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Daniel has Ascended again. At this point it's starting to be a bad habit.
He appears to Jack, just long enough to say that there's something he has to do before he can come back. Something big. But whatever it is doesn't translate into words the unascended can understand, apparently, and the visitation leaves SG-1 more frustrated and on edge than they were before. Whatever Daniel is working on requires some sort of slow and careful work, skirting around the edges of the rules and gently nudging things without attracting undue attention.
It's Sam who realizes that maybe he could work faster or easier if he had more power to work with. They are all anxious to get him back. And they have learned a bit about how being Ascended works. So SG-1 starts praying to Daniel.
They don't really know how to go about it but Sam starts over a cup of coffee, since coffee is something that will always remind her of Daniel. She drinks it and focuses on how much she believes in Daniel--that's easy. She may not know how or why or what she is doing but she does have faith in Daniel, in his judgement and ability to do the right thing. And she's really good at concentrating so she focuses her mind on him and believes and drinks her coffee.
Teal'c can no longer kel'no'reem but he does meditate and it's simple enough to vary that a little, to light some candles and focus his mind on Daniel. Daniel, wherever he is and whatever he is doing has Teal'c's full support. Teal'c's total concentration is a force to be reckoned with and he sends it outward to bolster Daniel's fight. Whatever this fight is, Teal’c has his back.
Jack feels very awkward about the whole thing but fuck it, he's willing to do whatever he can to support whatever weirdness Daniel is up to. Not like it's the first time he threw his support in behind some plan of Daniel's that he didn't fully understand. Those plans didn't always end well but this one will if he can do anything about it. Prayers are not traditionally offered with decidedly irreverent muttering into a bottle of beer, but it turns out they can be.
Cameron figures even his grandmother would find it acceptable to pray to a saint working to ward off evil. He's vague on what the evil is, and Daniel's sainthood is certainly questionable, but Cameron is willing to be flexible. Cameron wants his team together, damn it. He focuses on Daniel while he goes through the motions of his solo daily workout. It's the only time his mind is reliably clear and focused.
Vala considers praying while masturbating just to piss Daniel off but eventually settles on quick prayers offered throughout the day while she does other things. They help to clear her mind, oddly, and allow her to focus on actually getting something done rather than worrying.
It's only a couple of days before SG-1 gets a personal visitation from their new god. Exasperated, Daniel tells them praying to him is not necessary and it feels weird. He doesn't need more power, just a little more time.
They don't stop. It's only been a couple of days but having a channel for their jittery fears of losing Daniel, as well as concern over whatever unknown project he is working on, is helping all of them. And even the Ascended can't see the future, so maybe a bit of extra power will help.
Someone overhears one of Vala's quickly muttered prayers in the hallway, puts 2 and 2 together, and the next thing anyone knows most of the SGC is praying to Daniel. They pray through a hundred different methods, influenced by a variety of core faiths, backgrounds, personalities, and superstitions, but no one who works in the mountain is unaware of Daniel's record of pulling off literal miracles. It is enough to qualify him as a personal saint or minor god in many people's personal pantheons.
Three weeks later a naked Daniel appears in Teal'c's quarters and promptly passes out, narrowly avoiding the lit candles.
Everyone wants an explanation about whatever happened but Daniel's unascended mind can't hold on to what he did any more than he could have explained it to them before. His memories are hazy but he knows whatever he did worked. He also remembers the prayers. Not in detail, but flashes of things come to him as he walks through the halls of SGC.
Emotions, confessions, private things which would ordinarily be hard to say to anyone have been poured into his soul for weeks and he can't walk through the base without seeing someone he hardly knows--someone he hardly knew before anyway--and knowing them now in an abstract yet visceral way. It's a unique window into the hearts of the people around him.
Daniel is sometimes uncomfortable with the knowledge that they didn't necessarily mean to give this insight to another mere mortal, didn’t fully understand that some wisp of their prayers would be retained by a human being who walks among them again.
A few times he finds himself giving advice he barely understands to people he barely knows. "Call your sister, she forgave you a long time ago," or "don't call your old boyfriend, he hasn't changed; I'm sorry." He hopes that they understand, that it might help. He cannot elaborate on the advice. He doesn't remember why he is saying it.
Daniel doesn't remember any specific details about the words or images--or maybe in one case equations--that reached him from those closest to him but he remembers the feelings that came with them. He has loved them and they have each loved him for a long time. Now he has directly felt that love and loyalty and remembering even a little of it really clarifies why knowledge gained in an Ascended state can't fit in a human mind. He feels like so much love can't fit in his heart. There is no way he can respond to it, not really. It's too big.
Daniel does what he can, what he has always done. He gets back to work, saving the planet in the more mundane realm. He has a long brunch with Sam, drinking a lot of coffee and listening to her talk about life while he was gone. He joins Teal'c for a quiet meditation session and Cameron for a sparring session. He brings over a six pack of beer to see Jack and he jokes that when he had the knowledge of the Ascended he could almost understand why Jack likes drinking it. He takes Vala shopping just to let her get off the base for a bit, as her itch to be out and moving surfaces. He lets his life and love and loyalty intertwine back together with theirs.