I'm so sorry for the long delay in responding to such lovely feedback, but thank you, belatedly. I never really expected anyone else to care about Teal'c so much when I first wrote this--the fact that it's still getting attention just makes me so happy.

Which is ironic, since there isn't a lot of joy in the fic. Thank you for reading (my other Teal'c stories are happier, I swear.)