Events on the Horizon: A Stargate Sequel

Chapter 2

Daniel

The next morning the symphony of cinnamon and clove wafted into our bedroom from the kitchen. I yawned, and rolled to check the clock. It was later than I had hoped, but the weekend allowed for a good catch up of rest. I pulled a clean shirt over my aching body and took the glasses off the night table as I made my way into the kitchen. A Julie London album softly serenaded the apartment in the crackling warmth of the record player in the corner of the room along with the swirling gentle ting of a wooden spoon making its way around a ceramic coated pot on the stove. A familiar lilting voice was humming along, beckoning me to search her out. I leaned back against the sitting chair and just watched from the living room in the doorway as she stood there blissfully unaware of my presence. That feeling of familiar warmth building in my chest and pooling in my gut as I looked at her there in thick cream woolen socks, one rolled up and one rolled down. Cornflower blue pinstripe pajama shorts and an oversized matching sleep shirt only partially buttoned with one perfectly bare freckled shoulder sticking out, she could not have looked more beautiful. Her messy ginger mane half tucked up in a claw clip, and her reading glasses fogged in the fragrant steam wafting from the pot. She pushed the tortoise shell frames up onto her head and the record stopped, static filling the silence where music once played. Her head looked over in my direction and she jumped.

"Oh," she clutched her chest, "what are you staring at?"

"You," I breathed, feeling the longing aching growing within me. Pushing off the couch I walked over to the record player and dropped the needle back on the spinning disk. I held my hand out in her direction and she laughed the perfect tinkling of bells. Her hand in mine, head against my chest, we swayed in the moment and I looked down at her, taking in every perfect curve and wrinkle. "I thought I lost you," my voice was wavering and she smiled gently back at me.

"Lost me? No silly. I'm right where you left me." She hummed along to the song pressing her head against my thrumming heart.

My eyes flashed open in the dark, drenched in a cold sweat as I looked around. I was in Stargate command, it was a dream. A torcherous gift to see her again, but I hoped every dream would be filled with her ghost haunting me.  I had fallen asleep on the couch in my office again, this had happened every night and my joints were protesting at my sleep choices. I was scared to go back to my apartment alone though. Scared to no longer see her clothes in the hamper or her stray hairs that had embedded themselves into my sweaters in the wash. None of it would be there, and that was more frightening to me than I cared to admit. At least here in my office, I could bury my head in texts that might point in a direction to finding some way to reverse this.

I had spoken to Janet about a small nagging headache that persisted since my return. She told me to drink more water and gave me a few painkillers and a sleep aid but it lingered there with memories of her. It pulled on my spinal cord, like a chain connecting me to the gate. I had nowhere to dial to, there would be no proof that anyone could dial to the future again and find her, not if she was already gone but something gnawed at me, telling me that I was wrong and I had to find a way.

Eleanor

I flipped the gas burner off in the mess hall and poured the warmed drink into a clean mug. It had been maybe a few days, possibly a week, it was nearly impossible to track time here. I was able to find some packets of dried apple cider mix in a pre autumn box located in the mess hall along with cinnamon and various other spices I could toss into the pot. I was running out of the already low supply of cans available at my disposal. All of the fresh produce, the bread and grains had rotted within hours of Daniel's exit. As if time had rapidly aged everything edible in the open. I was living off of water bottles for bathing, drinking, all of it. Power wasn't working in the refrigerator so dairy was out of the question. I was sleeping in his office, wrapped in a spare jacket that still lingered with the smell of him. It was pathetic, but it was a small comfort I had given myself. There was a feeling that he was there with me, in the same room. Tethered to the idea of him.