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 It Was All Worth It
A series
of ten Stargate SG-1 short stories
by Michelle Lunsford
SPOILER
WARNING: this series, including the
introduction, deals with events that take place during season 7. Spoilers for those episodes –
including Heroes – will
abound. If you have not seen all
these episodes and do not wish to be spoiled, please consider yourself
warned.
Introduction
There is
a story of how this series came to be, and if you will bear with me I’d
like to share it before you actually begin reading. I came into Stargate SG-1 fandom late – around season 6. Admittedly, I didn’t understand
a lot of what was going on – much had happened since the movie by then
– but eventually I was able to catch up and before long the show had
completely hooked my interest. As
is often the case, the romantic in me wanted to look for signs of “ship”,
both legitimate and simply perceived.
Daniel, being my favorite character (even since the film), it was only
natural I would long for him to “find someone”. I can still remember the first time I
ran across a reference in fan fiction to him and Janet being together. To put it mildly, I was shocked. Daniel and… Janet?! Now granted, I still hadn’t seen
many episodes by this point – certainly not the ones most Dan/Jan
shippers name as pivotal (2010 and Rite of Passage). But, the idea intrigued me enough that
I started watching for clues and by the time season 7 aired, I was a
full-fledged Dan/Jan shipper.
Enter the
episode Lifeboat – an episode
that almost demanded the writing of Dan/Jan fan fiction. But as I considered the idea, I wanted
to do more than the typical romantic fluff. I wanted to create a piece that would
actually follow the development of
a relationship between these two characters. I knew such a piece would either have
to be a short novella, or else a series of short stories. As I continued to ponder, and watched
more of season 7, I eventually opted for the series idea. But again, I wanted to do something a
little more…
I decided
up front that I wanted this series of stories to actually fit in with the season 7
episodes. No alternate universe
scenarios here – this would be a collection of scenes that detailed
what was going on in between what we saw from week to week. Sure, it made the writing a little
more challenging, because I certainly had my own ideas of how things should work
out. But I welcomed the
challenge. I began doing mental
outlines and plot synopses. And
then… then I accidentally happened upon the infamous Heroes spoiler.
For a
while, I wanted to simply chuck the whole idea. I mean, why should I put all this
effort toward developing a lovely relationship between Daniel and Janet just
to watch one of the characters die at the end? Then I considered creating my own
alternate ending for Heroes. However, by this time I had so fully
embraced the idea of “make it fit
into season 7” that I simply did not want to take that option. And, as silly as this sounds –
because yes, I do know this is just
a television show, and these are just fictional characters – a part of
me actually felt guilty for having to put poor Daniel through the torment of
falling in love only to lose his love at the end.
As you
can see, I eventually decided to go through with the original idea. So, these stories follow the
development of a relationship between Daniel and Janet. The events take place between the
season 7 episodes of Lifeboat and Heroes. And yes, all these stories do fit within the context of those
episodes. No “fixes”,
no alternate universes or realities.
In the end, this whole process became very… special. It made the entire season 7 alive to
me on levels it never would have otherwise. And it certainly made the events of Heroes all the more intense. But, in the end, I have to say, along
with my two main characters, that the process has definitely been worth
it. It was all worth it.
One more
thing before we get to the stories themselves…
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank the following--
¨
The danandjan list, for being a source of entertainment and
inspiration.
¨
Michael Shanks and Teryl Rothery (although I imagine they’ll never
actually see this) for bringing to life two of the most interesting
characters it has been my privilege to observe and write for. For all your continued dedication and
efforts, thank you!
¨
My friend Leah, who was kind enough to do some research about Russian
terminology for me.
¨
And especially, to my kindred spirit Sonia, who so faithfully proofed
these stories – your comments and suggestions have without doubt made
this work better than it would ever have been. And your encouragement to me to see this
trough was invaluable! Many, many
thanks, my dear!
DISCLAIMER:
All publicly recognizable characters and places (the Stargate SG-1
stuff) are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret
Productions. This piece of fan
fiction was created for entertainment only and no infringement on copyrights
or trademarks was intended.
Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are
copyrighted to the author. Any
similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended
by the author.
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