Shades of Oannes, by Redbyrd (PG)

[figs_sg1_rec]

Rec Category: Daniel Jackson 

Pairing: none
Categories: Daniel Jackson, team, angst, friendship, episode related, gen
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: redbyrd_sgfic
Author's Website: Redbyrd's Stargate Fanfiction
Link: Shades of Oannes 

Why This Must Be Read: It's practically a rite of passage for any writer of Daniel fics to tackle Fire and Water. It takes a writer of Redbyrd's caliber, though, to take this episode and come up with a delightfully new slant that makes the story feel fresh and intriguing all over again.

In Shades of Oannes, Redbyrd gives us the unique twist of seeing the events of the episode through Daniel's eyes – a perspective that I've personally never seen before. We witness Daniel's struggles to connect with Nem, and his conviction, once Nem has warned him that he "is lost" to the SGC, that no one is going to come and find him. Even more intriguing, we get to see Daniel's increasingly confused reactions to what he finds waiting for him back on Earth… especially the lingering repercussions of Nem's machine, not for himself, but for his friends. 

Any Redbyrd fic is a treat. As always, she does a neat job of filling in the blanks left in the episode, and giving us interesting perspectives to events we thought we already knew so well. With teamy goodness and support, and Daniel discovering a little more about himself, Shades of Oannes is a great retelling of one of the best episodes of Season One.

He was closing his locker as SG-2 came in. "Hey, Daniel!" Ferretti grinned. "Rumors of your death-" Somewhat to his surprise, the other three members of SG-2 had stopped as well and were smiling at him.

"Yeah, yeah, greatly exaggerated." Daniel said with a faint smile. He had a feeling he was about to become very tired of the Twain quote. "It's good to be back."

"What happened?" Ferretti asked.

Daniel winced, "Oh, long, long story. Uh, to make it short, the alien asked us who could read cuneiform, I said, 'that would be me', and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

"He made you an offer?" Warren said. "I heard he shot you, or stunned you or something."

"It's very difficult to refuse anything when you're unconscious," Daniel explained.

"Well I'm glad it was a false alarm," Ferretti said. "Try not to do that to us again."

"Yeah," Warren seconded. "I don't think we could take another funeral like that anytime soon. I'm still hungover." He patted Daniel's shoulder in a friendly manner while the other two soldiers laughed, and said, "Welcome back, doc."

Daniel nodded and headed for the comissary, pleased and a bit bemused at the cordial good wishes. SG-2 weren't the only ones in an exceptionally friendly mood, it seemed. As he made his way down the hall, he was stopped several times by people he barely knew, who wanted to say 'hello' and 'welcome back'. You'd think he'd been gone for a month. He smiled back at people a bit uncertainly and thanked them. Wow, everyone seemed to know about what happened on Oannes. There were even a couple of the marines, who normally despised all civilians, giving him pleasant looks. Daniel shook his head as he finally reached the cafeteria. Weird.

"Hey," Jack called. He glanced over to see Sam, Jack and Teal'c sitting at a table.

He waved distractedly and made a beeline for the food. And coffee. His headache had subsided to a dull throb, and he was pretty sure food, caffeine and the newly restored glasses were going to mostly fix it. From the selection of food, it looked like lunchtime. He needed to replace his watch. He chose a sandwich and soup more or less at random, figuring after four days of short rations, he should probably be a little careful. And coffee. He picked up the tray and headed over to sit with his team. "Hi," He sat down and took an enormous bite of sandwich.

They watched him, and he flushed a bit at his poor table manners. He swallowed and washed it down with a gulp of coffee. "Sorry, I'm really hungry."

"We would never have guessed." Jack said. "Can you be ready to debrief after you eat?"

Daniel nodded. "Sure." He started eating the soup more slowly. "Um, aren't you guys eating?" Jack and Sam had coffee cups in front of them, and Teal'c had an empty glass, but there weren't any plates.

"We already ate." Sam told him. They were still watching him with a rapt attention that would have been gratifying had he been delivering a briefing but was a little unnerving during lunch.