It was just after Hathor’s planet when he came to her with a request.

He came not because he trusted her more than the others. He came because she was the one with the expertise to grant his request.

She was confused at first, then angry. He had no right, she said, because as long as he was alive, they would have hope of saving him. He didn’t return her anger; he spoke quietly and persuasively. And in the end, because he was her CO and her friend and because she respected him, she gave in.

At first she told him it would never work, because they would just revive him in a sarcophagus. He looked at her with that calm brown-eyed gaze and told her to create something a sarcophagus couldn’t fix. Eventually, she did.

She asked him not to use it unless there was no hope, none at all. He promised, but it didn’t make her feel much better.

It was just after the fourth of July when they were captured. On their first mission after a holiday break, they walked into a trap. He blamed himself, even though it wasn’t his fault.

When the Goa’uld came to interrogate them, he was sarcastic and insulting, because he was the leader and that was what he did. He was chosen - maybe because of his attitude, or maybe because symbiotes had a thing for brown-eyed Colonels with hair turning silver. No one would ever know.

As he was led away he fixed his eyes on each of them in turn, silently telling them goodbye and he was sorry and it had been an honor. He waited until the symbiote was placed on his chest, because when he went, the SOB would go with him.

She knew what was coming. The others didn’t. Not until the next room exploded, and it was too late to say goodbye. They escaped in the resulting chaos - without him.

It was just after New Year’s Day five years later when they finally defeated the Goa’uld. Afterward the three of them gathered in the ‘gate room, bandaged and bruised and limping from their battle wounds, and talked about nothing, mostly. It had been so long and so hard that for now, they just wanted to sit and have nothing to do, no battles to fight.

But after a while Daniel looked at the others and could tell they were thinking the same thing he was. And after a few more minutes of silence he said the only thing there was to say. He said, “I wish he was here.”