me get this off my chest. What I did... it
was so cruel... I didn’t realize that when I agreed to the stupid challenge.”
Daniel didn’t say anything.
“I was trying to prove that I can do whatever I want,” she
continued, “I didn’t expect to fall in love with you. In this part of my life,
I can honestly say that I loved you Daniel. Not because of the game, but
because of who you were... I have no reason to lie.”
Daniel didn’t answer to that. They started walking back to
the hotel again.
“When you found out- well, it was too late to apologize,”
she said, “I didn’t think you’d want to hear me.”
“I broke into pieces, Kelly. I was never in love before I
met you. And when you knocked on my door crying...”
“You were there? You heard me?”
“I set on the other side and cried with you. Sometimes...
sometimes I wondered what would have happened if I opened the door...”
“But you went to Egypt, and I’m glad you did. It taught me a
very important lesson. It changed me, Daniel,” she said.
They arrived outside the hotel and stopped. In the distance,
Daniel saw Sam sitting on the bench he set in before, probably waiting for him.
He turned to Kelly again.
“You told me that you believe the first time has to be
special, remember? You were very special to me,” said Kelly.
“You were special to me too.”
“We finally get to close this circle in our lives...”
“Yeah... but now it’s time we say goodbye and get on with
our lives,” he said., “We never got to say goodbye.” They hugged tightly.
“Goodbye Kelly, have a great life.” he whispered.
“Goodbye Doctor Jackson” she laughed back, “take care of
yourself, you hear?”
They broke the hug, and Daniel started walking towards Sam.
“Daniel?” called Kelly. He turned around, and she approached
him. “I’m Sorry” she said quietly.
Daniel
smiled softly. “I forgave you a long time ago”, he said, and walked away slowly,
leaving the past behind him.
*****************************************************************************
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