DISCLAIMER: All characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.
It was the morning of the second - was it the second day or the third? Sam wasn't quite sure anymore. After she had finally been able to leave the Colonel, frankly asleep in the chair at Daniel's bedside, she had gone back to the Astrophysics lab to rejoin Teal'c. Who of course was very much there and still quite hard at it.
SGC, normally quiet in the wee small hours, had been rife with the activity of the teams returning from P8V-201 in the aftermath of the total destruction of the Goa'uld complex. Whatever you wanted to say about the worms, they were thorough. There hadn't been enough left of the place to put in a shoebox.
She was just glad to know that everyone had escaped from the building before it went. They had lost a lot of equipment and who knew how many irreplaceable opportunities to expand their knowledge and understanding - but no lives had been lost.
No lives were going to be lost, either.
Daniel was going to be all right.
She knew this.
It was nuts, it was insane, she had no evidence, no scientific basis for this - opinion - for lacking confirming facts or proof, there was nothing else she could call it - and yet - it was bloody well so!
It was so much so it was right up there with every other immutable fact that she could think of that demonstrated that the world had order, made sense and the universe was turning over as it should.
What goes up must go down.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Energy cannot be either created or destroyed.
Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom make one molecule of water.
Daniel was going to be all right.
It was in there, it was fact, it could not be denied and she could not make it go away.
So, for once in her life, she stopped trying.
Just surrendered the mental struggle to cram the unexplainable into the framework of her completely logical reality construct.
Took it on faith.
It was weird, but not too bad.
And guess what, wonder of wonders, the world was not coming to an end.
* Wait till I tell Daniel about this, he'll be so pleased.*
It no longer distressed her that the complex was destroyed.
Did not worry her in the slightest when Teal'c told her that the most of the files she had nearly gotten herself blown up to secure were encrypted and therefore impossible to access.
It didn't even bother her to know that she had to go to a briefing before the General in the morning and she had next to nothing of use to tell him.
Didn't matter. Daniel was going to be all right.
That, more than anything else she could think about at the moment, truly made the universe make sense.
Someone was shaking her gently. With a guilty start, she opened her eyes to find that she was lying sprawled across her desk. She had fallen asleep. Wonder how long she had been out. Who?
"Teal'c," she rubbed her eyes and blinked, still a little disoriented from her abrupt reentry into consciousness. Wha - oh, I fell asleep on you. Really sorry."
"That is quite alright, Captain Carter. There was little you could do to assist me, and your own needs were better served by allowing yourself the time to rest. I let you remain that way as long as I could, but I believe you should get up now. You will want to prepare yourself for the briefing with the General."
"Whoah!" She made a face as she ran a hand through her rumpled blonde hair and pushed herself to her feet. "Got that right, my friend. What time is it?"
" Thirty minutes before the designated hour."
"Ah, nine thirty," she said thoughtfully, automatically translating. Half an hour. Plenty of time. Good. I can freshen up, put on a clean uniform and still have time to look in on Daniel and the Colonel. She gave Teal'c a light, parting slap on his arm, being careful to contact him on an area that was not covered by a dressing. Then she started to walk from the room.
"Captain Carter," Teal'c's clearly interrogative tone brought her up short just at the doorway.
"Yeah, Teal'c " she said to him, turning. "What can I do for you?"
"I am curious." He was too; she could see it in his eyes. "Since returning from DanielJackson's room you have been in an - unusual mood. You appear to be imbued with a spirit of optimism that would not seem to be supported by the events of the last three days."
Ah, so this was the third day. That was nice to know.
"I wish to inquire what has occurred that has allowed you to experience this change of perspective."
She beamed at him in the full comfort and knowledge that she was telling him the complete and utter truth.
"Oh, didn't I say? Sorry. Daniel is going to be all right."
She turned on her heel and left the room. Even though there was no one else in the room with him to witness the effect her words had had upon him, the Jaffa warrior still drew himself up and crossed his arms reflectively as he regarded the empty air with what was for him a deeply quizzical look.
It wasn't going very well. The lingering air of frustration and incompleteness that permeated the atmosphere of the briefing room was not helped by the noticeable absence of the colonel. When Sam had gone back to Daniel's room to look in on them she had found the colonel still sitting in the chair, still asleep, his upper body splayed across Daniel's bed. She had considered waking him but something had restrained her. A small - request - that she not intrude. It seemed to come from the same place inside her where everything else that did not make sense but was easing her mind was residing, along with a feeling that she should not be concerned, something was about to happen.
Okay fine. She would let it be. She was really trusting this - whatever it was. It felt like - the touch of a friend.
So she had left the two men behind and gone straight on to the briefing room. Her attempt to try and explain the Colonel's absence to the General had been forestalled by Hammond's quiet assurance that Dr Fraiser had already apprised him of the situation.
So there they all were. All the players assembled for the drama about to commence. Really would have been nice if she could have given them a few more lines.
She opened with the summary of what her team had been able discover in the complex. Which pretty much simply consisted of a run-down of the systems in the safe room. Janet jumped in to bolster the conclusions Sam had come to about the nature of the creature based on the information provided by the support system.
It was not quite either a plant or an animal, but a little of both. It did appear to require solar energy which would lead one towards accepting photosynthesis as a possible way that it maintained itself, thereby reinforcing the plant theory, however the presence of the nutrient solution in the crèche that clearly was compatible with animal metabolic requirements demonstrated that it also needed to - eat. It appeared to function normally in the presence of an oxygen atmosphere and yet did not seem to need one in order to survive - witness the sealed, airtight container in which it had been kept. It's life cycle - it's lifespan? There was no way to know this based on the information they currently possessed. Except to draw the obvious conclusion, based on how long it had already been confined in the safe room, that it was safe to say it was very much longer-lived than most form of organic life they were currently familiar with except for maybe Goa'ulds, humans with a sarcophagus or possibly - trees.
Teal'c took the floor next. What he had to share with the group carried with it that same tang of frustration. Like getting a peek at your Christmas present before it went back into the closet, just enough of a look to get you interested, but not enough for you to actually be able to find out what it was.
The only unencrypted portion of the files had been the actual project summary, and it wasn't incredibly helpful. Whatever they had been up to with the little bundle of joy that had been secreted in that place, the Goa'uld had kept pretty mum about it. The aim of the research being conducted in the lab, centering about the project that featured their wee purple nightmare, had been the substantial biological modification of the human host species. It appeared the Goa'uld wished to see if they could alter the human brain in order to make it capable of functioning in - hitherto inaccessible areas. Specifically those areas that had to do with psychic abilities. They seemed to be particularly interested in telepathic and psychokinetic potentials.
What was not so clear from the summary was exactly how they planned to do this. Or what the creature had to do with this. Presumably that information was contained in the encrypted files. Information about the creature itself was maddenly scant as well. Where it had come from was not in the summary, however, strict instructions as to the importance of safeguarding it and preserving it were. Reading between the lines one got the impression that it was either one of a kind, the last of its kind or just not easy to get a hold of. Which of the above it was impossible to know, but they sure thought it was important. Possibly dangerous as well. After all, look what had happened to Daniel. Yup, they sure wanted to keep it under wraps, keep it alive and keep everyone else from knowing what they had.
Would have been nice to know why.
As diverting as all of this information was, it really wasn't a lot of help when it came to trying to decide what to do next. What are we going to do about Daniel?
It was Janet's turn now. Sam looked over at the grim-faced doctor, not envying the position her friend was in.
"Dr Frasier," the General began, affixing her with a less-than-satisfied look. "What is Dr Jackson's current condition?"
"He appears to have - stabilized - Sir," Janet began. "While he still does not show any signs of emerging from the coma, his life signs are no longer declining. I was able to take him off life support this morning. The abnormal brain activity continues to increase, however, the creature itself is not longer - growing. The level of the alien hormone that was being secreted into his system also appears to be decreasing."
"What conclusions do you draw from this, Doctor?"
" I don't know that I have enough information to be able to make a determination at this time. I feel however, that he is no longer in danger."
The General favored her with a long, speculative look.
"On what do you base this opinion?"
Janet flushed uncomfortably. "I'd rather not say, sir. It isn't very - scientific."
* So Janet, have you been talking to Daniel too?" *
Sam started as the errant thought fluttered through her consciousness. Where the hell had THAT come from?
The General had caught the movement. "Captain Carter, are you wanting to jump in here?" He asked her mildly. "Something else to throw on the table?"
Sam mentally kicked herself but if Janet could put her head in the noose she might as well have a little company.
"Ah, Sir, only that I concur with the Doctor and I am equally unable to explain why."
The General sighed deeply, spread his hands on the table in front of him and spent what seemed to those who were watching him an agonizing amount of time in their apparent contemplation before he looked back up at the hushed assemblage, a distinctly unpleased expression on his face.
"Well, at this point I would deem it a personal favor if SOMEBODY could explain SOMETHING to me!"
Sam was spared the problem of coming up with a suitable response, for at that moment the closed door to the briefing room opened to admit an extremely unwelcome visitor, flanked by gaggle of MPs armed to the teeth.
Sam took one look at him. There was only one thing to say.
"Crap!"
Jack knew that he was dreaming, but that didn't make what was going on any easier to take.
He wasn't sure where he was. Somewhere strange. There were people, so many people all around him, rushing, hurrying, pressing upon him, impeding him, holding him back. He was looking for someone. Someone he had to find, had to get to. He couldn't quite remember who - there was a face, on the periphery of his memory, the impression of a voice. Someone who needed him to get to them. Why couldn't he remember.
There was a sudden inrushing infusion of warmth and strength within him, a lightness, a welcome lifting of heaviness, and pain. The confusing panorama faded away like wisps of morning fog banished by the wakening sun. With the warmth came a feeling of comfort and the exorcism of fear. Life was returning. It was time for him to come back. Time for both of them to come back.
Feeling a very tangible hand pulling him skyward, Jack began to move inexorably from the world of sleeping shadows to the outer world of wakefulness. He surfaced slowly, gently, as if being rebirthed by a most caring midwife. Gradually he began to become aware of the bed beneath his upper body, the chair upon which he sat, the fact that his head was pillowed on one arm. The other, the one that had been touching Danny's shoulder was still in that general vicinity. However, it was no longer resting on his shoulder. It was being held fast, cupped and supported in another hand.
Jack lay there quietly, allowing his awareness to flow back into his body slowly, savoring the warmth and the sense of well-being that suffused him, relishing the simple pleasure of the feeling of the light pressure of Daniel's thumb as it gently caressed his palm. That one simple expression of affection and assurance carried more meaning for him than a thousand valiant deeds enacted in the name of another thousand noble causes.
Finally he lifted his head from his arm. Expecting to see Daniel's hand in his own.
One of the purple tendrils wound delicately around his hand. It was the tendril that was holding him, caressing him. From the tendril that the feeling of Daniel that had healed him had come.
* Oh, more than that, more than that. It IS Daniel.*
"Yes, Jack."
Jack's eye flew to the remembered face from which had come the voice he had thought he would never hear again.
Daniel's head rested heavily in the pillow, but it was turned toward him, his eyes open and shining in a face that was still very pale but nonetheless, coming swiftly alive. Jack was so overjoyed to see him that he didn't even mind that he seemed to be seeing things.
He had to be, what other explanation could there be for that faint purplish glow that seemed to be all around his friend..
Jack reached over with his free hand that he knew was trembling but he couldn't give a damn. He cupped Daniel's cheek with it, felt the welcome answering response of Daniel's actual hand encircling his wrist. Jack knew he had a grin on his face that was even sillier than the one on Daniel's. More 'I don't cares.' Who gives a rat's ass what you look like when you were having an honest-to-god 'moment'.
"Welcome back, kid," Wow - he could actually speak. Wonder if he could play the piano too. Nah, that would probably be pushing it.
"Glad you were here when I got back," Daniel replied, the joy on his face as great as that in his voice. "Sorry it took so long. Oh Jack, I have so much to tell you."
"Any information you have to impart about this situation you will deliver to me, Dr Jackson. As of this moment you are formerly transferred into my custody."
Jack's head snapped around at the first sounds of the hated voice. Sure enough, there he was, standing in the doorway, large as life and twice as slimy, complete with a brace of pet orangutans with guns.
Maybourne.
* Geez, they'll let anything walk the streets these day. Time to take out the trash. *
Jack bared his teeth in a menacing, feral grin.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in. Howyadoin', Ferret Face?"