Fic: From the Ashes (1/2)
Aug. 2nd, 2003 07:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galaxysoupFANDOM: Stargate SG-1
RATING: PG-13
CATEGORY: Angst, hurt/comfort, drama
SUMMARY: An offworld mishap spells trouble for Daniel. Teal'c might be able to save him, but will he let his guilt drive him too far?
SPOILERS: Forever in a Day, Bloodlines, Need, Seth, Secrets, Children of the Gods, Maternal Instinct, the movie
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For Sarah, who pleaded so eloquently for more (any) Teal'c and Daniel friendship stories, and who gives the best cyber-hugs on the planet. Here's looking at you, kid! Thanks also to Atticus for the medical jargon, and to my wonderful beta LimeKid, who writes fun things like `Dr. Zat Gun, I presume?' in my margins and says `dude' a lot. And extra special thanks to Barb, Feedbacker Extraordinaire and single illustrious member of my Updates List. Okay, okay. I'm really done thanking people now. ;-)
FROM THE ASHES
Daniel Jackson was asleep on one of the commissary tables. Teal'c caught sight of him as soon as he entered the room, and sighed. The young human's insistence that he needed neither sleep nor food on occasions when it was painfully obvious to everyone else that those were precisely the things he required never failed to annoy Teal'c.
He collected his meal from the counter and seated himself opposite Daniel, debating the merits of letting the man sleep or waking him up and remonstrating him for denying himself rest when he had a mission approaching.
The desire to remonstrate won. If Daniel Jackson would not take care of himself, Teal'c would take care of him instead.
"Daniel Jackson," he said. There was no response. "Daniel Jackson!" he said again, this time accompanied by a hard shove to one shoulder.
Daniel groaned and stirred, raising his head to give Teal'c a bleary look. "Wha?" he said articulately.
Teal'c frowned in concern, irritation forgotten. Daniel's eyes were bloodshot and his face was flushed. He did not look well.
"Daniel Jackson, are you unwell?"
"Wha?" Daniel said again, reaching for a napkin. He frowned, his brain catching up with the conversation. "Oh! No, Teal'c. I'm fine." He blew his nose, a procedure which took a considerable amount of time and left him wheezing for breath.
Teal'c's expression became stony. "You are unwell," he said forbiddingly.
"I'm fine."
"You are not."
"Yes, I am."
"No. We will go to the infirmary now." Teal'c knew better than to ask if Daniel had already seen Doctor Fraiser. If he had, he would not be sleeping in the commissary, nor would he be using napkins for Kleenex. Doctor Fraiser tended to frown on such practices.
"I don't need to go to the infirmary," Daniel protested as Teal'c dragged him to his feet. "Whoa," he said faintly, swaying. Teal'c tightened his grip on Daniel's arm as the young man paled alarmingly.
"Would you prefer to sit? I can bring Doctor Fraiser to you if you do not feel you can make it to the infirmary."
Daniel shook his head. "No, I'm okay. It was just a head rush." He rallied somewhat. "And I don't need to go to the infirmary. I'm fine. It's just a stuffy nose."
Teal'c did not dignify this with a response.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Well, it looks like you just have a bad head cold," Dr. Fraiser said, looping her stethoscope around her neck.
Daniel glowered in Teal'c's direction. "I told you I was fine."
"On the contrary," Dr. Fraiser said briskly. "You are not `fine'. You're sick, Daniel. You have a temperature, you need to rest and I want to keep an eye on your lungs. And since I can't trust you to take care of yourself, you'll be resting in the infirmary until I decide you've recovered."
"But - "
"No."
"The mission - "
"Can go on without you," Jack said from the doorway. "It's a mineral survey. No natives to annoy, no snakeheads to bait. Just lots of samples to label." A thoughtful look crossed his face. "Actually, now that I think about it, I'm feeling kind of sick myself..."
"Very funny, Jack."
"Maybe next time you'll remember to take care of your colds as soon as they hit," Dr. Fraiser said pointedly. "How long have you been feeling sick?"
"I'm not sick," Daniel insisted, but it lacked conviction.
"Uh-huh," Dr. Fraiser said, sounding entirely unconvinced. "I'll go call General Hammond and tell him you're staying here. That means, by the way," she added, turning back to glare at him, "that I expect to find you here when I return."
Jack laughed. "I'd say she's on to your tricks, Daniel."
Daniel gave him a dirty look, which Jack chose to ignore.
"Come on, Teal'c. We get to go play in the galactic sandbox once again. Gotta love those mineral surveys!"
"I do not," Teal'c told him, but he was already down the hallway and out of earshot. Teal'c turned back to Daniel, who was starting to list a little to one side.
"Rest, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c told him gently. "You will be well when we return." He gave Daniel a light push back onto the bed. Daniel's eyes slid closed.
"'M not sick," he mumbled. "Feel fine..."
Teal'c raised one eyebrow in polite disbelief and left the infirmary.
Dr. Fraiser hung up on General Hammond and returned to find Daniel flat on his back on one of the gurneys, fully clothed and dead to the world.
"Men," she muttered with fond exasperation as she began to unlace his boots.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Thank you for travelling Stargate Air," O'Neill said with false cheer as he exited the wormhole. "The flight only took half a second, `turbulence' doesn't even begin to cover what we just went through, and you might not have had time to notice but there were no in-flight snacks. We have now arrived on lovely P9C 365. Local attractions include... well, we're not sure what they include, but we're going to find out. Carter!"
Major Carter hid a smile and quirked a bland eyebrow in her CO's direction. "Sir?"
"Do you have any particular direction you want to explore in first, or should we flip a coin?"
"I do not see the logic behind flipping a coin, O'Neill," Teal'c interjected. "A coin has but two sides, and there are many directions to choose from. It would be much wiser to spin a bottle."
Dead silence.
"Ah, Teal'c, that's a different sort of game. Let's just go straight, shall we?"
Teal'c gave a small sigh. Cassandra had, in fact, explained to him the significance of the game Spin the Bottle quite some time ago. Perhaps it was a question of delivery. His timing could be off.
They hiked for several hours, pausing as they went to collect soil and vegetation samples. P9C 365 appeared to be mostly grasslands, which had O'Neill shouting a great many things about pilgrims and circling the wagons. Major Carter pondered aloud about why a planet with healthy and abundant plants would have no signs of animal life, and got into a lengthy discussion with herself over UV radiation and comparable coping factors with reference to the American plains. Teal'c tried to comment from time to time, because he knew that under normal circumstances Major Carter would be debating with Daniel Jackson on these matters, but idle chatter was not in his nature and he consequently left most of the talking to her.
The grasslands rolled on in unending indistinguishable waves, and Teal'c could imagine that it would be easy to lose one's sense of direction in such a place. He kept a close eye on the position of the sun and any unusual landmarks, and could find no geographical indication as to why his symbiote should suddenly become agitated.
"Teal'c? Something wrong?"
He looked up to find O'Neill regarding him intently, all traces of the jocular man from a moment before gone.
"My symbiote has become agitated. I do not know why."
"Carter?"
Major Carter consulted a handheld device. "I'm not picking anything up, sir."
"Is it just here?"
"I was fine until now. I do not understand the reasons behind this disturbance, O'Neill, but it worries me. I believe we should return to the Stargate."
"Okay." O'Neill bent to scoop up one of Major Carter's sample cases, and lost his balance.
"Whoa. Okay, a little light-headed there."
Major Carter swayed on her feet. "Me too."
Teal'c stepped forward and grabbed her arm, hauling O'Neill to his feet with his other hand. "We must depart."
"No argument from me," O'Neill slurred, but he appeared to be having difficulty standing.
Major Carter slumped to the ground, and Teal'c began to feel a strange disorientation spread over him. In his pouch, his symbiote writhed unhappily, but the feeling was suddenly very distant. He looked around and realized he was seated on the ground between O'Neill and Major Carter, gripping both of their jackets tightly in his hands. He tugged, trying to rouse them, but there was no response.
The world swayed around him and he toppled sideways. His vision blurring, at first he did not understand what he saw. Large clumps of grass shifted and moved, rising from the earth to reveal creatures hidden beneath. The creatures started towards them and Teal'c struggled to rise, panic swelling in his chest. Major Carter's jacket was pulled out of his hand, followed closely by O'Neill's. The last thing he saw before blackness swept in was one of the aliens leaning over him.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Daniel awoke slowly, luxuriating in the feel of warm blankets and a decent mattress. One of the springs in the mattress in his apartment had come loose a few weeks ago, and if he wasn't careful and rolled over just wrong he got a nasty jab in the side. He'd been meaning to replace it for some time, but never seemed to get around to it.
He stretched and opened his eyes, feeling the slight twinge of an IV in one arm. He could still feel a touch of the cold he'd gone to sleep with, but for the most part it seemed to have cleared up.
"It's alive!" said Janet's voice from across the infirmary.
Daniel rolled over and sat up. He was still wearing his t-shirt, but his pants and socks had vanished somewhere. He blushed and pulled the blanket over his lap.
"Nothing I haven't seen before," Janet teased.
"Good morning, Janet!" Daniel said, using a very Charlie's Angels inflection. Janet grinned at him.
"You've been asleep for almost twelve hours, you know. How are you feeling? And don't lie. I'm a mother and I can always tell."
"Fine. Great, actually." He gave the IV in his arm a suspicious look. "Twelve hours? What did you give me?"
"Nothing stronger than saline and a mild antibiotic." She gave him a stern look and popped a thermometer in his mouth. "Which is usually an indication that a patient should be sleeping more in general, Daniel."
Daniel gave her a sheepish smile.
"I'd give you my standard lecture on timely medical attention, but since you never pay attention anyway I'm not going to bother. Maybe I'll just wait until the next time you get drunk with the Colonel and we'll have it tattooed on your forehead." She took out the IV and pressed a cotton ball to the spot.
"Okay, now that's just cruel," Daniel mumbled around the thermometer. Janet gave him a scary Doctor look and he subsided.
"Honestly, Daniel, you have to take better care of yourself. You can't exist entirely on coffee and chocolate, you know." She pulled out the thermometer and studied it.
"Heresy!"
Janet grinned. "Yeah, I know. I went through med school, remember?" She shook out the thermometer and handed him a band-aid for his arm. "Well, you look pretty good for a man who doesn't have the sense God gave an eggplant. Get dressed and I'll find you something to eat. SG-1 should be coming back any minute, so if you're good I'll let you out in time to greet them."
Daniel gave her a smile. "Thanks, Janet."
Janet waved one hand irritably. "You can repay me by eating everything I bring you and not whining about the decaf."
Twenty minutes later, Daniel wandered into the control room nursing the cup of real coffee he'd pilfered from the nurse's station. Sergeant Davis gave him a nod as he settled into position by one of the panels of blinking lights that apparently did something important besides blink. Daniel had had Sam explain it to him once, but there are only so many times a person can hear the words `differential', `sub-space', and `compensating for geo-magnetic fields' before completely losing track of the conversation.
Daniel took a sip of his coffee and glanced at the clock. SG-1 should be returning right about... now.
Nothing.
Well, that didn't mean anything. They could be running late, Sam could have found something interesting, the differences between the two planets could have thrown their watches off... the possibilities were endless. So it was nothing to worry about. Really.
Daniel shifted uncomfortably and glanced at the clock. They were now fifteen minutes overdue. Sergeant Davis shot him a sympathetic look.
General Hammond walked in reading a large sheaf of papers, avoiding passing airmen with the ease of long practice and the confidence people would notice him and step to one side.
"Sergeant Davis, tell Colonel O'Neill that I need to see him in my office, please - "
"SG-1 has not reported in yet, sir."
Hammond looked up, taking in Daniel, the inactive Gate, and the empty Gateroom in one glance. "They could be running late."
"Yes, sir."
"Give them one hour and dial it up."
"Yes, sir."
The hour seemed to crawl by. Daniel had long since finished his coffee, and stood nervously shredding the edges of the styrofoam cup and dropping the pieces one by one into the trash can by his feet, his overactive imagination providing him with a bevy of awful reasons why SG-1 was late.
"Dial it up, Sergeant."
"Yes sir."
The Gate whirred, clunked, and whooshed to life. General Hammond reached for the microphone.
"SG-1, come in. SG-1, do you copy? This is General Hammond." There was no response.
"Activate the MALP, see if there's anything near the Gate."
"Yes sir."
Daniel came up to stand next to the General, his eyes riveted on the tiny screen where the MALP's telemetry was playing back. He remembered this planet - grassland, mostly, with no evidence of civilization or habitation, but apparently with something interesting science-wise for SG-1 to be sent out on sample-collecting duty. Honestly, he had been paying more attention in the briefing to not falling asleep than to what was being said.
The MALP panned left and all of Daniel's diversionary musings ground to a screeching halt at the sight of three bodies lying motionlessly on the ground in front of the Stargate.
SG-1.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Well, from what I can tell, they've just been sedated," Janet said, sticking her hands in the pockets of her lab coat and giving Daniel and the General her best reassuring look. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them, they're just asleep. If they haven't woken up by tomorrow I might start to worry, but as it is..." she shrugged.
Daniel tightened his arms around his chest. "Then why did you move Teal'c into the observation room?"
Janet gave him a sympathetic look. "I've been getting some strange readings from his symbiote. From what I know of Jaffa physiology, that's just the symbiote trying to counter the sedation, but I've moved him into the observation room just to be safe. I can keep a closer eye on things in there."
The General nodded. "Thank you, Doctor. Please keep me informed of any changes in their condition."
"Yes, sir." She turned her attention to Daniel. "You can go in and see them, if you want. It might be nice when they wake up to see a familiar face."
Daniel's face brightened, and Janet suppressed a smile. "Thanks, Janet. I'll do that."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Daniel stood awkwardly next to Jack's bed, eyeing the numbers on the various machines nearby with trepidation. Over the years he'd gotten to be pretty good at reading all the infirmary monitors, and Jack's numbers did seem to be okay. But you never really knew.
He tugged fussily on Jack's blanket, straightening it neatly. Jack just looked asleep. He didn't have that washed-out transparent look he had when he was unconscious, or the overly flushed one he had when feverish. Like Janet said, he did seem to just be asleep.
Daniel sighed and moved on to Sam's bed. Her numbers looked fine, too. He brushed an errant lock of hair off her forehead and headed for the observation room.
Teal'c was lying in state on a gurney in the center of the room. He looked like a king in repose, the gravity and regality he had in consciousness undiminished by the mere impediment of being asleep. Daniel noticed, however, that unlike the others, Teal'c had a tight hold on the sheets to either side of him. He brightened. Maybe that meant Teal'c was waking up. He wouldn't be surprised if Junior brought Teal'c around sooner than everyone else. It wouldn't be the first time.
He reached out and gently pulled the covers from Teal'c's grasp, smoothing the sheets as he went. Suddenly, Teal'c's eyes snapped open.
"Hey, Te-"
Daniel never had time to finish his greeting. In the amount of time it took Teal'c's eyes to focus, he found himself with two large hands wrapped around his throat.
Teal'c growled something in Goa'uld, but Daniel was past being able to translate. He struggled for air, pounding Teal'c's arms with his fists, but the big man's grip only tightened. A detached part of Daniel's mind noticed that Teal'c was out of bed now and standing before him, his face twisted in rage. Dark spots began to swirl in his vision as he struggled fruitlessly to free himself. With a final twitch of numbing fingers against the Jaffa's hands, he lost consciousness.
Teal'c hurled the first creature away from him, snarling in satisfaction as it hit some kind of barrier and slid to the ground, and turned to free O'Neill and Major Carter. He could see only one other alien, standing a few feet away holding what looked like a zat'nik'tel. The alien fired, and Teal'c sank into an oblivion of blue sparks.
Janet looked up from her paperwork at the sound of a knock on her office door. "Come in."
General Hammond eased the door open and waved a file in her direction. "Doctor, could you clear some - "
"Medical alert in Observation Room One! Medical alert in Observation Room One!"
Exchanging alarmed looks, Janet ran for the observation room, the General close behind. She rounded a corner and burst through the door, taking in the situation at a glance. Teal'c was sprawled near the foot of the bed, and the pale guard still clutching a zat gave her a clue as to what had happened there. Several feet away, Daniel was crumpled by the wall, a pool of blood spreading beneath his head. Leaving the guard to the General and Teal'c to the rest of her arriving staff, Janet hurried to the archaeologist.
Keeping one eye on the medical storm centered around Teal'c and Doctor Jackson, General Hammond drew the guard to one side.
"What happened here, Sergeant?"
The guard swallowed audibly. "I... I heard a crash, like something got knocked over, and then someone shouting. I came in and..." his panicked eyes darted in Teal'c's direction "he was holding Doctor Jackson by the throat. I think the Doc was unconscious by that point. I shouted at him to put him down, but he just - he just - threw him. Like he didn't weigh anything. And then he turned towards me so I fired and sounded the alarm."
General Hammond closed his hand gently around the guard's and took away the zat. "Thank you, Sergeant. That will be all."
The guard nodded and General Hammond made his way to the medics surrounding Teal'c. "Put him in restraints in case he wakes up again - and we'd better do the same with Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
General Hammond was sitting at his desk when the phone rang a few hours later.
"Hammond. Yes, Doctor Fraiser... are you sure? There's no mistake?" He closed his eyes briefly. "No, I understand. Let me know as soon as the rest of SG-1 regains consciousness. No, I don't think that would be wise... Well, we'll just have to play it by ear. All right, Doctor. Thank you."
General Hammond hung up and rubbed his forehead with one hand. He felt old.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Jack opened his eyes and took in his surroundings with the speed of long practice. Ah, the infirmary. Home sweet home. He frowned. The restraints were new, though.
A bustle of movement to his left had him craning his head to catch sight of Nurse Allen.
"Why am I in restraints?"
She jumped and backed away from him, smiling determinedly. "Sir! You're awake! I'll go get Doctor Fraiser." She made like a bunny rabbit and disappeared.
"Sir?" said a groggy voice to his right. "What happened?" The voice sharpened. "Why am I in restraints?"
"Carter," Jack acknowledged. "That would be the question of the hour. Any sign of Teal'c? Or Daniel, for that matter."
"I am here, O'Neill." Teal'c's reassuring bass rumbled across the infirmary. "I do not, however, see Daniel Jackson."
"Bet Fraiser kicked him out," Jack said, and no one argued. It was SOP for the un-infirmaried members of SG-1 to hover pathologically and drive Fraiser to distraction whenever one of their team was in the infirmary. "Anyone remember what happened?"
"We were on P9C 365, gathering samples," Carter said thoughtfully. "I remember getting really dizzy."
"I believe we were drugged, O'Neill," Teal'c supplied. "But by who and for what purpose I cannot say."
Jack could remember the dizzy part well enough. It was the part that came after he was really curious about. "Anyone know why we're restrained?"
He heard Carter moving on her bed, probably testing the restraints. "No clue, sir."
"Teal'c?"
"I am unsure. However, when I first awoke, I was in the observation room. I have since been moved here."
Jack frowned. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would say.
"Good morning, Colonel, Major, Teal'c." Doctor Fraiser's businesslike voice was music to Jack's ears. "I see you're all awake."
"Doc, what's going on?" The nice thing about Doctor Fraiser was that asking her direct questions got you quick answers with a minimum of exposition. Jack was still trying to train Daniel and Carter the same way. So far, no luck.
Evidently Fraiser had been taking lessons from them in her spare time. "All in good time, Colonel. First I need to run some tests."
"Why are we restrained?" Jack was never one to be deterred by mere Napoleonic power-mongers with delusions of height.
"Just a precaution," Fraiser said enigmatically, and Jack gave up. Maybe it was just that time of the month.
The next few minutes after they were released from their restraints were some of the weirdest of Jack's year, and that was saying something. The tests themselves weren't unusual, although the wariness with which he was treated was new. No, the weird part was the underlying tension that seemed to be affecting the entire medical staff. Nurses dropped things, Doctor Fraiser damn near swore a few times, and everyone seemed to be looking at him sideways. Across the infirmary, he caught Carter's eye. She gave him an elaborate grimace, which he took to mean that she was noticing the same thing.
Finally, bereft of what felt like several quarts of blood, injected with every kind of antibiotic under this and probably a few alien suns, poked and prodded until he was about ready to start poking and prodding back, Jack lost his patience.
"All right, Doc. What the hell is going on here?"
Doctor Fraiser's hands clenched into fists and went still. Glancing up at her face, he saw that her eyes were closed, but instead of looking like she was trying to hold her temper she appeared to be struggling to fight back tears.
"Doc?" He said in alarm. A pang of fear took up residence in his chest as a number of pieces clicked together and his Daniel-radar went on high alert.
"Janet, where's Daniel?" he asked in a voice he barely recognized as his own. He was peripherally aware of Carter and Teal'c moving to stand nearby but his attention was focused on Fraiser.
She opened her eyes and stared for a moment past his shoulder, then finally looked him in the face.
"There was an accident while you were unconscious," she said reluctantly. "He was... very badly injured." She bit her lip and opened her mouth to say more, then closed it again. "Come with me, please," she said finally. She turned towards the exit to the infirmary, calling out to one of her nurses to phone General Hammond and have him meet them in the observation room.
Jack trailed along behind her, dread crawling through his veins like a living thing before taking up leaden residence in his stomach. "What happened to him?" he asked, but Janet didn't answer, her ramrod-straight back telegraphing her unhappiness. Jack glanced back at his teammates. Carter's face was pinched and white but her chin was firm. She was preparing herself for something bad, he could see. Teal'c was frowning slightly, like he was trying to remember something.
The door to the observation room clicked open, and Jack forgot everything but Daniel for a while.
Daniel was hooked up to what looked like every monitor in the whole mountain. His face was pale except for the area around his eyes which was almost black with bruising. Under the monitoring wires and the respirator, his expression was slack in a way Jack didn't think he'd ever seen before. A line of livid marks surrounded Daniel's neck. Jack heard Carter gasp behind him.
"What happened?" he asked in a strangled voice.
"It was an accident," Fraiser repeated in a near-whisper. "The blood flow was cut off to his brain, causing acute passive hyperemia distal to the obstruction." Her voice firmed as she took refuge in medical terminology. "As well as that he suffered blunt trauma to the occipital part of the skull. There was no fracture, but the resulting contusion caused a good deal of intercranial pressure near the cerebrum and the cerebellum."
"Janet," Carter's voice was pleading. "The EKG..."
Fraiser looked down. "I'm sorry, Sam," she said.
"Are you trying to tell me," Jack said, his voice rising, "that he's a vegetable?"
Fraiser flinched but met his gaze. "Yes." Her eyes slid towards Daniel's still form. "I'm afraid the life support is pretty much the only thing keeping him alive, Colonel."
Jack leveled a stare at her that had made hardened soldiers worry for their lives. "Tell me what happened," he ground out.
Fraiser met the look defiantly. "It was an accident."
"No." Jack gave a harsh little laugh. "No. Those marks around his neck are from strangulation. People do not get strangled by accident. Now goddamn tell me who did this to him!"
"Colonel!" General Hammond's voice boomed from the doorway. "Stand down."
"No!" Jack had lost any control he might have ever had over his temper. "That's one of my kids lying there. I want to know who did this and why and then I want ten minutes alone with them to explain in detail why it was a bad idea!"
There was something nagging at the back of Teal'c's mind. He could remember being on the planet, he could remember urging O'Neill to return to Earth, but there was something after that... something he needed to remember... If he thought hard, he could recall trying to pull O'Neill and Major Carter along behind him. He had seen the aliens rising out of the ground and he had seen them coming towards him, but after that it was all a blank.
No, not quite a blank. For some reason, he could remember fighting the creatures. He'd gotten one by the neck, he knew, and had been turning towards a second when it shot him with a zat'nik'tel. Which now that he thought about it was very strange - none of the creatures he'd seen rising out of the ground had been armed. And if he had lacked the strength to even stand, how had he managed to fight?
"Colonel, calm down," General Hammond was saying. "The circumstances around Doctor Jackson's injuries aren't important, what is important - "
"Bullshit!" O'Neill yelled. "They goddamn well are important! Tell me who the fuck did this to him!"
With a wave of sick horror, Teal'c knew. He had never fought the creatures. He had fought figments, one of which just happened to be hiding the features of his friend.
"I did," he whispered.
"What?" O'Neill yelped. "That's ridiculous." He turned to Doctor Fraiser and General Hammond, who refused to look back.
"Oh my God," Major Carter said, and sat down with a thump on the edge of Daniel Jackson's bed, one hand over her mouth.
"You're kidding," O'Neill said. There was a hysterical edge to his voice. "You would never hurt Daniel. You... you're not like that. There must be some mistake."
"I think Teal'c's symbiote reacted to the sedative used on you," Doctor Fraiser said. Her voice was even but her face was pinched. "When he woke up the first time he was hallucinating and Daniel... Daniel just happened to be there."
"That's why we were in restraints," Major Carter said, the scientific part of her brain taking over. "In case we started hallucinating too."
"Yes."
"Oh, shit," O'Neill said blankly, his head swiveling between Teal'c and Daniel.
Teal'c's legs felt weak. When he had first met Daniel Jackson and realized who exactly he had chosen to be Amonhet's host, he had sworn that he would never again cause the other man pain. And then they had discovered Sha're on Abydos, heavy with Apophis' child, and Teal'c had forced himself to lay aside his own honor in order to protect the child Sha're carried and to strike a blow at the false gods he hated. He had tried to apologize to Daniel Jackson but Daniel had forgiven him easily. Teal'c had renewed his vows, and promised himself he would help Daniel find and protect both Sha're and her child even if he were to die in the process.
That, too, was not meant to be. In the space of a few mere seconds Teal'c had weighed the lives of Daniel and Sha're and found Sha're wanting. He had stood there in the doorway to the tent and made the decision of life and death, the decision of a god. Later, in his quarters, head bowed under the weight of Daniel's pain, he had looked over the day and found himself no better than the Goa'uld. And he had vowed a third time to protect Daniel Jackson.
Three times now he had failed that vow. Three times he hurt Daniel deeply and himself not at all.
He fell to his knees and bent his head, crossing his wrists over his chest in the traditional posture of complete submission.
"My life is forfeit," he choked.
There was a long silence. He could feel them staring at him as he knelt and knew they were weighing their choices, just as he had done in the past.
"Get up," O'Neill snarled.
"Son - " General Hammond began, and Teal'c was not sure which of them he was talking to.
"Look at me," O'Neill barked. Teal'c kept his gaze averted. He did not think he could bear seeing O'Neill's face. O'Neill was protective of Daniel Jackson in a way the rest of them could never quite match.
"I said look at me!" O'Neill's fingers gripped his chin and turned his head until Teal'c had no choice but to look O'Neill in the face.
What he saw made his heart sink even lower. O'Neill was furious, angry with an intense anguish that speared Teal'c's soul.
"This," he gestured angrily behind him at the hospital bed and the soulless body of their friend. "Was not your fault. Okay?"
Teal'c looked away and closed his eyes, unable to bear O'Neill's mercy.
"Teal'c!" There was command in O'Neill's voice and Teal'c could no more not respond to it than he could deny his own culpability. "This was not your fault." O'Neill repeated again. He turned and glared at everyone else. "Keep telling him that until he believes it," he snapped, and stormed out of the infirmary, slamming the door shut behind him.
Part Two is here.
RATING: PG-13
CATEGORY: Angst, hurt/comfort, drama
SUMMARY: An offworld mishap spells trouble for Daniel. Teal'c might be able to save him, but will he let his guilt drive him too far?
SPOILERS: Forever in a Day, Bloodlines, Need, Seth, Secrets, Children of the Gods, Maternal Instinct, the movie
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For Sarah, who pleaded so eloquently for more (any) Teal'c and Daniel friendship stories, and who gives the best cyber-hugs on the planet. Here's looking at you, kid! Thanks also to Atticus for the medical jargon, and to my wonderful beta LimeKid, who writes fun things like `Dr. Zat Gun, I presume?' in my margins and says `dude' a lot. And extra special thanks to Barb, Feedbacker Extraordinaire and single illustrious member of my Updates List. Okay, okay. I'm really done thanking people now. ;-)
FROM THE ASHES
Daniel Jackson was asleep on one of the commissary tables. Teal'c caught sight of him as soon as he entered the room, and sighed. The young human's insistence that he needed neither sleep nor food on occasions when it was painfully obvious to everyone else that those were precisely the things he required never failed to annoy Teal'c.
He collected his meal from the counter and seated himself opposite Daniel, debating the merits of letting the man sleep or waking him up and remonstrating him for denying himself rest when he had a mission approaching.
The desire to remonstrate won. If Daniel Jackson would not take care of himself, Teal'c would take care of him instead.
"Daniel Jackson," he said. There was no response. "Daniel Jackson!" he said again, this time accompanied by a hard shove to one shoulder.
Daniel groaned and stirred, raising his head to give Teal'c a bleary look. "Wha?" he said articulately.
Teal'c frowned in concern, irritation forgotten. Daniel's eyes were bloodshot and his face was flushed. He did not look well.
"Daniel Jackson, are you unwell?"
"Wha?" Daniel said again, reaching for a napkin. He frowned, his brain catching up with the conversation. "Oh! No, Teal'c. I'm fine." He blew his nose, a procedure which took a considerable amount of time and left him wheezing for breath.
Teal'c's expression became stony. "You are unwell," he said forbiddingly.
"I'm fine."
"You are not."
"Yes, I am."
"No. We will go to the infirmary now." Teal'c knew better than to ask if Daniel had already seen Doctor Fraiser. If he had, he would not be sleeping in the commissary, nor would he be using napkins for Kleenex. Doctor Fraiser tended to frown on such practices.
"I don't need to go to the infirmary," Daniel protested as Teal'c dragged him to his feet. "Whoa," he said faintly, swaying. Teal'c tightened his grip on Daniel's arm as the young man paled alarmingly.
"Would you prefer to sit? I can bring Doctor Fraiser to you if you do not feel you can make it to the infirmary."
Daniel shook his head. "No, I'm okay. It was just a head rush." He rallied somewhat. "And I don't need to go to the infirmary. I'm fine. It's just a stuffy nose."
Teal'c did not dignify this with a response.
"Well, it looks like you just have a bad head cold," Dr. Fraiser said, looping her stethoscope around her neck.
Daniel glowered in Teal'c's direction. "I told you I was fine."
"On the contrary," Dr. Fraiser said briskly. "You are not `fine'. You're sick, Daniel. You have a temperature, you need to rest and I want to keep an eye on your lungs. And since I can't trust you to take care of yourself, you'll be resting in the infirmary until I decide you've recovered."
"But - "
"No."
"The mission - "
"Can go on without you," Jack said from the doorway. "It's a mineral survey. No natives to annoy, no snakeheads to bait. Just lots of samples to label." A thoughtful look crossed his face. "Actually, now that I think about it, I'm feeling kind of sick myself..."
"Very funny, Jack."
"Maybe next time you'll remember to take care of your colds as soon as they hit," Dr. Fraiser said pointedly. "How long have you been feeling sick?"
"I'm not sick," Daniel insisted, but it lacked conviction.
"Uh-huh," Dr. Fraiser said, sounding entirely unconvinced. "I'll go call General Hammond and tell him you're staying here. That means, by the way," she added, turning back to glare at him, "that I expect to find you here when I return."
Jack laughed. "I'd say she's on to your tricks, Daniel."
Daniel gave him a dirty look, which Jack chose to ignore.
"Come on, Teal'c. We get to go play in the galactic sandbox once again. Gotta love those mineral surveys!"
"I do not," Teal'c told him, but he was already down the hallway and out of earshot. Teal'c turned back to Daniel, who was starting to list a little to one side.
"Rest, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c told him gently. "You will be well when we return." He gave Daniel a light push back onto the bed. Daniel's eyes slid closed.
"'M not sick," he mumbled. "Feel fine..."
Teal'c raised one eyebrow in polite disbelief and left the infirmary.
Dr. Fraiser hung up on General Hammond and returned to find Daniel flat on his back on one of the gurneys, fully clothed and dead to the world.
"Men," she muttered with fond exasperation as she began to unlace his boots.
"Thank you for travelling Stargate Air," O'Neill said with false cheer as he exited the wormhole. "The flight only took half a second, `turbulence' doesn't even begin to cover what we just went through, and you might not have had time to notice but there were no in-flight snacks. We have now arrived on lovely P9C 365. Local attractions include... well, we're not sure what they include, but we're going to find out. Carter!"
Major Carter hid a smile and quirked a bland eyebrow in her CO's direction. "Sir?"
"Do you have any particular direction you want to explore in first, or should we flip a coin?"
"I do not see the logic behind flipping a coin, O'Neill," Teal'c interjected. "A coin has but two sides, and there are many directions to choose from. It would be much wiser to spin a bottle."
Dead silence.
"Ah, Teal'c, that's a different sort of game. Let's just go straight, shall we?"
Teal'c gave a small sigh. Cassandra had, in fact, explained to him the significance of the game Spin the Bottle quite some time ago. Perhaps it was a question of delivery. His timing could be off.
They hiked for several hours, pausing as they went to collect soil and vegetation samples. P9C 365 appeared to be mostly grasslands, which had O'Neill shouting a great many things about pilgrims and circling the wagons. Major Carter pondered aloud about why a planet with healthy and abundant plants would have no signs of animal life, and got into a lengthy discussion with herself over UV radiation and comparable coping factors with reference to the American plains. Teal'c tried to comment from time to time, because he knew that under normal circumstances Major Carter would be debating with Daniel Jackson on these matters, but idle chatter was not in his nature and he consequently left most of the talking to her.
The grasslands rolled on in unending indistinguishable waves, and Teal'c could imagine that it would be easy to lose one's sense of direction in such a place. He kept a close eye on the position of the sun and any unusual landmarks, and could find no geographical indication as to why his symbiote should suddenly become agitated.
"Teal'c? Something wrong?"
He looked up to find O'Neill regarding him intently, all traces of the jocular man from a moment before gone.
"My symbiote has become agitated. I do not know why."
"Carter?"
Major Carter consulted a handheld device. "I'm not picking anything up, sir."
"Is it just here?"
"I was fine until now. I do not understand the reasons behind this disturbance, O'Neill, but it worries me. I believe we should return to the Stargate."
"Okay." O'Neill bent to scoop up one of Major Carter's sample cases, and lost his balance.
"Whoa. Okay, a little light-headed there."
Major Carter swayed on her feet. "Me too."
Teal'c stepped forward and grabbed her arm, hauling O'Neill to his feet with his other hand. "We must depart."
"No argument from me," O'Neill slurred, but he appeared to be having difficulty standing.
Major Carter slumped to the ground, and Teal'c began to feel a strange disorientation spread over him. In his pouch, his symbiote writhed unhappily, but the feeling was suddenly very distant. He looked around and realized he was seated on the ground between O'Neill and Major Carter, gripping both of their jackets tightly in his hands. He tugged, trying to rouse them, but there was no response.
The world swayed around him and he toppled sideways. His vision blurring, at first he did not understand what he saw. Large clumps of grass shifted and moved, rising from the earth to reveal creatures hidden beneath. The creatures started towards them and Teal'c struggled to rise, panic swelling in his chest. Major Carter's jacket was pulled out of his hand, followed closely by O'Neill's. The last thing he saw before blackness swept in was one of the aliens leaning over him.
Daniel awoke slowly, luxuriating in the feel of warm blankets and a decent mattress. One of the springs in the mattress in his apartment had come loose a few weeks ago, and if he wasn't careful and rolled over just wrong he got a nasty jab in the side. He'd been meaning to replace it for some time, but never seemed to get around to it.
He stretched and opened his eyes, feeling the slight twinge of an IV in one arm. He could still feel a touch of the cold he'd gone to sleep with, but for the most part it seemed to have cleared up.
"It's alive!" said Janet's voice from across the infirmary.
Daniel rolled over and sat up. He was still wearing his t-shirt, but his pants and socks had vanished somewhere. He blushed and pulled the blanket over his lap.
"Nothing I haven't seen before," Janet teased.
"Good morning, Janet!" Daniel said, using a very Charlie's Angels inflection. Janet grinned at him.
"You've been asleep for almost twelve hours, you know. How are you feeling? And don't lie. I'm a mother and I can always tell."
"Fine. Great, actually." He gave the IV in his arm a suspicious look. "Twelve hours? What did you give me?"
"Nothing stronger than saline and a mild antibiotic." She gave him a stern look and popped a thermometer in his mouth. "Which is usually an indication that a patient should be sleeping more in general, Daniel."
Daniel gave her a sheepish smile.
"I'd give you my standard lecture on timely medical attention, but since you never pay attention anyway I'm not going to bother. Maybe I'll just wait until the next time you get drunk with the Colonel and we'll have it tattooed on your forehead." She took out the IV and pressed a cotton ball to the spot.
"Okay, now that's just cruel," Daniel mumbled around the thermometer. Janet gave him a scary Doctor look and he subsided.
"Honestly, Daniel, you have to take better care of yourself. You can't exist entirely on coffee and chocolate, you know." She pulled out the thermometer and studied it.
"Heresy!"
Janet grinned. "Yeah, I know. I went through med school, remember?" She shook out the thermometer and handed him a band-aid for his arm. "Well, you look pretty good for a man who doesn't have the sense God gave an eggplant. Get dressed and I'll find you something to eat. SG-1 should be coming back any minute, so if you're good I'll let you out in time to greet them."
Daniel gave her a smile. "Thanks, Janet."
Janet waved one hand irritably. "You can repay me by eating everything I bring you and not whining about the decaf."
Twenty minutes later, Daniel wandered into the control room nursing the cup of real coffee he'd pilfered from the nurse's station. Sergeant Davis gave him a nod as he settled into position by one of the panels of blinking lights that apparently did something important besides blink. Daniel had had Sam explain it to him once, but there are only so many times a person can hear the words `differential', `sub-space', and `compensating for geo-magnetic fields' before completely losing track of the conversation.
Daniel took a sip of his coffee and glanced at the clock. SG-1 should be returning right about... now.
Nothing.
Well, that didn't mean anything. They could be running late, Sam could have found something interesting, the differences between the two planets could have thrown their watches off... the possibilities were endless. So it was nothing to worry about. Really.
Daniel shifted uncomfortably and glanced at the clock. They were now fifteen minutes overdue. Sergeant Davis shot him a sympathetic look.
General Hammond walked in reading a large sheaf of papers, avoiding passing airmen with the ease of long practice and the confidence people would notice him and step to one side.
"Sergeant Davis, tell Colonel O'Neill that I need to see him in my office, please - "
"SG-1 has not reported in yet, sir."
Hammond looked up, taking in Daniel, the inactive Gate, and the empty Gateroom in one glance. "They could be running late."
"Yes, sir."
"Give them one hour and dial it up."
"Yes, sir."
The hour seemed to crawl by. Daniel had long since finished his coffee, and stood nervously shredding the edges of the styrofoam cup and dropping the pieces one by one into the trash can by his feet, his overactive imagination providing him with a bevy of awful reasons why SG-1 was late.
"Dial it up, Sergeant."
"Yes sir."
The Gate whirred, clunked, and whooshed to life. General Hammond reached for the microphone.
"SG-1, come in. SG-1, do you copy? This is General Hammond." There was no response.
"Activate the MALP, see if there's anything near the Gate."
"Yes sir."
Daniel came up to stand next to the General, his eyes riveted on the tiny screen where the MALP's telemetry was playing back. He remembered this planet - grassland, mostly, with no evidence of civilization or habitation, but apparently with something interesting science-wise for SG-1 to be sent out on sample-collecting duty. Honestly, he had been paying more attention in the briefing to not falling asleep than to what was being said.
The MALP panned left and all of Daniel's diversionary musings ground to a screeching halt at the sight of three bodies lying motionlessly on the ground in front of the Stargate.
SG-1.
"Well, from what I can tell, they've just been sedated," Janet said, sticking her hands in the pockets of her lab coat and giving Daniel and the General her best reassuring look. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them, they're just asleep. If they haven't woken up by tomorrow I might start to worry, but as it is..." she shrugged.
Daniel tightened his arms around his chest. "Then why did you move Teal'c into the observation room?"
Janet gave him a sympathetic look. "I've been getting some strange readings from his symbiote. From what I know of Jaffa physiology, that's just the symbiote trying to counter the sedation, but I've moved him into the observation room just to be safe. I can keep a closer eye on things in there."
The General nodded. "Thank you, Doctor. Please keep me informed of any changes in their condition."
"Yes, sir." She turned her attention to Daniel. "You can go in and see them, if you want. It might be nice when they wake up to see a familiar face."
Daniel's face brightened, and Janet suppressed a smile. "Thanks, Janet. I'll do that."
Daniel stood awkwardly next to Jack's bed, eyeing the numbers on the various machines nearby with trepidation. Over the years he'd gotten to be pretty good at reading all the infirmary monitors, and Jack's numbers did seem to be okay. But you never really knew.
He tugged fussily on Jack's blanket, straightening it neatly. Jack just looked asleep. He didn't have that washed-out transparent look he had when he was unconscious, or the overly flushed one he had when feverish. Like Janet said, he did seem to just be asleep.
Daniel sighed and moved on to Sam's bed. Her numbers looked fine, too. He brushed an errant lock of hair off her forehead and headed for the observation room.
Teal'c was lying in state on a gurney in the center of the room. He looked like a king in repose, the gravity and regality he had in consciousness undiminished by the mere impediment of being asleep. Daniel noticed, however, that unlike the others, Teal'c had a tight hold on the sheets to either side of him. He brightened. Maybe that meant Teal'c was waking up. He wouldn't be surprised if Junior brought Teal'c around sooner than everyone else. It wouldn't be the first time.
He reached out and gently pulled the covers from Teal'c's grasp, smoothing the sheets as he went. Suddenly, Teal'c's eyes snapped open.
"Hey, Te-"
Daniel never had time to finish his greeting. In the amount of time it took Teal'c's eyes to focus, he found himself with two large hands wrapped around his throat.
Teal'c growled something in Goa'uld, but Daniel was past being able to translate. He struggled for air, pounding Teal'c's arms with his fists, but the big man's grip only tightened. A detached part of Daniel's mind noticed that Teal'c was out of bed now and standing before him, his face twisted in rage. Dark spots began to swirl in his vision as he struggled fruitlessly to free himself. With a final twitch of numbing fingers against the Jaffa's hands, he lost consciousness.
Teal'c hurled the first creature away from him, snarling in satisfaction as it hit some kind of barrier and slid to the ground, and turned to free O'Neill and Major Carter. He could see only one other alien, standing a few feet away holding what looked like a zat'nik'tel. The alien fired, and Teal'c sank into an oblivion of blue sparks.
Janet looked up from her paperwork at the sound of a knock on her office door. "Come in."
General Hammond eased the door open and waved a file in her direction. "Doctor, could you clear some - "
"Medical alert in Observation Room One! Medical alert in Observation Room One!"
Exchanging alarmed looks, Janet ran for the observation room, the General close behind. She rounded a corner and burst through the door, taking in the situation at a glance. Teal'c was sprawled near the foot of the bed, and the pale guard still clutching a zat gave her a clue as to what had happened there. Several feet away, Daniel was crumpled by the wall, a pool of blood spreading beneath his head. Leaving the guard to the General and Teal'c to the rest of her arriving staff, Janet hurried to the archaeologist.
Keeping one eye on the medical storm centered around Teal'c and Doctor Jackson, General Hammond drew the guard to one side.
"What happened here, Sergeant?"
The guard swallowed audibly. "I... I heard a crash, like something got knocked over, and then someone shouting. I came in and..." his panicked eyes darted in Teal'c's direction "he was holding Doctor Jackson by the throat. I think the Doc was unconscious by that point. I shouted at him to put him down, but he just - he just - threw him. Like he didn't weigh anything. And then he turned towards me so I fired and sounded the alarm."
General Hammond closed his hand gently around the guard's and took away the zat. "Thank you, Sergeant. That will be all."
The guard nodded and General Hammond made his way to the medics surrounding Teal'c. "Put him in restraints in case he wakes up again - and we'd better do the same with Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter."
General Hammond was sitting at his desk when the phone rang a few hours later.
"Hammond. Yes, Doctor Fraiser... are you sure? There's no mistake?" He closed his eyes briefly. "No, I understand. Let me know as soon as the rest of SG-1 regains consciousness. No, I don't think that would be wise... Well, we'll just have to play it by ear. All right, Doctor. Thank you."
General Hammond hung up and rubbed his forehead with one hand. He felt old.
Jack opened his eyes and took in his surroundings with the speed of long practice. Ah, the infirmary. Home sweet home. He frowned. The restraints were new, though.
A bustle of movement to his left had him craning his head to catch sight of Nurse Allen.
"Why am I in restraints?"
She jumped and backed away from him, smiling determinedly. "Sir! You're awake! I'll go get Doctor Fraiser." She made like a bunny rabbit and disappeared.
"Sir?" said a groggy voice to his right. "What happened?" The voice sharpened. "Why am I in restraints?"
"Carter," Jack acknowledged. "That would be the question of the hour. Any sign of Teal'c? Or Daniel, for that matter."
"I am here, O'Neill." Teal'c's reassuring bass rumbled across the infirmary. "I do not, however, see Daniel Jackson."
"Bet Fraiser kicked him out," Jack said, and no one argued. It was SOP for the un-infirmaried members of SG-1 to hover pathologically and drive Fraiser to distraction whenever one of their team was in the infirmary. "Anyone remember what happened?"
"We were on P9C 365, gathering samples," Carter said thoughtfully. "I remember getting really dizzy."
"I believe we were drugged, O'Neill," Teal'c supplied. "But by who and for what purpose I cannot say."
Jack could remember the dizzy part well enough. It was the part that came after he was really curious about. "Anyone know why we're restrained?"
He heard Carter moving on her bed, probably testing the restraints. "No clue, sir."
"Teal'c?"
"I am unsure. However, when I first awoke, I was in the observation room. I have since been moved here."
Jack frowned. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would say.
"Good morning, Colonel, Major, Teal'c." Doctor Fraiser's businesslike voice was music to Jack's ears. "I see you're all awake."
"Doc, what's going on?" The nice thing about Doctor Fraiser was that asking her direct questions got you quick answers with a minimum of exposition. Jack was still trying to train Daniel and Carter the same way. So far, no luck.
Evidently Fraiser had been taking lessons from them in her spare time. "All in good time, Colonel. First I need to run some tests."
"Why are we restrained?" Jack was never one to be deterred by mere Napoleonic power-mongers with delusions of height.
"Just a precaution," Fraiser said enigmatically, and Jack gave up. Maybe it was just that time of the month.
The next few minutes after they were released from their restraints were some of the weirdest of Jack's year, and that was saying something. The tests themselves weren't unusual, although the wariness with which he was treated was new. No, the weird part was the underlying tension that seemed to be affecting the entire medical staff. Nurses dropped things, Doctor Fraiser damn near swore a few times, and everyone seemed to be looking at him sideways. Across the infirmary, he caught Carter's eye. She gave him an elaborate grimace, which he took to mean that she was noticing the same thing.
Finally, bereft of what felt like several quarts of blood, injected with every kind of antibiotic under this and probably a few alien suns, poked and prodded until he was about ready to start poking and prodding back, Jack lost his patience.
"All right, Doc. What the hell is going on here?"
Doctor Fraiser's hands clenched into fists and went still. Glancing up at her face, he saw that her eyes were closed, but instead of looking like she was trying to hold her temper she appeared to be struggling to fight back tears.
"Doc?" He said in alarm. A pang of fear took up residence in his chest as a number of pieces clicked together and his Daniel-radar went on high alert.
"Janet, where's Daniel?" he asked in a voice he barely recognized as his own. He was peripherally aware of Carter and Teal'c moving to stand nearby but his attention was focused on Fraiser.
She opened her eyes and stared for a moment past his shoulder, then finally looked him in the face.
"There was an accident while you were unconscious," she said reluctantly. "He was... very badly injured." She bit her lip and opened her mouth to say more, then closed it again. "Come with me, please," she said finally. She turned towards the exit to the infirmary, calling out to one of her nurses to phone General Hammond and have him meet them in the observation room.
Jack trailed along behind her, dread crawling through his veins like a living thing before taking up leaden residence in his stomach. "What happened to him?" he asked, but Janet didn't answer, her ramrod-straight back telegraphing her unhappiness. Jack glanced back at his teammates. Carter's face was pinched and white but her chin was firm. She was preparing herself for something bad, he could see. Teal'c was frowning slightly, like he was trying to remember something.
The door to the observation room clicked open, and Jack forgot everything but Daniel for a while.
Daniel was hooked up to what looked like every monitor in the whole mountain. His face was pale except for the area around his eyes which was almost black with bruising. Under the monitoring wires and the respirator, his expression was slack in a way Jack didn't think he'd ever seen before. A line of livid marks surrounded Daniel's neck. Jack heard Carter gasp behind him.
"What happened?" he asked in a strangled voice.
"It was an accident," Fraiser repeated in a near-whisper. "The blood flow was cut off to his brain, causing acute passive hyperemia distal to the obstruction." Her voice firmed as she took refuge in medical terminology. "As well as that he suffered blunt trauma to the occipital part of the skull. There was no fracture, but the resulting contusion caused a good deal of intercranial pressure near the cerebrum and the cerebellum."
"Janet," Carter's voice was pleading. "The EKG..."
Fraiser looked down. "I'm sorry, Sam," she said.
"Are you trying to tell me," Jack said, his voice rising, "that he's a vegetable?"
Fraiser flinched but met his gaze. "Yes." Her eyes slid towards Daniel's still form. "I'm afraid the life support is pretty much the only thing keeping him alive, Colonel."
Jack leveled a stare at her that had made hardened soldiers worry for their lives. "Tell me what happened," he ground out.
Fraiser met the look defiantly. "It was an accident."
"No." Jack gave a harsh little laugh. "No. Those marks around his neck are from strangulation. People do not get strangled by accident. Now goddamn tell me who did this to him!"
"Colonel!" General Hammond's voice boomed from the doorway. "Stand down."
"No!" Jack had lost any control he might have ever had over his temper. "That's one of my kids lying there. I want to know who did this and why and then I want ten minutes alone with them to explain in detail why it was a bad idea!"
There was something nagging at the back of Teal'c's mind. He could remember being on the planet, he could remember urging O'Neill to return to Earth, but there was something after that... something he needed to remember... If he thought hard, he could recall trying to pull O'Neill and Major Carter along behind him. He had seen the aliens rising out of the ground and he had seen them coming towards him, but after that it was all a blank.
No, not quite a blank. For some reason, he could remember fighting the creatures. He'd gotten one by the neck, he knew, and had been turning towards a second when it shot him with a zat'nik'tel. Which now that he thought about it was very strange - none of the creatures he'd seen rising out of the ground had been armed. And if he had lacked the strength to even stand, how had he managed to fight?
"Colonel, calm down," General Hammond was saying. "The circumstances around Doctor Jackson's injuries aren't important, what is important - "
"Bullshit!" O'Neill yelled. "They goddamn well are important! Tell me who the fuck did this to him!"
With a wave of sick horror, Teal'c knew. He had never fought the creatures. He had fought figments, one of which just happened to be hiding the features of his friend.
"I did," he whispered.
"What?" O'Neill yelped. "That's ridiculous." He turned to Doctor Fraiser and General Hammond, who refused to look back.
"Oh my God," Major Carter said, and sat down with a thump on the edge of Daniel Jackson's bed, one hand over her mouth.
"You're kidding," O'Neill said. There was a hysterical edge to his voice. "You would never hurt Daniel. You... you're not like that. There must be some mistake."
"I think Teal'c's symbiote reacted to the sedative used on you," Doctor Fraiser said. Her voice was even but her face was pinched. "When he woke up the first time he was hallucinating and Daniel... Daniel just happened to be there."
"That's why we were in restraints," Major Carter said, the scientific part of her brain taking over. "In case we started hallucinating too."
"Yes."
"Oh, shit," O'Neill said blankly, his head swiveling between Teal'c and Daniel.
Teal'c's legs felt weak. When he had first met Daniel Jackson and realized who exactly he had chosen to be Amonhet's host, he had sworn that he would never again cause the other man pain. And then they had discovered Sha're on Abydos, heavy with Apophis' child, and Teal'c had forced himself to lay aside his own honor in order to protect the child Sha're carried and to strike a blow at the false gods he hated. He had tried to apologize to Daniel Jackson but Daniel had forgiven him easily. Teal'c had renewed his vows, and promised himself he would help Daniel find and protect both Sha're and her child even if he were to die in the process.
That, too, was not meant to be. In the space of a few mere seconds Teal'c had weighed the lives of Daniel and Sha're and found Sha're wanting. He had stood there in the doorway to the tent and made the decision of life and death, the decision of a god. Later, in his quarters, head bowed under the weight of Daniel's pain, he had looked over the day and found himself no better than the Goa'uld. And he had vowed a third time to protect Daniel Jackson.
Three times now he had failed that vow. Three times he hurt Daniel deeply and himself not at all.
He fell to his knees and bent his head, crossing his wrists over his chest in the traditional posture of complete submission.
"My life is forfeit," he choked.
There was a long silence. He could feel them staring at him as he knelt and knew they were weighing their choices, just as he had done in the past.
"Get up," O'Neill snarled.
"Son - " General Hammond began, and Teal'c was not sure which of them he was talking to.
"Look at me," O'Neill barked. Teal'c kept his gaze averted. He did not think he could bear seeing O'Neill's face. O'Neill was protective of Daniel Jackson in a way the rest of them could never quite match.
"I said look at me!" O'Neill's fingers gripped his chin and turned his head until Teal'c had no choice but to look O'Neill in the face.
What he saw made his heart sink even lower. O'Neill was furious, angry with an intense anguish that speared Teal'c's soul.
"This," he gestured angrily behind him at the hospital bed and the soulless body of their friend. "Was not your fault. Okay?"
Teal'c looked away and closed his eyes, unable to bear O'Neill's mercy.
"Teal'c!" There was command in O'Neill's voice and Teal'c could no more not respond to it than he could deny his own culpability. "This was not your fault." O'Neill repeated again. He turned and glared at everyone else. "Keep telling him that until he believes it," he snapped, and stormed out of the infirmary, slamming the door shut behind him.
Part Two is here.
