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Goodbye - SG
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Title: Goodbye
Author: Venom_69
Category: Angst, C/D H/C
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Rating: PG
Summary: They knew it was coming.
Spoilers: Heroes 2
Season/sequel: Set sometime after Janet’s death.
Archive: SJ, Heliopolis, my site. Anywhere else, sure, just let me know where so I can come visit.
Disclaimer: Don’t own them, never will. Promise to put them back in the state I found them.
Author’s notes: it’s short, it’s not very happy, and it’s the first non-parody I’ve written in months. I like it.
Feedback: Hell yeah! Don’t make me beg, hit reply and stroke my ego please.
Dedication: As always, for LEW. For DJ, because she’s crazy when she’s tired and reading fic. :) And for everyone who reads this.
Date: 23-02-2004
Copyright © to Venom, 2003

***

She’s not crying, but she feels that she ought to be.

This is old school to her now- standing in the crowd as people talk about another one lost, another life not saved. She’s been there a few times, in his place, speaking about another good soldier gone. She knows how hard it is to talk about someone that you barely know. Speak of their accomplishments and attributes when you’ve rarely interacted with them.

This man they knew.

This man they loved.

And as selfish as it is, she’s glad that it’s not her standing at the podium in front of the Stargate talking. Talking about a man they knew and loved. A man that can never be replaced, regardless of the newcomer standing at the base of the ramp.

Someone touches her arm, and she turns to the man beside her, her gaze questioning.

“We knew it was coming.” She shrugs, unsure of what to say.

“That doesn’t make it any easier, does it?” He asks.

“No.” The admission is hard, and she hates it. They knew that his time was almost up. He should’ve been medically retired years ago, but he fought on, for them. For his people.

His eulogy is almost finished, she can feel the end coming, and suddenly she doesn’t want him to stop speaking. She knows that when he stops speaking, the newcomer will announce her, and then she’ll be standing at the podium in front of the Stargate talking.

She doesn’t want to do it.

“He would’ve wanted you to do it Sam.”

“I know. But it’s so hard.”

The man beside her knows it’s hard too…..he’s already spoken to the group that had congregated in the Gate room. There are almost a hundred people in the control room alone. This man was loved, by so many.

She hears clapping, and knows that she needs to step up and speak now. Her heart pounds in her chest, racing as the blood rapidly spirals through her body. She can’t do this. She can’t do this. She can’t d-

“You can do this.” He says.

The tears are welling now. She doesn’t want to cry while she speaks, it wouldn’t be fair to him. She cried when she spoke of Janet, and she hates herself for it. She can’t do it to him as well. “No, I can’t.”

He’s adamant. He always has been. “You can.”

People move to the side as she walks to the ramp. He’s stepping down as she walks up and he briefly touches her arm, offering her a mall nod of his head.

He understands.

He hates it as much as she does.

She feels small and insignificant standing behind the podium. She wants to cower behind it and refuse to speak, refuse to say goodbye. But she doesn’t. She waits until the crowd settles and she searches his eyes out, drawing strength from his warm brown eyes as he had done mere seconds before.

“General Hammond was more than our commanding officer. He was our friend. He cared for us, and he loved us. And we’ll never forget him. He was….” She stutters and searches out his brown eyes, standing next to Daniel just as she had done.

And she continues to speak.

She continues to say goodbye.

But she hates it.

***

The End.